Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Investigating the Effect of Capital Structure and working Capital Management on Profitability in Tehran Securities Exchange

The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of Capital Structure and working Capital Management on Profitability of Tehran securities exchange. In this article the variables of financial leverage and the firm size as the capital structure index and the operational leverage and the liquidity as the index of capital working effective on the firms’ Profitability have been used. Accordingly, to explain the relationship between the capital structure and its flow management with profitability four hypotheses were provided. To this aim, the relevant data of the accepted firms in Tehran securities exchange was collected during the period of 2005 to 2011, and the regression combined data pattern was used to test the hypotheses. The results showed that there is a significant positive relationship between the firms’ size and the liquidity with their Profitability, but the results were not significant for the effect of financial and operational leverages on the Profitability.
A survey of the relationship between disclosure quality (on time and reliability) and accruals management in the financially distressed companies

The purpose of this research is the investigation of relationship between disclosure quality and accruals management in the financially distressed companies. To operationalize the disclosure quality, disclosure score presented by stock market was used. Adjusted model of Jones (1991) was applied for separation of discretionary and nondiscretionary accruals. Charitou et al. model (2004) was used for measurement of bankruptcy risk and determined the financially distressed companies. 249 firms listed in Tehran Stock Exchange were used as sample study for 2003-2009 to test the hypotheses and determining the relation between disclosure quality and accruals management and Panel Data system was used for analysis. The results show that there is a positively significant association between the accruals management (discretionary accruals) and disclosure quality. Also, the relationship between disclosure quality and accruals management in financially distressed companies had significant difference with the relationship with financially non-distressed companies. The results of the study showed that by the increase of bankruptcy risk, the relation between disclosure quality and accruals management is not weak significantly. Normal 0 false false false RU X-NONE X-NONE
Performance and standardization of Australian, Japanese and US firms

Purpose – Globalization has fostered greater interest in all aspects of standardization theory including the 4Ps of the marketing mix or program and process marketing. The purpose of this paper is to probe the question: “Is there a benefit to the firm's strategy of marketing standardization that correlates positively to the firm's profit? ”. Design/methodology/approach – Multinational firms from Australia, Japan and the USA operating in a global environment were studied in order to correlate marketing standardization to profit performance. Several methods of analysis were used including regression and analysis of variance measures.Findings – The results indicate there is increasing support for a strategy of standardizing marketing mix components and contributing to a firm's profit performance.Originality/value – The paper adds to the current literature by providing further empirical research correlating marketing mix standardization to profit.
Characteristics, mechanism, and routes of interaction of firm competence : case study of Taiwanese flat panel display

Traditionally, scholars suggest firm shall sequential to develop technology-oriented competence to enter other markets (Technology Promote Market, TPM). However, in practice, we observe contradiction that the international enterprises adopt the market-oriented perspective so as to first reflect on market, and then transfer external firm's technologies and experiences to firms (Market Promote Technology, MPT). It is an interesting phenomenon and impact on conducting this research that motives to resolve the gap between the theoretical argument and practice.Thus, the purpose of the study is to explore the sequence between prioritize to develop technology and market competence, and characteristics, mechanism, and routes of interaction of small-sized firm competence. This research using the extended case method (ECM) compared two Taiwan FPD (Flat Panel Display) enterprises that produce TFT-LCD (Thin Film Transistor-Liquid Crystal Display) manufacturing equipment. We found that firms possessing the characteristics of improvement resources (CIR), develop technology competence first, and apply intraorganizational learning (intra-OL) mechanism and inside-out routes (IOR) to promote market competence. Conversely, firms having the characteristics of social resources (CSR), develop market competence first, and utilize inter-organizational learning (inter-OL) mechanism and outside-in routes (OIR) to promote technology competence. The finding signs important significance that small-sized firm devotes to prioritizing the development of the most valuable competence for the future, and executing the fitness of learning mechanism, and routes.
Classification and diagnosis of iron overload.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE Iron overload is the result of many disorders and could lead to the development of organ damage and increased mortality. The recent description of new conditions associated with iron overload and the identification of the genetic defect of hereditary hemochromatosis prompted us to review this subject and to redefine the diagnostic criteria of iron overload disorders. EVIDENCE AND INFORMATION SOURCES The material examined in the present review includes articles published in the Journals covered by the Science Citation Index and Medline. The author has been working in the field of iron overload diseases for several years and has contributed ten of the papers cited in the references. STATE OF THE ART AND PERSPECTIVES Iron overload can be classified on the basis of different criteria: route of access of iron within the organism, predominant tissue site of iron accumulation and cause of the overload. Excess iron can gain access by the enteral route, the parenteral route, and placental route during fetal life. The different distribution of iron within parenchymal or reticuloendothelial storage areas indicates different pathogenetic mechanisms of iron accumulation and has relevant implications in terms of organ damage and prognosis of the patients. Iron overload may be either primary, resulting from a deregulation of intestinal iron absorption as in hemochromatosis or secondary to other congenital or acquired conditions. Diagnosis of iron overload can be suspected on the basis of clinical data, high transferrin saturation and/or serum ferritin values. However, several hyperferritinemic conditions are not related to iron overload, but may imply severe disorders (inflammations, neoplasia) or a deregulation of ferritin synthesis (hereditary hyperferritinemia-cataract syndrome), and iron overload secondary to aceruloplasminemia, and the recently described dysmetabolic-associated liver iron overload syndrome, are characterized by low or normal transferrin saturation levels. Liver biopsy is still very useful in the diagnostic approach to iron overload disorders, by defining the amount and the distribution of iron within the liver. The analysis of HFE gene mutations (C282Y and H63D) is a simple and strong tool in the diagnostic work out of iron overload conditions.
Integration of the SMS to IMS in Estonian Seveso II establishments: selected case studies

