Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Learning from Parallel Organizational Development Efforts in Two Public Sector Settings

As part of a workplace health improvement program, a pilot study organizational development intervention was carried out in two post offices m the Norwegian Postal Service. The intervention activities reflected three strong OD traditions: (1) the literature on participation and workplace democracy; (2) the literature on workplace stress, especially focusing on job redesign/environmental factors; and, (3) the literature on organizational learning This article descnbes and evaluates the intervention actions that were taken. The OD effort featured a uniform model for implementation, but significant variations between the two offices were observed. Generally, the OD effort was viewed as a success by employees, their supervisors and external consultants. They all tended to agree that the 12-week intervention had created new insights and led to concrete improvements in the workplace m both offices studied.
A flexible binomial option pricing model

This article develops a flexible binomial model with a “tilt” parameter that alters the shape and span of the binomial tree. A positive tilt parameter shifts the tree upward while a negative tilt parameter does exactly the opposite. This simple extension of the standard binomial model is shown to converge with any value of the tilt parameter. More importantly, the binomial tree can be recalibrated through the tilt parameter in order to position nodes relative to the strike price or barrier of an option. The rate of convergence is improved as a result. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Jrl Fut Mark 19: 817–843, 1999
Intermediate stage Hodgkin's disease: preliminary results on 210 patients treated with four ABVD chemotherapy cycles plus extended versus involved field radiotherapy.

BACKGROUND To improve long-term survival by reducing toxicity in intermediate stage Hodgkin's disease patients, we compared the effects of involved field (IF) versus extended field (EF) irradiation administered after four cycles of ABVD regimen. MATERIALS AND METHODS Two hundred and ten Hodgkin's disease patients, at clinical stage II with risk factors and III without risk factors, were enrolled in the randomized study HD94. After four courses of ABVD regimen, patients who achieved complete remission (CR) or partial remission (PR) were randomly assigned to the IF or EF arm. The Kaplan-Meier method was adopted to estimate overall survival (OS) and relapse-free survival (RFS). RESULTS After a median follow-up of 78 months (range 13-111 months), OS was 98% and 96%, respectively, in the EF and IF arms; RFS was 94% and 91%, respectively, in the EF and IF arms. CONCLUSION We confirm the efficacy of four cycles of ABVD regimen, with suitable dose intensity, and radiotherapy as consolidation therapy, in intermediate stage Hodgkin's disease patients (CR = 99.5% and OS = 95%). We also found that involved field radiotherapy results were as effective as extended field, without acute toxicity.
Asymmetric information, imitative behaviour and communication: price formation in an experimental asset market

The paper describes experimental results from a simulated stock market with manipulation of asymmetric information and communication, including conditions intended to promote imitative behaviour and rumour. Price discovery was inefficient when the presence of insiders was disguised, compared to a homogeneous expectations baseline. When the presence of insiders was revealed observed prices became efficient with respect to bad news but not with respect to good news, possibly suggesting loss-averse behaviour. With free communication there was a decrease in both efficiency and price volatility—insider information was masked by noise. Price formation under these conditions was similar to baseline, but with weak evidence of speculative pricing. It is conjectured that other factors than informational noise may be necessary determinants of herd behaviour, but further work is indicated.
Oxidative refolding of insulin-like growth factor 1 yields two products of similar thermodynamic stability: a bifurcating protein-folding pathway.

Can one protein sequence encode two structures? Oxidative folding of human insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1), a globular protein of 70 residues, is shown to yield two products of similar thermodynamic stability. This observation is of particular interest in light of the recent demonstration that two of the three disulfide bonds in native IGF-1 rearrange in the presence of dithiothreitol [Hober, S. , et al. (1992) Biochemistry 31, 1749-1756]. Kinetics of the IGF-1 folding pathway were monitored by high-performance liquid chromatography (rp-HPLC). Disulfide-pairing schemes of intermediates and products were established by peptide mapping. Two disulfide isomers were obtained as products: one with native insulin-like pairing [6-48; 18-61; 47-52] (designated native IGF-1; 60% yield) and the other with alternative pairing [6-47; 18-61; 48-52] (designated IGF-swap; 40% yield). The predominant early intermediate contains the single disulfide 18-61, which is shared in common by the two products. Relative yields of native IGF-1 and IGF-swap are independent of protein concentration under dilute conditions. In the absence of an added thiol reagent, each isomer is stable indefinitely at neutral pH; in the presence of an added thiol reagent, the two isomers interconvert with an Arrhenius activation barrier of 12 kcal/mol. Interconversion does not require complete reduction and yields the same ratio of products as initial folding, demonstrating thermodynamic control. Spectroscopic studies using circular dichroism (CD), infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), two-dimensional 1H-NMR (2D-NMR), and photochemical dynamic nuclear polarization (photo-CIDNP) suggest that IGF-1 and IGF-swap adopt similar secondary structures but distinct tertiary folds. Implications of these observations for understanding the topology of protein-folding pathways are discussed.
TNF-α exerts higher cytotoxic effect on MCF-7 multidrug resistant derivative, role of Akt activation.

