Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Is Eurasian October snow cover extent increasing?

A number of recent studies present evidence of an increasing trend in Eurasian snow cover extent (SCE) in the October snow onset period based on analysis of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) historical satellite record. These increases are inconsistent with fall season surface temperature warming trends across the region. Using four independent snow cover data sources (surface observations, two reanalyses, satellite passive microwave retrievals) we show that the increasing SCE is attributable to an internal trend in the NOAA CDR dataset to chart relatively more October snow cover extent over the dataset overlap period (1982–2005). Adjusting the series for this shift results in closer agreement with other independent datasets, stronger correlation with continentally-averaged air temperature anomalies, and a decrease in SCE over 1982–2011 consistent with surface air temperature warming trends over the same period.
The J-curve dynamics of Turkish bilateral trade: a cointegration approach

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to study empirically the dynamics of Turkish bilateral trade between Turkey and her nine trading partners, in addition to aggregate trade balance data. Design/methodology/approach - The paper employs cointegration, generalized impulse response analysis, and stability tests. Findings - The empirical results suggest non-existence of the J-curve effect at disaggregate and aggregate levels. However, Marshall-Lerner condition holds for the aggregate data along with some of the trading partners. With regard to the stability of trade balance equations, the findings are mixed. Practical implications - Conclusions drawn from this study could be useful for the policy makers of governments and practitioners in international trade organizations. Originality/value - This paper extends the existing literature by providing initial evidence at disaggregate data in the case of Turkey. Moreover, for the first time disaggregate and aggregate data are utilized in the same analysis.
Permeability of bacterial spores. III. Permeation relative to germination.

Black, S. H. (The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor) and Philipp Gerhardt. Permeability of bacterial spores. III. Permeation relative to germination. J. Bacteriol. 83:301-308. 1962. -The passive diffusion of solutes into dormant spores, characterized previously with the test organism Bacillus cereus strain terminalis, has now been examined in relation to germination. Dormant spores did not take up specific germinants differently than they did other compounds, under conditions optimal for germination. Germinated spores, viable but prevented from growing out, displayed some changes in permeability, evidenced by increased total uptake of glucose and water and by observable penetration of a fluorescigenic dye. Heat-killed spores were as permeable to glucose and the dye as germinated ones.
Introduction of a Temperature-Sensitive Phenotype into Influenza A/WSN/33 Virus by Altering the Basic Amino Acid Domain of Influenza Virus Matrix Protein

ABSTRACT Our previous studies with influenza A viruses indicated that the association of M1 with viral RNA and nucleoprotein (NP) is required for the efficient formation of helical ribonucleoprotein (RNP) and for the nuclear export of RNPs. RNA-binding domains of M1 map to the following two independent regions: a zinc finger motif at amino acid positions 148 to 162 and a series of basic amino acids (RKLKR) at amino acid positions 101 to 105. Altering the zinc finger motif of M1 reduces viral growth slightly. A substitution of Ser for Arg at either position 101 or position 105 of the RKLKR domain partially reduces the nuclear export of RNP and viral replication. To further understand the role of the zinc finger motif and the RKLKR domain in viral assembly and replication, we introduced multiple mutations by using reverse genetics to modify these regions of the M gene of influenza virus A/WSN/33. Of multiple mutants analyzed, a double mutant, R101S-R105S, of RKLKR resulted in a temperature-sensitive phenotype. The R101S-R105S double mutant had a greatly reduced ratio of M1 to NP in viral particles and a weaker binding of M1 to RNPs. These results suggest that mutations can be introduced into the RKLKR domain to control viral replication.
Surgical site infections in cardiac surgery: microbiology

Coagulase‐negative staphylococci (CoNS) are the most common bacteria isolated from infections following cardiac surgery. CoNS display various virulence factors, such as toxins, adhesive proteins and biofilm production. The Staphylococcus epidermidis surface (Ses) protein I and the ica operon encoding the polysaccharide intercellular adhesin (PIA) are discussed in more detail. Although several of these virulence factors are prevalent among CoNS isolates causing sternal wound infections, they do not represent a prerequisite for causing an infection and that emphasizes that host factors may be as important.
Firm-Stakeholder Networks

