Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Organizational Development and the Ontology of Creative Dialectical Evolution

This paper invites organizational theorists to a double stretching, towards philosophy on the one hand and towards practitioners' lay theories on the other. We rely on Henri Bergson's ontology of creative evolution so as to build a `quad-motor' theory explaining the process of development in organizations and to formulate propositions on the relationships between organizational development and the lay ontology of organizational members. Then we illustrate the links between philosophy and practice, and show how the analysis of a narrative by a practitioner (Michel Barthod, Chief Executive of Salomon, a high-growth company, in the 1980s) can elicit his lay ontology, thus making possible future empirical corroborations of the above propositions. This narrative is in line with Bergson's ontology of creative (dialectical) evolution, and also contains the concepts of an integrative framework explaining organizational development. In the third section, inspired by the philosopher, Henri Bergson, and by the practitioner, Michel Barthod, we build such a framework in which becoming and relating are two central intertwined concepts.
South Asian diasporas in Canada

In May 2011 over 60 scholars gathered in Canada for a conference on ‘Assessing the Complexities of South Asian Migration’. This special issue emerges from this event, and contains papers by scholars from multiple disciplines drawing upon various research methods and theoretical frameworks. As a collection, the papers demonstrate the mature and evolving nature of research on Canada’s various South Asian immigrant communities (India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bhutan and the Maldives). This geographical diversity comprises what is termed ‘South Asia’, according to this journal’s aims and scopes at least, but there are several other territories commonly captured by the term ‘South Asia’. The diversity, and problematic construction, of the categorization ‘South Asian’ in Canada is explicitly examined in the first two papers by Sandeep Agrawal and Sutama Ghosh. Subsequent papers explore particular subsets of this diasporic community that are framed by national (mostly Indian) and other identity markers. Either implicitly or explicitly, each paper considers identity not as fixed, but intersectional, and shaped through a recursive exchange between family, home, community, economy and state. Before introducing the papers in this collection, let us first begin with some official versions of South Asians in Canada using various Statistics Canada reports. Such formal efforts to define a South Asian community often rely on a confusing array of ethnic, linguistic as well as national markers. In 2006 Canadians of South Asian background represented the largest visible minority group nationally at 1.3 million people, or about 4% of Canada’s total national population. At the metropolitan scale, South Asians represented 11% of Toronto’s and 8% of Vancouver’s population in 2006 (Lindsay 2007). In 2001 South Asian Canadians were fairly equally divided between Hindu, Muslim and Sikh religious adherence, but linguistically English and Punjabi, followed by Tamil, were the most common mother tongue or language spoken at home (Tran et al. 2005, 23). While 88% of South Asian Canadians stated they had a strong sense of belonging to Canada (higher than any other visible minority group) (Tran et al. 2005), over a third indicated they had experienced discrimination (Lindsay 2007, 16). Within the South Asian community India (47%), Sri Lanka (13%) and Pakistan (11%) are the top countries of birth, this compares to 61%, 2% and 7% for the same national groups before 1971 (Tran et al. 2005). The dominance of Indian nationals in the South Asian diaspora in Canada is clearly evident, and this overrepresentation is also reflected in the papers in this special issue. While South Asian diasporas in Canada are still overly Indian in composition, there has been diversification over the last 50 years, driven in part by changes in Canada’s immigration policy and external geopolitical events.
Early Helicobacter pylori colonisation: the association with growth faltering in The Gambia

Background:Helicobacter pylori is one of the commonest causes of chronic infection of mankind, yet the natural history of acute infection is poorly understood. Some studies suggest that gastric colonisation with H pylori is associated with suboptimal nutrition and growth in childhood. Aims: To describe the clinical features of early H pylori colonisation and assess its role in the development of infant malnutrition and growth faltering. Methods: Two consecutive prospective longitudinal cohort studies were conducted at the Medical Research Council Laboratories in a rural community in The Gambia, West Africa. The first birth cohort of 125 infants was followed by a second of 65 children from the same community. H pylori colonisation was detected by sequential 13C urea breath tests, and infant growth was monitored by serial measurements. Results: Children with early H pylori colonisation became significantly lighter, shorter, and thinner than their peers in late infancy. The association was found in both cohorts. No socioeconomic or demographic confounding variables were identified to explain this, and the weight deficit was no longer detectable when the children were aged 5–8 years. Conclusions: Results suggest that H pylori colonisation in early infancy predisposes to the development of malnutrition and growth faltering, although the effect did not persist into later childhood.
Competencia social en niños con sordera profunda * Social competence in children with deep deafness

