Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Sozialpartnerschaft und Disorganisierung: Veränderung und Kontinuität der Entscheidungsstrukturen in der Österreichischen Arbeitszeitpolitik

Zusammenfassung Die Disorganisierungstheorie unterstellt einen sakularen Trend zur Dezentralisierung und Deregulierung der Arbeitsbeziehungen sowie zur Schwachung der Interessenorganisationen der Arbeitnehmer. Im Aufsatz wird anhand einer Fallstudie zur Arbeitszeitpolitik untersucht, ob ein solcher Trend auch in Osterreich als “Musterbeispiel” eines neokorporatistisch organisierten Landes nachweisbar ist. Anhand eines Vergleichs der Entscheidungsprozesse im Bereich der Arbeitszeitpolitik in den 60er und 80er/90er Jahren, betreffend die Einfuhrung der 40-Stunden-Woche und die Flexibilisierung der taglichen und wochentlichen Arbeitszeit wird gezeigt, dass zwar eine Dezentralisierung im Sinne einer Verlagerung der Verhandlungen uber Arbeitszeitregelungen von der Ebene der Dachverbande auf die Ebene der Fachorganisationen, aber bis dato keine Deregulierung des Arbeitszeitrechts stattgefunden hat. Das nach wie vor existierende gesetzliche “Auffangnetz” und die Moglichkeit, die darin festgelegten Bestimmungen durch Vertrag zwischen der Gewerkschaft und den Arbeitgebervertretern auszuweiten, ermoglicht den Arbeitnehmervertretern die Beibehaltung einer weitgehenden Gestaltungsrelevanz. Somit zeugt Osterreich von der empirischen Moglichkeit des Musters einer “organisierten Dezentralisierung” der Arbeitsbeziehungen.
Prognostic Role of Uterine Artery Doppler in Patients with Preeclampsia

Objectives: To evaluate the predictive capacity of umbilical, cerebral and uterine artery Doppler in women admitted for preeclampsia (PE). Methods: 190 consecutive singleton pregnancies admitted with PE were included. Umbilical, cerebral and uterine artery Dopplers were performed. The association with adverse perinatal outcome was evaluated from 2 × 2 tables and multivariately by logistic regression. Results: A total of 82 (43%) women had an abnormal uterine artery Doppler on admission, being more prevalent in early-onset (<32 weeks) than in the late-onset PE (62 vs. 27%, p < 0.05). In both early- and late-onset forms, uterine artery Doppler showed a greater capacity than umbilical and middle cerebral artery Doppler for predicting adverse perinatal outcome. Conclusion: Uterine artery Doppler was the best predictive parameter for perinatal outcome in pregnancies with PE and may be included as a primary surveillance test.
Cost-effectiveness of Sativex in multiple sclerosis spasticity: new data and application to Italy

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic progressive disease that carries a high socioeconomic burden. Spasticity (rigidity and spasms) is common in MS and contributes to MS-related disability. This study aims to evaluate the cost–effectiveness of Sativex® (9-delta-tetrahydrocannabinol plus cannabidiol oromucosal spray) when used as add-on therapy for management of resistant MS-related spasticity in the context of the Italian healthcare system. A previously published Markov model-based analysis for the German and Spanish context was replicated, adapting it to the Italian setting. Model parameters were updated to reflect recent findings about MS-related spasticity and use of Sativex in daily clinical practice. The base case incremental cost–effectiveness ratio for Sativex use in Italy over a 5-year period was estimated to be €4968 per quality-adjusted life-year gained (year of costing: 2013). Sativex remained an efficient option in the Italian healthcare context – below the commonly accepted incremental threshold of €30,000 per quality-adjusted life-year gained – when deterministic and probabilistic sensitivity analyses were conducted. Sativex can be regarded as a cost-effective treatment option for patients with MS-related spasticity in Italy.
Females do it better. Individual recognition experiments reveal sexual dimorphism in Lemur catta (Linnaeus 1758) olfactory motivation and territorial defence

SUMMARY In this paper, we aim at demonstrating individual recognition of female genital marking in Lemur catta. By gas chromatography and behavioural trials we verified the occurrence of the three components of recognition systems. We showed that each female has a unique chemical signature (expression component), and males and females perceive female individuality (perception component). To verify the presence of the action component (the last component of recognition systems), we designed a bioassay based on territorial competition to verify the functional response to female odours. Only females identified other females on the basis of their scents. The lack of a territorial functional response by males to female secretions may not indicate a male inability to identify females by their scents. In fact, sexual dimorphism in motivation and territorial defence may explain the response by males in the functional experiment. Actually, game theory predicts that males defend their own territories more vigorously against males compared with females. Therefore, the result of individual recognition bioassays of female odours may open interesting scenarios in the evaluation of the territorial defence investment across the different sex combinations.
Risk-constrained electricity procurement for a large consumer

