Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Making Time: Deeper Connection, Fuller Stories, Best Practice

This study explored the experiences of nurse-researchers involved in a study investigating the validation of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ). The parent study involved nurse-researchers providing home-based assessments in 225 Māori homes. Four of these nurse-researchers, more usually involved in clinical work, took part in a focus group exploring their research role working with Māori whānau (extended family). Semi-structured prompts were used. The focus group was recorded and transcribed. Thematic analysis was undertaken. Both M Nurses involved in this study reflected on the value of making time to buildāori and non-Māori nurse participants highlighted the significance of making time within their assessments. Making time, a collaborative activity with the whānau of the child being assessed gave the participants the impression that it enabled whānau to share more of their stories. Making time to acknowledge, and deliver, Māori cultural practices lead to a richer and more fulfilling process. Participants described adding this experience of making time to their clinical practice as a result of their involvement. Nurses involved in this study reflected on the value of making time to build connection with whānau. These findings are important in adding to existing knowledge about the importance of how culturally competent practice improves working with whānau. This theme could be explored in other qualitative studies in order to determine how ‘making time’ is experienced by clinicians from other disciplines, and by whānau themselves, as well as in clinical settings to improve models of care.
Labor Market Networks and Recovery from Mass Layoffs Before, During, and after the Great Recession

We test the effects of labor market networks defined by residential neighborhoods on re-employment following mass layoffs. We develop two measures of labor market network strength. One captures the flows of information to job seekers about the availability of job vacancies at employers of workers in the network, and the other captures referrals provided to employers by other network members. These network measures are linked to more rapid re-employment following mass layoffs, and to re-employment at neighbors’ employers. We also find evidence that network connections – especially those that provide information about job vacancies – became less productive during the Great Recession.
Reliability and validity of the Greek version of Kogan's Old People Scale.

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES The aim of this study was to test the psychometric properties--validity and reliability--of the Greek version of Kogan's Old People scale. BACKGROUND The ageing of the population in most of the developed world and in Greece, challenge-nursing care, therefore, nursing education needs to be updated accordingly. Until today there have been no studies in Greece in relation to student nurses' attitudes towards older people. To have a reliable questionnaire for measuring a Greek population's attitudes towards older people the Kogan's Old People Scale was translated into Greek. DESIGN The study was designed as a cross-sectional survey. The main reason for choosing a cross-sectional survey was the time limits for the study. A sample of 390 nursing students in Athens participated in the study. METHODS A questionnaire was given to the students, which included the Kogan's Old People Scale. RESULTS Results showed Cronbach's alpha coefficient 0.73 for the OP- scale and 0.65 for the OP+ scale, which are comparable to published studies until today. The six-factor solution explains the 41.5% of the variance in the sample. The scale was also found to differentiate between first and final year students on how their education in nursing is influencing their attitudes towards the older people. CONCLUSIONS Reliability and validity supported the Greek version of the Kogan's Old People Scale as a reliable instrument. Its use in evaluating Greek nursing education programmes could help in preparing nurses capable of meeting the needs of older people. RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE Nursing education--basic and lifelong--needs to be updated in order to respond to the needs of older people and a reliable instrument can help to evaluate it.
Does Option Repricing Retain Executives and Improve Future Performance?

We directly test the assertion that executive stock option repricing leads to increased management retention and/or improved future firm performance. Using a sample of 201 repricing events and a non-repricing control sample, we examine executive retention in the four years following repricing. We find that CEO retention is significantly greater for repricing firms relative to non-repricing firms for three years following the repricing date, and non-CEO executive retention is significantly greater for two years. We also find that, in the pre-repricing period, repricing firms exhibit significant positive industry-adjusted firm growth, stock, and operating performance. However, we find mixed results in the post-repricing period. We find that repricing firms exhibit significant negative industry-adjusted firm growth, and significant positive industry-adjusted stock and accounting performance.
Design of a small modified microstrip lowpass filter with folded U-shaped defected ground structure

A new technique to reduce the size and improve the rejection in the stopband of a lowpass filter using folded U-shaped defected ground structure (DGS) is proposed. The proposed DGS by using higher order harmonics of the main attenuation pole provides several attenuation poles (depending on the slot length). Five folded U-shaped DGS cells are applied to form a miniaturized lowpass filter, which has a smaller area, wider stopband and also better passband characteristic in comparison to previous works. The size of the fabricated filter is as small as 43.5 mm × 14 mm.
Changing Feeding Regimes To Demonstrate Flexible Biogas Production: Effects on Process Performance, Microbial Community Structure, and Methanogenesis Pathways

