Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effects of process and product-oriented innovations on employee downsizing

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to examine the role played by different types of firm innovation on employee downsizing. Drawing on economic and management views, the authors aims to assess the potential positive or negative effect of different types of processes (i.e. new technology via the introduction of new equipment as well as new methods of organizing the workforce) and product (i.e. number of innovations) innovations on employee downsizing. Design/methodology/approach - The empirical setting is a sample of Spanish manufacturing firms over the period 1994-2006. The authors employ probit models for panel data as an empirical tool. Findings - The results show a negative and significant effect of process innovations associated with acquiring and deploying new production equipment and product-oriented innovations on the probability of carrying out important reductions in workforce. However, a positive and significant effect is found when process innovations are linked to the adoption of new methods of organizing the workforce. Practical implications - Managers might play a significant role in employment creation, especially when they carry out process innovations related to the acquisition of complementary production assets (i.e. new equipment) and market highly innovative products. Policy makers might contribute to diminish the potential number of employees affected by firms’ downsizing strategies by designing, for example, public subsidies systems that deliberately prompt both types of innovations. Originality/value - The authors make an effort to provide alternative explanations about why firms downsize, as they analyze different types of process and product innovations whose effects on employment (and, thus, downsizing) do not seem to be clear. Moreover, the paper furthers one's understanding of the effect of firm innovation by focusing on the potential effect of one type of process innovation which has not been examined until now: the adoption and implementation of new methods of organizing the workforce owing to new technology.
Obvious Mistakes in a Strategically Simple College Admissions Environment: Causes and Consequences

Although many centralized school assignment systems use strategically simple mechanisms, applicants often make dominated choices. Using administrative data from Hungary, we show that many college applicants forgo the free opportunity to receive a tuition waiver. Using two empirical strategies, we provide causal evidence that applicants make more such mistakes when applying to programs where tuition waivers are more selective. First, exploiting a reform that increased the selectivity of admission with a tuition waiver in some programs, we find that the rate of mistakes quadrupled. Second, we show that applicants that apply to multiple programs are more likely to make mistakes in their applications to more selective programs. A non-negligible share of these mistakes are consequential, costing applicants more than 3,000 dollars on average. Costly mistakes transfer tuition waivers from high– to low-socioeconomic status students, and increase the number of students admitted to college. Our results suggest that mistakes are more common when their expected utility cost is lower.
Implementing a Continuum of Evidence-Based Psychosocial Interventions for People with Severe Mental Illness: Part 1—Review of Major Initiatives and Implementation Strategies

Objective: Providing comprehensive care to people with severe mental illness (SMI) involves moving beyond pharmacological treatment and ensuring access to a wide range of evidence-based psychosocial services. Numerous initiatives carried out in North America and internationally have promoted the widespread adoption of such services. Objectives of this rapid review were 3-fold: to identify these implementation initiatives, to describe the implementation strategies used to promote the uptake of psychosocial services, and to identify key issues related to the implementation of a broad range of services. Part 1 presents findings for objectives 1 and 2 of the review. Method: Searches were carried out in MEDLINE and PsycINFO for reports published between 1990 and 2012 using key words related to SMI, psychosocial practices, and implementation. Contacts with experts and reference list and reverse citation searches were also conducted. Results: Fifty-five articles were retained that identified more than a dozen major North American and international implementation initiatives. Initiative leaders employed diverse strategies at the planning, execution, and evaluation stages of the implementation process. Stakeholder meetings, training, ongoing consultation, and quality or fidelity monitoring were strategies consistently adopted across most initiatives, whereas theory-based approaches and organizational- and system-level strategies were less frequently described. Conclusion: Insights from the initiatives identified in this review can help guide future efforts to implement a broad range of psychosocial services for people with SMI. However, such efforts will also need to be informed by more rigorous, theory-based studies of implementation processes and outcomes.
Mutations in c-Ki-ras oncogenes in diseased livers of winter flounder from Boston Harbor.

Livers of a natural population of winter flounder from a contaminated site in Boston Harbor were examined for the presence of oncogenes by transfection of DNA into NIH 3T3 mouse fibroblasts. Tissues analyzed contained histopathologic lesions including abnormal vacuolation, biliary proliferation, and, in many cases, hepatocellular and cholangiocellular carcinomas. Fibroblasts transfected with liver DNA samples from 7 of 13 diseased animals were effective in the induction of subcutaneous sarcomas in nude mice. Further analysis revealed the presence of flounder c-Ki-ras oncogenes in all 10 nude mouse subcutaneous tumors analyzed. Direct DNA sequencing and allele-specific oligonucleotide hybridization following amplification of the tumor DNA by the polymerase chain reaction showed mutations in the 12th codon in this gene. Analysis of DNA from all nude mouse tumors as well as the livers from which they were derived showed mutations at this codon. The mutations comprised G.C----A.T or G.C----T.A base changes resulting in substitution of serine, valine, or cysteine for glycine. Liver DNA samples from five histologically normal livers of animals from a less polluted site were ineffective in the transfection assay and showed only wild-type DNA sequences (GGT) at the 12th codon of c-Ki-ras. The prevalence of mutations in this gene region was associated with the presence of liver lesions and could signify DNA damage resulting from environmental chemical exposure.
Defective Fatty Acid Uptake in the Spontaneously Hypertensive Rat Is a Primary Determinant of Altered Glucose Metabolism, Hyperinsulinemia, and Myocardial Hypertrophy*

