Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Cream-Skimming or Profit-Sharing? The Curious Role of Purchased Order Flow

Purchased order flow refers to the practice of dealers or trading locales paying brokers for retail order flow. It is alleged that such agreements are used to 'cream skim' uninformed liquidity trades, leaving the information-based trades to established markets. We develop a test of this hypothesis, using a model of the stochastic process of trades. We then estimate the model for a sample of stocks known to be used in order purchase agreements that trade on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and the Cincinnati Stock Exchange. Our main empirical result is that there is a significant difference in the information content of orders executed in New York and Cincinnati, and that this difference is consistent with cream-skimming. Copyright 1996 by American Finance Association.
A Qualitative Study of How Registered Dietitians Made the Connection Between Diet, Climate Change, and Environmental Degradation

It is unclear why some registered dietitians in the United States take action to mitigate climate change and reduce impact on the natural environment. We sought to discover how dietitians made the connection between diet, climate change, and environmental degradation. Using qualitative research interviews, we gathered primary data amongst a purposive sample of 17 dietitians. These dietitians made connections between diet, climate change, and environmental degradation by way of authoritative knowledge, experiential knowledge, and experiences in their youth. These data-driven themes coincide with the concepts of self-efficacy. Self-efficacy appears to be an important factor for registered dietitians concerned with climate change and environmental degradation. These results can inform and improve dietetics education and practice.
Feature Selection in Acted Speech for the Creation of an Emotion Recognition Personalization Service

One hundred thirty three (133) sound/speech features extracted from pitch, Mel frequency cepstral coefficients, energy and formants were evaluated in order to create a feature set sufficient to discriminate between seven emotions in acted speech. After the appropriate feature selection, multilayered perceptrons were trained for emotion recognition on the basis of a 23-input vector, which provide information about the prosody of the speaker over the entire sentence. Several experiments were performed and the results are presented analytically. Extra emphasis was given to assess the proposed 23-input vector in a speaker independent framework where speakers are not ¿known¿ to the classifier. The proposed feature vector achieved promising results (51%) for speaker independent recognition in seven emotion classes. Moreover, considering the problem of classifying high and low arousal emotions, our classifier reaches 86.8% successful recognition.
Crop heat stress in the context of Earth System modeling

Siebert et al ( Environ. Res. Lett. 9 044012) suggest that crop models do not represent the effect of heat stress on crop yield adequately unless they apply such effect to sensitive phases in a crop’s growth cycle. Siebert et al focus particularly on the phase considered most sensitive for wheat yield in Germany, the time of anthesis. Siebert et al find that observed canopy rather than 2 m or ground temperature better quantifies the effect of heat stress during anthesis on wheat yield in Germany when evaluated against data from pot experiments under controlled conditions.
Creativity , Culture and Cosmopolitanism : Community arts in multicultural

This paper examines how community arts in Sydney, Australia, have created new narratives of multiculturalism, focusing on the everyday diversity found in Sydney’s disadvantaged western suburbs. These narratives respond to the post-9/11 demonization of western Sydney and its multicultural communities, particularly Muslim and Arab-Australians. In contrast to the largely symbolic multiculturalism of the gentrified inner-city, western Sydney-based artists argue that theirs is a genuine, living, and breathing multiculturalism. This paper provides a case study of Information and Cultural Exchange, a community arts organization that has contributed to the rebranding of Western Sydney as a cosmopolitan hub, brimming with untapped creativity and the untold stories of multicultural Australia.
Sharing news, making sense, saying thanks: patterns of talk on Twitter during the Queensland floods

This paper examines the discursive aspects of Twitter communication during the floods in the summer of 2010–2011 in Queensland, Australia. Using a representative sample of communication associated with the #qldfloods hashtag on Twitter, we coded and analysed the patterns of communication. We focus on key phenomena in the use of social media in crisis communication: communal sense- making practices, the negotiation of participant roles, and digital convergence around shared events. Social media is used both as a crisis communication and emergency management tool, as well as a space for participants to engage in emotional exchanges and communication of distress.
Realized Range Volatility Forecasting: Dynamic Features and Predictive Variables

In this paper, we estimate, model and forecast realized range volatility, a realized measure and estimator of the quadratic variation of financial prices. This quantity was introduced early in the literature and it is based on the high–low range observed at high frequency during the day. We consider the impact of the microstructure noise in high frequency data and correct our estimations, following a known procedure. Then, we model the realized range accounting for the well-known stylized effects present in financial data and we investigate the role that macroeconomic and financial variables play when forecasting daily stocks volatility. We consider an HAR model with asymmetric effects with respect to the volatility and the return, and GARCH and GJR specifications for the variance equation. Moreover, we consider a non-Gaussian distribution for the innovations. Finally, we extend the model including macroeconomic and financial variables that capture the present and the future state of the economy. We find that these variables are significantly correlated with the first common component of the volatility series and they have a highly in-sample explanatory power. The analysis of the forecast performance in 16 NYSE stocks suggests that the introduction of asymmetric effects with respect to the returns and the volatility in the HAR model result in a significant improvement in the point forecasting accuracy as well and the variables related with the U.S. stock market performance and proxies for the credit risk.
La vulnérabilité macroéconomique des pays à faible revenu et les réponses de l'aide

