Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Hijacking the Holy Grail? Emerging HR practices in Croatia

Transition by the countries of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) from communism towards market economies has brought with it the introduction of Western management thinking. CEE since 1989 has been a kind of test‐bed for human resource management (HRM) – the concept that people management practice is central to the strategic direction and potential competitive advantage of the firm. This paper draws on 21 diverse company case‐study experiences in Croatia to review emerging HR practices and assess the relevance of Western management models. A matrix is designed, that categorises these organisations as “sleepers”, “doers”, “thinkers”, “strivers” or “leaders”, according to their strategic intent and their progress on policy implementation. The results suggest that subsidiaries of multinational corporations are leading the way towards HRM and other significant factors are industry sector and size of the company. There is evidence of “hijacking”of HRM amongst some Croatian companies by old style traditional forces to maintain the status quo. Young Croatian managers welcomed new HR progressive practices and identified with most of the philosophy of HRM, apart from suspicions associated with “mindset control” aspects that they saw underpinning HRM and associated with the previous regime.
Causality between stock market development and economic growth: A case study of India

Whether stock market development causes, or is caused by, economic growth is an unsettled issue. It assumes greater relevance for India given tremendous spurt in stock market activities in the last decade. There is limited time-series econometric evidence that documents the link between stock market developments and the Indian economy. Causality tests in the present study are preceded by cointegration testing which provides a more natural setting for causality studies and inferences. Furthermore, the present study tries to overcome the problems encountered by previous research by constructing and using a composite index of stock market developments. Our findings provide evidence of a stable long run equilibrium relationship between stock market developments and economic growth in India. This study suggests that the policies relating to stock market should be directed towards the creation of transparent and mature stock exchanges in which there will be a preponderance of investors who take a long term view rather than catering only to the needs/whims of speculators and day traders.
Clinical characteristics of patients with Acinetobacter junii infection.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Acinetobacter junii is a human pathogen but A. junii infection is rarely reported. This study aimed to delineate the characteristics of A. junii infection. METHODS The medical records of 34 patients who were treated at Taipei Veterans General Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan, from May 1999 to May 2007 and had A. junii isolated from sterile sites were reviewed. Isolates of A. junii were identified by using API ID 32 GN and were confirmed by analysis of the 16S-23S rRNA intergenic spacer region. RESULTS Thirty five infections with A. junii were identified. The most common underlying conditions included prior antibiotic use (56%), central venous catheterization (50%), and malignancy (38%). Systemic inflammatory response syndrome and shock developing within 1 week were observed in 27 (77%) and 8 (23%) episodes, respectively. Eighty percent of the infectious episodes were hospital acquired. The infections were primary bacteremia (n = 32), empyema (n = 1), peritonitis (n = 1), and keratitis (n = 1). Polymicrobial infection was present in 9 episodes (26%). A. junii isolates remained susceptible to most of the tested antimicrobial agents, but the hospital-acquired isolates had higher resistance rates than the community-acquired isolates. Four patients (11.4%) died of A. junii infection despite appropriate antimicrobial therapy for 3 patients. Shock that developed within 1 week of bacteremia was associated with a poor outcome (p = 0.01). CONCLUSIONS A. junii is an opportunistic pathogen that mainly affects patients who have had prior antimicrobial therapy, invasive procedures, or malignancy. Newly emerging infections caused by A. junii and the increasing antimicrobial resistance among hospital-acquired A. junii isolates should be monitored.
Weekly volatility forecasts with applications to risk management

Purpose - In this paper weekly volatility forecasts are considered with applications to risk management; in particular hedge ratios and VaR calculations, with the aim of identifying the most appropriate model for risk management practice. Design/methodology/approach - The study considers a variety of models, including those typically employed within the risk management industry, such as averaging and smoothing techniques, as well as those favored in academic circles, such as the GARCH genre of models, and a more recent realized volatility approach which incorporates both the simplicity in construction favored by the finance industry and the flexibility and theoretical underpinnings recommended by academics. Findings - The results support the view that this realized volatility measure provides not only superior volatility forecasts Practical implications - The research findings carry practical implications for the conduct of risk management, namely that volatility forecasts are best obtained using the realized volatility approach. Originality/value - It is therefore proposed that a future direction for risk management practice may be to utilize such measures, while more generally it is hoped that such approaches may improve the cross-fertilization of ideas and practice between the academic and practitioner communities.
Institutional Barriers to Associative City-region Governance: The Politics of Institution-building and Economic Governance in 'Canada's Technology Triangle'

