Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Team empowerment: an empirical study in Spanish University R&D teams

This paper analyses the results of a survey to university R&D teams about the moderator role of some variables on the relationship between team empowerment and team performance and organisational attitudes. The results support the positive impact of team empowerment on team performance and organisational attitudes. Regarding the moderator role of the analysed variables, the data indicate that team's labour flexibility and age diversity decrease the positive effect of team empowerment on performance. Perceived work-based social support positively moderates the impact of team empowerment on team productivity, whereas perceived work-based organisational support moderates its impact on customer service. Finally, perceived fairness and team's gender diversity are also positively related to job satisfaction.
Public Expenditure in the Slovak Republic: Composition and Technical Efficiency

Good practice suggests that budget allocations should reflect spending priorities and that spending should provide cost-effective delivery of public goods and services. This paper analyzes the composition of public expenditure in the Slovak Republic. It also assesses the relative efficiency of spending in education and health. The Slovak Republic spends more on social benefits and less on wages compared to the EU and OECD average. While it manages to translate the low expenditures into outcomes in an efficient manner in the education sector, this is not true for health. Moreover, the recent increases in expenditure levels have not improved outcomes, suggesting that significant budgetary savings could be achieved through increases in efficiency.
Improving Subject Teaching: Lessons from Research in Science Education

In many countries, questions are being raised about the quality and value of educational research, and whether educational practice can ever draw upon research evidence as productively as in fields such as medicine. This book explores the relationship between research and practice in education, using the case of science education as an example. It looks at the extent to which current practice could be said to be informed by knowledge or ideas generated by research – and at the extent to which the use of current practices, or the adoption of new ones, are, or could be supported by research evidence – and so be said to be evidence-based. The issues considered are not specific to science, but apply to the teaching and learning of any curriculum subject. The book draws on the findings of four inter-related research studies, carried out by the Evidence-based Practice in Science Education (EPSE) Research Network. It considers: • how research might be used to establish greater consensus about curriculum • how research can inform the design of assessment tools and teaching interventions • the impact of new teaching approaches on teachers’ practices and students’ learning • the extent to which evidence can show that an educational practice ‘works’ The book is unique in exploring the issues raised by the current debate about educational research within the context of the teaching and learning of a specific curriculum subject. Rather than looking at how research might inform educational practices in the abstract, it looks at how research can lead to improvement in the teaching of specific pieces of knowledge, or specific skills, that we value. The issues it explores are therefore of direct interest and relevance to educational practitioners and policy-makers.
Joint inventory and pricing decisions with reference effects

This article considers a periodic review joint replenishment and pricing problem of a single item with reference effects. The demand is random and is contingent on the price history as well as the current price. Randomness is introduced with both an additive and a multiplicative random term. Price history is captured by a reference price, which is developed by consumers that are frequent buyers of a product or a service. The common reference price acts as a benchmark against which the consumers compare the price of a product. They perceive the difference between the price and the reference price as a loss or a gain and have different attitudes to these perceptions, such as loss aversion, loss neutrality, or loss seeking. A general way to handle the nonconvexity of the holding cost for nonlinear demand models is to make a transformation and use the inverse demand function. However, in reference price-dependent demand models, this brings the problem of a nonconvex action space. This problem is circumvented by defining an action space that preserves the convexity after a transformation. For the transformed problem, it is shown that a state-dependent order-up-to policy is optimal for concave demand models and concave transformed expected revenue functions that are not necessarily differentiable. It is shown that there are demand models with relative difference reference effects and loss-averse customers that satisfy the considered concavity assumptions. A computational study is performed to highlight the effects of joint inventory and pricing decisions under reference effects.
Total quality management and the planning behavior of SMEs in developing economies

Examines the relationship between TQM perceptions, planning behavior, and firm size in SMEs in Ethiopia. Primary data were collected from 57 SMEs through a questionnaire. However, as the study is a preliminary investigation, uses only simple descriptive statistics to analyse the sample data. The results are not significantly different from those of previous studies in SMEs. TQM perceptions vary with firm size and planning behavior. The findings also indicated that excessive emphasis on short‐term profitability, lack of resources, business planning and vision, and misperception of TQM practices are among the main obstacles to the adoption of a formal TQM program. Suggests some lessons and implications for future research.
Reply to Blaauw et al., Boslough, Daulton, Gill et al., and Hardiman et al.: Younger Dryas impact proxies in Lake Cuitzeo, Mexico