Macro vulnerability of poor countries is analyzed as the risk that their development be hampered by the shocks they face, natural or external. Structural vulnerability mainly results from the size of the shocks and the exposure to the shocks, while general vulnerability also depends on resilience, mainly determined by policy. We first explain how, through instability, vulnerability affects growth and development, arguing four main points. The ex post effects are at least as important as the ex ante or risk effects. Instability affects productivity growth more than the level of investment. Primary or exogeneous instabilities lower growth through intermediate and policy related instabilities. Instability increases the level of poverty (and child mortality), beyond its effects through the rate of growth. Second we examine how a synthetic measure of structural vulnerability can be obtained in an Economic Vulnerability Index (EVI), as that developed at the UN. The components of such an index should reflect both the size of the natural and external shocks and the exposure to these shocks. They should be aggregated so that the interaction between shocks and exposure could be taken into account. The last part considers the implications of the macro vulnerability of poor countries for aid policy. It relies on the view that aid dampens consequences of vulnerability (i.e. vulnerability increases aid effectiveness) and that the aid volatility issue must be reexamined with this regard. Three aid responses are considered. Vulnerability (EVI) can be used as a criterion for aid allocation. Aid can be designed as an insurance, if it can be disbursed quickly and effectively. Finally, aid uses can be partially targetted to the long-term reduction of vulnerability.
Managerial share ownership and operating performance: Do independent and executive directors have different incentives?

We investigate the relationship between managerial share ownership (MSO) and earnings as a measure of operating performance in Australia. To mitigate potential earnings management, we also use discretionary accrual adjusted earnings as an alternative measure of performance. We document a negative relation between MSO and performance followed by a positive relation. We suggest that these unique results are an artefact of certain Australian institutional features and imply that the ownership–performance relation is context-specific, with the wider corporate governance systems influencing the theorised incentive effects. We also posit that executive directors and independent directors have different ownership–performance incentives. Our results are consistent with this proposition and suggest that independent directors may be immune to the theorised incentive alignment or entrenchment effects associated with share ownership.
Modelling Traded, Non-traded and Aggregate Inflation in a Small Open Economy: The Case of Ireland

This paper addresses the unresolved issues surrounding the determination of fish inflation. The study tests the validity of (l) a pure wage mark-up model, (2) a pure small open economy model, and (3) a hybrid model which fuses elements of (1) and (2) over the period 1979:Q1-1995:Q3. Multivariate cointegration techniques are employed to clearly distinguish the long- and the short-run information in the data. The results highlight the relevance of the distinction between traded and nontraded prices. For traded prices, full purchasing power parity (PPP) was found to be consistent with the data. In the case of nontraded prices, the data reject strict long-run PPP. Aggregate price results occupy an intermediate position. Finally, the paper demonstrates that strong bidirectional feedback exists between prices and wages. Copyright 1999 by Blackwell Publishers Ltd and The Victoria University of Manchester
Internalized Tau Oligomers Cause Neurodegeneration by Inducing Accumulation of Pathogenic Tau in Human Neurons Derived from Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells

Neuronal inclusions of hyperphosphorylated and aggregated tau protein are a pathological hallmark of several neurodegenerative tauopathies, including Alzheimer's disease (AD). The hypothesis of tau transmission in AD has emerged from histopathological studies of the spatial and temporal progression of tau pathology in postmortem patient brains. Increasing evidence in cellular and animal models supports the phenomenon of intercellular spreading of tau. However, the molecular and cellular mechanisms of pathogenic tau transmission remain unknown. The studies described herein investigate tau pathology propagation using human neurons derived from induced pluripotent stem cells. Neurons were seeded with full-length human tau monomers and oligomers and chronic effects on neuronal viability and function were examined over time. Tau oligomer-treated neurons exhibited an increase in aggregated and phosphorylated pathological tau. These effects were associated with neurite retraction, loss of synapses, aberrant calcium homeostasis, and imbalanced neurotransmitter release. In contrast, tau monomer treatment did not produce any measureable changes. This work supports the hypothesis that tau oligomers are toxic species that can drive the spread of tau pathology and neurodegeneration. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Several independent studies have implicated tau protein as central to Alzheimer's disease progression and cell-to-cell pathology propagation. In this study, we investigated the ability of different tau species to propagate pathology in human neurons derived from induced pluripotent stem cells, which to date has not been shown. We demonstrated that tau oligomers, but not monomers, induce accumulation of pathological, hyperphosphorylated tau. This effect was accompanied with neurite degeneration, loss of synapses, aberrant calcium homeostasis, imbalanced neurotransmitter release, and ultimately with neuronal death. This study bridges various tau pathological phenotypes into a single and relevant induced pluripotent stem cell neuronal model of human disease that can be applied to the discovery of the mechanisms of tau-induced neurodegeneration.
Do Investors Punish Moral Lapses? - An Empirical Testing on the Linkages Between Moral Lapses and Share Price Returns of Selected Companies

