Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Multidimensional Welfare: Do Groups Vary in Their Priorities and Behaviours?

In the context of multidimensional measures of well-being, a key question for policy is whether particular groups have differing priorities and are therefore likely to react differently to given economic or social shocks. We explore this issue by presenting the results of two related analyses that suggest positive answers on both counts. First, we apply reference class weights to unique data on adult capabilities in the UK and show that relative weights vary across some groupings. Furthermore, in some cases, deprivation rankings of groups vary depending on which weights are used. Second, we explore possible behavioural consequences of different weights by examining the extent to which groups respond differently to three economic and social shocks (unemployment, widowhood and ill health). In this case, we find that weights and responses vary noticeably with age and region and sometimes with gender. We conclude that whilst equal weighting may be practically unavoidable when constructing indices of welfare in the absence of information on weights, their estimation from survey or experimental data is likely to be justified and may change views about policy needs or efficacy.
Optimized capacity configuration of an integrated power system of wind, photovoltaic and energy storage device based on improved particle swarm optimizer

To enhance power supply reliability of wind-PV power system and improve utilization of wind power and PV, it is necessary to configure the capacity of wind turbine generators, PV modules and energy storage devices reasonably. Based on the feature of joint-operation of wind-PV generation system with energy storage device and considering dynamic variation of stored energy during the joint operation, taking technical characteristics of energy storage unit and the loss of power supply probability (LPSP) as the constraint, a joint configuration method of wind power capacity, PV and energy storage capacity, in which the original investment of integrated power system of wind, photovoltaic and energy storage device is taken as objective function, is proposed. An improved particle swarm optimizer (IPSO) is proposed. In the algorithm, the value of inertia weight was directed by the distance between the particle and the global optimal particle, crossover and mutation operations were introduced to avoid falling into local optimal solution. Under the conditions of a given case, take the lithium-ion battery into account. And simulation results show that the method has rapid convergence speed and superb global search ability.
Capital Budgeting Under Uncertainty: A Reformulation

IT HAS LONG BEEN AGREED that a business firm faces difficulties in making capital budgeting decisions under uncertainty. Methods that employ either riskadjusted discount rates or dollar risk premiums suffer from a lack of normative theory. There has been no theoretically acceptable method proposed for a businessman to apply in determining the amount by which the time value of money should be adjusted for risk or the size of the dollar risk premium that should be deducted from the net present value of an investment that has been computed using a default free discount rate as the time value of money. For some time the capital budgeting literature has recognized that the risk of an individual investment liesnot only in the degree of uncertainty of that investment's cash flows but also in the extent to which these flows vary with the cash flows from the other assets held by the firm. However, up to very recently, we have not known how to incorporate effectively such risk considerations into the capital budgeting decisions of a firm. This paper attempts to provide a normative theory of capital budgeting under uncertainty based on the valuation of corporate securities in a market where investors hold portfolios of financial assets. It builds on recent articles by Fama [1], Hamada [2], Litzenberger and Budd [5] and Stapleton [12] which, in turn, are based on portfolio and market equilibrium theories developed by Markowitz [6], Sharpe [11], Mossin [7, 8], Lintner [3], Robichek and Myers [10] and Tobin [13]. A careful reading of the cited literature and this paper will reveal our great indebtedness to those authors. We attempt to show that a new investment is acceptable (it will improve the stockholders' wealth position) if the expected present value of the investment is greater than a required present value. The required present value reflects the market's risk-return trade-off and the extent to which the basic uncertainty of the investment's cash flows can be "diversified" away. This result is particularly interesting since it indicates that the decision whether to undertake an investment is independent from the standpoint of risk of the firm considering the investment proposal. Litzenberger and Budd [5] and Hamada [2] have attempted to formulate rules for capital budgeting under conditions of uncertainty using a required rate of return and the basic Sharpe [11] model. They develop a risk-adjusted required return, but this rate is a combination of a time value factor and a risk adjustment. It cannot be used easily to compute the present value of an investment or to evaluate alternatives since the "hurdle rate" in no sense represents the time value of money, that is, a time discount factor. Stapleton [12] does formulate the capital budgeting decision in present
Ca2+ dependence of loaded shortening in rat skinned cardiac myocytes and skeletal muscle fibres

