Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Co‐determination and strategic integration in German firms

Looking at the economic development and importance of German companies in Europe, one might expect that an important aspect of a good economic performance is a well-functioning HR system. Although a number of scholars claim this, the empirical evidence seems to point to the opposite. Several comparative studies have found that HRM in German companies is less strategically integrated and proactive than that of comparable firms in other countries. This article argues that the empirical results reported fail to grasp the essence of HRM in German firms. This lacuna is partly due to the co-determination structure. HRM in large German firms has to be evaluated within the co-determination structure, with the Betriebsrat (works council) being an important actor. For German firms co-determination might even be a strategic resource. By examining this issue within such a framework, a more favourable picture of HR integration in German firms emerges.
Improving teamwork, trust and safety: An ethnographic study of an interprofessional initiative

This study explored the perceptions of staff in an interprofessional team based on a medical rehabilitation ward for older people, following the introduction of a service improvement programme designed to promote better teamworking. The study aimed to address a lack of in-depth qualitative research that could explain the day-to-day realities of interprofessional teamworking in healthcare. All members of the team participated, (e.g. nurses, doctors, physiotherapists, social worker, occupational therapists), and findings suggest that interprofessional teamworking improved over the 12-month period. Four themes emerged from the data offering insights into the development and effects of better interprofessional teamworking: the emergence of collegial trust within the team, the importance of team meetings and participative safety, the role of shared objectives in conflict management and the value of autonomy within the team. Reductions in staff sickness/absence levels and catastrophic/major patient safety incidents were also detected following the introduction of the service improvement programme.
Standardize or Customize: The Interactive Effects of HRM and Environment Uncertainty on MNC Subsidiary Performance

This study examines the impact of customizing (as opposed to standardizing) human resource management (HRM) practices on subsidiary performance in multinational corporations (MNCs). We examine how this relationship is influenced by environmental uncertainty. Hypotheses were tested using data from 92 subsidiaries of a large MNC operating in 27 countries. The results showed an interactive relationship between the customization of HRM practices and subsidiary environmental uncertainty on both financial (net profit) and nonfinancial (customer satisfaction) objective measures of subsidiary performance. The results of this study provide important empirical insights for researchers and practitioners into how HRM can be best configured to drive multiple performance outcomes for MNC subsidiaries.
Best practice implementation of total quality management: Multiple cross-case analysis of manufacturing and service organizations

This paper examines 'best practice' implementation of total quality management (TQM) in eight Australian manufacturing and service organizations. Multiple cross-case analysis is used to synthesize the information obtained from the case studies. The insights gained from the case studies are used to discuss the critical success factors (CSFs) that characterize Australian quality organizations and the essential steps in implementing TQM. Leadership and quality-based vision of world-class performance has emerged as major factors that underpin best practice in TQM implementation. Participation by employees and unions in the development of an organization's vision was seen as critical in gaining high-level commitment to the organization's goals. Other CSFs include: the identification of customer expectations and measurement of perceptions; clearly defined, and agreed by all, strategy for implementation; establishment of a formal structure for controlling, monitoring and reporting improvement initiatives; implem.
Customer perceptions of service quality in luxury hotels in New Delhi, India: an exploratory study

Purpose – The aim of the study is to assess the service quality perception of customers of luxury hotels, New Delhi in India and to help the hotel management identify areas that need attention to meet and exceed customer expectations.Design/methodology/approach – The study uses a survey and interview technique to accumulate information for analysis using SPSS version 12 and was conducted at different four‐ and five‐star hotels in New Delhi involving hotel guests agreeing to participate. A usable sample of 271 participants resulted with a large majority being male.Findings – The importance‐performance analysis shows that, for responses relating to front office, room service and in‐house cafe/restaurant, the importance score is statistically significant to and higher than the performance rating. Overall, the results indicate significant difference between expectations of the guests and actual experiences, thus highlighting managerial implications.Research limitations/implications – The current study cannot .
Health status and disease severity in fibromyalgia: results of a six-center longitudinal study.

