Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Investor Preference for Large Firms: New Evidence on Economies of Size

IN the last several decades, industrial organization literature has been replete with studies demonstrating a systematic relationship between accounting rates of return and firm size in the direction of greater (and more stable) accounting profits for larger firms. ' These studies have been subject to criticism for an alarming number of statistical and conceptual problems, the most important of which alleges a serious bias in accounting profit measures as proxies for economic profit.2 The criticisms have resulted in a stalemate in the interpretation of empirical evidence on firm size and performance. Nevertheless, there is continued interest in the area, ostensibly resulting from policy concerns with large firm advantages in both product and capital markets. This paper provides new evidence concerning the industrial organization literature controversy of the connection between firm size and performance. Stock market data are used to examine the relationship between capital market returns, risk, and firm size. The findings suggest that even if there were no advantages of large size in the product market (equal rates of operating profit), large firms would still have a substantial capital-raising advantage over small firms. This advantage is unrelated to the widely recognized floatation cost economies. Even after controlling for nondiversifiable risk using the Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM), investors still demonstrate a statistically significant and economically important preference for the securities of larger firms. Investors apparently place a premium on large firms which is not attributable to large firms' observed lower risk as captured by the widely used measure of nondiversifiable risk (beta risk). This finding, a fresh contribution to the
Dual Deep Neural Networks Cross-Modal Hashing

Recently, deep hashing methods have attracted much attention in multimedia retrieval task. Some of them can even perform cross-modal retrieval. However, almost all existing deep cross-modal hashing methods are pairwise optimizing methods, which means that they become time-consuming if they are extended to large scale datasets. In this paper, we propose a novel tri-stage deep cross-modal hashing method – Dual Deep Neural Networks Cross-Modal Hashing, i.e., DDCMH, which employs two deep networks to generate hash codes for different modalities. Specifically, in Stage 1, it leverages a single-modal hashing method to generate the initial binary codes of textual modality of training samples; in Stage 2, these binary codes are treated as supervised information to train an image network, which maps visual modality to a binary representation; in Stage 3, the visual modality codes are reconstructed according to a reconstruction procedure, and used as supervised information to train a text network, which generates the binary codes for textual modality. By doing this, DDCMH can make full use of inter-modal information to obtain high quality binary codes, and avoid the problem of pairwise optimization by optimizing different modalities independently. The proposed method can be treated as a framework which can extend any single-modal hashing method to perform cross-modal search task. DDCMH is tested on several benchmark datasets. The results demonstrate that it outperforms both deep and shallow state-of-the-art hashing methods.
Additional translocation (8;21)(q22;q22) in a patient with Philadelphia‐positive chronic myelogenous leukaemia in the blastic phase

We report a case of Philadelphia‐positive chronic myelogenous leukaemia in blastic phase with the additional translocation (8;21)(q22;q22), which is frequent in acute myeloid leukaemia but not in chronic myelogenous leukaemia. The t(8;21) was not detected in the chronic phase, and was the only additional chromosomal anomaly in the blastic clone. Reverse transcription‐polymerase chain reaction revealed the AML1/ETO fusion transcript in the cells of blastic phase but not in those of chronic phase. Regarding t(9;22), the breakpoint on chromosome 22 occurred in the μ‐BCR region of the BCR gene, resulting in hybrid BCR/ABL mRNA with an e19a2 junction. Our findings provided molecular evidence that t(8;21) can occur as an additional genetic change in Philadelphia‐positive chronic myelogenous leukaemia.
The β‐sheet breakers and π‐stacking

Fibrillation of β‐amyloid is recognized as a key process leading to the development of Alzheimer's disease. Small peptides called β‐sheet breakers were found to inhibit the process of β‐amyloid fibrillation and to dissolve amyloid fibrils in vitro, in vivo, and in cell culture studies [1,2]. The mechanism by which peptide inhibition takes place remains elusive and a detailed model needs to be established. Here, we present new insights into the possible role of consecutive Phe residues, present in the structure of β‐sheet breakers, supported by the results obtained by means of MD simulations. We performed a 30‐ns MD of two β‐sheet breakers: iAβ5 (LPFFD) and iAβ6 (LPFFFD) which have two and three consecutive Phe residues, respectively. We have found that Phe rings in these peptides tend to form stacked conformations. For one of the peptides – iAβ6 – the calculated electrostatic contribution to free energy of one of the conformers with three rings stacked (c2) is significantly lower than that corresponding to the unstacked one (c1), two rings stacked (c0) and second conformer with three rings stacked (c3). This may favor the interaction of the c2 conformer with the target on amyloid fibril. We hypothesize that the mechanism of inhibition of amyloidogenesis by β‐sheet breaker involves competition among π‐stacked Phe residues of the inhibitor and π‐stacking within the β‐amyloid fibril. iAβ6 may be a promising candidate for a lead compound of amyloidogenesis inhibitors. Copyright © 2013 European Peptide Society and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Amniotic Epithelial Stem Cells: Salient Features and Possible Therapeutic Role

