Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
What is the Australian model for managing cultural diversity

Purpose – This paper seeks to assess the Australian approach to managing a culturally diverse workforce by examining the outcomes of this approach.Design/methodology/approach – The paper applies Syed and Ozbilgin's relational, multilevel framework for managing diversity to study policies at three interrelated levels. At the macro‐national level, the paper examines legal and public policy initiatives for managing cultural diversity. At the meso‐organisational level, the paper discusses a variety of workplace diversity management approaches. This discussion encompasses the legal requirements for organisations to remove discrimination, and to create an equal employment opportunity workplace. A voluntary management approach known as “diversity management” is also outlined. At the micro‐individual level, the paper examines unique employment‐related issues faced by ethnic minority workers because of their ethnic, linguistic and religious identities. The multilevel perspectives are synthesised in a model labelle.
Pain of Sustainability: Limiting the Number of Times Homeowners Can Receive Disaster Relief

A sustainable future for communities that are highly vulnerable to natural hazard events means not locating new sensitive land uses, requiring existing land uses to be retrofitted in order to obtain insurance, and implementing other restrictive policies. Our objective was to measure the willingness of U.S. adult residents of New Jersey, a state devastated three times by major tropical storms in 1999, 2011, and 2012, to agree with a very restrictive policy—placing a limit on the number of times homeowners may receive financial disaster relief from natural hazard events. Using random digit dialing for landline (65%) and cell phone (35%), the authors collected 875 surveys of New Jersey residents in 2013, four months after Hurricane Sandy devastated much of New Jersey. Fifty-nine percent of respondents agreed with this painful policy. They disproportionately were older males who were fiscally conservative, and they took this stance despite personally believing that global climate change-related natural hazard events are real and are a threat. In New Jersey and other states, officials and others responsible for securing public agreement with these programs face a difficult challenge of implementing these programs because of public mistrust of state and federal government as initiators and implementers.
Audit Qualification and Timing of Earnings Announcements: Evidence from China

This study extends the scope of timing research to China's emerging capital market by examining the effects of audit opinions and earnings surprises on the timeliness of annual earnings announcements, after controlling for firm size, the presence of losses, financial distress, auditor switches, and changes in the Chinese regulatory environment. Based on a sample of listed Chinese firms for 1995–1999, we observe that both audit opinions and earnings surprises have significant effects, as reported in Bamber et al. (1993). We also find a significant effect attributable to the magnitude of negative earnings surprises as shown by Begley and Fischer (1998). In addition, we document a significant interaction effect between audit opinions and earnings surprises. Positive earnings surprises with modified audit opinions are announced significantly later than unqualified negative earnings surprises.
Student engagement in university decision-making:policies, processes and the student voice

This thesis explores student engagement in university decision-making. Universities are expected to involve their students in a range of governance activities. Yet, the conceptual base for this is under-formed and often draws from learning theories. As a result, the emphasis is on what students should do and how they can be motivated to engage. This thesis proposes an alternative view that examines the issue from a public participation perspective. To support this, it offers a model of engagement that refocuses the debate onto the processes and procedures of the university. These shape the nature of student engagement in an institution. Various modes of engagement exist and each has different expectations on student activity. However, there is little published data to establish whether students actually want to participate. What is available tends to focus on the experiences of highly engaged students, such as course representatives. To redress this, the thesis establishes an evidence-base for mainstream students’ views on engagement. This is based on mixed-methods research that involved over 1,300 students in one university. It used a sequential design, in which information gathered in a qualitative phase was tested in a university-wide survey. The research demonstrates that many students see the value of engagement and want to participate. Yet, this was not universal and an argument is presented that student subjectivities influence engagement. These are shaped by a variety of factors, including the relative power of the student in a university environment. Contemporary literature suggests that this is shifting in favours of students as they assert themselves as customers of the university. However, the research findings dispute this. Students are not overwhelmingly consumerist and, if they are, this has little impact on engagement activity. Instead, the localised connection between students and tutors appears to be crucial for engagement. This tests the new public management approach to university governance that overlook or over-regulate such relationships. This is one of several challenges identified in this thesis for student engagement in university decision-making.
Recent developments in discount window policy

