Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Meatpacker Conduct in Fed Cattle Pricing: An Investigation of Oligopsony Power

Market power in regional fed cattle markets is measured with an econometric model which links behavior of the margin between boxed beef and fed cattle prices to an economic model of conduct. A noncooperative game theoretic model suggests that for tacitly collusive pricing behavior to persist in equilibrium, oligopsonists must follow a discontinuous pricing strategy. Meatpackers pay low prices for cattle during cooperative phases and purchase cattle aggressively during noncooperative phases. Tests for cooperative/noncooperative conduct and measures of market power are presented. Fed cattle prices in four direct trade regions in the central United States are examined. Evidence of cooperative/noncooperative conduct is present in all markets but has declined over time. Varying conduct across markets and over time suggests it is important to continue monitoring fed cattle markets to assure a competitive environment.
SMEs in the Philippine Manufacturing Industry and Globalization: Meeting the Development Challenges

In recognition of their substantial contribution to the economy both in terms of number of enterprises and workers, the Philippine government has put in place a number of policies and programs designed specifically to boost SME productivity and competitiveness in the country. However, the performance of SMEs in the last decade has not been vigorous enough to boost the Philippine manufacturing industry. As such, the deepening of high technology industries in terms of the creation of backward linkages has remained weak. While the country’s exports of high technology products have grown rapidly, the value added of these exports is very low due to the limited links of large domestic and foreign companies to the domestic economy. Rapid changes in the international trade and the growing complexity of global production system, pose a significant challenge to Filipino SMEs. This paper reviews existing government SME policies as well as recent developments in the manufacturing sector, within the context of the emerging global production network. The paper draws on the findings of a survey interview of SMEs in the automotive, electronics, and garments sectors. The paper highlights the importance of creating a separate government office that would coordinate SME policies and programs to support the integration of SMEs in the global production chain.
A factor of inducing IgE from a filarial parasite prevents insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus in nonobese diabetic mice.

Parasitic helminth infections are characterized by eosinophilia and markedly elevated levels of circulating antigen-nonspecific immunoglobulin E (IgE), responses from which concern helminth protection. We previously purified a factor from Dirofilaria immitis that induces antigen-nonspecific IgE in mice and rats. Recombinant DiAg (rDiAg) has various biological activities. It is also known that parasitic helminth infection generates tremendous Th2 responses. The nonobese diabetic (NOD) mouse spontaneously develops Th1 cell-dependent autoimmune diabetes. Here we investigated the effects of rDiAg on the initiation and progression of this disease. rDiAg treatment of 6-week-old NOD females (the age at which insulitis typically begins) completely prevented insulitis and diabetes. Thus, rDiAg impaired the islet Ag-specific Th1 cell response in vivo, and the prevention of diabetes by rDiAg was associated with switching of the response from a Th1 to a Th2 profile. Since rDiAg clearly prevented insulitis by inhibiting the development and further accumulation of pathogenic Th1 cells to islets of Langerhans, we conclude that DiAg is a native Th2 inducer in filarial helminth and that Th1 responses are required for early events in the development of spontaneous autoimmune diabetes. In conclusion, the presence of parasitic helminth infections may play an important role as an immunomodulator in some autoimmune diseases or allergies.
Contracts and Exits in Venture Capital Finance

Using a sample of European venture capital (VC) investments, I study the relation between VC contracts and exits. The data indicate that ex ante, stronger VC control rights increase the likelihood that an entrepreneurial firm will exit by an acquisition, rather than through a write-off or an IPO. My findings are robust to controls for a variety of factors, including endogeneity and cases in which the VC preplans the exit at the time of contract choice. My findings are consistent with control-based theories of financial contracting, such as Aghion and Bolton (1992). The Author 2008. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Society for Financial Studies. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org, Oxford University Press.
Workplace resistance in an Irish call centre: slammin’, scammin’ smokin’ an’ leavin’

This article examines workplace conflict in an Irish call centre. It criticizes managerial and post-structural accounts of resistance for failing to see that workplace conflict continues to be located in structural issues, such as the employment relationship, making pay, productivity and work intensification the source of conflict. In adopting Martinez Lucio and Stewart’s (1997) notion of the collective worker, the article will show that in subordinated work conditions, workers engage in a recipe of informal collective practices that are organically borne out of their daily work experiences.
Carolina Chickadee (Poecile carolinensis) Calling Behavior in Response to Threats and in Flight: Flockmate Familiarity Matters

