Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Managing the Sources of Uncertainty: Matching Process and Context in Software Development

There is increasing interest in the literature about the notion of a contingent approach to product development process design. This interest stems from the realization that different types of projects carried out in different environments are likely to require quite different development processes if they are to be successful. Stated more formally, a contingent view implies that the performance impact of different development practices is likely to be mediated by the context in which those practices operate. This article provides evidence to support such a view. Our work examines whether projects in which the development process matches the context achieve superior performance. We focus on two sources of uncertainty that generate challenges for project teams: platform uncertainty, reflecting the uncertainty generated by the amount of new design work that must be undertaken in a project; and market uncertainty, reflecting the uncertainty faced in determining customer requirements for the product under development. We develop hypotheses for how these sources of uncertainty are likely to influence the relationships between a number of specific development practices and performance. We then test these hypotheses using data from a sample of 29 Internet software development projects. Our results provide evidence to support a contingent view of development process design. We show that in projects facing greater uncertainty, investments in architectural design, early technical feedback, and early market feedback have a stronger association with performance. The latter relationships are influenced by the specific sources from which this uncertainty stems: platform uncertainty mediating the impact of early technical feedback and market uncertainty mediating the impact of early market feedback. Our results also indicate that while greater uncertainty is associated with making later changes to a product's design, this practice is not associated with performance. Our findings suggest that managers carefully must evaluate both the levels and sources of uncertainty facing a project before designing the most appropriate process for its execution. In particular, they should explore the use of specific development practices based upon their usefulness in resolving the specific types of uncertainty faced. Importantly, these decisions must be made at the start of a project, with purposeful investments to create a process that best matches the context. Reacting to uncertainty ex-post, without such investments in place, is unlikely to prove a successful strategy.
Nematode parasite populations in sheep on lowland farms III. The seasonal incidence of species

Various authors have recorded the seasonal occurrence of different species of nematode parasites in sheep. Some of these (Ross & Gordon, 1936; Gordon, 1950; Taylor, 1934) have been mainly interested in the epidemiology of outbreaks of parasitic disease, but others have recorded the incidence of different species in flocks in which no outbreak has occurred (Gordon, 1948, 1950; Morgan & Oldham, 1934; Morgan & Sloan, 1947; Morgan, Parnell & Rayski, 1950; Parnell, 1954; Parnell, Rayski, Dunn & Mackenzie, 1954; Stewart & Douglas, 1938; Tetley, 1935, 1941, 1949; Wilson, Morgan, Parnell & Rayski, 1953).
Innovative banking products: Win-Win situation for Customers and Banks

The innovative banking has changed drastically the way the banking transaction and service delivery is carried out by the banks in India. Information and communication technology has transformed the product delivery channels of banks in such a way that they sell their banking products to customer by using Internet. Several innovative technologies include NEFT, RTGS, Online Marketing, ATM, Online banking. The beginning of the 21 st century brought with a number of activities that has impact on the adoption of the innovative banking technology. The innovative banking has transformed the banking industry and motivates banks to invest in information and communication technology to reach out at their strategic goals. This paper provides insight into the innovative banking products; it is a win-win situation both for the banks as well as for the customers. Innovative technology provides convenience, fast transaction, and transparency to the customer and offers less costly transaction, lower operating cost to the banks. So innovative banking offers benefits to the customer as well as banks. The main purpose of the study article is to present the current level of research on innovative banking services. Internet banking adoption become popular in the year 2000 and started peaking up from the year 2012 onwards. The finding provides research gaps on innovative banking research and different measures banks should undertake to improve on the efficiency and effectiveness.
The Internationalization Process of Franchise Systems: A Conceptual Model

Presents a conceptual model that examines the determinants of the internationalization process of franchise systems. The basic assumption of the model is that the internationalization decision is essentially a cost/benefit assessment that is filtered through the perceptions of top management. Consequently, the central constructs of the model are perceived risk and perceived benefits which are shaped by a set of organizational and environmental factors, and which, in turn, determine the strengths of intentions to internationalize.
Effects of Security Policies, Security Awareness of Hospital Employee to Patients' Personal Information Protection

With the development of hospital information systems and digitalization of patient records, the importance of protecting patient information is steadily increasing. In order to develop policies for patient information protection, this study conducted empirical analysis on the effects of security policies, security awareness and employees’ individual characteristics on security effectiveness in local public hospitals. The results indicated that security policies have a significant effect on security awareness and individual characteristics, but have no effect on security effectiveness. Therefore, it is important to establish security policies that can positively affect security effectiveness. This study also suggests additional multilateral research on administrative security factors.
Family Involvement in Business and Financial Performance: A Panel Data Analysis

