Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
An Inside View of IBM's 'Innovation Jam'

The IBM Innovation Jam was the largest-ever event to promote networked idea generation. More than 150,000 IBM employees, stakeholders and vendors participated in two three-day online events to foster innovation and help IBM bring products to market faster. Using Web sites, wikis, forums and other online tools, Jam participants generated literally hundreds of thousands of new business ideas. From those ideas, IBM focused on several major topics for the second part of the Jam and invited its employees to build on the ideas within those topics. As a result of this process, 10 distinct businesses were funded. However, it wasn�t these successes that make the Jam interesting, argue the authors; it was the difficulties that IBM faced in implementing the Jam. Given unique access to the Jam, the authors discuss the complications inherent in collaborating with so many people. In particular, it was hard to sustain individual �conversations� in the collaborative process. Rather than building on each other�s ideas, many participants � because of excitement about their own ideas � would �hijack� a thread or take it in an unintended direction. Some great ideas were left to wither on the vine. The authors discuss other attempts at large-scale collaboration, including some by Dell and Starbucks. These include the use of promotion tools to ensure that �good� ideas are seen and captured by as many eyes as possible. The pros and cons of these methods are discussed as well, and the authors provide a framework for thinking about how an organization can collaborate with its stakeholders.
The Corporate Stake in Social Cohesion

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is a function that transcends, but includes, making profits, creating jobs, and producing goods and services. The effectiveness with which corporations perform this function determines their contribution (or lack of contribution) to social cohesion. This article therefore presents a discussion of some of the social cohesion issues involving corporations, particularly concerns over how corporations make profits, create jobs, hire, promote, fire, treat shareholders, run their boards, and give back to the communities in which they function. Most of these functions depend on the quality of corporate governance, which in turn has implications for social cohesion. The article begins with a discussion of the concept of CSR. Then it presents an identification and discussion of some corporate behaviors that promote CSR in the following areas: governance; employment practices; and involvement in communities, environmental protection, and ethical investment. In conclusion, successful business strategy that contributes to social cohesion in society is that which fosters integrity in internal governance while promoting positive engagement in communities in which corporations operate.
Applying behavioral economics to the public sector

"Behavioral economics", or the application of methods and evidence from other social sciences to economics, has increased greatly in significance in the last two decades. In this paper we discuss the basic elements of behavioral economics. We then assess several applications of behavioral economics to the analysis of the public sector, including specific applications to public economics and, importantly, to the closely related area of public budgeting. We conclude with suggestions on -- and predictions of -- topics in which future applications should prove useful.
Human Resources Information Systems in Texas City Governments: Scope and Perception of its Effectiveness

This study examines human resources information systems (HRIS) in city governments. This article presents the results of a survey of human resources directors (HRD) in Texas Cities in the United States. City governments were chosen to provide a case study of the scope of information and services provided by information technology (IT), especially Web-based self-service, in the human resources (HR) function. HRDs were also asked opinions on the effectiveness of HRIS for their city government. A key finding of this study is that the scope of HRIS is broad with almost 30% of employees contacting HR through email and the Web. However, Web-based self-services offered by HR are mostly providing information, with much less supplying online services. In terms of the perception of HRIS by HRDs, operational impacts such as reducing the labor force or lowering HR operating cost are less important. However, relational and transformational aspects such as increasing customer service, improving the quality of services, and retaining knowledge are important to HRDs. The most critical success factor of HRIS was improved data accuracy and the number one barrier was inadequate funding for HRIS.
Formalizing Rural Land Rights in West Africa: Early Evidence from a Randomized Impact Evaluation in Benin

This paper presents early evidence from the first large-scale randomized-controlled trial of a land formalization program. The study examines the links between land demarcation and investment in rural Benin in light of a model of agricultural production under insecure tenure. The demarcation process involved communities in the mapping and attribution of land rights; cornerstones marked parcel boundaries and offered lasting landmarks. Consistent with the model, improved tenure security under demarcation induces a shift toward long-term investment on treated parcels. This investment does not yet coincide with gains in agricultural productivity. The analysis also identifies significant gender-specific effects. Female-managed landholdings in treated villages are more likely to be left fallow—an important soil fertility investment. Women further respond to an exogenous tenure security change by moving production away from relatively secure, demarcated land and toward less secure land outside the village to guard those parcels.
Sir2/Sirt1 Links Acute Inebriation to Presynaptic Changes and the Development of Alcohol Tolerance, Preference, and Reward