A solution technique is formulated and provided for the electricity procurement problem faced by a large consumer. The objective of this consumer is to minimise procurement cost while limiting the risk of cost fluctuation due to pool price volatility. Electricity sources include the pool, bilateral contracts and self-production. Uncertainty is related to electricity pool prices. A realistic case study is analysed and results presented. Conclusions are duly drawn.
Information Systems for Managing Energy and Carbon Emission Information: Empirical Analysis of Adoption Antecedents

Global organizations employ information systems (IS) to manage energy and carbon emission information. However, we know little about the factors associated with their adoption. Using primary data collected from a single organization, we first develop a simple conceptual framework for this class of information system comprising information technology (hardware and software), business processes, and work practices. Then, we conduct an exploratory empirical analysis into the extent to which global climate agreements and managerial practices are associated with their adoption. Our analysis suggests that managerial incentives and carbon reduction targets are strongly associated with the adoption of systems for managing energy and carbon emission information. We discuss the implications of our findings and suggest future research avenues.
The Effects of Antipsychotic Quality Reporting on Antipsychotic and Psychoactive Medication Use.

OBJECTIVE The objective of this study is to examine how nursing homes changed their use of antipsychotic and other psychoactive medications in response to Nursing Home Compare's initiation of publicly reporting antipsychotic use in July 2012. RESEARCH DESIGN AND SUBJECTS The study includes all state recertification surveys (n = 40,415) for facilities six quarters prior and post the initiation of public reporting. Using a difference-in-difference framework, the change in use of antipsychotics and other psychoactive medications is compared for facilities subject to public reporting and facilities not subject to reporting. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS The percentage of residents using antipsychotics, hypnotics, or any psychoactive medication is found to decline after public reporting. Facilities subject to reporting experienced an additional decline in antipsychotic use (-1.94 vs. -1.40 percentage points) but did not decline as much for hypnotics (-0.60 vs. -1.21 percentage points). Any psychoactive use did not vary with reporting status, and the use of antidepressants and anxiolytics did not change. CONCLUSION Public reporting of an antipsychotic quality measure can be an effective policy tool for reducing the use of antipsychotic medications--though the effect many only exist in the short run.
Housing context and social transformation strategies in neighbourhood regeneration in Western European cities

According to the Western European city thesis, European cities have a unique institutional mix which helps to explain how social patterns come about. The most important elements of this mix are the interventionist state and the housing system legacy of non-private housing. While these two are vital, overall generalisations are tricky due to regional variations in economic performance, housing markets and local state capabilities. This paper explores the generalisations that can be made about the institutional context of direct interventions in the built environment and housing, i.e. neighbourhood regeneration, in Western European cities. It examines how national policy frameworks and housing market characteristics impinge upon on the adoption of social transformation strategies. Social transformation strategies, often adopted in neighbourhood regeneration, refer to the use of physical interventions to institute social change in deprived areas. Generally, there are two types of social transformation strategies: large-scale tenure restructuring and upgrading. A comparative analysis of four cases of regeneration shows that in Western European cities the opportunities and constraints of national policy framework and regional housing market characteristics help to explain the social transformation strategies adopted locally. Furthermore, it shows the thesis' value as an explanatory and analytical framework for Western Europe.
Business Cycles in the Haitian Economy

This paper has two objectives. The first one is to build an index of coincident indicators of economic activity n the Haitian economy during the identified cycles using Hardin and Pagan (2001) algorithm. The second objective is to enable policymakers to gauge with relative accuracy the probability that the Haitian economy be in expansion or recession during a specific quarter. To achieve these two objectives I use a probit analysis and a certain number of financial and fiscal indicators. The results appear promising for developing economies where data needed for policy guidance are often unavailable. Policymakers may find here an effective decision-making tool.
A quadratic robust optimization model for automatic voltage control on wind farm side

Connecting high penetration of wind power into power grid usually makes voltage fluctuate, due to the volatile nature of wind power injection. This paper therefore proposes a quadratic robust optimization model to guarantee the voltage of each wind unit within the security region, no matter how the wind power varies. Based on the wind power prediction, the prediction error is regarded as uncertainties, and the robust solution can be found by regulating the reactive power equipment and each wind unit using the duality filter method. In the proposed model, linearized derivation instead of original non-linear expressions in the objective function and constraints has been utilized. Furthermore, inner loop iterative method is introduced to reduce the linearized error, which divides the optimal voltage control into multiple steps with piecewise values and updates the sensitivity at each step, according to different wind farm size and condition. A test system with 36 wind units has been simulated, and the result using Monte Carlo simulation. Comparison with traditional method shows the effectiveness of proposed method.
Hindsight Effects in Dollar-Weighted Returns

