Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Understanding performance measurement systems using physical science uncertainty principles

Observes that performance measurement models are largely based on deterministic assumptions about the world. Suggests that it is time to re‐align performance measurement with post‐deterministic discoveries made in the physical sciences, especially quantum physics. In the physical sciences, scientists have (reluctantly) come to accept that the world has a fundamental uncertainty at its core. Asks the question of what lessons can be drawn for performance measurement from this knowledge of the physical world. Addresses this question first by describing the development and epistemological consequences of three post‐deterministic (physical world) discoveries of: uncertainty, bounded instability, and self‐organisation. Then traces the equivalent path to uncertainty in management. Concludes that it is time for the oldest management theories, which still underpin current performance systems, to be realigned with knowledge on uncertainty. Ends with a look at two current performance systems, activity‐based manageme.
Practical Monetary Policies

This paper investigates the theoretical implications of targeting average inflation or following a speed limit policy in a dynamic backward-looking model where monetary policy works with lags. Our findings reveal that the target horizon for expected inflation in the target rule must be correctly specified for the monetary policy strategies to achieve best results. Average inflation targeting dominates a speed limit policy for plausible values of society s relative aversion to inflation variability. The efficiency loss associated with average inflation targeting relative to optimal policy is very small if society values output stability. A speed limit policy becomes attractive only if society places great emphasis on inflation stability. Classification-E5
Carreira militante, inserção profissional e exercício do jornalismo no Rio Grande do Sul

This article presents results from a study of the mechanisms and modes through which diverse social resources are converted into professional positions. More specifically, we attempt to demonstrate how resources coming from political and political party militancy, participation in social movements and professional associations can become professional resources. Our research has on the one hand made it possible to identify political militancy as a major basis of professional resources. On the other hand, we identify a particular way in which journalism is able to associate ‘professional competence’ with political involvement. Thus, militancy not only contributes to an accumulation of distinct resources but to a particular perspective on the world and on professional activity itself. In this regard, one of the elements that stood out in our study was the special way in which journalism and militancy come together in providing access to positions in the journalistic field and broadening the prospects for professional activity. Keywords: profession, professional ability, militancy, politics.
Analysis of the pathological severity degree of aortic stenosis (AS) and mitral stenosis (MS) using the discrete wavelet transform (DWT)

The heart is the principal organ that circulates blood. In normal conditions it produces four sounds for each cardiac cycle. However, most often only two sounds appear essential: S1 and S2. Two other sounds: S3 and S4, with lower amplitude than S1 or S2, appear occasionally in the cardiac cycle by the effect of disease or age. The presence of abnormal sounds in one cardiac cycle provide valuable information on various diseases. The aortic stenosis (AS), as being a valvular pathology, is characterized by a systolic murmur due to a narrowing of the aortic valve. The mitral stenosis (MS) is characterized by a diastolic murmur due to a reduction in the mitral valve. Early screening of these diseases is necessary; it’s done by a simple technique known as: phonocardiography. Analysis of phonocardiograms signals using signal processing techniques can provide for clinicians useful information considered as a platform for significant decisions in their medical diagnosis. In this work two types of diseases were studied: aortic stenosis (AS) and mitral stenosis (MS). Each one presents six different cases. The application of the discrete wavelet transform (DWT) to analyse pathological severity of the (AS and MS was presented. Then, the calculation of various parameters was performed for each patient. This study examines the possibility of using the DWT in the analysis of pathological severity of AS and MS.
Actor mobilization and institutional change around a common issue: the case of fighting heart disease in Finland

The aim of this paper is to investigate mobilization of actors around a common issue and the ensuing institutional and network changes. The issue and problem (in our case, a disease) is chosen so that it can only be resolved by collective action of different types of actors at different levels. We examine how actors may be mobilized, how institutional rules for behaviour change and how this influences different networks. Empirically, we focus on collective action needed to tackle heart disease, which is a largely overlooked global health problem. Our empirical case depicts how institutional change resulted in an emergence of a new issue-based network and furthermore, in new interaction rules and relationships reflected in industrial networks, such as between food companies and medical research institutes.
More on the Output Elasticity of Energy Consumption

