Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Constitutionalizing Party Democracy: The Constitutive Codification of Political Parties in Post-war Europe

This article analyses the process of party constitutionalization in post-war Europe. It explores the temporal patterns of party constitutionalization and reveals their connection with moments of fundamental institutional restructuring. It discusses the different modes of party constitutionalization, and addresses what these convey about the underlying conceptions of party democracy. It argues that the constitutional codification of political parties has consolidated the empirical reality of modern party government as well as its normative foundations of modern party government, thereby transforming political parties from socio-political organizations into integral units of the democratic state. Finally, it suggests that the constitutionalization of the democratic importance of political parties might reflect an attempt to legitimize their existence in the face of their weakening as agents of democratic representation.
Professional Accountability in Restructured Contexts of Occupational Therapy Practice

Professional standards for accountability establish essential competencies for clinical practices and provide strategies for professional advancement. This study examines the perspectives of a sample of occupational therapists on their capacity to engage in continuing education, to provide evidence-based practices and to have confidence in the effectiveness of available quality assurance mechanisms within restructured contexts of occupational therapy practice. The analysis of in-depth interviews with participants from program management, managed competition and private practice suggested three urgent needs: the development of strategies to assist therapists' translation of research evidence into clinical practices, research to determine the effectiveness of models of professional leadership within the workplace that promote professional accountability and alliances to advance policies that eliminate workplace barriers to professional accountability.
Customers’ Perceived Benefits of a Frequent-Flyer Program

ABSTRACT Customer retention has grown in importance as most firms have acknowledged that customer retention has a bearing on profitability over the long term. Firms such as airlines, hotels, retailers, and car manufacturers offer loyalty programs to their customers to reward customers for their support and encourage continuous future support from such customers. Despite the popularity of loyalty programs, little academic research has been published in respect of how customers perceive the benefits offered by loyalty programs. This paper is a first to report on research that resulted in a model that can be used to manage the benefits perceived by members of an airline’s loyalty program. The model to measure and manage members’ perceived benefits of a loyalty program for an airline has good psychometric properties and consists of three underlying dimensions, namely recognition, convenience, and exploration.
Dynamic Voting in a Dynamic Campaign: Three Models of Early Voting

The nature of political mobilization has changed in the United States; a shift in state policies has transformed a singular Election Day into a multi-week voting period. We oer two models to explain how voters are mobilized in this dynamic electoral process. We compare these to a convenience model of voting in which individuals typically impervious to campaign inuences vote early. To test these models, we assembled daily snapshots of 2012 early voting records across the U.S. We observe where and when individuals with key demographic characteristics voted. Though high-participation voters do disproportionately take advantage of early voting, our evidence suggests that in presidential swing states, low-participation voters are mobilized to vote early. However, we nd no systematic increases in turnout following major campaign events, local or national. Our ndings have several implications for the study of mass mobilization
Chinese customers' loyalty to international consulting firms

International consulting firms enjoy higher customer loyalty than domestic firms in China. This paper investigates an influence model of customer loyalty on international consulting firms that goes beyond traditional research. Using a sample of 231 companies receiving service from international consulting firms in China, structural model testing validated the idea that choice based on service quality and belief caused by halo effect together lead to the customer loyalty on international consulting firms. International consulting companies have some born advantage doing business in emerging markets such as China due to Chinese customers' belief caused by halo effect.
Managers as learning facilitators in small manufacturing firms

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to describe findings of an exploratory study, guided by the question: “What are the effects of managers on salient elements of work environments that have the potential to influence informal workplace learning? ”. Design/methodology/approach – Data were collected through semi‐structured interviews with owner‐managers, managers, and employees in ten small manufacturing firms. Verbatim expressions of the interview participants were analysed using content analytic procedures.Findings – The ways managers intentionally promote learning were unveiled, including: providing access to a range of workplace activities; promoting communication in the workplace; facilitating access to direct guidance from workplace models; and designating learning facilitators. Informal employee practices used by managers seem to have unintended positive “side effects” on informal workplace learning.Research limitations/implications – Several questions are in need of further investigation. What are.
Housing and Welfare Policy – Changing Relations? A Cross‐National Comparison

This paper focuses on the role of housing in the welfare state. What are the connections between home ownership and welfare policies? And has there been a change in these connections over time? The analyses use cross‐national evidence to examine the developments and relations between levels of home ownership and welfare provision. From 1980 to 2001 public social expenditures, public expenditures on housing and home ownership have increased in most countries. Home ownership seems to play a significant role in the welfare state. Higher rate of home ownership is connected to lower public spending on welfare and income inequality both in 1980 and in 2001. The long tradition of trade‐off between home ownership and pensions also remains strong; however, the southern European countries defy this trade‐off.
Internal and External Antecedents of Process Innovation: A review and extension

