Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Managing Complexity in Kuwaiti Organizations

Joining collaborations and keeping relationships has become a most important concern for managers in most organizations. This change arises to a great extent due to the globalization of markets and the ongoing specialization of organizations, fostered by the possibilities of information technology and data communication. However, such a structural change requires adaptations by companies to fit the characteristics of industrial collaborations. In particular, the increasing complexity of collaborations in highly dynamic environments often is under estimated. In Kuwait, most organizations lack the analytical tools and associated operational bandwidth required to manage complexity. Reducing and managing complexity aims mostly at structuring organizations and implementing organizational changes. This article explores the implications of the emerging science of complexity for the management of organizations in Kuwait. It is not intended as an introduction to complexity thinking, but rather an attempt to consider how thinking “complexly” might affect the way in which managers do their jobs. In a sense, complexity thinking is about limits-limits to what we can know about our organizations. And if there are limits to what we can know, then there are limits to what we can achieve in a predetermined, planned way.
Enterprise Resource Planning Systems Implementation in a Global Subsidiary Organization: Lessons Learned

ABSTRACT This article describes the implementation of an enterprise resource planning (ERP) implemented by British Petroleum (BP) Worldwide, from the perspective of one of its subsidiary organizations, BP Singapore. The ERP solution, an internally developed system, was implemented globally by BP worldwide quite successfully from a global perspective, though not without challenges at the local level. This study examines the process of implementing a global ERP solution at the local subsidiaries, and the unique problems that may be encountered in force-fitting a global solution at the local level. Among the issues and problems experienced by the subsidiary are higher-than-anticipated costs, longer development times, lack of technical expertise, and compromises in business processes. The findings of the study could be helpful in formulating coping mechanisms in implementing global ERP solutions.
Ethical (SRI) Funds in Italy: A Review

In the past few years, investors from different European countries have become increasingly interested in the new opportunities that socially responsible investing (SRI) can offer. Empirical research into this subject has often assumed as given the meaning attributed to the terms ethical or socially responsible, thus concentrating more on other elements (particularly financial performance). This paper, through the analysis of the characteristics of ethical funds traded in Italy, investigates the possible contents that the terms ethical and/or socially responsible can assume in practice, with particular attention to the underlying values and to how these values are integrated into the selection process. This analysis brings to light the impressive variety of ethical funds traded in Italy. In particular, it reveals the Italian model, whose distinguishing characteristics seem to be the following: recentness of issue, options for charitable donations, almost exclusive use of screening strategies, use of best in class and minimum tolerance quota indications, preference for ethical indices, application of commissions no higher than the national average, presence of ethical committees and the utilization of consulting or rating agencies.
Experimental evaluation of personal protection devices against graphite nanoaerosols: fibrous filter media, masks, protective clothing, and gloves

In this study, different conventional personal protection devices (fibrous filters, cartridges for respirators, protective clothing, and gloves) well qualified for micron particles were tested with graphite nanoparticles ranging from 10 to 100 nm (electrical mobility diameter). For this purpose, two specific test benches were designed: one for filter-based devices which are tested under a controlled air flow and other for gloves and protective clothing based on the “through diffusion method. ” The penetration versus particle size shows for most tested filter media the behavior predicted by the theoretical Brownian capture: penetration decreases when particle diameter decreases. No thermal rebound was detected until 10 nm for graphite nanoparticles. Protective clothes were tested by two methods and same trends were obtained. Nonwoven fabrics (air-tight materials) are much more efficient against nanoparticles than cotton and paper. Gloves tested by “through diffusion technique,” in static condition seem to efficiently protect against graphite nanoparticles in spite of their important porosity.
Efferent connections of the centromedian and parafascicular thalamic nuclei in the squirrel monkey: A PHA‐L study of subcortical projections