This paper concerns the integration of Safety Management Systems of the Estonian Seveso II establishments into ISO-based Integrated Management Systems (IMS). Estonia has an obligation to follow the requirements of the EU Seveso II Directive since joining the EU in 2004. Today altogether 51 enterprises with major accident hazards are in the official register. According to the data available at the Estonian Association for Quality, seventeen of these establishments have certified quality (ISO 9001), environmental (ISO 14001) management integrated systems. Therefore it is useful and politically sound to integrate the SMS to the IMS. The essential goal of the current study is to explain the application of the unified management system and to find characteristic features for further recommendations. The results have demonstrated that, in spite of different approaches, a number of common factors exist, enabling general recommendations to be worked out.
Customer Relationship Management Programs and their Impact on the Financial Performance of Businesses: A Proposed Model

Over the past decades, it has been argued that businesses across all sectors should move toward interactions, relationships, and networks. Such a marketing approach is very different from the more traditional one of marketing through the 4Ps (i.e., product, price, place, and promotion). The customer relationship market is among many different markets a firm needs to consider with research suggesting that customer retention leads to increased market share and bigger profits. Although some practical guidelines have appeared on how to design and implement customer relationship management programs, there are few articles discussing the financial impact of such programs on companies. This paper addresses the problem by discussing a conceptual framework that allows for a financial evaluation of programs in areas that are relevant to customer relationship management.
[Development of a questionnaire to measure family stress among married working women].

PURPOSE Even though a number of studies have suggested that appropriate measuring instruments of family stress for working women have to be developed, the validity and reliability of the instruments used have not been consistently examined. The purpose of the present study was to develop a sensitive instrument to measure family stress for married working women, and to test the validity and reliability of the instrument. METHOD The items generated for this instrument were drawn from a comprehensive literature review. Twenty four items were developed through evaluation by 10 experts and twenty one items were finally confirmed through item analysis. Psychometric testing was preformed and confirmed with a convenient sample of 240 women employed in the industrial sector. RESULT Four factors evolved by factor analysis, which explained 50.5% of the total variance. The first factor 'Cooperation' explained 28.1%, 2nd factor 'Satisfaction with relationships' 10.6%, 3rd factor 'Democratic and comfortable environment' 6.3%, and 4th factor 'Disturbance of own living' 5.5%. Cronbach's coefficient of this instrument was 0.86. CONCLUSION The study supports the validity and reliability of the instrument.
TQM dimensions and their interrelationships in ISO certified engineering institutes of India

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the dimensions of TQM, analyse interrelationships and their combined influence on results achieved in ISO certified engineering institutes in India.Design/methodology/approach – This study is based on the questionnaire survey of a sample of 216 faculty members serving in various ISO certified institutes of southern states of India. The data were obtained using a questionnaire that is in line with the self‐assessment philosophy of European Foundation for Quality Management Excellence Model (EFQM). The dataset was subjected to exploratory factor analysis using SPSS17.0 program for Windows. The confirmatory and causal analyses were carried out using AMOS 16.0 software.Findings – The factor analysis confirmed the existence of ten important dimensions of TQM that guide ISO institutes in their quality journey. Structural equation modelling was used to validate the developed TQM model. Leadership of top management was the main driving force for establishing a.
Spermidine-Binding Proteins. Purification and Expression Analysis in Maize1

