Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Developing innovation support services for small high-growth technology firms in Eastern Finland

This study examines innovation support service requirements of small, high-growth firms in Eastern Finland. The results show that most rapidly growing firms in the region can be defined as small, knowledge-intensive business service (KIBS) providers. In order to create and commercialise innovation these firms use various innovation support services (most frequently technology-related and internationalisation-related services). The results also show that there is a concrete need for intermediary organisations that help small technology firms to choose appropriate innovation support services and generally act as external strategic partners during the commercialisation of innovation process. Providing convenient access to suitable ‘brokers’ may thus enhance the contributions innovation support services can make to the development of small, high-growth technology firms.
Outside Directors on the Board and Innovative Firm Performance

We investigate how outside directors on supervisory boards influence innovative activities of the firms they advise and monitor. Based on panel data on the largest German companies, the econometric analysis shows a positive influence of external executives on innovative firm performance, measured by patent applications. Differentiating between outside directors from innovative and non-innovative companies reveals that only outside directors from innovative firms increase patenting activities at the firms they advise and monitor. This effect increases with the technological proximity between the appointing firm and the outsider's home firm. Outside directors from non-innovative firms are negatively associated with the appointing firm's innovativeness. The results indicate that external executives with an appropriate professional background can provide valuable specific knowledge and expertise to the board.
HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT AND INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS[1]

Human resource management (HRM) is a term which is now widely used but very loosely defined. In this paper it is argued that if the concept is to have any social scientific value, it should be defined in such a way as to differentiate it from traditional personnel management and to allow the development of testable hypotheses about its impact. Based on theoretical work in the field of organizational behaviour it is proposed that HRM comprises a set of policies designed to maximize organizational integration, employee commitment, flexibility and quality of work. Within this model, collective industrial relations have, at best, only a minor role. Despite the apparent attractions of HRM to managements, there is very little evidence of any quality about its impact. Furthermore very few UK organizations appear to practise a distinctive form of HRM, although many are moving slowly in that direction through, for example, policies of employee involvement.
Pricing the US Residential Asset Through the Rent Flow: A Cross-Sectional Study

The paper explores how the standard consumption-CAPM fares in pricing housing returns and regional rental income streams in a cross-section of regions. In particular, we estimate the Euler equations associated with the gross housing returns inclusive of price appreciations and rents jointly for several metropolitan areas of the US. The representative agent has a Constant Relative Risk Aversion (CRRA) utility. The rent growth is allowed to depend on the business cycle. When biannual data from 1978 to 2007 is used, the parameter estimates are reasonable, and the model is not rejected. Large standard errors indicate uninformative estimates. The implied price rent ratio time series averages are similar to the data; however the model misses the boom-bust pattern in the prices. The model significantly understates the average and the variance of the price appreciations. Results are robust to allowing housing consumption directly in the utility function or using the Epstein–Zin–Weil utility.
Clients of street-based female sex workers and potential bridging of HIV/STI in Russia: Results of a pilot study

Abstract In Russia, sexual transmission of HIV is increasing and street-based female sex workers (FSW) have a high HIV prevalence, but the role of male clients of FSW in HIV transmission and bridging to the general population has not been studied. Sixty-two male clients completed structured interviews during February–March of 2010 in St. Petersburg Russia. Descriptive analyses focused on condom use with different types of sex partners, substance use, and STI/HIV testing histories. The median lifetime and past 12 month numbers of FSW partners were 10 and 3, respectively. A majority of clients (74%) reported having non-FSW partners during the past 12 months, and nearly half (47%) reported having regular sex partners. Consistent condom use was reported in 61% of relationships with FSW partners and in 43% of relationships with non-FSW partners. A majority of clients (58%) was classified as active or potential bridgers based on having both FSW and non-FSW partners and reporting inconsistent condom use with their non-FSW partners. A majority (61%) also reported concurrent partnerships with FSW and non-FSW partners. Nearly half (48%) of last contacts with FSW partners involved consumption of alcohol by the client. Noninjection and injection drug use in the past 30 days were reported by 15% and 7% of clients, respectively. Twenty-nine percent reported history of a sexually transmitted infection (STI) and 74% reported a previous HIV test; active/potential bridgers were significantly less likely than unlikely bridgers to have ever been tested for HIV. These data signal the potential for HIV/STI transmission among male clients of street-based FSW in St. Petersburg Russia due to their variety of partner types, sub-optimal condom use, and concurrent partnerships. Larger studies are needed to confirm these findings, further explore the roles of alcohol and drug use, and identify effective strategies and interventions for HIV prevention.
Employee positive moods as a mediator linking transformational leadership and employee work outcomes

