Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
CORPORATE ENTREPRENEURSHIP, OWNERSHIP AND GOVERNANCE IN POST-PRIVATISATION VIETNAM

This dissertation investigates the following questions. How does the structure of ownership, board governance, and board monitoring influence the corporate entrepreneurship behaviour of privatised firms in Vietnam? Furthermore, does uncertainty regarding the changing business and institutional environment moderate the relationships among corporate governance, ownership structure, and corporate entrepreneurship? In the dissertation, Stewardship Theory, Institutional Theory, Resource Dependence Theory, are integrated with Agency Theory to provide a framework to investigate the relationships between board composition, ownership structure and corporate entrepreneurship in post-privatisation environments. The theoretical arguments are tested using a mixed-method approach, based on a survey of privatised Vietnamese firms and data collected and collated from in-depth interviews of board and top management team members in six selected privatised firms. The study findings indicate that a reliance on any single theoretical lens is ineffective in explaining the phenomenon in the context of privatised firms in transition economies, and that the employment of multiple theories is crucial for providing a complete understanding of context-dependent phenomena, such as corporate governance. Empirically, the results show that the board composition and characteristics have little impact on corporate entrepreneurship and ownership structure almost plays no role in enhancing the entrepreneurial activities of privatised firms. In particular, the study highlights that there are no unique corporate governance practices that can be employed in every context. The practices are effective only in certain conditions and specific environments. The study provides a set of policy and managerial implications for shaping corporate governance in order to foster corporate entrepreneurship in Vietnamese privatised firms.
Age and Skeletal Sites Affect BMP-2 Responsiveness of Human Bone Marrow Stromal Cells

Bone marrow stromal cells (BMSCs) contain osteoprogenitors responsive to stimulation by osteogenic growth factors like bone morphogenetic proteins (BMPs). When used as grafts, BMSCs can be harvested from different skeletal sites such as axial, appendicular, and orofacial bones, but the lower therapeutic efficacy of BMPs on BMSCs-responsiveness in humans compared to animal models may be due partly to effects of skeletal site and age of donor. We previously reported superior differentiation capacity and osteogenic properties of orofacial BMSCs relative to iliac crest BMSCs in same individuals. This study tested the hypothesis that recombinant human BMP-2 (rhBMP-2) stimulates human BMSCs differently based on age and skeletal site of harvest. Adult maxilla, mandible, and iliac crest BMSCs from same individuals and pediatric iliac crest BMSCs were comparatively assessed for BMP-2 responsiveness under serum-containing and serum-free insulin-supplemented culture conditions. Adult orofacial BMSCs were more BMP-2-responsive than iliac crest BMSCs based on higher gene transcripts of alkaline phosphatase, osteopontin, and osteogenic transcription factors MSX-2 and Osterix in serum-free insulin-containing medium. Pediatric iliac crest BMSCs were more responsive to rhBMP-2 than adult iliac crest BMSCs based on higher expression of alkaline phosphatase and osteopontin in serum-containing medium. Unlike orofacial BMSCs, MSX-2 and Osterix transcripts were similarly expressed by adult and pediatric iliac crest BMSCs in response to rhBMP-2. These data demonstrate that age and skeletal site-specific differences exist in BMSC osteogenic responsiveness to BMP-2 stimulation and suggest that MSX-2 and Osterix may be potential regulatory transcription factors in BMP-mediated osteogenesis of adult orofacial cells.
Noggin and Sclerostin Bone Morphogenetic Protein Antagonists Form a Mutually Inhibitory Complex*

Noggin and sclerostin are bone morphogenetic protein (BMP) antagonists that modulate mitogenic activity through sequestering BMPs. Little is known of the interactions among this class of proteins. We show that recombinant sclerostin and noggin bound to each other with high affinity (KD = 2.92 nm). This observation has been extended to naturally expressed noggin and sclerostin from the rat osteosarcoma cell line, ROS 17/2.8, supporting a role for the complex in natural systems. The noggin-sclerostin complex was competitive with BMP binding and mutually attenuated the activity of each BMP antagonist. Collectively, the data demonstrate a novel and exquisite paradigm for the regulation of BMP activity through direct neutralization of the BMP and activation by co-localized BMP antagonist expression. The pleiotrophic nature of noggin and sclerostin represents a novel mechanism for the fine-tuning of BMP activity in bone homeostasis.
Glypican-6, a New Member of the Glypican Family of Cell Surface Heparan Sulfate Proteoglycans*

