Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Implementing innovation management in manufacturing SMEs: a longitudinal study

Purpose – The purpose of this research is to evaluate the longitudinal effect of innovation programmes on improving the process of innovation in manufacturing SMEs. The process of innovation in organisations covers people, process and technology. Therefore interventions in the form of innovation improvement programmes often require high levels of complexity. This complexity is compounded in SMEs, where issues such as scarce resources and skill shortages must be recognised.Design/methodology/approach – A multiple case research methodology combined with an innovation evaluation model is used to evaluate the longitudinal effect of an innovation intervention programme, which combined taught modules and Critical Action Learning networks over an eighteen month period. Within‐group comparisons are made.Findings/research implications – The findings reveal that SMEs, which have high levels of innovation improvement, adopted a broad process based approach to innovation rather than using a narrow technical definitio.
Relational norms and entrepreneurs’ confidence in venture capitalists' cooperation: the mediating role of venture capitalists' strategic and managerial involvement

This study examines the relationships between relational norms and entrepreneurs' confidence in the cooperation of their venture capitalist (VC) investors. Based on quantitative data collected from 120 Israeli high tech entrepreneurs, thefindings indicate that relational norms between entrepreneurs and VCs (i.e., shared beliefs and perceived similarities) are positively associated with entrepreneurs' confidence in their VCs' cooperation. However, it was found that VCs' strategic involvement mediates the positive relationship between relational norms and entrepreneurs confidence in their VCs' cooperation, whereas VCs' managerial involvement mediates the negative relationship between relational norms and entrepreneurs' confidence in VCs' cooperation. These findings are supported by six interviews made with entrepreneurs. The findings extend the current literature by indicating that although relational norms serve as a prime criterion for selecting between investment opportunities by VCs, they cannot ensure relational continuity over time as entrepreneurs' confidence in their VCs' cooperation is mediated by VCs' involvement. The findings also suggest that entrepreneurs consider ‘the optimal balance' between relational norms and control as aligned with strategic rather managerial involvement.
A review of the evidence of zolpidem efficacy in neurological disability after brain damage due to stroke, trauma and hypoxia: A justification of further clinical trials

ABSTRACT During 15 years, 23 clinical reports and 6 studies have demonstrated associations between sub-sedative doses of zolpidem and recoveries from brain damage due to strokes, trauma and hypoxia. Clinical findings include unexpected awakenings from vegetative states and regressions of stroke symptoms after dosing that disappear during elimination and reappear on repeat dosing. Initially single-photon emission computed tomography scans showed improved perfusion within, around and distant from infarctions. Then positron emission tomography scans and electroencephalography detected renewed metabolic and neuronal activity. Placebo or a similar, gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA)-ergic, sedative zopiclone has no such effect. The effect appears only several months after the injury, reflecting recent evidence in mice of substantial differences between the states of GABA receptors in acute and chronic repair phases of recovery. Zolpidem’s good safety record and rapid absorption further indicate a need for more clinical trials. List of acronyms: BOLD, Blood-Oxygen-Level Dependent contrast imaging in MRI; CRS, Coma Recovery Scale; CRS-R, Coma Recovery Scale Revised; CSI, Cerebral State Index; CSM, Cerebral State Monitor; DOC, Disorder of Consciousness; EEG, Electro Encephalography; FDG-PET, FluoroDeoxyGlucose-Positron Emission Tomography; FTD, Frontotemporal dementia; GABA, Gamma-Aminobutyric Acid; MCS, Minimally Conscious State; M-EEG, Magneto-Encephalography; MRI, Magnetic Resonance Image; MSN, Median Spiny Neurones; PET, Positron Emission Tomography; PVS, Persistent Vegetative Sate; RLAC, Rancho Los Amigos Cognitive scores; SPECT, Single-photon emission computed tomography; TFES, Tinetti Falls Efficacy Scale; 99mTc HMPAO, Technetium hexamethylpropyleneamine oxime
The Risk and Return of Arbitrage in Dual-Listed Companies

This paper evaluates investment strategies that exploit the deviations from theoretical price parity in a sample of 12 dual-listed companies (DLCs) in the period 1980--2002. We show that simple trading rules produce abnormal returns of up to almost 10% per annum adjusted for systematic risk, transaction costs, and margin requirements. However, arbitrageurs face uncertainty about the horizon at which prices will converge and deviations from parity are very volatile. As a result, DLC arbitrage is characterized by substantial idiosyncratic return volatility and a high incidence of large negative returns, which are likely to impede arbitrage. Copyright 2009, Oxford University Press.
Autoimmune hepatitis in the elderly

