Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Disclosure and Transparency of Romanian Listed Companies

Over the past decade, Romania's political, economic and social life where subordinated to one major objective: the transition from the pre-1990 centrally planned economic system to a market economy in the context of EU enlargement. The effective conduct of business is an issue of general relevance and interest, corporate governance as we are defining it aims to address the very specific problems that result from the separation of ownership and control. We will focus on large companies as they are more frequently confronted with corporate governance problems, more exactly on joint stock companies that are forms of networks specially designed to deal with the issues of separation between ownership and control. The companies listed on the stock exchange are the most representative illustrations of the corporate governance issue. In the first part of our research, after a short presentation of OECD principles of Corporate Governance and disclosure and transparency principle, we present the legal framework of corporate governance in Romania. In the second part we point the improvements related to disclosure and transparency principle made by regulatory institutes and in the third part we analyze the evolution of disclosure: mandatory, voluntary to Stock Exchange, toward shareholders, and by internet, finalizing with conclusions about disclosure and transparency of Romanian listed companies.
Effect of Short-term and Long-term Preservation on Motion Characteristics of Garole Ram Spermatozoa: A Prolific Microsheep Breed of India

Garole is a prolific, rare, less known and small size Indian sheep breed found in low and humid Sunderban region of West Bengal. Although information on stored Garole ram liquid semen upto 24 h is available, but there is a need to further investigate the short-term and long-term preservability of Garole ram semen for extensive utilization of this valuable germplasm by artificial insemination. The aim of the present study was to apply computer-assisted sperm analysis technique for assessing the motion characteristics of Garole ram semen stored (i) in liquid state at refrigeration temperature for short-term preservation upto 48 h and (ii) in frozen state at -196°C for long-term preservation after packaging in mini straws. Short-term preservation had a significant effect on motility (p<0.01) as the m아ility progressively decreased from 90.1% at 0 h to 85.5% and 73.2% after 24 and 48 h of storage, respectively. Although the decline in rapid moving sperms was also significant (p<0.01) on storage but the decrease was more pronounced at 48 h as compared to 24 h of storage period. Storage of chilled semen had also a significant effect on % linearity (p<0.05), % straightness (p<0.01), sperm velocities (p<0.01), amplitude of lateral head displacement (p<0.01) and beat frequency (p<0.01) of spermatozoa. The replication had a significant effect for all the variables except average path and straight line velocity. However, the interactions of short-term storage and replication were non-significant for most of the variables except % of medium moving sperms, sperm velocities and beat frequency. On long-term preservation of Garole ram spermatozoa under controlled conditions the mean post-thaw recovery of 70.4 and 71.4% motile spermatozoa was achieved having 48.8 and 48.9% of rapidly motile spermatozoa, respectively in both the replicates. The effect of replication on cryopreservation was significant (p<0.05) on amplitude of lateral head displacement and beat frequency, but there was no significant effect on motility, rapidly motile spermatozoa, linearity, straightness and sperm velocities of frozen-thawed spermatozoa. It can be concluded from these results that an average 70% motility can be achieved on storage of Garole ram semen in chilled liquid state upto 48 h or in liquid nitrogen after freezing under controlled conditions in straws. However, further studies are required to evaluate the fertility of short-term and long-term preserved Garole ram semen for extensive use of this prolific sheep breed. (Asian-Aust J. Aninu Sci, 2001. Vol 14, No. 11:1527-1533)
NEST SURVIVAL RELATIVE TO PATCH SIZE IN A HIGHLY FRAGMENTED SHORTGRASS PRAIRIE LANDSCAPE

Abstract Understanding the influences of habitat fragmentation on vertebrate populations is essential for the protection and ecological restoration of strategic sites for native species. We examined the effects of prairie fragmentation on avian reproductive success using artificial and natural nests on 26 randomly selected, privately owned patches of shortgrass prairie ranging in size from 7 to 454 ha within a cropland matrix in Washington County, Colorado, summer 2000. Survival trends of artificial and natural nests differed. Daily survival of artificial nests increased with patch size up to about 65 ha and differed little at larger patch sizes, whereas daily survival of Lark Bunting (Calamospiza melanocorys) and Horned Lark (Eremophila alpestris) nests decreased with increasing size of the grassland patch. We hypothesize that our unexpected findings of lower survival of natural nests with increasing patch sizes and different trends between artificial and natural nests are due to the particular structure of predator communities in our study area and the ways in which individual predators respond to artificial and natural nests. We recommend that the value of small habitat patches in highly fragmented landscapes not be overlooked.
The Dark Side of Regulating Fast Informed Trading