OBJECTIVE To determine the intermediate and long-term outcomes of fibromyalgia in patients seen in rheumatology centers in which there is special interest in the syndrome. METHODS We conducted a longitudinal outcome study by mailed comprehensive Health Assessment Questionnaire administered every 6 months to 538 patients, from 6 rheumatology centers, whose median duration of disease at first assessment was 7.8 years. The final assessment took place after 7 years. In addition, there was study followup on 85 patients who had attended the Wichita center for > 10 years. RESULTS Although functional disability worsened slightly and health satisfaction improved slightly, measures of pain, global severity, fatigue, sleep disturbance, anxiety, depression, and health status were markedly abnormal at study initiation and were essentially unchanged over the study period. Correlations between first and last assessment values were as high as r = 0.82. For some variables, abnormalities were 3 times greater at one center compared with another. CONCLUSION Patients with established fibromyalgia, seen in rheumatology centers in which there a special interest in the disease and followed up for as long as 7 years, have markedly abnormal scores for pain, functional disability, fatigue, sleep disturbance, and psychological status, and these values do not change substantially over time. Half the patients are dissatisfied with their health, and 59% rate their health as fair or poor. There are marked differences in disease severity among the various centers, but < 14% of the variance in outcomes can be explained by demographic or center factors. Values at the first assessment are predictive of final values.
An Online Approach to Allocate Operating Reserve for an Isolated Power System

Utilities use operating reserve to cope with the disturbances. To ensure that the operating frequency and system security are well maintained, the operating guidelines always specify that the reserve quantity and response rate should meet some prescribed levels. This paper proposes methodologies to evaluate system's frequency response characteristic (beta) and operating reserve for the isolated power system. With the presented algorithm to estimate system's beta online, a real-time allocation of operating reserve would be feasible to meet the guidelines for either regulation or contingency operation. Test results from the simulated conditions, and from the actual operating data verify the merits of the proposed methodologies to system's frequency control, and reliability.
No! high level languages should not be used to write systems software

The views expressed here derive from the experience of the author and his colleagues in designing and implementing the Octopus computer network at the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory. This network serves five major time-shared computers (CDC 7600's and STAR-100's), connecting them to over 800 interactive terminals, about 200 television monitor displays, printers that operate at up to 18,000 lines/minute, and more than a trillion bits of storage. The software for the network has been written entirely in assembly language (for PDP-8's, 10's, and 11's, MODCOMP II's, and TI 980's) and from scratch, basing none of it on manufacturers' or other commercial software. The same persons who create the design also do the programming and debugging. In most cases one or two persons program a computer; four persons were used on the largest system (the PDP-10's). Our experience does not accord with much of what we read in the computing literature, leading us to conclude that it is written by persons unaware the real problems of systems work. We have had little or no trouble with deadlocks, security loopholes, and other logical flaws that are belabored at length in the literature. Most of our effort has gone into devising ways for the system to survive in the presence of intermittent and random failures of hardware components and for it to maintain high data transfer rates among multiply-interconnected devices and computers of varying speeds, matters that are seldom discussed in the literature at all. It is certainly not the case that the difficulties encountered with operating systems are the same as those encountered with other large programs, such as compilers.
Co‐opetition applied to training – a case study

Although technology makes communication technically instant and infinite, old‐fashioned one‐to‐one is still best for building relationships. Networking is one of the best ways to expand business. People join forces for bigger schemes than they could manage individually. This has now extended beyond individuals. Two or more companies will join, share and co‐operate for joint ventures. This article describes a corporate leadership project jointly run by a management consultancy, a business school and an outdoor activities provider. Their different approaches, which might have been considered as in competition with each other, were blended to provide something brand new, that could not have happened with any one of the organisations without the others. All three have also been able to expand their own market through new contacts. This type of joint enterprise, a mixture of co‐operation and competition, is called co‐opetition.
SUPPORTING ABSORPTIVE CAPACITY FOR KNOWLEDGE BROKERS: EVIDENCE OF CANADIAN HEALTH ORGANIZATIONS

The importance of using healthcare evidence by policy-makers is widely recognized [Lavis (2006), Ward et al. (2009)]. For over a decade, several strategies to improve the use of knowledge by policy-makers have been promoted [Landry et al. (2006); Amara et al. (2004)]. Among them, the use of individuals called "intermediaries" or "knowledge brokers" is presented as a potential strategy [Hargadon (2002); Lomas (2007)]. Situated at the organizational interface, these actors benefit from a strategic position allowing easier access to external knowledge [Cohen and Levinthal (1990)]. Therefore, they must develop good skills to be able to properly enjoy all opportunities to create value for their organization. In fact, many authors consider brokers as true knowledge integrators that assess, interpret, synthesize, exploit and transfer pertinent knowledge. Despite the presence of several studies that stress the importance of the multifaceted role of brokers, few have explored how these actors concretely integrate or absorb knowledge and especially, what skills are necessary for the success of their activities. The aims of this paper are: to propose a new conceptual model on research integration by knowledge brokers and to provide an empirical testing of this proposed model. The conceptual framework to be presented in this study builds on recent theoretical developments on the concept of knowledge absorptive capacity [Todorova and Durisin (2007)]. To test the conceptual framework, we collected survey data. The sample of 297 respondents was composed of professionals and managers involved at different levels of health services in Canada. To be eligible, respondents had to be engaged in knowledge brokering activities. Data analysis allowed presenting a first portrait of the profile of knowledge brokers working in health organizations in Canada. In this perspective, several descriptive analyses, such as the distribution of knowledge brokers according to their membership organizations, their status, education, experience, etc., were completed. Other confirmatory analyses with EQS were completed to confirm the theoretical validity of the dimensions of the broker's absorptive capacity. Finally, bivariate analyses were used with these dimensions to compare knowledge brokers regarding their absorptive capacity and the explanatory variables documented in the literature. In the last part of this paper, we discuss the implications of the results on the role of knowledge brokers regarding the use of evidence in health organizations and public policy.
Bringing the world to Canada: 'The periphery of the centre'