Past leadership research has demonstrated that transformational leadership has a positive effect on employee task performance and helping coworker behavior. However, among the research on the mediating mechanisms linking transformational leadership and employee work outcomes, little has been done empirically to examine the mediating effect of employee positive moods. This study extends previous research by examining the mediating role played by employee positive moods. Data were collected longitudinally from 282 employees and their immediate supervisors in 10 insurance companies in Taiwan. Results showed that transformational leadership both directly influenced employee task performance and helping coworker behavior and had an indirect effect through employee positive moods.
Acquisition of VanB‐type vancomycin resistance by Bacillus subtilis: the impact on gene expression, cell wall composition and morphology

The vancomycin resistance operons from Enterococci, Staphylococci and Actinomycetes encode a VanRS two‐component signal transduction system (TCS) and a suite of enzymes to modify the peptidoglycan biosynthetic precursor lipid II and to eliminate the d‐Ala‐d‐Ala from the cell. Commingling of these regulatory and enzymatic activities with host functions has the potential to significantly impact host gene expression and cell wall metabolism. Here we report the effects of individually expressing the VanRBSB TCS and the VanYBWHBBXB resistance proteins in Bacillus subtilis. VanYBWHBBXB expression confers resistance to 2 µg ml−1 of vancomycin with concomitant reduced Van‐FL staining and leads to a cell division defect. In contrast to E. faecalis and S. aureus, VanSB is active in B. subtilis without vancomycin addition. Individual expression of the VanRBSB TCS and the VanYBWHBBXB resistance proteins repress and increase, respectively, expression of PhoPR regulon genes in the phosphate‐limited state. When vancomycin‐resistant cells are exposed to elevated vancomycin levels, mutant strains with increased resistance to vancomycin and a growth dependency on vanYBWHBBXB expression frequently arise. Mutation of the endogenous Ddl ligase is the necessary and sufficient cause of both phenotypes. We discuss how these effects may influence establishment of van operons in new host bacteria.
Endoscopic Evaluation of Upper and Lower Gastro-Intestinal Bleeding

Introduction: A myriad of pathologies lead to gastro-intestinal bleeding (GIB). The common clinical presentations are hematemesis, melena, and hematochezia. Endoscopy aids localization and treatment of these lesions. Aims: The aim was to study the differential diagnosis of GIB emphasizing the role of endoscopy in diagnosis and treatment of GIB. Patients and Methods: A prospective study of patients with GIB referred to the Endoscopy unit of two health facilities in Port Harcourt Nigeria from February 2012 to August 2014. The variables studied included: Demographics, clinical presentation, risk score, endoscopic findings, therapeutic procedure, and outcome. Data were collated and analyzed using SPSS version 20 software. Results: A total of 159 upper and lower gastro-intestinal (GI) endoscopies were performed during the study period with 59 cases of GI bleeding. There were 50 males and 9 females with an age range of 13-86 years (mean age 52.4 ΁ 20.6 years). The primary presentations were hematochezia, hematemesis, and melena in 44 (75%), 9 (15%), and 6 (10%) cases, respectively. Hemorrhoids were the leading cause of lower GIB seen in 15 cases (41%). The majority of pathologies in upper GIB were seen in the stomach (39%): Gastritis and benign gastric ulcer. Injection sclerotherapy was successfully performed in the hemorrhoids and a case of gastric varices. The mortality recorded was 0%. Conclusion: Endoscopy is vital in the diagnosis and treatment of GIB. Gastritis and Haemorrhoid are the most common causes of upper and lower GI bleeding respectively, in our environment
Radical Product Innovations in Smes: The Dominance of Entrepreneurial Orientation

The present study focuses on strategic factors underlying the adoption of radical product innovations in SMEs. It investigates whether market focus, technological posture and entrepreneurial orientation lead to the adoption of more radical product innovations. The study provides some new evidence on this issue drawing upon data collected from Greek SMEs in the food and beverages industry. More specifically, a logistic regression model is applied to analyse the choice between radical as against incremental product innovations. Empirical results appear to support the claim that it is mainly entrepreneurial orientation that favours the choice of radical product innovations. This suggests that in SMEs the notion of entrepreneurial-push outweighs both market-pull and technology-push arguments. The findings are discussed in the context of Greece, taking into account the specific conditions prevailing. Apart from providing some new evidence in the important area of SMEs, they have also important implications for managers and policy-makers. In addition, they encourage further theoretical and empirical investigation.
Exostoses and Cavernous Venous Formation in the External Auditory Canal of the Hooded Seal as a Functional Physiological Organ