1 This study examined the effects of activator Ca2+ on loaded shortening and power output in skinned rat cardiac myocyte preparations, and fast‐ and slow‐twitch skeletal muscle fibres at 12 °C. 2 Shortening velocities were slowed at nearly all relative loads when Ca2+ activation levels were reduced to ≈70 % maximal isometric force (P4.5) in cardiac myocyte preparations, as well as in fast‐twitch and slow‐twitch skeletal muscle fibres. 3 Peak absolute power outputs declined significantly as Ca2+ activation levels were progressively reduced from maximal to 30 %P4.5 in all three striated muscle types, with the greatest change in fast‐twitch fibres. In cardiac myocyte preparations, even peak relative power output progressively fell when Ca2+ activation levels were lowered to ≈70, 50 and 30 %P4.5. Peak relative power output also progressively fell in fast‐twitch fibres as Ca2+ activation levels were lowered from maximal down to 50 %P4.5. However, in slow‐twitch fibres, peak relative power output decreased only at 70 %P4.5 and then remained unchanged with further reductions in Ca2+ activation levels. The greater Ca2+ dependence of peak relative power output in cardiac myocytes and fast‐twitch fibres may arise from a shared mechanism such as cooperative inactivation of the thin filament, which is likely to be slowest in less cooperative slow‐twitch fibres. 4 During submaximal Ca2+ activations, the time course of shortening became markedly curvilinear during isotonic shortening in all three muscle types. The progressive slowdown in shortening velocity during isotonic contractions was greatest in fast‐twitch fibres, consistent with the higher degree of cooperativity of Ca2+ activation in fast‐twitch fibres. Additionally, fast‐twitch and slow‐twitch fibre stiffness decreased in concert with the curvature of length traces during loaded shortening. These results are consistent with the idea that cooperative inactivation of the thin filament occurs during loaded shortening and such a mechanism may contribute to the progressive slowing and overall Ca2+ dependence of loaded shortening velocity.
Comparing soil chemistries of leached and nonleached copper‐amended soils

Leaching metal‐spiked samples has been proposed as a means to reduce the artifacts of the spiking procedure (e.g., salt effect, increased metal solubility) that can artificially increase metal bioaccessibility and toxicity in laboratory ecotoxicity tests. The effects on soil chemistry from leaching Cu‐spiked samples were investigated by comparing chemistries of freshly spiked samples to samples that underwent the spike/leach procedure. Chemical parameters investigated included electrical conductivity (EC), pH, ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid‐ and CaCl2‐extractable Cu, soil‐solution Cu, Cu2+ activity (estimated using Visual MINTEQ), and other solution parameters (dissolved organic carbon [DOC], Ca, Mg, Al). In leached samples, the electrical conductivity values of the spiked samples did not vary significantly from those of the control samples (p > 0.05), confirming that the leaching procedure had sufficiently minimized the salt effect. In the range of soil Cu concentrations where Cu ecotoxicity is expected, the pH in freshly spiked samples was as much as 0.52 units lower than the pH from leached samples at the same total‐soil Cu concentration. The CaCl2‐extractable fraction was up to 2.3‐fold smaller in leached samples and inversely related to the pH of the spiked soil. Despite little to no difference in soil‐solution Cu, up to 100‐fold less Cu2+ activity was observed in leached samples. Reduced Cu2+ activity was related to less Al3+ competition for DOC. Leaching resulted in solution chemistries that were more consistent with those of the control samples and reduced the artifacts of traditional soil‐spiking procedures. Environ. Toxicol. Chem. 2012; 31: 2253–2260. © 2012 SETAC
Life After Succession in the Family Business: Is It Really the End of Problems?

