Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Innovation Offshoring and Asia's Electronics Industry - The New Dynamics of Global Networks

This paper explores how innovation offshoring gives rise to Global Innovation Networks (GINs) in the electronics industry. The focus is on chip design. The paper documents the scope of offshoring and the progress achieved in the complexity of design stages and in capability upgrading in Asia. The paper explores the forces that are responsible for the organisational and geographical mobility of innovation within GINs emphasising their systemic nature. The paper argues that innovation offshoring is likely to accelerate Asia's transformation from the 'global factory' model to 'upgrading through innovation'. But massive challenges must be mastered before Asia's leading electronics exporting countries can exploit these opportunities. Such challenges result from the very demanding requirements that locations need to fulfil in order to qualify for R&D investments by Transnational Corporations (TNCs).
Executive Incentive Compensation Schemes and Their Impact on Corporate Performance: Evidence from New Zealand Since Legal Disclosure Requirements Became Effective

For many years, executive compensation has been regarded as an internal mechanism to alleviate the agency problems between executives and shareholders. Using a sample of 73 New Zealand listed companies (1994-1998), this paper examines the current state of executive compensation in New Zealand and the relationship between executive incentive compensation and firm performance. The empirical results concerning the relationship between executive compensation and corporate performance indicate that company size and business risk are important factors affecting executive compensation level. The results also show that neither compensation level nor the adoption of an incentive compensation scheme (ICS) are significantly related to corporate performance. However, the relationship between Tobin's q and executive share ownership is found to be strong and statistically significant, while the relationship is found to be insignificant when ROE and ROA are used as a proxy for corporate performance. These negative results suggest that the design of the executive compensation contract has not yet contributed to the reduction of agency costs for companies in New Zealand.
Changes in Students’ Social Justice and Racial Attitudes in an Undergraduate Child Psychology Service-Learning Course

This study examines changes in students’ perceptions of the existence of White privilege and racism and their personal social justice commitment during the course of a semester. Participants included 93 Caucasian undergraduates enrolled in a course in child development that had a required service-learning component. Outcomes are examined using pencil-and-paper pre- and post-test assessments and web-based end-of-course evaluations. Results showed consistent gains in students’ perceptions of the importance that society takes steps to care for persons who are disadvantaged and that society takes greater action to improve the education of urban children placed at risk. Pre- to post-test gains in students’ awareness of White privilege and the existence of racism and their commitment to social justice were also noted. Findings are discussed in light of the kinds of reflection activities in which students participated during and outside of class time.
The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism

Around the world in Britain, the United States, Asia and the Middle East, there are people with power who are cashing in on chaos; exploiting bloodshed and catastrophe to brutally remake our world in their image. They are the shock doctors. Exposing these global profiteers, Naomi Klein discovered information and connections that shocked even her about how comprehensively the shock doctors' beliefs now dominate our world - and how this domination has been achieved. Raking in billions out of the tsunami, plundering Russia, exploiting Iraq - this is the chilling tale of how a few are making a killing while more are getting killed. "Packed with thinking dynamite.a book to be read everywhere. " (John Berger). "If you only read one non-fiction book this year, make it this one. " (Metro Books of the Year). "There are a few books that really help us understand the present. The Shock Doctrine is one of those books. " (John Gray, Guardian). "A brilliant book written with a perfectly distilled anger, channelled through hard fact. She has indeed surpassed No Logo. " (Independent).
An empirical investigation of factors affecting small business success

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to develop a mediational model of small businesses success. In this paper, the authors investigate how the human, social, and financial capital of entrepreneurs influences the capacity of small business to succeed. The objective through this model is to demonstrate that it is through the process of innovation these capitals are converted into success. Design/methodology/approach – The paper suggests an original, conceptual framework for how small businesses can succeed. Findings – To validate this mediational model, the authors used the conditions/steps proposed by Baron and Kenny (1986). Research limitations/implications – The results of this study have implications for both research and practice. This study provides a new contribution to the existing literature by introducing the innovation in the explanation of the links between these capitals and small business success, i.e. business with greater access to human and financial resources are more likely to undertak.
Self-enforcing international environmental agreements with a stock pollutant

Abstract.In this paper the stability of an International Environmental Agreement (IEA) among N identical countries that emit a pollutant are studied using a two-stage game. In the first stage each country decides noncooperatively whether or not to join an IEA, and in the second stage signatories jointly against nonsignatories determine their emissions in a dynamic setting defined in continuous time. A numerical simulation shows that a bilateral coalition is the unique self-enforcing IEA independently of the gains coming from cooperation and the kind of strategies played by the agents (open-loop or feedback strategies). We have also studied the effects of a minimum participation clause finding that for this case a self-enforcing IEA just consists of the number of countries established in the clause.
A Closer Look at the Social Influence Construct in the UTAUT Model: An Institutional Theory Based Approach to Investigate Health IT Adoption Patterns of the Elderly