Blaauw et al. (1) take issue with our age–depth model for the Cuitzeo core. They state that no offset for our accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) 14C dates was quantified, that our identification of the Cieneguillas tephra is doubtful, that we used an outdated calibration model, and they object to our rejection of six AMS dates in the anomalous zone.
Typical pain experience but underestimation of others’ pain: Emotion perception in self and others in autism spectrum disorder

Difficulties in emotion perception are commonly observed in autism spectrum disorder. However, it is unclear whether these difficulties can be attributed to a general problem of relating to emotional states, or whether they specifically concern the perception of others’ expressions. This study addressed this question in the context of pain, a sensory and emotional state with strong social relevance. We investigated pain evaluation in self and others in 16 male individuals with autism spectrum disorder and 16 age- and gender-matched individuals without autism spectrum disorder. Both groups had at least average intelligence and comparable levels of alexithymia and pain catastrophizing. We assessed pain reactivity by administering suprathreshold electrical pain stimulation at four intensity levels. Pain evaluation in others was investigated using dynamic facial expressions of shoulder patients experiencing pain at the same four intensity levels. Participants with autism spectrum disorder evaluated their own pain as being more intense than the pain of others, showing an underestimation bias for others’ pain at all intensity levels. Conversely, in the control group, self- and other evaluations of pain intensity were comparable and positively associated. Results indicate that emotion perception difficulties in autism spectrum disorder concern the evaluation of others’ emotional expressions, with no evidence for atypical experience of own emotional states.
Representation in Hybrid Regimes: Constituency and Party Influences on Legislative Voting in the Russian Duma 1996–1999

type="main"> The objectives of the study were to establish whether district ideology was reflected in legislator ideal points in the 1996–1999 Duma. I integrate for the first time individual-level survey data on citizen attitudes to economic reform, the major dimension of political conflict in Russia in the 1990s, with individual legislator voting records from the 1996 to 1999 Duma. Using a Bayesian method, I estimate legislator ideal points as a function of individual and district characteristics and an individually specific random shock to assess the direct effect of district ideology and party membership. According to my results, legislators were responsive to district preferences on salient legislation such as final passage votes and key votes. The findings have implications for the effects of a mixed electoral system, which was introduced in many young democracies in Eastern Europe and Latin America. The broader conclusion of the study is that the electoral incentives in the single-member district component of the election can encourage legislative responsiveness even in a “partial” democracy such as Russia.
On a continuous time stock price model with regime switching, delay, and threshold

Motivated by the need to describe bear-bull market regime switching in stock prices, we introduce and study a stochastic process in continuous time with two regimes, threshold and delay, given by a stochastic differential equation. When the difference between the regimes is simply given by a different set of real valued parameters for the drift and diffusion coefficients, with changes between regimes depending only on these parameters, we show that if the delay is known there are consistent estimators for the threshold as long we know how to classify a given observation of the process as belonging to one of the two regimes. When the drift and diffusion coefficients are of geometric Brownian motion type we obtain a model with parameters that can be estimated in a satisfactory way, a model that allows differentiating regimes in some of the NYSE 21 stocks analyzed and also, that gives very satisfactory results when compared to the usual Black–Scholes model for pricing call options.
Patterns of axonal collateralization of single layer V cortical projection neurons in the rat presubiculum

The presubiculum is one of the important regions of the parahippocampal area known to be responsible for processing and integrating spatial representation information. To understand better the functional roles played by the presubiculum, it is essential to elucidate how output signals from the presubiculum distribute to its target regions. In the present study, the axonal branching patterns of single pyramidal neurons in layer V of the rat presubiculum were investigated by using in vivo injection of a viral vector expressing membrane‐targeted palmitoylation site‐attached green fluorescent protein. We found that individual layer V neurons provide axonal branches to one or two cortical areas with one or more recurrent collaterals to the presubiculum. These neurons were classified into six types, based on their axonal collateralization pattern: neurons with axon branches to 1) both the retrosplenial granular cortex and the parasubiculum, 2) both the retrosplenial granular cortex and the subiculum, and 3) both the medial entorhinal area and the subiculum, and neurons with axonal branches terminating only in 4) the retrosplenial granular cortex, 5) the subiculum, and 6) the presubiculum. Types 1–5 also provide recurrent axons to the presubiculum. Our data demonstrate that layer V of the presubiculum consists of at least six types of cortical projection neurons with various patterns of axonal collateralization. These findings suggest that single presubicular layer V neurons may distribute information to one or two cortical areas participating in the neural circuitry of spatial representation and also send such information back to the presubiculum itself. J. Comp. Neurol. 519:1395–1412, 2011. © 2010 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Prevention of oxidative damage to lens by caffeine.

