Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Multilayer SAW device for flow rate sensing in a microfluidic channel

This paper presents a novel microfluidic flow rate sensor based on surface acoustic wave (SAW) principle and aluminum nitride (AlN) film on silicon substrate. The working principles of this proposed SAW device are velocity decay, delay time as well as insertion losses reported in cases of linear and exponential motion. It utilizes CMOS compatible materials, AlN film on Si substrate, being suitable for inexpensive and reliable systems. AlN thin film layer is deposited on the top of silicon substrate. The microfluidic channel is etched through wafer and perpendicular to the SAW propagation path between the transmitter IDT and receiver IDT. Electrical and mechanical characteristic analysis is performed to accurately determine the relation between flow motion and output signal. Velocity decay constant decreases and achieves the saturated state from -1 dB to -4.5 dB after 60 mm/s for the linear motion. Otherwise, velocity decay constant is inversely proportional to the exponential order of velocity due to the leaky acoustic wave in the microfluidic channel.
Selenomethionine as substrate for glutamine transaminase.

Selenomethionine is as a good substrate as methionine for bovine liver glutamine transaminase (E.C. 2.6.1.15). Almost identical Km values for methionine, selenomethionine, 4-methylthio-2-oxobutanoic acid and 4-methylseleno-2-oxobutanoic acid have been obtained. Like for other enzymes, also for glutamine transaminase the substitution of the sulfur atom in a substrate molecule by a selenium one does not appreciably affect the enzyme affinity. Glutamine transaminase may thus be involved in selenomethionine catabolism.
When Do Firms Prefer Individual Action to Collective Action in The Pursuit of Corporate Political Strategy? A New Perspective on Industry Concentration

In this study we advance the current research on corporate political strategy by examining how firms decide on their level of engagement in political action. This study proposes a contingency approach that identifies conditions in which firms prefer individual action to collective action in their pursuit of political strategy and introduces a framework that addresses this preference. Our results show that even in concentrated industries, a firm's preference of individual action over collective action varies when government contracts or research and development intensity are important considerations.
Economics of Environmental Conservation: Economics for Environmental & Ecological Management

Preface. List of Tables. List of Figures. 1. Economics and the Living Environment. Introduction. Welfare economics, environment and the Biosphere. Ethics, values and environmental economics: alternative views. Economic growth, dynamics, uncertainty and the environment: differing views. Environmental quality and resource availability trends: broad estimates and projections. Conclusion. 2. Strategies for World Conservation: an Economic Assessment. Introduction. A classification of conservation policies. The World Conservation Strategy: its origins, aims and basic principles. Ecological processes and life-support systems: agriculture, forests, coastal and freshwater systems. Preservation of genetic diversity. Sustainable utilisation of species and ecosystems. International conservation concerns and priorities. Organisational and social aspects of conservation. Concluding comments. 3. Government Intervention in Environmental Conservation: Rationale and Methods. Introduction. Externalities or spillovers. Government policies 'to correct' for externalities. Public or collective good characteristics associated with the conservation of nature. Option demands, transaction costs, more on existence values, bequest, irreversibility and uncertainty. Discount rates as grounds for government intervention. Monopolies and conservation. Common property and intervention. Failure of political and administrative mechanisms in relation to conservation. Concluding comment. 4. Environmental Conservation in Developing Countries. Introduction. Basic conservation problems in the Third World: origin. Population growth and income aspirations. Expansion of the market system. New technology. Problems illustrated by some cases. High effective rates of discount. Difficulties in enforcing conservation measures and questions of social structure. Policies for influencing and improving conservation practices in the Third World. Provision of information and education. Appropriating greater gains nationally from conservation. Tourism as a means of appropriating gains from conservation. Improving distribution of gains from conservation within LDCs. International aid and assistance, loans and trade. Global public good/externality considerations. 5. Preservation of Wildlife and Genetic Diversity. Introduction. Managing wildlife as a mixed good: simple analytics. Some economic consequences of interdependence between species. Criteria for deciding on species to save from extinction. Concluding comments. 6. Common Property and Natural Resource Management. Types of property and general consequences. Common access: economic failures and their consequences. Policies for managing common-access resources. Ranching and farming as means to overcome common-access problems and conserve species. Concluding comment. 7. Economics of Conserving Natural Areas: National Parks and Protected Areas. Introduction: nature and availability of natural areas. Benefits and uses of natural protected areas.
The role of multinational enterprises for regional development in Bulgaria

