Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Networking, trust and embeddedness amongst SMEs in the Aberdeen oil complex

Over the last decade or so, networking has become a ‘vogue concept’ in small business research, connecting with wider debates on learning and regional development. Participation in inter-firm networks is seen to provide small firms with access to a broader pool of resources and knowledge, helping them to overcome size-related disadvantages. In particular, the role of such networks as channels for innovation and learning within regions and localities has been emphasized in the context of an apparent shift towards a knowledge-driven economy. In this paper, we provide an empirically-grounded analysis of networking, trust and embeddedness amongst small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the Aberdeen oil complex. Drawing upon survey and interview data, it is argued that connections to extra-local networks play a crucial role in providing access to wider sources of information and knowledge. At the same time, an Aberdeen location still matters to oil-related firms because of the access it offers to crucial forms of industry-specific information and expertise. In concurring with recent calls for more empirically-grounded research which seeks to ‘test’ theoretical propositions against relevant data, we suggest in conclusion that a combination of firm surveys and face-to-face interviews provides an appropriate way forward.
The Effects of Support on the Economic Well-Being of Young Fathers

The author presents the results of a study examining the effects of educational, employment, and psychosocial support services for young fathers who participated in a college-based program in Buffalo, New York. Findings suggest that men who receive paid internships are more likely to complete a program and that those who complete the program have an 83% probability of either working or being in school 90 days after completion. Implications for practice and policy are discussed, and recommendations for research are offered.
Triiodothyronine Administration in a Model of Septic Shock: A Randomized Blinded Placebo-Controlled Trial

Objectives:Triiodothyronine concentration in plasma decreases during septic shock and may contribute to multiple organ dysfunction. We sought to determine the safety and efficacy of administering triiodothyronine, with and without hydrocortisone, in a model of septic shock. Design:Randomized blinded placebo-controlled trial. Setting:Preclinical research laboratory. Subjects:Thirty-two sheep rendered septic with IV Escherichia coli and receiving protocol-guided sedation, ventilation, IV fluids, and norepinephrine infusion. Interventions:Two hours following induction of sepsis, 32 sheep received a 24-hour IV infusion of 1) placebo + placebo, 2) triiodothyronine + placebo, 3) hydrocortisone + placebo, or 4) triiodothyronine + hydrocortisone. Measurements and Main Results:Primary outcome was the total amount of norepinephrine required to maintain a target mean arterial pressure; secondary outcomes included hemodynamic and metabolic indices. Plasma triiodothyronine levels increased to supraphysiological concentrations with hormonal therapy. Following 24 hours of study drug infusion, the amount of norepinephrine required was no different between the study groups (mean ± SD &mgr;g/kg; placebo + placebo group 208 ± 392; triiodothyronine + placebo group 501 ± 370; hydrocortisone + placebo group 167 ± 286; triiodothyronine + hydrocortisone group 466 ± 495; p = 0.20). There was no significant treatment effect on any hemodynamic variable, metabolic parameter, or measure of organ function. Conclusions:A 24-hour infusion of triiodothyronine, with or without hydrocortisone, in an ovine model of septic shock did not markedly alter norepinephrine requirement or any other physiological parameter.
Pooling-Based Quantitative Approach to Evaluating Binarization Algorithms

To quantitatively evaluate an image binarization algorithm when the ground-truth binary images are unavailable, the authors propose a quantitative evaluation approach based on pooling. First, the binarized images of a sample image from the image dataset (binarized by 27 commonly used binarization algorithms) are put into a pool. Then the pseudo ground truth--two weight matrices of foreground and background points--is produced using the 27 binarized images. Finally, for the image binarization algorithm to be evaluated, a quantitative evaluation operator is generated from the two weight matrices in the pool. The authors ran experiments using two image datasets, and the results show that this quantitative evaluation approach is effective and practical.
Huge seminoma developed in a patient with testicular feminization

We report a 36‐year‐old patient who presented with primary amenorrhea and was found to have a giant abdominal tumor. There was a family history of primary amenorrhea in her two aunts. Physical and hormonal examinations as well as chromosomal analysis led to a diagnosis of testicular feminization. The patient underwent tumorectomy along with pelvic and para‐aortic lymphadectomy. The pathological diagnosis was bilateral seminoma of the testis with metastasis to para‐aortic lymph nodes. Nowadays, cases of undiagnosed seminoma developing into a huge abdominal mass in patients with testicular feminization are rarely encountered, since surgical castration is generally recommended as early as possible after puberty. In testicular feminization, the risk of malignant transformation of the dysgenetic male gonads increases substantially after puberty. Early and correct diagnosis together with careful follow‐up are critically important in managing testicular feminization, a rare congenital disorder.
Optimal Remedies for Bilateral Contracts

