Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Strategies Under Surveillance: Reading Irmtraud Morgner as a GDR Writer

Westgate, Geoffrey. Strategies under Surveillance: Reading Irmtraud Morgner as a GDR Writer. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2002. 276 pp. $47.00 paperback. My interest in this book was initially piqued by the fact that its author is male. After the appearance of Trobadora Beatriz in 1974, the GDR writer Irmtraud Morgner became the domain of (above all, western) feminist critics who focused on questions of female subjectivity, emancipation and creativity. Male critics tended to write Morgner off as a women's author, and few bothered to read the long, involved novels for which Morgner was mainly known. What would a male British Nachwuchsgermanist-Westgate's book is based on his University of Oxford dissertation-have to say about Irmtraud Morgner, and especially now, more than a decade after the demise of the GDR and the subsequent relativization of GDR literature? After acknowledging and reviewing the previous scholarship on Morgner, Westgate sets out in a new direction, placing Morgner in the political and cultural context of the GDR and looking at the entire trajectory of her work, from her early days as Lektorin at neue deutsche literatur in the late 1950s up through Das heroische Testament, the fragmentary third part of her trilogy, left unfinished at the author's death in 1990. It is Westgate's thesis that Morgner was a political writer, that her writing was primarily influenced by the "socialist ideal and its deformation in the GDR" (3), that her texts "walked the political tightrope within the GDR context" (12), and therefore must be read against this background in order to be properly understood. His overall objective is to show that Morgner deserves a lasting place in the GDR literary canon. In carrying out his study, Westgate made ample use of numerous archives which were generally inaccessible before 1989/1990: the party archives of the SED, archives of the Ministry of Culture (of the Hauptverwaltung in charge of publishing), the Stasi archives administered by the Gauck-Behorde, archives of the national and Berlin offices of the Schriftstellerverband, as well as publishers' archives and those of the East Berlin Akademie der Kunste. he also had access to Morgner's Nachlass, and spoke and corresponded with former functionaries, friends and family members, in his effort to piece together and weigh the information he had gathered. The book is divided into five parts: three literary critical chapters, in which he traces the development of Morgner's writing from the relative orthodoxy of the 1950s, through the socialist modernism of her 'breakthrough' novel Rumba auf einen Herbst, which, written in the early 1960s, became a victim of the infamous 11^sup th^ Plenum in 1965-a pivotal point in her life, as Westgate shows-to the avant-garde experiments of the underdiscussed texts of the late 1960s, to the "grand self-confidence" (17) of Trobadora Beatriz and the ultimate disillusion and cultural pessimism of Amanda and the posthumously published Das heroische Testament. …
Shifting images of chronic illness.

PURPOSE To describe results of a meta-study of client roles in two decades of qualitative research on elements of chronic illness experiences. While a vast body of qualitative health research has uncovered insider perspectives on a range of chronic diseases and their related illness experiences, systematic analysis has not been attempted, and research has not yet contributed to coherent theoretical developments. ORGANIZING CONSTRUCT Health care relationships as articulated in the context of insider research into chronic illness experience. SOURCES Elements of meta-theory, meta-method, and meta-data-analysis in the available qualitative research reports addressing chronic illness experience published 1980 through June 1996. Of over 400 published reports, 158 met the inclusion criteria and were subjected to systematic analysis on a number of themes, one of which is reported in this article. METHODS Data selection, reduction, thematic analysis, and synthesis using constant comparative analysis. FINDINGS Early conceptualizations of individuals with chronic illness shift from a focus on loss and burden toward images of health within illness, transformation, and normality. Parallel conceptualizations of health care relationships appropriate to chronic illness shift from client-as-patient to client-as-partner for the 15-year period. CONCLUSIONS Meta-study permits critical analysis of the location of current inquiry into the larger context of systematic patterns in knowledge development. Researchers are cautioned against uncritical acceptance of current trends in interpretation.
The compleat executive: The state of international business education and some future directions†

This essay examines the current state of International Business education worldwide and comments on evolving trends. The degree of internationalization of curricula at the undergraduate, postgraduate and doctoral levels is examined. In a world facing the contrary pulls of global consumerism versus the search for a local identity, what exactly should the manager learn about International Business in order to complete his or her education? The essay also examines alternative methods for organizing International Business studies at universities, as well as in the growing number of off-site and certificate programs. It also ventures opinions on the value of an International Business major in the job market for graduating students, on whether the International Business label confers an advantage on faculty, or whether it confers a stigma, and on academic orthodoxies which have slowed the internationalization of business curricula.
Blind Phoneme Segmentation With Temporal Prediction Errors

