Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Liberal Democratic Party at 50: Sources of Dominance and Changes in the Koizumi Era

More than 50 years after its founding, Japan's Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) is still going strong. It has become the dominant party within a democratic setting. How did the LDP manage to cling to its dominant position for such a long time? And to what extent has the LDP changed colours under the leadership of Koizumi Jun'ichiro? This survey article attempts to answer these questions by focussing on the three dimensions of LDP dominance: electoral, parliamentary, and executive dominance. It argues that clientelist politics explain a good deal of the success of the LDP in the past. Such an orientation however became decreasingly effective and sustainable in a political environment that has changed significantly since the early 1990s. In the Koizumi era, the LDP managed to rise again to the challenges posed to its dominance by appealing directly to voters, by optimizing electoral cooperation, and by making efforts to centralize policymaking. Whether these more recent approaches to maintaining LDP dominance can be sustained, however, remains an open question.
The impact of the financial reporting review panel on aspects of the independence of auditors and their attitudes to compliance in the UK

Abstract The UK Financial Reporting Review Panel (FRRP) enforces the regulatory framework for larger companies and requires companies to restate non-compliant accounts. It is authorized to deal with directors but not auditors. Recent UK based research indicates a belief that the FRRP's activities have enhanced auditor independence and changed attitudes to accounting compliance. Defective accounts indicate a lack of audit quality as the auditor must have failed to detect and/or prevent the deficiency. By analysis of fifteen semi-structured interviews with finance directors and audit firm partners with experience of an FRRP inquiry, and by review of publicly available information, the impact of the FRRP on some aspects of audit quality is sought. The FRRP is found to have motivated auditors to improve accounting compliance by increasing the possibility of some errors being exposed. It is also found to have enhanced the independence of auditors at the pre-conventional level of ethical cognition as identified by Ponemon and Gabhart (1990), by changing the cost-benefit for auditors of permitting non-compliance. FRRP inquiries cause auditors to incur non-recoverable costs, can undermine the auditor–client relationship and increase the risk of client loss. Personal embarrassment, possible career damage and the risk of an ICAEW disciplinary inquiry arise for the audit partner. The FRRP is found to provide auditors with an additional negotiating tool in dealing with directors, thus making in easier for auditors at the conventional and post conventional level of ethical cognition to prevent non-compliance. Direct evidence is, therefore, found that the FRRP's activities have provided incentives for all auditors to focus more on accounting compliance (at least for items visible from an inspection of the accounts) and have provided incentives and mechanisms for auditors at lower levels of ethical cognition to be independent.
Focusing the Management of Innovation Research Domain of Tshwane University of Technology, South Africa

Research on the management of innovation is considered to be one of the main drivers of economic growth and prosperity in the knowledge economy and in South Africa. Understanding and managing innovation processes and structures in general and particularly in South Africa have the potential for huge benefits for actors, local clusters, and the national system of innovation. The purpose of the present research is to develop a research focus in the management of innovation at an institution of higher education in South Africa. Research in this area should promote knowledge in the fields of technopreneurship, technology management and transfer as well as intellectual property.
A Consideration Of IFRS Education And Acceptance From Culturally Diverse Backgrounds: A South African Perspective

Accountancy’s double-entry bookkeeping system has spread throughout the world over the past 5 centuries. Within each country, local accountants have adopted accountancy practices to suit their unique environment. In the modern global business environment, this uniqueness makes crossborder financial statement comparisons difficult. A key objective of a globally acceptable set of accounting standards (such as IFRS), is to enhance such trans-national comparisons of corporate performances. However, research revealed that the influence of cultural backgrounds is a key contributing factor influencing accounting practices. It is evident that culture is a key concomitant of accounting development, including accounting education. Two globally recognized authors on the importance of culture in the work environment, Hofstede and Gray, developed cultural dimensions to gauge the cultural impact in a business environment. The primary objective of this research was to consider the impact of different cultural backgrounds, as measured by Hofstede and Gray on prospective accountants in South Africa, as an early adopter of IFRS. The results of the study suggest that culture will play an important role in accounting education and acceptance in the culturally diverse South African context.
Community Perspectives on Barriers and Strategies for Promoting Locally Grown Produce From an Urban Agriculture Farm

Although much is understood about barriers to healthy food consumption in low-income, urban communities, knowledge regarding the crucial next step of building feasible, community-supported approaches to address those barriers remains limited. This qualitative study used in-depth interviews (n = 20), focus groups (n = 2), and participant observations (n = 3) to identify strategies to promote locally grown produce from an urban food security project, Produce From the Park (PFP), an urban farm. Informants included community organization representatives and residents from low-income neighborhoods in a mid-Atlantic city. Informants identified structural and cultural barriers to purchasing healthy food, including price, location, food culture, and lack of interest. Participants proposed a number of strategies, such as distribution through mobile food carts and farm stands, marketing new foods through taste tests and cooking demonstrations, and youth mentorship. Informants also described their perceptions of the local urban farm and suggested ways to increase community buy-in. Strategies mentioned were inexpensive and incorporated cultural norms and local assets. These community perspectives can provide insights for those promoting healthy eating in urban African American communities through urban food security projects.
Pacific Basin Managers: A Gaijin, Not a Woman

