Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Entrepreneurship Is a General Education Course! The Why, How and Transferability of the Concept

Abstract We describe the development and implementation of an innovative university undergraduate course entitled Entrepreneurship and Innovation (E&I). Our purpose is to explain and justify how the new E&I course adds a fresh dimension to undergraduate general education by emphasizing student integrative learning of opportunity recognition and creativity knowledge and skills within a classroom of students from many academic disciplines and majors. We describe the lengthy and ultimately successful university approval process that we traversed to create the first entrepreneurship course in the United States to be granted university general education (usually consisting of liberal azts and sciences courses) degree graduation requirement status. The E&I course was included as an approved general education social and behavioral science course in 2004. We view the designation of an introductory entrepreneurship course as a general education course as a significant milestone for college and university entrepreneurship education. The core general education curricula of most U.S. colleges and universities have been limited to conventional liberal arts courses and thus exclude professional school courses. We propose that the core concepts of entrepreneurial thinking are consistent with the purpose of university general education and therefore belong in the core undergraduate curriculum model. Our proposals in this azticle are supported by recent studies undertaken by the American Association of University Professors, the Association of American Colleges and Universities and The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. These studies address significant gaps in U.S. undergraduate general education and liberal arts core curriculum. Traditional general education courses typically are designed as introductory courses for liberal arts and sciences majors and as such are understandably less likely to assimilate ideas across disciplines and integrate multidisciplinary learning. Our E&I course, by contrast, is inherently multidisciplinary and designed to present and integrate ideas and concepts from divergent academic disciplines and sources as its subject focus. The E&I course adds new capacity to university general education by emphasizing opportunity recognition, creativity knowledge and skills, and integrative learning and thus fills an educational gap defined by educational leaders who seek to reinvigorate general and liberal education and thereby prepare university students for leadership in the 215' Century. We conclude the article with recommendations suggesting faculty at other colleges and universities can utilize our concepts and experience to create their own variation of an E&I course to improve their undergraduate curriculum initiatives.
Managing Crowds in Innovation Challenges

Crowdsourcing for innovation is typically conducted as an “innovation challenge. ” Despite the popularity of innovation challenges, there appears to be a growing consensus that innovation challenges do not succeed at generating solutions with competitive advantage potential. This article presents three ways in which managers can assure that their innovation challenges are fruitful: foster different crowd roles to encourage contribution diversity; offer knowledge integration instructions and dual incentives; and offer explicit instructions for sharing different types of knowledge.
Community Enforcement Beyond the Prisoner's Dilemma

repeated anonymous random matching setting. It is well known that, if the stage-game is the prisoner's dilemma, cooperation can be supported in equilibrium through grim trigger, also called 'community enforcement' or contagion in this setting. But, little is known about sustaining cooperation in games other than the prisoner's dilemma, when information transmission is minimal. In this paper we consider a class of two-player games beyond the prisoner's dilemma, and characterize a subset of the individually rational and feasible payoffs that can be sustained in sequential equilibrium, if players are sufficiently patient. Cooperation is sustained through what we call 'delayed contagion'. In the equilibria we construct, there is an initial phase of trust-building in which deviations are temporarily ignored. Once trust has been built, the communities play cooperatively.
NATURAL CAPACITOR VOLTAGE BALANCE IN MULTILEVEL FLYING CAPACITOR CONVERTRS. A REVIEW OF RESEARCH ACHIEVEMENTS

Abstract The flying-capacitor (FC) topology is one of the more well-established ideas of multilevel conversion, typically applied as an inverter. One of the biggest advantages of the FC converter is the ability to naturally balance capacitor voltage. When natural balancing occurs neither measurements, nor additional control is needed to maintain required capacitors voltage sharing. However, in order to achieve natural voltage balancing suitable conditions must be achieved such as the topology, number of levels, modulation strategy as well as impedance of the output circuitry. Nevertheless this method is effectively applied in various classes of the converter such as inverters, multicell DC-DC, switch-mode DC-DC, AC-AC, as well as rectifiers. The next important issue related to the natural balancing process is its dynamics. Furthermore, in order to reinforce the balancing mechanism an auxiliary resonant balancing circuit is utilized in the converter which can also be critical in the AC-AC converters or switch mode DC-DC converters. This paper also presents an issue of choosing modulation strategy for the FC converter due to the fact that the natural balancing process is well-established for phase shifted PWM whilst other types of modulation can be more favorable for the power quality.
Applying a Balanced Scorecard to Health Care Organizations

