Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Corporate entrepreneurship and organisational performance in the information and communications technology industry

Corporate Entrepreneurship (CE) has long been recognised as a potentially viable means for promoting and sustaining corporate competitiveness (Covin & Miles 1999). Turbulence and rapidly changing knowledge especially in the Information and Communications Technology sector (ICT) has forced companies to become more entrepreneurial in order to capitalise on new business opportunities and to create value. The research study was quantitative and data was collected through an online survey, which used closed-ended questionnaires. The questionnaires entail assessing the degree of CE in an organisation in relation to its performance. The analysis had 114 samples of companies in the ICT sector. The study indicated that there is a strong positive association between level of CE and company performance. Companies that sustain their businesses and are able to prosper are likely to have a high level of CE. The most important contribution of this study is the testing of CE theories in the South African context. The ICT managers can contribute to entrenching CE by being the champions in creating the environment that stimulates entrepreneurial behaviour.
Channel selection and feature enhancement for improved epileptic seizure onset detector

This paper presents a novel architecture for a patient-specific epileptic seizure onset detector using scalp electroencephalography. The proposed architecture exploits the benefits of both channel selection and feature enhancement to improve the detector performance. The novel architecture results in higher energy difference between the pre-seizure and seizure states and hence performs better in terms of detection sensitivity and false alarm rate compared to benchmark detectors available in the literature. In detail, the proposed architecture achieves a 7% increase in sensitivity and a reduction of 9 false alarms per hour compared to the benchmark detector.
Human Resource Management Practices on Organizational Performance in Libya Firm

The business world is concerned with improvement of organizational performance. Consequently, Human Resource Management (HRM) practices outcome on organizational performance has been the major concern of the previous scholars. Therefore, any organization that fails to improve its performance would not be able to meet up with trends in achieving competitive advantages. Accordingly, the aim of this study is to elaborate on the effect of HRM practices outcome on organizational performance in Libyan firm. From the literature scrutiny, this paper wraps up that HRM practices such as rewards and compensations as well as, performance appraisal are the HRM practices that improve organizational performance within the organization.
InlL from Listeria monocytogenes Is Involved in Biofilm Formation and Adhesion to Mucin

The bacterial etiological agent of listeriosis, Listeria monocytogenes, is an opportunistic intracellular foodborne pathogen. The infection cycle of L. monocytogenes is well-characterized and involves several key virulence factors, including internalins A and B. While 35 genes encoding internalins have been identified in L. monocytogenes, less than half of them have been characterized as yet. Focusing on lmo2026, it was shown this gene encodes a class I internalin, InlL, exhibiting domains potentially involved in adhesion. Following a functional genetic approach, InlL was demonstrated to be involved in initial bacterial adhesion as well as sessile development in L. monocytogenes. In addition, InlL enables binding to mucin of type 2, i.e., the main secreted mucin making up the mucus layer, rather than to surface-located mucin of type 1. InlL thus appears as a new molecular determinant contributing to the colonization ability of L. monocytogenes.
Sovereign debt default and banking in a currency union

This paper analyzes the role of banking in the transmission of sovereign debt default within a currency union. We build a 2-country (core and periphery) new-Keynesian model with an endogenous possibility of default on the periphery public debt. We introduce alternative banking representations, going from full integration to fragmentation. We calibrate the model on euro area data and show that the best fit to empirical data arises when we introduce some degree of fragmentation. However, we observe that a well integrated banking sector would reduce the negative consequences of default at the EA aggregated level and limit the welfare cost of stabilizing policies.
Accounting System and Financial Performance Measurements

The paper concerns measuring and reporting of financial performance of an enterprise. Currently increasing emphasis is placed on performance measurement and management. Within performance measurement and management in general the role of financial performance is becoming increasingly important. The paper is concerned with measuring and reporting of financial performance of an enterprise primarily from manager’s point of view. In its first part it deals primarily with the connection between the performance of an enterprise in general and financial performance. In subsequent part it is about the relation of performance management and management accounting. The next part of the paper is devoted to the dual concept of financial and management accounting and to causes and consequences of the duality. Then it summarizes the most important developmental tendencies of financial performance measurement and management accounting.
Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (Gem)-2001 South African Executive Report