It has been argued that collaborative and associative forms of governance can enhance the economic competitiveness of cities and regions. Institutionalist approaches to urban and regional economic development have been particularly influential in emphasising the potential role that collaboration between firms, governance agencies, labour and supporting institutions can play in enabling communities to promote progressive competitiveness. At the same time, there has been relatively little discussion and empirical analysis of the actual process of institutional change and institution-building that characterise city-regions situated in liberal political economies that are not historically endowed with 'pre-existing' stocks of social capital and associative governance. In addition, institutionalist perspectives on urban and regional economic change have produced economistic explanations, while underplaying the importance of political factors. This paper offers an analysis of the various institutional barriers to associative governance by examining the case of 'Canada's Technology Triangle', a city-region which has experienced several attempts to develop associative governance institutions since the early 1990s. The evidence from this case study suggests that the experience of institution-building in this city-region has been intertwined with a struggle to create a regional scale of engagement for a range of governance actors. The analysis in this paper demonstrates the importance of paying careful attention to the factors that shape the political mobilisation of actors into associative institutional structures.
Anatomically and physiologically based reference level for measurement of intracardiac pressures.

BACKGROUND Many reference levels have been proposed for the measurement of intracardiac pressures, but none have met with universal acceptance. In the first part of our study, we evaluated 10 cardiologists' understanding of how hydrostatic pressure influences intracardiac pressures as measured with fluid-filled catheters. In the second part, we proposed and validated a new zero level (H): the uppermost blood level in the left ventricular (LV) chamber relative to the anterior chest wall for a patient in the supine position. A comparison was made of LV minimum diastolic pressure measured by reference to H versus measurements made with the zero level at midchest. METHODS AND RESULTS Using two-dimensional echocardiography, we determined H in the LVs of seven normal patients (five male, two female; age, 49 +/- 9 years) undergoing routine cardiac catheterization. H was determined from a left parasternal short-axis view and calculated as the average distance between end diastole and end systole of the endocardium of the uppermost segment of the LV anterior wall below the fourth or fifth intercostal space of the left sternal border on the anterior surface of the chest wall, with the patient in the supine position. A micromanometer/fluid-filled lumen catheter was then positioned in the LV, and we compared the micromanometer LV minimum pressure (LVPmin) obtained when the reference fluid-filled transducer was aligned at midchest with the LVPmin obtained when the reference fluid-filled transducer was aligned at H. LVPmin referenced to a midchest fluid-filled external transducer was measured as 5.1 +/- 1.6 mm Hg (range, 2.4 to 7.2 mm Hg) versus -0.6 +/- 0.6 mm Hg (range, -1.6 to 0.4 mm Hg) when referenced to H (P < .001). A significant linear relation was found to exist between patient anterior-posterior chest diameter and the magnitude of hydrostatic pressure influences related to pressure referenced at midchest (r = .88; P < .01). CONCLUSIONS External fluid-filled transducers should be used with the goal of removing hydrostatic pressure and other influences so that the presence of subatmospheric pressure during diastole in any of the cardiac chambers is accurately measured. To achieve this goal, intracardiac pressure should be referenced to an external fluid-filled transducer aligned with the uppermost blood level in the chamber in which pressure is to be measured. The current practice of referencing the zero level of LV diastolic pressure to an external fluid-filled transducer positioned at the midchest level results in systematic overestimation due to hydrostatic effects and produces physiologically significant error in the measurement of diastolic intracardiac pressure.
Vascular BK Channel Deficiency Exacerbates Organ Damage and Mortality in Endotoxemic Mice