This article looks at the design and implementation of an integrated performance measurement system at a nonprofit community hospital–Community Memorial Hospital of Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin. In particular, the article discusses how the hospital developed and applied a balanced scorecard. Over the past decade, Community Memorial Hospital faced both market deregulation and strong competition. It responded to these environmental pressures by joining an integrated health service delivery network with other hospitals, physicians, and institutional purchasers of health care services. Ultimately, the hospital's management implemented a balanced scorecard. Its goals were to help translate the vision for the hospital and to gain consensus; to communicate the hospital's objectives, set goals, and link strategies; to allocate the hospital's resources and establish milestones; and to provide feedback and ensure learning. The hospital's balanced scorecard consists of one composite financial performance measure and 12 nonfinancial performance measures. Each performance indicator reflects a quantitative measure of a particular strategic objective. These performance measures are expressed in terms of actual performance as a percentage of expected performance and are integrated into a single, overall performance score through a subjective weighting scheme. The balanced scorecard approach to performance measurement at Community Memorial Hospital has provided an efficient and effective way to link day-to-day operating activities to the hospital's strategic objectives. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Further Analysis on Public-Good Provision in a Repeated-Game Setting

In a model of privately provided public goods within a repeated-game setting, Pecorino (1999) shows that it is not only possible to maintain cooperation, but it is "easy" in a large economy. Models of privately provided public goods are closely related to interregional tax competition models with spillovers in public-good provision. This paper reexamines the argument of Pecorino in an infinitely repeated interaction model of interregional tax competition. The results show that in a large economy, while the trigger strategy supports the efficient tax rate if there exists substantial spillover of public goods, it fails to do so if there are few benefit spillovers.
UDROP A Small Contribution to the New International Financial Architecture

The purpose of the UDROP proposal is to prevent debt rollover crises for foreign-currency-enominated debt instruments. For such liabilities, there is no international analogue to the domestic lender of last resort or to domestic deposit insurance. UDROP stands for Universal Debt Rollover Option with a Penalty. Our proposal is that all foreign currency liabilities should have a rollover option attached to them. The ''pure'' version of the option would entitle the borrower to extend or roll over his performing debt at maturity for a specified period. The pricing of the option would be left to the contracting parties. A number of variants on the basic version are also considered. These make the individual borrower''s ability to exercise his option contingent on the prior declaration of a state of ''disorderly markets'', by the national central bank, the International Monetary Fund or an indicator of ''disorderly markets''. All versions of the scheme have the property that no commitment of public money is required, either by national governments or by international agencies such as the International Monetary Fund or the World Bank. The UDROP proposal is rule based and general: it is mandatory for all foreign-currency debt and automatic. That is, it is exercised at the discretion of the borrower. This stands in sharp contrast to the current practice of discretionary and politicised refinancing arrangements cobbled together in an ad-hoc manner on a case-by-case basis by the International Monetary Fund. UDROP is market-oriented: the terms and conditions on any foreign-currency loan and associated rollover option would be negotiated by the lenders and borrowers.
Average Internal Rate of Return and Investment Decisions: A New Perspective

The internal rate of return (IRR) is often used by managers and practitioners for investment decisions. Unfortunately, it has serious flaws: (1) multiple real-valued IRRs may arise; (2) complex-valued IRRs may arise; (3) the IRR is, in general, incompatible with the net present value (NPV) in accept/reject decisions; (4) the IRR ranking is, in general, different from the NPV ranking; (5) the IRR criterion is not applicable with variable costs of capital. The efforts of economists and management scientists in providing a reliable project rate of return have generated over the decades an immense bulk of contributions aiming to solve these shortcomings. This article offers a complete solution to this long-standing unresolved issue by changing the usual perspective: the IRR equation is dismissed and the evaluator is allowed to describe the project as an investment or a borrowing at his discretion. This permits showing that any arithmetic mean of the one-period return rates implicit in a project reliably informs about a project's profitability and correctly ranks competing projects. With such a measure, which we call average internal rate of return, complex-valued numbers disappear and all the above-mentioned problems are wiped out. The economic meaning is compelling: it is the project return rate implicitly determined by the market. The traditional IRR notion may be found as a particular case.
Mutations in the CCGTTCACA DnaA Box of Mycobacterium tuberculosis oriC That Abolish Replication of oriC Plasmids Are Tolerated on the Chromosome