BACKGROUND TNF-α is a pleiotropic cytokine which activates different downstream signaling pathways leading cells to death or survival. In some in vitro examinations, TNF-α treatment demonstrated higher cytotoxic effects on MDR cancer cell lines compared to their parental counterparts. OBJECTIVE This study investigated effects of TNF-α in MCF-7 and its mitoxantrone (MX) resistant variant of breast cancer cell line, MCF-7/MX. Moreover, the role of Akt phosphorylation in TNF-α effect was also investigated. METHODS Akt phosphorylation was evaluated using Western blotting and TNF-α effect was examined using cytotoxicity assay following treatment of the cells with TNF-α . RESULTS TNF-α treatment exerted higher cytotoxic effects on MCF-7/MX compared to MCF-7 cells. Akt phosphorylation was enhanced following TNF-α treatment in MCF-7 cells while it did not change in MCF-7/MX cells. TNF-α treatment along with inhibition of Akt phosphorylation by a chemical inhibitor triciribine, sensitized MCF-7 cells to cytotoxic effects of TNF-α. Moreover, activation of PI3K/Akt pathway by activator peptide 740 Y-P in MCF-7/MX cells enhanced resistance against TNF-α cytotoxicity. CONCLUSION Alteration in Akt phosphorylation is involved in the resistance of MCF-7 cells and sensitivity of MCF-7/MX cells to TNF-α -induced cytotoxicity, respectively.
Mixture models with adaptive spatial regularization for segmentation with an application to FMRI data

Mixture models are often used in the statistical segmentation of medical images. For example, they can be used for the segmentation of structural images into different matter types or of functional statistical parametric maps (SPMs) into activations and nonactivations. Nonspatial mixture models segment using models of just the histogram of intensity values. Spatial mixture models have also been developed which augment this histogram information with spatial regularization using Markov random fields. However, these techniques have control parameters, such as the strength of spatial regularization, which need to be tuned heuristically to particular datasets. We present a novel spatial mixture model within a fully Bayesian framework with the ability to perform fully adaptive spatial regularization using Markov random fields. This means that the amount of spatial regularization does not have to be tuned heuristically but is adaptively determined from the data. We examine the behavior of this model when applied to artificial data with different spatial characteristics, and to functional magnetic resonance imaging SPMs.
Making Reform Work: Evidence from a Quasi-natural Experiment in Rural China

Abstract:Why are some reforms successfully adopted while others are not? This article addresses the question by exploring the variation in the adoption of China's "One-Issue-One-Meeting" reform. The reform, initiated by the central government in 2000, encourages rural villages to voluntarily adopt a new governing procedure that seeks to enhance local public goods provision. Using data from the 2005 Chinese General Social Survey, the authors find that villages with a more homogenous population measured by surname fractionalisation are more likely to adopt the procedure. Applying a generalised spatial two-stage least squares estimation, the authors also found a spatial spillover effect of the reform: the likelihood of a village undertaking the reform increases when its neighbouring villages also do so, and such effect is more pronounced if the neighbouring village is economically better off. This suggests a potential learning mechanism underlying the neighbourhood spillover.
Business‐to‐Business Information Technology User Practices at End of Life in the United Kingdom, Germany, and France

Business‐to‐business (B2B) electronics account for a significant volume of the electrical and electronic equipment (EEE) put on the market. Very little B2B waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) is reported as collected in the European Union (EU) in compliance with the WEEE Directive, which uses the policy principle of extended producer responsibility (EPR) to ensure that WEEE is managed correctly. This presents a barrier to parties looking for access to the waste. Company practice dictates the channels into which B2B WEEE flows following primary use. This article presents a study that engaged with company actors directly to get a better understanding of business information technology (IT) EEE asset management. Data were collected to determine the barriers current practice could present to the collection of B2B IT EEE at end of life and the implications of these for the development of policies and strategies for EPR. A questionnaire was developed and data were gathered from organizations in three EU countries—the United Kingdom, Germany, and France—stratified by size.
Functional capacity as a factor promoting the quality of life of the elderly

