Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Skill development patterns and their impact on re-employability : evidence for Portugal

Abstract: With employment and labour crisis training for (re)employability reaches the highest importance and absorbs an increasing share among public active labour market policies. Provided that retraining is adequate shorter unemployment spells can be observed in the transition between jobs. Therefore duration models seem to be quite adequate to model the time intervals between previous and subsequent occupations and the kind of skills /training acquired in between deserves most attention among the main covariates. In this paper we adjust such a models for POrtugal on the basis of data obtained from the Portuguese Statistical Office's Employment Survey.
The Effect of the Energy Policy and Conservation Act (EPCA) Regulation on Petroleum Product Prices, 1976-1981

Recent events have led to renewed interest in the petroleum industry. Over the years, the American government has imposed a number of regulatory regimes on this industry. One of the most interesting was the price regulation and product allocation system set in place by the Energy Policy and Conservation Act of 1975 (EPCA) which lasted from 1976 until 1981. To determine the impact of this regime, supply and demand equations are used to derive a reduced form model to test whether the other-things-equal prices of petroleum products were significantly lower or higher during the EPCA period than during the comparatively unregulated 1980s. With some exceptions, the results indicate that the EPCA regulation system either raised prices or had no effect. These results should lead to caution on the part of policy-makers. Even the immediate goal of the policy, lowering prices, did not usually occur.
SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY OF BUSINESS IN GEORGIA: DEVELOPMENT AND PROBLEMS

In the recent period the problems of social responsibility of business and its role in socioeconomic development of the countries are widely discussed all over the world. Currently international conferences, forums and numerous other public events dealing with the issues of social responsibility of businesses are arranged in all parts of the world. Goal of this research is assessment, how far this trend is reflected in business practices of Georgian companies. Currently, in Georgia, all efforts are oriented towards creation of civilized business and favorable business environment. In this situation, it is decisive that the necessary element of these efforts was adoption of ethical principles and social responsibility into the practice of business relations. Article provides discussion of wide circle of issues related to participation of businesses in the programs of corporative social responsibility, trends of development of partnerships between business sector, state and NGOs. In Georgia, many companies are engaged in charity activities; they participate in sponsoring of socially significant projects, they publish social reports. In December 2006, in Georgia, UN Global Compact was launched and with its support the network of socially oriented Georgian companies was created. In many companies the codes of conduct and ethics are adopted. They describe ethical principles and norms providing basis for the activities of all employees of the company – from the specialists to top managers. In result of researches we have identified three key factors limiting SRB development in Georgia: high taxes, absence of benefits and availability of soft loans for the socially responsible organizations; lack of understanding of significance of socially responsible behavior. In Georgia, there is no legislative framework for charity activities. Government’s policies with respect of charity remain unclear. In realization of their charity work, the companies still frequently face significant bureaucratic obstacles. In the end of the article there is mentioned that the state should make its best efforts to stimulate development of SRB in Georgia – tax exemptions, cheap credits for social projects etc. State support to development of social responsibility of business in Georgia, being the important instrument for sustainable development of the companies in long run, would promote activation of social investments of the companies, expansion of the platform of partnership between the state and business and make significant contribution to creation of the new sources of sustainable economic growth and finally, would facilitate achievement of one of the key priorities of Georgia – integration into the European structures and market. DOI: http://dx.doi. org/10.5755/j01.em. 18.2. 3655
Progressive Motor Cortex Functional Reorganization Following 6-Hydroxydopamine Lesioning in Rats

Many studies have attempted to correlate changes of motor cortex activity with progression of Parkinson's disease, although results have been controversial. In the present study we used intracortical microstimulation (ICMS) combined with behavioral testing in 6-hydroxydopamine hemilesioned rats to evaluate the impact of dopamine depletion on movement representations in primary motor cortex (M1) and motor behavior. ICMS allows for motor-effective stimulation of corticofugal neurons in motor areas so as to obtain topographic movements representations based on movement type, area size, and threshold currents. Rats received unilateral 6-hydroxydopamine in the nigrostriatal bundle, causing motor impairment. Changes in M1 were time dependent and bilateral, although stronger in the lesioned than the intact hemisphere. Representation size and threshold current were maximally impaired at 15 d, although inhibition was still detectable at 60–120 d after lesion. Proximal forelimb movements emerged at the expense of the distal ones. Movement lateralization was lost mainly at 30 d after lesion. Systemic l-3,4-dihydroxyphenylalanine partially attenuated motor impairment and cortical changes, particularly in the caudal forelimb area, and completely rescued distal forelimb movements. Local application of the GABAA antagonist bicuculline partially restored cortical changes, particularly in the rostral forelimb area. The local anesthetic lidocaine injected into the M1 of the intact hemisphere restored movement lateralization in the lesioned hemisphere. This study provides evidence for motor cortex remodeling after unilateral dopamine denervation, suggesting that cortical changes were associated with dopamine denervation, pathogenic intracortical GABA inhibition, and altered interhemispheric activity.
Endogenous Cycles and the Short Run Keynesian Equilibrium