PURPOSE The primary objective of this study was to examine the possibility of inhibiting oxidative damage to the lens in vitro by caffeine. METHODS Oxidative damage was inflicted by incubating mouse lenses in Tyrode medium containing 0.1 mM Fe(8)Br(8), an iron complex soluble in aqueous medium. Parallel incubations were conducted in the presence of caffeine (5 mM). RESULTS Lenses incubated in the medium containing Fe(8)Br(8) undergo oxidative stress, as evidenced by the inhibition of Na(+)-K(+) ATPase-driven rubidium transport and the loss of tissue glutathione and ATP. These effects were prevented in presence of caffeine. That the effects are due to the oxyradicals produced was ascertained further by parallel studies with Tempol (5 mM), a well-known scavenger of reactive oxygen species (ROS) with its activity being more pronounced with hydroxyl radicals as compared to other ROS. CONCLUSIONS Caffeine was found to be effective in preventing oxidative stress to the lens induced by iron under ambient conditions. The protective effect is attributable to its ability to scavenge ROS, particularly the hydroxyl radical.
Dependency, Disarticulation, and Denominator Effects: Another Look at Foreign Capital Penetration

Less developed countries desparately need capital to develop, but countries dependent on foreign capital face slower economic growth, higher income inequality, and possibly impaired domestic capital formation. These conclusions emerge from a reassessment of Glenn Firebaugh's broad critique of capital dependency research, which exposed an important error in earlier studies. The solution charts new theoreticall ground by factoring dependency effects into the differential productivity of foreign and domestic investment and the negative externalities from foreign capital penetration. The revised formulation is applied to cross-national analyses of economic growth, decapitalization, and income inequality. The findings consistently support capital dependency theory.
Returns to Education and Experience in Self-Employment: Evidence from Germany

This paper compares the returns to human capital in the self-employed and wage-employed sectors of the economy. Using data from the former West German sample of the German Socioeconomic Panel survey for the 1984-1997 time period, we estimate returns to education and work experience from standard log-earnings equations for self-employed and wage-employed workers. Two key results are found. First, additional schooling has a smaller effect on earnings for the self-employed than for the wage-employed. Indeed, educational attainment has an insignificant effect on self-employment earnings. Second, prior self-employment experience receives a lower return in wage-employment than does prior wage-employment experience. These results are consistent across specifications controlling for education endogeneity and self-selection bias.
Piecemeal Multilateral Environmental Policy Reforms Under Asymmetric Oligopoly

We develop a general two-country model with oligopolistic interdependence in which a fixed number of firms make their output and emission decisions simultaneously. We examine the effect of multilateral reforms of emission taxes on global emission levels. With sufficient asymmetry in pollution intensities between the two countries, a proportional multilateral increase in emission tax rates can increase global emission levels. However, a multilateral equal increase of emission tax rates unambiguously reduces global emission levels. We also consider the case of free entry and exit of firms, and find a rule of multilateral reforms which unambiguously lowers total emission levels.
A General Quantile Function Model for Economic and Financial Time Series

This article proposed a general quantile function model that covers both one- and multiple-dimensional models and that takes several existing models in the literature as its special cases. This article also developed a new uniform Bayesian framework for quantile function modelling and illustrated the developed approach through different quantile function models. Many distributions are defined explicitly only via their quanitle functions as the corresponding distribution or density functions do not have an explicit mathematical expression. Such distributions are rarely used in economic and financial modelling in practice. The developed methodology makes it more convenient to use these distributions in analyzing economic and financial data. Empirical applications to economic and financial time series and comparisons with other types of models and methods show that the developed method can be very useful in practice.
Optical coherence tomography in clinically isolated syndrome: no evidence of subclinical retinal axonal loss.

BACKGROUND Optical coherence tomography has emerged as a new tool for quantifying axonal loss in multiple sclerosis (MS). A reduction in retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) thickness is correlated with Expanded Disability Status Scale score and brain atrophy. OBJECTIVE To investigate RNFL and macular volume measurements using optical coherence tomography in the clinically isolated syndrome population. DESIGN Prospective case series. Settings Neurologic clinics at the university hospitals of Lille and Strasbourg (France). PARTICIPANTS Fifty-six consecutive patients with clinically isolated syndrome (18 with optic neuritis and 38 without optic neuritis) and 32 control subjects. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Macular volume and RNFL thickness. RESULTS Mean (SD) overall RNFL thickness (98.98 [10.26] microm) and macular volume (6.86 [0.32] microm(3)) in the clinically isolated syndrome population were not significantly different compared with the controls (98.71 [9.08] mum and 6.92 [0.38] microm(3), respectively). No link was noted between atrophy of the RNFL or macula and conversion to MS at 6 months. CONCLUSIONS Optical coherence tomography does not reveal retinal axonal loss at the earliest clinical stage of MS and does not predict conversion to MS at 6 months.
Marketing of indigenous fruits in Zimbabwe.

