Real Implications Research Articles

Hardware implementation of a modified SSD LDPC decoder

In this work, a modification approach to the simplified soft distance (SSD) algorithm is discussed by considering soft Euclidean squared distance as a performance metric. The SSD algorithm is theoretically independent of the signal to noise ratio of the received signal. Multiplication and addition terms are the only constituents of this algorithm which reduces the complexity. In this paper, an attempt has been made to compare and analyse the performance of modified SSD with other popular algorithms such as SPA, SSPA, and LogSPA. The algorithm is implemented on Virtex-5 xc5vlx110t FPGA kit to observe the real time implications and draw apt conclusions. From the FPGA results, this paper aims to conclude the performance of modified SSD is similar to that of LogSPA with changes observed as improved throughput speed and improved bit error rate (BER).

ІННОВАЦІЙНИЙ РОЗВИТОК АПК В УМОВАХ COVID-19

As COVID-19 continues to spread around the world, it is important to consider its real and potential implications for the agri-food sector in terms of both food supply and demand. Ensuring the continued functioning of global and national food supply chains will be crucial to ensuring these supplies and preventing a food crisis in countries already facing food and food security challenges, reducing the overall negative impact of the pandemic on the world economy. It is clear that the COVID-19 pandemic has turned the world upside down, including agriculture. It is now necessary to procure more effort from different graduates working in different fields to analyze the consequences. In the current situation, how much long-term data will there be. The agri-food sector already employs the majority of self-employed and paid workers in developing countries. However, many of these jobs are currently characterized by a shortage of decent work due, in particular, to weak labor market institutions, including inefficient law enforcement agencies, weak labor inspection bodies and insufficient compliance. Employees, especially in agriculture, landless farmers, small traders and commodity producers, whose trade conditions have deteriorated, have become vulnerable to such crises. Furthermore, strong monitoring of food prices and markets, as well as transparent dissemination of information, will strengthen the ability of regulators to ensure effective management of the food market and will prevent panic buying of goods. In this context, it is critical to ensure the free flow of international trade while guaranteeing quality jobs in food supply systems. The results of the application of various tools to overcome the COVID-19 pandemic abroad are considered and specific examples are given that have already been implemented or are in the process of implementation in the European Union. This article will be useful to other researchers and business owners. The issue of the Ukrainian economy's ability to withstand the COVID-19 pandemic was raised and the potential for damage to Ukraine's economy was assessed.

How Costly is Follow-on Financing After Premature Going-public Decisions?

Entrepreneurs often regard Initial Public Offerings (IPOs) as the crowning pinnacle at the end of a highly successful entrepreneurial journey, and studies in entrepreneurial finance therefore rarely extend beyond the going-public decision. This research gap is important because many post-IPO entrepreneurs need to revert to their pre-IPO entrepreneurial investors for follow-on financing in private transactions as they fail to raise additional equity in public markets. While the investment relationship is usually mutually beneficial pre-IPO, the rent sharing in post-IPO transactions is less obvious. Evidence from Private Investments in Public Equity (PIPEs) over the 2001-2018 period in recent-IPO firms suggests highly asymmetric rent sharing. Entrepreneurs earn a negative return of up to -15% in the first post-PIPE year, while investors benefit due to the ability to dictate transaction terms. We find some evidence that corporate governance and asymmetric information considerations matter in the cross section of the returns. The results have real implications for entrepreneurs who often remain CEO of the public company and have a large portion of their personal wealth tied to their company stock.