This is a study of amniotic epithelial cells, which form the innermost layer of the amniotic membrane. These cells can be easily isolated and display peculiar and unique properties, such as plasticity and differentiation potential toward the 3 germinal layers, that may aid regeneration and/or repair of damaged or diseased tissues and organs. A robust literature based on in vitro, experimental, and clinical studies in large animals demonstrates that these cells can enhance the regeneration of tendons, bone, and articular cartilage. On the basis of these considerations, allotransplantation of human amniotic epithelial cells could be proposed for clinical trials in human orthopedic conditions.
NERVOUS NELLIES AND DANGEROUS DANS

Two well-known and related reasons for safety regulations are the existence of externalities and moral hazard. An externality can occur if a person's failure to take safety precautions reduces the health or safety of others. Moral hazard can occur if insurance insulates an individual from the true cost of accidents. If moral hazard and/or externalities are present, the individual may not sufficiently take the costs of carelessness into account, and therefore may not take sufficient care. By requiring the individual to exert care, regulations can help restore behavior to the social optimum. This article does not discuss all the pros and cons of safety legislation. Instead the intent is to introduce two related concepts into the debate--concepts that tend to support mandatory safety regulations. The concepts, termed selective recruitment and propitious selection, are based on differences among individuals in their preference for risk.
Human Leukocyte Antigen Matching, Radiographic Score, and Histologic Findings in Massive Frozen Bone Allografts

Forty-six patients receiving frozen bone allografts, preoperatively tissue typed for human leukocyte antigen and ABO antigens, were radiographically evaluated according to the Musculoskeletal Tumor Society scoring system at a mean followup of 55 months. Patients who matched for 1 or 2 Class I human leukocyte antigens with the donor scored higher than patients totally mismatched, but differences were not significant. Matching for Class II human leukocyte antigen and ABO antigens seemed not to influence radiographic outcome of allografts. In sixteen patients histologic specimens were obtained. Five of 16 patients who showed histologic parameters of an immune response scored significantly lower than those who did not. Processed frozen bone allografts, because of their lack of viable donor cells, most likely trigger an indirect pathway of alloantigen recognition in the recipient. This type of recognition may generate in the recipient either a chronic type of rejection or an immunologic state of tolerance to grafted antigens that cannot be measured with human leukocyte antigen blood tests. This may explain difficulties in correlating human leukocyte antigen mismatches between the donor and recipient with frozen bone allograft performances.
Corporate community responsibility as an outcome of individual embeddedness

Purpose – The purpose of this article is to improve our understanding of the nature of social responsibility in actual practices and, specifically, the influence of individuals on these processes. Design/methodology/approach – An abductive approach is applied (Alvesson and Skoldberg 1994), i.e. theory is developed by moving between theory and four empirical cases. The stories highlight the importance of the individual and closeness to local stakeholders and the presence of overlapping rationales. Findings – The individuals’ simultaneous roles – as owners, managers and community members – influence how they are held or see themselves as accountable and how they account for the firms’ engagement in the community. The activities are conducted in the name of the firm but originate from private as well as business-oriented concerns. Our conclusions encourage an extension of the corporate social responsibility (CSR) construct to approach it as an entangled phenomenon resulting from the firm and the individual e.
Scattered-Site Public Housing and Housing Satisfaction: Implications for the New Public Housing Program

Abstract Can public housing authorities (PHAs) raise the satisfaction levels of residents by pursuing a scattered-site policy, or by revitalizing existing “projects”? To address these and related issues, we apply both crosstabular and regression analysis to the results of 211 telephone interviews with residents of the Cincinnati Metropolitan Housing Authority (CMHA) family housing. The crosstabular results fail to support the hypothesis that those in single-family, scattered-site units are most likely to be satisfied. However, multiple regression analysis, with other variables controlled, shows that such housing indirectly promotes satisfaction through more neighborhood social interaction. The total effect on satisfaction is minimal, however, because of the indirect path of influence. Six other factors besides public housing type promote satisfaction, either directly or indirectly: age, housing cost burden, welfare recipiency, major housing problems (inversely), satisfaction with CMHA tenant involvement p.
A guard interval assisted OFDM symbol-based channel estimation for rapid time-varying scenarios in IEEE 802.lip

