Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The influence of national business systems and company characteristics on the cross-national transfer of employee participation practices : foreign acquisitions of UK and Swedish multinational corporations

The importance of multinational corporations (MNCs) on a global scale has continued to increase over the past decades. This is evidenced in rapidly rising levels of foreign direct investment (FDI) coupled with high amount of mergers and acquisitions (M&A) activity. MNCs are likely to have a significant impact on their surroundings, including national governments, suppliers, customers, trade unions and employees. This research focuses on the impact on the latter by investigating post-acquisition transfers of employee participation practices in MNCs. This thesis examines Swedish and UK MNCs and their foreign acquired subsidiaries. Following a review of comparative industrial relations, institutionalism, international business, national business systems (NBS), and M&A literature, the influence of NBS and nine specific company characteristics on MNCs' ability and willingness to transfer employment practices are discussed. The contribution to knowledge is fivefold. Firstly, it extends the understanding of employment practices transfers following cross-border acquisitions. Secondly, it contributes to the global-local debate of how MNCs try to implement global standard employment practices on the one hand and on the other to adapt and conform to local conditions. Thirdly, it provides an insight into MNCs from small and large economies engaging in transfers. Fourthly, it compares acquisition integration approaches from Anglo-Saxon and Scandinavian MNCs. Fifthly, it informs about the forces at national and company levels influencing MNCs in their choice of employment practices abroad. Empirically, the research is based on detailed case studies. Case data has been collected from five MNCs - two UK and three Swedish - and their foreign acquired subsidiaries. Interviews have been carried out at corporate and subsidiary levels in the UK and Sweden in the native languages. The research draws some significant conclusions. Firstly, the influence of the NBS on the transfer of employment practices varies according to the type of practice in question. Secondly, it adds another dimension to Bartlett and Ghoshal's (1998) MNC typologies, the brand structured MNC. In this type of MNC, practices are transferred according to brands rather than national patterns. Thirdly, the pattern of transfer supports the argument of a flow of transfers from 'dominant' systems to 'follower' systems both in terms of forward and reverse transfers. Finally, the results reveal that transfers are not only influenced by the NBS but also company characteristics are significant. This is most clearly demonstrated by the post-acquisition integration approach and the 'significance' of the subsidiary.
Analysis of OpenSSL Heartbleed vulnerability for embedded systems

The attack of `Stuxnet' computer warm on the Iranian nuclear program highlighted the need of cybersecurity for critical infrastructure and embedded systems. The evolution of embedded systems to Internet-of-Things (IoT), where every device from a light-bulb to a medical implant device will be connected over internet. This connected world scenario requires secure communication channels to ensure information-security. OpenSSL is a defacto standard for secure communication over the internet. The memory bound check failure vulnerability CEV-2014-0160 was discovered in OpenSSL on 07th Feb 2014. The vulnerability is commonly known as Heartbleed bug that caused vulnerability in more than 16% of the total webservers. The Heartbleed bug can cause a leakage of 64K memory bytes of memory in plaintext that may contain security keys, X.509 certificates and user's private data. OpenSSL is also used to secure connected embedded devices. The Heartbleed vulnerability has greater impact on embedded systems/IoT because the few KBs or MBs memory of embedded device can be leaked in few seconds during a well-crafted Heartbleed attack. This research demonstrates a Heartbleed attack, and develops a patch for Heartbleed vulnerability. This research proposes an update to RFC-6520 that can be used as Heartbleed patch for embedded systems. The Memory utilization analysis of the developed Heartbleed patch, new proposed Heartbleed patch & unpatched OpenSSL code for STM32 Cortex-M4 microcontroller.
Polarity analysis of micro reviews in foursquare

On Foursquare, one of the currently most popular location-based social networks, users can not only share which places (venues) they visit but also leave short comments (tips) about their previous experiences at specific venues. Tips may provide a valuable feedback for business owners as well as for potential new customers. Sentiment or polarity classification provides useful tools for opinion summarization, which can help both parties to quickly obtain a predominant view of the opinions posted by users at a specific venue. We here present what, to our knowledge, is the first study of polarity of Foursquare tips. We start by characterizing two datasets of collected tips with respect to their textual content. Some inherent characteristics of tips, such as short sizes as well as informal and often noisy content, pose great challenges to polarity detection. We then investigate the effectiveness of four alternative polarity classification strategies on subsets of our dataset. Three of the considered strategies are based on supervised machine learning techniques and the fourth one is an unsupervised lexicon-based approach. Our evaluation indicates that effective polarity classification can be achieved even if the simpler lexicon-based approach, which does not require costly manual tip labeling, is adopted.
Chaotic spread spectrum modulation — A hardware implementation approach