The glypicans compose a family of glycosylphosphatidylinositol-anchored heparan sulfate proteoglycans. Mutations in dally, a gene encoding aDrosophila glypican, and in GPC3, the gene for human glypican-3, implicate glypicans in the control of cell growth and division. So far, five members of the glypican family have been identified in vertebrates. By sequencing expressed sequence tag clones and products of rapid amplifications of cDNA ends, we identified a sixth member of the glypican family. The glypican-6 mRNA encodes a protein of 555 amino acids that is most homologous to glypican-4 (identity of 63%). Expression of this protein in Namalwa cells shows a core protein of ∼60 kDa that is substituted with heparan sulfate only. GPC6, the gene encoding human glypican-6, contains nine exons. Like GPC5, the gene encoding glypican-5,GPC6 maps to chromosome 13q32. Clustering of theGPC5/GPC6 genes on chromosome 13q32 is strongly reminiscent of the clustering of the GPC3/GPC4 genes on chromosome Xq26 and suggests GPCs arose from a series of gene and genome duplications. Based on similarities in sequence and gene organization, glypican-1, glypican-2, glypican-4, and glypican-6 appear to define a subfamily of glypicans, differing from the subfamily comprising so far glypican-3 and glypican-5. Northern blottings indicate that glypican-6 mRNA is widespread, with prominent expressions in human fetal kidney and adult ovary. In situ hybridization studies localize glypican-6 to mesenchymal tissues in the developing mouse embryo. High expressions occur in smooth muscle cells lining the aorta and other major blood vessels and in mesenchymal cells of the intestine, kidney, lung, tooth, and gonad. Growth factor signaling in these tissues might in part be regulated by the presence of glypican-6 on the cell surface.
Quantitative trait loci on chromosome 5 for susceptibility to frequency-specific effects on hearing in DBA / 2 J mice

The DBA/2J strain is a model for early-onset, progressive hearing loss in humans, as confirmed in the present study. DBA/2J mice showed progression of hearing loss to low-frequency sounds from ultrasonic-frequency sounds and profound hearing loss at all frequencies before 7 months of age. It is known that the early-onset hearing loss of DBA/2J mice is caused by affects in the ahl (Cdh23) and ahl8 (Fscn2) alleles of the cadherin 23 and fascin 2 genes, respectively. Although the strong contributions of the Fscn2 allele were detected in hearing loss at 8and 16-kHz stimuli with LOD scores of 5.02 at 8 kHz and 8.84 at 16 kHz, hearing loss effects were also demonstrated for three new quantitative trait loci (QTLs) for the intervals of 50.3–54.5, 64.6–119.9, and 119.9–137.0 Mb, respectively, on chromosome 5, with significant LOD scores of 2.80–3.91 for specific high-frequency hearing loss at 16 kHz by quantitative trait loci linkage mapping using a (DBA/2J × C57BL/6J) F1 × DBA/2J backcross mice. Moreover, we showed that the contribution of Fscn2 to early-onset hearing loss with 32-kHz stimuli is extremely low and raised the possibility of effects from the Cdh23 allele and another dominant quantitative trait locus (loci) for hearing loss at this ultrasonic frequency. Therefore, our results suggested that frequency-specific QTLs control early-onset hearing loss in DBA/2J mice.
Low‐dose UV‐radiation sensitizes keratinocytes to TRAIL‐induced apoptosis