IEEE 802.11p standard is a wireless vehicular communication standard meant for outdoor applications. This standard suffers from the challenge of robust channel estimation due to rapid time-varying nature of the channel This paper proposes a novel scheme of channel estimation by utilizing the guard interval of every orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) symbol. For a typical vehicular wireless communication where the channel fades quite rapidly, inter-symbol-interference (ISI) may not be as significant a problem as time varying nature of the channel due to Doppler effect. Hence, the proposed scheme utilizes the redundant space of guard interval (GI) (other than that required for cyclic prefix (CP) to combat ISI) to insert pseudo-random sequence (PRS)for channel estimation. A decision-directed time-domain least squares channel estimation method is proposed using the inserted PRS with CP. Simulation results show that the proposed scheme can considerably improve the bit error rate (BER) performance compared to the existing techniques.
Illness Behavior

Society establishes both formal and informal guidelines that influence the behavior of its members. The behavior of an individual with a chronic condition is shaped by these societal influences as well. The individual who fully recovers from an illness returns to prior behaviors and roles. However, when there is only partial recovery or continuing illness, as with a chronic disease, the individual has to modify or adapt previous behavior and roles to accommodate societal expectations, their own expectations, and their health status. This chapter provides an overview of the illness experience and corresponding behavior demonstrated by those with chronic illness. It is not meant to be a comprehensive review of the entire body of knowledge, which is vast. Historical Perspectives
Energy Management Optimization for Cellular Networks Under Renewable Energy Generation Uncertainty

The integration of renewable energy (RE) as an alternative power source for cellular networks has been deeply investigated in the literature. However, RE generation is often assumed to be deterministic; an impractical assumption for realistic scenarios. In this paper, an efficient energy procurement strategy for cellular networks powered simultaneously by the smart grid (SG) and locally deployed RE sources characterized by uncertain processes is proposed. For a one-day operation cycle, the mobile operator aims to reduce its total energy cost by optimizing the amounts of energy to be procured from the local RE sources and SG at each time period. Additionally, it aims to determine the amount of extra generated RE to be sold back to SG. A chance constrained optimization is first proposed to deal with the RE generation uncertainty. Then, two convex approximation approaches: 1) Chernoff and 2) Chebyshev methods, characterized by different levels of knowledge about the RE generation, are developed to determine the energy procurement strategy for different risk levels. In addition, their performances are analyzed for various daily scenarios through selected simulation results. It is shown that the higher complex Chernoff method outperforms the Chebyshev one for different risk levels set by the operator.
The Case for Liberal Reinsurance Regulation

In 1998 the OECD adopted the ` Recommendation on the Assessment of Reinsurance Companies''. This recommendation requires that reinsurers provide a minimum amount of information, and it obliges ceding insurance companies to assess the soundness of outwards reinsurance. The recommendation is based on the supervisory approach of indirect control of reinsurance. This means that the assessment of reinsurance is part of the prudential supervision of direct insurance.
Men at Work in a Land Down-Under: Testing Some Predictions of Human Capital Theory

We use new training data from waves 3–6 of the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia Survey to investigate training and wages of full-time men. We explore the extent to which the data are consistent with the predictions of human capital theory or with recent alternative theories based on imperfectly competitive labour markets. According to the raw data, most work‐related training received by full‐time private‐sector men is general, but it is also paid for by employers. Our fixed effects estimates reveal that this training is associated with higher wages in current and in future firms, and that the effect in future firms is larger and more precisely determined. These results are more consistent with the predictions of human capital theory based on imperfectly competitive labour markets than with the alternative of perfect competition.
Comparison of the efficacy of tenofovir and entecavir for the treatment of nucleos(t)ide-naive patients with chronic hepatitis B.

BACKGROUND/AIMS Chronic hepatitis B virus infection is an important cause of morbidity and mortality. Tenofovir disoproxil fumarate and entecavir were licensed for the treatment of hepatitis B virus infection. We evaluated the first 12 months of chronic hepatitis B treatments with tenofovir and entecavir and compared their efficiencies. METHODS The study enrolled 94 chronic hepatitis B patients with compensated liver disease. The entecavir group consisted of 29 patients who received entecavir 0.5 mg/day and the tenofovir group consisted of 65 patients who received tenofovir 245 mg/day. There was no statistically significant demographic or HBeAg status difference between the groups. Patients returned to the clinic every four weeks for laboratory assessments of serum chemical and hematologic values, liver function and for documentation of any adverse events. Hepatitis B serologic markers and HBV-DNA levels were assessed every 12 weeks. The primary efficacy endpoint was a plasma HBV-DNA level of less than 400 copies/ml over 48 weeks. RESULTS At the end of 48 weeks, treatment with either tenofovir or entecavir resulted in clinically important suppression of HBV-DNA, as 71.3%. There was no statistical difference in inducing undetectable levels of HBV-DNA between the entecavir (69%) and tenofovir (72.3%) groups. Furthermore, no side effect as an increase in creatinine was seen. HBeAg seroconversion was seen in only one patient in the entecavir group, but in no patients of the tenofovir group. CONCLUSIONS In the first year of treatment for chronic hepatitis B, virologic response and tolerability did not differ significantly between tenofovir and entecavir. Both drugs are safe and efficacious for patients infected with HBV.
Intraperikaryal Neurofilamentous Accumulations in a Subset of Retinal Ganglion Cells in Aged Mice That Express a Human Neurofilament Gene

