Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Towards a survival capabilities framework: Lessons from the Portuguese Textile and Clothing industry

Influenced dramatically by the financial crisis and the European sovereign debt crisis, many European industries are now struggling with the new international division of labour that compels the shift of manufacturing to lower labour cost countries. These decisive global challenges underline the need to investigate why some firms can survive such crises while many others fail. Grounded in this narrative, ‘survival’ can be regarded as a period of the firm’s growth and change over time, where it faces a crisis and stiff competition. This view is different from the one that defines the concept of ‘business survival’ as the second stage of the firm’s lifespan, after birth and before success, where it has obtained certain customers having their demanded products or services delivered (Lewis & Churchill, 1983). Survival is of essential significance for the firm since a desirable performance over the surviving period enables eventual success, whilst a poor performance precipitates failure and shutdown (Bo , 2008; Korunka, Kessler, Frank, & Lueger, 2010; Naidoo, 2010). Although the literature is well developed on the structural determinants of firm survival, mostly related to firm age and size, less is known about certain internal capabilities the firm needs to develop in order to compensate for resource scarcity and financial restrictions caused by a crisis or other environmental disruptions. This reinforces the need to provide a more detailed clarification of the concept of ‘business survival’ and explore the capabilities that are vital to the survival of firms in times of struggle.
The dynamics of alignment: resolving strategy ambiguity within bounded choices

Alignment of information systems (IS) with business activities has been an important problem for practitioners for many years even though there has been considerable research in the area. A criticism of some past research into IS/business alignment is that it has ignored organisational complexity and context. This is partly due to the dominant paradigm in use within IS research. One result of this paradigm is that there are numerous prescriptions provided in the literature for improving alignment but little in the way of theory development that explains the behaviour of practitioners when confronted with the task of attaining alignment. To address these criticisms a grounded theory approach was adopted using a coding family that encouraged the discovery of systems of interaction between variables rather than assuming linear causality. Data was collected via three unstructured focus groups that limited the effect of prior reading of the literature, an important consideration when conducting a grounded theory study. These were followed by semi-structured individual interviews. The instruments for the latter were developed after the focus group interviews were analysed, so reducing the impact of a priori reading. Analysis of the focus group interviews found that the major concern of practitioners was aligning IS strategies to either business strategies documented in business plans or the business strategies in use. This is a similar result to earlier alignment research. As a result of analysis of the focus group interviews the research question stabilised. This research investigated how factors within an organisational setting impact the ability of senior IT managers to identify, then act upon, the business strategies in use. It confirmed many of the enablers and inhibitors to alignment identified in earlier research. However, it also identified two variables that are rarely given prominence in the literature: the mental models held by managers; and the motivation and © Bruce Campbell, 2007 vii Faculty of IT, UTS Dynamics of Alignment measurement schemes applied to managers. It is believed that both these variables have a significant impact on the alignment of IS and business strategies. The theory developed here demonstrates that a system of variables will tend to encourage IT managers to either collaborate with their business peers, or retreat from the business and concentrate on providing a low cost reliable technical IT solution. In the former situation alignment of IT managers’ actions to those of their business peers is encouraged. In the latter situation there will be little alignment between business and IS strategies nor between the actions of business and IT managers. A feedback loop of actions by actors within the system tends to reinforce the situation making a change in response extremely problematic. This, then, helps explain the intractable nature of alignment that has been observed for many years. © Bruce Campbell, 2007 viii Faculty of IT, UTS Dynamics of Alignment
Early Career Doctors and In/justice in Work

This chapter examines medical doctors’ ways of constructing and mitigating gendered and age-related injustice in their work and careers. Interviews with doctors at different career stages and in different professional settings in Finland are analysed. The analysis demonstrates that the interviewed doctors were not eager to construct the gendered and age-related constraints they or their colleagues face at work as markers of illegitimate inequality. The doctors were more eager to view work-related constraints as the result of personal choices and emphasise doctors’ private responsibility to manage their work and careers. In this chapter, we contextualise these observations as features of the ‘male’ profession of medicine and the profession’s emphasis on middle-class masculinity, which, despite the growing proportion of female physicians in younger cohorts, dominates over other career and work orientations in the culture of the Finnish medical field. The culture of male professions values individual endurance and freedom from family responsibilities, which may have problematic consequences for young doctors, particularly young mothers, whose childcare responsibilities can
Estimation of sparse distributions

