Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Emiratization as a strategic HRM change initiative: case study evidence from a UAE petroleum company

Nationalization programmes that are designed to encourage and support the employment of nationals in preference to expatriates have become a key feature of HRM throughout the Middle East, with countries such as Oman, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates adopting politically led nationalization initiatives. A literature review is presented that identifies a dearth of academic research relating to these initiatives within the context of the Middle East. The paper argues that this weakness in international HRM literature has implications both within the Middle East and in terms of more general international theory building in relation to issues such as the transferability of HRM systems and practices. In later sections of the paper, a case study of Emiratization in practice is presented with a view to identifying and exploring issues surrounding the implementation and evaluation of organizationally based Emiratization programmes. The case study findings demonstrate some of the complexities surrounding issues such as management commitment, quantitative evaluation methods, resistance to change and the role of expatriates in implementing Emiratization programmes. A number of implications and subjects for future research into Emiratization are identified. These implications relate to: the reasons underlying the scarcity of HRM literature on nationalization initiatives; emotional perspectives on nationalization methodologies; strategies for dealing with resistance to nationalization within organizations; issues surrounding the design of Emiratization programmes; and the role of expatriates as key stakeholders in nationalization programmes.
The clinical usefulness of procalcitonin measurement for assessing the severity of bacterial infection in critically ill patients requiring corticosteroid therapy.

UNLABELLED Markers of inflammation, such as C-reactive protein (CRP) and white blood cell count, have, because of their low specificity, proven far from ideal in identifying patients with sepsis. Procalcitonin (PCT) has been shown to be a useful marker for differentiating patients with bacterial infection from other acute inflammatory conditions. Corticosteroid therapy has been demonstrated to be effective for treating patients with septic shock, late-phase acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), or functional adrenal insufficiency, and the use of corticosteroid in critical illness has recently increased. It is also well established that corticosteroid modulate inflammatory variables in acute inflammatory conditions. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the clinical usefulness of PCT measurement for assessing the severity of bacterial infection in patients requiring corticosteroid therapy. MATERIALS AND METHODS Six patients with confirmed bacterial infectious diseases or suspected infectious diseases and requiring corticosteroid therapy were enrolled in the study. Levels of PCT and CRP were measured. The Sequential Organ Failure Assessment (SOFA) score and the Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation (APACHE) II score were calculated to evaluate the severity of sepsis. RESULTS 1) There was no significant correlation between the serum concentration of PCT and the plasma level of CRP in patients requiring corticosteroid therapy. 2) The PCT concentration was significantly correlated with the SOFA score (R(2)=0.467, p<0.0001) and the APACHE II score (R(2)=0.308, p=0.0003). However, no significant correlations was found between the CRP concentration and the SOFA score (R(2)=0.054, p=0.15) or the APACHE II score (R(2)=0.043, p=0.20). 3) Data sets were divided into two groups: septic shock and non-septic shock. No significant differences were present in CRP levels between the groups. However, significant differences were apparent in PCT concentrations (p<0.001). CONCLUSION PCT can be a more sensitive and useful marker than CRP for evaluating the severity and progression of sepsis in patients requiring corticosteroid therapy. Further studies are needed to confirm these results in larger groups of patients.
“Don't Leave Us Out There Alone”: A Framework for Supporting Supervisors

Professional development that scaffolds and supports supervisors is critical for quality field experiences and is our responsibility as teacher educators. The literature supports this statement and two ideas that conceptually frame our work: (1) quality field experiences are a critical component of preservice programs and (2) training and support for supervisors is necessary to ensure quality field experiences. With the overarching outcome of quality teacher candidates and strong partnerships with schools, the authors describe the context for their supervisors’ work, supervisors and their roles, a structure and resources for collaboration, then conclude with a practical and detailed framework to support professional development for supervisors. Based on four goals that guide the content and process of our professional development, the authors use a critical friends approach to (1) learn together; (2) develop a shared understanding of programs, teacher candidates, and school partners; (3) facilitate integration of coursework and field experiences; and (4) examine and extend the coaching process. Based on our experience, reflections, and the knowledge base in supervision, the authors make nine recommendations for establishing and sustaining professional development and support for supervisors.
Association of PIT1 polymorphisms with growth and carcass traits in pigs.

