Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Founding family ownership and innovation

This study empirically examines the extent to which family ownership affects innovation. Using a sample of Taiwanese listed firms, we find that family firms invest more in innovation than nonfamily firms, suggesting that family firms’ incentives to encourage innovation investment (e.g. long-run presence concern) outweigh families’ risk diversification concern in making innovation decisions. Our results are more pronounced in families that have voting–cash flow rights divergence and that operate in high-tech industries. Our study suggests that the family ownership structure is not necessarily detrimental to shareholder interests, although prior research indicates that the agency cost of large and small shareholders is high in East Asian countries where family ownership can exacerbate this type of agency conflict.
Overcoming the interruptible nature of allergy treatment through applying knowledge management principles: A Trip from raw knowledge to transferable wisdom

Rates of food allergy diagnosis in children are increasing exponentially in developed countries; in Melbourne for example, 20% sensitisation and a 10% challenge in 12 month old infants were confirmed (Osborne et al., 2011). As allergy services are stretched, patients are seen by different allergy practitioners, thus significantly challenging uninterruptible allergy care. Specific problems include prolonged waiting times for food allergy reviews; and the lack of a clear and comprehensive documentation of serial allergy test results over time in a consistent format. To address these issues this study will develop an electronic solution for use by both allergists and their patients to ensure prospective accurate and secure collection of skin prick test [SPT] or serum specific IgE [ssIgE] test data for long term follow-up of patients with food allergy, and applying intelligent tools and techniques to the developed database to enhance the ongoing care of children with allergies including developing tailored preventative strategies.
The Effect of Misstatements on Decisions of Financial Statement Users: An Experimental Investigation of Auditor Materiality Thresholds

Auditors are faced with the dilemma of inferring materiality based, in part, on whether a given level of financial misstatement will affect the decisions of statement users. Misstatements in accounting information that are below the materiality threshold are not expected to change users' assessments of a company's economic condition. While the auditing profession accepts materiality in concept, its application in practice is more controversial. In certain settings, the nature of a misstatement, such as changing a small profit into a loss, may affect an auditor's materiality judgment. However, in many cases the magnitude of the misstatement is a critical factor in judging materiality. We focus solely on the issue of magnitude and examine whether financial misstatements that are at or below commonly applied materiality thresholds result in market prices that differ from those resulting from correctly stated information. We conduct a series of 12 experimental asset markets each consisting of 12 independent t.
Follow the Money

The Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) component of federal transportation programs creates important competitive advantages for firms considered to be socially and economically disadvantaged. Every recipient of federal transportation funds must set annual and contract goals targeting the DBE share of contract dollars. All firms owned by women and minorities are presumed to be socially disadvantaged and can become certified DBEs. DBE programs have been subject to legal and political controversy since they were enacted in 1982. This article is based on data of 5,385 contracts' worth $1.94 billion awarded by 423 recipients of the Federal Aviation Administrations fund in FY 2004. Findings show that race-conscious rather than race-neutral goals are predominantly used, that DBEs are greatly overutilized as subcontractors given the goals airports have set, and that the principal DBE group beneficiary of the awards is White women. Policy recommendations are offered.
Public Attitudes Toward Sexual Expression in Long-Term Care: Does Context Matter?

The purpose of this study was to (a) examine how age and sex of long-term care (LTC) residents influence public attitudes toward sexuality in LTC and (b) understand how, in the absence of cognitive decline, residing in LTC influences the perception of sexuality as a basic human right. Attitudes were examined using a factorial vignette with a probability sample of 325 respondents from a southern state. Results indicate that attitudes were not statistically affected by a vignette character’s age or sex; but respondent education level, parenthood status, and religious affiliation did have direct bearing on attitudes. The notion of sexuality as a basic human right for residents of LTC was ultimately challenged as 19% of respondents said that LTC residents should not be permitted to have sexual relations with their spouse in the facility.
Diabetic Foot Ulcer: A Review

Diabetic foot problems are common throughout the world, resulting in major medical, social and economic consequences for the patients, their families, and society. Foot ulcers are more likely to be of neuropathic origin, and therefore eminently preventable. People at greatest risk of ulceration can easily be identified by careful clinical examination of the feet: education and frequent follow-up. Infection when complicates a foot ulcer, combination can be limb or life-threatening, and infection is defined clinically, but wound cultures assist in identifying the causative pathogens. Tissue specimens are strongly preferred to wound swabs for wound cultures. Antimicrobial therapy should be guided by culture results, and although such therapy may cure the infection, it does not heal the wound. Alleviation of the mechanical load on ulcers (offloading) should always be a part of treatment. Plantar neuropathic ulcers typically heal in 6 weeks with irremovable casting, because pressure at the ulcer site is mitigated and compliance is enforced. The success of other approaches to offloading similarly depends on the patients’ adherence to the effectiveness of pressure relief.
Cvm‐X: Calibrating Contingent Values with Experimental Auction Markets

