Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
CONVERSATIONAL COMPETENCES MODEL FOR INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AND BUSINESS STRATEGIC ALIGNMENT

The main objective of this study is the development of a model of conversational competences for Business and IT managers aiming at the strategic alignment between their areas. The theory of this alignment highlights the importance of communication between Business and IT areas, which is explored in the social dimension of their managers’ relationship through conversational competences. A survey research was performed with Business and IT managers from public and private organizations in Brazil, whose data were analyzed through multivariate statistical techniques – exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis – and thematic content analysis. The results confirmed the constructs and most of the hypotheses of the proposed research model, which was expanded with new constructs and hypotheses.
Mosquito Fauna on the Cape Verde Islands (West Africa): An Update on Species Distribution and a New Finding

ABSTRACT: To evaluate the risk of transmission of vector-borne diseases, regular updates of the geographic distribution of insect vectors are required. In the archipelago of Cape Verde, nine mosquito species have been reported. Of these, four are major vectors of diseases that have been present in the archipelago: yellow fever, lymphatic filariasis, malaria and, currently, an outbreak of dengue. In order to assess variation in mosquito biodiversity, we have carried out an update on the distribution of the mosquito species in Cape Verde, based on an enquiry of 26 unpublished technical reports (1983–2006) and on the results of an entomological survey carried out in 2007. Overall, there seems to be a general trend for an expansion of biological diversity in the islands. Mosquito species richness was negatively correlated with the distance of the islands from the mainland but not with the size of the islands. Human- and/or sporadic climatic-mediated events of dispersal may have contributed to a homogenization of species richness regardless of island size but other ecological factors may also have affected the mosquito biogeography in the archipelago. An additional species, Culex perexiguus, was collected for the first time in the archipelago during the 2007 survey.
Children's Responses to Entry Failure: Attention Deployment Patterns and Self-Regulation Skills

ABSTRACT In this study the authors investigated associations among children's observed responses to failure in an analogue entry situation, their attention deployment patterns, and skills and processes associated with self-regulation. Participants were 54 kindergarten and first-grade students who were either aggressive-rejected or low aggressive-popular based on peer nominations. Inhibitory control predicted the tendency to respond to entry failure by stopping and watching the group's activity. Baseline vagal tone and other-directed attention predicted children's tendency to change entry strategies after failure. Parent-rated attention skills moderated the relation between children's attention deployment patterns during the entry task and their responses to entry failure. Children who engaged in more other-directed attention were less likely to turn to solitary play after entry failure but only if they had high or moderate levels of attentional control. Other-directed attention was related to repeating previous entry bids without modification after entry failure but only when children had high levels of attention problems.
Theorising the internet and its governance

The assumption found in the literature that the Internet is a well-defined entity is challenged in this study. It is argued that despite apparent agreement on aspects of the Internet, such as the technological components, the Internet remains ambiguously conceptualised, inappropriately addressed and often misrepresented. Consequently, it is asserted that the underlying opacity results in the construction of auxiliary theories that increasingly arrive at incommensurate positions, and thus exacerbate problem areas. The case is supported by a careful review of the literature on the prevailing ontology and subsequent constitution of the Internet. The argument is developed by starting with the bigger philosophical question; what is reality? This question pushes the scope of the research wider than the Internet artefact and into a context of its emergence and visibility. The Internet is subsequently established as a problematic within many points of view, interpretations and appreciations. The problem of conceptualising the Internet as a physical or a real space or both is elaborated so that the complexity of the artefact and its appearance in reality are made apparent. Underlying the debate is the central concern of the thesis, the Governance of the Internet. The Governance of the Internet is a contested issue that has moved from governmental avenues to commercial and now to the United Nations forums for resolution. There are no simple answers and this thesis elaborates not only the complexity but also the difficulty in the gaining of consensus. The primary motivation of the study is to understand why governance attempts on the Internet continue to be ineffective. The primary premise is that the Internet is poorly defined and consequently isomorphic correspondences fail to engage the actual reality. The mix and match definitions deliver fallacies and fictions that prevent serious attempts to construct models, protocols and negotiating guides for resolving Internet related issues. The multiple incommensurate theories developed around the definitions further confuse constructive attempts to agree on core shared positions. Subsequently, three substantive questions are asked: 1What is the Internet? 2Is it possible to develop an authority tasked with governance of the Internet?
Epidemiology of hepatitis C virus genotypes in northeastern Thai blood samples.

