Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Barriers to entrepreneurship in the Western Cape

Research has shown that in first world countries, governments that have supported their SMMEs and entrepreneurs have grown and the economies have prospered. The contrary applies in countries that have imposed barriers and restrictions on the development of the SMMEs and entrepreneurs. There is a growmg recognition of the importance of fostering SMMEs and entrepreneurial growth in South Africa. The small business sector has been identified as a very important sector and the government of the Western Cape has launched various strategies to improve the plight of the entrepreneur. This paper presents the results of a survey aimed at The target audience consisted of SMMEs within the technical maintenance, chemical cleaners and specialised lubricant products suppliers to the petro-chemical, marine, industrial and power-generating industry in the Western Cape area. The purpose of this research was to test the hypothesis. The acquisition of finances at the available financial institutions and the governmental ventures is a diftlcult and daunting task. The lack of management skills in small ventures is one of the key factors why these ventures fail, as well as the difficulty the businessperson has to contend with when it comes to handling of red tape with the starting up of the venture. These problems were seen to be the main contributing factors to failure of the SMMEs within the \Vestem Cape. Most of the sampled population supported the postulations that financial acquisition and management skills are barriers to entrepreneurship. The only factor that is contrary to the perception is the subject on red tape which was recommended for further study.
The Usefulness of Suppliers' Knowledge in International Markets

This thesis focuses on knowledge as one of the most critical competitive factors and the capability of the internationalizing firm. It contributes to internationalization research by connecting the view of embedded networks as knowledge generators to the view of experiential knowledge acquisition in the internationalization process of firms. The thesis identifies a specific form of experiential knowledge: “network experiential knowledge” defined as the experiential knowledge a firm accumulates in its network of embedded business relationships. The internationalization process implies use of knowledge, and also that not all knowledge is perceived as equally useful by firms. There was therefore reason to study network experiential knowledge and its usefulness. Thus, the general purpose of this thesis is to study the usefulness of network experiential knowledge in the internationalization process of firms. The thesis shows, through qualitative and quantitative research, that network experiential knowledge is perceived as useful to firms, in their development of ongoing international business, and that this knowledge is embedded in networks of business relationships. It might be in the whole network but it can also be in a part of the network. The thesis shows that the perceived usefulness of network experiential knowledge is affected by variation in country markets and international experience. The effects of need of knowledge, market variation, cost, product standardization, and involvement on the usefulness of knowledge from client’s network is investigated and shown. The thesis also demonstrates that perceived usefulness of network experiential knowledge has an effect on firm performance.
Bioinformatics Tools in Agriculture: An Update

Bioinformatics plays an important role in agriculture science. As the data amount grows exponentially, there is a parallel growth in tools and methods demand in visualization, integration, analysis, prediction and management of data. At the same time, many researchers in the field of plant sciences are unfamiliar with available methods, databases, and tools of bioinformatics which could lead to missed information opportunities or misinterpretation. Some key concepts of software packages, methods, and databases used in bioinformatics are described in this review. In this review, we have discussed some problems related to biological databases and biological sequence analyses. Gene findings, genome annotation, type of biological database, how to data represent and store was deliberated. Future perspective of bioinformatics tools was also discussed in this review.
Molecular diagnostic testing: Alphabet soup with a side of codes

Effective and affordable health care depends on the availability of accurate, reliable and clinically valid monitoring tests. Faulty tests can lead to misdiagnosis or failure to diagnose, resulting in patients receiving unnecessary treatment, delays in treatment or no treatment when treatment is needed. Safe and effective genomic testing is increasingly more important with advances in precision/personalized medicine. The rapid evolution of technology and molecular testing has brought new hope to patients and new pressures to payors. While genomic panel testing is time and cost efficient, minimally disruptive for patients and physicians, and spares valuable specimens, payors struggle with evidence-based approaches to coverage determinations in an environment where clinical treatment options cannot keep pace with technology. The result: a highly complex coding structure, disparate coverage policies, and extremely variable reimbursement for genomic testing. Providing the right treatment to the right patient at the right time depends on meaningful tests proven to impact clinical decisions, integrated with the most current data relevant to the practice of medicine, and recognized as medically necessary to tailor treatment for the unique biology of a disease. An understanding of the test reimbursement landscape is critical to implementation of a successful personalized medicine business model.
Water Evaluation of Soil Venting Application