We design and implement a method, CVM-X, to calibrate hypothetical survey values using experimental auction markets. We test the procedure using consumer willingness-to-pay for irradiated/nonirradiated meat. Our results show that calibration factors for those who favor the irradiation process (0.67–0.69) are less severe than for those with an initial dislike of the process (0.55–0.59), suggesting that calibration may be commodity specific. Copyright 1998, Oxford University Press.
Transforming Growth Factor-β2 Is a Transcriptional Target for Akt/Protein Kinase B via Forkhead Transcription Factor*

Tumors evade cell death by constitutively activating cell survival pathways and suppressing intrinsic death machinery. Activation of cell survival pathways leads to transcriptional repression of genes associated with cell death and activation of ones promoting anti-apoptosis. Akt/protein kinase B phosphorylates forkhead transcription factors and prevents their nuclear localization, leading to repression of genes involved in apoptosis, such as Fas ligand (FasL). Using bioinformatic approaches, we have identified three consensus sequences for forkhead transcription factor binding in transforming growth factor β2 (TGF-β2) promoter. TGF-β inhibits cell proliferation and induces apoptosis in many cell types, and acquisition of TGF-β resistance is linked to tumorigenesis. In this study, we show that activated Akt down-regulates TGF-β2 promoter, and sequences within the promoter that are related to consensus forkhead binding sites are necessary for repression. Forkhead factor FKHRL1 binds in vitro to the three consensus sequences and can activate TGF-β2 promoter in normal and Akt-transformed cell lines. In human breast and pancreatic tumors, activated Akt expression correlated with down-regulation of TGF-β 2 mRNA levels. A number of tumor cells expressing activated Akt were responsive to TGF-β addition, indicating the presence of an intact TGF-β-signaling pathway. These results suggest that repression of TGF-β 2 promoter activity in cells expressing activated Akt may play a role in promoting tumorigenesis and escape from the growth-inhibitory and/or apoptotic effects of TGF-β.
Improving the care of people with long-term conditions in primary care: protocol for the ENHANCE pilot trial

Background Long-term conditions (LTCs) are important determinants of quality of life and healthcare expenditure worldwide. Whilst multimorbidity is increasingly the norm in primary care, clinical guidelines and the delivery of care remain focused on single diseases, resulting in poorer clinical outcomes. Osteoarthritis, and anxiety and/or depression frequently co-occur with other LTCs, yet are seldom prioritized by the patient or clinician, resulting in higher levels of disability, poorer prognosis, and increased healthcare costs. Objective To examine the feasibility and acceptability of an integrated approach to LTC management, tackling the under-diagnosis and under-management of osteoarthritis-related pain and anxiety and/or depression in older adults with other LTCs in primary care. Design The ENHANCE study is a pilot stepped-wedge cluster randomized controlled trial to test the feasibility and acceptability of a nurse-led ENAHNCE LTC review consultation for identifying, assessing, and managing joint pain, and anxiety and/or depression in patients attending LTC reviews. Specific objectives (process evaluation and research outcomes) will be achieved through a theoretically informed mixed-methods approach using participant self-reported questionnaires, a medical record review, an ENHANCE EMIS template, qualitative interviews, and audio recordings of the ENHANCE LTC review. Discussion Success of the pilot trial will be measured against the level of the primary care team engagement, assessment of training delivery, and degree of patient recruitment and retention. Patient satisfaction and treatment fidelity will also be explored. ISRCTN registry number: 12154418.
EU Studies and the ‘New Regionalism’: What can be Gained from Dialogue?

Abstract This article explores what can be gained from increased dialogue between European Union studies and ‘new regionalism’ studies within International Relations, focusing on two crucial analytical dimensions: the link between globalisation and regionalism, and the link between regionalism and the state. First, globalisation is a universal process, and it provides the context for regionalism across the globe, which enhances the potential for cross‐fertilisation between EU studies and ‘new regionalism’ studies. Cross‐regional comparison is, however, constrained by the fact that globalisation's effects are unevenly spread around the globe. Second, comparing the EU with other forms of regionalism highlights the difficulty faced by scholars when moving across the divide separating advanced industrial states from developing countries/emerging economies. Strong state institutions and structures matter in the shaping of both national and regional governance; so does national wealth. Given the difficulties when trying to work across that divide, a focus on comparative regionalism should be viewed with both excitement and caution. The possibility for dialogue and cross‐fertilisation depends therefore strongly on the compatibility of (meta‐)theoretical perspectives and basic assumptions about states as well as regional institutions.
Combination chemotherapy with methotrexate, etoposide, and actinomycin D for high-risk gestational trophoblastic tumors.

