Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Gaining and sustaining long-term advantage through information technology: The emergence of controlled production

How have U.S. and Japanese firms organized and managed the process of becoming recognized leaders in using information technology (IT) to achieve long-term sustainable advantage? Answering this question is the overall purpose of this project, which has been underwritten by a multi-year grant from the Sloan Foundation. The project has used case specific studies, each of which is complete in itself. This and the other studies are listed in Box 1. The cases support an initial research hypothesis: leading U.S. and Japanese software users are very sophisticated in the ways they have integrated software into their business strategies. They use IT to institutionalize organizational strengths and to continually capture the knowledge generated by their business operations. As an introduction to the specifics of the case presented in this paper for Nationwide Financial
Yet to Come CHAPTER 12 Board Diversity

The board of directors is the most important decision-making body in a corporation. Boards are responsible for approving major strategic and financial decisions, such as mergers and acquisitions (M&As) and changes in capital structure, and also for the most important task of all, which is to hire and fire top executives. Not surprisingly, substantial research focuses on the workings of corporate boards. But researchers focus on varying aspects of boards. Some view boards as groups of diverse individuals who have different biases and prejudices and whose behavior is affected by social constraints and power relations. This perspective suggests that director heterogeneity plays a key role in how boards function. In contrast, most researchers in economics consider the board as a single entity. The only heterogeneity considered is whether directors are independent from managers. All other director characteristics are usually deemed unimportant unless they are somehow related to (formal or real) independence. More recently, an increasing amount of economic research on board diversity can be found in the academic pipelines. This chapter discusses current board diversity literature. The chapter mainly focuses on the recent contribution of economists to this topic but also provides some discussion of the noneconomic literature. Specifically, the chapter attempts to provide partial answers to three questions: What can be learned about diversity by studying boards? What can be learned about corporate governance from studies of board diversity? Is research on board diversity useful for policy discussions? Directors may differ in many important characteristics, such as educational and functional background, industry experience, social connectedness, insider status, gender, and race. The goal of this chapter is not to discuss each of these characteristics in isolation but to use some examples to illustrate what can be learned from this research area. These examples are predominantly taken from the literature on demographic characteristics of directors. In particular, this chapter focuses mainly on gender and only briefly discusses other characteristics. The chapter starts by discussing how economics and management scholars differ in their theoretical analyses of boards and board diversity more specifically. It then discusses a more practical issue: the costs and benefits of board diversity. After a brief overview of the literature on board diversity, the chapter examines
PENGARUH MUSIK KLASIK TERHADAPKONSENTRASI BELAJAR

Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengetahui secara empiris pengaruh musik klasik terhadap konsentrasi belajar. Subjek yang digunakan dalam penelitian ini adalah mahasiswa Universitas Katolik Soegijapranata, Semarang berasal dari fakultas teknologi pertanian, fakultas psikologi, fakultas arsitektur dan disain, fakultas hukum dan komunikasi, serta fakultas ekonomi dan bisnis yang berjumlah 18 orang dan dengan rentang usia 18 – 22 tahun. Metode yang digunakan dalam penelitian ini adalah metode eksperimental. Design eksperimen yang digunakan dalam penelitian ini adalah pre and posttest with control group design dan dengan diberlakukannya random assignment dalam menentukan pembagian kelompok, antara kelompok eksperimen dan kelompok kontrol. Penelitian ini menggunakan satu alat ukur yakni digit symbol test yang digunakan untuk mengukur kemampuan konsentrasi belajar dengan tingkat validitas 0.50 dan tingkat reliabilitas sebesar 0.90. Musik yang digunakan yakni “Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart 1999”. Hasil analisis diperoleh dengan menggunakan t-test, dengan hasil mean sebelum diberikan perlakuan (tanpa musik) menunjukan angka 67.56 dan setelah perlakuan (dengan musik) mean meningkat menjadi 75.33 Hasil perhitungan pada kelompok eksperimen menunjukkan nilai signifikansi lebih kecil dari 0.05 yakni sebesar 0.012. sedangkan pada kelompok kontrol menunjukkan tingkat signifikansi lebih besar dari 0.05 yakni sebesar 0.672. hasil perhitungan ini menunjukkan bahwa adanya pengaruh yang signifikan musik terhadap konsentrasi belajar. Kata Kunci: Konsentrasi belajar, musik, digit symbol test
Male Fertility and Sex Ratio at Birth in Red Deer