BACKGROUND Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is an important cause of liver cancer in Thailand. The highest prevalence of anti-HCV positive among Thai blood donors is found in the northeastern region. The present analysis of the genotype distribution among anti-HCV positive northeastern-Thai blood donors was conducted to provide a base for the epidemiological pattern of HCV infection in this region. MATERIALS AND METHODS A total of 112 HCV seropositive healthy blood donors were randomly selected and tested for the presence of HCV-RNA by RT-PCR. HCV-RNA positive samples were genotyped by direct sequencing at core region genomes and confirmed by phylogenetic analysis. RESULTS HCV viremia was found in 94.6% (106/112) of HCV seropositive blood donors. There were 3 major genotypes distributed among this population. HCV genotype 3a was the most prevalent (71.7%) followed by genotypes 1a (7.5%), 1b (7.5%), 6i (3.8%), 6f (2.8%) and 6n (1.9%). CONCLUSIONS HCV genotype 3a in asymptomatic infections in northeastern Thailand is significantly higher than other previous reports. Subgenotype 6 prevalence is less than in neighboring countries and distribution patterns differ. The findings are relevant as predictors for using interferon therapy in this population.
Impact of Organizational Culture on Performance Management Practices in Pakistan

Purpose of the study: Performance management is a process of delivering sustained success to organizations by improving capabilities of individuals and teams. Organizational culture as a significant contextual factor in performance management is scarcely studied. The aim of this study is to expand the base of knowledge and empirically test the relationship between components of organizational culture and performance management practices. Research Methodology: The study adopted exploratory research to explore the impact. Primary data was collected through questionnaires from 60 employees in COMSATS Institute of Information Technology. The sample consists of both male and female faculty members. Regression and Correlation analysis was used for statistical analysis. Findings: Statistical results show that involvement is highly correlated with consistency and adaptability. Similarly, other dimensions of organizational culture have significantly positive relationship with the performance management practices. Implications: This research selected sample from few cities of Pakistan. Future studies could select other cities and compare results with city of selected sample. This research used random sampling procedure, which is the main limitation of this study. Future studies could use stratified random sampling procedure with more sample size. Practical implications: It is hoped that the findings of this study will assist the human resource managers, practitioners and strategy makers to better understand organizational performance practices. Value Added: The added value of this paper is to link theory and practice, and explore the organizational culture dimension impact on performance management practices. Few studies have conducted over the years under this perspective in the Pakistan. Key words: Performance Management, Organizational Culture, Involvement, consistency, adaptability.
Multiplexed DNA Sequence Capture of Mitochondrial Genomes Using PCR Products

Background To utilize the power of high-throughput sequencers, target enrichment methods have been developed. The majority of these require reagents and equipment that are only available from commercial vendors and are not suitable for the targets that are a few kilobases in length. Methodology/Principal Findings We describe a novel and economical method in which custom made long-range PCR products are used to capture complete human mitochondrial genomes from complex DNA mixtures. We use the method to capture 46 complete mitochondrial genomes in parallel and we sequence them on a single lane of an Illumina GAII instrument. Conclusions/Significance This method is economical and simple and particularly suitable for targets that can be amplified by PCR and do not contain highly repetitive sequences such as mtDNA. It has applications in population genetics and forensics, as well as studies of ancient DNA.
Gender Differences in Management Style : A Malaysian Perspective

The study aims to examine as to whether there exists gender differences in management style among a group of 124 men and 63 women managers of public organizations in Malaysia. Using Ministry Style Matrix of Berkley (1995), results indicate that men managers are most likely to practice commander style of management, followed by maintenance, shepherd and entrepreneur. On the other hand, women managers tend to portray the style of shepherd, entrepreneur, commander and maintenance. The study concludes that the managerial workforce is strongly gender constructed. The study implies that management should capitalize on gender variations in management style to the advantage of the organizations.
Fiscal decentralization, tax competition, and federal tax administration: A note from the Argentine experience

The paper analyses the usual arguments discussed in the fiscal federalism literature about fiscal decentralization through normative and positive (public choice) approaches. Afterwards, limits to enhance significantly fiscal decentralization in countries with important regional asymmetries like Argentina are analyzed. Finally, the author suggests the necessity of a fiscal institutional reform, which allows an efficient and responsible vertical coordination. A superlative role is assigned to the federal revenue administration in the suggested reform.
Influence of Rare-Earth Additives (La, Sm and Dy) on the Microstructure and Dielectric Properties of Doped BaTiO3 Ceramics

