Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Build, Borrow, or Buy: Solving the Growth Dilemma

How should you grow your organization? It's one of the most challenging questions an executive team faces--and the wrong answer can break your firm. The problem is most firms' growth strategies emphasize just one type of growth--some focus on organic growth, others on M&A. When these strategies falter, the common response is simply to try harder--but firms falling into this "implementation trap" usually end up losing out to a competitor whose approach is more inclusive. So where do you start? By asking the right questions, argue INSEAD's Laurence Capron and coauthor Will Mitchell, of the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto and Duke University's Fuqua School of Business. Drawing on decades of research and teaching, Capron and Mitchell find that a firm's aptitude for determining the best resource pathways for growth has a defining impact on its success. They've come up with a helpful framework, reflecting practices of a variety of successful global organizations, to determine which path is best for yours. The resource pathways framework is built around three strategic questions: * BUILD: Are your existing internal resources relevant for developing the new resources that you have targeted for growth? * BORROW: Could you obtain the targeted resources via an effective relationship with a resource partner? * BUY: Do you need broad and deep relationships with your resource provider? Written for large multinationals and emerging firms alike, Build, Borrow, or Buy will help solve a perennial question and will guide you through change while priming your organization for optimal growth.
Effect of biological larviciding with Bacillus thuringiensis israelensis for malaria control on non-target vector mosquito species in rural Burkina Faso – A cluster randomized trial

Background: Biological larviciding is an additional tool that can help address the current dilemma in malaria control, namely vector resistances to pyrethroids and shifting of biting activity to times when people are not protected. Although malaria interventions primarily target Anopheles mosquitoes, there might be an impact on populations of other mosquito genera that share the same breeding sites. In this study we research to what extent Culex and Aedes mosquitoes, the primary vectors of numerous zoonotic diseases, are affected by larviciding interventions against malaria mosquitoes. Methods: We researched the impact of different larviciding choices with Bacillus thuringiensis israelensis on non-target mosquitoes in 127 rural villages and a semi-urban town in a health district in Northwestern Burkina Faso. All villages were distributed into a total of three study arms with different larviciding choices: full, selective and untreated control. Geographically close villages were distributed into clusters to avoid contamination between treated and untreated villages. Adult mosquitoes were captured in light traps inside and outside houses during the rainy seasons of a baseline and an intervention year. A negative binomial regression was used to determine the reductions achieved through larviciding among different mosquito genera.Results: Larviciding interventions against malaria showed only limited or no impact against Culex mosquitoes, while against Aedes, reductions of up to 34% were achieved when all detected breeding sites in the public space were treated. While the semi-urban setting showed high abundance of Culex, in the rural villages we captured more Aedes. Conclusions: Future larviciding programs should be evaluated for including the treatment of Aedes and Culex breeding habitats. Since the major cost components of such programs are labor and transport, other disease vectors could be targeted at little additional cost.
Measuring the Effect of Tax Amnesties on Tax Receipts in Turkey By Means of Event Study