Abstract We determined the contribution of vascular BK channels to endotoxin (lipopolysaccharide, LPS)-induced hypotension, organ damage, and mortality using smooth muscle BK channel deficiency (BK channel &bgr;1-subunit knockout, BK &bgr;1-KO) mice. BK &bgr;1-KO mice were more sensitive to LPS-induced mortality compared with wild-type mice. After LPS (20 mg/kg, intraperitoneally), BK &bgr;1-KO mice had a more rapid fall in heart rate and blood pressure (measured by radiotelemetry), shorter latency to mortality, and higher mortality rate than wild-type mice. Twenty-two hours after LPS treatment, wild-type and BK &bgr;1-KO mice had reduced norepinephrine reactivity and impaired constrictor responses to the BK channel blocker paxilline in mesenteric arteries in vitro and higher iNOS expression in the heart, but not in mesenteric arteries. Endotoxemic BK &bgr;1-KO mice also showed more severe lung and intestinal injury, higher myeloperoxidase activity and polymorphonuclear neutrophil infiltration in lung and liver. Endotoxemic BK &bgr;1-KO mice had higher plasma tumor necrosis factor &agr; and interleukin 6 levels at 22 hours, but not 6 hours post-LPS. Exaggerated mortality in BK &bgr;1-KO mice also occurred in the cecal ligation/puncture model of septic shock. Reduced vascular BK channel function does not protect against hypotension in the early stage of septic shock; in the later stage, smooth muscle BK channel deficiency enhances organ damage and mortality.
Wealth Effects and the Dynamics of Inflation

Recent studies on inflation and economic growth have typically dealt with the effects of changes in the rate of monetary expansion on the steady state of the economy (see, for example [2, 7, 8, 12, 13] ). I^he explicit characterization of the time path towards the steady state received less attention (see, however [4, 11, 12] ). The standard model applied frequently has been that of the Solow-type onesector-neoclassical model in which there is no independent investment function. Savings are always equal to investment, and all output not consumed is automatically and costlessly transformed into capital formation.l The purpose of this paper is to analyze the dynamics of inflation in a model in which savings depend on the value of wealth and investment is subject to increasing marginal cost. It is shown that in such a model, the path of adjustment towards the steady state is qualitatively different from the path that is derived from the Sidrauski model [11]. The basic model is introduced in section 1. Short run equilibrium is analysed in section 2; the dynamics and the steady state are discussed in section 3, with concluding remarks in section 4.
4-Aminopyridinium 4-carboxybutanoate

The asymmetric unit of the title salt, C5H7N2 +·C5H7O4 −, contains two 4-aminopyridinium cations and two 4-carboxybutanoate anions. Each 4-aminopyridinium cation is planar, with a maximum deviation of 0.005 (2) Å. Both 4-carboxybutanoate anions adopt an extended conformation. In the crystal structure, the cations and anions are linked via N—H⋯O, O—H⋯O and C—H⋯O hydrogen bonds, forming a two-dimensional network parallel to the bc plane.
Dual Allegiances? Immigrants’ Attitudes toward Immigration

This article develops a model of immigrants’ attitudes towards immigration. We focus on two competing motivations to explain these attitudes: while kinship, solidarity, and shared experiences with other immigrants should lead to more favorable attitudes towards immigration, formal integration into a new society may create a new allegiance to the host country that produces more critical views toward immigration. Using the European Social Survey (ESS) 1–5 data collected 2002–11 in 18 West European democracies, coarsened exact matching (CEM), and multilevel estimation techniques, our analyses reveal that foreigners support immigration more than natives. However, newcomers who have acquired citizenship in their host countries are more skeptical about the consequences of immigration and admitting new arrivals than noncitizen immigrants. This negative relationship between citizenship and support for immigration is particularly pronounced among those who are dissatisfied with their host country’s macroeconomy.
Experimental Evaluation of Mechanical Properties of Softwood using Acoustic Methods

