Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Fall and Rise of Strategic Planning

When strategic planning arrived on the scene in the mid-1960s, corporate leaders embraced it as “the one best way” to devise and implement strategies that would enhance the competitiveness of each business unit. True to the scientific management pioneered by Frederick Taylor, this one best way involved separating thinking from doing and creating a new function staffed by specialists: strategic planners. Planning systems were expected to produce the best strategies as well as step-by-step instructions for carrying out those strategies so that the doers, the managers of businesses, could not get them wrong. As we now know, planning has not exactly worked out that way.
Low-Profile Conical-Pattern Slot Antenna With Wideband Performance Using Artificial Magnetic Conductors

A slot antenna with conical patterns and wideband performance based on artificial magnetic conductors (AMCs) is presented in this paper. It has four symmetrical square radiating slots and a meandered feeding network etched on the both sides of the upper substrate to achieve a compact size. Wideband performance is achieved by tuning the resonant frequencies of the one-wavelength slot and quarter-wavelength monopole modes close to each other. The electric fields generated by these four slots cancel each other, resulting in a radiation null in the center. And the AMC surface converts the radiation pattern into conical pattern. The simulation and measurement results on $S_{11}$ , radiation patterns, efficiencies, realized gains, and SAR values are given. The performance of the proposed antenna in a practical helmet model is studied. The results show that the proposed antenna has an impedance bandwidth of 4.83–6.25 GHz (1.42 GHz, 25.6%), maximum gain of 6 dBi at the elevation angle of 36°, and low 1 g SAR values of less than 0.22 W/kg for the application of the IEEE 802.11a WLAN system.
IMPROVING MANUFACTURING COMPETITIVENESS: A CASE STUDY

In the mid‐1980s, obituaries were being written for manufacturing firms in the United States. Foreign competitors, particularly those in Japan and West Germany, had productivity growth exceeding that of firms in the U.S. The result was increasing market shares for firms in those countries. U.S. firms were becoming less competitive in the global marketplace.
Protecting the Civil Rights of English Language Learners Today: A Study of the Recent DOJ and OCR Investigations of Selected School Districts in the United States

The purpose of the study was to examine the circumstances and practices that led to OCR and DOJ investigations in seven selected school districts, and to determine the emerging themes from the details of the settlement agreements between the school districts and the United States. The themes developed through this study were aimed at providing a framework for school officials all across the nation, assisting them to examine their practices and align the practices with the results of the recent investigations and settlement agreements. Representing the intermingling of the field of law and education, the study addressed the question: What are some school district practices that have been found to be in violation of U.S. government laws concerning the education of English Language Learners, and what are the details of the settlement agreements between the U.S. government and the education agencies? The descriptive, non-experimental, and qualitative impact study examined the impact of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) investigations on the educational practice relating to the education of English Language Learners (ELLs). Data were collected from the settlement agreements between the seven school districts respectively and the DOJ and the OCR regarding the districts’ provision of language services to their ELL students. Data analysis consisted of a search for patterns and emerging themes gleaned from the specific details of settlement agreements. The results of the study indicated that school districts were in violation of the civil rights of their ELLs in the areas of registration, identification, placement, waivers, staff qualification and development, special education and ELL student education, district-parental communication, and ELL student monitoring. To remedy the non-compliance, the Settlement Agreements placed upon the school districts an obligation to take specific corrective actions within a specified time period. Adviser: Donald F. Uerling
Industrial Ecology and the Global Impacts of Cities

Cities are open systems and depend on the outside world to provide raw materials and assimilate waste to sustain their function. The input side of metabolism analysis involves characterization of various material and resource demands by a city. The output side looks at the by-products of the various urban functions and processes, and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are a prominent example. There is yet a third aspect or dimension that is important in the metabolism of cities: the processes and mechanisms that shape, regulate, and govern the various flows. long been regarded as merely local issues. We know this is no longer true. On the one hand, the environmental problems of cities have grown beyond the city limits, both with multiple dimensions and with their scale of impacts ranging from local, to regional, to global (Bai and Imura 2000; Bai 2003; McGranahan et al. 2005). On the other hand, with approximately half of world population living as urban dwellers, and with the ongoing concentration of economic activities in cities, a majority of the global environmental impacts stem from cities. Because of the ever-increasing urban population this proportion is likely to become even larger. Thus, cities are rapidly becoming a “battleground for sustainability” (Clark 2003). Cities have not been major units of analysis in industrial ecology (IE), and industrial systems are not of much interest to urban scholars. People who are concerned about cities and those who are concerned about industrial systems generally belong to different
Tourniquets for the use of total knee arthroplasty : are patients aware of the risks?

