Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
An Outcome Based approach to delivery and assessment of a course in Control System Design

Outcome Based Education is an approach that focuses on the behavior change in the learning of students rather than the learning process. What student is able to perform within a realm of technical expertise after the learning process is of utmost importance. Recently, it becomes mandatory for all the higher learning institutions in Malaysia to implement the outcome based education approach to the existing models of their engineering programs. This is because OBE has become the prerequisite for obtaining the accreditation from the Board of Engineers Malaysia and also the Engineering Accreditation Council. It is for this reason that the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Universiti Teknologi MARA is transforming all the degree programs to embed the OBE approach. This paper intends to present our experience in transforming a course in Control System Design from the classical model to the GPA/OBE hybrid framework. The definition of course outcomes, program outcomes, the mapping of course and program outcomes, embedding of course and program outcomes in the curriculum design and delivery of content and the assessment process are discussed. This design is observed to be capable of offering possible solutions to the few challenges expressed by previous works. In addition, it is found to be able to provide an evidence based platform for the measurement of technical competence and behavioral change in learning, which indirectly reflect the attributes of engineer, as dictated by the accreditation bodies. From the recent assessment, it is found that [36% 39% 25%] of the student population is rated [strong moderate weak] in their ability to apply systematic approach to solve control engineering problem. On the other hand, [6% 27% 67%] of the sampled student population has demonstrated [strong moderate weak] in their ability to make use of in-depth knowledge.
Most reliable indices in differentiation between thalassemia trait and iron deficiency anemia

Background : Iron deficiency anemia (IDA) and thalassemia trait (TT) are the most common forms of microcytic anemia. Some discrimination indices calculated from red blood cell indices are defined and used for rapid discrimination between TT and IDA. However, there has been no study carried out in which the validity of all of the defined indices are compared in the same patient groups. Youden's index is the most reliable method by which to measure the validity of a particular technique, because it takes into account both sensitivity and specificity.
Biallelic deletion 13q14.3 in patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia: cytogenetic, FISH and clinical studies

Background and objective: Monoallelic deletion of 13q14.3 (13q14x1) is the most common abnormality in chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). As a sole alteration, it predicts a favorable outcome. Biallelic 13q14.3 (13q14x2) deletion or concomitant 13q14x1/13q14x2 has been scarcely evaluated in the literature. We present the clinical, cytogenetic and fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) analysis of six CLL patients with normal karyotypes and 13q14x2 and their comparison to cases with 13q14x1 as a single abnormality.
A Distant Mirror of Debt, Default, and Relief

We take a first pass at quantifying the magnitudes of debt relief achieved through default and restructuring in two distinct samples: 1979-2010, focusing on credit events in emerging markets, and 1920-1939, documenting the official debt hangover in advanced economies that was created by World War I and its aftermath. We examine the economic performance of debtor countries during and after these overhang episodes, by tracing the evolution of real per capita GDP (levels and growth rates); sovereign credit ratings; debt servicing burdens relative to GDP, fiscal revenues, and exports; as well as the level of government debt (external and total). Across 45 crisis episodes for which data is available we find that debt relief averaged 21 percent of GDP for advanced economies (1932-1939) and 16 percent of GDP for emerging markets (1979-2010), respectively. The economic landscape after a final debt reduction is characterized by higher income levels and growth, lower debt servicing burdens and lower government debt. Also ratings recover markedly, albeit only in the modern period.
Employee Participation in Health and Safety in the Australian Steel Industry, 1935-2006

Occupational health and safety (OHS) representatives and committees are the principal form of employee participation mandated by legislation in Anglo-Saxon countries, and therefore have a strong base. However, their existence precedes legislation in some significant cases. This article undertakes a 70‐year historical analysis of the effectiveness and operations of one significant example of pre‐legislative OHS committees in an Australian steelworks. The study finds that effectiveness of the committees as a form of participation depended on a complex complementarity of variables, including relationship with unions, the nature of management commitment, the organizational industrial relations climate and the political and institutional macro environment, consistent with ‘favourable conjunctures’ theory.
K-5 Literacy Education: A Comparison between American Common Core State Standards and Chinese National Curriculum Standards

Literacy education is the most important part in school education and its efficiency determines the students' achievements in their future education and career. In 2010, the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) were released, which aimed to provide common standards for K-12 public school students in the whole country to improve the educational quality in the U. S. The goals of language literacy in CCSS were illustrated from four dimensions: standards for reading, writing, speaking and listening, and language, which was from the micro-perspective of language learning. In CCSS, English Language Arts Reading is emphasized and the teaching aims, teaching contents, language skills, and the function of new technology was proposed to guarantee the quality of the literacy education. In 2011, Chinese National Curriculum Standards (NCS) was released. The goal of NCS for language learning was designed based on three dimensions: knowledge and ability, process and methods, and emotion, attitude, and values, which was from the macro-perspective of language learning. This paper introduced the background of the implementation of the two curriculums, compared the components and goals between the American CCSS and Chinese NCS, as well as the characteristics of each curriculum to try to find out the implications for each other.
Workplace Bullying and Ethical Leadership

