bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
An improved serodiagnostic test for Chagas' disease employing a mixture of Trypanosoma cruzi recombinant antigens
Authors: Umezawa Eufrosina S. , Bastos Sueli F. , Coura Jose R. , Levin Mariano J. , Gonzalez Antonio , Rangel‐Aldao Rafael , Zingales Bianca , Luquetti Alejandro O. , Da Silveira Jose Franco 
Published: March 2003

BACKGROUND
: Blood transfusion is one of the most important transmission routes of Chagas' disease, a major parasitic infection in Latin America. Therefore, screening for antibodies to
Trypanosoma cruzi is mandatory in blood banks in South America. Most of the commercial serologic tests employ epimastigote antigens and show a high number of inconclusive and false‐positive results, with high economic and social costs. STUDY DESIGN AND METHODS
: An ELISA using a mixture of three
T. cruzi recombinant antigens, B13, 1F8, and H49 (mix‐ELISA), was evaluated, first with a panel of well‐characterized sera from 617 patients with Chagas' disease and 277 nonchagasic individuals, living in nine countries of South and Central America. Subsequently, the mix‐ELISA was evaluated with 451 samples, from an endemic area of Brazil (Goiás), that were rejected from several blood banks because they presented discrepant results by two commercially available kits (indirect immunofluorescence assay, indirect hemagglutination assay, and/or ELISA). RESULTS : The mix‐ELISA exhibited 99.7 percent sensitivity and 98.6 percent specificity in the first evaluation with the 894 samples. In the second evaluation, 451 sera that had discrepant results in the first screening for Chagas' disease were further analyzed with the mix‐ELISA. Upon consideration of the consensus results obtained with the trypomastigote excreted‐secreted antigens blot test, a confirmatory test for Chagas' disease, the mix‐ELISA led to a reduction in 99.6 percent in the number of discordant sera. CONCLUSION
: The combination of three
T. cruzi recombinant antigens in a multiantigen immunoassay was highly sensitive and specific for Chagas' disease diagnosis. It is proposed that it can be applicable in blood bank screening in conjunction with the conventional serologic tests.
Some Afterthoughts on Culture and Explanation in Historical Inquiry
Authors: Lorenz Chris 
Published: March 2003

I argue here that the articles in this forum contain basic agreements. All three reject naturalism, reductionism, and monism while retaining causality as an explanatory category, and all three emphasize the role of time and argue for a view in which culture is regarded as both structured and contingent.The differences among the explanatory proposals of Hall, Biernacki, and Kane are as important as the similarities: while Hall favors a Weberian approach, Biernacki argues for a primarily pragmatic explanation of culture, and Kane for a primarily semiotic explanation. I argue that all three positions face immanent problems in elucidating the exact nature of cultural explanation. While Hall leaves the problem of “extrinsic” ideal‐typical explanation unsolved, Biernacki simply presupposes the superiority of pragmatic over other types of cultural explanation, and Kane does the same for semiotic explanation. Hints at cultural explanation in the form of narrative remain underargued and are built on old ideas of an opposition between “analysis” and “narrative.” This is also the case with the latest plea for “analytic narratves.” I conclude that a renewed reflection on this opposition is called for in order to come to grips with cultural explanation and to get beyond the old stereotypes regarding the relationship between historical and social‐scientific approaches to the past.
Does the Medium Matter? The Relations among Bankruptcy Petition Filings, Broadtape Disclosure, and the Timing of Price Reactions
Authors: Dawkins Mark C. , Bamber Linda Smith 
Published: March 2003

ABSTRACTDrawing on a comprehensive sample of 330 bankruptcy petition filings from 1980 to 1993, we find that most of the market reaction does not occur on the bankruptcy petition filing date when the information becomes publicly available. Rather, most of the reaction occurs when news of the bankruptcy filing is more widely disseminated via the Broadtape. This “Broadtape announcement effect” persists after controlling for firm size, exchange listing, and predisclosure information. These are primarily timing differences since abnormal returns cumulated over an 11–day window centered on the filing date do not differ significantly across Broadtape disclosure date classifications.
Optimal Financial Crises
Authors: Allen Franklin , Gale Douglas 
Published: March 2003

