Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
An empirical analysis of financially distressed Australian companies: the application of survival analysis

This thesis provides an empirical analysis of financially distressed companies in the Australian context using survival analysis techniques. Three main assays are developed and presented in the thesis. The first assay explores the effect of financial ratios and other variables on corporate financial distress and identifies the probability of corporate survival in a given time frame. The four main categories of financial ratios are profitability, liquidity, leverage and activity ratios and control variables which are a market-based variable and company-specific variables; for example, company age, company size and squared size are employed in the analysis. The Cox proportional hazards model was estimated using time-varying variables based on a sample of 1,117 publicly listed Australian companies over the period 1989 to 2005. Empirical results found that financially distressed companies have higher leverage measured by debt ratio, lower past excess returns and larger size compared to active companies. Researchers argue that a company may exit the market in several different ways, such as through merger, acquisition, voluntary liquidation and bankruptcy and each type of exit is likely to be affected by different factors. Consequently, the second assay investigates the determinants of multiple states of financial distress by applying a competing risks Cox proportional hazards model. The unordered three-state financial distress model is defined as follows: state 0: active companies, state 1: distressed external administration companies and state 2: distressed takeover, merger or acquisition companies. The effect of financial ratios, market-based variable and company-specific variables including company age, company size and squared size on three different states of corporate financial distress are investigated based on a sample of 1,081 publicly listed Australian companies over the period 1989 to 2005.
Low-power bandgap references featuring DTMOSTs

This paper describes two CMOS bandgap-reference circuits featuring Dynamic-Threshold MOS transistors. The first bandgap reference circuit aims at application in low-voltage low-power ICs that tolerate medium accuracy. The circuit's accuracy is 2% and it runs at supply voltages down to 0.85V while consuming only 1. 2µW; the die area is 0.063mm2in a 0.35µm CMOS process. The second bandgap reference circuit aims at high accuracy operation (0.3%) without trimming. It consumes approximately 5. 4µW from a 1.8V supply voltage, and occupies 0.06mm2in a 0.35µm CMOS process.
Roles of Outcome Expectations and Self-Efficacy in Preschoolers' Aggression

The present study examined preschool boys' beliefs for the outcome of aggression and their perceptions of self-efficacy for aggressive behaviors. 23 preschoolers (mean age 6.3 yr.; 12 aggressive boys and 11 nonaggressive boys) were presented stories about provocative situations and asked about three expectations for aggression: positive outcomes, peer rejection, and morality. Another 18 preschoolers (mean age 6.3 yr.; 9 aggressive boys and 9 nonaggressive boys) rated their self-efficacy for four strategies: aggression, verbal persuasion, seeking help from a teacher, and withdrawal. Aggressive preschoolers did not expect a negative outcome in the form of peer-rejection in response to aggression as much as nonaggressive boys, although the groups did not differ in their expectations of positive outcomes and morality. Also, aggressive preschoolers were more confident about aggression in situations including teasing or criticism but less confident about verbal persuasion than nonaggressive preschoolers.
Comorbidity in Adults with Attention‐Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder

Abstract: This paper describes the clinical manifestations of attention‐deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in adulthood, with particular emphasis placed on issues relating to comorbidity. Prospective and retrospective studies are reviewed to evaluate the degree to which adults with ADHD exhibit clinical features that mirror their childhood counterparts with analogous comorbid psychiatric (e.g., antisocial, mood, and anxiety) and/or cognitive (i.e., learning) disorders. We also address the question of whether comorbid disorders in adults represent independent diagnostic entities and whether the presence of psychiatric comorbidity varies as a function of ADHD subtype (i.e., inattentive, hyperactive‐impulsive, combined, and residual). As is the case for ADHD in childhood, comorbidity is not uncommon among adults with ADHD. However, the reported prevalence of comorbid conditions among adults with ADHD varies considerably depending upon whether the research used a prospective or retrospective design.
The New Slovenian Text-to-Speech System