ABSTRACT Flexible biogas production that adapts biogas output to energy demand can be regulated by changing feeding regimes. In this study, the effect of changes in feeding intervals on process performance, microbial community structure, and the methanogenesis pathway was investigated. Three different feeding regimes (once daily, every second day, and every 2 h) at the same organic loading rate were studied in continuously stirred tank reactors treating distiller's dried grains with solubles. A larger amount of biogas was produced after feeding in the reactors fed less frequently (once per day and every second day), whereas the amount remained constant in the reactor fed more frequently (every 2 h), indicating the suitability of the former for the flexible production of biogas. Compared to the conventional more frequent feeding regimes, a methane yield that was up to 14% higher and an improved stability of the process against organic overloading were achieved by employing less frequent feeding regimes. The community structures of bacteria and methanogenic archaea were monitored by terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism (T-RFLP) analysis of 16S rRNA and mcrA genes, respectively. The results showed that the composition of the bacterial community varied under the different feeding regimes, and the observed T-RFLP patterns were best explained by the differences in the total ammonia nitrogen concentrations, H2 levels, and pH values. However, the methanogenic community remained stable under all feeding regimes, with the dominance of the Methanosarcina genus followed by that of the Methanobacterium genus. Stable isotope analysis showed that the average amount of methane produced during each feeding event by acetoclastic and hydrogenotrophic methanogenesis was not influenced by the three different feeding regimes.
Investor irrationality and optimal open-market share repurchasing

As a method of distributing cash to investors, open-market share repurchases have grown rapidly (relative to dividends) in the past decade. There is much evidence that managers believe that they can use share repurchases to time the market profitably. However, some firms repurchase their shares intensively and some of them repurchase gradually over time. In this paper, we developed a model of market timing using share repurchases, based on irrational investors’ lagged reaction to repurchase announcements, to explain how managers make their actual repurchase decisions. We find that managers attempt to trade off the effects of repurchase size and time on investors’ reaction to maximize their profits from repurchase timing. Correspondence 1 School of Management, University of Bath, Claverton Down, Bath BA2 7AY, U.K., E-mail: mnsrf@management.bath.ac.uk 2 School of Management, University of Bath, Claverton Down, Bath BA2 7AY, U.K., E-mail: mnpgz@bath.ac.uk
Tax reforms to influence corporate financial policy: the case of the Italian business tax reform of 1997-98

In this paper company-level panel data are used to explore the role of tax changes on corporate financial policy. A panel model for the years 1993-98 is estimated confirming the explanatory power of the tax variable. The estimation also shows that firms reduced leverage in the last three years (1996-98) as a reaction to important tax changes; the reduction in 1996 was the effect of the temporary investment tax credit of the previous year, while the one in 1997-98 was the result of the business tax reform started in 1997. The reform, by modifying the system for taxing profits, termed Dual income Tax (DIT), and introducing a new regional tax on business activity (IRAP), reduced the bias against equity finance that was present in the previous tax system. Focusing on the reform, a Logit model is estimated to highlight the characteristics of firms that used the DIT tax system in the first two years. The probability of using the DIT increases with profitability, productivity and investment. The significance of the latter variable suggests that the DIT system was used by firms to reduce the cost of financing new investments after the temporary investment tax credit of 1995.
Exports and Sectoral Financial Dependence: Evidence on French Firms During the Great Global Crisis

The unprecedented drop in international trade during the last quarter of 2008 and the first quarter of 2009 has mainly been analysed at the macroeconomic or sectoral level. However, exporters who are heterogeneous in terms of productivity, size or external financial dependence should be heterogeneously affected by the crisis. This issue is examined in this paper by using data on monthly exports at the product and destination level for some 100,000 individual French exporters, up to 2009M4. We show that the drop in French exports is mainly due to the intensive margin of large exporters. Small and large exporters are evenly affected when sectoral and geographical specialisations are controlled for. Lastly, exporters (small and large) in sectors structurally more dependent on external finance are the most affected by the crisis. JEL Classification: F02, F10, G01
Physiological response to cycling with both circular and noncircular chainrings.