ABSTRACTEmpirical evidence suggests that banking panics are related to the business cycle and are not simply the result of “sunspots.” Panics occur when depositors perceive that the returns on bank assets are going to be unusually low. We develop a simple model of this. In this setting, bank runs can be first‐best efficient: they allow efficient risk sharing between early and late withdrawing depositors and they allow banks to hold efficient portfolios. However, if costly runs or markets for risky assets are introduced, central bank intervention of the right kind can lead to a Pareto improvement in welfare.
Rationality and Analysts' Forecast Bias
Authors: Lim Terence 
Published: March 2003

ABSTRACTThis paper proposes and tests a quadratic‐loos utility function for modeling corporate earnings forecasting, where financial analysts trade off bias to improve management access and forecast accuracy. Optimal forecasts with minimum expected error are optimistically biased and exhibit predictable cross‐sectional variation related to analyst and company characteristics. Empirical evidence from individual analyst forecasts is consistent with the model's predictions. These results suggest that positive and predictable bias may be a rational property of optimal earnings forecasts. Prior studies using classical notions of unbiasedness may have prematurely dismissed analysts' forecasts as being irrational or inaccurate.
Explaining the Cross‐Section of Stock Returns in Japan: Factors or Characteristics?
Authors: Daniel Kent , Titman Sheridan , Wei K.C. John 
Published: March 2003

ABSTRACTJapanese stock returns are even more closely related to their book‐to‐market ratios than are their U.S. counterparts, and thus provide a good setting for testing whether the return premia associated with these characteristics arise because the characteristics are proxies for covariance with priced factors. Our tests, which replicate the Daniel and Titman (1997) tests on a Japanese sample, reject the Fama and French (1993) three‐factor model, but fail to reject the characteristic model.
A Rose.com by Any Other Name
Authors: Cooper Michael J. , Dimitrov Orlin , Rau P. Raghavendra 
Published: March 2003

ABSTRACTWe document a striking positive stock price reaction to the announcement of corporate name changes to Internet‐related dotcom names. This “dotcom” effect produces cumulative abnormal returns on the order of 74 percent for the 10 days surrounding the announcement day. The effect does not appear to be transitory; there is no evidence of a postannouncement negative drift. The announcement day effect is also similar across all firms, regardless of the firm's level of involvement with the Internet. A mere association with the Internet seems enough to provide a firm with a large and permanent value increase.
Term Structure of Interest Rates with Regime Shifts
Authors: Bansal Ravi , Zhou Hao 
Published: March 2003

ABSTRACTWe develop a term structure model where the short interest rate and the market price of risks are subject to discrete regime shifts. Empirical evidence from efficient method of moments estimation provides considerable support for the regime shifts model. Standard models, which include affine specifications with up to three factors, are sharply rejected in the data. Our diagnostics show that only the regime shifts model can account for the well‐documented violations of the expectations hypothesis, the observed conditional volatility, and the conditional correlation across yields. We find that regimes are intimately related to business cycles.
Corporate Diversification: What Gets Discounted?
Authors: Mansi Sattar A. , Reeb David M. 
Published: March 2003

ABSTRACTPrior literature finds that diversified firms sell at a discount relative to the sum of the imputed values of their business segments. We explore this documented discount and argue that it stems from risk‐reducing effects of corporate diversification. Consistent with this risk‐reduction hypothesis, we find that (a) shareholder losses in diversification are a function of firm leverage, (b) all equity firms do not exhibit a diversification discount, and (c) using book values of debt to compute excess value creates a downward bias for diversified firms. Overall, the results indicate that diversification is insignificantly related to excess firm value.
English Ambisyllabic Consonants and Half‐Closed Syllables in Language Teaching
Authors: Trammell Robert L. 
Published: March 2003

