Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Dynamic R&D Investment Policies

This paper examines dynamic R&D investment policies and the valuation of R&D programs in a contingent claims framework. We incorporate the following characteristics of R&D programs into our model: learning-by-doing, collateral learning between different projects in the program, interaction between project cash flows, periodic reevaluations of the program, different intensities of investment, capital rationing constraints, and competition. We show that a firm may invest in multiple projects even if only one can be implemented after development is complete. Furthermore, the firm may significantly alter its funding policy over time. For example, it may simultaneously develop multiple projects for a period of time, then focus on a lead project, and potentially resume funding of a "backup" project if the lead project fails to deliver on its early promise. We show how a firm can forecast expected R&D spending through time for an optimally executed R&D program. While project volatility plays an important role in determining R&D program value, we find that for high volatility projects the optimal investment policy is not very sensitive to changes in (or misestimation of) volatility. In considering whether to accelerate development of a project, a firm should balance the adverse effects of increased costs and the loss of investment flexibility against the positive effects of rapid uncertainty resolution and accelerated cash flows. In the presence of a budget constraint that prevents the firm from simultaneously accelerating projects and developing projects in parallel, we find that, if one project significantly dominates another early in the development stage, the option to accelerate the lead project is likely to be more valuable than the option to exchange projects. Thus, the backup project would be shelved in order to commit extra resources to development of the lead project. Finally, competition from other firms leads to more parallel investment in the early development stages of projects, less parallel investment in the latter stages of development, and lower overall investment.
On the Application of Accounting Rates of Return

The article presents a study on the application of some accounting concepts and functions in economic analysis. According to the author, his analysis will provide a basis on which accountants can discriminate between the alternative rules and standards available to them by reference to their relevance to the information required by investors or regulators. The author states that current cost accounts should be used with care. The appropriate method for economic interpretation of rates of return on capital deals with the application of the balance sheet conventions of current cost accounting.
The S Segment of Rift Valley Fever Phlebovirus (Bunyaviridae) Carries Determinants for Attenuation and Virulence in Mice

ABSTRACT Unlike all the other Rift Valley fever virus strains (Bunyaviridae, Phlebovirus) studied so far, clone 13, a naturally attenuated virus, does not form the filaments composed of the NSs nonstructural protein in the nuclei of infected cells (R. Muller, J. F. Saluzzo, N. Lopez, T. Drier, M. Turell, J. Smith, and M. Bouloy, Am. J. Trop. Med. Hyg. 53:405–411, 1995). This defect is correlated with a large in-frame deletion in the NSs coding region of the S segment of the tripartite genome. Here, we show that the truncated NSs protein of clone 13 is expressed and remains in the cytoplasm, where it is degraded rapidly by the proteasome. Through the analysis of reassortants between clone 13 and a virulent strain, we localized the marker(s) of attenuation in the S segment of this attenuated virus. This result raises questions regarding the role of NSs in pathogenesis and highlights, for the first time in theBunyaviridae family, a major role of the S segment in virulence and attenuation, possibly associated with a defect in the nonstructural protein.
News Genre Strategy: Comparing Agendas and Frames in The Daily Show and ABC World News

Contemporary journalism scholars have taken important steps to identify and categorize emerging styles of news programing in the 21st Century (Entman, 2004; Holbert, 2005; Kovach & Rosenstiel, 2010). This study explores how soft news programs function in agenda setting processes and contribute to the sociological framing of political issues. It compares news agenda topics and frames between ABC World News with Charles Gibson and The Daily Show with Jon Stewart over the months prior to the determination of the Democrat and Republican 2008 presidential nominees. Results show that both programs contained similar amounts of top stories, main actors, and story problems, confirming similar agenda setting functions. Framing comparisons showed that in election coverage ABC World News had significantly more strategy frames than The Daily Show. The Daily Show contained significantly more responsibility and morality frames than ABC World News, providing an ethical viewpoint. These findings reveal that the news programs are similar in coverage of the top stories on each day’s agenda, but that they are presented differently through framing decisions. This provides insight into agenda setting of election topics and highlights the potential for framing effects in different genres of journalism as the soft news frontier expands traditional definitions of political journalism.
Hypoxic retinal Müller cells promote vascular permeability by HIF-1–dependent up-regulation of angiopoietin-like 4