OBJECTIVES The goal of this study was to evaluate the efficacy, toxicity, and survival of patients with high-risk gestational trophoblastic tumors (GTTs) treated with a methotrexate-etoposide-actinomycin D (MEA) regimen without cyclosphosphamide or vincristine. METHODS Thirty-nine consecutive patients with high-risk GTTs (28 were defined high risk by WHO criteria) were treated with primarily the MEA regimen. Among them, 27 patients had received no prior chemotherapy and 12 had received prior chemotherapy. Survival, causes of treatment failure, and toxicity were analyzed retrospectively. RESULTS After treatment with the MEA regimen, 29 of 39 patients achieved primary remission (74.4%), 8 developed resistance (20.5%), and 2 died of widespread metastases and chemotherapy-related toxicity. All 8 patients who developed resistance were treated with high-dose 5-fluorouracil and actinomycin D (FA); 6 were salvaged and 2 died of refractory disease. Three patients relapsed; 2 were controlled with FA or cisplatin-based chemotherapy and 1 who refused further treatment died. The disease-free survival rate was 87%. WHO grade 4 leukocytopenia and thrombocytopenia with the MEA regimen occurred in 5.3 and 6.4%, respectively, of the cycles; other toxic effects were acceptable and manageable. CONCLUSIONS At present, MEA chemotherapy (without cyclophosphamide or vincristine) is our treatment of choice for patients with high-risk GTT. Its toxicity is predictable and manageable. For patients who become resistant to MEA, new salvage chemotherapy regimens are needed.
Operational Complexity of Direct Manipulation Tasks in a Windows Environment

A method to quantify operational complexity of direct manipulation tasks in a windows environment is discussed. The method utilises a formula from communication theory due to Shannon and Weaver which describes the uncertainty H(p1,p2,.pn) in outcome of an event which is the result of a Markov process where the individual events have probabilities of occurrence P1,p2,-Pn- A taxonomy of basic windows operations is developed for Microsoft Windows and used to show that a windows dialogue can also be described as a Markov process. The H formula is then applied to determine the total complexity of a sequence of basic windows operations and thus provide some measure of the complexity of a given task as seen by the user. An estimate of the total entropy of a Microsoft Windows language source is obtained, indicating that the redundancy of windows dialogue is about 28%.
Non-invasive microwave lung water monitoring: Feasibility study

In this paper, a numerical feasibility study is performed for the non-invasive microwave monitoring of lung water by patients with pulmonary edema. The microwave sensor considered here is the balanced antipodal Vivaldi antenna working in the frequency range from 1.5 to 6.5 GHz. A numerical phantom is a MRI-based high-resolution anatomical model of a patient. In the numerical phantom lung water volume has been successively varied form 0 to 900 ml and the phantom has been virtually exposed to an electromagnetic Gaussian pulse. Reflected signals were subsequently used for estimation of the lung water level and the obtained estimated values have shown a relative error of less than 6%.
Effects of Great Barrier Reef Degradation on Recreational Reef-Trip Demand: A Contingent Behaviour Approach

There is a growing concern that increased nutrient and sediment runoff from river catchments are a potential source of coral reef degradation. Degradation of reefs may affect the number of tourists visiting the reef and, consequently, the economic sectors that rely on healthy reefs for their income generation. This study uses a contingent behaviour approach to estimate the effect of reef degradation on demand for recreational dive and snorkel trips, for a case study of the Great Barrier Reef in Australia. Results from a negative binomial random effects panel model show that the consumer surplus current reef visitors derive from a diving or snorkelling trip is approximately A$185 per trip. Furthermore, results indicate that reef trips by divers and snorkellers could go down by as much as 80 per cent given a hypothetical decrease in coral and fish biodiversity. This corresponds to a decrease in tourism expenditure by divers and snorkellers on full-day reef trips in the Cairns management area of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park of about A$103 million per year.
How do respondents process stated choice experiments? Attribute consideration under varying information load

The popularity of stated choice (SC) experiments has produced many design strategies in which researchers use increasingly more 'complex' choice settings to study choice behaviour. When the amount of information to assess increases, we wonder how an individual handles such information in making a choice. Defining the amount of information as the number of attributes associated with each choice set, we investigate how this information is processed as we vary its 'complexity'. Four ordered heterogeneous logit models are developed, each for an SC design based on a fixed number of attributes, in which the dependent variable defines the number of attributes that are ignored. We find that the degree to which individuals ignore attributes is influenced by the dimensionality of the SC experiment, the deviation of attribute levels from an experienced reference alternative, the use of 'adding up' attributes where feasible, the number of choice sets evaluated, and the personal income of the respondent. The empirical evidence supports the view that individuals appear to adopt a range of 'coping' strategies that are consistent with how they process information in real markets, and that aligning 'choice complexity' with the amount of information to process is potentially misleading. Relevancy is what matters. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
FIXING THE SYSTEM: AN ANALYSIS OF ALTERNATIVE PROPOSALS FOR THE REFORM OF INTERNATIONAL TAX

