Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Rising externality costs and corporate social responsibility case: EU legislation on electric and electronic equipment

Purpose – The purpose of this article is to study how we may identify the link between rising externality costs and corporate social responsibility (CSR) by using a market‐centric approach to CSR.Design/methodology/approach – The paper uses indicators measuring CSR performances triggered by rising externality costs due to EU legislation on electric and electronic equipment (EEE). The case study includes three leading companies in the global electric appliances industry.Findings – The EU legislation on EEE has increased the externality costs of the electric appliances industry. Some companies only meet the minimum requirements of the legislation, while others go beyond what is required and engage in CSR. It is found that the strongest CSR impact is related to output externalities in the authors' sample in the EEE sector, while the strongest CSR impact in the clothing sector, in an earlier study, is related to input externalities.Practical implications – The findings suggest that governments need to adapt t.
CPEQ: A Novel Techniques For Efficient Query Services To Users In Cloud

Now a days cloud offering different kinds of services to users and organizations with different cloud model types like public cloud, private cloud and hybrid cloud. Introducing public cloud which provides data storage and query services available for more users along with low cost. Data owner is worrying about sensitive data privacy is not guarantee by the cloud. Existing techniques can’t provide the data confidentiality, query privacy, query processing and processing cost. We present random space perturbation along with four techniques Data perturbation, Secure query transmission, two-stage query processing and range algorithm to process KNN Queries. Finally these techniques achieves secure and low processing cost.
Successful Careers of Culturally Intelligent Workers in Multinational Organizations: the Mediating Role of Perceived Organizational Support

In today’s highly globalized society, employees in cross-cultural work settings should have “cultural intelligence” to be successful in the workplace This study explores the relationship between cultural intelligence (CQ) and career success (CS); investigates the effect of perceived organizational support (POS) on CS among global workers; and examines the mediating role of POS in the relationship by using data from 400 employees at a U.S. military base in Daegu, South Korea. We conducted a hierarchical regression analysis to examine the respondents’ CS. The results indicate that CQ and POS had considerable influence on opportunities for career development and promotion in the cross-cultural work setting. POS had a significant mediating effect on the relationship between CQ and CS. The results have important implications for policies on human resource management.
Review: Pharmacotherapy for smoking cessation

Smoking is associated with numerous cancers and atherosclerosis. Smoking cessationhas substantial potential in reducing morbidity and mortality worldwide. The initial steps “5 A’s”(Ask, Advise, Assess, Assist, Arrange) should be applied in all patients. Behavioral counselingand pharmacotherapy are both effective, but the combination of the two is more effective thaneither alone. The first-line pharmacotherapy includes nicotine replacement, bupropion, andvarenicline. Nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) consists of long-active formulations, such asin a patch, and short-acting formulations such as in gum, lozenge, inhaler, and nasal spray. Ascompared to placebo, NRT increases the chances of quitting smoking. Nicotine replacementtherapy does not increase cardiovascular risk and is safe in patients with cardiovasculardisease. Sustained-release bupropion is more effective than nicotine patches and can becombined with nicotine patches. Buprenorphine is generally well tolerated, except that it lowersseizure threshold and is contraindicated in patients with seizure disorders. Varenicline alsosignificantly improves the success rate of smoking cessation. The latest evidence suggeststhat varenicline is not associated with an increased risk of neuropsychiatric or cardiovascularevents. In conclusion, the use of NRT (nicotine patch + nicotine gum/lozenge/inhaler/spray),bupropion (with NRT), or varenicline is strongly recommended for smoking cessation, unlessthey are contraindicated.
Comparative study of vitellogenesis of two African catfish species Clz

Nuliez Rodriguez J., Z. J. Otémé: S . Hem. Aq~tr t . Li~. iilg Rcsoicr. , 1995, 5, 29 1-296. ChiysicAtAys ~iigrudigitotus and Heterobrnrdiiis /oiig$/is are two commercially important African catfish species that have been studied for their reproduction and breeding possibilities in the lagoon waters of Ivory Coast. C. iiigrodigitrrrus is characterized by an annual reproductive cycle with a vitellogenesis period from March to June. The reproductive season coincides with the short rainy season which is characterized by lower water temperature and salinity at the beginning (September) and by a progressive rise of these parameters at the end of the season (November). The previtellogenic oocytes enter vitellogenesis at an average diameter of 320 pm. This initial oocyte stock is reconstituted progressively as soon as the spawning is achieved and lasts for a period of approximately 3 months. Fully vitellogenic oocytes reach an average diameter of 2.4-3.8 mm by the end of June. The maturation is possible only if a male and a female ai-e confined in artificial spawning receptacles. Maturation and spawning generally occur within the following 3 to 5 weeks for 30 to 808 of the females. When the non-spawning females are kept in the nests they maintain fully vitellogenic oocytes for 3 months with a continuous atresia of the larger oocytes, while the ovaries of the nonspawning females. placed out of the receptacles, exhibit a complete atresia of all the vitellogenic oocytes. After an HCG-induced ovulation, a new reproductive cycle of H. luiigjfilis can be achieved in less than a month. The previtellogenic oocytes enter vitellogenesis at an oocyte diameter of about 380 /mi and become fully vitellogenic after 15 days (1.2-1.6 nini in diameter). If maturation is not artificially stimulated the females remain at the same stage of vitellogenesis while larger oocytes undergo atresia and are continuously replaced by growing vitellogenic oocytes.
Hardware Software Synthesis of a H.264 / AVC Baseline Profile Decoder

