Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Associations between Tai Chi Chung Program, Anxiety, and Cardiovascular Risk Factors

Purpose. To examine the effects of a Tai Chi Chung (TCC) program, an efficiency approach, on anxiety and cardiovascular risk factors. Design. A quasi-experimental study. Setting. A community in Taipei City, Taiwan. Subjects. One hundred thirty-three adults aged 55 years and older. Intervention. Sixty-four participants (experimental group) attended a 60-minute Tai Chi exercise three times per week for 12 weeks, whereas 69 participants (control group) maintained their usual daily activities. Measures. Anxiety states, systolic blood pressure (SBP), diastolic blood pressure (DBP), body mass index (BMI), and waist circumference (WC) were assessed at baseline, 6 weeks into the experiment, and 12 weeks into the experiment. Analysis. Generalized estimating equations were used to evaluate the changes. Results. Participants showed a greater drop in anxiety levels (β = −2.57, p = .001) and DBP (β = −7.02, p < .001) at the 12-week follow-up than did the controls. SBP significantly decreased in the 6-week follow-up and 12-week follow-up tests. The participants in the intervention achieved a greater drop in BMI at the 6-week and 12-week follow-up visits than the controls. The interventions demonstrated decreased average WC at the 6-week and 12-week follow-up visits as compared to the controls. Conclusion. The results highlight the long-term benefits of a TCC program in facilitating health promotion by reducing anxiety and risk factors for cardiovascular diseases.
Partnership at Work: Mutuality and the Balance of Advantage

A framework for the analysis of partnership at work is presented, emphasizing the principles, practices and outcomes of partnership. A survey using matched samples of 54 UK management and employee representatives found a link between partnership principles and practices, between practices and ratings of employee attitudes and behaviour, between these and estimates of positive employment relations and quality and productivity, finally between productivity and sales and profitability. The findings support a mutual gains model but show that the balance of advantage is skewed towards management and reflects generally low management trust in employee representatives.
Rent Seeking, Military Participation, and Economic Performance in LDCs

Rent seeking is an attempt to distort prices in order to achieve a contrived transfer. Where rent seeking is on the rampage, there is a serious distortion of incentives. Investing resources in distributional struggles and political conflict looks rewarding, whereas increasing or improving output looks less attractive. Moreover, price distortions interfere with an efficient allocation of resources. That is why we should expect rent seeking and resulting price distortions to be negatively correlated with economic growth. Because there is no reason to assume that the less-privileged strata are likely to win distributional struggles, rent seeking does not contribute to the equalization of the size distribution of income. Ironically, serious international rivalries and threats to national security may result in better economic performance. Foreign threats often produce large armies and high military participation ratios. Because the military teaches discipline and some other useful skills, it does contribute to human capital formation and ultimately to economic growth. As mass armies affect the balance of power between social classes for the benefit of the less-privileged ones, high military participation ratios contribute to income equalization. These propositions have been tested and supported by cross-national regression analysis of data for the 1970s and 31 LDCs.
Maternal outcomes in pregnancies affected by varicella zoster virus infections: Population‐based study on 7.7 million pregnancy admissions

Previous estimates of the incidence of varicella zoster virus (VZV) pneumonia and maternal death associated with VZV infection among the pregnant population have varied considerably and been based predominantly on reports from case series. We sought to measure the incidence of VZV‐related morbidity and mortality to provide more representative population estimates.
Institutional Investors and Mutual Fund Governance: Evidence from Retail – Institutional Fund Twins

Some investment advisors offer multiple versions of a fund with the same manager and highly correlated returns. But these “twin” funds are separate portfolios for different investors with differing abilities to select and monitor managers. We investigate whether retail investors benefit from investing alongside their institutional counterparts. We find that retail funds with an institutional twin outperform by 1.5% risk-adjusted annually. We demonstrate that institutional twin investors are more sensitive to high fees and poor risk-adjusted performance than retail investors. Using a matched sample of retail and institutional twin funds, we analyze whether the difference in sensitivities can help explain the better performance by focusing on changes to fees and portfolio composition of retail funds after the creation of an institutional twin. We find that after the institutional twin is created, expenses decrease and measures of managerial effort increase, consistent with the reduction of agency problems from greater monitoring.
HRM as a predictor of innovation

There is growing evidence available to suggest that HR practice is an important predictor of organisational performance. In this article, we argue that HR practices also have the potential to promote organisational innovation. We describe a longitudinal study of 22 UK manufacturing companies and examine the relationship between such practices and product and technological innovation. Results reveal that training, induction, team working, appraisal and exploratory learning focus are all predictors of innovation. Contingent reward, applied in conjunction with an exploratory learning focus, is positively associated with innovation in technical systems. Furthermore, training, appraisal and induction, combined with exploratory learning focus, explain variation between companies in product and technological innovation above and beyond the main effects observed. © 2006 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
CSR in SMEs: strategies, practices, motivations and obstacles

