Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Back to the Structural and Dynamical Properties of Neutral-Ionic Phase Transitions

Although the Neutral-Ionic transition in mixed stack charge-transfer crystals was discovered almost forty years ago, many features of this intriguing phase transition, as well as open questions, remain at the heart of today’s science. First of all, there is the most spectacular manifestation of electronic ferroelectricity, in connection with a high degree of covalency between alternating donor and acceptor molecules along stacks. In addition, a charge-transfer instability from a quasi-neutral to a quasi-ionic state takes place concomitantly with the stack dimerization, which breaks the inversion symmetry. Moreover, these systems exhibit exceptional one-dimensional fluctuations, with an enhancement of the effects of electron-lattice interaction. This may lead to original physical pictures for the dynamics of pre-transitional phenomena, as the possibility of a pronounced Peierls-type instability and/or the generation of unconventional non-linear excitations along stacks. Last but not least, these mixed stack charge-transfer systems constitute a valuable test bed to explore some of the key questions of ultrafast photo-induced phenomena, such as multiscale dynamics, selective coherent excitations and non-linear responsiveness. These different aspects will be discussed through the structural and dynamical features of the neutral-ionic transition, considering old and recent results, open questions and future opportunities. In particular, we revisit the structural changes and symmetry considerations, the pressure-temperature phase diagrams and conclude by their interplay with the photo-induced dynamics.
Credit risk and efficiency in the European banking system: A three-stage analysis

Increased competition and the attempts of European banks to increase their presence in other markets may have affected the efficiency and credit risk in the banking system. The first aspect is the incentive in reducing costs in order to gain in competitiveness. The second is associated with their lack of knowledge of such markets and/ or acceptance of a higher risk in order to increase their market share. Despite the importance of these aspects, banking literature has usually analysed the effects of competition on the efficiency of banking systems without considering these aspects. The few studies that attempt to obtain risk adjusted efficiency measures do not consider that part of the risk is due to exogeneous circumstances. This article proposes a new three-stage sequential technique, based on the DEA model and on the decomposition of risk into its internal and external components, for obtaining efficiency measures adjusted for risk and environment. It is seen that the technique allows the use of any existing technique of incorporation of environmental variables in DEA analysis.
Is the Long-Run Underperformance of Seasoned Equity Issues Irrational? Evidence from Spain

We investigate if the long-run underperformance in the year after the SEO is related to behavioural biases that led investors to adjust their pre-issue over optimism slowly. We also examine the existence of arbitrage costs that preclude mispricing from being corrected rapidly by sophisticated investors who act as arbitrageurs. Our findings support the contention that small SEO firms are overpriced at the time of the issue and imply that their post-underperformance is related to arbitrage costs, where transaction costs play an important role although holding costs do not.
Using Brand Personality to Differentiate Regional Tourism Destinations

Destination branding is growing rapidly as an approach to tourism destination promotion. While this concept has been borrowed from the world of general consumer goods and applied in a number of national tourism destinations, academic analysis of the value and effectiveness of destination branding has emerged more slowly. The present article addresses this paucity of academic scrutiny by examining the value of the destination brand personality construct in distinguishing between two regional tourism destinations. A survey of 480 tourists was conducted adjacent to the Great Barrier Reef in Northern Australia to gather data about the destination image attributes of two regional destinations that were branded by a state destination marketing organization. The results indicated that tourists were able to articulate different destination brand personalities for each region. The results also indicated that more work might need to be done to adapt existing frameworks of brand personality to the tourism context.
A QoS Guaranteed Technique for Cloud Applications Based on Software Defined Networking

Due to the centralized control, network-wide monitoring and flow-level scheduling of software-defined-networking (SDN), it can be utilized to achieve quality of service (QoS) for cloud applications and services, such as voice over IP, video conference, and online games. However, most existing approaches stay at the QoS framework design and test level, while few works focus on studying the basic QoS techniques supported by SDN. In this paper, we enable SDN with QoS guaranteed abilities, which could provide end-to-end QoS routing for each cloud user service. First of all, we implement an application identification technique on SDN controller to determine required QoS levels for each application type. Then, we implement a queue scheduling technique on SDN switch. It queues the application flows into different queues and schedules the flows out of the queues with different priorities. At last, we evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed SDN-based QoS technique through both theoretical and experimental analysis. Theoretical analysis shows that our methods can provide differentiated services for the application flows mapped to different QoS levels. Experiment results show that when the output interface has sufficiently available bandwidth, the delay can be reduced by 28% on average. In addition, for the application flow with the highest priority, our methods can reduce 99.99% delay and increase 90.17% throughput on average when the output interface utilization approaches to the maximum bandwidth limitation.
PEER-BASED OUTREACH WORKERS AS AGENTS OF SOCIAL COLLECTIVE CHANGE

ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS iii TABLE OF CONTENTS iv LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS vi CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1 Home, Health, Hope, Everything 3 Reviewing the Position of Peers 6 Restructuring the Organizational Landscape 7 Redressing the Biological Landscape 11 Redefining the Social Landscape 12 Reshaping the Personal Landscape 14 Central Theoretical Concepts 15 Social Exclusion 15 Social Capital 19 Placemaking 22 CHAPTER 2: ‘NOTHING ABOUT US WITHOUT US’: ORGANIZING AND DELIVERING HARM REDUCTION IN VANCOUVER 27 Interpreting “Harm Reduction” 27 The Harm: Drug use and Consequences in Vancouver, BC 29 Reducing: The Intersection of Top-Down and Bottom-Up Organizational Efforts 30 BC Harm Reduction Strategies and Services 32 Grassroots Organizations 32 CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY 38 Study Design 38 Empowerment as a Participatory Process 38 Community-Based Participatory Research 39 Setting and Population 42 The Land 42 The People 43 The Services 45 Study Participant Characteristics 46 Operational and Ethics Approval 47 Data Collection and Analysis 47
Novice nurse productivity following workplace bullying.

PURPOSE To determine the prevalence and effects of workplace bullying (WPB) on the work productivity of novice nurses (NNs). DESIGN Internet-based descriptive cross-sectional survey design. METHODS One hundred ninety seven NNs (91.4% female, 8.6% male) in practice less than 2 years completed the Healthcare Productivity Survey, Negative Acts Questionnaire, and a demographic survey. FINDINGS The majority (72.6%, n= 147) of NNs reported a WPB event within the previous month, with 57.9% (n= 114) the direct targets and another 14.7% (n= 29) witnesses of WPB behaviors. Using a weighted Negative Acts Questionnaire score, 21.3% (n= 43) of NNs were bullied daily over a 6-month period. When asked if bullied over the past 6 months, approximately 44.7% (n= 88) of NNs reported repeated, targeted WPB, with 55.3% (n= 109) reporting no WPB. WPB acts were primarily perpetrated by more experienced nursing colleagues (63%, n= 126). Further, work productivity regression modeling was significant and NN productivity was negatively impacted by workplace bullying (r=-.322, p= .045). CONCLUSIONS WPB continues in the healthcare environment and negatively affects bullied NNs' productivity by affecting cognitive demands and ability to handle or manage their workload. CLINICAL RELEVANCE Healthcare facilities should continue to measure WPB in the work environment after policy implementation as well as eliminate negative behaviors through root-cause analysis to correct environmental factors associated with WPB.
Perceived prevalence and risks for human papillomavirus (HPV) infection among women who have sex with women.

BACKGROUND Previous research shows that perceptions of disease prevalence, particularly infectious diseases, are also related to health behaviors, but the association between perceived disease prevalence and risk perceptions is unknown. We chose to survey women who have sex with women (WSW) because they are an understudied population who are at risk for human papillomavirus (HPV). Prevalence rate of HPV infection among WSW is around 13%. We sought to test the relationship between having had an abnormal Pap smear and perceived risk for HPV. Perceived prevalence was also hypothesized as being a mediator and moderator of the relationship between abnormal Pap smear and perceived risk of HPV. METHODS Participants were approached at a gay pride festival and asked if they would like to complete a survey concerning same-sex relationships. Regression analyses, including moderation and mediation testing, were used to examine women who have and have not had an abnormal Pap smear. RESULTS Participants (n = 275) completed anonymous surveys. Eighty-four (27%) women had a history of abnormal Pap smears, and 16 (5%) women had been diagnosed with HPV. Women with a history of abnormal Pap smears perceived themselves at greater risk for and greater prevalence of HPV. The association between history of abnormal Pap smears and risk perceptions was mediated by perceived disease prevalence. The association between perceived disease prevalence and perceived risk was significant only among women with a history of abnormal Pap smears. CONCLUSIONS Perceived local disease prevalence is important for understanding risk perceptions in relation to health behaviors and health outcomes. Interventions can use local disease prevalence as a means for motivating behavior change.
New needs for better understanding of household's energy consumption – behaviour, lifestyle or practices?