Öz Bu çalışma, 2010 sonrasında Türkiye’de çıkarılan vergi af kanunlarının vergi gelirleri üzerindeki etkisini, aylık tahsil/tahakkuk verilerini kullanarak, olay analiziyle (event study) değerlendirmeyi amaçlamaktadır. Türkiye, tasarruf yetersizliği ve ekonomik ve politik maliyetlerinin düşük olmasından dolayı sıklıkla vergi aflarına başvurmaktadır ve vergi afları vergi politikasının bir aracı haline gelmiştir. Türkiye, 1980 sonrasında çıkarılan vergi aflarının bir kısmından kısa zamanda yüksek gelirler elde etmesine karşın 2003 sonrasında çıkarılan vergi aflarından istediği geliri elde edememiştir. Bu dönemde vergi tahsil/tahakkuk oranlarında da ciddi bir düşüş yaşanmaktadır. Tahsil/tahakkuk oranı 2006 yılında yüzde 92.2 iken, 2018 yılında yüzde 81.4 olarak gerçekleşmiştir. Bu çalışma, Türkiye’de 2010 yılından sonra çıkarılan vergi aflarının vergi gelirleri üzerindeki etkisini, aylık tahsil/tahakkuk oranları temel alınarak 6 ve 12 aylık etkileri itibariyle olay analiziyle (bağımlı örneklem t testi) incelemektedir. Bu bağlamda, çalışma ampirik olarak alandaki önemli bir boşluğu doldurduğu gibi finans alanında kullanılan bir yöntem maliye alanına da kazandırılmış olmaktadır. 2010 sonrasında çıkarılan vergi afları, 6 ve 12 aylık etkileri dikkate alındığında, vergi gelirleri üzerinde istatistiksel olarak anlamlı bir etkiye sahip olmadığı görülmektedir. Vergi aflarının başarılı olabilmesi için affın bir vergi reformunun parçası olarak ortaya çıkması, vergi aflarına sıklıkla başvurulmaması ve vergi aflarına ekonomik kriz veya doğal afetler gibi olaylardan sonra başvurulması gerekmektedir. Anahtar Kelimeler: Optimal Vergilendirme, Vergi Affı, Olay Analizi Abstract This paper is to evaluate the effects of tax amnesty laws which enacted in Turkey after 2010 on tax receipts by means of event study by employing monthly tax collection/tax accrual ratios. Turkey often introduces the tax amnesty laws because of lack of savings and lower economic and political costs and tax amnesties become the basic policy instrument of tax policy. Turkey hasn’t received expected amount of tax revenues from tax amnesties since 2003 even though it got great amount of tax revenues from some of these amnesties in the short term after 1980. In this period, the ratio of tax collection/tax acrual has seriously declined from 92.2 percent in 2006 to 81.4 percent in 2018. This paper examines the impacts of tax amnesties employed in Turkey after 2010 on tax receipts by means of event study (paired samples t test) by benefiting from monthly tax collection/tax accrual ratios. In this regard, this paper covers the important gap in Turkish literature as well as implementing accomplishedly in public finace area as it were in finance area. It’s observed that tax amnesties enacted after 2010 have statistically no effect on tax receipts when considering the 6 and 12 months impacts. Tax amnesties should be appeared as a part of tax reforms, introduced after economic crisis and natural disasters and shouldn’t be frequently applied for the achievement of these programmes.
VALIDATED SPECTROPHOTOMETRIC METHODS FOR DETERMINATION OF MONTELUKAST SODIUM IN PURE AND DOSAGE FORMS USING N-BROMOSUCCINIMIDE AND DYES

Objective: Simple, sensitive, precise, reproducible and validated spectrophotometric methods have been developed for the quantification of montelukast sodium as leukotriene receptor antagonist drug, in pure and dosage forms (tablets). Methods: The methods use N-bromosuccinimide (NBS) as an oxidant and three dyes, amaranth, methylene blue, and indigo carmine, as auxiliary reagents. The three methods are based on oxidation reaction of montelukast sodium with a known excess of N-bromosuccinimide (NBS) in acid medium, followed by determination of unreacted NBS by the reaction with a fixed amount of dyes, amaranth, methylene blue, and indigo carmine followed by the measurement of the absorbance at 520, 664 and 610 nm, respectively. Results: Under the optimum conditions, linear relationships with good correlation coefficients (0.9993-0.9996) were found over the concentration ranges of 0.5-10, 1.0-12 and 0.5-8.0 µg/ml with a limit of detection (LOD) of 0.15, 0.3 and 0.14 µg/ml using amaranth, methylene blue, and indigo carmine methods, respectively. Intra-day and inter-day accuracy and precision of the methods have been evaluated. No interference was observed from the common tablet excipients. Conclusion: The proposed methods were validated in accordance with ICH guidelines and successfully applied to the analysis of montelukast sodium in dosage forms (tablets). The reliability of the methods was further ascertained by performing recovery studies using the standard addition method. Statistical comparison of the results obtained by applying the proposed methods with those of the reported method by applying student’s t-test and F-test revealed good agreement.
Determinants of CEO Compensation in Malaysia

