Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Impacts of environmental regulations on firm performance

Currently there are two dominant theories by professor Michael Porter explaining how firms could increase profitability by acting sustainably and what the potential outcome of complying with environmental regulations may be. The Porter hypothesis is about the impact of regulations and has further been developed into ‘creating shared value’ which explains how firms can reach new potential profitability by searching for sustainable business opportunities. Both of these theories are viewed separately and not in conjunction with one another even though one has motivated the other. Furthermore, the theories underlie a stakeholder theoretical approach, meaning that firms should focus on all various stakeholders in a firm, instead of a shareholder approach, which argues for firms to focus solely on profitability and shareholder value maximization. So far studies have been inconclusive regarding the validity of the theories and scholars find evidence both for and against. The aim of the study is to evaluate the two theories in order to understand if a relationship exists between them and moreover the impact of shareholder theory versus stakeholder theory is examined to view if firms have different outcomes when faced by regulations. The focus of the study is on how firms respond to regulations and how they work to become compliant whilst simultaneously remaining or increasing profitability. To analyze these theories, a qualitative case study is performed deductively with five firms in different industries and of different sizes that are affected by new environmental regulations concerning single-use plastics. The study found that out of the five firms, three were shareholder-oriented and two were stakeholder-oriented. The shareholder-oriented firms achieved or projected increased profitability and shareholder value in response to the new environmental regulations whilst the stakeholder-oriented firms achieved the opposite. The conclusion of this study presents a new conceptual model which shows the relationship between the Porter hypothesis and ‘creating shared value’ where this relationship underlies shareholder theory. The empirical findings show that the Porter hypothesis is strongly connected to ‘creating shared value’ and shareholder theory is the foundation for firms that increase profitability after complying with environmental regulations. The implication of this is that firms do not directly need to consider sustainability in their business models. Regulations will push firms to be sustainable as well as to maximize shareholder value and firms which have a sustainability outlook in their business will likely fall behind when faced by regulations.
The anticancer drug bleomycin investigated by density functional theory

Activated bleomycin (ABLM) is an oxygenated iron drug complex which embodies the drug's DNA-cleaving activity. This activity is exercised on DNA, if present, but if DNA is absent, the drug itself is inactivated. We have employed quantum density functional theory (DFT)-based methods to investigate (i) the structure of the Fe(II)BLM complex that is first formed in the human body after drug's administration, and (ii) the activation mechanism of the O–O bond present in the ABLM. We have identified the controversial second axial ligand as the endogenous oxygen atom of the carbamoyl group. Our first principles molecular dynamics (MD) simulations indicate a homolytic cleavage as the mechanism of the O–O bond activation in the ABLM complex.
The Perceived Benefits of a Preparing Future Faculty Program and Its Effect on Job Satisfaction, Confidence, and Competence

The training of effective instructors and future faculty members is a critical component of doctoral programs in sociology. Many universities and departments have instituted a single course, course sequence, or certification program dedicated to the preparation of future academic faculty. This article evaluates the efficacy of one such program, and asks two questions: (1) What are the most useful aspects of the Preparing Future Faculty (PFF) program? (2) Is participation in the PFF program associated with greater job satisfaction, confidence, or competence? Qualitative data from Indiana University alumni suggest that the program is beneficial for exposing students to pedagogical knowledge, encouraging professionalization, and providing institutionalized support in the form of peer and faculty mentorship. Quantitative data indicate that although PFF participants were not significantly more satisfied or confident than their nonparticipating peers, the PFF program did appear to help to make participants feel more competent in their first jobs.
Mergers and Acquisitions in the Luxury Goods Industry: Gains for the Acquiring Shareholders

Three giants of the French and Swiss luxury industry are now taken as a reference to assess the impact that M&A operations can have in this area. This is one of the fewpieces of researchof the literature thatinvestigates mergers and acquisitions(M&As)in the luxury goods industry. In particular, a 19-year timeframe hasbeen analysed, starting in 2000. Theresearch has utilizedanalytical toolssuch as event study and linear regression. With atotal sample of 126deals, the empirical results reveal that luxury goods industry acquisitions do not create any value for the acquiring shareholders with the performance of M&As around the announcement date.However, it is statistically proven that the creative director (whohas become more importantfor companies especially since 2013) contributes to the firm growth and givesonly a significantly positive value for the acquiring shareholderswithin 3 days after the merger and acquisition but not over 11 days.
Dynamic heterogeneity in supercooled ortho-terphenyl studied by multidimensional deuteron NMR