A vector is called sparse when most of its components are zero. Many natural signals admit sparse representations with respect to some bases. This dissertation deals with the problem of recovering a sparse signal from a small number of measurements formed by computing the inner product of the signal with the rows of a measurement matrix. The task of recovering a sparse signal from its small number of measurements is a problem of finding the sparsest solution of a underdetermined system of linear equations. The problem can be solved by using a l0 norm based optimization problem which is NP-hard in general. Some recent researches have demonstrated that the NP-hard problem can be solved tractably by using linear programming approach under some reasonable conditions. However, real-world applications often demand more efficient algorithms which are robust to measurement noise. To this aim, an efficient sparse signal recovery algorithm is developed in the first part of the thesis. The proposed algorithm uses a convex-concave procedure to optimize its cost function. A range of theoretical results are presented. The theoretical analysis of the algorithm gives a bound on the run-time estimation error. In many real world problems the resulting sparse signals exhibit additional structures. The proposed algorithm is then extended to exploit the structures of sparse signal. Experimental results demonstrated that in most settings the extended algorithm outperforms other conventional algorithms with a large margin. Finally an interesting sparse signal recovery approach is considered when a part of the support of the sparse signal is known in advance. A maximum a posteriori (MAP) estimation framework is considered to deal with the issue. Second part of the thesis explores the applicability of the proposed algorithms for solving some practical problems. In some cases, the proposed algorithm exhibits additional advantages. For example, in the broadband direction of arrival (DOA) estimation problem, the proposed algorithm allows relaxing the half-wavelength sensor spacing restriction, which leads to a significant performance improvement. In some applications, the proposed algorithm can exploit underlying structure of the linear system. For example, in frequency estimation problem, it is possible to exploit the structure of the Fourier basis to achieve a significant reduction of the computational complexity.
Data and Analytics - Data-Driven Business Models: A Blueprint for Innovation

In this paper the authors present an integrated framework that could help stimulate an organisation to become data-driven by enabling it to construct its own Data-Driven Business Model (DDBM) in coordination with the six fundamental questions for a data-driven business. There are a series of implications that may be particularly helpful to companies already leveraging ‘big data’ for their businesses or planning to do so. By utilising the blueprint an existing business is able to follow a step-by-step process to construct its own DDBM centred around the business’ own desired outcomes, organisation dynamics, resources, skills and the business sector within which it sits. Furthermore, an existing business can identify, within its own organisation, the most common inhibitors to constructing and implementing an effective DDBM and plan to mitigate these accordingly. Within the DDBM-Innovation Blueprint inhibitors are colour-coded and ranked from severe (red) to minor (green). This system of inhibitor ranking represents the frequency and severity of inhibitor, as perceived by 41 strategy and data-oriented elite interviewees.
Towards a lexically specific grammar of children’s question constructions

Abstract This paper examines early syntactic development from a usage-based perspective, using transcripts of the spontaneous speech of two Englishspeaking children recorded at relatively dense intervals at ages 2;0 and 3;0. We focus primarily on the children’s question constructions, in an effort to determine (i) what kinds of units they initially extract from the input (their size and degree of specificity / abstractness); (ii) what operations they must perform in order to construct novel utterances using these units; and (iii) how the units and the operations change between the ages of two and three. In contrast to nativist theories of language development which suggest that children are working with abstract syntactic categories from an early point in development, we suggest that the data are better accounted for by the proposal that children begin with lexically specific phrases and gradually build up a repertoire of increasingly abstract constructions.
Enhanced collision avoidance mechanisms for wireless sensor networks through high accuracy collision modeling