CEO compensation comprises of lucrative fees, salary, bonuses, and pension scheme. It is an important topic to be studied because evidence indicates that CEO compensation is positively associated with firm performance. Recently, the incidents of CEOs being paid excessively compared to services they do have been reported in both developed and developing countries. This motivates this study to examine the factors determining Malaysian CEOs compensation. The sample of this quantitative study is Top 80 Malaysia public listed companies based on market capitalization. The results of multiple regression analysis on data of 400 observations show that CEO compensation is negatively affected by the level of board of directors’ independence, but not affected by firm performance, CEO ownership and leverage. Additionally, we detect that CEOs with high compensation and low compensation are different in term of their firms’ board independence and leverage. We suggest future studies should at least examine the effect of CEO characteristics like tenure, education and family ownership on their compensation.
Unit root testing in panel and time series models : new testsand economic applications

In this dissertation new test statistics for the (panel) unit root hypothesis are presented. Besides a novel approach to testing the unit root hypothesis in univariate time series, the major part of this thesis is dedicated to unit root testing in cross sectionally dependent panels with potentially time varying innovation variances. The wild bootstrap is presented as an effective means to obtain robust test procedures with good power and size properties.
The ergonomics of wheelchair configuration for optimal sport performance

Mason BS, van der Woude LHV, Goosey-Tolfrey VL: Influence of glove type on mobility performance for wheelchair rugby players. Am J Phys Med Rehabil 2009;88:559–570. Objective: The purpose of this study was to determine the effective- ness of different glove types on mobility performance in a series of field tests specific to wheelchair rugby. Design: Ten international wheelchair rugby players performed three drills in each glove condition: (i) players’ current glove selection, (ii) American football glove, (iii) building glove, and (iv) new prototype glove. Performance was assessed by a combination of outcomes including test times, peak velocities, and accelerations within each drill. Peak velocities and accelerations were measured using a velocometer sampling at 100 Hz. Results: A two-way analysis of variance with repeated measures re- vealed that participants performed statistically better for measures of acceleration and sprinting when wearing their current choice of glove compared with the new prototype glove (P 0.05). Subjective data identified that players also favored their current gloves compared with others, although slight discrepancies were evident among classification levels concerning the building gloves. Building gloves seemed to be less suited to low-point players because of the reduced grip and protection they provided. Conclusions: It may be concluded that participants’ current gloves that have been modified for the specific demands of wheelchair rugby are more effective for aspects of mobility performance than other glove types.
CONCEPTS OF PERPETUAL PAVEMENTS

The construction of long-lasting hot mix asphalt pavements has been practiced for a number of decades in the United States. Full-depth (asphalt courses used for all layers above subgrade) and deep-strength (asphalt surface and asphalt base over a minimal aggregate base above subgrade) pavements were originally designed for 20-year life expectancies. One of the primary advantages to these designs was that the total pavement sections were thinner when compared to conventional designs of asphalt over thick aggregate bases. As these full-depth and deep-strength pavements performed beyond their design lives, the vast majority only required surface restoration such as a thin overlay or mill and overlay. This practice of replacing only the surface offers a number of rehabilitation advantages in terms of speed of construction (user delay costs) and construction costs. The challenge for today is to obtain a longer surface life on a long-lasting asphalt support structure. Recent efforts in materials selection, mixture design, performance testing, and pavement design offer a methodology which may be employed to obtain very long-term performance from asphalt pavement structures (greater than 50 years) while periodically (approximately every 20 years) replacing the surface (top 25 to 100 mm) of the pavement. This concept has been proposed for use in Europe and it is rapidly gaining acceptance in the United States. The common theme in these approaches is to combine a rut resistant, impermeable, and wear resistant top structural layer with a rut resistant and durable intermediate layer and a fatigue resistant and durable base layer.
BRIDGE SCOUR EVALUATION: SCREENING, ANALYSIS, & COUNTERMEASURES