IN work published in I968, Adams and Miovic' noted that the output elasticity of energy consumption (commonly called the energy coefficient) was a somewhat amorphous parameter, differing substantially between countries and changing over time. They demonstrated that if energy statistics were adjusted to take account of the different efficiencies of the different main fuels the resulting adjusted energy elasticity was much more stable. Because of substitution of more efficient for less efficient fuels the unadjusted elasticity was often less than one in developed countries. The adjusted elasticities on the other hand lay between I.25 and I.4 when related to GDP and between I.04 and I.I5 when related to industrial production, the ranges in each case covering the different types of regression exercise by which the efficiency-in-use coefficients were computed. This paper develops a simple theory governing the relationship between useful energy consumption and national output that explains why the adjusted elasticities found by Adams and Miovic turned out to be greater than one. The theory is quantified by reference to a wide range of countries covering the whole spectrum of economic development and is tested against the actual experience over 20 to 25 years of individual countries. Conformity to the theory was very close and the efficiency-in-use coefficients computed by Adams and Miovic were found to hold good for periods of 20 to 25 years. Briefly, the hypothesis states that as a country moves through the various stages of its economic development from primitive subsistence agriculture to the ultimate state of fully energy-dependent2 production, its useful energy elasticity steadily falls froma high value (in principle, from infinity) tending asymptotically to one. This hypothesis follows directly from the fact that if a country is moving steadily towards a higher degree of energy-intensiveness in production then the specific energy content of incremental output will be higher than the average for all output, i.e.
Heads of Academic Departments: Responsibilities and Professional Development Needs

The head of an academic department in a college of advanced education is responsible for a variety of activities that together contribute to the institution's educational effectiveness and quality. The ongoing professional development of heads is one of the surest ways a college can improve its academic standing. With this in mind, this paper seeks answers to a number of questions ‐‐ What are the most important tasks and responsibilities of heads? What aspects of their role do they perceive most need professional development? What form should it take? How should it be done? By whom? An analysis of the responses to a survey of 679 heads in 61 colleges of advanced education in Australia revealed some surprising results. One was the concern of heads for feedback on their own performance. The results of this survey are compared with the findings of some North American studies. Three alternative strategies for meeting the professional development needs of heads are suggested and evaluated in terms of quality, .
Comment: Bhattacharya Paper

Sudipto Bhattacharya's paper, “An Exploration of Nondissipative Dividend–Signaling Structures,” is in two parts. The first develops a nondissipative “quota–based” signaling model. Optimal contingent (wage) contracts are shown to induce workers, whose productivity is not directly observable, to “self–select” by the choice of level of committed productivity. However, the most novel feature of the paper is the attempt to apply the quota–based signaling model to the problem of dividend signaling in the capital– –market that is, the modeling of the “information content” of corporate dividends as an ex–ante signal of future earnings. As Bhattacharya notes, the “information content” of hypothesis of dividend payment is somewhat ill–defined to date, so such an application of the quota–based signaling model, if successful, would be a definite contribution to dividend theory.
Transforming growth factor beta 1, a major stimulator of hyaluronan synthesis in human synovial lining cells.

OBJECTIVE To investigate the role of cytokines and growth factors in the regulation of hyaluronan synthesis in human synovial lining cells. METHODS Synovial lining cells were obtained from human knee joints, isolated by the explant method, and characterized by immunocytochemistry using monoclonal antibodies against monocyte/macrophage markers as well as antibodies against hyaluronan synthase. After stimulation by cytokines and growth factors, hyaluronan was measured by radiometric assay. The molecular weight distribution of the hyaluronan synthesized was determined by high-performance gel-permeation liquid chromatography. To test the effect of oxygen-derived free radicals, the concentration and molecular weight distribution of hyaluronan were determined in the presence and absence of catalase and superoxide dismutase. RESULTS Hyaluronan synthesis was stimulated in synovial lining cells by transforming growth factor beta 1 (TGF beta 1), interleukin-1 beta (IL-1 beta), and to a lesser extent by tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF alpha). Analysis of the molecular weight distribution of hyaluronan after stimulation of synovial lining cells with TGF beta 1, IL-1 beta, and TNF alpha indicated that hyaluronan is synthesized in a high molecular weight form and might be degraded in the course of inflammatory processes by oxygen-derived free radicals. CONCLUSION Our findings suggest that TGF beta 1 is a major stimulator of hyaluronan synthesis in human synovial lining cells and might be involved in the pathogenic mechanisms of joint swelling in inflammatory and degenerative joint diseases.
International Banking: A Survey

