Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Efficiency of Cooperatives and Investor Owned Firms Revisited

The objectives of dairy processing cooperatives differ from those of investor-owned firms (IOFs). However, the literature usually assumes the same performance measures for cooperatives vis-a-vis IOFs. This study compares the performance of dairy cooperatives and IOFs in major European dairy producing countries. A traditional input oriented approach is used and two alternative approaches are used to account for the differential objectives of cooperatives. Cooperatives’ performance differs across the two approaches from being outperformed by IOFs using the input oriented approach to outperforming them when using an approach that is more in line with cooperatives’ objectives.
Determinants of FDI in Czech Manufacturing Industries between 2000-2007

Determinants of FDI in Czech Manufacturing Industries between 2000-2007 The Czech Republic (and its manufacturing industry) has been a successful recipient of foreign direct investment over recent years. Therefore, it is important to understand the decisions made by foreign investors where to place their investments and how to decide on their location between alternative industries. The aim of this paper is to find and estimate an econometric model describing the determinants of foreign direct investment (FDI) in the manufacturing industry of the Czech Republic between 2000-2007 and to make a review of recent literature on the topic. The econometric model includes several economic variables (for example labor, physical capital, R&D, profits per labor, Balassa index). Together with simple techniques of estimation (OLS, fixed effects) we used a generalized method of moments (GMM). In an effort to improve the result we used also a least trimmed squares estimator (LTS) from the class of robust estimators as a diagnostic tool for the heterogeneous pattern of data.
Measuring Customer Satisfaction for Strategic Management

Laurette Dub&eacute; , Ph . D, is an assistant professor of marketing in the nutrition department of the School of Medicine , Universit&eacute; de Montr&eacute;al. Leo M. Renaghan ,Ph . D, is an associate professor at the Cornell University School of Hotel Administration, where Jane M . Miller is a candidate for a master of professional studies degree. CUSTOMER SATISFACTION is often used as an indicator of whether customers will return to a restaurant. While there is no guarantee of a satisfied customer’s repeat visit, it is nearly certain that a dissatisfied customer will not return. An analysis of the elements or attributes of customer satisfaction should provide clues regarding what actions a food-service manager should take to increase the likelihood that customers will come back. Apparently that analysis is not often completed. The impressive rate of failure in the food-service industry suggests that management finds the goal of converting customer satisfaction into financial success an elusive one. We believe that restaurant failures
Arbitrage, Continuous Trading, and Margin Requirements

This paper studies the impact that margin requirements have on both the existence of arbitrage opportunities and the valuation of ca ll options. In the context of the Black-Scholes economy, margin restr ictions are shown to exclude continuous-trading arbitrage opportuniti es, and with two additional hypotheses, to still allow the Black-Scho les call model to apply. The Black-Scholes economy consists of a cont inuously-traded stock whose price process follows a geometric Brownia n motion and a continuously-traded bond whose price process is determ inistic. Copyright 1987 by American Finance Association.
Are Latinos Republicans But Just Don’t Know It?

Every 4 years, during election season, we witness continuously growing appeals from Democrats and Republicans to the Latino electorate with the purpose of gaining enough of their vote to tilt the election to their respective advantage. Although Latinos regularly vote Democratic, Republicans assume that because of their continuing upward mobility and long-standing social conservatism, Latinos are in fact Republicans but just don’t know it yet. In this article, we test how likely Latinos were to abandon their historic attachment to the Democratic Party and identify with the Republican Party in 2000 and 2004. Our conclusion is that although Latinos may have increasingly voted for the Republican candidate in 2004 and over time may change their partisan preferences, the Hispanic electorate was far from abandoning its partisan attachment to the Democratic Party.
Recurrence of hyperparathyroidism; a long-term follow-up after surgery for primary hyperparathyroidism.