Neurofilamentous changes in select groups of neurons are associated with the degenerative changes of many human age-related neurodegenerative diseases. To examine the possible effects of aging on the neuronal cytoskeleton containing human proteins, the retinas of transgenic mice expressing the gene for the human middle-sized neurofilament triplet were investigated at 3 or 12 months of age. Transgenic mice developed tangle-like neurofilamentous accumulations in a subset of retinal ganglion cells at 12 months of age. These neurofilamentous accumulations, which also involved endogenous neurofilament proteins, were present in the perikarya and proximal processes of large ganglion cells and were predominantly located in peripheral retina. The presence of the human protein may thus confer vulnerability of the cytoskeleton to age-related alterations in this specific retinal cell type and may serve as a model for similar cellular changes associated with Alzheimer's disease and glaucoma.
Service Innovation in Developing Economies: Policy Rationale and Framework

Abstract Services are becoming dominant activities in the world, and service innovation is a way to increase growth and welfare. Service-innovation policies are justified by a wide range of reasons, including the existence of market and systemic failures. In developing economies, these failures are often more serious than in developed economies. Innovation in services presents specific characteristics that are different from innovation in goods. A policy framework and a policy menu with different options are proposed. They include horizontal and vertical policies, as well as a systemic approach in which services can constitute a key component of any innovation policy.
Using the World Wide Web for Learning New Words in Continuous Speech Recognition Tasks: Two Case Studies

In this paper, Web-based lexicon augmentation is addressed: using various strategies for Out-Of-Vocabulary (OOV) word learning, we discuss their relevance in two types of applications: broadcast news, or topic-specific corpora transcription. The Web-based OOV word learning is first tested on the French news corpus ESTER; the same approach is applied to a very specific corpus concerning surgical interventions. These tests allow us to assess the value of the OOV word learning methods proposed, emphasizing their strengths and weaknesses, regarding the particular type of application considered.
Principals as professional leaders : implications for management of rural secondary schools during transition.

This study is about documenting rural principals' stories, and voices regarding their experiences of education policy changes and how such changes are impacting on their day-to-day management lives. In capturing their experiences and voices, interpretive approach was used to allow the researcher to get behind their skins and faces and be one of them. Rapid changes sometimes overwhelm those people tasked with the responsibility of implementing changes. The study involved 5 cases, purposefully chosen, in the rural district around Durban in the KwaZulu-Natal province, South Africa. Formal and informal conversations were held with principals, School Management Team members, and educators. These conversations were complemented by planned participatory observations, as well as, unannounced visits to the sampled schools. The data produced have shown similarities and differences in these rural communities. They are deeply poor, suffering from the lack of shelter, food, health, clean water, transport, electricity and services. HIV/AIDS is taking enormous tolls in every aspect of community. Unemployment is high and emigration of working-age adults disrupts families, which are left largely as comprised of grandmothers and children. Literacy levels are high, at the same time, the sense of community from the past, now and future is generally high. The communities share similar histories as part of the Zulu nation, through colonialism and apartheid, political-cultural struggles, of the African National Congress/lnkatha Freedom Party conflict, the pressures of modernisation and globalisation. They live on Tribal Authority land, in a confusion of traditional leadership and democratic governance. They see themselves as marginalised, and they are. The socio-cultural, and political confusion is everywhere, at many different levels. Schools themselves are Western imports in their structure and
A high temperature silicon carbide MOSFET power module with integrated silicon-on-insulator based gate drive

This paper presents a board-level integrated silicon carbide (SiC) MOSFET power module for high temperature and high power density applications. Specifically, a silicon-on-insulator (SOI) based gate driver capable of operating at 200°C ambient temperature is designed and fabricated. The sourcing and sinking current capability of the gate driver are tested under various ambient temperatures. Also, a 1200 V/100 A SiC MOSFET phase-leg power module is developed utilizing high temperature packaging technologies. The static characteristics, switching performance, and short-circuit behavior of the fabricated power module are fully evaluated at different temperatures. Moreover, a buck converter prototype composed of the SOI gate driver and SiC power module is built for high temperature continuous operation. The converter is operated at different switching frequencies up to 100 kHz, with its junction temperature monitored by a thermo-sensitive electrical parameter (TSEP) and compared with thermal simulation results. The experimental results from the continuous operation demonstrate the high temperature capability of the power module at a junction temperature greater than 225°C.