The latest video compression standard is a joint effort between ITU and MPEG known as H.264/AVC. As with any video compression standard the H.264/AVC uses computationally intensive algorithms to maximize performance. During decompression these algorithms must be applied in real-time, processing 30 frames a second. This can be done in software, specialized hardware, or a combination of the two. Software solutions allow for maximum portability and ease of design, but General Purpose Processors (GPP) can not take full advantage of the parallelizable algorithms that the H.264 decoder is based upon. Specialized hardware solutions, on the other hand, allow concurrent data and instruction paths, but do not offer a high level of abstraction for cross platform development. Recent work by Xilinx has resulted in the advent of the MicroBlaze soft-processor that is a stand alone microcontroller built from an FPGA. The MicroBlaze provides a specialized hardware medium to run software on-chip with VHDL
Market Risk of Developed and Emerging Countries During the Global Financial Crisis

This study compares the performance of the widely used risk measure, value at risk (VaR), across a large sample of developed and emerging countries. The performance of VaR is assessed using both the unconditional and conditional tests of Kupiec and Christoffersen, respectively, as well as the quadratic loss function. The results indicate that VaR performs much more poorly when measuring the risk of developed countries than of emerging ones. One possible reason might be the deeper initial impact of the global financial crisis on developed countries. The results also provide evidence of the decoupling of the market risk of emerging and developed countries during the global financial crisis.
Comparing Interpolation Methods for Estimating Spatial Distribution of Topsoil pH and EC (Case Study: Karimabad Rangelands, Hamadan Province, Iran)

Soil alkalinity and salinity are serious problems in arid and semi-arid regions, and therefore monitoring of soil pH and electrical conductivity (EC) is necessary in any region. The present study aimed to properly interpolate soil pH and EC as soil quality indices in a semi-arid mountainous area with annual precipitation of 342.4 mm. The study area is the Karimabad rangelands in Hamadan Province, western Iran. A total of 266 composite soil samples were collected from 0-25 cm soil depth in a systematic random design. Soil samples were processed for pH and EC analysis and then further used for interpolating based on the optimal interpolation method for the study area. The overall soil pH and EC ranged from 7.3-7.9 and 0.33-2.13 dS m -1 , respectively, presenting the slightly alkalinity and salinity problem in the region. The results showed the accuracy of spatial prediction of interpolation methods, particularly inverse distance weighting and radius basis function. However, based on root mean square error, the radius basis function was the most appropriate interpolation method to predict spatial distribution of soil pH and EC of topsoil in the study area. While salinity and alkalinity were low, still monitoring these soil indices is highly recommended to prevent the salinization and alkalization in the study area.
Forensic Accounting in the Fraud Auditing Case

Abstract This paper presents a real case of digital forensic analysis in organizational fraud auditing process investigated using two different forensic tools, namely Tableau TD3 Touch Screen Forensic Imager and Access Data FTK Imager. Fraud auditing is more of a mindset than a methodology and has different approaches from financial auditing. Fraud auditors are mostly focused on exceptions, accounting irregularities, and patterns of their conduct. Financial auditors place special emphasis on the audit trail and material misstatements. A fraud case investigation of non-cash misappropriations committed by an employee, the warehouseman, will be presented herein in order to highlight the usefulness of fraud auditing, which can reveal many forms of financial crime and can be used in both private and public sector companies. Due to the computerized accounting environment, fraud investigation requires a combination of auditing, computer crime and digital forensic investigation skills, which can be achieved through joint efforts and cooperation of both digital investigator and fraud auditor as proposed herein.
Dissecting the Purchasing Managers’ Index:Are All Relevant Components Included? Are All Included Components Relevant?