Significance Ischemic retinopathies include a diverse group of diseases in which immature retinal vasculature or damage to mature retinal vessels leads to retinal ischemia. The anticipated rise in the worldwide prevalence of diabetes will result in a concurrent increase in the number of patients with vision impairment from diabetic eye disease, the most common cause of ischemic retinopathy. We set out to identify novel hypoxia-inducible genes that promote vascular permeability and may therefore play a role in the pathogenesis of diabetic eye disease. We demonstrate that angiopoietin-like 4 (ANGPTL4) is up-regulated by the transcriptional enhancer, hypoxia-inducible factor-1 in hypoxic retinal Müller cells, and can promote vascular permeability. Our findings suggest that ANGPTL4 may be a potential therapeutic target for ischemic retinopathies. Vision loss from ischemic retinopathies commonly results from the accumulation of fluid in the inner retina [macular edema (ME)]. Although the precise events that lead to the development of ME remain under debate, growing evidence supports a role for an ischemia-induced hyperpermeability state regulated, in part, by VEGF. Monthly treatment with anti-VEGF therapies is effective for the treatment of ME but results in a major improvement in vision in a minority of patients, underscoring the need to identify additional therapeutic targets. Using the oxygen-induced retinopathy mouse model for ischemic retinopathy, we provide evidence showing that hypoxic Müller cells promote vascular permeability by stabilizing hypoxia-inducible factor-1α (HIF-1α) and secreting angiogenic cytokines. Blocking HIF-1α translation with digoxin inhibits the promotion of endothelial cell permeability in vitro and retinal edema in vivo. Interestingly, Müller cells require HIF—but not VEGF—to promote vascular permeability, suggesting that other HIF-dependent factors may contribute to the development of ME. Using gene expression analysis, we identify angiopoietin-like 4 (ANGPTL4) as a cytokine up-regulated by HIF-1 in hypoxic Müller cells in vitro and the ischemic inner retina in vivo. ANGPTL4 is critical and sufficient to promote vessel permeability by hypoxic Müller cells. Immunohistochemical analysis of retinal tissue from patients with diabetic eye disease shows that HIF-1α and ANGPTL4 localize to ischemic Müller cells. Our results suggest that ANGPTL4 may play an important role in promoting vessel permeability in ischemic retinopathies and could be an important target for the treatment of ME.
Afghanistan’s Political Reconciliation Policy: Ill Conceived and Self-Defeating

Abstract The Afghan government’s peace and reconciliation overtures to the militants, initially at the unofficial level but later sanctioned officially, have formed a key theme of state security policy from the early days of the post-Taliban administration in Afghanistan. Yet far from producing peace and stability, they seem to have played into the hands of the violent groups intent on overthrowing the country’s internationally supported and legitimate political system in the past decade. There is no doubt about the importance of national reconciliation as a wider process of overcoming the legacy of beleaguered social relationships and forging a common vision for the future among all Afghans, but the nature of the government’s reconciliation policy, which borders on appeasement of the militants, seems so far to have created more vulnerabilities than strengths in the face of increasingly emboldened anti-state violent groups.
Measuring the Return from Australian Tourism Marketing Expenditure