Genetic linkage studies implicated deficiency of CD36, a membrane fatty acid (FA) transporter, in the hypertriglyceridemia and hyperinsulinemia of the spontaneously hypertensive rat (SHR). In this study we determined whether loss of CD36 function in FA uptake is a primary determinant of the SHR phenotype. In vivo, tissue distribution of iodinated, poorly oxidized β-methyliodophenyl pentadecanoic acid (BMIPP) was examined 2 h after its intravenous injection. Fatty acid transport was also measured in vitro over 20 to 120 s in isolated adipocytes and cardiomyocytes obtained from SHR and from a congenic line (SHRchr4) that incorporates a piece of chromosome 4 containing wild-type CD36. SHR heart and adipose tissue exhibited defects in FA uptake and in conversion of diglycerides to triglycerides that are similar to those observed in the CD36 null mouse. However, a key difference in SHR tissues is that fatty acid oxidation is much more severely impaired than fatty acid esterification, which may underlie the 4–5-fold accumulation of free BMIPP measured in SHR muscle. Studies with isolated adipocytes and cardiomyocytes directly confirmed both the defect in FA transport and the fact that it is underestimated by BMIPP. Heart, oxidative muscle, and adipose tissue in the SHR exhibited a large increase in glucose uptake measured in vivo using [18F]fluorodeoxyglucose. Supplementation of the diet with short-chain fatty acids, which do not require CD36-facilitated transport, eliminated the increase in glucose uptake, the hyperinsulinemia, and the heart hypertrophy in the SHR. This indicated that lack of metabolic energy consequent to deficient FA uptake is the primary defect responsible for these abnormalities. Hypertension was not alleviated by the supplemented diet suggesting it is unrelated to fuel supply and any contribution of CD36 deficiency to this trait may be more complex to determine. It may be worth exploring whether short-chain FA supplementation can reverse some of the deleterious effects of CD36 deficiency in humans, which may include hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.
Direct Lateral Approach to Pathology at the Craniocervical Junction: A Technical Note

BACKGROUND: Approaches to the foramen magnum and upper cervical spine traditionally include the posterior midline, far lateral, and endoscopic endonasal approaches. The far lateral approach is a well-established technique for the removal of pathology ventrolateral to the brainstem and the craniocervical junction, but it may be too extensive for lesions limited to areas far from the midline. OBJECTIVE: To present an alternative to the commonly used approaches to the foramen magnum and upper cervical. METHODS: We used an approach directly overlying ventral or lateral pathology. RESULTS: Two cases are presented in which the direct lateral approach followed by an occipitocervical fusion was successfully performed. CONCLUSION: This approach can be considered for patients in whom a ventral decompression is necessary but an endoscopic endonasal approach is undesirable or when a ventral, lateral, and ventrolateral resection of tumor, pannus, or infection is required. ABBREVIATION: SCM, sternocleidomastoid muscle
Quote Disclosure and Price Discovery in Multiple-Dealer Financial Markets

We examine the effects of price disclosure on market performance in a continuous experimental multiple-dealer market in which seven professional market makers trade a single security. The dealers trade with one another and with computerized informed and liquidity traders. Our key comparison is between fully public price queues (pretrade transparent market) and bilateral quoting (pretrade opaque). We find that opening spreads are wider and trading volume is lower in the opaque markets due to higher search costs there. More importantly, however, higher search costs also induce more aggressive pricing strategies, so that price discovery is much faster in the opaque markets. Article published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society for Financial Studies in its journal, The Review of Financial Studies.
Female Preference Predates the Evolution of the Sword in Swordtail Fish

The study of female preferences and the evolution of male traits has until recently centered on genetic coevolutionary mechanisms. An alternative mechanism posits that a preference results from a preestablished bias in the female information-processing system arising from sources independent of sexual selection. Male traits then arise that are selected by this preexisting preference. The genus Xiphophorus consists of swordless platyfish and swordtails. Swordlessness is the primitive state. In this study, female platyfish, X. maculatus, were found to prefer conspecific males with artificial swords over those without swords, despite evidence that the common ancestor of platyfish and swordtails was swordless. These results suggest that the evolution of the sword in the swordtail clade was a consequence of selection arising from a preexisting bias.
Early allergen exposure, skin prick responses, and atopic wheeze at age 5 in English children: a cohort study

