Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Do Multiple Parents Help or Hinder International Joint Venture Performance? The Mediating Roles of Contract Completeness and Partner Cooperation

We develop a mediation model in which the number of partners in a joint venture affects venture performance through contract completeness and partner cooperation. In a sample of 224 international joint ventures, we find that the number of partners is negatively related to venture contract completeness and partner cooperation, both of which are positively related to joint venture performance. The number of partners is inversely related to joint venture performance and the relationship is mediated by contract completeness and partner cooperation. We discuss theoretical and managerial implications for joint venture research and practice. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Signatures of non-gaussianity in the isocurvature modes of primordial black hole dark matter

Primordial black holes (PBHs) are black holes which may have formed very early on during the radiation dominated era in the early universe. We present here a method by which the large scale perturbations in the density of primordial black holes may be used to place tight constraints on non-gaussianity if PBHs account for dark matter (DM) . The presence of local-type non-gaussianity is known to have a significant effect on the abundance of primordial black holes, and modal coupling from the observed CMB scale modes can significantly alter the number density of PBHs that form within different regions of the universe, which appear as DM isocurvature modes. Using the recent Planck constraints on isocurvature perturbations, we show that PBHs are excluded as DM candidates for even very small local-type non-gaussianity, |fNL|≈0.001 and remarkably the constraint on gNL is almost as strong. Even small non-gaussianity is excluded if DM is composed of PBHs. If local non-Gaussianity is ever detected on CMB scales, the constraints on the fraction of the universe collapsing into PBHs (which are massive enough to have not yet evaporated) will become much tighter.
Reproductive Migrations: Surrogacy workers and stratified reproduction in St Petersburg

This thesis focuses on the practice of commercial, gestational surrogate motherhood in Russia. Based on anthropological field work in surrogacy-facilitating private clinics in Saint Petersburg and interviews with surrogacy workers, doctors, agencies and intending parents, I argue to conceptualize gestational surrogacy as a form of reproductive work. Hereby I draw on the theoretical framework of reproductive work, precarious work and gender politics after socialism in Russia. I highlight the struggles, advocacy and negation of recognizing surrogacy gestation as a form of work. Next, I grapple with the work beyond gestation: the embodied work of making the surrogate body available and the involved second order tasks. I question the surrogate’s ascribed, innate female ability of gestation and birth and outline the skills, discipline and schooling it demands to guarantee the successful course of the surrogacy pregnancy and therefore argue for the term ‘surrogacy worker’. Finally, I illustrate the intrinsic power inequalities and the precarious character of surrogacy work. Surrogacy is increasing in Russia, attracting even migrant workers from the neighboring postSoviet republics, as its high demand offers constant employment vacancies to young health mothers who find themselves disadvantaged on the regular labor market. Considering risks and opportunities, they opt for the precarious work of surrogacy to resolve their financial straits.
Sense tagging: does it make sense?

Sense tagging is probably one of the challenges that corpus linguists have to face in the near future. So far, computerisation of this task has yielded very modest results despite numerous efforts, and sense tagging is turning out to be a touchy task. Difficulties stem from various sources, extracting disambiguating information from the context. However, one of the main problems that lies upstream of the disambiguating process is the sense inventory itself. Most tagging efforts rely on traditional dictionaries to supply the reference senses, or on computer-oriented resources such as WordNet, which do not differ significantly from traditional dictionaries in terms of sense division. The present paper shows that human taggers perform very poorly when given a traditional dictionary as the reference, and that machines should therefore not be expected to perform any better if the same kind of resource is used. A detailed analysis reveals the lack of distributional criteria in dictionary entries: traditional dictionaries are chiefly concerned with meaning definition, and not with the surface clues (syntactic, collocational, etc.) that are required to match a given sense with a given corpus occurrence. It is argued that no fundamental progress can be made until large-scale lexical resources have been built that incorporate extensive distributional information, and that, until that time, any massive sense tagging efforts based on traditional dictionaries or computer-oriented resources such as WordNet would not only be premature but also questionable in terms of resource management.
Pythagorean powers of hypercubes