Purpose - Given the greater recognition of the role played by small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) within the European economy, this research aims to provide an insight into SME CSR practices. Within this scope, the objective is to identify accurately and extensively: CSR practices at the social, economic and environmental levels; the motivations, perceived benefits, existing obstacles; and the types of support and strategies that render possible an explanation of the factors which place the greatest restrictions on SME adoption of CSR practices. Design/methodology/approach - This research was realized through the completion of a questionnaire type inquiry structured around table-based analysis. The questionnaire was sent out to a large sample of SMEs in Portugal. Findings - The main results demonstrate that, while CSR takes on an informal, non-structured character, it has been incorporated into the daily management of such companies. Furthermore, contrary to what happens at large companies, CSR at SMEs is fundamentally internally focused and results from attention to the potential benefits to the business from gains in eco-efficiency, a better social climate or a higher profile in the local community. The emphasis is on the adoption of simple, easily applicable and cheap measures and normally with specific results exemplifying how SME CSR is located on the border between entrepreneurialism and business management and that of business citizenship. Research limitations/implications - It is not possible to extrapolate the data obtained since the study focused only on mainland Portugal. Practical implications - The fact that the study clarifies the strategies and motivations of CSR in SMEs makes possible the development of active policies to promote CSR in the universe of these companies. Originality/value - Because the studies on SME CSR remain rare, this research contributes to a better understanding of the dynamics, motivations and strategies of CSR in the SMEs case.
Why Do Managers Diversify Their Firms? Agency Reconsidered

We develop a contracting model between shareholders and managers in which managers diversify their firms for two reasons: to reduce idiosyncratic risk and to capture private benefits. We test the comparative static predictions of our model. In contrast to previous work, we find that diversification is positively related to managerial incentives. Further, the link between firm performance and managerial incentives is weaker for firms that experience changes in diversification than it is for firms that do not. Our findings suggest that managers diversify their firms in response to changes in private benefits rather than to reduce their exposure to risk. Copyright 2003 by the American Finance Association.
Medical records and public policy: the discursive (re)construction of the patient in Europe

This is by way of saying that the medical record does for the health care state what was done for the state as such by the elementary school and the radio. It has been made the vehicle of common standards of communication. Its purpose is to erase dialects of class and region of different professional groups and the different local agencies in which they work. payant en pharmacie, cliniques. ) doivent être confirmées par des documents classiques' (MES 2001).
Does Relative Thinking Exist in Real-World Situations? A Field Experiment with Bagels and Cream Cheese

Many experiments show that consumers consider relative price differences even when only absolute price differences are relevant from an economic perspective, a phenomenon that was denoted "relative thinking. " These experiments, however, were conducted using hypothetical questions. To test whether the relative thinking bias also exists in real-world situations, a field experiment where subjects could purchase either a bagel or a bagel with cream cheese was conducted. The monetary addition for the cream cheese was kept constant ($0.20) in both treatments, but the bagel's price varied ($0.05 in one treatment and $0.30 in the other). Relative thinking then implies that more people should add the cream cheese when the bagel's price is higher, because the relative price increase for the cream cheese is then smaller. However, the results did not document any relative thinking – more people (in percentage of those who purchase) added the cream cheese when the bagel's price was lower (the difference between the treatments, however, was not statistically significant). A replication of the experiment as a hypothetical-scenario experiment did document relative thinking, suggesting that introduction of financial incentives might alleviate relative thinking.
Seeing Ourselves as Others See Us: Incorporating Reflexivity in Corporate Social Responsibility

This paper seeks to address recent concerns that corporate social responsibility (CSR) is ineffective in conceptualising and delivering the needs of organisational stakeholders. In so doing, we contribute to knowledge in this field by re-conceptualising CSR that takes into account the role of reflexivity. Reflexive analysis requires understanding of the complex business context that confronts organisations engaging in CSR, awareness of an organisation’s position in its environment, together with an understanding of the expectations and values of salient stakeholders. We apply a strategically reflexive appraisal of CSR that results in a strategic audit tool as well as an advanced conceptual model of CSR that accommodates reflexivity into the relations with a range of stakeholder groups. This poses further questions of prevalent corporate governance systems that seek to mollify critics through social-responsible behaviour, without embedding systems to ensure that these activities can deliver the social benefit intended.
Virtual Resources: International Relations Research Resources on the Web