The impact of low‐dose ultraviolet light (UV‐light) on apoptotic susceptibility of keratinocytes (KCs) induced by TRAIL is unclear. Skin expresses a functional form of TRAIL, and while sun exposure influences TRAIL death receptors, a role for decoy receptors has not been evaluated. Unraveling mechanisms involving apoptotic sensitivity of KCs is important because skin is the first target of UV‐light, and a site for commonly occurring cancers. Since apoptosis is a homeostatic process eliminating UV‐light induced DNA damaged cells, elucidating molecular events regulating apoptosis enhances understanding of cutaneous photocarcinogenesis. Here we demonstrate low‐dose UV‐light enhances susceptibility of KCs to TRAIL‐induced apoptosis. Low‐dose UV‐light selectively reduces decoy receptors, without influencing death receptor levels. UV‐induced enhanced apoptotic susceptibility was reduced by over‐expression of decoy receptor TRAIL‐R4, but not TRAIL‐R3; or treatment with thiol compound pyrrolidine dithiocarbamate (PDTC), which also enhanced TRAIL‐R4 levels. Besides influencing decoy receptors, low‐dose UV‐light plus TRAIL also synergistically promoted cytochrome c and Smac release from mitochondria. Inhibitors directed against caspases 2, 3, 8, and 9 reduced the synergistic apoptotic response following low‐dose UV‐light plus TRAIL exposure; as did forced over‐expression of Bcl‐x and dominant negative (DN) constructs of FADD and caspase 9. Thus, relative levels of decoy receptors significantly influence susceptibility of KCs to TRAIL‐induced apoptosis with concomitant low‐dose UV‐light exposure; in addition to the apoptotic pathway mediated by mitochondrial permeabilization. © 2004 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Permanent survival of organ transplants without immunosuppression: Experimental approaches and possibilities for tolerance induction in clinical transplantation

During the past 30 years, organ transplantation has developed from a highly experimental procedure into an important part of routine clinical practice. This is reflected by the fact that graft survival times, which were once considered in terms of days or weeks, are now measured in terms of years or decades, with enormous corresponding benefits for the patient. Much of this improvement is due to the development of sophisticated immunosuppressive drugs that inhibit the rejection response mediated by the immune system of the recipient. However, almost without exception, all of the grafts that are transplanted from one genetically disparate individual to another are eventually rejected. The Holy Grail in transplantation is the development of protocols that lead to transplantation tolerance and provide stable graft function without long-term drug therapy. In this article, we have discussed the need for alternatives to current immunosuppression and reviewed the results of animal models, which suggest that long-term stable tolerance is an achievable goal.
Efficacy of Human Papillomavirus Type 16/18 AS04-Adjuvanted Vaccine in Japanese Women Aged 20 to 25 Years: Final Analysis of a Phase 2 Double-Blind, Randomized Controlled Trial

Background: Human papillomavirus (HPV) type 16/18 AS04-adjuvanted vaccine was shown to be highly immunogenic and generally well tolerated in the interim analysis of a phase 2 double-blind, randomized controlled multicenter study in Japanese healthy women aged 20 to 25 years. Vaccine efficacy, immunogenicity, and safety are assessed in this study through 24 months after the first vaccination. Methods: Japanese women aged 20 to 25 years were randomly assigned to receive either HPV-16/18 AS04-adjuvanted vaccine (n = 519) or hepatitis A vaccine (n = 521) at 0, 1, and 6 months. Women were assessed for virological, cytological, and histological end points associated with HPV-16/18 and 12 other oncogenic HPV types (types 31, 33, 35, 39, 45, 51, 52, 56, 58, 59, 66, and 68) in cervical specimens and for the vaccine safety and immunogenicity. Antibody concentrations were measured by an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Primary efficacy analysis was performed in the according-to-protocol cohort for efficacy, primary immunogenicity analysis was performed in the according-to-protocol cohort for immunogenicity, and primary safety analysis was done in the total vaccinated cohort. Results: Vaccine efficacy against persistent infections (6 month definition) associated with HPV-16/18 was 100% (95.5% confidence interval, 71.3-100; P < 0.0001). Vaccine efficacy against cervical intraepithelial neoplasia 1+ associated with 14 oncogenic HPV types was 64.9% (95.5% confidence interval, 4.9-89.0; P = 0.02). At 24 months after the first dose of the vaccine, geometric mean antibody titers against HPV-16 and HPV-18 were 1521.5 enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay U/mL and 627.4 enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay U/mL, respectively. The HPV-16/18 AS04-adjuvanted vaccine had a clinically acceptable safety profile. Conclusions: The HPV-16/18 AS04-adjuvanted vaccine showed excellent prophylactic efficacy against 6-month persistent infection with HPV-16/18. The HPV-16/18 AS04-adjuvanted vaccine was generally well tolerated and immunogenic in the study population of healthy Japanese women aged 20 to 25 years.
Value of Contrast-Enhanced Ultrasound Quantification Criteria for Identifying Patients not Responding to Bevacizumab-Based Therapy for Colorectal Liver Metastases