A speed bump in financial markets is an intentional delay imposed on trade execution. Its primary purpose is to mitigate asymmetric information by slowing down high-frequency traders (HFTs). In contrast to its intended purpose, this paper shows that a speed bump has the crowding-in effect on speed acquisition of HFTs, meaning that it can fuel their investment in high-speed technology. I investigate when the crowding-in effect dominates a speed bump’s intended effect and explain its ambiguous impact on speed acquisition and equilibrium market quality.
VARIATION IN BENTHIC DIATOM (BACILLARIOPHYCEAE) IMMIGRATION WITH HABITAT CHARACTERISTICS AND CELL MORPHOLOGY 1

We studied the hypothesis that diatom immigration abilities are related to their fitness for colonizing stream substrates. Diatom abundances on artificial substrates exposed for 24 h (the measure of immigration rate) and abundances of stream plankton were determined in six habitats. Diatom immigration varied among habitats from 50–2500 cells·cm−2·d−1. Immigration rates decreased 10‐fold with increases in current from 10 to 30 cm·s−1 but changed little during a 40‐d summer period. Immigration abilities of diatom taxa were characterized as ratios of either their abundances or relative abundances in immigration assemblages versus in the plankton. Immigration abilities varied over 100‐fold among different species. Immigration of some species could be characterized as slower than others in different streams; however, variation in immigration abilities of other species among streams indicated that environment also affected immigration. Diurnal variation in abundance and species composition of the immigration pool (stream plankton) can be important in assessing immigration abilities. Immigration ability may affect benthic diatom fitness. Monoraphid diatoms had a lower probability of immigrating from the plankton than araphid diatoms.
Evaluating Impact of an Emerging Big Health Data Platform: A Logic Model and Q-Methodology Approach

Despite advances in technology and medical science, modern health-based projects are open to systemic failure due to many factors. These include I.T. developer’s lack of awareness with regard to end-user needs, poor communication amongst all parties concerned and inappropriate or inadequate tests of the emerging system. Other issues may be external (e.g. political and legal) such as sharing of patient data and issues surrounding consent. The goal of this paper is to take a major health-based European model in current development and explore how it addresses the needs of four institutions in four different countries, and how it will meet their respective needs. The evaluation was designed within a Logic Model, and uses the Framework approach, and Q-Methodology to assess both impact and evaluation. Data will be collected through longitudinal semi-structured interviews and Q-scoring with principal stakeholders and developers at each stage of the project. This approach, recurring interviews with the same key players in the project, will help ensure that there is mutual understanding between I.T. developers and end-users of the system. The final system is meant to provide effective health-based decision support systems for policy makers.
Regulatory Regimes and Employer Organization: The Analysis of Postcommunist Business-State Relations

The interest group theories that link regulations and activities of special interest groups, predict higher levels of collective action to coincide with more extensive regulations. The fact that economic regulations and enforcement mechanisms may impose the costs on interest organization and thus diminish instances of collective action, however, has not been explored systematically. The evidence form twenty-six postcommunist countries over the time period spanning from the late 1990s to the mid-2000s indicates that state regulatory institutions have a surprising effect on the formation of business associations. Conterintuitively, harsh regulations discourage the development of business associations, but lax enforcement of regulations, often linked to bureaucratic corruption, stimulates collective action. Contrary to the long-standing tradition of viewing industry associations as rent-seeking vehicles of protectionism and collusion, this suggests that the self-organization of business community is often driven by the need for non-state market-promoting institutions rather than primarily by rent-seeking.
Ownership Structure, Analyst Coverage, and Forecast Error: Are family firms different from others?

This paper examines the relationship between ownership structure, analyst coverage, and forecast error for a sample of 160 companies listed on the Swiss Exchange for the period 2003-2013. A distinction is made between family firms, widely held firms, and firms owned by another blockholder. I utilize the subsample of family firms to gauge the following characteristics: generation, involvement in management, use of dual class shares, and excess control by the largest shareholder. The results show that family firms are less frequently followed by analysts, but their earnings are better forecasted. Furthermore, by looking only at family firms and their characteristics, I find evidence that the higher the likelihood of expropriation, the higher the number of analysts following them in comparison with other family firms; however, I find little association between the likelihood of expropriation and forecast error.
A Comparative Analysis on Consumer Preference With Respect to Post Launch of Nestle Maggie and Patanjali Noodle at Nagpur

