Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Bringing Aid Management Closer to Reality: The Experience of Danish Bilateral Development Cooperation

In 2003, the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs undertook a decentralisation of the management of bilateral aid to the embassies in major partner countries. However, while decentralisation appears to live up to the principles of the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness, the specific delegation of responsibilities as well as the political context of aid management may jeopardise the intended contribution to effective development co‐operation. This article explores some factors potentially limiting the usefulness of decentralised aid management in the Danish case, and discusses certain intra‐organisational dynamics and extra‐organisational pressures influencing ‘donor effectiveness’.
User acceptance of social networking websites in India: Orkut vs. Facebook

Social media penetration is revolutionising the business context, next to the internet revolution. Social networking website (SNW), which is a part of social media domain, is gaining prominence among not only individual users but also among marketers present in the emerging economies. Orkut was the first SNW that became popular in India, followed by the recent entry of Facebook in India. This research paper analyses and compares the impact of ease of use, trustand playfulnesson the individual user’s intention to usethese fiercely competing SNWs in India. It was found that perceived playfulnesswas the key predictor in either cases, and perceived trustwas not a significant predictor in case of Facebook while it was significant in case of Orkut.
Assessment of stress and self-efficacy for the NIH Toolbox for Neurological and Behavioral Function

Background and Objectives: The NIH Toolbox for Neurological and Behavioral Function assessment battery contains measures in the domains of cognitive function, motor function, sensory function, and emotional health. It was designed for use in epidemiological and clinical trials health-related research. Design: This paper describes the first phase of instrument development for the stress and self-efficacy subdomain of emotional health. Based on an extensive literature review and expert consultation, 127 measures were initially considered for inclusion in this subdomain, including measures of stress, self-efficacy, emotion regulation, and coping. Results: Several measures, including emotion regulation and measures of coping strategies, did not meet criteria that were a priori established for inclusion. Psychometric properties of the remaining candidate measures were evaluated using data from five independent samples (combined N = 3175). Confirmatory and exploratory factor analyses indicated the Perceived Stress Scale and the General Self-Efficacy Scale each assessed single dimensions. Conclusions: Based on their psychometric performance, these two instruments were selected for inclusion and subsequent national norming for the NIH Toolbox.
The Value of Information: Inferences from the Profitability of Insider Trading

Information may be the key to differential rewards from investment in capital markets. Corporate insiders are thought to have information not available to others which provides them an advantage in investment activities. This has piqued the interest of regulatory officials and investors. For example, regulators in both Canada and the United States have required insiders to report their trading activities and have placed restrictions on the nature of these activities. Additionally, investors have attempted to use information on insider trading activities as a foundation for their own investment strategies.
Determinants of customers' loyalty for hospitality industry

Customer loyalty is very necessary for the competitive market environment. The growing presence of relationship marketing efforts has led to increased competition among service providers. So hospitality industry is more service oriented, effecting by customers' interest. To achieve the desirable customer to the business, for this purpose Relationship marketing efforts would have to be implemented in order to determine whether frequent guest is loyal to the particular company. Previous research has identified the determinants of customers' loyalty for a hotel industry and has been adapted and used in this study. Structural equation analysis was applied to identify which factors (service quality, customer satisfaction, trust, value and hotel membership program, socio demography of the customer) have positively impact customer loyalty. According the result of this study all the determinants of loyalty have significance relationship with customer loyalty, and it was also indentified that customer loyalty as a function of both behavioral and attitudinal loyalty. The framework adopted and modified for this research demonstrated the formation of a solid structure that would allow for collecting valuable findings. This study has extended and adopts the previous loyalty model and has been applied in the hotel industry of Penang, Malaysia.
Working with indicators: description of states of territorial adjustment for protected natural areas

As is the case to date with respect to sustainability indicators, there is an enormous quantity of information available about their basic components (social, economic and environmental), but these are generally dealt with in a sectoral and fragmented manner, and the components have been analysed and approached in a more or less independent fashion. On the other hand, it is difficult to find indicators that encompass all the dimensions of sustainability. The topic chosen for this research is sustainability organised in a systematic fashion, which entails taking the combination of issues that affect each subsystem and investigating the states of territorial adjustment that exist between each of them. In short, it is the possibility of establishing a sustainable territorial development pattern, accepting that the economic and social activities that utilise the natural resources influence sustainability, and that they will do so to a greater or lesser extent depending on the effectiveness of the conservation of the stock of resources. The Territorial Adjustment Indicator System (TAIS) is a good tool that enables the management, assessment and monitoring of development processes in PNAs (protected natural areas), facilitating homogeneity and uniformity to aid comparison between protected areas in the centre-south of Spain, principally those areas designated as natural parks (NPs).
Incentives in Organizations

