Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Services Versus Goods Trade: Are they the Same?

In this paper we compare static and dynamic features of trade in goods and trade in services at the micro level. By using data from the same country, Belgium, and by making use of a common definition of transaction, we are able to enrich the existing qualitative comparisons with quantitative insights and to fill the existing gap in the literature. First, we analyze static features of trade such as participation rates, firms characteristics, heterogeneity, concentration and trade variation. Then, we explore dynamic aspects focusing on entry, exit, survival and growth strategy in foreign markets. From a static perspective, our results reveal that there are limited qualitative differences between trade in goods and trade in services and even the quantitative ones do not justify the need of different theoretical models. In the time dimension instead, some key peculiarities of services offer new insights for differentiating between the two.
Impact of hormone replacement therapy on microvascular function in healthy and Type 2 diabetic postmenopausal women

Aims Hormone replacement therapy (HRT) has been previously reported to modulate vascular function and cardiovascular risk. Its impact on the macrocirculation has previously been explored, however, little data is available on its impact on the microcirculation. This study aimed to determine the impact of HRT on microvascular function in healthy and Type 2 diabetic postmenopausal women (n = 20 and 17, respectively).
UK Real National Income, 1950-1998: Some Grounds for Optimism

It has been claimed using the concept of the Index of Sustainable Economic Welfare (ISEW) that there has been an absolute decline in sustainable living standards in the UK since the mid-1970s. Revisions to ISEW are proposed to make it more nearly a measure of utility-based real national income. In particular, ISEW should be revised to take account of much-improved life expectancy. Implementing any of the suggested revisions reverses the finding of absolute decline while implementing all of them results in a growth rate higher than that of real GDP per head in the national accounts.
Exploring illegal guarantees between group companies: a case from Turkey

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to discuss that in an uncontrolled business environment public companies' resources may be abused to fund other group companies by their management.Design/methodology/approach – The paper has been designed on fraud theory. The theory has been developed on interviews with key management personnel, financial analysis, audit tests and gathering the facts on each step.Findings – The paper concludes that in an uncontrolled financial market, owners, executives and statutory company auditors acting in harmony may break the financial rules, statutory obligations and convert a healthy public company into bankruptcy by means of milking its resources to other group companies on unfeasible projects or on individual pleasures.Practical implications – Auditors both internal and external should pay attention to intragroup transactions. Companies, partially or wholly owned by the public might be under the influence of owner/executives. Here, it is not only the government interests a.
Cloning and characterization of mepA, the structural gene of the penicillin‐insensitive murein endopeptidase from Escherichia coli

The putative structural gene mepA of the penicillin‐insensitive murein endopeptidase from Escherichia coli was cloned and sequenced. N‐terminal sequence determination with the isolated endopeptidase protein showed that this enzyme is coded by the mepA gene and that it is synthesized initially with an N‐terminal signal peptide. No significant sequence homoiogy with the other (penicillin‐sensitive) murein endopeptidase (dacB) or any other protein was found. The precise chromosomal mapping position of mepA relative to two other genes, aroC and fabB, was shown to be 50.4 min. E. coli strains carrying multicopy plasmids with the mepA gene produced 5‐6‐fold more endopeptidase and secreted it into the periplasm, where it appeared to function normally in vivo since the release of ceil wall peptides into the medium increased in parallel. The transformed cells were, however, not unusually sensitive to penicillin and their murein had a normal degree of cross‐bridges.
The anti-biofilm activity secreted by a marine Pseudoalteromonas strain

Bacterial biofilms occur on all submerged structures in marine environments. The authors previously reported that the marine bacterium Pseudoalteromonas sp. 3J6 secretes antibiofilm activity. Here, it was discovered that another Pseudoalteromonas sp. strain, D41, inhibited the development of strain 3J6 in mixed biofilms. Confocal laser scanning microscope observations revealed that the culture supernatant of strain D41 impaired biofilm formation of strain 3J6 and another marine bacterium. A microtiter plate assay of the antibiofilm activity was set up and validated with culture supernatants of Pseudoalteromonas sp. 3J6. This assay was used to determine the spectra of action of strains D41 and 3J6. Each culture supernatant impaired the biofilm development of 13 marine bacteria out of 18. However, differences in the spectra of action and the physical behaviours of the antibiofilm molecules suggest that the latter are not identical. They nevertheless share the originality of being devoid of antibacterial activity against planktonic bacteria.
The Implied Cost of Equity Capital, Corporate Investment and Chief Executive Officer Turnover

