Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The effect of ethical climate on the organizational commitment of faculty members

The purpose of this quantitative study was to examine the relationship of perceived ethical climate on the organizational commitment of full-time faculty members in institutions of higher education. Four regional universities participated in this study. The data analysis indicated significant differences in self-reported levels of organizational commitment with regards to type of perceived ethical climate. Results of this study also indicate that gender differences play a significant role in the self-reported level of organizational commitment. Understanding organizational commitment is important because decreased levels of commitment have been linked to lower productivity, stagnated creativity, and higher levels of turnover.
Různorodost pojetí, nejasná nabídka a kontrola výkonu "sociální práce"

Autor se zabýva otazkou, jak mohou cesti socialni pracovnici postupovat, pokud by se rozhodli přesvědcit zadavatele o tom, že socialni prace může obcanům nabidnout specificke služby, ktere neposkytuji pracovnici jiných pomahajicich oborů. Na zakladě rozboru soucasne situace komunity socialnich pracovniků a s využitim teze Lyotarda o možnosti přechodných a proměnlivých dohod navrhuje strategii komunikace o pravidlech prakticke spoluprace stoupenců různých pojeti socialni prace.The author deals the question: "What can Czech social workers do when they like to persuade their job-givers that they are able to offer specific services that the other helping jobs do not accomplish? " Following the analysis of the current situation of social workers community and using the argument on the temporary and changeable agreements by Lyotard he proposes the strategy of communication on rules that would govern the cooperation of proponents of different concepts of social work in practice.
Evidence to Practice: Botulinum Toxin in the Treatment of Spasticity Post Stroke

Abstract Introduction: Spasticity is a significant problem following stroke. Although there is extensive research examining the efficacy of botulinum toxin as a treatment, there are challenges in implementing its use. Methods: The results from previously published randomized controlled trials and systematic reviews examining the use of botulinum toxin as a treatment for poststroke spasticity of the upper and lower limb and the shoulder are summarized. Several barriers to implementation are discussed. Results: There is strong evidence that denervation of muscles, in the lower extremity and upper extremity post stroke, with botulinum toxin reduces focal spasticity. There is also strong evidence that it is associated with a small but significant improvement in gait velocity based on a recent meta-analysis. However, evidence that botulinum toxin injections are associated with improved function and improved quality of life is not as compelling. There is evidence that botulinum toxin injected into the subscapularis muscle can reduce spastic shoulder pain and improve passive range of motion of the hemiplegic shoulder. There are a number of challenges with botulinum toxin, including uncertainty over its role in improving motor dysfunction following stroke, the determination of which subsets of patients may benefit, the cost of treatment, and the identification of meaningful outcome measures. Conclusions: Botulinum toxin has been shown to be an effective treatment in reducing tone and managing spasticity post stroke. However, its effectiveness in improving function has been more controversial.
Disentangling Value: Financing Needs, Firm Scope, and Divestitures☆

This paper presents a rationale for divestiture consistent with one of the frequently cited reasons by divesting firms, namely, that the firm is undervalued and splitting the firm into its component businesses will make it easier for the market to value the components accurately. When firms are undervalued due to unobservability of divisional cash flows, they may resort to divestiture to raise capital while overvalued firms will use external equity. Diversification thus might result in costly future divestiture. Firms trade off this expected cost of diversification against the benefit of higher levels of cheaper internal capital in deciding the scope of the firm.
Repetitive exposures with simian/human immunodeficiency viruses: strategy to study HIV pre‐clinical interventions in non‐human primates

Background Non‐human primate models for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection represent a valuable pre‐clinical tool to evaluate interventions (e.g., topical microbicides, vaccines, and chemoprophylaxis) designed to prevent transmission or slow disease progression after infection. Standard transmission models use a single‐dose exposure with high, non‐physiologic levels of virus to approach 100% infection rates of control animals. These single‐exposure models do not represent the circumstances of mucosal HIV transmission in humans and may result in misleading data with regard to intervention efficacy. Therefore, we have developed a repetitive mucosal exposure model using doses of virus that better reflects human exposures.
Concepts for systemic treatment of micrometastases

