Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Molecular grading of urothelial cell carcinoma with fibroblast growth factor receptor 3 and MIB-1 is superior to pathologic grade for the prediction of clinical outcome.

PURPOSE Fibroblast growth factor receptor 3 (FGFR3) mutations were recently found at a high frequency in well-differentiated urothelial cell carcinoma (UCC). We investigated the relationship between FGFR3 status and three molecular markers (MIB-1, P53, and P27kip1) associated with worse prognosis and determined the reproducibility of pathologic grade and molecular variables. PATIENTS AND METHODS In this multicenter study, we included 286 patients with primary (first diagnosis) UCC. The histologic slides were reviewed. FGFR3 status was examined by polymerase chain reaction-single strand conformation polymorphism and sequencing. Expression levels of MIB-1, P53, and P27kip1 were determined by immunohistochemistry. Mean follow-up was 5.5 years (range, 0.4 to 18.4 years). RESULTS FGFR3 mutations were detected in 172 (60%) of 286 UCCs. Grade 1 tumors had an FGFR3 mutation in 88% of patient samples and grade 3 tumors in 16% of patient samples. Conversely, aberrant expression patterns of MIB-1, P53, and P27kip1 were seen in 5%, 2%, and 3% of grade 1 tumors and in 85%, 60%, and 56% of grade 3 tumors, respectively. In multivariate analysis with recurrence rate, progression, and disease-specific survival as end points, the combination of FGFR3 and MIB-1 proved independently significant in all three cases. By using these two molecular markers, three molecular grades (mGs) could be identified: mG1 (mutation; normal expression), favorable prognosis; mG2 (two remaining combinations), intermediate prognosis; and mG3 (no mutation; high expression), poor prognosis. The molecular variables were more reproducible than pathologic grade (85% to 100% v 47% to 61%). CONCLUSION The FGFR3 mutation represents the favorable molecular pathway of UCC. Molecular grading provides a new, simple, and highly reproducible tool for clinical decision making in UCC patients.
Cash Conversion Cycle and Firm’s Performance of Japanese Firms

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relation between a firm's cash conversion cycle and its profitability. Design/methodology/approach - The relation between the firm's cash conversion cycle and its profitability is examined using dynamic panel data analysis for a sample of Japanese firms for the period from 1990 to 2004. The analysis is applied at the levels of the full sample and divisions of the sample by industry and by size. Findings - A strong negative relation between the length of the firm's cash conversion cycle and its profitability is found in all of the authors’ study samples except for consumer goods companies and services companies. Originality/value - Traditional focus in corporate finance was on the long-term financial decisions, particularly capital structure, dividends, and company valuation decisions. However, the recent trend in corporate finance is the focus on working capital management. Most of working capital management literature is based on the US experience. This study investigates the relation between the firm's cash conversion cycle and its profitability of Japanese firms where the organizational structure is totally different from that of the US firms; most of the Japanese firms are interconnected and related through corporate groups (
The Employment Landscape for Accounting Graduates and Work Experience Relevance

This study outlines the results of a survey undertaken at an Australian university in 2007 and examines the factors that are associated with an undergraduate accounting student obtaining a job offer. Undertaking relevant part-time work, academic performance and social (extra-curricular) activities are significant factors leading to job offers prior to graduation. Our study also identifies a high level of part-time work currently undertaken by full-time students, confirming the trend identified in other studies. Interestingly, this high level of part-time work was not found to negatively affect students’ academic performance.
Logboat — A simulation framework enabling CAN security assessments

Traditionally, fieldbus networks are operated in closed environments, where all communication nodes are assumed to be trustworthy. Therefore, the corresponding standards do not consider any security requirements. New technology trends, such as the upcoming Internet of Things (IoT), demand an interconnection between all components of an industrial infrastructure. As a consequence of this, there is a need for tools enabling security assessments and the simulation of protocol-based security improvements. In this paper we introduce Logboat, a flexible Python and Linux based simulation framework for security assessments on Controller Area Network (CAN) networks and make some architectural and technology-selection proposals. Subsequently, the different modules of Logboat and their capabilities are explained and a use case scenario is presented. The paper concludes with an outlook on upcoming research activities on CAN bus security where the presented framework can be of help.
Asymmetric Single-peaked Preferences

Abstract The asymmetry of single-peaked preferences has scarcely been incorporated as an assumption in economic models. We analyze how to deal with asymmetric single-peaked preferences in a tractable way. We define natural types of asymmetries, provide the tools to compare degrees of asymmetry, and propose concrete utility functions that represent different directions and degrees of asymmetry. As an application, we provide a representative voter theorem which establishes the heterogeneity in degrees of asymmetry across agents that is compatible with the median being the representative voter.
Acting Green: Theoretical Framework on Corporate Social Responsibility