In several contract situations, parties exchange promises of future performance, creating reciprocal obligations. In this paper, we extend the standard models of contract remedies to consider the incentives created by contracts where both parties provide only executory consideration and where the parties’ obligations are yet to be performed. We show that the legal remedies that govern these contracts provide valuable enforcement mechanisms that are not available when parties enter into a contract in which they exchange a promise for an actual performance. We show that when the values of the parties’ performances are interdependent, contracts with executory consideration create effort incentives that are superior to the incentives of contracts with executed consideration. In contracts with independent values, contracts with executory consideration also offer a valuable instrument to correct enforcement imperfections. Such imperfections include imperfect compensation and litigation costs.
Arms Racing and the Costs of Arms Imports: A Stochastic Model

The paper draws on the demand for arms imports model of Levine and Smith (1995, 1997) using stochastic processes of the birth-death type in steady state. It assumes two antagonistic regional players engaged in an armaments race satisfying their demand for military hardware through imports from the international market. The paper examines the effects that arms imports have on the military balance between the two recipient countries. It constructs a state space of possible outcomes in terms of the military balance/imbalance between the two countries involved. A new variable is introduced which tries to encapsulate the absolute difference in their respective security functions at any moment in time. This variable affects the transition from one state of affairs to the other.
Human Resource Practices and Firm Performance in China: The Moderating Roles of Regional Human Capital Quality and Firm Innovation Strategy

ABSTRACT We conducted two studies to investigate the contingent role of regional human capital quality (i.e., the knowledge, skills, and abilities of the collective workforce in a region) in the relationship between firm-level human resource (HR) practices (i.e., practices focusing on employees’ human capital development) and firm performance in China. Drawing upon human capital theory, we hypothesized that the human capital–enhancing HR practices and regional human capital quality have a substitutive effect on firm performance. Study 1 uses a World Bank survey of 9,125 firms in 30 provinces. We found that the human capital–enhancing HR practices relate more strongly to firm performance when regional human capital quality was lower than when it was higher. Study 2 used a sample of 203 firms across seven provinces. We found similar results. We further hypothesized and found that the substitutive effect of regional human capital quality was stronger when a firm adopted an innovation strategy. Our findings provide new evidence for the contingency perspective of strategic HR management and highlight the importance of matching HR practices with local labor quality conditions and the business strategy of the firm.
Owning E-Sports: Proprietary Rights in Professional Computer Gaming

Among the most significant commercial activities to emerge on the Internet, both in terms of revenue generated and numerical participation, has been multi-player gaming. Such Internet gaming increasingly includes professional play. These "e-sports" feature the structure of team owners, sponsorships, leagues, prize money, and star players that have long been familiar in physical sport competitions. But because these competitions are played in a virtual environment, control of rights to the matches is anything but familiar. E-sports play is typically mediated by proprietary software, raising a set of difficult issues regarding the licensing and control of professional matches and tournaments. As e-sports become increasingly established around the world, unsettled questions of copyright, right of publicity, and neighboring rights will need to be resolved among players, team owners, and developers of e-sports platforms.
Immune mediation of hypersensitivity adverse drug reactions: implications for therapy

Adverse drug reactions are among the top causes of death in the developed world, and among the spectrum of adverse drug reactions, drug hypersensitivity is a principal contributor to serious adverse drug events. The pathophysiology of drug hypersensitivity remains incompletely understood, but seems to involve the initial recognition of a drug or metabolite by the immune system followed by an immune response that determines the clinical manifestations. At present, there are two competing theories for how immune recognition occurs: the Hapten Hypothesis in which drug hapten–carrier association is the key driver for immune recognition and the Pharmacological Interference Concept that postulates direct recognition of drugs by low affinity association with the T cell receptor. The Danger Hypothesis provides a potentially important addition to the Hapten Hypothesis. Therapy for drug hypersensitivity has traditionally involved excellent supportive care. Although corticosteroids and intravenous immunoglobulin have both been used as immunomodulatory therapy, there is no robust evidence supporting the efficacy of their therapy for drug hypersensitivity. Recent advances in molecular biology and genomic pharmacology offer previously unappreciated opportunities to clarify the controversies surrounding drug hypersensitivity and to better diagnose, treat and, it is hoped, prevent drug hypersensitivity in the future.
Improving computer usage for students with physical disabilities through a collaborative approach: A pilot study