Polyamine-binding proteins have been identified in a wide range of organisms, including mammals, yeasts, and bacteria. In this work, we have investigated specific spermidine binding to plant membrane proteins purified from microsomes of etiolated maize (Zea mays) coleoptiles. In the final purification step, specific spermidine-binding activity (K d6.02 10−7 m) was eluted from a HiTrapQ fast-protein liquid chromatography column at about 0.25 mNaCl, and sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis of the most active fraction showed a major polypeptide of about 60 kD and another copurifying 18-kD protein. Competition experiments, performed on HiTrapQ active fractions, confirmed the specificity of the binding. Upon Sephadex G-100 gel filtration, spermidine binding was associated almost exclusively with the 18-kD protein. On the basis of the N-terminal sequences, degenerate oligonucleotide probes were designed and used to isolate, by reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction and polymerase chain reaction, cDNA fragments of about 1 kb for the 60-kD protein, and 0.9 kb for the 18-kD protein. Northern-blot analysis performed on etiolated coleoptiles and different tissues from 10-d-old maize plants indicated the presence of two different mRNAs of 1.7 and 0.7 kb. Southern-blot analysis indicated that the genes encoding the 60- and 18-kD proteins are probably derived from differential processing of the same precursor mRNA. Using rabbit polyclonal antibodies raised against these proteins, affinity purification and dot-blot experiments detected analogous membrane proteins in monocot and dicot plants.
Opportunity Cost Bidding by Wind Generators in Forward Markets: Analytical Results

Wind generation must trade in forward electricity markets based on imperfect forecasts of its output and real-time prices. When the real-time price differs for generators that are short and long, the optimal forward strategy must be based on the opportunity costs of charges and payments in real-time rather than a central estimate of wind output. We present analytical results for wind's optimal forward strategy. In the risk-neutral case, the optimal strategy is determined by the distribution of real-time available wind capacity, and the expected real-time prices conditioned on the forward price and wind out-turn; our approach is simpler and more computationally efficient than formulations requiring specification of full joint distributions or a large set of scenarios. Informative closed-form examples are derived for particular specifications of the wind-price dependence structure. In the usual case of uncertain forward prices, the optimal bidding strategy generally consists of a bid curve for wind power, rather than a fixed quantity bid. A discussion of the risk-averse problem is also provided. An analytical result is available for aversion to production volume risk; however, we doubt whether wind owners should be risk-averse with respect to the income from a single settlement period, given the large number of such periods in a year.
Information Technologies (IT) Adoption and Localized Knowledge Diffusion: an Empirical Study

We use a specially designed survey on French firms located in Haute-Savoie to provide empirical evidence suggesting that IT adoption is not only influenced by the traditional factors of technology diffusion (rank, stock-order, epidemic effects and complementary organizational practices) but also by local diffusion of knowledge effects. The data collected permit us to make several advances. Firstly, we study the adoption of several authentic Information and Communication Technologies while the recent empirical literature has mainly focused on computer capital stocks or automation tools. Secondly, we construct measures to replace the traditional epidemic effect by different proximity variables. Thirdly, we assess the real impact of proximity on the IT adoption process by examining different channels of knowledge transmission among nearby firms, from knowledge spillovers to well-regulated arrangements. Our econometric methodology is designed to deal with potential biases that are encountered when implementing technology adoption equations and testing practice complementarities. In particular, we explicitly deal with the problem of simultaneous technological choices, using bivariate adoption equations.
Pitfalls in the Self-Report Assessment of Depression *

Introduction A variety of techniques have been proposed for rating the symptoms, mood and behaviour of the depressed patients (5). The most widely used techniques are ratings made by psychiatrists and psychologists at interview and also the patients' own assessments on self-report inventories. While considerable attention has been given to the reliability and validity of clinical interview ratings in a variety of contexts, less attention has been paid to these questions in relation to self-report inventories. In particular there have been only a few reports on the degree of agreement between these two kinds of measures (3). This paper reports on the concordance and the discrepancies between self-reports and the clinician's assessment of individual symptoms and their severity in depressed patients. Also some systematic elements which may contribute to differences in these two types of assessments will be explored.
Persistence Models and Marketing Strategy