Abstract A growing number of studies use dollar-weighted (DW) returns as evidence that bad timing substantially reduces investor returns, and that consequently the equity risk premium must be considerably lower than previously thought. This paper demonstrates that this method is subject to a hindsight effect (as prior returns influence levels of new investment) and derives a technique that corrects it. The results show that for mainstream U.S. equities, DW returns are low because of this hindsight effect (bad investor timing had very little impact). Thus, low DW returns do not imply that the risk premium is correspondingly low.
Corporate International Diversification and Market Assigned Measures of Risk and Diversification

Recent evidence supports the notion that capital markets are substantially integrated in a return/systematic risk sense [1, 12]. Other studies show that investors can reduce the total level of risk borne without reducing expected returns by holding an internationally diversified portfolio [8, 9, 17]. Together these studies imply that the various economies mirrored by financial markets are not perfectly integrated. Some assert, however, that because of controls on capital flows, differential trading costs, different tax structures, and a number of other factors, markets are imperfectly (albeit substantially) integrated. Hence investors may not actually be diversifying internationally and thus forego advantages which would accrue to them if they were willing to hold foreign security issues.
Repurposing of Clinically Developed Drugs for Treatment of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus Infection

ABSTRACT Outbreaks of emerging infections present health professionals with the unique challenge of trying to select appropriate pharmacologic treatments in the clinic with little time available for drug testing and development. Typically, clinicians are left with general supportive care and often untested convalescent-phase plasma as available treatment options. Repurposing of approved pharmaceutical drugs for new indications presents an attractive alternative to clinicians, researchers, public health agencies, drug developers, and funding agencies. Given the development times and manufacturing requirements for new products, repurposing of existing drugs is likely the only solution for outbreaks due to emerging viruses. In the studies described here, a library of 290 compounds was screened for antiviral activity against Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) and severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV). Selection of compounds for inclusion in the library was dependent on current or previous FDA approval or advanced clinical development. Some drugs that had a well-defined cellular pathway as target were included. In total, 27 compounds with activity against both MERS-CoV and SARS-CoV were identified. The compounds belong to 13 different classes of pharmaceuticals, including inhibitors of estrogen receptors used for cancer treatment and inhibitors of dopamine receptor used as antipsychotics. The drugs identified in these screens provide new targets for in vivo studies as well as incorporation into ongoing clinical studies.
Three dimensional finite element model for transient temperature prediction in hard disk drive

Hard disk drive (HDD) is often subjected to transient temperature during frequent seeking or due to the change of environmental conditions that causes HDD reliability problems. This paper presents a three dimensional (3D) finite element modelling technique that can be used to predict the transient temperatures of the HDD when it subjected to transient temperature during frequent seeking or due to the change of environmental conditions.
Robust node-disjoint multipath routing for wireless sensor networks

In wireless sensor networks WSNs, disjoint multipath routing has gotten immense research interest due to its capability of providing high reliability and load balancing. In this paper, we present a robust node-disjoint multipath routing RNMR protocol for WSNs. The protocol first constructs a multi-routing tree which has a number of node-joint but link-disjoint subtrees, and then finds multiple paths along these subtrees. Furthermore, by taking advantage of the structural characteristics inherent in the multi-routing tree, we present a customised redundancy scheme to improve the reliability of data transmission. The scheme provides individualised data redundancy for each sensor node. The protocol does not need to employ any control beacons in the data routing phase. Theoretical analysis and simulation results show that our protocol achieves higher reliability, reduces end-to-end delay and improves energy efficiency compared with existing approaches.
Exploring the relationship between anaesthesiologists’ non‐technical and technical skills

A combination of non‐technical skills (NTS) and technical skills (TS) is crucial for anaesthetic patient management. However, a deeper understanding of the relationship between these two skills remains to be explored. We investigated the characteristics of trainee anaesthesiologists’ NTS and TS in a simulated unexpected difficult airway management scenario.
Democracy and the Management of International Conflict