Efforts to test sex ratio theory have focused mostly on females. However, when males possess traits that could enhance the reproductive success of sons, males would also benefit from the manipulation of the offspring sex ratio. We tested the prediction that more-fertile red deer males produce more sons. Our findings reveal that male fertility is positively related to the proportion of male offspring. We also show that there is a positive correlation between the percentage of morphologically normal spermatozoa (a main determinant of male fertility) and the proportion of male offspring. Thus, males may contribute significantly to biases in sex ratio at birth among mammals, creating the potential for conflicts of interest between males and females.
PHARMACOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF NEUROMUSCULAR TRANSMISSION IN THE ISOLATED DIAPHRAGM OF THE DYSTROPHIC (Rej 129) MOUSE

1 Some aspects of the pharmacology of neuromuscular transmission have been studied in the isolated diaphragm of the normal and dystrophic mouse. 2 The effects of (+)‐tubocurarine and atropine on the indirectly elicited twitch responses of the dystrophic diaphragm were indistinguishable from normal. 3 Intracellular recording techniques revealed no significant differences between the rise time, time to half decay, frequency and amplitude of miniature endplate potentials (m.e.p.ps) recorded in dystrophic muscle fibres, compared to those recorded in normal muscle fibres. 4 Transmitter null potential, the size of the available store of transmitter, the probability of release of the transmitter, and the characteristics of endplate potentials (e.p.ps) of dystrophic muscle fibres did not differ from normal. 5 The quantum contents of e.p.ps generated in response to nerve stimulation of 0.1 to 100 Hz were consistently larger in dystrophic muscle fibres than in normal muscle fibres, but the differences were not statistically significant under the conditions of the experiment.
The extent, impact and stability of cognitive functioning in adult congenital heart disease

The aim of this thesis was to establish the extent, impact and stability of cognitive functioning in Adult Congenital Heart Disease (ACHD) patients. A cross-sectional and a follow-up study were conducted to address these objectives. The aims of the cross-sectional study were to i) identify the extent of cognitive impairments ii) compare cognitive performance across structural complexity groups, iii) identify factors associated with cognition in ACHD. The follow-up study aimed to evaluate the stability of cognitive functioning over time and identify predictors of change. Three hundred and ten ACHD patients from the Heart Hospital, London were recruited. Participants were divided into four structural complexity groups: Tetralogy of Fallot (ToF), Transposition of the Great Arteries (TGA), Single Ventricle (SV) and Simple. Each participant completed a neuropsychological (NP) test battery and psychosocial self-report questionnaires. The results showed ACHD patients with IQ below the normative mean score. Impairment in executive function, attention and motor function were noted. The TGA group had the worst overall cognitive functioning. The Simple group performed significantly better than the TGA and SV groups on attention. Demographic, clinical and mood factors were associated with cognitive function. No association between cognitive functioning and Quality of Life was found. In the follow-up study 153 participants were followed-up (over 4 years). The NP test battery was re-administered to assess change over time. Mood, demographic and clinical factors were assessed to identify predictors of change in cognitive functioning. The results indicated both a decline and an improvement in performance on tests assessing attention, memory, executive functioning and motor functioning. Education and oxygen saturation levels predicted change in memory. The results of this study address a gap in the literature and highlight the extent of cognitive impairments in ACHD. It also indicates a range of intrinsic and modifiable factors that are associated with and predict change in cognitive outcomes. The clinical implications of the findings are discussed. Recommendations for clinical practice include regular, ongoing assessment of cognition in ACHD patients.
Natural descriptors. A study on social desirability and social utility

Personality is the subject of multiple investigations. In recruitment in particular, it is one of the main elements on which job candidates are evaluated. But the evaluation, the attribution of value, consists in judging the utility and social desirability of the subject matter. This article aims to take the 88 personological descriptors obtained by Mazilescu and Gangloff (1) from the self and hetero-spontaneous descriptions and examine the utility and desirability by applying the procedure described by Le Barbenchon, Cambon and Lavigne (2). The results show that all descriptors are loaded with social utility and desirability, either positive or negative. Differences were also observed between utility and desirability, neutral judgments being more frequent for utility than for desirability, which means a greater polarization for desirability than for utility, thus confirming the independence of the two dimensions.
Physicochemical Determinants of Antimicrobial Activity

Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) are lately receiving significant attention as targets for antibacterial drug research. While many machine learning techniques are shown effective for AMP recognition, their utility for the rational design of novel AMP-based drugs in the wet laboratory is questionable. In this paper we seek to elucidate determinants of antimicrobial activity in a well-studied class of AMPs, cathelicidins. We do so by considering an extensive set of physicochemical properties at the residue level as features in the context of SVM-based classification, employing a carefully-constructed decoy dataset. A detailed statistical analysis of feature profiles reveals interesting physicochemical properties to preserve when modifying or designing novel AMPs. The method presented here is a first step towards assisting de novo design of AMPs in the wet laboratory.
A Real-Time Marker-Based Visual Sensor Based on a FPGA and a Soft Core Processor

