Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Transaction Costs Detailed -Single-Industry Studies and Operationalization

– This paper aims to present an in‐depth review on the latest state of empirical research in transaction cost economics (TCE), focusing on single‐industry studies. The intensely discussed subject of operationalization of transaction costs is critically assessed, and a concept of how to increase the quality of findings in empirical studies is presented. , – The sample was obtained by a literature research and review in high‐class media and submitted to in‐depth quantitative and qualitative analysis such as content analysis. , – The findings are in part unexpected and substantially contribute to research: applicability of TCE to a broad range of industries is found, the majority being large industries with important markets. Most studies support TCE statements, some suggesting theory extension by complementary aspects. Operationalization of transaction costs remains a field requiring further research. , – First, this article is condensed and therefore limited to single‐industry studies within TCE, understanding “industry” as a specialized field of activity. The question of industry boundaries may be a base for future research. Second, the subject of operationalization of transaction costs still requires further research. , – Decision makers can continue to use TCE for various applications such as strategic alliance, vertical integration, governance choice, make‐or‐buy or contract choice questions. A shortcoming in most articles reviewed is the presentation of the industry's characteristics. Authors need to consider them in order to increase the qualitative level of single‐industry studies. , – This paper provides significant insight into the field of single‐industry TCE studies. As a result of penetrating research in high‐class media and in‐depth analysis, the paper provides highly structured and intensely examined statements on existing literature and related findings, which support TCE statements and will lead current disputes in the literature to a further stage.
Range migration correction of translational variant bistatic forward-looking SAR based on iterative keystone transformation

In the imaging processing of translational variant bistatic forward-looking SAR (TV-BFSAR), range cell migration correction (RCMC) is an essential procedure. Based on the azimuth variance property of the range cell migration (RCM), the keystone transformation is used for RCMC in TV-BFSAR. Before the RCMC, the ambiguity correction of the Doppler frequency must be done. However, the motion error makes the ambiguity correction hard to be realized. An iterative RCMC based on Keystone transformation scheme is proposed in this paper to overcome the challenge motion error. By searching for the correct Doppler ambiguity number based on the minimum entropy, this scheme corrects the RCM in TV-BFSAR. Simulations validate the effectiveness of this method.
Effective Use of Foreign Debt, the Case for Turkey

An advanced financial system is regarded as a hallmark of development. Lending or borrowing money, or debt, plays a vital role in an economy. But just like any other economic decision, borrowing requires a thorough analysis of contingencies. Debt may lead to prosperity through sound investment, or it may overwhelm firms/people when not used properly. In todayi¯s circumstances, borrowing from world financial markets is easier than ever before. In this paper, the possibility of foreign borrowing helping Turkey to improve its macroeconomic variables of GDP, consumption, government spending, investment, exports and current account balance is explored. We look for cointegration relationships between various foreign debt variables classified as public or private foreign debt; short-term or long-term foreign debt, and various macroeconomic variables. Later, the variables studied are tested to see if there are any statistically causal relationships between them. The following results are found: short-term foreign debt is not cointegrated with any of the macroeconomic variables when long-term foreign debt is cointegrated with some of them; private foreign debt is more effective than public foreign debt on macroeconomic variables. Whilst Turkey is critically dependent on foreign borrowing in financing its current account deficit, its current account balance is not cointegrated with any of the foreign debt data. Public foreign debt precedes government spending where private foreign debt follows private sector spending. This is interpreted as a sign that the private sector is more careful with its borrowing decisions than the government since its spending, which is procyclical with the business cycle, is leading its borrowing.
Highly Specific Protease-Based Approach for Detection of Porphyromonas gingivalis in Diagnosis of Periodontitis

ABSTRACT Porphyromonas gingivalis is associated with the development of periodontitis. Here we describe the development of a highly specific protease-based diagnostic method for the detection of P. gingivalis in gingival crevicular fluid. Screening of a proteolytic peptide substrate library, including fluorogenic dipeptides that contain d-amino acids, led to the discovery of five P. gingivalis-specific substrates. Due to the presence of lysine and arginine residues in these substrates, it was hypothesized that the cleavage was mediated by the gingipains, a group of P. gingivalis-specific proteases. This hypothesis was confirmed by the observation that P. gingivalis gingipain knockout strains demonstrated clearly impaired substrate cleavage efficacy. Further, proteolytic activity on the substrates was increased by the addition of the gingipain stimulators dithiothreitol and l-cysteine and decreased by the inhibitors leupeptin and N-ethylmaleimide. Screening of saliva and gingival crevicular fluid of periodontitis patients and healthy controls showed the potential of the substrates to diagnose the presence of P. gingivalis proteases. By using paper points, a sensitivity of approximately 105 CFU/ml was achieved. P. gingivalis-reactive substrates fully composed of l-amino acids and Bz-l-Arg-NHPhNO2 showed a relatively low specificity (44 to 85%). However, the five P. gingivalis-specific substrates that each contained a single d-amino acid showed high specificity (96 to 100%). This observation underlines the importance of the presence of d-amino acids in substrates used for the detection of bacterial proteases. We envisage that these substrates may improve the specificity of the current enzyme-based diagnosis of periodontitis associated with P. gingivalis.
Disciplining Delegated Monitors: When Venture Capitalists Fail to Prevent Fraud by Their IPO Firms