A series of La/Mn, Sm/Mn and Dy/Mn codoped BaTiO3 samples were prepared by the conventional solid state procedure with dopant concentrations ranging from 0.1 up to 2.0 at%. The specimens were sintered at 1320°C and 1350°C in an air atmosphere for two hours. The low doped samples demonstrated a mainly uniform and homogeneous microstructure with average grain sizes ranging from 0.3 μm to 5.0 μm. The appearance of secondary abnormal grains in the fine grain matrix and core-shell structure were observed in highly doped La/BaTiO3 and Dy/BaTiO3 sintered at 1350°C. The low doped samples, sintered at 1350°C, display a high value of dielectric permittivity at room temperature, 6800 for Sm/BaTiO3, 5900 for Dy/BaTiO3 and 3100 for La/BaTiO3. A nearly flat permittivity-response was obtained in specimens with 2.0 at% additive content. Using a modified Curie-Weiss law the Curie-like constant C⁄ and a critical exponent γ were calculated. The obtained values of γ pointed out the diffuse phase transformation in heavily doped BaTiO3 samples.
Contribution of the Ly49E Natural Killer Receptor in the Immune Response to Plasmodium berghei Infection and Control of Hepatic Parasite Development

Natural killer (NK) cells have different roles in the host response against Plasmodium-induced malaria depending on the stage of infection. Liver NK cells have a protective role during the initial hepatic stage of infection by production of the TH1-type cytokines IFN-γ and TNF-α. In the subsequent erythrocytic stage of infection, NK cells also induce protection through Th1-type cytokines but, in addition, may also promote development of cerebral malaria via CXCR3-induction on CD8+ T cells resulting in migration of these cells to the brain. We have recently shown that the regulatory Ly49E NK receptor is expressed on liver NK cells in particular. The main objective of this study was therefore to examine the role of Ly49E expression in the immune response upon Plasmodium berghei ANKA infection, for which we compared wild type (WT) to Ly49E knockout (KO) mice. We show that the parasitemia was higher at the early stage, i.e. at days 6–7 of Plasmodium berghei ANKA infection in Ly49E KO mice, which correlated with lower induction of CD69, IFN-γ and TNF-α in DX5− liver NK cells at day 5 post-infection. At later stages, these differences faded. There was also no difference in the kinetics and the percentage of cerebral malaria development and in lymphocyte CXCR3 expression in WT versus Ly49E KO mice. Collectively, we show that the immune response against Plasmodium berghei ANKA infection is not drastically affected in Ly49E KO mice. Although NK cells play a crucial role in Plasmodium infection and Ly49E is highly expressed on liver NK cells, the Ly49E NK receptor only has a temporarily role in the immune control of this parasite.
Towards a unified predictive model of Speech Rhythm

Research on Speech Rhythm (SR) entered a new phase around the turn of the new Millennium, when an entirely new algorithm to compare the rhythmical inclination of individual languages was proposed (see Ramus et al. 1999). The suggestion was soon followed by other scholars, suggesting revised or modified versions. The present authors will not even attempt at quoting them all. Among the revised versions, one should especially consider the Varco (Dellwo 2004) and the " semi-syllable " models (Rouas & Farinas 2004). These, like the Ramusian proposal, may be called " static " models, for the actual sequence of the relevant intervals (consonantal and vocalic) does not play a role. The results are not affected by any possible permutation of intervals; the algorithms provide an overall measure characterizing any speech stretch in its entirety, be it the standard variation of the relevant interval's duration, their mean error, the global percent value etc. Among the modified versions, it is worth mentioning the method proposed by Wagner (2007) and most notably the PVI model (Grabe & Low 2002); the latter should be characterized as " dynamic " , insofar as it takes into account the local durational fluctuations between any two adjacent intervals. Despite the merit of revitalizing the topic of SR, all these recent proposals seem to be somewhat defective on epistemological grounds. In order to grasp this, let us list the three
Donald Boyd Hamilton Lankford Susanna Loeb James Wyckoff The Draw of Home : How Teachers ’ Preferences for Proximity Disadvantage Urban Schools

Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, Vol. 24, No. 1, 113–132 (2005) © 2005 by the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com) DOI: 10.1002/pam.20072 Manuscript received April 2003; review complete August 2003; revision complete December 2003; revision review complete March 2004; revised manuscript received June 2004; accepted June 2004. Abstract
The Development of a Lean-Premixed Trapped Vortex Combustor

