Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Requirements for change in a traditional industry to be competitive: transformation towards an agile supply chain

The work reported here reflects on the importance of agility in the supply chain of a traditional manufacturing industry. The call for agility for the purpose of enhancing competitiveness has often been associated with the manufacture and supply of innovative products, such as high-tech industry products characterised by short life cycles, volatile and uncertain levels of demand and irregularity in supply. Nevertheless, traditional industries, such as the steel supply and manufacturing industry, as reported here, face similar challenges. In order to be truly agile, a supply chain must be market sensitive, virtual and network-based in its communication systems and it must demonstrate process integration. Some aspects of agility, such as the formation of a network-based entity and a move towards more market sensitive approach, are clearly already demonstrable in this case study. With other aspects, for example the achievement of process integration to its full potential as well as being completely able to demonstrate real and virtual communication lines within he network, there remains much work for the supplier network yet to do.
Exploring Multi-Stakeholder Internet Governance

Internet governance is now an active topic of international discussion. Interest has been fueled by media attention to cyber crime, global surveillance, commercial espionage, cyber attacks, and threats to critical national infrastructures. Many nations have decided that they need more control over Internet-based technologies and the policies that support them. Others, emphasizing the positive aspects of these technologies, argue that traditional systems of Internet governance, which they label “multi-stakeholder” and which they associate with the success of the Internet, must continue to prevail.
Service Quality Dimensions of Electricity Services: Evidence from Electricity Board in Sri Lanka

The paper tries to develop an empirical model of service quality in terms of electricity services that may form a basis for a better understanding of its determinants. Specifically, it's aimed to identify the dimensions of service quality of electricity services provided by the Ceylon Electricity Board located in Badulla District. The study employs exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and the service quality dimensions are identified using it as an independence technique. Data were collected by a structured questionnaire that consists of two sections as Part A and B. A total of 300 usable responses (n =300) were obtained through simple random sampling technique. The model consists of five dimensions such as tangibility, empathy, responsiveness, reliability, and assurance that have been detected by exploratory factor analysis. Further, results revealed that dimensions extracted from the analysis accounted for 62.899 percent of the total variance. While the study limits to the electricity services provided by the public sector organization based in Badulla district, the findings introduce the dimensions of service quality for electricity services, which may be a base for other scholars.
The impact of strategic planning on the competitiveness, performance and effectiveness of bank branches: a neural network analysis

The banking distribution system is going through a rapid process of change. This research study focuses on the analysis of the perceptions, of 58 bank branch managers selected from 14 branches belonging to two major Scottish banks, of the impact of a variety of planning practices on competitiveness, overall performance, strategic planning effectiveness and marketing effectiveness. The gathered data were then subjected to a number of learning iterations as part of a specifically designed neural network topology. Major findings derived from the study revealed that: bank branch effectiveness is affected by effective management practices; the overall performance of the branch depends highly on both long term thinking and innovation; long‐term thinking seems to have also a high degree of impact on strategic planning effectiveness; and finally, the degree of precision attached to planning, programming, budgeting and control seems to trigger high levels of marketing effectiveness.
Designing flexible logistics systems: a review of some Singaporean examples

The increased efficiencies to be gained in improving logistics has pushed managers to explore a number of new ideas, technologies, and methods of information management and computerization. However, many companies in Asia are indicating that responsiveness and flexibility are the keys to responding to markets which are rapidly changing and where customers are requiring a range of services. Studies several local and international logistics firms in Singapore and elsewhere as a way of developing a better understanding of their difficulties and reasons for success. Illustrates why certain larger companies which have the capability to develop more sophisticated information and computer systems do not; instead, they chose to rely on more flexible systems which allow for learning and adaptation.
Research into cooperation mechanism of specialized market and industrial cluster --Taking an example of Zhejiang

Reforming and opening up to the outside world undergo more than 20 years, Zhejiang has developed into a real "big economic province" from a province with weak economic basis and one of the important successful experience of Zhejiang is mutual development of industrial clusters mainly based on labor-intensive industries and specialized market. The cooperation between specialized market and industrial cluster, as for its form, is the integration of production industry and circulation industry cluster, and as for its inner mechanism, is a mutual development process between production industry and circulation industry and is the process of continuous intensification and cycling accumulation of the integration of production industry and circulation industry.
A Structural Equation Model of Factors Influencing the Quality Culture of the Workforce in Thailand Public Higher Education Institutions