The role of the corporation in society is continually evaluated in a search for the balance between conduct aimed at maximizing economic profit and conduct aimed at maximizing social welfare. In this age of the postindustrial enterprise, theorists of firm behavior have suggested that the firm should be subject to forces of society, not separate from them. Although laws and regulations have delineated specific standards for compliance with societal expectations, voluntary compliance with societal expectations is an enigmatic phenomenon. Predicated on the unstable ground of ethical and instrumental rationales, the mechanisms that compel the firm to consider societal interests are not well understood. It is the goal of this study to examine the conditions that generate firm efforts to respond to societal interests. These interests are represented by particular groups called stakeholders. The conditions are derived from social influence external to the firm and from the philosophy held by the firm’s top management. This leads to the following questions:
Private Debt and the Missing Lever of Corporate Governance

Traditional approaches to corporate governance focus exclusively on shareholders and neglect the large and growing role of creditors. Today's creditors craft elaborate covenants that give them a large role in the affairs of the corporation. While they do not exercise their rights in sunny times when things are going well, these are not the times that matter most. When a business stumbles, creditors typically enjoy powers that public shareholders never have, such as the ability to replace the managers and install those more to their liking. Creditors exercise these powers even when the business is far from being insolvent and continues to pay its debts. Bankruptcy provides no sanctuary as senior lenders ensure that their powers either go unchecked or are enhanced. The powers that modern lenders wield rival in importance the hostile takeover in disciplining poor or underperforming managers. This essay explores these powers and begins the task of integrating this lever of corporate governance into the modern account of corporate law.
Job satisfaction and turnover under the effect of person-organization fit in Albanian public organizations

This paper presents the results of research conducted on public organizations employees for testing a model that relates person-organization fit, job satisfaction and turnover. Using a sample of 100 employees from 17 Albanian public organizations, this study brings out that there is a significant relationship between person-organization fit and job satisfaction in the public organizations in Albania. The implications of the study are discussed.
Online Business Leadership, Is it Authority or Community Building?

Leadership, which is a function of management, is critical in attaining organizational objectives in the Middle East and North African Area (MENA). However, in the third millennium, millennial business leadership seems to hinge on efficient and effective information communication technology (ICT). Technology has changed the way business team leaders and team members interact and engage in business-related performance whether the team is virtual or not. The aim of this study is to determine whether online millennial leadership stems from hierarchical authority or from the leader’s interpersonal skills in building communities. Data was drawn from a survey and face-to-face interviews with online business team leaders. Based on the results, it is recommended that further research be conducted in this area in order to better understand the complexity of business team leadership of Millennials in the MENA.
Misperceptions, the Media, and the Iraq War

The Iraq war and its aftermath have raised compelling questions about the capacity of the executive branch to elicit public consent for the use of military force and about the role the media plays in this process. From the outset, the Bush administration was faced with unique challenges in its effort to legitimate its decision to go to war. Because the war was not prompted by an overt act against the United States or its interests, and was not approved by the UN Security Council, the Bush administration argued that the war was necessary on the basis of a potential threat. Because the evidence for this threat was not fully manifest, the Bush administration led the public to believe that Iraq was developing weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and providing substantial support to the al Qaeda terrorist group. The challenge for the administration was later intensified when the United States occupied Iraq and was unable to find the expected corroborating evidence. From the outset the public was sympathetic to the idea of removing Saddam Hussein, though only a small minority of Americans was ready to go to war with Iraq without UN Security Council approval. ' The majority was inclined to believe that Iraq had a WMD program and was supporting al Qaeda. However,
The Effect of Race and Ethnicity on Bill Sponsorship and Cosponsorship in Congress

This article examines Black and Latino legislators' use of bill sponsorship and cosponsorship in Congress. As we explain, sponsoring and cosponsoring legislation are unique in that they are among the few activities outside the roll call arena that have both position taking and policy implications. We hypothesize that given minority legislators' lack of influence in Congress, they sponsor and cosponsor fewer bills than do nonminorities. We find support for our expectation; on average, Black and Latino legislators sponsor and cosponsor significantly fewer bills in Congress than do Whites and non-Latinos, respectively. But we also find the relationship to be contingent on which party controls Congress. Whereas Democratic Congresses encourage minorities' bill sponsorship and cosponsorship, Republican Congresses depress it. Because the concepts of participation and representation in Congress are so intimately tied to one another, these findings have a number of implications for the study of descriptive and substantive representation.
Tourism, migration and emigration: Travel patterns of Korean-New Zealanders in the 1990s