Human-computer interaction in a natural language is becoming possible due to rapid development of computer power. While text-to-speech (TTS) systems for major world languages are quite advanced, smaller languages, like our Slovenian language, lack quality TTS synthesis. At the "Jozef Stefan" Institute a system called GOVOREC (SPEAKER) has been developed which is capable of automatic conversion of any Slovenian texts into speech. The different phases of the synthesis task are performed by several sequentially operating independent modules (text analysis, prosody generation and segmental concatenation), which are pipelined together. That enables easy improvements of separate parts of the system. The first module (text normalization and grapheme-to-phoneme conversion) comprise tasks such as end-of-sentence detection, abbreviation and number expansion, special formats conversion, morphological analysis and phonological modeling, accentuation and phrasing. In order to generate rules for our synthesis scheme, data was collected by analysing the readings of ten speakers, five males and five females. A two-level approach has been used for duration modelling, and so-called superpositional approach at pitch modelling. Speech waveform is synthesized using a concatenative TD-PSOLA technique. Our basic units inventory for the elaborated male voice consists of 1509 diphones, 1568 words and 139 sentences. Key-Words: Slovenian text-to-speech system, text analysis, prosody generation, speech production
Long-Term Follow-up of Surgery for Equinovarus Foot Deformity in Children With Cerebral Palsy

The factors associated with failed operative intervention in the treatment of equinovarus foot deformity in children with cerebral palsy (CP) were evaluated after long-term follow-up. One hundred eight children with CP who had surgery on the posterior tibialis tendon (split tendon transfer, intramuscular lengthening, or Z-lengthening) on 140 feet were reviewed at a mean age of 16.8 years with 7.3 years of follow-up. The surgery was considered a failure when a 10° or greater varus or valgus hindfoot deformity was present or if an additional operative intervention was required or planned. Involvement of CP, age at operation, and preoperative status of ambulation were significant factors in the outcome of the surgery. Hemiplegic patients demonstrated the best results, regardless of age or surgical procedure. Seventy-five percent of diplegic and quadriplegic patients who were younger than 8 years or who were not capable of community ambulation failed operative intervention, and surgery on the posterior tibialis tendon is not recommended in this group of patients.
Simultaneous Presence of Different Domestic GAAPs and Investors’ Limited Attention Bias in U.S. Equity Markets: Implications for Convergence*

I examine how the presence of domestic accounting standards of various countries affects market reactions to firms’ earnings announcements on a given day and subsequent post-earnings announcement drifts (PEAD) in U.S capital markets. Drawing from the finance and accounting literatures on investors’ limited attention bias, I posit that the presence of fewer multiple domestic GAAPs reduces investors’ cognitive burdens to analyze earnings of firms from different countries and thus results in less distraction and stock mispricing when investors respond to firms’ earnings news. I use the number of domestic GAAPs at the firm level on a given earnings announcement day as the proxy for extent of simultaneous presence of domestic GAAPs and test the incremental effects of the number of domestic GAAPs on initial market reactions to earnings and on PEAD of U.S. and non-U.S. firms. I find that the presence of fewer different domestic GAAPs yields higher earnings response coefficients and trading volume reactions to firms’ earnings news and induces a smaller incremental effect on PEAD. A hedge portfolio based on PEAD on earnings announcement days with fewer domestic GAAPs is less profitable than one based on announcement days with more domestic GAAPs. The results indicate that the presence of fewer domestic GAAPs facilitates investment decision making and improves market efficiency by mitigating investors’ limited attention bias. The findings provide the important implication for the current movement of convergence of domestic accounting standards. This is also the first paper to empirically investigate the relation between different domestic GAAPs and investors’ limited attention bias.
eHealth literacy demands and cognitive processes underlying barriers in consumer health information seeking

