Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Consultants as the players, bankers as the house: gaining competitive advantage in merger and acquisition advisory services

The unprecedented worldwide growth in the aggregate transaction value of mergers and acquisitions (M&A) has been accompanied by a concomitant increase in the advisory fees. Management consultants have challenged the status of banks in the latter's largely exclusive domain of M&A advisory services. Based on an in-depth inquiry into M&A decisions made by 27 medium and large-sized companies in Europe, the USA and Asia-Pacific, we investigate the decision-making processes used by bankers and consultants to undertake M&A advisory work. From the point of view of the financial services provider, we highlight the areas where banks have or can gain competitive advantage over consultants through the pricing mechanism, based either on contingency, fixed fees or a combination of both. We conclude that consultants may win from accepting M&A work in the short term but the long-term odds favour the banks.
Bringing games to life : actuated output in tangible tabletop gaming

We will link the concepts of tangible games and actuated output, both of which exist within the field of tangible interfaces. Our focus is on researching the possibilities for integrating actuated output in tangible tabletop games. We believe this combination is promising because the advantages of tangible interfaces are suitable for combination with games, and actuated output can add an extra dimension to these tangible interfaces. We will provide our insights on the potential of this combination by examining existing projects and evaluating the possibilities they offer for the future.
Self-disciplined stabilization of DC microgrids by passivity-based control

DC microgrids may have time-varying system structures and operation patterns due to the flexibility and uncertainty of microsources. This feature poses a challenge to conventional stability analysis methods, which are based on fixed and complete system models. To solve this problem, the concept of self-disciplined stabilization is introduced in this paper. A common stability discipline is established using the passivity-based control theory, which ensures that the microgrid is always stable as long as this discipline is complied with by each individual converter. In this way, the stabilization task is localized to avoid investigating the entire microgrid, thereby providing immunity against system variations. Moreover, a passivity margin criterion is proposed to further enhance the stability margin of the self-disciplined control. The modified criterion imposes a tighter phase restriction to provide explicit phase margins and prevent under-damped transient oscillations. In line with this criterion, a practical control algorithm is also derived, which increases the converter's passivity through voltage feed forward. The major theoretical conclusions are verified by a laboratory DC microgrid test bench.
Engendering Democracy in Brazil: Women's Movements in Transition Politics

Brazil has the tragic distinction of having endured the longest military-authoritarian regime in South America. Yet the country is distinctive for another reason: in the 1970s and 1980s it witnessed the emergence and development of perhaps the largest, most diverse, most radical, and most successful women's movement in contemporary Latin America. This book tells the compelling story of the rise of progressive women's movements amidst the climate of political repression and economic crisis enveloping Brazil in the 1970s, and it devotes particular attention to the gender politics of the final stages of regime transition in the 1980s.Situating Brazil in a comparative theoretical framework, the author analyzes the relationship between nonrevolutionary political change and changes in women's consciousness and mobilization. Her engaging analysis of the potentialities for promoting social justice and transforming relations of inequality for women and men in Latin America and elsewhere in the Third World makes this book essential reading for all students and teachers of Latin American politics, comparative social movements and public policy, and women's studies and feminist political theory.
Confronting Gangs: Crime and Community

1. Defining and Measuring the Prevalence of Gangs 2. The Link between Gangs and Delinquency 3. The Gang Experience 4. Gangs, Gang Members, and Drug Sales 5. Female Gang Involvement 6. Gangs and Social Institutions 7. Responding to Gang-Related Crime and Delinquency 8. Gang Theory and Policy
Quality management practices in Taiwan’s telecommunication industry

Telecommunication companies must effectively master information to remain competitive in an increasingly global market. Tremendous business opportunities have been created because of the recent rapid global communications’ liberalization. Following this trend, the telecommunication industry in Taiwan will be a star industry and grow quickly in the future. This study uses questionnaires to examine how quality management practices are implemented in Taiwan’s telecommunication industry. Most of the 39 telecommunication companies surveyed herein are medium‐sized with fairly weak quality performance. Advanced quality management training programs (such as experimental design) are seldom implemented and the companies do not rely on a few reasonably reliable suppliers.
Corporate social responsibility in professional team sport organisations: towards a theory of decision-making

