Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
SERVQUAL as a Measuring Instrument for Service Provider Gaps in Business Schools

Student evaluation of the education they receive has long been an area of concern to academics and institutions. A recent paper identified more than 1300 articles and books dealing with research on student ratings of teaching [Cashin 1990]. Most tertiary institutions require it of their academic staff to evaluate their teaching. Most serious teachers have recognised evaluation's importance in being able to assess the quality of the product they deliver, to manage it, and to improve it. Yet there is certainly no standard approach to the evaluation of the education quality, and this would be particularly true of schools of management and business. Management teachers and also institutions, would probably admit to being frustrated at some time or another in their efforts to assess the quality of the education and related services they provide. In 1983 Lovelock identified part of the problem in service organisations as being related to inbreeding: “… Most hoteliers have grown up in the hotel industry. And most hospital and college administrators have remained within the confines of health care, or higher education, respectively” [Lovelock 1983]. Such relatively constrained exposure reduces the objectivity in determining service requirements and sensitivity to the external influences setting them. It is plausible that managers of institutions of higher management rationalise their attitudes towards the quality of service [as opposed to education the product] as follows: “MBAs expect things to be tough”; or, “Executives like to get ‘back to boarding school or residence’, it makes them feel young again/like real students again/like they're in a real learning environment. ”
The impacts of weather on tourist travel

Abstract Interest in the interactions between climate, weather and tourism has increased markedly in the last decade in response to climate change concerns; however, there is little empirical research on how tourists respond to the weather conditions they encounter. Thus, in this paper, we examine the impact of the weather on a sample of international tourists visiting New Zealand during the 2009–10 summer season. Based on weather-related changes made to tourists’ travel routes, the timing of their travel and activity participation while in New Zealand, respondents were segmented into three groups: those with ‘no travel changes’ during their trip, those with ‘some travel changes’ and those with ‘substantial travel changes’ to their trip. The results show a generally high level of changes made to trips, particularly in the less settled early summer season, and an interesting link with satisfaction. The research provides an empirical basis for a framework that would facilitate further research into the adaptive capacity of tourists towards climate variability and change.
THE ASSOCIATION BETWEEN THE USE OF SOPHISTICATED CAPITAL BUDGETING PRACTICES AND CORPORATE PERFORMANCE

Abstract Since the early 1950s, the academic community has tried lo convince corporate managers that there are sophisticated techniques that can improve the capital budgeting decision-making process. Over the years, many studies have documented a trend toward increasing business use of such sophisticated capital budgeting techniques. However, there is no clear evidence whether better performing companies are more likely to employ sophisticated capital budgeting processes than are lower performing companies. This study is an attempt to measure the relationship between capital budgeting sophistication and business performance. It advances upon earlier studies by utilizing a more comprehensive capital budgeting sophistication metric, incorporating industry-adjusted independent variables (firm size, risk, capital intensity, and degree of focus), and by focusing on United States corporations. The results are similar with those of earlier studies; there is no discernible relationship between capital budgeting sophistication and corporate performance.
Context-Specific Habituation of the Freezing Response in Newborn Chicks

Previous studies have found that in mature animals habituation is context-specific in some species but not in others. Given the mixed evidence present in the literature, we decided to explore whether habituation is context-specific in newborn chicks. The results showed that 3 days after hatching, chicks were capable of using global contextual information to rapidly habituate their freezing response to a series of sudden acoustic stimuli. Our study is the 1st to show context-specific habituation in this avian species, a result in agreement with those of previous findings in adult male zebra finches (Taeniopygia guttata). Furthermore, although our study does not intend to provide a systematic investigation of the ontogeny of habituation in this species, our findings show that a few days after hatching, juvenile chicks are capable of a sophisticated associative learning process that takes into account complex environmental information.
Signaling pathways of apoE and its role of gene expression in glomerulus diseases

Abstract The roles of apolipoprotein E (apoE) in regulating plasma lipids and lipoproteins levels have been investigated for over several decades. However, in different tissues/cells, the role of apoE was different, such as that it was a risk factor for cancer, but some reports stated that apoE was a protective factor for renal diseases. At the moment, most of the studies find that apoE not only acts as a ligand for metabolism of lipids, but also plays as a factor to regulate lots of signaling pathways. There was rare review to sum up the signaling pathways for apoE, and there was also rare review to widely review the gene expression of apoE in glomerulus diseases. This review was performed to provide a relatively complete signaling pathways flowchart for apoE to the investigators who were interested in the roles of apoE in the pathogenesis of glomerulus diseases. In the past decades, some studies were also performed to explore the association of apoE gene expression with the risk of glomerulus diseases. However, the role of apoE in the pathogenesis of glomerulus diseases was controversial. Here, the signal transduction pathways of apoE and its role of gene expression in the pathogenesis of glomerulus diseases were reviewed.
Living donor kidney transplantation: the donor profile in Trinidad and Tobago.

