Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Manager's careers in the context of organisational turbulence

This paper discusses industrial and organisational restructuring as the backdrop for changes to managers’ careers. Industrial restructuring has implications for the number and nature of managerial positions. There may be a redistribution of jobs to smaller organisations within the same industry, or to newer industries. Within organisations, restructuring is also occurring and widespread downsizing and delayering has been carried out in many western countries. There has been a consequent loss of white-collar and managerial positions, despite the fact that this restructuring generally fails to meet its objectives. There are several specific career consequences arising from organisational restructuring, including decreased promotion opportunities, lower perceived job security, and a raft of new expectations regarding managerial competencies. This paper addresses these changes, identifies new career competencies and provides some suggestions for how they can be developed.
The Dialogical Subject and its Multiple and Opposing Positions

The aim of our study is to describe how the voices of others constitute the dialogical subject: an individual who is not closed off from others, but is, rather, characterized by intersubjectivity and a plurality of positions in connection with those of others. Analysis of ten semi-structured interviews carried out on members of an association supporting the right of fathers to joint custody of children shows that interviewees employed a wide variety of voices – voices in support of shared custody, but also voices which opposed it. While they most often identified with and assumed voices in favor of joint custody, they also did so with voices expressing opposing positions. Our results belie the common expectation that individuals who are committed to a cause will not be open to the opinions of others, and are incapable of seeing the world from others’ points of view.
The immigrant labeling effect: The role of immigrant group labels in prejudice against noncitizens

Five experiments (N = 2,251) and a meta-analysis examine how group labels shape Americans’ levels of prejudice, behavioral intentions, and policy preferences toward immigrants living in the US without authorization. These studies extend research documenting how the perceived negativity of group labels (e.g., those describing gay people) affects people’s downstream attitudes. To this end, Study 1 examines the perceived negativity of the five most commonly used labels to describe unauthorized immigrants. Study 2 found that relatively negative (vs. neutral) labels (e.g., illegal aliens vs. noncitizens) engendered more prejudice, punitive behavioral intentions, and greater support for punitive policies. Study 3 replicates these effects and examines the role of familiarity. People who personally knew members of the group were more positive towards them overall, but were nevertheless susceptible to the labels’ influence. Studies 4 and 5 provide additional replications and explore prejudice as a mediator of behavioral intentions and policy preferences.
Neighbourhood NILM: A Big-data Approach to Household Energy Disaggregation

In this paper, we investigate whether "big-data" is more valuable than "precise" data for the problem of energy disaggregation: the process of breaking down aggregate energy usage on a per-appliance basis. Existing techniques for disaggregation rely on energy metering at a resolution of 1 minute or higher, but most power meters today only provide a reading once per month, and at most once every 15 minutes. In this paper, we propose a new technique called Neighbourhood NILM that leverages data from 'neighbouring' homes to disaggregate energy given only a single energy reading per month. The key intuition behind our approach is that 'similar' homes have 'similar' energy consumption on a per-appliance basis. Neighbourhood NILM matches every home with a set of 'neighbours' that have direct submetering infrastructure, i.e. power meters on individual circuits or loads. Many such homes already exist. Then, it estimates the appliance-level energy consumption of the target home to be the average of its K neighbours. We evaluate this approach using 25 homes and results show that our approach gives comparable or better disaggregation in comparison to state-of-the-art accuracy reported in the literature that depend on manual model training, high frequency power metering, or both. Results show that Neighbourhood NILM can achieve 83% and 79% accuracy disaggregating fridge and heating/cooling loads, compared to 74% and 73% for a technique called FHMM. Furthermore, it achieves up to 64% accuracy on washing machine, dryer, dishwasher, and lighting loads, which is higher than previously reported results. Many existing techniques are not able to disaggregate these loads at all. These results indicate a potentially substantial advantage to installing submetering infrastructure in a select few homes rather than installing new high-frequency smart metering infrastructure in all homes.
Protein structure prediction by threading. Why it works and why it does not.

We developed a novel Monte Carlo threading algorithm which allows gaps and insertions both in the template structure and threaded sequence. The algorithm is able to find the optimal sequence-structure alignment and sample suboptimal alignments. Using our algorithm we performed sequence-structure alignments for a number of examples for three protein folds (ubiquitin, immunoglobulin and globin) using both "ideal" set of potentials (optimized to provide the best Z-score for a given protein) and more realistic knowledge-based potentials. Two physically different scenarios emerged. If a template structure is similar to the native one (within 2 A RMS), then (i) the optimal threading alignment is correct and robust with respect to deviations of the potential from the "ideal" one; (ii) suboptimal alignments are very similar to the optimal one; (iii) as Monte Carlo temperature decreases a sharp cooperative transition to the optimal alignment is observed. In contrast, if the template structure is only moderately close to the native structure (RMS greater than 3.5 A), then (i) the optimal alignment changes dramatically when an "ideal" potential is substituted by the real one; (ii) the structures of suboptimal alignments are very different from the optimal one, reducing the reliability of the alignment; (iii) the transition to the apparently optimal alignment is non-cooperative. In the intermediate cases when the RMS between the template and the native conformations is in the range between 2 A and 3.5 A, the success of threading alignment may depend on the quality of potentials used. These results are rationalized in terms of a threading free energy landscape. Possible ways to overcome the fundamental limitations of threading are discussed briefly.
Term Limits, Seniority, and Government Spending: Theory and Evidence from the U.S. States ⁄