This study investigates how the cost of equity capital, along with corporate investment, affects chief executive officer (CEO) turnover decisions. We hypothesize that the cost of equity conveys information about firm performance uncertainty that is informative of CEO talent. Consistently, our empirical results show that the likelihood of CEO turnover is positively associated with the implied cost of equity, after controlling for earnings and stock performance measures and risk factors. Additional analysis of reverse causality supports the causal effect of the high cost of equity on CEO dismissals. We also find that the positive association is more pronounced for firms that are more likely to suffer from underinvestment problems. These results suggest that the cost of equity plays a more important role in assessing CEO performance when the firm needs more external equity capital to pursue investment opportunities.
The Australian Citizenship Test: Process and Rhetoric

In late 2007, Australia's relatively liberal citizenship eligibility requirements were modified, ostensibly to improve the value of citizenship by restricting access to it. A key change involved the introduction of a citizenship test. This article tracks its development and implementation. We challenge claims of overwhelming support for the test, explore the discourses around the "Australian values" being tested, and outline the process by which the legislation was enacted (during which a number of principles of parliamentary democracy were compromised). Using evidence from politicians' speeches, we argue the citizenship test served to re-direct the Australian imagination away from a nascent "multicultural" identity, back to one redolent of the times of the "White Australia Policy", confidently celebrating connections with an Anglo-Saxon heritage, the European Enlightenment, and Judeo-Christian roots. As such it was a key aspect of the 1996-2007 Howard Government's retreat from multiculturalism.
Are ERP systems a source of competitive advantage

Packaged enterprise application software vendors claim that ERP systems are a source of competitive advantage. On the other hand, Nicholas Carr says that IT has become a commodity, and therefore that investments in IT, including ERP, are unlikely to be sources of competitive advantage. This paper asks who is right. Evidence from three surveys and a single case study suggests that ERP systems provide benefits such as improved information visibility, personnel and inventory reduction, productivity improvement and new improved processes. However, since ERP software has been available for many years, and benefits such as those listed have been realized by many firms, it is argued that ERP software is an unlikely source of competitive advantage either through opportunities for strategic positioning or through gains in operational effectiveness. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Micro‐proteomics with iterative data analysis: Proteome analysis in C. elegans at the single worm level

Proteomics studies typically analyze proteins at a population level, using extracts prepared from tens of thousands to millions of cells. The resulting measurements correspond to average values across the cell population and can mask considerable variation in protein expression and function between individual cells or organisms. Here, we report the development of micro‐proteomics for the analysis of Caenorhabditis elegans, a eukaryote composed of 959 somatic cells and ∼1500 germ cells, measuring the worm proteome at a single organism level to a depth of ∼3000 proteins. This includes detection of proteins across a wide dynamic range of expression levels (>6 orders of magnitude), including many chromatin‐associated factors involved in chromosome structure and gene regulation. We apply the micro‐proteomics workflow to measure the global proteome response to heat‐shock in individual nematodes. This shows variation between individual animals in the magnitude of proteome response following heat‐shock, including variable induction of heat‐shock proteins. The micro‐proteomics pipeline thus facilitates the investigation of stochastic variation in protein expression between individuals within an isogenic population of C. elegans. All data described in this study are available online via the Encyclopedia of Proteome Dynamics (http://www.peptracker.com/epd), an open access, searchable database resource.
Transcatheter Transplantation of Autologous Skeletal Myoblasts in Postinfarction Patients with Severe Left Ventricular Dysfunction

Purpose: To report a case-controlled safety and feasibility study of transcatheter transplantation of autologous skeletal myoblasts as a stand-alone procedure in patients with ischemic heart failure. Methods: Six men (mean age 66.2±7.2 years) were eligible for transcatheter transplantation of autologous skeletal myoblasts cultured from quadriceps muscle biopsies. Six other men (mean age 65.7±6.3 years) were selected as matched controls (no muscle biopsies). A specially designed injection catheter was advanced through a femoral sheath into the left ventricle cavity, where myoblasts in solution (0.2 mL/injection) were injected into the myocardium via a 25-G needle. At baseline and in follow-up, both groups underwent Holter monitoring, a 6-minute walk test, New York Heart Association (NYHA) class determination, and echocardiography with dobutamine challenge. Results: Skeletal myoblast transplantation was technically successful in all 6 patients with no complications; 19±10 injections were performed per patient (210times106±150times106 cells implanted per patient). Left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) rose from 24.3%±6.7% at baseline to 32.2%±10.2% at 12 months after myoblast implantation (p=0.02 versus baseline and p<0.05 versus controls); in matched controls, LVEF decreased from 24.7%±4.6% to 21.0%±4.0% (p = NS). Walking distance and NYHA functional class were significantly improved at 1 year (p= 0.02 and p= 0.001 versus baseline, respectively), whereas matched controls were unchanged. Conclusions: Transcatheter transplantation of autologous skeletal myoblasts for severe left ventricular dysfunction in postinfarction patients is feasible, safe, and promising. Scrutiny with randomized, double-blinded, multicenter trials appears warranted.
Impaired Lymphocyte Responses and Their Restoration in Oral Cancer Patients Expressing Distinct TCR Variable Region