ABSTRACT The origin of replication (oriC) region in some clinical strains of Mycobacterium tuberculosis is a hot spot for IS6110 elements. To understand how clinical strains with insertions in oriC can replicate their DNA, we characterized the oriC regions of some clinical strains. Using a plasmid-based oriC-dependent replication assay, we showed that IS6110 insertions that disrupted the DnaA box sequence CCGTTCACA abolished oriC activity in M. tuberculosis. Furthermore, by using a surface plasmon resonance technique we showed that purified M. tuberculosis DnaA protein binds native but not mutant DnaA box sequence, suggesting that stable interactions of the DnaA protein with the CCGTTCACA DnaA box are crucial for replication of oriC plasmids in vivo. Replacement by homologous recombination of the CCGTTCACA DnaA box sequence of the laboratory strain M. tuberculosis H37Ra with a mutant sequence did not result in nonviability. Together, these results suggest that M. tuberculosis strains have evolved mechanisms to tolerate mutations in the oriC region and that functional requirements for M. tuberculosis oriC replication are different for chromosomes and plasmids.
Analysis of bronchoalveolar lavage specimens from immunocompromised patients with a protocol applicable in the microbiology laboratory

Several studies have concluded that bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) is a useful technique for diagnosing pulmonary disease in immunocompromised patients, but implementation of a protocol for obtaining, processing, and analyzing BAL specimens in a clinical microbiology laboratory has not been reported. We determined the utility of a laboratory protocol by analyzing 100 BAL specimens from 94 immunocompromised patients. Each BAL specimen was cultured quantitatively for bacteria. A concentrate of each specimen was cultured for fungi, viruses, mycobacteria, and Legionella sp. Slides of the BAL concentrate were prepared by cytocentrifugation and stained by a number of histochemical and fluorescence techniques. Overall diagnostic yields of 81% for infections, 90% for hemorrhage, and 13% for neoplasms were obtained with the patients studied. BAL analysis was incapable of diagnosing drug- or radiation-induced pneumonitis or idiopathic interstitial pneumonitis. After evaluation of the protocol was completed, it was successfully implemented in two university-based clinical microbiology laboratories as a routine diagnostic service.
Insights into Franchising: A Review of Empirical and Theoretical Perspectives

Business format franchising has expanded rapidly, over the past 40 years as an alternative method of distribution and business development. This literature review analyses the major issues which have been the subject of in-depth research and/or significant debate. These include: the determinants of franchising in theory and practice; why franchisors normally operate both franchised and company-owned outlets, and the factors which influence the balance between them; the role and position of franchisees within the franchisor/franchisee relationship and, finally, the continuing debate surrounding the kind of regulatory framework in which it should operate. These findings are evaluated and aspects of franchising which warrant further investigation are outlined.
Neonatal clinical outcome after electivecesarean section before the onset of labor at the 37th and 38thweek of gestation

Background : Although elective cesareansections are often performed after the 37th week of gestation withoutany complicating factor that may influence the timing of delivery,there is a possibility that infants born in the 37th week of gestation,especially early in the 37th week of gestation, do not obtain asatisfactory clinical outcome due to premature birth.
Seasonal cointegration and the money demand function: some evidence from Japan

The stability of the Japanese money demand function is empirically analysed employing the notion of seasonal cointegration. It is found that money balances, interest rates, and real GDP have unit roots in different cycles. The seasonal cointegration tests reveals that seasonal cointegration is rejected in every case. This fact indicates that no stable relationship exists between money supply and the real economy during the period under analysis.
A practical log-linear aggregation method with examples: heterogeneous income growth in the USA

A practical aggregation method for heterogeneous log-linear functions is presented. Inequality measures are employed in the construction of a simple but exact aggregate representation of an economy. Three macroeconomic applications are discussed: the aggregation of the Lucas supply function, the time-inconsistent behaviour of an egalitarian social planner facing heterogeneous discount rates, and the case of a simple heterogeneous growth model. In the latter application, aggregate CPS data is used to show that the slowdown that followed the first oil shock is worse than usually thought, and that the "new economy" growth resurgence is not as strong as it appears.
Communicating the Benefits of Micronutrient Fortification