The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) issued a Technical Advisory in 1988 revising the National Bridge Inspection Standards to require evaluation of all bridges for susceptibility to damage resulting from scour. In accordance with the Memorandum of Understanding between the Forest Service and the FHWA, the Forest Service is required to implement the Technical Advisory, establish a scour evaluation program, and submit reports to FHWA discussing the progress of the evaluation program. Prior to 1998, the Forest had not implemented a scour evaluation program. In 1998, an Engineering Technology Development Proposal was funded to develop a scour evaluation program, specifically for the Forest Service, that all Regions of the Forest Service could implement. The project was to outline a single process and establish criteria, methods, and guidelines that would ensure consistency throughout the agency and eliminate duplication of effort. The project was completed in cooperation with the Regional Bridge Engineers and was organized into three phases: (1) Review the FHWA guidelines and existing public road agency scour programs; (2) Develop a scour evaluation program specifically for the Forest Service based on the information from Phase 1; and (3) Provide support for the program during implementation by the Regions. This document is the culmination of Phases 1 and 2. The developed Scour Evaluation Program is a four-step process: (1) Office Screening and Management Priority Analysis; (2) Field Review, Scour Vulnerability Analysis, and Prioritizing; (3) Detailed Scour Evaluation; and (4) Plan of Action. Each step is discussed in detail in this document.
Simulation and analysis of gas freeing of oil tanks

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One-year clinical and angiographic outcomes after percutaneous coronary interventions in ostial versus distal left main lesions – a retrospective single center study

Background: Percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) of left main coronary artery disease (LMD) is associated with appropriate clinical and angiographic outcomes, resulting in a class I recommendation in patients with less complex coronary anatomy. Due to higher SYNTAX scores and worse clinical outcomes, PCI in distal LMD is accomplished with a lower strength of recommendations for revascularization compared to ostial LM lesions. We compare angiographic and clinical outcomes of ostial/midshaft lesions versus distal lesion in LMD after PCI. Methods: This retrospective study included 176 patients with LMD undergoing PCI with drug-eluting stents. The study population was divided into 34 patients with ostial/midshaft LMD and 142 patients with distal LMD. Patients were routinely scheduled for 9 months of angiographic and 12 months of clinical follow-up. Quantitative coronary analysis (QCA) was performed for all lesions, using an 11-segment model. Primary outcome was MACE (major adverse cardiac events) defined as a composite of cardiac death, myocardial infarction and target lesion revascularization (TLR). Results: The primary outcome measure was comparable in both cohorts after 12 months follow-up (20.6% in ostial/midshaft LMD vs. 17.6% in distal LMD, P=0.71). As expected, TLR rates were increased in distal LM lesions compared to ostial LM lesions, but without reaching statistical significance (14.1% vs. 5.9%, P=0.15). Late lumen loss (LLL) in ostial/midshaft LMD was 0.42±0.33mm. In distal LM lesions value for LLL in the main vessel was 0.42±0.97 mm, with the highest values observed in segments adjacent to the bifurcation (0.37±1.13mm and 0.37±0.73 mm). On cox proportional regression analysis LLL in a bifurcation segment (P=0.03, HR 1.68 [1.1-2.7]) and diabetes mellitus (P=0.046, HR 2.77 [1.0-7.5] were independent correlates for occurrence of MACE. Conclusion: PCI of distal LM lesions result in comparable angiographic and clinical outcomes compared to ostial LM lesions. Highest rates for binary restenosis were observed in segments nearest to the bifurcation.
RECOMMENDED PERFORMANCE-RELATED SPECIFICATION FOR HOT-MIX ASPHALT CONSTRUCTION: RESULTS OF THE WESTRACK PROJECT