This paper explores the qualitative dynamics of the economy in the Keynesian short run, following the authoritative formalizations of Keynes' General Theory but including a hypothesis of adaptive price expectations of firms. We show the existence, via Hopf bifurcations, of a stable cyclical (and possibly chaotic) behaviour of the economy around the equilibrium, with an interesting economic interpretation of the qualitative dynamics: the existence of "thrifty" wage earners or of a production technology tending to linearity may favour cyclical paths (and ultimately chaos and exploding spirals). This result provides a further endogenous explanation of business cycles, namely the minor business cycle, which can be entirely ascribed to the short run analysis of Keynes' General Theory. Furthermore, it allows a clear-cut statement on the role played by economic policy in influencing economic stability. A further relevant theoretical finding is that the real wage reacts in either direction to fluctuations in effective demand during the cycle, although "the production exhibits impeccable diminishing returns to labor in the short run", reconciling both neoclassical and Keynesian views on the role of the real wage (in the sense of the pioneering paper by Solow and Stiglitz 1968).
Staphylococcal Surface Display of Immunoglobulin A (IgA)- and IgE-Specific In Vitro-Selected Binding Proteins (Affibodies) Based on Staphylococcus aureus Protein A

ABSTRACT An expression system designed for cell surface display of hybrid proteins on Staphylococcus carnosus has been evaluated for the display of Staphylococcus aureus protein A (SpA) domains, normally binding to immunoglobulin G (IgG) Fc but here engineered by combinatorial protein chemistry to yield SpA domains, denoted affibodies, with new binding specificities. Such affibodies, with human IgA or IgE binding activity, have previously been selected from a phage library, based on an SpA domain. In this study, these affibodies have been genetically introduced in monomeric or dimeric forms into chimeric proteins expressed on the surface of S. carnosus by using translocation signals from aStaphylococcus hyicus lipase construct together with surface-anchoring regions of SpA. The recombinant surface proteins, containing the IgA- or IgE-specific affibodies, were demonstrated to be expressed as full-length proteins, localized and properly exposed at the cell surface of S. carnosus. Furthermore, these chimeric receptors were found to be functional, since recombinantS. carnosus cells were shown to have gained IgA and IgE binding capacity, respectively. In addition, a positive effect in terms of IgA and IgE reactivity was observed when dimeric versions of the affibodies were present. Potential applications for recombinant bacteria with redirected binding specificity in their surface proteins are discussed.
Electrochemical monitoring of aflatoxin M1 in milk samples using silver nanoparticles dispersed on α‐cyclodextrin‐GQDs nanocomposite

Aflatoxins are potential food pollutants produced by fungi. One of important toxins is aflatoxin M1 (AFM1). A great deal of concern is associated with AFM1 toxicity. In the present study, an innovative electrochemical interface for quantitation of AFM1 based on ternary signal amplification strategy was fabricated. In this work, silver nanoparticles was electrodeposited onto green and biocompatible nanocomposite containing α‐cyclodextrin as conductive matrix and graphene quantum dots as amplification element. Therefore, a multilayer film based on α‐cyclodextrin, graphene quantum dots, and silver nanoparticles was exploited to develop a highly sensitive electrochemical sensor for detection of AFM1. Fully electrochemical methodology was used to prepare a transducer on a glassy carbon electrode, which provided a high surface area toward sensitive detection of AFM1. The surface morphology of electrode surface was characterized by high‐resolution field emission scanning electron microscope. The proposed sensing platform provides a simple tool for AFM1 detection. Under optimized condition, the calibration curve for AFM1 concentration was linear in 0.015mM to 25mM with low limit of quantification of 2μM. The practical analytical utility of the modified electrode was illustrated by determination of AFM1 in unprocessed milk samples.
The Effect of Gender Diversity on Angel Group Investment

We examine the impact that gender diversity has on angel group investment behavior for a sample of 183 group–years between 2000 and 2006. Our evidence suggests that gender diversity is a significant predictor of group investment behavior, and that the proportion of women angels in the group has a negative though nonlinear effect on investment likelihood. These data are most consistent with a situational interpretation that women invest differently when they are in the small minority compared with other situations. These results have important implications for the availability of funds for women entrepreneurs and call for greater participation of women investors in the angel marketplace.
Strategies to Support Self-Management in Osteoarthritis