PIT1, a member of the POU-domain family of genes, is a positive regulatory factor of growth hormone, prolactin, and thyrotroph-stimulating hormone beta in several mammals. Therefore, PIT1 was chosen as a candidate gene to investigate its association with growth and carcass traits in pigs. The five Iowa State University reference/resource three-generation families consisting of crosses of Meishan x Duroc, Meishan x Hampshire, Meishan x Landrace, Minzhu x Hampshire, and Minzhu x Landrace were used. The three PIT1 polymorphisms were based on two RFLP using a PIT1 POU-domain cDNA probe and the restriction enzymes BamHI and MspI and a PCR/RFLP using RsaI. Birth, 21-d, and 42-d weights, average daily gain, several backfat measurements, longissimus muscle area, muscle color, marbling, and firmness scores were evaluated for their association with the three PIT1 polymorphisms. Mixed-animal-model analyses were used with the informative family data in which the PIT1 polymorphisms were segregating. Results from mixed-model analyses revealed that pigs with the MspI CC genotype (P < .01) were associated with heavier birth weight (.12 kg) than DD genotype pigs. The MspI CC genotype pigs were also significantly associated with greater average backfat (.41 cm, P < .01), greater first-rib backfat (.45 cm, P < .01), greater last-rib backfat (.32 cm, P < .07), and greater last lumbar backfat (.46 cm, P < .10) than the DD genotype pigs. The CC genotype represents primarily Chinese alleles and may be useful for future genetic improvement in synthetic lines involving Chinese and American pigs. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Performance of Technology Sector Hedge Funds in Emerging Markets

Abstract We examine the performance of technology sector hedge funds with a special focus on emerging markets. We analyze risk-adjusted returns, alpha determinants, and various provisions of the hedge funds. We find that technology hedge funds show positive risk-adjusted returns on average and that the emerging market tech funds outperform the nonemerging market funds in general. Classified geographically, Eastern Europe funds exhibit the greatest performance and the highest ratio of funds with significant alpha. We also observe that the abnormal returns of emerging market funds are positively associated with their past performance, flow, and incentive fee, but negatively related with size.
Properties of GaN Nanowires Grown by Molecular Beam Epitaxy

On Si(1 1 1) and Si(0 0 1), GaN nanowires (NWs) form in a self-induced way without the need for any external material. On sapphire, NW growth is induced by Ni collectors. Both types of NWs exhibit the wurtzite crystal structure and grow in the Ga-polar C-direction perpendicular to the substrate. The NW sidewalls are M-plane facets, although on the Ni-induced NWs also A-plane segments form, if the growth temperature is low. Both self-induced and collector-induced NWs are free of strain and epitaxially aligned to the substrate, but in particular the former show a significant spread in tilt and twist caused by a mostly amorphous interfacial layer of Si-N. The self-induced NWs are virtually free of extended defects, but the collector-induced NWs contain many stacking faults. The photoluminescence of the former is significantly brighter and sharper. The spectra of single, dispersed, self-induced NWs contain extremely sharp excitonic lines. Significant emission is caused by excitons bound to donors close to the surface whose binding energy is reduced compared to the bulk value. In comparison, both the microstructure and optical properties of the self-induced NWs are superior. The limited material quality of the collector-induced NWs can be explained by detrimental effects of the collector.
Les productivités des régions françaises sur moyenne période

Cet article se propose d’examiner de maniere detaillee les productivites du travail au niveau sectoriel et agrege pour les regions francaises sur la decennie 1980. Empruntant aux travaux inities par Baumol, suivis par Barro et Sala-i-Martin notamment, il met l’accent sur les sources de la croissance propres aux nouvelles theories de la croissance (effort de recherche, effets de taille) ainsi que sur l’impact des reallocations inter-sectorielles de la main-d’œuvre. Il aboutit a une relativisation de la convergence regionale globalement observee, qui resulte essentiellement d’effets de composition inter-sectoriels.
Airport Deregulation: Effects on Pricing and Capacity

It has been argued in the literature that privatized airports would charge more efficient congestion prices and would be more responsive to market incentives for capacity expansions. Furthermore, privatized airports would not need to be regulated since price elasticities are low, so allocative inefficiencies would be small, and collaboration between airlines and airports may solve the problem of airports' market power. We use a model of vertical relations between two congestible airports and an airline oligopoly, to examine, both analytically and numerically, how deregulation may affect airports prices and capacities. We find that: (i) unregulated profit-maximizing airports would overcharge for the congestion externality and, compared to the first-best, would induce large allocative inefficiencies and dead-weight losses. They would restrict capacity investments but, overall, would induce fewer delays; (ii) Welfare maximization subject to cost recovery performs fairly well, both in terms of allocative efficiency and congestion management, lending some support to a non for profit organization scheme and putting a question mark on the desirability of deregulation of private airports; (iii) Increased cooperation between airlines and airports provides some improvements, but the resulting airport pricing strategy leads to a downstream airline cartel; (iv) When schedule delay costs effects are strong and airline differentiation is weak, it may be optimal to have a single airline dominating the airports, but this happens only when airports' pricing schemes render the number of airlines irrelevant for competition.
Life after death: how successful nineteenth‐century businessmen disposed of their fortunes

