Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Determinants of Employee Compensation in Family Firms: Empirical Evidence

This study characterizes employee compensation in family owned and managed firms compared to that in nonfamily firms and professionally managed family firms. The general results show that employee compensation differs between firms. This is an important finding because to understand employee compensation designs it is necessary to understand the role of ownership concentration and management composition in the firm, since the compensation components are explicitly defined according to risk sharing and to the interest of the owners, CEO, and employees.
Correlates of plasma homocysteine, cysteine and cysteinyl-glycine in respondents in the British National Diet and Nutrition Survey of Young People Aged 4–18 Years, and a comparison with the Survey of People Aged 65 Years and Over

Plasma total homocysteine (tHcy), cysteine and cysteinyl-glycine were measured in a representative sample of 922 young people aged 4–18 years, participating in the National Diet and Nutrition Survey in mainland Britain in 1997. Both tHcy and cysteine increased markedly with age; cysteinyl-glycine less so. Neither tHcy nor cysteine differed between genders; cysteinyl-glycine was higher in males. tHcy concentrations were lowest in the winter; cysteine and cysteinyl-glycine varied only slightly with season. In respondents aged >15 years, tHcy was higher in smokers, but in respondents aged 7–11 years, tHcy was higher in those whose mothers smoked. tHcy was inversely correlated with serum folate, serum vitamin B12 and vitamin B6 status, but neither cysteine nor cysteinyl-glycine shared these relationships. The relationships between tHcy and B-vitamin status indices ran parallel with those of the 65 years and over survey, but at much lower tHcy concentrations for any given B-vitamin concentration. Age-adjusted tHcy was not correlated with anthropometric indices, blood pressure, haematology, plasma creatinine, urea or cholesterol, but was directly correlated with fasting triacylglycerol. We conclude that disease-risk indices, like tHcy and perhaps cysteine, if established during early life, may be modulated by diet and lifestyle, thereby providing an opportunity for public health intervention.
Corneal and refractive astigmatism in a sample of 3- to 5-year-old children with a high prevalence of astigmatism.

PURPOSE To examine the relation between corneal and refractive astigmatism in a sample of pre-school-age Native American children with a high prevalence of astigmatism. METHODS Subjects were 250 Tohono O'Odham children, 3 to 5 years of age. Each child had corneal astigmatism measured with the Marco Nidek KM-500 portable autokeratometer without pupil dilation, and with the Nikon Retinomax K-Plus portable autorefractor/autokeratometer without and with pupil dilation. Refractive astigmatism was measured using the Retinomax K-Plus, with cycloplegia, confirmed by retinoscopy. RESULTS Corneal astigmatism exceeded refractive astigmatism, with a median vector dioptric difference of 0.88 D for the KM-500, 0.76 D for the Retinomax K-Plus without dilation, and 0.75 for the Retinomax K-Plus with dilation. The relation between corneal and refractive astigmatism was adequately described by the modification by Grosvenor et al. of Javal's rule, but not by laval's rule. CONCLUSIONS The results are in agreement with data reported previously for older Native American and non-Native American populations. The modified laval's rule adequately describes the relation between corneal and refractive astigmatism in a population; however, this rule does not provide accurate prediction of refractive astigmatism in individual children or adults.
A Crowd of Watchdogs: Toward a System Dynamics Model of Media Response to Corporate Social Responsibility and Irresponsibility Initiatives

