Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Firm-specific, industry-wide and country-wide determinants of corporate capital structure

This study examines the relative speed of adjustments of debt ratios and explanatory powers of three groups of determinants of capital structure: firm-specific, country-wide and industry-wide. The sample includes non-financial firms listed in the DJIA and NASDAQ for quarterly periods 1992-2010. For industry-wide variables, the results show that the prospects of many products in the industry call for higher debt ratios. For the effects of country-wide variables, a positive relationship exists between unemployment rates and debt ratios, constituting a warning signal that excessive use of debt financing adds to unemployment problems. In addition, the negative relationship between inflation and debt financing indicates that when inflation rises, firms prefer equity financing to avoid increasing interest burdens on earnings. A positive relationship also exists between debt financing and productivity growth, exports and unemployment rate growth. The comparative effect between firm-specific, industry-wide and country-wide variables shows that firms characterised by high debt ratios are much more influenced by assumptions of the theories of capital structure and macro variables than firms characterised by low debt.
Effects of cigarette smoke on methacholine- and AMP-induced air trapping in asthmatics

Abstract Objective: No information is available on the effect of cigarette smoke on bronchoconstrictor-induced air trapping in asthma. The aim of this study was to evaluate the additional influence of smoking on methacholine- and adenosine 5′-monophosphate (AMP)-induced air trapping in subjects with asthma. Methods: Airway responsiveness to methacholine and AMP, bronchial (J’awNO) and alveolar (CANO) nitric oxide (NO) and exhaled breath condensate pH were measured in 68 adults (23 current smokers with asthma, 23 non-smokers with asthma and 22 current or former smokers with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease; COPD). The degree of air trapping induced by each bronchoconstrictor agent was expressed by the percent fall in forced vital capacity (FVC) at a 20% fall in forced expiratory volume in 1 s relative to FVC after saline inhalation (ΔFVC%). Results: The ΔFVC% for AMP was higher in both smokers with asthma and patients with COPD than in non-smokers with asthma (p < 0.001). By contrast, ΔFVC% for methacholine was similar in the three groups of subjects (p = 0.69). In smokers with asthma, but not in the other two groups, there was a correlation between the residual volume/total lung capacity at baseline and the ΔFVC% induced by each bronchoconstrictor agent. Mean values for J’awNO were higher in non-smokers with asthma than in the other two groups (p < 0.05). Conclusions: The results of this study suggest that factors underlying bronchoconstriction induced by indirect agonists are different in smokers and non-smokers with asthma. These observations might be clinically relevant, because triggers that frequently induce bronchial obstruction in the real world act by an indirect mechanism.
Communicating Your Qualitative Research Better

The editors and authors of the Family Business Review (FBR) have an impressive track record of reflecting on how we can collectively better the ways we explore the dynamics of family-controlled enterprises (e.g., Bird, Welsch, Astrachan, & Pistrui, 2002; Dyer & Sánchez, 1998; Handler, 1989; Sharma, 2004; Zahra & Sharma, 2004). An important methodological approach to studying this exploration rigorously, qualitative research, has also been the subject of some wonderfully insightful FBR articles (e.g., Kenyon-Rouvinez, 2001; Lambrecht & Lievens, 2008), which present family business researchers with best practices for conducting and presenting the results of their future qualitative investigations. Given the increasing usage of case studies in family business research through the influence of innovative programs such as Babson College’s STEP Project for Family Enterprising (see http://www 3.babson.edu/eship/step/), it seemed prudent to continue the journal’s didactic tradition by focusing this editorial note on qualitative inquiry. So, drawing on my work with qualitative research authors from around the world the past 19 years as editor of The Qualitative Report and mentoring family therapy and science contributors to the Journal of Marital and Family Therapy as editor since 2005, I offer the following five ways to communicate your qualitative research methods and results better: (a) make the local globally significant; (b) mark differences between methodology and method; (c) manage errors of deficiency and exuberance; (d) maintain coherence across your report; and (e) make transparency goal one.
PUBLIC BASIC RESEARCH AND DIFFUSION OF RESEARCH BENEFITS