Canada is not a peripheral country by most standards. However, since the 1960s, Canadian cities have sought to change the somewhat provincial image they have historically had, and they have used mega-events such as Olympic Games, World Expositions and other 'second order' international sports events to try to reposition themselves on the world stage. This paper examines the place promotion agendas of the two Canadian cities that have hosted Olympic Games, and will also comment on the aspirations of Vancouver, which will host the Winter Olympics in 2010. The core of the paper will concentrate on different aspects of 're-imaging' the city: image building, signalling and identity transformation. Here I argue that an important but widely overlooked aspect of increasing the stature of a city involves changing the ways that citizens of that city think about themselves. The next section will examine whether the exposure and the opportunities for civic promotion afforded by a Games actually translate into economic growth. I will argue that the evidence for this is mixed at best. Finally, the paper argues that the public money spent on Olympics typically brings the greatest benefits to local and regional elites, despite popular rhetoric that such events are good for the 'community as a whole'.
Decrease in protein tyrosine phosphorylation is associated with F‐actin reorganization by retinoic acid in human endometrial adenocarcinoma (RL95‐2) cells

Transformed cells often express elevated levels of tyrosine‐phosphorylated proteins. Inhibition of protein tyrosine kinases causes reversion of malignant cells to the normal phenotype. In the present study, we evaluated the possibility that the reversion of human endometrial adenocarcinoma RL95‐2 cells to a stationary phenotype induced by retinoic acid was associated with inhibition of tyrosine phosphorylation of cellular proteins. We found that retinoic acid decreased the levels of tyrosine‐phosphorylated proteins, as assessed by immunostaining and immunoprecipitations using specific anti‐phosphotyrosine antibodies. In addition, the inhibitors of tyrosine kinases herbimycin A and tyrphostin mimicked retinoic acid, inducing F‐actin reorganization and increasing the size of RL95‐2 cells, as determined by measurement of cell perimeters. Because focal adhesions that connect actin filaments with the plasma membrane are major sites of tyrosine phosphorylation, we further investigated whether selected focal adhesion proteins were affected by retinoic acid. We found that retinoic acid altered the localization of focal adhesion kinase. All‐trans retinoic acid was effective in reducing the levels of focal adhesion kinase and paxillin protein. Thirteen‐cis retinoic acid increased the levels of vinculin protein in the cytosolic fraction of cells. These changes are consistent with actin reorganization and reversion toward a stationary phenotype induced by retinoic acid in endometrial adenocarcinoma RL95‐2 cells. Our results indicate that the differentiating effects of retinoids on endometrial cells are associated with decreases in tyrosine phosphorylation and changes in the levels and distribution of focal adhesion proteins. These findings suggest that signaling pathways that involve tyrosine kinases are potential targets for drug design against endometrial cancer. J. Cell. Physiol. 178:320–332, 1999. © 1999 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Divergent Trends and Different Causal Logics: The Importance of Bargaining Centralization When Explaining Earnings Inequality across Advanced Democratic Societies

This article argues that centralized wage bargaining alters the causal logic in explanations of wage inequality, in the sense that common explanatory factors have different effects, given the degree of bargaining centralization. The evidence presented supports the theoretical argument. Using aggregate time-series cross-country data from fifteen capitalist democracies, the article shows that—given decentralized bargaining—trade with less developed countries, resources devoted to research and development, and government employment have inegalitarian effects on the wage distribution, whereas leftist governments and unionism compress wages. However, given centralized wage bargaining these effects gradually disappear or, in some cases, change direction.
Structure of a hydrophobically collapsed intermediate on the conformational folding pathway of ribonuclease A probed by hydrogen-deuterium exchange.

