Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Which firms use measures

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to outline the anatomy of firms which adopt comprehensive performance measurement (PM) systems in order to gain an understanding of how internal (organisational capabilities) and external (perceived environmental uncertainties) factors shape performance measurement practices.Design/methodology/approach – This paper hypothesises that firms dominated by organic capabilities and operating in unpredictable markets are more likely to adopt comprehensive PM systems. The statistical test of these hypotheses is based on a 2008 survey of 299 Danish firms.Findings – This paper concludes that a limited number of internal and external factors have a significant influence on the adoption of PM systems. There is no consistent pattern, however, between the different sub‐categories of organisational capabilities/perceived environmental uncertainties and PM adoption.Originality/value – Much has been said about how changes in the environment and business structure require firms to dev.
Recognizing Opportunities for Sustainable Development

Building on the entrepreneurial action and sustainable development literatures, we highlight how the current explanations of opportunity recognition, based on entrepreneurial knowledge and economic motivation, are insufficient for modeling the recognition of opportunities for sustainable development. Our model suggests that entrepreneurs are more likely to discover sustainable development opportunities the greater their knowledge of natural and communal environments become, the more they perceive that the natural and communal environment in which they live is threatened, and the greater their altruism toward others becomes. We propose that entrepreneurial knowledge plays a central role by moderating these effects.
Two populations of endochondral osteoblasts with differential sensitivity to Hedgehog signalling

Hedgehog (Hh) signalling has been implicated in the development of osteoblasts and osteoclasts whose balanced activities are critical for proper bone formation. As many mouse mutants in the Hh pathway are embryonic lethal, questions on the exact effects of Hh signalling on osteogenesis remain. Using zebrafish, we show that there are two populations of endochondral osteoblasts with differential sensitivity to Hh signalling. One, formed outside the cartilage structure, requires low levels of Hh signalling and fails to differentiate in Indian hedgehog mutants. The other derives from chondrocytes and requires higher levels of Hh signalling to form. This latter population develops significantly earlier in mutants with increased Hh signalling, leading to premature endochondral ossification, and also fails to differentiate in Indian hedgehog mutants, resulting in severely delayed endochondral ossification. Additionally, we demonstrate that the timing of first osteoclast activity positively correlates to Hh levels in both endochondral and dermal bone.
Child Health and Mortality: Does Health Knowledge Matter?

This paper studies factors that influence child health in Bissau, the capital of Guinea-Bissau. This environment is characterised by high infant mortality, but not by malnutrition. We show that although maternal education is important in determining child health and mortality this effect diminishes or disappears when health knowledge is introduced as an explanatory variable. It emerges that health knowledge has large and positive effects on both child mortality and health when instrumented for to capture endogeneity. Copyright 2002, Oxford University Press.
Signs of life detection using wireless passive radar

Non-contact devices for monitoring signs of life have attracted a lot of attention in recent years for applications in security, emergency and disaster situations. Current devices however, generally utilize bespoke active systems to transmit large bandwidth signals. In this paper, a real-time phase extraction method based on passive Wi-Fi radar is proposed for detecting the chest movements associated with a person breathing. Since the monitored movements are of low amplitude and small Doppler shift, this method uses the phase variation rather than traditional range-Doppler processing. The processing is based on time domain cross correlation, with the addition of a Hampel filter for outlier detection and removal. In this paper the basic passive Wi-Fi model and limitations of traditional cross ambiguity function for signs of life detection are first introduced. The phase extraction method is then described followed by experimental results and analysis. Detection of breathing for a stationary person is shown in both in-room and through wall scenarios using both the Wi-Fi beacon and data transmissions. This is believed to be the first demonstration of signs of life detection using phase extraction in passive radar and extends the capability of such systems into a wide range of new applications.
Local allergen challenge and bronchoalveolar lavage of allergic asthmatic lungs. Description of the model and local airway inflammation.

The local mechanisms that result in the cellular inflammation and bronchial airway hyperreactivity that characterize allergic bronchial asthma are poorly defined. In order to study these processes, we developed a method for local allergen challenge using a fiberoptic bronchoscope and direct observation and bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) to assess the airway responses to allergen. In these studies, 11 allergic asthmatics (all of whom had previously demonstrated a late-phase asthmatic response to aeroallergen challenge) and 6 healthy, asymptomatic subjects volunteered to undergo bronchoalveolar lavage after local airway challenge via a bronchoscope wedged into subsegmental airways. These studies revealed that asthmatic airways respond to allergen with an immediate pallor followed by reactive hyperemia, edema, and bronchial narrowing. This site and a control site were relavaged at 48 or 96 h after the immediate response. Neutrophils and eosinophils increased significantly at 48 h after challenge, as did helper T-lymphocytes. Characteristically, at 96 h, neutrophil counts returned to normal values, whereas eosinophiles and helper T-cells remained elevated. Peroxidase-staining cells were also elevated at 48 h after local allergen challenge. Electron microscopy revealed degranulation of mast cells and eosinophils, both immediately and later (48 and 96 h) after local allergen challenge. Macrophages were highly activated and had phagocytized, partially intact granules from both eosinophils and mast cells. There was a significant correlation (p less than 0.001) between the concentration of allergen required to produce a visible airway response and a positive end-point skin titration in the asthmatic subjects. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Funds of Funds' Portfolio Composition and its Impact on Performance: Evidence from the Italian Market