This research aimed at developing a structural equation model of factors influencing the quality culture of the workforce in Thailand public higher education institutions. The subjects were 765 workforce from 60 public higher education institutions all over the country selected by multi-stage sampling method. The data were collected using a questionnaire and analyzed using SPSS and AMOS. It was found that the last model after the improvements had goodness of fit with the empirical information (c2/df=4.07; RMSEA=0.06; GFI=0.95; AGFI=0.92; CFI=0.96; SRMR=0.05)and the power of estimates at a good level with the squared multiple correlation of0.33. Factors with the total effectson the quality culture ranging from the most to the least wereperception of the managerialism level, trust in the results of education quality assessment, commitment to quality, communication about education quality assessment and participation in education quality assessment.
The model of the integrated competitive strategy of an enterprise under the conditions of oligopolic market

The article presents the original and scientifically brand new model of the integrated competitive strategy of an enterprise under the conditions of oligopolic market, followed by the case of empirical application. The integrated competitive strategy of an oligopolic enterprise is considered to be the concerted set of partial (detailed) competitive strategies (implemented simultaneously or in sequence) targeting the certain elements of internal and external environment of an enterprise, determining its strategic position and influencing performance. The complex evaluation of estimated impact of the partial competitive strategies on the performance criteria is implemented (multicriteria evaluation methods are applied) in order to indicate the detailed strategies, having the highest potential influence on the performance (to be selected to form the integrated competitive strategy), and to determine their scale (weights in the structure of the integrated strategy). The results of empirical application of the model are proposed to be employed to set up long-term goals and choose the main directions of business strategy of an enterprise, to distribute financial, human and other resources for strategic actions to be designed and implemented.
DISSECTING PHOTOMETRIC REDSHIFT FOR ACTIVE GALACTIC NUCLEUS USING XMM- AND CHANDRA-COSMOS SAMPLES

In this paper, we release accurate photometric redshifts for 1692 counterparts to Chandra sources in the central square degree of the Cosmic Evolution Survey (COSMOS) field. The availability of a large training set of spectroscopic redshifts that extends to faint magnitudes enabled photometric redshifts comparable to the highest quality results presently available for normal galaxies. We demonstrate that morphologically extended, faint X-ray sources without optical variability are more accurately described by a library of normal galaxies (corrected for emission lines) than by active galactic nucleus (AGN) dominated templates, even if these sources have AGN-like X-ray luminosities. Preselecting the library on the bases of the source properties allowed us to reach an accuracy with a fraction of outliers of 5.8% for the entire Chandra-COSMOS sample. In addition, we release revised photometric redshifts for the 1735 optical counterparts of the XMM-detected sources over the entire 2 deg2 of COSMOS. For 248 sources, our updated photometric redshift differs from the previous release by Δz > 0.2. These changes are predominantly due to the inclusion of newly available deep H-band photometry (HAB = 24 mag). We illustrate once again the importance of a spectroscopic training sample and how an assumption about the nature of a source together, with the number and the depth of the available bands, influences the accuracy of the photometric redshifts determined for AGN. These considerations should be kept in mind when defining the observational strategies of upcoming large surveys targeting AGNs, such as eROSITA at X-ray energies and the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder Evolutionary Map of the Universe in the radio band.
Impact of Human Resource Management Practices on Employee Retention in Telecom Sector of Pakistan

Purpose – For gaining competitive advantage in this highly volatile business environment, the organizations are facing many challenges and one of the most important challenge is to retain its most talented employees. Effective Human Resource Management Practices of an organization plays a significant role in gaining competitive advantage by retaining the valuable employees. For this reason the present research study was carried out to identify how and up to which extend the Human Resource Management Practices i.e. Training and Development and Career Development Opportunities helps in the Retaining the Employees in Telecom Sector of Pakistan, as from the past few years the telecom industry experience most threatening period regarding employee retention. Design/methodology/approach – This research is quantitative in nature. Data has been collected through a survey from 41 employees of sales and service departments of telecom sector from Warid, Mobilink and Telenor, as these companies are holding 85-90 % market share of Pakistan Telecom Industry. The purposed research hypotheses were tested through various statistical analyses. Findings – The research Findings suggested that HR practices i.e. Training and Development and Career Development Opportunities significant correlates with Employee Retention. Research limitations/implications – The present research study focused only two dimensions of Human Resource practices, so for future research studies other dimensions of HR practices should also be considered. Moreover this research is limited in terms of simple size, therefore by increasing the sample size in terms of number of respondents, departments, industries and cities could also provide more accurate and generalize results. Practical implications – Human Resource Management Practices helps the companies to retain its most critical and talented employees for a long term, make them more committed, and they perform well for the development of the organization that leads towards increase profitability and productivity. Originality/value – The research paper addresses the Impact of Human Resource Management Practices on Training on Employee Retention in Pakistan Telecom Industry particularly in twin cities of Rawalpindi and Islamabad. Keywords: Human Resource Practices, Training and Development, Career Development Opportunities, Employee Retention, Telecom Sector Pakistan.
Comparing Two Survey Research Approaches: E-Mail and Web-Based Technology versus Traditional Mail