Signalers can vary their vocal behavior, depending on the presence or absence of conspecific group members, and on the composition of the group. Here we asked whether Carolina chickadee (Poecile carolinensis) signalers varied their vocal behavior, depending on whether they were in the presence of familiar or unfamiliar flockmates. We sorted 32 Carolina chickadees into 4 groups with 4 familiar birds each and 4 groups with 4 unfamiliar birds each and recorded their behavior in seminatural aviary settings. We presented the familiar and unfamiliar aviary groups with a variety of stimuli ranging in level of threat and assessed birds’ calling behavior in these contexts. Birds housed with familiar flockmates called sooner in threatening stimulus presentations compared with birds housed with unfamiliar flockmates. Call rates and note compositions of calls produced did not differ for the 2 types of flock. Upon release from the captive aviaries, birds from familiar flocks were also more likely to call in flight than were birds from unfamiliar aviaries. These findings suggest that chickadees vary their calling behavior as a function of experience with their surrounding social audience and provide insight into mechanisms of flock cohesion and relationship formation and maintenance within flocks.
The Ohlson Model: Contribution to Valuation Theory, Limitations, and Empirical Applications

The work of Ohlson (1995) and Feltham and Ohlson (1995) had a profound impact on accounting research in the 1990s. In this paper, we first discuss this valuation framework, identify its key features, and put it in the context of prior valuation models. We then review the numerous empirical studies that are based on these models. We find that most of these studies apply a residual income valuation model without the information dynamics that are the key feature of the Feltham and Ohlson framework. We find that few studies have adequately evaluated the empirical validity of this framework. Moreover, the limited evidence on the validity of this valuation approach is mixed. We conclude that there are many opportunities to refine the theoretical framework and to test its empirical validity. Consequently, the praise many empiricists have given the models is premature.
Approximating dependency grammars through intersection of star-free regular languages

The paper formulates the Hays and Gaifman dependency grammar (HGDG) in terms of constraints on a string based encoding of dependency trees and develops an approach to obtain a regular approximation for these grammars. Our encoding of dependency trees uses brackets in a novel fashion: pairs of brackets indicate dependencies between pairs of positions rather than boundaries of phrases. This leads to several advantages: (i) HGDG rules over the balanced bracketing can be expressed using regular languages. (ii) A new homomorphic representation for context-free languages is obtained. (iii) A star-free regular approximation for the original projective dependency grammar is obtained by limiting the number of stacked dependencies. (iv) By relaxing certain constraints, the encoding can be extended to non-projective dependency trees and graphs, (v) strong generative power of HGDGs can now be characterized through sets of bracketed strings.
Corporate Investment Criteria and the Valuation of Risk Assets

A normative theory of capital budgeting requires determination of the correct cost of capital for the evaluation and selection of risky investment projects. Since different uses of funds within the firm may involve different degrees of uncertainty, the normative theory should take into account the effects of changes in the composition of the firm's portfolio of productive assets on its market valuation. The normative theory must therefore be based on a positive theory of market valuation. The objective of this paper is to develop and test an empirical specification of the positive theory.
Does Mandatory Adoption of International Financial Reporting Standards in the European Union Reduce the Cost of Equity Capital?

This study examines whether the mandatory adoption of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) in the European Union (EU) in 2005 reduces the cost of equity capital. Using a sample of 6,456 firm-year observations of 1,084 EU firms during the 1995 to 2006 period, I find evidence that, on average, the IFRS mandate significantly reduces the cost of equity for mandatory adopters by 47 basis points. I also find that this reduction is present only in countries with strong legal enforcement, and that increased disclosure and enhanced information comparability are two mechanisms behind the cost of equity reduction. Taken together, these findings suggest that while mandatory IFRS adoption significantly lowers firms’ cost of equity, the effects depend on the strength of the countries’ legal enforcement.
Chinese Urban Reform: What Model Now? Edited by R. Yin-Wang Kwok, William L. Parish and Anthony Gar-On Yeh, with Xu Xueqiang. [Armonk, New York: M. E. Sharpe, Inc., 1990. 258 pp. $39.95.]