Pacific Rim business is the fastest growing in the world. To remain competitive, no major North American firm dare ignore Asia. Traditionally, very few women have held managerial and executive positions in Asia, Can North American firms successfully send female expatriate managers to Asia or must they limit international management positions to men? To answer this question, fifty-two women were interviewed, each of whom had held at least one management position in Asia. They were overwhelmingly successful. The study describes who the women are, how they were chosen, and their professional experience as female expatriate managers in Asia.
Anterior cingulate gyrus volume and glucose metabolism in autistic disorder.

OBJECTIVE This study reports the first paired measurements of glucose metabolism and volume of the anterior cingulate gyrus in autism. METHOD Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and positron emission tomography (PET) scans of seven high-functioning autistic patients and seven sex- and age-matched normal volunteers were coregistered. After the anterior cingulate gyri were outlined on the MRI images, the volumes of the structures were measured and corrected for brain volume. The volumes were then applied to the PET images and metabolic maps were obtained. RESULTS Right anterior cingulate area 24' was significantly smaller in relative volume, and both area 24 and area 24' were metabolically less active, in the autistic patients than in the normal subjects. CONCLUSIONS Autism may be characterized by structural and functional alterations in the anterior cingulate gyrus.
Deep Spread Patterns in CT Staging of T2–4 Squamous Cell Laryngeal Carcinoma

In addition to clinical examination and less sophisticated radiographic techniques, high-resolution computerized tomography (CT) can help to stage squamous cell carcinoma of the larynx. This study was undertaken to identify findings on CT scans that might predict the likelihood of radiation therapy (RT) alone, controlling the primary site disease without significant irradiation-related complications. Of 30 patients with T2–4 cancers of the larynx, 13 were classified as favorable and 17 were classified as unfavorable candidates for RT based on the CT criteria of transglottic spread, more than 25% pre-epiglottic space involvement, extensive paralaryngeal space spread, or cartilage involvement. Seven of 17 (41%) unfavorable patients had local recurrences, two are alive with cancer, three patients are dead of disease (DOD), and five had significant complication, but there was no evidence of recurrent cancer. In the favorable group, there were two local recurrences (15%), one distant metastasis, one patient is DOD, and one had a significant complication, but no recurrent cancer. These data may be used to more adequately select and inform patients with T2–4 squamous cell carcinoma of the larynx before RT.
Homeostatic regulation of electrical excitability in physiological cardiac hypertrophy

Pathological biomechanical stresses cause cardiac hypertrophy, which is associated with QT prolongation and arrhythmias. Previous studies have demonstrated that repolarizing K+ current densities are decreased in pressure overload‐induced left ventricular hypertrophy, resulting in action potential and QT prolongation. Cardiac hypertrophy also occurs with exercise training, but this physiological hypertrophy is not associated with electrical abnormalities or increased arrhythmia risk, suggesting that repolarizing K+ currents are upregulated, in parallel with the increase in myocyte size, to maintain normal cardiac function. To explore this hypothesis directly, electrophysiological recordings were obtained from ventricular myocytes isolated from two mouse models of physiological hypertrophy, one produced by swim‐training of wild‐type mice and the other by cardiac‐specific expression of constitutively active phosphoinositide‐3‐kinase‐p110α (caPI3Kα). Whole‐cell voltage‐clamp recordings revealed that repolarizing K+ current amplitudes were higher in ventricular myocytes isolated from swim‐trained and caPI3Kα, compared with wild‐type, animals. The increases in K+ current amplitudes paralleled the observed cellular hypertrophy, resulting in normalized or increased K+ current densities. Electrocardiographic parameters, including QT intervals, as well as ventricular action potential waveforms in swim‐trained animals/myocytes were indistinguishable from controls, demonstrating preserved electrical function. Additional experiments revealed that inward Ca2+ current amplitudes/densities were also increased in caPI3Kα, compared with WT, left ventricular myocytes. The expression of transcripts encoding K+, Ca2+ and other ion channel subunits was increased in swim‐trained and caPI3Kα ventricles, in parallel with the increase in myocyte size and with the global increases in total cellular RNA expression. In contrast to pathological hypertrophy, therefore, the functional expression of repolarizing K+ (and depolarizing Ca2+) channels is increased with physiological hypertrophy, reflecting upregulation of the underlying ion channel subunit transcripts and resulting in increased current amplitudes and the normalization of current densities and action potential waveforms. Taken together, these results suggest that activation of PI3Kα signalling preserves normal myocardial electrical functioning and could be protective against the increased risk of arrhythmias and sudden death that are prevalent in pathological cardiac hypertrophy.
INITIAL PUBLIC OFFERINGS: GOING BY THE BOOK

