Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A ranking method based on two preference criteria: Chebyshev function and ε-indicator

Previously a preference relation based on the Chebyshev achievement function to solve many-objective optimization problems was proposed. Although using this preference relation improved the performance of NSGA-II, in this paper we present a new ranking method based on the ∈-indicator and the Chebyshev achievement function. The goal of this new method is two fold: i) to improve the performance of the original algorithm, and ii) to design a parallel sorting method in order to use it with large populations (≫ 104 individuals). To do so, unlike the original approach, we have completely replaced the nondominated sorting by a method that ranks the population based on these two preference criteria. As the experiments show, the resulting algorithm outperforms both the standard NSGA-II and our previous approach in selected DTLZ problems. We also present a parallel implementation of the new sorting method. The running time analysis shows that the communication overhead is low enough to allow the speedup reach its peak for a large number of processors.
Measuring Epstein–Barr virus (EBV) load: the significance and application for each EBV‐associated disease

Because Epstein–Barr virus (EBV) is ubiquitous and persists latently in lymphocytes, simply detecting EBV is insufficient to diagnose EBV‐associated diseases. Therefore, measuring the EBV load is necessary to diagnose EBV‐associated diseases and to explore EBV pathogenesis. Due to the diverse biology of EBV, the significance of measuring EBV DNA and the optimal type of specimen differ among EBV‐associated diseases. Recent advances in molecular technology have enabled the EBV genome to be quantitated rapidly and accurately. Real‐time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) is a rapid and reliable method to quantify DNA and is widely used not only as a diagnostic tool, but also as a management tool for EBV‐associated diseases. However, each laboratory currently measures EBV load with its own “homebrew” system, and there is no consensus on sample type, sample preparation protocol, or assay units. The EBV real‐time PCR assay system must be standardised for large‐scale studies and international comparisons. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Trust or distrust in the web-mediated information environment (W-MIE): A perspective of online Muslim users

Purpose – The proliferation of the internet as the means for knowledge and information exchange gives rise to new issues of sustaining trust within web‐mediated information environments. However, researchers have not studied trust on websites that evoke emotionally charged topics that are culturally and ethically oriented as much as they have studied e‐tailing trust. Hence, this paper aims to explore the notion of trust within the web‐based information for Islamic content environment and how consumers' trust evaluations on topics that are sensitive to their cultural norms would give different a connotation of trust and its guidelines.Design/methodology/approach – The paper discusses the notion of trust, its dimensions, conceptualisation and operationalisation in the online environment. The paper presents the results of a descriptive study conducted via an online survey distributed to online Muslim users through the mailing list of the Federation of Universities in the Islamic World (see www.fuiw.org) data.
Dividends, Dilution, and Taxes: A Signalling Equilibrium

A signalling equilibrium with taxable dividends is identified. In this equilibrium, corporate insiders with more valuable private information optimally distribute larger dividends and receive higher prices for their stock whenever the demand for cash by both their firm and its current stockholders exceeds its internal supply of cash. In equilibrium, many firms distribute dividends and simultaneously issue new stock, while other firms pay no dividends. Because dividends reveal all private information not conveyed by corporate audits, current stockholders capture in equilibrium all economic rents net of dissipative signalling costs. Both the announcement effect and the relationship between dividends and cum-dividend market values are derived explicitly. DIVIDENDS HAVE LONG PERPLEXED financial economists. Despite recent successes in constructing signalling equilibria with dividends, many important questions remain unanswered. ' For example, why do corporations declare dividends and simultaneously sell new stock or, alternatively, distribute dividends and not repurchase stock? How do dividends with their dissipative costsprimarily adverse personal taxes-coexist with other presumably less costly technologies for releasing inside information, like audited annual reports? Do plausible signalling equilibria with dividends require transaction costs incurred by either corporations when issuing or retiring stock or investors when trading outstanding shares? Finally, how do the tax rates and demands for liquidity of such investors as widows, senior citizens, and financial institutions influence signalling equilibria? A satisfactory theory of signalling with dividends must also have empirical content. In particular, such a theory should provide empirically testable propositions detailing the effects of announced dividends on stock prices,2 crosssectional connections between dividends and market values, and any resulting relationships between payout ratios and rates of return on stocks.3 In addition,
Guidelines for the ethical conduct of medical research involving children