Abstract Purpose To evaluate changes in tumor vascularization parameters based on contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) quantification criteria of at least one visible liver metastasis as an early predictor of non-response to chemotherapy, including bevacizumab for colorectal cancer (CRC) liver metastases. Materials and Methods This multicenter prospective study included patients who received first-line bevacizumab-based chemotherapy. Tumor enhancement measured using CEUS within one liver metastasis and in relation to the surrounding healthy liver was quantified within 8 days before the first infusion of bevacizumab (E0), 24 hours after the end of the first infusion of bevacizumab (E1), in the 24 hours before the 2nd and 3 rd infusion of bevacizumab on day 15 (E2) and day 30 (E3), respectively, and after 2 months of treatment (E4). Endpoints were tumor response using RECIST criteria at 2 months, progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS). Results Among the 137 patients included in this study, 109 were analyzed. Only CEUS parameters calculated in relation to healthy liver were significant. High wash-in and wash-out rates at baseline were significantly associated with a better tumor response. Increases over time E2-E0 and E3-E0 for peak enhancement were significantly associated with shorter progression-free survival. Increases over time E2-E0 and E3-E0 for peak enhancement and wash-in area under the curve were significantly associated with a shorter overall survival. Conclusion This large study demonstrated that early dynamic changes in the vascularity of liver metastases evaluated by quantified CEUS are associated with outcome in patients receiving first-line bevacizumab-based treatment for metastatic CRC.
Analysis of vertical and horizontal sectorization in suburban environment using 3D ray tracing

The target of this paper is to analyze and compare the performance of vertical sectorization, super cell deployment, and higher order horizontal sectorization in a real world suburban environment, using a 3D ray tracing technique. The impact of using different antenna beamwidth for inner and outer sectors in a horizontal plane, impact of elevation angle separation between the vertical sectors, and different tilts for the sectors was also investigated. The simulation results show that the super cell deployment helps in improving the Signal to Interference Ratio (SIR) of inner as well as outer sector, however the vertical sectorization still provides better area spectral efficiency compared to super cell configuration due to higher cell density. The simulation results revealed that in terms of spectral efficiency the vertical sectorization is highly in-efficient and higher order horizontal sectorization shows far better result, and also keeps a healthy balance of traffic share between the sectors.
Leadership Skills and Labor Market Outcomes

Employers claim to place a high value on interpersonal skills, including leadership, conflict resolution and teamwork, in hiring and retaining employees. They often rank the importance of these skills above notions of technical training and cognitive ability. This paper estimates the net impact of one such “noncognitive” skill –leadership ability-on labor market outcomes, controlling for the standard human capital and cognitive skill measures typically used by economists in earnings functions. To avoid endogeneity we correlate pre-labor market measures of leadership skills with labor market outcomes in adulthood.
Dietary Acrylamide and the Risk of Endometrial Cancer: An Italian Case-Control

abstract The role of dietary acrylamide on the risk of hormone-related, and specifically endometrial, cancers is debated. Epidemiological data are scanty. Thus, we examined the relation between acrylamide intake and endometrial cancer risk in a case-control study conducted between 1992 and 2006 in 3 Italian areas. Cases were 454 women with incident, histologically confirmed endometrial cancer. Controls were 908 age-matched women admitted to the same network of hospitals of cases for acute, non-neoplastic conditions. We calculated multivariate odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) using logistic regression models. The OR of endometrial cancer for increasing quintiles of dietary acrylamide, as compared to the lowest one, were 1.02 (95% CI: 0.67–1.54), 1.20 (95% CI: 0.80–1.80), 1.00 (95% CI: 0.65–1.54) and 1.17 (95% CI: 0.73–1.85). The OR for an increase of 10 μg/day of dietary acrylamide was 1.00 (95% CI: 0.91–1.10). In subgroup analyses, the ORs for high vs. low acrylamide intake were 1.28 (95% CI: 0.73–2.25) in never smokers and 1.14 (95% CI: 0.45–2.90) in ever smokers. Our data do not support an association between dietary acrylamide intake and endometrial cancer.
Social Media Use in Organizations: Exploring the Affordances of Visibility, Editability, Persistence, and Association