Global Productivity and Market Structure Implications of the US-China Trade War: A CGE Modeling Approach

Purpose – As the US-China trade war intensifies and lasts long time, there is growing concern about its potential effects on the global economy. In particular, for the countries like Korea that have a large economic dependence on the economy of the two countries, the US-China trade war may have a great repercussion in many ways. The aim of this paper is to investigate the global productivity and market structure implications of the US-China trade war for Korea, as well as for other surrounding countries and regions. Design/methodology – In this paper, we develop a full multi-country/region multi-sector computable general equilibrium (CGE) model of global trade incorporating heterogeneous workers and firms in individual skill levels and used technologies. We then calibrate the model using a global Social Accounting Matrix (SAM) dataset extracted from the recently released GTAP 10 Database, and assess the potential effects of the US-China trade war on the aggregate real productivity and the market structure for Korea, as well as for other surrounding countries and regions. Findings – We show that the US-China trade war may largely affect the aggregate productivity in each sector in each country/region, as well as the global market structure through entry and exit of firms, which results finally in considerable changes in the industrial comparative advantage of each country/region. Though the effects are diverse sector by sector, the results show that Korea may also be affected significantly: concerning the real productivity implications, it is shown that the machinery industry may be affected the most negatively; on the other hand, it is shown that the number of exporting firms may decrease the most in the other transports industry. Originality/value – As the US-China trade war intensifies, many studies have tried to estimate the possible implications, and for this usually the CGE models have largely been used as the standard tool for evaluating the impacts of changes in trade policies. Standard CGE models, however, cannot be used to assess the global productivity and market structure implications due to the symmetric and simplified base assumptions. This paper is the first to analyze and quantify the possible impacts of the US-China trade war on the aggregate productivity and global market structure using a CGE model incorporating endogenous skill-technology assignment of heterogeneous workers and firms.

Mixed Methods Research: Trends and Issues in Research Methodology

Mixed methods research is currently developing and has become an interesting issue and trend in the field of education. This makes the writers want to provide a reference and technical guidance to increase students' knowledge in providing mixed methods research. This type of research is literature review research that discusses various interesting issues from journals and books related to this research theme. This article describes matters related to the definition, types and procedures of mixed methods, population and samples, instruments, data collection and data analysis techniques carried out by mixed methods. The results of this study provide clarity and important exposure to research methodologies for students who will carry out their research in the field of education that focuses on mixed methods research. Hence, the research method will provide advantages of both quantitative and qualitative approaches to unveil the research phenomena in depth. In addition, this research has also real implications for students and researchers in carrying out good and appropriate mixed methods research.

Physicochemical Understanding of Protein-Bound Quantum Dot-Based Sensitive Probing of Bilirubin: Validation with Real Samples and Implications of Protein Conformation in Sensing.

Precise and rapid determination of free bilirubin (BR), a key biomarker of pathological conditions of the liver, is important clinical issue. The present study demonstrates that the combination of the strong specific affinic properties of protein, bovine serum albumin (BSA), toward bilirubin and luminescence of well-characterized semiconductor quantum dots (QDs) can offer a simple, fast, and sensitive technique for the determination of free bilirubin through quenching analysis. Here, BSA molecule not only stabilizes the quantum dots in an aqueous environment but also helps bring BR closer to QDs during the interactions of CdSe-BSA QDs with BR. Further, it is revealed through photophysical investigation that the conformation of protein molecule may play an important role in biomolecular sensing considering bilirubin as a model target molecule. The luminescence of CdSe-BSA QDs was highly responsive toward bilirubin, where nearly 90% of emission intensity was quenched on adding only 40 μM bilirubin, suggesting strong interactions involved between synthesized QDs and bilirubin. Solvent polarity dependence on luminescence changes confirms strong electrostatic interaction between the QDs and BR. The applicability of the synthesized quantum dots in sensing bilirubin has been checked in the presence of different possible interfering agents and also with plasma isolated from real blood samples of both normal and hepatitis patients. It was observed that bilirubin as control sample as well as in human serum sample can be optimally measured at pH 7.5, 25 °C. Thus, the proposed strategy being able to measure free BR even at least two orders of magnitude lower than bilirubin level in normal blood may provide a reasonable protocol to determine BR in the pathophysiology of many critical human diseases, like hepatitis and Gilbert's syndrome in the near future.