Abstract Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of an assistive technology (AT) intervention to improve the use of available computers as assistive technology in educational tasks for students with physical disabilities during an ongoing school year. Methods: Fifteen students (aged 12–18) with physical disabilities, included in mainstream classrooms in Sweden, and their teachers took part in the intervention. Pre-, post-, and follow-up data were collected with Goal Attainment Scaling (GAS), a computer usage diary, and with the Psychosocial Impact of Assistive Devices Scale (PIADS). Teachers' opinions of goal setting were collected at follow-up. Results: The intervention improved the goal-related computer usage in educational tasks and teachers reported they would use goal setting again when appropriate. At baseline, students reported a positive impact from computer usage with no differences over time regarding the PIADS subscales independence, adaptability, or self-esteem. Discussion: The AT intervention showed a positive effect on computer usage as AT in mainstream schools. Some additional support to teachers is recommended as not all students improved in all goal-related computer usage. A clinical implication is that students' computer usage can be improved and collaboratively established computer-based strategies can be carried out by teachers in mainstream schools.
Phagocytosis of the protozoon Tetrahymena pyriformis as an endpoint in the estimation of cocaine salt and cocaine freebase toxicity

Cells of the ciliated protozoon Tetrahymena pyriformis strain W, grown in a peptone‐yeast medium, usually contain many phagocytic vacuoles. The phagocytic activity of this protozoon was studied in vivo using heat‐inactivated yeast stained with carmine after exposing the cultures for 1 hour to different doses of cocaine hydrochloride or cocaine freebase (crack) (0.5, 1 or 2 mg/100 ml of protozoan culture). The number of vacuoles formed indicated the phagocytic activity. Cocaine hydrochloride and crack caused a decrease of the phagocytic activity of the protozoon (p < 0.05) when compared to the control cultures. Furthermore, the two chemical forms of cocaine, salt and free‐base respectively, caused quantitatively different effects on the phagocytic activity. Crack produced an extensive decrease in phagocytosis, compared to equal concentrations of cocaine hydrochloride. These results suggest a possible relationship between cocaine abuse and the suppression of phagocytosis that may contribute to the impairment of immunity in drug misusers.
Medical image modality classification and retrieval

The aim of this paper is to explore different medical image modality and retrieval strategies. First, we analyze how current state-of-the art image representations (bags of visual words and Fisher Vectors) perform when we use them for medical modality classification. Then we integrated these representations in a content based image retrieval system and tested on a medical image retrieval task. Finally, in both cases, we explored how the performance can be improved if we combine visual with textual information. To show the performance of different systems we compared our approaches to the systems participated at the Medical Task of the latest ImageClef Challenge [16].
Polarimetric MIMO radar detection for correlated fluctuating targets

We consider the the detection problem of the polarimetric MIMO radar in the presence of the arbitrary correlated, possibly non-identically distributed target backscattered echoes, which is often appeared in both the transmit-receive (T-R) pairs and the different polarimetric channels. We obtain a fully adaptive detector employing two-step design strategy. Specifically, we first derive the Generalized Likelihood Ratio Test (GLRT) by assuming the known polarimetric covariance matrices (PCMs). Then, we replace them with their maximum likelihood estimates (MLEs) computing by secondary data. Finally, we evaluate the performance of the adaptive GLRT, accounting for generalized chi distributions and correlations among the target amplitudes, via some numerical simulations.
An Unexplored Relationship: Australian Management Consulting and the Management of Human Resources

Over the last two decades management consulting has enjoyed phenomenal growth and expansion; however, the activities and influence of consultants remain largely unexplored. This paper examines the relationship between the burgeoning management consulting industry and the management of human resources in Australia. Using a broad definition of 'human resource consult ing', the paper argues that the role of management consultants in human resource management has expanded significantly. The AWIRS 95 survey is used to examine factors affecting the use of consultants in employee relations. The findings suggest that consultants are more likely to be engaged by larger, overseas-owned workplaces, at head-office level, and in establishments seeking to improve productivity and employee relations. The data also suggest a possible link between the use of consultants and the outsourcing of elements of the human resource function.
Mechanism of decreased in vitro murine macrophage cytokine release after exposure to carbon dioxide: relevance to laparoscopic surgery.

OBJECTIVE The objective of this study was to determine the effect of carbon dioxide (CO2) on the function of peritoneal macrophages. SUMMARY BACKGROUND DATA Laparoscopic surgery is associated with minimal pain, fever, and low levels of inflammatory cytokines. To understand the mechanisms involved, the authors investigated the effect of different gases on murine peritoneal macrophage intracellular pH and correlated these alterations with alterations in LPS-stimulated inflammatory cytokine release. METHODS Peritoneal macrophages were incubated for 2 hours in air, helium, or CO2, and the effect of the test gas on immediate or next day lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-stimulated tumor necrosis factor (TNF) and interleukin-1 release compared. Cytosolic pH of macrophages exposed to test gases was measured using single-cell fluorescent imaging. The in vivo effects of test gases were determined in anesthetized rats during abdominal insufflation. RESULTS Macrophages incubated in CO2 produced significantly less TNF and interleukin-1 in response to LPS compared to incubation in air or helium. Cytokine production returned to normal 24 hours later. Exposure to CO2, but not air or helium, caused a marked cytosolic acidification. Pharmacologic induction of intracellular acidification to similar levels reproduced the inhibitory effect. In vitro studies showed that CO2 insufflation lowered tissue pH and peritoneal macrophage LPS-stimulated TNF production. CONCLUSIONS The authors propose that cellular acidification induced by peritoneal CO2 insufflation contributes to blunting of the local inflammatory response during laparoscopic surgery.
An Insider's Experiences with Environmental Entrepreneurship

