Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Auditor Reputation and the Pricing of Initial Public Offerings

It is hypothesized that an inverse relation exists between the reputation of the auditor of an initial public offering and the initial return earned by an investor. Specifically, clients that hire more reputable CPA firms should exhibit lower initial returns than clients that choose to hire CPA firms with less reputation capital at stake. Two proxies for auditor reputation are used to test this hypothesis. The first reputation proxy uses indicator variables for auditor size. Results indicate that the widely used Big Eight/non-Big Eight classification may measure CPA firm reputation capital with error particularly for the smaller Big Eight and larger non-Big Eight firms. A second reputation proxy is developed by regressing compensation paid to the auditing firms on measures of marginal cost of performing the audit. The initial return to the IPO investors is regressed on the residual from the compensation regression to provide evidence of the reputation hypothesis. Results indicate that clients that pay a premium for their registration audit exhibit lower initial returns for their investors. Thus, the results of both tests provide support for the hypothesized inverse relation between auditor reputation and initial public offering initial return. A COMPANY "going public" must provide a prospectus that includes a description of its present and future operations and audited financial statements. Since privately held firms face limited disclosure requirements, the market usually possesses less publicly available data from them than from comparable publicly traded firms. This difference in regulatory environment provides a potentially fruitful setting in which to consider the role of the public accountant. Since switching auditor just prior to going public is widely alleged, it is natural to investigate management's motivation for such a change (see "Small The author would like to thank Linda DeAngelo, Victor Defeo, Nick Gonedes, Pat Hughes, Prem Jain, Rick Lambert, Bill Kinney, David Larcker, Laurentius Marais, Jay Ritter, Rex Thompson, Ivo Welch, and workshop participants at the Wharton School, Indiana University, Northwestern, New York University, University of Southern California, Temple, Columbia, and University of Pittsburgh for providing comments and suggestions. I'm particularly indebted to Jay Ritter for the construction of the database used in this project. Financial support was provided by the Fishman-Davidson Center for the Study of the Service Sector at the Wharton School. Randolph P. Beatty, Graduate School of Business, University of Chicago. Manuscript received June 1987. Revisions received August 1988 and March 1989. Accepted April 1989.
Foreign Wine Consumption in Australia

Abstract Research has shown that while some people favor foreign-sourced products, others prefer to purchase goods made in their own country. From the perspective of the Australian wine market, consumption of wine has been consistently increasing in recent years. While sales of Australian made wine is booming, sales of imported sources is also increasing in terms of dollar value. This paper examines the effect of consumer ethnocentrism and animosity on willingness to buy foreign wine products, in an effort to better understand the factors involved in the consumer decision making process when purchasing wine products.
The Timed Up and Go test: Predicting falls in ALS

There are few functionally meaningful clinical measures used to guide management of patients with ALS. Falls are common, can be debilitating, and result in increased health care costs. We assessed the performance and ability to predict falls of the Timed Up and Go (TUG) test, which quantifies walking ability, in a prospective longitudinal study. Thirty‐one patients underwent six monthly TUG, ALSFRS‐R, forced vital capacity, muscle testing (MMT) and quality of life assessments. Linear and generalized linear mixed effects models assessed the associations among variables and ability to predict falls. The increase in TUG time was linear over six months, and TUG time was negatively associated with ALSFRS‐R (p⩽0.001) and MMT scores (p⩽0.001). The TUG test was the only variable that was associated with the chance of falling (p = 0.024); patients with TUG times of 14 s had a 10% chance of falling during the study. In conclusion, TUG performance declined linearly in this longitudinal study, was correlated with standard outcome measures, and predicted falls. The TUG test can guide management of patients with ALS; a time of 14 s can be used to prompt the recommendation for mobility aids to prevent falls.
Efficient Wavelength-Tunable Gain-Switching and Gain-Switched Mode-Locking Operation of a Heavily Er 3+-Doped ZBLAN Mid-Infrared Fiber Laser