Credit Market Power: Branch-level Evidence from the Great Financial Crisis

This paper investigates the credit market power channel of macroeconomic transmission. I propose a novel measure of competition on the asset side of bank balance sheets by estimating demand elasticities across local U.S. credit markets. My empirical approach exploits within-bank cross- regional variation in weekly changes in branch-level interest rates during the Great Financial Crisis. The average nationwide elasticity is 1.2, a low value which is consistent with localized monopolistic competition in bank lending. I show that credit market power can have real economic implications: regional variation in elasticities was a good predictor of growth in small business lending, employment, output, wages, and establishment dynamism during the Financial Crisis. My results are robust to bank heterogeneity and measures of deposit market concentration.

Inflation expectations, volatility and Covid-19: evidence from the US inflation swap rates

ABSTRACT The goal of this work is to explore the role of the Covid-19 pandemic event in the course of inflation expectations and their volatility through US inflation swap rates. The findings document that inflation expectations and their volatility are positively affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. These results have real activity implications, while close monitoring of inflation expectations could signal inflation expectations un-anchoring risks.

Projekt wieczystego pokoju. Polityczne marzenie wielkiego filozofa

CEL BADAWCZY: Celem artykułu jest przedstawienie projektu wiecznego pokoju Immanuela Kanta pod kątem jego filozoficznych i politycznych założeń.
 PROBLEM I METODY BADAWCZE: Głównym problemem analizowa‑ nym w tym tekście jest ukazanie roli myślenia teoretycznego i jego politycznych implikacji. Filozofia krytyczna Kanta wyznaczyła nową drogę refleksji filozoficz‑ nej. Zasadniczo filozofowanie po Kancie okazało się niemożliwe bez odniesienia do jego myśli (czy to w sensie pozytywnym, czy też negatywnym). W ramach myśli filozofa pojawiła się także refleksja polityczna. Ważnym miejscem w tej refleksji wydaje się określenie ogólnego celu ludzkości, którym, według Kanta, jest dążenie do wiecznego pokoju.
 PROCES ARGUMENTACJI: Artykuł próbuje opisać projekt wiecznego pokoju Kanta z punktu widzenia problemu jego wykonalności. Ta kwestia ujawnia podstawowy problem refleksji nad polityką, czyli powiązania teorii z praktyką.
 WYNIKI BADAŃ: Filozofia jest czysto intelektualną spekulacją, której idee odnoszą się jednak do praktyki politycznej. W tym kontekście można zastano‑ wić się, czy „sny” filozofów­-teoretyków mają zastosowanie w praktycznym (realnym) świecie.
 WNIOSKI, INNOWACJE I ZALECENIA: We wnioskach próbuje się wy‑ kazać pierwszeństwo namysłu teoretycznego nad praktycznym wdrażaniem koncepcji politycznych w życiu społecznym. Kant – jako filozof – pokazuje, że idee i różne teoretycznie ustalone cele, które stanowią wyzwanie dla człowieka i społeczeństwa, mają sens jedynie jako postulaty a priori, a te dopiero wdrażane w praktyce stają się właściwymi celami do osiągnięcia.

Broadening our Sights: Advancing Interdisciplinary Thinking on Global Migration

This panel symposium addresses several topics in the All Academy Theme (AAT), the International Management Division, and other divisions, all through the lens of global migration. The purpose is to engage a group of expert panelists with different interdisciplinary backgrounds in a formal, moderated, interactive discussion of key aspects of migration that are germane to management and international business (IB) but have yet to be integrated within mainstream scholarship in these fields. The main topics tackled will include: 1) migrants as bi-cultural boundary spanners in global organizational contexts, and their impact on firms’ approach to strategy and organization; 2) the changing balance of location and firm-specific human capital advantages; and 3) the implications of migration for cross-border activities of firms and ethno-cultural diversity. In addition, we will examine the extent to which management and IB scholarship can be enriched by recognizing and incorporating knowledge on migration generated in allied disciplines with a sharper focus on the topic - namely political science, political economy, sociology, and anthropology. By surfacing, synthesizing, and connecting arguments taken from different disciplinary perspectives, we will show how and why the global movement of migrants has altered the nature of firm competitiveness with implications for the governance choices of multinational enterprises. Our main contribution will lie in breaking self-imposed dichotomies and mindsets that, inadvertently or otherwise, can stand in the way of creating a truly interdisciplinary synthesis of migration as a global phenomenon with real implications for management and IB scholarship at different levels.