Poverty, food insecurity and unsustainable use of natural resources are being blamed for the setback of African development. Research on the domestication of indigenous fruits, conducted by the International Centre for Research in Agroforestry (ICRAF) is among the several attempts to improve the livelihood strategies of the poor communities to attain food security, improve nutrition, increase cash income while conserving the environment. However, the research initiative is being limited by lack of baseline information on the existing production-to-consumption system. This study aims at describing the market structure, conduct and performance of Uapaca kirkiana and Strychnos cocculoides indigenous fruits, including the institutions guiding the management of the trees and use of the fruits. Also, intents to evaluate the demand of the fruits by assessing consumers attitudes, preferences and willingness to pay, and finally suggest on improvements. The study was conducted in Murehwa and Gokwe production and marketing sites, Mbare central market, City Botanical gardens and Westgate shopping centre. Data was collected by a review and analysis of secondary information, Rapid Market Appraisal, formal surveys and conjoint experiment, and analysed using descriptive statistics and advanced multivariate methods. Findings suggest that there is a substantial amount of trading and consumption of the fruits in both rural and urban areas of Zimbabwe. The marketing system is characterised by lack of production, as all fruits for selling and consumption are collected from the natural forests. There are numerous collectors and retailers but few wholesalers causing less competition at their level. There is no sophisticated product differentiation, however elementary presale activities at the retail level reflect consumer preferences. There is a lack of price formation mechanism. Major means of price formation include information from neighbours, knowledge of previous seasons and total cost incurred by the traders. One of the main obstacles to improving the marketing system is missing institutions defining property rights of IFTs and the fruits. The fruits are still treated as a public good, although increased usage has caused shortages and rivalry. Despite the constraints, consumers love the fruits and they are willing to pay, and hence traders generate some cash. In order to increase market sales, traders may supply high quality fruits in Harare markets, areas of high preferences. Furthermore, the government may set up reliable institutions among other recommendations, in order to encourage private action.
Analisis Faktor-Faktor yang Mempengaruhi Kesejahteraan Ekonomi Mustahik melalui Pemberdayaan Zakat (Studi Kasus PenyaluranZakat Produktif/ Modal Usaha pada Bazda Kota Jambi)

The efficiency of zakat for productive activities has a strong Islamic basic, although in Alquran is not explicitly stated so, but there is afreedom in managing the way to use it whether for consumptive or productive activities. The perceptions in society especially for small trader in Jambi got zakat for productive activities is very satisfying. The leading of zakat which has been done by Bazda Jambi could increase the living level or the income for that small trader (Mustahik).
ACCP Conference on Antithrombotic and Thrombolytic Therapy Antithrombotic Therapy for Venous Thromboembolic Disease : The Seventh

2004;126;401-428 Chest Prins and Gary E. Raskob Harry R. Büller, Giancarlo Agnelli, Russel D. Hull, Thomas M. Hyers, Martin H. ACCP Conference on Antithrombotic and Thrombolytic Therapy Antithrombotic Therapy for Venous Thromboembolic Disease: The Seventh This information is current as of October 7, 2005 http://www.chestjournal. org/cgi/content/full/126/3_suppl/401S located on the World Wide Web at: The online version of this article, along with updated information and services, is ISSN: 0012-3692. may be reproduced or distributed without the prior written permission of the copyright holder. 3300 Dundee Road, Northbrook IL 60062. All rights reserved. No part of this article or PDF published monthly since 1935. Copyright 2005 by the American College of Chest Physicians, CHEST is the official journal of the American College of Chest Physicians. It has been
Economics of the Living Dead

Zombie firms are those firms that are insolvent and have little hope of recovery but avoid failure thanks to support from their banks. This paper identifies zombie firms in Japan, and compares the characteristics of zombies to other firms. Zombie firms are found to be less profitable, more indebted, more dependent on their main banks, more likely to be found in non-manufacturing industries and more often located outside large metropolitan areas. Overall, larger size makes the firm less likely to be a zombie, but among small firms, relatively larger firms are more likely to be protected and become zombies. Controlling for profitability, the exit probability for zombie firms does not differ from that for non-zombies. Zombie firms tend to increase employment by more (but do not reduce employment by more) than non-zombies. Finally, when the proportion of zombie firms in an industry increases, job creation declines and job destruction increases, and the effects are stronger for non-zombies.