Background: Consumer eHealth tools play an increasingly important role in engaging patients as participants in managing their health and seeking health information. However, there is a documented gap between the skill and knowledge demands of eHealth systems and user competencies to benefit from these tools. Objective: This research aims to reveal the knowledge- and skill-related barriers to effective use of eHealth tools. Methods: We used a micro-analytic framework for characterizing the different cognitive dimensions of eHealth literacy to classify task demands and barriers that 20 participants experienced while performing online information-seeking and decision-making tasks. Results: Participants ranged widely in their task performance across all 6 tasks as measured by task scores and types of barriers encountered. The highest performing participant experienced only 14 barriers whereas the lowest scoring one experienced 153. A more detailed analysis of two tasks revealed that the highest number of incorrect answers and experienced barriers were caused by tasks requiring: (a) Media literacy and Science literacy at high cognitive complexity levels and (b) a combination of Numeracy and Information literacy at different cognitive complexity levels. Conclusions: Applying this type of analysis enabled us to characterize task demands by literacy type and by cognitive complexity. Mapping barriers to literacy types provided insight into the interaction between users and eHealth tasks. Although the gap between eHealth tools, users’ skills, and knowledge can be difficult to bridge, an understanding of the cognitive complexity and literacy demands can serve to reduce the gap between designer and consumer. https://doi.org/10.34105/j.kmel. 2015.07. 037
The forest-land owners of Ohio -- 1979

A statistical analytical report on a mail canvass of private commercial forest-land owners in Ohio. The study was conducted in conjunction with the third forest survey of Ohio by the USDA Forest Service. It discusses landowner characteristics, attitudes, and intentions of owners regarding reasons for owning, recreational use, timber management, and harvesting.
Reservation Prices in Optimal Stopping

In an optimal stopping problem where bids on an asset are received, conditions are given that ensure the so-called reservation price property, namely, if a certain price is accepted, then any higher price would also have been accepted at that point in time. The approach followed in this paper is similar to that pursued by D. B. Rosenfield and R. D. Shapiro in 1981.
Effects of Short-Sale Constraints on Stock Prices and Trading Activity: Evidence from Hong Kong and Mainland China

There has been extensive literature on effects of short-sale constraints. A most widely study is Miller (1997) who argues that given the short-sale constraints, investors with bearish information cannot trade in the market unless they already hold the stocks. As a consequence, stock prices reflect opinion of optimistic investors, but not of all pessimistic investors. The effect of short-selling on overvaluation has received some empirical support in the U.S. market. The objective of this paper is to examine the effect of short-sale constraint on pricing efficiency in the China market. Not only that we provide additional evidence outside the U.S., the unique setting in the China market makes it an ideal laboratory experiment for providing direct evidence on the effect of short-sale constraint on the stock valuation. Many Chinese companies are dually listed in the Mainland and Hong Kong, either as A-shares listed in Shanghai or Shenzhen, or as H-shares in Hong Kong. Until now, all A shares are prohibited from short-selling. On the other hand, for those H shares which are listed in Hong Kong, some can be sold short and some cannot. This leads us to develop two hypotheses. The first is that the A-H premium is higher for those H share stocks subject to less short-selling restriction than for those subject to more restriction. The second is that the A-H volume ratio is lower for those H shares subject to less short selling restriction than for those subject to more restriction. We conduct empirical analysis using data on companies that are listed in both the A-share and H-share markets from 1996 to 2008, and provide evidence consistent with the two hypotheses.
Measuring Corporate Environmental Performance: Best Practices for Costing and Managing an Effective Environmental Strategy

Each year corporations spend millions of dollars on environmental compliance. However; if viewed strategically and managed properly, companies can see how improved environmental performance can lead to improved financial performance. This book includes the results of the largest field study ever conducted in this area and shows corporate controllers, accountants, and operating managers how to: integrate environmental imports into management decision making including products costing, product pricing, product development, capital investment, and performance evaluation decisions; develop and implement a corporate environmental strategy; and how to improve environmental costing and management using the state of the art and corporate best practices.
RFID: A Guide to Radio Frequency Identification