OBJECTIVE The National Organ Transplant Unit (NOTU) of Trinidad and Tobago, first implemented in January 2006, was mandated to facilitate renal and corneal transplantation. Since then, 60 transplants have been performed utilizing living kidney donors. The aim of this study is to ascertain the typical donor profile and to highlight the safety involved with live kidney donation. SUBJECTS AND METHODS This descriptive study utilized the medical records of 60 consecutive live kidney donors between the period January 2006 and May 2010. Donor information was recorded on Microsoft Excel spreadsheets and analysed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences 12.0. RESULTS Among the 60 donors, males and females were in equal proportions with a mean age of 35.0 (+/- 10.7) years; a mean body mass index (BMI) of 25.8 (+/- 4.2) kg/m2 and 48.3% were of East Indian decent. The majority of donors were related to the recipient (71.7%). At donation, the mean creatinine was 84.9 (+/- 17.7) micromol/L, average urine creatinine clearance, 1.83 (+/- 0.53) mL/s and mean 24 hour urine protein, 141.8 (+/- 78.6) mg. There was a significant association between the BMI at donation and proteinuria one year after donation (p = 0.043). The average hospital stay was 5.0 (+/- 0.95) days with minimal postoperative complications. CONCLUSION The typical live kidney donor in Trinidad and Tobago is a 35-year-old, slightly overweight male or female who is usually of East Indian decent, donating a kidney to a relative. Living kidney donation in this transplant unit is safe with minimal short-term complications.
Winner-Take-All Markets

In recent decades, explosive growth in the salaries of top earners, combined with income stagnation or decline for most others, has formed a renewed challenge to the claim that a free market serves the public interest. These trends lend new urgency to understanding why some people earn so much more than others and what the consequences of growing income gaps are for economic growth and well being. In this article, we build on earlier work by Alfred Marshall and Sherwin Rosen to argue that it is the distribution of opportunities, not the distribution of talent, that has been changing in recent decades. The reason for this shift is partly technological. As the revolution in information processing and transmission continues, there is increasing leverage for the talents of those who occupy top positions, and correspondingly less room for others to find a lucrative niche. In effect, the reward structure common in entertainment and sports—where thousands compete for a handful of big prizes at the top—has now permeated many other sectors of the economy. The payoffs in these markets are not only skewed but depend more on rank order than productivity in the traditional sense. We describe general conditions under which markets organized like tournaments will attract a wastefully large share of inputs. The article’s conclusions do not fit comfortably into any one intellectual camp. We begin with the presumption that markets work (low transaction costs, free entry) and that observed trends reflect underlying economic forces. But unlike many economists, we conclude that markets do not always serve the public interest well—indeed, that much of the rivalry for society’s top prizes is both costly and unproductive. And unlike most economists, we conclude that rising inequality is more likely to curtail economic growth than to stimulate it. We argue that cooperative agreements to reduce the top prizes and curb some forms of competition need not lead inevitably to socialist squalor.
Complementary and Alternative Medicine Use in Children With Cancer and General and Specialty Pediatrics

The objective of this survey is to determine the frequency, reasons, and factors influencing use of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) in general and specialty pediatrics within the same geographic area. Of the 281 surveys completed, CAM use was higher in children with epilepsy (61.9%), cancer (59%), asthma (50.7%), and sickle cell disease (47.4%) than in general pediatrics (36%). Children most often used prayer (60.5%), massage (27.9%), specialty vitamins (27.2%), chiropractic care (25.9%), and dietary supplements (21.8%). Parents who used CAM for themselves (68.7%) were more likely to access CAM for their child. Most parents (62.6%) disclosed some or all of their child's use of CAM to providers. This study confirms that within the same geographic region, children with chronic and life-threatening illness use more CAM therapies than children seen in primary care clinics. Children with cancer use CAM for different reasons than children with non-life-threatening illnesses.
On tariff changes and firm-production evolution: insights from Turkish manufacturing

We contribute to the yet limited evidence on the relationship between trade liberalisation and a firm's product mix and diversification strategies for an emerging economy, Turkey. Lower import barriers foster firms’ specialisation in their core products. A drop in import tariffs, indeed, enhances a firm's propensity to drop fringe varieties and favours production growth of core products. More importantly, it favours firms’ specialisation in more sophisticated goods. Export tariff cuts, instead, by relaxing competitive pressure at home and lowering the cost to export, only reduce the firms’ incentive to innovate.
Efficacy of Ceftriaxone, Cefepime, Doxycycline, Ciprofloxacin, and Combination Therapy for Vibrio vulnificus Foodborne Septicemia

