Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Measuring Customer-Based Casino Brand Equity and its Consequences

ABSTRACT Based on the brand equity and behavioral theories, this study measures customer-based casino brand equity and its relationship with three consequences (i.e., perceived value, brand preference, and revisit intention) using 525 customers from six Macau casinos as the sample. The study confirms that customer-based casino brand equity is a higher order factorial structure measuring the four first-order constructs identified a priori. The strongest association was found to be with brand image, followed by perceived quality, brand loyalty, and brand awareness. Perceived value and revisit intention were found to be the two direct consequences of customer-based casino brand equity. Customer-based casino brand equity also affects revisit intention indirectly through perceived value and brand preference. To increase customers’ revisit intention, casinos should not only work on uplifting their casino brand equity, but also allocate resources to elevate perceived value and brand preference to indirectly help mediating the relationship between casino brand equity and the revisit intention of customers. More managerial implications are discussed in the present article.
Shopping Streets or Malls: Changes in Retail Form in Melbourne and Brisbane

Retail facilities are a critical element of urban form often given insufficient scrutiny. While retail form has implications for matters such as consumer accessibility, quality of service and transport, there have been comparatively few investigations into the nature of retail form in Australia. The spread of the enclosed shopping mall is an international phenomenon of the last 50 years that has been embraced or resisted to various degrees in different cities across the world. Utilising data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics retail census and the Property Council of Australia, this article investigates the extent to which retailing in Brisbane and Melbourne is now dominated by corporately controlled shopping malls. The research builds a profile of each city's retail form, comprehensively at the time of the last retail census in 1992, and of the corporately controlled centres more recently in 2008. Results show that while Melbourne has retained a greater number of traditional shopping centres, the floorspace in corporate centres has substantially increased. Brisbane has a greater proportion of its retailing floorspace within malls. In both cities there is a significant concentration of the management of corporate centres in the hands of a few large corporations.
The Labor Market Skills of Recent Male Immigrants: Evidence from the Current Population Survey

Using data from special supplements to the Current Population Survey (CPS), the authors track the education and hourly earnings of recent male immigrants to the United States. In terms of these measures of labor market skills, the CPS data suggest that immigrants who came in the late 1980s were more skilled than those who arrived earlier in the decade. This pattern represents a break from the steady decline in immigrant skill levels observed in 1940–80 Census data. Despite the encouraging trend over the 1980s, however, the average skills of recent immigrants remain low by historical standards.
Summary health statistics for U.S. adults: National Health Interview Survey, 2008.

OBJECTIVES This report presents health statistics from the 2008 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) for the civilian noninstitutionalized adult population, classified by sex, age, race and ethnicity, education, family income, poverty status, health insurance coverage, marital status, and place and region of residence. Estimates are presented for selected chronic conditions and mental health characteristics, functional limitations, health status, health behaviors, health care access and utilization, and human immunodeficiency virus testing. Percentages and percent distributions are presented in both age-adjusted and unadjusted versions. SOURCE OF DATA NHIS is a household, multistage probability sample survey conducted annually by interviewers of the U.S. Census Bureau for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Health Statistics. In 2008, data were collected on 21,781 adults in the Sample Adult questionnaire. The conditional response rate was 74.2%, and the final response rate was 62.6%. The health information for adults in this report was obtained from one randomly selected adult per family. In very rare instances where the sample adult was not able to respond for himself or herself, a proxy was used. HIGHLIGHTS In 2008, 61% of adults 18 years of age or over reported excellent or very good health. Fifty-nine percent of adults had never participated in any type of vigorous leisure-time physical activity, and 16% of adults did not have a usual place of health care. Twelve percent of adults had been told by a doctor or health professional that they had heart disease, and 24% had been told on two or more visits that they had hypertension. Twenty-one percent of all adults were current smokers, and 21% were former smokers. Based on estimates of body mass index, 35% of adults were overweight and 27% were obese.
Genetics and Peer Relations: A Review

Researchers have become increasingly interested in uncovering how genetic factors work together with the peer environment in influencing development. This article offers an overview of the state of knowledge. It first describes the different types of gene-environment correlations (rGE) and gene-environment interactions (GxE) that are of relevance for understanding the role of peer relations as well as the two main methodologies of genetically informed research, that is, the quantitative genetic approach and molecular genetics. This is followed by an overview of recent studies that examined different mechanisms of gene-environment interplay involving peer relations in childhood and adolescence. The article concludes with an outline of future directions in genetically informed peer relations research as well as the implications for theory and practice.
RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN PHYSICAL FITNESS AND PLAYING ABILITY IN RUGBY LEAGUE PLAYERS