The paper examine the economic impact of pricing and access to basic research IP. The analysis uses a Sallop circle model of a monopolistically competitive industry to examine the applied research output and firm entry. Under plausible conditions basic research IP spillovers will create rents for the applied research sector, which are dissipated through socially excess firm entry. Charging a price or restricting access to basic research IP could enhance social welfare.
Plasma kinetics of a cholesterol‐rich microemulsion in subjects with heterozygous β‐thalassemia

Patients with β‐thalassemia trait have been reported to present lower plasma concentrations of low‐density lipoprotein (LDL) and lower frequencies of acute myocardial infarction than normal subjects. In this study, the metabolism of LDL was tested in 12 patients with heterozygous β‐thalassemia trait (HBT) and 13 healthy subjects without the disease by determining the plasma kinetics of an artificially made cholesterol‐rich microemulsion (LDE) that mimics the LDL metabolism and binds to LDL receptors. The emulsion was labeled with 14C‐cholesterol ester and injected intravenously into the subjects. Blood samples were drawn at regular intervals over 24 hr to determine the plasma decay curve of the emulsion radioactive label and to estimate its plasma fractional clearance rate (FCR, in hr−1). FCR of the 14C‐cholesterol ester was greater in HBT compared to controls (0.0631 ± 0.0178 hr−1 and 0.0501 ± 0.0094 hr−1, respectively; mean ± SD, P = 0.022). No differences were found regarding LDL cholesterol plasma concentration between the two groups, but apolipoprotein B concentration was lower in HBT than in control subjects (80 ± 44 and 96 ± 14, respectively; mean ± SD, P = 0.026). Our results show that LDE FCR is increased in HBT, indicating that LDL clearance is increased in patients with β‐thalassemia trait possibly due to the increased proliferation in the bone marrow of erythroid precursors. Am. J. Hematol. 77:340–345, 2004. © 2004 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Design and implementation of MIMO antenna for CR applications

A novel meandered line, multi-band, planar inverted F shape frequency agile multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) antenna is presented. The proposed dual-element MIMO antenna is compact with frequency tuning capability over a wide-band. Multiple-input, multiple-output (MIMO) technology is being utilized in 4G wireless standards to meet the high rate requirements in multipath wireless channels. The proposed antenna is used to cover a wide range of frequency bands above 1GHz. Frequency reconfigurability is achieved for the proposed system and is resonating at certain frequencies. The complete system comprising frequency-reconfigurable meander-line planar MIMO antenna is designed on FR4 substrate and is used for CR (Cognitive Radio) applications. The antenna system is developed on a single substrate area of dimensions 65×120×1.56 mm3.
A DC voltage dependent switchable acoustically coupled BAW filter based on BST-on-silicon composite structure

A DC voltage dependent switchable, bulk acoustic wave (BAW) filter is presented in this paper. The filter has a composite structure consisting of a barium strontium titanate (BST) layer sandwiched between top and bottom platinum (Pt) electrodes deposited on silicon (Si) and oxide (SiO2) layers. The electrostrictive property of ferroelectric BST allows for the filter to be turned on and off by applying an electric field across the BST layer. The Si and SiO2 layers are used to increase the overall quality factor and mechanical strength of the structure. When the filter is turned on, the 3 dB bandwidth is 43 MHz at a center frequency of 1.08 GHz. After resonating out the input and output static capacitances of the filter using shunt inductors, the filter exhibits an insertion loss of 8.5 dB with the application of 25 V DC bias. The return loss and out-of-band rejection of the filter are 18 dB and 29 dB, respectively. In its off state, with no DC bias applied, the isolation between input and output ports is 37 dB.
Evaluation of a novel in‐line point‐of‐care blood gas analyser