OBJECTIVES:Autoimmune hepatitis (AIH) is widely believed to be a disease of young women and menopause. Little is known about the frequency and clinical characteristics in patients aged ≥65 yr.METHODS:We reviewed charts of 120 consecutive outpatients with known AIH to identify patients who were diagnosed at the age of 65 or older. These 20 patients (median age, 69 yr) were compared to the same number of younger patients (median age, 24 yr) with well-documented AIH from the same cohort.RESULTS:Seventeen percent (20/120) of our patients were ≥65 yr at the time of diagnosis. In the older patients median time to diagnosis was significantly longer than in the younger patients (8.5 >vs 3.5 months). Patients most commonly presented with an acute icteric hepatitis. Complete remission was achieved to a similar extent (18/20 and 17/20 patients). Fewer older patients expressed human leukocyte antigen A1-B8 (p = 0.005). CONCLUSIONS:Diagnosis of AIH often seems to be delayed in the elderly, presumably because AIH is erroneously considered to be a disease of young age. Presentation with acute icteric hepatitis is similar to that of younger patients, supporting the assumption that beneficial effects of hormonal changes associated with menopause are not as pronounced in AIH as in other autoimmune diseases. Human leukocyte antigen type seems to have an influence on the age of onset of AIH. Prognosis is excellent, and AIH should be considered in the older patient to avoid delayed initiation of immunosuppressive therapy.
Predicting Earnings Management: The Case of Earnings Restatements

This paper examines the usefulness of accounting information in predicting earnings management. We investigate a comprehensive sample of firms from 1971-2000 that restated annual earnings. We find that firms restating earnings have high market expectations for future earnings growth and have higher levels of outstanding debt. We also find that a primary motivation for the earnings manipulation is the desire to attract external financing at a lower cost. Furthermore, our evidence suggests that restating firms have been attempting to maintain a string of consecutive positive earnings growth and consecutive positive quarterly earnings surprises. Together, our evidence is consistent with capital market pressures acting as a motivating factor for companies to adopt aggressive accounting policies. Finally, we document that information in accruals, specifically, operating and investing accruals, are key indicators of the earnings manipulation that lead to the restatement. Collectively, the evidence suggests that market participants can gain substantial value from a careful consideration of information in financial statements.
Prevention of Esophageal Cancer: Experience of an Educational Campaign for Reducing Hot Tea Consumption in Iran.

BACKGROUND Given the association between drinking hot tea and the risk of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma, this study was designed to determine the effectiveness of an educational campaign based on the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) in reducing hot tea consumption among a sample of Iranian female students. MATERIALS AND METHODS In this quasi-experimental study, 130 primary-school female students in Salas Babajani, Kermanshah, Iran were randomly selected. A two-month campaign based on TPB constructs was developed and conducted for the intervention group. Combined mass media approaches (such as posters, pamphlet, and brochure) with small group and individual activities were used to transfer the campaign messages. Also, five 40-minute instructional sessions for the students and one session for their parents and teachers were held. The hot tea consumption, attitude, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control and no intention to drink hot tea were variables which were measured at baseline and again after 4 weeks. RESULTS There was a significant improvement in the perceived behavioral control and intention to drink no hot tea variables in the intervention group as compared to the control group following the campaign. In addition, significant reductions were found for the hot tea consumption and favorable attitude toward drinking hot tea in the intervention group as compared to the control group. CONCLUSIONS Conducting educational campaigns based on TPB variables may reduce hot tea consumption among Iranian students.
A Re-Examination of Exchange Rate Exposure

Finance theory suggests that changes in exchange rates should have little influence on asset prices in a world that has become increasingly with integrated capital markets. Indeed, the existing literature examining the relationship between international stock prices and exchange rates finds little evidence of systematic exchange rate exposure. We argue in this paper that the absence of evidence may be due to restrictions imposed on the sample of data and the empirical specifications used in previous studies. We study a broad sample of firms in eight countries over an eighteen-year period. We find that firm-level and industry-level share values are significantly influenced by exchange rates. Further, we do not find evidence that exchange rate exposure is falling (or becoming less statistically significant) over time. Our results suggest that significant firm, industry and country-specific differences remain even as financial markets become more and more 'integrated'.
Public–private partnerships or privatisation? Questioning the state's role in education in India

This contribution examines the Government of India's proposed public–private partnership (PPP) strategies in education in its Tenth and Eleventh Five Year Plans. The analysis aims to ascertain the state's role as financier, manager, and regulator of education in view of the proposed PPP strategies. The analysis shows that strategies strongly link PPPs in education with privatisation, and further, that despite assertions of ‘a greatly expanded role for the state’, the proposed strategies result in a diminished role for the state in education financing, management, and regulation.
Rural livelihood diversification and agricultural household welfare in Ghana