This study examines whether investors punish moral lapses of the company management that violated various established code of conduct and regulations. I further examine whether the moral lapses of the corporate leaders have had any impact on the share price behavior and consequently the returns from the market. Testing for randomness and normality of share price behavior in response to the event announcements are the focal points of the study. The sample comprises fifteen companies. Two non-parametric tests, Kolmogorov Smirnov Test and Runs Test for Randomness and one parametric test, Auto-correlation test have been applied to analyze the data. The analytical results of Kolmogorov–Smirnov test indicate that except for two companies, the returns are normally distributed. The implication of this outcome is that the shareholders do not immediately offload their holdings even after coming to know of the moral lapses of corporate executives. The Runs test for Randomness accepted the null hypothesis that the successive or lagged price changes of the sample companies follow a random walk. The Auto-correlation computed for the market return series shows no significant auto-correlation at different lags for the sample companies except for two companies. This again confirms that investors do wait and watch even after the announcement or happening of unpleasant events/developments in their companies. The findings are quite relevant to the investing community as a whole who invest their hard-earned money on corporate undertakings expecting reasonable returns.
Structural Adjustment, Poverty and Economic Growth: An Analysis For Kenya

This paper analyses the impact of structural adjustment programmes on poverty and economic growth in Kenya. The results indicate that there was a decrease in poverty between 1992 and 1994 as shown by all poverty measures, while results from other studies show that poverty increased between 1994 and 1997. There was a remarkable improvement in macroeconomic policies between 1992 and 1994, while poverty declined, but a slight deterioration in macroeconomic policy between 1994 and 1997, which led to an increase in poverty. The study recommends that the institutional bottlenecks hindering economic reform should be addressed. Poverty alleviation policies should be pursued hand in hand with reforms so as to ensure equitable distribution of the long-term benefits of growth that may spring from economic reform, as well as special targeting of the poor who are found in the non-market sector and are therefore unlikely to benefit much from economic reform policies. Acknowledgments The authors are sincerely grateful to the African Economic Research Consortium (AERC) for financial support for carrying out this study. We also wish to thank resource persons and peers of the AERC biannual workshops for their valuable comments and input on various drafts of this paper. However, the authors remain solely responsible for the views and shortcomings of this study. STRUCTURAL ADJUSTMENT, POVERTY AND ECONOMIC GROWTH: AN ANALYSIS FOR KENYA 1
Emergence of artistic talent in frontotemporal dementia

Objective: To describe the clinical, neuropsychological, and imaging features of five patients with frontotemporal dementia (FTD) who acquired new artistic skills in the setting of dementia. Background: Creativity in the setting of dementia has recently been reported. We describe five patients who became visual artists in the setting of FTD. Methods: Sixty-nine FTD patients were interviewed regarding visual abilities. Five became artists in the early stages of FTD. Their history, artistic process, neuropsychology, and anatomy are described. Results: On SPECT or pathology, four of the five patients had the temporal variant of FTD in which anterior temporal lobes are involved but the dorsolateral frontal cortex is spared. Visual skills were spared but language and social skills were devastated. Conclusions: Loss of function in the anterior temporal lobes may lead to the "facilitation" of artistic skills. Patients with the temporal lobe variant of FTD offer a window into creativity.
Integrating Extension and Research Activities: An Exploratory Study

The exploratory study reported here examined Extension-research integration activities. Focus group interviews with Extension and research faculty (N=17) revealed several themes, which included: current status of integration activities, perceptions of the roles of Extension and research, barriers to integration, and opportunities for integration. Time, funding, administration-related communication challenges, need for clarification regarding respective roles of collaborators, and lack of incentives and structural support were viewed as barriers. Utilizing faculty joint appointments, networking, involving graduate students in Extension and research activities, and serving on graduate student committees were strategies suggested. Based on the findings, a framework for integration is proposed.
Bioenergy use and food preparation practices of two communities in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa

This study was funded by the SADC GTZ Programme for Biomass Energy Conservation (ProBEC) which aims to reduce biomass derived energy consumption and expenditure, particularly by low-income households The authors acknowledge the cooperation of the Border Rural Committee, Eastern Cape office of the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry, and the communities of Cata and Tshoxa.
Cytoplasmic accumulation of ditercalinium in rat hepatocytes and induction of mitochondrial damage.