The subcortical projections of the centromedian (CM) and the parafascicular (Pf) thalamic nuclei were examined in the squirrel monkey (Saimiri sciureus) by using the lectin Phaseolus vulgaris‐leucoagglutinin (PHA‐L) as an anterograde tracer. Both CM and Pf project massively to the striatum where they arborize in a complementary fashion. On the one hand, CM innervates most of the putamen caudal to the anterior commissure, a dorsolateral rim of the putamen rostral to the anterior commissure, discrete areas of the head of the caudate nucleus close to the internal capsule, and a lateral sector of the body of the caudate nucleus. On the other hand, Pf provides a heavy input to the head, body, and tail of the caudate nucleus, and to the rostral putamen, excluding the areas innervated by CM. In addition, Pf projects more discretely to the nucleus accumbens and the olfactory tubercle. Therefore, the projections from both CM and Pf cover the entire striatum, with those from CM arborizing into the “sensorimotor” striatal territory and the ones from Pf innervating the “associative‐limbic” striatal territory. Furthermore, CM and Pf project to extrastriatal subcortical structures, such as the globus pallidus, the subthalamic nucleus, and the substantia nigra, where they also terminate in a complementary fashion. Topographically and cytologically, Pf is closely related to the subparafascicular nucleus (sPf). The Pf‐sPf complex projects to the hypothalamus, the substantia innominata, the peripeduncular nucleus, and the amygdala. It also gives rise to descending efferents arborizing in various brainstem structures, including the inferior olivary complex. Additional studies with retrograde double‐labeling methods show that distinct cell groups within CM project to the motor cortex and the striatum. Likewise, separate neuronal populations within the CM‐Pf‐sPf complex give rise to striatal and brainstem projections, the former arising from CM and Pf and the latter mainly from sPf. The complementary nature of CM and Pf projections to the striatum and other basal ganglia components suggests that this thalamic complex participates in a highly ordered manner in the parallel processing of the information that flows through the basal ganglia.
SCA-Resistant and High-Performance Embedded Cryptography Using Instruction Set Extensions and Multi-Core Processors

Nowadays, we use embedded electronic devices in almost every aspect of our daily lives. They represent our electronic identity; they store private information; they monitor health status; they do confidential communications, and so on. All these applications rely on cryptography and, therefore, present us a research objective: how to implement cryptography on embedded systems in a trustworthy and efficient manner. Implementing embedded cryptography faces two challenges constrained resources and physical attacks. Due to low cost constraints and power budget constraints, embedded devices are not able to use high-end processors. They cannot run at extremely high frequencies either. Since most embedded devices are portable and deployed in the field, attackers are able to get physical access and to mount attacks as they want. For example, the power dissipation, electromagnetic radiation, and execution time of embedded cryptography enable Side-Channel Attacks (SCAs), which can break cryptographic implementations in a very short time with a quite low cost. In this dissertation, we propose solutions to efficient implementation of SCA-resistant and high-performance cryptographic software on embedded systems. These solutions make use of two state-of-the-art architectures of embedded processors: instruction set extensions and multi-core architectures. We show that, with proper processor microarchitecture design and suitable software programming, we are able to deliver SCAresistant software which performs well in security, performance, and cost. In comparison, related solutions have either high hardware cost or poor performance or low attack resistance. Therefore, our solutions are more practical and see a promising future in commercial products. Another contribution of our research is the proper partitioning of the Montgomery multiplication over multi-core processors. Our solution is scalable over multiple cores, achieving almost linear speedup with a high tolerance to inter-core communication delays. We expect our contributions to serve as solid building blocks that support secure and high-performance embedded systems.
Design and Evaluation of an Orthotic Knee-Extension Assist

Individuals with quadriceps muscle weakness often have difficulty generating the knee-extension moments required to complete common mobility tasks. A new device that provides knee-extension moments through a range of knee angles was designed to help individuals perform stand-to-sit and sit-to-stand tasks. The novel knee-extension assist (KEA) was designed as a modular component to be incorporated into existing knee-ankle-foot orthoses or used in a knee orthosis. During stand-to-sit, a set of springs is loaded as the knee flexes under bodyweight and the KEA thus provides a knee-extension moment that aids in achieving a smoothly controlled knee flexion. The springs can be locked in place at the end of knee flexion to prevent unwanted knee extension while the user is seated. The entire knee extension assist can be disengaged to allow free joint motion anytime the affected leg is unloaded. During sit-to-stand, the KEA assists knee extension by returning the energy stored in the springs as an extension moment. In mechanical testing of a prototype of the new KEA, a mean maximum extension moment of 42.9 ± 0.46 Nm was provided by the device during flexion and 28.4 ± 0.28 Nm during extension. A biomechanical evaluation with two able-bodied individuals demonstrated the effectiveness of the KEA in successfully assisting stand-to-sit and sit-to-stand tasks. During stand-to-sit, the KEA provided 82% and 75% of the total (muscle and KEA) knee-extension moment required by the braced leg for the task for the two subjects, respectively; and during sit-to-stand, the KEA provided 56% and 50% of the total knee-extension moment for the two subjects, respectively. This KEA performance exceeded 50% knee-extension moment assistance for a 70 kg person.
On (s, S) Policies