Executive Summary The economic backdrop of most nations remains dominated by family businesses. Family control is common in publicly traded Indian companies. Such controlling families often hold large shareholdings and for the most part have representation at the top management level as well as on the board. Consequently, an overarching question that emerges is whether and how family ownership, management, and governance affect corporate performance. This article attempts to discern the relationship between family involvement in business (FIB) and financial performance (FP) of companies included in the S&P BSE 500 Index during the period 2006–2010. In addition, an attempt has been made to examine the difference in accounting and market measures of FP for family companies (FCs) vis-à-vis non-family companies (NFCs). A two-way fixed-effects panel model was used to examine the FIB–FP relationship with fixed effects being dummy variables for each year of the sample and dummy variables for each two-digit National Industrial Classification (NIC) code. Finally, to test for the ‘reverse causation’ between FIB and FP, the instrumental-variable—two-stage least-squares (IV-2SLS) regression was applied. The results confirm that FCs are a predominant form over a number of industries in a large sample, S&P BSE 500 Index. In addition, founding families are often involved in the actual management of the companies. Controlling for company-specific, industry affiliation, and corporate governance variables, the cross-sectional longitudinal analyses show that FIB is associated with superior FP. Furthermore, FP is higher for FCs vis-à-vis NFCs. Based on the market performance measure, FC appear to be better performers with higher outside board representations. On further analysis of the profile of independent directors, it was observed that they had a diverse background and expertise. The impact of firm size and unaffiliated blockholdings on FP was found to be significantly negative. Finally, the estimates from the IV-2SLS were found to be consistent with the preliminary results that FIB is associated with better FP. This article joins the evolving concurrence on the diversity and heterogeneity of family businesses by differentiating between family-owned, family-managed, and family-governed companies. It distinguishes itself from previous studies on the subject, as it uses different typologies based on the extent of FIB as well as presents multiple theoretical perspectives rather than a mono-theoretical view to empirical findings in the present study. Keeping this distinction in perspective is imperative for family business researchers, practitioners, and policymakers.
Slanting existing text with Valentino

In this paper we present a tool for valence shifting of natural language texts, named Valentino (VALENced Text INOculator). Valentino can modify existing textual expressions towards more positively or negatively valenced versions. To this end we built specific resources, gathering valenced terms that are semantically or contextually connected to the original one, and implemented strategies that use these resources in the substitution process. Valentino is meant to be a modular component. It is non-domain specific and it requires as its input a coefficient that represents the desired valence for the final expression.
Simplified circuit modeling and fabrication of intrabody communication devices

Intrabody communication using the human body as the transmission medium enables wireless communication without emitting radio waves into the air. Empirical results on signal transmission gain in the frequency range from 1 to 1000 kHz have shown that the two-electrode model, in which only one of the two electrodes of the transmitter and receiver are attached to the human body, has greater gain than the four-electrode model, in which all four electrodes are attached to the human body. Calculated gains based on four-terminal circuit models of two different electrode arrangements agree with experimental results. The validity of the four-terminal circuit models in the MHz frequency band was investigated using a 10.7-MHz intrabody sine-wave transmitter and receiver fabricated for this purpose. The results also indicate that the two-electrode model is more suitable for high-speed intrabody communication devices than the four-electrode model.
Corporate Governance and Accounting Standards in India: An Empirical Study on Practices

The good Corporate Governance ensures the better corporate performance and better relationship with stakeholders, where the proper practice of accounting standards assumes a lot of importance as it leads to the effective disclosure thus, good Corporate Governance. Hence, the practice of proper accounting standards is more relevant issue of good Corporate Governance. In India, the infancy stage of accounting standards gives more scope for the personal discretion, hence, the disclosure is ineffective. In view of the liberalization and globalization of the Indian economy, the formulation, development and practice of the proper accounting standards and reduction of the gap between Indian and International Accounting Standards are very much needed to ensure a good Corporate Governance.
Design and Analysis of Optoelectronic Oscillator

There are numerous techniques for the photonic generation of microwave signal with high time-bandwidth product and low phase noise. Optoelectronic oscillator (OEO) based generation techniques have been found one of the most interesting technique since last three decades. This approach provides very high frequency microwave signal with lowest possible phase noise. OEO has been designed with miscellaneous architecture by introducing different optical dispersive components such as optical fiber, chirped fiber bragg grating, polarization modulator, and ring resonator. In this paper numerous techniques for the design of OEO is reviewed and well demonstrated. There are interesting configurations with substantial improvement in phase noise and frequency of the microwave signals generated. MATLAB simulation has been used for the verification of result explained in published techniques.
PRELIMINARY CRYSTALLOGRAPHIC REPORTS Crystallization and Preliminary Crystallographic Analysis of a 2,3-Dihydroxybiphenyl Dioxygenase From Pseudomonas sp. Strain KKS102 Having Polychlorinated Biphenyl (PCB)-Degrading Activity