Long-run marketing-mix effectiveness lies at the heart of marketing strategies that try to create a sustainable competitive advantage for the brand or firm. We review contributions in the area of persistence modeling, and show how this approach allows to combine into one measure the net long-run impact of an initial marketing action. In persistence modeling, one traces the dynamic chain reaction of consumer response, firm feedback and competititve reactions. We provide both a short technical introduction to the technique and an overview of prevous applications, and identify various other strategic questions for which persistence modeling may be particularly useful.
Motor and molecular analysis to detect the early symptoms in a mouse amyotrophic lateral sclerosis model

The amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a progressive and fatal neurodegenerative disorder primarily involving motoneurons in the cerebral cortex, brainstem, and spinal cord. SOD1-G93A mice, which express multiple copies of the mutant form of the human Cu/Zn SOD, are one of the most widely used animal models for ALS pathology. However, the onset of the disease can vary between animals of 1-2 weeks while the progression is quite fast. In order to evaluate the efficacy of any treatment, it is very important to treat all animals at the early onset of the disease, instead of at a fixed age-point. To this aim, we performed behavioral analysis and measured hSOD1 mRNA expression to identify the appearance of the first motor deficits. Rotarod and PaGE tests revealed to be the most sensitive approaches to detect the beginning of the symptomatic phase of the disease, while neurological score and weight monitoring showed significant differences only at later stages in ALS pathology. Furthermore, we found a better correlation between hSOD1 mRNA expression with disease onset than with a transgene copy number. Therefore, the association of behavioral tests and molecular analysis represents a sensible and accurate tool to early detect the murine symptoms.
Tunable terahertz amplification in optically-excited biased semiconductor superlattices

We simulate the coherent carrier dynamics of an optically-excited, updoped AlGaAs superlattice in the presence of a Terahertz pulse using an excitonic formalism that includes 1s excitonic states as well as higher in-plane excited states and allows for dephasing and population decay. We show that this system exhibits large tunable terahertz gain due to excitonic effects, even in the presence of large number of unbound excitons.
A conditional immortalized mouse muller glial cell line expressing glial and retinal stem cell genes.

PURPOSE Müller glia have multiple functions in the retina, including synthesis of neurotrophic factors, uptake and metabolism of neurotransmitters, spatial buffering of ions, maintenance of the blood-retinal barrier, and response to injury. A population of Müller glia has some stem cell-like characteristics both in vivo and in vitro. The purpose of this study was to generate and characterize novel Müller glial cell lines from the postnatal mouse retina. METHODS Cells were cultured from postnatal day (P) 10 double heterozygous transgenic (H-2K(b)-tsA58/+; HRhoGFP/+) or C57BL/6 mice after papain dissociation. Interferon gamma (IFNγ) induction of the SV40 T-antigen (TAg) was assayed by immunohistochemistry and Western blot analysis. Proliferation was assayed by BrdU uptake and cell counts of calcein AM/ethidium bromide-stained cells. Gene expression was analyzed by RT-PCR and immunohistochemistry. RESULTS Conditionally immortalized (ImM10 [Immortmouse Müller P10]) and spontaneously immortalized (C57M10 [C57BL/6 Müller P10]) Müller glial cell lines were selected by differential adherence to laminin; both consisted of adherent flat cells with large, diffusely staining nuclei and an epithelial morphology. TAg induction stimulated BrdU uptake by Müller glia in mixed retinal cultures from H-2K(b)-tsA58/+; HRhoGFP/+ mice and increased the proliferation of ImM10 cells. ImM10 and C57M10 cells expressed genes characteristic of Müller glia but not genes characteristic of differentiated retinal neurons. ImM10 cells also expressed retinal stem cell genes. CONCLUSIONS The ImM10 cell line is a novel, conditionally immortalized Müller glial cell line isolated from the P10 mouse retina that expresses genes characteristic of Müller glial and retinal stem cells.
The Persistence of Overskilling and Its Effects on Wages. Research Report.

Research has shown that overskilling—where workers are not fully using their skills in their jobs—can lead to reduced wages and job satisfaction. This report builds on that previous research and investigates the persistence of overskilling mismatch and the effect of past mismatch on wages. The research finds that persistence of overskilling mismatch is common among those who have been overskilled in the past and is highest among those who did not finish high school and VET diploma graduates. It was lowest among university graduates. However, the wages of university graduates are significantly reduced by past overskilling, more so than for those in any other education level. Note: To access this report you must register with NCVER. This is free and can be done by clicking on the link above.