Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Comparing Communication Effort within the Scrum, Scrum with Kanban, XP, and Banana Development Processes

[Context]: Communication plays an important role in any development process. However, communication overhead has been rarely compared among development processes. [Objective]: The goal of this work is to compare the communication overhead and the different channels applied in three agile processes (XP, Scrum, Scrum with Kanban) and in an unstructured process. [Method]: We designed an empirical study asking four teams to develop the same application with the four development processes, and we compare the communication overhead among them. [Results]: As expected, face-to-face communication is most frequently employed in the teams. Scrum with Kanban turned out to be the process that requires the least communication. Unexpectedly, despite requiring much more time to develop the same application, the unstructured process required comparable communication overhead (25% of the total development time) as the agile processes.
Metal sensitivity as a cause of bone necrosis and loosening of the prosthesis in total joint replacement.

1. Evidence is presented which suggests that after total joint replacement bone necrosis and consequent loosening of the prosthesis may be due to the development of sensitivity to the metals used. 2. Nine patients, from a total of fourteen with loose prostheses, were found to be metal sensitive by skin-patch testing. In twenty-four patients with intact prostheses no sensitivity was demonstrated. 3. In material from the joints of sensitive patients the metal content was raised. 4. Examination of this material showed necrosis of bone and soft tissue following obliterative changes in the vascular supply. 5. Similar reactions were found following the injection of cobalt into a sensitive patient. 6. The release of metal around a prosthesis is greatest where metal rubs against itself. 7. We conclude that prostheses in which metal articulates with polyethylene should be preferred; that any patient in whom loosening or fragmentation occurs should be patch tested; and that if sensitivity is found the implant should be removed.
Client-Acceptance Decisions: Simultaneous Effects of Client Business Risk, Audit Risk, Auditor Business Risk, and Risk Adaptation

Little is known about how audit partners make the client-acceptance decision. A model is developed and tested that characterizes the client-acceptance decisions as a process of risk evaluation and risk adaptation. The model proposes that auditors will evaluate client-related risks and use that evaluation to determine if the audit firm will suffer a loss on the engagement via a lack of engagement profitability or future litigation. The model proposes that auditors will adapt to the client-acceptance risks by using 3 strategies: 1. screening clients based on their risk characteristics, 2. screening clients based on the audit firm's risk of loss on the engagement, and 3. more proactively adapting using strategies including adjusting the audit fee, making plans about necessary audit evidence, making plans about personnel assignment, and/or adjusting the amount of data collected during the client-acceptance process. To test the model, an experiment was conducted using 137 highly experienced audit partners as participants. The results show that the partners considered the relationships between client-related risks and used their evaluation of those risks to evaluate the audit firm's risk of loss on the engagement.
Category development in early language

ABSTRACT Developing knowledge of the vehicle, animal, and fruit categories was traced in six children from 1; 0 to 1; 8. Data from mothers' language diaries and from bi-monthly sessions with the children were pooled to analyse the growth, content, and internal structure of the three categories over time. The children developed some grasp of most of the focal concepts in each category, but they made fewer differentiations than adults do. Overextension of a single concept term to encompass a cluster of related referents was common. The frequent discrepancies between comprehension and production of concept terms highlighted the importance of examining both modes. The data showed marked individual differences in style of category acquisition.
Immunocapture-Selected Reaction Monitoring Screening Facilitates the Development of ELISA for the Measurement of Native TEX101 in Biological Fluids*

Monoclonal antibodies that bind the native conformation of proteins are indispensable reagents for the development of immunoassays, production of therapeutic antibodies and delineating protein interaction networks by affinity purification-mass spectrometry. Antibodies generated against short peptides, protein fragments, or even full length recombinant proteins may not bind the native protein form in biological fluids, thus limiting their utility. Here, we report the application of immunocapture coupled with selected reaction monitoring measurements (immunocapture-SRM), in the rapid screening of hybridoma culture supernatants for monoclonal antibodies that bind the native protein conformation. We produced mouse monoclonal antibodies, which detect in human serum or seminal plasma the native form of the human testis-expressed sequence 101 (TEX101) protein—a recently proposed biomarker of male infertility. Pairing of two monoclonal antibodies against unique TEX101 epitopes led to the development of an ELISA for the measurement of TEX101 in seminal plasma (limit of detection: 20 pg/ml) and serum (limit of detection: 40 pg/ml). Measurements of matched seminal plasma samples, obtained from men pre- and post-vasectomy, confirmed the absolute diagnostic specificity and sensitivity of TEX101 for noninvasive identification of physical obstructions in the male reproductive tract. Measurement of male and female serum samples revealed undetectable levels of TEX101 in the systemic circulation of healthy individuals. Immunocapture-SRM screening may facilitate development of monoclonal antibodies and immunoassays against native forms of challenging protein targets.
Macroeconomic analysis of the employment impacts of future EU climate policies