This study aims to compare the social performance of children with deep deafness, who attend three specialized institutions of the city of Cordoba (Argentina) and to evaluate the information taken from different point of views (teachers - students) about the social competence of children. A non probabilistic sampling was used. Participants were 32 children aged between 7 and 12 years old, and their parents and professionals/ teachers ( n = 15). Children attended institutions with particular characteristics: A (public oral, n = 10), B (public bilingual, n = 9) and C (private bilingual, n = 13). Data was obtained from the MESSY scale and students’ self reports. The findings determine that children who attend the A institution have higher scores on aspects such as overconfidence, jealousy and arrogance, compared to the other two institutions ( B and C). On the other hand, the relation between children and teachers’ reports was only evident with regard to the appropriate social skills dimension.
Afferent and efferent connections of the caudolateral neostriatum in the pigeon (Columba livia): A retro‐ and anterograde pathway tracing study

The avian caudolateral neostriatum (NCL) was first identified on the basis of its dense dopaminergic innervation. This fact and data from lesion studies have led to the notion that NCL might be the avian equivalent of prefrontal cortex (PFC). A key feature of the PFC is the ability to integrate information from all modalities needed for the generation of motor plans. By using antero‐ and retrograde pathway tracing techniques, we investigated the organization of sensory afferents to the NCL and the connections with limbic and somatomotor centers in the basal ganglia and archistriatum. Data from all tracing experiments were compared with the distribution of tyrosine‐hydroxylase (TH)‐immunoreactive fibers, serving as a marker of dopaminergic innervation. The results show that NCL is reciprocally connected with the secondary sensory areas of all modalities and with at least two parasensory areas. Retrograde tracing also demonstrated further afferents from the deep layers of the Wulst and from the frontolateral neostriatum as well as the sources of thalamic input. Efferents of NCL project onto parts of the avian basal ganglia considered to serve somatomotor or limbic functions. Projections to the archistriatum are mainly directed to the somatomotor part of the intermediate archistriatum. In addition, cells in caudal NCL were found to be connected with the ventral and posterior archistriatum, which are considered avian equivalents of mammalian amygdala. All afferents and projection neurons were confined to the plexus of densest TH innervation. Our results show that the NCL is positioned to amalgamate information from all modalities and to exert control over limbic and somatomotor areas. This organization might comprise the neural basis for such complex behaviours as working memory or spatial orientation. J. Comp. Neurol. 407:228–260, 1999. © 1999 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Local recovery in data compression for general sources

Source coding is concerned with optimally compressing data, so that it can be reconstructed up to a specified distortion from its compressed representation. Usually, in fixed-length compression, a sequence of n symbols (from some alphabet) is encoded to a sequence of k symbols (bits). The decoder produces an estimate of the original sequence of n symbols from the encoded bits. The rate-distortion function characterizes the optimal possible rate of compression allowing a given distortion in reconstruction as n grows. This function depends on the source probability distribution. In a locally recoverable decoding, to reconstruct a single symbol, only a few compressed bits are accessed. In this paper we find the limits of local recovery for rates near the rate-distortion function. For a wide set of source distributions, we show that, it is possible to compress within ε of the rate-distortion function such the local recoverability grows as Ω(log(1/ε)); that is, in order to recover one source symbol, at least Ω(log(1/ε)) bits of the compressed symbols are queried. We also show order optimal impossibility results. Similar results are provided for lossless source coding as well.
Departmental Papers ( CIS ) University of Pennsylvania Year QuanTM : A Quantitative Trust Management System

Quantitative Trust Management (QTM) provides a dynamic interpretation of authorization policies for access control decisions based on upon evolving reputations of the entities involved. QuanTM, a QTM system, selectively combines elements from trust management and reputation management to create a novel method for policy evaluation. Trust management, while effective in managing access with delegated credentials (as in PolicyMaker and KeyNote), needs greater flexibility in handling situations of partial trust. Reputation management provides a means to quantify trust, but lacks delegation and policy enforcement. This paper reports on QuanTM’s design decisions and novel policy evaluation procedure. A representation of quantified trust relationships, the trust dependency graph, and a sample QuanTM application specific to the KeyNote trust management language, are also proposed.
A study to evaluate surrogate markers of insulin resistance in forty euglycemic healthy subjects.