Acute ethanol inebriation causes neuroadaptive changes in behavior that favor increased intake. Ethanol-induced alterations in gene expression, through epigenetic and other means, are likely to change cellular and neural circuit function. Ethanol markedly changes histone acetylation, and the sirtuin Sir2/SIRT1 that deacetylates histones and transcription factors is essential for the rewarding effects of long-term drug use. The molecular transformations leading from short-term to long-term ethanol responses mostly remain to be discovered. We find that Sir2 in the mushroom bodies of the fruit fly Drosophila promotes short-term ethanol-induced behavioral plasticity by allowing changes in the expression of presynaptic molecules. Acute inebriation strongly reduces Sir2 levels and increases histone H3 acetylation in the brain. Flies lacking Sir2 globally, in the adult nervous system, or specifically in the mushroom body α/β-lobes show reduced ethanol sensitivity and tolerance. Sir2-dependent ethanol reward is also localized to the mushroom bodies, and Sir2 mutants prefer ethanol even without a priming ethanol pre-exposure. Transcriptomic analysis reveals that specific presynaptic molecules, including the synaptic vesicle pool regulator Synapsin, depend on Sir2 to be regulated by ethanol. Synapsin is required for ethanol sensitivity and tolerance. We propose that the regulation of Sir2/SIRT1 by acute inebriation forms part of a transcriptional program in mushroom body neurons to alter presynaptic properties and neural responses to favor the development of ethanol tolerance, preference, and reward. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT We identify a mechanism by which acute ethanol inebriation leads to changes in nervous system function that may be an important basis for increasing ethanol intake and addiction liability. The findings are significant because they identify ethanol-driven transcriptional events that target presynaptic properties and direct behavioral plasticity. They also demonstrate that multiple forms of ethanol behavioral plasticity that are relevant to alcoholism are initiated by a shared mechanism. Finally, they link these events to the Drosophila brain region that associates context with innate approach and avoidance responses to code for reward and other higher-order behavior, similar in aspects to the role of the vertebrate mesolimbic system.
Network Interconnection in Telecommunications

This paper discusses industries such as telecommunications where firms each have their own customers and must interconnect with other firms to provide a comprehensive service. Two scenarios are considered: (1) the case of a symmetric, unregulated industry and (2) the case of an industry with a dominant, regulated incumbent. In the first, provided there is sufficient product differentiation, it is shown that firms agree to set interconnection charges above associated costs in order to obtain the joint profit-maximizing outcome. In the second, a formula for the welfare-maximizing interconnection charge is dented. Relations with the 'efficient component pricing rule' are discussed.
Platelet adhesion to multimerin 1 in vitro: influences of platelet membrane receptors, von Willebrand factor and shear

Summary. Background: Multimerin 1 (MMRN1) is a large, homopolymeric adhesive protein, stored in platelets and endothelium, that when released, binds to activated platelets, endothelial cells and the extracellular matrix. Objectives: The goals of our study were to determine if (i) MMRN1 supports adhesion of resting and/or activated platelets under conditions of blood flow, and (ii) if MMRN1 enhances platelet adhesion to types I and III collagen. Patients/methods: Platelet adhesion was evaluated using protein‐coated microcapillaries, with or without added adhesive proteins and receptor antibodies. Platelets from healthy controls, Glanzmann thrombasthenia (GT) and severe von Willebrand factor (VWF)‐deficient donors were tested. Results: MMRN1 supported the adhesion of activated, but not resting, washed platelets over a wide range of shear rates. At low shear (150 s−1), this adhesion was supported by integrins αvβ3 and glycoprotein (GP) Ibα but it did not require integrins αIIbβ3 or VWF. At high shear (1500 s−1), adhesion to MMRN1 was supported by β3 integrin‐independent mechanisms, involving GPIbα and VWF, that did not require platelet activation when VWF was perfused over MMRN1 prior to platelets. MMRN1 bound to types I and III collagen, independent of VWF, however, its enhancing effects on platelet adhesion to collagen at high shear were VWF dependent. Conclusions: MMRN1 supports platelet adhesion by VWF‐dependent and ‐independent mechanisms that vary by flow rate. Additionally, MMRN1 binds to, and enhances, platelet adhesion to collagen. These findings suggest that MMRN1 could function as an adhesive ligand that promotes platelet adhesion at sites of vascular injury.
The Effects of Alternative Monetary Control Procedures on Exchange Rates and Output

WE HAVE NOW HAD over two years' experience with the new reserve targeting procedure introduced by the Federal Reserve System in October 1979 and almost one year's experience with the policy of nonintervention in the exchange market introduced by the Treasury in April 1981. During this period, dollar interest rates and exchange rates have fluctuated more widely than previously, as might have been expected. Rather surprisingly, real output and the money supply have also fluctuated more widely than in recent years. Both the recessions of 1980 and 1981 were brought on by tight monetary policies aimed at reducing inflation, although the abortive credit control program of 1980 and the oil price increase of 1979-80 also were important factors. It is well known that appreciation of the exchange rate is a major aspect of the effects of tight money in an open economy with a floating exchange rate. Indeed, the real effective exchange rate of the U.S. dollar appreciated 17 percent from 1979 to 1981. And over the period 1980.I to 1981.III, real net exports have declined $7 billion. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) estimates that loss of competitiveness will reduce U.S. net trade volumes $43 billion over the period 1980-82 [9] . If tight money in general has such powerful effects on the exchange rate and balance of payments, the question must be raised whether greater volatility in
An Automated Approach to Inheritance and Polymorphic Testing using a VDM++ Specification