Underlying trends in the depository sector along with changes in federal legislation have had important ramifications in recent years for the discount window, the Federal Reserve’s lending facility. The periods of stress and consolidation in the depository sector during the 1980s and 1990s led to the active involvement of the discount window in many failing-bank situations. Indeed, the scope of problems in the banking industry and the extent of discount window lending to troubled institutions were greater than in any period since the Great Depression. In addition, changes became evident during the 1980s in the willingness of healthy institutions to turn to the discount window. Many banks apparently became more reluctant to turn to the window for fear of provoking market concerns about their financial condition. The greater reluctance to borrow weakened the historical relationship between discount window borrowing and the spread of the federal funds rate over the discount rate. This weakening, in turn, impaired the effectiveness of the discount window in tempering unexpected pressure in the reserve market and reduced the Federal Reserve’s emphasis on borrowed reserves in the day-to-day management of the reserve market. Perhaps the most notable legislation affecting the discount window has been the Depository Institutions Deregulation and Monetary Control Act of 1980, which dramatically expanded the universe of depository institutions eligible to borrow at the discount window. As a result, the Federal Reserve assumed greater direct responsibility for responding to the liquidity needs of all depositories. Another important legislative change arose in response to the large number of bank failures in the 1980s and the associated depletion of the insurance funds of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). The legislation, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation Improvement Act of 1991, contained provisions intended to discourage Federal Reserve lending to depositories that do not meet minimum capital standards. Although these provisions do not prohibit the Federal Reserve from lending to such institutions, they specify that the Federal Reserve will incur a limited liability to the FDIC for lending that extends beyond certain time periods and that results in increased losses to the FDIC’s insurance funds.
The `Flexible Firm': Fixation or Fact?

The model of the `flexible firm' has gained a prominent role in shaping debate about labour market flexibility and employment restructuring in the 1980s. It argues that employers are increasingly segmenting their workers between a permanent `core' of full-time employees, and a `periphery' of part-time, temporary, subcontract and `outsourced' workers. The `core' provides `functional flexibility' through lowered job demarcations and multi-skilling, while the `periphery' provides `numerical flexibility'. This paper argues that these generalisations are based on very selective cases, and reviews evidence which shows that restructuring follows far more complex and uneven lines than this polarisation, which if anything is better reflected in the public sector, which the model omits. The `flexible firm' conflates employment developments due to sectoral restructuring, with `new' `manpower policies', masking the importance of continuities and qualitative changes within these. While registering the increasing vulnerability of many workers, the model fails to note that for many, this is not `new', nor that the dynamic of the eighties is attacking the strength of all workers, including the so-called `core'. Conceptually, the notion of `core' and `periphery' is confused, circular and value laden. The model is criticised for blurring description, prediction and prescription in an ambiguous futurology which slips between research reportage and `best practice' policy. Even here it is ambiguous, and dubious from management's own point of view. Finally, its concern with labour market flexibility is set within the current international climate of neo-classical revival, and the model's institutional interface between Government labour market polices and `leading edge' firms.
Antiplasmodial Activity of Aqueous leaf Extract of Mucuna Pruriens Linn in Mice Infected with Plasmodium Berghei (Nk-65 Strain)

Article history: Received on: 19/02/2013 Revised on: 12/03/2013 Accepted on: 15/04/2013 Available online: 12/05/2013 The antiplasmodial activity of the aqueous leaf extract of Mucuna pruriens (M. pruriens) was evaluated against Plasmodium berghei NK-65 strain in mice. The plant was selected based on their traditional claims for treatment of fever and other malaria related diseases in southeastern region of Nigeria. An aqueous leaf extract (90 – 270 mg/kg) was investigated for antiplasmodial activity against Chloroquine-sensitive Plasmodium berghei infections in mice. The antiplasmodial activity during early and established infections as well as prophylactic action of the plant in blood was investigated. Chloroquine (10 mg/kg) and pyrimethamine (1.2 mg/kg) were used as positive controls. The extract (90 – 270 mg/kg) dose dependently reduced parasitaemia induced by Chloroquine sensitive Plasmodium berghei infection in suppressive, prophylactic and curative models in mice. The extract at these doses caused 60.06 – 71.75% inhibition of parasitaemia in the suppressive test, 65.97 – 84.38% parasitaemia inhibition in prophylactic test and a mean survival time of 16 – 30 days representing 64.41– 89.71% inhibition of parasitaemia in the curative test. These reductions were statistically significant (P<0.05) comparable to that of the standard drug used (Chloroquine and Pyrimethamine). These results show that the aqueous leaf extract of M. pruriens possesses significant (P<0.05) antiplasmodial activity which confirms its use in folkloric medicine in the treatment of fever and other malaria-related disease.
Patient-Clinician Communication: American Society of Clinical Oncology Consensus Guideline.