Abstract Innovation in public organizations is widely documented and has increasingly been the subject of empirical scrutiny. This article integrates the empirical evidence of the internal and external antecedents of process innovations in local governments and proposes directions for future research. The importance of the internal antecedents of organizational size, administrative capacity and organizational learning is uncovered using the meta-analytic support score method, but not in relation to external antecedents. Directions for further research are presented on the independent, joint and non-linear effects of antecedents on the adoption of innovation, and the implications of these arguments on the future study of innovation in local governments are considered from a structural contingency perspective.
TESTING THE EFFICIENCY OF MARKETS IN THE 2002 WORLD CUP

Trading data from the gambling market for the 2002 World Cup provide a unique window through which to test theories of market efficiency. This market provides many of the benefits of a laboratory experiment, but with much higher stakes, experienced participants, and a naturally-occurring environment. The primary drawback of the data is the relatively small number of trades. The evidence concerning market efficiency is mixed. Although markets respond strongly to goals being scored, there is some evidence that prices continue to trend higher for 10-15 minutes after a goal. We also observe systematically negative returns for bets on the pre-game favorite, consistent with the biases seen in wagering on other sports. We document the endogenous emergence of market makers. These market makers are involved in a large share of trades. Increasing from two active market makers to five or more market makers does not appear to improve the functioning of the market. On average, the market makers earn slightly negative returns, implying that other traders are able to identify situations in which market makers are setting inefficient prices.
The Economic Impact of Product Line Adoption and Evolution

An organization faces many challenging decisions when transitioning to product line development: What is the best way to adopt a product line approach? How can we avoid disrupting regular product development? Once adopted, how should we evolve the product line? The article discusses how to optimize a product line's economic benefits by considering the adoption context and using product line scoping techniques.
Social Capital and Neighbourhoods that Work

The concept of social capital has received increasing attention in recent years from both academics and the policy community. It has come to be widely used in debates about housing and neighbourhoods and figures strongly in discussions of social cohesion, community development and neighbourhood renewal. This paper provides an original discussion of some of the key issues related to these debates. It argues that, although it is widely used, the concept of social capital is poorly defined and much of the discussion is based upon assertion rather than upon evidence. The paper goes on to present the results from original social survey work carried out in Bournville in Birmingham, England, and referring to different parts of the Bournville estate. The results refer to the extent of bonding, bridging and linking social capital and how these relate to the social and economic differences between six neighbourhoods within Bournville. The survey evidence is not consistent with key assertions made in the existing literature in relation to age, poverty and class and the paper concludes by raising important reservations about the use of social capital as an analytical rather than a generic concept.
Managing the Senegal River: National and Local Development Dilemma

The Senegal River is located in West Africa in the Sudano-Sahelian zone. The river has faced various development schemes since the early 1970s, which have not brought the desired results. Many problems stem from the overall lack of economic and human development and weak institutional settings. Droughts and ethnic complexities add to the problem. The environment and local population have continuously been exposed to negative changes. The river developers face a difficult task when choosing the development options for the future. Taking into account all the stakeholders and variables, and adding to these the external demographic and natural challenges, the development actions require weighing complex multiform and interconnected issues. An objective analysis of the development plans is needed in order to avoid repeating past mistakes and to acquire harmonious end results.
Forecasting construction tender price index in Hong Kong using vector error correction model

Reliable short‐ to medium‐term prediction of the tender price index (TPI) is crucial to construction stakeholders, and this has stimulated the interest of the research community to seek a more analytical method for TPI forecast. The purpose of this study is to establish an econometric model for accurately predicting the tender price movements based on a group of associated financial and macroeconomic variables. Applying Johansen’s method for multivariate cointegration analysis, the tender price was found to be cointegrated with the gross domestic product, construction output and building cost. A vector error correction (VEC) model imposing the cointegration restriction was then developed for the purpose of forecasting. The model was verified against various diagnostic statistical criteria and compared with the Box‐Jenkins and regression models. With a mean absolute percentage error for a three‐year ahead forecast at 2.9% level, the developed VEC model outperforms the Box‐Jenkins and regression models, and is proven to be efficient and reliable in forecasting the short‐ to medium‐term tender price movements. The model can assist estimators to predict the TPI pattern in advance, and it can also help the public sector in planning for the construction workload to improve the stability of the construction market. Although the VEC model developed focuses on the Hong Kong construction market, the econometric technique can be applied to modelling other economic variables.
Ischaemic Stroke Subtypes and Their Genetic Basis: A Comprehensive Meta-Analysis of Small and Large Vessel Stroke