We report on an efficient wavelength-tunable gain-switched and gain-switched mode-locked Er3+-doped double-clad fiber laser with a linear cavity. Stable gain-switching and gain-switched mode-locking were achieved with slope efficiencies of 28.6% and 34.5% with respect to launched pump power, respectively. The gain-switched laser pulses were generated with a maximum average output power of around 110 mW, pulse width of 661.2 ns, and calculated peak power of ∼16.5 W at a repetition rate of 10 kHz. At the same repetition, the gain-switched mode-locked laser pulses were generated with a maximum average output power of around 514 mW, subpulse repetition rate of ∼30.7 MHz, and peak power of higher than 154 W at a repetition rate of 10 kHz when the wavelength was tuned to 2.78 μm. This is, to the best of our knowledge, the first demonstration of a gain-switched self-started mode-locked fiber laser near 3 μm.
Meta-analysis of Adjuvant Immunochemotherapy Using OK-432 in Patients With Resected Non-Small-Cell Lung Cancer

The benefits of immunochemotherapy with a penicillin-treated, lyophilized preparation of Streptococcus pyogenes, OK-432 (Picibanil), were reassessed in patients with resected non–small-cell lung cancer through a meta-analysis based on data from 1,520 patients enrolled in 11 randomized clinical trials. All 11 trials were started before 1991, and the subjects had been followed up for at least 5 years after surgery and randomization. In these trials, standard chemotherapy was compared with the same therapy plus OK-432. The endpoint of interest was overall survival, and analysis was based on intent-to-treat population without patient exclusion. Data were analyzed using the Mantel-Haenszel method. The 5-year survival rate for all eligible patients in the 11 trials was 51.2% in the immunochemotherapy group versus 43.7% in the chemotherapy group. The odds ratio (OR) for overall survival was 0.70 (95% CI = 0.56–0.87, p = 0.0010). Analysis of four trials in which central randomization was performed also reconfirmed a significantly longer survival time for the immunochemotherapy group (OR = 0.66, 95% CI = 0.44–1.00, p = 0.049). Based on these results of meta-analysis, it is postulated that postoperative adjuvant immunochemotherapy using OK-432 might improve the survival of patients after resection of non–small-cell lung cancer.
Beyond species richness: Expanding biodiversity–ecosystem functioning theory in detritus‐based streams

Initial research informing biodiversity–ecosystem functioning (B–EF) theory focused largely on terrestrial plant species richness effects on productivity. Recent studies in stream ecosystems have further advanced understanding of B–EF beyond species richness by testing effects of species diversity (richness and composition) at multiple trophic levels. Recent meta‐analyses of stream B–EF studies across multiple trophic levels found stronger evidence for composition‐ than richness‐functioning relationships. Here, we further examine effects of resource and consumer diversity on stream organic matter processing (OMP) to identify general patterns and potential mechanisms of non‐additivity across spatial and temporal heterogeneity. We also review multi‐trophic consumer response patterns to resource diversity to assess how consumer diversity responses compare to independent resource and consumer effects on OMP in streams. Consistent emergent patterns include: (1) Top‐down (i.e. consumer) diversity effects are common among vertebrate, invertebrate and microbial trophic levels and are generally explained by species evenness; (2) bottom‐up (i.e. resource) diversity effects are mediated by species evenness and vary both spatially and temporally and (3) consumer responses to resource diversity that best explain resource diversity effects are predominantly seen at the microbial level. Resource and consumer diversity effects are driven by dominance of functionally distinct taxa. However, response of consumers to resource diversity only partially explain resource diversity effects, suggesting functional differences between how naturally colonizing and manipulated consumer assemblages use OM resources. The challenges facing general ecology and the advancement of B–EF theory include an improved understanding of how environmental heterogeneity and temporal and spatial variation influence B–EF patterns. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Sampling-Based Methods for Motion Planning with Constraints