OverviewThis overview of successful strategies for supporting self-management in patients with osteoarthritis (OA) defines the concepts of self-management, self-management support (SMS), and self-management education (SME); describes five categories of SMS interventions; identifies common elements across SMS categories; and provides evidence for and examples of self-management tools that are useful in OA. SMS categories include SME, other skill-building and behavior-change interventions, supportive provider interactions, ongoing supportive follow-up, and environmental changes. Where available, relevant OA-specific SMS strategies are used to illustrate these categories.
Relay-Assisted Cross-Channel Gain Estimation for Spectrum Sharing

In cognitive radio networks, the cross-channel gain from a cognitive transmitter (CT) to a primary receiver (PR) is critical for spectrum sharing and obtaining the cross-channel gain is very difficult. Even though proactive estimation allows the CT to autonomously estimate the cross-channel gain, it may cause severe interference to the PR. This raises a new issue for spectrum sensing, called spectrum sensing interference. In this paper, we deal with the sensing interference and propose a relay-assisted method to conduct the proactive estimation, which obtains the cross-channel gain with much less interference to the PR. In our method, we let the CT act as a full-duplex amplify-and-forward relay to probe the close-loop power control between primary transceivers. By measuring the power adjustment of the primary signal, the CT estimates the cross-channel gain. Simulation results indicate that our method can reduce the sensing interference to an extremely low level.
Characterization of CEBPA Mutations in Acute Myeloid Leukemia: Most Patients with CEBPA Mutations Have Biallelic Mutations and Show a Distinct Immunophenotype of the Leukemic Cells

Purpose: The transcription factor CCAAT/enhancer binding protein α, encoded by the CEBPA, is crucial for the differentiation of immature granulocytes. Mutation of the CEBPA may play an important role in leukemogenesis and prognosis. We sought to characterize the CEBPA mutation in acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and to clarify if there is a distinct immunophenotype for leukemic cells with the mutation. Experiment Design: One hundred and four patients with de novo AML were evaluated for the CEBPA mutation and immunophenotype of the leukemic cells. Results: Twenty-two distinct mutations were identified in 16 (15%) of 104 AML patients. Fourteen patients had biallelic mutations, mostly involving both the NH2-terminal TAD1 region and the COOH-terminal basic leucine zipper domain (bZIP). The mutations in the bZIP region were always tandem duplications and were located at hot-spot regions for topoisomerase II sites. Sequential study of the CEBPA mutations showed that the mutations disappeared at complete remission but the same mutations reappeared at relapse. None of the patients developed novel mutations during the follow-up period. Patients with CEBPA mutations had significantly higher incidences of CD7 (73%), CD15 (100%), CD34 (93%), and HLA-DR (93%) expression on the leukemic cells. Conclusion: These data revealed that most AML with CEBPA mutations were associated with an immunophenotype of HLA-DR+CD7+CD13+CD14−CD15+CD33+CD34+. The close relationship of CEBPA mutations with the leukemia status of the patients and the concordance of mutation in presenting and relapse samples implicate the CEBPA mutation as a potential marker for monitoring minimal residue disease.
Degrees of Freedom of the K User M times N MIMO Interference Channel

We provide inner bound and outer bound for the total number of degrees of freedom of the K user multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) Gaussian interference channel with M antennas at each transmitter and N antennas at each receiver if the channel coefficients are time-varying and drawn from a continuous distribution. The bounds are tight when the ratio [(max(M,N))/(min(M,N))]=R is equal to an integer. For this case, we show that the total number of degrees of freedom is equal to min(M,N)K if K ≤ R and min(M,N)[(R)/(R+1)]K if K > R. Achievability is based on interference alignment. We also provide examples where using interference alignment combined with zero forcing can achieve more degrees of freedom than merely zero forcing for some MIMO interference channels with constant channel coefficients.
Knowledge, Performance, and Exporter Satisfaction

Abstract Managers' satisfaction with their exporting activities may significantly affect firms' future exporting behavior, yet it has been examined in few studies. Built on the theory of disconfirmation of expectation and the resource-based view of competitive advantage, we propose and test a model of exporter satisfaction that identifies three groups of antecedents to satisfaction. Background knowledge lays the foundation for developing export marketing expertise, which is directly responsible for export performance in terms of profitability and disconfirmation of prior expectations. Exporter satisfaction is proposed to be a function of performance. Empirical support was found for ten of the eleven hypothesized relationships.
MULTIPLICITY JUSTIFIES CORPORATE STRATEGY