OBJECTIVE In general it is thought that recurrence of primary hyperparathyroidism is a rare event. To our knowledge, however, only one large patient series has been reported with a mean of more than 7 years of follow-up. The aim of the present study was to determine the long-term recurrence rate in 785 out of 886 patients operated on for primary hyperparathyroidism and followed-up for a mean of 10.03 years after surgery. DESIGN Medical records were scrutinised. The patients who were still alive answered a questionnaire and had laboratory tests. METHODS Follow-up data concerning the state of health, medical treatment, other diagnoses, renal function, and serum calcium and creatinine levels were found in the medical records of 203 patients, and were registered at the start of investigation of 582 patients. Intact parathyroid hormone values were determined in 252 patients. Recurrence rate and 95% confidence interval (C.I.) were calculated. RESULTS Recurrence rate of hyperparathyroidism with constant or intermittent hypercalcaemia (n=39) was 4.97% (95% C.I.=3.45-6.74%) during a mean of 10 years of follow-up. Nine out of 39 had elevated serum creatinine levels. Recurrence rate of hyperparathyroidism with normal serum creatinine levels, including patients with normocalcaemia, intermittent hypercalcaemia, and constant hypercalcaemia was estimated to be 7-8% during a mean of 10 years of follow-up. CONCLUSIONS Recurrence rate was determined with reasonable precision in this large patient series, and recurrence of hyperparathyroidism cannot be considered to be extremely rare, but it may occur more than 20 years after treatment in both single and multiple gland disease.
ANALISIS KEBIJAKAN PEMBERIAN KREDIT DAN PENGARUH NON PERFORMING LOAN TERHADAP LOAN TO DEPOSIT RATIO PADA PT. BANK RAKYAT INDONESIA (PERSERO), TBK CABANG RANTAU, ACEH TAMIANG. ( PERIODE 2007-2011)

Formulation of the problem in this research is How lending policy applied to PT Bank Rakyat Indonesia (Persero) Overseas Branch, Aceh Tamiang and the influence of non-performing loans (NPL) to loan to deposit ratio (LDR). The purpose of this study was to determine the credit policies were applied, and also find out if non-performing loans significantly affect the loan-to-deposit ratio. The hypothesis in this study is suspected of lending policies that are both based on the theories of credit policy with the principles 5C, and the significant influence of the non-performing loans to the loan-to-deposit ratio. The collection of secondary data obtained through company documents and other reports relevant to this study include: financial statement data for the five years from 2007 to 2011, books, company literature, and other data related with the object of research. The analysis method used is descriptive analysis is used to analyze the credit policy on the first hypothesis and simple regression analysis for the second hypothesis. In the first hypothesis of the study results show that the principle of prudence in lending policy is the principle 5C consisting of: Character, Capacity, Capital, Collateral, Condition. In the second hypothesis test simple regression analysis showed a significant effect of the non-performing loans to the loan-to-deposit ratio.
Dispersing the Crowd

Research has found that most bonus plazas in front of Manhattan office buildings are barren, uninviting spaces. But there has been little study of why that is so. Existing explanations suggest unusable plazas are unintended consequences of other processes—architects' slavishly reproducing modernist architectural styles, or developers' minimizing costs by neglecting public spaces. Such explanations are found to be unsupported by the facts. This study of 291 Manhattan bonus plazas and the development process in New York—including site observations; analysis of newly available plaza data; and interviews of architects, planners, and building managers-reveals that spaces were intentionally made uninviting, and that developers acted to make the plazas inaccessible. Implications for the study and creation of public space are discussed.
Novel monocyclic and bicyclic loop mimetics of brain‐derived neurotrophic factor

