Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Stakeholder Corporation

The stakeholder debate continues unabated in Britain in various arenas of public life and activity. “While recognising the societal holism of the stakeholder concept this article concentrates on the debate at a business level, discussing whether stakeholding is ethical, attainable, or even appropriate to business corporations”. The author is completing his MBA at London Business School and has a background of consulting in organisational and IT analysis.
When Experimentalist Governance Meets Science-Based Regulations; the Case of Food Safety Regulations

This paper presents a detailed examination of a central regulatory mechanism and of the politics of regulation shaping food economies. Food safety regulations in the US rely on a science-based regulatory system known as HACCP, which bears central features of what Charles Sabel and Jonathan Zeitlin have identified as experimentalist governance. Theoretically, the paper examines what the reliance on science means for the promise of an experimentalist policy regime to enable a new form of politics. Based on interviews with meat producers and USDA regulators, I found that HACCP’s reliance on a particular scientific system acts as an effective divider between producers who can interpret and produce this kind of science, and others, for whom this is challenging. There is clear evidence that a significant number of small processors were unable to adapt to the regulatory system’s requirements. In so far as the HACCP-based food safety regulations delineate the kind of producer that can viably exist in the system and contributed to the demise of another set of producers, the regulation has created an outcome. The politics of HACCP, then, revolve around these effects of the scientification of food safety regulations. I also show that some of the most salient political arguments surrounding food safety regulations are not addressed through the institutionalized channels of the regulatory system. This is the case, I argue, because they are not commensurable with the scientific system underlying HACCP – their merits cannot be evaluated with its units of measurement, nor with kind of data it produces. The combination of an experimentalist policy regime with a science-based regulatory system then, is something like a test case for experimentalism’s ability to learn from difference, to realize its democratic promise and to overcome the enduring dilemmas that arise at the nexus of science, regulation and politics. I conclude with the argument that if experimentalist policy arrangements rely on science-based regulation, special caution is warranted to recognize experiences and arguments backed by multiple systems of reasoning. These are arguably timely observations, as the Obama administration has embraced science-based regulatory arrangements with as much enthusiasm as Reagan once did
Average Case Analysis of a Heuristic for the Assignment Problem

Our main contribution is an On log n algorithm that determines with high probability a perfect matching in a random 2-out bipartite graph. We also show that this algorithm runs in On expected time. This algorithm can be used as a subroutine in an On2 heuristic for the assignment problem. When the weights in the assignment problem are independently and uniformly distributed in the interval [0, 1], we prove that the expected weight of the assignment returned by thus heuristic is bounded above by 3 + On-α, for some posrtive constant a.
DarR, a TetR-like Transcriptional Factor, Is a Cyclic Di-AMP-responsive Repressor in Mycobacterium smegmatis*

Background: No transcriptional factor has been characterized as a c-di-AMP-responsive regulator in bacteria. Results: A TetR-like regulator, DarR, could specifically bind c-di-AMP and repressed gene expression in M. smegmatis. Conclusion: DarR is the first cyclic di-AMP receptor regulator to be identified in bacteria. Significance: Our findings provided an opportunity to understand the physiological function and regulatory mechanism of c-di-AMP. Cyclic dinucleotides, including cyclic di-AMP (c-di-AMP), are known to be ubiquitous second messengers involved in bacterial signal transduction. However, no transcriptional regulator has been characterized as a c-di-AMP receptor/effector to date. In the present study, using a c-di-AMP/transcription factor binding screen, we identified Ms5346, a TetR family regulator in Mycobacterium smegmatis, as a c-di-AMP receptor in bacteria. Ms5346 could specifically bind c-di-AMP with Kd of 2.3 ± 0.5 μm. Using EMSA and DNase I footprinting assays, c-di-AMP was found to stimulate the DNA binding activity of Ms5346 and to enhance its ability to protect its target DNA sequence. A conserved 14-bp palindromic motif was identified as the DNA-binding site for Ms5346. Further, Ms5346 was found to negatively regulate expression of three target genes including Ms5347 (encoding a major facilitator family transporter), Ms5348 (encoding a medium chain fatty acyl-CoA ligase), and Ms5696 (encoding a cold shock protein, CspA). Ms5346 is the first cyclic di-AMP receptor regulator to be identified in bacteria, and we have designated it as DarR. Our findings enhance our understanding of the function and regulatory mechanism of the second messenger c-di-AMP in bacteria.
Family Structure, Educational Achievement and the Inner City

