Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Russian entrepreneurship: A question of ambiguity or certainty, risk taking or risk averse.

This article stems from a case study based on a series of in-depth interviews carried out on the All Russia Association of the Blind (VOS). It traces how two of the most successful VOS enterprises, Enterprise 13 in Moscow and Revda in the Urals, responded to the dynamic changes (both economic and social) that confronted them after the introduction of the free market economy. It examines the strategies, developed and emergent, created since 1991 by these two enterprises. In particular it traces the emergence of the entrepreneurial manager and his adaptation to the catalyst of change - growth, through the development of creative and proactive solutions to these environmental changes. In essence the contention is that in a period of flux where turbulence is high and change inevitable strategic leadership, driven by an entrepreneurial spirit, comes to the fore as a natural consequence of market forces. Risk taking and high tolerance of ambiguity mark the innovative leader. For hundreds of years the Russians had lived under centralising, autocratic regimes. In April 1985 Gorbachev’s Perestroika changed this. Perestroika introduced the seeds of a democratic political system and the beginnings of a market economy which was to supplant the failing Marxist model. Inevitably, the outcome was a situation of unparalleled complexity. Perestroika broke the Russian business mould. It created uncertainty by introducing ambiguity in the form of competition. The environment became increasingly unstable and the future uncertain. Enterprise directors had to take a step into the unknown. It was a period which started in 1991 with great expectations and aspirations but by 1997 had, through the erosion of the economic base, progressed to fear and trepidation as earlier dreams were unfulfilled. Finally, after the currency collapse of 1998, came the unexpected windfalls of import substitution and enhanced exchange rate benefits which led to the re-emergence of hope in the future as the expected economic deterioration failed to materialise. By 1998 the relationship between strategy, structure and performance was rewritten to capitalise on the emerging opportunities. But this entailed a deliberate destruction of the old business methodologies and relationships, the bending of rules, and the creation of a new culture based on risk. In essence it meant the emergence of a new set of core competences driven by a strategic leadership geared to handling ambiguity and oriented towards risk taking. A breed not readily found in Russia or the VOS enterprises
Governance Without Government: Governance, order, and change in world politics

At a time when hegemons are declining, when boundaries (and the walls that seal them) are disappearing, when the squares of the world's cities are crowded with citizens challenging authorities, when military alliances are losing their viability – to mention but a few of the myriad changes that are transforming world politics – the prospects for global order and governance have become a transcendent issue. As the scope of the transformation widens and as its pace intensifies, the more urgent do questions about the nature of order and governance become. Change means the attrition of established patterns, the lessening of order, and the faltering of governance, until such time as new patterns can form and get embedded in the routines of world politics. Such is the situation today. One senses that the course of history is at a turning point, a juncture where the opportunities for movement toward peaceful cooperation, expanded human rights, and higher standards of living are hardly less conspicuous than the prospects for intensified group conflicts, deteriorating social systems, and worsening environmental conditions. Either set of arrangements – and possibly both – could evolve as leaders and publics get accustomed to the heady realization that some control over the future has been regained as a consequence of all the changes.
The Housing Ladder, the Housing Life-cycle and the Housing Life-course: Upward and Downward Movement among Repeat Home-buyers in a US Metropolitan Housing Market

This research models US home-owners' decisions to move up or down in price. The models are based on three common conceptualisations: the housing ladder, the housing life-cycle and the housing life-course that use age of the householder as a measure of position in life. Age can be a proxy for many characteristics and we test several alternative measures using unique survey data that allow us to examine specific life-course variables. We conclude that, on an empirical level, age works reasonably well. However, we prefer a more complete formulation that includes presence of children, divorced or separated householder, income, age at first homeownership and duration of ownership as being conceptually more accurate and more useful in policy-making.
Changing One's Mind When the Facts Change: Incentives of Experts and the Design of Reporting Protocols

Experts often collect and report information over time. What reporting protocol elicits the most information? Here, a principal receives reports sequentially from an agent with privately known ability, who observes two signals about the state of the world. The signals differ in initial quality and, unlike previous work, differ in quality improvement. The paper finds that “mind changes” (inconsistent reports) can signal talent if a smart agent improves faster. Also, sequential reports dominate when the principal's decision is very sensitive to information; a single report dominates if the mediocre agent's signals improve faster or the agent is likely mediocre. Copyright 2007, Wiley-Blackwell.
Recoupling compensation-performance relationship: a mediating role of performance