Using deuteron NMR, we have studied molecular reorientation rates and rate exchange processes in supercooled ortho-terphenyl. We monitor the re-equilibration of differently selected subensembles through four-time stimulated echo experiments. A comparison of the two-time with the four-time echoes suggests that the characteristic time scales for reorientation and dynamical exchange are relatively similar. The four-time correlation functions were described using various multi-state rate exchange models.
Essays on the Role of Social Networks and Social Capital in Accounting and Finance

Social capital, as measured by the strength of civic norms and density of social networks in the community, is positively associated with accounting conservatism. Social capital surrounding corporate headquarters positively influences corporate behavior and the firms located in such areas prefer hiring managers with proven accounting conservatism record. Consequently, the managerial tendency to hide bad news and to conduct asset write-offs is reduced. This social capital-induced accounting conservatism ultimately improves the information environment of the firm: the stock’s liquidity is higher, its opaqueness and its idiosyncratic volatility is lower, and its price delay is smaller.
Prudent Man or Agency Problem? On the Performance of Insurance Mutual Funds

This study analyzes the performance of active equity mutual funds managed by insurance companies and their subsidiaries. We document that insurance funds underperform non-insurance peers by more than one percent in average annual returns. Two possible explanations are examined: conservatism in risk-taking and lack of incentive to pursue superior performance. There is no evidence that insurance funds make less risky investments; instead they have lower risk-adjusted returns. Further, insurance fund flows are less sensitive to performance when they perform poorly, and the investors they attract appear to be less sophisticated. Finally, across insurance funds, those whose parents spend heavily on advertising, those directly established by insurers or using parents' brand names, and those whose managers simultaneously manage a substantial amount of non-mutual-fund assets, are more likely to underperform. We conclude that insurers' efforts to cross-sell mutual funds may aggravate agency problems that erode fund performance.
Reading Aloud in Foreign Language Teaching

Tous les documents placés en accès ouvert sur le site le site MatheO sont protégés par le droit d'auteur. Conformément aux principes énoncés par la "Budapest Open Access Initiative"(BOAI, 2002), l'utilisateur du site peut lire, télécharger, copier, transmettre, imprimer, chercher ou faire un lien vers le texte intégral de ces documents, les disséquer pour les indexer, s'en servir de données pour un logiciel, ou s'en servir à toute autre fin légale (ou prévue par la réglementation relative au droit d'auteur). Toute utilisation du document à des fins commerciales est strictement interdite.
The New Public Service? Applying the Public Service Motivation Model to Nonprofit Employees

Research in the for-profit and public sectors has long sought to understand the factors affecting employee motivation but little is known concerning motivation of the nonprofit workforce. It has been suggested that nonprofit employees are an integral part of the new public service and are in many ways motivated to serve similar to public employees. To test this notion, this research presents an adapted version of Perry’s Public Service Motivation (PSM) Scale to examine motivation of nonprofit sector employees and empirically measures the level of service motivation of the nonprofit employees surveyed. The findings suggest that the modified version of Perry’s PSM Scale provides a good empirical model of nonprofit service motivation (NPSM). This provides support for the idea that nonprofit employees are largely attracted to their jobs because of the intrinsic rewards involved. In addition, the level of NPSM was found to be affected by attraction to mission, race, depth of involvement in the nonprofit sector and state context.
The nature of the embedded population in the Rho Ophiuchi dark cloud - Mid-infrared observations

In combination with previous IR and optical data, the present 10-20 micron observations of previously identified members of the embedded population of the Rho Ophiuchi dark cloud allow determinations to be made of the broadband energy distributions for 32 of the 44 sources. The majority of the sources are found to emit the bulk of their luminosity in the 1-20 micron range, and to be surrounded by dust shells. Because they are, in light of these characteristics, probably premain-sequence in nature, relatively accurate bolometric luminosities for these objects can be obtained through integration of their energy distributions. It is found that 44 percent of the sources are less luminous than the sun, and are among the lowest luminosity premain-sequence/protostellar objects observed to date.
Production and circulation of iron in elliptical galaxies and clusters of galaxies

We introduce the concept of cluster iron mass-to-light ratio (IMLR) and estimate its value for both the intracluster medium and the stars, finding the amount of iron to be nearly the same in the two cluster components. We discuss under which conditions the past supernova activity can account for the observed IMLR and provide evidence that either the past average rate of Type Ia supernovae was at least a factor of ∼10 higher than the present rate in ellipticals, or massive stars in clusters formed with a very flat initial mass function (IMF)
Metal Abundances and Kinematics of Bright Metal-poor Giants Selected from the LSE Survey: Implications for the Metal-weak Thick Disk