For $n\in \mathbb{N}$ consider the $n$-dimensional hypercube as equal to the vector space $\mathbb{F}_2^n$, where $\mathbb{F}_2$ is the field of size two. Endow $\mathbb{F}_2^n$ with the Hamming metric, i.e., with the metric induced by the $\ell_1^n$ norm when one identifies $\mathbb{F}_2^n$ with $\{0,1\}^n\subseteq \mathbb{R}^n$. Denote by $\ell_2^n(\mathbb{F}_2^n)$ the $n$-fold Pythagorean product of $\mathbb{F}_2^n$, i.e., the space of all $x=(x_1,\ldots,x_n)\in \prod_{j=1}^n \mathbb{F}_2^n$, equipped with the metric $$ \forall\, x,y\in \prod_{j=1}^n \mathbb{F}_2^n,\qquad d_{\ell_2^n(\mathbb{F}_2^n)}(x,y)= \sqrt{ \|x_1-y_1\|_1^2+\ldots+\|x_n-y_n\|_1^2}. $$ It is shown here that the bi-Lipschitz distortion of any embedding of $\ell_2^n(\mathbb{F}_2^n)$ into $L_1$ is at least a constant multiple of $\sqrt{n}$. This is achieved through the following new bi-Lipschitz invariant, which is a metric version of (a slight variant of) a linear inequality of Kwapie{\'n} and Sch\"utt (1989). Letting $\{e_{jk}\}_{j,k\in \{1,\ldots,n\}}$ denote the standard basis of the space of all $n$ by $n$ matrices $M_n(\mathbb{F}_2)$, say that a metric space $(X,d_X)$ is a KS space if there exists $C=C(X)>0$ such that for every $n\in 2\mathbb{N}$, every mapping $f:M_n(\mathbb{F}_2)\to X$ satisfies \begin{equation*}\label{eq:metric KS abstract} \frac{1}{n}\sum_{j=1}^n\mathbb{E}\left[d_X\Big(f\Big(x+\sum_{k=1}^ne_{jk}\Big),f(x)\Big)\right]\le C \mathbb{E}\left[d_X\Big(f\Big(x+\sum_{j=1}^ne_{jk_j}\Big),f(x)\Big)\right], \end{equation*} where the expectations above are with respect to $x\in M_n(\mathbb{F}_2)$ and $k=(k_1,\ldots,k_n)\in \{1,\ldots,n\}^n$ chosen uniformly at random. It is shown here that $L_1$ is a KS space (with $C= 2e^2/(e^2-1)$, which is best possible), implying the above nonembeddability statement. Links to the Ribe program are discussed, as well as related open problems.
Adapted One-versus-All Decision Trees for Data Stream Classification

One versus all (OVA) decision trees learn k individual binary classifiers, each one to distinguish the instances of a single class from the instances of all other classes. Thus OVA is different from existing data stream classification schemes whose majority use multiclass classifiers, each one to discriminate among all the classes. This paper advocates some outstanding advantages of OVA for data stream classification. First, there is low error correlation and hence high diversity among OVA's component classifiers, which leads to high classification accuracy. Second, OVA is adept at accommodating new class labels that often appear in data streams. However, there also remain many challenges to deploy traditional OVA for classifying data streams. First, as every instance is fed to all component classifiers, OVA is known as an inefficient model. Second, OVA's classification accuracy is adversely affected by the imbalanced class distribution in data streams. This paper addresses those key challenges and consequently proposes a new OVA scheme that is adapted for data stream classification. Theoretical analysis and empirical evidence reveal that the adapted OVA can offer faster training, faster updating and higher classification accuracy than many existing popular data stream classification algorithms.
The Impact of Parental Education on Child Health and Development: an Indian Perspective