Robots with many degrees of freedom (e.g., humanoid robots and mobile manipulators) have increasingly been employed to accomplish realistic tasks in domains such as disaster relief, spacecraft logistics, and home caretaking. Finding feasible motions for these robots autonomously is essential for their operation. Sampling-based motion planning algorithms are effective for these high-dimensional systems; however, incorporating task constraints (e.g., keeping a cup level or writing on a board) into the planning process introduces significant challenges. This survey describes the families of methods for sampling-based planning with constraints and places them on a spectrum delineated by their complexity. Constrained sampling-based methods are based on two core primitive operations: ( a) sampling constraint-satisfying configurations and ( b) generating constraint-satisfying continuous motion. Although this article presents the basics of sampling-based planning for contextual background, it focuses on the representation of constraints and sampling-based planners that incorporate constraints.
Design and protection of a high voltage DC onboard grid with integrated fuel cell system on more electric aircraft

A major demand of the aviation industry is the reduction of emissions in combination with cost efficiency improvement. One possible approach to face this challenge is the replacement of the conventional auxiliary power unit by a fuel cell system within a “more electric aircraft” design. In order to integrate a fuel cell system into the grid architecture of modern aircraft new protection arrangements have to be developed. For availability and redundancy the fuel cell system has to be split into two subsystems. Furthermore the two subsystems have to be connected in parallel to bundle the power delivery and to balance the power. This complex grid structure requires smart safety arrangements to protect the grid in case of failures. In this contribution two safety concepts for doubly fed ring structures are introduced and analyzed. The directional stepped-curve distance-time protection and the impedance protection are illustrated and simulated. Concluding the results of the two concepts are compared.
Inhibiting HIV-1 infection in human T cells by lentiviral-mediated delivery of small interfering RNA against CCR5

Double-stranded RNAs ≈21 nucleotides long [small interfering RNA (siRNA)] are recognized as powerful reagents to reduce the expression of specific genes. To use them as reagents to protect cells against viral infection, effective methods for introducing siRNAs into primary cells are required. Here, we describe success in constructing a lentivirus-based vector to introduce siRNAs against the HIV-1 coreceptor, CCR5, into human peripheral blood T lymphocytes. With high-titer vector stocks, >40% of the peripheral blood T lymphocytes could be transduced, and the expression of a potent CCR5-siRNA resulted in up to 10-fold inhibition of CCR5 expression on the cell surface over a period of 2 weeks in the absence of selection. In contrast, the expression of another major HIV-1 coreceptor, CXCR4, was not affected. Importantly, blocking CCR5 expression by siRNAs provided a substantial protection for the lymphocyte populations from CCR5-tropic HIV-1 virus infection, dropping infected cells by 3- to 7-fold; only a minimal effect on infection by a CXCR4-tropic virus was observed. Thus, our studies demonstrate the feasibility and potential of lentiviral vector-mediated delivery of siRNAs as a general means of intracellular immunization for the treatment of HIV-1 and other viral diseases.
The effect of students’ subject discipline on their m-learning application preferences

The effect of students’ subject discipline on their preferences toward m-learning applications was investigated by using a mixed-method research design. A questionnaire on students’ preferences of m-learning application features was used to collect data from 181 undergraduate students. One-way analysis of variance found a significant difference among perceptions of students from different subject disciplines related to the “collaboration” and “learning” features. Follow-up interviews were carried out to further investigate students’ perceptions. Content analysis revealed that “availability” and “ease of use” were the most preferred features, and “collaboration” and “entertaining” were the least preferred ones. Interview results related to universities’ readiness for m-learning were categorized into (i) universities’ infrastructures, (ii) instructors’ skills and (iii) students’ skills for m-learning. Students indicated their universities’ infrastructures as “moderately ready” for m-learning. They ranked their instructors’ skills as “low”. However, students assessed their own skills as “moderate” for utilizing m-learning in their respective universities.
Hedging, Leverage, and Shareholder Wealth