Funds of Funds (FoF) are particular investment funds that invest resources in some mutual funds. This type of funds offers the possibility to achieve an higher diversification that an investor can't realize using other instruments. One of the main differences among FoFs available is the strategy adopted by the manager to select the investment funds to include in the portfolio and the number of funds included in the portfolio. The funds' selection could be naif or based on some aspect related to the funds' history as the past performance achieved, the fund's investment style or the manager's reputation. This paper analyses FoF's Italian market and verifies whether the performance is influenced by either the diversification strategy or the number of funds included in the portfolio. The analysis demonstrates that FoFs' best performers are those which are less geographically or sectorially concentrated; there are significant differences following different criteria/constraints applied in the funds' selection.
Mixed Channel Service Competition Based on Different Service Pattern in Software-as-a-Service

Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) realizes the transformation from product to Service through put the software into “clouds”. SaaS supply chain is composed of a SaaS ISV (Independent Software Vender) who sells from internet channel and a SaaS dealer. According to different service providers in distribution channel, we sort out three different service patterns, independent service, retailer integrated service and the ISV integrated service. We construct service competition model of three service patterns and study the optimizing decision of the ISV and the dealer. Further more, we explore the impact of customer’s service sensibility, channel preference, service cost of the ISV and the dealer, and customer base on service competition. Finally, from supply chain profit maximization perspective, we compared the three service patterns. We found that the advantages and disadvantages of the service pattern depend on the application scene. The paper extent the dual channel research to software service industry and enrich the theory model of dual channel, the result will guide the supply chain member to decide their service pattern.
Acute naltrexone does not remediate fronto‐striatal disturbances in alcoholic and alcoholic polysubstance‐dependent populations during a monetary incentive delay task

There is a concerted research effort to investigate brain mechanisms underlying addiction processes that may predicate the development of new compounds for treating addiction. One target is the brain's opioid system, because of its role in the reinforcing effects of substances of abuse. Substance‐dependent populations have increased numbers of the mu opioid receptor (MOR) in fronto‐striatal regions that predict drug relapse, and demonstrate disturbances in these regions during the processing of non‐drug rewards. Naltrexone is currently licensed for alcohol and opiate dependence, and may remediate such disturbances through the blockade of MORs in fronto‐striatal reward circuitry. Therefore, we examined the potential acute modulating effects of naltrexone on the anticipation of, and instrumental responding for, non‐drug rewards in long‐term abstinent alcoholics, alcoholic poly substance‐dependent individuals and controls using a monetary incentive delay (MID) task during a randomized double blind placebo controlled functional MRI study. We report that the alcoholic poly substance‐dependent group exhibited slower and less accurate instrumental responding compared to alcoholics and controls that was less evident after acute naltrexone treatment. However, naltrexone treatment was unable to remediate disturbances within fronto‐striatal regions during reward anticipation and ‘missed’ rewards in either substance‐dependent group. While we have not been able to identify the underlying neural mechanisms for improvement observed with naltrexone in the alcoholic poly‐substance dependent group, we can confirm that both substance‐dependent groups exhibit substantial neural deficits during an MID task, despite being in long‐term abstinence.
Employee reactions to human resource management and performance in a developing country

Purpose – This paper seeks to examine employee reactions to human resource management (HRM) and performance. It placed employees on a centre stage in analysing HRM to provide theoretical insights.Design/methodology/approach – To explore the theme, a survey of 252 employees drawn from eight organisations was conducted. Furthermore, on‐site interviews were carried out with managers, thereby contributing to the generalisability of the findings.Findings – The findings from the study indicate a positive attitude of employees to HRM practices, such as promotion from within, staffing, equal employment opportunity, quality of training, reasonable compensation and paid vacation and sick days. Moreover, the evidence also shows that productivity has been increasing while employee turnover, absenteeism, and grievances are low. However, the evidence also reveals that training was not integrated in a planned way to employee career development.Research limitations/implications – The present study adds to a growing liter.
Dynamic Equilibrium with Rare Events and Heterogeneous Epstein-Zin Investors