Current rates of success in the GCSE exams (taken at age 16 years in England and Wales) are particularly associated with location away from the inner cities. This paper uses aggregate data on success rates and socio-economic characteristics at the level of LEAs to assess the contributions of social, economic and schooling factors to this pattern of spatial disparity. Regression analyses indicate that the strongest influence is the spatial distribution of lone-parent families, and that rates of school absenteeism are an important intervening variable. The strength of the geographical relationship reflects the fact that British inner city areas are now distinguished more by the prevailing family structure than by their ethnic or class mix, or their level of unemployment. While high levels of (male) unemployment contribute to this situation, it is argued that more attention ought to be given to the social dimension of urban problems and policy than has been in the past 20 years.
For Better or Worse? Self-Esteem and the Contingencies of Acceptance in Marriage

A longitudinal daily diary study examined the origins and consequences of perceiving a partner's acceptance and love as contingent on professional success. Both members of 154 couples completed a diary for 21 days. Multilevel analyses revealed that low self-esteem men and women felt more accepted and loved by their partner on days when their professional lives were marked by success, and low self-esteem women felt less accepted and loved on days when their professional lives were marked by failure. No such spillover effects between people's professional and relationship lives emerged for people high in chronic selfesteem. A 1-year longitudinal follow-up revealed that people who initially felt less accepted across days reported decreased satisfaction. Men also became especially distressed when their wives felt less accepted initially and (incorrectly) perceived their husbands' regard as contingent.
Consumption Taxes and Economic Efficiency with Idiosyncratic Wage Shocks

Fundamental tax reform is examined in an overlapping‐generations model in which heterogeneous agents face idiosyncratic wage shocks and longevity uncertainty. A progressive income tax is replaced with a flat consumption tax. If idiosyncratic wage shocks are insurable (i.e., no risk), this reform improves (interim) efficiency, a result consistent with the previous literature. But if, more realistically, wage shocks are uninsurable, this reform reduces efficiency, even though national wealth and output increase over the entire transition path. This efficiency loss, in large part, stems from reduced intragenerational risk sharing that was previously provided by the progressive tax system.
Comparison of Bodily Pain: Persons With and Without Venous Ulcers in an Indigent Care Clinic

PURPOSE The purpose of this study was to examine bodily pain and its relationship with functional status, perception of control, coping, and depression for patients with and without venous ulcers who were receiving care in an urban, primary care clinic for low-income adults. METHODS We used an exploratory, cross-sectional design. Participants (N = 301) completed demographic, pain severity and pain interference with function, depression, control, and coping questionnaires. Seventy patients (23.3%) had venous ulcers and 231 (76.7%) did not. RESULTS Participants were generally male (53%, n = 159), mostly African American (92%, n = 277), and ranged in age from 22 to 74 years (M = 49.5, SD = 8.5). Persons with and without venous ulcers did not differ significantly based on gender, race, number of pain sites (n = 3.3), or self-rated health. Those with leg ulcers were significantly older, had more health problems, and were more likely to have pain-related disability. The pain descriptors used by patients with venous ulcers were sharp (89%), nagging (87%), tiring (87%), and throbbing (87%). Patients with leg ulcers reported significantly lower average pain (M = 6.0) than those without leg ulcers (M = 6.6) and greater 24-hour pain relief from treatments or medications (55% vs 44%). Patients with venous ulcers reported greater control over their pain and greater coping with pain. The 2 groups did not differ significantly on depression, life control, or purpose in life scores. CONCLUSIONS Compared to patients without venous ulcers, those patients with venous ulcers rated their pain lower and reported higher coping and control over pain, which may be reflected in better subjective pain management despite having more pain sites and disability related to pain. Pain management for indigent patients with and without venous ulcers remains a concern and needs further study.
A review on interaction of groundwater and surface water

Interactions between groundwater and surface water play a fundamental role in water resources management. The movement of water between groundwater and surface water should be investigated in view of both quantity and quality aspects of water resources. In this paper, an attempt is made to define the primary concepts of this interaction and to illustrate a case study undertaken in Australia.
Climate Change and Financial Market Efficiency

This dissertation abstract and reflection commentary present the work of Dr. Andrea Liesen. The dissertation examines the informational efficiency of financial markets to price the systematic risk stemming from climate change for European companies. The abstract provides an overview of the underlying theory, introduces the development of hypotheses, the method applied, and data gathered, as well as selected implications of results. The reflection commentary discusses the author’s views of the research process as a junior scholar.
Genetic Influences on the Development of Cerebral Cortical Thickness During Childhood and Adolescence in a Dutch Longitudinal Twin Sample: The Brainscale Study