This paper deals with the joint influence of a firm's hedging and leverage decisions on shareholder wealth. We extend the traditional approach to optimal capital structure, which trades off the market values of bankruptcy costs and corporate taxes, by giving management the opportunity to hedge the firm's output price risk with a forward contract. Firstly, it is shown that a unique optimal debt level exists for any given hedge ratio and that the optimal amount of outstanding debt is increased by an exogenous marginal increase in the forward position, if and only if, the firm's probability of bankruptcy is reduced. Secondly, we prove that, for any given capital structure, shareholder wealth is generally a (not strictly) monotonically increasing function of the firm's hedge ratio, as this influence is due to the (vanishing) convexity of the deadweight claims' payoff profiles. In the simultaneous optimum, however, the firm insulates its future payments completely from hedgeable risk. Hence, our model may be seen as a step towards reconciliation between the variance-minimization paradigm popular among the practitioners in risk management and the value maximization approach that forms the cornerstone of modern corporate finance theory.
Financial Rationale for Long-Term Care Planning

This article looks at the emotional issue of long-term care planning from a purely economic standpoint, i.e., should the issue be ignored, funded through a sound investment program, or funded through insurance. Using a financial analysis or estate planning approach, all primary considera- tions are included. The data indicates that impact on family wealth is substantial and that an investment strategy will not generate comparable funds as pro- vided with insurance.
ThinkContacts: Use your mind to dial your phone

Integration between Brain Computer Interface and mobile devices allows the development of mobile applications for people with severe neuromuscular diseases. These applications can increase their quality of life. This paper presents a mobile application that enables disabled people to make a phone call to a desired contact on their phone's address book solely using their brain activity.
Fuzzy logic supported sketch based image information enhancement

Recently, the importance of information enhancement methods in digital image processing has increased significantly. Typical examples are searching for similar objects/images in large databases and understanding the objects in images. The main points of these tasks are to extract the most characteristic features of the objects in the images and/or to separate the 'significant' and 'unimportant' parts of these features. This paper describes a new edge processing method which is able to extract the 'primary', i.e. those edges which can advantageously be used in sketch based image retrieval algorithms.
The Application of Social Tagging Based Collaborative Filtering Personal Recommender Strategy in Electricity Market

In the Internet world, when people access to the information, they are also providing information to others. Therefore, how to find valuable information from the vast amounts of information in order to meet the user's needs, and how to find and enjoy the valuable information by the required users, have been a hot issue which is concerned by academia and the business. Collaborative filtering (CF) and social tagging are the most widely recommendation techniques. In this paper, tagbased collaborative filtering algorithm is proposed to the electricity market. The individual requirement can be satisfied according to different power consumers. This new algorithm can mine the potential preferences of users, and then recommend items in the user's preferences scope. This method can improve the traditional collaborative filtering methods, and can solve the single interest model problem of traditional methods. The experiments based on electricity consumer data set shows that the tag-based collaborative filtering method is significantly better than the traditional collaborative filtering methods in recommendation effects. Keywords-collaborative filtering; recommender system; social tagging; electricity market
Mortality at 120 days after prostatic biopsy: A population‐based study of 22,175 men

Trans‐rectal ultrasound guided biopsy of the prostate represents the diagnostic standard for prostate cancer, but its mortality rate has never been examined. We performed a population‐based study of 120‐day mortality after prostate biopsy in 22,175 patients, who underwent prostate biopsy between 1989 and 2000. The control group consisted of 1,778 men aged 65–85 years (median 69.5), who did not undergo a biopsy. Univariable and multivariable logistic regression analyses were performed in 11,087 of 22,175 (50%) men subjected to prostate biopsy, to identify predictors of 120‐day mortality. Variables were age at biopsy, baseline Charlson comorbidity index and cumulative number of biopsy procedures. We externally validated the model's predictors in the remaining 50% of men. Overall 120‐day mortality after biopsy was 1.3% versus 0.3% (p < 0.001) in the control group. Of men aged ≤60 years, 0.2% died within 120 days versus 2.5% aged 76–80. Zero Charlson comorbidity score yielded 0.7% mortality versus 2.2%, if 3–4. First ever biopsy procedures carried a higher mortality risk than subsequent procedures (1.4 vs. 0.8 vs. 0.6%). In the multivariable model, first ever biopsy, increasing age and comorbidity predicted higher mortality. Overall, the model's variables were 79% accurate in predicting the probability of 120‐day mortality after biopsy. In conclusion, our data suggest that prostate biopsy might predispose to higher mortality rate. The certainty of this association remains to be proven. © 2008 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
14-3-3 Proteins Are Constituents of the Insoluble Glycoprotein Framework of the Chlamydomonas Cell Wall Article, publication date, and citation information can be found at www.plantcell.org/cgi/doi/10.1105/tpc.010611.