We evaluate proposals for U.S. international tax reform including dividend exemption, full current inclusion, dividend exemption with an effective tax rate test and active business exception, dividend exemption with a per-country or overall minimum tax, and repeal of check-the-box. As alternatives to active business tests, we consider minimum taxes that allow expensing for real investment abroad. We evaluate reforms along many dimensions including the lockout effect, income shifting, the choice of location, and complexity. We find a per-country minimum tax with expensing has many advantages with respect to these margins. The simpler overall minimum tax is a serious alternative.
Focused Beam Ray Tracing for Laser Fusion

A method for modeling the finite size focal spot of a high intensity laser beam in terms of rays and a procedure for tracing the rays are described. The rays, which represent the beam, are normally distributed over the spot via a random walk prescription. The paths traveled by these rays in vacuum are given in terms of the cyclindrical coordinates r and z. We then describe a two-step procedure for tracing the rays in three dimensions in a cylindrically symmetric medium. The first step determines r and z along each path, giving the entrance and exit points for each zone through which the ray passes. The second step gives an approximation to the three-dimensional path in each zone. Each step reduces to a two-dimensional problem yielding simple and computationally fast answers.
Clusters, Adaptation and Extroversion

Over recent decades, clusters like industrial districts have increasingly attracted attention in economic debate. The study of clusters, particularly in the Italian literature, highlights the inadequacy of the mainstream body of explanation to provide a theory of the emergence and transformation over time of these clusters. Evolutionary theory seems to provide an adequate framework for the study of clusters. The paper applies an evolutionary perspective to the study of clusters by analysing an empirical case-study on the accordion cluster of Marche (Italy). The study of development of this cluster as an evolutionary self-organizing process will be proposed. The main concern of the paper is to highlight how the cluster analysed undertook the structural transformation which led its production from a very traditional style of manufacture to a technologically intensive one. The focus will be on the degree of continuity and complementarity between the capabilities, skills and knowledge accumulated or the trajectory exploited within the cluster over time and the new trajectory explored. By doing so, the paper analyses a particular transformation phase of the cluster under observation, that is the phase which led the cluster to a transformation in the composition of its production activity. Across this phase the paper identifies some key actors whose presence affected the possibility for the cluster to undertake the transformation. The relevance of these actors is related to their role within the internal production chain as well as to their external networking.
Mutation screening of manganese superoxide dismutase in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

Seventy-seven cases of ALS were screened for mutations in the manganese superoxide dismutase gene (SOD2). DNA was extracted from CNS tissue and screened using single stranded conformation polymorphism and heteroduplex analysis. No mutations were identified in the entire coding region of the SOD2 gene. The known polymorphism in the mitochondrial targeting sequence was identified. No association was found between this polymorphism and ALS. A further polymorphism was detected in the intronic sequence upstream of exon 4, though no association with ALS was demonstrated. We therefore conclude that mutations in SOD2 do not appear to cause ALS.
Three cooperative pathways to solving a collective weed management problem

The spread of pest plants is a trans-boundary problem that causes losses to biodiversity and disrupts ecosystems. Much social research into, and policy development for, weeds has conceptualised their control as a problem facing individual landowners, rather than as a collective action problem. In the case of serrated tussock (Nassella trichotoma), a highly invasive, noxious weed that is widespread in southeastern Australia, landowners and government staff are acutely aware that this weed is a communal problem. Analysis of semi-structured interviews revealed that landowners and agency staff believe there are three pathways available for communities to achieve greater weed control collectively. These involve sharing information, providing support and applying pressure. These pathways provide two options for future policy development. Firstly, future policies could use the findings to make minor adjustments to the way information is distributed, funding is provided and enforcement is administered. Alternatively, future policies could be refocused to acknowledge good farm management, encourage better relationships among neighbours and build on the social capital that exists in Landcare groups.
Planning methodology for predicting spatial patterns of risk potential from industrial land uses

Abstract The nature of environmental risk is often determined by the location patterns of industrial firms in a locale. We develop a methodology for analyzing the capacity of toxics-generating industries to leave toxic residuals on the landscape, in the context of long-term master planning. To understand an area's risk profile, we first characterize the location pattern of risk-generating firms and develop ways to represent the risk potentials of these shapes. To this end, we develop a geometric approach for characterizing the spatial patterns of these clusters of dirty industries, using new measures for analyzing spatial densities and compactness. We then introduce context (i.e. actual zoning patterns, transportation corridors) and explain how this relates to the spatial patterns found. We illustrate this analytical method with application to Orange County, California, USA and point out how it affords a deeper understanding of the connections between industry and environmental risk. We end the article with a discussion of how these analytical methods might be used for land use planning.