Crystals have been obtained for a 2,3-dihydroxybiphenyl dioxygenase (conventionally called BphC) from a polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB)-degrader, Pseudomonas sp. strain KKSlO2. The crystals were grown us-ing both ammonium sulfate and MPD as the precipitating agents. The crystals belonged to a tetragonal space group (1422) and diffracted to 2.5 A
Phlebotomus caucasicus and Phlebotomus mongolensis (Diptera: Psychodidae): indistinguishable by the mitochondrial cytochrome b gene in Iran

Abstract Diagnostic molecular markers for the females of Phlebotomus (Paraphlebotomus) caucasicus and P. mongolensis were sought by characterizing from individual Iranian specimens a gene fragment, namely mitochondrial cytochrome b, that had previously proven useful for the taxonomy of phlebotomine sandflies. Males of both species were used as reference material because their external genitalia provide the only diagnostic morphological characters. A phylogenetic analysis of the new sequences, and those previously reported for P. grimmi, found no support for recognizing more than one species (P. caucasicus s.l.) in Iran. Most of the genetic variation was geographical. An absence of lineage sorting was demonstrated, and it is proposed that any search for species-specific molecular markers for these three taxonomic species should be continued by applied biologists only if there is better evidence for associating any one of them with phenotypes important for understanding the transmission of Leishmania species in foci of zoonotic cutaneous leishmaniasis.
The microRNA‐146a/b attenuates acute small‐for‐size liver graft injury in rats

A critical role of the Toll‐like receptor (TLR)‐4 and its downstream mediators in the pathogenesis of small‐for‐size liver graft injury has been documented. Recently, the microRNA‐146 (miR‐146) was identified as a potent negative regulator of the TLR4 signalling pathway. In this study, the role of miR‐146a and miR‐146b in the attenuation of TLR‐4 signalling and small‐for‐size liver graft injury was investigated.
Ovarian follicular dynamics in selected and control (relaxed selection) male- and female-lines of broiler breeders fed ad libitum or on restricted allocations of food

Abstract 1. The reproductive structures of 4 broiler breeder lines fed ad libitum or restricted were compared at 1st egg. The lines were contemporary male- and female-lines and their respective progenitor lines maintained without selection for 20 years. 2. The selected lines were larger and had more hierarchical yellow follicles than the relaxed lines. The numbers of positions in the hierarchy were greater in the selected lines. The number of atretic follicles and the proportion of multiple follicles were relatively high in the selected male-line. 3. There were more white follicles in the range 1.8 to 5.0 mm diameter in the selected male-line than in the relaxed line, whereas selection did not change white follicle numbers in the female-line. 4. Food restriction decreased the numbers of normal and atretic yellow follicles and the proportion of multiples but had no effect on the number of positions in the hierarchy. Restricted feeding decreased the number of white follicles 1.4 to 2.4 mm and increased follicles 2.4 to 5.0 mm diameter. 5. There was little change in age at 1st egg among lines fed ad libitum. Restricted feeding increased age at 1st egg and the difference was greater in female- than in male-lines and in relaxed compared with selected birds. 6. Abdominal fatness was similar among the lines fed ad libitum and was decreased by restricted feeding. 7. Oviduct weights were greater in selected than in relaxed lines and were decreased by restricted feeding only in the selected male-line. 8. The weight of the largest follicle was higher in the selected lines and in restricted compared with ad libitum-fed birds. Plasma triglyceride concentrations were lower in restricted birds from the selected and relaxed female-lines compared with the other groups. Differences in plasma oestrogen concentrations could not be detected.
Cross-cultural design of facial expressions for humanoid robots

research, the authors surveyed emotional impressions of simplified face. Elements of the simplified face are two eyes and a mouth, which are transformed to make facial expressions geometrically. The facial expression patterns made by the geometric elements and transformations were composed employing three dimensions of visual information that had been suggested by many previous researches, slantedness of the mouth, openness of the face, and slantedness of the eyes. The authors found that facial expressions can be classified into 10 emotions: happy, angry, sad, disgust, fear, surprised, angry*, fear*, neutral (positive), and neutral (negative). These emotions were portrayed by different geometric transformations.
DEREVERBERATION USING A LEARNED SPEECH MODEL

