Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Value Assessment of Business-to-Government Innovations: a Case Study

This article studies value assessments of IT solutions in public as well as in private contexts and aims to identify benefits of business-to-government innovations. The work analyzes the case of the implementation of European common e-customs solutions. Over the last few years, e-customs has become a widely studied topic within the European Union. However, only a little research has been conducted in order to identify benefits of such IT innovations. For this reason, this paper is dedicated to the value assessment of e-customs solutions. Within the framework of a European funded project, the study was conducted collecting data from interviews and workshops involving stakeholders coming from public as well as private organizations. By applying a theoretical value assessment framework, four main areas of improvement due to common e-customs solutions’ implementation were identified: increased security, reduction of administrative burden, facilitated compliance, and better communication. This article contributes towards value assessment research and in particular to a standardized e-customs solution as an example of business-togovernment innovations.
From Knowledge Engineering to Knowledge Management

Knowledge Management is seen by many to be a prerequisite for the successful organisation, and one that relies heavily, though not exclusively, on a sound technological infrastructure. A major drawback, though, with current technology (e.g. Lotus Notes and WWW) is its focus on information management and communication rather than on knowledge itself. What Knowledge Management needs are tools and techniques that are more oriented towards knowledge - its creation, mapping, transfer and use. We show how many of the methods and tools used in the branch of artificial intelligence known as Knowledge Engineering can be adapted to provide such a knowledge-oriented technology, and lead to significant benefits for organisations. A number of case studies are presented which illustrate our points, including decision making at Andersen Consulting and best practice at Rolls-Royce. A more elaborated use is shown in the context of Business Process Reengineering, where a new software tool-kit called SPEDE is being applied and validated within the aerospace and automotive industries.
Individual RD1‐region genes are required for export of ESAT‐6/CFP‐10 and for virulence of Mycobacterium tuberculosis

The RD1 genomic region is present in virulent strains of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB), missing from the vaccine strain M. bovis BCG, and its importance to virulence has been established experimentally. Based on in silico analysis, it has been suggested that RD1 may encode a novel secretion system, but the mechanism by which this region affects virulence is unknown. Here we examined mutants disrupted in five individual RD1 genes. Both in vitro and in vivo, each mutant displayed an attenuated phenotype very similar to a mutant missing the entire RD1 region. Genetic complementation of individual genes restored virulence. Attenuated mutants could multiply within THP‐1 cells, but they were unable to spread to uninfected macrophages. We also examined export of two immunodominant RD1 proteins, CFP‐10 and ESAT‐6. Export of these proteins was greatly reduced or abolished in each attenuated mutant. Again, genetic complementation restored a wild‐type phenotype. Our results indicate that RD1 genes work together to form a single virulence determinant, and argue that RD1 encodes a novel specialized secretion system that is required for pathogenesis of MTB.
The Role of Central Bank Transparency for Guiding Private Sector Forecasts

There is a broad consensus in the literature that costs of information processing and acquisition may generate costly disagreements in expectations among economic agents, and that central banks may play a central role in reducing such dispersion in expectations. This paper analyses empirically whether enhanced central bank transparency lowers dispersion among professional forecasters of key economic variables, using a large set of proxies for central bank transparency in 12 advanced economies. It finds evidence for a significant and sizeable effect of central bank transparency on forecast dispersion, be it by means of announcing a quantified inflation objective, other forms of communication, or by publishing central banks’ inflation and output forecasts. However, there also appear to be limits to central bank transparency, with decreasing marginal returns to enhancing (economic) transparency, and given our findings that disagreement among inflation expectations in the general public is not affected by the various central bank transparency measures analyzed in this paper.
Spanish language translation and initial validation of the functional assessment of cancer therapy quality-of-life instrument.

OBJECTIVES There is a need in the United States for culture-equivalent assessment of health-related quality of life, particularly among people who speak different languages and among those with low literacy skills. This report summarizes the adaptation of the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy (FACT) Scales for use with Spanish-speaking cancer patients, including those with low literacy. METHODS The Spanish language version of the general Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy scale plus five disease-specific subscales (breast, lung, colorectal, head and neck, HIV infection) were translated, reviewed, and revised, then evaluated in interviews with Spanish-speaking patients from the mainland United States and Puerto Rico. An iterative forward-backward-forward sequence of item translation, expert bilingual/bicultural advisor review, pretesting interviews with 92 patients, and further expert advisory input were used to establish semantic, content, and partial technical equivalence. RESULTS The Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-General and five disease-specific subscales were translated successfully into wording that was easily understood and answered, leading to psychometric and scoring data similar to that of the English version. All but one of the 28 Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-General items and all of the disease-specific items were seen as culturally relevant. The result is a document that underwent iterative forward-backward translation and evaluation and was pretested successfully with native Spanish-speaking oncology patients living in the Central United States and Puerto Rico. CONCLUSIONS The Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-General and five disease-specific subscales have been translated successfully into Spanish using a thorough translation and initial validation methodology. The methods and data provide a model for preparing a health status questionnaire for cross-cultural validation. The questionnaire is available for use in clinical trials and clinical practice.
FDI And Economic Growth In CEE And MENA Countries: A Tale Of Two Regions