&NA; Previous studies have demonstrated that cortical thickness (CT) is under strong genetic control across the life span. However, little is known about genetic influences that cause changes in cortical thickness (&Dgr;CT) during brain development. We obtained 482 longitudinal MRI scans at ages 9, 12, and 17 years from 215 twins and applied structural equation modeling to estimate genetic influences on (1) cortical thickness between regions and across time, and (2) changes in cortical thickness between ages. Although cortical thickness is largely mediated by the same genetic factor throughout late childhood and adolescence, we found evidence for influences of distinct genetic factors on regions across space and time. In addition, we found genetic influences for cortical thinning during adolescence that is mostly due to fluctuating influences from the same genetic factor, with evidence of local influences from a second emerging genetic factor. This fluctuating core genetic factor and emerging novel genetic factor might be implicated in the rapid cognitive and behavioral development during childhood and adolescence, and could potentially be targets for investigation into the manifestation of psychiatric disorders that have their origin in childhood and adolescence.
Dirty versus ecological technology in an endogenous growth model

An endogenous growth model with renewable and nonrenewable Intermediate Goods (IGs) is developed to study the exogenous environmental quality effects on technological-knowledge bias and on Final-Good (FG) sector bias. Solving the transitional dynamics numerically and removing the scale effects, FG sector bias is showed to be caused by both technological-knowledge bias, through the price channel, and technological-knowledge-absorption effect.
Performance-related pay and work motivation: theoretical and empirical perspectives for the French civil service

At a time when the civil services of most OECD countries have embarked on a process of modernization of their practices, we are questioning the relevance of introducing performance-related pay systems, particularly in view of the, more often than not, negative effects on the work motivation of civil servants. The French civil service has recently decided to pay a part of its public officials on the basis of their performance, and we show how these individualized remuneration practices can, in the long term, undermine the public service motivations that drive some civil servants. Our reasoning is supported by the empirical results of studies conducted in the United States, in England and also in France, as well as on the developments of intrinsic motivation theories, combined with the developments of the public service motivation theory. Points for the practitioners Whereas the implementation of performance-related pay as an instrument of motivation has become widespread within the civil service, this article focuses on the difficulties inherent to these compensation practices. We underline in particular the negative effects of performance-related pay on the public service motivations of civil servants. As these specific motivations can be pushed aside, human resource management tools should be adopted that encourage the development of intrinsic motivation, such as task enlargement or enrichment or the implementation of participative management methods.
Detection of Damaged Rooftop Areas From High-Resolution Aerial Images Based on Visual Bag-of-Words Model

The classification of damaged building types has received increasing attention in recent years. The detection of damaged rooftop areas is crucial to improve the accuracy of classification of building damaged types. In this letter, an approach for the automatic detection of damaged rooftops areas based on the visual bag-of-words (BoWs) model is presented. First, the building rooftop is segmented into different superpixel areas. Then, the visual BoWs model is employed to build semantic feature vectors for damaged or nondamaged parts of each superpixel area. Finally, damaged and nondamaged parts of rooftop superpixel areas are discriminated using support vector machine. An evaluation of experimental results, for a selected study site of the Beichuan earthquake ruins, Sichuan, China, shows that this method is feasible and effective for the detection of damaged rooftop areas.
On the beat: variations in the patrolling styles of the police officer

Purpose – This article seeks to look at the police officer on patrol. It aims to explore three categories of work undertaken during periods of un‐tasked patrol where officers can self‐direct their work.Design/methodology/approach – Informed by empirical data from an ethnographic study of front line community policing in Britain, the categories of work are illustrated through the profile(s) of officer(s) whose actions best support each style.Findings – The coming together of officers with different skills and the propensity to undertake different types of police work can broaden the community policing philosophy as well as the practice itself. While an expansive policing mandate can be used to justify and explain the pursuit of preferential areas of police work by the patrolling officer, findings also uncover evidence of the persistence of police practices and attitudes that alienate certain community groups.Research limitations/implications – Given the sustained popularity of localized policing models, fu.
Looking Beyond Chronological Age: Current Knowledge and Future Directions in the Study of Subjective Age