Exostoses of the external auditory canal (EAC) develop after protracted mechanical, chemical or thermal irritation in particular. This is a common disorder among aquatic sportsmen and has been considered unique to Man. We dissected and photodocumented the EACs of 5 newborn and 3 adult Hooded Seals (Cystophora cristata). Serial sections of the EACs were prepared for light microscopic evaluation after staining with haematoxylin-eosin or toluidine blue. All EACs exhibited a firm, broad-based, mountain peak-shaped exostosis on the floor of the meatus, lateral to the eardrum. In addition, the meatal skin of the bony EAC harboured large venous sinuses. The exostosis and venous sinuses of the seal EAC participate in the protection of the sensitive hearing apparatus, particularly the pars tensa portion of the drum, during diving.
A Model of Consumer Inertia with Applications to Dynamic Pricing

This paper introduces a decision model of consumer inertia. Consumers exhibit inertia when they have an inherent bias to delay purchases. Inertia may induce consumers to wait even when it is optimal to buy immediately. We embed our decision model within a dynamic pricing context. There is a firm that sells a fixed capacity over two time periods to an uncertain number of both rational and inertial consumers. We find that consumer inertia has both positive and negative effects on profits: it decreases demand (in period one) but intensifies competition among consumers for the product (in period two). We show that our model of inertia is consistent with well‐established behavioral regularities, such as loss aversion and probability weighting in the sense of prospect theory, and hyperbolic time preferences. We offer practical recommendations for firms to influence the level of consumer inertia. These include offering returns policies (to mitigate potential consumer losses), providing decision aids (to avoid perception errors), and offering flexible payment options (to lower transaction costs).
Circular-shift linear network coding

We study a class of linear network coding (LNC) schemes, called circular-shift LNC, whose encoding operations at intermediate nodes consist of only circular-shifts and bitwise addition (XOR). Departing from existing literature, we systematically formulate circular-shift LNC as a special type of vector LNC, where the local encoding kernels of an L-dimensional circular-shift linear code of degree δ are summation of at most δ cyclic-permutation matrices of size L. Under this framework, an intrinsic connection between scalar LNC and circular-shift LNC is established. In consequence, for some block lengths L, an (L − 1, L)-fractional circular-shift linear solution of arbitrary degree δ can be efficiently constructed on a multicast network. With different δ, the constructed solution has an interesting encoding-decoding complexity tradeoff, and when δ = (L − 1)/2, it requires fewer binary operations for both encoding and decoding processes compared with scalar LNC. While the constructed (L − 1, L)-fractional solution has one-bit redundancy per edge transmission, we show that this is inevitable, and that circular-shift LNC is insufficient to achieve the exact capacity of multicast networks.
Learning across borders: the case of Danish local government

Purpose – This paper sets out to chart the transnational activities of Danish local government, with a specific view to examining the perceived relevance of these activities for public sector learning, innovation and development. More specifically, it probes into the degree to which Danish local government can be seen to have a global outlook and is actively participating in knowledge sharing and knowledge production across borders; and the nature of this engagement.Design/methodology/approach – Theoretically, the study draws on the literatures of public management, governance and globalization. Empirically, the paper is founded on a survey of the global orientation of the 79 largest Danish local authorities, and on a number of more detailed studies of selected local authorities conducted in 2003‐2004.Findings – The findings show that more than a third of the local authorities surveyed consider themselves very internationally active, even if a closer examination of the data suggests that the nature, inten.
A Long-Run Dynamic Analysis of FDI, Growth and Oil Export in GCC Countries: An Evidence from VECM Model

This study investigates a long-run dynamic relationship of GDP, crude oil export and FDI inflows in GCC countries; The United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar and Kuwait. The methodology adopted is based on Error Correction Model (VECM) which involves 195 stationary balanced observations over the period 2000-2010. Two major objectives were tested, which are; Impulse response function and Variance Decomposition method. The empirical analysis shows that a shock of FDI inflows will cause a parallel negative influence on the oil export and GDP. As well as FDI inflows are highly linked to GDP compared to oil export.
Nonlinear behaviour of emerging market bonds spreads: the Latin American case

In this article we check for nonlinear behaviour of the 10 most important Latin American emerging market bonds spreads. Applying the Hinich portmanteau bicorrelation test, the BDS test and the Engle LM test, we observe systematic nonlinear structure in the spreads series. Our results suggest that the nonlinear serial dependencies are episodic in nature. All the stock returns series (with the exception of Mexico) are characterized by few brief periods of highly significant nonlinearity, followed by long time periods in which the returns follow a pure noise process. Our findings support the idea that, even in this well informed and sophisticated market, the weak-form of the efficient market hypothesis cannot be supported.
Effects of self-efficacy on oral health behaviours and gingival health in university students aged 18- or 19-years-old.