Spread spectrum modulation finds important place in wireless communication primarily due to its application in Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) and so on. One of the critical issue in such modulation is the generation of spreading sequence. This paper presents a hardware approach for design of chaotic spreading sequence for application in a Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum (DS SS) system for a faded wireless channel. Enhancing the security of data transmission is a prime issue which can better be addressed with a chaotic sequence. Generation and application of chaotic sequence is done and a comparison with Gold sequence is presented which clearly indicates achieving better performance with simplicity of design. The primary blocks of the system are implemented using Verilog and the performances noted.
Ventilation and Gas Exchange During Shallow Hypothermia in Pigeons

Ventilatory control of the composition of the gases in the air sacs was studied during entry into fasting-induced, shallow, nocturnal hypothermia in the domestic pigeon ( Columba livia ). Respiratory frequency ( f ), tidal volume ( V T ) and oxygen uptake ( V O O2 were recorded simultaneously in six pigeons; partial pressures of CO 2 and O 2 in the abdominal and interclavicular air sacs were measured in seven pigeons. Ambient temperature was 25°C (thermoneutral) and the body temperature (Tb) was recorded in all experiments. A reduction in T b from 40.5 to 37.5°C paralleled decreases in f and V T from 13.3 min −1 and 15.2 ml BTPSkg −1 to 10.7 min −1 and 12.4ml BTPSkg −1 , respectively. There was a minor, but non-significant, simultaneous decrease in the ventilatory requirement (total ventilation/O 2 uptake) from 0.38 to O.35 ml BTPSmmol −1 . However, in both air sacs the partial pressure of CO 2 increased when T b decreased, indicating an effective parabronchial hypoventilation. The results support the idea of a gradually developing respiratory acidosis during hypothermia.
The factor structure of customer satisfaction

There is growing evidence that service quality attributes fall into three categories of factors that have a different impact on the formation of customer satisfaction. However, it is not clear which analytical procedure best identifies these factors. Vavra proposed a two‐dimensional importance grid based on customers’ self‐stated importance and derived importance using regression analysis. It is based on the assumption that there is a difference between self‐stated and derived importance and that by combining these importance weights, three groups of product or service attributes can be identified. Using data collected to measure customer satisfaction with the service of the IT department of a hospital, the authors test the underlying assumptions of the importance grid. They seem to be correct. When the results are compared with the penalty‐reward contrast analysis developed by Brandt, the two methods do not yield the same results. Therefore, the convergent validity of the importance grid has to be questioned. The paper closes with a discussion of the implications for research and practice.
The Relevance of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) to a Developing Country: Evidence from Vietnam

This paper adopts the concept of accounting ecology proposed by Gernon and Wallace (1995) in examining the accounting environment of Vietnam to identify some of the factors that might explain the lack of support for International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) in that country. Drawing on the literature of international accounting convergence models, the author assesses the potential impact of IFRS adoption on the quality and comparability of Vietnam reporting practices, the capital market effects and the potential costs of switching from Vietnamese General Accepted Accounting Principles (VN GAAP) to full adoption of IFRS. The paper also highlights some of the important factors that are likely to influence the progress of the implementation of IFRS in Vietnam. The paper concludes with a discussion of scenarios for future evolution of accounting standards in Vietnam in the light of the current global movement toward implementation of IFRS.
On the termination of strategic technology alliances : an exploratory study

Despite an enormous growth in strategic technology alliances the theoretical and empirical discussion has been slow in providing an integrated and coherent framework on alliance termination. Strategic alliances have been defined as inherently instable, i.e. often involving unplanned and premature termination by partnering firms. The paper examines whether this characteristic holds in the case the strategic technology alliances which are considered as new organizational forms. It concludes that failure rates are rather high for strategic technology alliances, but this seems not to deter firms to establish new strategic technology alliances even with the same parterning firm.
Layout Aware Optimization of High Speed Fixed Coefficient FIR Filters for FPGAs

We present a method for implementing high speed finite impulse response (FIR) filters on field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs). Our algorithm is a multiplierless technique where fixed coefficient multipliers are replaced with a series of add and shift operations. The first phase of our algorithm uses registered adders and hardwired shifts. Here, a modified common subexpression elimination (CSE) algorithm reduces the number of adders while maintaining performance. The second phase optimizes routing delay using prelayout wire length estimation techniques to improve the final placed and routed design. The optimization target platforms are Xilinx Virtex FPGA devices where we compare the implementation results with those produced by Xilinx Coregen, which is based on distributed arithmetic (DA). We observed up to 50&% reduction in the number of slices and up to 75% reduction in the number of look up tables (LUTs) for fully parallel implementations compared to DA method. Also, there is 50% reduction in the total dynamic power consumption of the filters. Our designs perform up to 27% faster than the multiply accumulate (MAC) filters implemented by Xilinx Coregen tool using DSP blocks. For placement, there is a saving up to 20% in number of routing channels. This results in lower congestion and up to 8% reduction in average wirelength.
Tuning the electronic structure of ultrathin crystalline silica films on Ru(0001)