If total tumor cell kill is a requirement for “cure,” as it probably is for at least some tumors, treatment of micrometastases containing ≦ 106 viable tumor cells is a problem facing all cancer therapists. Metastatic tumor cell foci of ≦ 106 cells, particularly if widely disseminated, are, in the main, grossly undetectable and are, therefore, the proper targets for the chemotherapist and the immunotherapist. Current knowledge of tumor cell population growth kinetics indicates that the growth fraction (viable cells undergoing active cell replication) is inversely related to population size. Micrometastases should, therefore, be more sensitive to antimetabolite (cell‐cycle‐specific) anticancer drugs than the larger, grossly apparent, primary tumor from which they were derived. In fact, drug response of the primary tumor may not reliably predict the sensitivity of micrometastases to cell‐cycle‐specific drugs. In addition, optimal drug treatment scheduling for effective, but noncurative, drugs against clinically recognized tumors may not predict optimal scheduling of the same drugs against micrometastases. This is shown particularly in cell‐cycle‐specific drugs, since the generation time of tumor cells in small population foci (< 107 cells) is often significantly shorter than in larger population foci (> 107 cells). Since first‐order cell kill kinetics characterizes effective drug kill of tumor cells and the best currently known anticancer drugs have variable but generally limited tumor cell kill potential, drug treatment of likely micrometastases should be started as soon after the end of likely noncurative radiologic or surgical treatment as possible. Experimental data indicating that significantly smaller numbers of viable tumor cells can establish lethal tumors in the presence of radiation‐inactivated tumor cells than in their absence suggest that small populations of residual viable tumor cells in radiation‐treated tumor sites may be a greater threat to clinical cure than similar sized populations remaining in situ after surgery. Experimental data supporting the above concepts are presented and discussed.
Computer Use and Productivity Growth in Federal Government Agencies, 1987 to 1992

This paper examines trends in computer usage and the effect on productivity growth for a sample of federal government agencies over the period from 1987 to 1992. We link data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) on the growth in real output per employee with data from a marketing research firm, Computer Intelligence (CI), on the growth in per capita computer assets for a sample of 44 federal agencies. The data show that computer usage increased dramatically and that there was a shift towards more powerful, lower cost, distributed systems and that usage diffused more extensively throughout the sampled agencies. These trends mirror, while perhaps lagging, those experienced by large private firms over the same period. From estimates of a Cobb-Douglas production function for government services, we derive an estimated output elasticity for computers of 0.06, which allows us to conclude that computers did contribute significantly to output growth, thereby refuting the Computer Productivity Paradox as it applies to the public sector. Computers do not appear to be responsible for the disappointing productivity performance of the service sector. Although the magnitude of our estimated elasticity suggests that the returns to computer investments exceeded those to other types of capital, our results are not conclusive. We also observe a positive correlation between increased computer usage and compensation growth which is consistent with skill-biased technical change.
Attitudes toward Water Conservation: The Influence of Site-Specific Factors and Beliefs in Climate Change

Areas affected by drought are increasing, and many lakes that provide potable water and recreation opportunities are located in drought-vulnerable areas. Understanding a population's attitudes toward conservation actions can improve communication initiatives, policy development, and education, which are all necessary for effective water resource management. However, little is known about stakeholders’ interactions with drought-influenced resources and the potential factors that form their water conservation attitudes. Using a mixed methods approach, we evaluated lake recreationists’ (n = 229) attitudes toward water conservation at a drought-impacted lake. We identified the relationships between two site-specific factors (place attachment and awareness of drought impacts), beliefs in climate change, concern for drought impacts, and water conservation attitudes. Results indicated concern for local drought impacts fully mediated the relationships between site-specific factors, beliefs in climate change, and attitudes toward water conservation behaviors. Implications for research, outreach, and water resource management are discussed.
Is there a Greek-Turkish arms race? : evidence from cointegration and causality tests

Greece and Turkey are both members of NATO and are two of the principal players in the Balkan region. Their respective defence burdens (i.e. the share of military expenditure to GDP) are the highest in NATO. Their bilateral relations are marred by serious friction and conflict of interest and have on a number of occasions come close to an armed confrontation. Their strategic interaction and mutual weapons build-up has recently attracted the attention of researchers in the field testing the hypothesis of a Greek-Turkish arms race with conflicting results. This paper, using cointegration and causality tests, finds evidence of a systematic armaments competition between the two countries provided that a defence policy regime shift estimated to occur in 1985 is explicitly taken into consideration. This policy regime change is associated with the stagnation of defence spending in Greece owing to the gradual deterioration of Greek public finances over the last decade.
Effect of advanced imaging technology on how biopsies are done and who does them.