Assessing the risks of changing ongoing management of endangered species

AbstractRecovery programmes for endangered species can become increasingly demanding over time, but managers may be reluctant to change ongoing actions that are believed to be assisting recovery. We used a quantitative risk assessment to choose support strategies for a reintroduced population of Mauritius olive white‐eyesZosterops chloronothos. Facing increasing costs, managers considered changing the ongoing supplementary feeding strategy, but at the same time worried this could jeopardize the observed positive population trend. We used a feeding experiment to compare the current feeding regime and a cheaper alternative (a simple sugar/water mix). Results suggested the cheaper alternative would only marginally reduce population vital rates. We assessed the influence of these results and the associated uncertainty on population recovery and management costs using two decision‐analytic criteria, incremental cost‐effectiveness ratio and stochastic dominance. The new feeding regime was expected to be, on average, more cost‐effective than thestatus quo. Moreover, even negative outcomes would only likely mean a slower growing population, not a declining one, whereas not changing feeding regime actually entailed greater risk. Because shifting from the current regime to a cheaper sugar/water mixture was both a risk‐averse and a cost‐effective choice, we decided to implement this change. Four years after the experiment, the population continues to grow and costs have been contained, matching predictions almost exactly. In this case, the field experiment provided useful empirical information about prospective actions; the risk analysis then helped us understand the real implications of changing the feeding regime. We encourage managers of recovery plans facing a similar situation to explicitly recognize trade‐offs and risk aversion, and address them by combining targeted research and formal decision analysis.

A fair CoP? MRF sampling, testing and reporting: Big problems caused by small particles. Part 2: Operational realities and financial implications.

The operation of qualifying materials recovery facilities (MRFs) in England is governed by the MRF code of practice (MRF CoP), which mandates certain sampling and testing practices for the mixed wastes being processed by the MRF. The results of this testing are required to be reported to the system regulator and are then made publicly available in a register. The MRF CoP is critically examined and certain aspects of the testing methodology are shown to be invalid, resulting in inaccurate information being included in the register. The current investigation looks at the extent of these inaccuracies and shows how they have very real financial implications for commercial operators of MRFs, especially where 'shared basket' contracts have been entered into, typically with local authorities.

Implikasi Konsep Islamisasi Ilmu Pengetahuan Ismail Raji Al-Faruqi

This research is entitled Implications of the Concept of Islamization of Ismail Raji Al-Faruqi Science. Science is important in human life. God put knowledge as a matter that must not be abandoned. During this time the Islamic religion is believed to have a very important role in coloring the building of science. But in reality, the Muslim community seems to be forced to carry out secular teachings in life due to the swift currents of secularization. This condition is a concern of Islamic thinkers, because it can endanger the Islamic faith. It is in connection with this concern that ideas or ideas about the Islamization of science emerge as an attempt to neutralize the influence of modern western science. Al-Faruqi was one of the thinkers about Islamization. How is the concept of Islam? and what are the implications for life in Indonesia? The Islamization of knowledge is not only a discourse, but requires real implications to be useful for the wider community. Al-Faruqi has sought to realize the Islamization of knowledge by establishing Islamic study groups. The movement is carried out by sticking to the principles of monotheism so as not to deviate from religious teachings. Some developments have also taken place in Indonesia in response to the Islamization of science, including: the establishment of Islamic-based schools and the rise of cooperatives and Islamic banks.