This article applies system dynamics analysis to understand the interaction of actors whose opinions and activities impacted on corporate initiatives in the Danone boycott of 2001 (Hunter et al. 2008) and the “Beyond Petroleum” branding campaign of BP P.L. C. in 2001-2005 (Hunter et al. 2010). The analysis shows a complex interaction of 59 feedback loops in the two cases, demonstrating how at different moments, different stakeholders play a highly visible watchdog function in defence of their own interests. Over time, the delayed responses of stakeholders combine into new vectors of influence, stabilising or disequilibrating different points of the overall system. In one of our cases, these dynamics partially explain the paradox of how “doing well by doing good” may be transformed into “looking bad by doing good. ” In the other case, these dynamics indicate why management efforts to frame divisive issues in a positive manner for the firm failed. Both cases suggest how factors identified in previous research, such as attributions of motive to actors in a crisis, may be amplified as correlations between distinct objectives are established by stakeholders occupying positions in various sectors of the organisational environment. We conclude that initiatives aimed at reinforcing organisational image or reputation may be less dependent on the responses of individual actors than on the effects generated by feedback loops within the overall system within which such initiatives occur. Thus attempts to disrupt the system may increase the risks for an organisation, by increasing its isolation relative to other actors.
Inflation Dynamics in Fyr Macedonia

In this paper we study the dynamics of inflation in Macedonia, provide three forecasting tools and draw some policy conclusions from the quantitative results. We explore three forecasting methods for inflation. We use a Dynamic Factor Model (DFM) for short-term, monthly forecasting. We also develop two quarterly models: A Vector Error Correction Model (VECM), and a New Keynesian Phillips Curve (NKPC) for a more structural model of inflation. The NKPC shows a significant effect of output gap and inflation expectations on current inflation, confirming that the expectations channel of monetary transmission mechanism is strong. In terms of forecast-error variance, we show that all three models do very well in one-period ahead forecasting.
Comparison of specialty referral rates in the United Kingdom and the United States: retrospective cohort analysis

Although several studies have shown that US physicians make greater use of medical technologiesthan UK physicians, no study has examined variation in specialty referral rates, the step before specialised procedures. We compared rates of referral to specialists in the United Kingdom and the United States. To hold the effects of gatekeeping systems constant, we studied US managed care settings that used a structured referral process similar to that in the United Kingdom. We included non-pregnant patients aged 0 to 64 years, with at least six months of enrolment on a health plan or general practice registration and at least one consultation with their primary care physician during 1996 (US) or 1997 (UK). The US sample comprised 384 693 patients from five health maintenance organisations. All US patients had been assigned physician gatekeepers, who authorised specialty referrals. We used the general practice research database for the UK sample (n=757,680). 1 We measured referral rates as the annual percentage of patients with a new referral to a specialist physician. In the United …
The Prevalence and Correlates of Sexual Risk Behaviors and Sexually Transmitted Infections in Outpatients With Borderline Personality Disorder

This study examined the prevalence and correlates of sexual risk behaviors and sexually transmitted infections (STIs) in two samples of outpatients with borderline personality disorder (BPD), including suicidal BPD women (n = 99) and opiate-dependent BPD men and women (n = 125). High rates of sexual risk behaviors and STIs were found, particularly in the opiate-dependent BPD sample. Compared with suicidal BPD outpatients, opiate-dependent BPD outpatients reported higher rates of past-year sexual activity, commercial sex work, and lifetime hepatitis, as well as a greater number of lifetime sex partners. Substance use and demographic characteristics (age, sex, and marital status) were associated with higher rates of sexual risk behaviors and/or STIs, whereas cognitive-behavioral factors and indicators of psychiatric impairment were not. These findings point to a clear need for interventions aimed at decreasing sexual risk behaviors among individuals with BPD.
The Substitution Problem in the Theory of Effective Protection

Input substitution theoretically invalidates the resource flow predictions of effective rates of protection calculated in a partial equilibrium framework. Partial equilibrium effective protection analysis, despite this "substitution problem," has nevertheless quietly settled into the trade economist's toolbox. This paper presents a new, transparent review of the substitution problem in effective protection. It finds that partial equilibrium effective protection analysis, although theoretically susceptible to misleading results, is in practice a reasonable estimator of certain short-run general equilibrium effects of protection. Copyright 1998 by Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
Hydrogel Dressings for Advanced Wound Management.