In the U.S., and increasingly in other countries as well, IPO securities are marketed to investors in a process known as "book-building"-one that amounts to polling institutional investors to establish a demand schedule for the issue and then allotting stock to individual investors according to the strength of their professed interest. Although book-building methods require use of discriminatory tactics that have attracted strong criticism from investors and regulators, this article defends such practices by demonstrating that book-building is more efficient than alternative methods. It effectively allows issuers to increase the net proceeds of their offerings by making better use of information about market demand conditions. 1997 Morgan Stanley.
Research and Policy Implications for Watershed Management in the Atlantic Coastal Plain

Coastal plain research and policy strive to protect unique coastal habitats and natural resources while managing for stressors such as seasonal population fluxes and coastal hazards. There is a need to translate scientific findings to impact policy for effective coastal management at a watershed scale that reaches local communities. The Center for Watershed Protection (CWP) uses an Eight Tools of Watershed Protection (Eight Tools) framework for watershed planning and assessments to systematically identify opportunities for better practices and improve natural resource protection. This article uses four of the Eight Tools, which were recently adapted for the coastal plain, to demonstrate research to policy options: (1) land use planning; (2) forested riparian buffers; (3) stormwater management; and (4) non stormwater discharges—on-site wastewater discharge focus. It provides a synthesis of CWP's recent coastal plain research supplemented with additional coastal research to suggest ways where science may be more effectively integrated into policy and regulations that will protect and restore coastal resources at a watershed scale. Summarizing and presenting the science to policymakers can increase the validity and likelihood for environmental regulations that will ultimately be implemented at the local level.
Earnings management: estudo de caso do Banco Nacional

Este artigo promove um estudo de caso de uma das maiores instituicoes financeiras brasileiras da decada de 90: o Banco Nacional S.A. (BNSA). O BNSA teve sua intervencao decretada pelo Banco Central do Brasil em 1995, apos ser identificada a existencia de ativos insolventes, originados por gerenciamento fraudulento dos lucros da entidade. O estudo visa investigar a gestao fraudulenta de lucros do Banco Nacional S.A. , tanto nos seus aspectos motivadores, quanto em relacao aos seus efeitos na composicao patrimonial da entidade. A abordagem metodologica contempla: (i) pesquisa explicativa, quanto aos objetivos do estudo; (ii) estudo de caso, quanto aos procedimentos aplicados e (iii) pesquisa qualitativa, quanto a abordagem do problema. Constatou-se que pode haver interesses inconciliaveis entre o agente e o principal, conforme disciplinado pela teoria da agencia. O artigo, ainda, ressalta a importância do conhecimento dos dados financeiros na identificacao dos fatos de interesse, dos ajustes pertinentes e da correta evidenciacao da situacao patrimonial da entidade.
The Effect Of The Review Process On Auditor Judgments

Most public accounting firms have well-defined review procedures which require the work carried out by each auditor to be reviewed by staff with higher levels of experience (expertise). The importance of this review process is frequently emphasized in the auditing literature. Indeed, Statements on Auditing Standards (AICPA [1981, sec. 230.02]) state that the "exercise of due care requires critical review at every level of supervision of the work done and the judgment exercised by those assisting in the examination. " Despite the stated importance of this review process in auditing, there is little empirical evidence on its effectiveness. Previous research on auditors' judgments has primarily considered individual judgments (for example, see reviews by Libby [1981] and Ashton [1982]) although suggestions have been made to consider decisions by both interacting groups and those resulting from the review process (for example, see Joyce [1976]). A number of recent studies (Schultz and Reckers [1981], Solomon [1982], and Trotman, Yetton, and Zimmer [1983]) extended this earlier work by examining the judgments of interacting groups of auditors. However, these studies did not capture the hierarchical and sequential nature of the review process. Although in practice, the review process may take a number of forms, we adopted the procedure of having managers review seniors' work in
Single flap approach with and without guided tissue regeneration and a hydroxyapatite biomaterial in the management of intraosseous periodontal defects.