Wireless channel and multi-hop communications cause a significant number of packet collisions in Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs). Although a collision may cause packet loss and reduce network performance, low-power wireless transceivers allow packet reception in the presence of collisions if at least one signal can provide a sufficiently high power compared with other signals. Therefore, with respect to the large number of nodes used in WSNs, which necessitates the use of simulation for protocol development, collisions should be addressed at two layers: First, collisions should be modeled at the physical layer through a high-accuracy packet reception algorithm that decides about packet reception in the presence of collisions. Second, collision avoidance mechanisms should be employed at the Medium Access Control (MAC) layer to reduce packet losses caused by collisions. Unfortunately, the existing packet reception algorithms exhibit low accuracy and impede the development of efficient collision avoidance mechanisms. From the collision avoidance perspective, existing contention-based MAC protocols do not provide reliable packet broadcasting, thereby affecting the initialization performance of WSNs. In addition, despite the benefits of schedule-based MAC protocols during the data-gathering phase, the existing mechanisms rely on unrealistic assumptions. The first major contribution of this work is CApture Modeling Algorithm (CAMA), which enables collision modeling with high accuracy and efficiency at the physical layer. The higher accuracy of CAMA against existing approaches is validated through extensive comparisons with empirical experiments. The second major contribution includes mechanisms that improve the reliability of packet broadcasting. In particular, adaptive contention window adjustment mechanisms and the Geowindow algorithm are proposed for collision avoidance during the initialization phases. These mechanisms considerably improve the accuracy of the initialization phases, without violating duration and energy efficiency requirements. As the third major contribution, a distributed and concurrent link-scheduling algorithm (called DICSA) is proposed for collision avoidance during the data-gathering phase. DICSA provides faster slot assignment, higher spatial reuse and lower energy consumption, compared with existing algorithms. Furthermore, evaluating DICSA within a MAC protocol confirms its higher throughput, higher delivery ratio, and lower end-to-end delay.
Effectiveness of Simulation Training on Transfer of Statistical Concepts

The effectiveness of simulations for teaching statistical concepts was compared to the effectiveness of a textbook. The variable Medium (simulation versus textbook) and Question specificity (Specific versus Non-specific), were manipulated factorially. Question specificity was defined as follows: Subjects were presented with a scenario in which gumballs were sampled from an urn. Subjects in the “Specific” condition were given a specific question about the outcome of the sampling procedure to consider; subjects in the “Non-specific” condition were asked generally to consider what would happen. A no-treatment control was included. The subjects consisted of 115 college students. The dependent variable was performance on problems requiring subjects to apply what they learned to ill defined everyday problems. Subjects trained by simulation performed significantly better than those trained with a textbook. Subjects in the “Specific” condition performed better than those in the “Non-specific” condition, although the difference did not reach conventional levels of significance. These results support the increasing use of simulation in education and training.
No Alterations of Brain Structural Asymmetry in Major Depressive Disorder: An ENIGMA Consortium Analysis.

OBJECTIVE Asymmetry is a subtle but pervasive aspect of the human brain, and it may be altered in several psychiatric conditions. MRI studies have shown subtle differences of brain anatomy between people with major depressive disorder and healthy control subjects, but few studies have specifically examined brain anatomical asymmetry in relation to this disorder, and results from those studies have remained inconclusive. At the functional level, some electroencephalography studies have indicated left fronto-cortical hypoactivity and right parietal hypoactivity in depressive disorders, so aspects of lateralized anatomy may also be affected. The authors used pooled individual-level data from data sets collected around the world to investigate differences in laterality in measures of cortical thickness, cortical surface area, and subcortical volume between individuals with major depression and healthy control subjects. METHODS The authors investigated differences in the laterality of thickness and surface area measures of 34 cerebral cortical regions in 2,256 individuals with major depression and 3,504 control subjects from 31 separate data sets, and they investigated volume asymmetries of eight subcortical structures in 2,540 individuals with major depression and 4,230 control subjects from 32 data sets. T1-weighted MRI data were processed with a single protocol using FreeSurfer and the Desikan-Killiany atlas. The large sample size provided 80% power to detect effects of the order of Cohen's d=0.1. RESULTS The largest effect size (Cohen's d) of major depression diagnosis was 0.085 for the thickness asymmetry of the superior temporal cortex, which was not significant after adjustment for multiple testing. Asymmetry measures were not significantly associated with medication use, acute compared with remitted status, first episode compared with recurrent status, or age at onset. CONCLUSIONS Altered brain macro-anatomical asymmetry may be of little relevance to major depression etiology in most cases.
Measuring Competitiveness and Cooperativeness

We develop an index of competitiveness and cooperativeness which is based on the primitives of a normal-form game, i.e. players, strategies and payoffs. The index relies on a unique decomposition of a given game into a zero-sum game and a common-interest game. The index decreases in the distance to its zero-sum part and it increases in the distance to its common-interest part. Alternatively, the index increases if the share of variation in payoffs captured by the zero-sum part increases We compute our index for well-known classes of games such as Prisoner's Dilemma,games with Strategic Complements and Substitutes, All-pay auctions, Tullock contests, and Public Goods games. The comparative statics of our index coincide with economic intuition. The index does well in explaining experimental
Strategies To Improve Retention Of Postgraduate Business Students In Distance Education Courses: An Australian Case

