Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Sensemaking, Sense-Censoring and Strategic Inaction: The Discursive Enactment of Power and Politics in a Multinational Corporation

In this paper we contribute to knowledge of power and politics in international business by developing the understanding of the role of discourse and sensemaking in the subsidiary–headquarters relationship. Based on an ethnographic action research study in a British subsidiary of an American multinational corporation, we conduct an ethnomethodologically informed discourse analysis of the accounts, stories and metaphors through which power and politics in the subsidiary–headquarters relationship were created as social facts. We then broaden the analytic frame to trace longitudinally how these facts led the subsidiary managers to hide, dilute or restrict their ‘local sense’ from the headquarters, including their knowledge of the local market and their preferred strategic direction for the firm: a process we term sense-censoring. We reveal how the subsidiary used power and politics as reasoning procedures to decide against pursuing a preferred course of action, despite a strongly held belief to the contrary, due to anticipated reactions or counter-actions, thereby transforming potential strategic action into inaction. Sense-censoring is significant for international business management, we propose, because it impacts upon knowledge flows, innovation diffusion and organizational learning. We conclude by outlining the implications of systems of sense-censoring and strategic inaction for the management of global–local relations in multinational corporations.
Linear-Time Algorithms for Geometric Graphs with Sublinearly Many Edge Crossings

We provide linear-time algorithms for geometric graphs with sublinearly many edge crossings. That is, we provide algorithms running in $O(n)$ time on connected geometric graphs having $n$ vertices and $k$ pairwise crossings, where $k$ is smaller than $n$ by an iterated logarithmic factor. Specific problems that we study include Voronoi diagrams and single-source shortest paths. Our algorithms all run in linear time in the standard comparison-based computational model; hence, we make no assumptions about the distribution or bit complexities of edge weights, nor do we utilize unusual bit-level operations on memory words. Instead, our algorithms are based on a planarization method that “zeros in” on edge crossings, together with methods for applying planar separator decompositions to geometric graphs with sublinearly many crossings. Incidentally, our planarization algorithm also solves an open computational geometry problem of Chazelle for triangulating a self-intersecting polygonal chain having $n$ segments and $k$ crossings in linear time, for the case when $k$ is sublinear in $n$ by an iterated logarithmic factor.
Using a Cognitive Information Processing Approach to Group Career Counseling with Visually Impaired Veterans.

As of August 2014, the Bureau of Labor and Statistics (BLS) reports the unemployment rate for all veterans as 6.0% (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2014b). For men and women who once held steady employment as part of the armed services, this lack of security can prove stressful. All branches of the military are required to provide some sort of preseparation counseling to service members and offer workshops aimed at providing assistance for veteran transitions out of the military. There is limited data on the effectiveness of these programs (Clemens & Milsom, 2008), and it has been estimated that only one out of five veterans is aware of vocational services provided by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA; Ottomanelli, Bradshaw, & Cipher, 2009). As troops continue to withdraw from current operations and unemployment remains high among all Americans, the outlook for postmilitary careers can seem bleak to transitioning veterans and veterans who have been out of service for longer periods of time.
Constitutive Activation of the Midgut Response to Bacillus thuringiensis in Bt-Resistant Spodoptera exigua

Bacillus thuringiensis is the most effective microbial control agent for controlling numerous species from different insect orders. The main threat for the long term use of B. thuringiensis in pest control is the ability of insects to develop resistance. Thus, the identification of insect genes involved in conferring resistance is of paramount importance. A colony of Spodoptera exigua (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) was selected for 15 years in the laboratory for resistance to Xentari™, a B. thuringiensis-based insecticide, reaching a final resistance level of greater than 1,000-fold. Around 600 midgut ESTs were analyzed by DNA-macroarray in order to find differences in midgut gene expression between susceptible and resistant insects. Among the differentially expressed genes, repat and arylphorin were identified and their increased expression was correlated with B. thuringiensis resistance. We also found overlap among genes that were constitutively over-expressed in resistant insects with genes that were up-regulated in susceptible insects after exposure to Xentari™, suggesting a permanent activation of the response to Xentari™ in resistant insects. Increased aminopeptidase activity in the lumen of resistant insects in the absence of exposure to Xentari™ corroborated the hypothesis of permanent activation of response genes. Increase in midgut proliferation has been proposed as a mechanism of response to pathogens in the adult from several insect species. Analysis of S. exigua larvae revealed that midgut proliferation was neither increased in resistant insects nor induced by exposure of susceptible larvae to Xentari™, suggesting that mechanisms other than midgut proliferation are involved in the response to B. thuringiensis by S. exigua larvae.
Negative feedback regulation of colitogenic CD4+ T cells by increased granulopoiesis