Tourism Australia, the primary agency responsible for marketing Australia as a destination internationally, spends around 32% of its total marketing expenditure in Asian markets. Asia contributes around 40% of the visitor arrivals to Australia. When Tourism Australia invests public money to promote Australia as a tourist destination, there is a need to estimate the return per dollar investment. This article estimated the return per dollar investment in Asia using a dynamic modeling approach and cost-effectiveness analysis. The study found that the return per dollar investment is 17:1 for Asia and 8:1, 36:1, 3:1, and 7:1 for Japan, New Zealand, the UK, and the United States respectively. The results have implications for targeting the highest yield markets to increase the economic returns to Australia from its destination marketing activity. It is argued that the cost-effectiveness approach is a useful tool for destination managers to ensure the effectiveness of their marketing expenditure.
Effects of discount framing in comparative price advertising

Purpose – The objective of this paper is to examine the framing effects of discount presentation format in comparative price advertising in a low‐price and a high‐price product context. In particular, the authors study whether identical discounts presented in percentage and absolute terms result in different consumer perceptions of transaction value and purchase intention. Although price promotions have been the subject of previous research, a closer examination of the potential moderating influence of discount size in both contexts is warranted.Design/methodology/approach – Two separate experiments were designed to isolate the effects of the manner in which discounts are numerically expressed and the size of the discount on consumers' perceptions of a retail price promotion in a low‐price and a high‐price product context.Findings – The effects of discount framing in comparative price promotions are found to be influenced by discount size in the case of the low‐product context but not the high‐price one.R.
Aminoglycoside resistance and aminoglycoside usage: ten years of experience in one hospital

For 10 years the 700-bed Minneapolis Veterans Affairs Medical Center has conducted a policy of carefully controlled aminoglycoside usage and monitoring of resistance of over 25,000 aerobic and facultative gram-negative bacillary isolates to the aminoglycosides. On two occasions during the 1980s, our experience of introducing amikacin at a high level of usage was associated with a significant reduction in resistance to gentamicin and tobramycin among gram-negative bacilli. Rapid reintroduction of gentamicin usage in 1982 after the first amikacin period was associated with a significant and rapid increase in gentamicin and tobramycin resistance. However, in 1986, gentamicin was again reintroduced to this institution at an initially modest level, and the percentage of usage of gentamicin was gradually increased over a 15-month period without a significant change in resistance to gentamicin, tobramycin, or amikacin while maintaining an overall 68% gentamicin usage and 30% amikacin usage. Aminoglycoside usage (measured as patient days) rose steadily from under 2,000 patient days per quarter in 1980 and 1981 to over 3,000 days per quarter in 1985. Since 1985, usage has declined to under 2,500 patient days per quarter in 1990. This usage rise and fall occurred during a steadily declining daily patient census that was 590 in 1980 and 465 in 1989. A move to a new hospital building in June 1988 was associated with an additional significant decline in resistance to all aminoglycosides (P less than 0.05), continuing a trend that was evident for the year preceding the move. Resistance to aminoglycoside antibiotics is now at the lowest level in 10 years at this institution, with only one gram-negative organism, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, that exhibits more than 5% resistance to gentamicin and no gram-negative species that are more than 5% resistant to amikacin and tobramycin.
Structure of the N-Linked Glycan Present on Multiple Glycoproteins in the Gram-negative Bacterium, Campylobacter jejuni *

Mass spectrometry investigations of partially purified Campylobacter jejuni protein PEB3 showed it to be partially modified with an Asn-linked glycan with a mass of 1406 Da and composed of one hexose, five N-acetylhexosamines and a species of mass 228 Da, consistent with a trideoxydiacetamidohexose. By means of soybean lectin affinity chromatography, a mixture of glycoproteins was obtained from a glycine extract, and two-dimensional gel proteomics analysis led to the identification of at least 22 glycoproteins, predominantly annotated as periplasmic proteins. Glycopeptides were prepared from the glycoprotein mixture by Pronase digestion and gel filtration. The structure of the glycan was determined by using nano-NMR techniques to be GalNAc-α1,4-GalNAc-α1,4-[Glcβ1,3-]GalNAc-α1,4-GalNAc-α1,4-GalNAc-α1,3-Bac-β1,N-Asn-Xaa, where Bac is bacillosamine, 2,4-diacetamido-2,4,6-trideoxyglucopyranose. Protein glycosylation was abolished when the pglB gene was mutated, providing further evidence that the enzyme encoded by this gene is responsible for formation of the glycopeptide N-linkage. Comparison of thepgl locus with that of Neisseria meningitidissuggested that most of the homologous genes are probably involved in the biosynthesis of bacillosamine.
Megakaryocytes and the Heterogeneity of Circulating Platelets