For young generation instant noodles have been a revolution as it is very easy to cook and comes in variants of tastes. Though there are many players in the market which are trying to attract the youngsters towards their brand of noodle especially after Maggie noodles were out of the shelf for a period of few months. The highlight of this research paper is to identify how frequently and how much Noodle do people consume, whether they buy small, big or family pack and have the preferences have changed over the matter of Maggie. The very reason for selecting this area of research is that there is a keen competition in the market and once market understands the mentality, thought process and reaction for certain product, the can easily grab the market share and new entrants like Patanjali Atta Noodles is trying to encash on the same. Sales are largely bases on Customers then the product and service offered by the marketer. Factors like price, quality, advertisement, satisfaction, taste, packaging, brand loyalty and to some extent the how safe it is to consume a product plays an important part.
Friends, Enemies, or Strangers? On Relationships between Public and Private Sector Service Providers in Hybrid Forms of Governance

Hybrid forms of governance receive special attention in literature on regulatory reforms. It is often assumed that a combination of public and private sector involvement in a regulatory regime is superior to “pure public” or “pure private” regimes. By paying close attention to such hybrids, this article finds that hybrids have two key dimensions: first, the “amount” of public and private sector involvement in a hybrid, and second, the relationship between these sectors. Contrary to the former dimension, the latter hardly receives any attention in scholarship. This article addresses that knowledge gap. It introduces a typology of hybrids based on these two dimensions. A brief case study is introduced to discuss the value of the focus on relationships between public and private sector service providers.
Steering via Algorithmic Recommendations

We study the effect of Amazon's dual role, as a marketplace and retailer, on product recommendations. We find that products sold by Amazon receive substantially more "Frequently Bought Together” recommendations across product categories and popularity deciles. To establish causality, we exploit within-product variation generated by Amazon stockouts. We find that when Amazon is out of stock, the identical product sold by third-party sellers receives 8% fewer recommendations. The pattern can be explained by economic incentives of steering and cannot be explained by consumer preference. Furthermore, the steering lowers the recommendation efficiency.
How Does Size Affect Mutual Fund Behavior?

If actively managed mutual funds suffer from diminishing returns to scale, funds should alter investment behavior as assets under management increase. Although asset growth has little effect on the behavior of the typical fund, we find that large funds and small-cap funds diversify their portfolios in response to growth. Greater diversification, especially for small-cap funds, is associated with better performance. Fund family growth is related to the introduction of new funds that hold different stocks from their existing siblings. Funds with many siblings diversify less rapidly as they grow, suggesting that the fund family may influence a fund's portfolio strategy.
Volatility Noise

This study shows that fitting errors of equity-option-implied volatility surfaces are informative about intermediary frictions. For each stock and day, we quantify the goodness of fit between the observed implied volatilities of all available options and the corresponding estimates from OptionMetrics’ smoothed volatility surface using root-mean-square errors. In the cross-section of stocks, this error metric increases in idiosyncratic stock volatility and several measures of option and stock illiquidity. Based on these insights, we propose an overarching measure for intermediary frictions given by the value-weighted average of the stock-specific fitting errors. This measure of volatility noise peaks during episodes of market distress and exhibits sensible correlations to standard economic state variables like the market return, the TED spread, or the VIX. Moreover, we uncover a close link between volatility noise and the constraints on intermediary equity and debt. Finally, our asset pricing results indicate that volatility noise is informative for the cross-sectional variation in expected returns beyond the equity option market. In particular, we find volatility noise to constitute a priced risk factor in returns of stocks as well as equity and bond mutual funds.
Molecular Marker Mapping of RSV4, a Gene Conferring Resistance to all Known Strains of Soybean Mosaic Virus

Soybean mosaic virus (SMV) is a prevalent viral pathogen of soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr. ] wherever it is grown. Several genes that confer resistance in soybean to soybean mosaic virus have been identified. One of these resistance loci, Rsv4, confers resistance to all the known strain groups of SMV. This study was conducted to determine the map position of the Rsv4 locus in the soybean genome. A population of 255 F 2 individuals from the cross of the SMV resistant line LR2 (Rsv4) by the susceptible line Lee68 (rsv4) was evaluated in a mapping study, DNA from 12 to 15 F 2 individuals being either homozygous resistant or susceptible were pooled to produce bulk resistant and bulk susceptible DNA samples. Parents and bulks were screened with 101 AFLP primer pairs and two linked polymorphisms were identified. A putative linked marker, amplified by the primers Mse-AAA and Eco-AAG, was converted to a restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) clone and a single polymorphic band was mapped 4.8 cM away from Rsv4. The same band was mapped in a second population containing 400 mapped loci and it was determined that this marker was located on the soybean D1b linkage group. Subsequent mapping in the original Rsv4 mapping population showed that the Rsv4 locus is flanked by the microsatellite markers, Satt542 at 4.7 cM and Satt558 at 7.8 cM.
Role of Natural Killer Cells in Multiple Sclerosis

