Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
AGRICULTURAL CO‐OPERATIVE THEORY: A REVIEW*

The notion of a review article would presume that there exists a coherent body of literature on the topic in question. With agricultural co-operative theory this is not quite the case since it has been approached seriously and systematically in some subject areas but disjointedly if at all in others. This review article attempts to ask what predictions can be made about the behaviour of agricultural co-operatives in the present state of theoretical knowledge—thus, each section refers to a topic that readers might hope to have been investigated in the literature, though the findings are necessarily patchy since few areas have been given adequate attention. Where weaknesses and deficiencies occur, I have tried to point them out and to indicate areas for further research. In doing so, I have hazarded my own ideas, so that much of the material is original. As far as I know, for example, nobody has yet seriously considered the life-cycle of the agricultural co-operative organisation, which constitutes the subject matter of section 7, and the discussion put forward in the first half of section 6, on the supply curve of marketing associations, is also my own work. If these are duplicated in papers which I have failed to bring to light in my quest for material for this article, I can only apologise.
Internet Heavy Use and Addiction among Taiwanese College Students: An Online Interview Study

This paper presents empirical qualitative results of Internet heavy-use and addiction among some college students in Taiwan. It offers in-depth, online interviews of student-subjects in order to facilitate an interdisciplinary understanding of Internet heavy use, addiction and its potential impacts. A total of 83 subjects were interviewed, both as individuals and in chat-room groups. The analysis of qualitative data presented in six major themes: (1) Internet use and reasons; (2) Internet features; (3) the Internet as replacement for other media; (4) impact of Internet overuse; (5) controlling Internet use; and (6) coping with Internet withdrawal. Discussions, explanations, along with examples and quotes from subjects, are provided in each section. Implications for student affairs administrators and further research directions are also addressed.
A new t-test for the R/S analysis and long memory in agricultural commodity prices

This article tests for long memory in daily and weekly agricultural cash price returns, using the modified rescaled range (R/S) test. A new corrected t-test is constructed for the R/S test to measure statistical significance properly. Empirical results indicate evidence of long memory in more than half of the agricultural commodities analysed. However, the values of estimated H statistics are less than 0.6, indicating relatively weak memory. The corrected t-test reduces type-I error for H statistics on the persistent long memory side and increases the power of the test for H statistics on the anti-persistent side.
Managing the Effects of Layoffs on Survivors

The productivity and morale of employees who survive layoffs are likely to have a major impact on the future performance of the corporation. The most important factors that affect survivors' reactions are: the fairness of the layoff and how it was handled; and changes within the organization that often accompany layoffs, such as job insecurity, career prospects, quantity and quality of new job responsibilities, and information about the reactions of one's fellow survivors. This article offers a series of steps that managers can take before, during, and after the layoffs to maximize the productivity and morale of survivors.
Lower expression of Th1‐related cytokines and inducible nitric oxide synthase in mice with streptozotocin‐induced diabetes mellitus infected with Mycobacterium tuberculosis

Diabetes mellitus is an important predisposing factor for tuberculosis. The aim of this study was to investigate the mechanism underlying this association using a murine model. Mice with streptozotocin‐induced diabetes mellitus were prone to Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection, as indicated by increased numbers of live bacteria in lung, liver and spleen. In diabetic mice, the levels of IL‐12 and IFN‐γ in the lung, liver and spleen were lower than those in control animals on day 14 postinfection, while the opposite was true for IL‐4 levels in the lung and liver. The expression pattern of inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS), in the two mice types was as for IL‐12 and IFN‐γ. In addition, peritoneal exudate cells obtained from diabetic mice produced lower amounts of IL‐12 and NO than those from control mice, when stimulated in vitro with M. bovis BCG. Spleen cells from diabetic mice infected with M. tuberculosis produced a significantly lower amount of IFN‐γ upon restimulation with purified protein derivatives (PPD) than those from infected nondiabetic mice. Interestingly, addition of high glucose levels (33 mM) to the cultures of PPD‐restimulated spleen cells reduced the synthesis of IFN‐γ only in diabetic mice, and not in nondiabetic mice. Finally, control of blood glucose levels by insulin therapy resulted in improvement of the impaired host protection and Th1‐related cytokine synthesis. Our results suggest that the reduced production of Th1‐related cytokines and NO account for the hampered host defense against M. tuberculosis infection under diabetic conditions.
Globalisation and Unequalisation: What Can Be Learned from Value Chain Analysis?