We have analyzed TCR Vβ gene usage and clonality of T cells in the peripheral blood of patients with oral cancer and healthy individuals. A large repertoire of clonal TCR Vβ was observed in the peripheral blood of cancer patients, and this clonal expansion was dominantly represented in the CD8+ T cells. A marked decrease in the lymphocyte proliferative responses to mitogen and anti-CD3 MAb and spontaneous apoptosis was observed in lymphocytes. Appropriate co-stimulation of lymphocytes (anti-TCR Vβ MAb and anti-CD28 MAb) restored the lymphocyte proliferative responses and CD3-ζ chain expression in these patients.
A Summary of Research and Enforcement Release Evidence on Confirmation Use and Effectiveness

SUMMARY: Confirmations are extensively used and are often perceived by practitioners to be one of the most persuasive forms of audit evidence. Yet academic research has found limitations that restrict confirmation effectiveness for many management assertions. In addition, a number of problems with false and forged confirmations are identified in Accounting and Auditing Enforcement Releases (AAERs). The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) and the International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board (IAASB) have put confirmation evidence on their respective agendas. Academic research indicates that receivable confirmations can be effective evidence for the existence assertion. Low response rates, as well as respondent errors and directional bias in detecting errors, are key barriers to confirmation effectiveness. Our review of AAERs identified failure to authenticate responses, collusion between auditee management and customers, and concealed side agreements and special terms as specific probl.
The price effects of FTSE 100 index revision: what drives the long-term abnormal return reversal?

We examine short- and the long-term price effect associated with the FTSE 100 index revisions. We control for both heteroskedastic nature of the residual and the change, between the estimation and the test period, in the beta coefficient of the standard market model. Our findings reveal no relationship between the long-term price reversals and the change in the discount rate, as approximated by the beta coefficient of the market model. Overall, we provide strong evidence in favour of the price pressure hypothesis, where the price increase (decrease) gradually starting before the announcement an inclusion (exclusion) and reverses completely in less than two weeks after the index revision date.
Short- and Long-Term Performance in Manufacturing Smes: Different Targets, Different Drivers

Contrary to popular belief, managing short‐term performance differs significantly from managing long‐term performance. It is not an extension of short‐term performance over a longer‐term time frame. This paper examines the steps of managing performance from the context of organisational factors. The analysis indicates a dramatic picture as the improvement of short and long‐term performance is driven by distinctly different attributes of strategy, leadership, culture and organisational capability. The difference in all cases indicates that attributes that are perceived as “internally orientated” are associated with improving short‐term performance, whereas attributes that are commonly perceived as “externally orientated” are associated with improving long‐term performance. These findings will be helpful to managers focusing on improving their firm's performance in the short or long term and enable them to focus on the attributes of each of the factors examined that help the achievement of the performance targets set.
Classification of deformable and non-deformable surfaces by tactile image analysis

Touch sensation provides various information of the object under exploration including its shape, size, deformability, softness, and texture. In addition to shape, surface deformability is a very important and unique characteristic of a surface according to which we can distinguish different surfaces during tactile exploration. In this study our objective is to recognize various surfaces depending upon surface softness from their tactile images merely by processing single tactile images of each surfaces rather than dynamic tactile exploration of the surface. Tactile images of six surfaces of different surface deformability are considered. Tactile images are preprocessed, followed by feature extraction and two-level classification using linear discriminant analysis (LDA) and k nearest neighbor (kNN). The overall mean classification accuracy with LDA in two levels is 94.41%, with a mean classification accuracy of 95.50% and 93.33% in level 1 and 2 respectively. In both cases LDA performed better with a run time of 0.07 sec and 0.08 sec in two levels respectively. The two-level classification technique performed classification in a short time with reduced the misclassification rate. Thus this process can be implemented for efficiently surface classification in real time applications.
Prices, Parents and Young People's Household Formation

An economic theory of young people's decision to live apart from parents is presented and used to structure econometric analyses of the processes of leaving the parental home and returning to it, which employ data from the British Household Panel Survey for the first half of the 1990s. The econometric estimates support the predictions of the theory. In particular, tighter housing markets, as indicated by higher regional relative house prices, significantly retard home leaving, especially the formation of partnerships, and encourage returns to the parental home. Young people with larger current income are more likely to leave, but less likely to return to, the parental home.
Addressing PCB effects in the design of a buck converter