ABSTRACT Foodborne Vibrio vulnificus infections are associated with higher rates of sepsis and mortality than wound infections; however, antibiotic efficacy studies have not been performed in foodborne infection models. The efficacies of ceftriaxone, cefepime, doxycycline, ciprofloxacin, and combination therapy were assessed in V. vulnificus intestinal infection in mice in order to model foodborne infections. In accordance with prior studies of cefotaxime, cefepime was synergistic with doxycycline and ciprofloxacin in vitro; combination therapy significantly decreased bacterial growth, by ≥2 log10 units, from that with antibiotic monotherapy (P < 0.01). In vivo, survival rates in the ceftriaxone (50%), doxycycline (79%), and ciprofloxacin (80%) groups were significantly higher than those in the control group (0%) (P < 0.0001). Survival was significantly higher with ceftriaxone-doxycycline (91%) or ceftriaxone-ciprofloxacin (100%) therapy than with ceftriaxone (50%) (P ≤ 0.05). Survival with cefepime-doxycycline (96%) or cefepime-ciprofloxacin (90%) therapy was significantly higher than that with cefepime alone (20%) (P < 0.001). There was no difference in survival between the combination therapy groups. Thus, we conclude that combination therapy was the most effective treatment for foodborne V. vulnificus septicemia. In a septic patient with a recent ingestion of raw seafood, cefepime in combination with doxycycline or ciprofloxacin should be initiated for coverage of resistant Gram-negative organisms and V. vulnificus pending a microbiological diagnosis. Once a diagnosis of foodborne V. vulnificus septicemia is established, treatment can safely transition to ceftriaxone in combination with doxycycline or ciprofloxacin.
The morning commute problem with heterogeneous travellers: the case of continuously distributed parameters

We study the morning commute problem with a heterogeneous travelling population whose early/late arrival penalty parameters are continuously distributed. Following Arnott et al.'s (1988) [Schedule delay and departure time decisions with heterogeneous commuters, Transportation Research Record, 1197, 56–67] model, where the ratio of the value of early schedule delay (VESD) over the value of late schedule delay (VLSD) is assumed to be constant across the population, we first derive the user-optimal travel profiles and the corresponding total travel time (TTT) for a one-to-one network with a single route. We show that although every commuter is better off if the bottleneck capacity is enlarged, commuters with high values of early arrival penalty (EAP) benefit more than those with low values. In addition, the homogeneity assumption overestimates the queuing delay and thus the TTT. Then we extend our analysis to a network with two routes, a freeway and an arterial road (AR) connecting a single origin–destination (O–D) pair. In this case, we find that the travellers who weigh schedule delay more will first shift to the AR, prompted by an increase in total demand. However, the critical travel demand at which travellers start to use the AR remains the same if the common EAP for homogeneous users is equal to the expected value of EAP distribution for heterogeneous users. Interestingly, there exists a critical value of EAP parameter, such that all the travellers whose EAP is less than it choose the freeway, and those whose EAP is larger than it choose the AR. Sensitivity analysis on TTT is performed with respect to freeway capacity, AR capacity and free-flow travel time on the AR. The results indicate that enlarging freeway (AR) capacity will always reduce the TTT of the whole network and the TTT of the AR (freeway), and increase the demand share of the freeway (AR). We also show that every commuter is better off if either the freeway capacity or the AR capacity is enlarged. Finally, we provide numerical examples to demonstrate the considerable differences in flow patterns and network performances between a homogeneous and a heterogeneous population.
R&D and productivity: Internal vs. external R&D - evidence from west german manufacturing industries

The paper explores the productivity effects of investment in external (contract) vs. internal (in-house) R&D in a sample of West-German Manufacturing Industries. The results provide strong evidence of a positive relationship between productivity and the share of external R&D in total R&D. This result is robust to alternative econometric specifications. Thus, findings suggest that the decision between internal and external R&D does matter. Moreover, results imply a nonlinear relationship between productivity and the share of external R&D for higher-technology industries, hinting at decreasing productivity effects of an increasing share of external in total R&D.
Early Employment Problems of Australian Accounting Graduates: An Exploratory Study

The mail questionnaire methodology was used to gather perception-based data about problems experienced by Australian graduate accountants in their early employment. Large samples of graduate accountants, their employers and academic accountants supplied the data upon which the analysis and discussion are based. Six major problem areas were identified with surprising general agreement between the respondent groups with regard to the basis of these problems and recommended solutions. Problems arise as a consequence of an expectations gap between employer and employee, a gap that is mostly consequent on deficiencies in the educational package and from a lack of practical ability. Problems also occur contemporaneously from non-employer sources. This is the first systematically-gathered evidence upon which policymaking can be based, and hence we took the opportunity to extend the discussion into a consideration of solutions that might minimize costs to the profession, the individuals concerned, and society.
Vocal fold elasticity of the Rocky Mountain elk (Cervus elaphus nelsoni) – producing high fundamental frequency vocalization with a very long vocal fold