What is a fiscal consequence of legislative term limits? We develop a legislative bargaining model that predicts a u-shaped relationship between the level of seniority within a legislature and government spending. The size of government spending decreases as the level of seniorityincreasesfromlowtomoderate,whileitincreasesasthelevelofseniorityincreases from moderate to high. The model also predicts that the equilibrium level of seniority is moderate. Building on these predictions, we hypothesize that the adoption of term limits resulting in a small reduction of seniority has little impact on government expenditures because the level of seniority remains to be moderate. In contrast, the adoption of term limits that dramatically reduces the level of seniority will increase the size of government spending because the level of seniority changes from moderate to low. We test these hypotheses drawn from the model using the panel data of the American states between 1980 and 2004.
Stagewise Weak Gradient Pursuits Part I : Fundamentals and Numerical Studies

Finding sparse solutions to underdetermined inverse problems is a fundamental challenge encountered in a wide ra nge of signal processing applications, from signal acquisitio n to source separation. Recent theoretical advances in our understand ing of this problem have further increased interest in their application to various domains. In many areas, such as for example medica l imaging or geophysical data acquisition, it is necessary tofind sparse solutions to very large underdetermined inverse pro blems. Fast methods have therefore to be developed. In this paper, we promote a greedy approach. In each iteration, several new elements are selected. The selected coefficient s are then updated using a conjugate update direction. This is an e xtension of the previously suggested Gradient Pursuit frame work to allow an even greedier selection strategy. A large set of numerical experiments, using artificial and real world data, demonstrate the performance of the method. It is found that the approach performs consistently better than other fast greedy approaches, such as Regularised Orthogon al Matching Pursuit and Stagewise Orthogonal Matching Pursui t and is competitive with other fast approaches, such as those based onl1 minimisation. It is also shown to have the unique property to allow a smooth trade-off between signal sparsit y (or observation dimension) and computational complexity. Theoretical properties of the method are studied in a compan ion paper [2].
Overweight, physical activity and high blood pressure in children: a review of the literature

Obesity is a growing problem in developed countries and is likely a major cause of the increased prevalence of high blood pressure in children. The aim of this review is to provide clinicians and clinical scientists with an overview of the current state of the literature describing the negative influence of obesity on blood pressure and it’s determinants in children. In short, we discuss the array of vascular abnormalities seen in overweight children and adolescents, including endothelial dysfunction, arterial stiffening and insulin resistance. We also discuss the potential role of an increased activation of the sympathetic nervous system in the development of high blood pressure and vascular dysfunction associated with obesity. As there is little consensus regarding the methods to prevent or treat high blood pressure in children, we also provide a summary of the evidence supporting relationship between physical activity and blood pressure in children and adolescents. After reviewing a number of physical activity intervention studies performed in children, it appears as though 40 minutes of moderate to vigorous aerobic-based physical activity 3–5 days/week is required to improve vascular function and reduce blood pressure in obese children. Future studies should focus on describing the influence of physical activity on blood pressure control in overweight children.
Ju n 20 01 QUANTUM COSMOLOGICAL PERFECT FLUID MODELS

Perfect fluid Friedmann-Robertson-Walker quantum cosmological models for an arbitrary barotropic equation of state p = αρ are constructed using Schutz’s variational formalism. In this approach the notion of time can be recovered. By superposition of stationary states, finite-norm wave-packet solutions to the Wheeler-DeWitt equation are found. The behaviour of the scale factor is studied by applying the many-worlds and the ontological interpretations of quantum mechanics. Singularityfree models are obtained for α < 1. Accelerated expansion at present requires −1/3 > α > −1. If α > 1 then the norm of the evolving wave function becomes infinite. Remarkably, however, the de Broglie-Bohm interpretation makes sense in the latter case and predicts a Universe with an initial and a final singularity. PACS number(s): 04.20. Cv. , 04.20. Me
Local governance, governmental practices, and the production of policy: local strategic partnerships and area-based 'multiple deprivation' in County Durham