This article examines the patterns and travel habits of recent South Korean immigrants to New Zealand and the growing significance of what has been called 'ethnic tourism' with a focus on the impact of family ties and kinship in motivating travel for ethnic reunion. This paper is exploratory in nature and develops a number of themes which require further research and development to establish the extent to which such patterns are indicative of global processes shaping the travel habits of immigrant groups. A survey of Korean-New Zealanders conducted in 1998 and the results are evaluated to establish the implications for ethnic outbound travel and the New Zealand travel industry.
When Do Festinos Decide to Attend an Arts Festival? An Analysis of the Innibos National Arts Festival

ABSTRACT Festival-goers (“festinos”) put time and effort into deciding to attend a festival, and the way they decide what to see and the length of time they take to decide vary greatly. To attract those who buy tickets for shows—sales of which are crucial for the survival of festivals—and to know when to start promoting the event, festival organizers and marketers need to know how far in advance the visitors make their decision to attend and what influences their decision. This study categorized 438 visitors to the Innibos National Arts Festival, South Africa, using a survey of their decision-making time. Four groups were identified, and labeled “spontaneous,” “limited,” “extended,” and “routine” decision-makers. These market segments can be taken into consideration in the festival's marketing campaign so as to attract visitors to a variety of events and help ensure the long-term sustainability of the festival.
Randomized automated demand response for real-time pricing

Automated demand response (ADR) is an essential technology for demand management such as real-time pricing. A major issue for ADR is the design of the units which control electric supply to each electric devise according to the price, so as to benefit both the supplier and consumer sides. Although a kind of universal design principle must be useful for the issue, it has never been established so far. This paper thus attempts to derive a design principle of the ADR units for real-time pricing and proposes ADR units based on it. First, as a design principle, it is clarified that the heterogeneity of the consumer-side actions is essential to control the total electric power consumption. Based on it, we propose randomized ADR units to artificially produce the heterogeneity. In each proposed unit, a random number is generated and electric power is provided to the connected electric devise only if a price-dependent condition is satisfied for the resulting random number. The proposed units enable the consumers to automatically buy electricity with a low price and allow the supplier to control the total consumption. They also guarantee the scalability of the resulting real-time pricing system.
Murdering Mr. Market: An Equity Valuation and Capital Allocation Model for Long-Term Value-Investors

We present an equity valuation model that is in the spirit of the long-term value-investors Benjamin Graham and Warren Buffett. Taking a longer term view of business prospects and business risks, we explicitly consider Schumpeter’s forces of creative destruction as the central tenet of our model and capture its effect in a probabilistic manner. Assuming that our investor has log utility, we show that our valuation model answers the question of how much capital to allocate. Unlike CAPM, our model does not enforce the Efficient Market Hypothesis and qualitatively explains some well-known empirical studies on stock returns in existing literature.
SELECTION AND EVOLUTION OF CAUSALLY COVARYING TRAITS

When traits cause variation in fitness, the distribution of phenotype, weighted by fitness, necessarily changes. The degree to which traits cause fitness variation is therefore of central importance to evolutionary biology. Multivariate selection gradients are the main quantity used to describe components of trait‐fitness covariation, but they quantify the direct effects of traits on (relative) fitness, which are not necessarily the total effects of traits on fitness. Despite considerable use in evolutionary ecology, path analytic characterizations of the total effects of traits on fitness have not been formally incorporated into quantitative genetic theory. By formally defining “extended” selection gradients, which are the total effects of traits on fitness, as opposed to the existing definition of selection gradients, a more intuitive scheme for characterizing selection is obtained. Extended selection gradients are distinct quantities, differing from the standard definition of selection gradients not only in the statistical means by which they may be assessed and the assumptions required for their estimation from observational data, but also in their fundamental biological meaning. Like direct selection gradients, extended selection gradients can be combined with genetic inference of multivariate phenotypic variation to provide quantitative prediction of microevolutionary trajectories.
Mobility in Pupils' Cognitive Attainment During School Life

This paper considers the extent of mobility in pupils' attainment relative to peers as they move through school. Considerable shifts in position are demonstrated using data from the 1958 and 1970 UK birth cohorts and from the National Pupil Database for 2002. These shifts in attainment in primary and secondary school are shown to relate strongly to social class, demonstrating that the large social-class attainment gap in the UK is not a one-off effect prior to school entry but a compounding effect throughout school life. These changes in relative attainment during school are also shown to relate strongly to adult economic outcomes. These results suggest that although there are good arguments in support of an increase in preschool expenditures, equality of opportunity also requires enhanced investments for the worst-off throughout school. Copyright 2004, Oxford University Press.
MINERVA AND THE MEDIA Universities Protecting and Promoting Themselves