The ability of soil venting to inexpensively remove large amounts of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from contaminated soils is well established. However, the time required using venting to remediate soils to low contaminant levels often required by state and federal regulators has not been adequately investigated. Most field studies verify the ability of a venting system to circulate air in the subsurface and remove, at least initially, a large mass of VOCs. They do not generally provide insight into mass transport limitations which eventually limit performance, nor do field studies generally evaluate methods such as enhanced biodegradation which may optimize overall contaminant removal. Discussion is presented to aid in evaluating the feasibility of venting application. Methods to optimize venting application are also discussed.
The Effects of Serving Two Masters and Using the Internal Audit Function as a Management Training Ground on Internal Auditors' Objectivity

In this study, seventy-nine experienced internal auditors from the gaming industry participated in an experiment designed to investigate two factors that may affect internal auditors' objectivity: (1) reporting to two masters (management or audit committee) who have conflicting preferences and (2) whether or not the internal audit function (IAF) is used as a management training ground (MTG). The participants completed a case – developed with assistance from industry chief audit executives – wherein they were asked to evaluate business risks associated with a major gaming investment and to make a final recommendation. The results include three important findings. First, the internal auditors' risk assessments reveal an interaction effect between masters’ preferences (MP) and MTG. When the IAF is not used as a MTG, internal auditors' risks assessments do not significantly differ when the IAF reports to senior management versus the audit committee. However, when the IAF is used as a MTG, internal auditors' risk assessments are significantly lower when the IAF reports to senior management versus the audit committee. Second, the internal auditors' recommendations show that they provided more favorable recommendations regarding the investment to the audit committee than to management. Third, when the IAF is used as a MTG, the internal auditors provide more favorable recommendations than when the IAF is not a MTG. Overall our results highlight the interplay between MP and whether or not the IAF is being used as a MTG on internal auditors’ objectivity.
Design and Measurement Techniques for an 80 Gb/s 1-Tap Decision Feedback Equalizer

A millimeter wave frequency mixed-signal design of a 1-tap half-rate look-ahead decision feedback equalizer for 80 Gb/s short-reach optical communication systems is presented. On-wafer tests are developed to determine the maximum operating bit rate of the equalizer. Results are also presented for intersymbol interference mitigation at 80 Gb/s for a 20 GHz bandwidth-limited channel. Further improvements on the architecture of the 80 Gb/s equalizer are discussed and used in the design and on-wafer measurement of a 110 Gb/s equalizer. The equalizers are designed in a 0.13 μm SiGe:C BiCMOS technology. The 80 and 110 Gb/s versions dissipate 4 and 5.75 W, respectively and occupy 2 and 2.56 mm2, respectively.
Online Auction Fraud Detection Techniques and Security Measures Using Proactive Moderation System

-The traditional online shopping business model allows sellers to sell a product or service at a preset price, where buyers can choose to purchase if they find it to be a good deal. Online auction however is a different business model by which items are sold through price bidding. There is often a starting price and expiration time specified by the sellers. Once the auction starts, potential buyers bid against each other, and the winner gets the item with their highest winning bid. When people are enjoying the benefits from online trading, criminals are also taking advantages to conduct fraudulent activities against honest parties to obtain illegal profit. Hence proactive fraud detection moderation systems are commonly applied in practice to detect and prevent such illegal and fraud activities. Machine-learned models, especially those that are learned online, are able to catch frauds more efficiently and quickly than human-tuned rule-based systems. Keywords--Online Auction, Fraud Detection, Online Modeling, Moderation systems, rule based system etc.
The Usefulness of Nursing Languages to Communicate a Clinical Event

The purpose of this study was to explore nurses’ perceptions of the strengths and limitations of standardized nursing languages in the electronic health record to communicate a clinical event. Limited examples of research exist exploring the effectiveness of the electronic health record with embedded standardized nursing languages as a communication system. Therefore, their effect of standardized nursing languages on nurse-to-nurse communication remains largely unknown. Data from a larger study were analyzed using qualitative content analysis. Fifty-seven thematic units represented nurses’ perceptions of the electronic health record with NANDA, NIC, and NOC for documenting and retrieving patient information associated with a clinical event. These thematic units were further analyzed, and three categories emerged: language comprehension, inexactness of the languages, and language usefulness. Standardized nursing languages were perceived to support planning care but also posed semantic challenges and fostered inaccuracies in patient information. Standardized nursing languages may constrain nurse-to-nurse communication related to a clinical event. For languages to support nurse-to-nurse communication and avoid potential safety issues, facilities must deal with inaccuracies and semantic misunderstandings to provide safe patient care.
Assessing the Effect of Data Imports on the Completeness of OpenStreetMap – A United States Case Study