Although many have gained from the process of globalisation, there remains a stubbornly large number of people living in absolute poverty and a rise in inequality within and between countries. The issue is thus not whether to participate in the global economy but how to do so in a manner which provides for sustainable and equitable income growth. This study shows how value chain analysis can be used to chart the growing disjuncture between global economic activity and global income distribution and to provide causal explanations for this outcome. In so doing, value chain analysis provides valuable insights into policy formulation and implementation.
Comparative justification on intellectual capital

With the development of computerization and networking capabilities, there is a significantly enhanced opportunity for sharing information and knowledge world‐wide. For an organization to survive in these turbulent times, there is a great need for its continuous renewal through the introduction of new, innovative products and processes that are based on new knowledge. As a result, the management and measurement of intellectual capital have attracted a lot of attention in recent years both in the media and from academia. This paper assesses different methodologies of intellectual capital measurements, both from a macro valuation standpoint and from the operating perspective. Valuation metrics are suggested and it demonstrates how it is applied to a cross‐section of firms. The paper also shows that there is no conceptual framework commonly accepted and there is a considerable lack of consistency both inter‐country and intra‐country. This paper has taken three firms from distinct industries and has applied human, relational or structural capital metrics depending on which is the most relevant.
Immunohistological analysis of CD1a+ langerhans cells and CD57+ natural killer cells in healthy and diseased human gingival tissue: A comparative study

Background: Cell interaction between dendritic cells (DC) and natural killer (NK) cells in the periodontal milieu is not yet fully known, although these cells are individually known to contribute to the pathogenesis of periodontal disease. Materials and Methods: Fifty subjects (25 males and 25 females) were included in the study. The subjects were divided into three groups: Group A comprised 16 subjects with clinically healthy gingiva; group B 17 subjects with gingivitis; and group C 17 subjects with gingivitis; and group C 17 subjects with moderate periodontitis (PPD ≥ 5 mm and CAL ≥ 3 mm in at least six sites). Gingival samples were collected and immunohistochemical study was done using CD57 and CD1a antibody. Statistical analysis was done using analysis of variance (ANOVA), followed by Tukey-Kramer multiple comparison for CD1a and Tukey's highly significant difference (HSD) test for CD57. Results and Conclusion: The study showed an inverse relationship between the CD1a+ (langerhans) cells and CD57+ (natural killer) cells. There was a significant increase in CD57+ cells and reduction in CD1a levels as periodontal disease progressed. The significant reduction in CD1a levels in periodontal disease when compared to health could possibly be a result of NK cells down regulating it. Reduction in CD1a levels may result in a low inflammatory response subsequently resulting in tissue destruction.
Developments of a Hybrid PreProcessor Based on Frequency Shifting for Stereophonic Acoustic Echo Cancellation

In a multi-channel hands-free communication, decorrelation algorithms are necessary, along with adaptive filters, to efficiently remove the acoustic echo in real time applications. But the quality of the signals and the spatial position of the sound source must not be perceptually affected by those algorithms. This paper proposes a new hybrid solution that uses frequency shifts to improve the performance of a state-of-art solution based on addition of half-wave rectified signals. The results show that the new method achieves a significant improvement in the identification process of the real echo paths as well as in the global perceptual quality of the processed signals.
Premiums and Pre‐Acquisition Profits: The Legal and Accountancy Professions and Business Combinations

'Accounts are the one subject of which lawyers are supposed to know nothing. ' In both statute and case law, this view has until quite recently been evidenced by a reluctance to set detailed rules for company accounts, and a willingness to leave matters of accounting to accountants and 'men of business. ' Where accountants and men of business agree, such a laissez faire attitude is attractive to accountants; any profession seeks to establish its own domain of regulation. The problems start when accountants and men of business disagree. In these circumstances, accountants seeking to enforce their views may find the regulatory power of the accountancy profession weaker than they would wish. A stronger and more effective domain must be entered, that of law. But in appealing to law in order to enforce their views, accountants risk sacrificing autonomy. This inevitably creates tension, and the relationship of accounting and law can therefore be an uneasy one. ' These regulatory tensions are explored here in an historical analysis of accounting for business combinations. The problems of accounting for business combinations are representative of those arising where accounting and law interface. These problems do not arise in a vacuum; they are the consequences of the interaction of accounting and law over several decades. In the first section, we outline the alternative methods of accounting for business combinations. We then examine the historical process whereby accounting for business combinations has come to be regulated. This historical examination is in three sections, divided by the major changes in the relevant statute law in the Companies Act (CA) 1948 and CA 1981. The final section of the article draws conclusions from the historical analysis.
Subversion of the innate immune response by micro-organisms

