Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Understanding the effects of relationships on the intention of a firm to adopt e-banking

Recently, many banks have adopted the e-banking system as a way to expand their range of available financial products and services, so that they can increase their competitiveness. Unlike the popular view that advanced information technology would automatically lead to adoption, this paper considers the nature of relationships in the banking industry and argues that stronger relationship ties and greater relationship advantages will influence technological strategies. Based on the social embeddedness theory, we investigate how several relationship factors may affect the intention of a firm to adopt an e-banking system that is initiated by its trading bank partner. Our findings show that both relationship benefits and relationship trust beliefs can lessen the concern about possible risks and increase the intention to adopt e-banking. Apparently, relationship is an 'invisible' asset that is specific to the bank and its corporate client. As banks wish to employ IT as a competitive weapon, they must become aware that a long-term, reliable relationship cannot be easily replaced by information technology.
[Correlations of HER-2, PCNA, Bcl-2, and Bax expression to prognosis of breast cancer].

BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVE Identifying breast cancer patients with high risk and treating them with relevant treatments is a key to improve their survival. This study was to investigate the correlations of human epidermal receptor-2 (HER-2), proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA), Bcl-2, and Bax expression to the prognosis of breast cancer. METHODS The expression of HER-2, PCNA, Bcl-2, and Bax in 50 specimens of breast cancer was detected by immunohistochemistry with EnVision staining. Their correlations to the survival time of the patients were analyzed. RESULTS The positive rates of HER-2, PCNA, Bcl-2, and Bax in breast cancer tissues were 44.0%, 82.0%, 48.0% and 54.0%, respectively. The median survival for the patients was 62 months, and the 5-year overall survival rate and disease-free survival rate were 82.0% and 38.0%, respectively. Univariate survival analysis suggested that HER-2 and Bax had significant influence on tumor recurrence (P< 0.001). Cox multivariate analysis indicated that the expression of HER-2 and Bax were correlated to regional recurrence and distant metastasis (P < 0.05 and P < 0.01), and Bcl-2 and Bax proteins were independent predictors of overall survival (P < 0.05). CONCLUSION HER-2 and Bax are related to poor prognosis of breast cancer, while Bcl-2 is related to good prognosis.
THE SPECIFICITY OF FETAL IgM: ANTIBODY OR ANTI‐ANTIBODY?

Reference materials were produced to standardize the immunoglobulin class specificity and potency of immunofluorescent anti-IgM conjugates used for diagnostic tests for congenital syphilis. In attempting to mimic essential immunologic characteristics of syphilitic and nonsyphilitic infant sera, we evaluated these sera in comparison with processed adult sera. We were quite surprised to discover that some syphilitic babies do not produce significant quantities to IgM antibody to T. pallidum in response to their infection, as would be expected; instead, they make relatively large amounts of IgM anti-IgG. We found this to be true also for newborns and infants infected with cytomegalovirus, rubella, and toxoplasmosis. To our knowledge, this observation has not been previously reported. However, it could have been predicted from the knowledge that older infants and young children normally produce IgM antibodies to maternal IgG allotypes (Gm factors). We are disturbed that these findings suggest that currently recommended indirect immunofluorescence IgM tests for perinatal infection may not be disease specific. Our observations may be important for a better understanding of basic immunologic mechanisms of fetal-maternal to tolerance and fetal response to life-threatening infection.
Support for radical left ideologies in Europe

This article examines support for radical left ideologies in 32 European countries. It thus extends the relatively scant empirical research available in this field. The hypotheses tested are derived mainly from group-interest theory. Data are deployed from the 2002�2010 European Social Surveys (N = 174,868), supplemented by characteristics at the country level. The results show that, also in the new millennium, unemployed people and those with a lower income are more likely to support a radical left ideology. This is only partly explained by their stronger opinion that governments should take measures to reduce income differences. In contrast to expectations, the findings show that greater income inequality within a country is associated with reduced likelihood of an individual supporting a radical left ideology. Furthermore, cross-national differences in the likelihood of supporting the radical left are strongly associated with whether a country has a legacy of an authoritarian regime.
Micropropagation of chinese redbud (Cercis yunnanensis) through axillary bud breaking and induction of adventitious shoots from leaf pieces

SummaryFactors affecting in vitro shoot production and regeneration of Cercis yunnanensis Hu et Cheng were investigated by comparing various growth regulators and explant types. For optimum shoot production from axillary buds, Murashige and Skoog (MS) media containing 6-benzyladenine, either alone or in combination with a low concentration of thidiazuron, resulted in the greatest number of shoots formed per explant (>3). Explants (2 mm long) containing one axillary bud placed in directcontact with the medium yielded the most shoots per bud (1.6) when grown on growth regulator-free medium. Root formation on 70–80% of shoot explants was accomplished using either indole-3-butyric acid or α-naphthaleneacetic acid in the medium, with significantly more roots formed on explants possessing and apical bud than those without the bud. Direct shoot organogenesis from leaf explants occurred on MS medium containing 10–30 μM thidiazuron, with up to 42% of leaf explants producing shoots.
Stock Price Informativeness and Output Growth: Some Evidence from Emerging Economies