Recent research on executive compensation studies attempts to decouple the executive compensation and firm performance relationship. This study intends to clarify the conflicting results reported by previous researchers by introducing a new theoretical perspective. A new methodological technique to explain the controversial empirical evidences is also employed. Different from most researchers who treated sales as a firm size indicator in the relationship between compensation and performance, we demonstrate in this paper that sales is more related to performance than to firm size in the compensation context by using structural equation modelling. Our results show that performance mediates the relationship between firm size and executive compensation.
Features for muscle fatigue computed from electromyogram and mechanomyogram: A new one

Muscle fatigue produces negative effects in the performance and it may lead to a muscle failure. This problem makes the quantitative grading of muscle fatigue a necessity in ergonomic and physiological research. Moreover, the quantitative grading of muscle fatigue is needed to increase work and sport productivity and prevent several accidents that result from muscle fatigue. Even though there are many studies for this aim, there is no quantitative criterion for the evaluation of muscle fatigue. The main reason is that muscle fatigue is a complex physiological situation that is dependent on several parameters. Our aim in this study is to present a new feature to evaluate muscle fatigue and prove the reliability of the new feature by making correlation analyses between this with other features. For this aim, electromyography and mechanomyography signals were simultaneously recorded from the biceps brachii and triceps brachii muscles during the isometric and isotonic contractions of 60 healthy volunteers (30 females, 30 males). The mean power frequency and median frequency, which are used in the literature, were compared to the frequency ratio change, the new measure; correlations between the frequency ratio change and the mean power frequency and median frequency were analysed. There was a high correlation between the features, and frequency ratio change can be used to quantitatively evaluate muscle fatigue.
JOURNAL OF FINANCIAL AND QUANTITATIVE ANALYSIS November 1976 INDUSTRY EFFECTS AND MULTIVARIATE STOCK PRICE BEHAVIOR

Models of return generation for securities are potentially important for a number of reasons, including their possible utility in normative portfolio construction. Multiindex models of the process are frequently suggested as an alternative to the familiar single-index models, but, while the multi-index models are intuitively appealing, their empirical superiority remains largely undemonstrated. This paper examines the extent to which three multi-index models succeed in eliminating dependence in the return residuals for a portfolio of common stocks. The relevance of this research lies in the promise that, while obviously requiring additional inputs to determine the efficient set of portfolios, multi-index models may succeed in identifying a more accurate set of efficient portfolios.
Perception Differences Between Domestic and International Visitors in the Tourist Destination

Abstract As a role of political boundaries become less of a dividing line and more a line of integration. During the past decade, the world has undergone tremendous geopolitical changes, wherein the role of political frontiers has become that of a line of integration rather than simply a barrier to interaction. The easing of travel restrictions by many countries and international cooperation in economic development have been at the forefront of these shifts in political ideologies. Recent research has confirmed the importance of tourism in borderland areas. This study examines domestic and international tourists' perceptions and attitudes towards political boundaries and tourism and concludes with a discussion of the resulting challenges to tourist attractions in the DMZ areas. The unique findings of this study may contribute to verify relationships between political boundaries and tourism theories. Additionally, the methodology used to study and the findings on tourist attitudes and perceptions about the DMZ areas could prove useful to other researchers who will likely undertake similar research in the future.
Measurement of transmission coefficients of radiowaves through building materials in the 5.8 GHz frequency band

Transmission coefficients of radiowaves trough different building materials in the 5.8 GHz frequency band have been obtained. Several samples of each material have been measured, showing that using just a single sample is not enough to characterise the transmission coefficient. It has also been found that some obstacles have a polarisation dependent behaviour.
Can Opioids Regulate Hemopoietic Differentiation?