A microbe becomes a pathogen by successfully evading the host’s immune responses, and the microbial strategies for so doing are legion. They include methods to avoid recognition by the immune system—for example, by antigenic variation as shown by influenza and HIV and by parasites or plasmodia, or by acquiring a host coat as is done by worms and retroviruses. Another major mechanism is to avoid the effector mechanisms of the immune response. This can be done by subverting cytotoxic T cells by the production of decoy HLA molecules; or by subverting Fc function by producing Fc receptor homologues; or by subverting complement by producing homologues of complement control proteins (CCPs). Some viruses also have developed methods of subverting apoptosis in the cells that they infect. This paper concentrates on the innate immune response. The definition of this term is a little fuzzy. Fearon and Locksley regard all mechanisms using germline coded molecules as being innate which therefore includes natural antibodies with germline V regions.1 Perhaps a more conventional definition is that innate mechanisms are those that are not specifically altered by prior exposure to the same pathogen. In the first part of this paper some examples of subversion of the complement system will be described. The second half describes some much newer work from our laboratory that takes us into aspects of the innate immune response on mucosal surfaces that have not so far been described. Figure 1 shows a greatly simplified view of complement activation by micro-organisms. Regulation occurs principally at two points—the first is action of the C3 converting enzymes and the second, action of the membrane attack complex (MAC). Figure 1 Principal activities of the complement system. Regulation of the C3 converting enzymes is produced by a number of proteins (fig 2), all of which are based on …
[1483 cases of paternity test with STR loci mutation].

OBJECTIVE To observe and analyze the mutation phenomenon of 17 STR loci of PowerPlex 18D Kit in paternity test of Yunnan population. METHODS The DNA was extracted by Chelex-100 method. The PowerPlex 18D Kit was used to test 1,483 cases and their conclusions of paternity tests were verified. RESULTS In the 1,483 cases, 1,047 were parental triplet and 436 were uniparental diad. A total of 2,530 times of meiosis was observed. One STR locus mutation was observed in 24 cases. And 11 mutation loci were found in the 17 STR loci. CONCLUSION STR loci mutation is a common phenomenon. We should collect the data of STR loci mutation, choose other good polymorphism, low mutation rate of genetic markers, to ensure that the results are accurate and reliable.
Does HRM facilitate employee creativity and organizational innovation? A study of Chinese firms

Using a sample of 106 firms in China, we examined how human resource management (HRM) practices relate to employee creativity and organizational innovation. In order to avoid common method bias, the data were collected from three different groups of respondents separately. Our results showed that four HRM practices, hiring and selection, reward, job design and teamwork, were positively related to employee creativaity while training and performance appraisal were not. Employee creativity fully mediated the relationships between those four HRM practices and organizational innovation. Results suggest that HRM practices can play an important role in managing people to promote innovation in Chinese organizations.
RRP 3.0: 3rd generation Robust Radar Processing based on Matrix Information Geometry (MIG)

We introduce extension of Ordered Statistic (OS) approach to define OS-HDR-CFAR (OS High Doppler Resolution CFAR) based on median barycenter computation of Toeplitz time covariance matrix, and OS-STAP (OS Space-Time Adaptive Processing) based on p-mean barycenter computation of Toeplitz-Block-Toeplitz space-time covariance matrix.
Binarization of spectral histogram models: An application to efficient biometric identification

Feature extraction techniques such as local binary patterns (LBP) or binarized statistical image features (BSIF) are crucial components in a biometric recognition system. The vast majority of relevant approaches employs spectral histograms as feature representation, i.e. extracted biometric reference data consists of sequences of histograms. Transforming these histogram sequences to a binary representation in an accuracy-preserving manner would offer major advantages w.r. t. data storage and efficient comparison. We propose a generic binarization for spectral histogram models in conjunction with a Hamming distance-based comparator. The proposed binarization and comparison technique enables a compact storage and a fast comparison of biometric features at a negligible cost of biometric performance (accuracy). Further, we investigate a serial combination of the binary comparator and histogram model-based comparator in a biometric identification system. Experiments are carried out for two emerging biometric characteristics, i.e. palmprint and ear, confirming the soundness of the presented technique.
Career orientations of software developers in a sample of high tech companies

