Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Pluralism, Procedural Consensus and Collective Bargaining

It is often a sterile exercise to attach labels to particular theorists in the hope that this will clearly indicate their beliefs and fashions of analysis: this is one of the lessons to be drawn from recent controversy on pluralism in industrial relations. Practical persons are usually unconcerned with the finer points of definitional exactitude, and it is no accident that pluralism was once described as ‘just a term for a convenient mode of treating pragmatism from a theological point of view’. 1 The links between pluralism and pragmatism in industrial relations are particularly intimate;2 because of the overriding concern of most adherents with immediate practical problems, pluralism as a theology has been remarkably poorly endowed with explicit dogma (however rich in unstated and implicit presuppositions). There is thus little value in arguments along the lines that a certain author is a pluralist and must therefore be held to endorse a given series of propositions.
Outward and Inward Directed Aggressiveness: The Interaction Between Violence and Suicidaliy

This paper examines the relations and interactions between suicidality and violence. It reviews the recent literature indicating that more than 40 variables have been identified as risk factors for suicide. Evidence is presented to indicate that the differences between suicide attempters and suicide completers are a matter of degree, and that most conclusions that apply to one also apply to the other. A review of the recent literature on violence revealed that 37 variables are risk factors for violence and that 23 of them are risk factors for suicide as well. Evidence indicates that at least 17 variables have been identified as protective factors that decrease the risk of both suicide and violence. These considerations and others have led to the development of a Two-Stage Model of Countervailing Forces that systematically relates suicide to violence.
Learning Contested Lessons: Participation Equity and Electric Utility Regulation

Electric utilities have typically enjoyed a close and cooperative relationship with the state regulatory bodies that oversee them. In 2001, the Colorado Public Utilities Commission mandated that the largest Colorado utility build a wind power plant as part of its conventional generating capacity, despite the utility's vigorous objections. Local environmental groups, intervening in a form of rule making called Integrated Resource Planning, succeeded in overturning regulatory capture. This paper explains this anomalous case and highlights the role of knowledge and learning in the outcome. The case shows the opportunities and limitations of using contested technical knowledge to push for institutional learning. The case also suggests the importance of repeated policy processes. Wind energy advocates perceived that they had acquired participation equity, ownership in the process akin to Kingdon's "softening up," which led policy makers to take their arguments more seriously, opening up the possibility of institutional learning. Copyright 2008 by The Policy Studies Organization.
Measuring Trade Union Democracy: The Case of the UK Civil and Public Services Association

The Civil and Public Services Association (CPSA) has experienced a substantial number of organizational changes over the last 25 years, both as a voluntary response to membership concerns and to comply with legislative demands. Have these changes made the CPSA more or less ‘democratic’? An answer to this question must acknowledge that individuals interpret ‘trade union democracy’ in different ways. This paper evaluates the changes in the CPSA’s organizational structure and internal decision-making procedures according to the emphasis of four models of trade union democracy: liberal pluralism, grass-roots activism, individual accountability and consumer trade unionism.
Determinants of capital structure choice: a study of the Indian corporate sector

Existing empirical research on capital structure has been largely confined to the United States and a few other advanced countries. This paper attempts to study the capital structure choice of Less Developed Countries (LDCs) through a case study of the Indian Corporate sector. The objective is to develop a model that accounts for the possibility of restructuring costs in attaining an optimal capital structure and addresses the measurement problem that arises due to the unobservable nature of the attributes influencing the optimal capital structure. The evidence presented here suggests that the optimal capital structure choice can be influenced by factors such as growth, cash flow, size, and product and industry characteristics. The results also confirm the existence of restructuring costs in attaining an optimal capital structure.
EPR detection of reactive oxygen species in hemolymph of Galleria mellonella and Dendrolimus superans sibiricus (Lepidoptera) larvae.

The formation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in hemolymph and hemocytes of Galleria mellonella and Dendrolimus superans sibiricus larvae was studied by ESR spectroscopy using spin-trap 1-hydroxy-3-carboxy-pyrrolidine (CP-H). The background level of ROS formation was detected in the intact hemolymph. The addition of dihydroxyphenylalanine (DOPA) into free cells of the hemolymph increased CP-H oxidation about two times for G. mellonella and about four times for D. superans sibiricus. This increase was completely inhibited by a specific inhibitor of phenoloxidase, phenylthiourea. The presence of exogenous superoxide dismutase (SOD) did not change CP-H oxidation in the hemolymph. The data obtained in hemocytes showed only a DOPA-induced increase in CP-H oxidation. Phagocytosis activators did not affect ROS formation in hemocytes of both insect species. SOD decreased DOPA-induced CP-H oxidation 20-30% in suspension of hemocytes of D. superans sibiricus only. Our results are in agreement with the contribution of superoxide radical and DOPA-derived quinones/semiquinones in the immune response of insects.
Fundamental Difficulties in the Provision of Public Goods: 'A Solution to the Free-Rider Problem' Twenty Years After