Phonemic segmentation of speech is a critical step of speech recognition systems. We propose a novel unsupervised algorithm based on sequence prediction models such as Markov chains and recurrent neural network. Our approach consists in analyzing the error profile of a model trained to predict speech features frame-by-frame. Specifically, we try to learn the dynamics of speech in the MFCC space and hypothesize boundaries from local maxima in the prediction error. We evaluate our system on the TIMIT dataset, with improvements over similar methods.
Unemployment, choice, and inequality

1. Introduction. - 1. Subject Matter. - 2. Previous Work. - 3. Choice in Labor Markets. - 4. Outline of Remaining Chapters. - 2. Search in Labor Markets. - 1. Introduction. - 2. Worker Search Behavior. - 3. Impacts of Labor Market Conditions. - 4. Extensions. - 5. Distributions of Workers and Jobs. - 6. Behavior of the firm. - 7. Summary. - 3. The Valuation of Unemployment. - 1. Introduction. - 2. Alternative Valuations. - 3. Previous Estimates. - 4. Direct Estimates. - 5. Aggregate Approach. - 6. Labor Force Participation Approach. - 7. Cross-Section Estimates. - 8. General Conclusions. - Appendix: Data Sources. - 4. The Distribution of Employment. - 1. Introduction. - 2. Previous Work. - 3. Sources of Inequality. - 4. Distribution of the Time Spent Unemployed. - 5. Employment Inequality. - 6. Heterogeneous Transition Rates. - 7. Conclusions. - 5. The Distribution of Wage Rates. - 1. Introduction. - 2. Truncated Wage Offer Distributions. - 3. Accepted Wage Distribution. - 4. The Contribution of Choice. - 5. The Source of Wage Rate Dispersion. - 6. Summary. - 6. Inequality. - 1. Introduction. - 2. Statistical Relations. - 3. Observed Earnings Inequality. - 4. The Role of Choice and Uncertain Outcomes. - 5. Unemployment-Compensated Wage Rates. - 6. Inequality by Source. - 7. Summary. - 7. The Operation of Labor Markets. - 1. Introduction. - 2. Dual Labor Markets. - 3. The Business Cycle. - 4. Wage Rigidity, Wage Resistance and the Aggregate Supply Curve. - 8. Chronic Underemployment and Regression Towards the Mean. - 1. Introduction. - 2. Advantageous Trades and the Economic Role of Unemployment. - 3. Definition of Underemployment. - 4. Tests for Underemployment. - 5. Regression Towards the Mean. - 6. Chronic Underemployment. - 7. Comparison with Previous Theories. - 9. Summary. - 1. Ten Theoretical Conclusions. - 2. Ten Empirical Results. - 3. Six Remaining Tasks. - 4. Three New Directions. - References. - Author Index.
What Every Biotech Entrepreneur Needs to Know about VC Due Diligence

Due diligence, as it applies to venture capital, is actually imprecise. Origins of the term are based in banking case law. Due diligence to the attorney is more of a precise concept. A better term is â€œhomework. â€ Better indeed, because the burden of this homework weighs far more heavily on the entrepreneur than on the venture capitalist. The odds of getting funded by a venture capital firm are somewhere between 50: and 100: 1. In most instances, the funding goes to companies that already have some connection into the community of venture capital funds. Does this mean that all others need not apply? That is hardly the case. Good venture capitalists know a good opportunity when they see it, but sometimes it is not always obvious. Either the business plan is flawed in strategy, format or content, or the due diligence process reveals a team totally unprepared to fulfill their own vision. Elsewhere in this special edition of JCB is an article on the business plan and the pitch book. This article teaches, in a manner of speaking, how business plans get read and pitches gets heard.
On Acculturation in Business Mergers: Empirical Findings from a Commercial Bank's Opinion Survey in Taiwan

The present paper introduces a conceptual framework, followed by implementation of a structured company-wide questionnaire to examine empirically the issue of acculturation in business merger. Employees working at the acquiring firm grouped either as employees working at the headquarter or as employees working at the existing branches, when compared with their counterparts working at the newly established branch (formerly, the acquired firm), differ along various organizational cultural constructs which in turn lead to statistically significant differences in employees' working attitudes. Based on the above empirical findings, the authors therefore conclude that acculturation in business merger deserves serious attention.
The Distribution of Income by Factor Components

This paper furthers the discussion of income inequality decomposition by focusing attention on the problems which arise in this context when available data are restricted to the distribution of factor incomes between groups of families defined by their total income level. First, it sets out the Rao (1969) decomposition of the Gini coefficient for total income in terms of factor shares and factor concentration ratios. Further decomposition of concentration ratios into rank correlation ratios and factor Ginis is recommended when individual data are available. Second, interpretation of concentration ratios as Gini coefficients is shown to be misleading. An analogue in economic theory is required. The results obtained required exploration of the alternative concepts and measurements which are possible when individual family data are available. In turn, these had to be related to the more limited set of concepts which can be calibrated when available data are taken from a secondary source. Caution is advised in interpreting results based on secondary sources of income inequality by factor components.
Editorial: The Role of Financing, Delivery, and Policy Innovations in Decreasing Chronic Disease Burdens