This study aims to investigate and improve understanding of the social influence construct in the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) model that influence patient portal use behavior among the elderly. Underpinned by institutional theory, our proposed model examines the three social environmental factors of normative, mimetic, and coercive forces within the health Information Technology (HIT) context. The proposed model was tested using an empirical study of 117 subjects in the United States. Using the partial least squares method, the study found empirical support that normative and mimetic pressures significantly influence patient portal use behavior when mediated by behavioral intention. Coercive pressure is found to have a direct effect on patient portal use behavior when not mediated by behavioral intention. These findings signal that social influences just partially influence behavioral intention and in part they directly influence the use behavior. A revised UTAUT model social influence section is introduced.
Capital-Energy Substitution in U.S. Manufacturing

The ease with which energy may be substituted for by other types of inputs is of great importance in predicting economic disruptions arising from energy shortages as well as the energy implications of public policy. Studies of energy substitution in the economies of developed countries have produced differing results. A major reason for the divergent results, according to the authors, could be that two quite-different types of capital inputs - physical capital and working capital - have been used. These two types of capital input behave in quite-different ways, at least as regards their relationship with energy inputs to explore this, the authors incorporated the prices of physical capital, working capital, labor, and energy in a constant-returns-to-scale cost function. The authors conclude that reproducible capital and energy are, for the most part, complements - while working capital and energy are largely substitutes in production. Results lead the authors to explain the differences among previous studies by reference to the way in which the capital input was handled. On the level of aggregate US manufacturing a value-added approach to capital cost would be expected to show capital-energy substitutability, while a service-price approach to capital cost would show complementarity. 21 references, 2more » tables (SAC)« less
Outcome of early revascularization surgery in patients with ST-elevation myocardial infarction.

OBJECTIVES To compare morbidity and mortality of patients with ST-elevation myocardial infarction (MI) undergoing coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery within 24 hours with those who had surgery delayed >24 hours. BACKGROUND Patients with ST-elevation MI are currently managed by emergency percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). If PCI is unsuccessful, or if there is severe coronary artery disease not amenable to PCI, CABG is considered. If the patient is clinically stable, surgeons wait several days before performing surgery, as very early surgery carries a prohibitive risk. METHODS One hundred and eighty-four patients with acute ST elevation MI (STEMI) who had undergone CABG were divided into two groups based on their surgery timing (<24 hours vs. >24 hours). Mortality and complication rates were studied between the two groups by Fischer test. Time-to-event analyses were performed for five primary variables: all-cause mortality, cardiac events, congestive heart failure, stroke, and renal failure. RESULTS At one month post-CABC, all-cause mortality was noted in 10.6% of patients who had CABG within 24 hours of STEMI diagnosis, compared with 8.9% in patients who had CABG after 24 hours (P = 0.3). Cardiac events including re-exploration, atrial fibrillation, graft occlusion, and arrhythmias requiring shock occurred in 17.1% versus 13.9% between the two groups, respectively (P = 0.68). One year post-coronary artery bypass surgery, there was no difference in individual or combined events between the two groups. CONCLUSIONS In patients with ST-elevation myocardial infarction who required emergency coronary artery bypass surgery, there was no difference in procedure complications or mortality between early (within 24 hours) or later (more than 24 hours). That was noted at one month and one year after the index myocardial infarction.
Mild portal endotoxaemia induces subacute hepatic inflammation and pancreatic β‐cell dysfunction in rats

Background Portal endotoxaemia has been speculated to be crucially involved in the pathogenesis of chronic hepatic inflammation, which is highly associated with the development of type 2 diabetes mellitus. This study tests whether portal endotoxaemia is a pathogenic link between chronic subacute hepatic inflammation and pancreatic β‐cell dysfunction.
Explaining the Deteriorating Entry Earnings of Canada’s Immigrant