BACKGROUND Composed in a large extent of water and due to their nonadhesiveness, hydrogels found their way to the wound dressing market as materials that provide a moisture environment for healing while being comfortable to the patient. Hydrogels' exploitation is constantly increasing after evidences of their even broader therapeutic potential due to resemblance to dermal tissue and ability to induce partial skin regeneration. The innovation in advanced wound care is further directed to the development of so-called active dressings, where hydrogels are combined with components that enhance the primary purpose of providing a beneficial environment for wound healing. OBJECTIVE The objective of this review is to concisely describe the relevance of hydrogel dressings as platforms for delivery of active molecules for improved management of difficult- to-treat wounds. The emphasis is on the most recent advances in development of stimuli- responsive hydrogels, which allow for control over wound healing efficiency in response to different external modalities. Novel strategies for monitoring of the wound status and healing progress based on incorporation of sensor molecules into the hydrogel platforms are also discussed.
Predicting Popular and Viral Image Cascades in Pinterest

The word-of-mouth diffusion has been regarded as an important mechanism to advertise a new idea, image, technology, or product in online social networks (OSNs). This paper studies the prediction of popular and viral image diffusion in Pinterest. We first characterize an image cascade from two perspectives: (i) volume — how large the cascade is, that is, total number of users reached, and (ii) structural virality — how many users in the cascade are responsible for attracting other users. Our model predicts whether an image will be (a) popular in terms of the volume of its cascade, or (b) viral in terms of the structural virality. Our analysis reveals that a popular image is not necessarily viral, and vice versa. This motivates us to investigate whether there are distinctive features for accurately predicting popular or viral image cascades. To predict the popular or viral image cascades, we consider the following feature sets: (i) deep image features, (ii) image meta and poster's information, and (iii) initial propagation pattern. We find that using deep image features alone is not as effective in predicting popular or viral image cascades. We show that image meta and poster's information are strong predictors for predicting popular image cascades while image meta and initial propagation patterns are useful to predict viral image cascades. We believe our exploration can give an important insight for content providers, OSN operators, and marketers in predicting popular or viral image diffusion.
A zonal congestion management using PSO and Real Coded Genetic Algorithm

In deregulated electricity market transmission congestion occurs when there is insufficient transmission capacity to simultaneously accommodate all requests for transmission service within a region. One of the most important tasks of Independent System Operator (ISO) is to manage congestion as it threatens system security and may cause rise in electricity price resulting in market inefficiency. In corrective action of congestion management schemes, it is crucial for ISO to select the most sensitive generators to re-schedule their real and reactive powers in congestion management. In this paper the optimal rescheduling of both real and reactive power to minimize the total congestion cost using Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) and Real Coded Genetic Algorithm (RCGA) is proposed. And the selection of most sensitive generators to re-dispatch both the real and reactive powers is done using Transmission Congestion Distribution Factors (TCDFs) [3, 17]. The proposed methods have been tested on a practical 75-bus Indian System.
Specificity of the dRP/AP Lyase of Ku Promotes Nonhomologous End Joining (NHEJ) Fidelity at Damaged Ends*

