Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Building on Formal Education: Employers' Approaches to the Training and Development of New Recruits in the People's Republic of China

Conceptions of modern management and of skill in China have developed out of quantitative, production oriented traditions that have tended to downplay the human side of management, training and development. Based on recent survey and case study research this paper argues that some organisations are moving away from such narrow definitions. These tend to be resource rich, larger enterprises, often in modern growth sectors and organisations exposed to foreign practice (either by virtue of foreign ownership or investment, or as a result of exposure to the pressures of global competition through operation in international markets). Skills shortages are faced by organisations throughout China. However, employers do not generally feel that the education system is serving to address these skills needs. The varying conceptions of modern management shape the manner in which organisations recruit from, and build, on formal education provision. Many resource rich employers are using formal education as a selection mechanism, selecting the educational elite and continuing to develop them. Those organisations that have limited access to highly qualified recruits are also least likely to be in a position to provide extensive or high quality training. Consequently the divide between resource rich and resource poor organisations, in terms of both organisational resources and employees' opportunities for skill acquisition, learning and development, seems likely to widen.
Phases and dynamics in the development of EU industrial relations regulation

In this article the authors discuss whether it is possible to identify the existence of a European IR-system. They try to identify important phases and dynamics in the emergence of what is termed the European IR-model. It is argued that traditional IR-theory should be combined with theories which allow more extensive consideration of politological and institutional phenomena when analysing IR developments at pan-European level.
A Cross-level Analysis of Organizational Creativity Climate and Perceived Innovation: The Mediating Effect of Work Motivation

Purpose – The concept that creativity climate facilitates innovation outcome is well‐received, yet it has not been widely tested in non‐Western countries. To fill the gap between concept and practical value, this study adopted the eight‐dimensional model of organizational creativity climate proposed by Amabile and associates with the aim of investigating the cross‐level relationship between creativity climate and employee‐perceived innovation in an Asian work place, i.e. Taiwan.Design/methodology/approach – Using survey data of 398 employees from different companies of Taiwan, the effect of organizational creativity climate on innovation was explored. Furthermore, the mediating effect of employees' work motivation was also examined.Findings – By employing hierarchical linear modeling (HLM), statistical analysis indicates that 27 percent variance of perceived innovation could potentially be explained by creativity climate. Five out of the eight dimensions, namely, organizational encouragement, supervisory .
The Carrot and the Stick: Affective Commitment and Acceptance Anxiety as Motives for Discretionary Group Efforts by Respected and Disrespected Group Members

Previous research has demonstrated that intragroup respect can strengthen people’s commitment to the group and encourage them to exert themselves on behalf of it. In the present research, the authors argue that similar behavior can ensue from self-focused concerns when group members are disrespected. Experiment 1 (N = 174) confirms that high respect as well as low respect motivates people to increase their actual discretionary efforts on behalf of the group. These findings were replicated and extended in Experiment 2 (N = 138), where it was established that enhanced efforts only emerge when people consider the way they are evaluated by others as diagnostic for their position in the group. In addition, it is demonstrated that whereas the efforts of respected people were primarily motivated by affective commitment to the group (group-focused concerns), the behavior of disrespected people was driven by anxiety about their acceptance into the group (self-focused concerns).
Expanded Repeat Sequences and Disease

The clinical phenomenon of an earlier age of onset or a more severe phenotype in later generations of a family has been termed anticipation. In a number of neurological and neuropsychiatric disorders, the anticipation has been linked to expanded repeat sequences that increase in size upon transmission. This novel mutational mechanism has been demonstrated in more than 15 disorders today. The repeat sequence motif (base composition), size, and localization of expanded repeats within the respective disease genes vary between disorders and influence the way the repeat causes disease. Here, we review the occurrence and properties of repeats in the genome. The different groups of disorders and possible pathogenic mechanisms are summarized. In addition, methods used for detection and identification of expanded repeats and the related disorders are discussed.
Job satisfaction among accounting and finance academics: empirical evidence from Irish higher education institutions

The central aim of the present study was to examine the levels of job satisfaction among accounting and finance academics in Irish higher education institutions. Additionally, this research sought to uncover the factors linked to the overall job satisfaction of these teachers. The findings showed that while, participants were generally satisfied with most aspects of their jobs; they expressed dissatisfaction with promotion prospects and time available for research. Furthermore, the results indicated that satisfaction with hours of work and satisfaction with the department head were the strongest predictors of academic staffs' overall job satisfaction. Finally, it was found that demographic variables did not significantly influence the overall job satisfaction of academics but they did exert a significant impact on their satisfaction with some of the job content and work context factors. Implications for Irish higher education institutions are discussed.
The Role of Ministry of Rural Development in the Promotion of Community Development in Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria

Community development issue has taken centre stage in the developmental needs of rural communities in the third world countries especially in Africa. The establishment of community development association has made it easier for people to participate in the development of their communities. In Nigeria, and Akwa Ibom State in particular this need is not new as it has existed as far back as 1928 with the formation of Ibibio union before it was formalized in 1948. However, it was observed that at a certain point, the issue of community development was relegated to the background as people focus was shifted from that of the good of the community to themselves, waiting for government to provide the needed social and economic infrastructure. In 1999, the government of Akwa Ibom State saw the need to rekindle the spirit of community participation in development via Community Development Associations thus established Ministry of Rural Development. The study therefore examined the role of the Ministry of Rural Development in promoting community development in the State. The study adopted a historical as well as descriptive approach in data collection. The study therefore revealed that, community development has contributed tremendously to the developmental stride in the state. Also, that the ministry serves as a clearing house to these associations thereby instilling confidence in their members. The study further revealed that the ministry has not only streamlined these associations, but has also repositioned them for effective performance. Based on these, the study recommended that any project embarked upon by these associations should impact positively on the entire community’s, economic and social wellbeing. Also, community’s development projects should be directed toward the development of individuals and groups of individuals for wealth creation and economic empowerment. Keywords : Rural Development, community development, Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria.
Capital-Skill Complementarity: Does capital disaggregation matter?

Using Chilean manufacturing plants data, we�find: (1) the elasticity of substitution between capital and skilled labor is lower than the elasticity of substitution between capital and unskilled labor, and (2) the higher the technological component of the capital stock the larger the size of complementarity between capital and skilled labor. Our�findings show that capital, as an aggregate input, may under(over) state the complementarity between labor and the type of capital these workers actually use.
Who gets married in Australia?

Although there is broad agreement that marriage patterns have changed there is little understanding of the individual level factors associated with these changes. We investigate this question by examining the associations between a range of economic and social characteristics and the transition into first marriage. We use panel data from the first six waves of the Households, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia Survey (2001–6) to run a mixed effect logit model examining the economic and social determinants of first marriage. Our baseline sample comprised 1,565 men and 1,391 women. We find broad support for a financial expectations explanation where marriage is delayed until financial security is obtained. But there is also evidence that normative factors are important.
Sensory profile of sheep cheeses during a six-month storage period as evaluated by consumers

Over the past decade, the use of check-all-that-apply questions has become an easier and faster alternative to traditional sensory profiles using trained assessors, allowing the characterisation of a product by consumers. In this study, 65 consumers evaluated the acceptability of six artisan Uruguayan sheep cheese samples during a six-month storage period, providing a descriptive profile using a check-all-that-apply questionnaire consisting of 32 sensory and non-sensory terms. Although the acceptability of five of the six samples was not modified during storage, the consumers were able to perceive changes in the texture and flavour of products, providing a sensory profile of the cheeses. The categories strange flavour, animal odour, strange odour, bitter and acidic were associated with negative terms such as bad quality and unpleasant flavour, whereas salty and tasty appeared to be related to positive terms including good quality, pleasant flavour and delicious. Therefore, for the Uruguayan consumer, preference for this type of product appears to be mainly conditioned by the flavour perceived in these cheeses, rather than their texture attributes.
How candlestick features affect the performance of volatility forecasts: evidence from the stock market

In this study, we used asymmetric GJR-X models to investigate how the return and volatility estimates in the stock market on any given day are affected by the features of the preceding day's candlestick. Empirical results show that, first, for symmetric volatility specification, the upper and lower shadows of yesterday can, respectively, lower and raise the return today, whereas both upper and lower shadows of yesterday can increase today's volatility. Notably, the upper and lower shadows elicited asymmetric responses in the sizes of the volatility and return increments. Conversely, for asymmetric volatility specification, leverage effect may affect the asymmetric response and prevent the upper shadow from influencing the return and volatility. Second, for symmetric volatility specification, the black and white real bodies of yesterday can, respectively, augment and abate today's return and volatility, indicating that the black real body produces a distinct type of leverage effect to influence volatility. Importantly, for asymmetric specification, the effects of the black and white real bodies appear the same as for the symmetric specification, but are less significant. Lastly, the real bodies (or, respectively, asymmetric volatility specification) influenced the accuracy of volatility forecasts more strongly than the upper and lower shadows (or, respectively, symmetric volatility specification).
CUTANEOUS MANIFESTATIONS IN PATIENTS SUSPECTED OF CHIKUNGUNYA DISEASE