This paper introduces a real-time marker-based visual sensor architecture for mobile robot localization and navigation. A hardware acceleration architecture for post video processing system was implemented on a field-programmable gate array (FPGA). The pose calculation algorithm was implemented in a System on Chip (SoC) with an Altera Nios II soft-core processor. For every frame, single pass image segmentation and Feature Accelerated Segment Test (FAST) corner detection were used for extracting the predefined markers with known geometries in FPGA. Coplanar PosIT algorithm was implemented on the Nios II soft-core processor supplied with floating point hardware for accelerating floating point operations. Trigonometric functions have been approximated using Taylor series and cubic approximation using Lagrange polynomials. Inverse square root method has been implemented for approximating square root computations. Real time results have been achieved and pixel streams have been processed on the fly without any need to buffer the input frame for further implementation.
Electronic Reprint Applied Crystallography Size–strain Line-broadening Analysis of the Ceria Round-robin Sample Applied Crystallography Size–strain Line-broadening Analysis of the Ceria Round-robin Sample Electronic Reprint

Author(s) of this paper may load this reprint on their own web site provided that this cover page is retained. Republication of this article or its storage in electronic databases or the like is not permitted without prior permission in writing from the IUCr. The results of both a line-broadening study on a ceria sample and a size–strain round robin on diffraction line-broadening methods, which was sponsored by the Commission on Powder Diffraction of the International Union of Crystallography, are presented. The sample was prepared by heating hydrated ceria at 923 K for 45 h. Another ceria sample was prepared to correct for the effects of instrumental broadening by annealing commercially obtained ceria at 1573 K for 3 h and slowly cooling it in the furnace. The diffraction measurements were carried out with two laboratory and two synchrotron X-ray sources, two constant-wavelength neutron and a time-of-flight (TOF) neutron source. Diffraction measurements were analyzed by three methods: the model assuming a lognormal size distribution of spherical crystallites, Warren– Averbach analysis and Rietveld refinement. The last two methods detected a relatively small strain in the sample, as opposed to the first method. Assuming a strain-free sample, the results from all three methods agree well. The average real crystallite size, on the assumption of a spherical crystallite shape, is 191 (5) A ˚. The scatter of results given by different instruments is relatively small, although significantly larger than the estimated standard uncertainties. The Rietveld refinement results for this ceria sample indicate that the diffraction peaks can be successfully approximated with a pseudo-Voigt function. In a common approximation used in Rietveld refinement programs, this implies that the size-broadened profile cannot be approximated by a Lorentzian but by a full Voigt or pseudo-Voigt function. In the second part of this paper, the results of the round robin on the size–strain line-broadening analysis methods are presented, which was conducted through the participation of 18 groups from 12 countries. Participants have reported results obtained by analyzing data that were collected on the two ceria samples at seven instruments. The analysis of results received in terms of coherently diffracting, both volume-weighted and area-weighted apparent domain size are reported. Although there is a reasonable agreement, the reported results on the volume-weighted domain size show significantly higher scatter than those on the area-weighted domain size. This is most likely due to a significant number of results reporting a high value …
Serum uric acid level, blood pressure, and vascular angiotensin II responsiveness in healthy men and women

Uric acid is associated with hypertension and increased renin–angiotensin system activity, although this relationship diminishes after chronic exposure to high levels. Uric acid is more strongly associated with poor outcomes in women compared to men, although whether this is due to a sex‐specific uric acid‐mediated pathophysiology or reflects sex differences in baseline uric acid levels remains unknown. We examined the association between uric acid and vascular measures at baseline and in response to angiotensin‐II challenge in young healthy humans. Fifty‐two subjects (17 men, 35 premenopausal women) were studied in high‐salt balance. Serum uric acid levels were significantly higher in men compared to women (328 ± 14 μmol/L vs. 248 ± 10 μmol/L, P < 0.001), although all values were within normal sex‐specific range. Men demonstrated no association between uric acid and blood pressure, either at baseline or in response to angiotensin‐II. In stark contrast, a significant association was observed between uric acid and blood pressure at baseline (systolic blood pressure, P = 0.005; diastolic blood pressure, P = 0.02) and in response to angiotensin‐II (systolic blood pressure, P = 0.035; diastolic blood pressure, P = 0.056) in women. However, this sex difference lost significance after adjustment for baseline uric acid. When all subjects were stratified according to high (>300 μmol/L) or low (≤300 μmol/L) uric acid levels, only the low uric acid group showed a positive association between uric acid and measures of vascular tone at baseline and in response to angiotensin‐II. Differences in uric acid‐mediated outcomes between men and women likely reflect differences in exposure to increased uric acid levels, rather than a sex‐specific uric acid‐mediated pathophysiology.
Gpr116 Receptor Regulates Distinctive Functions in Pneumocytes and Vascular Endothelium