Background: For many years it has been assumed that the risk of childhood respiratory allergies is related to allergen exposures in early life. There are, however, few prospective data in support. We aimed to examine this relationship in a representative cohort of children born in Ashford, Kent (UK). Methods: 625 children (94% of those eligible) were followed from birth to the age of 5.5 years at which time 552 underwent skin prick testing to extracts of house dust mite and cat fur allergens. Maternal reports of wheeze in the last year were collected by interview. These outcomes were related to individual domestic concentrations of Der p 1 and Fel d I allergens estimated from dust collection at the age of 8 weeks. Results: 10% of children were sensitised to house dust mite or cat at age 5.5 years; 7% had atopic wheeze. No significant relationships between allergen exposure and either sensitisation or wheeze were found but, on examination, the exposure-response relationships for both allergens and for each outcome rose steeply at low levels of exposure and were attenuated at high levels of exposure. These patterns were modified by paternal atopy and by birth order. Conclusions: There are no linear relationships between early allergen exposure and the induction of childhood respiratory allergy; rather, the risks of IgE sensitisation and asthma rise at very low levels of exposure and are attenuated thereafter. These patterns are influenced by parental atopy and birth order. These findings suggest important gene-environment interactions in the development of atopy and asthma and imply that reductions in domestic allergen exposure alone are unlikely to have a major impact in decreasing the incidence of these diseases in childhood.
Competition and Stability in European Banking: A Regional Analysis

National measures of competition and macroeconomic activity have been used by researchers in recent years to explain performance and risk differentials across banks. However, such measures may be inappropriate for banks which operate with a regional focus. In this paper we construct measures of competition and economic activity using regional data to examine bank risk and stability in 11 European countries over the period 2000-2008. The results suggest that a U-shaped relationship exists between regional bank competition and risks. Furthermore, regional economic conditions play a significant role in determining the stability of banks.
KINEMATIC CLASSIFICATIONS OF LOCAL INTERACTING GALAXIES: IMPLICATIONS FOR THE MERGER/DISK CLASSIFICATIONS AT HIGH-z

The classification of galaxy mergers and isolated disks is key for understanding the relative importance of galaxy interactions and secular evolution during the assembly of galaxies. Galaxy kinematics as traced by emission lines have been used to suggest the existence of a significant population of high-z star-forming galaxies consistent with isolated rotating disks. However, recent studies have cautioned that post-coalescence mergers may also display disk-like kinematics. To further investigate the robustness of merger/disk classifications based on kinematic properties, we carry out a systematic classification of 24 local (U)LIRGs spanning a range of morphologies: from isolated spiral galaxies, ongoing interacting systems, to fully merged remnants. We artificially redshift the Wide Field Spectrograph observations of these local (U)LIRGs to z = 1.5 to make a realistic comparison with observations at high-z, and also to ensure that all galaxies have the same spatial sampling of ∼900 pc. Using both kinemetry-based and visual classifications, we find that the reliability of kinematic classification shows a strong trend with the interaction stage of galaxies. Mergers with two nuclei and tidal tails have the most distinct kinematics compared to isolated disks, whereas a significant population of the interacting disks and merger remnants are indistinguishable from isolated disks. The high fraction of mergers displaying disk-like kinematics reflects the complexity of the dynamics during galaxy interactions. Additional merger indicators such as morphological properties traced by stars or molecular gas are required to further constrain the merger/disk classifications at high-z.
Breakdown Characteristics of N2O Gas Mixtures for Quasiuniform Electric Field under Lightning Impulse Voltage

From the viewpoint of mitigating global warming by SF<sub>6</sub> gas, this paper discusses breakdown (BD) characteristics of different electronegative gas mixtures with N<sub>2</sub>O gas as SF<sub>6</sub> gas substitutes for quasi-uniform electric field under lightning impulse voltage applications. Experimental results revealed the positive synergism in breakdown strength of binary N<sub>2</sub>O / CO<sub>2</sub> and ternary N<sub>2</sub>O / CO<sub>2</sub> / O<sub>2</sub> gas mixtures, respectively. Furthermore, N<sub>2</sub> gas as a retardant gas was also mixed with the electronegative gas mixtures in order to reduce the electron energy into the effective levels of electron attachment ability by the electronegative gas mixtures. As the result, ternary N<sub>2</sub>O / CO<sub>2</sub> / N<sub>2</sub> and quaternary N<sub>2</sub>O / CO<sub>2</sub> / O<sub>2</sub> / N<sub>2</sub> gas mixtures could exhibit the significant synergistic effect in breakdown strength. The optimum mixture rate of quaternary N<sub>2</sub>O / CO<sub>2</sub> / O<sub>2</sub> / N<sub>2</sub> gas mixtures was consistent with that estimated by assuming the independent contribution of component gases to the improvement of impulse BD characteristics.
Heterogeneous Firms, Trade Liberalization and Agglomeration

