Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The social field of the European corporate elite: a network analysis of interlocking directorates among Europe's largest corporate boards

In this article I investigate the emerging patterns of the European corporate elite network as an example of a European social field, as described by Fligstein. The findings confirm that interlocking directorates form a European corporate network. However, the intercorporate network rests on a very small group of European corporate elite members: it remains the playground of a select few pan-European ‘big linkers’. Although financial institutions and bankers appear in the upper echelons of the network, they do not occupy crucial positions. Rather, (former) CEOs of Europe's largest big non-financial businesses knit together the network of interlocking directorates. The network rests on a coalescence of finance and industry, rather than on the dominance of the one over the other. Although the project of European unification has been quite successful in organizing the formal institutional structures, it has not yet led to reproduction of a European business community reminiscent of the national communities.
Consumer Decision Components for Medical Tourism: A Stakeholder Approach

In this paper we discuss the demand triggers and the components of consumer decision making to undertake medical tourism i.e. travel to a foreign destination for the purpose of availing medical treatment and also engaging in a vacation experience. We develop a model that describes the macro facilitating factors, the pre-decision propensities, and the role of the different entities involved in the tourism experience that impact the travel decision from a stakeholder perspective. Our conceptual model provides several propositions for empirical testing as well as directions for future research on medical tourism, a rich context for tourism scholars.
What Caused the Current Financial Mess and What Can We Do about It?

In our view, the financial crisis was largely due to wrong incentives affecting the behavior of financial institutions and investors that was set in motion by our government’s reluctance to let large financial institutions fail – i.e., the Too Big to Fail (hereafter, TBTF) policy. Also importantly, bank regulation became essentially ineffective due to the rise of “quasi-banks,” that is, large financial intermediaries that perform banking functions but are not chartered or regulated as banks. In order to prevent the recurrence of such a mess, we argue, the government must identify the quasi-banks and regulate them as banks. It must also credibly convince investors that the TBTF policy is a thing of the past. For that to happen, we call for two major changes in the current structure of financial supervision in the US.
Factors associated with acceptability of circumcision among male drug users in western China: a cross-sectional study

This study is aimed to investigate whether male circumcision (MC) is feasible among IDUs in China. 1304 drug users who attended methadone maintenance therapy clinics in Guangxi, Chongqing and Xinjiang were selected for participation by using convenience sampling, and completed a self-administered questionnaire. The factors associated with the acceptability of MC were examined via multiple logistic regression models. 45.2% (589/1304) of the participants reported an acceptance of MC. Many of the participants who were initially not willing to accept MC (715/1304) had changed their mind when they were informed that MC would reduce the risk of HIV and STDs (43.4%; 310/715), that MC is associated with few surgery-related complications (23.1%; 165/715), that the surgical procedure could be arranged free of charge (20.1%, 144/715). In the multivariate analysis, higher acceptability of MC was associated with knowledge of the hazards of phimosis (OR=2.22), the presence of phimosis (OR=14.87), and knowledge that MC can prevent AIDS and STDs (OR=1.49); while lower acceptability was associated with residing in Chongqing province (OR=0.41) and an educational level of junior (OR=0.64) and senior high (OR=0.63) school. The MC policy targeting IDUs in China should take into account these factors associated with MC acceptability.
Can New Urbanism Encourage Physical Activity?: Comparing a New Urbanist Neighborhood with Conventional Suburbs

Abstract If neighborhood design can support or undermine active lifestyles, then residents of new urbanist neighborhoods can be expected to exhibit higher levels of physical activity than residents of conventional communities. This study compared various measures of physical activity for residents of a new urbanist neighborhood to those for a group of conventional suburban neighborhoods in central North Carolina, finding no statistically significant differences, even after adjusting for individual and household characteristics. However, we did detect differences in where people were physically active. Residents of the new urbanist neighborhood were more likely to be physically active in their neighborhood than were residents of conventional suburbs. This difference was due to their walking more for utilitarian purposes, as distinct from walking for leisure. Despite the limitations of a quasi-experimental research design, our results raise questions regarding new urbanism's ability to raise residents' overall levels of physical activity.
The International Marketing Environment

Abstract The article analyzes the content of 18 international marketing academic textbooks with regard to factors comprising the global marketing environment. Three broad categories of factors are identified, the macro (i.e., physical, demographic, and socio-cultural), meso (i.e., economic, political-legal, and technological), andmicro (i.e., intermediaries, competitors, market, and customers). In each of the subcategories, 10 different factors affecting global marketing were extracted. By measuring the extent of coverage given to each factor in each textbook, the relative emphasis placed collectively was established. These results were subsequently compared and contrasted to the views of 71 academics teaching international marketing; revealing the existence of gaps between the importance attached to most of the elements comprising the international marketing environment, and the coverage provided in academic textbooks.
Transferring Organizational Learning Systems to Japanese Subsidiaries in China