The explosive growth of the Internet and the World Wide Web in recent years has produced not only the trivial and bizarre, but also information useful for social science research and teaching. Yet most of this information is difficult to locate, particularly for those unfamiliar with the Web, primarily because of its nonlinear architecture—called “hypertext. ” The purpose of this research note is to give scholars a sense of what is unique about research resources on the Web and an indication in general terms of what types of information and materials can be accessed through it. First, I describe primary and secondary materials, teaching resources, reference material, and news sources. I then suggest several guidelines for Web site development that I believe will improve the potential for social science research on the Web. Finally, I conclude by outlining some directions for further analysis raised by the widespread use of the Web for academic research and teaching. A companion guide to research resources on the Web will be posted on the International Organization Web site through which the material here (and much more) can then be accessed.
Literacy and Growth

From the demographic profile of the 1994-1998 International Adult Literacy Survey, we derive synthetic time series over the 19601995 period on the literacy level of labor market entrants. This information is then used as a measure of investment in education in a two-way error correction panel data analysis of cross-country growth for a set of 14 OECD countries. The analysis indicates that direct measures of human capital based on literacy scores contain more information about the relative growth of countries than measures based on years of schooling. The results show that, overall, human capital indicators based on literacy scores have a positive and significant effect on the transitory growth path and on the long-run levels of GDP per capita and labor productivity. Quantitatively, our results indicate that the skills associated with one extra year of schooling increase aggregate labor productivity by approximately 7 %, which is consistent with microeconomic evidence (Psacharopoulos, 1994). Moreover, we find that investment in the human capital of women is more important for growth than investment in the human capital of men and that increasing the average literacy skills over all individuals has a greater effect on growth than increasing the percentage of individuals that achieve high levels of literacy skills.
National intellectual capital model and measurement

Over the past few decades, intangible assets, such as knowledge, patents, and innovation, have been identified as fundamental sources of wealth and progress. These assets represent a major concern for business firms, their stakeholders, policy makers and world organisations for proper positioning in the world competition and for wise resource allocation. As a result, measuring the intangibles has become a challenge. This paper reports a validated national intellectual capital measurement model, consisting human capital, market capital, process capital, renewal capital and financial capital that enables nations to conduct comparisons, benchmarking, refining and re-orienting national development strategies for sustaining their competitive advantages. The national intellectual capital ranking for 41 countries and their dynamic development are also elaborated.
Measuring lean readiness through the understanding of quality practices in the Turkish automotive suppliers industry

Purpose - – The purpose of this paper is to present a study that evaluates the readiness level of the Turkish automotive suppliers industry (T-ASI) to provide a foundation for the successful implementation and/or sustainment of lean practices. Design/methodology/approach - – The paper adapts an assessment framework developed by Al-Najem Findings - – The results of the study revealed that the T-ASI has a high level of LR, especially in the areas of customer relations and top management and leadership while processes, planning and control and supplier relations still need to be enhanced. In addition, the study found that company size has no effect on the LR level of suppliers whereas supplier level and location of customers have. Practical implications - – As the LR level of the T-ASI is measured, this research study increases the awareness of supplier companies with respect to complementary quality practices that support the implementation and/or sustainment of LM. Thus, managers can use this study as a platform to take better decisions regarding what quality aspects of their operations need to be enhanced to successfully deploy or sustain a lean strategy. Originality/value - – This research is among the very few studies that have focused on evaluating how ready the T-ASI is to successfully implement or sustain lean practices. For this reason, this research expands the very limited existent body of knowledge of LM in the T-ASI.
Essays on Labour Markets: Worker-Firm Dynamics, Occupational Segregation and Workplace Conditions

textabstractThe main chapters of this book, “Essays on Labour Markets”, focus on analyzing the dynamics of the employment relationship between workers and firms (chapters 2 and 3), modelling occupational segregation and labour market inequalities between social groups (chapter 4) and characterizing the link between a firm’s health & safety work conditions and its financial performance (chapter 5). Each essay contributes with original insights often using innovative and uncommon techniques, such as real options theory applied to wage-tenure profile analysis, social network analysis of occupational segregation, or estimation of firm production functions augmented with workplace environment indicators. Particularly intriguing conclusions of this thesis include: the effect of the selectivity on the worker’s outside option explains the largest part of the observed wage-tenure profiles; at least part of the wage return to “tenure” is in fact a wage return to “s! eniority”, i.e. the worker’s position in the tenure hierarchy of her firm; if informal contacts are relevant in job search, occupational segregation is the optimal social welfare policy for social groups with homophilous preferences; improving certain physical dimensions of the workplace health & safety environment raises a firm’s productivity, whereas other dimensions do not appear to matter in this regard.
ESSAYS ON ARBITRAGE THEORY FOR A CLASS OF INFORMATIONAL MARKETS