We report medium-resolution (1–2 Å) spectroscopy and broadband (UBV) photometry for a sample of 39 bright stars (the majority of which are likely to be giants) selected as metal-deficient candidates from an objective-prism survey concentrating on Galactic latitudes below |b| = 30°, the Luminous Stars Extension (LSE) survey of Drilling & Bergeron. Although the primary purpose of the LSE survey was to select OB stars (hence the concentration on low latitudes), the small number of bright metal-deficient giant candidates noted during this survey provide interesting information on the metal-weak thick disk (MWTD) population. Metal abundance estimates are obtained from several different techniques and calibrations, including some that make use of the available photometry and spectroscopy and others that use only the spectroscopy; these methods produce abundance estimates that are consistent with one another and should be secure. All of the targets in our study have available high-quality proper motions from the Hipparcos or Tycho II catalogs, or both, that we combine with radial velocities from our spectroscopy to obtain full space motions for the entire sample. The rotational (Vϕ) velocities of the LSE giants indicate the presence of a rapidly rotating population, even at quite low metallicity. We consider the distribution of orbital eccentricity of the LSE giants as a function of [Fe/H] and conclude that the local fraction (i.e., within 1 kpc from the Sun) of metal-poor stars that might be associated with the MWTD is on the order of 30%–40% at abundances below [Fe/H] = -1.0. Contrary to recent analyses of previous (much larger) samples of nonkinematically selected metal-poor stars (assembled primarily from prism surveys that concentrated on latitudes above |b| = 30°), we find that this relatively high fraction of local metal-poor stars associated with the MWTD may extend to metallicities below [Fe/H] = -1.6, much lower than had been considered before. We identify a subsample of 11 LSE stars that are very likely to be members of the MWTD, based on their derived kinematics; the lowest metallicity among these stars is [Fe/H] = -2.35. Implications of these results for the origin of the MWTD and for the formation of the Galaxy are considered.
The Correlation between Self-Assessment Reports and CEFR Levels according to Standardized Assessment.

This thesis concerns an investigation into the correlation between self-assessment reports regarding vocabulary knowledge and actual levels of vocabulary knowledge according to two standardized assessments. The experiment in this study was conducted by means of a questionnaire consisting of a language testing component and a self-assessment component. The participants in this study are speakers of Dutch as a native language. With the help of regression analyses, it has been shown that the result of this study is that the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) levels of vocabulary knowledge according to both the DIALANG Vocabulary Test and the Cambridge General English Online Test correlate with the estimated levels of the self-assessment component. There are differences in the correlation coefficients of both tests and the self-assessment components. Unfortunately, the sample size impeded the confirmation of demographic discrepancies, such as gender, educational background, and use of English in daily life and in the workplace or educational context. Nonetheless, the fact that in general the language testing component correlates with the selfassessment component indicates that in terms of vocabulary, participants are generally able to predict their language skills. This could have some implications for self-assessment as an assessment tool in educational contexts, or for other contexts where language testing is applicable.
Sliding mode control of switched hybrid systems with time‐varying delay

This paper is concerned with the sliding mode control of a continuous‐time switched system with time‐varying delay in its state. By using the average dwell time approach and the piecewise Lyapunov function technique, a sufficient condition is first proposed to guarantee the exponential stability of the unforced system with the decay estimate explicitly given. A sufficient condition of the existence of a reduced‐order sliding mode dynamics is derived, and an explicit parametrization of the desired sliding surface is also given. The obtained conditions will be solved using the cone complementary linearization (CCL) method. An adaptive sliding mode controller for the reaching motion is then designed such that the trajectories of the resulting closed‐loop system can be driven onto a prescribed sliding surface and maintained there for all subsequent times. All the conditions obtained in this paper are delay dependent. Finally, two numerical examples are given to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed theory. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Complexity assessment of human–computer interaction

A quantitative complexity theory of human–computer interaction is presented and validated by means of laboratory experiments. Based on the seminal work of Grassberger in theoretical physics, a complexity measure is introduced. The measure is termed the Effective Measure Complexity and has three main advantages. First, it relies solely on information-theoretic quantities, which are intimately connected with the concept of complexity and not randomness. Second, it is model independent and can be estimated efficiently from data. Third, the estimates can be derived from behavioural patterns in terms of observable interaction events alone. Subjective ratings or psychophysiological measurements can be included but are not mandatory. In order to explain the theory, a simple and easy to generalise example in mobile human–computer interaction is presented. Furthermore, the external validity of the complexity measure is studied in laboratory experiments. The experimental task was to search for multiple targets on an electronic chart display and information system (ECDIS). ECDIS is an integral component of modern ship bridge concepts and therefore the experiments were carried out in a marine simulator. Thirty users participated. The platform motion (with or without motion) and the workplace illumination (800 lux or 30 lux) were varied systematically and the complexity effects were studied. The results show that the complexity of the visual search processes is significantly lower when the simulator is put in sea state characteristics and the users are facing straining motion forces. In addition, interaction complexity is significantly lowered when illuminance is reduced from the daylight level of 800 lux to the twilight level of 30 lux. Therefore, the complexity measure seems to be a valid for the quantitative assessment of human–computer interaction.
Fluidization of mixtures of two solids differing in density or size