Chronic conditions, such as high blood pressure and diabetes, are major contributing factors to global disease burdens (1). Next to clinical components, effective interventions for chronic diseases involve coordination and management of services, as well as the self-management and improved health behavior of patients. To date, a large portion of research has been devoted to clinical practices and local levels, such as an outpatient clinic or a primary care center. The resulting studies provide important insights in their specific contexts and disease episodes. However, they may fall short of generating evidence and theoretical insights on how interactions between various stakeholders (e.g., provider organizations, informal caregivers, and patients) jointly determine patient outcomes (2). This special issue presents a collection of articles aimed at advancing prevention and reduction of the burden of chronic disease, taking the network formed by the interacting stakeholders as the focus of analysis. The contribution by Bernell and Howard points out that while chronic disease is widely recognized for its growing contribution to the burden on global health, both popular and scientific sources vary in their definition and use of the term " chronic disease. " For instance, ambiguities arise when considering the time period during which health is affected by chronic conditions, and when considering the extent to which conditions are curable, manageable, or fatal. Their review even points at an implicit debate around the issue of whether communicable diseases can be classified as chronic. Taking a practical and solution-oriented stance, they advocate to steer the definition away from etiological classifications and instead base it on observable disease burden. Kelly et al. consider the improvement of service networks aiming to reduce obesity in New York City under the Bloomberg administration. Their qualitative study accurately shows the complexity of service delivery networks and the competing interests of supporting and opposing forces. These authors point out that the causes for obesity are not only complex but also contested. The case study presented by the authors confirms that strong leadership, in combination with operational capability, can effectively deliver improvement of public value, such as reducing risk factors for obesity. In the USA, managed care is an approach which aims to improve the coordination in health service delivery networks and which appears to be well suited to improve outcomes for the chronically ill. Reasoning along these lines, Howard et al. hypothesize that managed care market penetration is associated with lower diabetes …
Rural out-migration and economic development at origin: A review of the evidence

A major feature of the current ‘mass migration’ process is its strong linkages to countries of origin. Migrants belong to spatially extended families and play a crucial role in shaping economic development in home regions. This paper reviews the wide-ranging socio-economic literature on the nexus between labor migration, both domestic and international, and economic development at origin, with a special focus on out-migration from poor rural regions of developing countries. We disentangle direct effects on migrant-sending households from spillover effects on the rest of the economy, highlighting some key knowledge gaps and policy concerns related to the complex and intimate relation between rural labour mobility and economic behaviour of people left behind. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Subcontracting and the Reregulation of the Employment Relationship: A Case Study from the Telecommunications Industry

This is a case study of the use of subcontracting within BT plc the UK's largest telecommunications firm. The 1990s have witnessed significant quantitative and qualitative changes in the utilisation and management of subcontracting within BT. The deregulation, or rather the shift in regulation, of the employment relationship represented by movement from bureaucratic hierarchical forms of organisation to subcontracting introduces several sources of uncertainty into the process of ensuring an adequate supply of labour and inducing the desired contribution within production. This study examines whether the regulation of labour in terms of supply and performance can be reconciled through subcontracting mechanisms. In this case the experience of deregulation of the capital-labour relationship threw up unforeseen outcomes. The problems that arose from the reliance upon a labour source that was ostensibly beyond the control of the firm inspired initiatives that essentially represented the partial reregulation of the capital-labour relationship.
Temporal Disaggregation Methods in Flow Variables of Economic Data: Comparison Study

Annual Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for Nigeria using observed annual time-series data for the period 1981-2012 was studied. Five different econometric disaggregation techniques, namely the Denton, Denton-Cholette, Chow-Lin-maxlog, Fernandez, and Litterman-maxlog, are used for quarterisation. We made use of quarterly Export and Import as the indicator variables while disaggregating annual into quarterly data. The time series properties of estimated quarterly series were examined using various methods for measuring the accuracy of prediction such as, Theil's Inequality Coefficient, Root Mean Squared Error (RMSE), Absolute Mean Difference (MAD), and Correlation Coefficients. Results obtained showed that export and import are not good indicators for predicting GDP for Nigeria is concerned for the period covered. Denton method proved to be the worst using Mean Absolute Difference (MAD) and Theil’s Inequality Coefficient. However, RSME% and Pearson’s correlation coefficient gave robust values for Litterman-maxlog, thereby making it the best method of temporal disaggregation of Nigeria GDP.
Response bias, weighting adjustments, and design effects in the Army Study to Assess Risk and Resilience in Servicemembers (Army STARRS)