Research question: Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is increasingly important to business, including professional team sport organisations. Scholars focusing on CSR in sport have generally examined content-related issues such as implementation, motives or outcomes. The purpose of this paper is to add to that body of knowledge by focusing on process-related issues. Specifically, we explore the decision-making process used in relation to CSR-related programmes in the charitable foundations of the English football clubs. Research methods: Employing a grounded theory method and drawing on the analysis and synthesis of 32 interviews and 25 organisational documents, this research explored managerial decision-making with regard to CSR in English football. Results and findings: The findings reveal that decision-making consists of four simultaneous micro-social processes (‘harmonising’, ‘safeguarding’, ‘manoeuvring’ and ‘transcending’) that form the platform upon which the managers in the charitable foundations of the English football clubs make decisions. These four micro-social processes together represent assessable transcendence; a process that is fortified by passion, contingent on trust, sustained by communication and substantiated by factual performance enables CSR formulation and implementation in this organisational context. Implications: The significance of this study for the sport management literature is threefold: (1) it focuses on the individual level of analysis, (2) it shifts the focus of the scholarly activity away from CSR content-based research towards more process-oriented approaches and (3) it adds to the limited number of studies that have utilised grounded theory in a rounded manner.
Agmatine acts as an antagonist of neuronal nicotinic receptors

1 Tritiated agmatine has been used by others in ion flux methods to measure nicotinic receptor function in neurones. However, as shown here, agmatine blocks nicotinic receptor function in both the chick retina and the rat superior cervical ganglion at high concentrations. 2 In intact chick retina, agmatine 1 mm decreases dimethylphenylpiperazinium (DMPP)‐induced depolarizations measured in the optic nerve by approximately 70%, while having little effect on responses induced by glutamate analogues. DMPP dose‐response curves are reduced in a manner consistent with a non‐competitive effect of agmatine, and agmatine at 1 mm does not prevent binding of 125I‐labelled neuronal bungarotoxin, a snake venom neurotoxin that competitively binds and blocks functional nicotinic receptors in chick retinal homogenates. 3 Agmatine (10 μm) substantially blocks both DMPP‐induced depolarizations of rat superior cervical ganglion and synaptic transmission through the ganglion. Others have established that [3H]‐agmatine will pass through nicotinic receptor channels in the rat ganglion. These data suggest that agmatine acts both as a cation and as a weak channel blocker at neuronal nicotinic receptors.
International market segmentation: Economics, national culture and time

Purpose – This paper aims to investigate the influence of economic and cultural factors, separately and combined, on international country segments and to reveal the stability of factors and country segments over time. Design/methodology/approach – Principal component analysis is used to develop three economic factors and two cultural factors borrowed from the World Value Survey. Cluster analysis is used to form country clusters based on the economic and cultural factors, separately, and then combined, to detect whether both economics and culture need to be included as bases for macro-country segmentation. Further, the authors look at these issues across time, the beginning of the decade (1990) and then at the end of the decade (1999). Findings – Results support the hypotheses that economics and culture are both necessary for country-level segmentation but reject the hypothesis of cultural convergence as a consequence of technological development and industrialization. The authors confirm that cultural va.
SAW Parameters on Y-cut Langasite Structured Materials

This paper presents results and investigations of several new, man-made piezoelectric single crystal, Czochralski-grown substrate materials for surface acoustic waves (SAW) applications. These materials, langanite (LGN), langatate (LGT), Sr<sub>3</sub>TaGa<sub>3</sub>Si<sub>2</sub>O<sub>14</sub> (STGS), Sr<sub>3</sub>NbGa<sub>3</sub>Si<sub>2</sub>O<sub>14</sub> (SNGS), Ca<sub>3</sub>TaGa<sub>3</sub>Si<sub>2</sub>O<sub>14</sub> (CTGS), and Ca<sub>3</sub>NbGa<sub>3</sub>Si<sub>2</sub>O<sub>14</sub> (CNGS), have the same structure as langasite (LGS) and are of the same crystal class as quartz. These compounds are denser than quartz, resulting in lower phase velocities. They also have higher coupling. Unlike quartz and lithium niobate, there is no degradation of material properties below the material melting points resulting in the possibility of extreme high-temperature operation (> 1000degC). This paper gives a summary of extracted SAW material parameters for various propagation angles on Y-cut substrates of the six materials. Parameters included are electromechanical coupling, phase velocity, transducer capacitance, metal strip reflectivity, and temperature coefficient of frequency. Using previously published fundamental material constants, extracted parameters are compared with predictions for LGT and LGN. In addition, power flow angle and fractional frequency curvature data are reported for propagation angles on CTGS and CNGS Y-cut substrates that exhibit temperature compensation near room temperature. Detailed descriptions of the SAW parameter extraction techniques are given. A discussion of the results is provided, including a comparison of extracted parameters and an overview of possible SAW applications.
Practice patterns and perceptions of survivorship care in Canadian genitourinary oncology: A multidisciplinary perspective.