We consider a general equilibrium Lucas (1978) economy with one consumption good and two heterogeneous Epstein-Zin investors. The output is subject to rare large drops or, more generally, can have non-lognormal distribution with higher cumulants. The heterogeneity in preferences generates excess stock return volatilities, procyclical price-dividend ratios and interest rates, and countercyclical market prices of risk when the elasticity of intertemporal substitution (EIS) is greater than one. Moreover, the latter results cannot be jointly replicated in a model where investors have EIS ≤ 1 or CRRA preferences. We propose new approach for deriving equilibrium, and extend the analysis to the case of heterogeneous beliefs about probabilities of rare events.
The Macroeconomic Consequences of Wage Indexation Revisited

Since the mid-1970s, there has been considerable research on the macroeconomic consequences of wage indexation. Nonetheless, until recently, this research had not explicitly explored the implications of contracts that index wages to lagged inflation, the usual type of wage indexation observed in practice. Drawing mainly on recent research by the author, this paper examines the consequences of wage indexation to lagged inflation on aggregate wage formation, the cost of disinflation under money- and exchange-rate-based stabilization, the variability of output under alternative shocks and policy regimes, the choice of exchange rate regime, and the level and variability of inflation.
Microbial Utilization of Free and Clay-Bound Insecticidal Toxins from Bacillus thuringiensis and Their Retention of Insecticidal Activity after Incubation with Microbes

The insecticidal toxins produced by Bacillus thuringiensis subspp. kurstaki and tenebrionis were resistant when bound on clays, but not when free, to utilization by pure and mixed cultures of microbes as sources of carbon and carbon plus nitrogen, and their availability as a nitrogen source was reduced. The bound toxins retained insecticidal activity both before and after exposure to microbes or pronase. The insecticidal activity of the toxins persisted for 40 days (the longest time evaluated) in nonsterile soil continuously maintained at the -33-kPa water tension and room temperature, alternately air dried and rewetted to the -33-kPa water tension, or alternately frozen and thawed, although alternate drying and wetting reduced the activity.
Real-Time 3D Laparoscopic Ultrasonography

We have previously described 2D array ultrasound transducers operating up to 10 MHz for applications including real time 3D transthoracic imaging, real time volumetric intracardiac echocardiography (ICE), real time 3D intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) imaging, and real time 3D transesophageal echocardiography (TEE). We have recently built a pair of 2D array transducers for real time 3D laparoscopic ultrasonography (3D LUS). These transducers are intended to be placed down a trocar during minimally invasive surgery. The first is a forward viewing 5 MHz, 11 times 19 array with 198 operating elements. It was built on an 8 layer multilayer flex circuit. The interelement spacing is 0.20 mm yielding an aperture that is 2.2 mm × 3.8 mm. The O.D. of the completed transducer is 10.2 mm and includes a 2 mm tool port. The average measured center frequency is 4.5 MHz, and the −6 dB bandwidth ranges from 15% to 30%. The 50 Ω insertion loss, including Gore MicroFlat cabling, is −81.2 dB. The second transducer is a 7 MHz, 36 times 36 array with 504 operating elements. It was built upon a 10 layer multilayer flex circuit. This transducer is in the forward viewing configuration and the interelement spacing is 0.18 mm. The total aperture size is 6.48 mm x 6.48 mm. The O.D. of the completed transducer is 11.4 mm. The average measured center frequency is 7.2 MHz, and the −6 dB bandwidth ranges from 18% to 33%. The 50 Ω insertion loss is −79.5 dB, including Gore MicroFlat cable. Real-time in vivo 3D images of canine hearts have been made including an apical 4-chamber view from a substernal access with the first transducer to monitor cardiac function. In addition, we produced real time 3D rendered images of the right pulmonary veins from a right parasternal access with the second transducer, which would be valuable in the guidance of cardiac ablation catheters for treatment of atrial fibrillation.
Managing public money : a system from the south, J.C. Pauw, G. Woods, G.J.A. van der Linde, D.J. Fourie and C.B. Visser (Eds.) : book review

Managing public money : systems from the south seeks to keep abreast of latest developments in public finance. When referring to management, the authors refer to actions on the level of the legislature, and when exploring money they call it 'petty cash'. Chapter one introduces the concept of management and money. It further distinguishes between public or private, the purpose of money and various services. It also discusses the various concepts used throughout the book. Chapter two looks at the statecraft and politics in public money (p. 31) : the public manager is not the only person responsible for managing public money, but the whole organisation should be involved. It further discusses the various spheres of government (legislature, executive and judiciary) (p. 45). The national and provincial financial management framework in South Africa is provided, and it also outlines the roles of the financial management role players.
Optimal Implementation Delays: When Should Policies Be Announced?