This paper presents an evaluation of the acoustic ultrasound and stress wave methods for investigating the mechanical properties of wood and the factors that can affect the results, such as the type of device used, the wood species (Scots pine, Norway spruce, Silver fir), the cardinal direction relative to the direction of the plant growth, and the longitudinal measuring position in the trunk (the height of the trunk). The experiments were done using planks of selected species, with the aim of establishing the extent to which the values of the basic mechanical properties of wood could be predicted. These properties included compression strength parallel to the grain (MORL), modulus of elasticity in compression parallel to the grain (MOEL), modulus of elasticity perpendicular to the grain (MOER), compression strength perpendicular to the grain (MORR), hardness in the particular anatomical directions (HardR, HardT, and HardL), and density.
L’impact de l’affectation du free cash flow sur la création de valeur actionnariale: le cas de la politique d’endettement et de dividendes des entreprises françaises cotées

(VF)Selon la theorie du free cash flow, l’endettement, tout comme la distribution de dividendes, en reduisant le free cash flow, permettraient de limiter le pouvoir discretionnaire des dirigeants, et contribueraient a la creation de valeur actionnariale. Cette theorie est infirmee par cette recherche selon laquelle l’affectation du free cash flow au service du remboursement de la dette exerce une influence negative, statistiquement significative, sur la richesse des actionnaires. Dans le meme temps, l’impact d’un reinvestissement des fonds discretionnaires sous forme de distribution de dividendes n’est pas decelable. (VA) Theory states that managers of low growth/high free cash flow firms engage in non-value-maximizing activities. Jensen (1986) argues debt, like dividends, mitigate the non-value-maximizing activities by reducing the level of free cash flow and hence contribute to shareholder value. However, this research shows that the payout of cash flow in excess, either in the form of debt service, or in the form of dividends, has no positive influence on shareholder value. These conclusions would thus infirm the implications of Jensen’s hypothesis.
Estimating Residual Hedging Risk with Least-Squares Monte Carlo

Frequently, dynamic hedging strategies minimizing risk exposure are not given in closed form, but need to be approximated numerically. This makes it difficult to estimate residual hedging risk, also called basis risk, when only imperfect hedging instruments are at hand. We propose an easy to implement and computationally efficient least-squares Monte Carlo algorithm to estimate residual hedging risk. The algorithm approximates the variance minimal hedging strategy within general diffusion models. Moreover, the algorithm produces both high-biased and low-biased estimators for the residual hedging error variance, thus providing an intrinsic criterion for the quality of the approximation. In a number of examples we show that the algorithm delivers accurate hedging error characteristics within seconds.
Employee Participation Programs, Group-Based Incentives, and Company Performance: A Union-Nonunion Comparison

This analysis examines whether union representation positively or negatively influences the effectiveness of employee participation programs and group-based incentives in improving firm performance. Examined at the firm level, a model of the independent and interaction effects of participation, profit and gain sharing, and union representation is estimated against data on 841 manufacturing firms in Michigan in 1989. The evidence indicates that employee participation programs contributed substantially more to performance in unionized firms than in nonunion firms, whereas profit and gain sharing programs contributed substantially more to performance in nonunion firms than in unionized firms.
Regulation of Lipopolysaccharide-Induced Lung Inflammation by Plasminogen Activator Inhibitor-1 through a JNK-Mediated Pathway

