Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The changing role of builders merchants in the construction supply chain

Builders merchants are an integral part of the construction industry, yet rarely are they consulted when discussions take place on the future of the construction industry. Throughout history, builders merchants have played a dominant role in the construction industry, initially as an intermediary between the artisan and the buyer, and more recently as a source of working capital for contracting firms. The merchanting industry currently is undergoing considerable change. The depressed construction market and the failure of the housing repair and maintenance sector to recover in the first half of the 1990's as activity in the private non-housing repair and maintenance sector has increased, has raised competition between merchants. The major building merchants are becoming larger by acquisition and merger, the smaller merchants are seeking niche areas, and the medium-size firms are under serious threat from acquisition by the larger merchanting firms. The trend towards consolidation in the sector, driven by the need to reduce costs, has meant that the large merchanting firms now control around 60% of the building materials market sales. Factoring is a growing trend, particularly with smaller companies sourcing goods from the cheapest source. The larger merchants have to respond by sourcing goods from the lowest cost base, irrespective of whether they buy from overseas markets. This paper analyses the UK builders merchants sector and evaluates the important role played in the supply chain.
Systematic Risk and Revenue Volatility

We introduce the degree of economic leverage (DEL) as an extension of the existing method of decomposing beta and assess its incremental explanatory power through empirical testing. The DEL is defined as the percentage change in the firm's sales resulting from a unit percentage change attributable to an exogenous economic disturbance. The exogenous economic disturbance employed is the ratio of long-term T-bond rates to short-term T-bill rates. The evidence supports the DEL's role in explaining systematic risk at both the industry and portfolio levels. However, we find mixed results at the firm level. 2003 The Southern Finance Association and the Southwestern Finance Association.
The F–PEC Scale of Family Influence: Construction, Validation, and Further Implication for Theory

For a solution to the family business definition dilemma, we propose the application of a scale that assesses the extent and the quality of family influence via the measurement of three dimensions: Power, Experience, and Culture. The Family Influence on Power, Experience, and Culture (F–PEC) scale is tested rigorously, utilizing a sample of more than 1,000 randomly selected companies, through the application of exploratory and confirmatory factor analytic techniques. The scale demonstrates high levels of reliability. F–PEC has been applied in a number of studies, contributing to theory development, particularly in terms of the impact of family influence on distinct resources, and as a source of competitive advantage.
2-(4-Bromophenyl)-2-oxoethyl 4-methoxybenzoate

In the title compound, C16H13BrO4, the benzene rings are almost perpendicular to each other, making a dihedral angle of 84.07 (8)°. In the crystal, the molecules are linked into chains along the a axis via intermolecular C—H⋯O hydrogen bonds. A C—H⋯π interaction is also observed.
Choosing Reliable Statistical Software

Should we trust the results of our statistical computations? Closely following the development of the mainframe computer, Longley (1967) criticized the accuracy of the first regression programs. Approximately every 10 years thereafter, similar comments echoed for each new generation of statistical software. In a recent criticism, McCullough and Vinod (1999) argue that commonly used statistical packages may give “horrendously inaccurate” results, which have gone largely unnoticed (635–37). Moreover, they argue that in consequence of these inaccuracies, past inferences are in question, and future work must document and archive statistical software alongside statistical models (660–62). When political scientists discuss accuracy in computer-intensive quantitative analysis, however, we are relatively sanguine. Numerical accuracy is almost never discussed in articles or even in textbooks geared toward the most sophisticated and computationally intensive techniques (e.g., King 1989; Mooney 1997). Notable exceptions are a forthcoming APSR controversy that depends on the meaning and evaluation of numerical accuracy in ecological inference (King 2001; Tam Cho and Gaines 2001) and a study of numerical accuracy issues in replication (Altman and McDonald 2001).
Clientele Effects and Condo Conversions

During an asset boom a property can develop a new usage. Appreciation investors emerge to change a property's occupant mix or letter grade. Rental investors not intending to change the mix or grade are outbid. Sellers receive a capitalized premium from the new type of bidder. For apartments in Miami-Fort Lauderdale during 2004-2006, there is an asset pricing premium from condo converters. The price of real estate depends on clienteles in addition to characteristics. Copyright 2008 American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association
A Cooperative Space-Time Transmission Scheme Based On Symbol Combinations

This paper proposes a cooperative Alamouti space time transmission scheme with low relay complexity for the cooperative communication systems. In the proposed scheme, the source node combines the data symbols to construct the Alamouti-coded form at the destination node, while the conventional scheme performs the corresponding operations at the relay nodes. In simulation results, it is shown that the proposed scheme achieves the second order cooperative diversity while maintaining the same bit error rate (BER) performance as that of the conventional scheme. Keywords—Space-time transmission, cooperative communication system, MIMO.
Modelling farmers' participation in an agri-environmental scheme using panel data: an application to the rural environment protection scheme in Ireland.