The succession processes in family business are well chronicled in the business literature. Most of the research focuses on the process of transferring power within the business-family. What has not been as closely examined is the after-succession environment that exists when the management and leadership of the family business are passed on to the next generation. This article addresses that organizational climate and the potential for additional problems in the business-family if post-succession issues are not identified and addressed and suggests some steps that will be helpful in producing complete succession success.
MiRNome expression is deregulated in the peripheral lymphoid compartment of multiple myeloma

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are short non‐coding RNAs involved in the regulation of gene expression. Selected groups of miRNAs are differentially expressed in various types of cancers. Alterations in miRNAs gene expression have been shown in cells from the B‐cell malignancy, multiple myeloma (MM). However, although MM is a disease of plasma cells, abnormalities have been detected in the peripheral blood of the patients.
The Granger-causality between health care expenditure and output: a panel data approach

This study investigates the Granger-causality relationship between real per capita GDP and real per capita health care expenditure by employing a large macro panel data set with a VAR representation. The findings verify that the dominant type of Granger-causality is bidirectional. In instances that we found one-way causality, the pattern is not homogenous: Our analyses show that one-way causality generally runs from income to health in low- and middle-income countries whereas the reverse holds for high-income countries. Accordingly, care must be paid in defining the dependent and independent variables when specifying the determinants of health care expenditure.
Job Search Behavior of Older Americans Ü

This paper presents an empirical analysis of job search behavior among older Americans using the Health and Retirement Study. Increasing longevity, improving health conditional on age, increasing labor supply e xibility stemming from an increase in part-time work, selfemployment and the use of technological advances to promote second careers, and increasing labor force participation, make the study of search behavior at the end of the life cycle an important research topic. The analysis shows that older Americans actively search for new jobs, both on-the-job and when out of work, and that this behavior is strongly correlated with the labor market outcome of those individuals, making searchers more likely to switch jobs or nd new jobs. We also discuss the key variables that help us understand the different job search behavior of employed and non-employed individuals, as well as across genders.
Diffusion and Adoption of Information Security Management Standards Across Countries and Industries

Information security management standards are usually overlooked in conventional information technology management literature. However, with the level of sophistication and popularity of volunteer management standards among organizations across the world, they represent a current and important global IT topic. As of 2013, there were 22,293 organizations in 105 countries and economies (Table 1) that were certiﬁed in information security management based on the International Organization for Standardization’s (ISO’s) Standard ISO 27001 (ISO, 2013). In this article, I wish to call the attention of the international researcher community to the ISO 27001 information security management standard and a number of potential research questions based on the empirical data reported by the ISO. The ISO 27001 information security management standard can be considered as a technological artifact itself, covering systematic and instructional knowledge on how information security can be managed in organizations. It has been developed over various prior standards, ﬁrst announced for certiﬁcation in 2005 and revised in 2013. Organizations may adopt the ISO 27001 standard without pursuing certiﬁcation as a global best practice or may voluntarily chose to get certiﬁed by an accredited auditor. Once certiﬁed, auditors keep visiting the certiﬁed organization at planned intervals, and the organization needs to show evidence to auditors that their information security management system is working and improving over time to keep their certiﬁcation; otherwise, it is withdrawn and canceled.
Distributed Power Control With Robust Protection for PUs in Cognitive Radio Networks

