Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Inside information in bank lending and the European insider directive

The European Community has passed the European Insider Directive which prohibits insider trade in common stock and debt securities. Hence banks are not allowed to sell debt securities when they recieve unfavorable inside information on their borrowers. Until now, German banks have not only been allowed, but even have been expected to collect inside information and to react fast on unfavorable information to protect their solvency and hence the stability of the financial system. This paper analyses the effects of the EC - Directive on bank lending and finds that the substitutes for selling debt securities appear to generate a higher social cost than the sale of debt securities. Therefore banks should be granted the privilege to sell debt securities on unfavorable inside information.
siRNA-mediated inhibition of angiogenesis

Small interfering RNA (siRNA) has rapidly become the agent of choice for gene function analysis through loss-of-function phenotypes. Especially in complicated (patho)physiological processes such as angiogenesis, where vast numbers of proteinaceous factors are involved, the siRNA application allows relatively fast analysis of pathways and identification of new target genes. The first studies on the therapeutic effects of siRNA in angiogenesis show that this new ‘drug’ class holds great promise for therapeutic intervention. Two strategies emerge: the use of unmodified or the use of complexed, targeted and/or protected nucleic acids. The challenge for clinical application will be to control off-target effects and the transient character of the sequence-specific silencing effect, and to address the targeted delivery to the cell types involved in the various stages of angiogenesis. This is especially important as clinical studies indicate a profound heterogeneity of the angiogenic vasculature.
An integrable trench LDMOS transistor on SOI for RF power amplifiers in PICs

In this paper, improvement in the RF performance of a conventional LDMOS transistor on silicon-on-insulator (SOI) is investigated by incorporating trenches in the drift region and we propose a lateral trench RF LDMOS device. The proposed structure consists of three trenches built in the n-drift region. A single vertical gate is placed centrally in the trench between p-body region thus forming dual channel for parallel current conduction. The other two identical trenches located symmetrically on sides of p-body are filled with oxide thereby enhancing reduced-surface-field (RESURF) effect. The performance of the proposed device is analysed and compared with that of the conventional LDMOS using 2D numerical simulations. With 62% increase in breakdown voltage (BV) the proposed LDMOS exhibits nearly 2 times higher output current (ID), 23% lower threshold voltage (Vth) and 67% improvement in peak transconductance (gm) when compared to the conventional LDMOS for identical drift region doping and cell pitch. Furthermore, the trench structure provides 47% and 11% improvement in cutoff frequency (fT) and maximum oscillation frequency (fmax), respectively over the conventional counterpart. The device is very promising as an integrable transistor for RF power amplifiers in PICs.
Nitric Oxide Inhibition of Adenylyl Cyclase Type 6 Activity Is Dependent upon Lipid Rafts and Caveolin Signaling Complexes*

Several cell types, including cardiac myocytes and vascular endothelial cells, produce nitric oxide (NO) via both constitutive and inducible isoforms of NO synthase. NO attenuates cardiac contractility and contributes to contractile dysfunction in heart failure, although the precise molecular mechanisms for these effects are poorly defined. Adenylyl cyclase (AC) isoforms type 5 and 6, which are preferentially expressed in cardiac myocytes, may be inhibited via a direct nitrosylation by NO. Because endothelial NO synthase (eNOS and NOS3), β-adrenergic (βAR) receptors, and AC6 all can localize in lipid raft/caveolin-rich microdomains, we sought to understand the role of lipid rafts in organizing components of βAR-Gs-AC signal transduction together with eNOS. Using neonatal rat cardiac myocytes, we found that disruption of lipid rafts with β-cyclodextrin inhibited forskolin-stimulated AC activity and cAMP production, eliminated caveolin-3-eNOS interaction, and increased NO production. βAR- and Gs-mediated activation of AC activity were inhibited by β-cyclodextrin treatment, but prostanoid receptor-stimulated AC activity, which appears to occur outside caveolin-rich microdomains, was unaffected unless eNOS was overexpressed and lipid rafts were disrupted. An NO donor, SNAP, inhibited basal and forskolin-stimulated cAMP production in both native cardiac myocytes and cardiac myocytes and pulmonary artery endothelial cells engineered to overexpress AC6. These effects of SNAP were independent of guanylyl cyclase activity and were mimicked by overexpression of eNOS. The juxtaposition of eNOS with βAR and AC types 5 and 6 results in selective regulation of βAR by eNOS activity in lipid raft domains over other Gs-coupled receptors localized in nonraft domains. Thus co-localization of multiple signaling components in lipid rafts provides key spatial regulation of AC activity.
The Effect of Context and Age on Functional Reach Performance in Healthy Adults Aged 21 to 94 Years