ABSTRACT In this study, two survey methodologies are contrasted, e-mail-web and traditional mail. Some differences occurred between the two methods, among which are the following: (1) e-mail-web respondents were proportionately more likely to be male, and enrolled in school full time, (2) more individual question non-response was present for the e-mail-web sample, and (3) e-mail-web respondents value different aspects of graduate school.
Proceedings of the American Statistical Association 2000 Conference on Radiation and Health Park City, Utah, June 25–28, 2000

David Brenner, Columbia University Antone L. Brooks, Co-Chair, Washington State University–Tri-Cities Evan Douple, National Academy of Sciences Amy Kronenberg, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Ernest G. Letourneau, Health Canada Jay H. Lubin, Co-Chair, National Cancer Institute Susan Preston-Martin, University of Southern California Jerome Puskin, Environmental Protection Agency Robert Rinsky, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health Bobby Scott, Lovelace Respiratory Research Institute James M. Smith, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Heather Stockwell, Department of Energy
Confusing messages from the newest of the beta-blocker/diuretic hypertension trials. The Metoprolol Atherosclerosis Prevention in Hypertensives trial.

Physicians have come to depend on the results of long-term clinical trials to make treatment decisions. This is true for trials that consider, for example, the management of diabetes, coronary heart disease, hypertension, and malignant diseases. The recently published Metoprolol Atherosclerosis Prevention in Hypertensives (MAPHY) study, 1 which compared the results of a β-blocker, metoprolol, with a diuretic treatment group in moderately severe, middle-aged male hypertensive subjects in 66 centers from 11 countries, presents confusing results with differing interpretations. These should be clarified as quickly as possible before claims resulting from this trial are widely disseminated. This study compared the effects of metoprolol, a selective β-adrenergic inhibiting agent, in 1609 white men (aged 40 to 64 years) with pretreatment diastolic blood pressures between 100 and 130 mm Hg, with those of a thiazide diuretic (hydrochlorothiazide or bendroflumethiazide) in 1625 patients. Mean age was 52 years in each group and serum lipid
Improving UDP performance using intermediate QoD‐aware hop system for wired/wireless multimedia communication systems

Multimedia communication in wireless networks is challenging due to the inherent complexity and constraints of multimedia data. To reduce the high bandwidth requirement of video streaming, videos are compressed by exploiting spatial and temporal redundancy, thus yielding dependencies among frames as well as within a frame. Unnecessary transmission and maintenance of useless packets in the buffers cause further loss and degrade the quality of delivery (QoD) significantly. In this paper, we propose a QoD‐aware hop system that can decide when and which packets could be dropped without degrading QoD. Moreover, the transmission of useless packets causes network congestion and vain payment by the wireless system subscriber. In this paper, we focus on two types of frame discarding policies to maintain QoD: partial frame discarding policy (PFD) and early frame discarding policy (EFD). PFD policy discards the succeeding packets of a frame if a packet of the frame cannot be served. On the other hand, in EFD policy, when it is likely to fail to serve packets of a frame (based on a threshold) the subsequent packets of the frame are discarded. We first provide an analytical study of average buffer occupancy based on these discarding policies and show the closed‐form expressions for average buffer occupancy. We then perform our simulations by implementing a Markovian model and measure the frameput (the ratio of number of frames served) rather than the number of packets served. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Securitization Rating Performance and Agency Incentives

This paper provides an empirical study, which assesses the historical performance of credit rating agency (CRA) ratings for securitizations before and during the financial crisis. The paper finds that CRAs do not sufficiently address the systematic risk of the underlying collateral pools as well as characteristics of the deal and tranche structure in their ratings. The paper also finds that impairment risk is understated during origination years and years with high securitization volumes when CRA fee revenue is high. The mismatch between credit ratings of securitizations and their underlying risks has been suggested as one source of the Global Financial Crisis, which resulted in the criticism of models and techniques applied by CRAs and misaligned incentives due to the fees paid by originators.
Diabetic Embryopathy: A Developmental Perspective from Fertilization to Adulthood

