Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
IRAs and Household Saving

This paper examines the effects of Individual Retirement Accounts (IRAs) on private and national saving. The authors construct a formal model of dynamic utility maximization that generates closed-form equations for IRA and other saving. Their empirical estimates indicate that raising the annual IRA contribution limit between 1983 and 1986 would have resulted in little, if any, increase in national saving. Results from sensitivity analysis imply substantially smaller effects on national saving than most previous researchers have estimated. The authors' results are consistent with new evidence they present indicating considerable potential among IRA holders to shift taxable forms of saving into IRAs. Copyright 1994 by American Economic Association.
International Hedge of Fixed-Income Contracts

The fixed–income literature is concerned with hedging strategies for controlling the interest rate risk of assets and liabilities held domestically in a single currency. That there is little research dedicated to international immunization may reflect a view that companies and financial institutions dealing internationally need only replicate a single–currency hedging strategy in each country. The authors argue that separate immunization in each country is overly restrictive and may be costly to execute. Instead, they propose a less restrictive strategy treating the assets and liabilities held across currencies as portfolios, and matching the duration of those portfolios. Their immunization strategy should directly reduce the cost of international hedging against interest risk, and indirectly reduce the cost of hedging against currency risk. Simulation results suggest that the proposed strategy should be at least as effective as well as cheaper to implement.
Net Outlay Uncertainty and Liquidity Preference as Behavior toward Risk

In the mean variance portfolio framework, as developed by Tobin, the only reason for holding the riskless asset money is to guard against the possibility of loss of value due to the variability of the rate of return on the risky asset, or assets. The purpose of this paper is to introduce another familiar rationale for liquidity preference into the mean-variance framework and analyze its implications for risk-bearing, portfolio behavior. This rationale stems from the uncertainty surrounding income or inflow and expenditure or outlay or what we may call net outlay (net outlay equals income or inflow minus expenditures or outflow), and the inherent threat of forced portfolio liquidation associated with this type of uncertainty. It is shown that in the net-outlay uncertainty model that risk neutral investors, risk lovers, and plungers may all exhibit portfolio diversifying behavior, unlike their implied behavior in the usual Tobin-type, mean-variance framework. For simplicity we assume that there are only two assets-cash and savings accounts. Like Tobin's [6] analysis and much of the subsequent mean-variance portfolio literature,l we will focus only on one time period. Hence it is assumed that the individual or firm makes a decision about portfolio holdings on the first day of the period and that this decision fixes the portfolio until the last day of the period. We will assume that there is no uncertainty about the rate of return on the savings account on the last day of the period, the concern in the usual mean-
Is There a Relation between Audit Fee Cuts During the Global Financial Crisis and Banks’ Financial Reporting Quality?

As a result of the global financial crisis (GFC), several audit clients were able to negotiate lower audit fees for the years 2008 and 2009. However, the PCAOB has expressed concern that lower audit fees might lead to lower audit effort and lower audit quality and financial reporting quality. This study examines the relation between audit fee cuts and banks’ financial reporting quality. Specifically, we focus on earnings management via loan loss provisions (LLP), the relation between current period LLP and future loan charge-offs, i.e., LLP validity, and the timely recognition of loan losses. For banks audited by Big 4 auditors, we find that income-increasing abnormal LLP are decreasing in audit fee cuts and LLP validity is increasing in audit fee cuts. For banks audited by non-Big 4 auditors, LLP validity is higher for banks that received a fee cut of more than 25 percent relative to other banks audited by non-Big 4 auditors. We do not observe an association between timely loan loss recognition and cuts in audit fees except for banks audited by non-Big 4 auditors and exempt from internal control audits where a fee cut of more than 25 percent is associated with less timely loan loss recognition. Overall, the findings suggest that Big 4 auditors constrained earnings management via LLP in banks that received cuts in audit fees. Our findings have important implications for regulators, investors, and others.
Adenovirus E1A Inhibits SCFFbw7 Ubiquitin Ligase*

