Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Using Hierarchical Linear Models to Examine Moderator Effects: Person-by-Organization Interactions

A cross-level interaction is said to occur when the effects of client or employee characteristics interact with organizational characteristics to influence an employee or client outcome variable. Hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) is briefly described, particularly as it applies to the study of cross-level interactions. HLM is then compared to moderated multiple regression (MMR). An HLM model incorporating cross-level interactions is illustrated with data from a study of test validity across organizational units. An HLM model for person-organization congruence is then described. As compared to MMR, HLM can more readily handle large numbers of organizations. By increasing the number of organizations that can be studied, HLM should increase the power of the designs that researchers can use.
The impact of ethical issues on privatization: Employee perceptions of HRM systems, job satisfaction and organizational loyalty in the Taiwan telecommunications industry

This paper explores organizational employee perceptions of Human Resource Management (HRM) ethical issues by measuring employee perceptions of HRM systems, job satisfaction, and organizational loyalty following the privatization of the telecommunications industry in Taiwan in (1996-present). A total of 815 employees of Chunghwa Telecommunications Company Limited, Far EasTone Telecommunications Company Limited and Taiwan Mobility Telecommunications Company Limited participated as subjects in this study. Following cross-cultural reliability and validity tests, structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to test the hypotheses. The findings reveal that changes in the management environment of the telecommunications industry have resulted in adjustments and transformations of employee perceptions regarding HRM ethical issues and actions. Previously employed HRM promotion and maintenance systems no longer correspond to certain levels of loyalty; employees today tend to act based on the influence of short-term relationships, and organizational loyalty is driven principally by reward systems. These findings provides modest support for the theory that job satisfaction plays an important role in terms of organizational loyalty, which is related to organizational employee perceptions regarding ethical business dilemmas. The results are useful for managers who seek to develop effective recruiting systems within the telecom industry. This paper also enriches the existing body of literature concerning employees’ ethical issues. Organizational changes point to a need for additional research on the different stages of the life cycle construction––a critical factor in work ethical functions; moreover, it is clear that employee values and ethical perceptions are associated with organizational value systems. Employee ethical issues responses to the privatization of the Taiwan Telecommunicationindustry serve as a valuable reference for other nations and industries facing privatization. Key words: Perfection of HRM, job satisfaction, organization loyalty, telecommunication privatization, SEM, HRM ethical issues.
Evaluating the Structure of Sluggish Cognitive Tempo Using Confirmatory Factor Analytic and Bifactor Modeling With Parent and Youth Ratings

The primary goals of this study were to evaluate the dimensionality of the Penny et al. Sluggish Cognitive Tempo Scale and to compare model fits for parent- and youth self-report versions. Participants were 262 young adolescents (ages 10-15) comprehensively diagnosed with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. Both confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and bifactor modeling were used to determine if the proposed three-factor structure previously identified through exploratory factor analysis could be confirmed. Results showed that although the three-factor CFA had better fit statistics than a one- or two-factor CFA, the bifactor model was the best-fitting model for both parent report and self-report. This implies that Sluggish Cognitive Tempo Scale is best conceptualized as having an underlying general factor, with three specific factors that may represent different etiologies. Importantly, results also showed low-to-moderate correlations between raters and equivalent or better fit statistics for self-report in comparison with parent report.
Five non‐synonymous SNPs in the gene encoding human deoxyribonuclease I‐like 2 implicated in terminal differentiation of keratinocytes reduce or abolish its activity

Several non‐synonymous SNPs in the human deoxyribonuclease I‐like 2 (DNase 1L2) gene responsible for DNA degradation during terminal differentiation of epidermal keratinocytes have been identified. However, only limited population data are available, and furthermore the effect of these SNPs on the DNase 1L2 activity remains unknown. Genotyping of all of the 17 SNPs was performed using the PCR‐RFLP method in three ethnic groups including 14 different populations. A series of amino acid‐substituted DNase 1L2 corresponding to each SNP was expressed, and its activity was measured. All of the six non‐synonymous SNPs exhibited a mono‐allelic distribution, whereas the distribution of some SNPs other than exonic ones was ethnicity‐dependent. Each of the minor alleles in SNPs, p.Ala20Asp, p.Val104Leu, p.Asp197Ala, p.Glu274Lys and p.Asp287Asn, among the non‐synonymous SNPs produced low or no activity‐harbouring DNase 1L2. DNase 1L2 is well conserved, retaining full levels of enzymatic activity, with regard to these exonic SNPs in human populations. It seems plausible to assume that these SNPs affecting the activity may be one of the factors responsible for a genetic pre‐disposition for failure of differentiation‐associated cell death in various keratinocyte lineages, thereby leading to the development of parakeratosis. Our results may have clinical implications in relation to the pathogenesis of parakeratosis.
Poverty Reduction in Nigeria: Lessons from Small Scale Farmers of Niger and Kogi States