This article gives a detailed account of part of the modelling that was carried out for the assessment of the EU's proposed energy and climate targets for 2030. Using the macro-econometric simulation model, E3ME, and drawing on results from the PRIMES energy systems model, it shows that a 40% reduction in GHG emissions (compared to 1990 levels) could lead to an increase in employment of up to 0.7 million jobs in Europe. Furthermore, if the same GHG reduction target was combined with targets for renewables and energy efficiency, the net increase in jobs could be as high as 1.2 million. Both results are in contrast to the standard findings from computable general equilibrium (CGE) models, reflecting the different underlying assumptions (e.g. labour supply) to the modelling approach. Additional sensitivity testing shows that the ways in which the energy efficiency and renewable measures are funded are important factors in determining overall economic impact. Policy relevance In recent years there has been much debate as to whether the European Union should have a single GHG reduction target or a set of targets that also cover renewables and energy efficiency. This paper elaborates on part of the modelling that was carried out for the official assessment of the European Union's proposed energy and climate targets for 2030. Using an empirical, model-based approach, it compares a scenario where there is a single 40% GHG reduction target to a scenario that also includes a 30% renewables target and stricter energy efficiency standards. The model results show that the large investment stimulus needed to meet the combined targets leads to higher levels of GDP and employment. This suggests that there could be medium-term economic and social benefits to including all three targets in the future energy and climate package.
Strategic organization of R&D: the choice of basicness and openness

Through a stylized model of the R&D process, this article shows how the strategic organization of R&D should simultaneously consider the choice of the type of R&D to be performed (basicness) and the organization of R&D, which includes the choice about the exposure of the R&D project to knowledge from outside the firm (openness). The authors identify how each of these decisions affects the expected benefits and costs (production, transaction and coordination costs) of R&D projects, and formally derive how these decisions interact.The fact that these decisions are customarily allocated to different agents with misaligned objectives pushes top management to strategically adjust the R&D strategy (i.e. the type of R&D performed) in order to affect the organization of the R&D project, an often times decentralized decision taken by a project manager. From the model, the authors develop several implications for theory, explain some observed empirical regularities in the management of R&D and derive novel testable implications.
Wide band four-port butler matrix for switched multibeam antenna arrays

This paper presents the design and realization of a wide band four-port microstrip matrix to feed a switched-beam antenna array for wireless applications at 1.9 GHz. The objective of this investigation is to develop an antenna-array feeding network based on Butler with a large bandwidth in order to cover the PCS band: 1900 MHZ to 2200 MHZ. In order to meet these requirements, wide band microwave components such as hybrids and crossovers were designed and used to Butler proposed matrix. The Butler matrix is used as a beamforming network that allows to produce orthogonal beams that can be steered in different directions. To examine the performance of the proposed matrix, simulated and experimental results is presented and discussed.
The Gendered Nature of Student Affairs: Issues of Gender Equity in Student Affairs Professional Associations

Dafina Lazarus Stewart, Advisor This study examined the gendered nature of the student affairs profession by investigating how three student affairs professional associations, the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators (NASPA), ACPA: College Student Educators International, and the Association of College and University Housing Officers International (ACUHO-I) handled issues of gender equity. The founding of each association was reviewed using archival information from the National Student Affairs Archives. After a review of the archival data, a profile was created for each of the three associations. Interviews were conducted with 13 participants who were members of one or more of the associations and had served in an elected or appointed leadership position. The participants provided insight into the current issues of gender equity faced in the associations. The study employed a constructivist epistemology featuring the co-construction of knowledge. Thus, the archival data for each of the associations and the participants’ interview data were considered in the process of data analysis and interpretation. The following categories emerged from the analysis of the interview data: gender equity, the messages received about gender, delegation of roles and responsibilities, policies and procedures used within the organizations, and perceptions of the symbols, images and artifacts used within each association. Implications for practice related to the development of organizational culture, maintaining the history of student affairs associations, and role modeling for undergraduate students are presented.
Cost of Capital Effects and Changes in Growth Expectations Around U.S. Cross-Listings