In this paper I summarize four new strands in agency theory that help me think about incentives in real organizations. As a point of departure, I being with a quick sketch of the classic agency model. I then discuss static models of objective performance measurement in which firms get what they pay for; repeated-game models of subjective performance assessments; incentives for skill development rather than simply for effort; and incentive contracts between versus within organizations. I conclude by suggesting two avenues for further progress in agency theory: better integration with organizational economics, as launched by Coase and reinvigorated by Williamson, and cross-pollination with other fields that study organizations, including industrial relations, organizational sociology, and social psychology.
Asymmetric Volatility and Risk-return Relationship in the Indian Stock Market

This article investigates the heteroscedastic behaviour of the Indian stock market using different GARCH models. First, the standard GARCH approach is used to investigate whether stock return volatility changes over time and if so, whether it is predictable. Then, the EGARCH models are applied to investigate whether there is asymmetric volatility. Finally, (E) GARCH in the mean extension has been tried to examine the relation between market risk and expected return. The investigation has been made on market index S&P CNX Nifty for a period of 14 and a half years from July 1990 to December 2004. The study reports an evidence of time varying volatility which exhibits clustering, high persistence and predictability. It is found that the volatility is an asymmetric function of past innovation, rising proportionately more during market decline. It is also evidenced that return is not significantly related to risk. The findings are useful to policy makers and to all market participants for pricing derivatives and designing dynamic trading strategies.
Determinants and performance index of foreign direct investment in China's agriculture

Purpose - Since attracting foreign direct investment (FDI) to agriculture is now an important policy concern for the Chinese Government, it is necessary to develop benchmarks of the inward FDI performance. The purpose of this paper is to explore the determinants of FDI and evaluate the inward FDI performance in China's agriculture. Design/methodology/approach - A multi-variable regression model is conducted to examine the determinants of FDI in China's agriculture over the period from 1985 to 2006. In order to evaluate the inward FDI performance, the inward FDI performance index is developed at industrial level. Findings - The results indicate that agricultural market size has a significant positive effect but agricultural import has a negative effect on FDI inflow to China's agriculture. The effect of agricultural export is positive but not statistically significant. It is stated that the orientation of FDI policy during China's agricultural opening process is still not clear, and the decrease of the share of fiscal expenditure is apparently not conducive to attract more FDI in China's agriculture. In addition, the performance index shows the inward FDI performance in China's agriculture is improving but not satisfactory compared to its market size. Originality/value - The inward FDI performance index is tentatively used to evaluate the performance of FDI inflow to China's agriculture. The results of this paper have significant policy implications for the government to determine where to head in using FDI in China's agriculture in the future.
Foreign exchange market prediction with multiple classifiers

Foreign exchange market prediction is attractive and challenging. According to the efficient market and random walk hypotheses, market prices should follow a random walk pattern and thus should not be predictable with more than about 50% accuracy. In this article, we investigate the predictability of foreign exchange spot rates of the US dollar against the British pound to show that not all periods are equally random. We used the Hurst exponent to select a period with great predictability. Parameters for generating training patterns were determined heuristically by auto-mutual information and false nearest-neighbor methods. Some inductive machine-learning classifiers-artificial neural network, decision tree, k -nearest neighbor, and naive Bayesian classifier-were then trained with these generated patterns. Through appropriate collaboration of these models, we achieved a prediction accuracy of up to 67%. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
The Educative Effects of Ballot Initiatives on Voter Turnout

Scholars have begun examining what Progressive reformers called the educative effects of direct democracy, especially the effect ballot initiatives have on voter turnout. Research based on aggregate-level voter age population (VAP) turnout data indicates that ballot measures increase turnout in low-information midterm elections but not in presidential elections. We analyze the impact of ballot initiative use on voter turnout from 1980 through 2002 using voter eligible population (VEP) turnout rates. Cross-sectional time-series analysis reveals that (a) ballot initiatives increase turnout in midterm as well as presidential elections and (b) the turnout effect in midterm and especially presidential elections is considerably larger than previously thought. On average, turnout in presidential elections increases by 0.70% with each initiative on the ballot, whereas turnout in midterm elections increases by 1.7%, all else equal. Given the closeness of the Electoral College contests, it is possible that the mobilizing effects of statewide ballot questions could be the determining factor in future presidential elections.
The effects of intravitreal bevacizumab on patients with macular edema secondary to branch retinal vein occlusion.

