Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Value Based Management: The Corporate Response to the Shareholder Revolution

Why do some firms create extraordinary value for shareholders, while others destroy it? A powerful suite of value based management tools can make the difference. Value based management (VBM) refers to tools that financial managers can use to plan, monitor, and control a firm's operations in ways that enhance shareholder value. This timely book--based on the authors' research and on an extensive study of firms that have successfully implemented VBM systems--provides the first objective, field-tested synthesis of the most popular models in use today: the free cash flow method, the economic value added/market value added (EVA/MVA) method, and the cash flow return on investment approach (CFROI). Pointing to lessons learned by VBM adopters in a wide variety of industries, the authors outline the advantages and disadvantages of each model, and guide managers in electing, implementing, and operating one that best fits their organization. At its essence, value based management involves transforming behavior in a way that encourages employees to think and act like owners. Laying the foundation for building a capital market-focused measurement and reward system that ties employee-level performance to owner-level rewards, this book will help today's leaders establish a continuous cycle of value creation that benefits all stakeholders of a company.
Complete Genome Sequence of Vibrio alginolyticus ZJ-T

ABSTRACT Vibrio alginolyticus is a ubiquitous Gram-negative bacterium which is normally distributed in the coastal and estuarine environments. It has been suggested to be an opportunistic pathogen to both marine animals and humans, Here, the completed genome sequence of V. alginolyticus ZJ-T was determined by Illumina high-throughput sequencing.
Hypertonic saline solutions attenuate agonist-induced changes of intracellular calcium

The proper fluid for resuscitation of hemorrhagic shock is still controversial. Hypertonic saline solutions would cause an impairment of platelet function, aggravating blood loss in case of uncontrolled hemorrhage. This work examines the in vitro effect of hypertonic NaCl solutions on the changes in [Ca2+]i induced by 100 μM ADP, 0.1 IU/ml thrombin or 0.5 μM ionomycin in human platelets. Furthermore, it was investigated if the addition of NaCl reduces the mobilization from intracellular stores or the calcium entry from extracellular media. In a solution containing 1 mM CaCl2, the increase of [Ca2+]i produced by thrombin was 93, 75 or 55% of the 300 mosM control when osmolarity of the solution was 350, 400, or 500 mosM, respectively. The calcium signal induced by ADP decreased more rapidly in hypertonic media than in isotonic solution. In a calcium-free solution, the mobilization of stored calcium produced by thrombin was reduced when osmolarity was increased from 300 mosM to 350, 400 or 500 mosM by 86, 75 or 45% of the control, respectively. The increase of [Ca2+]i produced by subsequent introduction of 1 mM extracellular calcium was also reduced. Similar effects were found when platelets were stimulated by ADP. Instead, the capacitative calcium entry induced by ionomycin was increased in 500 mosM media by a 138% of the isotonic control. The decrease in the Ca2+ signal produced by receptor agonists in hypertonic media may play a role in the reduction of platelet responses such as aggregation or shape change when hypertonic resuscitation fluids are utilized.
Return path analyzer based on PEEC and sectioning methods

Return path analysis is very useful in predicting radiation and current distribution from planar structures such as PCBs, MCMs and packages. However, it is very computation intensive and requires millions of meshes in reference planes. Special PEEC based techniques have been used to calculate frequency dependent current distributions in these planes, which may have arbitrary shape. However, this required uniform meshing. A more general method based on fast multipole and variable mesh sizes is used here to considerably speed up the process. In special cases, portions of the structure can be analyzed independently making parallel processing a practical solution to enhance speed. With all these enhancements, it is possible to analyze a complex whole board.
THE CATCH-UP PROCESS OF RELATIVE WAGES IN EUROPEAN UNION NEW MEMBER STATES

In 2004, European Union underwent the largest single expansion, both in terms territory, number of states and population. After that, economic effects of accession for new member states have been studied with different aspects in European Union integration literature. This paper focus on labour market aspect and it is aimed to investigate the existence of catch-up process for eight EU new member states’ relative wages. The relative wages are measured by a ratio of new member states to old member with Germany as a representative country and the convergence analysis is applied to testify the process of wage disparities. The results show the existence of convergence and that the wages in new member states have been closer to high-wage level countries’ after joining EU.
Diseconomies of Scale in the Hedge Fund Industry

How does fund size impact fund performance in the hedge fund industry? We find unsurprisingly that fund size crimps both raw and risk-adjusted fund returns for the average hedge fund. An increase in fund assets under management from US$20m to US$1bn decreases fund alpha by 2.04 percent per year. However, significant variation exists across funds when funds are grouped by investment strategy and region. Equity long/short, event driven, and macro funds are susceptible to capacity constraints while fixed income and managed futures funds are largely immune to such concerns. Our finding that capacity issues impact macro fund performance raises fresh questions about the liquidity of the assets that macro funds trade. While we find that diseconomies of scale are pervasive across the majority of investment regions examined, it is surprising that funds operating in the Asian and Latin American markets are largely free of such constraints. for funds sorted across
Exploring Contrast-Controlled Adaptation Processes in Human Vision ( with help from Buffy the Vampire Slayer )