TWO DISTINCT SETS of issues are involved in the analysis of international banking; one set, the industrial organization issues, centers on the patterns of expansion of foreign branches and subsidiaries of banks headquartered in the United States, Great Britain, Japan, and a few other industrial countries and on the nature of the advantage that these branches and subsidiaries have in relation to their host-country competitors. The second set, the international finance issues, involves the role of banks in cross-border and cross-currency financial flows, both from their head offices and from their foreign branches and subsidiaries. Despite the attention to international banking, there are few uniquely international institutions; rather international banks are a subset of domestic banks with significant numbers of foreign branches and subsidiaries. Moreover, there are few uniquely international banking activities; although foreign exchange trading may seem to be one, in many countries most or all foreign exchange trading involves domestic banks with few if any foreign branches. The growth of foreign branches and subsidiaries of major banks occurred in two waves. The first occurred in the decades before World War I; when the war started,
3D action recognition using multi-temporal skeleton visualization

Action recognition using depth sequences plays important role in many fields, e.g., intelligent surveillance, content-based video retrieval. Real applications require robust and accurate action recognition method. In this paper, we propose a skeleton visualization method, which efficiently encodes the spatial-temporal information of skeleton joints into a set of color images. These images are served as inputs for convolutional neural networks to extract more discriminative deep features. To enhance the ability of deep features to capture global relationships, we extend the color images into multi-temporal version. Additionally, to solve the effect of view point changes, a spatial transform method is adopted as a preprocessing step. Extensive experiments on NTU RGB+D dataset and ICME2017 challenge show that our method can accurately distinguish similar actions and shows robustness to view variations.
Supervisores bursátiles, gobierno corporativo y cumplimiento de las NIIF: el caso de la CNMV

Las Normas Internacionales de Informacion Financiera (NIIF), emitidas por el International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) y los US-GAAP, son hoy el referente global en convergencia hacia un estandar global. Las NIIF se utilizan fundamentalmente en los mercados de capitales, si bien carecen de una superestructura que garantice un sistema contable de elevada calidad. La Union Europea, en su nueva propuesta de reglamento de auditoria para Entidades de Interes Publico (EIP), da un gran protagonismo a los supervisores bursatiles como controladores de una adecuada aplicacion de estas normas en la confeccion de los estados financieros. En este contexto, el objetivo que persigue el presente trabajo es contrastar la labor del supervisor bursatil espanol a este respecto, durante los anos 2005-2010. Estudiamos, en primer lugar, el grado de incumplimiento detectado en las NIIF y, en segundo, contrastamos la posible influencia de distintos atributos de gobierno corporativo y algunas magnitudes corporativas sobre los apercibimientos que reciben las empresas cotizadas espanolas, por parte de la Comision Nacional del Mercado de Valores (CNMV).
Monetary values for risk of death from air pollution exposure: a context-dependent scenario with a control for intra-familial altruism

We extend the individual dynamic model of lifetime resource allocation to assess the monetary value given to the increase in survival probabilities for every member of a household induced by improved air quality. We interpret this monetary value as VPF (value of a prevented fatality), which can also be expressed as a flow of discounted VOLY (value of life years) lost, and account for potential altruism towards other household members. We use a French air pollution contingent valuation survey that provides a description of the life-length reduction implied by a change in air pollution exposure. By privatising the public commodity air pollution, we succeed in ruling out any form of altruism (towards others living today and towards future generations) except altruism towards one's family. We estimate a mean VOLY of €2001140,000, a 30% premium for VOLY in perfect health w.r. t. average expected health status, and a mean VPF of €20011.45 million for the respondent, all context-specific. In addition, we find an inverted U-shaped relationship between his/her age and VOLY/VPF, and significant benevolence only towards children under 18.
Intertemporal choice shifts in households: Do they occur and are they good?