Summary. Megakaryocytes mature to the point of cytoplasmic disintegration in three principal ploidy classes: 8n, 16n and 32n. Cells of each of these ploidy classes have been identified, using both microdensitometry and measurement of cell volume and submitted to morphometric analysis. Mature megakaryocytes of the three ploidy classes have been shown to differ in the concentration of cytoplasmic constituents which would be expected to relate to the buoyant density of their platelet progeny. Density separated platelets have been similarly analysed. Light platelets correspond with the 32n megakaryocytes and are more liberally endowed with surface connected canalicular system than the progeny of the common 16n megakaryocytes; it is proposed that they have functional characteristics related to this finding. Dense platelets, which are larger in size, correspond with 8n megakaryocytes and show a greater content of granules and mitochondria than platelets of average density. These platelets most probably show specialized function relating to release of granule constituents.
Investment Under Uncertainty in Egypt: A Real-Options Approach

This paper provides a numerical analysis of investment under uncertainty using Egyptian data. It is based on the theoretical foundations that the irreversibility of investment decisions and the uncertainty about their future rewards create a value to waiting for new information before the firm commits resources and incurs unrecoverable costs. Accordingly, the optimal investment policy of the firm balances the value of waiting for new information with the cost of postponing the investment in terms of forgone return. The analytical framework uses diffusion-jump processes to model uncertainty over time and shows that the value of waiting increases with the degree of uncertainty. As a consequence, uncertainty increases the hurdle rate to investment and can become a powerful deterrent to investors.
Serum Level of a Soluble Receptor for Interleukin-2 as a Prognostic Factor in Patients with Gastric Cancer

Increased levels of a soluble receptor for interleukin-2 (sIL-2R) have been found in the serum from patients with a variety of malignancies. Levels of sIL-2R have not previously been examined in a large group of patients with gastric cancer as a possible indicator of prognosis. Serum levels of sIL-2R were measured preoperatively by an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay in 121 patients with gastric cancer. The preoperative levels of sIL-2R in patients with gastric cancer were significantly higher than those in normal controls. An elevated level of sIL-2R was significantly correlated with certain clinicopathologic features, which included depth of invasion, lymph node metastasis, lymphatic vessel invasion, blood vessel invasion and clinical stage. The postoperative survival time of patients with elevated levels of sIL-2R was significantly shorter than that of patients with normal levels. Furthermore, a multivariate analysis using Cox’s proportional hazards model showed that the combination of levels of carcinoembryonic antigen and sIL-2R was an independent indicator of prognosis. Thus, the serum level of sIL-2R might be a useful prognostic indicator in patients with gastric cancer.
A phase locked loop with jitter auto-attenuating loop dynamics

A jitter auto-attenuating phase locked loop (PLL) is proposed to reduce the jitter and achieve fast settling. The proposed PLL starts with a fast acquisition loop dynamics, then slips into a low jitter loop dynamics when the loop gains lock. The transition is seamlessly triggered by lock detection circuitry. This jitter auto attenuating technique can achieve both fast frequency acquisition and low jitter performance in PLL design.
An Empirical Examination of the Characteristics and Behavioral Tendencies of Swedish Consumers in Patronizing Different Retail Stores