PREFACE. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS. STAFF ACKNOWLEDGMENTS. ABOUT THE AUTHORS. 1 INTRODUCTION. 1.1 What Is RFID? 1.2 What Explains the Current Interest in RFID Technology? 1.3 Goals of This Book. 2 AN OVERVIEW OF RFID TECHNOLOGY. 2.1 The Three Core Components of an RFID System. 2.2 RFID Tags. 2.3 RFID Interrogators. 2.4 RFID Controllers. 2.5 Frequency. 2.6 Automatic Identifi cation and Data Capture (AIDC) Systems. 2.7 "Smart" Tags vs. Bar Codes. 2.8 RFID Technology in Supply Chain Management. 3 HISTORY AND EVOLUTION OF RFID TECHNOLOGY. 3.1 The Convergence of Three Technologies. 3.2 Milestones in RFID and the Speed of Adoption. 3.3 RFID in the Future. 4 RFID MIDDLEWARE AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY INTEGRATION. 4.1 What Is RFID Middleware? 4.2 The Recent Focus on Middleware. 4.3 Core Functions of RFID Middleware. 4.4 Middleware as Part of an RFID System-The EPC Architecture. 4.5 The Present State of Middleware Development. 4.6 Middleware Vendors. 5 COMMERCIAL AND GOVERNMENT RFID TECHNOLOGY APPLICATIONS. 5.1 Introduction. 5.2 Effect of the Wal-Mart and Department of Defense Mandates. 5.3 Strategic Dimensions of the Wal-Mart and DoD Mandates. 5.4 RFID Technology for Business Applications. 5.5 RFID and Supply Chain Management. 5.6 The Business Case for RFID. 5.7 Government Use of RFID Technology. 5.8 RFID and the Pharmaceutical Supply Chain. 5.9 RFID Implanted in Humans. 6 RFID TECHNOLOGY IN HOMELAND SECURITY, LAW ENFORCEMENT, AND CORRECTIONS. 6.1 Introduction. 6.2 RFID Technology in Homeland Security. 6.3 RFID in Law Enforcement. 6.4 RFID Use in Law Enforcement-Looking to the Future. 6.5 RFID Technology in Corrections. 7 RFID REGULATIONS AND STANDARDS. 7.1 Governmental RFID Regulation. 7.2 World Regulatory Bodies. 7.3 Industrial-Scientifi c-Medical (ISM) Bands. 7.4 Spectrum Allocations for RFID. 7.5 Industrial RFID Standards. 7.6 International Standards Organization (ISO). 7.7 EPCglobal. 7.8 The Wal-Mart and DoD Mandates and EPC. 8 ISSUES SURROUNDING THE DEPLOYMENT OF RFID TECHNOLOGY. 8.1 Introduction. 8.2 Privacy Issues in Applying RFID Technology. 8.3 The Costs of Developing and Deploying RFID Technology. 8.4 The Growth of Global Standards and Regulations. 8.5 Technological Immaturity and Integration with Legacy Systems. 8.6 Lack of Robustness. 8.7 Lack of Knowledge and Experience, End-User Confusion, and Skepticism. 8.8 Ethical Issues. 8.9 Data Management. 9 THE FUTURE PREDICTIONS FOR RFID. APPENDIX A WAL-MART RFID INITIATIVE. APPENDIX B DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE RFID POLICY OVERVIEW. LIST OF ACRONYMS. GLOSSARY. RFID VENDOR LIST. POINTS OF CONTACT. INDEX.
A selection framework of e-business model by assessing organizational e-readiness

This study intends to provide a decision making framework that helps organizations to select appropriate e-business model (EBM) based on their “organizational e-readiness assessment” (OERA). For this purpose, it's made using five dimensions as major criteria of EBMs by extracting the literature. By allocating some related indicators of OERA to selected dimensions, a qualitative framework was developed to assess level of organization readiness in each dimension. For determining the standard level of generic EBMs, it's used five known classifications of EBMs - including 50 generic EBMs- in the literature qualitatively. Finally, by comparing the assessment result and standard level of classified EBMs, it can propose proper EBM(s) to managers. Additionally, because of using e-readiness indicators in this framework, managers can use it for assessing e-business readiness of their organizations.
Increased alveolar/capillary membrane resistance to gas transfer in patients with chronic heart failure.

