Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Exploring the relationship between cell phone use and leisure: an empirical analysis and implications for management

With the functionality of an internet-connected computer and an array of creative software, the modern cell phone is designed to entertain. Yet, the potential intersection of cell phone use and leisure has not been well explored. For this study, a random sample of 379 students from a large public US university completed a brief survey measuring cell phone use, perceptions of leisure, and perceptions of the cell phone's role in facilitating leisure. An analysis of variance was used to compare mean responses among low-, medium-, and high-frequency cell phone users. Results showed no difference between the three groups' understanding of leisure. However, significant differences emerged when comparing the three groups' perceptions of the cell phone's role in facilitating leisure. Specifically, high-frequency users appeared more dependent on the cell phone for experiencing leisure. Management implications are discussed in the context of Yellowstone National Park which recently became the first US National Park to approve a cell phone management plan.
The Spatial Distribution of Tourism in China: Trends and Impacts

Economic inequality in China has increased since China began its economic reforms in 1978. Economic activity has become increasingly more skewed towards China's coastal areas and overall regional economic inequality has increased with economic growth in China. The paper utilizes statistical data over two decades, and tracks the growing regional inequality in terms of economic and tourism development. It confirms the concern that along with phenomenal growth of inbound tourism to China, considerable regional inequality has arisen in tourism in China. There is significant spatial inequality in the distribution of inbound tourism in China and its economic characteristics. International tourism in China is heavily concentrated in the coastal areas. This paper attempts to identify trends in the regional concentration of international tourism in China from 1986 to 2004. Gini coefficients for major tourist indicators are applied to test the characteristics of tourism distribution.
Searching for Nature and Imagining New Zealand

Abstract This paper discusses how certain travel motivations and holiday expectations are created by constantly evolving values within the cultural frame of everyday life in the generating countries. This argument imposes critical implications for planners and marketers of tourist destinations who constantly need to (re)create and (re)invent the image of ‘their’ localities. Interviews with international visitors to New Zealand have shown that emerging green values created the important socio-cultural frame for New Zealand to derive its lure as a tourist destination.
CEO Overconfidence and Management Forecasting

This paper examines how overconfidence affects the properties of management forecasts. Using both the â€œoverâ€ optimismâ€ and â€œmiscalibrationâ€ dimensions of overconfidence to generate our predictions, we examine three research questions. First, we examine whether overconfidence increases the likelihood of issuing a forecast. Second, we examine whether overconfidence increases the amount of optimism in management forecasts. Third, we examine whether overconfidence increases the precision of the forecast. Using both optionsâ€ and pressâ€ based measures to proxy for individual overconfidence, we find support for all three research questions.
Do Venture Capitalists Influence the Decision to Manage Earnings in Initial Public Offerings?

Prior studies suggest that venture capitalists (VCs) play a monitoring role. We predict and find that IPO‐year abnormal accruals are lower in the presence of VCs for a sample of 2,630 IPO firms during 1983–2001. Our findings are robust to controls for the endogenous choice of VC financing. We consistently find that the VC effect holds even when controlling for IPO lock‐up provisions, VC partial cashing out subsequent to the IPO, and alternative proxies for earnings management. In addition, our findings do not support the claims of critics that VCs inflated earnings during the Internet IPO bubble. Finally, we provide some evidence that the lower earnings management associated with VC monitoring partially explains the superior post‐IPO returns of VC‐backed firms.
Cause of Cerebral Infarction in the Carotid Territory . Its Relation to the Size and the Location of the Infarct and to the Underlying Vascular Lesion

It has been recognized that small intracerebral hemorrhage not uncommonly produced lacunar syndromes. In this study, we examined cases of intracerebral hemorrhage presenting as lacunar syndromes. Of 174 cases with recent intracerebral hemorrhage, 19 presented with a lacunar syndrome: 4 presented with pure motor hemiparesis, 5, ataxic hemiparesis, 3, dysarthria-clumsy hand syndrome, 7, sensorimotor stroke, and, none, pure sensory stroke. The sites of hemorrhage were capsular in 11, putaminal in 6, and pontine in 2. In these 19 patients, 17 were hypertensive, and the signs characteristic of parenchyma! hemorrhage, e.g., gradual onset, headache, nausea, vomiting and stiff neck, were absent or very rare. Computed tomography revealed that one third of the patients had one or more non-symptomatic lacunae in the basal ganglia, the corona radiata or the anterior limb of the internal capsule. These observations suggests that hypertensive intracerebral hemorrhage causes lacunar syndrome more often than previously considered and is apt to manifest ataxic hemiparesis and sensorimotor stroke. Computed tomography is the only way of differentiating hemorrhagic "lacunar" syndrome from lacunar infarct.
Competitive disadvantage and segment disclosure: evidence from Malaysian listed companies