Despite its known expression in both the vascular endothelium and the lung epithelium, until recently the physiological role of the adhesion receptor Gpr116/ADGRF5 has remained elusive. We generated a new mouse model of constitutive Gpr116 inactivation, with a large genetic deletion encompassing exon 4 to exon 21 of the Gpr116 gene. This model allowed us to confirm recent results defining Gpr116 as necessary regulator of surfactant homeostasis. The loss of Gpr116 provokes an early accumulation of surfactant in the lungs, followed by a massive infiltration of macrophages, and eventually progresses into an emphysema-like pathology. Further analysis of this knockout model revealed cerebral vascular leakage, beginning at around 1.5 months of age. Additionally, endothelial-specific deletion of Gpr116 resulted in a significant increase of the brain vascular leakage. Mice devoid of Gpr116 developed an anatomically normal and largely functional vascular network, surprisingly exhibited an attenuated pathological retinal vascular response in a model of oxygen-induced retinopathy. These data suggest that Gpr116 modulates endothelial properties, a previously unappreciated function despite the pan-vascular expression of this receptor. Our results support the key pulmonary function of Gpr116 and describe a new role in the central nervous system vasculature.
Preparing dossiers: strength of the evidence and problems of proof

In Europe, for authorisation of a health claim, applicants must follow the procedures in the legislation and in the guidelines for submission of a dossier set out by the European Food Safety Authority. The Functional Foods in Europe (FUFOSE) and Process for the Assessment of Scientific Support for Claims on Foods (PASSCLAIM) projects underpinned the laws and provided criteria against which the quality of the totality of the available data could be judged. Whereas the regulations and PASSCLAIM require an assessment of the extent to which cause and effect can be demonstrated between a food category, a food or constituent and a health benefit, the European Food Safety Authority requires conclusive evidence of cause and effect. This latter standard of proof and a focus on randomised controlled trials done on isolated components and using validated physiological biomarkers may not always be appropriate to assess nutrition science. The aims of this paper are to address the strengths and weaknesses of different sources of evidence that contribute to the totality of the available data, to undertake a critical examination of the application of a drug-like assessment model in evidence-based nutrition and to encourage research on new biomarkers of health and homeostatic adaptability. There is a need for (a) a robust and pragmatic scientific framework for assessing the strength, consistency and biological plausibility of the evidence, and (b) consumer understanding research on claims that use qualifying language and/or graphics to reflect the weight of evidence. Such scientific, policy and communication approaches are proportionate and could help stimulate academic research, promote fair trade and product innovation and contribute to consumer education about food and health.
Study of the Reliability and Validity of Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) in the Assessment of Clinical Skills of Audiology Students

Introduction: Audiology students should possess clinical competence and skills. To achieve this, their clinical skills must be properly assessed. The Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) is a standard and fair examination of clinical competence. The goal of this study is to devise a checklist of OSCE examination criteria and study their validity and reliability for assessing the clinical competence of Audiology students. Methods: Among the various procedures in which audiology students should possess demonstrated competence, 10 specific skills were selected and checklists were prepared. Faculty members of university’s Audiology Department were consulted to determine the validity of the checklists. Subsequently, the examination was administered to all 14 fourth-year audiology students in their final semester of study at Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences. The examination consisted of three question stations and seven procedure stations. Each station was managed by two examiners who independently used a checklist to score each student’s performance in a given procedure. To determine reliability, the Spearman test was used. Results: The correlation between each examiner’s scores of students at question stations was 0.908. The correlation between each examiner’s scores at procedure stations was 0.857 (p=0). The site of lesion test had the highest correlation (0.948) and immittance audiometry had the lowest correlation (0.585). Conclusion: The prepared checklists had good validity and reliability and can be used to evaluate the clinical competence of audiology students in their final semester of study.
Empirical Evaluation of Asset Pricing Models: Arbitrage and Pricing Errors in Contingent Claims

Hansen and Jagannathan (1997) have developed two measures of pricing errors for asset-pricing models: the maximum pricing error in all static portfolios of the test assets and the maximum pricing error in all contingent claims of the assets. In this paper, we develop simulation-based Bayesian inference for these measures. While the literature reports that the time-varying extensions substantially reduce pricing errors of classic models on the standard test assets, our analysis shows that the reduction is much smaller based on the second measure. Those time-varying models have large pricing errors on the contingent claims of the test assets because their stochastic discount factors are often negative and admit arbitrage opportunities.