This thesis develops three major essays on Arbitrage Theory, Market’s Viability and Informational Markets. The first essay (Chapter 3) elaborates the exact connections among the No-Unbounded-Profit-with-Bounded-Risk (called NUPBR hereafter) condition, the existence of the numeraire portfolio, and market’s weak/local viability. These tight relationships together with the financial crisis become our principal financial/economic leitmotif for the development of the next essay. In the second essay (Chapter 4 – Chapter 6), we focus on quantifying with extreme precision the effect of some additional information/uncertainty on the nonarbitrage concepts. As a result, we describe the interplay of this extra information and the market’s parameters for these non-arbitrage concepts to be preserved. Herein, we focus on the classical no-arbitrage and the NUPBR condition. This study contains two main parts. In the first part of this essay (Chapter 4), we analyze practical examples of market models and extra information/uncertainty, for which we construct explicit ”classical” arbitrage opportunities generated by the extra information/uncertainty. These examples are built in Brownian filtration and in Poisson filtration as well. The second part (Chapters 5 and 6) addresses the NUPBR condition in two different directions. On the one hand, we describe the pairs of market model and random time for which the resulting informational market model fulfills the NUPBR condition. On the other hand, we characterize the random time models that preserve the NUPBR condition. These results are elaborated for general market models with special attention to practical models such as discrete-time and Levy market models. The last essay (Chapter 7) investigates the effect of additional information on the Structure Conditions. These conditions are the alternatives to the non-arbitrage and viability assumption in the Markowitz settings.
Assessment of Methylation Events during Colorectal Tumor Progression by Absolute Quantitative Analysis of Methylated Alleles

To date, the epigenetic events involved in the progression of colorectal cancer are not well described. To study, in detail, methylation during colorectal cancer development in high-risk adenomas, we developed an assay combining in situ (on-slide) sodium bisulfite modification (SBM) of paraffin-embedded archival tissue sections with absolute quantitative assessment of methylated alleles (AQAMA). We tested the performance of the assay to detect methylation level differences between paired pre-malignant and malignant colorectal cancer stages. AQAMA assays were used to measure methylation levels at MINT (methylated in tumor) loci MINT1, MINT2, MINT12, and MINT31. Assay performance was verified on cell line DNA and standard cDNA. On-slide SBM, allowing DNA methylation assessment of 1 to 2 mm2 of paraffin-embedded archival tissue, was employed. Methylation levels of adenomatous and cancerous components within a single tissue section in 72 colorectal cancer patients were analyzed. AQAMA was verified as accurately assessing CpG island methylation status in cell lines. The correlation between expected and measured cDNA methylation levels was high for all four MINT AQAMA assays (R ≥ 0.966, P < 0.001). Methylation levels at the four loci increased in 11% and decreased in 36% of specimens comparing paired adenoma and cancer tissues (P < 0.0001 by Kolmogorov-Smirnov test). Single-PCR AQAMA provided accurate methylation level measurement. Variable MINT locus methylation level changes occur during malignant progression of colorectal adenoma. Combining AQAMA with on-slide SBM provides a sensitive assay that allows detailed histology-oriented analysis of DNA methylation levels and may give new, accurate insights into understanding development of epigenetic aberrancies in colorectal cancer progression. (Mol Cancer Res 2007;5(5):461–71)
Design and Control of Active Muffler In Engine Exhaust Systems

This paper presents design and control of active mufflers used in engine exhaust systems. Boundary element method is employed to investigate noise attenuation performances of various active muffler structures. Based on these performance evaluations, an active muffler having only one loudspeaker inclined at 45 degree with the muffler centerline is constructed and tested for active noise control (ANC). The feedback ANC with two controller tuning algorithms, the filtered-x least mean square (FXLMS) algorithm and Godart modified algorithm, is applied independently for engine exhaust noise attenuation. Experimental investigation reveals that feedback ANC with FXLMS algorithm can attain an averaged 23.6 dB noise attenuation for pure tone excitation and over 6 dB noise reduction for motorcycle and automobile exhaust noises. It is also shown that feedback ANC with Godart modified algorithm has faster transient response compared to FXLMS algorithm for a pure tone noise, but has inferior noise attenuation capability than the FXLMS algorithm for the engine exhaust noise at fixed speeds (about 5 dB noise reduction) as well as during run-up tests. Key-Words: Active Muffler, Active Noise Control, Engine Exhaust Noise