INTRODUCTION There is little knowledge of survivorship care specific to genitourinary (GU) cancers. To improve care delivery to this patient population, we need to clearly define physician perceptions of survivorship care. We therefore conducted a study to determine the challenges to GU cancer survivorship care in Canada. METHODS A web-based questionnaire was e-mailed to physicians treating GU cancers in Canada, including urologists, radiation oncologists, and medical oncologists. Five domains were assessed: demography, current post-cancer treatment care, perspectives on barriers to survivorship care, accessibility to survivorship resources, and perspectives about advocacy groups. RESULTS There were 306 responses, with 260 eligible for study. A total of 82% of physicians involve primary care practitioners (PCPs) at some point in survivorship care. Most physicians provide some form of written follow-up plan to PCPs. However, only 25% provided lifestyle recommendations and 53% included persistent and late effects of therapy. Lack of time or resources dedicated to survivorship care was the most commonly reported barrier. There was variation in accessibility to survivorship support programs among different subspecialties and regions. Advocacy groups generally were underutilized, particularly in testis cancer. Low response rate and the potential response bias are the main limitations of this survey. CONCLUSION To our knowledge this is the first study to address the challenges of GU cancer survivorship care in Canada. The barriers and accessibility of survivorship care quoted in this survey may be used to improve care for this group of patients. Underutilization of advocacy groups may stimulate the advocacy groups and institutions to address its causes and solutions.
The Regional Distribution of Foreign Investment in Russia

type="main" xml:id="ecot12047-abs-0001"> This article conducts a plant-level study of the factors affecting foreign direct investment (FDI) inflow to a large opening economy endowed with specific factor advantages. We conclude that the distribution of FDI in Russian regions depends on market access and can be most notably described by the knowledge-capital framework. Factor endowments built by natural resources are more successful in explaining the location decisions of export–platform affiliates. The impact of natural resources depends on how the availability of these resources is measured. The results reject the crowding out effects of resource FDI and prove co-location mode, when service investments are attracted to resource-rich regions. Labour cost advantages better explain the preferences of non-trading service affiliates.
Suicidal behavior and depression in adolescents with eating disorders

Background: Eating disorders are associated with an increased risk of suicide. Aim of the study: To examine suicidal behavior and depression in adolescents with eating disorders, and to identify risk factors associated with suicidal ideation and attempted suicide. Methods: Forty-six Israeli adolescent girls with anorexia nervosa or bulimia nervosa completed a self-report battery at the time of assessment or treatment. Suicide attempts and suicidal ideation were investigated in relation to clinical (e.g. body mass index, purging) and psychological (e.g. body dissatisfaction) features of the eating disorders, as well as depression. Twenty-four percent of the subjects had attempted suicide, and 65% reported suicidal thoughts. Fifty-eight percent were moderately to severely depressed. Findings: The risk of attempted suicide was associated with depression, a history of sexual abuse and longer duration of illness, but it was moderated by hospital treatment. Suicidal ideation was related only to depression. Conclusions: The results of this study emphasize the importance of treating aggressively depression in adolescents with eating disorders. Depression seems to amplify illness severity. Currently, strategies for treating eating disorders focus more on the eating disorder behaviors and less on depression. We suggest investing more resources in detecting and treating the co-morbid depression.
On the Optimal Management of Transboundary Renewable Resources: A Comment

In a number of bargaining situations, parties involved will not be able to form strictly (or juridically) binding contracts. Hence in analysing problems of finding equilibrium contracts one has to rely on time or subgame consistency. In the paper a simplified version of a model by Munro is used to derive a self-enforcing sharing agreement of exploiting a transboundary renewable resource. The properties of such an agreement differ from those proposed by Munro. A propos de la gestion optimale de ressources renouvelables trans-nationales: un commentaire sur le memoire de Gordon R. Munro. Dans nombre de situations de negociation, les parties en presence ne peuvent en arriver A des contrats qui engagent strictement (ou juridiquement). En analysant les problemes pour en arriver A des contrats d'equilibre, il faut s'en remettre a un engagement coherent pour un moment ou un sous-jeu. Dans ce memoire, l'auteur utilise une version simplifiee d'un modele de Munro pour deriver un accord de partage que les parties vont honorer dans l'exploitation d'une ressource renouvelable trans-nationale. Les proprietes d'un tel accord sont differentes de celles auxquelles en arrive Munro.
LOW-HANGING FRUIT IN BLACK CARBON MITIGATION: CROP RESIDUE BURNING IN SOUTH ASIA

Biomass burning in South Asia is a significant contributor to global emissions of black carbon, the second most important greenhouse agent after carbon dioxide. Emissions from domestic fires are the largest contributor to biomass burning but may be costly to mitigate. Open-field burning is the second-largest contributor to black carbon in South Asia. This study uses primary field data to identify the determinants of emissions from open-field burning of crop residue with the aim of analyzing possibilities for its regulation. The effectiveness of a new seeding machine that lets farmers plant their crops without having to burn the residue from the previous crop is assessed. A comparison of the new machine with conventional practice shows that the new technology decreases field preparation costs but does not significantly impact crop yield and profits. The use of plot-level data with farmer fixed effects enables reliable identification of the impacts of the technology. Given the considerable adverse effects on mortality and health of pollution from burning, these results imply that this source of black carbon can be mitigated at zero private cost and negative social cost. Since farmers have no strong private incentive to adopt the new technology, extension, and subsidies to accelerate adoption would be a high net-benefit policy.
Unintended pregnancy among newly married couples in Shanghai.