Workplace bullying presents serious challenges to organizations, but it remains one of the most neglected problems in the realm of employment relations. This article addresses the implications of workplace bullying for organizational leaders and suggests measures that can be undertaken to respond to it. In addition, it considers workplace bullying in the context of individual dignity and the practice of values-based leadership.
Giving with Impure Altruism: Applications to Charity and Ricardian Equivalence

Models of giving have often been based on altruism. Examples include charity and intergenerational transfers. The literatures on both subjects have centered around neutrality hypotheses: charity is subject to complete crowding out, while intergenerational transfers are subject to Ricardian equivalence. This paper formally develops a model of giving in which altruism is not "pure. " In particular, people are assumed to get a "warm glow" from giving. Contrary to the previous literature, this model generates identifiable comparative statics results that show that crowding out of charity is incomplete and that government debt will have Keynesian effects.
RELIABILITY‐CONSTRAINED PRICING, CAPACITY, AND QUALITY: AN ILLUSTRATION OF ECONOMIC CONCEPTS TO POSTAL SERVICES

A model is developed from which welfare‐optimal prices, capacities, and reliabilities for a service provider are simultaneously determined. Solutions are determined under conditions of stochastic demand subject to a reliability constraint on service quality. Both quality of service provided, as well as price, impact on demand for services rendered. Results indicate that (i) optimal prices are equated to the reliability‐constrained marginal costs, (ii) optimal reliabilities require that the marginal benefits of increasing reliability are equated to the marginal costs of doing so, and (iii) optimal capacity allocation involves minimizing the system's expected costs subject to meeting the prespecified reliability constraint for service quality. The model is applied to postal delivery services in light of the growing competition that has emerged in this industry.
Production, Manufacturing and Logistics Optimal tool replacement for processes with low fraction defective

Tool wear is a frequent and natural part in many machining processes and is a systematic assignable cause. The fraction of defectives would rise as the tool deteriorates. When the fraction defective reaches a certain level, the tool must be replaced. To minimize the defective parts and the overall tool costs, the optimal tool replacement time needs to be determined. Process capability indices (PCIs) have been effectively used in the manufacturing industry to measure the fraction of defectives. Conventional methods of capability measurement become inaccurate since the process data is contaminated by the assignable cause variation. In order to determine the optimal tool replacement time to maintain maximum product quality, conventional capability calculation must be modified. Considering process capability changes dynamically, an estimator of Cpmk is investigated. We obtain an exact form of the sampling distribution in the presence of a systematic assignable cause. This study provides an effective management policy for optimal tool replacement under low fraction of defectives. To illustrate the application of this procedure, a case study involving the tool wear problem is presented. 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
The Era of Molecular and Other Non-Culture-Based Methods in Diagnosis of Sepsis

SUMMARY Sepsis, a leading cause of morbidity and mortality throughout the world, is a clinical syndrome with signs and symptoms relating to an infectious event and the consequent important inflammatory response. From a clinical point of view, sepsis is a continuous process ranging from systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS) to multiple-organ-dysfunction syndrome (MODS). Blood cultures are the current “gold standard” for diagnosis, and they are based on the detection of viable microorganisms present in blood. However, on some occasions, blood cultures have intrinsic limitations in terms of sensitivity and rapidity, and it is not expected that these drawbacks will be overcome by significant improvements in the near future. For these principal reasons, other approaches are therefore needed in association with blood culture to improve the overall diagnostic yield for septic patients. These considerations have represented the rationale for the development of highly sensitive and fast laboratory methods. This review addresses non-culture-based techniques for the diagnosis of sepsis, including molecular and other non-culture-based methods. In particular, the potential clinical role for the sensitive and rapid detection of bacterial and fungal DNA in the development of new diagnostic algorithms is discussed.
International Accounting Differences and their Relation to Share Prices: Evidence from U.K., Australian, and Canadian Firms

We synthesize and extend research exploring differences between U.S. and other countries' GAAP by investigating whether differences between domestic and U.S. GAAP for U.S.- listed U.K., Australian, and Canadian firms are associated with firms' returns and prices. The accounting differences we investigate include goodwill, asset revaluations, income taxes, pensions, interest capitalization, foreign currency, and extractive industries accounting. We conclude that goodwill is priced as an asset; asset revaluations, successful efforts accounting for extractive industries, and immediate recognition of foreign currency exchange gains and losses on long-term assets and liabilities generally are uncorrelated with information investors consider relevant; U.K., U.S., and Australian tax accounting methods do not recognize "enough" tax expense or liability; accrual pension accounting adds explanatory power beyond Australia's cash- based method, and in some specifications, so does interest capitalization. Our findings suggest that the SEC-required GAAP reconciliation reflects information useful to investors for U.K., Australian, and, to a more limited extent, Canadian firms.
Pain reactivity in preterm neonates: examining the sex differences