For the infinite horizon, single item inventory problem, assume an ordering cost M(i) + K(j) for changing the stock level from i to j (for example, M(i) + K(j) - c \cdot (j - i) + K), a holding plus shortage cost l(j), and a probability \varphi (j, k) of demand j - k when the stock level is j. New conditions for optimality of (s, S) policies are given, and a computational method is given. Both the total discounted cost and the average cost criteria are treated. The method is simplified when the demand distribution is Bernoulli or geometric. When, in addition, the costs K(j) - K, and l(x) is -Lx for x > 0, zero for 0 \leqq x \leqq I, for some I \geqq 0, and H(x - I) for x > I, then conditions are given for an optimal policy (s*, S*) to have s* - -1 or S* - I. Further, for the same assumptions but without the integrality restriction on s and S, specific formulas are given for s* and S* when the criterion is average cost; and equations, which can be solved for s* and S*, are given when the criterion is total discounted cost.
Activation of catechol‐O‐methyltransferase in astrocytes stimulates homocysteine synthesis and export to neurons

Elevation of the total homocysteine (tHcy) concentration in plasma has been implicated in neurodegeneration in patients with stroke, dementia, Alzheimer disease, and Parkinson disease. Because the mechanisms controlling brain tHcy are unknown, the present study investigated its synthesis and transport in primary rat brain cell cultures. We found that the catechol‐O‐methyltransferase (COMT) substrate 3,4‐dihydroxybenzoic acid (DHB) increased export of tHcy in astrocytes, but not in neurons. The export mechanism was selective for tHcy over cyst(e)ine, total glutathione (tGSH) or cysteinylglycine (Cys‐Gly). tHcy export from astrocytes was also induced by the COMT substrates levodopa (L‐DOPA), dopamine and quercetin, and it was blocked by the COMT inhibitors tropolone and entacapone. This export was associated with increased synthesis of tHcy because both intracellular and extracellular tHcy concentrations rose during COMT activation. Incubation in cyst(e)ine‐deficient medium inhibited the tHcy export response to COMT activation. Exogenous tHcy (100 μM) was accumulated into neurons, but not into astrocytes. We conclude that activation of COMT causes sustained synthesis of Hcy in astrocytes and transport of this amino acid to neurons. © 2005 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Making least privilege the low-hanging fruit in clouds

Failing to promote the least privilege principle in administration can lead to substantial vulnerabilities in cloud computing. A malicious insider like a compromised cloud administrator can affect security of data and workloads belonging to cloud customers. Enforcing the least privilege principle in cloud administration can fairly restrict the permissions of administrators and reduce the attack surface. However, writing a least privilege policy can be hard and error prone for cloud service providers. In this paper, we propose a framework called Least Privilege for Cloud (LPCloud) to address these concerns. LPCloud automatically produces policies for minimization of administrators' privileges at the granularity of representational state transfer (REST) application program interfaces (API), and enforces the policies without affecting current systems. Specifically, we introduce a novel algorithm to partition privileges based on dependencies between API calls. This paper presents design of LPCloud, including a service called Policy Generator which produces partitioned policies and a component named Policy Enforcer to enforce the policies. We implement a prototype of our framework in OpenStack Mitaka. Experiments indicate that LPCloud can produce proper policies to enforce the least privilege principle. Meantime, the average performance overhead is 10.1% which is in acceptable level.
A hybrid excitation machine with AC flux control winding

The air-gap flux in hybrid excitation machine (HEM) can be adjusted flexibly by introducing the auxiliary electric field windings. At present, almost all HEMs employ DC field current to control the flux linked with armature windings, where the bidirectional flux control capability of this structure is not symmetric. In this paper, the reasons of asymmetric problem in HEMs are analyzed, a novel flux control method and the corresponding topology are presented. Three-dimensional finite element analysis (FEA) verifies the flux control capability of this structure.
Value-at-risk with info-gap uncertainty

Purpose – To study the effect of Knightian uncertainty – as opposed to statistical estimation error – in the evaluation of value-at-risk (VaR) of financial investments. To develop methods for augmenting existing VaR estimates to account for Knightian uncertainty. Design/methodology/approach – The value at risk of a financial investment is assessed as the quantile of an estimated probability distribution of the returns. Estimating a VaR from historical data entails two distinct sorts of uncertainty: probabilistic uncertainty in the estimation of a probability density function (PDF) from historical data, and non-probabilistic Knightian info-gaps in the future size and shape of the lower tail of the PDF. A PDF is estimated from historical data, while a VaR is used to predict future risk. Knightian uncertainty arises from the structural changes, surprises, etc., which occur in the future and therefore are not manifested in historical data. This paper concentrates entirely on Knightian uncertainty and does not consider the statistical problem of estimating a PDF. Info-gap decision theory is used to study the robustness of a VaR to Knightian uncertainty in the distribution. Findings – It is shown that VaRs, based on estimated PDFs, have no robustness to Knightian errors in the PDF. An info-gap safety factor is derived that multiplies the estimated VaR in order to obtain a revised VaR with specified robustness to Knightian error in the PDF. A robustness premium is defined as a supplement to the incremental VaR for comparing portfolios. Practical implications – The revised VaR and incremental VaR augment existing tools for evaluating financial risk. Originality/value – Info-gap theory, which underlies this paper, is a non-probabilistic quantification of uncertainty that is very suitable for representing Knightian uncertainty. This enables one to assess the robustness to future surprises, as distinct from existing statistical techniques for assessing estimation error resulting from randomness of historical data.
Photoconductive Switch-Based HPM for Airborne Counter-IED Applications