In this study, we develop an economic model to examine agglomeration of heterogeneous firms following trade liberalization. In a closed economy, we show that high-productivity firms are more likely to agglomerate because they benefit more from agglomeration than their low-productivity counterparts. However, trade liberalization, especially with a high-productivity partner, favours partial agglomeration; that is, low-productivity firms relocate away from the region where high-productivity firms agglomerate. Consequently, the welfare gap between the domestic regions of an economy narrows following trade liberalization. The latter result suggests that trade liberalization promotes regional economic development.
Luxury-cruise travellers’ brand community perception and its consequences

This study examines the roles of brand community and brand differentiation in the context of the luxury-cruise market. Employing a brand community integration scale, an online survey was conducted with 300 luxury-cruise customers in the USA. The results of structural equation modelling provided six findings as follows: (1) three of the four dimensions of brand community, namely the relationship with the cruise brand, the cruise product, and other cruisers, had positive effects on brand distinctiveness; (2) brand distinctiveness had positive effects on emotional brand attraction; (3) emotional brand attraction had positive effects on active engagement and repurchase intentions; (4) the corporate social responsibility image moderated the link between the relationship with other cruisers and brand distinctiveness; (5) customers’ desire for unique products moderated the relationship between brand distinctiveness and emotional brand attraction; and (6) service-use self-efficacy moderated the relationship between emotional brand attraction and active engagement. The results provide a deeper theoretical and practical understanding of the luxury-cruise market.
ABC and organizational change: an institutional perspective

Using institutional theory to interpret the role of management accounting in organizational change, the paper reports on a longitudinal empirical study of the implementation of an Activity-Based Costing (ABC) system in the Clearing Department of a UK-based multinational bank. Since the ABC project team was operating at the same time as other change agents (productivity consultants and human resource engineering), their inter-relationships are explored through the displacement/establishment of routines and institutionalized practices. The extent and nature of organizational change is evaluated by drawing on the dichotomies of formal versus informal change, revolutionary versus evolutionary change, and regressive versus progressive change (Burns and Scapens, 2000). Tensions were identified between the need to establish ABC as an organizational routine thereby ensuring its reproduction with the less routinized but more revolutionary aspirations of ABM. The ABC team succeeded in institutionalizing a less radical version of ABC that revealed new links between costs and products, but did not go as far as to transform the strategic thinking of the bank’s senior management.
Exploring Culture Dimensions and Enablers in Quality Management Practices: Some Findings

Although many adherents openly praise the importance of quality management practices (QMP) in organisations, others have identified significant costs and implementation obstacles. Some recent studies showed that QMP have failed due to the ignorance of quality cultures. How to improve the success rate of QMP in organisations has become a critical issue both in the academy and in practice. This paper discusses the common enablers of and cultural impacts on QMP. It explores the dimensions of national versus organisational culture, and identifies the main features of four quality culture models as advocated in the literature in relation to facilitating QMP in organisations. It was found that flat structures, decentralised functions, empowerment, flexibility, innovation, limited rules and regulations and teamwork favor the QMP implementation. For facilitating culture changes for QMP, values associated with low power distance, low uncertainty avoidance and collectivism would have to be nurtured. Further research is needed to incorporate the findings and develop a practical quality culture approach for real applications in industry.
Non‐completion of Undergraduate Study: some implications for policy in higher education

Abstract The extent to which students complete programmes of study, and the time that ‘computers’ take are two matters of concern to policy makers, not least because of their implications for the consumption of national resources. This paper draws upon a substantial study of non‐completion in the North West of England, which was commissioned to provide information that could be used to guide policy for the funding of higher education institutions in England, and discusses some of the implications of the findings. 1Revised version of a paper originally presented at the conference of the Consortium of Higher Education Researchers, Alicante, 18‐20 September 1997.
Associating Semantic Space Abnormalities With Formal Thought Disorder in Schizophrenia: Use of Triadic Comparisons

Recent studies of schizophrenia have suggested that thought disorder results from abnormalities in semantic processing. In the following pilot study, the cognitive system used for organizing and associating concepts was examined using a triadic comparison task. The semantic maps of schizophrenia patients with high thought disorder (N5) were compared to that of schizophrenia patients with low levels of thought disorder (N5) and normal controls (N10) with multidimensional scaling analysis. At initial testing and at retest, patients with high levels of thought disorder exhibited consistently lower semantic goodness of fit scores and failed to map results of triadic comparisons along well-defined dimensions. Results suggest that thought disorder in schizophrenia is related to a disturbance in the organization of semantic networks.