We apply the novel approach of Siliverstovs (2015) to modelling data sampled at different frequencies in order to scrutinise the composition of one of the most influential economic indicators in Switzerland. The Purchasing Managers' Index consists of eight sub-indices out of which only five enter the total index with differentiated weights, which were specified for its American counterpart about thirty years ago. In this paper, we address the question whether the current fixed weighting scheme of the PMI components is supported by the data. We find that the relative weights of the PMI components are generally supported by the data, except the fact that one component, found very informative for explaining GDP growth, is currently omitted from the PMI composition.
Approaches To The Determination Of Strategy And Effect On Organizational Performance Of Standards Regulatory Bodies, A Case Study Of Kenya Bureau Of Standards (Kebs)

Questions have always been posed about the performance of public organizations. These questions often emerge from crises in service provision or celebration of success. They do not provide the systematic evidence necessary to advance the science or practice of Public Administration. The absence of such evidence has arisen partly from lack of attention to the issue of performance in Public Agencies and from lack of relevant data. In recent years, more systematic information on the performance of Public Organizations has become available, and a literature on this topic is now emerging. The results of empirical studies suggest that although environmental constraints are important, managers in Public Organizations have ample power to influence performance using a core managerial function in shaping strategy content, which can be defined as the patterns of service provision that are selected and implemented to form a central influence on Public-Service performance. The Research paper will focus on approaches to determination of strategy and performance in Standards Regulatory Agencies with reference to Kenya Bureau of Standards (KEBS) which is a premier government agency for the provision of Standards, Metrology and Conformity Assessment (SMCA) services.
When things go wrong: intra‐season dynamics of breeding failure in a seabird

During breeding, long-lived species face important time and energy constraints that can lead to breeding failure when food becomes scarce. Despite the potential implications of intra-season dynamics in breeding failure for individual behavior, carry-over effects, dispersal decisions and population dynamics, little information is currently available on these dynamics at fine temporal scales. Here, we monitored the foraging behavior and the proportion of successful black-legged kittiwake pairs from nest construction to chick fledging in a colony of the southern Barents Sea, to relate foraging effort to the dynamics of breeding failure over an entire breeding season, and to infer the environmental conditions leading to this failure. Specifically, we tracked kittiwakes with GPS and satellite tags during incubation and early chick-rearing to document nest attendance, foraging range, time budgets and daily energy expenditures (DEE). We also monitored diet changes over time. We predicted that breeding failure would follow a non-linear trend characterized by a break point after which breeding success would drop abruptly and would be related to a substantial increase in foraging effort. Kittiwakes showed contrasting foraging patterns between incubation and chick-rearing: they extended their foraging range from 20 km during incubation to more than 450 km during chick-rearing and switched diet. They also increased their DEE and readjusted their time budgets by increasing time spent at sea. These changes corresponded to a break point in breeding dynamics beyond which the proportion of successful pairs abruptly dropped. At the end of the season, less than 10% of kittiwake pairs raised chicks in the monitored plots. This integrative study confirms that breeding failure is a non-linear process characterized by a threshold beyond which individuals face an energetic trade-off and cannot simultaneously sustain high reproductive and self- maintenance efforts. In this way, the occurrence of sudden environmental changes complicates our ability to predict population dynamics and poses conservation challenges.
Density of atoms in Ar*(3p54s) states and gas temperatures in an argon surfatron plasma measured by tunable laser spectroscopy

This study presents the absolute argon 1 s (in Paschens’s notation) densities and the gas temperature, Tg, obtained in a surfatron plasma in the pressure range 0.65 10 mbar, for which the pressure broadening can no more be neglected. Tg is in the range of 480-750 K, increasing with pressure and decreasing with the distance from the microwave launcher. Taking into account the line of sight effects of the absorption measurements, a good agreement is found with our previous measurements by Rayleigh scattering of Tg at the tube center. In the studied pressure range, the Ar(4 s) atom densities are in the order of 1016−1018 m−3, inc.
E-Lifestyle Conceptualization: Measurement Model Validation Using Variance Based Structural Equation Modeling (SEM-PLS)

The purpose of this paper is to examine the epistemic nature of e-lifestyle conceptualization and to asses a proposed second-order formative-formative model for consumer e-lifestyle. Through a two-step approach of formative-formative model using partial least square analysis, the four constructs of consumer e-lifestyle was assessed and validated. The empirical results reveal the absence of multicollinearity while nomological, and discriminant validity were affirmed. This study has confirmed the e-lifestyle model as formative first-order and second-order hierarchical latent construct which was previously operationalized by means of reflective dimensions. This investigation merely represents a starting point in e-lifestyle conceptualization using SEM-PLS. To improve the validity and generalization of the scale proposed in the study, further cross-cultural validation through a greater population is recommended. Beyond validating e-lifestyle model as a second-order construct, this study is able to provide ample opportunity for marketers to know more about the weight and importance of each dimension of e-lifestyle. This research contributes to current consumer behavior literature on what factors affect consumer e-lifestyle that pave a way for marketers to have a better understanding toward their consumer e-lifestyle and hence execute related marketing strategies.
Partnering Skills - the basic philosophy