Background: Ku has a 5′-dRP/AP lyase activity that excises abasic sites near double-strand break ends. Results: Ku excises only those abasic sites that would otherwise interfere with ligation. Conclusion: This substrate specificity promotes NHEJ fidelity. Significance: Tight control of damage excision is essential to nonhomologous end joining because this pathway typically cannot accurately replace excised DNA. Nonhomologous end joining (NHEJ) is essential for efficient repair of chromosome breaks. However, the NHEJ ligation step is often obstructed by break-associated nucleotide damage, including base loss (abasic site or 5′-dRP/AP sites). Ku, a 5′-dRP/AP lyase, can excise such damage at ends in preparation for the ligation step. We show here that this activity is greatest if the abasic site is within a short 5′ overhang, when this activity is necessary and sufficient to prepare such termini for ligation. In contrast, Ku is less active near 3′ strand termini, where excision would leave a ligation-blocking α,β-unsaturated aldehyde. The Ku AP lyase activity is also strongly suppressed by as little as two paired bases 5′ of the abasic site. Importantly, in vitro end joining experiments show that abasic sites significantly embedded in double-stranded DNA do not block the NHEJ ligation step. Suppression of the excision activity of Ku in this context therefore is not essential for ligation and further helps NHEJ retain terminal sequence in junctions. We show that the DNA between the 5′ terminus and the abasic site can also be retained in junctions formed by cellular NHEJ, indicating that these sites are at least partly resistant to other abasic site-cleaving activities as well. High levels of the 5′-dRP/AP lyase activity of Ku are thus restricted to substrates where excision of an abasic site is required for ligation, a degree of specificity that promotes more accurate joining.
Evaluating the Evidence on Union Employment and Wages

Using Current Population Survey data for the years 1973–86, this study tests the hypothesis that the steep decline of union employment shares since 1973 is related to increases in union wages relative to nonunion wages. The authors show that although the aggregate union wage premium has changed little since 1973, some industry-specific premiums have risen substantially, and the industries with the rising premiums are those experiencing declines in union employment shares. The increase in the premium explains from 21% to 64% of the decline in union shares depending on the equation specification. The paper also presents a detailed set of union wage premiums and employment shares for the sample period.
Conceptualizing Special Educational Needs Using a Biopsychosocial Model in England: The Prospects and Challenges of Using the International Classification of Functioning Framework

This conceptual paper examines the issues in the use of term ‘special educational needs’ (SEN) in England over the last 40 years and from this identifies what kind of additional needs principles are required for educational services. The paper then examines to what extent the child and youth version of the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF-CY) has the potential to meet these assessment principles. The paper illustrates that the potential of the ICF-CY by reference to studies that show how the ICF has been used to enhance assessment relevant to programme planning. Several studies showed how assessment instruments designed for diagnostic assessment could be linked to ICF dimensions. Other projects illustrated how the ICF framework can also provide the basis for designing dependable measurement questionnaires. But, measurement issues still need to be addressed by further development research. There has been relatively little use of the ICF-CY in educational settings and for eligibility decisions about scarce education provision, despite the ICF’s use in Portugal and parts of Italy and Switzerland. Research in these countries show the usefulness of the ICF as a resource for decision-making, but analyses of Individual Educational Programmes (IEPs) show fidelity issues in the ICF use and the need for enhanced teacher training. The Swiss conceptual expansion of the ICF-CY takes account of an educational perspective and its implementation with procedures and materials has direct relevance to England. The Swiss development brings out the importance of understanding the different aspects of the ICF and how it can be adapted for different purposes. In adopting the ICF for an additional needs framework in education, eligibility decisions will require norms about functioning and the environment. It is concluded that these norms should be negotiated with service users who are to be treated as having rights to participate in assessment and decision-making. It is concluded that there is potential for the development and use of an ICF informed approach to assessment and decision-making in England.
Audiometric evidence for two forms of X‐linked hypophosphatemia in humans, apparent counterparts of Hyp and Gy mutations in mouse

Two forms of X‐linked hypophosphatemia occur in the mouse. One form, caused by the Hyp gene, is a counterpart of human X‐linked hypophosphatemic “vitamin D‐resistant rickets”. The other, recently characterized, is caused by a different gene (Gy) closely linked to Hyp on the mouse X‐chromosome. The Gy mutation also impairs cochlear function in the mouse. We measured hearing in 22 patients with X‐linked hypophosphatemia; five, including 2 mother‐son pairs, had sensorineural hearing deficits due to cochlear dysfunction. We suggest the disease in these persons may be the human counterpart of the Gy phenotype in the mouse, which implies there are 2 forms of X‐linked hypophosphatemia in humans.
The Paradox of the Management of Culture or ″He Who Leads is Lost″