Point‐of‐care testing is becoming increasingly relevant to the practice of anaesthesia and critical care medicine, especially in terms of minimisation of sample volumes and decreased time to decision making. We performed a prospective observational study to evaluate a novel, in‐line blood gas analysis device against a conventional benchtop model, and assessed it while placing the enrolled patients under extreme physiological conditions, specifically deep hypothermic circulatory arrest. Eight patients were studied, and had between seven and 11 samples analysed for seven variables (pH, pCO2, pO2, HCO3‐, base excess [BE], K+ and haematocrit [Hct]), using the device during the process of cooling to 20 °C on cardiopulmonary bypass, and subsequent rewarming to normothermia. After Passing–Bablok analysis, the variables were evaluated for bias, limits of agreement and percentage error at above and below 30 °C. Of the measured variables, only pH (percentage error 2.4%) and potassium (19.8%) demonstrated acceptable (< 30%) percentage error over the full range of temperatures measured. Carbon dioxide, when stratified by temperature, was acceptable (< 30 °C percentage error 24.6%, > 30 °C percentage error 9.9%), but the overall percentage error of the dataset (45.8%) was excessively high. Bicarbonate and haematocrit both had an acceptable percentage error above 30 °C (25.2% and 18.5%, respectively), but similar to carbon dioxide, percentage error for the full range of temperatures exceeded 30%. These data differ from previous work examining this device, and highlights the difference between derived measures using different apparatuses when exposed to extreme physiological conditions.
Performance evaluation of congestion phenomena in the rate based flow control mechanism for ABR

We investigate the performance of the EFCI-based (explicit forward congestion indication) and ER-based (explicit rate; EPRCA in particular) algorithms for the rate-based flow control of the ABR (available bit rate) traffic in an ATM network. We consider the case of multiple switches in tandem. We present several definitions of a bottleneck, and provide conditions that determine which queue is the bottleneck. We show that it is not necessarily the queue with the slowest transmission rate that is the first to notify congestion, and that queues with faster transmission rates can increase considerably the congestion. Moreover, a queue may build up in a faster node before it builds in a slower one. We derive analytic formulas for the maximum queue length. We compare our results to those obtained by approximating a network by a simpler one, containing only the bottleneck switch. We show that the maximum queue lengths under the approximating approach may largely underestimate the ones obtained in the real network.
Do momentum-based trading strategies work in the commodity futures markets?

This article examines whether momentum‐based trading strategies work in the commodity futures markets. Using a wide range of moving average trading rules, commodities are ranked from best‐ to worst‐performing. Then investors are allowed to take long positions in best‐performing commodities and a short position in the least attractive commodity. Findings suggest that investors can earn statistically significant profits from the commodity futures markets. Moreover, it is found that short‐selling improves commodity profits and profits are both data frequency and sub‐sample dependent. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Jrl Fut Mark 35:868–891, 2015
Cross‐cultural perspectives for quality training

Suggests ways to improve the quality of cross‐cultural training by the analysis of needs within expatriates. Identifies the countries for this training and matches the indicated needs with global business growth patterns. Reports on an internet survey of trainers and a review of global commerce which reveals a high mismatch between countries identified and emerging global markets. Cites a strong need for reformulating cross‐cultural training strategies and processes together with suggestions for the enhancement of global training.
The Effect of Human Resource Investment in Internal Control on the Disclosure of Internal Control Weaknesses

SUMMARY: This paper investigates the effect of human resource investment in internal control over financial reporting on the disclosure of internal control weaknesses at both the firm and the individual department level. Using a unique reporting requirement for Korean-listed firms, this study uses the ratio of the number of employees involved with the implementation of internal controls (hereafter, IC personnel) to the total number of employees of the firm as a proxy for a firm's human resource investment in internal control. We find that the proportion of IC personnel and the change of the proportion within the firm and several key departments are negatively associated with the disclosure of internal control weaknesses. We also find that a change in IC personnel is positively associated with the likelihood of remediation of the internal control weaknesses. These findings provide valuable insights into the role of human resource investment in determining the strength of a firm's internal controls over fi.
University lawyers: a study of legal risk, risk management and role in work integrated learning programmes