Using data from the National Family Health Surveys (NFHS) 3rd round of surveys for India, this paper studies the possible effects of parental education on prevalence of undernutrition in children between the ages of 0-59 months. The reason why parental education is so important is because enables them to be more aware: education helps increase awareness to various issues (including healthcare). Therefore, higher the education, more the ability to make informed decisions about healthcare, and thereby circumvent issues related to this. This is why parental education is so important: because it is necessary to overcome or circumvent issues of anthropometric failures. Using a linear probability model, while controlling for wealth of the household and other child demographic indicators, the OLS regression results show that there is a negative and significant relationship between parental education and the probability of undernutrition in children in the above-mentioned age group.
Validation in fusion research: Towards guidelines and best practices

Because experiment/model comparisons in magnetic confinement fusion have not yet satisfied the requirements for validation as understood broadly, approaches to validating mathematical models and numerical algorithms are recommended as good practices. Previously identified procedures, such as, verification, qualification, and analysis of errors from uncertainties and deficiencies, remain important. However, particular challenges intrinsic to fusion plasmas and physical measurement therein lead to identification of new or less familiar concepts that are also critical in validation. These include the primacy hierarchy, which tracks the integration of measurable quantities, and sensitivity analysis, which assesses how model output is apportioned to different sources of variation. The use of validation metrics for individual measurements is extended to multiple measurements, with provisions for the primacy hierarchy and sensitivity. This composite validation metric is essential for quantitatively evaluating comparisons with experiments. To mount successful and credible validation in magnetic fusion, a new culture of validation is envisaged.
Late Corrective Arthrodesis in Nonplantigrade Diabetic Charcot Midfoot Disease Is Associated with High Complication and Reoperation Rates

Introduction. Charcot arthropathy may lead to a loss of osteoligamentous foot architecture and consequently loss of the plantigrade alignment. In this series of patients a technique of internal corrective arthrodesis with maximum fixation strength was provided in order to lower complication rates. Materials/Methods. 21 feet with severe nonplantigrade diabetic Charcot deformity Eichenholtz stages II/III (Sanders/Frykberg II/III/IV) and reconstructive arthrodesis with medial and additional lateral column support were retrospectively enrolled. Follow-up averaged 4.0 years and included a clinical (AOFAS score/PSS), radiological, and complication analysis. Results. A mean of 2.4 complications/foot occurred, of which 1.5/foot had to be solved surgically. 76% of feet suffered from soft tissue complications; 43% suffered hardware-associated complications. Feet with only 2 out of 5 high risk criteria according to Pinzur showed significantly lower complication counts. Radiographs revealed a correct restoration of all foot axes postoperatively with superior fixation strength medially. Conclusion. Late corrective arthrodesis with medial and lateral column stabilization in the nonplantigrade stages of neuroosteoarthropathy can provide reasonable reconstruction of the foot alignment. Nonetheless, overall complication/reoperation rates were high. With separation into low/high risk criteria a helpful guide in treatment choice is provided. This trial is registered with German Clinical Trials Register (DRKS) under number DRKS00007537.
Integrating health status and survival data: the palliative effect of lung volume reduction surgery.

RATIONALE In studies that address health-related quality of life (QoL) and survival, subjects who die are usually censored from QoL assessments. This practice tends to inflate the apparent benefits of interventions with a high risk of mortality. Assessing a composite QoL-death outcome is a potential solution to this problem. OBJECTIVES To determine the effect of lung volume reduction surgery (LVRS) on a composite endpoint consisting of the occurrence of death or a clinically meaningful decline in QoL defined as an increase of at least eight points in the St. George's Respiratory Questionnaire total score from the National Emphysema Treatment Trial. METHODS In patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and emphysema randomized to receive medical treatment (n = 610) or LVRS (n = 608), we analyzed the survival to the composite endpoint, the hazard functions and constructed prediction models of the slope of QoL decline. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS The time to the composite endpoint was longer in the LVRS group (2 years) than the medical treatment group (1 year) (P < 0.0001). It was even longer in the subsets of patients undergoing LVRS without a high risk for perioperative death and with upper-lobe-predominant emphysema. The hazard for the composite event significantly favored the LVRS group, although it was most significant in patients with predominantly upper-lobe emphysema. The beneficial impact of LVRS on QoL decline was most significant during the 2 years after LVRS. CONCLUSIONS LVRS has a significant effect on the composite QoL-survival endpoint tested, indicating its meaningful palliative role, particularly in patients with upper-lobe-predominant emphysema.
Ontology-based integration of data sources