Whole body X-irradiation results in the destruction of the blood forming system, but death can be prevented by repopulating animals with compatible bone marrow. All of the repopulated cells of the blood (erythroid, granuloid, monocytic, megakaryocytic and lymphoid) are descendants of a small number of stem cells in the repopulating bone marrow. These cells, called pluripotent hemopoietic stem cells, are in very low frequency (ca lo-’) in the bone marrow. In response to external stimuli (hemorrhage, infection, stress, etc. ) the system must respond by generating large numbers of functional differentiated cells. This is brought about by increased proliferation and differentiation of the stem cell and the committed progenitors. The mechanisms of this regulation are unknown and pose some of the more intellectually profound and clinically important subjects in biology. ’ Some of these problems and in-vitro approaches to studying hemopoietic differentiation are discussed in REFERENCES 2 and 3. There is an abundant literature, some of it summarized in REFERENCE 1, showing that antigens are shared by cells of the nervous, hemopoietic and germ cell systems. We have shown that antiserum to mouse brain contained antibodies which react with the hemopoietic stem cell,’ T-lymphocytes5 and erythrocytes. ’ Others have shown reactivity to pre-T cells’ and granulocyte precursors.8 Granger and Lazarides have found the 70,000-dalton core polypeptide of neruofilament which was thought to be exclusively associated with neurons in chicken erythrocytes? Moreover, this seems to be associated with hemopoietic development since it is present in embryonic and young
Development of a continuous improvement self‐assessment tool

During the 1990s a growing number of firms have been encouraging continuous improvement (CI) in all aspects of working life, and some impressive results have been achieved. However, the process of implementing CI is long and challenging. Companies need to know what progress they have made, and the outcome of any interventions, in order to consolidate and further develop CI. The CIRCA CI self‐assessment tool is a research‐based tool which helps users to make an objective assessment of CI in their company. It is designed to be used by any organisation regardless of size, industry, length of time working with CI, and the particular approach taken. The tool went through several phases of development, culminating in a paper‐based Version 3.0 in 1997. Since then further development and testing of the tool has taken place in the UK and abroad, and future plans include an electronic version.
FoxO Transcription Factors Promote Cardiomyocyte Survival upon Induction of Oxidative Stress*

Transcriptional regulatory mechanisms of cardiac oxidative stress resistance are not well defined. FoxO transcription factors are critical mediators of oxidative stress resistance in multiple cell types, but cardioprotective functions have not been reported previously. FoxO function in oxidative stress resistance was investigated in cultured cardiomyocytes and in mice with cardiomyocyte-specific combined deficiency of FoxO1 and FoxO3 subjected to myocardial infarction (MI) or acute ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury. Induction of oxidative stress in cardiomyocytes promotes FoxO1 and FoxO3 nuclear localization and target gene activation. Infection of cardiomyocytes with a dominant-negative FoxO1(Δ256) adenovirus results in a significant increase in reactive oxygen species and cell death, whereas increased FoxO1 or FoxO3 expression reduces reactive oxygen species and cell death. Mice generated with combined conditional deletion of FoxO1 and FoxO3 specifically in cardiomyocytes were subjected to I/R or MI. Loss of FoxO1 and FoxO3 in cardiomyocytes results in a significant increase in infarct area with decreased expression of the antiapoptotic molecules, PTEN-induced kinase1 (PINK1) and CBP/P300-interacting transactivator (CITED2). Expressions of the antioxidants catalase and manganese superoxide dismutase-2 (SOD2) and the autophagy-related proteins LC3II and Gabarapl1 also are decreased following I/R compared with controls. Mice with cardiomyocyte-specific FoxO deficiency subjected to MI have reduced cardiac function, increased scar formation, induction of stress-responsive signaling, and increased apoptotic cell death relative to controls. These data support a critical role for FoxOs in promoting cardiomyocyte survival during conditions of oxidative stress through induction of antioxidants and cell survival pathways.
A Monetary Approach to International Capital Flows Applied to the United States: A Note

The objective here is to test the well-known Kouri-Porter [6] monetary approach to aggregate capital flows, using U.S. quarterly data from 1961 through 1970.1 The reduced-form equation used in these tests differs from those in Kouri-Porter and other similar studies [ 1, 3, 4, 5, 8] in four ways . First, we include current and lagged (eight-quarter polynomial distributed lagged) values for the monetary variables in order to investigate the short-run and longer-term effects of monetary policy on net capital flows. Second, any reduced-form equation for the United States should not embody the small country assumption of previous work; thus, we use a measure of foreign base money rather than the foreign interest rate in the regressions. Third, the longer time frame requires that actual current income not be included in the reduced form, since the latter is likely to be a function (in part) of lagged values for the monetary variables. For this reason the empirical work utilizes Ty the eleven-year trend real GNP in the United States. A similar measure Ty* is used for foreign income. Finally, we estimate the U.S. balance of indebtedness rather than U.S. capital flows. The distributed lags for the monetary variables are motivated in part because of ideas contained in [2] and elsewhere, namely that a home monetary expansion will precipitate a capital outflow initially, and then a capital inflow later when nominal (or real) income and the demand for money nse in response to the monetary expansion. Similarly, we expect that a foreign monetary expansion may cause an immediate capital inflow and then a capital outflow for the United States. The rest of the world is taken to be the United Kingdom, Germany, Canada, and Japan. All foreign magnitudes are converted into dollar values at the prevailing exchange rates. For the monetary policy vanables we utilize the domestic assets of the United States and of foreign cental banks (D and D * ) adjusted for variations in the monetary expansion multipliers, k and k*, according to the formula
Russian Households Labor Supply Peculiarities