Background:Activities of daily living require an individual to exhibit dynamic standing balance, while reaching beyond arm's length under varying contexts that involve an object to reach toward or grasp. Research shows that object context impacts the kinematics of reaching; however, there has been less research regarding the effect of context on functional reach (FR) ability. The purpose of the present study was to assess FR ability under 3 conditions between 3 age groups: (1) traditional FR, (2) reaching to an object (object present FR), and reaching to grasp an object (FR to grasp). Methods:Reach distance was measured as 142 apparently healthy participants performed the 3 contexts in random order. A 2-way repeated-measures analysis of variance (age group × reach context) determined the effect of age and context on reach ability. Results:For all age groups, both object-present contexts resulted in greater reach ability than the traditional FR condition. The task goal, touching or grasping, however, impacted reach ability differently in each age group. For the young and older age groups, there was no difference between reaching to touch an object or to grasp an object. Reach distance was less, however, for the middle-age group when grasping an object compared with touching an object. Conclusion:These results suggest that the presence of an object enhances dynamic standing balance as indicated by greater reach distances compared with traditional FR when an object is absent. Applications of these findings might extend to balance testing and balance training.
Rasch analysis of the Chronic Pain Acceptance Questionnaire Revised in people with knee osteoarthritis.

OBJECTIVE To examine the measurement properties of the Chronic Pain Acceptance Questionnaire Revised (CPAQ-R) and its subscales with people with knee osteoarthritis using Rasch analysis. DESIGN Cross-sectional questionnaire study. PATIENTS A total of 176 participants with radiographic evidence of osteoarthritis of the knee, as identified by a Kellgren-Lawrence grade ≥ 2, and pain on most days for at least the past month. METHODS Participants completed the CPAQ-R at home within a set of measures covering different aspects of osteoarthritis pain. The questionnaires were returned by pre-paid envelope. Rasch analysis was conducted on the Activity Engagement and Pain Willingness subscales and the Total scale using Rasch Unidimensional Measurement Models (RUMM2020). RESULTS The Activity Engagement and Pain Willingness subscales fit the Rasch model following minimal changes, including re-scoring and removal of item 14 due to misfit. Both subscales passed tests of unidimensionality. Although the Total scale could be adjusted to yield adequate fit statistics, it demonstrated multidimensionality. CONCLUSION The Activity Engagement and Pain Willingness subscales have good measurement properties for 2 distinct factors relevant to pain acceptance. CPAQ-R is a valid measurement tool that may help target and evaluate response to treatments that address low activity engagement and pain willingness in people with osteoarthritis.
Use of Vowels in Discriminating Speech-Laugh from Laughter and Neutral Speech

In natural conversations, significant part of laughter co-occurs with speech which is referred to as speech-laugh. Hence, speech-laugh will have characteristics of both laughter and neutral speech. But it is not clearly evident how acoustic properties of neutral speech are influenced by its co-occurring laughter. The objective of this study is to analyze the acoustic variations between vowel regions of laughter, speech-laugh and neutral speech. The features based on excitation source characteristics extracted at epochs are considered in this study. Features extracted in the vowel regions of speech-laugh exhibit deviations from that of laughter and neutral speech. These deviations in feature values are exploited to discriminate speech-laugh from laughter and neutral speech. Two different datasets consisting of conversational speech and meeting recordings are used in this analysis. Experimental results show that the discrimination between the three classes obtained by considering vowel regions is better than that of considering the complete utterance.
Long-Term Incremental Web-Supervised Learning of Visual Concepts via Random Savannas

The idea of using image and video data available in the World-Wide Web (WWW) as training data for classifier construction has received some attention in the past few years. In this paper, we present a novel incremental and scalable web-supervised learning system that continuously learns appearance models for image categories with heterogeneous appearances and improves these models periodically. Simply specifying the name of the concept that has to be learned initializes the proposed system, and there is no further supervision afterwards. Textual and visual information on web sites are used to filter out irrelevant and misleading training images. To obtain a robust, flexible, and updatable way of learning, a novel learning framework is presented that relies on clustering in order to identify visual subclasses before using an ensemble of random forests, called random savanna, for subclass learning. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed web-supervised learning approach outperforms a support vector machine (SVM), while at the same time being simply parallelizable in the training and testing phases.
A relational approach of the supply function: an extension to the new ventures phenomenon in the small and medium enterprise (SME) context