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the effect of intravitreal bevacizumab on visual acuity (VA) and central retinal thickness (CRT) in patients with macular edema (ME) secondary to branch retinal vein occlusion (BRVO). DESIGN Retrospective review. PARTICIPANTS The study included 42 patients with ME secondary to BRVO who received intravitreal injections of bevacizumab in 2 referral-based retinal practices in Vancouver, B.C., between November 2005 and July 2006. METHODS We performed a retrospective review of consecutive patients with ME secondary to BRVO. All of the patients in this study had nonischemic BRVOs. Patients were all treated with at least 1 bevacizumab injection and were seen at 6- to 8-week intervals for VA testing. Most of the patients also underwent optical coherence tomography (OCT) 2 months and 6 months after treatment. VA and OCT measurements at each follow-up time point were compared with the baseline values. RESULTS A total of 42 eyes from 42 patients with ME secondary to BRVO were reviewed. The mean VA improved from 20/280 at baseline to 20/180 at first follow-up session (p < 0.04; average follow-up = 42 days) and remained at a similar level, 20/170, through the eighth follow-up session (p < 0.04; average follow-up = 356). The CRT was reduced from a mean of 451 microm (388-512 microm) at baseline to 358 microm (298-418 microm) at 2 months (p < 0.02) and to 400 microm (335-465 microm) at 6 months postinjection (p < 0.068). CONCLUSIONS We found a significant improvement in VA and CRT in patients with ME secondary to BRVO after intravitreal bevacizumab injection(s). No complications or serious side effects were observed. Intravitreal bevacizumab appears to have an emerging role as either a primary or an adjuvant treatment modality in the setting of ME secondary to BRVO.
Client Importance and Earnings Management: The Moderating Role of Audit Committees

SUMMARY: This study provides empirical evidence on how the association between the economic importance of a client to the auditor and earnings management is moderated by the audit committee. We employ city office-level client importance fee-based measures, both performance-adjusted discretionary total and current accruals as proxies for earnings management, and a measure of audit committee best practices. We document a positive association between client importance and our two proxies for earnings management. This association is stronger for income-increasing earnings management. However, the association between client importance and earnings management is more pronounced when the audit committee does not meet best practices. We infer that the economic importance of a client appears to threaten auditor independence and thus the quality of financial reporting, but only when the audit committee exhibits characteristics associated with the provision of weak oversight. We also find that the association betwee.
Fully monolithically integrated feedback voltage controlled oscillator [using PHEMTs]

A fully monolithically integrated voltage controlled oscillator (VCO) using feedback technique is presented here. The circuit provides oscillation within the frequency range of 6.3-7.0 GHz. The corresponding tunable relative bandwidth is 10%. The feedback topology proves to provide a good linearity of the oscillation frequency dependence versus tuning voltage. The maximal deviation of the frequency behavior from its linear fit is /spl Delta/f=39 MHz. It is shown in the following that the feedback technique can be used for broadband VCO design.
THE NORMAL INVERSE GAUSSIAN DISTRIBUTION AND SPOT PRICE MODELLING IN ENERGY MARKETS

We model spot prices in energy markets with exponential non-Gaussian Ornstein–Uhlenbeck processes. We generalize the classical geometric Brownian motion and Schwartz' mean-reversion model by introducing Levy processes as the driving noise rather than Brownian motion. Instead of modelling the spot price dynamics as the solution of a stochastic differential equation with jumps, it is advantageous from a statistical point of view to model the price process directly. Imposing the normal inverse Gaussian distribution as the statistical model for the Levy increments, we obtain a superior fit compared to the Gaussian model when applied to spot price data from the oil and gas markets. We also discuss the problem of pricing forwards and options and outline how to find the market price of risk in an incomplete market.
A wavelet based Teager energy operator for spike detection in microelectrode array recordings

Spike detection in neural recordings is the initial step in the creation of brain machine interfaces. The Teager energy operator (TEO) treats a spike as an increase in the ‘local’ energy and detects this increase. The performance of TEO in detecting action potential spikes suffers due to its sensitivity to the frequency of spikes in the presence of noise which is present in microelectrode array (MEA) recordings. The multiresolution TEO (mTEO) method overcomes this shortcoming of the TEO by tuning the parameter k to an optimal value m so as to match to frequency of the spike. In this paper, we present an algorithm for the mTEO using the multiresolution structure of wavelets along with inbuilt lowpass filtering of the subband signals. The algorithm is efficient and can be implemented for real-time processing of neural signals for spike detection. The performance of the algorithm is tested on a simulated neural signal with 10 spike templates obtained from [14]. The background noise is modeled as a colored Gaussian random process. Using the noise standard deviation and autocorrelation functions obtained from recorded data, background noise was simulated by an autoregressive (AR(5)) filter. The simulations show a spike detection accuracy of 90% and above with less than 5% false positives at an SNR of 2.35 dB as compared to 80% accuracy and 10% false positives reported [6] on simulated neural signals.
The rational-behavioral debate in financial economics

The contest between rational and behavioral finance is poorly understood as a contest over 'testability' and 'predictive success. ' In fact, neither rational nor behavioral finance offer much in the way of testable predictions of improving precision. Researchers in the rational paradigm seem to have abandoned testability and prediction in favor of a scheme of ex post 'rationalizations' of observed price behavior. These rationalizations, however, have an unemphasized relevance for behavioral finance. While behavioral finance advocates may justly criticize rationalizations as unlikely to lead to a science of financial economics with improving predictive power, rational finance's explanatory power plays a key role supporting the limits of arbitrage arguments that make behavioral finance possible.
Preliminary safety and efficacy data of brecanavir, a novel HIV-1 protease inhibitor: 24 week data from study HPR10006.