Background: Chronic inflammatory diseases are characterized by massive infiltration of innate and acquired immune cells in inflammatory sites. However, it remains unclear how these cells cooperate in the development of disease. Although bone marrow (BM) is a primary site for hematopoiesis of immune cells except T cells, BM recruits memory T cells from the periphery. We have recently demonstrated that colitogenic CD4+ memory T cells reside in BM of colitic CD4+CD45RBhigh T‐cell‐transferred SCID mice. Based on this background we here investigate whether granulocytes promote or suppress the expansion of colitogenic CD4+ T cells. Methods: First, we show that Gr‐1highCD11b+ granulocytes were significantly increased in colitic BM along with a significant increase of peripheral granulocytes. Consistently, the colony‐forming unit (CFU) assay revealed that granulocyte colony formation was dominantly induced by supernatants from anti‐CD3‐stimulated colitic BM CD4+ T cells. Results: Administration of granulocyte‐depleting anti‐Gr‐1 mAb to colitic mice did not ameliorate the colitis, but exacerbated the wasting disease with an increased expansion of systemic, but not lamina propria, CD4+ T cells with activated phenotype. Conclusions: These results suggest that the increased granulopoiesis by colitogenic BM CD4+ T cells represent a negative feedback mechanism to control systemic inflammation.
A Content Analysis of Arguing Behaviors: A Case Study of Romania as Compared to the United States

This paper examines how arguing behaviors are enacted and structured among members of two cultures. We present the results of a content analysis of Romanian (N = 166) and U.S. American (N = 236) naïve actors' self reports. Differences emerged between the two cultures in respect to topics of argument, argumentation partners, the contextual appropriateness of arguing, the role of arguing, and also within each culture, based on how arguing was conceptualized (i.e., a quarrel or a debate/discussion). No cross-cultural differences were found in the goals people pursued while arguing. The discussion offers a characterization of arguing behaviors in the two cultures. Implications of these results and limitations of the study are also addressed.
Hyperglycaemia as a predictor of outcome during non-invasive ventilation in decompensated COPD

Rationale: Hyperglycaemia predicts a poor outcome in Intensive Care Unit (ICU) patients. Whether this is true for respiratory failure necessitating non-invasive ventilation (NIV) is not known. Objectives: To determine whether hyperglycaemia within 24 h of admission independently predicts outcome of NIV during acute decompensated ventilatory failure complicating chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) exacerbations. Methods: Patients with COPD presenting with acute hypercapnic respiratory failure at University Hospital Aintree between June 2006 and September 2007 and receiving NIV within 24 h of admission were studied prospectively. Random blood glucose levels were measured before NIV administration. Results: 88 patients (mean baseline pH 7.25, PaCO2 10.20 kPa, and PaO2 8.19 kPa) met the inclusion criteria, with NIV normalising arterial pH off therapy in 79 (90%). After multivariate logistic regression, the following predicted outcome: baseline respiratory rate (OR 0.91; 95% CI 0.84 to 0.99), random glucose ⩾7 mmol/l (OR 0.07; 95% CI 0.007 to 0.63) and admission APACHE II (Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation II) score (OR 0.75; 95% CI 0.62 to 0.90). The combination of baseline respiratory rate (RR) <30 breaths/min and random glucose <7 mmol/l increased prediction of NIV success to 97%, whilst use of all three factors was 100% predictive. Conclusions: In acute decompensated ventilatory failure complicating COPD, hyperglycaemia upon presentation was associated with a poor outcome. Baseline RR and hyperglycaemia are as good at predicting clinical outcomes as the APACHE II score. Combining these variables increases predictive accuracy, providing a simple method of early risk stratification.
Essays on Motherhood and Female Labour Supply

Segregation of the labour market into a family-friendly and a non-family-friendly sector implies that women self-select into sectors depending on institutional constraints, preferences for family-friendly working conditions and expected wage differences. We take this sector dimension into account and find a severe penalty after birth-related leave in the non-familyfriendly sector, so that women who would be affected by this penalty self-select into the family-friendly sector. The penalty is a combination of a large human-capital depreciation effect, a child penalty and no recovery.
Stagewise pseudo‐value regression for time‐varying effects on the cumulative incidence