Principal professionalism in the time of COVID-19

PurposeIn this paper, we describe the impact of COVID-19 on principals and their work. Drawing on prior research undertaken prior to the onset of the pandemic, we describe how principals were already grappling with difficult tensions associated with their expertise, autonomy, normative orientation and rewards that may have real implications for their work moving forward and how, in the current context of uncertainty and change we believe the issue of principal professionalism requires our collective attention and action.Design/methodology/approachOver the last year, we undertook a multistate qualitative study of 17 school leaders to explore how principals working in traditional public schools conceptualize the principal profession and their role within it. Briefly, we found that the principalship is an “emergent profession” characterized by shared but individually determined knowledge and skills; a normative orientation of service; confused notions of external expectations and rewards and ongoing tensions among all of these elements.FindingsProfessionalism may be a surprising lever for improving the capacity of school leadership. Through our research, we identified that little is known about professionalism as it relates to the unique work of school leaders, but that understanding more about it could lead to greater knowledge of how to encourage and retain them. In the current context of uncertainty, chaos and change, the pressure on leaders to stay in the role and to succeed has never been greater. Thus, it is critical that principals have the capacity to exert professionalism over their work and to have greater say in elements of it, recognizing that some decisions must be made at district, state and federal levels.Originality/valueWhile many studies investigate how teachers of various backgrounds and in different contexts think about teaching as a profession (e.g. Anderson and Cohen, 2015; Stone-Johnson, 2014b; Torres and Weiner, 2018; Hall and McGinty, 2015), we had difficulty identifying studies focused on principals and using frameworks of professionalism to understand how these activities reflect larger shifts in the profession itself. This is despite the changing nature of principals' work, which, like the work of teachers, has been and continues to be largely influenced by the increasing role of neoliberal principles and policies in education. The public nature of the work of school leadership and the potential to support students, families and the communities in which they live brings in sharp focus the necessity of greater understanding of it during the COVID-19 crisis.

332 - Psychiatric disorders and Irritable Bowel Syndrome

The need to elucidate the influence of the presence of the major components (i.e. organic matter phosphate and nitrate) of nutrient-rich wastewater on the process of nutrient recovery, using calcined gastropod shell (CGS), necessitated this study. The time–concentration profiles of the recovery of organic matter, phosphate and nitrate were studied in synthetic feed water that contained single adsorbate of interest. Both the single and binary component equilibrium isotherm parameters were derived to explicate and quantify the impact of the presence of each constituent of the nutrient rich wastewater on the process of resource recovery. The time-concentration profiles of all the recovery processes showed that the process of nitrate recovery is the rate limiting step in the use of CGS as the reactive material. The pseudo second order kinetic equation gave the best description of both the nutrient and organic matter recovery but the processes were described by different equilibrium isotherm equations. The determination of the efficiency of interference on nutrient recovery showed that nitrate and organic matter exhibited minimal influence on phosphate recovery but the presence of phosphate and organic matter significantly impacted nitrate recovery. The recovery of organic matter was not vitiated by the presence of either phosphate or nitrate. The real life implications of the findings from this study showed that the use of CGS as a reactive material in resource recovery from a nutrient-rich wastewater would provide a double-pronged approach for resource recovery and appreciable treatment of wastewater for reuse.

Our sea: Music therapy in dementia and end-of-life care in the Mediterranean region

Our sea: Music therapy in dementia and end-of-life care in the Mediterranean region

Short-Term Scheduling of Expected Output-Sensitive Cascaded Hydro Systems Considering the Provision of Reserve Services

The integration of large-scale wind and solar power into the power grid brings new challenges to the security and stability of power systems because of the uncertainty and intermittence of wind and solar power. This sensitive expected output has real implications for short-term hydro scheduling (STHS), which provides reserve services to alleviate electrical perturbations from wind and solar power. This paper places an emphasis on the sensitive expected output characteristics of hydro plants and their effect on reserve services. The multi-step progressive optimality algorithm (MSPOA) is used for the STHS problem. An iterative approximation method is proposed to determine the forebay level and output under the condition of the sensitive expected output. Cascaded hydro plants in the Wujiang River are selected as an example. The results illustrate that the method can achieve good performance for peak shaving and reserve services. The proposed approach is both accurate and computationally acceptable so that the obtained hydropower schedules are in accordance with practical circumstances and the reserve can cope with renewable power fluctuations effectively.