The interest in correctly managing the relationships that companies establish with their suppliers increases and represents the first step toward ensuring that the product will comply with the desired standards This research proposes a model that explains the long-term orientation of firm-suppliers relationships, specifically focused on the small and medium enterprise (SME) context. This is because SMEs present different profiles to bigger firms and therefore they require special attention. We consider that the evolution of firms and their experience are also factors that affect the planning and managing processes of companies and their supply function, in particular. To analyze the effect of experience, we take the new ventures concept as a reference. The global sample is divided into two subsamples: ‘new ventures’ and ‘established forms’. The implications that derive from our research, its limitations and proposals for future research are also discussed.
Independent Directors’ Tenure, Related Party Transactions, Expropriation and Firm Value: Evidence from Malaysian Firms

This paper examines whether independent directors’ tenure moderates the relationship between related party transactions and firm value and whether controlling shareholders’ ownership moderates this moderating effect in Malaysian firms. The results show that independent directors’ tenure negatively moderates the relationship between related party transactions and firm value. However, controlling shareholders’ ownership positively moderates this moderating effect. It is also found that the negative moderating effect of independent directors’ tenure and the positive moderating effect of controlling shareholders’ ownership are stronger in family firms compared to non-family firms. The research results are robust against the control of technology companies.
V(D)J recombination: in vitro coding joint formation

Antigen receptor genes are assembled through a mechanism known as V(D)J recombination, which involves two different joining reactions: signal and coding joining. Formation of these joints is essential for antigen receptor assembly as well as maintaining chromosomal integrity. Here we report on a cell-free system for coding joint formation using deletion and inversion recombination substrates. In vitro coding joint formation requires RAG1, RAG2, and heat-labile factors present in the nuclear extract of nonlymphoid cells. Both inversion- and deletion-mediated coding joint reactions produce diverse coding joints, with deletions and P nucleotide addition. We also show that deletion-mediated coding joint formation follows the 12/23 rule and requires the catalytic subunit of DNA-dependent protein kinase.
The value relevance of goodwill and goodwill amortization: A European perspective

The main purpose of this paper is to research the value-relevance of goodwill and good- will amortization in order to provide arguments concerning the adequacy of the new non-amortization policy. We base our analysis on the Ohlson (1995) framework and employ not only a price model but also a return model. We use the information available on Extel Company Analysis about non financial quoted firms of seven EU countries from 1997 through 2001. Our results provide evidence as to the re- levance of goodwill and the lack of relevance of goodwill amortization for the valuation of share prices and they are robust to different specifications and partitions of the sample. Moreover they suggest that neither goodwill amortization is timely, nor, in general, changes in goodwill amortization give timely information about changes in value. As such our results support the changes by the FASB and the IASB regarding the treatment of goodwill.
Applying Software-Defined Networking to the telecom domain

The concept of Software-Defined Networking (SDN) has been successfully applied to data centers and campus networks but it has had little impact in the fixed wireline and mobile telecom domain. Although telecom networks demand fine-granular flow definition, which is one of SDN's principal strengths, the scale of these networks and their legacy infrastructure constraints considerably limit the applicability of SDN principles. Instead, telecom networks resort to tunneling solutions using a plethora of specialized gateway nodes, which create high operation cost and single points of failure. We propose extending the concept of SDN so that it can tackle the challenges of the telecom domain. We see vertical forwarding, i.e. programmable en- and decapsulation operations on top of IP, as one of the fundamental features to be integrated into SDN. We discuss how vertical forwarding enables flow-based policy enforcement, mobility and security by replacing specialized gateways with virtualized controllers and commoditized forwarding elements, which reduces cost while adding robustness and flexibility.
Differential Effect Of The Sarbanes-Oxley Act On Individual And Institutional Investors

This study investigates the differential effect of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (“SOX”) on unsophisticated individual investors and sophisticated institutional investors. I examine the relationship between abnormal stock returns around quarterly earnings announcements before and after SOX and investor sophistication. Empirical test results show that SOX positively affected stock returns reaction around the quarterly earnings announcement, consistent with prior literature. However, the increased stock returns reaction in the post-SOX period appears to be unrelated to individual investors. I find that the impact of SOX on institutional investor reaction to earnings announcement is statistically significant, whereas individual investor reaction to earnings announcement is not affected by SOX. This suggests that institutional investors have improved on the extent to which earnings information is efficiently priced after SOX, but not individual investors. These findings are important because the differential effect of the accounting disclosure regulation on investors has received little attention in the literature.
Electrical Storm in Children