Objective: To evaluate the functional capacity of the elderly and their association with quality of life. Method: A transversal, descriptive and analytical study was carried out by an individual and anonymous interview to 247 elderly people. A structured questionnaire was used, composed of sociodemographic characterization, Katz Index, Lawton & Brody Scale and MOS SF-36 - Medical Outcome Study Short Form - 36. Results: It was found that 80.6% of the elderly were independent in the ADL and 79.8% were independent in the IADL. On the whole, they show a reasonable quality of life. The study of the correlation between the results of the perception of the quality of life and the levels of independence in the ADL and the IADL revealed that the more independent elderly people tend to perceive a better quality of life. Conclusion: These results can contribute to the nurses developing intervention measures that promote the maintenance or recovery of the functional capacity of the elderly and, consequently, improve their quality of life. Keywords: Aged; Quality of Life; Activities of Daily Living; Nursing; Aging.
A study of manipulative and authentic negative reviews

Given users' growing penchant to use online reviews for travel planning, the business malpractice of posting manipulative reviews to distort the reputation of hotels is on the rise. Some manipulative reviews could be positive and intended to boost own offerings, while others could be negative and meant to slander competing ones. However, most scholarly inquiry hitherto has been trained on the former. Hence, this paper investigates the extent to which linguistic cues such as readability, genre and writing style of negative reviews could help predict if they are manipulative or authentic. Analysis of a publicly available dataset of 800 negative reviews (400 manipulative + 400 authentic) indicates that manipulative reviews are generally less readable than authentic reviews. In terms of genre, although manipulative reviews should be imaginative and authentic reviews informative, spammers appear adept enough to blur the line between the two. With respect to writing style, manipulative reviews are more richly embellished with affective cues and perceptual words.
L-ficolin Is a Pattern Recognition Molecule Specific for Acetyl Groups*

L-ficolin and H-ficolin are molecules of the innate immune system. Upon recognition of a suitable target they activate the complement system. The ligand recognition structure of ficolins is contained within a fibrinogen-like domain. We examined the selectivity of the ficolins through inhibiting the binding to bacteria or to beads coupled with N-acetylglucosamine. The binding of L-ficolin to Streptococcus pneumoniae 11F and the beads was inhibited by N-acetylated sugars and not by non-acetylated sugars. However, it was also inhibited by other acetylated compounds. Based on this selectivity L-ficolin is not easily defined as a lectin. The binding of H-ficolin to Aerococcus viridans was not inhibited by any of the sugars or other compounds examined. Based on the selectivity of L-ficolin we developed a new purification procedure involving affinity chromatography on N-acetylcysteine-derivatized Sepharose. The column was loaded in the presence of EDTA and high salt, and L-ficolin was eluted by decreasing the salt concentration. Further purification was achieved by ion exchange chromatography.
Stock returns and inflation risk: economic versus statistical evidence

A widespread assumption in the economic literature is that an asset is a good hedge against inflation if the Fisher hypothesis holds, that is, if nominal asset returns move in parallel with expected inflation. We propose a new measure for assessing the inflation risk exposure of an asset. This measure reflects the economic influence of inflation rates on asset returns in a context of portfolio optimization and accounts for parameter uncertainty. We show that the economic significance of the influence of expected inflation on stock returns can be substantial, despite a lack of traditional evidence against the Fisher hypothesis.
Archiving colonial sovereignty: from ubuntu to a jurisprudence of sacrifice

Walter Benjamin's enigmatic reflection on Paul Klee's painting 'Angelus Novus' urges us to question the idea of a progressive teleological view of history, and it may help us to contemplate the legacy of a colonial past, the challenges of decolonisation, and the possibility of a postcolonial future. What approach are we to take to colonial history, to its events and catastrophes? This is a pressing question, especially when brought to bear on sovereign events and catastrophes. The problem of colonial sovereignty might be observed from the vantage point of Walter Benjamin's angel of history. Should we perceive an imperial usurpation, its establishment of a racist colonial state and transition to a postcolony as a chain of events or as a single catastrophe piling wreckage upon wreckage? The difference might be that the former suggests an inexorable process of violence and counter-violence, imperial excess and anti-colonial struggle, the re-ordering of imperium and the establishment of new tyrannies in the form of 'private indirect government'; while the latter imagines a singular sovereign event that needs to be reversed if the ongoing disaster is to be arrested.
The Corporate Cost of Capital and the Return on Corporate Investment

We estimate the internal rates of return earned by nonfinancial firms on (i) the initial market values of their securities and (ii) the cost of their investments. The return on value is an estimate of the overall corporate cost of capital. The estimate of the real cost of capital for 1950-96 is 5.95 percent. The real return on cost is larger, 7.38 percent, so on average corporate investment seems to be profitable. A by-product of calculating these returns is information about the history of corporate earnings, investment, and financing decisions that is perhaps more interesting than the returns. Copyright The American Finance Association 1999.
Organizational culture and human resources in the environmental issue: a review of the literature