The purpose of this study was to compare physiological variables of endurance-trained cyclists riding with four different chainring designs: round, Shimano Biopace, and two engineered ellipse designs. The ellipse designated Eng10 had the crank arm oriented 10 degrees forward of the major (i.e. longer) axis. Eighty degrees further forward, along the minor axis, was the crank arm orientation for the second ellipse, Eng90. With the major to minor axis ratio of 22.9 cm/16.8 cm (1.36), both ellipses imposed a crank angular velocity variation of 27% relative to the highest velocity assuming constant chain velocity. Best described as a skewed ellipse (i.e., major and minor axes not perpendicular), the Biopace had a major to minor axis ratio of 1.09 thus giving a crank angular velocity variation of 8%. Eleven male cyclists rode at a high (80% of maximum VO2) and a low (60% of maximum VO2) workrate using each chainring. The study was conducted over four consecutive days with the presentation order of the chainrings randomized. Open circuit spirometry was used to collect continuous respiratory data. Heart rate, blood lactate, and cadence values also were measured. None of the physiological variables including rates of oxygen consumption showed significant differences among the chainrings. Thus, the gross efficiency of cycling was not improved by any of the noncircular chainrings. For cycling events where efficiency is a determinant of performance, the noncircular chainrings do not offer any advantage over round chainrings.
Clinical and radiographic evaluation of the 5-mm diameter regular-platform Brånemark fixture: 2- to 5-year follow-up.

PURPOSE The purpose of this study was to report the clinical results obtained with 5-mm diameter regular-platform Brånemark implants after 2 to 5 years of follow-up. A secondary aim was to compare the clinical outcome to that of adjacently placed standard 3.75-mm fixtures in the same patients under the same operative condition and in the same prosthetic construction. MATERIALS AND METHODS Sixty patients, with a mean age of 54 years, received a total of 97.5-mm diameter regular-platform fixtures. The majority of the implants were placed at molar sites. In 41 of the patients, 53.5-mm diameter implants were placed adjacent to 62 standard 3.75-mm diameter fixtures in the same prosthetic reconstruction. All implants were submerged for an average period of 4 to 6 months. Abutment connection was done according to standard protocol. The prosthetic treatment consisted of freestanding fixed bridges. RESULTS The cumulative survival rate of the 5-mm diameter implants loaded for a period of 2 to 5 years was 96.9%. Only three implants failed. They were placed in type 4 bone in the posterior maxilla. Bone loss over the first year was 0.70 mm and over a 3-year period 0.81 mm. Implants placed in type 4 bone showed significantly higher bone loss. No difference in the resorption rate could be found between the maxillary and the mandibular implants or between the various implant lengths. There was no significant difference between the bone loss around the 5-mm diameter fixtures and the adjacent 3.75-mm diameter standard fixtures. CONCLUSION The present study demonstrated a high predictability of 5-mm diameter regular-platform implants when placed in the posterior maxilla and mandible.
Bank Capital, Competition and Loan Spreads

This paper empirically investigates the effect of bank capital ratios on loan spreads using a dataset of all syndicated loans issued by public non-financial U.S. firms during the 1993 to 2007 period. We find evidence that banks with high capital ratios charge higher spreads. We further investigate whether this result can be explained by banks holding-up their borrowers. Using various proxies for information asymmetry we encounter that this effect even persists for the most transparent borrowers. Moreover, we find that a higher level of competition between banks does not attenuate this effect.
Targeting and Privacy in Mobile Advertising

Mobile in-app advertising is now the dominant form of digital advertising. Although these ads have excellent user-tracking properties, they have raised concerns among privacy advocates. This has resulted in an ongoing debate on the value of different types of targeting information, the incentives of ad networks to engage in behavioral targeting, and the role of regulation. To answer these questions, we propose a unified modeling framework that consists of two components—a machine learning framework for targeting and an analytical auction model for examining market outcomes under counterfactual targeting regimes. We apply our framework to large-scale data from the leading in-app ad network of an Asian country. We find that an efficient targeting policy based on our machine learning framework improves the average click-through rate by 66.80% over the current system. These gains mainly stem from behavioral information compared with contextual information. Theoretical and empirical counterfactuals show that although total surplus grows with more granular targeting, the ad network’s revenues are nonmonotonic; that is, the most efficient targeting does not maximize ad network revenues. Rather, it is maximized when the ad network does not allow advertisers to engage in behavioral targeting. Our results suggest that ad networks may have economic incentives to preserve users’ privacy without external regulation.
Work Life Balance: Policies and Initiatives in Irish Organisations: A Best Practice Management Guide.