This study justifies increased attention to word and phrase‐level syllabification in pronunciation instruction for students of English and for English foreign language students. The latter need to recognize what their native syllabification patterns actually are in order to combat interference arising from them in the L2. The apparent simplicity and automaticity of syllabification belies its complexity within and across languages and its importance not only to correct allophonic production but also to correct word‐stress, rhythm, and intonation.The following pairs of English words reveal the importance of teaching students about half‐closed syllables as well as the traditional open and closed syllables (brackets mark the single consonant sound shared by the two syllables, hence the term ambisyllabic): Mi‐nos/mi[n]us, adore/a[d]o‐ra[ti]on, co‐mmune/co[mm]on, de‐ssert/ de[s]ert, re‐ply/re[p]licate. As the stress shifts from the first to the second syllable in these pairs of words, the syllabification of the first syllable changes from open to half‐closed with an ambisyllabic consonant. Trying to produce a conversational pronunciation of the second word in each pair with a clearly open or closed first syllable results in an artificial pronunciation.In this study, the case for including the notions of ambisyllabic consonants and half‐closed syllables in teaching syllabification is made on articulatory, theoretical, instrumental, and psycholinguistic grounds. This expanded concept of syllabification is also shown to be important in studies of syllable structure transference between first and second languages and in contrastive analyses. However, much of the evidence adduced in supporting the case for ambisyllabification was indirect, since it came from studies aimed at proving or investigating other points.In this study, the case for including the notions of ambisyllabic consonants and half‐closed syllables in teaching syllabification is made on articulatory, theoretical, instrumental, and psycholinguistic grounds. This expanded concept of syllabification is also shown to be important in studies of syllable structure transference between first and second languages and in contrastive analyses. However, much of the evidence adduced in supporting the case for ambisyllabification was indirect, since it came from studies aimed at proving or investigating other points.In spite of the length and detail of this study, it has had little impact. It is not likely that teaching and research practices in the areas concerned will change much until more direct instrumental research shows a clear physical difference between types of syllabification across languages. Experimental evidence is also needed on the negative effects of nonnative syllabification upon the rhythmic matrix of suprasegmentals, which helps to break utterances into decodable units of input for the native listener. That is, a connection between incomprehensible input and incorrect syllabification must be made clearer.
The Role of a Digital Intelligent Camera in Automating Industrial Photogrammetry
Authors: Dold J. 
Published: March 2003

In the past few years the automation of digital industrial photogrammetric systems has increased dramatically. Due to digital image processing software, coded targets and automatic matching methods, a huge number of photogrammetric measurement tasks can be fully automated. In many cases a “one button click” is enough to provide the three dimensional co‐ordinates of measured points without any manual interaction, immediately after acquiring the images. The technology of intelligent cameras is a logical step towards automated photogrammetric measurements. An intelligent camera, which has an integrated computer, analyses the image immediately after it is taken. This technology provides not only a much shorter processing time for the images but also more control over the measurement process just when it is needed, during image acquisition. This takes place in the form of real time feedback.This paper describes the role of a digital intelligent camera in the automation of an industrial photogrammetric measurement system and gives an overview of existing automation techniques in industrial photogrammetry. As an example of an intelligent camera, the performance of the new INCA digital intelligent camera, developed and manufactured by Geodetic Services, Inc. (GSI) and distributed by Leica, is described.
Partnership Arrangements: Governmental Rhetoric or Governance Scheme?
Authors: Teisman Geert R. , Klijn Erik‐Hans 
Published: March 2003