The paper presents the results of the "Individual labor supply parameters research" project realized in 2002-2003 in several Russian local labor markets (N=1413). LS elasticities as well as the shapes of LS curves have been special points of interest of the researches. Besides the canonical C-shaped and S-shaped curves, their mirrored reflections and also L-shaped and J-shaped forms were observed. The "backward bend" concept for poor households and the S-shaped LS curve concept for households with "primary", "secondary" and "tertiary" workers helped to find explanations for the cases. One can observe the same phenomena once found out in India and Africa. The dummies for regions and professions as well as "institutional numbers" are successfully used in order to improve the regression quality.
Cholinergic urticaria associated with acquired generalized hypohidrosis: report of a case and review of the literature

Acquired generalized hypohidrosis/anhidrosis is a rare condition of unknown pathogenesis, while idiopathic cholinergic urticaria is relatively common. We report the case of a 19‐year‐old male with cholinergic urticaria and acquired generalized hypohidrosis, and review previously published similar cases of this association.
The economic impact of national parks: the perception of key actors in Austrian national parks

There are a number of empirical studies calculating the local and regional economic impact of national parks on communities. However, as these studies rely on quantitative data in order to calculate multiplier effects (particularly regarding local and regional production, value added and employment), the perception of communities is often left out in such evaluations. In this paper, a survey of mayors as key actors in 46 Austrian national park communities is presented. The results of the survey show that the economic impact of national parks on communities is perceived as contributing to economic development. Econometric estimations of ordered probit models exhibit the sources of economic success, which lie mostly in tourism and in the primary sector, in new investments and the foundation of new enterprises. Furthermore, there are a number of crucial elements of the planning and decision process which contribute to the economic success of national parks. The involvement of local and regional stakeholders is particularly important, as well as the co-operation between the national park administration and the communities.
Randomized clinical trial of screening for abdominal aortic aneurysm in women

Screening for abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) is commonly restricted to men. Recent studies have indicated a possible increase in deaths due to ruptured AAA in women, and a higher rate of rupture in women than in men. The present report details results from a randomized controlled trial that assessed the effects of screening women for AAA.
Characterization of the rec-1 gene of Haemophilus influenzae and behavior of the gene in Escherichia coli

The rec-1 gene of Haemophilus influenzae was cloned into a shuttle vector that replicates in Escherichia coli as well as in H. influenzae. The plasmid, called pRec1, complemented the defects of a rec-1 mutant in repair of UV damage, transformation, and ability of prophage to be induced by UV radiation. Although UV resistance and recombination were caused by pRec1 in E. coli recA mutants, UV induction of lambda and UV mutagenesis were not. We suggest that the ability of the H. influenzae Rec-1 protein to cause cleavage of repressors but not the recombinase function differs from that of the E. coli RecA protein.
Over 100 Years of Age But Still Entrepreneurially Active in Business: Exploring the Values and Family Characteristics of Old Finnish Family Firms

This article, based on an exploratory study of old Finnish family firms, examines two main research questions: “How do certain firms that have been involved in business for over one century perceive and rank their business values]” and “How do the members of the owner-families self-assess their family characteristics in these century-old family firms]” There are only 68 companies that belong to either the FBN-Finland Association (Perheyritysten liitto ry) or the Association of Finnish Entrepreneurs (Suomen yrittäjät ry) that are over 100 years of age. The data, based on self-assessments of the present active family executives working at the top level, were drawn from 10 FBN companies and 17 non-FBN companies (response rate 39.7%). When ranking the values, the Finnish respondents generally scored the desirable modes of conduct much higher than the desirable end-states. The top values were honesty, credibility, obeying the law, quality, and industriousness, which are all modes of good ethical conduct. The values of yielding good economic return to owners, willingness to grow, and to get social recognition all scored surprisingly low. The adjectives best describing the characteristics of owning families were: committed, responsible, fair, hardworking, and successful.