This study conducts an analysis of the relationship between strategic theory, industry- or market-wide practices, valuation metrics, and justification rhetoric in performing strategic practice. In doing this, we refer to Michel Callon on the performativity of economics and Boltanski and Thévenot on the justification of strategic action. The paper introduces an analytical framework for studying the corporate strategy pragmatics of a forest industry company – Stora Enso – over the 1990–2008 period. The authors argue that Stora Enso's corporate strategy is justified by and represents the outcome of multiple performances that coexist and interact with each other. These multiple performances, ranging from general strategic management conceptual theories to industry-wide practices and valuation metrics, may lead to conflict when creating successful businesses.
A hybrid two layer attribute based encryption for privacy preserving in public cloud

Most of the current approaches are to secure confidential data hosted in cloud based on the attribute based encryption. Under such approaches, data owners are in charge of encrypting the data before uploading them and whenever user authorizations policies changes re-encrypting the data would performed. Thus the communication and computation cost at owner side is high. While assuring data confidentiality from the cloud and to minimize the overhead at the owner side, a revaluation of access control, based on attributes needs to be induced in cloud. Based on two layers of encryption we propose a new framework that addresses such requirement. Under our framework owner perform single layer as well double layer encryption. From this our system assures the confidentiality of data and preserves the privacy of users form the cloud while delegating most of the access control enforcement to the cloud.
Controlling Shareholder, Split-Share Structure Reform and Cash Dividend Payments in China

We investigated the relationship between changes in cash dividend payments, non-public tradable shares, and the percentage ownership of the controlling shareholder in Chinese firms before and after the split-share structure reform. We found a significant reduction in cash dividends before and after the reform. Importantly, the reduction in cash dividends is significantly related to the reduction in the largest shareholder's ownership; however, it is not associated with the decline in non-publicly tradable shares. These results suggest that Chinese controlling shareholders' preference for cash dividends is attributable to the inherent illiquidity of their shares rather than non-tradability of shares.
Fast Correction Method for Abdominal Multi-Organ Segmentation Using 2 D / 3 D Free Form Deformation and Posterior Shape Models

Despite advances in automatic medical image segmentation, time-effective interactive correction tools are commonly required in the clinical environment. In this work we present a new interactive correction method for abdominal multi-organ segmentation. Our method enables 3D shape corrections through 2D interactions. During runtime local corrections are used to build a conditional model, which infers the shape of neighboring organs. The combination of 2D/3D shape deformation model with a mechanism to propagate local corrections enables an intuitive and natural manipulation of 3D segmentation results, and reduces substantially the number of interactions and correction time used for multi-organ correction. Experimental results show the ability of the proposed approach to produce high quality segmentations with 82% and 57% reductions on the number of user interactions and correction time, respectively, in comparison to corrections performed on a single-organ basis.
Unfair dismissal cases, disciplinary procedures, recruitment methods and management style: Case study evidence from three industrial sectors

Summarises some findings from recent empirical research into the factors influencing the incidence of claims of unfair dismissal to industrial tribunals. Using a paired comparison case study method it focuses, primarily, on small businesses and small establishments, seeking to explore significant variations. These include the presence or absence of written disciplinary procedures, their mode of operation, content and meaning, and management style and consistency. Qualitative insights include the prevalence of informal first approaches to perceived employee shortcomings and the influence of overall employee assessment in selective disciplinary action. Contrary to earlier research in small businesses it finds little principled management opposition or resentment to the introduction of written disciplinary procedures, with managers highlighting the assistance they give to them when taking disciplinary action.
Centralized Minimalism: Semiformal Governance by Quasi Officials and Dispute Resolution in China (集权的简约治理——中国以准官员和纠纷解决为主的半正式基层行政)

Existing theories of governance generally focus on formal institutions, conceptualized in an either–or binary of state versus society. Recent archival research, however, has demonstrated that local Chinese administrative practice drew widely on semiformal governance through the use of quasi officials nominated by communities. They were not salaried and generated little or no paperwork. Once confirmed by the magistrate, they were largely left to function on their own; the county yamen intervened only after complaints or in disputes. That mode of administrative practice was born of adaptations, by a highly centralized government that aimed to be as minimalist as possible, to the demands for expanded governance that came with a growing population. Substantial aspects of that legacy from imperial China have persisted through the Republic, the Mao Zedong period, and the present reform era. They may be considered particularly persistent characteristics of the Chinese political “tradition,” “premodern” and “modern,” and they may yet play a role in shaping a distinctive Chinese political modernity.