Maternal diabetes mellitus is one of the strongest human teratogens. Despite recent advances in the fields of clinical embryology, experimental teratology and preventive medicine, diabetes-related perturbations of the maternofetal unit maintain a considerable impact on the Healthcare System. Classic consequences of prenatal exposure to hyperglycemia encompass (early) spontaneous abortions, perinatal death and malformations. The spectrum of related malformations comprises some recurrent blastogenic monotopic patterns, i.e. holoprosencephaly, caudal dysgenesis and oculoauriculovertebral spectrum, as well as pleiotropic syndromes, i.e. femoral hypoplasia-unusual face syndrome. Despite this, most malformed fetuses display multiple blastogenic defects of the VACTERL type, whose (apparently) casual combination preclude recognizing recurrent patterns, but accurately testifies to their developmental stage at onset. With the application of developmental biology in modern medicine, the effects of diabetes on the unborn patient are expanded to include the predisposition to develop insulin resistance in adulthood. The mechanisms underlying the transgenerational correlation between maternal diabetes and proneness to adult disorders in the offspring remain unclear, and the epigenetic plasticity may represent the missing link. In this scenario, a development-driven summary of the multifaced consequences of maternal diabetes on fertility and child health may add a practical resource to the repertoire of available information on early stages of embryogenesis.
Investigation of the insulin dose and characteristics of continuous subcutaneous insulin infusion in Chinese people with type 2 diabetes.

BACKGROUND Continuous subcutaneous insulin infusion (CSII) for type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is a promising therapy. CSII therapy is flexible, but the required insulin dose for different people may vary. Few studies have investigated the insulin dose and characteristics of CSII for T2DM, and none has focused on an Asian Chinese population. METHODS In total, 171 subjects with T2DM were using CSII and divided into different groups according to their body mass index (BMI) and the course of disease, respectively. The basal rate of CSII was set for four periods per day. We preferentially adjusted the basal insulin dose to control fasting and preprandial blood glucose. RESULTS Good glycemic control was achieved after 4.8±2.5 days. The mean total daily insulin dose was 31.66±9.85 IU, and the dose per unit body weight was 0.48±0.19 IU/kg/day. The total daily basal and bolus doses were 21.14±7.64 IU and 10.38±3.62 IU, respectively (i.e., about 66.7±6.8% and 33.3±6.8% of the total daily dose). We did not observe any significant difference in total dose of insulin or basal and bolus doses of insulin per day among different groups divided by BMI. Only in the group with BMI of <23 kg/m(2) was the insulin dose of per kilogram of body weight (0.60±0.25 IU/kg/day) significantly higher than in the other two groups (P=0.0001). There was no relationship between the insulin dose and the course of disease. CONCLUSIONS In individuals with T2DM on CSII short-term intensive therapy, proper increase of basal dose of insulin and preferential adjustment of the basal rate may be the effective method that can achieve good glycemic control with a lower total daily dose.
The IFRS and Accounting Quality in the Transitional Economy: The Case of Russia

Using a sample of Russian listed firms during 2000 through 2006, we examine whether IFRS financial reports of Russian listed firms result in a better accounting quality than the financial reports of Russian listed firms prepared in accordance with Russian accounting Standards (RAS). Our motivation to use the Russian data is due to the following reasons: Russia offers unique and transitional environment and represents a growing market which has a significant impact on the world economy. By using the Russian data we contribute to the research on the impact of IFRS on quality of accounting information internationally. For the purpose of the study we use the methodology suggested by Barth et al. (2008) based on earnings smoothing metrics and managing towards small positive earnings. Furthermore, we investigate value relevance of book value and income under IFRS and RAS. We find that firms using IFRS exhibit higher accounting quality, as they demonstrate less earnings smoothing than RAS firms. We do not find strong evidence that the use of IFRS jointly improves value relevance of book value of equity and net income accounting in listed Russian firms, but we find a partial support of book value of equity value relevance improvements under IFRS.
Histopathology of Nasal Olfactory Mucosa from Selected Inhalation Toxicity Studies Conducted with Volatile Chemicals

In recent years, histopathologic changes have been reported in the olfactory mucosa of rodents exposed, by inhalation, to a variety of volatile chemicals. In order to better characterize these lesions, a panel of experienced pathologists reviewed microscopic lesions of the olfactory epithelium of rats reported in 10 inhalation studies conducted with 8 different chemicals. The objectives were to determine if the olfactory epithelial lesions are morphologically similar or different for the chemicals of interest, to develop and recommend appropriate diagnostic criteria and nomenclature to characterize the morphology of these olfactory lesions, and to provide specific criteria for judging the degree of severity of the olfactory changes in these studies. The results indicated that the distribution and nature of the lesions were similar in all the examined studies in which olfactory changes were observed. Recommended standardized nomenclature and diagnostic criteria and a uniform method for scoring lesion severity based on the extent of distribution and severity of tissue damage are presented.