The SCFFbw7 ubiquitin ligase complex plays important roles in cell growth, survival, and differentiation via the ubiquitin-proteasome-mediated regulation of protein stability. Fbw7 (also known as Fbxw7, Sel-10, hCdc4, or hAgo), a substrate recognition subunit of SCFFbw7 ubiquitin ligase, facilitates the degradation of several proto-oncogene products by the proteasome. Given that mutations in Fbw7 are found in various types of human cancers, Fbw7 is considered to be a potent tumor suppressor. In the present study, we show that E1A, an oncogene product derived from adenovirus, interferes with the activity of the SCFFbw7 ubiquitin ligase. E1A interacted with SCFFbw7 and attenuated the ubiquitylation of its target proteins in vivo. Furthermore, using in vitro purified SCFFbw7 component proteins, we found that E1A directly bound to Roc1/Rbx1 and CUL1 and that E1A inhibited the ubiquitin ligase activity of the Roc1/Rbx1-CUL1 complex but not that of another RING-type ubiquitin ligase, Mdm2. Ectopically expressed E1A interacted with cellular endogenous Roc1/Rbx1 and CUL1 and decelerated the degradation of several protooncogene products that were degraded by SCFFbw7 ubiquitin ligase. Moreover, after wild-type adenovirus infection, adenovirus-derived E1A interacted with endogenous Roc1/Rbx1 and decelerated degradation of the endogenous target protein of SCFFbw7. These observations demonstrated that E1A perturbs protein turnover regulated by SCFFbw7 through the inhibition of SCFFbw7 ubiquitin ligase. Our findings may help to explain the mechanism whereby adenovirus infection induces unregulated proliferation.
Membrane currents of the tunicate egg under the voltage‐clamp condition.

1. Ionic currents of the egg membrane of a certain tunicate. Halocynthia roretzi Drashe, were studied by the voltage‐clamp technique. 2. The membrane depolarization beyond ‐55mV in standard artificial sea water induced mainly transient inward current and slight outward currents, when the holding potential was kept at ‐99 mV. 3. The transient inward current was composed of two components; the major one showed a faster time course, a more negative critical level of about ‐55 mV, and a reversal potential around +60 mV and the minor one showed a slower time course, a less negative critical level o ‐10 mV, and no definite reversal potential. 4. The major component became maximum at about ‐25 mV with the peak time of 6‐9 msec at 15 degrees C, and the maximum currents ranged from 0‐5 to 1‐5 X 10(‐5) A/cm2. 5. The major component of the inward current was abolished by the replacement of Na with choline or Tris or Cs ions, while it was almost unaltered by the replacement with Li. The minor component was independent of Na concentration in the external solution. 6. The major component showed the activation and inactivation identical with those of Na current of other excitable membranes. A conditioning depolarization over ‐90 mV inactivated the Na current and the half inactivation of the major inward current was obtained by a conditioning pulse to ‐56 mV, when the pulse duration was 400 msec and the temperature was at 15 degrees C. 7. The time course of the Na current was formulated with m and h parameters in the following equations: (see article). 8. The kinetic parameters taum and tauh of egg Na current were calculated and compared with those of the squid axon. The potential dependence of taum and tauh was almost identical with that of the axon, but the absolute values of both taum and tauh were ten‐ to twentyfold larger than those of the axon in any range of the membrane potential. 9. The temperature depdence of the kinetic parameters taum, tauh and of the chord conductance gNa was studied. The Q10's for taum and tauh were both 4‐0, while the Q10 for gNa was 2‐0 in the temperature range from 5 to 20 degrees C. 10. The outward and inward rectifying conductances of egg membrane were remarkably activated at the potential level above +100 mV and below ‐70 mV respectively in standard artificial sea water. Both increased currents were subsequently subject to inactivation. 11. It was suggested that Na, Ca, K inward rectifying and K outward rectifying conductances all exist separately in the egg cell membrane and the Na current was essentially identical with that through the Na channel in other excitable membranes.
The effect of malaria and malaria prevention in pregnancy on offspring birthweight, prematurity, and intrauterine growth retardation in rural Malawi.