Ditercalinium (NSC 335153), a 7H-pyridocarbazole dimer, is a bis-intercalating agent whose mechanism of action differs from that of other mono-intercalating compounds, such as ellipticine derivatives. After a Phase I clinical trial, where irreversible hepatotoxicity was the dose-limiting side-effect, we have reinvestigated the disposition of ditercalinium in rats after i.v. administration. Tissue distribution of the tritiumlabeled drug was studied during 5 weeks. The drug distributed very quickly into tissues, and accumulated mostly in liver and kidneys. A much slower clearance followed, with a half-life greater than 7 days. The present study raises the question of whether ditercalinium, a biscationic lipophilic agent, exerts a direct mitochondria interaction both in vitro and in vivo. Fluorescence microscopy on rat tissue cryosections, after drug administration, showed that the major cellular site of drug accumulation corresponds to mitochondria. The mitochondrial probe 3,3'-diethyloxadicarbocyanine confirmed the mitochondrial localization of ditercalinium. An identical fluorescent pattern was found in cultured rat hepatocytes. These fluorescent granulation patterns suggest mitochondrial damage. To further study cell alterations, ultrastructural changes in rat liver and kidneys were observed with selective mitochondrial damage while nuclei remained apparently normal. The same observations were made in rat hepatocyte cultures. Therefore, the accumulation of ditercalinium in tissues and, more particularly, in mitochondrial probably plays an important role in ditercalinium-induced toxicity.
CEOs'/CFOs' Swearing by the Numbers: Does It Impact Share Price of the Firm?

We examine the impact on share prices of firms whose CEOs and CFOs certify their financial statements under oath, pursuant to the administrative order issued by the SEC on June 27, 2002. We hypothesize that (1) the certification provides assurance to investors by making disclosure more credible and by reducing information asymmetry between owners and management, and (2) the assurance value of certification is reflected in the stock price of the certifying company. Overall, the empirical results are consistent with our hypotheses. We observe, on average, positive abnormal returns for firms whose CEOs/CFOs certified their financial statements by August 14, 2002. Based on an analysis of bid‐ask spreads, certifying firms experienced a significant decline in information asymmetry after certification. In cross‐sectional analyses, we find abnormal returns are positively associated with firms that were under investigation, that used Andersen as their auditor, and that practiced aggressive revenue recognition.
Similarities and Differences between Leadership and Management: High-Performance Competencies in the British Royal Navy

This paper describes the research, analysis and development of a model clarifying the similarities and differences in competencies and personality factors associated with effective Leadership and Management in the Royal Navy. A questionnaire study was conducted on a sample of 261 Officers and Ratings (Sailors). Their performance was rated through the organization's rigorous appraisal process, whilst competency and personality data were gathered through the Occupational Personality Questionnaire and the Leadership Dimensions Questionnaire. The results identify the common and unique relevance of specific competencies and personality factors and so provide an illuminating insight into the differences between the constructs of leadership and management. The critical factors related to effective leadership and management performance are also identified.
A reorganized Candida albicans DNA sequence promoting homologous non‐integrative genetic transformation

In order to develop plasmids adequate for non‐integrative genetic transformation of Candida albicans, a DNA fragment of 15.3 kb was cloned from this organism on the basis of its capacity to convert the integrative Saccharomyces cerevisiae vector Ylp5 into a non‐integrative one. Southern hybridization analysis, carried out with a labelled DNA probe of 3.6 kb derived from the cloned fragment, showed that it consisted of C. albicans DNA, the hybridization pattern indicating that the corresponding sequences were homologous to several chromosomal regions. The size of the C. albicans DNA promoting autonomous replication In S. cerevisiae was substantially reduced by subcloning. A 5.1 kb subfragment, defined by BamHI and SalI restriction sites, retained autonomous replication sequences (ARS) functional in the heterologous S. cerevisiae system and in C. albicans, when inserted in plasmid constructions that carried a S. cerevisiae trichodermin‐resistance gene (tcm1) as selection marker. C. albicans transformants were both of the integrative and the non‐integrative type and the plasmids recovered from the latter very often carried a reorganized ARS, indicating that recombination of the inserted ARS DNA had occurred in the homologous host. Successive reorganizations of the ARS insert in C. albicans eventually led to a more stable and much smaller fragment of 687 bp that was subsequently recovered unchanged from transformants. Sequence analysis of the 687 bp fragment revealed four 11‐base blocks, rich in A+T, that carried the essential consensus sequence considered relevant for yeast ARS elements in addition to other features also described as characteristic of yeast replication origins.