The 2001 South African Executive Report ranks thecountry 14th out of the 29 countries participating in the 2001 GlobalEntrepreneurship Monitor on the Total Entrepreneurial Activity (TEA)index.The country ranks 13th on the startup index, and 25th on the newfirm index. Three investigation methods are used in the series of national GEM studies:an adult population survey; interviews with entrepreneurship experts in thatcountry; and selected national and demographic data.The GEM modelexamines general framework conditions for economic growth and nineentrepreneurial framework conditions – financial support, government policy,government programs, education and training, research and development transfer,commercial and professional infrastructure, market openness, access to physicalinfrastructure and cultural and social norms. In terms of distribution of entrepreneurial activity in South Africa,findings suggest that the low rate of entrepreneurial activity among blackadults is partly explained by different rates in urban and rural areas; inmetropolitan areas, differences in entrepreneurial activity rates by race aresmall. It is estimated that 83% of entrepreneurial activity in rural areas isdriven by necessity, compared with 50% in the metropolitan area; 66% of suchactivity among blacks is necessity-driven compared with 23% among whites.Entrepreneurial activity among owner-managers of established businesses hashigh rates, and the survival rate of startups is more than twice as high amongestablished owner-managers, pointing to the value of entrepreneurial experiencein launching a successful venture. Evaluating the relationship between entrepreneurship and education, it issuggested that tertiary education increases the likelihood that someone willperceive good opportunities for starting a business, although not to highlevels (by international comparison). The most common sources of financingamong startup entrepreneurs are found to be: self-finance or savings(regardless of race, location, gender, or education) and immediate or extendedfamily. Four significant factors hindering entrepreneurial capacity are: (1)education; (2) cultural and social norms; (3) financial support; and (4)government policy. A small proportion of entrepreneurs account for most of thejob creation by new firms in South Africa, and necessity entrepreneurship tendsto be a response to poverty. (CBS)
Interruptible load management within secondary reserve ancillary service market

This paper focuses on the development of a model for interruptible load (IL) procurements within the secondary reserve ancillary service market. The model is based on an optimal power flow (OPF) framework which could determine the real-time selection of the interruptible load bidders by one entity who runs the market (e.g., the independent system operator (ISO)). The structure of the market is also proposed for implementation. The characteristics of the procurements of interruptible load such as advance notification, locational aspect of the load, power factors of the load, are explicitly considered. It is shown that interruptible load management would considerably help the ISO to maintain the system operating reserve during the peak load periods. The CIGRE-32 bus system, modified to represent different customer characteristics, is used for the study.
Secondary structure of the outer membrane proteins OmpA of Escherichia coli and OprF of Pseudomonas aeruginosa

When purified without the use of ionic detergents, both OmpA and OprF proteins contained nearly 20% alpha-helical structures, which disappeared completely upon the addition of sodium dodecyl sulfate. This result suggests that the proteins fold in a similar manner, with an N-terminal, membrane-spanning beta-barrel domain and a C-terminal, globular, periplasmic domain.
Participation, Transparency and Accountability: Innovations in South Korea, Brazil, and the Philippines

Citizen participation in budgetary and other fiscal processes has been expanding at international, national, and local levels over the past 15 years. The direct participation of citizens, it is hoped, will improve governance, limit misuse of public funds, and produce more informed, engaged citizens. At the national level, reformist governments now encourage the direct engagement of citizens during multiple moments of the policy cycle—from initial policy formulation to the oversight of policy implementation. Reformist governments hope to take advantage of increased citizen participation to increase their legitimacy, thus allowing them to change spending and policy priorities, increase state effectiveness by make public bureaucrats more responsive to citizens and elected officials, and, finally, ensure that the quality of public services improves. During the 1980s and 1990s, many subnational governments took advantage of policy decentralization to experiment with new institutional types. Direct citizen participation has been most robust at subnational levels due to the decreased costs and the greater direct impact of citizens on policymaking.
Dissociation Between Reactivity of the Hypothalamus-Pituitary-Adrenal Axis and the Sympathetic-Adrenal-Medullary System to Repeated Psychosocial Stress