Groves-Ledyard (1977) constructed a mechanism attaining Pareto efficient allocations in the presence of public goods. After this path-breaking paper, many mechanisms have been proposed to attain desirable allocations with public goods. Thus, economists have thought that the free-rider problem is solved, in theory. Our view to this problem is not so optimistic. Rather, we propose fundamental impossibility theorems with public goods. In the previous mechanism design, it was implicitly assumed that every agent must participate in the mechanism that the designer provides.
Basal body and flagellar development during the vegetative cell cycle and the sexual cycle of Chlamydomonas reinhardii.

Basal body development and flagellar regression and growth in the unicellular green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardii were studied by light and electron microscopy during the vegetative cell cycle in synchronous cultures and during the sexual life cycle. Flagella regress by gradual shortening prior to vegetative cell division and also a few hours after cell fusion in the sexual cycle. In vegetative cells basal bodies remain attached to the plasma membrane by their transitional fibres and do not act as centrioles at the spindle poles during division. In zygotes the basal bodies and associated microtubular roots and cross-striated connexions all dissolve, and by 6.5 h after mating all traces of flagellar apparatus and associated structures have disappeared. They remain absent for 6 days throughout zygospore maturation and then are reassembled during zygospore germination, after meiosis has begun. Basal body assembly in developing zygospores occurs close to the plasma membrane (in the absence of pre-existing basal bodies) via an intermediate stage consisting of nine single A-tubules surrounding a central ‘cartwheel’. Assembly is similar in vegetative cells (and occurs prior to cell division), except that new basal bodies are physically attached to old ones by amorphous material. In vegetative cells, amorphous disks, which may possibly be still earlier stages in basal-body development occur in the same location as 9-singlet developing basal bodies. After the 9-singlet structure is formed, B and C fibres are added and the basal body elongates to its mature length. Microtubular roots, striated connexions and flagella are then assembled. Both flagellar regression and growth are gradual and sequential, the transitional region at the base of the flagellum being formed first and broken down last. The presence of amorphous material at the tip of the axoneme of growing and regressing flagella suggests that the axoneme grows or shortens by the sequential assembly or disassembly at its tip. In homogenized cells basal bodies remain firmly attached to each other by their striated connexions. The flagellar transitional region, and parts of the membrane and of the 4 microtubular roots, also remain attached; so also do new developing basal bodies, if present. These structures are well preserved in homogenates and new fine-structural details can be seen. These results are discussed, and lend no support to the idea that basal bodies have genetic continuity. It is suggested that basal body development can be best understood if a distinction is made between the information needed to specify the structure of a basal body and that needed to specify its location and orientation.
Whiplash injuries of the neck.

Ever since the term "whiplash" was introduced, there has never been an orthopaedic subject more emotionally charged - so prone to change friends to acquaintances - so apt to evoke a grumbling division of an audience. The term "whiplash" has developed an evil connotation not only in the minds of the lawyers, but also in the minds of the general public - so much so that the patient may be further injured by just hearing the diagnosis. A whiplash injury is essentially an extension strain of the cervical spine produced by sudden acceleration, and I would like to urge strongly that we designate it as such, and refer to it as an acceleration-extension injury of the cervical spine. Everyone dealing with whiplash injuries is in agreement as to the type of symptoms to be expected, but here the agreement stops. Widely divergent views are held on the significance of these symptoms and these diverging viewpoints - rigidly held and hotly contested - are firmly based, on impressions only. In an endeavour to make these impressions more factually significant, the progress of 575 patients has been carefully followed.
Performance Evaluation of 10Base-T and 100Base-T Ethernets Carrying Multimedia Traffic

The performance of 10Base-T and 100Base-T Ethernet segments carrying audio/video traffic is presented. End-to-end delay requirements suitable for a wide range of multimedia applications are considered (ranging from 20-500 ms). Given the specific nature of the network considered and the maximum latency requirement, some data is lost. Data loss at the receiver causes quality degradations in the displayed video in the form of discontinuities, referred to as glitches. We define various quantities characterizing the glitches, namely, the total amount of information lost in glitches, their duration, and the rate at which glitches occur. We study these quantities for various network and traffic scenarios, using a computer simulation model driven by real video traffic generated by encoding video sequences. We also determine the maximum number of video streams that can be supported for given maximum delay requirement and glitch rate. We consider various types of video contents (video conferencing, motion pictures, commercials), two encoding schemes (H.261 and MPEG-1), and two encoder control schemes [constant bit rate (CBR) and constant-quality variable bit rate (CQ-VBR)] and compare their results. Furthermore, we consider scenarios with mixtures of video and data traffic (with various degrees of burstiness), and determine the effect of one traffic type over the other.
Equivalent Circuit Modeling of a Multilayer Planar Winding Array Structure for Use in a Universal Contactless Battery Charging Platform