This study is aimed to explore the underlying theoretical framework and how and why the companies should conduct the corporate social responsibility. The analysis relies on processing and interpreting relevant professional literatures. The significance of the study positions the fact that attempting to find the connection between theoretical frameworks and the practices of corporate social responsibility. The practices of corporate social responsibility will be analyzed based on legal aspects, corporate accountability theory, stakeholder theory, legitimacy theory, corporate sustainability theory, political economy theory, justice theory, and signaling theory. The result indicates that the underlying theories are supported the implementation of corporate social responsibility.
National Culture and Industrial Relations and Pay Structures

The paper develops an explanatory model of comparative industrial relations and labour market structures based on national culture. The four cultural variables derived by Hofstede (Culture's Consequences, Beverly Hills: Sage, 1984) are used to investigate the relationship between national culture and various dimensions of industrial relations and pay structures. The paper finds national culture to be associated with the centralization of bargaining, the extent of corporatism, the degree of codordination in bargaining, the coverage of collective bargaining, trade union density, the extent of worker participation in decision making, and most dimensions of the pay structure. Hofstede's MAS variable, measuring cultural values representing gender social structuring, is associated with both industrial relations institutions and the pay structure. The results provide support for our cultural model. Copyright Fondazione Giacomo Brodolini and Blackwell Publishers Ltd 2001.
Institutional Changes and Rising Wage Inequality: Is There a Linkage?

In this paper, the authors analyze the role of three institutional changes--the decline in the real value of the minimum wage, deunionization, and economic deregulation--on the rise in wage inequality in the United States during the 1980s. They argue that about a third of the increase in male and female wage inequality can be traced to these institutional changes. Deunionization had a significant effect on the rise in inequality for men, while the minimum wage is what matters most for women. The authors find the direct impact of economic deregulation to be comparatively small.
Controlling Controlling Shareholders

The rules governing controlling shareholders sit at the intersection of the two facets of the agency problem at the core of public corporations law. The first is the familiar principal-agency problem that arises from the separation of ownership and control. With only this facet in mind, a large shareholder may better police management than the standard panoply of market-oriented techniques. The second is the agency problem that arises between controlling and non-controlling shareholders, which produces the potential for private benefits of control. There is, however, a point of tangency between these facets. Because there are costs associated with holding a concentrated position and with exercising the monitoring function, some private benefits of control may be necessary to induce a party to play that role. Thus, from the point of view of public shareholders, the two facets of the agency problem present a tradeoff. The presence of a controlling shareholder reduces the managerial agency problem, but at the cost of the private benefits agency problem. Non-controlling shareholders will prefer the presence of a controlling shareholder so long as the benefits from reduction in managerial agency costs are greater than the costs of private benefits of control. The terms of this tradeoff are determined by the origami of judicial doctrines that describe the fiduciary obligations of a controlling shareholder. In this article, we examine the doctrinal limits on the private benefits of control from a particular orientation. A controlling shareholder may extract private benefits of control in one of three ways: by taking a disproportionate amount of the corporation's ongoing earnings; by freezing out the minority; or by selling control. Our thesis is that the limits on these three methods of extraction must be symmetrical because they are in substantial respects substitutes. We then consider a series of recent Delaware Chancery Court decisions that we argue point in inconsistent directions: on the one hand reducing the extent to which a controlling shareholder can extract private benefits through selling control, and on the other increasing the extent to which private benefits can be extracted through freezing out non-controlling shareholders. While judicial doctrine is too coarse a tool to specify the perfect level of private benefits, we believe these cases get it backwards - the potential for efficiency gains are greater from sale of control than from freeze outs, so that a shift that favors freeze outs as opposed to sales of control is a move in the wrong direction. In particular we argue that the Delaware law of freeze outs can be best reunified by giving "business judgment rule" protection to a transaction that is approved by a genuinely independent special committee that has the power to "say no" to a freeze out merger, while also preserving what amounts to a class-based appraisal remedy for transactions that proceed by freeze out tender offer without a special committee approval.
Evolution of the tension/compression and shear cyclic stress-strain behavior of lead-free solder subjected to isothermal aging