This report presents an overview of the WesTrack accelerated pavement testing experiment; a detailed description of its principal product, a performance-related specification for hot mix asphalt (HMA); and a summary of observations made and lessons learned during the course of this major program. The report will be of particular interest to personnel of state highway agencies, materials suppliers, and paving contractors with responsibility for specification and production of HMA and construction of asphalt pavements, and to others with an interest in accelerated pavement testing and development and implementation of performance-related specifications. The final report is organized as four separate parts in one volume. Part I is a detailed overview of the planning, construction, operation, and data collection of the WesTrack experiment. Part II describes the development, components, and features of the HMA performance-related specification and the software program "HMA Spec. " Part III is a description of the WesTrack Database. Part IV presents key observations and lessons learned by the WesTrack team during all phases of the WesTrack project.
COMPLEX WORK ZONE SAFETY

During the past several years, the continuous industrial development in Texas, as well as the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), led to a population increase and a significant growth of freight movements through Texas. This caused an overload of the existing highway network in many Texas regions and in turn necessitated alterations and improvements to bring the transportation system up to date. Numerous work zones currently cause significant changes in traffic operation and safety. The present research was focused on identifying existing problems and developing recommendations that better address complex work zone traffic control situations as an overall system. An extended literature review regarding different impacts of complex work zones on traffic operation and safety allowed for determination of the most frequent types of accidents and the major contributing factors. The researchers analyze different work zone designs from safety and operational perspectives, and compare the obtained findings with current design standards. Studies of drivers' behavior and reactions at different workloads were conducted. Improvement solutions were identified, and recommendations for complex work zone traffic control plan designs were developed.
Identification of Malicious Accounts in Facebook

In this modern world of internet age social networking is becoming popular day by day for sharing of information and day to day communication. The social media has changed the way people pursue their life and made it a part of their life to get connected with friends, family, colleagues and with the society as a whole. Social networking can occur for social purposes, business purposes by the use of Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn etc. Hence it has become the favorite spot for the cyber criminals. Facebook is a free social networking website that allows users to upload photos and video, send messages and keep in touch with friends, family and rest of the world. Unfortunately, spammers are also using this Facebook for their personal gain by creating fake profiles or comprising the other famous accounts. These accounts together are referred as malicious accounts. Hence it became important task to identify this spam for free communication over Facebook. However, some former researchers have proposed their work to identify these accounts but suffering from many limitations. In this paper a method is proposed called An unsupervised method to detect spam in Facebook using DBSCAN algorithm. This research work used Jaccard similarity and DBSCAN algorithm to detect spam messages. This research work is implemented using real time messages and evaluated. The experimental results show the methodology used is very efficient, having better accuracy and low false positive rate in detecting the spam messages in Facebook. This research work will help the common man in detecting malicious Facebook accounts in a great way. Related terms: Social networking, Facebook, malicious accounts
Innovations and industrial performance in Finland, 1945-1998

This book deals with industrial renewal in Finland during the period 1945-98. One of the most recent trends in the advanced economies has been an accelerating rate of innovations and technological change. Previously, innovation was often generated through a series of discrete steps in research, development, and production. Today, innovation is increasingly generated in networks where value is generated through productive working relationships or collaboration. By analysing the underlying factors of the origins of innovations, development processes, characteristics of innovations, market situations and the characteristics of the firms, this study describes the technical development and the industrial renewal of the Finnish economy from the point of view of industrial innovations. By help of systematically collected data on domestic innovations for the period 1945-98, this study leads us to the origins of Finnish industrial innovations, to those circumstances and situations, where new ideas and products have originated. The results show that there are large variations in innovation activities of companies and characteristics of innovations during different phases of economic development (Less)