Objective This study investigated endocrine and autonomic stress responses after repeated psychosocial stress. A first goal of the study was to investigate whether peripheral catecholamines and cardiovascular parameters would show similar or different habituation patterns after repeated stress. The second aim was to detect possible subgroups with regard to individual habituation patterns in the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis and monitor their respective sympathetic stress responses. Methods Sixty-five healthy subjects (19–45 years), 38 men and 27 women, were exposed to the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST) three times with a 4-week interval between stress sessions. Adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH), plasma cortisol, salivary cortisol, epinephrine, norepinephrine, and heart rates were measures repeatedly before and after each stress exposure. Results All endocrine measures as well as heart rates increased significantly after each of the three stress sessions (F values >16.00, all p values < .01). Although salivary free cortisol, total plasma cortisol, ACTH, and heart rate stress responses showed a significant decrease across the three stress sessions (all F values > 5.8, p < .01), no such decrease could be observed for the levels of norepinephrine and epinephrine. A cluster analysis performed on the salivary free cortisol responses to all three stress sessions revealed two response groups consisting of 30 so-called “high responders” and 35 “low responders. ” The high responders also showed larger ACTH and total plasma cortisol responses compared with the low responders (all F values > 10.00, p < .01). No such differences between high and low responders could be observed with regard to catecholamine and heart rate responses. Conclusions From these data we conclude that habituation to psychosocial stress seems to be specific for a given response system. Although HPA responses quickly habituate, the sympathetic nervous system shows rather uniform activation patterns with repeated exposure to psychosocial challenge.
Determinants of Hedging: An Empirical Investigation for Mauritius

An insight into how Mauritian firms really hedge their foreign exchange risk becomes a sine qua non. First, local firms can resort to forwards which are provided by local commercial banks. The benefit attached to forward contracts is that they do not require any initial or maintenance margin account. Another cost-saving advantage is that the fees or commissions applied are low since the bank is providing a whole set of facilities such as overdraft, documentary credit, bank guarantees and loans. Second, practitioners are conversant with the fact that the rupee has consistently been depreciating against the US dollar, euro and pound sterling. Subsequently, for an exporter, the need to hedge its receipts, denominated in any of the above three foreign currencies, is not warranted.
Mechanisms of Transcription-Replication Collisions in Bacteria

ABSTRACT While collisions between replication and transcription in bacteria are deemed inevitable, the fine details of the interplay between the two machineries are poorly understood. In this study, we evaluate the effects of transcription on the replication fork progression in vivo, by using electrophoresis analysis of replication intermediates. Studying Escherichia coli plasmids, which carry constitutive or inducible promoters in different orientations relative to the replication origin, we show that the mutual orientation of the two processes determines their mode of interaction. Replication elongation appears not to be affected by transcription proceeding in the codirectional orientation. Head-on transcription, by contrast, leads to severe inhibition of the replication fork progression. Furthermore, we evaluate the mechanism of this inhibition by limiting the area of direct contact between the two machineries. We observe that replication pausing zones coincide exactly with transcribed DNA segments. We conclude, therefore, that the replication fork is most likely attenuated upon direct physical interaction with the head-on transcription machinery.
UK consumer reactions to organic certification logos

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to consider whether UK consumers recognise and trust organic certification logos and whether the presence of these logos on a product increases consumer willingness to pay for that product.Design/methodology/approach – To ascertain the reaction of UK consumers to organic certification logos commonly used in the UK, this study makes use of three methods: focus groups, a consumer survey and a willingness to pay experiment (choice experiment). Findings – These three approaches reveal that UK consumers associate certain benefits with organic foods but are generally unaware of how the industry is regulated. With regards to trust of the logo, the standards they think underlie the logo and the inspection system that they think is associated with the logo, UK consumers rate the Soil Association and Organic Farmers and Growers logos more highly than the EU logo or products labelled with just the word “organic”. They appear willing to pay a premium for the additional assurance .
The Effect of Unrelated Supporting Service Quality on Consumer Delight, Satisfaction, and Repurchase Intentions:

Supporting services that are related to the core service, such as hospitality and consultation, can enhance the value of a core service. Yet, firms also use supporting services unrelated to the core service to increase consumer satisfaction, delight, and repurchase intentions toward the core service. However, there is little empirical evidence on whether the use of unrelated supporting services has such anticipated effects. This article aims to investigate how unrelated supporting service quality affects consumer delight, satisfaction, and, in turn, repurchase intentions. The results from three experiments reveal that unrelated supporting service quality influences repurchase intentions by affecting consumer delight rather than satisfaction. Thus, unrelated supporting services can serve to delight (but not satisfy) consumers if they are positive, relevant to the consumer segment, and of high quality. In turn, these unrelated supporting services will also influence intentions to repurchase. Consumer deligh.
Social Protection Coverage Across Employment Patterns

This paper examines trends in legal and effective social protection coverage for pensions in over 170 countries for three points in time 1990, 2000 and 2013. It considers the extension of coverage by laws and regulations over time and examines to what extent they are actually implemented in practice and quantifies gaps between coverage by laws and regulations and their effective implementation. In examining the legal and effective coverage and assessing how effective the various types of schemes are at reaching their intended beneficiaries, this paper distinguishes between contributory (social insurance on a compulsory or on a voluntary basis) and non-contributory (tax-financed) social protection mechanisms. The analysis shows that according to laws and regulations, social protection for pensions is still primarily directed at employees but is gradually being extended to the self-employed. Over the last two decades, the percentage of people of working age legally covered by an old age pension worldwide, has increased by 45 percentage points. In terms of effective implementation of legal coverage, since 2000, less than 60 per cent of the increase in legal pension coverage was effectively implemented.
Assessing the Cross-National Applicability of Consumer Behavior Models: A Model of Attitude toward Advertising in General