A combination of density functional theory calculations and photoelectron spectroscopy provides new insights into the atomistic picture of ultrathin silica films grown on Ru(0001). The silica film features a double-layer silicate sheet formed by corner-sharing [SiO4] tetrahedra and is weakly bound to the Ru(0001) substrate. This allows oxygen atoms to reversibly adsorb directly on the metal surface underneath the silica film. We demonstrate that the amount of adsorbed oxygen can be reversibly varied by vacuum annealing and oxidation, which in turn result in gradual changes of the silica/Ru electronic states. This finding opens the possibility for tuning the electronic properties of oxide/metal systems without altering the thickness or the structure of an oxide overlayer.
Does Foreign Direct Investment Crowd Out Domestic Entrepreneurship?

In analyzing firm entry and exit across Belgian manufacturing industries, this paper presents evidence that import competition and foreign direct investment discourage entry and stimulate exit of domestic entrepreneurs. These results are in line with theoretical occupational choice models that predict foreign direct investment would crowd out domestic entrepreneurs through their selections in product and labor markets. However, the empirical results also suggest that this crowding out effect may be moderated or even reversed in the long-run due to the long term positive effects of FDI on domestic entrpreneurship as a result of learning, demonstration, networking and linkage effects between foreign and domestic firms.
Mechanical Symptoms of Osteoarthritis in the Knee and Arthroscopy

Abstract The potential benefit of arthroscopy as a treatment for knee osteoarthritis is contentious, with National Institute for Health and Care Excellence stating that, “There is uncertainty regarding the efficacy of the procedure. ” This is a study of a consecutive series of patients with osteoarthritis of the knee, suffering from mechanical symptoms, such as giving way, catching, and locking, and undergoing arthroscopic debridement, including chondroplasty and meniscectomy where appropriate. A total of 33 patients were reviewed at a mean period of 24 months (standard deviation 3 months) and follow-up data were obtained for 28 of these patients. Primary outcomes measured were: number of mechanical symptom episodes per week and visual analog scores for pain. Secondary outcomes measured were: Oxford, Lysholm, and Tegner knee scores together with arc of motion of the joint. Seven patients went on to have a knee replacement within 2 years. In the patient subgroup who did not require further surgery, there was statistically significant improvement in giving way (p = 0.0184) and marginally significant improvement in catching and locking (p = 0.1105 and p = 0.087, respectively). There were statistically significant improvements found in the Oxford and Lysholm scores (p < 0.0001). An average decrease of 1.9 in the VAS pain score was observed that was also statistically significant (p < 0.0007) and an average improvement of 10 degrees in the arc of motion was noted, which was marginally significant (p = 0.0687). To our knowledge, this is the first study with a primary outcome measure of mechanical symptoms experienced by patients. The results overall suggest that patient symptoms improved following arthroscopic treatment. As a result, episodes of mechanical symptoms should be important criteria for clinicians in determining the patient suitability for arthroscopic debridement.
Prevalent Department of Social Services’ Client Satisfaction: A Research and Practice Note

Abstract: This successive cross-sectional or panel study evaluated the City of Windsor’s Department of Social Services, specifically, the Special Services and Children’s Services Branches from 1990 to 1994. Their programs were assessed with quantitative (consumer satisfaction questionnaire, CSQ-8, score range = 8 to 32 [Larsen, Attkisson, Hargreaves, & Nguyen, 1979]) and qualitative (e.g., open-coded queries about what they liked most and least about the social services they received) measures of client satisfaction.
RFID indoor localization based on support vector regression and k-means

Systems need to know the physical locations of objects and people to optimize user experience and solve logistical and security issues. Also, there is a growing demand for applications that need to locate individual assets for industrial automation. This work proposes an indoor positioning system (IPS) able to estimate the item-level location of stationary objects using off-the-shelf equipment. By using RFID technology, a machine learning model based on support vector regression (SVR) is proposed. A multi-frequency technique is developed in order to overcome off-the-shelf equipment constraints. A k-means approach is also applied to improve accuracy. We have implemented our system and evaluated it using real experiments. The localization error is between 17 and 31 cm in 2.25m2 area coverage.
Draft Genome of a Brazilian Avian-Pathogenic Escherichia coli Strain and In Silico Characterization of Virulence-Related Genes