While there is broad evidence for the adverse effects of Plasmodium falciparum infection in pregnancy, and the World Health Organization recommends preventive strategies, there is markedly reduced efficacy in sub-Saharan Africa of the most widely available, affordable and used antimalarial drug for chemoprophylaxis-chloroquine (CQ). During 1987-1990, we studied pregnant women in an area of high malaria endemicity in rural Malawi to compare the efficacy of CQ (the drug recommended by national policy) with mefloquine (MQ, a relatively new and highly effective antimalarial) in preventing low birth weight (LBW) due to prematurity and intrauterine growth retardation (IUGR). Among 1,766 women monitored during at least their last six weeks of pregnancy with observed ingestion of their regimen and facility delivery of a live born singleton, their babies had a mean +/- SD birth weight of 2,905 +/- 461 gm and 16.8% had LBW. In a multivariate analysis, factors significantly associated with LBW included: first birth (odds ratio [OR] = 4.27), female infant (OR = 2.92), maternal human immunodeficiency virus infection (OR = 2.66), low maternal weight (OR = 1.95), and placental blood P. falciparum infection (OR = 1.71). Factors significantly associated with IUGR-LBW included first birth, female infant, low maternal weight, and placental malaria. Factors significantly associated with preterm-LBW included maternal syphilis infection, umbilical cord blood malaria, first birth, low maternal weight, and female infant. Use of an effective antimalarial (MQ) was protective against LBW through its effect on reducing placental and umbilical cord blood malaria infection. The proportion of LBW babies born to women on MQ (12.5% [parity-adjusted for the population of delivering women]) was significantly lower than the proportion born to women on CQ (15.5%; P = 0.05). Effective prevention of malaria in pregnant women in malaria-endemic settings may reduce the likelihood of LBW by 5-14%, and may reduce the amount of preventable LBW by more than 30%. When evaluating antenatal care programs, health policy makers must consider providing an effective preventive drug (either MQ or other drugs identified in additional studies, e.g., sulfa-pyrimethamine compounds) as a means to prevent low birth weight and its consequences.
Semi-automated Image Processing for Preclinical Bioluminescent Imaging.

OBJECTIVE Bioluminescent imaging is a valuable noninvasive technique for investigating tumor dynamics and specific biological molecular events in living animals to better understand the effects of human disease in animal models. The purpose of this study was to develop and test a strategy behind automated methods for bioluminescence image processing from the data acquisition to obtaining 3D images. METHODS In order to optimize this procedure a semi-automated image processing approach with multi-modality image handling environment was developed. To identify a bioluminescent source location and strength we used the light flux detected on the surface of the imaged object by CCD cameras. For phantom calibration tests and object surface reconstruction we used MLEM algorithm. For internal bioluminescent sources we used the diffusion approximation with balancing the internal and external intensities on the boundary of the media and then determined an initial order approximation for the photon fluence we subsequently applied a novel iterative deconvolution method to obtain the final reconstruction result. RESULTS We find that the reconstruction techniques successfully used the depth-dependent light transport approach and semi-automated image processing to provide a realistic 3D model of the lung tumor. Our image processing software can optimize and decrease the time of the volumetric imaging and quantitative assessment. CONCLUSION The data obtained from light phantom and lung mouse tumor images demonstrate the utility of the image reconstruction algorithms and semi-automated approach for bioluminescent image processing procedure. We suggest that the developed image processing approach can be applied to preclinical imaging studies: characteristics of tumor growth, identify metastases, and potentially determine the effectiveness of cancer treatment.
Drug-drug interactions in medical patients: effects of in-hospital treatment and relation to multiple drug use.