Information-based theories of financial intermediation focus on delegated monitoring. However, there is little evidence on how markets discipline intermediaries who fail at this function. We exploit the direct link between corporate fraud and monitoring failure and examine how a venture capital (VC) firm׳s reputation is affected when it fails to prevent fraud in its portfolio companies. We find that reputation-damaged VCs interact differently in the future with their limited partners, other VCs, and IPO underwriters because they are perceived as ineffective monitors. In addition, VCs that fail to prevent fraud experience greater difficulty in taking future portfolio companies public.
Post-event visits as the sources of marketing strategy sustainability: a conceptual model approach

While extant literature has mainly concentrated on contemporaneous event tourism marketing (i.e., on visiting the city during or around the event) and on intentions to revisit after the event's completion, this research investigates the impact of the event on the decisions of potential tourists/visitors who have never visited the host city and want to visit it after the event's completion. Research in this area, especially in those emerging markets where event marketing is developing rapidly, is limited. In order to address the issues raised, a conceptual model is proposed. This model is based on a multivariate research approach, examining the interrelationships between event image, destination image, participants' perceived satisfaction with the event and intentions to visit, under the context of non-repeat event marketing. Five hypotheses postulating these interrelationships were tested using structural equation modeling. A "non-repeat" event, the National Games, the biggest traditional sports event in China, was chosen to test this model. Selfadministered questionnaires were used to collect data relating to a period of two months after the event's completion. The findings show that the sustainability of event marketing strategy can be achieved through the post-event visit to the host city.
Testing for Sample-Selection Bias Due to Location in the Labour-Market Behaviour of Respondents from the British Household Panel Survey

A five-state origin and destination competing risk labour-market model is formulated and applied to some individual-level labour-market data obtained from the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS). The BHPS used a multistage stratified clustered sample design for selecting households and individuals. The primary sampling unit was the postcode sector. 250 out of a population of 8951 postcode sectors were selected. A test for the informative nature of the primary sampling units for labour-market behaviour is developed and applied to the BHPS labour-market data. The results suggest that the sample design is not completely ignorable for male and female labour-market behaviour.
Role of endogenous gamma interferon in host defense against Chlamydia trachomatis infections

BALB/c mice (6 to 8 weeks old) infected with Chlamydia trachomatis serovar L1 were sacrificed, and the yield of Chlamydia inclusion-forming units from the liver and lungs was measured in HeLa 229 cells. The yield of inclusion-forming units reached a peak at 3 days postinfection and then progressively declined. The mice infected with C. trachomatis had no detectable levels of gamma interferon (IFN-gamma) in their sera. However, stimulation of their spleen cells with either concanavalin A or heat-killed C. trachomatis resulted in the release of high levels of IFN-gamma (600 to 900 IU/ml) at 5 to 8 days postinfection. The increased release of IFN-gamma from the spleen cells paralleled the clearance of chlamydia from the liver and lungs. Sera and spleen cells from animals immunized with live C. trachomatis were transferred to recipient mice that were subsequently challenged with C. trachomatis. Transfer of spleen cells resulted in a reduction of the infection in the recipient animal as measured by the yield of chlamydia from the spleen, but transfer of the sera did not confer protective immunity. In addition, mice infected with C. trachomatis serovar L1 were treated with a hamster neutralizing monoclonal antibody to recombinant murine IFN-gamma (MAb-MuIFN-gamma). In the animals receiving the MAb-MuIFN-gamma, the yield of chlamydia from the lungs, spleen, and liver was significantly higher than from the control groups of mice. Histopathological analysis of tissues from the chlamydia-infected mice showed that the animals treated with the MAb-MuIFN-gamma had a significantly more extensive inflammatory reaction in their lungs, liver, and spleen.
THE DETERMINANTS OF PARTICIPATORY MANAGEMENT

This paper analyses self-reported participatory management data from a survey of over 900 private-sector employees in Australia and New Zealand. We test for causal linkages between employee desires for participation, while distinguishing between participation at the shop-floor and at higher managerial levels. At higher levels, where there is a significant excess demand for participation, firms often respond to employee desires with formal programmes which in turn create de facto participation at this level. At the shop-floor level, employee desires are more often met through the informal provision of de facto participation. Participation also changes employee desires, with participation at higher levels increasing employee demands for it and participation at lower levels reducing demands for high-level participation. We conclude that shop-floor programmes may favour managerial interests while higher-level co-operative programmes may favour employee interests.
Should We Have a WTO for International Migration?