This thesis investigates the following research question: what policy effects are produced through Local Strategic Partnerships (LSPs) and how are they produced? LSPs are a body made up of a formalized membership consisting of a range of organizations operating at the local level, including those from the public, private, voluntary, and 'community' sectors. Introduced by the New Labour government in 2000, they are a non-executive, non-statutory organizational framework existing in local authority areas across England. The question is addressed using an ethnographic approach, employing interviews and participant observation, and this is combined with a case study research strategy focusing on the districts of Chester-le-Street and Derwentside in County Durham. These are areas that suffer from problems of social exclusion due to the repercussions of deindustrialization. I am interested in particular in the role LSPs play in addressing problems of social exclusion. The research focuses on what the policy effects of LSPs mean for conditions of social exclusion. LSPs are an important institution designed to address such problems. The concept of 'policy effects' attends to the generation of governmental objects and the active making of 'policy'. The thesis offers valuable empirical insights into the effects of a local partnership organization. It is argued that while both a governance networks' perspective and relational and crisis-theoretic approaches to state theory provide a useful framework for understanding changing institutions and processes of governance, they do not sufficiently aid an understanding of policy effects. I move beyond a conceptual emphasis upon issues of 'institutional design' and attend to the question of policy effects through a consideration of the practices of 'institutional enactment' which LSPs involve. This is a perspective informed by post-Foucauldian governmentality ideas and ideas of the state' as a set of practices. Analysis critically examines the interplay between the institutional design of LSPs and the institutional enactment of LSPs in the production of policy effects.
Dendritic Generation of mGluR-Mediated Slow Afterdepolarization in Layer 5 Neurons of Prefrontal Cortex

Many prefrontal cortex (PFC)-dependent tasks require individual neurons to fire persistently in response to brief stimuli. Persistent activity is proposed to involve changes in intrinsic properties, resulting in an increased sensitivity to inputs. The dendrite is particularly relevant to this hypothesis because it receives the majority of synaptic inputs and is enriched for conductances implicated in persistent firing. We provide evidence that dendritic conductances contribute to persistent activity-related changes in intrinsic properties. The effects of Group 1 metabotropic glutamate receptor (mGluR) activation on persistent activity-related properties were tested in two classes of rat L5 neurons with distinct membrane properties: those projecting to the pons (CPn) and those projecting across the commissure to the contralateral cortex (COM). mGluR activation produced long-term changes in the subthreshold properties of CPn, but not COM neurons. These changes were indicative of a decrease in hyperpolarization-activated cation nonselective current (Ih) at the soma and dendrite. mGluR activation also transiently increased the amplitude of the postburst slow afterdepolarization potential (sADP) at the soma of both neuron types. Interestingly, the sADP occurred along the extent of the apical dendrite in CPn and COM neurons. Simultaneous somatic/dendritic recordings revealed that the dendritic sADP does not result solely from passive propagation of the somatic sADP. Focal mGluR activation in L5, near the soma or at the border of L1/L2, near the tuft, generates a local sADP. This dendritic depolarization may act synergistically with synaptic input to regulate mnemonic activity in PFC.
INFLUENCE OF ADRENAL CORTEX ON BODY WATER DISTRIBUTION IN RATS.

Body water distribution was determined in rats by the dilution of serum albumin-I 131 and Br 82 and by desiccation. Methylprednisolone (MP) increased the plasma and intracellular compartments and decreased the interstitial volume in intact hydrated rats. The body water moved in the opposite direction in the adrenalectomized, salt-maintained rats, and MP prevented this movement in terms of intracellular and interstitial volumes. Adrenalectomized rats which were salt depleted had an increased intracellular volume with water coming from both extracellular compartments, and MP had no effect in this group. The effect of deoxycorticosterone acetate was to increase plasma volume in the intact hydrated and in both adrenalectomized groups. The relationship between these changes in body water distribution, hematocrit, and plasma osmolality and sodium concentrations has been discussed.
Common-Frame Model for Object Recognition

A generative probabilistic model for objects in images is presented. An object is composed of a constellation of features. Feature appearance and pose are modeled probabilistically. Scene images are generated by drawing a small subset of objects with corresponding pose from a given database, with random clutter sprinkled on the remaining image surface. Occlusion is allowed. The models we describe and study are common-frame models, i.e. the appearance and position of an object’s features in the image are independent once the pose of the object is specified. Moreover, all features in all models share the same probabilistic description of appearance and pose distortions with respect to their fiducial appearance and position within an object’s frame. This is to be contrasted with previous work on probabilistic ‘constellation’ models where feature poses depend on each other and each feature and model have different pose and appearance statistics [16, 6]. These two differences allow us to build object models containing hundreds of features, rather than a handful, as well as to train each model from a single example. Our model may also be thought of as a probabilistic revisitation of Lowe’s model [8, 10]. We apply our model to the recognition of objects in images. We derive expressions for evaluating the likelihood of the hypothesis that a given object is present in the image with a given pose. We propose an efficient incremental algorithm for recognizing one object out of many based on maximizing this likelihood over all objects and poses. We test our ideas with experiments on two image databases. We compare with Lowe’s algorithm and demonstrate significantly better performance, in particular when the training and test images contain large amounts of background clutter.
A Role for Kisspeptins in the Regulation of Gonadotropin Secretion in the Mouse Materials and Methods Animals and Chemicals