The cell wall of the unicellular green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii consists predominantly of Hyp-rich glycoproteins, which also occur in the extracellular matrix of multicellular green algae and higher plants. In addition to the Hyp-rich polypeptides, the insoluble glycoprotein framework of the Chlamydomonas cell wall contains minor amounts of 14-3-3 proteins, as revealed by immunochemical studies and mass spectroscopic analysis of tryptic peptides. Polypeptides immunologically related to the 14-3-3 proteins also were found in the culture medium of Chlamydomonas. The levels of two of these 14-3-3–related polypeptides were decreased in the culture medium of the wall-deficient mutant cw-15. These findings indicate that 14-3-3 proteins are involved in the cross-linking of Hyp-rich glycoproteins in the Chlamydomonas cell wall.
Entrepreneurship as a tool for increased organic growth in large, established companies.

We have conducted a case study on Trelleborg AB to examine how entrepreneurial the company is. We used a model called "entrepreneurial orientation (EO) with five dimensions that should be considered when striving to be entrepreneurial. The goal of being entrepreneurial in this thesis is achieving organic growth. The contingency of the case company determines the generalizability of the finding.
Retinoic acid affects craniofacial patterning by changing Fgf8 expression in the pharyngeal ectoderm

Retinoic acid signaling plays important roles in establishing normal patterning and cellular differentiation during embryonic development. In this study, we show that single administration of retinoic acid at embryonic day 8.5 causes homeotic transformation of the lower jaw into upper jaw‐like structures. This homeosis was preceded by downregulation of Fgf8 and Sprouty expression in the proximal domain of the first pharyngeal arch. Downregulation of mesenchymal genes such as Dlx5, Hand2, Tbx1 and Pitx2 was also observed. The oropharynx in retinoic acid‐treated embryos was severely constricted. Consistent with this observation, Patched expression in the arch endoderm and mesenchyme was downregulated. Thus, retinoic acid affects the expression of subsets of epithelial and mesenchymal genes, possibly disrupting the regional identity of the pharyngeal arch.
Genetic Polymorphisms of Hypoxia-Inducible Factor-1 Alpha and Cardiovascular Disease in Hemodialysis Patients

Background: Hemodialysis patients are prone to ischemic events potentially aggravated by hypoxia. The key player in adaptation to hypoxia is hypoxia-inducible factor-1 alpha (HIF-1α). Therefore, we investigated the association of HIF-1α polymorphisms with ischemia/hypoxia-related events in hemodialysis patients. Methods: Patients on maintenance hemodialysis were enrolled from 4 training hospitals in Korea. Seven single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) of HIF-1α were genotyped. The association of these SNP with hypoxia-related clinical outcomes (ischemic diseases and anemia) and cancer was analyzed. Results: A total of 376 patients participated in the study. No significant difference in genotype distribution was found between subjects with and without the hypoxia-related events. Three sets of linkage disequilibrium blocks were made for haplotype analyses (rs2783778 and rs7148720 in 5′ upstream region; rs7143164 and rs10873142; rs2301113, rs11549465 and rs2057482). Of these, the CT haplotype in the first set was associated with both acute myocardial infarction and frequent intradialytic hypotension (acute myocardial infarction: adjusted odds ratio = 0.15, 95% CI: 0.03–0.69; frequent intradialytic hypotension: adjusted odds ratio = 0.29, 95% CI: 0.12–0.72). Conclusion: Genetic polymorphisms of HIF-1α were associated with acute myocardial infarction and intradialytic hypotension in hemodialysis patients.