Many applications, e.g., data/information fusion, data mining, and decision aids, need to access multiple heterogeneous data sources. These data sources may come from internal and external databases. They have to evolve due to requirement changes. Any change in an application domain induces semantics change in the data sources. The integration of these data sources raises several semantic heterogeneity problems. This has traditionally been the subject of data/schema integration and mapping. However, many heterogeneity conflicts remain in information integration due to lack of semantics. Therefore, richer semantics of data are needed to resolve the heterogeneity problems. Ontological approaches now offer new solution avenues to this interoperability limitation. In this perspective, we propose an ontology- based information integration with a local to global ontology mapping as an approach to the integration of heterogeneous data sources.
Externalizing behaviour and academic performance – the cross-lagged relationship during school transition

ABSTRACT The current study examined the over-time association between externalizing behaviour problems and academic performance during school transition in a cross-lagged design. The main focus was to reveal whether the externalizing behaviour composite and its components separately, including symptoms of CD and ADHD, differ in their relationship with academic performance; and if controlling child- or family-related covariates altered the strength or direction of the relationship. Externalizing behaviour composite was associated with a decrease in academic performance over a 1-year time lag. Academic performance at Grade 6 was associated with low CD symptoms at Grade 7. The effect remained significant when child-related covariates were controlled, but not after controlling family-related covariates. ADHD symptoms systematically had a negative effect on grade 7 GPA, even after child- and family-related covariates were controlled. The results indicate that during early adolescence and school transition, CD and ADHD symptoms differ in their association with academic performance.
Effects of inquiry-based instruction: case study of a marinetechnology school

This aim of this study was to explore the learning effectiveness of inquiry-based instruction among vocational high school students. The sample consisted of 20 students at a maritime polytechnic vocational high school in southern Taiwan, and the instruction focused on the laboratory practices for assembling and disassembling power equipment. We used a single-group design and conductedpre- and posttests to measure changes in basic capabilities, motivation for and interest in studying science, and performance on a skill examination table.The study results indicate that inquiry-based instruction significantly improved the basic academic abilities and skills of students. This improvement was especially pronounced with respect to the self-efficacy and performance goal dimensions related to the motivation to study science. No significant differences were found for the three dimensions related to interest in studying science attitude toward science, learning atmosphere, and student engagement.
Pay Attention to Those Sets! Learning Quantification from Images

Major advances have recently been made in merging language and vision representations. But most tasks considered so far have confined themselves to the processing of objects and lexicalised relations amongst objects (content words). We know, however, that humans (even pre-school children) can abstract over raw data to perform certain types of higher-level reasoning, expressed in natural language by function words. A case in point is given by their ability to learn quantifiers, i.e. expressions like 'few', 'some' and 'all'. From formal semantics and cognitive linguistics, we know that quantifiers are relations over sets which, as a simplification, we can see as proportions. For instance, in 'most fish are red', most encodes the proportion of fish which are red fish. In this paper, we study how well current language and vision strategies model such relations. We show that state-of-the-art attention mechanisms coupled with a traditional linguistic formalisation of quantifiers gives best performance on the task. Additionally, we provide insights on the role of 'gist' representations in quantification. A 'logical' strategy to tackle the task would be to first obtain a numerosity estimation for the two involved sets and then compare their cardinalities. We however argue that precisely identifying the composition of the sets is not only beyond current state-of-the-art models but perhaps even detrimental to a task that is most efficiently performed by refining the approximate numerosity estimator of the system.
Cloning of mammalian Ire1 reveals diversity in the ER stress responses