CONTEXT Though contraceptive failure and induced abortion in China have both attracted research attention, the somewhat broader topic of unintended pregnancy has been neglected. METHODS A total of 7,872 newly married couples, enrolled between 1987 and 1988, were followed up until 1994-1995; only 2% were lost to follow-up. During face-to-face interviews, background and fertility-related data were collected. Chi-square tests and logistic regression were used to assess associations with unintended pregnancy. RESULTS By three months after marriage, 461 couples had conceived; 57% of nonpregnant wives said that their preferred interval between marriage and conception was no more than three months. Twenty-one percent of pregnancies occurring between marriage and first birth were reported as unintended; 81% of these resulted from contraceptive failure. The majority of unintended pregnancies were carried to term; 13% were aborted. The younger the wife and the greater her desired interval between marriage and conception, the greater the likelihood that a pregnancy occurring before first birth was unintended. After first birth, 43% of couples experienced one or more unintended pregnancies, 98% of which were aborted in accordance with the one-child policy. The majority of these pregnancies occurred in the 12 months after first birth, when couples tend to rely on ineffective methods of contraception. The odds of having an unintended pregnancy after first birth were slightly elevated if at least one spouse desired a second child. CONCLUSIONS Unintended pregnancies are common among married couples in Shanghai. Policies to reduce unintended pregnancies, and abortions, should focus particularly on postpartum contraception.
Simulating overland flow following wildfire: mapping vulnerability to landscape disturbance

The probability of landscape‐scale disturbances such as fire are expected to increase in the future due to anticipated climate changes and past land management practices. These disturbances can produce dramatic changes in hydrologic responses (e.g. overland flow) that can pose risks to human life, infrastructure, and the environment. Assessing these risks and associated remediation strategies requires spatially explicit evaluation of upland hydrology. However, most current evaluation methods focus on a specified location within a watershed, precluding estimation of spatially distributed, upland, hydrological response; and those that do consider spatial variability usually do not account for redistribution of overland flow among adjacent subunits. Here we highlight the use of a spatially distributed model for assessing spatial changes in upland hydrologic response following landscape‐scale disturbance. Using a distributed model called SPLASH (Simulator for Processes of Landscapes: Surface/Subsurface Hydrology), we simulated pre‐ and post‐fire scenarios based on the Cerro Grande fire (Los Alamos, NM, USA; May 2000) over 17 300 ha (resolution of 30 m × 30 m) for 2 year and 100 year design storms. For the 2 year storm, maximum overland flow rates for burned cells in the post‐fire scenario greatly exceeded those for pre‐fire conditions (modes: pre‐fire, 3·25 × 10−10 m3 s−1; post‐fire, 7·0 × 10−10 m3 s−1). For the 100 year storm, maximum overland flow was much greater than for the 2 year storm (modal pre‐fire: 31·8 × 10−10 m3 s−1), with the difference between pre‐ and post‐fire simulations being less dramatic (modal post‐fire: 48·6 × 10−10 m3 s−1). Mapped differences between pre‐ and post‐fire provide a means for prioritizing upland areas for remediation using an approach that accounts not only for topography, soils, and plant cover, but also for the redistribution of overland flow. More generally, our results highlight the potential utility of spatially distributed models to focus and prioritize rehabilitation efforts for future assessments of risk following landscape‐scale disturbance. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Technological Interfaces of the Brazilian Naval and Offshore Industry

The recent challenges of the Brazilian naval and offshore industry have generated a unique opportunity for studies on technological innovation and economic development. This paper presents the recent developments and future prospects of this industry under the theoretical framework of ‘technological interfaces’. Technological interfaces are defined as the thread of knowledge and technology necessary for establishing a transaction between two or more agents. It is both a theoretical construct and a tool for better understanding industrial coherence and dynamics. The development project of ship and platform construction in Brazil, unveils a potential dynamic similar to large national projects, such as the U.S. space project in the 50s. By establishing scientific parameters of analysis for the study, it is possible to generate a broader diagnosis of the technological interface matrix of the industry, but mainly it is possible to map the framework of operational gaps and the needs for technical-scientific development.