Data for this study was collected using multi-stage sampling technique using structured questionnaire and interview schedules during the 2012/2013 farming season, obtained from randomly selecting 12 LGAs from the 46 LGAs, followed by the random selection of five villages in each LGA (i.e. 60 villages), and then random selection of nine farming households in each village (i.e. 540) sample size.From the 540 sample, poor and non-poor farmers were estimated and presented under different domains using dollar per day, minimum wage and average income; and the time required for the poor to exit poverty was computed using Watts Index. Farmers in this area have exited the international poverty line as only 3% of the farmers fall below the dollar poverty line while most (66%) of them are below the average income poverty line. Farmers from Kogi States were poorer than those of Niger under the three poverty lines although almost equal per cent of male and female farmers were non-poor under the dollar poverty line. Separated family members, those from Dekina LGA and those had only in-service training seems to exhibit high level of Original Research Article Nmadu et al.; BJEMT, 5(1): 124-134, 2015; Article no.BJEMT. 2015.010 125 poverty. Farmers that went through adult education training are among the richest. Eleven years is needed for the poor farmers to exit poverty on transfer of N584,267.92 ($3,651.67) to them. It appears that the critical policies needed to achieve the transformation agenda are client specific solutions to poverty reduction that addresses the issues of wealth distribution and enhanced property rights among homogenous income groups rather than national or international approach.
Risk Premiums and Exchange Rate Expectations: A Reassessment of the So-Called Dollar Peg Policies of Crisis East Asian Countries, 1994-97*

We use an unobserved components model to extract the foreign exchange risk premium from the excess ex post returns of East Asian currency assets over US dollar assets and derive the implied expected future spot rates of East Asian currencies against the US dollar. Empirical results, obtained from monthly data on the crisis East Asian countries of Indonesia, Malaysia, Korea and Thailand for the period January 1994-June 1997, generally indicate that the risk premium was substantial and time-varying and that market participants consistently formed expectations of either appreciation or depreciation over the coming month. The presence of a risk premium means that East Asian currency assets and US dollar assets were imperfect substitutes, so that sterilization was effective. The expectations of short-term depreciation or appreciation suggest that the so-called dollar peg policies were not credible. JEL Classification: F31, F32, F33, O53
Learning to work in asymmetric relationships: insights from the computer software industry

Purpose – This paper aims to provide guidance for managers so that they may develop advanced supply chain management (SCM) capabilities in the context of asymmetric alliances. These alliances, generally characterised by large dissimilarities between the partners, often facilitate value-creating opportunities. Design/methodology/approach – Using case studies, the paper analyses similarities and differences in SCM between symmetric and asymmetric alliances within supply networks. It focusses on the key dimensions of complementarity, value distribution, relational management and specialisation. Findings – It was found that the question of complementarity, although important, should not be equated to the need for symmetry but to the ability of the firms in the supply network to learn to work together. For small firms who seek co-creation with large partners, this means collaboration, specialisation through relation-specific investments, flexibility and understanding the overall value system in which their bus.
Leverage, Corporate Strategy and Earnings Management: Case of Indonesia

This study examine weather leverage can motivate company to manipulate their earnings in Indonesian manufacturing industry for the periods 2009-2011. Particularly, we use accrual earnings management and real earnings management to catch broader scope of earnings management. We also examined weather corporate strategy, namely diversification, have the moderating effect on the relationship between leverage and accrual earnings management. The number of samples of this research were 141 of manufacturing companies, which are selected using purposive sampling method. Our results suggest that leverage have a positive effect to accrual earnings management, but leverage have a negative effect to real earnings management. This study also find that diversification do not moderate the relationship between leverage and accrual earnings management.
Using Theory and Technology to Design a Practical and Generalizable Smoking Reduction Intervention

The aim of this article is to describe the process of using theory to form strategies for a generalizable smoking reduction intervention delivered through multiple intervention modalities. This report describes the process of integrating theory, data from diverse sources, staff from three different organizations, and different intervention modalities into an efficient, large-scale smoking reduction program featuring automated data from electronic medical records, computer-assisted telephone interviews, and tailored newsletters. The authors successfully developed a program that was consistently implemented as planned for 320 smokers in a managed care organization. The mapping of theory to intervention, data transfer and security procedures, and processes and strategies used to overcome challenges to intervention implementation should provide lessons learned for similar health promotion projects. Few intervention studies discuss details of how they translate theory into practice or how they integrate different modalities and collaborating institutions, but such integration is critical for project success.
Construct Validity for a Cost-effective Arthroscopic Surgery Simulator for Resident Education