Background: Tourniquets are routinely used in total knee arthroplasty (TKA) with an estimated use by up to 93% of surgeons. Advantages include the ability to provide a bloodless field of view to facilitate cement application and increase the success of the procedure. Overall reduction in blood loss is another perceived advantage; however recent research has demonstrated no measurable reduction and conversely a substantial increase in complications such as deep vein thrombosis and systemic emboli. Given the significant complications of tourniquet use we aim to identify patients' views on tourniquets and of emphasis their awareness of the possible risks involved prior to the procedure. Method: A questionnaire - based study was carried out on 35 patients attending an elective orthopaedic centre for TKA surgery. Ethical approval was granted by NRES committee - East of England (REC Ref: 14/EE/1265). Patients were provided with an information sheet detailing the reasons for the tourniquet use and the associated risks and benefits. They were then provided with a questionnaire to ascertain their views and previous understanding of the subject. Simple statistical measures were implemented to analyse the data. Results: Only 32% of patients were aware of the use of tourniquets during the operation. 19% were aware of the benefits prior to reading the information sheet provided with 29% understanding the risks involved prior to their procedure. Finally we found 97% of patients would like more information on the use of tourniquets preoperatively. Conclusion: Tourniquets are widely used in TKA surgery; however, they carry significant risks which are not clearly relayed preoperatively to all patients. Given that 91,000 TKA operations are performed per year we believe it is of paramount importance that all patients are appropriately counselled on the risks and benefits of its use and fully informed consent, including risks of tourniquet use, should be obtained prior to the procedure.
Antimicrobial efficacy of external fixator pins coated with a lipid stabilized hydroxyapatite/chlorhexidine complex to prevent pin tract infection in a goat model.

BACKGROUND Pin tract infection is a common complication of external fixation. An antiinfective external fixator pin might help to reduce the incidence of pin tract infection and improve pin fixation. METHODS Stainless steel and titanium external fixator pins, with and without a lipid stabilized hydroxyapatite/chlorhexidine coating, were evaluated in a goat model. Two pins contaminated with an identifiable Staphylococcus aureus strain were inserted into each tibia of 12 goats. The pin sites were examined daily. On day 14, the animals were killed, and the pin tips cultured. Insertion and extraction torques were measured. RESULTS Infection developed in 100% of uncoated pins, whereas coated pins demonstrated 4.2% infected, 12.5% colonized, and the remainder, 83.3%, had no growth (p < 0.01). Pin coating decreased the percent loss of fixation torque over uncoated pins (p = 0.04). CONCLUSION These results demonstrate that the lipid stabilized hydroxyapatite/chlorhexidine coating was successful in decreasing infection and improving fixation of external fixator pins.
Common pathogenic mechanisms and pathways in the development of COPD and lung cancer

Introduction: Lung cancer and COPD commonly coexist in smokers, and the presence of COPD increases the risk of developing lung cancer. In addition to smoking cessation and preventing smoking initiation, understanding the shared mechanisms of these smoking-related lung diseases is critical, in order to develop new methods of prevention, diagnosis and treatment of lung cancer and COPD. Areas covered: This review discusses the common mechanisms for susceptibility to lung cancer and COPD, which in addition to cigarette smoke, may involve inflammation, epithelial–mesenchymal transition, abnormal repair, oxidative stress, and cell proliferation. Furthermore, we discuss the underlying genomic and epigenomic changes (single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), copy number variation, promoter hypermethylation and microRNAs) that are likely to alter biological pathways, leading to susceptibility to lung cancer and COPD (e.g., altered nicotine receptor biology). Expert opinion: Strategies to study genomics, epigenomics and gene-environment interaction will yield greater insight into the shared pathogenesis of lung cancer and COPD, leading to new diagnostic and therapeutic modalities.
recA‐dependent DNA repair processes

UV‐radiation‐induced lesions in DNA result in the formation of: (1) excision gaps (i.e. a lesion is excised, leaving a gap), (2) daughter‐strand gaps (i.e. a lesion can be skipped during replication, leaving a gap), and (3) double‐strand breaks (i.e. the DNA strand opposite a gap can be cut). In Escherichia coli, the recA gene product is involved in repairs of all three types of lesions – repair of daughter‐strand gaps (2) and double‐strand breaks (3) constitutes post‐replication repair. The evidence suggests, furthermore, that recA‐dependent repair of excision gaps (1) produced in DNA replicated prior to UV irradiation (pre‐replication repair) appears to occur by similar mechanisms.
Directing virtual crowds based on dynamic adjustment of navigation fields