It has become popular to advocate partnership arrangements. Such partnerships may be seen as new forms of governance, which fit in with the imminent network society. However, the idea of partnership is often introduced without much reflection on the need to reorganize policy‐making processes and to adjust existing institutional structures.In this contribution, we discuss the ambiguity of partnerships. An empirical basis is provided by means of an analysis of the policy making on the expansion of the Rotterdam harbor. This case indicates that although new governance schemes are being proposed and explored, they still have to comply with the existing procedures in which they are imbedded. Governments especially are not prepared to adjust to governance arrangements. Policy making continues to be based on self‐referential organizational decisions, rather than on joint interorganizational policy making. This raises questions about the added value of intended cooperative governance processes.
Biology Precedes, Culture Transcends: An Evolutionist's View of Human Nature
Authors: Ayala Francisco J. 
Published: March 2003

I will, first, outline what we currently know about the last 4 million years of human evolutionary history, from bipedal but small‐brained Australopithecus to modern Homo sapiens, our species, through the prolific toolmaker Homo habilis and the continent wanderer Homo erectus. I shall then identify anatomical traits that distinguish us from other animals and point out our two kinds of heredity, the biological and the cultural.Biological inheritance is based on the transmission of genetic information, in humans very much the same as in other sexually reproducing organisms. But cultural inheritance is distinctively human, based on transmission of information by a teaching and learning process that is in principle independent of biological parentage. Cultural inheritance makes possible the cumulative transmission of experience from generation to generation. Cultural heredity is a swifter and more effective (because it can be designed) mode of adaptation to the environment than the biological mode. The advent of cultural heredity ushered in cultural evolution, which transcends biological evolution.I will, finally, explore ethical behavior as a model case of a distinctive human trait, and seek to ascertain the causal connections between human ethics and human biology. My conclusions are that (1) moral reasoning—that is, the proclivity to make ethical judgments by evaluating actions as either good or evil—is rooted in our biological nature; it is a necessary outcome of our exalted intelligence, but (2) the moral codes that guide our decisions as to which actions are good and which ones are evil are products of culture, including social and religious traditions. This second conclusion contradicts those evolutionists and sociobiologists who claim that the morally good is simply that which is promoted by the process of biological evolution.
Traffic Prediction and Management via RBF Neural Nets and Semantic Control
Authors: Amin S. Massoud , Rodin E. Y. , Liu A‐P. , Rink K. , García‐Ortiz A. 
Published: March 2003

The objective of this work has been to develop layers of control and optimization modules for the purpose of urban traffic management. We utilize the semantic control paradigm to model both the macrolevel (traffic control) and the microlevel (vehicle path planning and steering control). A semantic controller consists of three modules for identification, goal selection, and adaptation, respectively. This hierarchical structure has been used successfully at the Center for Optimization and Semantic Control to solve complex, nonlinear, and time‐varying problems. In our previous work we have used a judicious combination of artificial intelligence, optimization, and control systems.The focus of this paper is the identifier module, which performs “system identification,” i.e., determines the road network congestion level. Traffic flow can be characterized as a nonlinear stochastic process where linear prediction models such as linear regression are not suitable. However, neural network techniques may provide an effective tool for data‐based modeling and system identification. The radial basis function neural network (RBFNN) is an attractive tool for nonlinear time‐series modeling and traffic‐flow prediction. The goal selector module that finds the shortest path is also discussed in some detail.A model of the highway system, based on historical data provided by Missouri Highway and Transportation Department (MoHTD), has been developed. The prediction and planning system is evaluated using the traffic‐flow data from nine sensors located on the highway in the St. Louis metropolitan area.
Value Incongruity and Strategic Choice
Authors: Pant P. Narayan , Lachman Ran 
Published: March 2003

Research addressing how values held by individuals in organizations influence strategy choice and implementation is as yet fragmented. Different strands of this research have yielded contradictory prescriptions for strategy. This paper examines how values affect strategy, by focusing on the social control they exert. Social control manifests itself through the behaviours permitted and proscribed by given values.We call a value a core value when the social control it exerts supersedes that of most other values in a value system. When the social control a value exerts is itself superseded by that exerted by most other values in a system, we call the value a peripheral value in that system.Strategies could be depicted as containing implicit values, in that they too entail prescriptions for behaviour. Thus, core values implicit to strategies enable behaviour essential for the success of strategies. Values seemingly peripheral to strategies enable behaviour peripheral or even tangential to their success. This paper discusses several contingencies – clashes between core values of decision makers and values implicitly at the core of strategies, core and peripheral values, as well as clashes between peripheral values – in the context of both corporate and competitive strategies. Finally, some factors that might mitigate these clashes, are also discussed
Executive Values and Decision Making: The Relationship of Culture and Information Flows
Authors: Gamble Paul R. , Gibson Duncan A. 
Published: March 2003