One of the nicer ironies of social history is that David Ricardo, having produced the economic theory that defined a sharp class division between the parasitic landed aristocracy and the industrious and productive sections of society, both middle and working classes, at once proceeded to join the parasites himself. Having amassed a large fortune as a stockbroker, financier, and loan contractor, Ricardo entered the land market in a big way in i8I4, and in the last ten years of his life laid out ? 275,000 in the purchase of landed estates. His first purchase, the Gatcombe Park estate in Gloucestershire, of over 5,ooo acres, furnished him with a country house residence, and in his later years in business and in Parliament he divided his time between Gatcombe and his town house in Upper Brook Street. He did not seek to sever his connections with the financial world and withdraw into country isolation, and indeed at his death in i823 the major part of his assets, in the region of ? 700,000, was in personalty, chiefly in investments in the French funds and in loans on mortgage. He demonstrated in his own person, in fact, that it was perfectly possible to be simultaneously a member of the upper middle class and of the landed aristocracy. But he did not buy the Gatcombe estate simply as an agreeable convenience, for the pleasure of country relaxation when the time of life for unremitting attention to business had passed, although it no doubt was that; it was also a step in status and a help in entering the Commons in i8i9. Nor were his other land purchases simple investments, although his own theory of rent might well have suggested the long-term advantages in income and capital appreciation of investing in land. Indeed, from I8I5 he retained Edward Wakefield as his land market consultant, and heeded Wakefield's advice that 'your great object should be purchasing in the neighbourhood of where you already possess property, or else large estates which lays compact'. Wakefield therefore criticized Ricardo's second i8I4 purchase, of the small Dalchurst estate near Tonbridge in Kent, as 'a bad purchase and away from everything else and gives none of that consequence which would attach to it did it join other estates. ' Hence his subsequent purchasing policy was directed towards the area around Gatcombe, and he acquired four more estates in the Gloucester-Worcester-Hereford borderlands which built up his landholding to well over io,ooo acres. In one respect, however, Ricardo showed his resistance to the aristocratic culture, for he aspired to found not one landed family, but three. His will,
A phase 1/2 trial of lenalidomide and dexamethasone in adult patients with refractory/relapsed acute lymphoblastic leukemia

ABSTRACT Objectives: Adult patients with refractory/relapsed ALL have poor survival outcomes with current chemotherapies. We aimed to determine safety and efficacy of lenalidomide, an oral immunomodulator, in these patients. Methods: This phase 1/2 trial (EUDRACT # 2009-009372-13) included 10 patients who received 28-day cycles of oral lenalidomide 25 mg/day, days 1 through 21, in combination with oral dexamethasone 40 mg/day on days 1, 8, 15, 22. Primary endpoints were tolerance and the overall response rate (ORR). Secondary endpoints included overall survival (OS) and quality of life. Results: The most common grade 3 or 4 adverse events were myelosuppression. The ORR among the participants who could be evaluated was 28.6% (95% confidence interval [CI], 0–62.2%). The median OS was 92 days (range, 43–133 days). All patients have died because of progressive disease. Quality of life remains stable during treatment cycles. Discussion and conclusion: The safety of combination therapy consisting of lenalidomide plus dexamethasone is consistent with ambulatory administration. Efficacy should be reevaluated in a larger series including patients less intensively previously treated.
Impact of sustainable office buildings on occupant's comfort and productivity

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to research the impact of sustainable office buildings on occupant's comfort and self‐assessed performance and work engagement.Design/methodology/approach – The research consists in an empirical study of 18 office buildings and is based on survey data from almost 1,500 employees.Findings – The study shows that the building itself has a clear impact on the comfort level of the building user. Also, the positive impact of certain features, such as operable windows and the absence of air conditioning, can be clearly identified. While productivity is not directly correlated to comfort levels, work engagement is. Generally, the analysis shows that specific building aspects seem to have an influence on user comfort and with that, also an impact on productivity; however, this impact appears to be limited.Originality/value – This is a very important insight since this shows the connection between employee and company and thus demonstrates that a high user comfort can reduce t.
Models of recreational trip distribution