Early and repeated experiences of pain may have long‐term effects on vulnerable newborns hospitalized in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), and neonatal pain responses may be affected by a variety of factors that neonates encounter. We tested the hypothesis that male preterm neonates exhibited greater pain sensitivity than females by assessing biobehavioural pain reactivity and recovery patterns to painful procedure.
Cost-benefit ratio and empirical examination of the acceptance of heathland maintenance in the Lueneburg heath nature reserve

The cost-benefit ratio of heathland maintenance measures was assessed in the Lueneburg Heath nature reserve in North-West Germany. This nature reserve contains large areas of heathland and is of substantial ecological and historical importance. The heathland can only be preserved by regular maintenance. For this assessment the costs of the maintenance measures were traced and a survey of visitors was carried out. The willingness-to-pay of the visitors for the heathland maintenance was determined as an assessment of the benefit created. Furthermore, the social acceptance of each maintenance measure was examined as this variable can influence the economic data considerably. These aspects represent a basis for the assessment of the net costs and benefits and for the calculation of the net present value (NPV) provided by the maintenance of the area. The results show a substantial positive net benefit of the heathland maintenance as a whole and varying acceptance of the different maintenance measures.
The combined role of sinuses of Valsalva and flow pulsatility improves energy loss of the aortic valve.

OBJECTIVES Normal aortic valve opening and closing movement is a complex mechanism mainly regulated by the blood flow characteristics and the cyclic modifications of the aortic root. Our previous in vitro observations demonstrated that the presence of the Valsalva sinuses, independently from root compliance, is important in reducing systolic pressure drop across the aortic valve. This in vitro study was designed to ascertain if this effect is dependent on the flow characteristics. METHODS Stentless 21, 23 and 25 mm aortic prostheses were sutured inside Dacron graft with and without sinuses. Hydrodynamic performance of the root models was investigated in steady-state (continuous) and unsteady-state (pulsatile) flow regimes. Aortic transvalvular pressure drop and effective orifice area (EOA) were evaluated. RESULTS The continuous flow analysis revealed that no marked differences in pressure drop characterized the two root configurations at flow regimes lower than 15 l/min, independently of valve size. Conversely, at higher flow regimes (up to 30 l/min) a relatively low pressure drop continued to characterize grafts with sinuses, whereas marked increments in pressure drop were measured in straight grafts, especially in the smaller size (77.05 ± 4.58 vs 23.80 ± 2.44 mmHg; 18.40 ± 1.31 vs 7.66 ± 0.37 mmHg and 29.54 ± 0.17 vs 7.12 ± 0.07 mmHg, for 21, 23 and 25 mm valve, respectively). Under pulsatile conditions, the presence of sinuses clearly confirmed lower pressure drops also more evident in the smaller valve sizes (53.89 ± 1.06 vs 11.6 ± 0.24 mmHg at 7 l/min for 21 mm valve). EOA values were always lower in the absence of sinuses. In continuous flow regimes, at 30 l/min EOA of 25 mm valve size was 3.67 ± 0.02 cm(2) in the Valsalva model versus 1.79 ± 0.01 cm(2) for the Straight model. In pulsatile tests, at 7 l/min a 25-valve size demonstrated an EOA of 5.47 ± 0.60 in the Valsalva model versus 2.50 ± 0.02 cm(2) in the Straight model. CONCLUSIONS These findings (i) confirm the hypothesis that the sinuses of Valsalva play a key role in optimizing the aortic haemodynamics during systole, minimizing energy losses; (ii) suggest that the sinuses of Valsalva are needed because of the complex nature of blood flow during ejection.
External Capital Structure Theory and Evidence

Recent years have witnessed a change in the composition of capital flows to developing countries, and FDI and equity flows have been playing an increasing role. In this paper we discuss the challenges for international macroeconomics that these developments pose and characterize stylized facts associated with the structure of external liabilities in developing countries, focusing in particular on FDI and equity stocks.
Patterns of environmental movements in eastern Europe

Environmental movements played an important part in the transitions of 1989/1991. They grew steadily in the early 1980s, and rapidly by the late 1980s. Now they have shrunk considerably. They fed on a legacy of environmental damage, but the pattern of their growth across different countries has varied. There have been notable turning points: ‘phosphorite wars’ in Estonia; Baikal and Chernobyl in Russia; the Danube dam in Hungary. Yet the relative involvement of the public, scientists, and intellectuals has also varied. Evidence from a 1993 survey in these countries shows that the capacity and opportunity to organise movements is more important than the actual level of environmental damage in explaining these patterns.
The resource‐based view of the firm: some stumbling‐blocks on the road to understanding sustainable competitive advantage