Editor,—The new guidelines1 and the commentary by Professor Sir David Hull have highlighted the difficulties and problems of blood analysis in the paediatric population. However, I would like to point out that blood analysis is a very common practice in everyday paediatrics compared to its rarer use in research. Unfortunately, most of the blood analysis …
Periodontal repair in dogs: space provision by reinforced ePTFE membranes enhances bone and cementum regeneration in large supraalveolar defects.

Regeneration of alveolar bone and cementum following reconstructive therapy with reinforced space providing expanded polytetrafluorethylene (ePTFE) membranes was evaluated in supraalveolar mandibular premolar periodontal defects in five beagle dogs. The surgically-created defects in contralateral jaw quadrants were randomly assigned to receive the dome-shaped membrane or serve as surgical control. Flaps were positioned to completely submerge the teeth and sutured. The dogs were sacrificed 8 weeks after surgery and tissue blocks including teeth and surrounding structures processed for histology. Membrane treated defects in two animals became exposed and infected leaving intact quadrants in three dogs for histometric analysis. Parameters evaluated included defect height, height and area of regenerated alveolar bone, height of regenerated cementum, root resorption, and ankylosis. Mean defect height approximated 4.1 mm. Mean height (+/- s.d.) of regenerated alveolar bone amounted to 2.9 +/- 0.6 and 0.6 +/- 0.2 mm for membrane and control defects, respectively (P = 0.006). Corresponding values for bone area were 1.4 +/- 0.7 and 0.4 +/- 0.4 mm2 (P = 0.02). Cementum regeneration was observed in all teeth averaging (+/- s.d.) 1.6 +/- 0.3 mm for membrane treated and 0.1 +/- 0.1 mm for control defects (P = 0.01). Small amounts of root resorption were seen in all teeth with no significant difference between treatments. Ankylosis was noticed in three membrane treated and two control teeth. The present study provides a biologic rationale for space provision for enhanced bone and cementum regeneration in periodontal defects subject to reconstructive therapy.
The Exchange Rate in a Dynamic-Optimizing Current Account Model with Nominal Rigidities: A Quantitative Investigation

This paper studies a dynamic-optimizing model of a semi-small open economy with sticky nominal prices and wages. The model exhibits exchange rate overshooting in response to money supply shocks. The predicted variability of nominal and real exchange rates is roughly consistent with that of G7 effective exchange rates during the post-Bretton Woods era.
SERVICE QUALITY AND LOYALTY OF INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS STUDYING IN THE FIELD OF HOSPITALITY AND TOURISM

Malaysia is changing its market/ industry status from a commodity-based to knowledge-based economy driven by knowledge creation, innovation and development. Teaching is one in every of the information-based industries that sells knowledge through the availability of academic services to local and international students. It has been observed that in most of the private institutions in Malaysia, 10% to 12% students are from overseas (MOHE, 2012). The current study attempts to identify the satisfaction level of international students, the determinants of satisfaction for international students and the relationship between satisfaction and student loyalty. The study was based on the School of Hospitality, Tourism and Culinary Arts (HTCA) at Taylor’s University, Malaysia. Seven (7) independent factors -- ‘Administrative Aspects’, ‘Academic Aspects’, ‘Reputation’, ‘Tangibles’, ‘Access’, ‘Program issues’ and ‘Career Prospects’ were used to evaluate two (2) dependent factors -- ‘Satisfaction’ and ‘Loyalty’. Quantitative research approach, on-site survey was conducted with 275 international students studying in HTCA on the basis of a non-probability convenience sampling technique. Findings report that the current study was found to be reliable and the measurement scale had reliability more than the required aggregate level, cut-off point . 70, except for one dependent factor ‘Loyalty’. Four determinant factors named as Reputation, Access, Program Issues and Career Prospects were found to be determinant factors for satisfaction of international students in HTCA with an average of 3.5 on a 5-point Likert scale and 40% students would like to continue for further studies at HTCA. It was also found that Satisfaction exerts positive significant effect of 57% on Loyalty.
Ethnic Disparities in Cervical Cancer Survival Among Medicare Eligible Women in a Multiethnic Population