This paper extends the output growth model tested by Levine and Zervos (1998) by including a measure for capital allocation efficiency proxied by stock price informativeness. Using a sample of 62 countries, this study finds that stock price informativeness as measured by firm-specific return variation positively contributes to output growth after controlling for variables in the Levine and Zervos (1998) model. This effect is particularly strong for high property rights protection environments and common law countries in emerging economies. We find that stock price informativeness acts as a substitute for stock market liquidity on predicting long-run output growth in emerging economies but not in more developed economies. These results are consistent with the Roll’s (1988) claim: more information-laden stock prices signal efficient stock markets and, therefore, stronger output growth.
Are there reasons to be worried about the 'caretelization' of residential care?

Successive governments have encouraged both the marketization and the privatization of the residential and nursing care sector. This paper describes how the large corporate providers continue to increase their share of the market through a continual process of mergers, takeovers and acquisitions. Market analysis suggests that this trend is set to continue. The name given to this phenomenon in this paper is `caretelization'. The process of caretelization is examined in the context of New Labour's public sector modernization agenda. The paper raises questions of whether continued caretelization is more or less likely to help New Labour achieve certain aims of modernization. For example, New Labour often talks of `putting people themselves in the driving seat of the public services'. It is argued that, with caretelization, not only is public accountability diminished, but key principles such as consumer choice and user involvement are likely to be compromised by allowing ownership of residential and nursing care to be dictated by market forces. Such developments raise questions about both New Labour's desire and its capability to manage the forces of neo-liberalism.
Discrimination, Lending Practices and Housing Values: Preliminary Evidence from the Houston Market

At the center of the debate on racially induced price differentials in housing is the issue of discrimination. This research studies the impact that ethnic as well as racial composition in a neighborhood exerts on value. In an attempt to extend previous efforts, aggregate data is used to study the effects of discrimination and lending bias on residential real estate in Houston, Texas. The data do not support allegations of systematic bias in the mortgage lending process.
Treatment of pediatric B-cell non-Hodgkin's lymphomas at the Motol Hospital in Prague, Czech Republic: results based on the NHL BFM 90 protocols.

Malignant non-Hodgkin's lymphomas (NHL) of childhood and adolescence are a heterogeneous group of diseases originating from the lymphoid cells. Unlike adults with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, children typically have extranodal disseminated disease of high grade (Burkitt's lymphoma, large cell lymphoma, or lymphoblastic lymphoma). This study was conducted to determine the feasibility of treating children in the Czech Republic with B-cell non-Hodgkin's lymphomas according to very intensive protocols based on the German Berlin Frankfurt Munster (BFM) NHL 90 study. Treatments are divided in the BFM studies according to "B" and "non-B" immunophenotypes. The authors report only those treated according to the BFM B-cell protocol. From 1991 through 1997 eighty-two patients less than 18 years with NHL were admitted to the department. Seventy-three of them were classified as B-cell lymphoma and 54 were thus eligible for the BFM B-cell treatment. The entire group consisted of 38 males and 16 females (ratio 2.38). Median age was 11.6 years. Twelve had stage I disease, 3 stage II, 30 stage III, and 9 stage IV lymphoma. There were 21 patients with Burkitt's lymphoma, 29 with large cell lymphoma, of which 5 were patients with MALT lymphoma. In 3 cases B-cell NHL was not further classified and one child had a mediastinal B lymphoma. Patients were further stratified according to clinical stage and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) level. Therapy consisted of a prephase and short (2, 4, or 6 courses), intensive 5-day therapy with 6 drugs. The probability of event-free survival (pEFS) for the entire group was 74% and overall survival at 5 years was 80%. There was a significantly better outcome for children classified as stage I. No difference was observed between the EFS of stage III and IV patients. Four patients died from treatment-related complications in complete remission. Treatment results were not identical between NHL subtypes, with large cell lymphoma patients doing significantly better (pEFS 90%, p = .008). The use of protocols based on BFM 90 study was feasible at this center. The treatment results are approximately 10% lower than those reported by BFM investigators, but comparable to results from other centers.
Walking, Cycling and Transport Safety: An Analysis of Child Road Deaths