We present a general single-channel speech dereverberation method based on an explicit generative model of reverberant and noisy speech. To regularize the model, we use a pre-learned speech model of clean and dry speech as a prior and perform posterior inference over the latent clean speech. The reverberation kernel and additive noise are estimated under the maximum-likelihood framework. Our model assumes no prior knowledge about specific speakers or rooms, and consequently our method can automatically adapt to various reverberant and noisy conditions. We evaluate the proposed model with both simulated data and real recordings from the REVERB Challenge in the task of speech enhancement and obtain results comparable to or better than the state-of-the-art.
Side-chain orientation and hydrogen-bonding imprint supra-Tau(c) motion on the protein backbone of ubiquitin.

Knowledge about protein dynamics is crucial for the understanding of protein function. NMR spectroscopy can characterize the amplitudes and rates of motions that are either faster than the rotational correlation time tc (sub-tc motion) with heteronuclear relaxation experiments or between approximately 50 ms and 10 ms (ms/ms motion) with relaxation dispersion. 3] The extent of motions occurring in folded proteins on the time scale between the rotational correlation time tc and the ms/ms range (supra-tc motion) has been a matter of debate. However, the functional relevance of such motions has recently been shown for the aggregation rate of natively unfolded proteins involved in neurodegenerative diseases. Very recently, motions on this supra-tc time scale have been observed in a 0.2 ms molecular dynamics simulation of ubiquitin. Residual dipolar couplings (rdcs) were recognized early on as an ideal tool to widen the time window of dynamics that can be characterized by NMR spectroscopy, since they are sensitive to motional averaging occurring over the suband supra-tc time scales (ps to ms). [4] We recently analyzed NH rdcs of ubiquitin measured in 31 different alignment conditions and derived the order parameters Srdc 1⁄4 4p 5 P2
High-energy all-normal-dispersion graphene mode-locked Yb-doped fiber laser

Since the first report of graphene-based ultrafast erbium-doped fiber laser in 2009 [1], most of follow-up studies have been concentrated on performance optimization and improvement of graphene saturable absorber mode-locked or Q-switched lasers at 1. 5µm wavelength-band. By contrast, fewer studies have been reported on other wavelengths although graphene based saturable absorber has a distinguished advantage : a broad wavelength-independent saturable absorption range, which covers the wavelength from visible to mid-IR. More recently, a study on graphene mode-locked Yb-doped fiber laser at 1. 07µm has been reported [2]; the average output power was about 0.37mW at repetition frequency of 0.9MHz, corresponding to single pulse energy of 0.41nJ. Here, we report much higher pulse energy generation at 1. 07µm from an Yb-doped double-clad fiber laser mode-locked by a graphene-deposited broadband reflective mirror in a ring cavity. The average output power is 170mW and the repetition rate is 1.04MHz, corresponding to single pulse energy of 163nJ.
The strange blood: Natural hybridization in primates

Hybridization between two closely related species is a natural evolutionary process that results in an admixture of previously isolated gene pools. The exchange of genes between species may accelerate adaptation and lead to the formation of new lineages. Hybridization can be regarded as one important evolutionary mechanism driving speciation processes. Although recent studies have highlighted the taxonomic breadth of natural hybridization in the primate order, information about primate hybridization is still limited compared to that about the hybridization of fish, birds, or other mammals. In primates, hybridization has occurred mainly between subspecies and species, but has also been detected between genera and even in the human lineage. Here we provide an overview of cases of natural hybridization in all major primate radiations. Our review emphasizes a phylogenetic approach. We use the data presented to discuss the impact of hybridization on taxonomy and conservation.
Serving multiple masters: role conflict experienced by service employees

Customer‐contact employees are a critical asset of service organizations due to the interactive nature of service delivery. Customer‐contact employees are boundary spanners who attempt to serve both internal and external constituents. Attempting to serve two masters can result in role conflict and the present effort presents and tests a framework for understanding possible antecedents and consequences of such role conflict. Survey data collected from 200 telephone service employees in an insurance company revealed at least partial support for the following hypotheses: role conflict emerges when there is a discrepancy between what employees think customers expect of them and what they report management rewards them for doing; role conflict, in turn, is related to employee attitudinal (e.g. job satisfaction) and behavioral (e.g. absenteeism) outcomes; and role conflict mediates the relationship between service orientation discrepancy and employee outcomes. Implications of the results for the management of service employees and service quality are presented.