A lean-premixed trapped vortex combustor (TVC) has been developed and tested. The TVC was fired on methane and tested at the General Applied Sciences Laboratory (GASL). Additionally, for baseline data, a simple bluff body combustor was tested. All testing was performed at elevated pressures and inlet temperatures and at lean fuel-air ratios representative of power generation gas turbine engines. Both bluff body and TVC data showed competitive oxides of nitrogen (NOx) emissions of <25 ppm (corrected to 15% oxygen dry condition), which served as a basis for future optimization. Combustion efficiency was routinely above 99.5%. An optimized version of the TVC incorporating flame stabilizing features displayed promising emissions: NOx/CO/UHC levels were optimized to as low as 9/9/0ppm (corrected to 15% O2 dry), with corresponding combustion efficiency above 99.9%. Because of this configuration’s robust and straightforward design, it has the potential for successful integration into a prototype engine. This paper describes the combustors, their testing and the evaluation of the test results.Copyright © 2003 by ASME
2 2 Se p 20 03 On the largest eigenvalue of Wishart matrices with identity covariance when n , p and p / n → ∞

Let X be a n × p matrix and l1 the largest eigenvalue of the covariance matrix X∗X . The “null case” where Xi,j ∼ N (0, 1) is of particular interest for principal component analysis. For this model, when n, p → ∞ and n/p→ γ ∈ R∗+, it was shown in Johnstone (2001) that l1, properly centered and scaled, converges to the Tracy-Widom law. We show that with the same centering and scaling, the result is true even when p/n or n/p → ∞, therefore extending the previous result to γ ∈ R+. The derivation uses ideas and techniques quite similar to the ones presented in Johnstone (2001). Following Soshnikov (2002), we also show that the same is true for the joint distribution of the k largest eigenvalues, where k is a fixed integer. Numerical experiments illustrate the fact that the Tracy-Widom approximation is reasonable even when one of the dimension is small.
What determines the speed of adjustment to the target capital structure?

A dynamic adjustment model and panel methodology are used to investigate the determinants of a time varying target capital structure. Because firms may temporarily deviate from their target capital structure in the presence of adjustment costs, the adjustment process is also endogenized. Specifically, we analyse the impact of firm-specific characteristics as well as macroeconomic factors on the speed of adjustment to the target debt ratio. The sample comprises a panel of 90 Swiss firms over the years from 1991 to 2001. We document that faster growing firms and those that are further away from their optimal capital structure adjust more readily. The results also reveal interesting interrelations between the adjustment speed and well-known business cycle variables. Most important, the speed of adjustment is higher when the term spread is higher and when economic prospects are good.
Foreign Currency Hedging and Firm Value: A Dynamic Panel Approach

The Modigliani and Miller (1958) irrelevance proposition suggests that in perfect capital markets a firm’s hedging policy does not affect its value, since shareholders can undo any hedging activities implemented by the firm. Recent theories, however, argue that when capital markets are imperfect, hedging can increase a firm’s value by influencing its expected taxes, expected financial distress costs and investment decisions.1 More recently, researchers have examined the effect of hedging with derivatives on firm value. For example, Allayannis and Weston (2001) find that in a broad sample of firms, the value of firms that hedge foreign currency risk is, on average, 4.87 percent higher than non-hedgers, and Carter, Rogers and Simkins (2006) find that fuel hedging increases firm value by 5 to 10 percent for a sample of US airlines.
Regulations, Institutions and Income Smoothing by Managing Technical Reserves: International Evidence from the Insurance Industry

This paper investigates the role of technical reserves in the income smoothing behavior of insurance companies. This is one of the first attempts in the literature to trace such relationship in the insurance industry, especially at a multi-country setting. The experience of 770 insurance firms operating in 87 countries over the period 2000-2009 reveals that there is a significant evidence of income smoothing. The paper also finds that institutional characteristics, e.g., the rule of law, common law legal origin, economic freedom, and regulations relating to technical provisions and supervisory power constrain income smoothing but other factors such as capital requirements, tax deductibility of provisions, auditing, and corporate governance do not have a significant effect.
The Privacy Paradox: The Case of Secondary Disclosure

This paper examines the effect of privacy concerns on purchase likelihood. In many consumer-seller relationships, consumers are required to provide personal information to marketers in order to get better service. The law requires that marketer provide a statement of their privacy policies to consumers. Secondary disclosure is a key aspect of privacy policies. Consumers are concerned about giving up privacy, but the impact of such concerns on purchase behavior is unclear. By integrating several marketer-controlled variables like price, product, and channels with a marketers secondary disclosure policy, the study measures the relative importance of the latter along with the effects of secondary disclosure and internet attitudes. The results show that secondary disclosure attitudes influence the weight of secondary disclosure policies in purchase situations. The results also indicate that price sensitivity is influenced by secondary disclosure policies. The clear implications are that privacy concerns do matter and that privacy policies and marketing strategies cannot be set in isolation of each other. The findings are discussed in relation to prior research on privacy and future research directions. Statistical techniques used in the paper include structural equation models, conjoint analysis, and simultaneous equation regression.