Context: An epidemic of chikungunya disease occurred in India during late 2005 through 2006 affecting nearly 1,400,000 people. Aim: To study the cutaneous manifestations in suspected cases of chikungunya disease. Settings and Design: Patients who attended our outpatient departments from January 2006 to September 2006 were prospectively included if they had symptoms of chikungunya disease according to the ‘case definition’ of the National Institute of Communicable Diseases, Directorate General of Health Services, Government of India. The criteria were an acute illness characterized by the sudden onset of fever and several symptoms such as joint pain, headache, backache, photophobia, and eruption during an epidemic of chikungunya fever in the absence of confirmatory serological tests. Materials and Methods: A total of 115 patients (65 men and 50 women) who satisfied the above criteria were enrolled for the study. Results: An erythematous maculopapular rash subsiding without any sequelae in 3-4 days was the most common cutaneous finding in our patients. Genital ulcers distributed predominantly over the scrotum and base of the penile shaft in men and labia majora in women were the second most common manifestation. Other manifestations included tenderness/edema of hands and feet, grouped hyperpigmented macules over the nose and cheeks, fixed drug eruptions, erythema nodosum, erythema multiformae, generalized urticarial eruptions, and flare up of pre-existing psoriasis and lichen planus. Conclusions: To conclude, a plethora of cutaneous manifestations were noted in suspected cases of chikungunya disease. Genital ulcers, to the best of our knowledge, have not been reported during the earlier epidemics but have been reported by others during the present one.
Temporary Extra Jobs for Immigrants: Merging Lane to Employment or Dead-End Road in Welfare?

We evaluate the effects of the most frequently used German welfare-to-work program on the employment chances of immigrant welfare recipients. In particular, we investigate whether program effects differ between immigrants and natives and what might cause these potential differences. Our results reveal that the program fails to achieve its objectives. The effects are more adverse for natives, but the program does not help otherwise identical immigrants to leave the welfare system either. Therefore, the program is a dead-end road rather than a merging lane to regular employment both for natives and for immigrants.
Population structure and diversity in sexual and asexual populations of the pathogenic fungus Melampsora lini

Many pathogens undergo both sexual and asexual reproduction to varying degrees, yet the ecological, genetic and evolutionary consequences of different reproductive strategies remain poorly understood. Here we investigate the population genetic structure of wild populations of the plant pathogen Melampsora lini on its host Linum marginale, using amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) markers, two genes underlying pathogen virulence, and phenotypic variation in virulence. In Australia, M. lini occurs as two genetically and geographically divergent lineages (AA and AB), one of which is completely asexual (AB), and the other able to reproduce both clonally and sexually (AA). To quantify the genetic and evolutionary consequences of these different life histories, we sampled five populations in each of two biogeographical regions. Analysis of AFLP data obtained for 275 isolates revealed largely disjunct geographical distributions for the two different lineages, low genetic diversity within lineages, and strong genetic structure among populations within each region. We also detected significant divergence among populations for both Avr genes and virulence phenotypes, although generally these values were lower than those obtained with AFLP markers. Furthermore, isolates belonging to lineage AA collectively harboured significantly higher genotypic and phenotypic diversity than lineage AB isolates. Together these results illustrate the important roles of reproductive modes and geographical structure in the generation and maintenance of virulence diversity in populations of M. lini.
Barriers to Retail Competition and Prices: Evidence from Spain

Why do prices in Spain's regions fail to converge? The prime suspects for this puzzling result are differences in regional barriers to entry in retail distribution. This paper develops a Cournot-Nash model of imperfect competition to illustrate the effect of barriers on prices. A unique data set--derived from an extensive analysis of competition policies in Spain--provides evidence that barriers to entry increase regional prices. The evidence also suggests that, consistent with the model's predictions, barriers to entry raise prices up to a point, and thus indicate that barriers have a threshold effect on prices. Copyright 2010 Oxford University Press 2009 All rights reserved, Oxford University Press.
Statistical Parametric Speech Synthesis Incorporating Generative Adversarial Networks