"The international movement of labour remains much more restricted than movement of goods or capital, and the worldwide economic gains to liberalizing migration are large. This paper asks whether those gains could be realized through better international cooperation on migration along the lines of the WTO for trade. Although public opinion is marginally more negative towards the liberalization of migration than of trade, the key impediment is the lack of a basis for reciprocity in negotiations over migration. And this is because migration is largely driven by absolute advantage rather than by comparative advantage as in the case of trade. Consequently there is no basis for WTO-style negotiations over migration and therefore no grounds for reforming the international architecture in the hope of fostering liberalization. " Copyright (c) CEPR, CES, MSH, 2007.
Phytohormone and Putative Defense Gene Expression Differentiates the Response of ‘Hayward’ Kiwifruit to Psa and Pfm Infections

Pseudomonas syringae pv. actinidiae (Psa) and Pseudomonas syringae pv. actinidifoliorum (Pfm) are closely related pathovars infecting kiwifruit, but Psa is considered one of the most important global pathogens, whereas Pfm is not. In this study of Actinidia deliciosa ‘Hayward’ responses to the two pathovars, the objective was to test whether differences in plant defense responses mounted against the two pathovars correlated with the contrasting severity of the symptoms caused by them. Results showed that Psa infections were always more severe than Pfm infections, and were associated with highly localized, differential expression of phytohormones and putative defense gene transcripts in stem tissue closest to the inoculation site. Phytohormone concentrations of jasmonic acid (JA), jasmonate isoleucine (JA-Ile), salicylic acid (SA) and abscisic acid were always greater in stem tissue than in leaves, and leaf phytohormones were not affected by pathogen inoculation. Pfm inoculation induced a threefold increase in SA in stems relative to Psa inoculation, and a smaller 1.6-fold induction of JA. Transcript expression showed no effect of inoculation in leaves, but Pfm inoculation resulted in the greatest elevation of the SA marker genes, PR1 and glucan endo-1,3-beta-glucosidase (β-1,3-glucosidase) (32- and 25-fold increases, respectively) in stem tissue surrounding the inoculation site. Pfm inoculation also produced a stronger response than Psa inoculation in localized stem tissue for the SA marker gene PR6, jasmonoyl-isoleucine-12-hydrolase (JIH1), which acts as a negative marker of the JA pathway, and APETALA2/Ethylene response factor 2 transcription factor (AP2 ERF2), which is involved in JA/SA crosstalk. WRKY40 transcription factor (a SA marker) was induced equally in stems by wounding (mock inoculation) and pathovar inoculation. Taken together, these results suggest that the host appears to mount a stronger, localized, SA-based defense response to Pfm than Psa.
Pulsed electric field induced changes in dielectric properties of biological cells

The initial response of a cell to an applied electric field is determined by its dielectric properties. Conversely, exposure to an electric field can alter these parameters. Hence, an understanding of dielectric membrane phenomena helps in explaining the underlying interaction mechanisms. Moreover, different electrical characteristics might also allow devising exposure conditions for pulsed electric field treatments that can preferentially target specific cells, such as tumor cells. Using time domain reflectometry dielectric spectroscopy, we have investigated the dielectric properties of Jurkat cells, a malignant human T-cell line, before and after application of microsecond and nanosecond pulsed electric fields. For microsecond exposures, the conductivity of a cell suspension is expected to increase dramatically following pulse application, suggesting that membrane poration has occurred. For nanosecond-duration pulses, our measurements indicate that changes in the dielectric properties of nuclear envelope, and nucleoplasm are more pronounced than for microsecond pulse duration, implying that intracellular structures are more responsive to shorter pulses.
Salivary evaluation of pediatric patients with cancer, before and after antineoplasic treatment.

AIMS This study evaluated the salivary biochemical and immunological status of children with cancer undergoing to antineoplasic treatment in an attempt to identify alternatives for a less invasive and less painful monitoring of these patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS Unstimulated whole saliva samples were obtained from 115 children without cancer (control) and 32 children with cancer (CA). Children with cancer were also evaluated after antineoplasic treatment (CAT, n = 17). The salivary concentrations of glucose, triglycerides, total cholesterol, alkaline phosphatase, gamma-glutamyltransferase (GGT), urea, insulin, thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH), triiodothyronine (T3), levothyroxine (T4), and immunoglobulin A (IgA) were determined. RESULTS Acute lymphocytic leukemia, acute myeloid leukemia, and Hodgkin's lymphoma were the most frequent cancers, although cases of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, medulloblastoma, ependymoma, osteosarcoma, nephroblastoma, Ewing's sarcoma, and endodermal sinus tumor were also observed. The salivary concentration of cholesterol, triglycerides, or GGT did not differ between groups. Instead, the concentrations of alkaline phosphatase and T4 were higher in patients with cancer, irrespective of treatment. TSH levels were higher in the CA group and urea concentration was lower in the CAT group. T3 was undetectable in all groups. Antineoplasic treatment increased the glucose level and decreased the insulin concentration. Salivary concentration of total IgA was lower in children with cancer, irrespective of treatment. CONCLUSIONS Cancer and antineoplasic treatment affected biochemical and immunological parameters in the saliva of children, shedding new light on the potential usefulness of saliva for monitoring children with cancer, especially to patients undergoing immunosuppressive therapy.
IL-6, in Synergy with IL-7 or IL-15, Stimulates TCR-Independent Proliferation and Functional Differentiation of CD8+ T Lymphocytes1