AIM Although self-efficacy is known to affect various health-related practises, few studies have clearly examined how self-efficacy correlates with oral health behaviors or the oral health condition. We examined the relationship between gingivitis, oral health behaviors and self-efficacy in university students. MATERIAL & METHODS A total of 2,111 students (1,197 males, 914 females) aged 18 and 19 years were examined. The degree of gingivitis was expressed as the percentage of bleeding on probing (%BOP). Additional information was collected via a questionnaire regarding oral health behaviors (daily frequency of tooth-brushing, use of dental floss and regular check-up). Self-efficacy was assessed using the Self-Efficacy Scale for Self-care (SESS). Path analysis was used to test pathways from self-efficacy to oral health behaviors and %BOP. RESULTS In the final structural model, self-efficacies were related to each other, and they affected oral health behaviors. Good oral health behaviors reduced dental plaque and calculus, and lower levels of dental plaque and calculus resulted in lower %BOP. CONCLUSION Higher self-efficacy correlated with better oral health behaviours and gingival health in university students. Improving self-efficacy may be beneficial for maintaining good gingival health in university students. To prevent gingivitis, the approach of enhancing self-efficacy in university students would be useful.
Professionalisation, sport governance and strategic capability

Sport governance research is growing in volume and routinely highlights the tension between volunteers and paid professionals in relation to shared leadership, board motivations, and board structures and performance. Using governance as the lens through which progress is viewed, this paper demonstrates sport's transition from an amateur, volunteer-driven pastime to a more business-like sector. Empirically derived data, from a larger action research study examining the strategic capability of New Zealand national sport organisation boards, are integrated with prior research and theoretical developments to exemplify the state of sport governance theory and the sector generally. Outcomes from the review of sport governance research, combined with a selection of results from the study of strategic capability, highlight the challenges associated with volunteer board engagement, given the increasing demands for strategic thinking and action, while also balancing this task with the conformance, policy and operation roles.
Ecological Modernization Theory:What About Consumption?

This article takes a critical look at ecological modernization, particularly in regard to its strong “productivist” orientation. The empirical and conceptual focus of ecological modernization is the problematization of production—namely, how things are produced. The question then becomes: Is the problematization of production, in itself, sufficient to render the question of (over)consumption irrelevant? I argue that it is not; a resolution to our global ecological problems can only be found in the problematization of both production and consumption. In presenting this argument, I focus extensively on two salient claims espoused by ecological modernization: (1) the achievement of super- (eco) efficiencies through a program of more production, and (2) its “dematerialization thesis. ” This call for equal conceptual emphasis on both consumption and production presents ecological modernization with significant challenges: challenges that, if adequately addressed, will only further strengthen its prominence in the field.
Evidence suggesting that PrP is not the infectious agent in Creutzfeldt‐Jakob disease.

It has been suggested that the infectious agents of scrapie and Creutzfeldt‐Jakob disease (CJD) are ‘prions’ constituted by a protease resistant glycopeptide, PrP. To analyze the role of PrP in CJD infectivity we re‐evaluated the biochemical characteristics of infectivity. First, when the infectious agent is not aggregated, infectivity is exquisitely sensitive to proteinase K treatment, and therefore a proteinase‐K‐resistant molecule (e.g. PrP) is unlikely to contain information essential for agent replication. Second, removal of sugar residues from Gp34 (the major precursor of the proteolyzed PrP band) failed to reduce infectivity. Third, one‐half of the PrP peptides could be separated from significant infectivity using nondenaturing conditions with practical quantitative recovery of infectivity. These studies suggest that PrP in itself is unlikely to be the replicating component of the infectious agent. We suggest that these as yet undefined agents may consist of core protein and nucleic acid that are incompletely assembled in, and protected by, cell membranes. This hypothesis would explain the absence of conventional viral particles in these diseases, account for observed membrane pathology including altered behavior of endogenous membrane proteins, and would be consistent with the replication and transforming properties of CJD that indicate there is an agent specific nucleic acid.
Single-coil magnetic induction tomographic three-dimensional imaging

Abstract. Previously, magnetic induction tomography (MIT) has been considered for noncontact imaging of human tissue electrical properties. Commonly, multiple coils are used, with any one serving as the source while others detect eddy currents generated in the specimen. Here, imaging of low conductivity objects is shown feasible with a single coil acting simultaneously as source and detector, provided that the coil is repeatedly relocated while collecting coil loss data. To enable such “scanning,” an analytical coil loss formula is derived in the quasistatic limit for a single coil consisting of several concentric circular wire loops, all within a common plane. Conductivity may vary arbitrarily in space, whereas permittivity and permeability are treated as uniform. The analytical form is used to build an algorithm for imaging electrical conductivity in human tissues. A practical device operating at 12.5 MHz is described and used in a clinical trial that “scans” the region between the scapulae while collecting coil loss data. Inversion of data leads to electrical conductivity distribution images for the thoracic spinal column which are the first of their kind to correctly distinguish such basic features as size and depth of spinal canal, as well as size, depth, and spacing of transverse spinal processes.