The resource‐based view of the firm (RBV) is an important, emerging theory of firm heterogeneity. It is well grounded in industrial economics and has benefited in its development from a multiplicity of contributions by management writers. But like any developing body of knowledge, it is not short of confusion, ambiguity and conceptual and empirical difficulties. This paper provides an integrated review of the resource‐based view of the firm in an effort to eliminate much of the ambiguity caused by weak taxonomies and the inconsistent and conflicting use of terminology. It provides a detailed insight into the logic of the RBV and illuminates its contributions to the debate on the nature of competitive advantage. The paper then evaluates the status of some ongoing debates that are germane to our understanding of competitive advantage and outlines prospective directions for the development of the resource‐based view.
'You only get what you fight for'': Understanding the backlash against the US battered women's movement

In this chapter Dragiewicz provides an empirically grounded analysis of why, despite major gains in the understanding of, and actions against, violence against women there has been a reaction against such progress. Recent years have seen the rise of an intensely complex gender politics, focused on the rights of parents and family violence, among other issues. Alongside a more polarised politics it seems that apparently ‘liberal’ gains that promote intolerance of violence are being eroded or challenged by a more aggressive reaction. Despite the pronounced advocacy and commitment of those working in battered women’s refuges Dragiewicz finds a ‘reaction and against the reaction’ where earlier advances in the understanding of what was needed to label violence against female partners as a crime and policy responses to promote safety have increasingly seen vocal attacks. The chapter provides not only a critical criminological reading of the need to reassert the importance of feminism within a project of uncovering social harms and violence, but also an analysis of the complex gender and community politics shaping debates about how to deal with violence against women.
The product, sales and market‐oriented party ‐ How Labour learnt to market the product, not just the presentation

Comprehensive political marketing informs how parties determine their policies and organisation, not just how they campaign. This article applies the marketing concepts of product, sales and market orientation, combined with tools such as market intelligence, to party behaviour as a whole. Producing a comprehensive theoretical framework, it explores how a product, sales and market‐oriented party would behave and go through a marketing process. This framework is used to analyse the British Labour Party, showing how Labour moved from a product‐oriented approach in 1983, through to a sales orientation in 1987, finally achieving a market orientation – and electoral success – in 1997. This demonstrates the potential of political marketing to deepen our understanding of a wide range of political behaviour.
Sunk Costs, Windows of Profit Opportunities, and the Dynamics of Entry

This paper adds two elements to a standard model of monopolistic competition: First, the number of potential entrants is limited in each period and increases only over time. Second, the potential entrants differ with respect to the consumers' valuation of the variant they could offer. It is shown that the resulting simple model exhibits a rich dynamic structure covering cases like the product life cycle, a path dependent equilibrium and the traditional textbook case of entry. The welfare analysis confirms the view that you can't have too much entry.
Corporate Governance and Firm Diversification

We empirically investigate whether corporate governance structure is different between focused and diversified firms, and whether any differences in corporate governance are associated with the value loss from diversification. We find that, relative to focused firms, CEOs in diversified firms have lower stock ownership and lower pay-for-performance sensitivities. Diversified companies, however, have more outside directors, no difference in independent block-holdings, and sensitivity of CEO turnover to performance similar to that in single-segment firms. Moreover, we find no compelling evidence that internal governance failures are associated with the decision to diversify, or that governance characteristics explain the value loss from diversification. Our findings suggest that diversified firms use alternative governance mechanisms as substitutes for low pay-for-performance sensitivities and CEO ownership. We conclude that agency costs do not provide a complete explanation for the magnitude and persistence of the diversification discount.
Appreciating the Renminbi

International pressure to revalue China’s currency stems in part from the expectation that rapid economic growth should be associated with an underlying real exchange rate appreciation. This hinges on the Balassa-Samuelson hypothesis, which sees growth as stemming from improvements in traded sector productivity and associated rises in wages and non-traded prices. Yet, despite extraordinary growth after the mid-1990s China’s real exchange rate showed no tendency to appreciate until after 2004. We use a dynamic general equilibrium model to simulate the economy and show that, during this period, trade reforms and a rising national saving rate were offsetting forces in the presence of elastic labour supply. We then examine the possible determinants of the striking transition to real appreciation thereafter, noting mounting evidence that an improved rural terms of trade has tightened China’s labour market. We show that, should the Chinese government bow to international pressure by appreciating the renminbi either via an extraordinary monetary contraction or via export disincentives the consequences would be harmful for both Chinese and global interests.