BACKGROUND Brecanavir, a novel protease inhibitor (PI), has sub-nM in vitro antiviral activity against multi-PI-resistant HIV-1 and in vitro is >100-fold more potent than previously marketed PIs and approx. 10-fold more potent than the recently marketed PI, darunavir. METHODS HPR10006 is an open label, single-arm, descriptive 48 week study, with 8 and 24 week interim analyses. Thirty-one HIV-1-infected patients were enrolled and received brecanavir/ritonavir 300 mg/100 mg twice daily, with two nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors, based on history and genotype. RESULTS At baseline, 25/31 had PI-sensitive virus and 6/31 had PI-resistant virus (median of two primary PI and five secondary PI mutations). Median baseline HIV-1 RNA was 5.0 and 4.2 log(10) copies/mL, respectively. Four patients discontinued prior to Week 24. At Week 24, 77% (24/31) had HIV-1 RNA <50 copies/mL regardless of screening genotype, including 5/6 patients with PI-resistant virus (6/6 had HIV-1 RNA <400 copies/mL). Brecanavir/ritonavir was well tolerated with no serious adverse events or clinically concerning changes in laboratory parameters. Of 31 patients, 10 (32%) experienced drug-related Grade 2-4 adverse events [most frequent events were fatigue (13%), dyspepsia (10%) and nausea (10%)]. Baseline isolate brecanavir IC(50) values for all patients ranged from 0.1 to 0.2 nM. Median plasma trough concentration at Week 4 was 150 ng/mL. Correcting the IC(50) (0.2 nM) value for protein binding (6-fold increase in vitro with 50% human serum) gives a corrected inhibitory quotient of 180. CONCLUSIONS Brecanavir/ritonavir was well tolerated and showed potent antiviral activity in HIV-1-infected patients harbouring both PI-sensitive and PI-resistant virus, following 24 weeks of dosing.
Does the Dexamethasone Suppression Test Predict Antidepressant Treatment Success?

Summary The 1 mg dexamethasone suppression test (DST) was carried out in patients with a major depressive illness in order to establish whether the results of this test, given before antidepressant or ECT treatment, could predict eventual therapeutic outcome. No significant difference could be detected in overall therapeutic improvement between those patients with a normal or abnormal DST response respectively, based on the 50 ng/ml cortisol cut-off point. However, using 100 ng/ml as a cut-off point it was found that patients with an abnormal DST response (i.e. a post-DST plasma cortisol concentration ⩾ 100 ng/ml) responded significantly better than those who had a normal DST response. These observations were statistically significant for those patients receiving antidepressants and in the combined treatment groups of those patients receiving either antidepressants or ECT.
Efficiency gains and foreign takeovers: remoteness matters

This paper investigates the effects of horizontal acquisitions on the productive efficiency of target firms in the 1990s. Using French manufacturing firm-level data, we implement appropriate difference-in-difference estimation techniques associated to a matching propensity score procedure. We found that foreign takeovers increase the total factor productivity of French target firms. This effect is similar, but more important for non-European operations. Going one step further, we show that the performance of acquisition is related to the cultural, institutional, geographic and economic distance between the foreign owner and its newly French affiliate. It is stated that operating in remote cultural and institutional environments lead to performance-enhancing synergies to the greatest benefit of the acquired firm. But, geographic distance seems to have a negative impact. It is true for both European and non-European mergers. As for the economic distance, our results suggest that a higher gap in sectorial TFP enhances the post-acquisition productivity of target firms especially for European acquisitions. However, distance in market size does not look to matter. These findings put forward the importance of remoteness as a key factor in explaining the performance of international acquisitions.
A Study of Succession in a Family Firm

For many founders of family firms, the decision to retire and relinquish control of the business to their offspring is difficult. Pierre Peladeau founded Quebecor Inc., a family business and a communications leader in the new economy. The present research describes the reluctance of the founder to let go of the business to his offspring and the succession process after the death of the founder. The methodology employed is a combination of case history and study of public documents. The study underscores the need to manage conflict between family members and to plan for succession for the next generation effectively.