PURPOSE To assess national levels and trends in utilization of biopsy procedures during the past decade and investigate the relative roles of biopsy approaches (open, endoscopic, and percutaneous) and physician specialties. MATERIALS AND METHODS Institutional review board approval was not necessary because only public domain data were used. Aggregated Medicare claims data were used to determine utilization of biopsies performed in 10 anatomic regions from 1997 to 2008. Utilization levels according to biopsy approach and anatomic region were calculated. Trends in the relative utilization of percutaneous needle biopsy (PNB) and imaging-guided percutaneous biopsy (IGPB) were assessed. The relative roles of radiologists and nonradiologists in the performance of all biopsies, PNBs, and IGPBs were evaluated. RESULTS Biopsy procedures with all approaches increased from 1380 to 1945 biopsies per 100,000 Medicare enrollees between 1997 and 2008, which represents a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 3%. Utilization of non-PNBs fell, while the absolute level and relative share of PNBs increased. In 2008, 67% of all biopsies were performed by using a percutaneous route. IGPB as a percentage of all PNBs increased over time in the regions for which data were available. Radiology was the leading specialty providing biopsy services. The total number of biopsies performed by radiologists increased at a CAGR of 8%, and radiologists' share of all biopsies increased from 35% to 56%. CONCLUSION During the past decade, there was continuing substitution away from invasive approaches and non-imaging-guided percutaneous approaches in favor of PNBs and IGPBs, likely related to increasing use of advanced imaging modalities for biopsy guidance. Consequently, radiologists are performing an increasing share of biopsies across all anatomic regions.
Empirical Evidence on Dividends as a Signal of Firm Value

The role of dividends in firm valuation continues to be a theoretical puzzle as well as an empirical obsession with economists. The pioneering work by Modigliani and Miller (MM) ([32], [29]) is the archetype of the theoretical dilemma. Whereas the authors proved convincingly the irrelevance of dividend policy to firm value within a perfect capital market, they tempered their irrelevance proposition with what is usually referred to as the “information content of dividends” (ICD) hypothesis. In a more scientific sense, this hypothesis should be labeled as a conjecture, since it is essentially an ad hoc observation that dividends may convey information to the capital market concerning a firm's future earnings potential. Even though the ICD hypothesis was not derived from a well-specified economic model, it has, nevertheless, been subjected to a plethora of empirical studies. In general, these studies have focused upon the precise influence of dividend changes upon a firm's common stock price. Overall, the results can be described as being supportive of the notion that stock price movements are positively correlated with cash dividend changes. This correlation, of course, is consistent with the ICD hypothesis.
Fertility, Education, and Development: Evidence from India

Fertility has declined significantly in many parts of India since the early 1980s. This article examines the determinants of fertility levels and fertility decline, using data on Indian districts for 1981 and 1991. The authors find that women's education and child mortality are the most important factors explaining fertility differences across the country and over time. Low levels of son preference also contribute to lower fertility. By contrast, general indicators of modernization and development such as urbanization, poverty reduction, and male literacy exhibit no significant association with fertility. En passant, the authors probe a subject of much confusion— the relation between fertility decline and gender bias.
International Capital Markets and Interest Groups

Capital market integration has increased the scale and mobility of capital movements within and among nations to unprecedented levels. Integration is fairly recent. Frankel concludes from his review of the literature that barriers in the major world financial markets were sufficiently low that by 1989, financial markets could be viewed as being fully integrated. ' The scale and mobility of capital flows among nations has numerous implications to currency values, interest rates, wealth, and, through current capital account linkages, to relative product and factor prices. Capital flows that have real economic effects also affect the functioning of policy instruments and how effective they are in remunerating an interest group at the expense, if any, of others. This paper provides insights into the process and linkages by which the integration of capital markets has altered economic policy through interest group pressures on government. If economic policy is viewed as the outcome of interest groups seeking through the power of the state that which cannot be provided by the market alone, then capital market adjustments that affect the return to policy instruments can also affect the returns to lobbying resources and, hence, the balance of political influence among the various groups.2 This type of explanation for economic policy has been forwarded under the rubric of models of "rent seeking" (Krueger 1974). 3 The paper is organized as follows.4 Selected historical evidence linking capital markets to pressures for legislation in the United States and other countries is briefly reviewed. In some cases, capital market adjustments have eased pressures for protection, while, in other cases, adjustments either forced policy change because of a liquidity constraint or made unprofitable the lobbying for sustaining policy in face of these adjustments. The discussion in the next section provides deeper insight into capital market-lobbying linkages. Discussion focuses on the results from a simple model of rent seeking, where government intervenes in markets and provides sector-specific public goods.
Modern portfolio theory and investment analysis

An update of a classic book in the field, Modern Portfolio Theory examines the characteristics and analysis of individual securities as well as the theory and practice of optimally combining securities into portfolios. It stresses the economic intuition behind the subject matter while presenting advanced concepts of investment analysis and portfolio management. Readers will also discover the strengths and weaknesses of modern portfolio theory as well as the latest breakthroughs.
Impact of diagnostic and treatment delay on survival in patients with renal pelvic and ureteral cancer