Introduction:Arthroscopy is one of the most challenging surgical skills to assess and teach. Although basic psychomotor arthroscopic skills, such as triangulation and object manipulation, are incorporated into many simulation exercises, they are not always individually taught or objectively evaluated. In addition, arthroscopic instruments, arthroscopy cameras, and the cadaver or joint models necessary for practice are costly. Methods:A low-cost arthroscopic simulator was created to practice triangulation, probing, horizon changes, suture management, and object manipulation. The simulator materials were purchased exclusively from national hardware stores with a total cost averaging $79. The universal serial bus (USB) camera is included in the total cost. Three residency programs accredited by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education were tested on the simulator. Replica boards were created at each institution. Participants included medical students (20), residents (46), and attending physicians (9). Results:Construct validity—the ability to differentiate between novice, intermediate, and senior level participants—was obtained. On all tasks, junior residents scored at a statistically significant lower rate than senior residents and attending physicians. Conclusions:This cost-effective arthroscopic surgical simulator objectively demonstrated that attending physicians and senior residents performed at a higher level than junior residents and novice medical students. The results of this study demonstrate that this simulator could be an important training tool for resident education.
What type of firm forges closer innovation linkages with Portuguese Universities

Using large-scale survey data for (1538) firms located in Portugal, we analyze which firm characteristics are conducive to establishing contacts with universities. Although almost half of the firms surveyed stated they had established some contacts with universities in the period 2001-2003, only a few (21.5%) consider universities an important source of knowledge and information for their innovation activities. A more disturbing finding is that 61% of the total firms claimed they had no intentions of establishing future contacts with universities and 38% would only be moderately interested in doing so (‘if requested’). The Universities of Minho, Porto and Aveiro are the ones that cover a higher percentage of contacts from firms. Furthermore, in terms of the most demanding type of contacts (protocols, partnerships and projects), the Tecnica de Lisboa (Lisbon Technical), Aveiro and Porto are the best-ranked universities. Our analysis indicates that the firms’ propensity to draw on each of the Portuguese universities is explained by the characteristics of the different firms and their regional and industrial patterns. For instance, firms that have established contacts with the Aveiro, Coimbra, Evora, Lisboa, and the Nova (Lisbon) universities tend to be relatively R&D-intensive, whereas those that contact the Catolica (Porto) and Porto universities are relatively large and export-intensive. If we exclude the Algarve and Beira Interior universities, firms that contact all the other universities tend to be relatively human capital-intensive. Firms belonging to ‘R&D and Engineering services’ show a relatively high propensity to draw on universities in general, and the Aveiro, Beira Interior, Catolica (Porto), Porto and Tecnica de Lisboa universities, in particular. ‘Textiles and leather’ firms establish more contacts with the Beira Interior and Minho universities, thus reflecting to some extent the specialization pattern of the corresponding region. An unambiguous and statistically robust finding is that proximity matters highly in firms-universities linkages - our estimations reveal that firms are more likely to contacts universities located nearby.
Mixtures, envelopes and hierarchical duality

We develop a connection between mixture and envelope representations of objective functions that arise frequently in statistics. We refer to this connection by using the term ‘hierarchical duality’. Our results suggest an interesting and previously underexploited relationship between marginalization and profiling, or equivalently between the Fenchel–Moreau theorem for convex functions and the Bernstein–Widder theorem for Laplace transforms. We give several different sets of conditions under which such a duality result obtains. We then extend existing work on envelope representations in several ways, including novel generalizations to variance–mean models and to multivariate Gaussian location models. This turns out to provide an elegant missing data interpretation of the proximal gradient method, which is a widely used algorithm in machine learning. We show several statistical applications in which the framework proposed leads to easily implemented algorithms, including a robust version of the fused lasso, non‐linear quantile regression via trend filtering and the binomial fused double‐Pareto model. Code for the examples is available on GitHub at https://github.com/jgscott/hierduals.
Distinct regulation of alternative polyadenylation and gene expression by nuclear poly(A) polymerases

Abstract Polyadenylation of nascent RNA by poly(A) polymerase (PAP) is important for 3′ end maturation of almost all eukaryotic mRNAs. Most mammalian genes harbor multiple polyadenylation sites (PASs), leading to expression of alternative polyadenylation (APA) isoforms with distinct functions. How poly(A) polymerases may regulate PAS usage and hence gene expression is poorly understood. Here, we show that the nuclear canonical (PAPα and PAPγ) and non-canonical (Star-PAP) PAPs play diverse roles in PAS selection and gene expression. Deficiencies in the PAPs resulted in perturbations of gene expression, with Star-PAP impacting lowly expressed mRNAs and long-noncoding RNAs to the greatest extent. Importantly, different PASs of a gene are distinctly regulated by different PAPs, leading to widespread relative expression changes of APA isoforms. The location and surrounding sequence motifs of a PAS appear to differentiate its regulation by the PAPs. We show Star-PAP-specific PAS usage regulates the expression of the eukaryotic translation initiation factor EIF4A1, the tumor suppressor gene PTEN and the long non-coding RNA NEAT1. The Star-PAP-mediated APA of PTEN is essential for DNA damage-induced increase of PTEN protein levels. Together, our results reveal a PAS-guided and PAP-mediated paradigm for gene expression in response to cellular signaling cues.
The impact of information sharing and ordering co‐ordination on supply chain performance