Examining the cross-national applicability of consumer behavior constructs and models is becoming increasingly more important. In this study, procedures for testing the cross-national applicability of models are illustrated. Specifically, the authors specify a model of attitude toward advertising in general and test its cross-national applicability with data from the United States, New Zealand, Denmark, Greece and India. The results suggest that the relationships proposed in the model are applicable and similar in strength across the five countries. Copyright 1993 by the University of Chicago.
Reexamining the association between smoking and periodontitis in the dunedin study with an enhanced analytical approach.

BACKGROUND Smoking is a major risk factor for periodontal disease. Conventional oral epidemiology approaches have found strong, consistent associations between chronic smoking and periodontal attachment loss (AL) through ages 26, 32, and 38 years, but those statistical methods disregarded the data's hierarchical structure. This study reexamines the association using hierarchical modeling to: 1) overcome the limitations of an earlier approach (trajectory analysis) to the data and 2) determine the robustness of the earlier inferences. METHODS Periodontal examinations were conducted at ages 26, 32, and 38 years in the Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Development Study. The number of participants examined at those three ages were 913, 918, and 913, respectively. A generalized linear mixed model with a quasi-binomial approach was used to examine associations between chronic smoking and periodontal AL. RESULTS At ages 26, 32, and 38, smokers had 3.5%, 12.8%, and 23.2% greater AL than non-smokers. Regular cannabis use was associated with greater AL after age 32, but not at age 26. Males had more AL than females. Participants with high plaque scores had consistently greater AL; those who were of persistently low socioeconomic status had higher AL at ages 32 and 38, but not at age 26. The amount of AL in anterior teeth was less than in premolars and molars. Gingival bleeding was associated with higher AL at ages 26, 32, and 38. CONCLUSION The smoking-periodontitis association is observable with hierarchical modeling, providing strong evidence that chronic smoking is a risk factor for periodontitis.
An investigation into the effects of polishing on surface hardness and corrosion of orthodontic archwires.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of surface roughness on the relative corrosion rates of wires of four alloys-stainless steel, nickel titanium, cobalt chromium, and beta titanium. Batches of wire were divided into two groups. Wires in one group were industrially polished to provide a uniform surface finish; wires in the other group were left for comparison "as received. " Wire diameter, hardness, and relative corrosion rates were compared within groups before and after polishing. Comparisons were also made across the four groups of alloys. The samples of as-received wires showed variations in surface finish, with beta titanium having the roughest appearance and cobalt chromium the smoothest. Nickel titanium and stainless steel surfaces were similar. Polishing provided a more uniform finish, but significantly reduced the diameter of the wires. Microhardness testing of wire surfaces of each alloy indicated that no significant work-hardening occurred as a result of polishing. The relative corrosion rates (expressed in terms of corrosion current density) in a 0.9% sodium chloride solution were estimated using the electrochemical technique of polarization resistance. Nickel titanium wires exhibited the greatest corrosion current density in the as-received state. Polishing significantly reduced the corrosion rate of nickel titanium, such that comparison between the four alloys in the polished state revealed no significant difference in their relative corrosion rate/corrosion current density.
Investigating relationship between reengineering and employees' job satisfaction through improving organizational processes: Case study on Housing Foundation of Islamic Republic, West Azerbaijan, Iran

This article explores the relationship between reengineering on employees’ job satisfaction through improving organizational processes. Reengineering is fundamental rethinking and deep and new design of processes to achieve radical improvement in performance based on criteria such as cost, quality, services and speed. In this study the relationship between reengineeringondetermining factorsofjobsatisfaction(organizational, personal,environmental and job nature) was investigated. The aim of this study was to consider the relationship between reengineering on employees’ job satisfaction through improvement of the organizational process among employees and managers of Housing Foundation of Islamic Revolution of West Azerbaijan Iran. This study is an applied descriptiveresearch. The results showed that there was a significant and direct relationship between reengineering and employees’ job satisfaction (organizational, personal, environmental and job nature). Thus organization’s increasing attention to reengineering through improving organizational processes can enhance employees’ job satisfaction.