OBJECTIVES Adverse drug reactions (ADRs) are a major cause of hospital admissions, thereby leading to significant medical and economical problems. Drug interactions contribute to a major part of ADRs, especially in elderly patients and in patients under polymedication. As a peculiarity of the German health care system the general practitioner is less involved in patient care during hospital stay than in other countries. Consequently, changes in medication at the transition point from out-patient to in-patient care and back may contribute to drug-related problems. PATIENTS In the present study we investigated potential interactions in 169 consecutive patients with the diagnosis CHD (coronary heart disease) or COLD (chronic obstructive lung disease) who were admitted to the University Hospitals of Hannover and Magdeburg. METHODS For each patient, potential interactions between prescribed drugs at admission, at discharge, and 3 months after discharge were assessed by using drug interaction data bases. RESULTS We found that the number of drugs taken per patient as well as the number of interactions per patient are higher during hospitalization than before admission (pre-admission), and fall back after the hospital stay (post-discharge), but not to the pre-admission level. The number of potential interactions was significantly correlated in a polynomial manner to the number of drugs taken by each patient. The number of patients without a potential interaction was 44.4% pre-admission, 39.6% at discharge, and 39.1% post-discharge. Patients with potential interactions had a mean of 2.8, 2.7, and 2.4 interactions at each of the time points. Drug classes mainly involved with potential interactions were kaliuretic diuretics (recorded by 43.3% at discharge), ACE inhibitors (30.3%), anticoagulants and aggregation inhibitors (20.4%) and digitalis glycosides (14.7%). Regarding the frequency of the interaction categories, 68-70% of the potential interactions demand clinical attention, while 1-2% are life-threatening. 17-19% may result in therapeutic benefit; 10-12% are without clinical relevance. CONCLUSIONS The risk of drug interactions increases exponentially with the number of drugs given to a patient. Although we have no data on the fraction of interactions that became clinically manifest, our study indicates that prescribing fewer drugs can reduce the risk of suffering from sickness secondary to drug interactions. Taking this risk into account may help to improve the quality of drug treatment and to save costs.
Big Data Technologies: Additional Features or Replacement for Traditional Data Management Systems?

With the data volume that does not stop growing and the multitude of sources that led to diversity of structures, the classic tools of data management became unsuitable for processing and unable to offer effective tools for information retrieval and knowledge management. Thereby, a major challenge has become how to deal with the explosion of data to transform it into new useful and interesting knowledge. Despite the rapid development and change of the databases world, this data management systems diversity presents a difficulty in choosing the best solution to analyze, interpret and manage data according to the user’s needs while preserving data availability. Hence, the imposition of the Big Data in our techno-logical landscape offers new solutions for data processing. In this work, we aim to present a brief of the current buzz research field called Big Data. Then, we provide a broad comparison of two data management technologies.
The Legitimacy and Governance of Norway’s Sovereign Wealth Fund: The Ethics of Global Investment

The Norwegian Government Pension Fund-Global is one of the world's largest sovereign wealth funds and is one of the most transparent institutions of its kind. It also has an explicit mission aimed at integrating long-term investment with a two-sided ethical commitment: to corporate engagement according to accepted global principles of best-practice corporate governance, and to ensuring that the fund is not associated with companies that pose a risk to global social and environmental justice. As such, the Norwegian fund has an ethical mandateâ€”something remarkable when compared with other sovereign wealth funds. In this paper we argue that this mission is best understood in terms of procedural, rather than substantive, justice. Our argument is sustained by reference to recent work on the nature of state authority and legitimacy in democratic societies, the logic of institutional governance, and the functional integration of decision making. The paper focuses on the nature and significance of the recommendations from the advisory Council of Ethics and the exercise of powers related to standards of corporate governance. Implications are drawn for understanding the functional performance of the fund in the context of changing global financial markets.
Finding out the Routes to Escape Poverty: The Relevance of Demographic vs. Labor Market Events in Spain

The knowledge of which events are most effective in pushing households out of deprivation should help in designing poverty-alleviating social policy. Using longitudinal data for Spain, we analyze the nature of events pushing poor households out of poverty, adding an interesting decomposition of transitions: the occurrence of an event and the income change implied by it. We find that, similarly to other developed countries, the events that most help Spanish households in leaving poverty are related to changes in labor status of household members. However, non-labor income changes are significantly more important in Spain than elsewhere. Copyright 2003 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
Greying at the Temples: Demographics of a Public Service Occupation.