It is well known that occupants strongly influence the final energy consumption of buildings, however, for several reasons more detailed knowledge is needed. These reasons include being able to model energy consumption, being able to adapt energy-efficient technologies and buildings to user practices and being able to persuade consumers to lower their consumption. This paper presents different methodological approaches to study households' energy consumption including (1) register and survey methods with statistical analysis of large databases, (2) heat-consumption studies with surveys, qualitative interviews and indoor measurements and (3) detailed end-use metering of electricity consumption combined with surveys and qualitative interviews. The notions of either behaviour or lifestyle are often used when discussing variations in energy consumption. In this article, it will be argued that neither of these approaches is the most useful when analysing households' energy consumption, as much of consumption relates to unconscious habits and technological structures which are not very well understood in behavioural or lifestyle approaches. Practice theory will be introduced as an approach that better includes both unconscious habits and technological structures and this will be discussed against the three methodological approaches and the different reasons to call for deeper insight into households' energy consumption.
Analysing organisational competence: implications for the management of operations

Despite the potential for operations management to be a competence‐based discipline, it is not clear how practical the construct is in ex ante operations strategy formulation or how useful it is as a critical lens on operations theory. This paper develops a preliminary model of competence as a transformation process, combining resource and activity inputs into operational processes that result in specific competitive performance outcomes. Empirical evidence from three aerospace manufacturing case studies offers an opportunity to explore the conceptual and practical implications of the model. Three conclusions are highlighted: the need for a strategic (re)conceptualisation of operational resources and processes; recognition that any practical operations strategy needs to continually reconcile ambiguous internal and external priorities; and concern over the potentially dysfunctional effects of competence analysis.
Productivity Growth in Service Industries: Are the Transatlantic Differences Measurement-Driven?

Since the mid-nineties, U.S. labor productivity outgrows its European counterpart by a wide margin. van Ark etal. (2003) have found three service industries where productivity growth has accelerated in the U.S., but not in Europe, to account for most of the difference. These three industries are wholesale and retail trade, and trade in financial securities. However, since measurement methods differ on both sides of the Atlantic, Europe's shortfall in productivity growth could be a statistical artifact. This paper tries to answer the question whether this is indeed the case by quantifying the extent to which the U.S. growth rates in trade and banking are pulled upward by measurement methods that are unusual in Europe. In addition, some observations are offered on whether the recent upswing in productivity growth in the U.S. services sector has cured Baumol's Cost Disease.
Variation in an intron sequence of the voltage‐gated sodium channel gene correlates with genetic differentiation between Anopheles gambiae s.s. molecular forms

We present the results of a geographical survey of genetic variation in Anopheles gambiae M and S molecular forms from ten African countries at Intron I of the voltage‐gated sodium channel gene. We found two major haplotypes separated by a single mutational step, which cosegregate almost completely with the rDNA sites that identify M and S, consistent with previous estimates of strong reductions of gene flow between the two forms. We also report ten additional haplotypes stemming from the two major haplotypes, mostly present in single localities. The low levels of genetic variation found in this intronic region are discussed in light of a possible selective sweep. These findings offer additional elements to the ongoing debate on the amount of genetic differentiation and isolation between the two molecular forms and on their taxonomic status.
The Adoption of the Multi‐divisional Form in Large Czech Enterprises: The Role of Economic, Institutional and Strategic Factors

In the Czech Republic and elsewhere in the region, researchers have noted the widespread adoption of the multi‐divisional form (MDF) by the former state‐owned enterprises. In contrast to the accepted explanations in western capitalist societies, the spread of the MDF in post‐Communist economies has had little or nothing to do with growth strategies such as diversification. Developing ideas from the existing western literature, the paper examines the role of economic, institutional and strategic choice factors in three large, former state enterprises within the Czech post‐Communist context. The findings suggest that all three factors are theoretically important, but neither equally nor independently so. In particular, economic factors acted as a major constraint on structural choice only under extreme conditions, while institutional factors and strategic choice are best understood as interdependent moments in a recursive process of structural enactment.
Foreign direct investment and firm performance: an empirical analysis of Italian firms

Both empirical and theoretical literature show that multinational firms exhibit a competitive advantage before investing abroad. However, there are no clear empirical results regarding the ex post effects of foreign direct investment (FDI) on firm performance, partially due to the inadequacy of available firm-level data. We build a brand new firm-level dataset able both to represent the extent of Italian firms’ foreign activity and to provide reliable measures of key performance indicators, especially total factor productivity (TFP) and employment. We then use a propensity score matching procedure to analyze the causal relationship between FDI and firm performance. Firms investing abroad for the very first time, especially in advanced economies, show higher productivity and employment dynamics in the years following the investment: the average positive effect on TFP is driven by new multinationals operating in specialized and high-tech sectors, while the positive employment gains are explained by an increase of the white collar component. On average there are no negative effects on the parent firm’s blue collar component.
The relationship between surgery and prognosis of gallbladder carcinoma.