Sufficient time has elapsed since agricultural sector reforms got underway in Ghana and so this study examined how some selected proxies of the reforms have changed overtime and evaluated their relative importance in influencing rural livelihood diversification and household welfare. In doing this, data was pooled from the 1991/1992 and 2005/2006 Ghana Living Standards Survey (GLSS) and the endogenous switching regression technique was employed. Diversified households and less diversified households differed significantly in terms of variables related to household assets, markets and institutions. Both household welfare and rural non-farm diversification decisions are mostly driven by household assets including good health, education, and household age composition. Households who live in communities with access to fertilizers, public transports and local produce markets are more likely to engage in non-farm diversification and enjoy improved welfare. The importance of access to TV and radio as effective mass media tools in influencing household behavior is underscored in the analysis. Targeting interventions that enhance livelihood diversification would ultimately have a positive impact on household welfare. Key words: Rural, diversification, agriculture, household welfare, switching regression.
RNase L Induces Autophagy via c-Jun N-terminal Kinase and Double-stranded RNA-dependent Protein Kinase Signaling Pathways*

Background: Autophagy is induced by stress, starvation, and viral infections; however, the role of RNase L in autophagy has not been investigated. Results: Activation of RNase L induces autophagy involving JNK and PKR. Conclusion: Autophagy induced by activation of RNase L modulates viral growth. Significance: Our findings identify a novel role of RNase L in inducing autophagy affecting outcomes of viral infections. Autophagy is a tightly regulated mechanism that mediates sequestration, degradation, and recycling of cellular proteins, organelles, and pathogens. Several proteins associated with autophagy regulate host responses to viral infections. Ribonuclease L (RNase L) is activated during viral infections and cleaves cellular and viral single-stranded RNAs, including rRNAs in ribosomes. Here we demonstrate that direct activation of RNase L coordinates the activation of c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) and double-stranded RNA-dependent protein kinase (PKR) to induce autophagy with hallmarks as accumulation of autophagic vacuoles, p62(SQSTM1) degradation and conversion of Microtubule-associated Protein Light Chain 3-I (LC3-I) to LC3-II. Accordingly, treatment of cells with pharmacological inhibitors of JNK or PKR and mouse embryonic fibroblasts (MEFs) lacking JNK1/2 or PKR showed reduced autophagy levels. Furthermore, RNase L-induced JNK activity promoted Bcl-2 phosphorylation, disrupted the Beclin1-Bcl-2 complex and stimulated autophagy. Viral infection with Encephalomyocarditis virus (EMCV) or Sendai virus led to higher levels of autophagy in wild-type (WT) MEFs compared with RNase L knock out (KO) MEFs. Inhibition of RNase L-induced autophagy using Bafilomycin A1 or 3-methyladenine suppressed viral growth in initial stages; in later stages autophagy promoted viral replication dampening the antiviral effect. Induction of autophagy by activated RNase L is independent of the paracrine effects of interferon (IFN). Our findings suggest a novel role of RNase L in inducing autophagy affecting the outcomes of viral pathogenesis.
Identity, Competition and Electoral Availability: The Stabilization of European Electorates 1885–1985 Stefano Bartolini and Peter Mair Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991, pp. xix, 363

factors under consideration also seems plausible. Of course, the analysis, which is qualitative, is not perfect. Health care is a complex field, so one might expect factors other than the state or the unity of doctors to intrude. Take, for example, ideas. Perhaps the major reason for health-policy outcomes in western democracies is not the state, but rather the population's belief about the desirability of government intervention in health care. Wilsford is aware of this possibility, and his response is to include ideas in his definition of the state; but such a solution threatens to turn the study's major explanatory variable into something unrecognizable. Wilsford's professed aim is to explain occurrences in the field of health policy, but lurking in the background is another goal, and that is to argue that government-run health programmes constitute the most sensible way to provide health care. He criticizes American health efforts, linking their failure to the largely private nature of the US health system, and applauds countries, like France, which are capable of providing coherent health plans through the state. But more and more publicly-run health programmes are revealing their failings, which include long waiting lists, inadequate equipment and burgeoning costs; and more and more we are seeing elements of private medicine appearing, notwithstanding support for public health care. In Wilsford's world, the state is at the centre of things, but this may soon change.
Social Enterprise and Entrepreneurship

Throughout the 20th century multiple discourses of the nature of enterprise and the entrepreneur have developed. In this article, we trace these discourses and perspectives as a backdrop to understanding social and economic entrepreneurship. The article considers the nature of social enterprise and whether,indeed how, it might be construed as a form of entrepreneurship. It is argued that in the past social enterprises have been modelled on tenets of ‘not-for-profit’ charitable organizations that have attracted human and social capital with pro-social, community-spirited motives, and have engendered survival strategies premised on grant dependency. In the longer term, we argue, social enterprises should be self-sustaining and therefore entrepreneurial in their endeavours.From these premises, we suggest that the definition of entrepreneurship might be modified to include the creation of ‘social and economic value’ and may thus be applied to both private, entrepreneurial ventures as well as social enterprises.
Neural integration of speech and gesture in schizophrenia: Evidence for differential processing of metaphoric gestures