The study explores causes of the deterioration in entry earnings of Canadian immigrant cohorts by estimating an empirical specification that nests a number of competing explanations found in the Canadian literature. To do this, we use the pooled sample of Canadian-born and immigrant men employed full-year, full-time from the complete 20 percent samples of the 1981, 1986, 1991, 1996 and 2001 Canadian Censuses. Our results indicate that no more than one-third of the deterioration can be explained by compositional shifts in the knowledge of an official language, mother tongue and region of origin of recent immigrant cohorts. We also find little or no evidence that declining returns to foreign education are responsible. Roughly one-third of the deterioration appears to be due to a persistent decline in the returns to foreign labour market experience which has occurred almost exclusively among immigrants originating from non-traditional source countries. We are able to explain two-thirds of the overall decline in the entry earnings of Canada’s most recent immigrants without any reference to entry labour market conditions. When we also account for entry conditions, our results suggest that Canada’s immigrants who arrived in the 1995-1999 period would otherwise be enjoying entry earnings that were significantly higher than the entry earnings of the 1965-1969 cohort.
The Optimal Timing of CEO Compensation

This paper extends a standard principal-agent model of CEO compensation by modeling the progressive attenuation of information asymmetries between firm insiders and shareholders in continuous time. In this setting, we show that the optimal timing of compensation results from a tradeoff between the progressive accumulation of noise in the stock price process and the progressive resolution of information asymmetries. Since all points in the stock price process are incrementally informative about the CEO action, we also show that the whole stock price process should a priori be used for compensation purposes. This may however lead CEOs to inefficiently divert resources to repeatedly manipulate the stock price, which is why it might be optimal to use only a few points in the stock price process instead.
Effect of multiple scattering on the phase signature of wet subsurface structures: applications to polarimetric L- and C-band SAR

We propose a two-layer integral equation model (IEM) model including multiple-scattering terms to reproduce the phase signature of buried wet structures that we observed on L-band synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images. We have good agreement between the extended (single+multiple scattering) IEM model and previous results obtained using a single-scattering IEM model combined with finite-difference time-domain simulations. We show that the multiple scattering not only significantly influences the copolarized phase difference but can also be related to the soil moisture content. In order to assess the validity of our extended model, we performed radar measurements on a natural outdoor site and showed that they could be fairly well fitted to the extended model. A parametric analysis presents the dependence of the copolarized phase difference on roughness parameters (rms height and correlation length) and radar parameters (frequency and incidence angle). Our study also shows that the phase signature should allow detection of buried wet structures down to a larger depth for C-band (3.8 m) than for L-band (2.6 m). This signature could then be used to map subsurface moisture in arid regions using polarimetric SAR systems.
Spread and diversity of human populations in Bahia, Brazil.

Data from surnames and racial subgroups were obtained in 60 localities to reconstruct the history of population spread and mixing over the state of Bahia, Brazil. Using the historically significant location of Cachoeira and Sao Felix as central points, the sampled localities were distributed along 7 main paved roads. 20% of the elementary school children were selected, but only the surnames of 12,872 boys were used in the analysis. The following parameters were estimated for each of the localities: black phenotype index (BPI), which is the proportion of 3 racial classifications determined by gene frequency analysis; black cultural index (BCI) determined by the frequency of devotional surnames; and indian cultural index (ICI) determined by the frequency of animal-plant surnames; and the isolated frequency of the surname Santos. The results of regression analysis indicate a negative association between BPI and BCI and the distance from Cachoeira-Sao Felix. Although not significant, ICI increases slightly with increased distance from Cachoeira-Sao Felix. The isolated frequency of the surname Santos is associated with the BCI but does not decrease significantly with distance from Cachoeira-Sao Felix. Construction of a map characterizing each of the 60 localities by its most representative racial admixture confirms the analysis and reveals the spread of blacks toward 4 cardinal points. A review of the historical background of the state explains the migration of blacks as related to the needs for slave labor during the development of gold mining and cocoa and sugar cultivation. The higher concentrations of indian admixtures farther from Cachoeira-Sao Felix reflects their retreat to survive the incoming foreign settlers. Given the strong link between the observed diversity in the population and major historical events, it is suggested that historical reconstruction of a population be an initial step before undertaking sampling for gene frequency analysis.
Parcerias Trisetoriais: caminhos e descaminhos de três experiências brasileiras

This article discusses the consequences of Crossector Partnerships in the public sphere in order to understand of their prospects for the modernization of social policies. Crossector Partnerships are considered those involving government, civil society organizations and market actors. The study analyses three intervention experiences in social agendas in education, environment, poverty and childhood and adolescence. The article discusses the main theoretical currents that examine the action of the state, civil society organizations and companies toward the public sphere and defines the main approaches or "platforms" about the theoretical Crossectors Partnerships in the literature: Resource Dependence, Social Issues, Societal Sector. The research is an Extended Case Study and uses qualitative research to collect, process and analyze data. The results indicate that traditional practices of partnerships survive in the Trissetoriais Partnerships and managerialist model of intervention in the dynamics of this phenomenon are less consistent in terms of explanatory power of reality. The interactions between civil society actors, the State and market are marked by complexity and construction of a non-linear practice, permeated by the occurrence of processes of conflict and cooperation, engagement and distance and resistance and adhesion. Improvements in the provision of social policies from Trissetoriais Partnerships are not always accompanied by advances in building a more democratic public sphere.
Facilitating Mental Health Literacy: Targeting Canadian First Nations Youth