Work integrated learning (WIL) is in growing demand by multiple stakeholders within the higher education sector in Australia. There are significant and distinct legal risks to universities associated with WIL programmes. University lawyers, along with WIL administrators and university management, are responsible for managing legal risk. This quantitative study of 41 Australian university lawyers offers awareness and insight into their role, the legal risks and their risk management practices with respect to WIL programmes. The results furnish university management, WIL administrators and university lawyers in all jurisdictions with a series of issues related to risk management that warrant further consideration. In particular the authors suggest that the appointment of a dedicated WIL lawyer, a clear delineation of risk management responsibilities through university policy and education and greater collaboration between university lawyers and WIL administrators has the potential to improve institutional risk management in the specific context of WIL programmes.
Bridging the Gap between Emotion and Strategy: a study of change in the relationship between national campaigning organisations and their networks of local groups

This paper is a study of changing national / local relationships within UK campaigning organisations. It is grounded in a conceptual framework embracing resource exchange, political interaction and change theory as benchmarks for a research investigation. A case study of the Amnesty International UK Section (AIUK) is at the heart of the paper, demonstrating that whilst change has occurred the organisational value of a national / local partnership remains vitally important. The four key aspects of change that the research discovers illuminate how national campaigning organisations have evolved since their inception during the post-war era, and the study concludes by proposing a hypothesis to explain that lifetime change.
Influence of Anxiety on Electrophysiological Correlates of Response Inhibition Capacities in Alcoholism

Anxiety disorders are highly prevalent in patients with alcohol use disorder. The purpose of the present study was to examine the neural correlates of behavioral inhibition in alcohol-dependent patients (ICD-10: F 10.2), and in healthy controls and to determine the influence of anxiety on these processes. Therefore, behavioral responses (reaction times; error rates) and event-related potentials of 16 patients with alcohol dependence syndrome and 16 age-and gender-matched healthy controls were recorded while the participants performed an auditory go/no-go task. The patient group was stratified according to their self-rated trait anxiety (STAI) with scores above and below median. We hypothesized that patients suffering from alcohol dependence would show reduced no-go P3 amplitudes involved in response inhibition compared to healthy subjects. In patients with alcoholism and high trait anxiety the decline of no-go P3 amplitudes was expected to be less distinct. The estimation of effect size based on the reaction times of patients with high and low anxiety ratings revealed a cohen's d of 0.61 indicating a small effect. High trait anxiety ratings were also associated with slightly enhanced no-go P3 amplitudes in central brain regions (Mean no-go P3 amplitude at Cz: 10.43 μV) compared to patients with low anxiety scores (Mean 8.98 μV). The effect size (cohen's d) revealed a small effect. Using the Mann-Whitney-U-test for independent samples of the comparison of high- and low-anxious patients, however, did not reveal any significant differences concerning no-go P3 amplitudes. Patients with alcohol use disorder and healthy controls did not differ significantly with regard to reaction time, error rate and no-go P3 amplitudes. This study suggests that no-go P3 amplitudes in patients with alcohol use disorder might be affected to some degree by habitual anxiety. The results emphasize the importance of monitoring trait anxiety in studies regarding cognitive functions in subjects with alcohol use disorder.
Analysing tourism stakeholders networks

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to analyze the variety of relations existing in tourism networks, identified as complex and mutable entities, where a vast range of stakeholders coexist.Design/methodology/approach – After a deep review on stakeholder theory, the research applies techniques of network analysis to a case study. Specifically, the analysis focuses on 354 hospitality firms acting in Molise Region (Italy). Each operator was asked to judge the importance to collaborate with other stakeholders to enhance the effectiveness of their management and marketing activities. The answers highlight the degree of preference among stakeholders and the resulting information is the level of confidence in the network.Findings – Results confirm the importance of intensifying relationships between tourism companies themselves and between them and policy makers. It appears that public stakeholders are more important for both management and marketing activities than private sector, since they place a much hig.
Management Accounting in the Hotel Business