It is argued that management seek to close the gap between their employees’ requisite and actual performance, not only by mechanisms of “primary” control but also by imposing their own belief systems as a “strong” culture. However, such belief systems are never successfully transmitted beyond the boundaries of management to the intended recipients, resulting in management’s ultimate isolation. Evidence is presented to support this proposition.
An Economic Model of Welfare Stigma

Perhaps the most basic assumption of the economic theory of consumer demand is that "more is better than less. " Virtually all of the major propositions of consumer theory can, in a certain sense, be derived from the assumption that "goods are good. " Interestingly, however, this tenet seems to be violated by the behavior of many individuals in the low-income population, for many turn out to be eligible for a positive welfare benefit but do not in fact join the welfare rolls. For example, it has been estimated that in 1970, only about 69 percent of the families eligible for AFDC (Aid to Families with Dependent Children) participated in the program (see Richard Michel, 1980). The corresponding percentage for AFDC-U, the program for which families with an unemployed male are eligible, was only 43 percent and the participation rate in the Food Stamp Program was only 38 percent (see Maurice McDonald, 1977). This phenomenon has puzzled many investigators because such individuals do not locate on the boundaries of their budget sets. Consequently, most investigators ignore the problem when studying the effects of welfare programs on behavior. In this paper, this seemingly irrational rejection of an increase in income is modeled as resulting from welfare stigma -that is, from disutility arising from participation in a welfare program per se.1 The existence of stigma has been amply documented in the sociological literature (Patrick Horan and Patricia Austin, 1974; Lee Rainwater, 1979), where interviews of recipients have often uncovered feelings of lack of self-respect and " negative self-characterizations" from participation in welfare. Nevertheless, this phenomenon has not been modeled, and many questions consequently remain. When is the disutility of participation strong enough to prevent participation? Shouldn't we expect individuals to weigh the disutility of participation against the potential benefit in their decisions? What is the elasticity of participation with respect to the potential benefit? Also, in a slightly different vein, how are the work disincentives of welfare affected by stigma? These questions have been given scant attention by economists, yet they are crucial for our ability to predict the impact of various welfare programs on the lowincome population. Here these questions are addressed by modeling nonparticipation as a utility-maximizing decision. The model is developed and estimated for the AFDC program.2 The model posits an individual utility function containing not just disposable income, but
Physiological and anatomic evidence for functional subclasses of serotonergic raphe magnus cells

Serotonergic cells in the medullary nucleus raphe magnus (RM) and adjacent nucleus reticularis magnocellularis (NRMC) project to the spinal cord where they are likely to modulate nociceptive transmission. Previous studies have suggested that these cells are physiologically and anatomically heterogeneous. In the present investigation, we examined whether subclasses of serotonergic RM and NRMC cells can be delineated based on their response to a visceral stimulus, and whether any such subclasses are morphologically distinct. Most RM and NRMC serotonergic cells tested (81 of 116) responded to retraction of the descending aorta into a polyethylene tube (the snare stimulus) with 57% of all cells tested excited and 13% inhibited. Responses of serotonergic cells to the snare outlasted the stimulus, were not reflective of evoked cardiovascular changes, and were observed in sino‐aortic deafferented rats, evidence that the snare stimulus does not influence serotonergic cell discharge through activation of baroreceptors. Because serotonergic cells responsive to the snare were also responsive to mechanical brushing within the retroperitoneum, the snare is likely to change serotonergic cell discharge by means of the activation of mechanosensitive visceral afferents. Intracellular labeling of physiologically characterized serotonergic RM and NRMC cells showed that cells that were responsive to the snare stimulus had simpler axonal collateralization patterns than cells that were unresponsive to the snare stimulus. This association between morphological and physiological properties provides additional evidence that subpopulations of serotonergic cells exist and serve varied physiological functions. J. Comp. Neurol. 439:426–439, 2001. © 2001 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.