As reported rates of mental illness and suicide among Canadian First Nations youth continue to rise, counsellors are uniquely placed to contribute to mental health literacy. Development of contextually appropriate programs requires knowledge of the myriad of contributing factors including residual issues of colonization, discrimination, marginalization, and socioeconomic struggles that play pivotal roles in wellness and mental health risks. Given the potential contribution of such programs and the dearth of literature in this area, we reflect on what factors would contribute to facilitating or adapting existing mental health literacy programs to target Canadian First Nations youth. We explore ideas for integrating culture and context, youth engagement, and youth empowerment.
Italian foreign policy in the post-cold war period: a neoclassical realist approach

Abstract Drawing on a neoclassical realist approach, this article analyses the foreign policy conduct of different Italian governments from 1994 to 2008. Pressured by the post-cold war international system, these governments have been compelled to raise Italy's profile within the international system. However, the way in which successive governments have responded has differed markedly. By looking at variables located at the domestic level – elite perceptions of the distribution of power and government instability – it is possible to explain these differences. Neo-classical realism is seen as an advance on Waltzian neo-realism precisely because it allows room for domestic as well as international (or systemic) variables, and because it has a very specific focus on foreign policy as such.
Evaluating the Economic Forecasts of FOMC Members

This paper provides a detailed analysis of the forecasts of real GDP, inflation and unemployment made by individual members of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) for the period 1992–2003. Despite a general tendency for the committee members to underpredict real GDP over the sample period, we find evidence suggesting that the FOMC has a considerable amount of information about output growth, beyond what is known by commercial forecasters. We also document a substantial level of variation in the members’ forecasts, which can be explained in part by the differences in economic conditions between Federal Reserve districts. The members’ heterogeneous forecasts for output growth and inflation contain useful information for explaining their preferred policy settings, beyond that in the Greenbook forecasts.
Longitudinal study of natural immune responses to the Plasmodium falciparum apical membrane antigen (AMA-1) in a holoendemic region of malaria in western Kenya: Asembo Bay Cohort Project VIII.

We investigated the development and maintenance of proliferative and antibody responses to apical membrane antigen-1 (AMA-1) epitopes in a holoendemic area of western Kenya. Young children (< 10 years), older children (10-17 years), and adults (> or = 18 years) were followed longitudinally for antibody and T-cell responses at 3 time points with an interval of 3-4 months. The proliferative responses against the AMA-1 T epitopes (PL171, PL172, PL173, PL186, PL191, and PL192) were not stable during follow-up; however, response to mycobacterial antigen PPD was highly stable. The responder frequencies were similar in all 3 time points except for epitope PL192. The younger and older children responded more frequently to T-cell epitopes, but the differences were not significant. A positive proliferative response to PL191 was associated with a significantly lower risk of parasitemia at subsequent follow-up (relative risk, 0.5; P = 0.03). The presence of antibody response to B epitopes PL169, PL170, PL173, PL187, and PL192 in one time point was associated with a subsequent response (P = 0.0001-0.008) suggesting a stable response. Younger (P = 0.046) and older children (P = 0.017) more frequently responded to epitope PL169 than did adults, and adults responded more frequently to PL187 than did younger children (P = 0.009). Responses to AMA-1 T-cell epitopes were short lived, and antibody responses were relatively stable.
Influences on Agricultural Agents’ Decisions to Remain in an Extension Career

This qualitative study sought to explore and describe why Florida agricultural agents remained in an extension career. A purposive sample was used to select twelve agents who were classified into one of the three stages of the career stages model (Kutilek, Gunderson, & Conklin, 2002). In–depth interviews were used to investigate positive and negative influences that affected agents’ decisions. Grounded theory was used as the primary data analysis method (Strauss & Corbin, 1998). Seven selective codes emerged as the most influential factors on agents’ employment decisions. These codes were internal satisfaction, community leadership, external motivators, career benefits, change agents, network of support, and extension work environment. A grounded theory was created to delineate the relationships between the codes and explain the findings.