Objective. To investigate the relationships between diagnostic and treatment delay and tumour stage and survival among patients with malignant tumours in the renal pelvis and ureter. Material and methods. A clinical and histopathological review was performed on 943 patients with a primary malignant tumour in the renal pelvis and ureter. We selected 394 patients who had macrohaematuria as an initial symptom, had no previous history of bladder cancer, had undergone surgery and had adequate follow-up. We performed uni- and multivariate analyses of prognostic factors for disease-specific survival. Results. The median number of days between the first occurrence of macrohaematuria and surgery was 83.5 days (range 4–1770 days). Patients with advanced tumours had the shortest median delay. Advanced tumour stage, a solid growth pattern and vascular invasion were of prognostic importance for disease-specific survival in the multivariate analysis, but diagnostic and treatment delay were not. Conclusions. Although the delay was unacceptably long it still had no impact on survival, probably because macroscopic haematuria is a late symptom, in particular in high-grade tumours. New screening methods for the early detection of cancer and new treatment modalities are needed to improve the poor prognosis in stage pT3–pT4 tumours.
Public Enterprise Economics: Theory and Application

Introduction. The Basic Model. Essential Parts of Public Sector Pricing Models. Normative Optimum Theory. Positive Optimum Theory. Normative Piecemeal Theory. Positive Piecemeal Theory. Normative Theory: Public Pricing Policies for Welfare Maximization. A - Basic Rules. Marginal-Cost Pricing. Ramsey Pricing. Rate of Return Regulation. Pricing with Distributional Aims. B - Interdependencies With The Private Economy. Adjustment to Monopolistic Pricing in the Private Sector. Adjustment to Rationed Markets. C - Time-Dependent Pricing. Pricing Through Time and Adjustment Clauses. Peak-Load Pricing. D - Public Pricing When Quality Matters. Different Approaches Towards Optimal Quality. Positive Theory: Public Pricing Policies to Achieve Politicians' and Managers' Aims. A - Politicians and Bureaucrats. Winning Votes. Maximizing Budgets. B - Managers of Public Enterprises and Unions. Maximizing Output or Revenue, Minimizing Energy Inputs. Minimizing Price Indices. The Influence of Unions. Quality in Positive Theory Models. A Set of Axioms for Prices to Achieve a Fair Allocation of Costs. Application of the Theoretical Results: The Example of London Transport. Economic Theory and Empirical Analysis (I): Specifying Demand. Economic Theory and Empirical Analysis (II): Specifying Technology. Bus and Underground Services in London. Estimating Normative and Positive Prices for Bus and Underground in London. Appendices. References. Index.
Income, Assets, and Poverty: Older Women in Comparative Perspective

We analyze the economic well‐being of older women in cross‐national perspective, comparing the United States with four other high‐income countries: the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, and Sweden. We report some of the first findings based on microdata from a new source, the Luxembourg Wealth Study (LWS). The LWS, a project within the larger Luxembourg Income Study (LIS), is a database containing harmonized wealth datasets from a number of industrialized countries. Using the LWS data, we analyze the income and wealth packages held by women, aged 60 and older, across these five countries. We begin by assessing employment, income, and wealth outcomes, first among all older women's households and, second, in one particularly vulnerable group: older women who live alone. We then turn our attention to poor older women and, finally, to those who are extremely poor. We close with brief comments about policy implications and further research.
Recent developments in European social and environmental reporting and auditing practice - A critical evaluation and tentative prognosis

The past decade has witnessed a remarkable growth in the number of European companies reporting publicly on various aspects of their environmental and social performance. Whilst for many this has simply entailed providing fairly rudimentary, and generally qualitative, environmental and social performance information within the annual report, leading edge reporters have gone much further. For this latter group, predominantly, but not exclusively, large companies operating in ‘sensitive’ industrial sectors, the preferred means of dissemination has become the production on an annual basis of a substantial ‘stand alone’ report featuring copious quantitative, as well as qualitative, data. The reliability of such data is increasingly likely to be attested to by an external verifier. The paper reviews two strands of this development. Firstly, environmental reports which initially appeared on the scene in significant numbers in the early 1990’s, and secondly, ‘sustainability’ reports which evolved towards the end of that decade. Whilst due acknowledgement is made concerning the technical progress achieved in reporting, major reservations are expressed concerning the efficacy of these initiatives as a means of enhancing the public accountability of major corporations. A particular problem centres on the failure to ‘close the reporting loop’ in terms of introducing institutional reforms empowering stakeholders to utilise the information provided in order to hold corporate management accountable and thereby meaningfully influence decision making. The author: David Owen is Professor of Accounting at Sheffield University Management School. He gave this paper at the Inaugural Symposium of ICCSR on 25 October 2003 in Nottingham. Address for correspondence: Professor David Owen, The University of Sheffield Management School, 9 Mappin Street, Sheffield S1 4DT, United Kingdom, Email d.l. owen@shef.ac. uk