We describe the technology and experimental work done at Polarix Corporation on photoconductive switch-based high-power microwaves systems for airborne counter-improvised explosive device (IED) applications. We address the fluence requirement for nanosecond pulse range for coupling to IED harnesses both theoretically and experimentally. We describe some of the key elements of the technology and the system being developed. They include silicon backed biased junction switch technology, low inductance-high current switch integration with thin film Blumlein type circuits, multiswitch multicycle generation, and radiation concepts using asymmetric Wheeler-Chu apertures for side firing small diameter but long unmanned aerial vehicles platforms. We will also present the experimental results showing switch source and radiator performance.
The practice of discipline: evaluating the roles and relationship between managers and HR professionals

The roles played by managers in exercising workplace discipline have been of long-standing academic interest. However, relatively little attention has been paid to the way that the distinctive functions of operational managers and HR practitioners may interact and shape the nature and outcomes of disciplinary procedures and processes. This article examines this through a series of organisational case studies. It suggests that dimensions of control between operational managers and HR practitioners are fundamental to understanding the nature of workplace discipline. Furthermore, it argues that this relationship is crucial in determining the prospects for a shift towards greater flexibility in the management of discipline, as called for by Gibbons and reinforced by the Employment Act 2008. Therefore, findings suggest that questions of managerial preparedness to embrace this new agenda must also consider the role played by HR practitioners in embedding a culture of formality.
Richard Hyman: Marxism, Trade Unionism and Comparative Employment Relations

Richard Hyman has been a hugely influential figure in the field of industrial relations for the best part of four decades. At a time when the future of the very subject has been questioned, we highlight three areas of Hyman's work that we believe provide fertile territory for future research. The first concerns the importance of theory and the continuing need to broaden the subject of industrial relations so that it is treated as an area in which we can examine wider questions about ‘the political economy of waged labour’. The second area is the changing nature of employee representation which, for much of Hyman's career, was synonymous with the analysis of trade unions under capitalism. The third area is one of the more striking recent successes within the subject, namely the study of comparative industrial relations. Each of these areas reveals Hyman's talent for identifying and clarifying a set of issues around the politics of work that will endure regardless of whether the subject is known as industrial relations, employment relations or human resource management.
Human herpesvirus 6 inhibits human immunodeficiency virus type 1 replication in cell culture

The SF strain of human herpesvirus 6 (HHV-6SF) isolated from the saliva of a human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected individual was shown to inhibit HIV type 1 (HIV-1) replication in both peripheral blood mononuclear cells and purified CD4+ lymphocytes. This suppression of HIV-1 replication led to decreased cytopathic effects of HIV-1 and prolonged survival of CD4+ cells in culture. Even low levels of HHV-6 added to peripheral blood mononuclear cells showed an inhibitory effect on HIV-1 replication. These results differ from those previously reported showing enhanced HIV-1 production following infection with another strain of HHV-6.
Overreaction on the Tunisian Stock Market: An Empirical Test (Sur-Réaction Sur le Marché Tunisien des Actions: Une Investigation Empirique)

The financial market interest several researchers, especially in the domain of assessment of the financial assets and their performances. The previous research identified several anomalies of the market, as size, Monday, January, PER effects, etc. putting in question the notion of market efficiency and thereafter the predictability of assets returns. In the same context, W.F. M. De Bondt and R. Thaler [1985] disclosed one stock course overreaction: assets having recorded bad performances in the past in stock market would know performances subsequently superior to the average and vice-versa for assets having recorded excellent performances. In this paper we study the overreaction effect on the Tunisian stock market and we show that the hypothesis of basis that consists at exploiting the negative dependence of returns is a necessary condition but not sufficient so that a market reacts giving an explanation thus to the results contradictory of the different authors on the overreaction effect.
Policies to stimulate growth: should we invest in health or education?

Empirical studies in the literature on economic growth have focused on the affect of education and yet Knowles and Owen (1995, 1997) found health, proxied by life expectancy, to be highly statistically significant with education having a modest role. This study extends their model and employs variables that are more conducive to policy formulation: calorific intake and school enrolment ratios. Results suggest that reducing undernutrition would only make a modest contribution to economic growth while increasing enrolment ratios, especially secondary, has a positive and more significant effect. Policies to increase economic growth should favour investments in education over health.