Brain‐derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) is a protein that promotes the survival of neurons. It is widely thought to possess clinical potential for the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases, and in recent years, has been found to play a role in the pathogenesis of some tumours. BDNF is thought to bind to its cellular receptors trkB and p75NTR primarily by way of solvent‐exposed loops on the BDNF dimer. In this paper, we describe our recent progress towards the development of small peptides as mimetics and inhibitors of BDNF. Two classes of peptides were prepared: disulphide‐constrained monomeric monocyclic peptides designed to mimic a single solvent‐exposed loop; and homo‐ and heterodimeric bicyclic peptides designed to mimic pairs of loops. Each peptide was examined in cultures of embryonic chick dorsal root ganglion sensory neurons, both alone, and in competition with BDNF. All peptides were found to inhibit BDNF‐mediated neuronal survival, while one—a dimeric peptide based on the two loop 4 regions of BDNF—behaved as a partial BDNF‐like agonist. The work described in this paper supports the proposed receptor‐binding role of loops 1, 2, and 4 of BDNF, and provides valuable steps towards our long‐term goal of developing BDNF mimetics and inhibitors for clinical use. Copyright © 2006 European Peptide Society and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Professional development that defies the formal construct of teacher learning: A charter school's commencement

Title of Document: PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT THAT DEFIES THE FORMAL CONSTRUCT OF TEACHER LEARNING: A CHARTER SCHOOL’S COMMENCEMENT Rollia M. Oliver, Doctor of Education, 2012 Directed By: Associate Professor Hanne Mawhinney Department of Teaching, Learning, Policy and Leadership In August 2006, in accordance with a recently passed charter school law, a Mi dAtlantic school district opened its first public charter schools. The charter s chool ’ staff had opportunities to exercise autonomy over their instruction and had very little i nservice training. This study examined what seven teachers at a newly cr ated charter school did with their time to achieve on-going professional development in the absenc e of frequent traditional structured in-service training. I employed a cas e study approach to portraiture that was guided by Desimone’s (2009) core features of professional development as the theoretical framework. The data were specific activit ies that teachers used in place of frequent in-service that reported by the participants. Elements of the activities teachers used to construct knowledge were analyzed using the c ore f atures of professional development. Content focus, collective participation, coherence, act iv learning, and duration were present throughout the data. The data from this study revealed that teachers were deliberate in their a c ions. They constructed their own professional experiences and held themselves ac count ble. The retrospective nature, small sample of teachers, and limited span of focu s or this study posed limitations. These findings have implications for designing profess ional development, facilitating autonomous instructional development, and future research. PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT THAT DEFIES THE FORMAL CONSTRUC T OF TEACHER LEARNING: A CHARTER SCHOOL’S COMMENCEMENT
Identification of domains for a new conceptual model of strategic entrepreneurship using the configuration approach

Purpose – The aim of this paper is to structure and synthesize the existing scholarly works in the young and emerging field of “strategic entrepreneurship” (SE) as well as to develop a theoretical model, thereby contributing to further theory‐building.Design/methodology/approach – As the results of a review of extant literature, four different elementary domains conceptualizing SE on the basis of the configuration approach could be identified: the strategy, the entrepreneur, the environment and the structure and resources of the firm.Findings – The SE model contributes to the understanding of how firms can create value. It has been shown beforehand that the configuration approach is suitable for strategic management as well as for entrepreneurship in the sense of new venture creation and arguably can be transferred to the larger level of SME strategy as well.Research limitations/implications – With the four dimensions of SE, this paper has so far only been able to deliver a starting point for further rese.
Cloning and expression of the complement fixation antigen-chitinase of Coccidioides immitis