The complex mechanism by which homogeneous mixtures of two solids achieve fluidization is subjected to theoretical analysis, to elaborate relationships capable to provide their “initial” and “final fluidization velocity” uif and uff, i.e., the limits that encompass the suspension process. The article shows how the equation that describes the force equilibrium of fluidization can be rewritten in forms that account for the distribution of the components of density- or size segregating mixtures during the transition to the fluidized state. This approach leads to the theoretical expression of uif and uff of either type of system, whose differences of behavior are correctly reproduced by accounting for the voidage reduction typical of beds of particles of different size. The comparison with experimental results at varying mixture composition demonstrates that the equations give a coherent interpretation of the dependence of the fluidization velocity interval of two-solid mixtures on the principal variables of interest. © 2010 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 2011
PENGARUH PARTISIPASI ANGGARAN DAN KEJELASAN SASARAN ANGGARAN TERHADAP KINERJA MANAJERIAL DENGAN KOMITMEN ORGANISASIONAL SEBAGAI VARIABEL MODERATING PADA PEMERINTAH KOTA BATU

Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengetahui pengaruh partisipasi anggaran dan kejelasan anggaran terhadap kinerja manajerial dengan variabel moderasi komitmen organisasi. Penelitian ini menggunakan pendekatan kuantitatif dengan menggunakan jenis penelitian eksplanatori. Populasi yang digunakan adalah Organisasi Perangkat Daerah di Kota Batu. Sampel penelitian terdiri dari 100 pejabat pemerintah di tingkat manajer menengah di instansi pemerintah Kota Batu. Teknik pengambilan sampel adalah total sampling. Pengumpulan data menggunakan kuesioner. Teknik distribusi kuesioner dalam penelitian ini dilakukan dengan kuesioner yang dikelola secara pribadi. Analisis data dalam penelitian ini menggunakan analisis regresi linier sederhana dan Moderated Regression Analysis dengan SPSS 23. Berdasarkan hasil penelitian, ditemukan bahwa (1) partisipasi anggaran berpengaruh positif signifikan terhadap kinerja manajerial pemerintah, (2) komitmen organisasi memoderasi (memperkuat) pengaruh partisipasi anggaran pada kinerja manajerial pemerintah (3) tujuan anggaran kejelasan memiliki efek positif yang signifikan terhadap kinerja manajerial pemerintah, (4) komitmen organisasi memoderasi (memperkuat) efek kejelasan tujuan anggaran pada kinerja manajerial pemerintah.
Sensor Optimisation using an Ant Colony Metaphor

Abstract: This paper describes an approach to impact detection and location using neural networks and an ant colony metaphor. Given the existence of an effective fault detection procedure, the problem arises as to how the sensors should be placed for optimal efficiency of the detector. In this paper, a neural network is used to locate and classify impacts on a composite panel and the ant colony metaphor is used to determine an optimal (or near optimal) sensor distribution. The results are compared with those from a previous study which used a genetic algorithm for the optimisation phase.
Evidence for biological activity in mineralization of secondary sulphate deposits in a basaltic environment: implications for the search for life in the Martian subsurface

Abstract Evidence of microbial activity associated with mineralization of secondary Na-sulphate minerals (thenardite, mirabilite) in the basaltic subsurface of Craters of the Moon National Monument (COM), Idaho were examined by scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, laser desorption Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry (LD-FTICR-MS), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and isotope ratio mass spectrometry. Peaks suggestive of bio/organic compounds were observed in the secondary Na-sulphate deposits by LD-FTICR-MS. FTIR provided additional evidence for the presence of bio/organic compounds. Sulphur fractionation was explored to assist in determining if microbes may play a role in oxidizing sulphur. The presence of bio/organic compounds associated with Na-sulphate deposits, along with the necessity of oxidizing reduced sulphur to sulphate, suggests that biological activity may be involved in the formation of these secondary minerals. The secondary Na-sulphate minerals probably form from the overlying basalt through leached sodium ions and sulphate ions produced by bio-oxidation of Fe-sulphide minerals. Since the COM basalts are one of the most comparable terrestrial analogues for their Martian counterparts, the occurrence of biological activity in the formation of sulphate minerals at COM has direct implications for the search for life on Mars. In addition, the presence of caves on Mars suggests the importance of these environments as possible locations for growth and preservation of microbial activity. Therefore, understanding the physiochemical pathways of abiotic and biotic mineralization in the COM subsurface and similar basaltic settings has direct implications for the search for extinct or extant life on Mars.