Objective To examine trends in road death rates for child pedestrians, cyclists and car occupants. Design Analysis of road traffic injury death rates per 100 000 children and death rates per 10 million passenger miles travelled. Setting England and Wales between 1985 and 2003. Participants Children aged 0–14 years. Interventions None. Main outcome measures Death rates per 100 000 children and per 10 million child passenger miles for pedestrians, cyclists and car occupants. Results Death rates per head of population have declined for child pedestrians, cyclists and car occupants but pedestrian death rates remain higher (0.55 deaths/100 000 children; 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.42 to 0.72 deaths) than those for car occupants (0.34 deaths; 95% CI 0.23 to 0.48 deaths) and cyclists (0.16 deaths; 95% CI 0.09 to 0.27 deaths). Since 1985, the average distance children travelled as a car occupant has increased by 70%; the average distance walked has declined by 19%; and the average distance cycled has declined by 58%. Taking into account distance travelled, there are about 50 times more child cyclist deaths (0.55 deaths/10 million passenger miles; 0.32 to 0.89) and nearly 30 times more child pedestrian deaths (0.27 deaths; 0.20 to 0.35) than there are deaths to child car occupants (0.01 deaths; 0.007 to 0.014). In 2003, children from families without access to a vehicle walked twice the distance walked by children in families with access to two or more vehicles. Conclusions More needs to be done to reduce the traffic injury death rates for child pedestrians and cyclists. This might encourage more walking and cycling and also has the potential to reduce social class gradients in injury mortality.
Vice vs. Virtue Investing Around the World

This paper assumes the role of advocatus diaboli by testing whether an investment in sin stocks can financially outperform an investment in socially responsible stocks. We create a set of global, regional, and domestic portfolios consisting of a large number of stocks belonging to what could be labeled as a sextet of sin: adult entertainment, alcohol, gambling, nuclear power, tobacco, and weapons. We assess the performance of sin stocks against well-known benchmarks, and rerun the identical assessment for socially responsible stocks. We find no compelling evidence that sin stocks, or socially responsible stocks outperform or underperform, and establish this result in several ways. Consistent with this finding, a hedge portfolio long in sin stocks and short in socially responsible stocks does not outperform the market, either. However, sin stocks are substantially tilted towards value, bear less market risk with an average beta below one, and are prone to momentum relative to socially responsible stocks.
Mandatory IFRS Adoption and the U.S. Home Bias

SYNOPSIS: This paper examines whether mandatory IFRS adoption at the country level lowers U.S. investors' propensity to overweight domestic stocks in their common stock portfolios (generally referred to as home bias). We find that, on average, U.S. home bias decreases for countries that mandate IFRS adoption, after controlling for country-fixed effects. We also find that the reduction in the U.S. home bias after the mandatory adoption of IFRS is greater for countries with larger differences between IFRS and their domestic accounting standards, for countries with a stricter rule of law and a common law legal origin, and in countries with greater incentives to report high-quality financial information. Overall, our results indicate that a common set of global accounting standards matters for portfolio holdings of U.S. investors and that U.S. investors regard the enforcement of standards to be a key factor in making investments outside the U.S. Data Availability: Data are publicly available.
Prévalence de l’anémie chez les préadolescents scolaires dans la province de Kénitra au Maroc

L’anemie demeure un probleme de sante publique aussi bien dans les pays industrialises que dans les pays en developpement. Les populations vulnerables et les prevalences varient largement selon le niveau du developpement. Dans les pays moins developpes, les enfants en âge scolaire se classent en deuxieme position apres les femmes enceintes. L’objectif de cette etude est de cerner la prevalence de l’anemie chez la population scolaire et particulierement pendant la preadolescence dans la province de Kenitra au nord‐ouest du Maroc. Un effectif de 306 eleves a ete recrute. Accompagnes de leurs tuteurs, les enfants ont subi des examens biologiques et medicaux. Leurs parents ont repondu a un questionnaire comportant les caracteristiques socio‐demographiques du menage. Les directeurs des ecoles ont complete les fiches concernant l’assiduite et la performance scolaire. Selon nos resultats, la prevalence de l’anemie depasse 30 %. On ne releve pas de difference significative selon le sexe. Cependant, le milieu de residence affecte l’etat nutritionnel avec une preponderance d’anemiques en niveau urbain. Ces resultats confirment ceux rapportes par des etudes dans plusieurs pays. L’analyse statistique approfondie n’a pas revele de correlations importantes entre les caracteristiques du menage et le risque d’anemie. Il semble que, a cet âge, une alimentation diversifiee est importante et que l’instruction de la mere est un facteur de protection. Par ailleurs, l’interet doit etre porte vers la prise de conscience pour une sante scolaire integree. Les centres de decisions commencent a etre sensibilises a ce probleme, mais des efforts sont encore necessaires.
Longitudinal Relation Between General Well-Being and Self-Esteem