OBJECTIVE--To investigate pulmonary diffusive resistance to gas exchange in patients with heart failure and healthy volunteers, assessing the relative contributions of the alveolar/capillary membrane and pulmonary capillary blood. SETTING--Hospital outpatient department and pulmonary function laboratory. PATIENTS--38 patients (mean age 60) receiving treatment with loop diuretics and angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors for stable symptomatic heart failure of > 6 months duration (New York Heart Association (NYHA) classes II and III). Results were compared with those of 17 healthy volunteers (mean age 52). METHODS--The alveolar/capillary membrane diffusive resistance and the pulmonary capillary blood volume available for physiological gas exchange were determined by the Roughton and Forster method, which measures the single breath pulmonary diffusing capacity for carbon monoxide at varying alveolar oxygen concentrations. RESULTS--Total pulmonary diffusive resistance was higher in patients than controls. Alveolar/capillary membrane resistance formed the main component of this increase, accounting for a mean (SD) of 63% (20%) and 86% (8%) of total pulmonary diffusive resistance in patients in NYHA II and III classes respectively, compared with 53% (10%) in controls. The pulmonary capillary blood volume was not significantly different between controls and patients in NYHA class II (66 (18) ml v 61 (18) ml), but was increased in those in NYHA class III (95(46) ml, P < 0.05). CONCLUSION--This study confirmed impairment of pulmonary diffusion at rest in patients with chronic heart failure and identified impaired alveolar/capillary membrane function as the main factor responsible.
An Empirical Enquiry into the Speed of Information Aggregation: A Study of Ipos

This paper investigates how long it takes until dispersed information on the valuation of IPO-firms is incorporated in secondary market prices, and how the speed of information aggregation relates to market microstructure and IPO characteristics. We find that it takes one week for all IPO-related information to be reflected in the market price for 2,511 IPOs in the U.S. Using a novel methodology to gauge event-time volatility, we attribute the quick aggregation of information to bookbuilding and liquidity in the secondary market. Our results contrast with Ellul and Pagano (2005) who report slower information aggregation in U.K. fixed price IPOs.
Delay and interference aware metric in multi-channel wireless mesh network

With the features provided by wireless mesh networks (WMN) and the increasing number of users, the Quality of Service (QoS) has become essential to support multimedia applications. In addition, employing the multichannel approach has led to the improvement of the network performance. However, selecting a path with the maximum available bandwidth to transmit data from the source to the destination is a critical issue because of intraflow interference and inter-flow interference. In this paper, we propose a routing metric Delay and Interference Aware Metric (DIAM), which selects a path with high data rate and low signal interference to achieve high performance. The DIAM metric estimates the intra-flow interference, inter-flow interference and delay of a link for multi-channel WMNs. We have implemented DIAM in the AODV routing protocol using the Network Simulator (NS2). The performance of our metric is measured by conducting simulation experiments in static and mobile networks.
Appropriation Infrastructure: Mediating Appropriation and Production Work

End User Development offers technological flexibility to encourage the appropriation of software applications within specific contexts of use. Appropriation needs to be understood as a phenomenon of many collaborative and creative activities. To support appropriation, we propose integrating communication infrastructure into software application that follows an"easy-to-collaborate"-principle. Such an appropriation infrastructure stimulates the experience sharing among a heterogeneous product community and supports the situated development of usages. Taking the case of the BSCWeasel groupware, we demonstrate how an appropriation infrastructure can be realized. Empirical results from the BSCWeasel project demonstrate the impact of such an infrastructure on the appropriation and design process. Based on these results, we argue that the social construction of IT artifacts should be tightly integrated in the material construction of IT artifacts in bridging design and use discourses.
Ultrasound-Guided Steroid Injection of the Pisotriquetral Joint: A Multidisciplinary Effort

Abstract From the perspective of a multidisciplinary team, the authors describe the first reported use of ultrasound guidance for steroid injection into the pisotriquetral joint to relieve wrist pain of a person with spinal cord injury undergoing acute inpatient rehabilitation. Musculoskeletal ultrasound guidance was used to improve the accuracy of a corticosteroid injection of the pisotriquetral joint and the basal thumb in a 70-year-old man with paraplegia experiencing multifocal degenerative wrist pain. There was no bleeding or bruising after the injections, and the patient reported complete pain resolution 1 wk after the injections, which continued for over 1 yr. A multidisciplinary team was key in diagnosis, selection of treatment, and evaluation of treatment effect. Corticosteroid injection of the pisotriquetral joint under ultrasound guidance can be used as a treatment modality for managing wrist pain stemming from that joint. Further investigation and studies evaluating the use of ultrasound versus other imaging modalities for injection of the wrist are indicated.