Background: The extent to which genetic effects on the different subtypes of small (SVD) and large vessel disease (LVD) ischaemic stroke differ remains controversial. Methods: A comprehensive genetic meta-analysis of all genes investigated by ischaemic stroke subtype was conducted. Odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) were determined for each gene disease association. Results: From the initial search of 526 manuscripts, 5 candidate genes were studied comprising 7,533 cases (LVD 4,181, SVD 3,352) and 9,835 control subjects. There was a preferential association for SVD compared to LVD with ACE/DD (SVD: OR 1.31, 95% CI 0.96–1.79; LVD: OR 1.02, 95% CI 0.82–1.26) and eNOS intron 4 ab polymorphism (SVD: OR 1.41, 95% CI 0.94–2.11; LVD: OR 1.07, 95% CI 0.77–1.49), although statistical significance was not reached. No such preference was observed for MTHFR C677T, ApoE/ε4 or PAI-1 4G/5G polymorphism. The overall number of studies and the number of subjects recruited per study in whom stroke subtype was classified were small when compared to previous published work without such phenotype classification. Conclusion: Our findings suggest that genetic effects may differ between small and large vessel subtypes, although the evidence base is small.
The 1988 Local Government Act and Compulsory Competitive Tendering

The Conservative Government's 1988 Local Government Act extended compulsory tendering to a wide range of local authority services mainly supplied in the past by public departments in-house. This article reviews why the legislation was introduced; considers the evidence on efficiency savings from competitive tendering; details the services affected; and concludes by looking at the consequences for local government. Generally, there appears to be ample evidence to support the Government's claim that competitive tendering produces appreciable cost savings. Higher operating efficiency comes, however, from competition rather than 'privatisation'. The Act seems to be having a galvanising effect upon in-house suppliers who are reorganising and changing tneir 'culture' so as to compete effectively.
VECU: TCP congestion algorithm for high speed ad hoc wireless networks

In all practical implementations of TCP, it is assumed that the packet loss is caused by congestion while channel errors are neglected. However, the wireless communication links are very unreliable and have high Bit Error Ratio (BER). So TCP reduces the data transmission rate whenever it detects packet loss, even though they may have occurred due to the link error. We propose a new end-to-end congestion control algorithm named VECU that is effective and efficient for dealing with random bit error. VECU monitors the network congestion level and from this detects whether packet loss is due to congestion or link error (losses due to the characteristics of the wireless environment). We use a function of degree three as window growth function. Due to this, when the current size of the window is far from the available capacity of the path, the window size grows fast and increases slowly otherwise. VECU is fair and allocates bandwidth fairly among flows with different RTTs. VECU can be very scalable and stable and fair with standard TCP flows. Also flows fully utilize the link. VECU is end to end and only need to change the sender side without any change in the receiver or in the network.
ESSAYS ON BEHAVIORAL PUBLIC ECONOMICS AND MICROECONOMIC THEORY

This dissertation consists of the three independent chapters in the areas of Public Economics and Microeconomic Theory. The first two chapters use experimental and computational techniques to address two important behavioral issues in Public Economics. In particular, the first chapter (with Lise Vesterlund) examines if concerns for status may help explain why fundraisers commonly announce past contributions to future donors. To answer this question we incorporate status concerns into the standard charitable giving model, and subsequently test the predicted comparative statics in the laboratory. Consistent with the economic prediction we find that low-status followers are likely to mimic contributions by high-status leaders and that this encourages high-status leaders to contribute. Contributions are therefore larger when individuals of high status contribute before rather than after those of low status. The second chapter (with Athanasios C. Thanopoulos) uses computational techniques to assess welfare implications of an unfunded social security system when individuals have self-control preferences. Our computation model demonstrates that the welfare costs of an unfunded social security system are substantially reduced when agents have self-control preferences. However, the positive effect of reducing self-control costs is not large enough to surpass its negative effect on capital accumulation. Finally, the third chapter (with Hadi Yektas) of the dissertation examines an important and open mechanism design question. It characterizes the necessary conditions of optimal auction for multiple objects when agents are risk-averse. We show that the optimal auction is weakly efficient; in the sense that each object is sold to a buyer who has high valuation for it, if such a buyer exists. The seller perfectly insures all buyers against the risk of losing the object(s) for which they have high valuation. While the buyers who have high valuation for both objects are compensated if they do not win either object; the buyers who have low valuation for both objects incur a positive payment in the same event. The objects are bundled to the same buyer if all buyers have low valuation for both objects, thus, independent auctions are not optimal.
An Examination of Whether Coordinated Community Responses Affect Intimate Partner Violence