In spite of the clear value of postgraduate business students to many providers of distance education courses, the factors affecting the retention of these students have received limited attention in the literature. In addressing this gap, this paper presents the findings of a qualitative study into the factors affecting the retention of postgraduate business students at a major Australian distance education university. The findings of this study suggest that a range of situational, dispositional and attitudinal factors impact upon student retention on this context, both as enablers of and obstacles to ongoing participation. In many cases, these factors differ to those identified in the existing literature on student retention. Based on these findings, we present a range of strategies designed to improve the retention of postgraduate business students by maximising enabling factors and minimising the impact of any identified obstacles. Limitations of the study and suggestions for further research are also presented.
THE WRITING PROCESSES OF STUDENTS WITH LEARNING DIFFICULTIES IN L2 (ENGLISH) COMPOSITION: PROTOCOL ANALYSIS

Writing is a complex and distinctive process. The present study investigated the writing processes of the 11 th and 12 th grade Pakistani students with learning difficulties. The purpose of this qualitative study was to investigate the writing processes of students with learning difficulties for the sake of understanding the reasons of their poor performance in English composition and to suggest implications for the teaching of English composition. This study also explores the ways students with and without learning difficulties (LD) write, their English composition, to understand the similarities and differences in the use of writing processes among students with and without learning difficulties. Moreover, this dissertation also aims at investigating the sub processes involved in the actual process of writing for example; planning, organizing, translating, reviewing, reading and editing. For the purpose of exploring the writing processes of students with and without learning difficulties (LD) think-aloud protocols and in-depth retrospective interview were used as data collection tools. The data sets were qualitatively analyzed. Interpretive mode of inquiry was used to analyze the data. The findings of this study show that the students with and without learning difficulties (LD) used different writing processes. There writing processes were recursive and cyclic and these findings corroborate with findings of Flower and Hayes (1981). In addition student writers with and without learning difficulties used the sub processes that are involved in the actual process of writing for example; planning, organizing, translating, reviewing, reading and editing. These results are consistent with the findings of previous studies conducted in the area of teaching of writing.
Ethos of science and the approach to promotion in science

Abstract The quality of research is the most important feature in the world of science. A researcher who achieves an excellence in science has a chance to win recognition and gain authority in her scientific field. In order to succeed in science, a researcher ought to undertake effective personal marketing efforts. The aim of personal marketing is to create and maintain a desirable attitude and/or behavior of others towards a scientist and build a positive scientific image of herself. A scientist who engages in self-promotion may, however, take on herself the odium of the academic community. Hence, the researcher's perception of the importance of personal marketing engagement for success in science determines her activity in this domain. The approach to the issue may vary depending on the system of values and norms recognized as valid in science. The purpose of the study is to examine the differences in perceptions of the importance of personal marketing engagement between researchers who identify themselves with different scientific ethoses. In order to achieve the objective of the study, I created two research scales and classified surveyed scientists into four groups. Three of these groups professed the ethos of academic, industrial and post-academic science respectively, and the fourth group did not identify with any of the value systems above. Then, I examined how the members of distinguished groups perceive the importance of three potential success factors in science, i.e.: popularization of research results, recognition in the scientific community and recognition outside the scientific community. The analyses were performed on data obtained from 800 scientists who participated in a nationwide CAPI study conducted by National Information Processing Institute at the turn of 2015 and 2016. According to the surveyed scientists, the most attention should be paid to the popularization of research results, and the least attention should be given to the activities that ensure recognition outside the scientific community. Researchers who identify themselves with the ethos of post-academic science, that is based on values of both academic and industrial sciences, rate the importance of all three aspects of self-promotion relatively high. Scientists who acknowledge the Merton's ethos of academic science are at the opposite extreme. They rate extremely low the importance of striving for recognition in the non-scientific community. In accordance with intuition, researchers who incorporate the values of Ziman's industrial science appreciate recognition in the scientific community less than other respondents. It is safe to say that the greatest marketing awareness is characteristic for scientists who accept the ethos of post academic science, and the poorest - for those who identify themselves with the ethos of academic science.