This text provides a thorough and accessible review of key research on work-life balance (WLB) in Irish organisations, and by presenting examples of work-life balance policies and practices in Irish private and public sector organisations, it aims to: establish the business case for work-life balance; provide a practical hands-on, step-by-step guide to enable organisations to adopt and implement appropriate WLB strategies to match the culture and business needs of their organisation; and, provide a comprehensive approach to managing and implementing work-life balance initiatives, drawing on the perspectives, views and issues relevant at multiple levels within the organisation - for example, senior management, middle management, and employees.Given the increasing debate on work-life balance, both nationally and internationally, together with the realisation the employees are a real source of competitive advantage for organisations, this guide is both timely and opportune. includes bibliography and index.
Asian Management Systems: Chinese, Japanese and Korean Styles of Business

Part 1 Conceptual Framework: Major Comparative Management Models Understanding National Competitiveness - East-West Comparisons Sun Tzu's Strategic Thinking and Contemporary Business Guanxi Dynamics and Network Building. Part 2: The Overseas Chinese - Their Origins and Operational Environment The Chinese Family Business - Organizational Challenges and Competitive Edge Competitive Chinese Business - Strategies in ASEAN The Evolving Environment of Chinese State Enterprises (CSE) Reforming Managerial Mechanisms of Chinese State Enterprises (CSE) Comparative Chinese Managerial Systems. Part 3: Government-business relations in Japan and Korea Comparative Large Japanese and Korean Business Groups Japanese Management Style Developing Competitive Advantages of Japanese Companies Managerial Styles of Korean Companies Comparative Japanese and Korean Management Systems. Part 4 Coping with Different Management Systems: Understanding Chinese and Japanese Negotiating Styles Comparing Japanese General Trading Companies and Chinese Foreign Trade Companies The Japanese Distribution System in Transition Unlocking Joint Venture Potentials in China.
Fiscal Transfers and Regional Economic Growth

In the aftermath of the financial crisis, with periphery countries in the European Union even more falling behind the core countries economically, there have been quests for various kind of fiscal policies in order to revert divergence. How these policies would unfold and perform comparatively is largely unknown. We analyze four such stylized policies in an agent-based macroeconomic model and study the economic mechanisms behind their relative success. Our main findings are that the core country sharing the debt burden of the periphery country has almost no effect on the growth dynamics of that region, fiscal transfers have a positive short and long run impact on per capita consumption in the target region, and that technology oriented firm subsidies have the strongest positive long run impact on competitiveness of the periphery country at which they are targeted. The positive effect of the technology oriented policy is reinforced if combined with household transfers.
TRRAP-Dependent and TRRAP-Independent Transcriptional Activation by Myc Family Oncoproteins

ABSTRACT We demonstrate that transformation-transactivation domain-associated protein (TRRAP) binding and the recruitment of histone H3 and H4 acetyltransferase activities are required for the transactivation of a silent telomerase reverse transcriptase (TERT) gene in exponentially growing human fibroblasts by c-Myc or N-Myc protein. However, recruitment of TRRAP by c- or N-Myc is dispensable for the partial induction of several basally expressed genes in exponentially growing primary and immortalized fibroblasts. Furthermore, recruitment of TRRAP is required for c-Myc- or N-Myc-mediated oncogenic transformation but not for the partial restoration of the growth defect in myc-null fibroblasts. A segment of the adenovirus E1A protein fused to a transformation-defective N-Myc protein carrying a small deletion in the transactivation domain specifically restores interaction with TRRAP, activates the silent TERT gene, induces acetylation of histones H3 and H4 at the TERT promoter, and transforms primary cells. Accordingly, wild-type L-Myc is much less efficient in TRRAP binding, activation of the silent TERT gene, and transformation of primary fibroblasts. Nevertheless, L-Myc is a potent activator of several basally expressed genes and can fully restore the growth defect of myc-null cells. These results suggest a differential requirement for TRRAP for several Myc-mediated activities.
Banking and SME Financing in the United States

Loan markets for most small business borrowers in the United States have become more competitive over the past decade, evidenced by the emergence of a nationwide market for credit lines and credit cards and the entry of large regional banks in local markets. However, the impact of increased competition on the cost of funds to small firms, as indicated by the rate spreads between small business rates and the rates paid by the banks’ best prime customers, is more difficult to assess because of data limitations.
A comprehensive model for supply chain integration

Purpose – Extant research on supply chain integration defines integration in different ways, and mainly discusses a limited number of integration elements. The purpose of this paper is to develop a conceptual integration model which consists of comprehensive elements that are important to academic research and industrial practices. Design/methodology/approach – Key literature survey with drawing threads of existing practices together for developing a systematic referential model and then verify the model with a real case. Findings – Developed a model consisting of integration elements residing at the strategic, managerial, operational, and fundamental levels (bottom line). Based on the benefit alignment, the total integration requires supply chain partners to integrate resource flows (material, information, knowledge, and finance), processes and organization, planning and control activities and strategy. Research limitations/implications – The research is based on secondary data and a case study illustrat.