This study tests the impact of coordinated community response (CCR) on reducing intimate partner violence (IPV) and on modifying knowledge and attitudes. The authors conduct hierarchical linear modeling of data from a stratified random-digit dial telephone survey (n = 12,039) in 10 test and 10 control sites, which include 23 counties from different regions in the United States, to establish the impact of a CCR on community members’ attitudes toward IPV, knowledge and use of available IPV services, and prevalence of IPV. Findings indicate that CCRs do not affect knowledge, beliefs, or attitudes of IPV, knowledge and use of available IPV services, nor risk of exposure to IPV after controlling for age, gender, ethnicity, income, and education. Women in communities with 6-year CCRs (as opposed to 3-year CCRs) are less likely to report any aggression against them in the past year. These results are discussed within the context of evaluation challenges of CCRs (e.g., IPV activities in comparison communities, variability across interventions, time lag for expected impact, and appropriateness of outcome indicators) and in light of the evidence of the impact of other community-based collaborations.
A historical perspective on crush syndrome: the clinical application of its pathogenesis, established by the study of wartime crush injuries

Crush syndrome is a fine example of how pathology can play a direct role in revealing the best treatment and management for diseases. It can occur when crush injuries are sustained. Skeletal muscle becomes damaged under the weight of a heavy object, and victims experience severe shock and renal failure. The discovery of the pathology of crush syndrome belongs to two individuals: Seigo Minami and Eric Bywaters. They separately helped to define the pathogenesis of crush syndrome during World Wars I and II. Seigo Minami is believed to have been the first to record the pathogenesis of crush syndrome. In 1923, he described the cases of three soldiers who died of renal failure caused by crush injury during World War I. Using microscopic studies to investigate the pathology of their kidneys, he found the soldiers had died due to ‘autointoxication’ caused by rhabdomyolysis. This discovery was not known to Eric Bywaters, who described crush syndrome in 1941, having studied victims of the London Blitz during World War II. He defined the ‘autointoxication’ as the release of rhabdomyolysis products via reperfusion. He therefore established the need for emergency fluid replacement to treat crush syndrome. The findings made by Minami and Bywaters highlight a remarkable achievement in clinical pathology, despite the adversity of war. It is these findings on which current guidelines are based. By reviewing their work, it is hoped that the role of pathology can be better appreciated as a valuable resource for delineating the treatment and management of diseases.
Structure of the IgG‐binding regions of streptococcal protein G.

The gene encoding the IgG‐binding protein G from Streptococcus G148 was isolated by molecular cloning. A subclone containing a 1.5‐kb insert gave a functional product in Escherichia coli. Protein analysis of affinity‐purified polypeptides revealed two gene products, both smaller than protein G spontaneously released from streptococci, but with identical IgG‐binding properties. The complete nucleotide sequence of the insert revealed a repeated structure probably evolved through duplications of fragments of different sizes. The deduced amino acid sequence revealed an open reading frame extending throughout the insert, terminating in a TAA stop codon. Analysis of the two gene products by N‐terminal amino acid determination suggests that two different TTG codons are recognized in E. coli for initiation of translation to yield the two products. Based on these results several truncated gene constructions were expressed and analysed. The results suggest that the C‐terminal part of streptococcal protein G consists of three IgG‐binding domains followed by a region which anchors the protein to the cell surface. Structural and functional comparisons with streptococcal M protein and staphylococcal protein A have been made.
Input‐Output‐based Life Cycle Inventory

An input‐output‐based life cycle inventory (IO‐based LCI) is grounded on economic environmental input‐output analysis (IO analysis). It is a fast and low‐budget method for generating LCI data sets, and is used to close data gaps in life cycle assessment (LCA). Due to the fact that its methodological basis differs from that of process‐based inventory, its application in LCA is a matter of controversy. We developed a German IO‐based approach to derive IO‐based LCI data sets that is based on the German IO accounts and on the German environmental accounts, which provide data for the sector‐specific direct emissions of seven airborne compounds. The method to calculate German IO‐based LCI data sets for building products is explained in detail. The appropriateness of employing IO‐based LCI for German buildings is analyzed by using process‐based LCI data from the Swiss Ecoinvent database to validate the calculated IO‐based LCI data.