The research reported here extends investigation of the democracy-war hypothesis by focusing on the norms of dispute resolution integral to the democratic process. If we extend these norms to the international arena, then it becomes reasonable to expect democratic states to adopt compromise solutions to international problems. One implication of this logic is that democracies are likely to be more amenable than others to efforts of third parties to resolve or ameliorate interstate disputes. This hypothesis is examined in the present study. A sample of strictly interstate disputes acquired from the Alker-Sherman disaggregated conflict set provide the basis for this inquiry. Democracy is assessed for each disputant party with the composite index from the Polity II data collection. In order to control for extraneous effects on the probability of management, the author develops a baseline model consisting of prior management activity, the costs of conflict, and the power of the disputants. Because the dependent variable in this analysis is a binary indicator, the author employs probit regression to estimate the effects of democracy while partialling out the controls. The empirical results show that democracy does carry the systematic positive influence on the probability of conflict management expected of it.
The interactions between person–organization fit and leadership styles in Asian firms, an empirical testing

Based on a brief review of Chinese cultural values and other relevant literature, this study tests the interactions between person–organization fit and leader behaviours, both of which have been found to have effects on employee motivation, trust and commitment. Specifically, this test deals with two important issues: (1) Do leader behaviours affect person–organization fit? ; and (2) do leader behaviours and person–organization fit have interactive influence on employee performance. Some interesting empirical evidence has been obtained and its implications discussed at the end of this paper.
The greener, the more cost efficient? An empirical study of international tourist hotels in Taiwan

Going ‘green’ is more than a mere fad in the hotel industry, and environment-friendly green hotels are becoming popular. The purpose of this study was to conduct an investigation into the link between ‘green’ and cost efficiency in the hotel industry. Empirical evidence supporting this investigation was gathered from the Taiwan hotel industry. Data were gathered from 68 international tourist hotels in Taiwan. Moreover, our finding differs from most of the earlier studies and indicates that ‘green’ is negatively and significantly associated with the cost efficiency of a hotel. In other words, ‘green’ renders a hotel ineffective. The implications of the findings have been discussed, and the limitations of the study as well as future research directions have been addressed.
Student diversity, extra-curricular activities and perceptions of graduate outcomes

This research examines how different student groups engage with extra-curricular activities and what effect these activities have on their degree and graduate outcomes. Recent research has indicated that different student groups have different degree and employment outcomes, this research examines how different student groups engage with extra-curricular activities and what effect these activities have on their degree and graduate outcomes.
Students’ Views on Prevention of Coursework Plagiarism

Abstract. This study investigated the reasons as to why students plagiarize in conducting their coursework assignments. I used questionnaires to gather students’ views on coursework malpractices and ways of preventing these malpractices. I collected quantitative and qualitative data from 83 undergraduate students of computing in two Ugandan universities. Laziness, desire to pass with high grades, inferiority complex, and unrealistic coursework timeframes were cited for plagiarism in doing coursework assignments. Recommendations for preventing plagiarism are drawn out of these findings. Thereafter, a framework for administering coursework is developed. Keywords: Academic dishonesty; Higher education evaluation; Research
Logically Efficient Spatial Resolution Conversion Using Paired Increasing Operators

In a typical office setting, digital documents may be handled by a variety of devices and software packages that perform scanning, printing, display, transmission, and various forms of image processing. The devices that comprise the system may each operate at a different sampling resolution and spatial resampling must often be performed to allow porting of a digital image among the various devices. The primary purpose here is to design optimal integer resolution-conversion filters based onincreasingoperators rather than the more typically employednon-increasingoperators. Design and implementation of optimal increasing filters possess certain statistical advantages and, more importantly from the perspective of real-time imaging, there is often a great logic-cost savings in implementing an increasing as opposed to a non-increasing filter.
A study of the Hong Kong property market: housing price expectations

The size and direction of correlation between housing price movements and expectations differ between housing actors and change over time in Hong Kong. A cross‐sectional market outlook survey was conducted in November 2000 to measure housing price expectations and their formation. The study challenges the traditional adaptive expectations theory and finds that the pessimistic mindset of market actors in a deflationary period was due to a lack of economic confidence – the root cause for weak expectations. It also suggests that there exist differential price expectations between different actors. Homebuyers and investors tend to be unrealistically overconfident in the long‐term performance of the real estate market. Evidently, the determination of house sale prices is predominantly forward‐looking, based more upon macroeconomic fundamentals than the past price trend.
Multiple–relaxation–time lattice Boltzmann models in three dimensions

This article provides a concise exposition of the multiple–relaxation–time lattice Boltzmann equation, with examples of 15–velocity and 19–velocity models in three dimensions. Simulation of a diagonally lid–driven cavity flow in three dimensions at Re = 500 and 2000 is performed. The results clearly demonstrate the superior numerical stability of the multiple–relaxation–time lattice Boltzmann equation over the popular lattice Bhatnagar–Gross–Krook equation.