In this paper, an equivalent circuit model of a multilayer planar winding array structure that can be used as a universal contactless battery charging platform is presented. This model includes the mutual-inductive effects of partial overlaps of planar windings in the multilayer structure. It has been successfully simulated with PSpice and practically verified with measurements obtained from three prototypes. This circuit model forms the basis of an overall system model of the planar charging platform. It is demonstrated that model parameters can be derived from the geometry of the winding structure. Errors between the calculated and the measured results are found to be within a tolerance of 5%
Internal Auditor as Accounting Fraud Buster

Fraud is a major cause of poverty in various parts of the world. Economic resources are being swindled by powerful politicians, bureaucrats and industrialists in one form or the other, leaving the economies of countries poorer. The corporate sector is not far behind. World over, accounting fraud in corporate balance sheets is continuously increasing in numbers and magnitude. This has also brought great burden on public resources and on the economy of the world and ultimately on public at large. The government and regulatory authorities are continuously revisiting this area to modify and introduce new legislation to check this menace. This paper discusses the effectiveness of internal auditor to contain, detect and prevent the accounting frauds and thus fight this plague in the corporate sector. The paper introduces the concept of appointment of internal auditor by outside stakeholders to strengthen his independence and consequently his effectiveness to detect and prevent fraud.
Control of yeast retrotransposons mediated through nucleoporin evolution

Yeasts serve as hosts to several types of genetic parasites. Few studies have addressed the evolutionary trajectory of yeast genes that control the stable co-existence of these parasites with their host cell. In Saccharomyces yeasts, the retrovirus-like Ty retrotransposons must access the nucleus. We show that several genes encoding components of the yeast nuclear pore complex have experienced natural selection for substitutions that change the encoded protein sequence. By replacing these S. cerevisiae genes with orthologs from other Saccharomyces species, we discovered that natural sequence changes have affected the mobility of Ty retrotransposons. Specifically, changing the genetic sequence of NUP84 or NUP82 to match that of other Saccharomyces species alters the mobility of S. cerevisiae Ty1 and Ty3. Importantly, all tested housekeeping functions of NUP84 and NUP82 remained equivalent across species. Signatures of natural selection, resulting in altered interactions with viruses and parasitic genetic elements, are common in host defense proteins. Yet, few instances have been documented in essential housekeeping proteins. The nuclear pore complex is the gatekeeper of the nucleus. This study shows how the evolution of this large, ubiquitous eukaryotic complex can alter the replication of a molecular parasite, but concurrently maintain essential host functionalities regarding nucleocytoplasmic trafficking.
Approximation-Free Control for Vehicle Active Suspensions With Hydraulic Actuator

This paper presents a novel control strategy for nonlinear uncertain vehicle active suspension systems without using any function approximators [e.g., neural networks (NNs) or fuzzy logic systems (FLSs)]. Unlike previous results that neglect the effect of actuator dynamics, this paper incorporates the dynamics of a hydraulic actuator that is used to create the required active suspension forces into the controller design. To address the nonlinearities of this hydraulic system, an approximation-free control method is introduced. In this method, the widely used NNs and FLSs are not needed. This leads to reduced computational burden and complexity, and thus, it is more suited for practical applications. Moreover, by introducing a prescribed performance function and the associated error transform, the proposed controller can guarantee both the transient and steady-state suspension responses. The stability of the closed-loop system and the suspension performance requirements are rigorously proved. Finally, comparative simulations are conducted to validate the improved performance and robustness of the proposed method.
The Impact of the Financial Crisis on Business Ethics in the Banking Sector: A Case Study from Slovakia