Davin writes on the latest developments in China's rural population policy; Johannes Kuchler provides a comprehensive review of the s nation's poverty alleviation programme; and Walther Aschmoneit has produced a "quality of life index" for all China's counties, the results I of which are neatly summarized in a folded map included inside the back cover of the book. I Perhaps as a result of its ambitious, multi-disciplinary objective of I studying the entire spectrum of rural society, parts of the book do suffer from a lack of rigorous analysis and the inclusion of bits of tedious description which are sometimes laden with unhelpful, out-ofdate and even misleading generalities. Social scientists today have unprecedented access to large amounts of disaggregated and detailed secondary data and can engage in open discussions with a wide variety of institutional leaders and social actors. Some of the articles give the impression, however, that the authors were either unaware of these sources, or were unwilling (or unable) to search them out. In the 1990s, articles on labour markets, social welfare systems and irrigation management schemes should be based on such intensive research efforts if they are to contribute to new understanding in the field.
Arrhythmia Classification with Reduced Features by Linear Discriminant Analysis

In this study, we proposed 17 input features based on wavelet coefficients for arrhythmia detection and, by applying linear discriminant analysis to these, reduced the feature dimension to be 4. Then, with newly constructed 4 dimension input feature, a multi-layer perceptrons classifier was tried to detect 6 types of arrhythmia beats. For evaluation of input features by linear discriminant analysis, the arrhythmia detection efficiency with these (LDA) was compared to that with original input features (ORG) and that with of input features by principle component analysis (PCA) respectively. When LDA was compared to ORG, the former showed similar or a little higher values than the latter for different types of arrhythmia beats except SVT. And, LDA showed to be persistently higher than PCA. By theses cross-validations, for the detection of several types of arrhythmia beats, the reduction of input feature dimension by linear discriminant analysis was revealed to be prior to that by principle component analysis. Even if LDA was compared to ORG, it maintained the acceptable level efficiency so that the time and computational costs would be expected to be cutdown dramatically. Finally, by the proposed algorithm, we could obtain the good accuracy of arrhythmia detection and that of NSR, SVT, PVC and VF was 99.52%, 99.43%, 98.59% and 99.88%, respectively
Approaches to identifying key sectors empirically by means of input‐output analysis

On the basis of input‐output tables from developing countries sectors are distinguished according to the degree of their interdependencies. Using 20 standard sectors for all 22 tables analysed, the paper takes the intensity of interindustrial linkages as an indicator of a sector's ability to spread growth impulses to its economic environment. Backward and forward linkages are calculated; in addition, spread effects are computed via the inverse matrix. Then the sectors are classified according to their total (direct and indirect) primary input requirements per unit of final demand. The analysis is supplemented by the determination of the sectoral employment impact, i.e. applying figures for the persons engaged sectorwise. Particularly under the linkage aspect, the obtained rankings are checked for similarity. Although some rankings are highly correlated, none of the criteria under consideration proves superior to all others.
Does the Student-Loan Burden Weigh into the Decision to Start a Family?

I examine the relationship between student debt and the timing of marriage. The life-cycle consumption smoothing model implies that student loans should have a very small effect on consumption at any given point in time and should not affect the timing of family formation. I use the Survey of Consumer Finances to show that the amount of student borrowing is negatively related to the probability of marriage, but the strength of this relationship diminishes with age. I use exogenous variations in the availability of student loans since the 1970s to address the endogeneity of student debt. I supplement my results with data from a panel survey of registrants for the Graduate Management Admission Test. Data on reported marriage expectations suggest that Master of Business Administration students who borrow for their education may not have perfect foresight.
Effects of nicardipine and diltiazem on the bispectral index and 95% spectral edge frequency

Background and objective: Previous studies have shown that L-type voltage-sensitive Ca2+ channel blocking agents increased and the L-type Ca2+ channel activator Bay K 8644 reduced the general anaesthetic potency in animals. As the bispectral index correlates with the depth of sedation, we examined whether L-type Ca2+ channel blocking agents affect the bispectral index. Methods: Thirty hypertensive patients (systolic arterial pressure >160 mmHg) presenting for total intravenous anaesthesia with propofol, fentanyl and ketamine were recruited. Bispectral index monitoring was commenced directly the patients arrived in the operating theatre. All patients were given either nicardipine or diltiazem intravenously at the discretion of the anaesthesiologist in charge. Results: Twenty-three and seven patients received nicardipine or diltiazem, respectively. The bispectral index level (mean (95% confidence interval)) did not change with either drug. In the nicardipine group, the bispectral index at 0, 5, 10 and 15 min was 55 (52-58), 55 (51-59), 55 (52-59) and 56 (53-59), respectively. In the diltiazem group, values were 59 (48-71), 60 (51-70), 61 (52-71) and 61 (50-72), respectively. Both L-type Ca2+ channel blocking agents significantly decreased arterial pressure. Conclusions: Clinical doses of nicardipine and diltiazem do not alter the bispectral index during general anaesthesia.
Cultural policy as development policy: evidence from the United States