BACKGROUND The single flap approach (SFA) is a minimally invasive procedure designed for periodontal reconstructive procedures of intraosseous periodontal defects characterized by a dominant unilateral, buccal or oral, extension. This study evaluates the adjunctive effect of guided tissue regeneration (GTR) combined with a hydroxyapatite (HA) biomaterial in the management of intraosseous periodontal defects accessed with SFA compared to SFA alone. METHODS Twenty-four intraosseous defects (in 24 patients) were randomly allocated to treatment with SFA or SFA + HA/GTR. Clinical outcomes were assessed 6 months post-surgery. RESULTS Five sites in the SFA + HA/GTR group showed incomplete closure at week 2, which resolved spontaneously. There were no statistically significant or clinically meaningful differences in mean (+/-SD) clinical attachment gain (4.7 +/- 2.5 versus 4.4 +/- 1.5 mm), probing depth reduction (5.3 +/- 2.4 versus 5.3 +/- 1.5 mm), and gingival recession increase (0.4 +/- 1.4 versus 0.8 +/- 0.8 mm) between the SFA + HA/GTR and SFA groups. CONCLUSIONS SFA with and without HA/GTR seems to be a valuable minimally invasive approach in the treatment of deep intraosseous periodontal defects. Under the present experimental conditions, the additional HA/GTR protocol offers no significant adjunctive effect.
Tax Reform in Monopolistic Competition with Increasing Preferences for Variety

Nearly all comparisons of ad valorem and unit taxes follow Suits and Musgrave in demonstrating the welfare dominance of ad valorem taxes. We study unit and ad valorem taxes in a monopolistic competition model where, as is the normal case, consumers have increasing preferences for variety. We show that introducing more unit taxation and less ad valorem taxation can increase consumer welfare and the tax revenue when consumers’ utility depends on both quantity and variety. To understand this, notice that more unit taxation, under a price-neutral criterion, increases tax revenue. That is, aggregate output increases after the tax change. On the other hand, we show that aggregate output goes up because variety goes up, which explains that decreased product variety cannot offset the favorable change in aggregate output.
Design and optimization of a hot-carrier resistant high-voltage nMOS transistor

The hot-carrier degradation behavior of a class of high-voltage n-channel drift MOS transistors is experimentally investigated as a function of the geometrical (layout) parameters of the devices. The design restrictions, imposed by reliability requirements, are described as a subset of the space of the geometrical parameters (safe volume) which guarantees a safe hot-carrier operation. The optimization of the specific drain/source on-state resistance of the devices within the safe volume is discussed.
Immobilization of Platelet-Rich Plasma onto COOH Plasma-Coated PCL Nanofibers Boost Viability and Proliferation of Human Mesenchymal Stem Cells

The scaffolds made of polycaprolactone (PCL) are actively employed in different areas of biology and medicine, especially in tissue engineering. However, the usage of unmodified PCL is significantly restricted by the hydrophobicity of its surface, due to the fact that its inert surface hinders the adhesion of cells and the cell interactions on PCL surface. In this work, the surface of PCL nanofibers is modified by Ar/CO2/C2H4 plasma depositing active COOH groups in the amount of 0.57 at % that were later used for the immobilization of platelet-rich plasma (PRP). The modification of PCL nanofibers significantly enhances the viability and proliferation (by hundred times) of human mesenchymal stem cells, and decreases apoptotic cell death to a normal level. According to X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), after immobilization of PRP, up to 10.7 at % of nitrogen was incorporated into the nanofibers surface confirming the grafting of proteins. Active proliferation and sustaining the cell viability on nanofibers with immobilized PRP led to an average number of cells of 258 ± 12.9 and 364 ± 34.5 for nanofibers with ionic and covalent bonding of PRP, respectively. Hence, our new method for the modification of PCL nanofibers with PRP opens new possibilities for its application in tissue engineering.
ERP System and Implementation-Process Benefits: Implications for B2B E-Procurement

Purpose – The purpose of this work is to empirically demonstrate the synergistic implications of enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems and emerging intra‐organizational technologies.Design/methodology/approach – Using established operational theory as a foundation, the article analyzes the history of ERP use and its impact on gains from business‐to‐business (B2B) purchasing technologies.Findings – The findings reveal that the extent to which firms witness maintenance‐repair‐operating (MRO) savings through such procurement is dependent not only on the presence of an ERP system, but also on the length of time systems have been in use.Research limitations/implications – Although limited to the analysis of B2B “success” cases, the results provide strong implications for the importance of ERP as a key infrastructure for B2B activities.Practical implications – Managers seeking to benefit from B2B economies, should ensure that they possess an adequate IT infrastructure (e.g. ERP) to realize all such potenti.
The Legacy of Knut Wicksell to Capital Theory

Wicksell's contributions to capital theory focused on stationary states in four distinct models intended to account for the time dimension of production in market economies. We now have a better understanding of the true challenges because of two developments: a full theory of intertemporal general equilibria and a methodology for comparative analysis as explained by Hicks. In Wicksell's equilibria, the real interest rate turns out to be equal to the marginal productivity of the volume of social capital, a concept that Wicksell could not master and hence avoided. Challenges remain, particularly regarding the best way to account for complementarities and substitutions over time. Copyright The editors of the "Scandinavian Journal of Economics", 2003 .