The use of social media technologies—such as blogs, wikis, social networking sites, social tagging, and microblogging—is proliferating at an incredible pace. One area of increasing adoption is organizational settings where managers hope that these new technologies will help improve important organizational processes. However, scholarship has largely failed to explain if and how uses of social media in organizations differ from existing forms of computer-mediated communication. In this chapter, we argue that social media are of important consequence to organizational communication processes because they afford behaviors that were difficult or impossible to achieve in combination before these new technologies entered the workplace. Our review of previous studies of social media use in organizations uncovered four relatively consistent affordances enabled by these new technologies: Visibility, persistence, editability, and association. We suggest that the activation of some combination of these affordances could influence many of the processes commonly studied by organizational communication theorists. To illustrate this point, we theorize several ways through which these four social media affordances may alter socialization, knowledge sharing, and power processes in organizations.
The Mortgage Rate Choice

The aim of this paper has been to give a theoretical background to the empirical studies that are presented in paper 2 and 3. Findings from behavioral finance a discipline that emerged as a response to deviations in human decision-making from the standard assumptions of the rationalistic paradigm in economics – is used to see how this could have implications for the household s choice between fixed and variable mortgage rates. The most important general result is perhaps that given the behavioral hypotheses presented, one should not expect a simple relation between mortgage rate choice and standard economic variables like the gap between the fixed and variable interest rate levels, or the interest rate level in relation to historical trends. There are also indications that there are several cognitive factors that could influence the mortgage rate choice other than purely financial ones.
Wages, Labor or Prices: How Do Firms React to Shocks?

Survey results in 15 European countries for almost 15,000 firms reveal that Belgian firms react more than the average European firm to adverse shocks by reducing permanent and temporary employment. On the basis of a firm-level analysis, this paper confirms that the different reaction to shocks is significant and investigates what factors explain this difference. Although the explanatory value of the variables is limited, most of the explanatory power of the model being associated with the dummy variables coding for firm size, sector and country, the variables investigated provide valuable information. The importance of wage bargaining above the firm level, the automatic system of index-linking wages to past inflation, the limited use of flexible pay, the high share of low-skilled blue-collar workers, the labor intensive production process as well as the less stringent legislation with respect to the protection against dismissal are at the basis of the stronger employment reaction of Belgian firms. On the contrary, employment is safeguarded by the presence of many small firms and a wage cushion.
Asymmetric Information and Conglomerate Discount: Evidence from Spinoffs

The existing literature argues that diversified firms may be undervalued due to the information asymmetry between a firm's management and the market. Splitting the firm's divisions into multiple business components is thought to facilitate the market valuation of each component more accurately. We investigate the information hypothesis from corporate spinoffs from 1981 through 2004. We use the post-spinoff data to reconstruct the diversified firm, assess the improvement in value at the combined firm level, and relate the value improvement to the change in the level of information asymmetry. We find that, prior to the spinoff, the sample firms have significantly higher levels of information asymmetry than their industry- and size-matched peers and that the level of information asymmetry decreases to a certain extent following the spinoff. We also find that the sample firms are valued at a substantial discount before the spinoff and that the valuation discount is eliminated after the completion of the spinoff. The matching firms, however, do not trade at a significant discount either pre- or post-spinoff. This is consistent with the view that only undervalued firms divest. More importantly, we find that the change in excess value around the spinoff is significantly and negatively related to the change in the level of information asymmetry. We conclude that information asymmetry is at least partly responsible for the diversification discount.