Previous studies that have attempted to model the participation decision of farmers in agri-environmental schemes have used a static framework where it was not possible to examine changes in the participation decision of farmers over time. This is rectified in this paper by utilising an 11-year panel that contains information on 300 farmers for each year. The structure of this dataset allows us to employ discrete time duration random effects panel data logit models to model the determinants of entering the Irish Rural Environment Protection Scheme (REPS). We introduce a dynamic element into a number of the models by using the random effects logit model estimator, with lagged dependent variables as additional explanatory variables. The results point to the fact that systems of farming that are more extensive and less environmentally degrading remain those most likely to participate in the REPS. In addition, the results highlight the fact that where no attempt is made to control for unobserved heterogeneity or path dependency the effects of the farm- and farmer-specific characteristics may be overestimated.
The Relationship between Transport Infrastructure and Economic Growth: An Empirical Analysis Comparing Developing and Developed Countries

Gross domestic p roduct (GDP) is generally considered as the most important index and comprehensive measure of the size of economy. This paper investigates empirically the relationship between transport infrastructure (focus on highways) and GDP growth based on a production function approach. The physical stocks of transport infrastructure were used instead of monetary data to measure public capital together with several other variables (labor and private capital) that were hypothesized to affect economic growth. Then we explore a number of subsequent studies that use panel data covering the period between 1992 and 2004. An investigation was done to compare developed countries and developing countries. Results indicate that physical units are positively and significantly related to economic growth. Furthermore there was an interesting finding that the output elasticity with respect to physical units for developed countries is higher than developing countries.
Development of validated RP-HPLC method for the estimation of L-Dopa from Mucuna pruriens , its extracts and in Aphrodisiac formulation

In the present study, reversed phase HPLC method was developed for the estimation of L-Dopa from Mucuna Prurines, its extract and in Aphrodisiac formulation. HPLC analysis was performed on C18 column using a mixture of Water: Acetonitrile: Methanol containing 0.2 % Triethylamine PH adjusted to 3.3 as isocratic mobile phase at a flow rate of 1.0 ml per minute at detection wavelength of 280 nm. The method was validated for accuracy, precision, linearity, specificity and sensitivity in accordance with International conference on Harmonization guidelines. Validation revealed the method is specific, accurate, precise, reliable and reproducible. Good linear correlation coefficients (r > 0.999) was obtained for calibration plots in the range of 10 – 80 μg/ml. Intraday and Interday RSD of retention times and peak areas were less than 2.0 %. Average Percent Recovery was 98.83 %. The method was successfully used for quantitative analysis of this marker compound in Polyherbal formulation.
The generation of rhythmic activity in dissociated cultures of rat spinal cord

Locomotion in vertebrates is controlled by central pattern generators in the spinal cord. The roles of specific network architecture and neuronal properties in rhythm generation by such spinal networks are not fully understood. We have used multisite recording from dissociated cultures of embryonic rat spinal cord grown on multielectrode arrays to investigate the patterns of spontaneous activity in randomised spinal networks. We were able to induce similar patterns of rhythmic activity in dissociated cultures as in slice cultures, although not with the same reliability and not always with the same protocols. The most reliable rhythmic activity was induced when a partial disinhibition of the network was combined with an increase in neuronal excitability, suggesting that both recurrent synaptic excitation and neuronal excitability contribute to rhythmogenesis. During rhythmic activity, bursts started at several sites and propagated in variable ways. However, the predominant propagation patterns were independent of the protocol used to induce rhythmic activity. When synaptic transmission was blocked by CNQX, APV, strychnine and bicuculline, asynchronous low‐rate activity persisted at ≈ 50% of the electrodes and ≈ 70% of the sites of burst initiation. Following the bursts, the activity in the interval was transiently suppressed below the level of intrinsic activity. The degree of suppression was proportional to the amount of activity in the preceding burst. From these findings we conclude that rhythmic activity in spinal cultures is controlled by the interplay of intrinsic neuronal activity and recurrent excitation in neuronal networks without the need for a specific architecture.
Competition within the European Urban System

The diminishing importance of national frontiers in western Europe has intensified competition between cities for mobile investment, for the location of public institutions and for hallmark events. This has led to the creation of league tables of cities in which rankings are determined by single or multiple variables. Analyses of changes in rankings focus on whether there has been divergence or convergence amongst European cities. This paper uses data on 117 cities to suggest that there was convergence in 1981-84, followed by divergence in 1984-87. The paper goes on to test three hypotheses which relate urban economic growth to size or capital status, to location within the core or periphery, and location within northern or southern Europe. Overall it finds that capital cities grow more quickly, in economic terms; that the urban south is catching up with the urban north; and that, whilst the cities of the core did best before 1985, there is some evidence that 'crowding out' has relatively helped the cities of the periphery since 1985.
What is the optimal occlusion time for the atopy patch test in the diagnosis of food allergies in children with atopic dermatitis?