ABSTRACT Avian-pathogenic Escherichia coli (APEC) strains cause extraintestinal diseases in avian species. Here, we present the draft genome of an APEC strain (SCI-07) from Brazil that was isolated from skin lesions (gelatinous edema) on the head and periorbital tissues of a laying hen with swollen head syndrome.
Dense Semantic Stereo Labelling Architecture for In-Campus Navigation

Interest on autonomous vehicles has rapidly increased in the last few years, due to recent advances in the field and the appearance of semi-autonomous solutions in the market. In order to reach fully autonomous navigation, a precise understanding of the vehicle surroundings is required. This paper presents a novel ROSbased architecture for stereo-vision-based semantic scene labelling. The objective is to provide the necessary information to a path planner in order to perform autonomous navigation around the university campus. The output of the algorithm contains the classification of the obstacles in the scene into four different categories: traversable areas, garden, static obstacles, and pedestrians. Validation of the labelling method is accomplished by means of a hand-labelled ground truth, generated from a stereo sequence captured in the university campus. The experimental results show the high performance of the proposed approach.
HLA transgenic mice as humanized mouse models of disease and immunity.

The application of molecular genetics to human disease in the past decade has been helpful in elucidating the genetic influences involved in the induction and pathogenesis of various autoimmune diseases. Among the numerous genes studied for their role in disease development, polymorphisms within HLA class I and class II loci play a significant role in predisposition to disease. HLA molecules are encoded by genes on the short arm of chromosome 6. Crystal structures of MHC molecules show a peptide binding cleft which contains the variable region of MHC molecules. Genetic polymorphism at the MHC determines the specificity and affinity of peptide binding and T cell recognition. HLA molecules play a pivotal role in T cell repertoire selection in the thymus and antigen presentation in the periphery. Analysis of T cell responses in humans has involved the use of T cell lines or clones in vitro from naturally primed individuals. On the other hand, MHC restriction, mapping of epitope recognition, and T cell function in murine systems have been determined by in vivo studies. Various experimental animal models of autoimmune diseases have been studied, contributing greatly to our basic understanding of the disease. For example, type II collagen‐induced arthritis (CIA) 1 in mice and rats has been used as an experimental model for RA. Even though the model differs in the manner polyarthritis is induced, disease expression is broadly similar to RA, with the occurrence of symmetrical peripheral polyarthritis and systemic inflammation. Although growing knowledge of the functions of T and B cells in the immune response has shed light on their role in disease induction, the pathogenic mechanisms of most autoimmune diseases remain unresolved. There are many unanswered questions as to how tolerance to self is usually maintained, because autoreactive T cells can be found in normal as well as diseased individuals. How is tolerance broken in autoimmunity? Do specific autoantigens trigger the immune system to mount tissue-destructive responses? These questions need to be solved for most of the autoimmune diseases. Although the strongest MHC association with an autoimmune disease is between HLA class I B27 and spondyloarthropathies, class II alleles are implicated in most other cases. For example, RA is strongly associated with alleles of the DRB1 locus, whereas diabetes shows a stronger association with DQB1 alleles. HLA-DR and -DQ alleles are inherited en bloc and are known to occur in linkage disequilibrium. To better understand the role of HLA molecules in autoimmune diseases, transgenic animals expressing human HLA genes associated with disease have been developed. The generation of transgenic mice expressing functional HLA molecules has been an important step toward the creation of an in vivo model for enhancing our understanding of the function of human molecules in disease induction and predisposition. The potential value of HLA transgenic animals as a “humanized” disease model was first illustrated in the HLA-B27
Delay-dependent synchronization criteria for delayed chaotic systems with parameter mismatches

This paper investigates synchronization between two delayed chaotic systems with parameter mismatches. Based on Lyapunov functional approach and generalized Halanay inequality, some delay-dependent criteria are derived to guarantee the synchronization error converges to a bounded ball, whose radius, referred to as the error level, is also estimated. Moreover, an optimization algorithm is established for error level estimate, and the feedback matrix design is also addressed. Finally, a chaotic neural network is used to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.
Implementing Knowledge Management as a Strategic Initiative

Abstract : This research is intended as an implementation guide for managers to apply knowledge management as a strategic initiative within the contracting element of a major system command. The study incorporates the four-pillar model of knowledge management developed by Dr. Michael Stankosky. The four pillars within the model are: leadership, organization, technology and leaning. Knowledge management was one of five strategic initiatives in the overall strategic plan, which was developed using Kaplan and Norton's Balanced Scorecard methodology. The thesis discusses the elements of knowledge management as well as how contracting organizations can be improved by incorporating knowledge management as a strategic initiative.