This paper examines whether cross-listing in the U.S. reduces firms' costs of capital. We estimate cost of capital effects implied by market prices and analyst forecasts, which accounts for changes in growth expectations around cross-listings. Firms with cross-listings on U.S. exchanges experience a decrease in their cost of capital between 70 and 120 basis points. These effects are sustained and exist after the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. We find smaller reductions for cross-listings in the over-the-counter market and for exchange-listings from countries with stronger legal institutions. For exchange-traded cross-listings, the cost of capital reduction accounts for over half of the increase in firm value, whereas for other types of cross-listings the valuation effects are primarily attributable to contemporaneous revisions in growth expectations.
The relationship between environmental performance and environmental disclosure

The largely voluntary nature of environmental reporting in Australia has given firms the option of deciding what, if any, environmental information they wish to disclose. Previous studies in the US and Canada have found mixed results on the relationship between environmental performance and environmental disclosure. This research identified the level of environmental disclosure of 53 ASX200 Australian listed companies, and tested whether better performing companies with either lower emissions or more positive Corporate Monitor environmental ratings were likely to disclose more information on their environmental performance. It found a generally low level of environmental disclosure assessed by the elements of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) 2002, and that environmental performance was not significantly associated with level of environmental disclosure. However, larger companies, those in polluting industries, and those with higher levels of capital investment disclosed more environmental information.
Pharmacogenetics: Mismatches between policy and practice

Pharmacogenetics (PGx) and personalised medicine are new disciplines that, gathering the existing knowledge about the genetic and phenotypic factors that underpin drug response, aim to deliver more targeted therapies that avoid the existing problems of adverse drug reactions or lack of drug efficacy. These disciplines imply a shift in the way drugs are prescribed, as they require introducing diagnostic tools and implementing pre-screening mechanisms that assess patients' susceptibility to new or existing drugs. The direct benefit is an improvement in drug safety and/or efficacy. However, neither PGx nor personalised medicines are widely used in clinical practice. They both face a series of gaps in knowledge that hamper their widespread use in clinical practice. This paper illustrates, through the case of TPMT (thiopurine methyltransferase) testing for preventing adverse events caused by the drug azathioprine, how the use of personalised medicine is being shaped by user-producer mechanisms and negotiated between different actors involved in the process of drug development and service delivery. The paper uses concepts of the sociology of science and a qualitative approach to explore the existing mismatches between PGx policy and practice.
Hydroxycarbamide in combination with azacitidine or decitabine is antagonistic on DNA methylation inhibition

Azacitidine and decitabine are cytidine analogues that inhibit DNA methylation, and are used to treat myeloid haematological malignancies. Hydroxycarbamide (HC) (also known as hydroxyurea), a ribonucleotide reductase (RR) inhibitor, blocks the conversion of ribonucleotides to deoxyribonucleotides, and is also used to treat leukaemia and sickle‐cell disease. Azacitidine is a ribonucleoside and decitabine is a deoxyribonucleoside; therefore, we hypothesized that inhibition of RR by HC would be antagonistic to azacitidine and synergistic to decitabine. HL‐60 and T24 cancer cell lines were treated with azacitidine or decitabine in combination with HC and DNA methylation of LRE1, MAGEA1 and CDKN2A was quantitatively measured by bisulphite‐polymerase chain reaction pyrosequencing. Surprisingly, we found that HC blocked the ability of both azacitidine and decitabine to inhibit DNA methylation and this antagonistic effect was attributable to the arrest of the cell cycle induced by HC. However, this antagonism could be avoided with sequential treatment of HC followed by azacitidine or decitabine. This data suggest that concurrent combination of HC blocks the ability of azacitidine and decitabine to inhibit DNA methylation and therefore these drugs should be used sequentially.
Analytical performance of the new ACL AcuStar HemosIL D-Dimer