Cultural policies and cultural projects in the United States have been reframed to emphasize their economic benefits to cities. New alliances between arts advocates and place promoters are apparent at all levels, but are most prominent locally. These new alliances are facilitated by the changing interests of local officials and business people, who have come to believe there is economic value in the arts and of arts administrators, for whom attracting broader public support has become imperative. In some cities, entirely new organizational structures have sprung up to plan and implement projects that serve cultural and economic development advocates simultaneously. Such new institutions are most prominent in more economically disadvantaged cities.
The benefits of the implementation of the ISO 9000 standard: empirical research in 288 Spanish companies

Since 1987, when the International Organization for Standardization accepted a series of quality norms – the ISO 9000 standards – large companies and small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) have been obliged to open their doors to something new: the culture of quality, a message which is very often associated with the initials of this well‐known standard. In Spain there are around 6,000 companies with this certificate, but they have not always obtained the same results. In this article we expose the results of an empirical research developed in 288 Spanish companies, to determine what the benefits are of the implementation of this standard. With a cluster analysis we found the existence of different typologies of companies. We found that nearly 65 per cent of the companies that have been certified in Spain have obtained very high levels of internal and external benefits.
Predicting beef carcass cutability.

Analyses were conducted to develop and test the efficacy of beef carcass cutability prediction equations. Data from 1,602 calf-fed steer carcasses (Germplasm Utilization Project; GPU) were used to develop the equations and an additional 1,160 calf-fed steer carcasses (Germplasm Evaluation Project; GPE) were used to validate the equations. In both experimental groups, USDA yield grade ranged from < 1 to > 5 and the SD of yield grade was > . 8 indicating a relatively large amount of variation in carcass cutability. Models were developed to predict boneless, totally trimmed retail product yield (RPYD), fat trim yield (FATYD), and bone yield (BONEYD) using 1) carcass traits, 2) carcass traits and wholesale rib dissection traits, 3) carcass traits and 9-10-11 rib dissection traits, and 4) carcass traits and 9-10-11 rib dissection and chemical traits. For each dependent variable, the best single predictor was a wholesale rib dissection trait, and the best higher order model contained at least one wholesale rib dissection trait. Equations developed explained 87, 88, and 77% of the variation in RPYD, FATYD, and BONEYD, respectively. When validated against GPE carcasses, models developed from GPU carcasses explained 74, 78, and 69% of the phenotypic variation and 96, 94, and 84% of the genetic variation in RPYD, FATYD, and BONEYD, respectively. Prediction of carcass cutability using carcass and wholesale rib dissection traits should allow for rapid, precise, and cost-effective assessment of variation in cutability.
Psychiatric Comorbidity in Pediatric Patients With Demyelinating Disorders

Little is known about psychiatric aspects of pediatric demyelinating conditions. A total of 23 youths (6-17 years) with demyelinating conditions underwent semistructured psychiatric interviews using the Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia for School-Age Children—Present and Lifetime Version. Adolescents and parents completed the Child Symptom Inventory-4 and the Youth’s Inventory-4. Fears and conceptions of their neurological problems were elicited. In all, 48% (n = 11) met criteria for current psychiatric diagnoses, including 27% (n = 3) with depressive disorders and 64% (n = 7) with anxiety disorders. Fears and conceptions of the illness were severe and diverse. Depressive and anxiety disorders are common in pediatric demyelinating disease. Clinicians should therefore screen for psychiatric comorbidity symptoms as part of the routine evaluation of such patients.
Did democracy bring redistribution? Insights from the Spanish tax system, 1960-1990

The relationship between democracy, inequality and redistribution has inspired extensive research, but consensus is still elusive. In order to contribute to this discussion, the author analyses the Spanish case, where transition to democracy was accompanied by a comprehensive tax reform, aiming at increasing progressivity and revenue. But how effectively did it change the distribution of the tax burden? Was there a ‘fiscal revolution’? The results show that persistent regressivity (albeit decreasing) exacerbated income inequality, failing to attain convergence with more developed countries. The joint effect of the fiscal system, however, was slightly positive due to progressive social spending.
The Pricing of Initial Public Offers of Corporate Straight Debt

This study examines the initial-day and aftermarket price performance of corporate straight debt IPOs. We find that IPOs of speculative grade debt are underpriced like equity IPOs, while those rated investment grade are overpriced. IPOs of investment grade debt are typically issued by firms listed on the major exchanges and underwritten by prestigious underwriters. In contrast, junk bond IPOs are more likely to be handled by less prestigious underwriters and are typically issued by OTC firms. Our analysis also reveals that bond rating, market listing of the firm, and investment banker quality are significant determinants of bond IPO returns.