The use of formal methods is growing with the rapidly increasing applications of safety-critical systems in such fields as aviation, medicine, railways etc. The benefits of using formal methods are not limited to avoidance of specification errors and elimination of ambiguities only - a formal specification also provides a sound basis for generating test suites. However, most of the work in this area has focused on unit testing only. In object-oriented paradigm, inheritance and polymorphism are powerful features, yet they present new challenges to the testers. In this paper, the authors present a novel approach to automated generation of test cases from a VDM++ specification. The authors base the testing technique on Offutt et al.'s fault model for subtype inheritance and polymorphic testing.
Optimal and Time-Consistent Monetary and Fiscal Policy with Heterogeneous Agents

This Paper studies the structure and time consistency of optimal monetary policy from a public finance perspective in an economy where agents differ in transaction patterns and asset holdings. I find that heterogeneity breaks the link between lack of government commitment and high inflation, which characterizes representative agent models of optimal fiscal and monetary policy. Even under commitment, it may be optimal to depart from Friedman’s rule for setting nominal interest rates. Moreover, optimal monetary and fiscal policies are time consistent. Time consistency does not require outstanding nominal claims on the government to be zero.
Computational study of lipid‐destabilizing protein fragments: Towards a comprehensive view of tilted peptides

Tilted peptides are short sequence fragments (10–20 residues long) that possess an asymmetric hydrophobicity gradient along their sequence when they are helical. Due to this gradient, they adopt a tilted orientation towards a single lipid/water interface and destabilize the lipids. We have detected those peptides in many different proteins with various functions. While being all tilted‐oriented at a single lipid/water interface, no consensus sequence can be evidenced. In order to better understand the relationships between their lipid‐destabilizing activity and their properties, we used IMPALA to classify the tilted peptides. This method allows the study of interactions between a peptide and a modeled lipid bilayer using simple restraint functions designed to mimic some of the membrane properties. We predict that tilted peptides have access to a wide conformational space in membranes, in contrast to transmembrane and amphipathic helices. In agreement with previous studies, we suggest that those metastable configurations could lead to the perturbation of the acyl chains organization and could be a general mechanism for lipid destabilization. Our results further suggest that tilted peptides fall into two classes: those from proteins acting on membrane behave differently than destabilizing fragments from interfacial proteins. While the former have equal access to the two layers of the membrane, the latter are confined within a single lipid layer. This could be in relation with the organization of lipid substrate on which the peptides physiologically act. Proteins 2001;44:435–447. © 2001 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Road Profile Estimation and Preview Control For Low-Bandwidth Active Suspension Systems

Active suspensions in vehicles can apply a vertical force between the wheel and the vehicle body in order to reduce vehicle body motion over road obstacles, enhancing ride comfort. In this study, new methods are developed to generate a preview road height profile using vehicle sensors and to control the active suspension using this information. To control the actuators, two concepts are developed: a feedforward disturbance compensation, calculated from the preview signal, combined with a feedback loop without preview and a preview model predictive control approach. After defining a desired road height profile as input for the designed control algorithms, a sensor-fixed and an inertial coordinate system to compile the road height profile from sensor measurements are proposed. Methods to transform the sensor data from one time step to another, to accumulate redundant measurements, and a filtering technique to shape the road signal are developed. To test the algorithms, a simulation from the road signal generation to the suspension control is designed, and additionally, an observer is derived to determine the road height profile from vehicle motion in order to verify the preview signal. Simulation results and measurements of vehicle implementation are presented.
Sertraline in children and adolescents with major depressive disorder.

OBJECTIVE To explore time to first response and time to first persistent response of sertraline versus placebo and compare these parameters between children (6-11 years old, n = 177) and adolescents (12-17 years old, n = 199) with major depressive disorder. METHOD A 10-week placebo-controlled treatment was followed by a 24-week open-label sertraline treatment. The double-blind studies were not powered to detect efficacy differences between age groups. A post hoc analysis explored time to first response and first persistent response using the Children's Depression Rating Scale-Revised and Clinical Global Impressions-Improvement predefined criteria. RESULTS There were no statistically significant differences in time to first response or first persistent response between sertraline and placebo in children, except for time to first response on Clinical Global Impressions-Improvement. Sertraline had a significantly faster time to first persistent response in adolescents compared to placebo. Within treatment groups, children had a significantly faster time to first response than adolescents, whether treated with placebo or sertraline, but not on time to first persistent response. Both age groups showed similar improvement over 34 weeks of treatment. CONCLUSION In the double-blind studies, children and adolescents had different patterns of response with sertraline vs. placebo.
What Makes for a Successful Hotel? Insights on Hotel Management Following 15 Years of Hotel Occupancy Analysis in England