From the resourced-based view, the weakness of organizations' business culture and their shortcomings in human resources may be important obstacles in the process of environmental action. However, as the number of works on these questions is still limited, our aim is to integrate the classical literature concerning business culture and human resources and the small number of works concerning these aspects of environmental management. Several issues, such as managerial duties, the role of organizational culture in the formation of environmental internal stakeholders' awareness, organizational involvement in environmental issues, environmental training and concern, environmental motivation and incentives and implementation and organizational innovations, may be very important for thesuccess of companies' environmental strategy. However, it seems necessary to carry out studies in which qualitative and quantitative methodologies are applied.
Informed Trading, Forced Trades and Amplification Mechanisms

We analyze non-fundamental asset price deviations and their evolutions, and propose a rational, information-based explanation to them when traders are exposed to forced-trades (e.g. fire-sales, fire-purchases). The first objective of this study is to provide a generalized, information-based framework for examining various types of asset price deviations stemming from traders' funding constraints. We do so within an information-setting that allows a second dimension of uncertainty (in the fraction of forced-trades, in addition to the one in the asset value). Our model predicts under-(over-) shooting in the prices when the fraction of unobserved fire-sales is initially under-(over-) estimated by the market maker. Second, using this framework, our study explains persistent price deviations (e.g. crashes) following high-leverage periods, by dynamically modeling the mechanism producing the forced-trades via margin calls that arise due to adverse price changes over time. We demonstrate within this dynamic set-up that, when the constrained traders are the informed traders, rather than the uninformed traders, then due to an informational positive feedback mechanism the mispricing exhibits persistence, as opposed to reversal (correction). Finally, we discuss policy issues that could mitigate the destabilizing effects of forced trades.
Investment rules, margin, and market volatility

T he Brady Commission report [1988] ascribes the stock market break in mid-October 1987 in large part to “mechanical, price-insensitive selling by a number of institutions employing portfolio insurance strategies. ’’ Some dispute this view. For example, Leland and OBrien argue in an interview in Barron’s (Norris [1988]) that portfolio insurance could hardly have been a major cause of the break, because portfolio insurance transactions on October 19 amounted to only two-tenths of 1% of the value of outstanding stock. Our article reports results of a discrete event simulation of a stock market composed of two kinds of participants: rebalancers and portfolio insurers. All participants hold only two assets: ”stock” and cash. Rebalancers seek to maintain some fixed proportion between the two assets. Portfolio insurers follow a Constant Proportion Portfolio Insurance (CPPI) rule for shifting between stock and cash. ’ Simulation runs show how the volatility of the stock market depends on parameters such as the number of rebalancers versus CPPI investors, the level of the floor that the CPPI investors seek to protect, and whether the CPPI investors are allowed (and avail themselves of) margin. The results we report are intended to show qualitatively the effects of margin and investment practice, rather than quantitatively reproduce current market volatility. We find that if margin is not used, the market is not explosive, but that the standard deviation of daily return increases manyfold as the number of CPPI investors increases from zero to 100 out of 150 investors. When 33% margin is allowed, a market with 75 CPPI investors and 75 rebalancers is explosive. The simulation is asynchronous. That is, the model does not assume that stock price, and participant purchases and sales, evolve continuously in time, as do differential equation models, such as the closely related model of Anderson and Tutuncu [1988]. Nor does it assume that all investors’ actions occur, synchronously, at discrete points in time. Rather, the ”process” that simulates the actions of any one investor can schedule events at arbitrary future times. In the model investors review their portfolios periodically, and perhaps place orders determined by their rebalancing or CPPI calculations. (The setting of price limits, and the changing of these limits or cancelling of orders, is described in the Appendix.) Depending on the limit price and the quantity ordered, an incoming buy (sell) order is executed immediately (perhaps only in part) if the list of current sell (buy) orders includes one or more orders that meets the price specification. Otherwise the uncompleted portion of the buy (sell) order is placed on the buy (sell) list. Thus prices and quantities are determined endogenously, by supply and demand. The model’s investors may be thought of as pension funds or investment companies. Each investor (pension fund) has deposits and withdrawals generated at random times in random amounts. All other quantities, such as trade-to-trade or day-to-day
Ishares and the US Market Risk Exposure

Previous researchers find that country iShares are directly and strongly exposed to US market risk in addition to home country market risk. This finding contradicts the fact that by design these iShares should behave as their underlying market indices behave. With monthly data and the appropriate orthogonalization choice, we find that direct US market risk exposure is weaker, less significant and less prevalent than previously suggested. Further tests indicate that in fact a strong majority of country iShares do not behave significantly differently from their underlying market indices. Hence, they are not less effective as diversification instruments to US investors than direct investments in the foreign markets as represented by their underlying market indices. Copyright (c) 2009 The Authors Journal compilation (c) 2009 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.