Food fortification offers an affordable, convenient, and effective mechanism to improve the nutrition status of large segments of a population. However, the success of fortification has been less than public-health professionals and private-sector companies alike have hoped for, though often for different reasons. As new opportunities are available, success will be dictated by the ability of public health professionals to learn from private food companies' marketing efforts and, in turn, for the food companies to learn from the public health sector about how to reach groups who need fortified products the most. Simply having fortified products on the market does not promise that consumers will use the products or that businesses will continue to promote them. Carefully crafted and strategically implemented behavior-change communication can inform and motivate consumers to purchase and use the products appropriately, and, in turn, can motivate food companies, program managers, and policy makers to participate in the marketing of these products. Public health and development professionals can learn from the success of private-sector companies in creating demand for products. Good consumer research and testing can guide effective development and marketing of fortified products, as they do for all products and services. Private-sector companies that know how to market products need assistance to focus on the poorest segments of a population to pursue cost-effective strategies to get the product to those in need, in addition to those with purchasing power for the new product. Audience-specific marketing strategies can ensure that the same fortified product reaches every person who would benefit from it.
Household Satellite Account for France

We estimate the value of French domestic production in 2010, using the input method. We describe productive activities not currently covered by the system of national accounts (SNA) in a household satellite account (HHSA), following the recommendations of Eurostat. In line with previous studies in many developed countries, we find that remodelling the frontier of production to include domestic activities (house chores, cooking, care.) would have a sizeable effect on key macroeconomic indicators (the equivalent of 36% of the GDP, 55% of the disposable income, 63% of the consumption, and -_5 percentage points for the savings ratio). These estimates bring up several methodological issues. Most importantly, we quantify their sensitivity to technical choices which have not yet been settled by an international benchmark. The two most important issues are: first, the boundary of household production, and we advocate using a relatively narrow definition; second, the use of a gross or a net wage in the valuation of domestic work time. Valuating home production in order to build a HHSA is a very different exercise from valuating it in a welfare economics perspective. Openly choosing one or the other can help settling some of the pending issues. This work should allow further harmonisation and development of Household Satellite Accounts.
Prediction of academic and behavioural limitations in school‐age survivors of bacterial meningitis

Aim: To develop a prediction rule to identify postmeningitic children at high risk of academic and behavioural limitations. Methods: 182 children (mean age 10 y; range 5–14) were selected from a cohort of 674 school‐age survivors of bacterial meningitis. These children had neither meningitis with “complex onset”, nor prior cognitive or behavioural problems, nor severe disease sequelae. On average, 7 y after the meningitis, they were evaluated using an “Academic Achievement Test”, and their parents filled in the “Child Behaviour Checklist”. By reviewing the medical records, potential risk factors for academic and/or behavioural limitations were collected. Independent predictors were identified using multivariate logistic regression analysis, leading to the formulation of a prediction rule. Results: The cumulative incidence of academic and/or behavioural limitations among children who survived bacterial meningitis without severe disease sequelae was 32%. The prediction rule was based on nine independent risk factors: gender, birthweight, educational level of the father, S. pneumoniae, cerebrospinal fluid leukocyte count, delay between admission and start of antibiotics, dexamethasone use, seizures treated with anticonvulsive therapy, and prolonged fever. When 10 was taken as a cut‐off point for the risk score computed using this rule, 76% of the children with limitations could be identified, while 38% of the children in the cohort were selected as at risk for these limitations.
To Construct Regional Advantage from Innovation Systems First Build Policy Platforms

Abstract It has become clear that the idea of regional learning is an inadequate way of evolving regional economic development because of numerous problems of composition or utilizing samples of one, learning legacies and delays and impossibility of repeat experience. So, perforce, to offset regional imbalances responsible agencies are having to explore solutions endogenously in greater measure. This means constructing regional advantage, not an easy thing to do, by integrating and exploiting a range of assets from economic strengths to knowledge assets, good governance and creativity. Of great importance in this is seeking to promote “related variety” among economic activities. Single innovations diffuse swiftly across technology “platforms” into related industries because absorptive capacity is high among them. The key trick in constructing regional advantage is designing appropriate policy platforms that mix variable policy instruments in an integrated and judicious manner. This paper maps out a theoretical approach enabling this to be accomplished.
Minimization of the linewidth enhancement factor in compressively strained semiconductor lasers

A comprehensive model for the optical response of a semiconductor quantum well, including valence subband mixing and many-body effects, is used to theoretically investigate means of minimizing the linewidth enhancement factor. The effects of well width and compressive strain are analyzed, and the contribution of many-body effects evaluated. Compressive strain in narrow quantum wells generally leads to reduction of the linewidth enhancement factor at gain peak. In addition, many-body effects, particularly bandgap renormalization, admit the possibility that by small detuning to below the gain peak position, a zero value is possible.