ABSTRACT The objective of this study is to investigate the characteristics and behavioral tendencies of Swedish consumers in relation to their involvement with various types of retail stores as well as their shopping and patronizing behaviors under varying circumstances. In particular, the study focuses on examining the underlying dimensions of Swedish consumers' retail shopping behavior incorporating their lifestyles and attitudinal orientations as well as demographic and socio-economic characteristics. Data for the study were collected through personal interviews in Sweden. The study findings indicate that the most dominant lifestyle dimensions include fashion orientation, adventure orientation and aesthetic orientation. Several of these lifestyle dimensions apparent among the Swedish retail shoppers were found to be related to the number of stores shopped in a given period of time. Also, the most dominant factors were one-stop shopping, merchandise quality and assortment, and store communication factor.
Survey Measures of Expected U.S. Inflation

of real interest rates and cash flows for decisions concerning investment expenditures. International capital flows and exchange rate movements hinge in large part on expected real yield differentials across countries. The Federal Reserve needs reliable measures of expected inflation to formulate and gauge the thrust of monetary policy. In fact, inflation expectations have become more important to the Fed given the diminished stability of the link between the monetary aggregates and GDP expenditures since the early 1980s, and the greater role which has been thrust upon expected real short-term interest rates in the implementation of Federal Reserve policy. The issue of rationality of inflation expectations-that is, the extent to which agents form expectations without making systematic mistakes in their beliefs about what inflation will be-is important. If inflation expectations are formed rationally, labor and financial markets will strongly tend to neutralize the potential redistributive effects of inflation over time. Financial capital will flow efficiently within and across national borders. Moreover, some of the stronger claims of new classical macroeconomics, like the claim that only unexpected monetary policy actions will
Land law and urban planning in Spain: An economic perspective

Abstract This paper builds on descriptions of the Spanish town planning system to examine it from an economic perspective. In particular, it emphasizes the mechanisms through which planning is delivered and their implications for economic decision‐making in a constrained land market. This raises issues concerning the choice of planning instrument and the economizing reactions they generate. It also highlights three aspects of Spanish planning which display explicit economic intent; land taxation, planning gain and profit sharing between landowners. Examination of these issues indicates that the planning system may be at odds with objectives such as the control of speculation in land. The results suggest a partial agenda for empirical research.
Anaplasma in ticks feeding on migrating birds and questing ticks in Lithuania and Norway.

Human granulocytic anaplasmosis due to Anaplasma phagocytophilum has been reported in Europe, including in Norway. Ixodes ricinus has been identified as a ⁄ the vector of this rickettsial agent in Europe [1]. In Europe, in addition to ruminants, small rodents have been shown to harbor A. phagocytophilum and were suggested as potential reservoirs. Migrating birds have also been considered to be important in the dispersal of A. phagocytophilum infected I. ricinus in Europe and in the distribution of granulocytic anaplasmosis [2,3]. Our previous studies conducted in Norway and Lithuania did not show any presence of A. phagocytophilum in small rodents. The involvement of birds in the ecology and in the epidemiology of tick-borne diseases in Lithuania and Norway has not yet been studied. To define the role of migrating birds as reservoirs and disseminators of Anaplasma we analysed the immature stage of ticks feeding on different passerine bird species, and questing ticks in some areas of Lithuania and Norway.
The Price of Crude Oil

The price of crude oil is among the most important prices quoted daily across the world — which is not surprising, since crude oil is the most widely used source of energy worldwide, as well as being a unique commodity. When petroleum burst onto the world stage in 1859, its price first went through some initial gyrations (1860–70), before settling in the $1.00–2.00 per barrel range (barring a few exceptions) for a full century. Then, the price underwent two ‘shocks’ (1973 and 1980), followed by the ‘counter-shock’ of 1986. Thereafter, the price entered the relative stability of the $15–20/b concensus, where it lingered until recently. Some day, there is bound to be a fresh paradigm of ‘insufficient oil reserves’, thus ushering in a new era for oil prices. Taking into consideration available data on reserves and expert analysis, it would seem that that day may be years rather than decades away.