We examine whether and to what extent joint choices are more or less patient and time-consistent than individual choices in households. We use data from an artefactual field experiment where both individual and joint time preferences were elicited. We find a substantial shift from individual to joint household decisions. Interestingly, joint decisions do not only generate beneficial shifts, i.e., patient and time-consistent shifts. On the contrary, a majority of the observed shifts are impatient and time-inconsistent shifts. A number of observable characteristics are significantly correlated with these shifts in preferences from individual decisions to joint decisions.
An analysis of freight rate volatility in dry bulk shipping markets

The world bulk shipping market has been in a peak period since 2003, and this has lasted an incredibly long time considering that the markets are much more complex than before. This paper investigates the characteristics of volatility in dry bulk freight rates of different vessel sizes (capesize, panamax and handysize). The daily returns of freight rate indices of three different types of bulk vessel in the sample period have been examined. The sample period ran from 1 March 1999 to 23 December 2005, and applying the GARCH (generalized auto regressive conditional heteroskedasticity) model showed that the shocks will not decrease but have the tendency to strengthen for all the daily return series. Further, external shocks on the market have a different magnitude of influence on volatility in different types of vessels due to their distinct flexibility. To examine the asymmetric characters of daily return volatility in different bulk shipping sectors and different market conditions, the sample was divided into two periods: one is from 1 March 1999 to 31 December 2002, the other is from 1 January 2003 to 23 December 2005; the EGARCH (exponential generalized auto regressive conditional heteroskedasticity) model was then applied to investigate the asymmetric impact between past innovations and current volatility. The results show that the asymmetric characters are distinct for different vessel size segments and different market conditions. The reasons for the results are discussed and it is considered that the main reasons may be the different flexibility and different commodity transport on different routes. The results from this investigation will be useful for the operators and investors in the dry bulk shipping market to increase profitability and reduce investment risk.
Call configurations: varieties of call centre and divisions of labour

all centres represent not only one of the most rapidly expanding forms of work and of business organization but also one of the most researched. A wealth of empirical data detailing the internal workings of call centres, managerial strategies and labour process, the gender, age and national profile of call workers and their conditions of employment provides material for debates about ‘surveillance versus resistance’, work degradation and the relevance of an electronic panopticon analogy that are familiar to readers of Work, Employment and Society. This article suggests that a shift of prism could provide other distinctive insights into the transformations of work and divisions of labour implicated in the development of call centres. Exploring call centres in the wider overall process of which they are part brings a perspective different from that which considers them as self-standing sites of work. The frame of analysis expands conceptually and empirically, so contributing to an economic sociology of call centres. An analytical framework focusing on process, relationality and division of labour reinterprets what is already known about call centres in terms of a broader sociology of work. The following discussion is intended as suggestive: an opening up of the area and way of thinking about call centres, building on recent writing in a complementary but different direction. The article has three sections. The first reviews the dominant academic and media depiction of call centres and key findings from UK research. The second proposes an analytical perspective towards the interconnections of call centre activity informed by recent writing in economic sociology and cultural economy. The third develops this approach heuristically, contrasting five stylized ‘call configurations’ based on different transaction processes. C
How BMW successfully practices sustainable leadership principles

Purpose – This BMW case aims to show how many of the company's practices that accord with principles espoused in the authors' sustainable leadership model contributed to its recovery after the global financial crisis (GFC). Design/methodology/approach – This case illustrates how BMW institutes the 23 honeybee leadership principles and practices described in the authors' 2011 article “Sustainable leadership: practices for enhancing business resilience and performance” in Strategy & Leadership.Findings – The examples provide a glimpse into the honeybee practices that enabled one firm to emerge successfully from the GFC. Regarding the five performance outcomes on the sustainable leadership pyramid, BMW clearly exceeded expectations in 2010 on financial returns and shareholder value.Practical implications – Clearly BMW provides long‐term value for all its stakeholders – suppliers, shareholders, employees and customers – as is expected of a sustainable enterprise. BMW's business model, innovative approach to pr.
Effect of magnetic trajectories in a magnetically coupled dual stator five phase PMSG

Emergence of renewable power utilities led to the advancement of high power density generators. Permanent magnet generators are being considered as a good solution for this. The prime focus of this paper is to analyze the role of leakage flux in surface mounted magnetically coupled cascaded dual stator five phase permanent magnet synchronous generator. Analysis and modeling of leakage flux for this machine is done, which shows its affect on air gap flux density, that could introduce harmonics in the generated voltage. Air gap fluxes and leakage parameters are derived in terms of generator dimensions and its magnetic properties. Leakage flux, by accurate prediction of flux distribution along various magnetic trajectories, plays a vital role in the design of Permanent magnet generator. Finite element method (FEM) is adopted to validate the results of proposed analytical model. Both results are very close and deviation of results is around 3%, that suggests the significance of including leakage flux for analytical modeling, which would further speed up the optimal design process of the machine.