Although the etiology of multiple sclerosis (MS) is not known, the consensus is that Th1 cells sensitized to myelin proteins in the periphery are recruited into the CNS and damage the myelin sheath. Natural killers (NK) are cells that spontaneously lyse tumor target cells and have immunoregulatory activity secreting multiple cytokines and chemokines, as well as interacting with cells of innate and adaptive immune systems. A great discovery in the field is the cloning of several inhibitory and activating receptors. Another important contribution is the discovery that these cells express many seven-transmembrane-spanning domain receptors which aid them in extravasations into injured tissues. Despite all this progress, the role of NK cells in autoimmune diseases including MS is still not quite clear. In this paper, I will summarize recent findings related to the effects of these cells in both MS and the animal model of experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE). Hence, I will discuss the effects of drugs used to treat MS/EAE and then explain their effects on NK cells. These include anti-CD25 or daclizumab, interferon-β (IFN-β), natalizumab, glatiramer acetate (GA), and fingolimod (FTY720). Finally, I will explain the contribution of the recently discovered NK17/NK1 cells in MS disease.
D&O Insurance and SG&A Cost Stickiness

This study examines whether directors’ and officers’ liability insurance (hereafter D&amp;O insurance) affects managers’ cost decisions on holding committed resources when sales decrease. We argue that holding committed resources for sales decreases can be interpreted as an investment in a risky project because managers have less discretion to adjust resources allocation in response to the demand shocks, resulting in a high earnings downside and hence ceteris paribus the financial risk (Holzhacker et al. 2015; Weiss 2010). By using the mandated D&amp;O insurance disclosure data in Taiwan from 2008 to 2015, we document that the degree of SG&amp;A cost stickiness increases with the level of D&amp;O insurance coverage, implying that D&amp;O insurance can motivate firms’ resource commitment decisions. Moreover, we provide evidence that D&amp;O insurance moderates the effects of pessimistic managers on reduced cost stickiness decision (i.e., anti-cost stickiness decision). Further tests suggest that the moderating effect is due to optimal risk-taking, as evidenced by the direct benefit to an improvement in competitiveness and long-term value creation which associated with D&amp;O insurance.
An Empirical Analysis of Intra‐Firm Product Substitutability in Fashion Retailing

This study offers an empirical investigation of inventory and sales dynamics in a large‐scale retail network setting. We infer the impact of product shortages on sales in neighboring outlets using unique data from a large fast fashion retailing chain and an Instrumented Difference‐in‐Differences (DDIV) methodology. Our analysis reveals that sales for a particular item at a focal store increases when that same item experiences stock‐outs in neighboring stores. Our empirical findings suggest that there is substitutability across stores, and that this substitutability is the strongest in the period when the stock‐out is observed for the first time, and decreases as time passes following the stock‐out. In order to assess the implications of considering the impact of stock‐outs on inventory allocation, we develop an optimization model that is calibrated using parameters estimated via our earlier DDIV analysis. The simulation analysis confirms that revenues markedly improve on average by 6% under low demand variance and by 14% under high demand variance when neighboring stock‐out information is taken into account for sales forecasting while optimizing initial inventory allocations. Finally, we conduct sensitivity analysis to evaluate how these potential revenue improvements vary with turnover, product price, and inventory.
Form and Function of the Primary Spines of Two Bathyal Echinothuriid Sea Urchins

The appearance, in situ activity and structure of the primary spines of the two deep sea echinothuriid sea urchins Phormosoma placenta and Araeosoma belli are described with particular reference to the unusual, fleshy, aboral spines. Oral primary spines of both species are clearly but differently adapted for movement over soft substrata. The aboral spines of both species bear fleshy extensions which are composed of gelatinous material in both species and are not poison sacs. Field experiments showed that the fleshy parts of the aboral spines of P. placenta are palatable to shallow-water fish. However, the aboral spines are shown to have stored within the hollow ossicle of the spine secretory material likely to be irritant in function. The structure of the tip of the spine ossicle of both species suggests that they may act like hypodermic needles. We conclude that the aboral spines of both species are probably defensive in function but remain equivocal over the exact role of the massive fleshy extensions found in P. placenta. Other possible non-defensive functions are briefly discussed.
On the periodic minimal surface structure of the plant prolamellar body

An evaluation of minimal surface structures formed in lipid-water systems and in lipid-protein-water systems in relation to electron microscopic data on the prolamellar body are reported. It is suggested that the characteristic square and hexagonal patterns seen in electron micrographs of prolamellar bodies constitute minimal surfaces of the P- and D-type, respectively. The existence of the G- and the H-surface in the membrane systems of prolamellar bodies is discussed.