SUMMARY The vocal folds of male Rocky Mountain elk (Cervus elaphus nelsoni) are about 3 cm long. If fundamental frequency were to be predicted by a simple vibrating string formula, as is often done for the human larynx, such long vocal folds would bear enormous stress to produce the species-specific mating call with an average fundamental frequency of 1 kHz. Predictions would be closer to 50 Hz. Vocal fold histology revealed the presence of a large vocal ligament between the vocal fold epithelium and the thyroarytenoid muscle. In tensile tests, the stress–strain response of vocal fold epithelium and the vocal ligament were determined. Elasticity of both tissue structures reached quantitative values similar to human tissue. It seems unlikely that the longitudinal stress in elk vocal folds can exceed that in human vocal folds by an order of magnitude to overcome the drop in fundamental frequency due to a 3:1 increase in vocal fold length. Alternative hypotheses of how the elk produces high fundamental frequency utterances, despite its very long vocal fold, include a reduced effective vocal fold length in vibration, either due to bending properties along the vocal fold, or by actively moving the boundary point with muscle stiffening. The relationships between an individual's average fundamental frequency, vocal fold length and body size are discussed.
Severe Dyslipidaemia after the Addition of Raltegravir to a Lopinavir/Ritonavir-Containing Regimen

We describe a 55-year-old HIV-1-infected male who developed severe dyslipidaemia (total cholesterol 600 mg/dl, triglycerides >5,000 mg/dl, high density lipoprotein <5 mg/dl) after raltegravir was added to his lopinavir/ ritonavir-containing regimen. To our knowledge, this is the first reported case of severe dyslipidaemia associated with the addition of raltegravir to a lopinavir/ritonavir-based regimen, suggestive of a possible drug interaction. The lipid profile quickly normalized following discontinuation of lopinavir/ritonavir and continuation of raltegravir, suggesting that lopinavir/ritonavir was the primary driver for the adverse event. With increasing interest in nucleoside-sparing regimens, knowledge of clinically significant adverse events such as this is important for HIV clinicians when selecting regimens for patients with highly resistant virus or drug tolerability issues.
The Effect of Past Sickness on Current Earnings in Sweden

This paper examines whether sickness history affects annual earnings and/or hourly wages in Sweden, using a unique longitudinal database. If poor health makes people less productive, previous sickness is expected to have a negative effect on hourly wages. If poor health reduces people’s working capacity, but not their productivity, it is expected to decrease the hours worked, which implies lower annual earnings and no change in their hourly wage. The results indicate that people who are healthy in the current year but have a longer spell of sickness in previous years have lower earnings than persons who have no record of long-term sickness, and that the effect goes through hours of work rather than the wage rate. In addition, in the current year, sickness has a convex relationship with earnings, going through wages. Persons with lower (higher) wages have more (fewer) days of compensated absenteeism.
Factors associated with depression among elderly patients in a primary health care clinic in Malaysia

Aim: To identify the factors associated with depression among elderly patients attending a primary health care clinic in Malaysia. Methods: A cross sectional study was conducted on patients aged 60 years and above in Klinik Kesihatan Butterworth, Seberang Perai Utara, Pulau Pinang, Malaysia from April to September 1999. The Geriatric Depression Scale questionnaire was used as a screening instrument. Results: The response rate was 99.0%. A total of 18% of the patients were found to have depression. The associated factors were females (odds ratio (OR) = 2.87, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.37‐6.02), those who were unmarried (OR = 3.46, 95% CI = 1.66‐7.21), without formal education (OR = 8.0, 95% CI = 2.97‐21.48), low total family income (OR = 7.97, 95% CI = 2.71‐23.46) and urban residence (OR = 2.23, 95% CI = 1.09‐4.58). Conclusion: Depression is very common among the elderly. As this is an important problem in primary care practice, primary care doctors should be aware of this problem so that early detection and management can be implemented. © 2003 Blackwell Publishing Asia and Wonca
Jump‐starting continuous improvement through self‐assessment

The innumerable accounts of successful implementation of kaizen in Japan during more than 40 years has led to the expectation that continuous improvement (CI) might offer companies a means to gain and maintain a competitive advantage in the turbulent 1980s and 1990s. However, the majority of CI initiatives within the US and Europe died within a few years. While explanations as to why these efforts have not been successful can be found in the literature, methods for rejuvenating stagnant CI programs are still lacking. In this paper, experiences from a longitudinal action research project with a middle management group are presented to illustrate how a process of facilitated self‐assessment was used to identify and address barriers to CI implementation. Through this process, a better understanding of CI implementation issues was gained and CI implementation within the company revitalized.