Abstract The importance of ethical standards for financial markets is based on the purpose of commercial banks and other financial institutions which operate with money of others. Besides significant economic implications, the financial crisis has also revealed considerable lack of moral values in commercial banking, which has been reflected by a very unscrupulous approach of bankers to their clients. The crisis has also caused a fundamental turnaround in public opinions on commercial banking and increased the pressure on application of moral principles in banking, which represents an appropriate complement of banking regulations. The aim of this article is to determine the basic attributes of business ethics in commercial banking and quantify changes in moral attitudes of bank employees in Slovakia through own research, which occurred during the financial crisis. Moral attitudes of bank employees are analyzed in relation to reaching customer satisfaction. The research focuses on identificating satisfaction of bank employees and also on how their satisfaction reflects acceptance of customers’ needs. A part of the research also deals with evaluation of customer satisfaction in the same timeframe. The results of our empirical research show that the low level of satisfaction and loyalty of bank employees is transferred to the low acceptance rate of customer need to sell bank’s products in the banking sector in Slovakia. The low level of satisfaction and loyalty has also caused a decline in the overall customer satisfaction. Index of personal satisfaction of bank’s customers has slightly increased in the examined period, but its current level is still very low.
Decreased subcortical volumes in alcohol dependent individuals: effect of polysubstance use disorder

Chronic alcohol use has widespread effects on brain morphometry. Alcohol dependent individuals are often diagnosed with comorbid substance use disorders. Alterations in brain morphometry may be different in individuals that are dependent on alcohol alone and individuals dependent on alcohol and other substances. We examined subcortical brain volumes in 37 individuals with alcohol dependence only (ADO), 37 individuals with polysubstance use disorder (PS) and 37 healthy control participants (HC). Participants underwent a structural MR scan and a model‐based segmentation tool was used to measure the volume of 14 subcortical regions (bilateral thalamus, caudate, putamen, globus pallidus, hippocampus, amygdala and nucleus accumbens). Compared to HC, ADO had smaller volume in the bilateral hippocampus, right nucleus accumbens and right thalamus. PS only had volume reductions in the bilateral thalamus compared to HC. PS had a larger right caudate compared to ADO. Subcortical volume was negatively associated with drinking measures only in the ADO group. This study confirms the association between alcohol dependence and reductions in subcortical brain volume. It also suggests that polysubstance use interacts with alcohol use to produce limited subcortical volume reduction and at least one region of subcortical volume increase. These findings indicate that additional substance use may mask damage through inflammation or may function in a protective manner, shielding subcortical regions from alcohol‐induced damage.
Disappearing anomalies: a dynamic analysis of the persistence of anomalies

This study examines several well-known stock market anomalies before and after they were published. If the anomalies are a result of data snooping or data crunching, these are expected to disappear in the data soon after they have been reported. Moreover, increased awareness of anomalies among investors will diminish possible profits as more investors will trade based on these anomalies. Employing dynamic analyses, strong evidence is found that the weekend effect, the holiday effect, the time-of-the-month effect and the January effect have disappeared after these anomalies have been published. The turn-of-the-month effect seems still present, whereas the small firm effect has recently resurrected. The timing of disappearing or reappearing anomalies typically often coincides with the timing of academic publications.
Isolation and Characterization of a GTPase Activating Protein Specific for the Rab3 Subfamily of Small G Proteins*

The Rab small G protein family, consisting of nearly 30 members, is implicated in intracellular vesicle trafficking. They cycle between the GDP-bound and GTP-bound forms, and the latter is converted to the former by the action of a GTPase activating protein (GAP). No GAP specific for each Rab family member or Rab subfamily has been isolated in mammal. Here we purified a GAP with Rab3A as a substrate from rat brain. The purified protein was specifically active on the Rab3 subfamily members (Rab3A, -B, -C, and -D). Of this subfamily, Rab3A and -C are implicated in Ca2+-dependent exocytosis, particularly in neurotransmitter release. This GAP, named Rab3 GAP, was active on the lipid-modified form, but not on the lipid-unmodified form. Rab3 GAP showed a minimum molecular mass of about 130 kDa on SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. We cloned its cDNA from a human brain cDNA library, and the isolated cDNA encoded a protein with a Mr of 110,521 and 981 amino acids, which showed no homology to any known protein. The recombinant protein exhibited GAP activity toward the Rab3 subfamily members, and the catalytic domain was located at the C-terminal region. Northern blot analysis indicated that Rab3 GAP was ubiquitously expressed.
Radical Reform in New Zealand: Crisis, Windows of Opportunity, and Rational Actors

This article uses three perspectives to explain the radical economic and state sector reforms undertaken in New Zealand starting in 1984. We interpret the reforms using a rational-comprehensive perspective, a garbage can perspective and a modified garbage can perspective identified in the work of John Kingdon. With New Zealand as an illustrative case, we explore the conditions under which radical reform is possible, the factors governing the adoption of reforms, and the impact on the reform process of a country's historical and cultural traditions. Our analysis emphasizes the import of a package of ready-made solutions, strong advocates (particularly a well-placed policy entrepreneur) who attach the solutions to a problem, and the existence of a ‘window of opportunity’ for adoption of the reforms. We conclude with a discussion of the implications of adopting reforms that run counter to a nation's long-established traditions.