OBJECTIVE Insulin resistance (IR) is increasingly being recognized as an important pathophysiological determinant of not only diabetes but also a number of other clinical states. Methods for directly estimating IR like euglycemic clamp technique and Insulin suppression test (IST) are experimentally demanding and impractical tool for large scale epidemiological studies. We evaluated several surrogate markers of IR in 40 healthy subjects. METHODS Study included 40 euglycemic normal healthy north Indian subjects (33 males, 7 females) of mean +/- SD age 38.9 +/- 8.6 yrs, BMI 20.5 +/- 3.6 kg/m2 and WHR 0.87 +/- 0.05. All subjects were tested for fasting and postprandial (2 hr post 75 gm glucose) glucose and insulin. Then all the subjects underwent IST by modified Harano's method (simultaneous infusion of 20% dextrose @ 6mg/kg/min and plain human insulin @ 50 mU/kg/hr). Metabolic clearance rate for glucose (MCR = glucose infusion rate/steady state plasma glucose, ml/kg/min) was calculated for 120-150 min of infusion. Correlation of MCR with various surrogate markers which included fasting glucose (FG), fasting insulin (FI), fasting glucose/insulin ratio (FGIR), 120 min glucose (PPG), 120 min insulin (PPI), 120 min glucose/insulin ratio (PPGIR), homeostatic model assessment of insulin resistance (HOMA-IR), quantitative insulin sensitivity check index (QUICKI), fasting glucose insulin product (FIGP), insulin sensitivity index (ISI), fasting insulin resistance index (FIRI), insulin ratio (IRa) and insulinogenic index (II) were evaluated. RESULTS MCR was found to be significantly (p <0.05) correlated with FI (r= -0.347), PPI (r= -0.402), PPG (r= -0.317), PPGIR (r= 0.356), HOMA-IR (r= -0.348), FIGP (r= -0.348), and FIRI (r= -0.348). CONCLUSIONS Among the surrogate markers which were significantly correlated to MCR, there was no significant superiority of one marker over the other. We suggest that measuring insulin levels alone in a single fasting sample can serve as a simple, cheap and convenient indirect qualitative index of IR.
Designing the Knowledge Integration Environment

The Knowledge Integration Environment (KIE) activities were designed to promote lifelong science learning. This paper describes the partnership process that guided the design as well as the Scaffolded Knowledge Integration framework that gave the partnership a head start on creating effective materials. KIE activities take advantage of internet materials to engage students in debate of science questions like 'how far does light go? ', to make scientifically oriented design decisions, and to critique science claims in the popular press. Other papers in this collection describe the design studies carried out to improve KIE activities. These studies have implications for improving the Scaffolded Knowledge Integration framework and can inform future designers of science instruction.
The Impact of Emotional Product Attributes on Consumer Demand: An Application to the U.S. Motion Picture Industry

Demand for products is often modeled as a function of product attributes. We propose that demand for experiential or hedonic products be modeled also as a function of “emotional product attributes” or emotions that a product might elicit from consumers. Our category of interest is the U.S. motion picture industry. We calibrate emotional attributes of a movie by mapping a movie’s plot keywords on a list of human emotions by using a word pattern recognition method called Latent Semantic Analysis (LSA). We propose a factor model to reduce this multidimensional representation of correlated emotional attributes to two factors - “emotional complexity” and “negative emotions”. These two factors are simultaneously incorporated in a random-utility choice model of 982 movies released in theaters in 1999-2005. We find that consumers prefer movies with greater emotional complexity. Demand for movies with negative emotions is moderated by consumers’ sense of well-being, as measured by the Consumer Confidence Index. Importantly, our method of capturing emotional product attributes is simple, off-the-shelf, inexpensive, and scalable to studying markets with a large number of products. Substantively, our findings combine insights from economics and psychology, and are of interest to studios and theaters in their production and release timing decisions.
Syntactic SMT Using a Discriminative Text Generation Model

We study a novel architecture for syntactic SMT. In contrast to the dominant approach in the literature, the system does not rely on translation rules, but treat translation as an unconstrained target sentence generation task, using soft features to capture lexical and syntactic correspondences between the source and target languages. Target syntax features and bilingual translation features are trained consistently in a discriminative model. Experiments using the IWSLT 2010 dataset show that the system achieves BLEU comparable to the state-of-the-art syntactic SMT systems.
The Effect of Audit Inquiries on the Ability to Detect Financial Misrepresentations

Recent professional promulgations recommend the use of audit inquiry for fraud detection. One benefit of audit inquiries is that they may induce interviewees to act in ways that facilitate the discovery of intentional financial misrepresentations (deception). We conducted two experiments to assess the ability of prospective accountants (upper‐level accounting majors) to detect intentional financial misrepresentations in audit inquiries. These accounting majors served as proxies for entry‐level accountants. Our results indicate that participants have poor deception detection ability in evaluating a response to an inquiry, even when they receive deception detection training prior to the inquiry, and when repeat questions are added to the inquiry to heighten the level of stress with which interviewees must cope. However, our results also suggest that the inquiry process may change the way participants view interviewees. Participants were more skeptical of verbal financial representations (e.g., valuation, ex.
Nonprofit Organizational Effectiveness