The traditional approach to corporate governance is to focus on the mechanisms through which owners are monitoring executives to act in the interests of their superiors. Their relationship is mentioned as the principal-agency problem. Recent research has demonstrated that it is appropriate to revise this model of corporate governance in certain respects, since it is evident that investors constitute just one group monitoring executives. Governments with their three branches (the executive, the legislative and the judiciary) constitute another significant group. In addition, it has been found that the media, which is sometimes mentioned as the fourth branch of government, makes up another significant monitoring actor. Finally, we increasingly see grass-root organizations, which actually could be labelled "the fifth branch of government", as a fifth essential monitoring group of organizations. Empirical research has also made it clear that executives in order to handle the described features of monitoring to an increasing extent create boundary-spanning units, i.e. offices for investor relations, government relations, media relation etc. The above reasoning is based on studies of business corporations. However, earlier research has also shown how such organizations have become the role model for all types of organizations, among them universities. We thus all over the world find tendencies of managerial in the temples of Minerva. Vicechancellors are more and more nominated after search and tests by headhunters, different kinds of performance control are increasingly employed and management accounting has become a key tool in universities. In addition, in the same way as in the large corporations, the external monitoring has increased. As a result, also universities more and more create boundary-spanning units to deal with this monitoring. Among these units those for media relations have particularly grown in number and size. Against the above background the paper deals with strategies to handle media in universities. After a theoretical part, which presents and develops the above arguments, the paper presents an empirical study of media relations in Swedish academic institutions. The study is based on web pages, printed material and interviews with significant actors. It is shown that information activities have increased considerably since the 1960s. It is also evident that they have undergone a professionalisation and have become strategic in university management. Although media coverage of academic institutions on the whole is very positive it is demonstrated how universities prepare themselves for the negative news through ruling, training and buffering. They are also very active promoting their brands, which is significant in relation to external bodies (branding) as well as the internal organisation (boosting). Behind the expansion of information activities and information strategies the paper identifies an interaction between coercive, normative and mimetic forces.
Restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis using IS6110 as an epidemiological marker in tuberculosis

The mycobacterial insertion sequence IS6110 has been shown to be present in multiple copies in the chromosome of Mycobacterium tuberculosis. IS6110 restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis of strains isolated from patients who developed tuberculosis showed identical patterns over a 2- to 3-year period. In contrast, a high degree of polymorphism was observed between strains of the M. tuberculosis complex isolated from different patients. This study demonstrates that the presence of IS6110 does not induce in vivo major genomic rearrangements over a 2- to 3-year period and confirms its use as a valuable epidemiological marker in tuberculosis.
Malmquist indices of total factor productivity changes in the Australian construction industry

Construction is an important industry and forms a vital part of national economics in the world. Factors affecting the productivity of the construction industry should be measured appropriately to reflect its development situation and economic performance. The Malmquist index method with a novel decomposition technique is employed to estimate the total factor productivity of the Australian construction industry during the period 1990–2007 and to analyse the factors affecting the technological change in the industry. Research results exemplified by two input variables and one output variable elaborate how construction technology, pure technical efficiency and scale economy take effect in the change of construction productivity. In addition, based on temporal and spatial comparisons, the analysis for construction productivities reveals their changes over time and across the country. Proposals and recommendations are expected to be beneficial for policy making and strategic decisions to improve the performance of the Australian construction industry.
A Review of Contemporary Research on the Relationship between Occupational Stress and Social Support: Where Are We Now?

The Occupational social support model has been described as producing weak and inconsistent results. There have been assertions that it has lost its popularity as an explanatory construct. However, lack of social support within workplaces has been implicated in the majority of work stress claims and is becoming a focal point of safety prosecutions against Australian employers for failure to provide a psychologically safe workplace. This article presents a review of contemporary (since 1999) cross-sectional and longitudinal studies that measure supervisory or co-worker support as a variable of interest in the published literature. The review examines the theoretical models, as well as general findings associated from over 61 studies. While there is substantial variation in the magnitude of effects, the majority of studies consistently produce positive evidence of the role of social support in offsetting the effects of strain. The review notes several well-constructed longitudinal studies, the increasing popularity of structural equation modelling, and the continued dominance of the Job Demands Control Support Model. The discussion includes consideration of studies where no mitigating effect was found for social support, and concludes that the magnitude of social support effect is determined by the history and context of social support being offered.