The career orientations of software developers in 11 high technology companies of different sizes were studied. It was found that the proportion wanting a managerial career was higher than might be expected (34%) and increased with organisational size. Approximately 25% wanted advancement in a technical career, and this remained the same in organisations of different sizes. The same proportion wanted to start up their own company, but this decreased substantially with organisational size. The group wanting a project-based career was the smallest, at 15%, and this varied slightly with organisational size. The four groups showed differences in their ideal job characteristics, organisational versus technical orientation and expected tenure. The extent to which they actually expected to satisfy their career preference varied dramatically, with the great majority of managerially-oriented expecting to actually be managers, but the majority wanting to start their own company not expecting to actually do so. The small high technology company has become an important, almost mythical, component of popular and academic folklore. As Beyer says, the “prevailing wisdom from both lay people and researchers who have been around them says that these firms are somehow different” (Beyer, 1985, p. 483). Within such organisations, the software developer or computer hack has similarly developed a particular aura. As one commentator puts it, “the stereotyped image of the community of programmers is … of a collection of single-minded nerds possessing no interest in life outside the digital realm” (Sandberg-Diment, 1986, p.C3). In spite of the interest in both the nature of such companies and such employees, there has been very little empirical data collected (Turbin and Rosse, 1988, p.17) to substantiate the folklore. In particular there has been an almost complete absence of rigorous academic enquiry into what the individuals choosing to work in this type of company are really like, or what their work needs actually are. The present paper is aimed at filling some of this gap, by addressing the issue of what type of career path software developers in high tech companies want.
Regulating Fisheries: Estimating the Impact on Fleet Employment in Pelagic Fisheries in Southern Chile

In this paper we propose an approach for measuring the impact of different regulatory regimes on fleet employment and present an application. The proposed approach includes three steps. First, we estimate a technical efficiency measure for individual vessels using a stochastic production frontier model. Second, we estimate different models of vessel selection, including non-observable effects estimated in step one. Third, we use these results to calculate the differentiated impacts of the regulations on fleet employment. The application is based on the development of the pelagic fisheries in southern Chile between 1997 and 2001. Because different regulatory instruments were used in this fisheries in a relatively short period of time, this period becomes an excellent opportunity to study the differentiated impact of these instruments on the behavior of the fleet. The results indicate that the introduction of the individual quota system in the fisheries had a significant negative impact on fleet employment as compared to other regimes. Moreover, this system also enhanced the seasonality in employment.
Preventive Care Delivery to Young Children With Sickle Cell Disease

Preventive services can reduce the morbidity of sickle cell disease (SCD) in children but are delivered unreliably. We conducted a retrospective cohort study of children aged 2 to 5 years with SCD, evaluating each child for 14 months and expecting that he/she should receive ≥75% of days covered by antibiotic prophylaxis, ≥1 influenza immunization, and ≥1 transcranial Doppler ultrasound (TCD). We used logistic regression to quantify the relationship between ambulatory generalist and hematologist visits and preventive services delivery. Of 266 children meeting the inclusion criteria, 30% consistently filled prophylactic antibiotic prescriptions. Having ≥2 generalist, non-well child care visits or ≥2 hematologist visits was associated with more reliable antibiotic prophylaxis. Forty-one percent of children received ≥1 influenza immunizations. Children with ≥2 hematologist visits were most likely to be immunized (62% vs. 35% among children without a hematologist visit). Only 25% of children received ≥1 TCD. Children most likely to receive a TCD (42%) were those with ≥2 hematologist visits. One in 20 children received all 3 preventive services. Preventive services delivery to young children with SCD was inconsistent but associated with multiple visits to ambulatory providers. Better connecting children with SCD to hematologists and strengthening preventive care delivery by generalists are both essential.
Transcription-repair coupling determines the strandedness of ultraviolet mutagenesis in Escherichia coli.

We have analyzed the spectra of UV-induced mutations in the lacI gene of a wild-type and an mfd strain of Escherichia coli. mfd strains have been recently proposed to be deficient in a factor coupling DNA repair and transcription. Analysis of UV-induced mutations occurring at adjacent pyrimidines showed that mutations in the wild-type strain arose largely from the nontranscribed strand but arose predominantly from the transcribed strand in the mfd strain. The overall strand switch was 14-fold. One mutation, G.C-->A.T in the lacI initiation codon, showed a > 300-fold shift. No effect was observed for mutations at non-pyrimidine-pyrimidine sequences. These results provide in vivo evidence for a key role of the mfd gene in controlling the strandedness of mutagenesis and support the proposed role of the mfd gene product in directing DNA excision repair to the transcribed strand of a damaged gene.
Peripheral T Cells Re-Enter the Thymus and Interfere with Central Tolerance Induction

The thymus mainly contains developing thymocytes that undergo thymic selection. In addition, some mature activated peripheral T cells can re-enter the thymus. We demonstrated in this study that adoptively transferred syngeneic Ag-specific T cells can enter the thymus of lymphopenic mice, where they delete thymic dendritic cells and medullary thymic epithelial cells in an Ag-specific fashion, without altering general thymic functions. This induced sustained thymic release of autoreactive self-Ag–specific T cells suggested that adoptively transferred activated T cells can specifically alter the endogenous T cell repertoire by erasing negative selection of their own specificities. Especially in clinical settings in which adoptively transferred T cells cause graft-versus-host disease or graft-versus-leukemia, as well as in adoptive tumor therapies, these findings might be of importance, because the endogenous T cell repertoire might be skewed to contribute to both manifestations.