A conditional learnability argument for constraints on underlying representations

We explore the implications of a particular approach to learning for an architectural question in phonology. The learning approach follows the principle of Minimum Description Length (MDL), which has recently been used for learning in both constraint-based and rule-based phonology. The architectural question on which we focus is whether the grammar allows language-specific statements to be made at the level of the lexicon, as was assumed in early generative phonology, or whether such statements are prohibited, as is commonly assumed within more recent work. We show that under MDL, the architectural question has real empirical implications: across a range of seemingly natural representational schemes, an ability to make language-specific statements about the lexicon is needed to ensure the learnability of an important aspect of phonological knowledge.

Drug allergy delabeling in the clinical setting: An all-hands-on-deck opportunity

Drug allergy delabeling refers to the removal of a listed drug from the allergy section. In an ideal scenario, the removal of the patient allergy label is then communicated in a streamlined process to the patient and their health care settings. The future of large-scale drug allergy delabeling rests on multiple factors: culture shifts, easily adapted tools to delabel our largest drug allergy categories, and electronic health record (EHR) crosstalk. The present functionalities of most EHR allergy sections and ignorance of their content are at odds with our universal goals of providing highly reliable, expert, safe, and affordable care. In a previous study from our health care system, more than 35% of patients had at least 1 listed drug allergy in their EHR. 1 Zhou L. Dhopeshwarkar N. Blumenthal K.G. et al. Drug allergies documented in electronic health records of a large healthcare system. Allergy. 2016; 71: 1305-1313 Crossref PubMed Scopus (152) Google Scholar In our practice at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, we have manually reviewed patients’ charts with more than 20 listed drug allergies, and it was clear that no one took the time to look at the complete list, remove duplicates, or ask a reaction history to any listed agent. Frequently, the drug allergy list is not as daunting, but it still lists an “unknown” reaction or an inaccurate medication, despite the fact that the patient is able to clearly articulate the drug allergy history. The documentation of these drug allergies has real implications for safe prescribing, longer hospital admissions, and hospital-associated infections. 2 Macy E. Contreras R. Health care use and serious infection prevalence associated with penicillin “allergy” in hospitalized patients: a cohort study. J Allergy Clin Immunol. 2014; 133: 790-796 Abstract Full Text Full Text PDF PubMed Scopus (507) Google Scholar

State formation and higher education (HE) policy: An analytical review of policy shifts and the internationalization of higher education (IHE) in China between 1949 and 2019

State policies regarding the internationalization of higher education (IHE) in China have undergone significant shifts between 1949 and 2019. This paper advances the proposition that these shifts in policies pertaining to IHE can be understood as part of a process of ongoing Chinese state formation in relation to national and global developments and does so by examining the history of IHE policy and policy changes between 1949 and 2019 to demonstrate this possibility. We consider three specific periods to make this case, including (1) the period of Marxist-Leninist socialist nationalism, patriotism and proletarian internationalism and the early engagements of IHE (1949–1976); (2) neoliberal globalization and opening-up: a return to the international stage and further IHE (1977–2002); and finally, (3) state developmentalism and the era of globally engaged higher education (HE) (2003–2019). In conclusion, the current implications of a neoliberal (capitalist) globalization are discussed in terms of real and potential implications for Chinese state formation, Chinese HE and society. The paper aims to investigate the historical underpinnings and formation of international HE in China and contribute to the significant gap in our current literature regarding IHE in China as a socio-historical phenomenon. It not only offers a detailed documentation of how policy on IHE has evolved and shifted in the context of significant changes in political and economic directions in China but also teases out influences of national concerns such as ideological and cultural considerations as well as neoliberal globalization.