This paper examines the effect of foreign direct investment (FDI) on economic growth in two different regions: Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) and the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). The main findings of our analysis suggest that FDI has a positive effect on growth only in EU accession countries while the effect of FDI on growth in MENA and non-EU accession countries is negative. Candidacy to EU membership is considered as a driving force for stronger commitment and more serious reforms that may have led to the positive effect of FDI on growth.
Characteristics of Workload Management in Pulic Child Welfare Agencies

Abstract This study examines the relationship among supervisor support, availability of resources, and worker ability and their impact on workload management. Child welfare caseworkers struggle to maintain their workloads amid tremendously high caseloads and ever-increasing paperwork. A structural equation model is utilized to determine the dynamic relationship of these variables. Results suggest that supervisor support and availability of resources have a direct impact on workload management. Additionally, supervisor support is significantly associated with worker ability and availability of resources. While worker ability does not directly affect workload management, it is significantly related to availability of resources. Results of this study can be useful to public child welfare agencies by identifying variables associated with increased manageability of employee workloads.
Good Instructions in No Time? Domestic Coordination of EU Policies in 19 Small States

As a prerequisite to shape EU policies in day-to-day negotiations, states have to know what they want and have to quickly produce good instructions. This paper analyses how domestic coordination practices influence the timing and quality of national positions. Are some states in a better position to develop instructions quickly? Are some states more likely to end up with low quality positions? In effect, three factors are crucial to the production of timely and good instructions: good cooperation between Permanent Representations and the lead ministries, autonomous lead ministries that prioritise EU work and good inter-ministerial conflict resolution systems. States such as Luxembourg and Ireland are close to these ideal practices and tend to develop good instructions swiftly, while others, such as Greece and Cyprus, frequently end up with delayed and suboptimal instructions that make it difficult for them to actively participate in EU negotiations.
Vacancy Chains, Filtering, and the Public Sector

Abstract One of the first studies of vacancy chains and filtering in the British housing system compares sequences of moves begun by new building in the public and private sectors. The vacancy chains are short but it is suggested that the multiplier effect is of less importance in a situation where poor people and those in substandard housing can, or should, be helped directly, without having to rely on the indirect “trickle down” of benefits from new construction.
Intercountry Adoption: Global Trade or Global Gift?

In this article, based on a paper given in Oslo, Norway in May 1999, John Triseliotis contends that a significant part of intercountry adoption lacks legal, moral or professional legitimacy. Since the end of World War II it has evolved from being a predominantly humanitarian response to natural calamities and the destruction caused by wars, to becoming a quest for children for those wishing to create a family or expand one. In the process of doing so a part of intercountry adoption has become a trade in children, with scant regard paid to children's rights as set out in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. The 1993 Hague Convention has made good progress towards international regulation but much more needs to be done to stop the major abuses. Finally, the proposition is put forward for all forms of adoption to be practised eventually on the basis of the gift relationship.
Extracting Sustainable Earnings from Profit Margins

Revenues and expenses are fundamentally proportional to one another, but are likely to be disproportionally affected by transitory items or economic shocks. We build on this observation and propose a new measure of sustainable earnings based on deviations from normal profit margins. While some other sustainable earnings metrics attempt to identify transitory components on a line-by-line basis, our measure, referred to as the intensity of core earnings (ICE), uses ratio analysis to extract the transitory portion of earnings from all line items. We find that the ICE, as measured here, is positively associated with earnings persistence, better earnings predictability, and stronger market reaction to unexpected earnings. We also find that our measure is positively associated with post-earnings announcement excess stock returns. Comparing our measure with an accrual-based measure of earnings quality, we find that, in general, the two metrics provide distinct incremental information relative to one another and in some instances our measure is better than an accrual-based measure in assessing earnings quality.
Audit Hours and Unit Audit Price of Industry Specialist Auditors: Evidence from Korea