Purpose To provide guidance to oncology clinicians on how to use effective communication to optimize the patient-clinician relationship, patient and clinician well-being, and family well-being. Methods ASCO convened a multidisciplinary panel of medical oncology, psychiatry, nursing, hospice and palliative medicine, communication skills, health disparities, and advocacy experts to produce recommendations. Guideline development involved a systematic review of the literature and a formal consensus process. The systematic review focused on guidelines, systematic reviews and meta-analyses, and randomized controlled trials published from 2006 through October 1, 2016. Results The systematic review included 47 publications. With the exception of clinician training in communication skills, evidence for many of the clinical questions was limited. Draft recommendations underwent two rounds of consensus voting before being finalized. Recommendations In addition to providing guidance regarding core communication skills and tasks that apply across the continuum of cancer care, recommendations address specific topics, such as discussion of goals of care and prognosis, treatment selection, end-of-life care, facilitating family involvement in care, and clinician training in communication skills. Recommendations are accompanied by suggested strategies for implementation. Additional information is available at www.asco. org/supportive-care-guidelines and www.asco. org/guidelineswiki .
Mapping Kazakhstan’s geopolitical code: an analysis of Nazarbayev’s presidential addresses, 1997–2014

Kazakhstan sits at the crossroads of Eurasia. Its foreign policy is heavily defined by geopolitics – the intersection of geography and international politics. However, there have been few studies that have systematically analyzed the rhetoric used to define its geopolitical condition. Building upon prior works on United States and Russian presidential addresses, this article examines 18 presidential addresses by Kazakhstan’s president, Nursultan Nazarbayev, in an effort to identify the assumptions and content of his “geopolitical code. ” In particular, it focuses on four issues: the degree of emphasis Nazarbayev has placed on specific countries and regions, Kazakhstan’s geopolitical situation and position, the multi-vector foreign policy and Kazakhstan’s role in the international system, and the need for Kazakhstan to be integrated into the global economy.
A Framework for Estimating the General Equilibrium Economic Effects of Foreign Direct Investment in the Host Country: A Canadian Perspective

Abstract This paper first discusses the channels through which inward FDI could impact the key drivers of aggregate labour productivity in the host country. Next, it reviews the available empirical evidence on FDI impacts in the host economy. It concludes that the available empirical evidence is not very useful for serious policy analysis because each of the available research papers looks at only one or two of the inward FDI economic impacts in isolation and do not provide a full picture, and they use different data sets and apply different econometric techniques. Finally, the paper proposes a system approach for estimating the general equilibrium economic impacts of inward FDI in the host country. Towards this goal, it outlines a small macro-econometric model of ten equations for key economic variables in the host country, to be estimated as a system, taking into account interdependencies between them.
The ompU Paralogue vca1008 Is Required for Virulence of Vibrio cholerae

ABSTRACT We made single and combined mutations in ompU, ompT, and the two putative porin genes vca1008 and vc0972. The fitness of the strains was tested in vitro and in the infant mouse model of intestinal infection. We also studied the transcriptional induction of vca1008 in vitro and during mouse infection. We show that vca1008 is induced during infection and is necessary and sufficient (in the absence of ompU, ompT, and vc0972) for infection.
Sequencing JIT mixed-model assembly lines

We provide a new formulation and solution procedure to sequence a mixed model just-in-time (JIT) assembly system. Mixed model JIT assembly systems are a fundamental part of the well-known "Toyota Production System. " The underlying idea in sequencing these systems is to maintain a constant usage rate of all parts on the line. We give a polynomial algorithm to determine the optimal sequence for an objective function that is mathematically different, but intuitively similar to the objective functions of previous researchers. Furthermore, a computational study indicates that the new algorithm is robust in that its sequences are as good as those generated by other algorithms when evaluated with respect to traditional objectives, but are found 200 times faster.
Budget-Constraint, Temporal, and Question-Ordering Effects in Contingent Valuation Studies

A split-sample approach is employed to test three potential design options for contingent valuation studies. A survey of unpriced woodland recreation is undertaken to test: (a) the impact of introducing budget-constraint questions; (b) the effect of varying temporal extent from willingness to pay (WTP) per annum to WTP per visit; and (c) the consequences of varying the order in which such WTP questions are presented to respondents. Some significant design effects are detected. Alternative explanations of such findings are considered and implications discussed.
Risk factors for elevated HIV incidence among Aboriginal injection drug users in Vancouver.