This study investigated the longitudinal relation between general well-being and self-esteem of male adolescents with severe psychiatric disorders. Moreover, the transition out of secure residential care was studied. Adolescents (N = 172) were assessed three times with 6 months between each assessment. The sample comprised adolescents who were admitted throughout the entire study (n = 116) and who had been discharged at 6/12 months follow-up (n = 56). General well-being and self-esteem were stable concepts over time. The relation between general well-being and self-esteem differed for both groups. Among the admitted group general well-being positively predicted self-esteem and self-esteem negatively predicted general well-being from Time 2 to Time 3. Among the discharged adolescents, self-esteem at Time 1 positively predicted general well-being at Time 2 and general well-being at Time 2 positively predicted self-esteem at Time 3. Changing social contexts, as well as problems experienced during the transition out of secure care, might affect this relationship.
Customer requirement constructs: the premise for TQM in education

Amidst the tremendous pressures faced by educational institutions, both from internal as well as from external forces, the higher educational institutions in India, as elsewhere in the world, have begun to understand and accept the significance of customer‐centered philosophies, with the answer to such pressures being in “delighting the customer”, which is the rule for survival in the long run. “Delighting the customer”, is one of the core elements of total quality management (TQM), which emphasizes the service relationship between an organization/institution and its customers. A number of success stories about incorporating TQM principles in the educational setting have been reported. In TQM, the focus is on the customer. Ultimately, the objective of TQM is to build an institution that produces products or performs services, which fulfill customer requirements, and thereby delights them. Such customer requirements thus, form the very premise for TQM. So it is important not only to identify the numerous and varied customers of the educational system, but also to identify their requirements and satisfy them. The importance/degree assigned to such requirements or their constructs may vary across customer groups and also amongst the institutions themselves. The paper presents the results of an empirical study conducted on select higher educational institutions to assess the importance/degree assigned to the various customer requirement constructs across the various internal and external customer groups. Starting with a theoretical background, an empirical study is presented with analysis and results.
Different ties for different needs: Recruitment practices of entrepreneurial firms at different developmental phases

Entrepreneurial firms face significant challenges in attracting and acquiring needed human resources. That is, in addition to difficulties associated with resource constraints and organization legitimacy, the requirements for “person-organization fit” change substantially as these firms transit from start-up to growth phase. This study examines how entrepreneurial firms tap evolving social network ties in order to address “needs-and-fits” issues across different developmental stages of the firm. The findings go beyond what “strength of weak ties” and “structural hole” theories would suggest, and highlight the persistent use of strong and direct ties across developmental phases. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Consultations with adolescents: the gap between their expectations and their experiences

Aim: To study the expectations and experiences of adolescents when in consultation with doctors, particularly with regard to issues of confidentiality. Methods: In a cross‐sectional study, 613 seventh‐ and ninth‐grade students (347 students aged 13 y and 266 students aged 15 y) completed a 40‐item questionnaire specifically developed for this study. Students anonymously completed the self‐administered questionnaire at school. Results: Of these adolescents, 89% aged 13 y and 57% aged 15 y were accompanied by one of their parents to appointments with private practitioners. Of the respondents, 33%/52% (13‐y‐olds/15‐y‐olds) said that seeing the doctor alone for some time was important but only 18%/20% were given the opportunity to do so. Although 79%/90% of respondents stated that it was important for the doctor to keep information confidential, on request, only 37%/40% of private practitioners had spoken about confidentiality; 64%/78% of adolescents said that doctors should give assurance of confidentiality even with regard to their parents. However, only 26%/27% of private practitioners explicitly assured confidentiality with regard to parents. Acceptance of conditional confidentiality was high in all subpopulations. Short waiting times and the opportunity to talk about topics such as nutrition, drugs and sexuality were rated as important.
Do Potential Skilled Emigrants Care About Political Stability at Home?

In this paper, we consider the role of political stability in the source country as a potential reason for skilled emigration. We control for all prospective source country characteristics, and yet skilled emigration is seen to be driven by a relatively better situation of political stability in the home country. Our research clearly shows that government stability, socioeconomic conditions, investment profiles, democratic accountability, internal conflict, and ethnic tensions in source nations have significant impacts on the rate of skilled emigration for a sample of developed and developing countries. The results retain robustness even for a subset of only developing nations.
Facebook

Abstract The article will explore how a selected sample of secondary school students in Ontario have been using Facebook since it has become accessible to them and whether or not this use “supports the learning agenda” of classrooms as school boards have envisioned. The researchers collected both quantitative and qualitative data from 63 Ontario high school students via a questionnaire distributed through Facebook. Stating many examples of use for educational purposes, 73% of respondents reported having used Facebook for educational purposes. Of the students surveyed, only 27% said that at least one teacher had found ways to include Facebook in their lessons, and further, 77% of students believed that teachers do not support Facebook being unblocked. The results of this research point to a need for the better utilization of Facebook in classrooms and the need for school boards who choose to “embrace” the increasing popularity of social media to implement programs that better ensure teachers also feel comfortable enough to embrace this informal teaching tool.