In the face of increased accountability pressures, nonprofits are searching for ways to demonstrate their effectiveness. Because meaningful tools to evaluate effectiveness are largely absent, financial ratios are still the main indicators used to approximate it. However, there is an extensive body of literature on determinants of nonprofit effectiveness. In this study, we test the extent to which these assertions in the literature align with practitioner views. To increase the practical value of our comparative exercise, we create a self-assessment survey on the basis of the practices that find support in both academia and practice. This provides managers with a tool to assess the extent to which the identified practices are present in their organizations and with suggestions, which might lead to improvements in their effectiveness. Intermediaries can use the tool to provide better information to donors. Funders can use it in their selection of grantees, and capacity-building efforts.
EVOLUTION OF THE STRUCTURE OF TAIL FEATHERS: IMPLICATIONS FOR THE THEORY OF SEXUAL SELECTION

Abstract Bird tails are extraordinarily variable in length and functionality. In some species, males have evolved exaggeratedly long tails as a result of sexual selection. Changes in tail length should be associated with changes in feather structure. The study of the evolution of feather structure in bird tails could give insight to understand the causes and means of evolution in relation to processes of sexual selection. In theory, three possible means of tail length evolution in relation to structural components might be expected: (1) a positive relationship between the increase in length and size of structural components maintaining the mechanical properties of the feather; (2) no relationship; that is, enlarging feather length without changes in the structural components; and (3) a negative relationship; that is, enlarging feather length by reducing structural components. These hypotheses were tested using phylogenetic analyses to examine changes in both degree of exaggeration in tail length and structural characteristics of tail feathers (rachis width and density of barbs) in 36 species, including those dimorphic and nondimorphic in tail length. The degree of sexual dimorphism in tail length was negatively correlated with both rachis width and density of barbs in males but not in females. Reinforcing this result, we found that dimorphism in tail length was negatively associated with dimorphism in tail feather structure (rachis width and density of barbs). These results support the third hypothesis, in which the evolution of long feathers occurs at the expense of making them simpler and therefore less costly to produce. However, we do not know the effects of enfeeblement on the costs of bearing. If the total costs increased, the enfeeblement of feathers could be explained as a reinforcement of the honesty of the signal. Alternatively, if total costs were reduced, the strategy could be explained by cheating processes. The study of female preferences for fragile tail feathers is essential to test these two hypotheses. Preferences for fragile tails would support the evolution of reinforcement of honesty, whereas female indifference would indicate the existence of cheating in certain stages of the evolutionary process.
How health affects retirement decisions: three pathways taken by middle-older aged New Zealanders

ABSTRACT Concerns about the economic impact of an ageing population have triggered many developed countries to advance policies that attempt to extend working lives and discourage early retirement. There is considerable evidence of a relationship between poor health and early retirement, but some researchers have suggested that there is a ‘justification bias’ in claims that ill-health is the cause of retirement. This paper reports a longitudinal qualitative study that interviewed 60 New Zealanders aged between 55 and 70 years on two occasions, and analysed their explanations of health-related retirement decisions. Although the participants' explanations included poor health as an important reason for retirement, two additional health-related retirement pathways were identified: the ‘maximisation of life’, being decisions to retire whilst healthy to fulfil other life goals; and ‘health protection’, being decisions motivated by health protection and promotion. These health pathways interacted with other factors such as financial security. An elucidation of these motivations pays particular attention to the social and discursive context of explanations of retirement, and considers the three identified health-retirement pathways in relation to the sickness justification bias and current government policies to extend working lives.
Towards a Semantic Outlier Detection Framework in Wireless Sensor Networks

Outlier detection in the preprocessing phase of Knowledge Discovery in Databases (KDD) processes has been a widely researched topic for many years. However, identifying the potential outlier cause still remains an unsolved challenge even though it could be very helpful for determining what actions to take after detecting it. Furthermore, conventional outlier detection methods might still overlook outliers in certain complex contexts. In this article, Semantic Technologies are used to contribute overcoming these problems by proposing the SemOD (Semantic Outlier Detection) Framework. This framework guides the data-scientist towards the detection of certain types of outliers in WSNs (Wireless Sensor Network). Feasibility of the approach has been tested in outdoor temperature sensors and results show that the proposed approach is generic enough to apply it to different sensors, even improving the accuracy, specificity and sensitivity of outlier detection as well as spotting their potential cause.