While a delay between the publication and implementation of a policy can make the time-consistent solution capture the expectational effects that make commitment superior to discretion, this comes at the cost of a suboptimal present-period policy. This cost is larger the longer the delay, and the more extreme the prevailing conditions, making the optimal duration of an implementation delay vary over time as initial conditions change. Therefore, we integrate over these to choose the implementation delay that will do best on average. The optimal delay is usually of intermediate length, balancing commitment gains with the loss of responsiveness to contemporary needs.
A reply to Pitcher

Pitcher's rejoinder to our paper (Cramer & Pontara 1998), is a useful contribution to the policy and analytical debate on poverty and rural relations in Mozambique. Some of her points are well taken, in particular her careful attention to empirical imprecision in much of the literature. Indeed, she points out that we used a figure for how much land the government had conceded to private owners that turns out to be mistaken. We accept this useful clarification graciously, though slightly less graciously would point out that Pitcher earlier cited the same (erroneous) figure herself. Overall, her complaint about our paper seems to boil down to the following: that we are incomplete in our coverage of the literature; that we fail to notice that the government may say it favours smallholders but is in fact leaving them high and dry by allocating resources to large-scale commercial investors; and that we present an exclusive choice between the land and the labour market as the solution to poverty in Mozambique. On the first point, our coverage was indeed less than complete, though the implications of this are not as Pitcher implies. On the second, we think the picture is more complex than she suggests, and if our paper did not make this adequately clear we shall try to make it more so here. On the third part of her complaint, Pitcher is plainly wrong: in fact, the most interesting thing about her comment on our paper is that she appears entirely to have missed the point that we were making and does not engage with our core argument at all. She is at pains to agree with our discussion of the socioeconomic differentiation that has a long-term and more recent history in rural Mozambique, and to present the lives of the poor as highly insecure. Nonetheless, she makes little effort to consider the implications of this beyond making the fairly obvious point that people hang onto their land when they can and pursue multiple and ‘redundant’ (whatever this is supposed to mean) strategies.
Compound Learning, Neural Nets And The Competitive Process

In this paper we try to assess the potential application of neural networks as a modelling tool for complex evolutionary processes. The concept that we wish to investigate is the one of compound learning, that is the fact that, in a complex environment, what and how much economic entities learn depends upon what has been learnt in other entities in an interactive fashion. Our application consists of a stylised environment in which two firms learn how to innovate their product and to sell it on a market which learns how to evaluate the product which is being supplied. We seek to demonstrate that what matters for competitive advantage is not the absolute value of learning capability but the differential learning capability between the competing firms and between the firms and the market. Another appealing way to see it is that the chance for one of the two firms to gain competitive advantage is not unlimited but is constrained by own learning capability and the learning capability of the market.
A combinatorial approach to understanding perceptron capabilities

This work investigates the classification capabilities of perceptrons which incorporate a single hidden layer of nodes from a theoretical viewpoint. In particular, the question of determining whether a given set can be realized as the decision region of such a network is considered. The main theoretic result demonstrates that the realizability of a set can be determined by restricting attention to any neighborhood of its boundary. This result is then used to identify general classes of realizable sets, and an example is given which shows that even though the realizability of a set might be readily discerned, the construction of an appropriate perceptron architecture may be complicated.
Triple tilting rotor mini-UAV: Modeling and embedded control of the attitude

The goal of this paper is to present a novel configuration for a three-rotor mini unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). The proposed design incorporates advantageous structural features which enhance the maneuverability of the rotorcraft. The detailed mathematical model of the vehicle's attitude is obtained through the Newton-Euler formulation. In terms of control, we propose a control law which is robust with respect to dynamical couplings and adverse torques. The vehicle tilts simultaneously the three rotors to stabilize the yaw dynamics. The resulting control algorithm is simple for embedded purposes. A customized low-cost embedded system was developed to test an autonomous stabilized-attitude flight, obtaining satisfactory results.
Dollarization of Financial Intermediation: Causes and Policy Implications

This paper presents a portfolio model of financial intermediation in which currency choice is determined by hedging decisions on both sides of a bank`s balance sheet. Minimum variance portfolio (MVP) allocations are found to provide a natural benchmark to estimate the scope for dollarization of bank deposits and loans as a function of macroeconomic uncertainty. Dollarization hysteresis is shown to occur when the expected volatility of the inflation rate is high in relation to that of the real exchange rate. The evidence shows that MVP dollarization generally approximates actual dollarization closely for a broad sample of countries, and policy implications are explored.