This paper presents a study on the impacts of information sharing and ordering co‐ordination on the performance of a supply chain with one capacitated supplier and multiple retailers under demand uncertainty. In particular, a computer model is proposed to simulate inventory replenishment decisions by the retailers and production decisions by the supplier under different demand patterns and capacity tightness. It is found that information sharing and ordering co‐ordination significantly impact the supply chain performance in terms of both total cost and service level. It is also found that the value of sharing information and ordering co‐ordination is significantly affected by demand patterns and capacity tightness. Guidelines are developed for companies to share information and co‐ordinate orders under different conditions. These guidelines can help companies reduce costs and improve customer service levels in the supply chain.
No preferential loss of paternal 19q alleles in oligodendroglial tumors

Recently, exclusive loss of paternal 19q alleles in six of six oligodendrogliomas has been reported, indicating that parental imprinting plays a role in these tumors. We examined a series of 10 oligodendrogliomas and 3 oligoastrocytomas with allelic losses on 1p and 19q for the parental origin of the lost alleles. Ten cases lost paternal 1p alleles and 3 cases lost maternal alleles. For 19q, six cases had loss of paternal alleles and seven cases of had loss of maternal alleles. These random distributions do not support the hypothesis that parental imprinting accounts for inactivation of the putative oligodendroglioma tumor suppressor genes. Ann Neurol 2003
The Influence of Computer Graphics on the Recall of Information

This article describes an experiment that examined the influence of computer plots of three dimensional graphics on the recall of information. Three dimensional graphics and a tabular mode of presentation were used to convey information to two experimental groups of subjects. The graphics were produced by using perspective projections. The outcome was that the three dimensional graphics did not result in greater recall of information than did a tabular representation for the task that was assigned.
Measuring the performance of asset management systems

Performance measurement of asset management systems remains a poorly understood area both in terms of industrial practice as well as academic research. Continuous improvement of asset management systems require a robust performance measurement system that will allow organisations to understand the performance of various elements within the asset management system - thereby ensuring that (i) organisational KPIs and targets are achieved; and (ii) corrective actions in terms of “fine tuning” those elements of the asset management system that are not performing well. This paper will answer the following questions regarding the measurement of the performance of asset management system and how this can be linked back to business performance: (1) What is the state of play of performance measurement for asset management systems? (2) How to develop performance measures for organisations' asset management systems?
Serum Protein Changes after Abdominal Surgery

Changes in the concentrations of 11 serum proteins following surgery for a variety of conditions have been investigated. Protein changes were analogous to those observed after injury or trauma, but showed differences in the detailed behaviour of the pattern of change. Marked increases in the concentrations of five acute-phase reactant proteins (APRP) were seen, with maximum concentrations usually being reached 2 days after surgery in patients who made an uncomplicated recovery from their operations. Considerable differences were observed between the patterns of change of APRP in patients who developed complications during recovery and in patients who made an uncomplicated recovery from surgery. Concentrations of C-reactive protein and alpha-1 antichymotrypsin (ACT) were much higher in the patients who developed complications, with ACT concentrations providing the clearest separation between the groups. The main factor influencing the changes in APRP during the recovery period appeared to be the development of sepsis. Preoperative concentrations of APRP had no prognostic value for identifying patients at risk of developing complications. The study suggests that the localisation of inflamed tissue involved in the disease processes may influence the detailed behaviour of the acute-phase reactant proteins.
Consumer Evaluations of Brand Extensions

Two studies were conducted to obtain insights on how consumers form attitudes toward brand extensions, (i.e., use of an established brand name to enter a new product category). In one study, reactions to 20 brand extension concepts involving six well-known brand names were examined. Attitude toward the extension was higher when (1) there was both a perception of “fit” between the two product classes along one of three dimensions and a perception of high quality for the original brand or (2) the extension was not regarded as too easy to make. A second study examined the effectiveness of different positioning strategies for extensions. The experimental findings show that potentially negative associations can be neutralized more effectively by elaborating on the attributes of the brand extension than by reminding consumers of the positive associations with the original brand.