Kisspeptins are products of the KiSS-1 gene, which bind to a G protein-coupled receptor known as GPR54. Mutations or targeted disruptions in the GPR54 gene cause hypogonado-tropic hypogonadism in humans and mice, suggesting that kisspeptin signaling may be important for the regulation of gonadotropin secretion. To examine the effects of kisspep-tin-54 (metastin) and kisspeptin-10 (the biologically active C-terminal decapeptide) on gonadotropin secretion in the mouse, we administered the kisspeptins directly into the lateral cerebral ventricle of the brain and demonstrated that both peptides stimulate LH secretion. Further characterization of kisspeptin-54 demonstrated that it stimulated both LH and FSH secretion, at doses as low as 1 fmol; moreover, this effect was shown to be blocked by pretreatment with acyline, a potent GnRH antagonist. To learn more about the functional anatomy of kisspeptins, we mapped the distribution of KiSS-1 mRNA in the hypothalamus. We observed that KiSS-1 mRNA is expressed in areas of the hypothalamus implicated in the neuroendocrine regulation of gonadotropin secretion, including the anteroventral periventricular nucleus, the periven-tricular nucleus, and the arcuate nucleus. We conclude that kisspeptin-GPR54 signaling may be part of the hypothalamic circuitry that governs the hypothalamic secretion of GnRH. I N 1999, LEE AND COLLEAGUES (1) discovered a novel G protein-coupled receptor in the rat termed GPR54. The GPR54 gene encodes a G protein-coupled receptor that shares a modest sequence homology with two of the known galanin receptors (1); however, galanin does not bind to GPR54 in vitro (1). Instead, GPR54 has been shown to mediate the actions of a unique family of ligands known as kisspep-tins, which are derived from the KiSS-1 gene. The KiSS-1 gene encodes a 145-amino acid peptide that is cleaved into an amidated C-terminal 54 amino acid product, known as either kisspeptin-54 or metastin, which is thought to be an endog-enous ligand for GPR54 (2– 4). Shorter fragments of kisspep-tin-54 (e.g. kisspeptin-14, kisspeptin-13, and kisspeptin-10) also bind to GPR54 (2– 4). Kisspeptin-54 was characterized, and named metastin, based on its ability to hinder tumor metastasis (2–5), but recent evidence suggests that kisspep-tins and GPR54 may also play an important role in the neu-roendocrine regulation of reproduction. Signaling through GPR54 is essential for pubertal matu-ration of the reproductive system. Humans and mice having either dysfunctional or deletional mutations in GPR54 fail to undergo normal pubertal development as a result of hy-pogonadotropic hypogonadism (6 – 8). Although the precise anatomical distribution of KiSS-1 and …
Evaluation of Exchange-Rate and Capital – Market Liberalization Regimes in the Presence of Sudden Stops

The paper challenges two established puzzles in the international macroeconomics. The first puzzle is the failure of the literature to find any systematic difference in the macroeconomic process across exchange rate regimes. The second is the absence of any empirical relation between macroeconomic performance and capital-account liberalization. We attribute the failure of the literature to address these puzzles to a fundamental flaw. We attribute the failure of the literature to a fundamental flaw of ignoring the probability of sudden stops. We develop a methodology consisting of accounting for a latent continuous variable indicating a crisis-prone state of the economy. The latent variable is summarized by a projected probability of a crisis due to sudden stops in international capital inflows. We apply the new methodology to a cross-country panel of 100 low and middle-income countries over three decades. Findings indicate that the effects of exchange rate regimes and liberalization regimes on macroeconomic performance go through two distinct channels: a direct channel that is captured in the traditional growth equation, and an indirect channel which influences growth through the probability of sudden stops. We further analyze how the projected probability of sudden stops affects the level of dollarization, and provide estimates for the effect of dollarization on growth. 1 We acknowledge useful discussions on the topics of the paper with Marianne Baxter, Giancarlo Corsetti, Alex Cukierman, Allan Drazen, Alejandro Izquierdo, Paul Mc Nelis, Gian Maria Milesi-Ferretti, Ady Pauzner, Dan Trefler, Chetan Subramanian, and we thank two referees for insightful comments. We are indebted to Gian Maria Milesi-Ferretti, Carmen Reinhart, Federico Sturzenegger, and Romain Ranciere, for providing us with various data sets. We also thank Yaniv Yedid Levy for competent research assistance.