This study investigated the physiological, anthropometric, and skill characteristics of rugby league players and determined the relationship between physical fitness and playing ability in these athletes. Eighty-six rugby league players (mean ± SD age, 22.5 ± 4.9 years) underwent measurements of standard anthropometry (height, body mass, and sum of 4 skinfolds), muscular power (vertical jump), speed (10-, 20-, and 40-m sprint), agility (L run), and estimated maximal aerobic power (multistage fitness test). In addition, 2 expert coaches independently assessed the playing ability of players using standardized skill criteria. First-grade players had significantly greater (p ≤ 0.05) basic passing and ball-carrying ability and superior skills under fatigue, tackling and defensive skills, and evasion skills (i.e., ability to beat a player and 2 verse 1 skills) than second-grade and third-grade players. While no significant (p ≥ 0.05) differences were detected among playing levels for body mass; skinfold thickness; height; 10-, 20-, or 40-m speed; agility; vertical jump height; or estimated maximal aerobic power, all the physiological and anthropometric characteristics were significantly (p ≤ 0.05) associated with at least 1 measure of playing ability. The results of this study demonstrate that selected skill characteristics but not physiological or anthropometric characteristics discriminate between successful and less successful rugby league players. However, all physiological and anthropometric characteristics were related to playing ability. These findings suggest that while physiological and anthropometric characteristics do not discriminate between successful and less successful rugby league players, a high level of physical fitness contributes to effective playing ability in these athletes. A game-specific training program that incorporates both physical conditioning and skills training may facilitate a greater transfer of physical fitness to competitive performances in rugby league.
What can science and technology studies learn from art and design? Reflections on ‘Synthetic Aesthetics’

In this paper we reflect on a project called ‘Synthetic Aesthetics’, which brought together synthetic biologists with artists and designers in paired exchanges. We – the STS researchers on the project – were quickly struck by the similarities between our objectives and those of the artists and designers. We shared interests in forging new collaborations with synthetic biologists, ‘opening up’ the science by exploring implicit assumptions, and interrogating dominant research agendas. But there were also differences between us, the most important being that the artists and designers made tangible artefacts, which had an immediacy and an ability to travel, and which seemed to allow different types of discussions from those initiated by our academic texts. The artists and designers also appeared to have the freedom to be more playful, challenging and perhaps subversive in their interactions with synthetic biology. In this paper we reflect on what we learned from working with the artists and designers on the project, and we argue that engaging more closely with art and design can enrich STS work by enabling an emergent form of critique.
Real Earnings Management Uncertainty and Corporate Credit Risk

Abstract This study examines the accounting information uncertainty effects on corporate credit risk from the perspective of real earnings management (RM) activities by investigating 9565 American bond observations from year 2001 to 2008. The main results show that the volatilities of RM activities significantly and positively affect corporate bond yield spreads when well-known bond spread determinant variables are controlled. In addition, the results are robust to alternative model specifications, including the suspect firm analyses, another less ambiguous measure of abnormal cash flows from operations, and abnormal production cost analyses in manufacturing industry or with control of the input price variation. This research also finds that the positive effects of RM volatilities become weaker if a firm has a lower credit rating. Finally, our results remain hold with considering endogeneity issues and analyst characteristic variables and for another estimation period of RM volatilities.
Testing the Reciprocal Relationship between Attitudes and Land Use in Relation to Trip Frequencies

Nonrecursive structural equation modeling is applied to cross-sectional data from a survey conducted in Seoul, Korea, in 2009 and from geographic information systems, in an effort to model the reciprocal relationship between attitudes toward travel modes and land use in a neighborhood. Then, this study examines how the direction of the relationship differentiates the effects that the two factors have on trip frequencies. The direction is found to be contingent on trip purpose, that is, the attitudes–land use relationship is recursive for commuting trips, reciprocal for leisure trips, and insignificant for shopping trips. If the attitudes are omitted altogether, the estimated land use effect decreases considerably for commuting trips and slightly for leisure trips, which suggests the degree to which residential self-selection is concerned with these purposes of trips.
Economic Integration and Endogenous Growth

In a world with two similar, developed economies, economic integration can cause a permanent increase in the worldwide rate of growth. Starting from a position of isolation, closer integration can be achieved by increasing trade in goods or by increasing flows of ideas. We consider two models with different specifications of the research and development sector that is the source of growth. Either form of integration can increase the long-run rate of growth if it encourages the worldwide exploitation of increasing returns to scale in the research and development sector.
The Economic Consequences of Increased Disclosure: Evidence from Cross-Listings of Chinese Firms