Purpose – This paper seeks to investigate the level of competitive disadvantage experienced by Malaysian listed companies by disclosing segmental information as required by the new accounting standard on segments disclosure by Malaysian Accounting Standards Board.Design/methodology/approach – A total of 116 Malaysian listed companies are included in the study. Their annual reports for financial year ended 2002 are the main sources. The dependent variable is competitive disadvantage, which is proxied by Total Performance Index. The independent variables are quality of segmental disclosure by employing weighted average correlation technique, size of companies, the use of stricter accounting standard and the choice of business segment or geographical segment as the primary segment. To examine the developed hypotheses of the study; a multivariate least square regression model is employed. The analysis is also supported by correlation technique.Findings – The outcomes of the study indicate that competitive dis.
Simulação da Dinâmica do Crescimento Econômico em um Modelo Kaldoriano-Evolucionário no Contexto da Economia Brasileira

O estudo das interacoes entre as mudancas tecnologicas, a competitividade industrial e o crescimento economico e tema recorrente na literatura economica. Neste artigo e apresentado um modelo de simulacao que sintetiza as abordagens kaldorianas e evolucionarias. O crescimento da producao e liderado pelas exportacoes. Por sua vez, essa producao foi desagregada de acordo com as caracteristicas do regime de aprendizagem tecnologica (ou regime tecnologico), o que permitiu a formacao de tres grupos taxonomicos industriais, mais um grupo dos setores de servicos, para os quais nao foi apresentada uma proposta taxonomica. Com esses agrupamentos foi elaborado um modelo de simulacao do tipo insumo-produto, cuja dinâmica emerge do crescimento das exportacoes mundiais e da evolucao do market share das exportacoes e das importacoes. Os fatores determinantes desse market share decorrem do regime tecnologico prevalecente em cada grupo setorial. Em sua maior parte, esses fatores sao determinados exogenamente. Em dos grupos, ocorre a realimentacao cumulativa entre a producao industrial e a competitividade externa. Foram analisados dois cenarios. Um deles cumpriu a funcao de benchmark, usado na calibracao do modelo. O outro serviu para avaliar os efeitos das defasagens temporais e dos choques aleatorios, que foram incorporados aos gastos de consumo do governo. No exercicio de simulacao foram produzidos resultados inusitados. Entre eles esta a observacao de que as estimativas das elasticidades-renda sao afetadas pelo intervalo das series temporais, mantidos constantes os parâmetros estruturais do modelo. O outro foi a conclusao de que as taxas de crescimento das exportacoes nao sao a causa explicativa das taxas de crescimento da economia e que essas taxas, por sua vez, nao sao a causa explicativa das taxas de investimento. No geral, a incorporacao de defasagens temporais e choques aleatorios nos componentes da demanda final impossibilitou a identificacao das relacoes de causalidade entre as series estacionarias do modelo.
Effects of Pressing Lignocellulosic Biomass on Sugar Yield in Two‐Stage Dilute‐Acid Hydrolysis Process

Dilute sulfuric acid catalyzed hydrolysis of biomass such as wood chips often involves pressing the wood particles in a dewatering step (e.g., after acid impregnation) or in compression screw feeders commonly used in continuous hydrolysis reactors. This study addresses the effects of pressing biomass feedstocks using a hydraulic press on soluble sugar yield obtained from two‐stage dilute‐acid hydrolysis of softwood. The pressed acid‐impregnated feedstock gave significantly lower soluble sugar yields than the never‐pressed (i.e., partially air‐dried or filtered) feedstock. Pressing acid‐impregnated feedstocks before pretreatment resulted in a soluble hemicellulosic sugar yield of 76.9% from first‐stage hydrolysis and a soluble glucose yield of 33.7% from second‐stage hydrolysis. The dilute‐acid hydrolysis of partially air‐dried feedstocks having total solids and acid concentrations similar to those of pressed feedstocks gave yields of 87.0% hemicellulosic sugar and 46.9% glucose in the first and second stages, respectively. Microscopic examination of wood structures showed that pressing acid‐impregnated wood chips from 34 to 54% total solids (TS) did not cause the wood structure to collapse. However, pressing first‐stage pretreated wood chips (i.e., feedstock for second‐stage hydrolysis) from approximately 30 to 43% TS caused the porous wood matrix to almost completely collapse. It is hypothesized that pressing alters the wood structure and distribution of acid within the cell cavities, leading to uneven heat and mass transfer during pretreatment using direct steam injection. Consequently, lower hydrolysis yield of soluble sugars results. Dewatering of corn stover by pressing did not impact negatively on the sugar yield from single‐stage dilute‐acid pretreatment.
Use of a Genetic Algorithm to Identify Source Code Metrics Which Improves Cognitive Complexity Predictive Models