In cognitive radio networks, it is challenging for secondary users (SUs) to estimate and control their interference at the receivers of primary users (PUs), due to incomplete or erroneous channel information between SUs and PUs. Thus, SUs need to estimate the worst-case aggregate interference at PU receivers to ensure guaranteed protection for PUs from excessive interference. As it is rare that all SU-PU channels experience the worst-case conditions simultaneously, we propose a practical model (namely, the worst-case selective robust model) for SUs to estimate their aggregate interference power. This model employs an adjustable parameter to control the number of SU-PU channels that are in the worst-case conditions. For an individual SU-PU channel, the estimation of worst-case channel gain is subject to a distribution uncertainty. Given this robust model, we study SUs' power control problem in a non-cooperative game where each SU selfishly maximizes its own throughput performance subject to coupled interference constraints at PU receivers. We study the existence and uniqueness of Nash equilibrium and propose an iterative algorithm for SUs to achieve the equilibrium in a distributed manner. Numerical results show that our algorithm provides guaranteed protection for PUs and fair throughput performance for SUs, provided with uncertain SU-PU channel information.
The Impact of Arts Activity on Nursing Staff Well-Being: An Intervention in the Workplace

Over 59 million workers are employed in the healthcare sector globally, with a daily risk of being exposed to a complex variety of health and safety hazards. The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of arts activity on the well-being of nursing staff. During October–December 2014, 115 nursing staff working in a hospital, took part in this study, which lasted for 10 weeks. The intervention group (n = 56) took part in silk painting activities once a week. Data was collected using socio-demographic questions, the Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-Being Scale, Short Form—36 Health Survey questionnaire, Reeder stress scale, and Multidimensional fatigue inventory (before and after art activities in both groups). Statistical data analysis included descriptive statistics (frequency, percentage, mean, standard deviation), non-parametric statistics analysis (Man Whitney U Test; Wilcoxon signed—ranks test), Fisher’s exact test and reliability analysis (Cronbach’s Alpha). The level of significance was set at p ≤ 0.05. In the intervention group, there was a tendency for participation in arts activity having a positive impact on their general health and mental well-being, reducing stress and fatigue, awaking creativity and increasing a sense of community at work. The control group did not show any improvements. Of the intervention group 93% reported enjoyment, with 75% aspiring to continue arts activity in the future. This research suggests that arts activity, as a workplace intervention, can be used to promote nursing staff well-being at work.
The Relationship of Employee Ownership and Participation to Workplace Safety

This article investigates whether enterprises with high levels of worker control are safer places to work in than matched conventional firms in the same industry. The results, based on comparisons of self-reports from 1285 workers in four different kinds of enterprises in the wood products industry (producer coops, ESOPs, union and non-union), are disappointing for advocates of employee ownership. The coops and the ESOPs either did no better than the conventional enterprises on various safety indicators or actually had worse safety performances. Reasons for these results are discussed, particularly in the context of the precarious economic conditions these employee-owned firms find themselves in. We conclude that employee ownership of vulnerable enterprises may be hazardous for worker morale and worker safety.
The Revised Model Tax Curriculum

ABSTRACT: The American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) first developed the Model Tax Curriculum (MTC) in 1996 and modified it in 1999. Subsequent changes in the accounting profession and education caused a reexamination of the MTC resulting in a complete revision in 2007. The revised MTC is learning outcome‐based and views the accounting curriculum in its entirety. The revised MTC includes a detailed matrix relating its proposed learning outcomes to the AICPA core competencies and tax technical topics commonly included in tax curricula. The matrix offers accounting faculty one example of an approach to be used in achieving the MTC learning outcomes. This approach can serve as a useful starting point to faculty in formulating and documenting their own approaches to developing student competencies that achieve the revised MTC learning objectives. This paper details the development of the MTC and provides an overview of the revised MTC. It also offers pedagogical suggestions helpful for imp.
Reliability and validity of the Turkish version of the Rhinosinusitis Disability Index.