Most entrepreneurial principles apply to environmental ventures as well.Ecopreneurship (i.e., environmental entrepreneurship) is outlined from a practical and an academic perspective, based on previous research.Environmental businesses are classified in four categories:nature-oriented enterprises, producers of environmental technology, providers of environmental management services, and producers of environmentally friendly products. Each classification is discussed in terms of the drivers (geographical influences, reason for market emergence, degree of enforcement) that influence their existence.Three major barriers to ecopreneurship--the challenge of market creation, financing barriers, and ethics-based decision making--are described, and implications are discussed.A typology of ecopreneurs is created based on a desire to change the world and a desire to make money.Concluding remarks provide an overview of these drivers and barriers and explain how they contribute to the market-creation difficulties experienced by environmental businesses as compared to non-environmental businesses. (AKP)
Profit Maximization of Fishermen

In this work we define a bio-economic equilibrium model for several fishermen who catch two fish species; these species compete with each other for space or food. The natural growth of each species is modeled using a logistic law. The objective of the work is to find the fishing effort that maximizes the profit of each fisherman constrained by the con- servation of the biodiversity. The existence of the steady states and its stability are studied using eigenvalue analysis. The problem of determining the equilibrium point that maximizes the profit of each fisherman is then solved by using the gene- ralized Nash equilibrium problem. Finally, some numerical simulations are given to illustrate the results.
Approaches to learning of Indonesian accounting students

Numerous calls for improved learning outcomes in accounting graduates have been made by the accounting education bodies and the accounting profession. It has been claimed that the quality of student learning can be enhanced by encouraging a deep approach to learning. Research examining accounting students' learning approaches have been growing vastly (e.g., Booth et al., 1999; Davidson, 2002; Duff, 2004; Eley, 1992; English et al., 2004; Hall et al., 2004; Jackling, 2005a? b). However, most of these studies have been focused on learning approaches of accounting students within the Western societies. Only a few studies have explored this issue in the context of Asian accounting students, and most of them have been conducted using Chinese students (Gow et al., 1994; Cooper, 2004). This study aims to add to the body of literature in this area by exploring approaches to the learning of accounting undergraduate students in Indonesia from gender and cultural perspectives. The findings presented in this paper suggest that motivation, culture and learning environment appear to explain more in terms of differences in approaches to learning adopted by the students than gender.
Internationalization and Changes in Tax Policy in OECD Countries

This article examines the role that economic and political factors played in tax reform in Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries from 1986 to 1990. Some writers argue that economic integration forced states to reform their tax systems. The authors' findings indicate that economic openness had an indirect effect on the level of change in marginal tax rates. The institutional structure of a country was most important—countries that had only one veto player or only one institution or party whose approval was necessary for a bill to become law enacted more sweeping reform than states that had more than one veto player. These results suggest that even when international or domestic economic factors might dictate a change in policy, reform will not be as sweeping in countries in which agreement among several institutions and/or parties is necessary.
Health risks to humans and domestic livestock posed by feral pigs (Sus scrofa) in North Queensland

Author(s): Pavlov, Peter M. | Abstract: A sample of 608 adult pigs from Cape York and adjacent islands was examined for parasites and their serum tested for livestock diseases associated with the Queensland tropics. Feral pigs from North Queensland pose a significant health threat to humans with the incidence of Spargana (the plerocercoid of Spirometra erinacei) through the consumption of undercooked pork. Meliodosis (Pseudomonas pseudomallei), Leptospirosis (L. var pomona), and Brucellosis (Brucella suis) are capable of infecting humans directly during unhygienic butchering of infected carcasses. In North Queensland, the widespread intermingled distribution of feral pigs and cattle increases the potential for the transmission of Actinobacillus, Leptospirosis, and Brucellosis from feral pigs to cattle. Both Europeans and Aborigines on Cape York also raise wild-caught feral pigs for meat. It is important to realize that parasites and diseases are present in young pigs and that poor husbandry practices increase the risk of infection from several parasites, i.e., Lungworm (Metastronsylus sp.), stomach worm (Physocephalus sexalatus, Hyostrongylus rubidus), thorny headed worm (Macracanthorrhynchus hirudinaceus), and kidney worm (Stephanurus dentatus). Heavy infection of these parasites reduce growth rates and cause unthriftiness in infected animals.