Time series analyses of daily and monthly occupancy rates in different samples of hotels in England over a 15-year period reveal consistent temporal components of occupancy performance. These differentiate hotels in terms of overall occupancy levels, seasonality, length of season, trend and within-week variations. The components are related to the characteristics of hotels and their management using statistical methods and structured interview surveys, and the factors affecting occupancy performance of hotels are identified and calibrated. The policy implications for the results for successful hotel marketing and management are extracted.
The developmental expression in rat of proteases furin, PC1, PC2, and carboxypeptidase E: implications for early maturation of proteolytic processing capacity

The genes encoding mammalian subtilisin-like endoproteases furin, PC1, and PC2 have been isolated and are implicated in endoproteolytic cleavage of precursor molecules, which is a key step in posttranslational maturation of proproteins and neuropeptide precursors. Following endoproteolytic cleavage, the carboxyl-terminal basic amino acid residues are removed by carboxypeptidase E (CPE). We have examined the expression of these genes during rat development by in situ hybridization and compared their expression patterns to those of potential substrates. In the primitive streak stage of embryogenesis (e7) furin is expressed in both endoderm and mesoderm. This overall expression pattern is maintained until e10, when a distinctly higher level of furin expression is observed in the heart and liver primordia. In mid- and late gestational stages furin is broadly expressed in the peripheral tissues, and, therefore, may contribute to the proteolytic processing of numerous fetal proproteins, such as the precursors for natriuretic factors in heart and IGF-II throughout the embryo. In contrast, the expressions of PC1 and PC2 are initiated much later (e13) and are mainly confined to the developing nervous system, but with distinct spatial distributions. At midgestational ages, PC1 mRNA is mainly expressed in the hypothalamus and peripheral ganglia, while PC2 is expressed not only in these tissues but also in the thalamus, midbrain, pons, medulla oblongata, cortical plate, and spinal cord. Besides neuropeptide precursor processing in the nervous system, PC1 and PC2 may also be involved in the proteolytic processing in additional regions as evidenced by the finding that both PC1 and PC2 mRNAs are expressed in the embryonic pituitary and pancreas. CPE mRNA is expressed in both neural tissues and some non-neural tissues. In the developing nervous system, the expression of CPE encompasses all the regions where PC1 and PC2 are expressed and in fact includes most brain regions as neurogenesis proceeds. CPE mRNA is also expressed in some peripheral tissues, such as the embryonic heart and cartilage primordia, and in some cases its expression overlaps with furin expression. Thus, CPE may functionally collaborate during development with the subtilisin family of endoproteases in the completion of proteolytic processing of neuropeptide precursors in the nervous system and proproteins in the peripheral tissues. In the pituitary, the endoproteolytic processing of polyfunctional precursor proopiomelanocortin (POMC) occurs in a developmentally regulated manner. We have shown that while PC2 mRNA is predominantly expressed in the intermediate lobe in the adult, we observed an increased expression of PC2 mRNA in developing rat anterior lobe, peaking at early postnatal stages. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)
How Local are Spatial Density Externalities? Neighbourhood Effects in Agglomeration Economies

Andersson M. , Klaesson J. and Larsson J. P. How local are spatial density externalities? Neighbourhood effects in agglomeration economies, Regional Studies. The geographic scale at which density externalities operate is analysed in this paper. Using geocoded high-resolution data, the analysis is focused on exogenously determined within-city squares (‘neighbourhoods’) of 1 km2. The analysis confirms a city-wide employment density–wage elasticity and an economically significant density–wage elasticity at the neighbourhood level that attenuate sharply with distance. Panel estimates over 20 years suggest a neighbourhood density–wage elasticity of about 3%, while the city-wide elasticity is about 1%. It is argued that the neighbourhood level is more prone to capture learning, e.g. through knowledge and information spillovers. This interpretation is supported by (1) significantly larger neighbourhood elasticities for university educated workers and (2) sharper attenuation with distance of the effect for such workers.
Chronic radiation exposure in the Rivne‐Polissia region of Ukraine: Implications for birth defects

The health effects of chronic low‐dose radiation exposure remains a controversial question. Monitoring after the Chernobyl nuclear accident in Ukraine suggested that chronic low‐dose radiation exposure was not linked to cancer mortality among the general population. However, elevated rates of birth defects in contaminated compared to uncontaminated regions suggest that exposure to radiation in utero might impact development and that chronic radiation exposure might represent an underestimated risk to human health.