The design parameters of a buck converter are investigated based on ac small-signal design parameters such as open-loop, input-to-output and control-to-output transfer functions including distributed circuit parameters that account for PCB parasitics. It is demonstrated that the PCB effects neglected in a 2nd order model could affect the design parameters such as selection of switching frequency. The relations developed in this work are validated in the power design of an idustrial circuit and compared to the conventional 2nd order models.
University of Birmingham Effects and after-effects of voluntary intermittent light finger touch on body sway

Effects of light touch on body sway have usually been investigated with some form of constant contact. Only 2 studies investigated transient sway dynamics following the addition or withdrawal of light touch. This study adopted a paradigm of intermittent touch and assessed body sway during as well as following short periods of touch of varying durations to investigate whether effects and after-effects of touch differ as a function of touch duration. In a modified heel-to-toe posture, 15 blindfolded participants alternated their index finger position between no-touching and touching on a strain gauge in response to low-and high-pitched auditory cues. Five trials of 46 seconds duration were segmented into eleven sections: a 6-second no-touching period was followed by 5 pseudo-randomly ordered touching periods of 0.5, 1, 1.5, 2-, and 5-second duration, each of which was followed by another 6-second no-touching interval. Consistent with previous research, compared to no-touching intervals sway was reduced during touch periods with touch durations greater than 2 seconds. Progressive reductions in sway were evident after touch onset. After touch withdrawal in the 2-second touch condition, postural sway increased and returned to baseline level nearly immediately. Interestingly, in the 5-second touch condition, reductions in sway persisted even after touch withdrawal in the medio-lateral and antero-posterior plane for around 2.5 and 5.5 seconds respectively. Our intermittent touch paradigm resulted in duration-dependent touch effects and after-effects; the latter is a novel finding and may result from a more persistent postural set involved in proactive sway control.
Determinants of Sales Destinations of U.S. Multinational Firms' Affiliates in Developing Countries

This study examines the determinants of the sales of . U.S. multinational firms' affiliates to alternative destinations, including sales to other affiliate firms in a host country and a source country markets as well as sales to other non-affiliate persons in each market. Sample host countries are drawn from developing economies where U.S. multinational firms had affiliate firms during the period 1983–1998. The results of the study reveal that affiliates of multinational firms manipulate sales to minimize international taxation. This is supported by the finding that foreign corporate income taxes: affect sales between affiliate firms favorably, unlike its impacts on sales of affiliates to non-affiliate persons in both a host country and source country markets. Considering all markets together, economic volatility and political instability have minimal impacts on sales of affiliates to other affiliate firms compared to their impacts on sales to non-affiliate persons. The results also confirm that host countries' economic policy reforms and membership in multinational investment guarantee agencies facilitate sales of affiliates to other affiliate firms.
Polymerase chain reaction on blood for the diagnosis of invasive pulmonary aspergillosis in cancer patients

The premortem diagnosis of invasive pulmonary aspergillosis (IPA) is difficult to make and often missed. Several retrospective studies have suggested that Aspergillus polymerase chain reaction (PCR) performed on serum or whole blood is useful in diagnosing IPA. Two prospective studies confirmed this finding but included a small number of IPA cases.
Mobile banking in Germany: a strategic perspective

This paper explores the state of the art of m-banking in Germany. It initially presents a brief discussion of the main characteristics of German banking practices, which is followed by an overview of the mobile services offered by the top 100 banks in the country. In addition, a detailed analysis of the m-services offered by Postbank, Hamburg's Saving Bank, and the DZ Bank is presented. Finally, a discussion of the results is guided by a comparison with the findings obtained in previous studies undertaken in Germany, Japan and New Zealand. The paper concludes with a discussion about the future of mobile banking in Germany.
Vendors' team performance in software outsourcing projects From the perspective of transactive memory systems behavioral characteristics

Purpose - – The purpose of this paper is to study how the software outsourcing teams, namely, vendors, transfer effective knowledge to enhance team performance; it reports on a study of transactive memory system (TMS) theory and makes deep analyses and discussions about the influence of the cooperative behaviors of TMS on software outsourcing team’s performance under the framework of three behavioral characteristics dimensions – specialization, credibility and coordination. Design/methodology/approach - – This paper is an empirical study based on investigation interviews to 28 software outsourcing teams and data of questionnaire surveys on 124 software outsourcing teams; structural equation model is used to test the data we collected. Findings - – This paper finds that both credibility and coordination have a significantly positive impact on knowledge transfer and project success, whereas specialization has a significant negative impact on project success. The results of data analysis show that TMS is an effective coordination mechanism. Originality/value - – The conclusion of the study can help us understand the coordination mechanism of knowledge transfer in software outsourcing team and provide theoretical support and paradigm reference for vendors in China to accumulate knowledge and improve the success rate of projects in the context of software project development.