In a competing risks setting, the cumulative incidence of an event of interest describes the absolute risk for this event as a function of time. For regression analysis, one can either choose to model all competing events by separate cause‐specific hazard models or directly model the association between covariates and the cumulative incidence of one of the events. With a suitable link function, direct regression models allow for a straightforward interpretation of covariate effects on the cumulative incidence. In practice, where data can be right‐censored, these regression models are implemented using a pseudo‐value approach. For a grid of time points, the possibly unobserved binary event status is replaced by a jackknife pseudo‐value based on the Aalen–Johansen method. We combine a stagewise regression technique with the pseudo‐value approach to provide variable selection while allowing for time‐varying effects. This is implemented by coupling variable selection between the grid times, but determining estimates separately. The effect estimates are regularized to also allow for model fitting with a low to moderate number of observations. This technique is illustrated in an application using clinical cancer registry data from hepatocellular carcinoma patients. The results are contrasted with traditional hazard‐based modeling. In addition to a more straightforward interpretation, when using the proposed technique, the identification of time‐varying effect patterns on the cumulative incidence is seen to be feasible with a moderate number of observations. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Time complexity analysis for distributed memory computers Implementation of a parallel Conjugate Gradient method I

New developments in Computer Science, both hardware and software, offer researchers, such as physicists, unprecedented possibilities to solve their computational intensive problems. However, full exploitation of e.g. new massively parallel computers, parallel languages or runtime environments requires an approach that combines elements of computer science, numerical mathematics and, in our case, physics. We call this b -computer science. Here we present an example of a computational intensive physical application, the coupled dipole formulation of elastic light scattering from arbitrary shaped particles. The computational kernel of this method is a large set of linear equations. We solve this set by means of a Conjugate Gradient (CG) method, implemented on a coarse grain distributed memory computer (a Transputer network). This paper describes the parallelization of a CG method. Two important choices are discussed; what is the best possible decomposition and which processor network topology is most suited. We introduce a general method to answer these questions and investigate its usefulness by applying this method to our application. It is concluded that implementation of the CG method, with a row-block decomposition of the coefficient matrix, on a ring of Transputers is the most efficient choice. Finally the actual implementation is described, and preliminary experimental timing results are compared with the theoretical time complexity analysis.
Test feature classifiers: performance and applications

In this paper, we present a class of test feature classifiers (TFCs). We discuss the properties and performance of the proposed classifiers and describe cases when a 100% recognition rate on test data can be achieved. When the number of features increases, classes having no more than a polynomial number of instances (in the number of features) are the only cases possible to process. We prove that for almost all pairs of classes with a polynomial number of instances, a 100% recognition rate on any test data can be achieved. To test the performance of the classifiers, we apply them to both artificial and real data. For the real data, we use the well known breast cancer, phoneme, and satimage databases, which are recognized to be difficult classification problems. Our experimental results show that the proposed classifiers not only have a high recognition ability but, also, the ability to achieve a 100% recognition rate in difficult classification problems.
Language Determination: Natural Language Processing from Scanned Document Images

Many documents are available to a computer only as images from paper. However, most natural language processing systems expect their input as character-coded text, which may be difficult or expensive to extract accurately from the page. We describe a method for converting a document image into character shape codes and word shape tokens. We believe that this representation, which is both cheap and robust, is sufficient for many NLP tasks. In this paper, we show that the representation is sufficient for determining which of 23 languages the document is written in, using only a small number of features, with greater than 90% accuracy overall.
The Discrete Threshold Regression Model

Threshold regression (TR) models have recently become a popular tool for survival analysis. A number of different stochastic processes have been considered as the underlying latent process used to construct threshold regression models, the most popular being Brownian motion with drift and the Ornstein-Uhlenbeck process. TR models have a number of advantages over competing models such as proportional hazards regression. For example, TR models can have proportional or nonproportional hazards. The effects of covariates on the hazard are not required to be multiplicative. Also, because threshold regression models use a latent stochastic process to model an unobserved mechanism that leads individuals to events of interest, the interpretation of the parameters can be very intuitive and insightful. The TR models that have received the most attention are based on continuous latent models. Continuous models offer much flexibility in terms of drift and the ability to adjust the time scale. However, it is very difficult to incorporate time-varying covariates into a continuous model in a way that is natural and intuitive. This is not the case for TR models based on a latent discrete-time Markov chain. Discrete latent Markovian models have a different level of flexibility compared to continuous models. Because quantities like hazard rates, first hitting times, and survival probabilities are calculated by matrix multiplication, the process can be allowed to change over
MOLPROBITY: structure validation and all-atom contact analysis for nucleic acids and their complexes