We have been interested for many years in intermediate levels of visual processing: levels which are lower than the perception of “objects” and “scenes” but higher than the pointwise processing of the retina and LGN1. Many of these intermediate processes are concerned with the initial analyses of pattern and form. Much of their action can be well modeled by what are technically linear operations – in particular, multiple analyzers sensitive to different ranges of spatial frequency and orientation 2. However, some of their action cannot be modeled this way as it is fundamentally nonlinear. We have recently become interested in the dynamics of these intermediate nonlinear processes, and more particularly in questions about how the visual system sets its sensitivity based on the recent history of stimulation. This chapter affords us an opportunity to be informal and to relate past work to present work in ways that are uncommon in journal papers. We are happy to take advantage of this opportunity. We will use informal speech and explanations and also personal anecdotes. And we will give many fewer references to published literature than is our wont, but instead will try to guide the reader to places where such references
The Influence of Independent and Effective Audit Committees on Earnings Quality

The Blue Ribbon Committee (BRC) on Improving the Effectiveness of Corporate Audit Committees (1999) argued that audit committees would enhance the financial reporting process, when comprised of members that are independent, financially literate, commit sufficient time to the committee and meet regularly. We investigate whether the BRC recommendations would likely increase the quality of reported earnings by testing whether earnings informativeness and transparency are greater for those firms that currently employ audit committees meeting the BRC recommendations over those that do not. Our proxy for informativeness is the magnitude of the earnings response coefficient (ERC) and for transparency is the degree of mispricing (overpricing) found with accruals. We find stronger ERCs when the audit committee members are independent and financially literate, and less overpricing of accruals when the audit committee members are independent and meet regularly. These results are not sensitive to other factors that could influence the audit committee’s oversight (CEO influence, CEO shareholdings and large outside blockholders) nor to other variables the literature has indicated could influence ERCs or market mispricing. Overall, these results suggest that independent and effective audit committees enhance the quality of reported earnings, lending evidence supporting the BRC recommendations and the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002.
Corporate Governance and Cost of Equity Capital: A Cross-Sectional Study on Bangladesh

This article investigates the influence of firm-level corporate governance on the cost of equity capital to firms in Bangladesh. Agency theory suggests that better corporate governance reduces agency costs and improves investors’ confidence, which in turn reduces the rate of return on stock expected by the investors, leading to lower cost of equity capital to the firm. This article uses a corporate governance index (CGI), comprising the five dimensions - ownership structure, shareholder rights, independence and responsibilities of the board and management, financial reporting and disclosures, and responsibility towards the stakeholders. The empirical results tend to be inconclusive. Whilst a firm’s governance quality is positively associated with CAPM-based KE and geometric average stock returns, it is inversely related with the dividend yields (for the dividend paying firms). Given the considerable agency costs in the majority of the firms of developing economies, this article recognizes a strong governance role for legal and regulatory institutions in removing the governance malfunctions at both firm level and operational level of the capital market.
Penang as a knowledge hub

Malaysian development strategies since independence, again in the 10th Malaysia Plan 2010 have emphasized the development of industrial clusters, like the Penang free trade zone and the MSC. Malaysia has two strong knowledge clusters: the Klang valley with KL and the MSC, Penang State and a number of smaller clusters. A calculation of the density of knowledge institutions and knowledge personnel show the epistemic landscape of Malaysia. A preliminary study of Penang reveals that the epistemic landscape is fragmented. There are several areas with a high density of knowledge institutions and knowledge workers, which however do not necessarily overlap with industrial clusters. These imbalances need to be corrected to ensure a safe passage towards a knowledge-based economy and society.
Improved simulation of extreme precipitation in a high‐resolution atmosphere model

Climate models often underestimate the magnitude of extreme precipitation. We compare the performance of a high‐resolution (∼0.25°) time‐slice atmospheric simulation (1979–2005) of the Community Earth System Model 1.0 in representing daily extreme precipitation events against those of the same model at lower resolutions (∼1° and 2°). We find significant increases in the simulated levels of daily extreme precipitation over Europe, the United States, and Australia. In many cases the increase in high percentiles (>95th) of daily precipitation leads to better agreement with observational data sets. For lower percentiles, we find that increasing resolution does not significantly increase values of simulated precipitation. We argue that the reduced biases mainly result from the higher resolution models resolving more key physical processes controlling heavy precipitation. We conclude that while high resolution is vital for accurately simulating extreme precipitation, considerable biases remain at the highest available model resolutions.
Properties of the V0V1 Na+-ATPase from Enterococcus hirae and its V0 moiety.