OBJECTIVE To explore the prognostic factors of gallbladder carcinoma and the relationship between operative procedure and prognosis of gallbladder carcinoma. METHOD A retrospective clinical analysis was made in 56 patients with gallbladder carcinoma who had undergone surgery at our department from 1995 to 2001. RESULTS Of the 56 patients, 20 were men and 36 women with a male to female ratio of 1:1.56. Their age ranged from 41 to 79 years with a mean of 59.6 years. Thirty-four patients suffered from gallstones. Abdominal pain (83.9%) and jaundice (41.1%) were the main symptoms. Thirty patients (Nevin stage II in 5 patients, III in 3, IV in 4, and V in 18) received radical or extended radical resection; non-radical resection was performed in 11 patients of Nevin stage V; and 15 patients of Nevin stage V were subjected to biopsy with or without palliative bypass procedure. Statistical analysis showed that operative procedure, staging of Nevin, and gallstone affected significantly postoperative survival, but age, sex, preoperative serum bilirubin level, numbers of tumor location, histopathological type and grade were not significant prognostic factors. After radical resection was classified with Nevin staging, we found that all the patients of stage II were alive. Meanwhile the postoperative survival periods of radical resection groups of stage III to V, palliative resection group, and biopsy with/without palliative drainage group were statistically different. CONCLUSIONS From Nevin stage II to V, the survival period of respective stage group, which treated with curative operation, became shorter gradually. In those patients of stage V, the survival period of curative operation group was longer than that of palliative resection group, and that of the latter was better than that of biopsy with/without palliative drainage group. So radical resection was still the unique way to better prognosis.
The influence of bar position on implant-retained mandibular overdenture a three dimensional finite element analysis

To evaluate the effect of bar position in implant-retained mandibular overdenture on stress distribution induced in bone surrounding the implant, a three dimensional (3D) model is designed by simulating an edentulous mandible, restored with mandibular overdenture and retained by 4 widely separated implants. All parameters were fixed except for the position of the bar segments. Vertical and oblique loads were applied on one working side. The stress distribution around the implants in each case was recorded and compared to correlate the induced stress magnitude to the bar structure. Stress distribution induced in the bone surrounding the implants showed minimal changes under the application of vertical loads, while under oblique load, connecting the two anterior implants, resulted in a better stress distribution. Using a one piece bar connection or two pieces bar connection of the four widely separated implants might lead to posterior buccal bone resorption in the working side as the stresses induced bypassed the bone yield strength.
Minority Ethnic Participation and Achievements in Education, Training and the Labour Market

This full-text research report about the participation and achievements of minority ethnic pupils in the UK education system and their future employment prospects was commissioned by the Department for Education and Employment. Divided into ten chapters, this 157-page report highlights information about the following issues: participation and attainment in compulsory education; activities of 16-19 year olds following compulsory schooling; patterns of labour market participation; skills and work-related training; lifelong learning.
How Voters Make up Their Minds: Consideration Set Models for Party Choice in European and National

In order to gain more insight into voters’ decision-making processes, we applied a consideration set approach to explain party choice in European and national elections. In line with the work on first and second decision rule criteria in EP elections by Catherine de Vries and her co-authors (C. d. Vries, Steenbergen, & Hangartner, 2009), we set out to develop some first hypotheses about how standard components of voters’ calculus have different weights in the two types of elections and at different stages of the voting decision process. We present preliminary tests of hypotheses about consideration set size and content, primary and secondary decision criteria, and the effects of proximity voting using Swedish data from two self-recruited internet campaign panels conducted in conjunction with the 2009 EP election and the national election in 2010. The findings indicate that, as expected, the impact of left–right ideology is lower in European elections than in national elections, both as a primary and secondary decision rule. At this stage, we have not been able to discern whether this is an effect of cross-pressure from the ideological position to the EU, which is probable. We conclude that the consideration set model approach is a viable way of disentangling the decision processes behind party choice in European parliamentary elections, as well as national elections. 1 This paper presents preliminary hypotheses and “pre-tests” for the research project “Developing Consideration Set Models of Voting Behavior” run by Henrik Ekengren Oscarsson and Maria Oskarson, with Edvin Boije as research assistant. The project is financed by Riksbankens jubileumsfond for the years 2014–2016. Project number P13-0721:1.
We've never done it this way before: Prompting organizational change through stories

Organizations have discovered that storytelling is a powerful change management tool for addressing the emotional issues that have torpedoed many an initiative. Leaders from five businesses discuss how stories finally enabled employees and other stakeholders to get on board with major change efforts. The cases include organizations that used metaphors to create a common team vision, a road map for new business strategy, and the future vision for a massive high tech merger, as well as leaders who used personal stories to convey the essence of a difficult business issue for a skeptical audience. This article is reprinted from the book, Wake Me Up When the Data Is Over: How Organizations Use Stories to Drive Results, by Lori L. Silverman (Jossey-Bass, 2006) © 2006 John Wiley & Sons.