Qualitative interviews and observations were conducted to study the cross-border transfer of organizational learning systems to the subsidiaries of five Japanese manufacturing companies operating in South China. This paper develops a holistic model of the overall process, by integrating knowledge-oriented, routine-oriented, and social/contextual perspectives, each of which plays a necessary role in explaining essential aspects. One feature of the transfer of organizational learning systems entailed arranging local access to, and opportunity to replicate, various types of knowledge repository that contained corporate values as well as technical expertise. A second feature involved the development of collective learning routines through dynamic interplay with evolving, locally based, knowledge repositories. A third feature, in two companies, entailed the creation of enterprise contexts that reproduced the socialization and corporate culture maintenance rituals, and the open plan factory and office designs, that were hallmarks of the respective parent companies, and which appeared highly conducive to the transfer of collective learning routines to the local sites. Findings indicate that successful cross-border transfer of organizational learning systems entails the development and implementation of an overall heuristic design for cultivating collective learning routines through the engineering of enterprise contexts and the responsive management of knowledge repositories.
Intellectual Capital and the Capital Market: A Review and Synthesis

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to review and synthesise current knowledge on the importance of intellectual capital (IC) information to the capital market.Design/methodology/approach – The paper is by way of literature review. It reviews the empirical research literature from different methodological strands and synthesises the findings to provide evidence on the impact/importance/usefulness of IC from a capital markets perspective.Findings – Importance of IC information has been examined using various research methods including capital markets research, questionnaire surveys, face‐to‐face interviews, experimentations, verbal protocol analysis and content analysis of analyst reports. These studies provide evidence on the usefulness/importance of many types of IC information. Also, evidence from IC disclosure studies on initial public offering prospectuses sheds light on perceived importance of types of IC information to the capital market. However, there is a scope for more research to refine the .
The Classical Complement Pathway Is Required to Control Borrelia burgdorferi Levels During Experimental Infection

Activation of the classical complement pathway occurs to varying degrees within strains of the Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato complex, which contain a group of pathogenic spirochetes that cause tick-borne Lyme borreliosis, including the agent of Lyme disease in the United States, B. burgdorferi. Despite this information, details related to the control of B. burgdorferi by the classical pathway are not clear. To address this question, we infected C1qα−/− mice, which cannot assemble the C1 complex and thus fail to activate the classical pathway, with B. burgdorferi sensu stricto strain B31. Using bioluminescent in vivo imaging, we found that C1qα−/− mice harbored more B. burgdorferi following 10 days of infection relative to their isogenic C57BL/6 parent. Quantitative PCR (qPCR) demonstrated that C1qα−/− mice harbored significantly more B. burgdorferi than parent mice did within lymph nodes, skin, heart, and joints. The increased B. burgdorferi load in C1qα−/− mice was observed at 21 and 28 days of infection, consistent with the classical pathway promoting complement-dependent, antibody-mediated killing following the development of a B. burgdorferi-specific humoral immune response. In addition, circulating borrelial-specific IgM was higher in C1qα−/− mice relative to their parent mouse strain and did not decrease at 21 and 28 days post-infection, indicating that IgG class switching was delayed in C1qα−/− mice. At day 28, both Borrelia-specific IgG1 and IgG3 levels were higher in infected C1qα−/− mice, but that these antibodies were not sufficient to control borrelial infection in the absence of the classical pathway. Furthermore, the lack of C1q also altered the balance of the Th1/Th2 response, as both circulating Th1 (MIP-1α, IL-2, IL-12, and TNFα), Th2 (IL-4, IL-10, and MCP-1), and Th17 (IL-17) cytokines were elevated in infected C1qα−/− mice. These data imply that C1q and the classical pathway play important roles in controlling borrelial infection via antibody and complement-dependent killing, as well as altering both antibody maturation processes and the T cell response following exposure to infectious B. burgdorferi.
Are the Direct and Indirect Growth Effects of Remittances Significant?