This paper offers a comprehensive and balanced assessment of the spatial distribution and significance of MNEs activities for the development of regions in Bulgaria. Comprehensive official data and large business samples of foreign affiliates show that the MNEs impact is controversial as benefits are unevenly distributed across regions. The paper states that MNEs activities are not only one of the most important vehicles of local development, but also a factor in extending regional disparities in production, income and living conditions. Possible explanations could be found in the motives and structure of attracted FDI, lagging national development, low absorption capacity of regions and inadequate government policy towards FDI.
SMEs and Environmental Regulations: A Study of the UK Screen-Printing Sector

In the literature of corporate greening, the regulatory domain has been identified as a key influence on the environmental behaviour of firms and has been linked to actions beyond compliance and to the pursuit of competitive advantage. That said, studies of the environmental performance of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) suggest that, on the whole, smaller firms tend to take a more reactive and compliant stance with regard to environmental legislation, with little evidence existing to suggest that regulation provides a strong baseline for internally driven change. The authors report the findings from empirical research undertaken to assess the impact of environmental legislation upon the activities of SMEs within the screen-printing sector in the United Kingdom and explore the motivations that have driven responses to such legislation. The aim of the research was to examine the extent to which regulation was a factor in explaining SME environmental behaviour, and to identify the nature of corporate responses to environmental change. In addressing these issues a hybrid methodology was adopted, based on a quantitative survey of 200 firms in the UK screen-printing industry and a qualitative analysis of five organisations chosen from the survey respondents. The results of the survey—which had a usable response rate of 33%—and from the case-study interviews shed important light on SME attitudes, awareness, and responses to existing regulatory requirements. The authors comment on how far the evidence supports the propositions in the extant literature and examine possible policy implications of the findings.
Helicobacter pylori treatment in the era of increasing antibiotic resistance

With few exceptions, the most commonly recommended triple Helicobacter pylori regimen (proton pump inhibitor (PPI), amoxicillin and clarithromycin) now provides unacceptably low treatment success. A review of worldwide results suggests that successful eradication using a triple regimen is not consistently observed in any population. Clinicians should use ‘only use what works locally’ and ignore consensus statements and society guidelines if they are not consistent with local results. Clinical trials should be result based, with the goal of identifying regimens with >90–95% success. New treatments should be only be compared with the currently locally effective treatment (>90%) or a historical untreated control (which has been shown to reliably yield 0% eradication); trials using placebos or treatments known to be inferior are with rare exceptions unethical. If a highly effective regimen is not available locally, we recommend trying a 14 day concomitant quadruple treatment regimen containing a PPI, amoxicillin, clarithromycin and a nitroimidazole; 10 day sequential treatment (PPI plus amoxicillin for 5 days followed by a PPI, clarithromycin and a nitroimidazole for 5 days); or 14 day bismuth-containing quadruple treatments. Treatments needing further evaluation include those containing furazolidone or nitazoxanide, hybrids of sequential–concomitant therapies and amoxicillin–PPI dual therapy with PPI doses such that they maintain intragastric pH >6.
Price, Quality and Quantity Regulation in Monopoly Situations

Economists now have at their disposal a well-developed body of analysis dealing with price and quantity behaviour in various market structures, but they have no comparable body of analysis relating to the qualitative and alterable attributes of products that consumers value. Product reliability, durability and availability of service facilities are examples of such quality attributes. In transportation, the frequency of travel, its safety, speed, space provision and aesthetic aspects of design are all examples of quality variations whose supply is costly and determined by the firm. The objects of this paper are the following: first, to develop a model of the socially optimum levels of quality and quantity; second, to use the model to demonstrate how quality and quantity levels are simultaneously chosen by a monopoly firm, and analyse in what direction the monopoly equilibrium deviates from the social optimum; finally, to determine the effects of various regulatory policies on the monopoly's decisions, and thereby to examine the desirability of such measures. The paper uses notions of consumer's surplus to characterize the social optimum. The use of consumer's surplus can be rigorously justified by assuming that all consumers are identical and have separable utility functions, U, linear in "other commodities", y: U=u(x, q)? +y, with ux>O and u,<0, where x is the quantity and q an index of quality. The first-order condition for utilitymaximum subject to a budget constraint px + y =n, where p is the price of x (price of y normalized to be unity) and in income, is ux(x, q)
Legal Positions and Institutional Complementarities

Legal positions (such as rights, duties, liberties, powers, liabilities and immunities) are linked together by strong institutional complementarities differing from the usual institutional complementarities that have been recently considered by the Economic Literature. Legal positions do not only satisfy the usual conditions of institutional complementarity stemming from the fact legal positions that "fit" each other do marginally better than the ones that do not. They define also legal equilibria characterised by the social scarcity constraint that is typical of positional goods. Legal positions can be considered as positional goods defining equilibrium conditions that may be violated ex-ante but that must hold ex-post as accounting identities. In this sense they define "strong institutional complementarities" supported by the "tight glue" of social scarcity. The positional nature of legal relations implies that "ex-ante" disequilibrium is very likely to arise and to generate a constant oversupply of positions such as rights and powers with respect to correlated positions such as duties and liabilities. Alternative systems of capitalism are characterised by both the "strong institutional complementarities" existing among different legal positions and the "weak complementarities" existing among the legal positions and the other characteristics of the system such as the technology and the nature of the resources. In this way, the "ex-ante" disequilibrium, due to the positional nature of legal relations, can spill over other parts of the economic system.
Creativity in Schools: A Survey of Teachers in Europe