Higher audit fees associated with auditor industry specialization could represent higher unit price charged by industry specialist auditors (ISAs) or the provision of a greater quantity of audit services. This study exploits a field setting in Korea, where the disclosure of audit hours is required in company annual reports, and finds that ISAs charge significantly higher total audit fees but also expend significantly greater audit hours than non-ISAs. When audit fees and hours are considered together, the unit audit price of ISAs is significantly lower than that of non-ISAs. This indicates that higher total audit fees associated with ISAs are likely to be attributable to greater audit hours associated with ISAs. However, greater audit hours for ISAs may suggest higher audit quality or may simply indicate that the additional audit work performed by ISAs is conducted by relatively cheaper junior auditors. Our work provides an alternative explanation for the higher total audit fees documented in the previous studies.
Correlated variation of melting and Curie temperatures of nickel clusters

The temperature-dependent study of magnetic properties of NiN clusters is presented, which reveals an intriguing relationship between Curie TC,N and melting Tmelt,N temperatures. Interestingly, both exhibit similar variation with cluster size; that is, their values are lower than their corresponding bulk values and approach their respective bulk value asymptotically as the cluster size increases. This similarity is justified using model calculations within the mean-field theory applied separately to the surface and core regions and is further quantified as a linear relationship between TC,N and Tmelt,N for a large range of cluster sizes.
Precautionary motives and portfolio decisions

This paper studies the empirical relevance of precautionary and other motives for household portfolio behaviour using recent panel data from the Netherlands. Dutch households' portfolios exhibit low degrees of risk taking and diversification. It is possible that this is the outcome of a rational, precautionary response to unavoidable exposure to background risk (stemming from the labour market or health conditions, etc.). We consider as alternative explanations liquidity needs and habits. The endogenous variable is the fraction of clearly safe in total financial assets at the household level. Parametric and semi-parametric censored regression models for pooled cross-sections and random and fixed effects models for panel data show that both heteroscedasticity and unobserved heterogeneity are of major importance in the data. With subjective indicators of income uncertainty we find a limited role for precautionary motives. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
The use and cost of hospital services by London AIDS patients with different AIDS defining conditions.

BACKGROUND Contracting for HIV service provision is now an established part of the National Health Service commissioning process. AIDS is a heterogeneous condition, comprising various opportunistic illnesses which require different services and which have different resource implications. This study describes the use of hospital services and associated costs for the management of different AIDS defining conditions. METHOD A retrospective case-notes analysis was performed, of 335 AIDS patients treated at St Mary's Hospital, London, between 1 January 1983 and 30 September 1989, as well as a costing exercise of 37 clinical departments to calculate HIV-related costs. RESULTS Mean age at time of AIDS diagnosis for these predominantly homosexual men was 38 years. Use of services varied, as did associated costs-from 8163 pounds per patient-year for patients with Constitutional Disease to 42,124 pounds for those with Cytomegalovirus Disease Most diagnostic categories showed a shift over the study period from an in-patient- to an out-patient-based service. Patients diagnosed after 1987 had overall lower costs per patient-year compared with those diagnosed before 1987: whereas out-patient costs for most groups had increased, in-patient expenditure decreased. For most categories, in-patient care costs and out-patient drugs prescribed provided the greatest proportion of total costs. Average costs per in-patient day ranged from 334 pounds to 433 pounds, and average costs per out-patient visit ranged from 99 pounds to 411 pounds for different AIDS defining conditions. CONCLUSIONS Different opportunistic illnesses of symptomatic HIV disease have different treatment and resource implications. Casemix will need to be taken into consideration when contracting for HIV services, including extra-contractual referrals.
A Randomized, Controlled Clinical Trial of Honey-Impregnated Dressing for Treating Diabetic Foot Ulcer.

OBJECTIVE To investigate the effect of Beri-honey-impregnated dressing on diabetic foot ulcer and compare it with normal saline dressing. STUDY DESIGN A randomized, controlled trial. PLACE AND DURATION OF STUDY Sughra Shafi Medical Complex, Narowal, Pakistan and Bhatti International Trust (BIT) Hospital, Affiliated with Central Park Medical College, Lahore, from February 2006 to February 2010. METHODOLOGY Patients with Wagner's grade 1 and 2 ulcers were enrolled. Those patients were divided in two groups; group A (n=179) treated with honey dressing and group B (n=169) treated with normal saline dressing. Outcome measures were calculated in terms of proportion of wounds completely healed (primary outcome), wound healing time, and deterioration of wounds. Patients were followed-up for a maximum of 120 days. RESULTS One hundred and thirty six wounds (75.97%) out of 179 were completely healed with honey dressing and 97 (57.39%) out of 169 wtih saline dressing (p=0.001). The median wound healing time was 18.00 (6 - 120) days (Median with IQR) in group A and 29.00 (7 - 120) days (Median with IQR) in group B (p < 0.001). CONCLUSION The present results showed that honey is an effective dressing agent instead of conventional dressings, in treating patients of diabetic foot ulcer.
Openness and Growth in Sub-Saharan Africa: Time Series and Cross-Country Analyses