Navigation fields are a popular data structure for directing the movement of virtual crowds. However, the congestion problem may occur at the corners of objects in using a navigation field because the agents move quite closely to each other. The agents may congest at the corners even though there is room for the agents to move away from the congested regions. In this paper, we propose to place crowd monitors at the corners to collect the data such as the movement direction of crowds and crowd densities. Then the navigation field is adjusted dynamically so that the crowds are led to move away from the congested regions. We also propose a simple data structure for speeding up the collision detection process between agents and objects. Experimental results show that our approach successfully alleviates the congestion problem at the corners.
Driving Reaction Times in Patients With Foot and Ankle Pathology Before and After Image-Guided Injection

Background: Foot and ankle pathology is common in the driving population. Local anesthetic steroid injections are frequent ambulatory treatments. Brake reaction time (BRT) has validated importance in motor vehicle safety. There are no prior studies examining the effect of foot and ankle pathology and injection treatment on the safe operation of motor vehicles. We studied BRT in patients with foot and ankle musculoskeletal disease before and after image-guided injection treatment. Methods: A total of 37 participants were enrolled. Image-guided injections of local anesthetic and steroid were placed into the pathological anatomical location of the right or left foot and ankles. A driving reaction timer was used to measure BRTs before and after injection. Patients suffering right “driving” and left “nondriving” pathology as well as a healthy control group were studied. Results: All patients reported >90% pain relief postinjection. All injections were confirmed to be accurate by imaging. Post hoc Bonferonni analysis demonstrated significant difference between the healthy group and the right-sided injection group (P = .008). Mean BRT for healthy controls was 0.57 ± 0.11 s. Patients suffering right foot and ankle disease displayed surprisingly high BRTs (0.80 ± 0.23 s preinjection and 0.78 ± 0.16 s postinjection, P > .99). Left nondriving foot and ankle pathology presented a driving hazard as well (BRT of 0.75 ± 0.12 s preinjection and 0.77 ± 0.12 s postinjection, P > .99). Injections relieved pain but did not significantly alter BRT (P > .99 for all). Conclusion: Patients suffering chronic foot and ankle pathology involving either the driving or nondriving side have impaired BRTs. This preexisting driving impairment has not previously been reported and exceeds recommended cutoff safety values in the United States. Despite symptom improvement, there was no statistically significant change in BRT following image-guided injection in either foot and ankle. Levels of Evidence: Therapeutic, Level II: Prospective Comparative Study
Note: An Economic Analysis of IS Budgets

This paper conducts an empirical analysis of information systems budget data focusing on the implications for the efficient production of information services. We use a model of the production of information services based on the economic theory of production to develop testable hypotheses for budget behavior. In particular, we focus on two important issues: 1 the allocation of the information systems budget to its two largest components-personnel and hardware, and 2 the existence of scale economies in the provision of information services. These issues are examined using budget data collected through a survey of information systems managers in Fortune 500 corporations. We find that the optimal ratio of personnel to hardware expenditures is independent of the scale of the information systems organization for a given set of prices, and that there are no measurable economies of scale in the provision of information services. The implications of the analysis for the management of information services are discussed.
The Flow of Labour and Goods inCanada’s International Migration System: 1986-1996

This paper reviews the theoretical and empirical implications of multiple linkages between countries for migration flows to Canada, from 1986 to 1996. The findings reveal that for a given year, social networks and export trade were the two key factors that determined the variation of in-migration flows across source countries. The examination of change in the migration system showed that changes in migration flows were more likely to be explained by changes in the level of development in origin countries and in the size of immigrant communities in the host country than by changes in the value of economic trade.
Mobile robot teleoperation through virtual robot

In robot teleoperation a robot works as a physical agent at a remote site for a robot operator. There are mainly two tasks such as environment recognition using visual information and robot control according to the recognition in robot teleoperation using camera images. In this paper we propose a teleoperation method for a mobile robot through a virtual robot. In the proposed method we manage above two tasks in the same manner which are usually treated separately. This method is an intuitive robot teleoperation method where an operator do not need to concern about robot body orientations and can absorb difference of robot driving mechanisms. That is this method frees an operator from being bothered from controlling a robot and the operator can concentrate on where he/she intends to go. This method mainly consists of two technologies: an omni-directional image stabilization technology and automatic robot orientation control. The conducted experiments show effectiveness of the proposed method.
Evaluating the Income Tax Redistributive Impact: A More Comprehensive Approach

In order to investigate the redistributional effects induced by personal income tax, empirical researchers are used to fixing a common distribution of income before tax for all tax schedules being compared. On one hand, this approach allows us to isolate the effect of tax policies. On the other hand, if the goal is to assess the real impact rather than the potential inequality outcomes of various tax regimes, it is well known that the income tax redistributive effect is mainly determined by both the pre-tax income distribution "and" the tax schedule operating on this distribution. In order to analyse tax reforms which will act on "unknown" pre-tax income distributions, this paper presents a simple procedure useful for practitioners wishing to take into account pre-tax distributional differences before undertaking comparisons between tax schedules. This new procedure is illustrated for a more accurate evaluation of the PIT reforms recently implemented in Italy. Finally, the outcomes of traditional analyses and our approach are compared.
Low Force Decelerates L-selectin Dissociation from P-selectin Glycoprotein Ligand-1 and Endoglycan*