Cells modify their gene expression pattern in response to stress signals emanating from the endoplasmic reticulum (ER). The well‐characterized aspect of this response consists of the activation of genes that encode protein chaperones and other ER resident proteins, and is conserved between mammals and yeast. In mammalian cells, however, ER stress also activates other pathways, including the expression of the transcription factor CHOP/GADD153 and its downstream target genes. ER stress is also linked to the development of programmed cell death, a phenomenon in which CHOP plays an important role. Here we report on the cloning of a murine homolog of yeast IRE1, an essential upstream component of the ER stress‐response in yeast. The mammalian Ire1 is located in the ER membrane and its over‐expression in mammalian cells activates both the endogenous ER chaperone GRP78/BiP and CHOP‐encoding genes. Over‐expression of a dominant‐negative form of Ire1 blocks the induction of GRP78/BiP and CHOP in response to the ER stress induced by tunicamycin treatment. Over‐expression of murine Ire1 also leads to the development of programmed cell death in transfected cells. These results indicate that a single upstream component, Ire1, plays a role in multiple facets of the ER stress‐response in mammalian cells.
Polymorphism of the cytokine genes in hospitalized patients with Puumala hantavirus infection.

BACKGROUND Nephropathia epidemica (NE) is a mild type of haemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome caused by Puumala (PUU) hantavirus. The clinical course of NE varies from asymptomatic to fatal. The aim of this study was to establish whether polymorphisms in the cytokine genes are associated with susceptibility to and outcome of NE. METHODS The genotypes of the genes of tumour necrosis factor alpha (TNFalpha), interleukin-1alpha (IL-1alpha), IL-1beta and IL-1 receptor antagonist (IL-1RA) were analysed by polymerase chain reaction in 87 subjects, all hospital-treated for serologically confirmed acute NE. The control group comprised 400 healthy blood donors. Nineteen out of these 400 (5%) controls were PUU virus-seropositive. RESULTS IL-1RA allele 2 and IL-1beta (base exchange polymorphism at position -511) allele 2 were strongly associated with each other in both groups. NE patients were more often IL-1RA-2 negative/IL-1beta-2 negative than PUU-seronegative blood donors (38 vs 27%, odds ratio 1.65, 95% confidence interval 1.0-2.7). However, there were no differences in the clinical severity of NE between the IL-1RA-2 negative/IL-1beta-2 negative and the other patients. The other allele frequencies studied evinced no statistically significant differences between the groups. Thirty-three out of 87 (38%) patients and 121 out of 381 (32%) seronegative controls were carriers of the high-producer genotype TNF2 allele. Several parameters showed the clinical course of NE to be more severe in TNF2 carriers than in non-carriers. CONCLUSIONS These data suggest that non-carriage of the IL-1RA allele 2 and IL-1beta (-511) allele 2 may contribute to susceptibility to NE. Furthermore, TNFalpha polymorphism seems to be associated with the outcome of NE.
A multilingual advantage in the components of working memory

This study compared working memory ability in multilingual young adults and their monolingual peers on four components of working memory (verbal and visuospatial storage, verbal and visuospatial processing). The sample comprised 39 monolingual English speakers, and 39 multilinguals, who spoke an African language as their first and third languages, and English as their second language, all with high levels of proficiency. The multilingual young adults came from lower socioeconomic status (SES) backgrounds and possessed smaller English vocabularies than the monolinguals, features which make this group an under-researched population. Both when SES and verbal ability were and were not statistically controlled, there was evidence of a multilingual advantage in all of the working memory components, which was most pronounced in visuospatial processing. These findings support evidence from bilinguals showing cognitive advantages beyond inhibitory control, and suggest that multilingualism may influence the executive control system generally.