The unfolded state of disulfide-intact bovine pancreatic ribonuclease A is a heterogeneous mixture of unfolded species which have different X-Pro peptide bond conformations. One of these unfolded species, labeled Uvf, has all its X-Pro peptide bonds in the native conformation. Therefore, the refolding of Uvf is a purely conformational folding process which is not complicated by cis-trans X-Pro peptide bond isomerization. There are two identifiable intermediates on the folding pathway of Uvf: one which is a largely unfolded intermediate (IU) and another which is a hydrophobically collapsed intermediate (I phi). An instrument was built, and experiments were designed to study the structure in IU and I phi by hydrogen-deuterium exchange. These experiments are a combination of a double-jump experiment followed by a pulse-labeling experiment. The native protein was first unfolded to populate Uvf to more than 99%, and then Uvf was refolded for a specified period of time. After refolding, hydrogen-deuterium exchange of the backbone amides was initiated for a given time by raising the pH. Subsequently, the exchange was quenched and the protein was allowed to continue to fold to the native state. The extent of exchange was determined quantitatively by two-dimensional NMR spectroscopy. The data indicate that IU has no secondary structure that can protect the backbone amides from exchange under the conditions employed. On the other hand, in I phi, the second helix (residues 24-34) and a large part of the beta-sheet region of the protein are formed, while the rest of the protein molecule remains unstructured. In general, the protection factors in I phi are low, indicating that this intermediate has a dynamic structure. Our observations are consistent with I phi being a molten-globule-like intermediate. The regular structure formed in I phi is much less than that observed in a hydrogen-bonded intermediate (Ii) populated early on the major slow-refolding pathway of the protein [Udgaonkar, J. B. , & Baldwin, R. L. (1990) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 87, 8197-8201]; in addition, the structure in I phi has much lower stability than that in Ii. This implies that a slower refolding rate allows for a higher cooperativity between the different structural elements of the protein, resulting in the formation of more stable (native-like) intermediates (as in Ii) during the folding process.
Complying with EU directives' requirements: the link between EU decision-making and the correct transposition of EU provisions

The implementation of EU policies has hardly been studied from the perspective of the actual performance of national policy-makers. The present study fills the gap of EU policy implementation research by analysing member states' correct transposition of the provisions of different EU directives. Hypotheses are formulated on the relationship between characteristics of the process and outcome of EU decision-making and the transposition performance of member states. Member states' incentives to deviate, conflict in the Council, as well as characteristics of the adopted EU decisions, such as discretion and complexity, are expected to influence compliance with different EU requirements. Hypotheses are tested on the transposition performance of 15 member states regarding 136 EU provisions. The analyses reveal that member states are likely to act upon their incentives to deviate during the implementation process, and use their freedom of manoeuvre to achieve compliance with the EU requirements.
The Mechanics of a Reasonably Fitted Quarterly New Keynesian Macro Model

The last years have witnessed a sharp increase of interest in monetary policy rules (see Taylor [1999]). This normative branch of monetary policy tries to evaluate the performance of alternative monetary policy rules in terms of associated monetary policy outcomes. Nevertheless this exercise is crucially based on the assumption that key parameters of the model are realistically specified. This holds in particular true for the preference vector of the central bank which trades off the individual goal variables of monetary policy and the degree of forward lookingness in the Phillips curve and the IS equation. Based on matching moments and the implied autocorrelations and cross correlations we present evidence for the USA covering the term of Allan Greenspan (1987:4- 2002:2) that hybrid specifications of the Phillips curve and the IS-curve are characterized by approximately 60% of backward looking economic agents. The predominant goal of monetary policy is price stability and financial market stability. Output gap stabilizationonly seems to play a minor role as an independent goal for the conduct of monetary policy.
Endarterectomy and Stenting for Asymptomatic Carotid Stenosis: A Race at Breakneck Speed

Atherosclerotic carotid stenosis has been recognized for the past several decades as being responsible for a significant portion of ischemic stroke, particularly the major and disabling ones. This category of stroke distinguished itself as being one of the first ones to have an effective preventive treatment in carotid endarterectomy. It took over 4 decades before major randomized, controlled trials were completed in North America and Europe to provide enough definitive information about its effectiveness, risks, limitations, and categories of patients that most benefit from it. Just like any invasive surgery, endarterectomy is being challenged by minimally invasive stenting, which has already made major technologic leaps and rapid clinical inroads. Stenting has started by tackling patient populations like surgical high-risk patients who were largely avoided in the endarterectomy trials and demonstrated equivalence to it in such populations. The broader applicability of the technique, however, has not been yet adequately investigated. The results so far are greatly reassuring and encouraging to enroll patients in the ongoing randomized trials that will hopefully provide more definitive answers to this issue.