In this paper, we investigate the impact of cross-listings on information asymmetry risk, the cost of capital and firm value of a group of cross-listed Chinese companies. Our paper is the first to examine the effect of cross-listing on information asymmetry risk. Because cross-listed firms are subject to increased disclosure requirements, increased regulatory scrutiny and increased legal liability, we propose that Chinese cross-listed firms have lower information asymmetry risk, lower cost of capital and higher firm value than their non-cross-listed counterparts. We find in both univariate and multivariate tests that cross-listed firms enjoyed lower information asymmetry risk in the domestic market compared with the non-cross-listed firms. We also find that cross-listed firms have lower cost of capital in the cross-listing market than non-cross-listed firms in the domestic markets. Finally, we find that cross-listed firms are associated with higher firm value as measured by Tobin's Q. These results have implications for international investors and companies seeking cross-listing opportunities.
Graduate Citizens: Issues of Citizenship and Higher Education

Introduction Part 1: Citizenship and Higher Education in Modern Britain: Some Reflections 1. Citizenship in Britain: Models and Identities 2. Prospects for Social National Citizenship in the United Kingdom: Imperilled but not Impossible? 3. Citizenship and Restructuring of Higher Education Part 2: Being a Graduate and a Citizen in Modern Britain: Evidence and Interpretation 4. Citizenship Themes in Student's Lives 5. Citizenship, Mutuality and Civil Society 6. Conclusion: Concerns, Hopes and Fears
Time to Initiation of Antifungal Therapy for Neonatal Candidiasis

ABSTRACT The effect of delayed antifungal therapy in critically ill infants with invasive candidiasis has not been studied. Our objective was to evaluate the effect of time to initiation of antifungal therapy (TIA) on mortality, disseminated disease, and postinfection hospital stay. We conducted a cohort study of critically ill infants with cultures positive for Candida from 1990 to 2008. TIA was defined as the number of hours from the collection of the first positive culture until the start of antifungal therapy. Of 96 infants, 57% were male, the median gestational age was 27 weeks (range, 23 to 41 weeks), and the median birth weight was 956 g (range, 415 to 6,191 g). Most subjects received amphotericin B deoxycholate. TIA was ≤24 h for 35% of infants, between 25 and 48 h for 42%, and >48 h for 23%. Eleven subjects died during hospitalization, and 22% had disseminated candidiasis. The median duration of hospital stay postinfection was 53 days (range, 6 to 217 days). Both univariate and multivariate analyses demonstrated that TIA was not associated with mortality, disseminated disease, or hospital stay postinfection. However, ventilator use for >60 days significantly increased the risk of death (odds ratio [OR], 9.5; 95% confidence interval [CI], 2.2 to 66.7; P = 0.002). Prolonged candidemia increased the risk of disseminated disease by 10% per day of positive culture (OR, 1.1; 95% CI, 1.08 to 1.2; P = 0.007), and low gestational age was associated with increased neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) stay after the first positive Candida culture by 0.94 weeks (95% CI, 0.70 to 0.98; P < 0.001). The TIA was not associated with all-cause mortality, disseminated candidiasis, and postinfection length of hospital stay.
Predictors of mortality in infants with sclerema presenting to the Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease, Dhaka

Abstract Background: Sclerema is an uncommon, life-threatening condition, usually of newborns, with a case-fatality rate ranging from 50 to 100%. Very little is known about factors influencing outcome. Aim: To identify clinical and biochemical predictors associated with fatal outcome of sclerema in infants with diarrhoea. Methods: Thirty infants with sclerema admitted to the Special Care Unit of the Dhaka Hospital of ICDDR,B with diarrhoea from May 2005 to end April 2006 were studied prospectively. Nine infants who died (30%) were considered to be cases while the 21 who survived constituted the comparison group. Hypothermia, severe malnutrition, septic shock, serum ammonia and CRP levels were considered to be predictors of death. Differences in proportions were compared by the χ2 test and mean differences were compared using Student's t-test or the Mann–Whitney test, as appropriate. Results: The mean age of the 30 infants was 2.1 months (range 12 d to 8 m). Fatal cases were more likely than survivors to be associated with severe underweight, a positive blood culture and higher serum ammonia and serum CRP levels. After adjusting for possible confounders in logistic regression analysis, the likelihood of death was higher in infants admitted with septic shock or who developed it soon after admission (OR 17.96, 95% CI 1.5–0220.4, p=0.024). Conclusions: Sclerema is associated with a high fatality rate and scleremic infants with diarrhoea who present with septic shock are at a greater risk of death.
Electromagnetic Properties of a Trapezoidally Corrugated Slow Wave Structure for Backward Wave Oscillators