The assessment of OpenStreetMap (OSM) data quality has become an interdisciplinary research area over the recent years. The question of whether the OSM road network should be updated through periodic data imports from public domain data, or whether the currency of OSM data should rather rely on more traditional data collection efforts by active contributors, has led to perpetual debates within the OSM community. A US Census TIGER/Line 2005 import into OSM was accomplished in early 2008, which generated a road network foundation for the active community members in the US. In this study we perform a longitudinal analysis of road data for the US by comparing the development of OSM and TIGER/Line data since the initial TIGER/Line import. The analysis is performed for the 50 US states and the District of Columbia, and 70 Urbanized Areas. In almost all tested states and Urbanized Areas, OSM misses roads for motorized traffic when compared with TIGER/Line street data, while significant contributions could be observed in pedestrian related network data in OSM compared with corresponding TIGER/Line data. We conclude that the quality of OSM road data could be improved through new OSM editor tools allowing contributors to trace current TIGER/Line data.
Macrolide resistance in Treponema pallidum in the United States and Ireland.

An HIV-infected patient in San Francisco with primary syphilis was treated with azithromycin, but the lesion did not resolve. The authors of this case report confirmed resistance to azithromycin and identified a mutation in the 23S rRNA genes of T. pallidum. The mutation was also found in samples collected in Baltimore, Seattle, and Dublin.
The Facebook-in-Action: Challenging, Harnessing and Enhancing Students Class Assignments and Projects.

Issues of universities students harnessing and capitalizing the usage of Facebook for their own learning capabilities and effective thinking is always the focus of education scholars, in assessing the quality class assignments and projects produced by them. Therefore, Facebook is now becoming unbearable influence since the internet activation in the past few years, almost totally interconnected the information sharing and needs among those students. In this action research, the researchers explore the influence and the active usage of Facebook whether this social media networking is confirmed challenging, enhancing and harnessing the learning capabilities and effective thinking among the university students. Thus they could produce quality class assignments and projects under the supervision of their lecturer concerned.
The Response of Short-Term Bank Lending Rates to Policy Rates: A Cross-Country Perspective

This paper compares the responses of short-term bank lending rates to policy rates in a sample of 12 industrialised countries and seeks to relate them to characteristics of the financial system and of the policy environment. The degree of competition in the loan market and the clarity of the signal associated with changes in policy rates appear as some of the most relevant factors affecting the pass-through. There is evidence of mark-up pricing on average funding costs but not much supporting asymmetric responses with respect to increases and decreases in the policy rate. The paper is part of a broader BIS cross-country study on the impact of financial structure on the transmission mechanism.
The Financial Characteristics of Large and Small Firms Before and after the 2008 Stock Market Crash

The financial crisis of 2008, and the associated bear market lasting from October 2007 to March 2009, has had a significant impact on a broad cross section of firms in the global economy. Of particular interest to us in this study is the effect of this time period on the financial characteristics of firms, with extra focus on debt-related ratios. Using a large sample of U.S. firms from the COMPUSTAT database, we find that firms, on average, come out of the financial crisis with less insolvency and bankruptcy risk, more efficient asset utilization, and more attractive market valuations.
Channel Equalization for Block Transmission Systems

In a block transmission system the information symbols are arranged in the form of blocks separated by known symbols. Such a system is suitable for communication over time-dispersive channels subject to fast time-variations, e,g. , the HF channel. The known reliable receiver for this system is the nonlinear data-directed estimator (NDDE). This paper presents appropriate equalization methods for this system. A nonstationary innovations representation based on Cholesky factorization is used in order to define a noise whitener and a maximum-likelihood block detector. Also block linear equalizers and block decision-feedback equalizers are derived. For each type we give the zero-forcing and the minimum-mean-squared-error versions. Performance evaluations and comparisons are given. We show that they perform better than conventional equalizers. As compared to the NDDE, the derived block decision-feedback equalizers perform better and are much less complex. Whereas the NDDE uses the Levinson algorithm to solve M/2 Toeplitz systems of decreasing order (where M is the number of symbols per block), the derived equalizers need to process only one Toeplitz system. Moreover, the Schur algorithm, proposed for Cholesky factorization allows us to further reduce the complexity. >
embSFI: An Approach for Software Fault Isolation in Embedded Systems

Software Fault Isolation (SFI) is a technique to sandbox software components based on transformation and checks on the assembly code level. In this way, software components can only access memory within specific fault domains. This paper presents embSFI, which applies selected SFI techniques to embedded systems in order to increase dependability and security, complementing or replacing a memory management unit. Our approach is designed to use SFI techniques which can be validated efficiently, even on embedded devices. Furthermore, we show that the overhead in performance is low, however depending on the scenario.
CALIFORNIA'S TRANSIT VILLAGE MOVEMENT