OBJECTIVES The goal of this study was to determine the validity, reliability, and internal consistency of the Rhinosinusitis Disability Index (RSDI) for evaluating nasal and sinus diseases in Turkey. PATIENTS AND METHODS The study included 120 patients (77 males, 43 females; mean age 39+/-12 years; range 18 to 65 years) with diagnoses of allergic rhinitis, chronic rhinosinusitis, nasal polyposis, and septal deviation. Each group consisted of 30 patients. The Turkish version of the RSDI was administered to all the patients together with the SF-36 quality of life scale as the gold standard reference test. For reliability, the RSDI was re-administered to 15 patients a week after the first. Internal consistency, reliability, and validity tests were carried out to evaluate the RSDI. RESULTS The Cronbach's alpha coefficients were between 0.7175 and 0.9308 for the subscales of the RSDI, showing internal consistency. The correlation coefficients of the functional, emotional and physical subscales of the RSDI between the first and second administrations were 0.861, 0.883, and 0.902, respectively, indicating reliability. There were significant positive correlations between similar subscales of the RSDI and the SF-36. CONCLUSION The results of this study indicate that the Turkish version of the RSDI can be used for evaluating sinonasal diseases.
Subsidiary goals, learning orientations, and ownership strategies of multinational enterprises: evidence from foreign direct investments in Korea

This paper investigates the links among subsidiary goals, learning orientations, and ownership strategies of multinational enterprises (MNEs). The authors hypothesize that an MNE's ownership strategy is determined by subsidiary goals and learning orientations. Furthermore, interactions between learning orientations and subsidiary goals are predicted to influence the ownership strategy. Based on 723 foreign subsidiaries of MNEs operating in Korea, our findings suggest that when MNE foreign subsidiaries influence ownership choice, market-seeking goals and resource-seeking goals have a stronger fit with the exploitation orientation than with the exploration orientation. In contrast, the category of knowledge-seeking goals has a stronger fit with exploration than with exploitation.
Aging Out: A Qualitative Exploration of Ageism and Heterosexism Among Aging African American Lesbians and Gay Men

African Americans elders, like their non-African American counterparts, are not a homogeneous group; however an early characteristic placed on all African Americans is in their shared history in the United States. As members of multiple minority groups, older lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people of African descent have survived racism, heterosexism, homophobia, and now ageism. This article describes a qualitative study grounded in Black feminist and minority stress theories that explored the issues of perceived social discrimination and alienation of 15 older African American lesbians and gay males whose lived experiences were captured using in-depth, face-to-face interviews. Several themes were identified in the study, including (a) Sense of Alienation in the African American Community, (b) Deliberate Concealment of Sexual Identity and Orientation, (c) Aversion to LGBT Labels, (d) Perceived Discrimination and Alienation From Organized Religion, (e) Feelings of Grief and Loss Related to Aging, (f) Isolation, and (g) Fear of Financial and Physical Dependence. The implication of the findings suggests that the ethos and needs of older African American lesbian women and gay men need to be addressed to eliminate potential barriers to successful aging for this cohort.
Menthol and Related Cooling Compounds

Summary— Menthol and related cooling compounds such as ‘coolant agent 10’, are widely used in products ranging from common cold medications to toothpastes, confectionery, cosmetics and pesticides. The review brings together a range of information on production and chemistry of menthol, and its metabolism, mechanism of action, structure‐activity relationships, pharmacology and toxicology. In particular, the coolant action and carminative actions of menthol are discussed in terms of actions on calcium conductance in sensory nerves and smooth muscle. The actions of menthol on the nose, respiratory reflexes, oral cavity, skin and gastrointestinal tract are reviewed.
FACTORS AFFECTING FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENT IN MALAYSIA'S MANUFACTURING SECTOR: AN ANALYSIS ACROSS STATES

This paper examines the effects of market demand, labor productivity, socio-economic development and provision of industrial estates on foreign direct investment (FDI) across 13 states and 1 federal territory in Malaysia. The analysis uses FDI data of the manufacturing sector and data on independent variables for the years 1990, 1995, 2000 and 2005. Results indicate positive relationships between these factors and FDI inflows in the manufacturing sector. FDI inflows are found to be most sensitive to labor productivity and GDP. The significance of socio-economic development for FDI is viewed in a long-term perspective.