A chitinase had been isolated from the culture filtrates of Coccidioides immitis endosporulating spherules and from hyphae and shown to be the coccidioidal complement fixation (CF) and immunodiffusion-CF antigen. In the present study, we made use of our previously determined amino-terminal (N-terminal) sequence of the CF-chitinase to design degenerate oligonucleotide primers and to amplify and sequence a PCR product that coded for the N-terminal portion of the CF-chitinase. The PCR product was used as a hybridization probe to screen a developing spherule-(lambda)ZAP cDNA library, and three hybridizing clones were selected. These clones were converted into their pBluescript expression plasmid form in Escherichia coli and induced to express their recombinant proteins. Lysate from only one clone, pCTS 4-2A, yielded an enzymatically functional CF-chitinase and a line of identity with control immunodiffusion-CF-positive antigen. The pCTS 4-2A insert was sequenced and found to contain a deduced open reading frame coding for a 427-amino-acid polypeptide with an approximate molecular weight of 47 kDa. When purified by a chitin adsorption-desorption method, the recombinant protein exhibited virtually identical characteristics to those of the original C. immitis CF-chitinase. Nondenaturing gels of the pCTS 4-2A E. coli lysates and the purified C. immitis and recombinant CF-chitinase revealed proteins that had chitinase activity and similar relative electrophoretic mobilities. The appearance and relative levels of hybridizing RNA from the developing spherules-endospores (SEs) and hyphae correlated with the appearance or presence and level of CF-chitinase enzyme activity found in SEs culture filtrate and in cellular extracts of developing SE and hyphae. Thus, a functional recombinant CF-chitinase antigen was produced in E. coli and was used in serological diagnostic applications. These results also suggest a functional role for this chitinase in SE development and maturation.
Time Sharing Between Robotics and Process Control

Objective: The aim of this study was to validate the strategic task overload management (STOM) model that predicts task switching when concurrence is impossible. Background: The STOM model predicts that in overload, tasks will be switched to, to the extent that they are attractive on task attributes of high priority, interest, and salience and low difficulty. But more-difficult tasks are less likely to be switched away from once they are being performed. Method: In Experiment 1, participants performed four tasks of the Multi-Attribute Task Battery and provided task-switching data to inform the role of difficulty and priority. In Experiment 2, participants concurrently performed an environmental control task and a robotic arm simulation. Workload was varied by automation of arm movement and both the phases of environmental control and existence of decision support for fault management. Attention to the two tasks was measured using a head tracker. Results: Experiment 1 revealed the lack of influence of task priority and confirmed the differing roles of task difficulty. In Experiment 2, the percentage attention allocation across the eight conditions was predicted by the STOM model when participants rated the four attributes. Model predictions were compared against empirical data and accounted for over 95% of variance in task allocation. More-difficult tasks were performed longer than easier tasks. Task priority does not influence allocation. Conclusions: The multiattribute decision model provided a good fit to the data. Applications: The STOM model is useful for predicting cognitive tunneling given that human-in-the-loop simulation is time-consuming and expensive.
Cities Inside Out: Race, Poverty, and Exclusion at the Urban Fringe

Across the country, from Aberdeen, North Carolina to Modesto, California, city growth has bypassed hundreds of low-income neighborhoods founded under conditions of racial segregation in the early to mid-twentieth century. Denied annexation to neighboring municipalities, these urban pockets remain unincorporated, covered only by county governance and, in some cases, rural service standards. This article represents the first comprehensive academic treatment of such communities, which I call unincorporated urban areas. Challenging popular assumptions regarding an inner-city of racialized poverty in contrast to a white, suburban privatopia, unincorporated urban areas turn our attention to suburbs where the gravitational pull of the urban economy, affordability constraints, and the desire for homeownership have led to the settlement of low-income communities of color at the unregulated fringe, just beyond city limits. The article analyzes the adequacy of local government structures serving unincorporated urban areas and the flexibility for reform within those structures. It asks, for the first time, whether two tiers of general purpose local government - a city and a county - offer urbanized areas greater participatory voice, stronger protection from undesirable land uses, improved collective services, and greater household mobility than county rule alone. In so doing, it raises the question of what adequacy in the context of local government might mean, revealing unquestioned assumptions about the allocation of power among cities, counties, and states. New legal issues concerning municipal services, extraterritorial eminent domain, and the risk of land loss come into focus in this investigation of cities inside out - urban life placed outside the reach of municipal government.
Living Standards Domain of the Canadian Index of Wellbeing