Transit villages - dense, mixed-use communities near rail stops - could increase rail ridership and reduce automobile dependency; however, few good examples exist on the U.S. today. This paper shows that there is a reasonably strong market demand for well-designed transit-oriented neighborhoods. After viewing visual images of simulated transit villages, more respondents from the San Francisco Bay Area expressed a willingness to live in a moderately dense community with nice amenities than in one with a third lower densities but little neighborhood open space or consumer services. Strong market interest in rail-based housing, coupled with recent state enabling legislation, bode favorably for the future of transit villages in California.
Corporate Takeovers in Sweden : The effect on bidder´s shareholder return

The purpose of this master’s thesis is to examine the effect a corporate takeover an-nouncement has on share prices for acquiring companies. The test will only involve com-panies listed on the Stockholm Stock Exchange during the period 1996 to 2005. To test the effect an announcement has, abnormal return for a period before and after the takeover announcement was calculated. The findings from the testing showed that takeover an-nouncements have a significantly impact on shareholder return. The majority of acquirers in the sample had negative average abnormal returns during the event period (100 days prior to the announcement and 100 day after).
Resources, Institutional Environments and Firm Scope: Evidence from an Emerging Economy

This dissertation investigates how institutional environments and firm resources influence firm scope. Building on strategy and international business literatures, I propose that institutional environments influence firm scope through the impacts on both the development of internal resources and the availability of external resources. In Chapter 2, I disaggregate the concept of institutional distance into different dimensions from an institutional perspective and empirically test the validity of the multi-dimensional approach in the sample of U.S. and Chinese firms by exploring the effects of distance on the foreign expansion strategies. The results also show that Chinese firms do have different strategic choices from U.S. firms when they invest abroad. In Chapter 3, I focus on government and international diversification in emerging economies. Compared with partially privatized enterprises (PPEs) and fully privatized enterprises (FPEs), state-owned enterprises (SOEs) are less likely to go abroad as a result of their risk-averse nature. In addition, different types of government corporations rely on different types of resources when they invest abroad: while SOEs reply on external resources such as debts, PPEs rely on internal resources such as intangible assets. An empirical investigation of the FDI activities of Chinese listed firms in high-tech industries between 1991 and 2007 supports the arguments. Finally, in Chapter 4, I focus on firm capability and related product diversification in emerging economies. I propose that seemingly related diversification, a type of diversification focusing on the relatedness of technologies but not of markets, will harm firm performance in emerging economies. Moreover, the lack of implementation capability also makes it difficult for firms to benefit from related diversification. I test these ideas on a population of Chinese firms listed on Hong Kong Stock Exchange from 1993 to 2006. Together, this dissertation shows the choice of firm scope in emerging economies is different from that in developed countries due to the uniqueness of resources and institutional environments. Theoretically, it integrates the resource-based view of firm, resource dependence theory and institutional theory to explain the role of resources and institutional environments in determining firm scope. Empirically, it provides largesample quantitative evidence in an emerging economy. Degree Type Dissertation Degree Name Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Graduate Group Managerial Science and Applied Economics First Advisor Mauro Guillen
The diabetes conundrum: despite increasing incidences of coronary disease in diabetic type II patients, their first cathlab presentation is later than expected: observations from an angiographic and optical coherence tomography study.

This editorial refers to ‘Severity of coronary atherosclerosis in patients with a first acute coronary event: a diabetes paradox’[†][1], by M. Niccoli et al. , on page 729 Niccoli et al . assessed the severity of coronary artery disease (CAD) in the culprit vessels of diabetic type II as well as non-diabetic patients ( n = 167) at the time of their first coronary event employing standard coronary angiography and intracoronary optical coherence tomography (OCT) imaging ( n = 72). 1 To assess the severity of CAD, they applied the Bogarty, Gensini, and Sullivan scores, and to evaluate the development of collaterals they used the Rentrop score, all based on coronary angiography. Intracoronary imaging by OCT was performed to study coronary plaque morphology, more particularly to quantify the amount of lipids and calcification present in the plaques. This was assessed at the site of the minimal lumen area (MLA) and at the cross-section showing the largest arc of calcium in the culprit vessel. Furthermore, the OCT images were inspected for the presence of calcified nodules.2 The findings of the authors are: more collateral development towards the culprit vessel, less lipids at the MLA site, more severe calcified segments, and more superficial calcified nodules in diabetic type II patients as compared with non-diabetics at the time of their first event. As the author's state: despite more severe coronary calcification, including calcified nodules, potent pro-inflammatory, pro-oxidant, and pro-thrombotic stimuli in diabetic type II patients, these patients seem to experience their first event at a later stage in the process of CAD as compared with non-diabetic patients. This finding is seemingly at odds with general convention, i.e. that the first event for all patients happens at the same stage of CAD. The authors hypothesized that there might be, besides an increased presence … [1]: #fn-2