Changing societal, occupational, and organizational trends are powerful pressures affecting public sector management. This article explores the effects of these trends, particularly the demographic composition of the workplace, through a study of a local government occupation-public welfare agency workers. Workforce trends of seven local welfare agencies are presented along with the significance of these findings for local governments, welfare administrators, and personnel managers. The picture is one of a relatively stable workforce with some disturbing underlying forces. This paper begins with an overview of the age profile of the agencies and follows with a closer look at the side effects of these trends: plateauing, organizational dynamics created by the baby boom generation, and promotional opportunities. Although the study focuses on public welfare agencies, the problem goes beyond human services and affects many other local, state, and national agencies.
Macroeconomic Cycles and the Stock Market's Reaction to Monetary Policy

This paper examines cyclical variation in the effect of Fed policy on the stock market. We find a much stronger response of stock returns to unexpected changes in the federal funds target rate in recession and in tight credit market conditions. Using firm-level data, we also show that firms that face financial constraints are more affected by monetary shocks in tight credit conditions than the relatively unconstrained firms. Overall, the results are consistent with the credit channel of monetary policy transmission.
Real Estate 'Cycles': Some Fundamentals

This paper demonstrates that different types of real estate can have very different cyclic properties. Empirically, it is shown that they do, and the question is posed as to what might distinguish between property markets where movements are largely stable responses to repeated economic shocks and those undergoing a continuing endogenous oscillation. A stock‐flow model is built in which the future expectations of agents, the development lag, the degree of durability and market elasticities all can vary. Experiments reveal the dynamic behavior of the model varies quite sharply with all these factors. Forward forecasting by agents leads to stability, while myopic behavior promotes oscillations. Oscillations are also much more likely when supply is more elastic than demand, development lags are long, and asset durability is low.
Asymmetrical cascaded multilevel inverter with single DC source using high frequency resonant converter

An alternative implementation of asymmetric cascaded H-bridge (ACHB) inverter is presented in this work. The presented ACHB inverter is using a single DC source. The main bridge is directly connected to the DC source (such as, battery, fuel cell or photovoltaic array). And the auxiliary bridges are fed by isolated series resonant converter (SRC). Voltage of the auxiliary bridge is balanced by controlling the switches of SRC. The SRC is operated in lagging p.f. mode to reduce switching losses. A simple controller has been used to control the SRC converter. The proposed topology is simulated in Matlab/Simulink environment to verify the performance of the system.
Management, Worker Responses, and an Enterprise Trade Union in Transition

We examine management and labor process changes in a Moldovan factory to examine their impact on the trade union as institution. Changes in management structures and work organization have hollowed out key legacies, notably the “labor collective” and informal bargaining, and evoked resistance from workers. The union is disconnected from worker resistance and is faced with major issues concerning its role. We conceptualize it as a “suspended institution. ”
Evaluating factors that cause problem in implementation of knowledge management in Iran's oil and gas industry

Knowledge management is a process that develops, stores, and disseminates information in an organization to have better business performance and gain competitive advantage. Nowadays organizations realized the importance of managing knowledge within organization as a necessity to survive in today’s competitive market. There are several barriers for implementation of knowledge management due to culture and infrastructures. Iran as a developing country faces even more challenges implementing knowledge management in industries. Oil and gas as a leading industry usually pioneers in applying new management concepts in Iran. This research is going to discover and test main knowledge management implementation elements and find lacks in Iran’s oil and gas industry.