The effect of culture on work values has been studied in a number of ways, largely from a western perspective. Studies have predominantly employed questionnaires as the principal agent of data collection. Yet the Confucian work ethic attributes greater emphasis to collectivist values which bear more centrally on personal relationships. This research used discourse analysis in order to try to identify the implicit features of cultural values as they affected the transmission of financial information, a problem highlighted by the Asian currency crisis in 1997/98.The international hotel industry operates in a multicultural environment where very often foreign operators manage locally owned premises. In these circumstances, budgetary planning and control is an important mechanism. A sample of the interactions between 18 hotel general managers and their financial controllers were studied in Hong Kong. Financial controllers are already subject to a number of role conflicts and it was found that these may be exaggerated by culture.Chinese financial controllers seem to distort the outputs of budgetary planning and control processes in recognition of important organizational relationships. It is suggested that recognizing the direction and effect of these relationships has implications for leadership and performance judgements generally.
Religious Involvement and the Forgiving Personality
Authors: Mullet Etienne , Barros José , Veronica Usaï Loredana Frongia , Neto Félix , Rivière Shafighi Sheila 
Published: March 2003

ABSTRACTThe relationship between religious involvement and forgiveness was assessed in three samples of Western Europeans living in a social environment dominated by the Catholic tradition. The samples comprised nonbelievers/nonattendees, believers/nonattendees, believers/regular attendees, and religious people. Age and religious involvement were shown to affect the willingness to forgive in an interactive way: The effect of religious involvement was stronger for the elderly group. We also found that what made the difference in the willingness to forgive was mainly the social commitment to religion (attendance in church and the taking of vows), not mere personal beliefs. In addition, age and religious involvement were found to affect blockage towards forgiveness in an additive way.
Book Reviews
Authors: Alibhai‐Brown Yasmin 
Published: March 2003

Books reviewed: Rethinking Multiculturalism: Cultural Diversity and Political Theory, by Bhikhu Parekh Multicultural Questions,edited by Christian Joppke and Steven Lukes Peoples, Cultures and Nations in Political Philosophy, by Paul Gilbert Race and Ethnicity in Modern Britain, by David Mason Citizenship and Immigration in Postwar Britain, by Randall Hansen The Ashdown Diaries, vol. 1: 1988–1997, by Paddy Ashdown Diaries: Into Politics, by Alan Clark Life in the Jungle: My Autobiography, by Michael Heseltine Left Behind: Lessons from Labour's Heartland, by Peter Kilfoyle Ann Widdecombe: Right from the Beginning, by Nicholas Kochan William Hague: In His Own Right, by Jo‐Anne Nadler Factionalism in Chinese Communist Politics, by Jing Huang Cadres and Corruption: The Organizational Involution of the Chinese Communist Party, by Xiaobo Lu Late Victorian Holocausts: El Ni??o Famines and the Making of the Third World, by Mike Davis Going to the Wars, by Max Hastings Governing with Judges: Constitutional Politics in Europe, by Alec Stone Sweet No Place Like Home: A Black Briton's Journey through the American South, by Gary Younge Parliament under Blair, by Peter Riddell New Labour in Power, edited by David Coates and Peter Lawler New Labour and Thatcherism, by Richard Heffernan The Retreat of Social Democracy, by John Callaghan. Manchester University Press Labour's First Century, edited by Duncan Tanner, Pat Thane and Nick Tiratsoo The Labour Party: A Centenary History, edited by Brian Brivati and Richard Heffernan