In empirical software engineering predictive models can be used to classify components as overly complex. Such modules could lead to faults, and as such, may be in need of mitigating actions such as refactoring or more exhaustive testing. Source code metrics can be used as input features for a classifier, however, there exist a large number of measures that capture different aspects of coupling, cohesion, inheritance, complexity and size. In a large dimensional feature space some of the metrics may be irrelevant or redundant. Feature selection is the process of identifying a subset of the attributes that improves a classifier's discriminatory performance. This paper presents initial results of a genetic algorithm as a feature subset selection method that enhances a classifier's ability to discover cognitively complex classes that degrade program understanding.
Independent Movement or Government Subcontractor? Strategic Responses of Voluntary Organizations to Institutional Processes

The purpose of this paper is to identify factors that can explain differing responses of voluntary organizations to the pressure of homogenization that follows from interaction with public authorities. The paper is theoretically based on institutional organization theory and resource dependence theory, and empirically on research on voluntary organizations in the social sector. It is asserted that the following factors may explain voluntary organizations' ability to maintain autonomous in relation to public organizations: the characteristics of the organizational field, the focal organization's relations to the dominating organization in the field, organization characteristics and intra-organizational processes and strategies.
Strategy-Proofness and Efficiency in a Mixed-Good Economy with Single-Peaked Preferences

We conduct an analysis of the implications of strategy-proofness and efficiency in a model of a mixed-good economy. Following Corte-Real (2001), we decompose the mixed good into two components - a private good and a public good - and restrict the domain to separably single-peaked and lexicographic preferences, where the private good is the primary concern of any agent. A rule simultaneously chooses a level of the public good that is also the total amount available for the private good, and its distribution among the agents. We then study the implications of strategy-proofness and efficiency in this model. Adding the requirements of continuity and symmetry, we achieve a fundamental result: that any rule satisfying this set of properties must allocate its chosen public good level according to a uniform distribution. We then extract all the additional implications of this set of properties, namely that the rule must have a closed range, and conclude that they are less demanding on how the rule chooses the public good level, allowing for but not requiring the use of the uniform generalized median-voter rule. Both strategic and normative concerns lead us however to a clear recommendation: the use of a uniform distribution, regardless of the associated choice for the public good level.
Local Strategies in Resale Home Financing in the Toronto Housing Market

Most analyses of mortgage lending within cities have provided only a partial view of home finance. In this paper a typology of home finance is developed and the incidence and spatial patterning of home finance types are evaluated for Metropolitan Toronto in 1976-77. The evidence suggests a clear spatial differentiation of home finance types and confirmation of hypothesised relationships between finance types and neighbourhood characteristics. In contrast to many UK and US cities, the availability of privately funded second mortgages allowed undercapitalised buyers, particularly European immigrants, to purchase inner-city housing with relatively low down payments. This was an important factor contributing to the lack of physical decay and abandonment in central Toronto during the period after World War II.
Imaging membrane protein helical wheels.

Resonance patterns have been observed in 2D solid-state NMR spectra of the transmembrane segment of M2 protein from Influenza A virus in oriented samples reflecting the helical wheel of this alpha-helix. The center of this pattern uniquely defines the helical tilt with respect to the bilayer normal without a need for resonance assignments. The distribution of resonances from amino acid specific labels around the "PISA wheel" defines the rotational orientation of the helix and yields preliminary site-specific assignments. With assignments high-resolution structural detail, such as differences in tilt and rotational orientation along the helical axis leading to an assessment of helical coiling, can be obtained.
Detection of circulating Chlamydophila pneumoniae in patients with coronary artery disease and healthy control subjects.

BACKGROUND There is a long history of research suggesting that Chlamydophila pneumoniae is associated with coronary artery disease (CAD). C. pneumoniae in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) could serve as a risk factor for CAD if respiratory infection with C. pneumoniae spreads to atherosclerotic plaques through PBMCs or if infected plaques shed C. pneumoniae-laden PBMCs into the circulation. METHODS PBMCs were collected from 86 case patients with abnormal coronary angiogram findings and from 91 age- and gender-matched healthy control subjects. The healthy control subjects were strictly defined as not having atherosclerosis on the basis of absence of both clinical atherosclerotic disease and traditional risk factors for CAD. PBMCs were probed for the presence of C. pneumoniae nucleic acid by 2 separate real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assays that used primers for outer membrane protein A (ompA) and 16S ribosomal RNA. C. pneumoniae serologic findings were determined for both case patients and control subjects. RESULTS Despite serologic findings indicating past exposure to C. pneumoniae (immunoglobulin G titer, >or=1:16) in 74% of case patients with CAD and control subjects, no C. pneumoniae DNA or RNA was detected in PBMCs from any of the case patients or control subjects, including a subset of 42 participants (18 with CAD) who had samples obtained serially over 8 months. Multiple laboratory controls, including controls for inhibition of PCR, produced expected results. CONCLUSIONS The uniformly negative results with use of highly sensitive methods are in contrast to much of the published literature. Probing of PBMCs for the genes of C. pneumoniae does not appear useful as a noninvasive way of detecting the presence of C. pneumoniae in atheromatous lesions.
The role of quality managers in contemporary organisations