This paper presents empirical evidence from a cross-section sample of thirty six Sub-Saharan African countries and time-series sample of selected seven. The evidence suggests that countries in the region that open generally tend to grow faster than those that are closed. However, the country-case study suggests that whether a particular country experiences higher output growth as it “opens up” is contingent upon its own peculiarities
Social network market: Storytelling on a Web 2.0 original literature site

This article looks at a Chinese Web 2.0 original literature site, Qidian, in order to show the co-evolution of market and non-market initiatives. The analytic framework of social network markets (Potts et al., 2008) is employed to analyse the motivations of publishing original literature works online and to understand the support mechanisms of the site, which encourage readers’ willingness to pay for user-generated content. The co-existence of socio-cultural and commercial economies and their impact on the successful business model of the site are illustrated in this case. This article extends the concept of social network markets by proposing the existence of a ripple effect of social network markets through convergence between fixed and mobile internet, between traditional and internet publishing, and between publishing and other cultural industries. It also examines the side effects of social network markets, and the role of market and non-market strategies in addressing the issues.
Productivity Convergence in European Manufacturing

The paper empirically investigates international productivity convergence in the manufacturing sector, which was found not converging in earlier studies. The authors analyze subsectors of aggregate manufacturing in order to compare similar technologies and to avoid the mixing of converging and nonconverging subsectors in the aggregate. Some of the subsectors converge while others, as well as aggregate manufacturing, do not. There is stronger evidence of convergence in subsectors with a smaller number of different industries. The latter serves as a proxy for the variety of technologies. Overall, the results highlight the importance of comparing similar technologies when studying productivity convergence.
Using Debate to Enhance Critical Thinking in the Accounting Classroom: The Sarbanes-Oxley Act and U.S. Tax Policy

ABSTRACT: While critical thinking is necessary for accountants in today’s business world, cultivating students’ critical thinking skills in an accounting classroom can be a challenge. The extant literature suggests that debate is a well-established pedagogical tool for enhancing student critical thinking skills, yet debate is not often used effectively in accounting classrooms. We provide suggestions for developing debates for use in the accounting classroom and two examples of debates used by the authors. The first requires students to argue for or against the extension of tax provisions currently being deliberated by Congress. The second requires students to examine the provisions of Sarbanes-Oxley and propose amendments to the bill.
An in vitro study on the mechanisms of coagulation activation in acute myelogenous leukemia (AML): role of tissue factor regulation by cytotoxic drugs and GM-CSF

Summary AML patients may suffer from a disseminated coagulopathy, which can aggravate a pre-existing bleeding tendency due to thrombocytopenia and platelet dysfunction. The cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying this coagulopathy, however, are not completely understood. Indeed, the broad and increasing therapeutic use of cytotoxic drugs and growth factors is likely to contribute to the complexity of hemostatic abnormalities encountered in this hematologic malignancy. The nature of coagulation activation in AML was therefore investigated in vitro using the human leukemic cell line, HL60. Tissue factor (TF) was almost entirely located on the cell surface and bound factor VIIa, but only 15-25% of this TF was primarily functionally active. Treatment with increasing concentrations of daunorubicin or cytosine-β-D-arabinofuranoside, two cytotoxic drugs commonly used in AML therapy, induced apoptosis and secondary necrosis of HL60 cells and resulted in marked decryption of TF PCA independent of de novo protein synthesis. This PCAmodulating effect was concomitant with and functionally dependent on the exposure of phosphatidylserine on the outer membrane leaflet. Similar observations were made in analogous ex vivo studies on patient-derived myeloblasts. Incubation of HL60 cells with GM-CSF, a cytokine expressed in the bone marrow microenvironment and used as an adjunct to AML treatment, evoked a cellular response, which included both enhanced TF production and release of VEGF-A and uPA into the culture medium. We conclude that both decryption of preformed TF PCA by chemotherapeutic drugs and de novo induction of TF by cytokines such as GM-CSF can regulate the procoagulant phenotype of HL60 cells in vitro.