Gestures are an important component of interpersonal communication. Especially, complex multimodal communication is assumed to be disrupted in patients with schizophrenia. In healthy subjects, differential neural integration processes for gestures in the context of concrete [iconic (IC) gestures] and abstract sentence contents [metaphoric (MP) gestures] had been demonstrated. With this study we wanted to investigate neural integration processes for both gesture types in patients with schizophrenia. During functional magnetic resonance imaging‐data acquisition, 16 patients with schizophrenia (P) and a healthy control group (C) were shown videos of an actor performing IC and MP gestures and associated sentences. An isolated gesture (G) and isolated sentence condition (S) were included to separate unimodal from bimodal effects at the neural level. During IC conditions (IC > G ∩ IC > S) we found increased activity in the left posterior middle temporal gyrus (pMTG) in both groups. Whereas in the control group the left pMTG and the inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) were activated for the MP conditions (MP > G ∩ MP > S), no significant activation was found for the identical contrast in patients. The interaction of group (P/C) and gesture condition (MP/IC) revealed activation in the bilateral hippocampus, the left middle/superior temporal and IFG. Activation of the pMTG for the IC condition in both groups indicates intact neural integration of IC gestures in schizophrenia. However, failure to activate the left pMTG and IFG for MP co‐verbal gestures suggests a disturbed integration of gestures embedded in an abstract sentence context. This study provides new insight into the neural integration of co‐verbal gestures in patients with schizophrenia. Hum Brain Mapp, 2013. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Shaping the bargaining agenda. The Audit Commission and public service reform in British local government

This article examines the role of the Audit Commission (AC) in local government collective bargaining. While the AC has no official role in such bargaining, it has a role in monitoring the performance of local government services. In this role the AC has a clear potential, in the context of the government's ‘modernization’ agenda – as manifested in its ‘Best Value’ regime, for influencing both the content of collective agreements, and the process of collective bargaining, where these are seen to conflict with other Best Value objectives – particularly in relation to external competition. The research conducted involved a content analysis of AC inspection reports on human resource services and longitudinal case studies of two local authority union branches' experiences of Best Value and the role of the AC. The findings from the inspection reports indicate that, while the AC is actually acting to promote activities that could be seen as supportive of union bargaining agendas, notably in relation to equality type issues, they are also supporting service externalisation and thereby acting to limit the scope of their impact. The reports also indicate that, despite there being prescribed ‘best practice’ for local government employment relations (‘social partnership’ with unions), the AC is not promoting any such engagement with unions. Evidence from the case studies add weight to these observations: the AC, in one case, was deeply suspicious of an attempted union management agreement on procurement, while in the other, the AC made no criticism of the costly effects that externalization had on union-management relations.
Underwriting by Commercial Banks: Incentive Conflicts, Scope Economies, and Project Quality

The authors study the issue of commercial bank underwriting of securities. Their analysis examines the incentive conflict faced by intermediaries that both lend and underwrite securities, thereby imposing a cost on their customers seeking to raise capital. Despite this cost, firms may choose to use such an intermediary if there are sufficiently large scope economies in combined lending and underwriting. The authors demonstrate that the regulatory separation of such combined intermediation may be optimal if firms recognize the intermediary's subsequent incentive conflict when choosing projects to be funded and if there is a social cost to bank funding of poor quality projects. They also examine the conditions for intermediaries' reputation building to mitigate the incentive conflict, without the need for regulation.
Cytoplasmic regulation of 5S RNA genes in nuclear‐transplant embryos.

In the normal development of Xenopus laevis, genes for oocyte‐type and somatic‐type 5S RNAs are both expressed in late blastulae. Estimates of rates of synthesis indicate that the oocyte‐type genes (5Sooc) undergo at least a 100‐fold reduction in transcriptional activity between the end of oogenesis and the late blastula stage, and at least a further 20‐fold reduction during gastrulation. When neurula nuclei, with inactive 5Sooc genes, were transplanted to enucleated eggs, the resulting nuclear‐transplant embryos showed a reactivation of 5Sooc genes in blastulae and a subsequent inactivation after this stage. This effect is not explicable by a differential stability of the two types of 5S RNA. We conclude that egg or early embryo cytoplasm must contain components which can continuously regulate 5S gene expression, and that the mechanism by which 5Sooc genes are developmentally inactivated does not persist through mitosis in early embryos. These results have been obtained by a new procedure in which oocyte‐ and somatic‐type 5S RNAs are separated in a 4 M urea‐15% acrylamide gel.