A method for statistical parametric speech synthesis incorporating generative adversarial networks (GANs) is proposed. Although powerful deep neural networks techniques can be applied to artificially synthesize speech waveform, the synthetic speech quality is low compared with that of natural speech. One of the issues causing the quality degradation is an oversmoothing effect often observed in the generated speech parameters. A GAN introduced in this paper consists of two neural networks: a discriminator to distinguish natural and generated samples, and a generator to deceive the discriminator. In the proposed framework incorporating the GANs, the discriminator is trained to distinguish natural and generated speech parameters, while the acoustic models are trained to minimize the weighted sum of the conventional minimum generation loss and an adversarial loss for deceiving the discriminator. Since the objective of the GANs is to minimize the divergence (i.e., distribution difference) between the natural and generated speech parameters, the proposed method effectively alleviates the oversmoothing effect on the generated speech parameters. We evaluated the effectiveness for text-to-speech and voice conversion, and found that the proposed method can generate more natural spectral parameters and $F_0$ than conventional minimum generation error training algorithm regardless of its hyperparameter settings. Furthermore, we investigated the effect of the divergence of various GANs, and found that a Wasserstein GAN minimizing the Earth-Mover's distance works the best in terms of improving the synthetic speech quality.
Illegal migration and US immigration reform: a conceptual framework.

This paper presents a conceptual framework for analyzing international illegal migration from developing countries. The model postulates that the decision to migrate is some function of the expected income differential between the home and destination countries where this differential comprises not only home and destination wage and unemployment rates but also 2 new variables unique to decision making by illegal migrants--the probability of capture and deportation and the degree of wage discrimination against illegal workers. The model implies that illegal migration responds to a variety of economic and noneconomic variables that are either negligible or nonexistent in an analysis of internal domestic and legal international migration. Through a simulation that reflects the current environment in which illegal migration from Mexico into the US takes place the model is used to evaluate the impact of the 1986 Simpson-Rodino Immigration Reform and Control Act designed to curb the inflow of illegal migrants through the imposition of employer penalties and increased border apprehension. The simulation reveals some major weaknesses of the legislation. (authors)
Option Pricing Model Estimates: Some Empirical Results

In a seminal paper, Black and Scholes [3] presented a closed-form valuation model for European options. Merton [11] later demonstrated that the BlackScholes model for valuing European call options is equally applicable to American call options written on stocks that do not pay dividends or on call options that are protected against dividend payouts. Closed-form solutions to options on stocks that pay dividends at known, discrete time intervals have recently been established by Roll [14] and Geske [9]. Despite the enormous interest that the BlackScholes model has generated in both the academic and
Economic Freedom and Women's Emancipation in the MENA Region

The position of women in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region is a complex topic, difficult to comprehend without allowing for socio-cultural norms, legal frameworks and the global gender context. In thinking about a practical framework for action, the free market perspective is relevant and necessary. However, this alone does not seem to provide a complete answer to the problem of promoting women's economic status. This article makes the case for the importance of market-friendly, but also gender-sensitive, policies to promote women's economic freedom and hence women's emancipation in the MENA region.
Use of Metformin in Polycystic Ovary Syndrome: A Meta-Analysis

OBJECTIVE: To update the state of evidence on the efficacy of metformin, used either alone or in combination with clomiphene citrate in women with polycystic ovary syndrome, by examining three outcomes: ovulation, pregnancy, and live birth. Sources of heterogeneity among the published randomized controlled trials are systematically assessed. DATA SOURCES: An electronic literature search was performed using MEDLINE, EMBASE, SCOPUS, CENTRAL, Cochrane, and U.S. Food and Drug Administration databases, restricted to studies conducted on humans and published in English. METHODS OF STUDY SELECTION: Of the 406 potentially relevant articles identified, 17 met criteria for inclusion in the meta-analysis, rendering a total sample of 1,639 women. Study quality was examined in terms of randomization scheme, masking process, adequacy of allocation concealment, statistical power, and loss to follow-up; publication bias was also assessed. Meta-analytic procedures were used to compare metformin with placebo, and metformin plus clomiphene with clomiphene alone, for all study outcomes. Exploratory analyses were conducted to assess differences in treatment effects between clomiphene-resistant and nonresistant patients, obese and nonobese patients, and trials with long and short durations of follow-up. TABULATION, INTEGRATION, AND RESULTS: Metformin improved the odds of ovulation in women with polycystic ovary syndrome when compared with placebo (odds ratio [OR] 2.94; 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.43–6.02; number-needed-to-treat 4.0) and appears more effective for non–clomiphene-resistant women. Metformin and clomiphene increased the likelihood of ovulation (OR 4.39; 95% CI 1.94–9.96; number-needed-to-treat 3.7) and pregnancy (OR 2.67; 95% CI 1.45–4.94; number-needed-to-treat 4.6) when compared with clomiphene alone, especially in clomiphene-resistant and obese women with polycystic ovary syndrome. These treatment effects were greater for trials with shorter follow-up. CONCLUSION: Using all available evidence, this meta-analysis suggests that metformin increases the likelihood of ovulation and, in combination with clomiphene, increases the odds of both ovulation and pregnancy in women with polycystic ovary syndrome.