Several lines of clinical evidence as well as guidelines and recommendations suggest that the overall diagnostic performance of D-dimer testing outstrips that of any other biomarker in the diagnostic approach of patients with venous thromboembolism or disseminated intravascular coagulation. Along with specific technical characteristics, the analytical performance of each D-dimer immunoassay should, however, be assessed before implementation in clinical practice. The aim of this study was to evaluate the analytical performance of HemosIL AcuStar D-Dimer immunoassay, a novel chemiluminescent immunoassay specifically designed for the instrument Instrumentation Laboratory ACL AcuStar. The within and between-run imprecision (n = 20) was comprised between 3.6 and 5.8%. The linearity was excellent up to 16 200 ng/ml (r = 1.00; P < 0.001), and optimal between 224 and 69 900 ng/ml (r = 0.992; P < 0.001). A significant agreement of values was observed between HemosIL AcuStar D-Dimer and HemosIL D-Dimer HS for ACL TOP (r = 0.884; P < 0.001), as well as with Vidas D-Dimer (r = 0.791; P < 0.001). Results of HemosIL AcuStar D-Dimer displayed a modest negative bias as compared with those of Vidas D-dimer (mean bias −22%; 95% Confidence Interval, −122% to 49%). The analytical accuracy assessed against Vidas D-dimer also yielded an area under the curve of 0.998 (P < 0.001). As regards, the preliminary definition of cutoff value, optimal sensitivity (100%) and specificity (96%) were found at a diagnostic threshold of 466 ng/ml. The results of this investigation attest that the novel HemosIL AcuStar D-Dimer is characterized by remarkable accuracy and precision, optimal linearity and excellent agreement with the reference immunoassay. As such, its technical and analytical performance would make it a suitable method for the rapid and accurate quantification of D-dimer in clinical laboratories.
On access to recreational lands in dynamic metropolitan hinterlands

Recreational needs, their resulting demands and ensuing supply systems have become an increasingly difficult matter for society to manage and to establish consistent policies for. The difficulty seems to arise out of the two basic elements that constitute the recreational mosaic: first we have the difficulty in establishing what constitutes recreational needs for large populations and what are the characteristics and levels of recreational demand for various activities; secondly, even if one can arrive at reasonably accurate measurements of recreational demand levels, it is exceedingly difficult to construct a set of mechanisms, which in a coordinated way can monitor the supply, and the same time can do this according to principles consistent with good land management.
Money, Capital, and Exchange Rate Fluctuations

We explore how the informational frictions underlying monetary exchange affect international exchange rate dynamics. Our perfectly flexible price model is capable of producing endogenously rigid international relative prices in response to technology and monetary shocks. The model is capable of accounting for the empirical regularities that the real and nominal exchange rates are more volatile than U.S. output, and that the two are positively and perfectly correlated. The model is also consistent with other standard real business cycle facts for the United States.
Structuring Committee Decision-Making: Rules and Procedures in US State Legislatures

The rediscovery of rules and procedures as an important element for understanding legislative decision-making has become very apparent in recent summaries of research on Congress and European Parliaments. Institutional factors are now seen as critical factors that structure and restrict how individual legislators can go about their decision-making responsibilities. The goal of this article is to provide a landscape of the evolution of committee system structure in US state legislatures so that future research will be able to test current theories of institutional change. The major conclusion of this research is that US state legislatures have formalised the structure of their committee systems over the course of the twentieth century and that many similarities and few differences exist in committee system structure between US state legislative upper and lower chambers. Further, this article discovers that four distinct dimensions - property rights, codification of basic structure, internal democracy and minority party rights - of committee system structures exist in US state legislative chambers.
Keskusteluaiheita – Discussion papers

: Labor productivity effects of portability as well as wireline and wireless connectivity of information and communication technology (ICT) are studied with Finnish firm-level data. It is found that a computer with only processing and storage capabilities boosts labor productivity by 9% (corresponding to 5% output elasticity), portability by 32%, wireline connectivity by 14%, and wireless connectivity by 6%. Findings are in line with previous literature and comparisons to ICT costs suggest that firms equate marginal costs and returns. While increasing ICT penetration can no longer be a major source of productivity growth in developed economies, the studied new characteristics can.
Testing Purchasing Power Parity in the Long-Run

This paper studies the validity of the long-run purchasing parity hypothesis. The five currencies of interest in this study are the U.S. dollar, the U.K. pound sterling, the German mark, the French franc, and the Japanese yen. I attempt two approaches to test the long-run PPP hypothesis. First, I test for unit roots of the real exchange rates themselves. Second, I examine the cointegration relationship between the foreign dollar price level and the Canadian price level. Results show that the long-run PPP hypothesis cannot be confirmed.
Transformation, Depression, and Economics: Some Lessons

Abstract A discussion of the lessons of the experience of the first four years of the East European transformation. Attention is paid to the situation of the state-owned enterprises, the decline in the effective labor supply and in investment, land reform, the banking system, the theoretical significance of the ending of shortages, the contraindications for price liberalization, the social costs of transformation, the conflict between liberalism and democracy, and the relationship between European transformation and Asian reform. Use is made of a variety of empirical studies. J. Comp. Econom. , August 1994, 19 (1), pp. 000-000. Amsterdam University, 1018 WB Amsterdam, Netherlands.