We report here the large-scale purification of vacuolar (V0V1)-type Na+-ATPase from Enterococcus hirae achieved using column anion-exchange and gel filtration chromatographies; 32 mg of purified enzyme comprising nine subunits, A, B, C, D, E, F, G, I, and K, was obtained from 20 liter culture. This amount is 500-fold larger than that reported in the previous paper [Murata, T. , Takase, K. , Yamato, I. , Igarashi, K. , and Kakinuma, Y. (1997) J. Biol. Chem. 272, 24885-24890]. The purified enzyme shows a high specific activity of ATP hydrolysis (35.7 micromol Pi released/min/mg protein). ATP-driven 22Na+ uptake by reconstituted V0V1-proteoliposomes exhibited an apparent Kt value for Na+ of 40 microM, which is near the Km value (20 microM) for Na+ of the ATP hydrolytic activity. Denatured gel electrophoresis revealed that six subunits, A, B, C, D, E, and F, are releasable as the V1 subunit from the V0V1 complex by incubation with ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid; subunit G was not identified. The remaining V0-liposomes containing I and K subunits catalyzed Na+ uptake in response to potassium diffusion potential (Deltapsi, inside negative); the Kt value for Na+ of this reaction was estimated to be about 2 mM. Inhibition by N,N'-dicyclohexylcarbodiimide (DCCD) of the Na+-ATPase activity and Deltapsi-driven Na+ uptake by the V0-liposomes was prevented by the presence of Na+, suggesting that the Na+ binding site overlaps with the DCCD-reactive site.
Motion planning and implementation for the self-recovery of an overturned multi-legged robot

SUMMARY This paper first presents a method of motion planning and implementation for the self-recovery of an overturned six-legged robot. Previous studies aimed at the static and dynamic stabilization of robots for preventing them from overturning. However, no one can guarantee that an overturn accident will not occur during various applications of robots. Therefore, the problems involving overturning should be considered and solved during robot design and control. The design inspirations of multi-legged robots come from nature, especially insects and mammals. In addition, the self-recovery approach of an insect could also be imitated by robots. In this paper, such a self-recovery mechanism is reported. The inertial forces of the dangling legs are used to bias some legs to touch the ground, and the ground reaction forces exerted on the feet of landing legs are achieved to support and push the body to enable recovery without additional help. By employing the mechanism, a self-recovery approach named SSR (Sidewise-Self-Recovery) is presented and applied to multi-legged robots. Experiments of NOROS are performed to validate the effectiveness of the self-recovery motions. The results show that the SSR is a suitable method for multi-legged robots and that the hemisphere shell of robots can help them to perform self-recovery.
Factors Associated With Black Men’s Preference for Health Information

Black men are less likely to seek routine health care examinations or preventative care compared with their racial/ethnic and gender counterparts. Because of Black men’s limited engagement with the health system, Black men’s preference to receive health information is unclear. Guided by a revised version of the Andersen Healthcare Utilization Model, the aim of the study is to examine factors associated with Black men’s preference for informal or formal health information. Findings from the study demonstrate that financial barriers to care (odds ratio [OR] = 0.65, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.43-0.98) and higher income (OR = 2.44, 95% CI = 1.49-4.00) were most predictive of using a formal source for health information. Furthermore, age (OR = 1.02, 95% CI = 1.01-1.03) and having a college education (OR = 0.44, 95% CI = 0.26-0.76) were associated with using a formal place for health information. Interestingly, health care discrimination was not associated with preferred source or place for health information. Results from the study suggest that predisposing and enabling factors are most salient to the use of formal sources of health information among Black men.
The economics of industrial property rights: use of geographical indications as marketing strategy for competitiveness of wine sub-sector in Republic of Macedonia

We analyze the importance of the industrial property rights and the competitiveness of wine sub-sector in four wine-producing countries in order to present geographical indications as a powerful marketing strategy for competitiveness. In the Macedonian agricultural sector, there is a low level of awareness for the economic benefits of industrial property rights. Macedonia has a competitive wine sector, as result of the factor conditions, particularly in tradition, geographic and climate conditions (Balassa index 3.83), but unfortunately the bulk wine has the largest share in export of 87%. The consequences of neglecting the legal protection of industrial property rights could lead to losing the market position of the producers or unsuccessful promotion and export orientation of the products.U radu se analizira znacenje prava industrijskog vlasnistva i konkurentnosti podsektora vinarstva u cetiri regije koje se koje se bave proizvodnjom vina, kako bi se prikazalo geografsko podrijetlo kao snažna marketinska strategija za konkurentnost. U makedonskom poljoprivrednom sektoru vrlo je niska svijest o ekonomskim pogodnostima koje donosi pravo industrijskog vlasnistva. Makedonija ima konkurentan vinarski sektor, sto proizlazi iz cimbenika uvjeta, posebice tradicije, geografskih i klimatskih uvjeta (Balassa index 3.83). Nažalost, glavnina vina se izvozi (87%). Posljedice zanemarivanja pravne zastite u smislu prava industrijskog vlasnistva mogle bi dovesti proizvođace do gubljenja pozicija na tržistu ili neuspjesne promocije i izvozne orijentacije proizvoda.
When Fitness Meets Social Networks: Investigating Fitness Tracking and Social Practices on WeRun