Selectin-ligand interactions mediate the tethering and rolling of circulating leukocytes on vascular surfaces during inflammation and immune surveillance. To support rolling, these interactions are thought to have rapid off-rates that increase slowly as wall shear stress increases. However, the increase of off-rate with force, an intuitive characteristic named slip bonds, is at odds with a shear threshold requirement for selectin-mediated cell rolling. As shear drops below the threshold, fewer cells roll and those that do roll less stably and with higher velocity. We recently demonstrated a low force regime where the off-rate of P-selectin interacting with P-selectin glycoprotein ligand-1 (PSGL-1) decreased with increasing force. This counter-intuitive characteristic, named catch bonds, might partially explain the shear threshold phenomenon. Because L-selectin-mediated cell rolling exhibits a much more pronounced shear threshold, we used atomic force microscopy and flow chamber experiments to determine off-rates of L-selectin interacting with their physiological ligands and with an antibody. Catch bonds were observed at low forces for L-selectin-PSGL-1 interactions coinciding with the shear threshold range, whereas slip bonds were observed at higher forces. These catch-slip transitional bonds were also observed for L-selectin interacting with endoglycan, a newly identified PSGL-1-like ligand. By contrast, only slip bonds were observed for L-selectin-antibody interactions. These findings suggest that catch bonds contribute to the shear threshold for rolling and are a common characteristic of selectin-ligand interactions.
Socio-economic factors in Infant and child mortality: A cross-national comparison

Using results from the World Fertility Survey (WFS) for 28 countries, socioeconomic differences in neonatal, postneonatal, and child mortality were examined. To maintain some degree of comparability and to make presentation of the results feasible, focus was on 5 variables which are available for each survey. It can be argued that each of the 5 socioeconomic variables considered here--mother's education, mother's work status since marriage, current or most recent husband of mother's occupation and education, and current type of place of residence of mother--affects infant and child mortality, although often as surrogates for other variables which were usually not directly available. For over 24 countries, the neonatal mortality rate varied from 84 in Nepal to 15 in Malaysia. In Nepal the rate for children of the skilled and unskilled was high (124) but where the husband had received 7 or more years of education the rate of 54 was low. At the other extreme, rates in Malaysia varied from 5 when mother's had 7 or more years of education to 23 for offspring of the least educated husbands. The highest overall postneonatal rate of 89 was again found in Nepal and the lowest national rate in Trinidad and Tobago at 13. In 9 out of 24 countries the high values were over 3 times as great as the low values and the absolute difference exceeded 30/1000 in 13 countries. Differences on child mortality are substantial, reflecting the greater influence of socioeconomic factors on mortality in early childhood. Nationally, the values ranged from 186 in Senegal to a low of 8 in Trinidad and Tobago. In only Haiti, Guyana, and Pakistan did the ratio of the maximum to the minimum rates for sizeable groups fall below 2. At the other extreme, in 5 countries the ratio exceeded 10 and in a further 6 was above 4. Differences between the high and low groups within countries exceeded 30 in 18 out of 28 countries and were over 50 in 10 of these. In 9 countries the highest rates occurred among mothers with no education and in a further 6 among husbands with no education. Education of mother, followed by education of her husband and his occupation were generally the strongest explanatory variables. The work status of the mother was not likely to be an important explanatory variable in these analyses. Results of a multivariate analysis suggested intriguing differences in the relative roles of different socioeconomic variables. Mother's education seemed to play an important role in determining children's chances of surviving in several Latin American and South East Asian countries. In no country did husband's level of education appear in all 3 models. The occupation of the husband was possibly the purest indicator of socioeconomic status, and this factor appeared in the models for all 3 segments of infant and child mortality. Mother's work status appeared least often.
THE UNDERPRICING OF INITIAL PUBLIC OFFERINGS, EX ANTE UNCERTAINTY, AND PROXY SELECTION

: This paper reconsiders the prediction that the underpricing of IPOs is increasing in ex ante uncertainty by objectively establishing proxies for ex ante uncertainty on definitional grounds rather than by appealing to intuitive arguments. Based on a sample of 420 U.S. IPOs from the period 1976–1985, the results suggest that there is a hierarchy of proxies. The results also support the prediction of a positive relation between underpricing and ex ante uncertainty. Finally, the results suggest that as the effectiveness of a selected proxy as a measure of ex ante uncertainty increases, so does the strength of the relation between the degree of underpricing and ex ante uncertainty as measured by that proxy.