The notion of the heterogeneity of aging goes along with the awareness that every person experiences aging differently. Over the past years, scholars have emphasized that the assessment of these subjective experiences of aging contributes to our understanding of a range of psychological and physiological processes and outcomes among older adults. One construct frequently used in this context is subjective age, that is, how old or young a person feels. Subjective age has been shown to be an important correlate as well as a predictor of markers of successful aging such as well-being, health, and longevity. However, less is known about the antecedents of subjective age and the mechanisms underlying the relationship between feeling younger and positive developmental outcomes. This article briefly summarizes and critically evaluates the empirical evidence on this topic and makes suggestions on how to address and potentially overcome currently existing theoretical, methodological, and psychometric challenges. Based on the discussion of these challenges, the paper provides directions for future research by outlining underexplored topics such as intraindividual variability and determinants of subjective age, the match between objective age indicators and subjective age, and how subjective age maps on behavior and functioning.
Two‐photon lifetime imaging of fluorescent probes in intact blood vessels: A window to sub‐cellular structural information and binding status

Fluorescence lifetime imaging (FLIM) provides a complementary contrast mechanism to fluorescence intensity and ratio imaging in intact tissue. With FLIM the time‐resolved decay in fluorescence intensity of (interacting) fluorophores can be quantified by means of time correlated single photon counting (TCSPC). Here we focus on fluorescence lifetime imaging in intact blood vessels. Requisites for imaging in intact tissue are good penetration depth and limited tissue damage. Therefore, in this pilot‐study, we performed TCSPC‐FLIM using two‐photon laser scanning microscopy to determine, with sub‐cellular resolution, the fluorescence lifetime of two fluorescent probes. First, we focused on the nucleic acid dye SYTO41 in the various compartments of cells in vitro and in situ in the wall of intact mouse carotid arteries. Second, it was assessed whether the interaction of the lectin WGA‐FITC with the endothelial glycocalyx affects its fluorescence lifetime. Results showed comparable mono‐exponential fluorescence lifetimes of SYTO41 in the nuclei of cells in vitro and in situ. The slightly shorter fluorescence lifetime observed in the cytoplasm allowed discrimination of the nuclei. SYTO41 displayed strong mitochondrial staining, as was verified by the mitochondrion‐specific probe CMXRos. In addition, mitochondrial staining by SYTO41 was accompanied by a green shift in emission. In the mitochondrial region, SYTO41 showed a highly bi‐exponential and relatively fast decay, with two distinct lifetime components. It is hypothesized that the fitted bi‐exponential decay can either be contributed to (1) the mathematical approximation of the fluorescence intensity decay or (2) the presence of free and DNA‐bound SYTO41 in the mitochondrial compartment, leading to two lifetime components. The fluorescence lifetime of WGA‐FITC decreased by ∼25% upon binding to the endothelial glycocalyx. From this study, we conclude that FLIM offers an additional contrast mechanism in imaging intact tissue and provides information on binding status between a probe and its ligand. Microsc. Res. Tech., 2007. © 2007 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Management accounting change in a bank

Abstract This is a longitudinal case study of the changes in the management accounting system and in particular, the management accounting reports, in a division of a large multinational bank. The initial contact with the Division was in September 1990 but, based on interviews and copies of reports, this case begins in 1989 when the Division had many financial reports but basically one management accounting report for managers. Pressures (such as new competitors, developments in information technology, bad debts experience, reducing profits margins and the introduction of new products) initiated the changes in the management accounting system. Both accounts and managers considered that a major change during the period of this case was the increased level of discussion and greater informal contacts between managers and management accountants. Changes such as the new cost allocation methodology, value-for-money exercise, new cost reports, competitive benchmarking and more participative budgeting process all increased the communication between managers and management accountants. However, many management initiatives (such as activity-based costing) either failed or were not implemented and one hypothesis from this case is that such failure is normal in organizations. Such failure became apparent because of the longitudinal nature of this case with its 'freeze-frame' approach. The accountants and managers all agreed that environmental pressures were the primary reasons for many of the changes but that internal factors were also important. The influence of individuals as change agents was particularly significant in this case. The Innes and Mitchell model (1990) of change with motivators, catalysts and facilitators' is developed to include barriers to change, leaders and momentum for change.
Does defence expenditure deter economic growth in Turkey? A cointegration analysis

This paper investigates a series of unit root, cointegration and causality tests to ascertain the direction of causality between the growth of GNP and defence expenditure in Turkey for the years 1955–2000. The main conclusion is that there is a long‐run equilibrium relationship between GNP and defence expenditures. Furthermore, the short run causality test indicates that there is a unidirectional causality between variables, from defence expenditure to economic growth. In order to see the effect of a shock, we employed impulse response analyses. The results show that GNP decreased during the period then output finally recovered from the initial shock to defence expenditures.