Objectives: To determine predictors of cervical cancer survival by socioeconomic status (SES), urbanization, race/ethnicity, comorbid conditions, and treatment among elderly Medicare-eligible women whose conditions were diagnosed with cervical cancer in a multiethnic population. Methods: A total of 538 women with cervical cancer aged 65 years or older were identified from 1999 to 2001 from the Texas Cancer Registry and were linked with the state Medicare data and Texas Vital Records to determine survival times. All women had similar access to care through Medicare fee-for-services insurance. A composite measure of SES was created using census tract-level data as was urbanization. Treatment and comorbid conditions were available from the Medicare data. Cox proportional hazards modeling was used for all-cause and cervical cancer-specific survival analysis. Results: Increased age (P < 0.0001) and advanced tumor stage (P < 0.0001) were associated with poorer all-cause and cervical cancer-specific survival. Having a comorbid condition was associated with all-cause survival (P < 0.01) but not cervical cancer-specific mortality. After adjusting for confounders, women receiving some form of treatment were almost half as likely to die with cervical cancer (adjusted hazard ratio = 0.68; 95% confidence interval, 0.52-0.89). After adjustment for all confounders, Hispanic women consistently had lower all-cause and cervical cancer-specific mortality rates relative to non-Hispanic white and non-Hispanic black women. Conclusions: Among women with similar health care coverage, Hispanic women had consistently lower all-cause and cervical cancer-specific mortality rates than other older women whose conditions were diagnosed with this disease in Texas. The presence of comorbid conditions and treatment were important predictors of survival, yet these factors do not explain the survival advantage for Hispanic women.
PUBLIC AND PRIVATE GUARANTEE FUNDS WITH MARKET FRAGILITY

When buyers worry that sellers may not remain in the market long enough to fulfill all contractual obligations, they may be unwilling to purchase and a market failure can result. Bank deposits and pension benefits are examples of contracts for which buyers might lose confidence in sellers, making these markets "fragile. " This paper studies market fragility created by both fundamental (i.e., costs and demand) and strategic uncertainty (i.e., beliefs). We find a rich interaction between these two sources of uncertainty. The paper also considers the role and design of guarantee funds-some public, some private-created to support trade in many potentially fragile markets.
Cloning and Expression of cadD, a New Cadmium Resistance Gene of Staphylococcus aureus

ABSTRACT A cadmium resistance gene, designated cadD, has been identified in and cloned from the Staphylococcus aureusplasmid pRW001. The gene is part of a two-component operon which contains the resistance gene cadD and an inactive regulatory gene, cadX*. A high degree of sequence similarity was observed between cadD and thecadB-like gene from S. lugdunensis, but no significant similarity was found with either cadA orcadB from the S. aureus plasmids pI258 and pII147. The positive regulatory gene cadX* is identical tocadX from pLUG10 over a stretch of 78 codons beginning at the N terminus, but it is truncated at this point and inactive. Sequence analysis showed that the cadmium resistance operon resides on a 3,972-bp element that is flanked by direct repeats of IS257. The expression of cadD in S. aureus and Bacillus subtilis resulted in low-level resistance to cadmium; in contrast, cadA andcadB from S. aureus induced higher level resistance. However, when the truncated version ofcadX contained in pRW001 is complemented intrans with cadX from plasmid pLUG10, resistance increased approximately 10-fold suggesting that the cadmium resistance operons from pRW001 and pLUG10 are evolutionarily related. Moreover, the truncated version ofcadX contained in pRW001 is nonfunctional and may have been generated by deletion during recombination to acquire the cadmium resistance element.
Bimodality In Interim Reports: An Analysts' View