The microstructure, mechanical response, and failure behavior of lead free solder joints in electronic assemblies are constantly evolving when exposed to isothermal aging and/or thermal cycling environments. In our prior work, we have demonstrated that the observed material behavior variations of Sn-Ag-Cu (SAC) lead free solders during elevated temperature aging were unexpectedly large and universally detrimental to reliability. Solder joints in electronic assemblies are typically subjected to thermal cycling, either in actual application or in accelerated life testing used for qualification. Mismatches in the thermal expansion coefficients of the assembly materials leads to the solder joints being subjected to cyclic (positive/negative) mechanical strains and stresses. This cyclic loading leads to thermomechanical fatigue damage that involves damage accumulation, crack initiation, crack propagation, and failure. While the effects of aging on solder constitutive behavior (stress-strain and creep) have been recently examined in some detail, there have been no prior studies on the effects of aging on solder failure and fatigue behavior.In our current work, we have examined effects of several parameters (aging temperature and time, testing temperature, strain/stress limits, and solder alloy composition) on the cyclic stress-strain behavior of SAC lead free solders. Both uniaxial specimens subjected to cyclic tension/compression and Iosipescu lap shear samples subjected to cyclic positive/negative shear have been studied. Samples were subjected to mechanical cycling under both strain control (constant positive and negative strain limits) and stress control (constant positive and negative stress limits). The hysteresis loop size (area) was calculated from the measured cyclic stress-strain curves for a given solder alloy and temperature. This area represents the energy dissipated per cycle, which is correlated to the damage accumulation in the specimen. In this paper, we report on our findings on the effects of isothermal aging on the cyclic stress-strain behavior of SAC lead free solders. Prior to cyclic testing, the specimens were aged (preconditioned) at 125oC for various durations (up to one year). From the recorded cyclic stress-strain curves, we have been able to characterize and empirically model the evolution of the solder hysteresis loops with aging. Similar to solder stress-strain and creep behavior, there is a strong effect of aging on the hysteresis loop size (and thus the rate of damage accumulation) in the solder specimens. The observed degradations in the fatigue/failure behavior of the lead free solders are highly accelerated for lower silver content alloys, and in this paper we concentrate on presenting the results for SAC105 (Sn-1.0Ag-0.5Cu) lead free solder.
The phenomenology of inner speech: comparison of schizophrenia patients with auditory verbal hallucinations and healthy controls

Background Despite the popularity of inner-speech theories of auditory verbal hallucinations (AVHs), little is known about the phenomenological qualities of inner speech in patients with schizophrenia who experience AVHs (Sz-AVHs), or how this compares to inner speech in the non-voice-hearing general population. Method We asked Sz-AVHs (n=29) and a non-voice-hearing general population sample (n=42) a series of questions about their experiences of hearing voices, if present, and their inner speech. Results The inner speech reported by patients and controls was found to be almost identical in all respects. Furthermore, phenomenological qualities of AVHs (e.g. second- or third-person voices) did not relate to corresponding qualities in inner speech. Conclusions No discernable differences were found between the inner speech reported by Sz-AVHs and healthy controls. Implications for inner-speech theories of AVHs are discussed.
Over-the-air deramping for multistatic perimeter surveillance

This paper explores the use of an over-the-air deramping (OTAD) system as a solution for perimeter surveillance. Over-the-air deramping is a technique for wirelessly synchronising distributed passive FMCW radar nodes to a dual-frequency master FMCW transmitter node. Such a system allows simultaneous monostatic and multistatic measurements for improved clutter resilience, and multiple looks at a target for reduced susceptibility to signal fading due to target scintillation. To prove the latter, a simultaneous monostatic and OTAD bistatic node were set up with a 5 m baseline and a walking person was measured. The results show that signal fading occurs in both the monostatic and the bistatic node, but rarely at the same time. Hence, combining the measurements from the two nodes gives a consistent response from the target. This demonstrates OTAD as a compelling system for a robust perimeter surveillance system.
Between bargaining and deliberation: decision-making in the Council of the European Union

The Council of the European Union (EU) is a crucial actor in EU legislative decision-making. However, how it reaches decisions is subject to considerable debate. Constructivists argue that the dominant mode is norm-guided behaviour and deliberation, pointing to the informal ‘culture of consensus’. Scholars working in a rational choice tradition assume that member states strive to maximize their utility and move outcomes as close as possible to their ideal positions, either by using their power in bargaining or by arranging beneficial exchanges of votes. Several bargaining and exchange models have been advanced by this literature. This contribution explores the logics underlying these different conceptualizations of negotiations in the Council of the EU. Furthermore, it discusses the interpretation of the existing empirical results and tasks for future research. Due to observational equivalence empirical findings are often inconclusive.
Three essays on social media-based brand communities