This report examines teachers' perceptions about creativity for learning and their reflection on their own teaching practices. Teachers' opinions where collected through an online survey which gathered data from 32 countries and at distinct school levels. For the scope of this report, only responses from teachers from EU27 and teaching in obligatory schooling were examined (ISCED levels 1 and 2). This amounts to a total of 7,659 responses.
Towards business excellence in the hospitality industry: A case for 3-, 4-, and 5-star hotels in Iran

This study aims to develop and suggest a new ‘in-house’ quality improvement model for small- and medium-sized hotels. This model is assumed to be fast, simple, and effective for hospitality organisations because it includes the proven critical success factors of Kanji's excellence model. In addition, this article provides a better understanding of how different groups of frontline managers, chiefs, and employees perceive their readiness towards the business excellence culture and performance in 3-, 4-, and 5-star hotels in Tehran, Iran. The survey data used in the analyses include a sample size of 507 managers, chiefs, and lower-level employees. A one-way ANOVA analysis was used to test significant differences and business excellence performance of the proposed model. Using a self-administered Questionnaire, we found that most employees, chiefs, and managers in Tehran gave their lowest scores to quality culture practices and business excellence performance.
Exposure assessment of indoor allergens, endotoxin, and airborne fungi for homes in southern Taiwan.

This study was undertaken to examine the seasonal variations of domestic Der p 1, Der p 2, and endotoxin on mattress and airborne fungal concentrations in homes of asthmatic and nonasthmatic children in southern Taiwan, where temperature and relative humidity are usually high throughout the year. A group of asthmatic children (10-12 years old) were selected randomly based on a citywide questionnaire survey. The nonasthmatic children were chosen to be in the comparison group by matching in age, gender, and proximity of residence. Environmental sampling of domestic microbes was conducted once a month for a year. Twelve calendar months were grouped into spring, summer, fall, and winter according to weather data (mainly average temperature and humidity) from the Central Weather Bureau. Dust samples from a child's mattress and airborne samples from a child's bedroom were collected and analyzed for allergens of Der p 1 and Der p 2, endotoxin, and fungi respectively. Results show that about 65% of children's mattresses in our region have Der p 1 levels greater than 2 microg/g. It is also apparent that most airborne fungal concentrations found in homes of either asthmatic or nonasthmatic children are higher than the recommended levels of concern. The predominant genera are Cladosporium, Aspergillus, Penicillium, Alternaria, and yeast. In addition, seasonal effects seem to be a critical factor for the concentrations and distributions of domestic endotoxin in these study homes. The implication of long-term exposure to these high levels of environmental microbes and how their effects vary with seasons remain to be further characterized.
Older caregivers' coping strategies and sense of coherence in relation to quality of life.

AIM This paper reports a study to investigate coping strategies and sense of coherence in relation to gender, the extent of care, caregiving activities and health-related quality of life in a population-based sample of caregivers aged 75 and over. BACKGROUND Caring for another person can be stressful both emotionally, and caregiver burden may affect quality of life in a negative way for the carer. Caregivers' experience of burden may depend on for example, the behaviour of the person cared for, their own health and their sense of coherence. Older people take a great part of caregiving responsibility and thus understanding of their strain and coping is required. METHODS A postal survey was carried out in 2001 with 171 informal caregivers, aged 75 or older. The response rate was 47%. The questionnaire included the Short-Form 12, Carer's Assessment of Managing Index, and Sense of Coherence instrument. RESULTS Almost 70% of caregivers provided help every day. Higher health-related quality of life was predicted by using self-sustaining coping strategies and by high sense of coherence. Poor economic situation and demanding social and practical support predicted low scores. CONCLUSION These findings could help identify those at risk of low quality of life due to caregiving, dysfunctional coping or lack of information about care. Early intervention, including education about alternative coping strategies and practical information, might allow caregivers better possibilities to continue caring with less negative effects on their lives.
Embedding Learning How to Learn in school policy: the challenge for leadership