Electrical storm (ES) presents a difficult management problem that has predominantly been described in adults and there are limited published data relating to children. We set out to characterize ES in children to assist management based on published literature and own institutional experience. We retrospectively analyzed the records of children presenting with ES to our institution between July 2001 and July 2011 and conducted a systematic literature review. Four children were identified (median age: 5.7 years, range: 3.3–9.6 years, one male). Each ES was of different character and different management strategies were used. All patients were alive at a median follow‐up of 5.7 years and all had received implantable cardioverter‐defibrillators. Two patients were felt to have catecholaminergic polymorphic ventricular tachycardia, one possible long QT syndrome and one the “short‐coupled” variant of torsades de pointes. At least three of our four patients had possible iatrogenic contribution to their ES. Forty‐seven cases of ES in children with variable management strategies were identified from the published literature. ES is a rare medical emergency in children with multiple etiologies requiring individualized management.
The Staging of Experiences in Wine Tourism

This article analyzes the potential of wine tourism to create experiences for the tourist. For this purpose the authors benefit from Scheurer's (2003) and Mueller and Scheurer's (2004) experience setting model. A literature review reveals research gaps in the field of experience-oriented wine tourism services and products and calls for more empirical investigations. Therefore, the empirical part of the article presents the case study of the South Tyrolean Wine Route in Italy and applies the experience setting model to assess the potential of experience-orientation of wine routes. The article concludes with tourism policy and management implications and derives questions for further research.
Diagnosis on increase in electrostatic charging tendency of mineral insulating oil for power transformers due to aging

Diagnosis on electrostatic charging tendency (ECT) of mineral insulating oil for power transformers has been performed. Increase in the ECT is derived from sulfonium ions, which are generated by sulfoxide compounds and hydrogen ions. Strong correlation between the ECT and the sulfoxide concentration is obtained in a series of thermal aging tests with oxygen and/or copper catalyst. The volume resistivity of oil is used as an alternative indicator for the concentration of hydrogen ion because hydrogen ions increase the electrical conductivity of oil and the sensitivity of conventional property such as total acid value is too low to evaluate the aging deterioration of closed-type transformers. Analysis of oils extracted from 98 actual transformers, whose operating years are between 3 and 46 years, are performed. High ECT values more than 200 pC/ml are detected in some oils and their volume resistivity values are less than 4 × 1014 Ωcm. Degree of the correlation between the ECT and the sulfoxide concentration is low compared to the result of the thermal aging tests. A diagnostic map with four areas classified using a pair of indicators of volume resistivity and sulfoxide concentration is useful to predict prospective increases in the ECT. Appropriate transformer operation and maintenance including air exposure avoidance of their mineral insulating oils is one of the effective solutions to prevent the ECT from increasing.
Assessment of Health Status in Patients With Cerebral Palsy: What is the Role of Quality-of-Life Measures?

Measuring quality of life (QOL) in a population with a functional range as large as that of the pediatric cerebral palsy population is challenging. This study assessed the utility of two common QOL instruments in this population: the Child Health Questionnaire (CHQ) and the Pediatric Outcomes Data Collection Instrument (PODCI). The goal was to determine the efficacy of these questionnaires in detecting subtle differences in the QOL among children with cerebral palsy and to demonstrate the need for dynamic assessment when evaluating QOL within this group. There were 180 subjects between the ages of 5 and 18 years, split into three diagnostic groups-diplegic, hemiplegic, and quadriplegic. The PODCI was more sensitive to differences in the diplegic and hemiplegic groups, but quadriplegics exhibited a floor effect (50% or more scored at most 15 out of 100) in three of the five domains. The CHQ was more effective for the quadriplegic group, but the diplegic and hemiplegic diagnostic groups exhibited a ceiling effect on 2 of the 12 domains in that questionnaire. Because an instrument that uses dynamic assessment bases subsequent questions on the patient's response to the first ones, dynamic assessment would help to avoid ceiling and floor effects by asking questions more pertinent to the patient's actual condition, and it would save time that would have been wasted answering irrelevant questions about function and QOL.
Board Structures in India, Evidence from Automobile and IT Companies

Board of Directors have become central focus for every business due to their vital role of bridging the interest of shareholders and managers. With particular look at some Automobile and IT companies, this paper has analysed the board structures in terms of size, independency, chairmanship and promotership on the board. Using purposive sampling, 10 companies each were selected from Automobile and IT sectors and 10 years time series trend and cross sectional analysis was used to achieve the objective. The study points out that, board size of selected companies did not change significantly over the period especially in the Automobile companies with about 80% maintaining same size over the decade. The Automobile companies had a median board size of 10-12 members while the IT companies had 10-11 members. 8 out of 10 companies never change their chairmanship in terms of person and category of director in both industries. 80% of the selected companies have non-independent chairmanship usually promoters meaning 50% of board members are independent. Few companies still have dual chairmanship over the period. All companies have fulfilled the statutory requirement of clause 49 of the listing agreement over the period.