Development economists believe that migrant workers’ remittances are an important source of funds for long run growth. Therefore, recent studies have investigated the growth effects of remittances and reached different conclusions. In many such studies the growth of output is simply regressed on both remittances and the channels through which remittances affect growth. Thus there is no distinction between the indirect and direct growth effects of remittances and such specifications may give unreliable estimates because of the correlation between the channels and remittances. In this paper we make a distinction between the indirect and direct effects of remittances. Our model is estimated with panel data of 40 high remittance recipient countries and a system GMM panel data estimation method.
Pricing-to-market in NSW rice export markets {

The Ricegrowers’ Cooperative Limited is a single‐desk seller of NSW Japonica rice on the export market. Confidential monthly price data supplied by the Cooperative were used to examine ‘pricing‐to‐market’ in four of its major export markets. The hypothesis of a competitive market was rejected. The Cooperative has been able to vary mark‐ups over different markets and with respect to the importer’s currency in each market. The exchange rate results in particular suggest that the Cooperative has been able to exercise market power to obtain price premiums.
Old Paradigms in History Die Hard in Political Science: US Foreign Policy and American Exceptionalism

Most writers agree that domestic ideas about what kind of country the United States is affect its foreign policy. In the United States, this predominant idea is American exceptionalism, which in turn is used to explain US foreign policy traditions over time. This article argues that the predominant definition of American exceptionalism, and the way it is used to explain US foreign policy in political science, relies on outdated scholarship within history. It betrays a largely superficial understanding of American exceptionalism as an American identity. This article aims to clarify the definition of American exceptionalism, arguing that it should be retained as a definition of American identity. Furthermore, it couples American exceptionalism and US foreign policy differently than what is found in most political science literature. It concludes that American exceptionalism is a useful tool in understanding US foreign policy, if properly defined.
National Parliaments and the Eurozone Crisis: Taking Ownership in Difficult Times?

The eurozone crisis suggests a significant reinforcement of executive dominance in EU policy-making. Opaque emergency decisions taken at European summits as well as treaties established outside of the EU legal framework facilitate the side-lining of democratically elected chambers. This development entails the risk of a new wave of de-parliamentarisation in EU policy-making. An effective scrutiny of crisis management by national parliaments is, however, indispensable for taking national ownership of the reforms in the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU). This paper investigates national parliaments’ involvement in the development of instruments to combat the crisis. Based on a quantitative dataset of crisis-related parliamentary activities in 2010–2012, the article observes a very uneven engagement in the scrutiny of crisis management. Institutional prerogatives in EU affairs as well as macro-economic factors can partly explain the observed variation. Surprisingly, however, crisis-related parliamentary activity is not a reaction to Eurosceptic attitudes either in parliament or among the public.
Work Organization, Technology, and Performance in Customer Service and Sales

The author analyzes the strengths and weaknesses of Total Quality Management and Self-Managed Teams, as compared to mass production approaches to service delivery, among customer service and sales workers in a large unionized regional Bell operating company. Participation in self-managed teams was associated with a statistically significant improvement in self-reported service quality and a 9.3% increase in sales per employee. When combined with new technology, teams boosted sales an additional 17.4%. These effects persisted over time. Total Quality Management, by contrast, did not affect performance. This study represents a “strong test” of the efficacy of teams because theory predicts weak outcomes for self-managed teams among service and sales employees in establishments where technology and organizational structure limit opportunities for self-regulation, the nature of work and technology do not require interdependence, and downsizing creates pervasive job insecurity—conditions found at the company studied here.
First Year Teacher Education Candidates: What Are Their Perceptions about Multicultural Education?.

The racial difference between the demographic profiles of most public school teachers and their students in primarily poor and urban areas elicits great concern. The concern emanates from the differences between the cultural values and attitudes held by some White female teachers and their poor minority students, particularly African American students. There is ample reason for such concern, as numerous investigations of interaction patterns between White teachers and poor, minority students have often indicated negative outcomes for both teachers and especially for the students. For example, Mark and Terrill (2000) found White teachers who lacked exposure to African American culture were prone to negatively characterize African American students—reported characterizations included terms such as lackadaisical, violent, and unmotivated. These same students, however, when described by African American teachers emerged as cooperative and free loving. Such discrepancies between teacher perceptions strongly suggest teachers are more likely to hold positive attitudes toward students who are culturally and ethnically like themselves, since they can more readily relate to their culture (Mark & Terrill, 2000). Perceiving students as lazy and unmotivated presupposes the students are not likely to want to learn and, therefore, will not put forth an effort to learn. Several researchers (Jussim, 1986, 1991; Rist, 1970) found that teachers judged children from higher socio-economic status (SES) more favorably than children lower SES, even when student performance was similar. Yet lower SES is too often a reality for many minority students who comprise the majority of the nation’s urban school population. Such findings illustrate the existence of teacher perceptions and demonstrates the potential for teachers to act based on their perceptions. The characterization of students as violent leads to speculation that White teachers may actually fear African American students. Delpit (2006) offers some support for this speculation when she relates the observations of a twelve-yearold friend who concisely categorized the teachers in his middle school:
Micronutrients for Sustainable Food, Feed, Fibre and Bioenergy Production