The neutrophil is of undoubted importance in lung inflammation after exposure to LPS. We have shown recently that systemic inhibition of JNK decreased neutrophil recruitment to the lung after exposure to LPS, although the mechanisms underlying this inhibition are incompletely understood. As plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 (PAI-1) accentuates cell migration, with JNK activation recently shown to up-regulate PAI-1 expression, this suggested that systemic JNK inhibition may down-regulate LPS-induced pulmonary neutrophil recruitment through a decrease in PAI-1 expression. We show in this study that exposure of mice to aerosolized LPS increased PAI-1 expression in the lung and alveolar compartment, which was decreased by pretreatment with the JNK inhibitor SP600125. Exogenous, intratracheally administered PAI-1 prevented the inhibition of pulmonary neutrophil recruitment in the setting of systemic JNK inhibition, thereby suggesting a role for PAI-1 in the JNK-mediated pathway regulating LPS-induced neutrophil recruitment. In addition, PAI-1−/− mice had a decrease in neutrophil recruitment to the alveolar compartment after exposure to LPS, compared with wild-type controls, further suggesting a role for PAI-1 in LPS-induced lung inflammation. An increase in the intravascular level of KC is a likely mechanism for the inhibition of pulmonary neutrophil recruitment after LPS exposure in the setting of decreased PAI-1 expression, as systemic KC levels after exposure to LPS were increased in PAI-1-deficient mice and in mice pretreated with SP600125, with augmentation of intravascular KC levels inhibiting neutrophil recruitment to the lung after exposure to LPS.
Succession Planning in Family Business

ABSTRACT The issue of succession is one which arouses a host of emotions and has been quoted as a major cause for family business failures. As such, there may be a need for intervention in the form of an impartial third party or some sort of formal planning to regulate the situation. This study is concerned with the presence or lack of formal planning in family businesses within the local context. Four successful family-owned firms, which are at least second-generational, have been picked for the purpose of this study. In all four cases, no formal planning has been employed. Yet, their success is an obvious testimony of their firms' and families' ability to handle the issue of succession. It seems that formal succession planning advocated in many Western literature may not have its rightful place in Singapore. Instead, another force—family culture and values—seems to be more prominent in shaping the perpetuation of these family businesses.
Mutual gains? The workers' verdict: a longitudinal study

‘Who gains from partnership? ’ is a topic that has been hotly debated (Roche 2009) and it has been suggested that the ‘balance of advantage’ is often skewed towards employers. However, employee testimony remains limited. To address this gap, the paper examines employee evidence on the partnership process and their interpretation of the gains realised over time in a large UK-based subsidiary of an engineering multinational company. The research is part of a larger longitudinal case-study project extending over 5 years. The analysis here draws upon data collected during 2006–2010 and includes 99 interviews alongside nearly 200 matched survey responses, in addition to observational and documentary evidence. We introduce a process model of the ‘hierarchy of gains’ and suggest that this helps explain shifts in worker behaviour as a result of partnership.
Adhesion and cytokine production by monocytes on poly(2-methacryloyloxyethyl phosphorylcholine-co-alkyl methacrylate)-coated polymers.

Human monocytes isolated from peripheral venous blood were assayed for their ability to adhere to various polymers. The culture supernatants were also assayed for the cytokines, interleukin-1 beta (IL-beta), interleukin-6 (IL-6), and tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha). The polymers evaluated for adherence and cytokine production included Pellethane, polyethylene and poly[n-butyl methacrylate (BMA)] coated with poly[2-methacryloyloxyethyl phosphorylcholine (MPC)-co-alkyl methacrylate] copolymers. In some experiments the test polymers were adsorbed with fibrinogen or IgG prior to the addition of monocytes. MPC copolymer-coated materials inhibited monocyte and macrophage adhesion after 1 and 8 days of culture relative to corresponding uncoated polymers and tissue culture polystyrene (TCPS). The degree of inhibition by coated Pellethane compared to uncoated Pellethane was the greatest, while inhibition of adhesion by coated poly(BMA) was the least compared to uncoated poly(BMA). However, adhesion was significantly decreased on both coated and uncoated poly(BMA) by day 8. While IL-1 beta, IL-6, and TNF-alpha release was variably influenced by polymer coating, release was consistently inhibited relative to TCPS on day 1. However, cytokine production was not inhibited compared to corresponding uncoated polymers on day 1. With or without protein preadsorption, IL-1 beta release was not detectable in the supernatants of any polymer on day 8, IL-6 production was diminished on day 8, and TNF-alpha production was sustained on day 8. Overall, MPC copolymer-coated and uncoated poly(BMA) were the least stimulating, while TCPS was the most stimulating. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)