BACKGROUND Because of established links between entrenched poverty and risk of HIV infection, there have long been warnings that HIV/AIDS will disproportionately affect Aboriginal people in Canada. We compared HIV incidence rates among Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal injection drug users (IDUs) in Vancouver and studied factors associated with HIV seroconversion among Aboriginal participants. METHODS This analysis was based on 941 participants (230 Aboriginal people) recruited between May 1996 and December 2000 who were seronegative at enrollment and had completed at least one follow-up visit. Incidence rates were calculated using the Kaplan-Meier method. The Cox proportional hazards regression model was used to identify independent predictors of time to HIV seroconversion among female and male Aboriginal IDUs. RESULTS As of May 31, 2001, seroconversion had occurred in 112 (11.9%) of the participants, yielding a cumulative incidence of HIV infection at 42 months of 12.7% (95% confidence interval [CI] 10.3%-15.1%). The cumulative incidence at 42 months was significantly higher among the Aboriginal participants than among the non-Aboriginal participants (21.1% v. 10.7%, p < 0.001). This elevation in risk was present in both female and male Aboriginal IDUs. Among the female Aboriginal IDUs, frequent speedball (combined cocaine and heroin) injection (adjusted relative risk [RR] 3.1; 95% CI 1.4-7.1) and going on binges of injection drug use (adjusted RR 2.3; 95% CI 1.0-5.2) were found to be independent predictors of HIV seroconversion. Among the male Aboriginal IDUs, the independent predictors of seroconversion were frequent speedball injection (adjusted RR 2.9; 95% CI 1.0-8.5) and frequent cocaine injection (adjusted RR 2.5; 95% CI 1.0-6.5). INTERPRETATION In Vancouver, Aboriginal IDUs are becoming HIV positive at twice the rate of non-Aboriginal IDUs. Our findings emphasize the urgent need for an appropriate and effective public health strategy--planned and implemented in partnership with Aboriginal AIDS service organizations and the Aboriginal community--to reduce the harms of injection drug use in this population.
Emerging Trends in Japanese Package Tourism

Using large-scale market survey data from 1989 and 1995, the authors examine the distinguishing characteristics of Japanese package tourists in comparison to nonpackage tourists. While there is a decline in package tourism for Japanese overseas tourists, there are many attributes of the package tourist that suggest the continuing demand for this form of travel.
Regulation of bovine oocyte‐specific transcripts during in vitro oocyte maturation and after maternal–embryonic transition analyzed using a transcriptomic approach

Oocyte/embryo genomics in mammals faces specific challenges due to limited biological material, to the comparison of models with different total RNA contents, and to expression of a specific set of genes often absent from commercially available microarrays. Here, we report experimental validation of a RNA amplification protocol for bovine oocytes and blastocysts. Using real‐time PCR, we have confirmed that the profile of both abundant and scarce polyadenylated transcripts was conserved after RNA amplification. Next, amplified probes generated from immature oocytes, in vitro matured oocytes, and in vitro produced hatched blastocysts were hybridized onto a macroarray that included oocyte‐specific genes. Following an original approach, we have compared two normalization procedures, based on the median signal or an exogenous standard. We have evidenced the expected difference in sets of differential genes depending on the normalization procedure. Using a 1.5‐fold threshold, no transcript was found to be upregulated when data were normalized to an exogenous standard, which reflects the absence of transcription during in vitro oocyte maturation. In blastocysts, the majority of oocyte‐preferentially expressed genes were not activated, as previously observed in mouse. Finally, microarray data were validated by real‐time PCR on a random subset of genes. Our study sheds new light on and complements previous transcriptomic analyses of bovine oocyte to embryo transition using commercial platforms. Mol. Reprod. Dev. 76: 773–782, 2009. © 2009 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Age Differences In Emotion Recognition: Task Demands Or Perceptual Dedifferentiation?

ABSTRACT Background/Study Context: Older adults (OA) have consistently shown lower accuracy compared with younger adults (YA) when labeling facial expressions of emotion in multiple choice tasks. However, OA do not show lower accuracy when judging psychological attributes from faces in rating tasks. The authors investigated whether the cognitive demands of multiple choice tasks yields an underestimation of OA emotion recognition ability and whether lower scores by OA in emotion recognition tasks are an instance of age-related dedifferentiated face perception. Methods: Younger and older adults judged the emotions of faces depicting various expressions using (a) a multiple choice task and (b) a rating task with separate scales for each expression. We computed both accuracy scores and an emotion differentiation index, adapted from previous work on neural activation to different stimulus categories. Results: Lower OA performance in emotion recognition do not reflect the cognitive demands of a multiple choice task, since age differences also were shown when assessing emotion expressions on independent rating scales. An index calculating differentiation of the emotion expressions supported the hypothesis that age differences in emotion recognition accuracy may reflect age-related perceptual dedifferentiation. Discussion: Results are consistent with other evidence for perceptual dedifferentiation in OA, including lower OA performance in face recognition tasks, rating faces more similarly to one another on trait dimensions, and less specificity in neural activation to faces.