In this paper, the electromagnetic properties of a beam free trapezoidally corrugated slow wave structure (TCSWS) are numerically and experimentally investigated. The dimensions of the TCSWS are selected so that it can be deployed in <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="TeX">$X$ </tex-math></inline-formula>-band backward wave oscillators (BWOs). The theoretical dispersion characteristics for the axisymmetric <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="TeX">${\rm TM}_{01}\hbox{--}{\rm TM}_{03}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> modes are obtained by solving the dispersion equation numerically. In order to verify the numerical calculation, a cold test is conducted using a 6-period TCSWS cavity and a vector network analyzer (VNA). The cavity is excited by a small needle-type antenna and frequency of the VNA is swept over the passbands. The dispersion characteristics are obtained from frequency values of the discrete resonant peaks of reflection measurement of each TM mode. Experimental results show an excellent agreement with numerical ones. The numerical and cold test results reveal that TCSWS can be used as an alternative to sinusoidally corrugated slow wave structure in BWO experiments with an advantage of ease of fabrication.
Do CO2 emission levels converge among 21 OECD countries? New evidence from unit root structural break tests

This study empirically re-investigated whether carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions series were stationary in 21 OECD countries during the 1960–2000 period. A suite of test statistics were employed, proposed by Sen (2003), with a model that simultaneously allows for a break within the context of Perron's (1989) mixed intercept and slope (Model C). The distinction between this study and previous ones lies in its control for breaks. Compared with the results from traditional unit root tests, the empirical findings provide further evidence that relative per capita CO2 emissions were stationary and were stochastically converging. In addition, structural breaks are identified in each country, and some important policy implications emerge from the results.
Human Capital Formation and Local Economic Performance

BRADLEY S. and TAYLOR J. (1996) Human capital formation and local economic performance, Reg. Studies, 30, 1–14. This paper is concerned with the interaction between the vocational education and training system (VET) and local economic performance in Britain. After briefly discussing the shortcomings of Britain's VET system, the paper examines the way in which the education and training system and the local economy interact. In particular, it is argued that the outputs from the local education and training system determine, and are determined by, the locality's stock of high-skill workers. These high-skill workers, in turn, help to determine the competitiveness, and hence the economic performance, of the local economy. This has feedback effects on the stock of high-skill workers through its effect on the occupational mix of in-migrants. Some empirical tests of the model are provided based on data relating to 107 local education authority areas in England. BRADLEY S. et TAYLOR J. (1996) La formation du capi.
Empirical study on sources of innovation in international food and beverage industry

Based on a sample of 4,572 foreign patents, this article analyzes the sectoral and geographic sources of innovation in the international Food and Beverage industry at the four-digit level. Upstream industries are important contributors of innovation, especially for commodity-type industries. Technological intensity varies across the OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development) area. Association of inventive national industries with large corporate size and relevant overseas production is not generalized. While comparative technological advantage is not likely to challenge the international oligopoly in the short run, new entrants based on technical knowledge could contest specific markets of giant firms. Rivalry may increase in the new framework of the European Union. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Evidence on Value Creation in the Financial Services Industries through the Use of Joint Ventures and Strategic Alliances

While an extensive body of literature has examined merger, acquisition, and consolidation activity in commercial banks and other financial services firms, little attention has been paid to examining how these institutions use the cooperative activities of joint ventures and strategic alliances to accomplish their growth objectives. We analyze the effects of the use of joint ventures and strategic alliances by a sample of firms in the banking, investment services, and insurance industries. Our results show that commercial banks, investment services firms, and insurance companies experience significant abnormal returns of 0.66% on average when they announce their participation in a joint venture or strategic alliance. These abnormal returns are significantly positive across the four strategic motives of domestic, international, horizontal, and diversifying cooperative activities. Using a matched sample, we also show that our sample firms enjoy significant, positive, abnormal returns for holding periods of six, 12, and 18 months after the announcement of the cooperative activity. Copyright 2003 by the Eastern Finance Association.
Elevation of serum von Willebrand factor and anti‐endothelial cell antibodies in patients with immunoglobulin A nephropathy are associated with intrarenal arterial lesions

Aim: Recent studies suggest that intrarenal arterial lesions are frequently observed in patients with immunoglobulin A nephropathy (IgAN). However, the mechanisms of the injury have not been elucidated. The level of serum von Willebrand factor (vWF) and the prevalence of anti‐endothelial cell antibodies (AECA) were investigated in patients with IgAN with different intrarenal arterial lesions.
The Adjustment of Canadian Import Demand to Changes in Income, Prices, and Exchange Rates

This paper provides estimates of the sensitivity of Canadian import demand to changes in income, prices, and exchange rates. The model specification allows for the consideration of long-run elasticities as well as the dynamics of short-run adjustment of imports to changes in these variables. The estimated long-run elasticities obtained are similar to those in previous studies. It is also shown that Canadian imports react quickly to changes in either foreign or domestic prices, but that the reaction to changes in exchange rates is much slower.