This book is written for practitioners and stakeholders in the fertiliser industry and for policy makers whose decisions may impact on the use of micronutrients in agriculture, horticulture and forestry. The aim of the book is to explain the growing importance of micronutrients in balanced fertilisation, to consider the micronutrient fertiliser types that are currently available and how to best use them, to assess the current market and prospects for micronutrient fertilisers, and to discuss the policy, regulatory and quality control framework needed to maximize the benefits from using micronutrient fertilisers.
Public sector benchmarking: a survey of scientific articles, 1990—2005

This article assesses the past 15 years' evolution of Public Sector Benchmarking (PSB) research. We do so with a database of 147 peer-reviewed articles published between 1990 and 2005. Over this period PSB evolved into a mature and strongly international field of research. A theoretical and conceptual rift runs through the literature, with those advocating PSB as a tool for managed competition on one side, and those promoting benchmarking as a voluntary and collaborative learning process on the other. A first challenge facing future PSB researchers is that of closing the gap between the managed and voluntary benchmarking perspectives; a second challenge concerns empirical tests that capture the effects of different benchmarking regimes on the performance of public sector providers. Points for practitioners Benchmarking is widely advocated as a tool for enhancing the performance of public sector providers. This article reviews the academic literature on benchmarking. This literature suggests that public sector benchmarking can fulfill its promise if only policy-makers pay sufficient attention to benchmarking design, particularly the development of appropriate accounting systems and the balancing of collaborative and competitive elements. Dos and don'ts for PSB innovators are discussed in the concluding section. An extensive reference list is appended to the article.
Advertising, Sunk Costs, and Barriers to Entry

This paper tests hypotheses about the entry-deterring effects of advertising. The model isolates three separate effects of advertising on entry: the effect on the irrecoverable costs of entry, the effect on the uncertainty underlying the entry environment, and the effect on the measured rates of profit. We find that advertising impedes entry since necessary advertising expenditures give rise to a sunk cost which raises the risk of entry. However, we also find a countervailing force due to advertising, in that the entrant perceives a greater likelihood of success in markets where advertising is important. Our analysis shows that the overall impact of advertising on entry is positive.
Inherited Prion Diseases and Transmission to Rodents

Clinico‐pathological phenotypes of patients with prion diseases were compared with their PrP genotyes and transmission rate to mice. Sporadic and iatrogenic CJD patients without mutation and familial CJD patients with E200K showed uniform clinico‐pathological features, synaptic‐type deposition of PrPCJD and high rate of transmission of the disease to mice. GSS patients with P102L showed long duration of ataxia, numerous plaques in cerebellar cortex and transmitted the disease to mice in only one third of inoculated cases. Other mutations such as P105L, A117V, Y145stop, V180I, M232R and various insertions have particular phenotypes, distinct distribution patterns of PrPCJD, and untransmitted or inconclusive transmission to mice. Polymorphism at codon 129 may modify the phenotypes and transmission rate to mice. Therefore, prion diseases have a wide range from infectious disease to non‐infectious, hereditary metabolic disease.
Cytology of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma variants

The most common diagnosis rendered with head and neck fine needle aspiration (FNA) biopsy is metastatic squamous cell carcinoma (SCC). While most cases of metastatic SCC pose little diagnostic difficulty, the diagnosis of metastatic histologic variants of SCC, often coupled with less common etiologies, can be more problematic. This manuscript reviews the clinicopathologic features of the histologic variants of upper aerodigestive tract SCC (verrucous, papillary, spindle cell, undifferentiated, acantholytic, and basaloid) and uncommon etiologies of head and neck SCC (human papillomavirus, Epstein‐Barr Virus, and NUT midline carcinomas). Particular attention is paid to the cytologic features of these lesions. Differential diagnoses and the use of ancillary testing are discussed. Diagn. Cytopathol. 2010. © 2009 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Permanent and Transitory Dynamics in House Prices and Consumption: Cross-Country Evidence

In this paper a small-scale macroeconomic system is estimated in the framework of a common trends model, in order to explore the dynamic interactions between real house prices, consumption expenditure and output in the US and major European economies. The results point to important differences across countries, with long-run house price effects on consumption only for France, Germany and the US. However, some interactions between house prices and consumption are detected in all countries at shorter horizons. Evidence of international comovements in the common trend component of house price dynamics is also found.