Recent reports have shown that IL-21, in synergy with IL-15, stimulates proliferation of CD8+ T lymphocytes in the absence of signaling via the TCR. In this study, we show that IL-6, which induces phosphorylation of STAT3 similarly to IL-21, also can stimulate proliferation of CD8+ T cells in synergy with IL-7 or IL-15. IL-6 displays a stronger synergy with IL-7 than with IL-15 to stimulate naive CD8+ T cells. Concomitant stimulation by IL-6 or IL-21 augments phosphorylation and DNA-binding activity of STAT5 induced by IL-7 or IL-15. Like IL-21, IL-6 reduces the TCR signaling threshold required to stimulate CD8+ T cells. Prior culture of P14 TCR transgenic CD8 T cells with IL-6 or IL-21 in the presence of IL-7 or IL-15 augments their proliferation and cytolytic activity upon subsequent stimulation by Ag. Furthermore, cytokine stimulation induces quantitatively and qualitatively distinct phenotypic changes on CD8+ T cells compared with those induced by TCR signaling. We propose that the ability of IL-6 to induce TCR-independent activation of CD8+ T cells in synergy with IL-7 or IL-15 may play an important role in the transition from innate to adaptive immunity.
The Bright Side of the Dark Side : Covert Politics as an Alternative to the Negative Impacts of Coercive Change

manager’s individual account. With a two–week episode of political maneuvering as a starting point, the case shows how skilful strategizing on the part of the general manager is at the origin of significant organizational change. Specifically, the paper has three purposes. First, to offer insights to practitioners and scholars regarding how powerful managers purposefully seek to influence organizational context in a non–disclosed fashion. Second, to illustrate how single case microstudies open a route to understanding events that would otherwise be unattainable. The third, and most important, is to apply organizational politics concepts to characterize managerial covert political action in the implementation of a deliberate strategy. Specifically, emphasis is put on how contextual characteristics relate to political action. How they constrain and enable politics, and facilitate the use and maintenance of concealed motives.
Switched Capacitor Signal Conditioning for Differential Capacitive Sensors

A novel switched capacitor signal-conditioning circuit for differential capacitive sensors is proposed. The main advantage of the proffered method lies in the fact that it accepts sensors possessing either linear or inverse characteristics and provides a linear output. Moreover, the output is dependent only on a pair of dc reference voltages and the transformation constant of the sensor. Hence, increased linearity and accuracy is easily achieved by employing precision dc reference voltages. Results from the tests on a prototype elucidate the practicality of the proposed method
GENETIC VARIATION FOR ANTIBIOTIC PERSISTENCE IN ESCHERICHIA COLI

Bacterial persistence describes a heterogeneous response to antibiotics in clonal populations of bacteria due to phenotypic variation within the population, with a small proportion of cells surviving treatment even at very high concentrations of drug. The aim of this study was to determine whether different natural isolates of Escherichia coli, selected at random from a collection representing the spectrum of genetic diversity in the species, generate different fractions of persister cells. Despite comparable minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) to the antibiotics between the different strains, highly significant variation was observed in persister fractions following exposure to ampicillin, streptomycinm, or norfloxacin. Survival following treatment with one drug did not, however, correlate with survival against another. Finally, using competition assays we quantify fitness benefits of persistence. These results show that different strains of E. coli vary markedly in their response to antibiotics despite comparable genetic susceptibility and indicate different mechanisms of evolved persistence to different antibiotics.
The Effect of Long-term Performance Plans on Corporate Sell-Off-Induced Abnormal Returns

This study examines the association between long-term performance plans and wealth effects accruing to stockholders of divesting firms at announcements of sell-off propos als. The results indicate that divesting companies with long-term per formance plans experience a more favorable stock-market reaction at t he announcement of sell-off proposals relative to firms without long- term performance plans. The findings imply that longterm performance plans serve as an effective mechanism to motivate managers to make better decisions. Copyright 1987 by American Finance Association.