A key question for firms nowadays is how to organise work with quality management. This naturally includes the role of the quality managers and it appears as if the profession of quality managers is at a crossroads. Alternatives are that the role of a quality manager broadens to include quality at a strategic level in the firm and that Six Sigma specialists and Lean Production managers drive the development of quality management in the future. In this paper, we present the results from a survey of 212 quality managers in Swedish organisations. The purpose is to contribute to an understanding of how the management of quality is designed and practised in contemporary organisations. This study shows that a quality manager's operational responsibility is quite narrowly defined. The agenda of the quality manager is mainly related to quality standards, such as ISO 9000 and environmental management systems. These programmes frame the work of the quality manager, which in many cases leaves other programmes, such as Six Sigma and Lean Production, to other departments or parallel improvement structures.
An Implicit Region-Based Deformable Model with Local Segmentation Applied to Weld Defects Extraction

This paper is devoted to present and discuss a model that allows a local segmentation by using statistical information of a given image. It is based on Chan-Vese model, curve evolution, partial differential equations and binary level sets method. The proposed model uses the piecewise constant approximation of Chan-Vese model to compute Signed Pressure Force (SPF) function, this one attracts the curve to the true object(s)’s boundaries.The implemented model is used to extract weld defects from weld radiographic images in the aim to calculate the perimeter and surfaces of those weld defects; encouraged resultants are obtained on synthetic and real radiographic images.
Intelligent Urban Development: An Introduction to a Participatory Approach

Electronic solutions are increasingly a part of urban management and development. Whilst these have been viewed mainly in terms of their potential for reducing public expenditure, this paper argues that there are other major social, economic and political issues for which electronic solutions offer potential, but which have received less attention. For example, in terms of one of the most pressing challenges for urban managers across the developed world—that of the reduction of social exclusion and the redevelopment of deprived neighbourhoods—electronic solutions can offer directions that improve access to public services and increase participation in their design and operation. The literature on contemporary urban environments has, for the most part, paid little attention to the development of such electronic solutions. Taking the issue of transport and its role in social exclusion as a key consideration in urban development, this paper will highlight the role that the new information and communication technologies (ICTs) can play in improving access to information and services, the deprivation of which is often seen as a characteristic of being socially excluded. Furthermore, given that social exclusion is about lack of control and participation in the decision-making process, this paper will also highlight the potential that ICTs have in redefining the relationship between expert and client, manager and user within urban management and development, with significant social and political consequences.
Determinants of the Labour Force Participation of Married Women: A Micro-Study of Toronto Households

Les determinants de la participation des femmes mariees au marche du travail: une etude micro-economique de menages de Toronto. Cette etude est basee sur des observations de menages individuels faites en 1967-8 'a l'aide d'un echantillon de plus de 1600 menages du Toronto m6tropolitain, dans le but d'identifier les d6terminants de l'offre de travail des femmes mariees. (L'echantillon est limite aux femmes dont c'est le premier mariage et dont le mari vit encore au foyer.) La m6thode d'approche retenue consiste 'a faire l'estimation, par la methode ordinaire des moindres carres, d'une fonction de probabilite lineaire dans laquelle chacune des variables independantes est subdivisee en un certain nombre de variables dichotomiques. La variable dependante (la participation de l'epouse au marche du travail) est soit une variable dichotomique (presence ou non sur le marche du travail), soit une variable graduee (ce qui permet d'indiquer le degre de participation au marche du travail). Parmi les facteurs explicatifs retenus, on compte les suivants: les enfants du menage, le revenu avant taxe du mari, la formation scolaire de l'epouse, son age, son lieu de naissance et son 'age au moment de son changement de lieu de residence, sa religion, la situation du mari par rapport au marche du travail. L'auteur trouve que chacun de ces facteurs explique en partie la participation des femmes mariees au marche du travail, et qu'en general les variables qui repre'sentent des subdivisions de ces facteurs piortent les signes attendus. Par ailleurs, l'analyse n'explique qu'un maximum de 24 pour cent de la variance. On doit conclure qu'il existe une proportion appreciable de variation aleatoire.