Abstract This article reports on a study investigating Management Accounting (MA) applications and practices in Greek hotels. Relevant bibliography indicates the way in which MA supports management decision-making: Costing systems aim to analyze revenue centers, and are structured according to marginal costing principals. MA makes extensive use of budget and performance measurement techniques to support operational and strategic decisions. In the present study, a sample survey was carried out by means of a structured questionnaire. The findings indicate that Greek hotels make use of MA techniques in all of the above ways, but also reveal a number of differences, such as the application of full costing methods. This in turn has implications for the criteria used to evaluate managers' performance, as well as for the information used in making pricing decisions. Moreover, budget design is more flexible than that used in other fields, while benchmarking is not so popular. The study's findings reveal that hotel size and sales mix structure affect some MA practices, while the use of specific MA methods and techniques determines the emphasis placed on the application of others.
Do firms with larger patent portfolios create more new plant varieties in the US agricultural biotechnology industry?

This article is an empirical analysis of the relationship between patent ownership and variety innovation for US agricultural biotechnology firms in the years 1976–1999. Counts of new varieties include corn, soybean, or wheat varieties protected by either patents or plant variety protection certificates, while patent portfolio size is defined as the count of a firm's gene and method patents. Negative binomial regression results indicate that firms with larger patent portfolios did not exhibit scale economies in variety creation nor did firms with wider technological diversity in their patent portfolios create significantly greater numbers of new varieties. However, firms experienced positive spillover effects from rival firms’ patent ownership, and patent ownership increases this effect. Sample firms that have merged in the past do not produce significantly greater numbers of new varieties after considering an increase in portfolio size and did not experience greater economies of scale in creating new varieties compared with firms that experienced no past mergers.
Human Cytomegalovirus TRS1 Protein Is Required for Efficient Assembly of DNA-Containing Capsids

ABSTRACT The human cytomegalovirus tegument protein, pTRS1, appears to function at several discrete stages of the virus replication cycle. We previously demonstrated that pTRS1 acts during the late phase of infection to facilitate the production of infectious virions. We now have more precisely identified the late pTRS1 function by further study of a mutant virus lacking the TRS1 region, ADsubTRS1. We observed a significant reduction in the production of capsids, especially DNA-containing C-capsids, in mutant virus-infected cells. ADsubTRS1 exhibited normal cleavage of DNA concatemers, so the defect in C-capsid production must occur after DNA cleavage and before DNA is stably inserted into a capsid. Further, the normal virus-induced morphological reorganization of the nucleus did not occur after infection with the pTRS1-deficient mutant.
Intermediate filament protein synemin is transiently expressed in a subset of astrocytes during development

Synemin, a developmentally regulated protein first described in muscle cells, has recently been recognized as an intermediate filament (IF) protein. Because IF proteins are invaluable markers of cell origin within the nervous system, we were interested in determining the expression pattern of synemin in the brain. Our results show that, during development of the rat cortex, synemin is expressed only in a subpopulation of astrocytic cells expressing GFAP as well as vimentin and nestin. Unlike GFAP, however, synemin is not expressed in mature astrocytes and, unlike vimentin and nestin, synemin is not present in astrocytic precursors before GFAP expression. Taken together with morphological evidence, the time course of synemin expression, as determined by Western blotting, suggests that synemin is expressed in radial glial cells undergoing morphological transformation into astrocytes. Studies of synemin expression in vitro demonstrate that, early in primary culture, the majority of polygonal astrocytes are derived from synemin+ radial glial cells. With time in culture, however, polygonal astrocytes either stop expressing synemin or are overgrown by cells not expressing synemin. The unique pattern of synemin expression, both in vivo and in vitro, suggests that the use of synemin as a marker will add a new dimension to studies of astrocytic differentiation. GLIA 30:143–153, 2000. © 2000 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.