The last two decades have seen growing interest in promoting physical activities by using self-tracking technologies. Previous work has identified social interactions in self-tracking as a crucial factor in motivating users to exercise. However, it is unclear how integrating fitness features into complex pre-existing social network affects users' fitness tracking practices and social interactions. In this research, we address this gap through a qualitative study of 32 users of WeRun--a fitness plugin of the widely adopted Chinese mobile social networking service WeChat. Our findings indicate that sharing fitness data with pre-existing social networks motivates users to continue self-tracking and enhances their existing social relationships. Nevertheless, users' concerns about their online personal images lead to challenges around privacy. We discuss how our study could advance understanding of the effects of fitness applications built on top of pre-existing social networks. We present implications for future social fitness applications design.
Discretionary earnings management through accounting accruals in response to anticipated corporate tax rate changes

This study analyzes whether the accounting earnings of Japanese firms are managed in response to anticipated changes in the statutory corporate income tax rate. The amendments of the corporate tax code in 1988 reduced the corporate tax rate from 42 percent to 40 percent in 1990 and from 40 percent to 37.5 percent in 1991. If managers had attempted to maximize their firms' value by minimizing tax costs, these tax rate reductions would have provided a substantial incentive to defer reporting earnings. While the reduction in corporate income tax rate provided an incentive for managers to decrease financial statement earnings in the preceding year of the effective date of the amendments of the tax code, other incentives to increase financial statement earnings might have made it costly for managers to do so. For this reason, some firms may have chosen to forgo current tax savings in order to avoid reducing financial statement income. The results of this study show significantly lower discretionary accruals for the firms with good performance, which give priority to tax planning, in the preceding year of the tax rate reduction. These accruals are associated with performance. This study provides evidence of the management of financial statement earnings in response to the reduction of the statutory corporate income tax rate. The results are expected to be interest to tax policy decision makers, since the ability of corporate managers to engage in tax savings through earnings management can affect the estimation of tax revenue, as well as effects of tax law changes. * Associate Professor , School of Business Administration, Kobe University. ** Professor , School of Business Administration, Kobe University. 72 K. Suzuki and T. Okabe
Valuation of Mortgage Backed Securities: From Optimality to Reality

This paper proposes a new valuation procedure of Mortgage Backed Securities (MBS). First, the optimal prepayment policy is obtained thanks to optimal stopping techniques. Then, the fraction of prepaid MBS is assumed to be driven by some characteristic distribution function of the di/erence between the current interest rate and the optimal prepayment frontier. A parametric specification is proposed which allows to easily fit standard market indicators such as the burnout or the Public Securities Association curve. The model is then put into practice and shown to account for most important charasterictics of MBS sensitivities to interest rates markets.
Cloning and Nucleotide Sequence Determination of the Entire mec DNA of Pre-Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus N315

ABSTRACT In methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, the methicillin resistance gene mecA is localized within a large chromosomal region which is absent in the methicillin-susceptibleS. aureus chromosome. The region, designatedmec DNA, is speculated to have originated from the genome of another bacterial species and become integrated into the chromosome of the S. aureus cell in the past. We report here cloning and determination of the structure of the entire mec DNA sequence from a Japanese S. aureus strain, N315. Themec DNA was found to be 51,669 bp long, including terminal inverted repeats of 27 bp and a characteristic pair of direct repeat sequences of 15 bp each: one is situated in the right extremity ofmec DNA, and the other is situated outside themec DNA and abuts the left boundary of mec DNA. The integration site of mec DNA was found to be located in an open reading frame (ORF) of unknown function, designatedorfX. Clusters of antibiotic resistance genes were noted inmec DNA carried by transposon Tn554 and an integrated copy of plasmid pUB110. Both the transposon and plasmid were integrated in the proximity of the mecA gene, the latter being flanked by a pair of insertion sequence IS431elements. Many ORFs other than those encoding antibiotic resistance were considered nonfunctional because of the acquired mutations or partial deletions found in the ORFs. Two ORFs potentially encoding novel site-specific recombinases were found in mec DNA. However, there was no ORF that might encode mecDNA-specific transposase or integrase proteins, indicating that themec DNA is not a transposon or a bacteriophage in nature.