Baxter M. J. and Ewing G. (1981) Models of recreational trip distribution, Reg. Studies 15, 327–344. Singly constrained gravity models for recreational trip distribution are investigated with different subsets of data, measures of distance travelled, deterrence functions and levels of zonal aggregation. Estimates, and their interpretation, exhibit some consistency for the most disaggregate system, however the data is treated; for more aggregated systems there is much variation in the results obtained. Models that allow for the effect of barriers to travel are developed, and a multi-stop model incorporating features peculiar to recreational trips is proposed and calibrated. Some unresolved problems associated with the use of this model are indicated.
An empirical analysis of fraud detection likelihood

Investigates the relative importance of potential factors associated with the likelihood of detecting fraud during the audit of financial statements. Based on a survey of 357 auditors, reveals auditing experience of the auditor and prior success of auditing organization in detecting fraud are constantly significant variables in detecting fraud for each audit cycle and combined cycle estimates. Certified public accountant certification, peer review, and organizational size have impact only on certain specific audit cycles. This study surveyed two types of auditor: first, certified public accountants specialized in auditing publicly held corporations (external); and second, government entities, and internal auditors specialized in auditing publicly held corporations (internal). The respondent auditors evaluated the degree of effectiveness of 218 auditing techniques in detecting fraud. These techniques were associated with four different audit cycles: acquisition and payment, inventory and warehousing, payroll and personnel and sales and collection.
Quantification of Tremor and Bradykinesia in Parkinson's Disease Using a Novel Ambulatory Monitoring System

An ambulatory system for quantification of tremor and bradykinesia in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) is presented. To record movements of the upper extremities, a sensing units which included miniature gyroscopes, has been fixed to each of the forearms. An algorithm to detect and quantify tremor and another algorithm to quantify bradykinesia have been proposed and validated. Two clinical studies have been performed. In the first study, 10 PD patients and 10 control subjects participated in a 45-min protocol of 17 typical daily activities. The algorithm for tremor detection showed an overall sensitivity of 99.5% and a specificity of 94.2% in comparison to a video reference. The estimated tremor amplitude showed a high correlation to the Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS) tremor subscore (e.g., r=0.87, p<0.001 for the roll axis). There was a high and significant correlation between the estimated bradykinesia related parameters estimated for the whole period of measurement and respective UPDRS subscore (e.g., r=-0.83, p<0.001 for the roll axis). In the second study, movements of upper extremities of 11 PD patients were recorded for periods of 3-5 hr. The patients were moving freely during the measurements. The effects of selection of window size used to calculate tremor and bradykinesia related parameters on the correlation between UPDRS and these parameters were studied. By selecting a window similar to the period of the first study, similar correlations were obtained. Moreover, one of the bradykinesia related parameters showed significant correlation (r=-0.74, p<0.01) to UPDRS with window sizes as short as 5 min. Our study provides evidence that objective, accurate and simultaneous assessment of tremor and bradykinesia can be achieved in free moving PD patients during their daily activities
Sweet success beyond the triple bottom line: Honeybee practices lead to sustainable leadership at Thailand's True Corp

Researchers constructed a framework for analyzing the leadership practices at True Corporation, a Thai telecommunications firm, by grouping Avery and Bergsteiner's 23 Honeybee leadership practices into six categories: long-term perspective, investing in people, organizational culture, innovation, social responsibility, and ethical behavior. Emphasizing long-term growth and sustainability, these core themes contrast sharply with the prevailing Locust business model of short-term maximization of profitability. An analysis of the Honeybee practices as manifested at True Corporation, a telecommunications firm based in Thailand, shows that despite the challenges of operating in an emerging economy, they can contribute to effective, sustainable leadership and dominance in a competitive market. Other enterprises that wish to promote ongoing organizational success can adopt Avery and Bergsteiner's Honeybee elements to examine their leadership practices and adjust them to become more sustainable. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Economic Freedom and Service Industry Growth in the United States

The growth of an economy depends upon entrepreneurial activities leading to the formation of new businesses and the production of new goods and services. In turn, institutions influence entrepreneurial activity. Public policy is an attribute of the institutions under which entrepreneurs operate. One element of the institutional environment is the degree of economic freedom under which entrepreneurs form and operate their business activities. The degree of economic freedom affects not only profit opportunities for entrepreneurs, but also the level and the type of economic activities they pursue. We examine how the entrepreneurial activity and level of employment in U.S. service industries respond to changes in the degree of economic freedom among states. Our findings suggest that the relationship between entrepreneurial outcomes and economic freedom varies significantly by industry. In some industries, such as business and personal services, increases in economic freedom lead to growth in the number of firms and the level of employment. However, the reverse is true for other industries, such as health, social, and legal services.