The atopy patch test (APT) is a valuable additional tool in the diagnosis of food allergies in children with atopic dermatitis (AD). Nevertheless, this technique needs to be standardized, and this is particularly true for the occlusion time. We compared the results obtained after a 24‐h occlusion period with those obtained after a 48‐h occlusion period, the usual occlusion time used in contact allergy. We performed 64 open oral food challenges in 48 children (30 boys and 18 girls), aged between 3 and 29 months (median 14 months). The sensitivity, positive predictive value and negative predictive value were all better for the 48‐h occlusion time than for the 24‐h occlusion time. Therefore, the recommended occlusion time for the APT with foods should be 48 h, as for contact allergens.
Exchange Rates Forecasting with Least Squares Support Vector Machine

A novel forecasting model of foreign exchange market based on least squares support vector machine (LS-SVM) is proposed in this paper. The experiment on the prediction of four kinds of daily exchange rate recorded is carried out. Grid search method is used to determine the LS-SVM parameters automatically in the forecasting process. The results show the precision of fitting and forecasting are very high, which indicates that LS-SVM is a feasible and valid approach for forecasting exchange rate time series.
Assessing the Effect of Information on the Reservation Price for Champagne: What are Consumers Actually Paying for?*

Abstract Two series of Vickrey auctions have been performed to assess the effect of packaging information (bottle and label) on the reservation prices of ordinary consumers for five brut non-vintage Champagnes. As in other studies on wine tasting, packaging information is found to explain much more of the variation in willingness to pay than sensory information. Participants are unable, or unwilling, to put different values on the Champagnes after blind tasting, but significant differences in reservation prices appear when labels are disclosed. Detailed analysis of choices reveals a large heterogeneity in individual behaviors and valuations of the Champagnes included in this study. (JEL Classification: C91, D12)
Holistic Nurses and the New Mexico Board of Nursing

A Subcommittee on Integrative Practices was created in response to a request from the New Mexico Board of Nursing for assistance in addressing the public’s questions about the use of complementary and alternative modalities (CAM) therapies. The Subcommittee reviewed key holistic nursing documents including the American Holistic Nurses Association Standards of Practice, AHNA Core Curriculum, and Holistic Nursing: A Handbook for Practice as well as information from the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine. A World Café process was utilized to explore the purpose and goals of the Subcommittee and to derive a language that would unify and promote understanding of integrative nursing practice. Accomplishments, including the presentation of A Hundred Medicines: Honoring Many Paths professional conference, are described.
CAN-based distributed control of a MMC optimized for low number of submodules

In recent years, the Modular Multilevel Converter (MMC) has gained a lot of interest in industry due to its modularity and scalability for different power and voltage levels. However, the control of a MMC consisting of several submodules is often implemented in a central control system, so that the whole MMC system cannot be considered as modular. The thought to distribute control tasks to each submodule arises. Therefore, high speed serial communication protocols such as EtherCAT and CAN have been proposed. This paper presents a distributed control of a scaled MMC test bench using the CAN communication protocol. We are focusing on medium voltage applications using phase shifted PWM technique. Voltage balancing control implemented as state machine optimizes the sort and select balancing method for a MMC with a low number of submodules. A solution for the synchronization of the control modules is also presented.
Analysis of proton/neutron SEU sensitivity of commercial SRAMs-application to the terrestrial environment test method

Results of WNR continuous spectrum irradiations are compared to mono-energetic proton and neutron data according to the JEDEC-JESD89 test procedure. A good correlation between these two methods is found particularly when 500 MeV proton cross-section is used instead of the one at 150 MeV. The increased contribution of the low energy part of the spectrum for modern devices is also discussed. Finally, the influence of front side and back side irradiations is studied at different energies and for several devices from 0.8 /spl mu/m to 0.18 /spl mu/m technologies.
Prevalence of mutations in TIGR/Myocilin in patients with adult and juvenile primary open-angle glaucoma.