This paper, which represents the living standards domain of the new Canadian Index of Wellbeing (CIW), provides a comprehensive overview of trends, in a number of indicators of living standards, over the 1981-2010 period in Canada. Part one examines trends in average and median income and wealth indicators in Canada. Part two looks at the distribution of the income and wealth of Canadians over time, including trends in poverty. Part three discusses trends in income fluctuations or volatility. Part four analyzes trends in the economic security of Canadians, including labour market security, food security, housing security, and the security provided by the social safety net. The report also presents a synthesis of overall trends in living standards, discusses living standard measurement issues, and puts forward a set of headline indicators to capture the essentials of what has been happening to the living standards of Canadians. Finally, the report comments on the sustainability of current levels of living standards. The report provides a comprehensive examination of a large number of indicators of living standards in Canada over the last quarter century and has identified a number of these indicators as headline indicators for the new Canadian Index of Wellbeing. The bottom line is that Canada has become a much richer country, but the top quintile has received the lion’s share of rising income and wealth. Looking at the nine headline indicators for which time series are available, one can immediately see that living standards of Canadians have not unambiguously improved between 1981 and 2010. Indeed, Canadians experienced a widening of income and wealth inequalities. There have been poverty reductions, but the reductions were not nearly as large as the increase in wealth inequality. The recent recession pushed both the unemployment rate and the incidence of long-term unemployment above the 1981 level, though the 2008 levels were below the 1981 levels. Economic security measured by the CSLS index has also fallen dramatically, spurred by a significant decrease in economic security caused by the financial risk associated with illness. Since 1981, many dimensions of living standards in Canada have not improved, and that in spite of a 49.0 per cent surge in gross domestic product per capita. Benefits of growth have been shared very unevenly, and the recent recession has eroded many of the gains that had been made in the last 30 years. Looking forward, the challenges for Canada’s policymakers are significant, but need to be tackled if Canada is to become a fairer, healthier and richer country.
Evaluation of suramin, ivermectin and CGP 20376 in a new macrofilaricidal drug screen, Onchocerca ochengi in African cattle.

To aid the development of a macrofilaricidal agent for Onchocerca volvulus, the African bovine parasite, O. ochengi, was evaluated as a drug screen by testing three known filaricidal drugs. Groups of five Zebu cattle, naturally infected with more than 15 palpable O. ochengi nodules in the ventral skin, were treated with either suramin (10 mg/kg/day i.v. for 6 days), ivermectin (200 micrograms/kg, s.c.), CGP 20376 (20 mg/kg orally) or left untreated as controls and examined at intervals up to 137 days post-treatment (d.p.t.). After ivermectin treatment, microfilarial densities in the skin decreased within one week to virtually zero and remained at a very low level. A similar rapid and profound reduction was seen after CGP 20376 treatment, but by 137 d.p.t. microfilarial skin densities were approaching pre-treatment levels. With suramin, skin microfilarial densities fell to very low levels after 12 weeks but rose slightly by 137 d.p.t. Effects on the macrofilariae were assessed by sequential nodulectomies at -3 and 28, 84 and 137 d.p.t. By 137 d.p.t. embryogenesis was almost completely interrupted in the CGP 20376 and ivermectin treated animals, although not in the suramin treated group, but in all three groups the majority of remaining intrauterine microfilariae were pathologically altered. Degenerating intrauterine microfilariae accumulated in the ivermectin and in the CGP 20376, but not in the suramin treated worms. The motility of male and female worms was not reduced by any treatment except for female worms at 84 d.p.t. with CGP 20376. Viability of the worms as indicated by the MTT-formazan reduction assay was not reduced in any of the treatment groups. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Endogenous Opportunism in Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises’ Foreign Subsidiaries: Classification and Research Propositions

This study examines the phenomenon of opportunism as a key factor behind international market-entry failure of small and medium-sized enterprises that use integrated modes of entry. The authors analyze field data generated from small and medium-sized enterprises using principles of grounded theory methodology. The inductive process identified various forms, types, and categories of intrafirm opportunistic behaviors. The classification process leads to research propositions pertaining to the antecedents and outcomes of endogenous opportunism.