The purpose of this thesis is to investigate the notion of brand communities that are established on social media platforms. Social media has changed marketing practices from information acquisition to post purchase behavior; therefore, it is necessary for marketing scholars and practitioners to update our marketing knowledge according to this new changes. This thesis suggests the brand community lens as a proper and legitimate perspective to study marketing and branding activities on social media platforms because the essence of social media is associated with collective and community building. The first paper of this manuscript not only supports the existential possibilities of brand communities on social media but also more importantly it explores the unique aspects of social media that could interact with brand community practices and argue why we should examine brand community in this new context of social media. The first paper conducts an in-depth qualitative study in two rich brand-generated communities on social media and analyzes their brand community elements and practices. The study shows the qualities of brand community elements, structural relationships (McAlexander, Schouten, & Koenig 2002) and value creation practices (Schau, Muniz, & Arnould 2009) within these communities and extract some unique characteristics of the social media based brand communities that differ from their traditional counterparts. The study concludes five unique dimensions that make social media based brand communities (SMBBCs) distinguished from other offline/online counterparts and argues that this is why brand community researchers should treat brand communities on social media differently and study this phenomena separately. We need to update our understanding of brand community to suit the unique aspects of social media. The second and third papers employ a quantitative approach to show how these communities can influence important marketing variables such as brand trust, brand relationship quality, and brand loyalty. These are marketing fundamental goals that are considered as a way to measure social media success in terms of increasing return on investment. These papers depict how different elements and building blocks of these communities on social media interact and influence trust and loyalty. The second paper shows the role of community engagement as a moderator while the third paper provides a big picture of consumer behavior in the context of brand communities that are established on social media. Several important measures such as value creation practices are developed in this paper.
Export expansion and economic growth: testing for cointegration and causality

This paper develops a multivariate error-correction model to test the causality between exports and growth in 15 Asian countries, 1967-91. The underlying series are tested as non-stationary in levels but stationary in first differences. The causal factors are cointegrated in five of these countries only. Causality test results indicate that export expansion causes growth in two-third of these countries, corrected for simultaneity between the causal factors. A country with a large public sector, higher level of economic development, and which is less vulnerable to external economic shocks is more likely to reap the benefits of export promotion strategies. The causal inferences are fairly stable over the sample period.
Review: debridement using hydrogel appears to be more effective than standard wound care for healing diabetic foot ulcers

Main results 5 RCTs met the selection criteria. 3 trials compared hydrogel as a method of debridement with standard wound care (good wound care or gauze). 1 trial compared hydrogel with larval therapy. 1 trial compared surgical debridement with conservative care. In all 5 trials, the primary outcome was complete wound closure. Sample sizes ranged from 29 to 172 patients. In 4 studies, follow up durations ranged from 3 to 6 months. Meta-analysis of 3 studies showed that hydrogel was associated with a greater proportion of ulcers completely healed and fewer complications than standard wound care (table). In 1 study, larvae and hydrogel did not differ for proportion of ulcers completely healed (7% v 3%, follow up duration not reported). In 1 trial, surgical debridement and conservative care did not differ for proportion of ulcers completely healed (95% v 79%, p=0.1), recurrence rates (14% v 33%, p=0.14), or complication rates (5% v 13%, p=0.4) at 6 months.
Game Theory in Finance

This paper provides an overview of game theory, in particular its applications in finance. Traditional models in which the uninformed agent moves first are examined initially, and this is followed by an examination of models in which the informed agent moves first. Some of the equilibrium concepts which are discussed are: Nash equilibrium, subgame perfection, sequential equilibrium, the Cho-Kreps intuitive criterion and the Banks-Sobel divinity and universal divinity refinements. Applications to corporate control, capital structure, dividends and stock repurchases, external financing, and financial intermediation are reviewed.
Effects of Tadalafil on Platelets and Endothelium in Patients With Erectile Dysfunction and Cardiovascular Risk Factors: A Pilot Study

Activation of endothelial cells and platelets is an initial step toward the development of cardiovascular disease. Erectile dysfunction (ED) may be an early manifestation of endotheliopathy. We evaluated the effects of tadalafil on cyclic nucleotides (cGMP and cAMP) and soluble adhesion molecules (E- and P-selectin [ES and PS]). The patients were divided into 2 groups on the basis of the presence (10 patients) or absence (9 patients) of cardiovascular risk factors (dyslipidemia, hypertension, and smoking). Nitric oxide (NO) was unmeasurable in all the patients. Tadalafil administration induced a significant increase in cGMP levels in both groups (P < .01). In contrast, cAMP significantly increased (P < .05) and PS decreased (P < .01) only in patients without cardiovascular risk factors. Tadalafil induced a beneficial effect on platelet activation in patients with ED without cardiovascular risk factors; this effect was not mediated by NO.