Cumulative abnormal residuals (cars) show how markets adjust to published information. Theoretically, cars are assumed to display unit normal behavior. Despite its merits, car has proved to be a somewhat imprecise measure of market response to published information. In practice , cars exhibit considerable deviation from theoretical unit normal behavior. Three disparities between theory and practice can be pinpointed. These are car : (1) location, (2) shape, and (3) stability. In our previous work we have demonstrated that cars are often bimodally distributed. This finding shows one reason why it takes semistrong efficient markets some time to digest new information. Cars, for the time period during which markets analyze the new value determining data, are usually bimodally distributed. One mode of the distribution represents the impact of good news. The other peak is caused by bad news. The valley, between the two peaks, indicates the influence of neutral news. This paper analyzes the interim reports, which constitute the data for our previous related studies. This research identifies the type of new information that creates bimodal cars.
A note on bank bailout: equity quality and direct equity injections

Previous research on market-based evaluation of bank equity with government bailout has modelled the bank as a corporate firm with risky assets and liabilities. No attempt was made to analyse explicitly equity quality expressed as a situation when the carrying value of the bank's equity book is above the market price, in particular, during the financial crisis. The purpose of this article is to model bank equity quality explicitly and examine the relationships between direct equity capital injections by the government and bank interest margin (and thus bank equity quality). Comparative static results with simulation exercises show that the bailout programme of direct equity injections may be efficient in terms of bank equity quality when the bailout amount is relatively small-size and the bank's interest margin is relatively low.
Assessment of the Electrical Performance of Short Channel InAs and Strained Si Nanowire FETs

We present a numerical study aimed to benchmark short gate InAs nanowire-FETs (NW-FETs) against their strained Si (sSi) counterpart. Our full-quantum simulations focus on both gate-length scaling and device variability and include the impact of electron–phonon scattering and surface roughness (SR). Interestingly, we found that SR improves the subthreshold-voltage swing (SS) of short gate-length InAs devices by inducing a reduced source-to-drain tunneling. Hence, InAs NW-FETs exhibit a larger immunity to the roughness-induced degradation of the ON-current, whereas they suffer froma larger OFF-current and SS variabilitywith respect to the sSi ones. According to our results, InAs NW-FETs could compete with sSi NW-FETs only for very short gate lengths, when the device performance is significantly degraded, while for longer devices sSi NW-FETs remain a more effective and reliable choice due to the higher gate overdrive charge.
Central Bank Independence and Disinflationary Credibility: A Missing Link?

Granting central banks independence from short-term political control is widely assumed to decrease inflation by increasing the credibility of commitments to price stability. This paper analyzes public- and private-sector behavior in a sample of seventeen OECD countries for evidence of variations in disinflationary credibility with monetary institutions. The paper does not find evidence that the costs of disinflation are lower in countries with independent central banks, even when differences in contracting behavior are taken into account. It also does not find evidence that central bank independence inhibits government collection of seignorage revenues or manipulation of economic policy for electoral gain. These results raise questions about some explanations of the negative correlation between central bank independence and inflation, as well as the empirical relevance of government time-inconsistency problems as a source of inflation differences.
Chitin Synthases with a Myosin Motor-Like Domain Control the Resistance of Aspergillus fumigatus to Echinocandins