MolProbity is a general-purpose web service offering quality validation for three-dimensional (3D) structures of proteins, nucleic acids and complexes. It provides detailed all-atom contact analysis of any steric problems within the molecules and can calculate and display the H-bond and van der Waals contacts in the interfaces between components. An integral step in the process is the addition and full optimization of all hydrogen atoms, both polar and nonpolar. The results are reported in multiple forms: as overall numeric scores, as lists, as downloadable PDB and graphics files, and most notably as informative, manipulable 3D kinemage graphics shown on-line in the KiNG viewer. This service is available free to all users at http://kinemage.biochem. duke.edu.
Efficient Online Surface Correction for Real-time Large-Scale 3D Reconstruction

State-of-the-art methods for large-scale 3D reconstruction from RGB-D sensors usually reduce drift in camera tracking by globally optimizing the estimated camera poses in real-time without simultaneously updating the reconstructed surface on pose changes. We propose an efficient on-the-fly surface correction method for globally consistent dense 3D reconstruction of large-scale scenes. Our approach uses a dense Visual RGB-D SLAM system that estimates the camera motion in real-time on a CPU and refines it in a global pose graph optimization. Consecutive RGB-D frames are locally fused into keyframes, which are incorporated into a sparse voxel hashed Signed Distance Field (SDF) on the GPU. On pose graph updates, the SDF volume is corrected on-the-fly using a novel keyframe re-integration strategy with reduced GPU-host streaming. We demonstrate in an extensive quantitative evaluation that our method is up to 93% more runtime efficient compared to the state-of-the-art and requires significantly less memory, with only negligible loss of surface quality. Overall, our system requires only a single GPU and allows for real-time surface correction of large environments.
Fire History of Appalachian Forests of the Lower St-Lawrence Region (Southern Quebec)

Sugar maple (Acer saccharum) forests are among the main forest types of eastern North America. Sugar maple stands growing on Appalachian soils of the Lower St-Lawrence region are located at the northeastern limit of the northern hardwood forest zone. Given the biogeographical position of these forests at the edge of the boreal biome, we aimed to reconstruct the fire history and document the occurrence of temperate and boreal trees in sugar maple sites during the Holocene based on soil macrocharcoal analysis. Despite having experienced a different number of fire events, the fire history of the maple sites was broadly similar, with two main periods of fire activity, i.e., early- to mid-Holocene and late-Holocene. A long fire-free interval of at least 3500 years separated the two periods from the mid-Holocene to 2000 years ago. The maple sites differ with respect to fire frequency and synchronicity of the last millennia. According to the botanical composition of charcoal, forest vegetation remained relatively homogenous during the Holocene, except recently. Conifer and broadleaf species coexisted in mixed forests during the Holocene, in phase with fire events promoting the regeneration of boreal and temperate tree assemblages including balsam fir (Abies balsamea) and sugar maple.
Approximate factorizations of distributions and the minimum relative entropy principle

Estimation of Distribution Algorithms (EDA) have been proposed as an extension of genetic algorithms. In this paper the major design issues of EDA's are discussed within a general interdisciplinary framework, the maximum entropy approximation. Our EDA algorithm FDA assumes that the function to be optimized is additively decomposed (ADF). The interaction graph GADF is used to create exact or approximate factorizations of the Boltzmann distribution. The relation between FDA factorizations and the MaxEnt solution is shown. We introduce a second algorithm, derived from the Bethe-Kikuchi approach developed in statistical physics. It tries to minimize the Kullback-Leibler divergence KLD(q\pβ) to the Boltzmann distribution pβ by solving a difficult constrained optimization problem. We present in detail the concave-convex minimization algorithm CCCP to solve the optimization problem. The two algorithms are compared using popular benchmark problems (2-d grid problems, 2-d Ising spin glasses, Kaufman's n — k function.) We use instances up to 900 variables.
Minority College Women’s Views on Condom Negotiation

This study utilized quantitative and qualitative methods to (1) investigate the relationship between frequency of condom use and negotiation strategies and (2) evaluate experiences with condom negotiations among sexually active, heterosexual, African American college women. One hundred female students from a Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) completed a questionnaire that included the Condom Influence Strategies Scale (CIS) and participated in a focus group. An ANOVA was conducted to compare differences between never, inconsistent, and consistent condom users. Consistent condom users scored higher than never users on the “withholding sex” subscale of the CIS (4.88 vs. 3.55; p < 0.001) as well as endorsed items more strongly on the “direct request” subscale of the CIS (4.63 vs. 3.82, p < 0.05) than never users. A thematic analysis of open discussions identified overarching themes. Similarly, refusing sex and/or having direct communications with partner emerged as primary strategies. Threats to negotiation included deciding the “right timing” of discussion and having a previous history of sexual intercourse without a condom with their partner. Other key concepts that contribute to condom negotiation are the views that condoms are a male’s responsibility and stigma of women who carry condoms.