Achieving lasting and deep‐seated change in schools through the embedding of a new set of practices with associated values is a familiar goal. This paper draws upon interviews with school coordinators and head teachers participating in the Learning How to Learn Project to explore the nature of embedding and the related challenges for leadership. Conceptions of embedding may be divided broadly into those which refer to structure, often epitomized by procedural mechanisms, and those which proceed from a belief in a more gradualistic infusion of change through a shift in culture. We discuss a number of approaches to embedding practice, finding that cultural and structural elements are often closely interrelated, although schools place differing emphases on one or the other. The challenges for leadership include resolving the tension between ‘bottom‐up’ growth, and ‘top‐down’ mandated change, and addressing seven conditions for embedding which appear to be pertinent.
Integrated energy and transmission pricing

This paper introduces the concept of transmission side bidding for availing power transmission services through a market mechanism. The transmission side bidding, in essence, refers to the direct market participation of transmission line owners for selling their line capacities with appropriate price offers. The transmission offers are submitted to the centralized auction conducted by the independent system operator for carrying out dispatch scheduling or for the issuance of transmission rights. Those are jointly cleared along with other bids and offers, and bid-consistent prices are established by means of marginal pricing. The uncertainty that gets involved in revenues or payments of market players because of the conventional transmission pricing is, therefore, eliminated. By recognizing the criticality of power flow interactions between different transmission lines, the auction participation of transmission line owners is suitably regulated. The issuance of financial transmission rights (FTRs) is supplemented by assigning counterflow flowgate rights to the transmission line owners so as to ensure revenue adequate FTR settlement. Detailed case studies are performed to verify the utility of the proposed transmission pricing methodology.
Strategic human resource management: theory and practice. 2nd edition

The Second Edition of this highly successful course reader provides a comprehensive, contemporary and critical review of the key issues in strategic human resource management. The book draws upon the work of some of the most influential and insightful writers on the subject of the strategic management of people in organizations. Through a series of carefully edited articles, students can explore current thinking on topics as diverse as performance, pay, process reengineering, structure, ethics, culture, change and leadership. This volume moves beyond strategic human resource management from the perspective of the policy setter. The book informs but also questions and, while recognising the legitimacy and importance of management perspectives, also captures the experience of workers on the receiving end of strategic initiatives. Students will be encouraged to consider core issues and difficult questions, such as: " How should employees respond to the missionary zeal of their employers? " How can we explain the increasing influence of gangmasters? " What are the effects of management training on the identities of managers? " Has strategic HRM been transformed from a model of commitment to one of exploitation? Strategic Human Resource Management has been designed to meet the needs of course teaching at advanced undergraduate and postgraduate levels. It is an invaluable text that will help define the complex agenda of human resource management, strategy and organisations for students.
Does economic integration cause foreign direct investment

The authors analyze the effect of economic integration on oligopolists' international trade and foreign direct investment activities, using a three-country, three-firm model. Increased country size leads to dispersed foreign direct investment, while improved market accessibility leads to export-platform foreign direct investment. Increased intraregional market accessibility prompts outside firms to invest in the regional bloc, reducing product prices, profits of intrabloc firms, and increasing total surplus. Integrating economies are more likely to gain from improving intraregional market accessibility than from tougher external trade policy, and may wish to offer investment incentives to encourage foreign direct investment by outside firms. Copyright 1996 by Economics Department of the University of Pennsylvania and the Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association.
A low frequency of non‐founder BRCA1 mutations in Ashkenazi Jewish breast–ovarian cancer families

The 185delAG and 5382insC founder mutations account for the majority of mutations identified in BRCA1 in Ashkenazi Jewish breast and breast–ovarian cancer families. Few non‐founder BRCA1 mutations have been identified to date in these families. We initially screened a panel of 245 Ashkenazi Jewish breast–ovarian cancer families with an affected proband and at least one other case of breast or ovarian cancer for founder mutations in BRCA1 and BRCA2. Founder mutations were identified in 85 families (185delAG in 44 families, 5382insC in 16 families, and the BRCA2 6174delT in 25 families). The 160 negative families were then screened for the entire BRCA1 gene by a combination of DGGE and PTT. We identified one novel frameshift mutation in BRCA1 in exon 14 (4572del22) that truncated the protein at codon 1485. The family contained three cases of early‐onset ovarian cancer (41 years, 43 years, and 52 years) and one case of breast cancer (at age 54 years subsequent to an ovarian cancer). In addition, three missense variants of unknown significance (exon 11 C3832T (P1238L), exon 15 G4654T (S1512I), and exon 15 G4755A (D1546N)) were found in single families. These missense variants have been previously identified in other families [BIC Database] and are considered to be “unclassified variants, favoring polymorphism. ” Non‐founder BRCA1 mutations are rare in Ashkenazi Jewish breast/ovarian cancer families. Hum Mutat 20:352–357, 2002. © 2002 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.