We thank the families for their willing participation. J.L. W. is supported by NIH grants EY10886 and EY09847, Research to Prevent Blindness, and the Massachusetts Lions; D.V. is suported by NIH grant EY11405, the American Health Assistance Foundation, and the March of Dimes Birth Defects Foundation.
Turkey’s foreign language policy at primary level: Challenges in practice

The present study aims to investigate the challenges that English language teachers in state schools have faced during the implementation of the new policy prepared by the Ministry of National Education in 1997 (T.C. Resmi Gazete;1997, p. 2). Ten Turkish teachers of English as a foreign language participated in the study. Data for this qualitative study came from the semi-structured interviews. The views of teachers on new English language teaching policy at primary level; the challenges they have faced within practice and the extend of support they have received in the process of implementation were the main issues of the interview. After the interview was transcribed, it was coded by the pattern coding strategy. The results of pattern coding revealed these codes; reasons, advantages and disadvantages of the policy, achievability, challenges caused by the crowded classroom and lack of necessary equipments, support from policy makers, administration and colleagues.
FDI: differential fuel for Guangxi, a poorer Chinese region

This paper explores two issues. The first is the patterns of FDI across China and their allied patterns of growth in regional/provincial economies. This analysis confirms the importance of FDI as a driver of the continuing pattern of growth in the economy. Because of that linkage, a second issue is to answer the question: what is the situation of those cities or regions, such as the autonomous region of Guangxi, who are less fortunate in terms of stocks to date of inward FDI? What might they do to enhance their potential to be local FDI attractors?
The Sustainability of the U.S. Current Account Deficit: Revisiting Mann's Rule

Using quarterly data from 1973 to 2008, we provide evidence that current account (CA) deficits exceeding 4.2% of GDP (Mann's rule") do have a significant lowering effect on the U.S. dollar value against major currencies. Controlling for inflation, public debt, and a broad trade weighted index, excessive CA deficits have a negative long-run impact on the USD. Along the transition path, much faster speeds of adjustment to long-run equilibrium are found when current account deficits in excess of Mann's rule are considered: 20% of the deviations from the long-run equilibrium are corrected in a month against 8% or 9% without Mann's rule. This suggests that excessive values of the CA deficit are priced in" in international foreign exchange markets. Contrary to earlier evidence in favor of CA sustainability, we conjecture that economic conditions have made investors more sensitive to bad news for the U.S. dollar.
On Valuation, Beta, and the Cost of Equity Capital: A Note

The issue of capital structure has been intensively examined in the finance literature, particularly after the appearance of the landmark 1958 paper by Modigliani and Miller [8], hereafter MM. In that paper, MM derived a relationship in terms of the expected return on equity of a levered and unlevered firm, known as MM Proposition II. Their analysis was extended later by researchers such as Hamada [5] and Rubinstein [9] who derived the corresponding relationship in terms of the systematic risk (beta). Both these risk-return relationships have been derived for the case of perfect capital markets and the case in which corporate income taxes are the only type of market imperfection. Although effects of other types of market imperfections such as personal income taxes and bankruptcy costs have been examined in numerous studies, neither MM Proposition II nor the “beta” relationship were extended to include the effects of personal income taxes and bankruptcy costs.
High-performance algorithms of compile-time scheduling of parallel processors

Scheduling and mapping of precedence-constrained task graphs to the processors is one of the most crucial problems in parallel and distributed computing and thus continues to spur a great deal of interest from the researchers. Due to the NP-completeness of the problem, a large portion of related work is based on heuristic approaches with the objective of finding good solutions within a reasonable amount of time. The major drawback with most of the existing heuristics, however, is that they are evaluated with small problem sizes and thus their scalability is unknown. As a result, they are not applicable in a real environment when presented with moderately large problems. Furthermore, most heuristics ignore the important details of the application and the target system, or do not perform well when these details are taken into account. In this research, we propose three scheduling algorithms for achieving the conflicting goals of high-performance and low time-complexity. In addition, we aim at making our algorithms scalable and applicable when used in a real environment. The novelty of our algorithms is their efficient scheduling strategies which yield better solutions without incurring a high complexity. The second novelty is that our algorithms are parallelized which further lowers their complexities. The first algorithm, called the Parallel Fast Assignment using Search Technique (PFAST) algorithm, is a linear-time algorithm and uses an effective neighborhood search strategy for finding a good solution in a short time. The PFAST algorithm constructs an initial solution using a fast heuristic and then refines the solution using a parallel random search. The second algorithm, called the Parallel Genetic Search (PGS) algorithm, employs a parallel genetic technique which is based on the premises that the recombinative nature of a genetic algorithm can potentially determine an optimal schedule. Using well-defined crossover and mutation operators, the PGS algorithm judiciously combines good building-blocks of potential solutions to move towards a better solution. The third algorithm, called the Parallel Bubble Scheduling and Allocation (PBSA) algorithm, is applicable in a general distributed computing environment in that it takes into account more considerations such as link contention, heterogeneity of processors, and the network topology. The PBSA algorithm uses an efficient strategy for simultaneous scheduling of tasks and messages. The algorithm is parallelized by partitioning the task graph to smaller graphs, finding their sub-schedules concurrently, and then combining these sub-schedules. The proposed algorithms have been evaluated through extensive experimentations and yield consistently better performance when compared with numerous existing algorithms.