These are challenging times, surrounded by considerable uncertainties. Issues are complex, interests are high and often conflicting, and convenient paradigms or ideologies no longer exist to guide us. The solutions of the past, where governments, civil society or firms had clearly delineated responsibilities and actions, have reached their limitations as highlighted by large numbers of failures and a long line of consecutive crises. Solutions to societal problems have to be developed and implemented in collaboration with other actors, which creates the need for a partnering society (Van Tulder, 2010). Effectively operating in the “partnering space” that appears between the traditional spheres of state, market and civil society, requires new combinations of specific attitudes and skills.
Effects of Two Novel Peptides from Skin of Lithobates Catesbeianus on Tumor Cell Morphology and Proliferation

The number of resistant bacterial strains has continued to increase due to the overuse of antibiotics, necessitating continued development of novel antimicrobial agents. These resistant strains have made the care of infected patients with cancer more difficult [1, 2]. Indeed, infection control in patients with malignant tumors is one of the most important aspects of hospital management. Amphibian skin secretions contain a large number of antimicrobial peptides, including aurein 1.2, citropin 1.1, gaegurins, magainin, and magainin analogues, which have shown selective toxicity against human cancer cells [3, 4, 5]. There are now 105 antitumor peptides listed in the antimicrobial peptide database (APD, http://aps.unmc.edu/AP), 11 of which were isolated by Roaek [6] from the Australian bull frogs. Most of the remaining peptides have been isolated from the family magainins [7] or from Xenopus laevis. Antimicrobial peptides rely on amphiphilic α-helix structures to associate with prokaryotic lipid bilayers, often forming transmembrane ion channels that cause cell leakage, mitochondrial failure, or the activation of apoptotic signaling cascades. Antimicrobial peptides have little effect on healthy eukaryotic cells, however, and tend to act selectively on prokaryotic cells and damaged eukaryotic cells. Thus, they have the capacity to kill bacteria, fungi, and viruses. In addition, antimicrobial peptides can damage cancer cells without damaging normal cells, possibly due to differences in the composition of the cell membrane and cytoskeleton. Whether the antimicrobial peptides kill bacteria and tumor cells through the same molecular mechanisms is uncertain [8]. In recent years, antimicrobial peptides have becoming an intense focus of research in zoology, physiology, and pharmacology [9, 10], as these peptide are high efficiency, low toxicity, broad-spectrum antimicrobial agents that may complement traditional antibiotics. We isolated two novel polypeptides named temporin-La [11] and palustrin-Ca with strong antimicrobial and antitumor activities by screening the skin cDNA library of Lithobates
Risky Drinking Women: Contrasting Therapeutic Approaches

Background: The importance of early identification and effective treatment for risky drinking grows with the increasing rate of alcohol use by women. Objectives: This study aims to contrast treatment approaches for two samples of problem drinking women. Methods: The samples consisted of (i) 134 alcohol treatment-seeking Swedish women receiving long-term comprehensive services; and (ii) 152 US women who were not seeking treatment for alcohol but were medical outpatients with one of four conditions exacerbated by excessive alcohol use and received a brief intervention as part of a study. Data consisted of questionnaires assessing alcohol consumption, perceived stress and attitudes towards change. Results: While the treatment-seeking Swedish group drank more alcohol at the start of treatment, all women reduced their consumption of alcohol at the end of treatment/follow-up. Women who reported more stress drank more initially in both samples. Conclusion and Scientific Significance: This report contrasts two “extreme” approaches to treatment: longterm, open-ended, outpatient treatment and, time-limited, structured brief intervention for risky drinking women. Both treatment methods yielded positive results with significantly reduced drinking. Factors associated with successful outcome included the women’s attitudes toward treatment and conviction for the necessity of change in drinking habits.
Human Micro-Range/Micro-Doppler Signature Extraction, Association, and Statistical Characterization for High-Resolution Radar

Fogle, Orelle R. E. , Ph.D., Engineering Ph.D. Program, Department of Electrical Engineering, Wright State University, 2011. Human Micro-Range/Micro-Doppler Signature Extraction, Association, and Statistical Characterization for High-Resolution Radar. Recently, the use of micro-Doppler (μD) radar signatures for classification has become an area of focus, in particular for the case of dynamic targets where many components are interacting over time. To fully exploit the signature information, individual scattering centers may be extracted and associated over the full target observation. Due to the complexity of the target signature, the automated analysis is very difficult. However, the availability of ultra-fine resolution or micro-range (μR) resolution along with target scattering knowledge, can aid this process immensely. Here, we describe a feature extraction algorithm which utilizes both μD and μR data. We apply this algorithm to measured data to gain knowledge of dismount-radar phenomenology. Specifically, we associate μD/μR features to physical human components resulting in an intuitive and physically-relevant model. Additionally, we statistically characterize the radar cross-section (RCS) behavior of the individual body features.