ABSTRACT Aspergillus fumigatus has two chitin synthases (CSMA and CSMB) with a myosin motor-like domain (MMD) arranged in a head-to-head configuration. To understand the function of these chitin synthases, single and double csm mutant strains were constructed and analyzed. Although there was a slight reduction in mycelial growth of the mutants, the total chitin synthase activity and the cell wall chitin content were similar in the mycelium of all of the mutants and the parental strain. In the conidia, chitin content in the ΔcsmA strain cell wall was less than half the amount found in the parental strain. In contrast, the ΔcsmB mutant strain and, unexpectedly, the ΔcsmA/ΔcsmB mutant strain did not show any modification of chitin content in their conidial cell walls. In contrast to the hydrophobic conidia of the parental strain, conidia of all of the csm mutants were hydrophilic due to the presence of an amorphous material covering the hydrophobic surface-rodlet layer. The deletion of CSM genes also resulted in an increased susceptibility of resting and germinating conidia to echinocandins. These results show that the deletion of the CSMA and CSMB genes induced a significant disorganization of the cell wall structure, even though they contribute only weakly to the overall cell wall chitin synthesis.
Investment Policy and Exit-Exchange Offers within Financially Distressed Firms

This article examines the conflict of interest between shareholders and bondholders in a setting in which firms can renegotiate the terms of existing debt with public debtholders. In particular, we consider one of the most common types of debt restructuring: the exit-exchange offer. Our analysis explores the relation between exitexchange offers and investment choice by the manager, and it concludes that managers, acting strategically on behalf of shareholders, may select inefficient investment projects in order to enhance their bargaining position vis-a-vis creditors. Holding the upside potential of an investment project fixed, managers/shareholders prefer projects with lower payoffs in states of bankruptcy because it induces individual bondholders to accept poorer terms in a debt-for-debt exit-exchange offer, thus generating a greater residual for shareholders in states of solvency. Additionally, we show how the investment inefficiencies in our analysis depend on (i) the inability of bondholders to coordinate their actions; (ii) the ability of managers to commit to suboptimal investment projects; and (iii) the coupling of an individual bondholder's decision to tender and her decision to consent to allow the firm to strip fiduciary covenants. We suggest conditions under which a ban on coupled exit-exchange offers-or alternatively, constraints on "debt-for-debt" exchanges-would be efficiency-enhancing.
The Credibility Problem Revisited: Thirty Years on from Kydland and Prescott

Macroeconomics research has changed profoundly since the Kydland-Prescott seminal paper. In order to address the Lucas Critique, modelling now is based on microfoundations treating agents as rational utility optimizers. Bayesian estimation has produced models which are more data consistent than those based simply on calibration. With micro-foundations and new linear-quadratic techniques, normative policy based on welfare analysis is now possible. In the open economy, policy involves a ‘game’ with policymakers and private institutions or private individuals as players. This paper attempts to reassess the Kydland-Prescott contribution in the light of these developments.
Applying Strategic Management Theories in Public Sector Organizations: Developing a typology

Abstract This article discusses the utility of two different strategic management theories in different types of public organizations including contemporary New Public Management-based public organizations, namely Porter’s strategic positioning model and the resource-based view of strategy. We argue that possibilities for applying these theories vary depending on the type of public organizations involved, and are less appropriate in traditional settings but more relevant in autonomized and market-like service-delivery organizations. We further propose that their increased applicability depends on three specific conditions: the degree of administrative autonomy, performance-based budgeting and market-like competition. We give empirical examples drawn from public services in the UK and Denmark. We call for more exploration of these (and other) strategic management approaches within contemporary public services organisations but also more exploration of the limitations of these frameworks.
Dynamic Effects of the Order of Entry on Market Share, Trial Penetration, and Repeat Purchases for Frequently Purchased Consumer Goods

A time series cross-sectional analysis of 18 successful later entrants in 8 categories of consumer packaged goods over the period from October 1983 to January 1988 confirms previous empirical findings that, after correcting for differences in marketing effort, later entrants suffer a long-term market share disadvantage. New evidence of the penalties associated with later entry are found in statistical estimation of models of cumulative trial, first repeat, and subsequent repeat purchasing. Significantly lower asymptotic levels are found in both trial and repeat behavior. However based on this data, the rate of approach of later entrants to their lower asymptotic performance measures is either equal to or faster than early entrants and provides evidence of a compensating partial effect accrued by later entrants.