The Army Study to Assess Risk and Resilience in Servicemembers (Army STARRS) is a multi‐component epidemiological and neurobiological study designed to generate actionable recommendations to reduce US Army suicides and increase knowledge about determinants of suicidality. Three Army STARRS component studies are large‐scale surveys: one of new soldiers prior to beginning Basic Combat Training (BCT; n = 50,765 completed self‐administered questionnaires); another of other soldiers exclusive of those in BCT (n = 35,372); and a third of three Brigade Combat Teams about to deploy to Afghanistan who are being followed multiple times after returning from deployment (n = 9421). Although the response rates in these surveys are quite good (72.0–90.8%), questions can be raised about sample biases in estimating prevalence of mental disorders and suicidality, the main outcomes of the surveys based on evidence that people in the general population with mental disorders are under‐represented in community surveys. This paper presents the results of analyses designed to determine whether such bias exists in the Army STARRS surveys and, if so, to develop weights to correct for these biases. Data are also presented on sample inefficiencies introduced by weighting and sample clustering and on analyses of the trade‐off between bias and efficiency in weight trimming. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
SALVO : A BASIC METHOD FOR USER INTERFACE DEVELOPMENT

SALVO answersa need in the InformationSystems undergraduate curriculumfor a user interfacedevelopmentmethod that isbasic,prescriptive,andsuitableto situationswherethe topiccoverageis limited.The SALVO methodis a five-part, iterative processfocusingon areas of user interfacedevelopment that are foundational to Human-ComputerInteractionpedagogy.
Formy realizacji strategicznych partnerstw technologicznych

Abstrakt. W artykule autor przedstawia klasyfikację form współpracy w celu przeanalizowania i przedyskutowania głównych trendów różnych form współpracy między firmami. W analizie wykorzystano klasyfikację form współpracy technologicznej prof. J. Hagedoorna z Uniwersytetu z Maastricht, a także dane uzyskane z bazy MERIT-CATI, w celu weryfikacji form współpracy między firmami w latach 1980-1996.
Institutional change in industrial relations. Strike arbitration in Spain, 1880–1915*

Resumen Este artículo analiza los intentos por parte del estado español de ofre-cer un marco regulatorio para las relaciones industriales a principios del siglo XX. Se discute aquí que el conflicto principal se centraba en el reconocimiento de los sindicatos por parte de los propietarios de empresas, lo que hacía que cualquier acuerdo para finalizar huelgas en curso fuera muy inestable. Respondiendo a un movimiento obrero cada vez más activo, el Estado intentó regular las huelgas, pero sin embargo no se decidió a forzar a los empresarios a reconocer a los sindicatos. Esto dio pie a la formulación de un sistema transitorio que duró casi veinte años en el que el empresariado pedía constantemente al estado que garantizara la libertad de trabajo en las huelgas y el estado selectivamente desoía a los empresarios para forzarles a conceder algunas de las demandas de los trabajadores y evitar que los conflictos sociales adquirieran mayores proporciones. Se analiza con detalle el papel del estado en las huelgas y se muestra cómo la intervención de las autoridades —generalmente del gobernador civil— aseguraba la concesión de al menos algunas de las reclamaciones de los trabajadores. Finalmente, se argumenta que este equilibrio institucional generaba la radicalización y movilización de empresarios y trabajadores. Palabras clave: relaciones industriales, huelgas, cambio institucional, Restauración, España Abstract This paper analyses the attempts of the Spanish state to regulate industrial relations in the early 20th century. The main conflict being over union recognition, workers faced strong opposition from employers, which generated a situation in which all possible agreements to end strikes were unstable. Faced with an increasingly active labour movement, the state tried to regulate industrial conflict but hesitated to apply state authority to force recalcitrant employers to recognize unions. A transitory system was in place for more than 20 years in which the state and employers clashed over the issue of the freedom to work and the state selectively applied its coercive power to force employers to give up on some of the strikers' demands. Tracing the role of authorities in strikes, I show how the intervention of state officials in strikes granted workers at least the partial satisfaction of their demands. I finally argue that state intervention in industrial conflict fuelled the radicalism of both unions and employers' associations.
Sources of Currency Crises: An Empirical Analysis

Two types of currency crisis models coexist in the literature: first generation models view speculative attacks as being caused by economic fundamentals which are inconsistent with a given parity. Second generation models claim self-fulfilling speculation as the main source of a currency crisis. Recent empirical research in international macroeconomics has attempted to distinguish between the sources of currency crises. This paper adds to this literature by proposing a new empirical approach to identifying the speculative and fundamental components of currency crises in the context of a structural vector autoregression model. Our results suggest that only for the French franc can a substantial speculative component be identified as a potential source of the 1992-93 ERM crisis.