Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Measuring the Economic Impact of Australian Tourism Marketing Expenditure

The objective of this study is to quantify the effects of marketing expenditure by the Australian Tourist Commission (ATC). Cointegration analysis and a dynamic modelling approach are used to estimate the elasticity estimates of income, price, price of substitute, cost of travel and marketing expenditure for Australia's four major tourism markets, USA, Japan, UK and New Zealand. ATC marketing expenditure has a positive effect on international tourism demand and the magnitude of the effect varies from country to country. In promoting international visitor arrivals to Australia, not only ATC and non-ATC marketing but the word-of-mouth effect and visitor satisfaction leading to repeat visits also play an important role. The performance of the ATC marketing strategy measured in dollar return per dollar invested in the international tourism marketing is higher in the New Zealand market, followed by the UK, Japan and US markets. The estimated overall average dollar return per dollar invested in international tourism marketing is 8:1.
A new digital predistortion technique for analog beamforming systems

: A digital predistortion (DPD) technique to linearize multiple power ampli ﬁ ers (PAs) in analog beamforming systems is proposed. The analog beamforming system considered in this paper has one digital chain and multiple PAs / antennas controlled by phase shifters. Due to the system con ﬁ guration, a single DPD should linearize the multiple PAs. To design the DPD, this paper introduces a cost function, squares of the sum of errors for all the PAs. The DPD solution minimizing the cost function is found by a recursive least squares (RLS) algorithm. Experimental results with commercial PAs show that the proposed DPD can effectively linearize multiple PAs.
ESTIMATION OF ENGEL ELASTICITIES FROM THE BOX-COX ENGEL FUNCTION

A general type of Engel function which can be called the Box-Cox Engel function is developed. This function is used to estimate the relationship between the dependent and explanatory variables for which many commonly used Engel functions become special cases. The Maximum Likelihood (ML) method is used to estimate its parameters using grouped Household Expenditure Survey (HES) data. These estimated parameters are then used to estimate Engel elasticities for total food and various non-food items. The Box-Cox Engel function is also used to discriminate among the commonly used Engel functions, by performing a parametric test on the power parameters. A joint test on the different power transformation has been done by the likelihood ratio test and it turns out that none of the commonly used Engel functions are appropriate for the Australian HES 1975-76 data, although the double log Engel function is not significantly different from the Box-Cox Engel function for five out of ten consumption items.
Farmers' Health Insurance and Access to Health Care

We estimate farmers' health care consumption given their insurance status, explicitly taking into account the possible endogeneity of insurance. Data come from the 1996–2001 waves of the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey conducted by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. Results show that farmers have problems accessing affordable health insurance coverage, and these access problems lead to an overall reduction in the utilization of health care services by uninsured farmers. After controlling for selection, we observe quantitatively large and statistically significant direct effects of uninsurance on the utilization of health care services. Copyright 2008, Oxford University Press.
Treatment of Obese Insulin-Resistant Mice With an Allosteric MAPKAPK2/3 Inhibitor Lowers Blood Glucose and Improves Insulin Sensitivity

The prevalence of obesity-induced type 2 diabetes (T2D) is increasing worldwide, and new treatment strategies are needed. We recently discovered that obesity activates a previously unknown pathway that promotes both excessive hepatic glucose production (HGP) and defective insulin signaling in hepatocytes, leading to exacerbation of hyperglycemia and insulin resistance in obesity. At the hub of this new pathway is a kinase cascade involving calcium/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II (CaMKII), p38α mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK), and MAPKAPK2/3 (MK2/3). Genetic-based inhibition of these kinases improves metabolism in obese mice. Here, we report that treatment of obese insulin-resistant mice with an allosteric MK2/3 inhibitor, compound (cmpd) 28, ameliorates glucose homeostasis by suppressing excessive HGP and enhancing insulin signaling. The metabolic improvement seen with cmpd 28 is additive with the leading T2D drug, metformin, but it is not additive with dominant-negative MK2, suggesting an on-target mechanism of action. Allosteric MK2/3 inhibitors represent a potentially new approach to T2D that is highly mechanism based, has links to human T2D, and is predicted to avoid certain adverse effects seen with current T2D drugs.
Party System Polarisation and Government Duration in Central and Eastern Europe

Since the transition to democracy in the early 1990s, more than 60 per cent of governments in Central and Eastern Europe have terminated prematurely. This article argues that the character of party system development in the region has facilitated the emergence of a polarised pattern of party competition and that competition for government now takes place in distinct ideological blocs. Parties seek to form governments within these blocs but not across them and therefore there is little incentive to defect from a governing coalition due to the lack of viable alternatives. As a result, more polarised party systems produce more durable governments. The empirical evidence shows that polarisation and ideological diversity of the government are significant indicators of government duration in Central and Eastern Europe. Ideologically compact governments formed within narrow blocs in the party system survive longer than ideologically diverse coalitions that emerge from less polarised party systems.
The Widening Local and Regional Development Impacts of the Modern Universities — A Tale of Two Cities (and North-South Perspectives)

Universities have widening missions. Increasingly these include explicit roles in local and regional development. This article focuses on such roles for the UK modern universities (formerly known as the new universities, and previously polytechnics). Such universities have taken considerable interest in their local and regional development roles, as exemplified by the case studies of Sunderland University and Oxford Brookes University. The discussion widens from the direct and indirect employment and expenditure impacts, to effects on the local knowledge economy, and towards a wider contribution to sustainable development. This holistic view shows that the modern universities are making major contributions to the local and regional development agendas, with interesting regional variations resulting from their institutional and locational contexts. Such returns merit considerable support.
Squamous cell carcinoma of submandibular salivary gland: A rare case report

Malignant tumors of submandibular salivary gland are rare in occurrence. Squamous cell carcinoma of salivary glands accounts for about 0.9-4.7% of all salivary gland tumors with a predilection to occur in parotid gland due to perinodal involvement. Primary squamous cell carcinoma of submandibular salivary gland accounts to about 2% of the tumors and hence it is being represented for its rarity.
Image Decomposition and Restoration Using Total Variation Minimization and the H1

In this paper, we propose a new model for image restoration and image decomposition into cartoon and texture, based on the total variation minimization of Rudin, Osher, and Fatemi [Phys. D, 60 (1992), pp. 259--268], and on oscillatory functions, which follows results of Meyer [Oscillating Patterns in Image Processing and Nonlinear Evolution Equations, Univ. Lecture Ser. 22, AMS, Providence, RI, 2002]. This paper also continues the ideas introduced by the authors in a previous work on image decomposition models into cartoon and texture [L. Vese and S. Osher, J. Sci. Comput. , to appear]. Indeed, by an alternative formulation, an initial image f is decomposed here into a cartoon part u and a texture or noise part v. The u component is modeled by a function of bounded variation, while the v component is modeled by an oscillatory function, bounded in the norm dual to $|\cdot|_{H^1_0}$. After some transformation, the resulting PDE is of fourth order, envolving the Laplacian of the curvature of level lines. Fina.
Interplay of the Wzx Translocase and the Corresponding Polymerase and Chain LengthRegulator Proteins in the Translocation and Periplasmic Assembly of Lipopolysaccharide O Antigen

ABSTRACT Genetic evidence suggests that a family of bacterial and eukaryotic integral membrane proteins (referred to as Wzx and Rft1, respectively) mediates the transbilayer movement of isoprenoid lipid-linked glycans. Recent work in our laboratory has shown that Wzx proteins involved in O-antigen lipopolysaccharide (LPS) assembly have relaxed specificity for the carbohydrate structure of the O-antigen subunit. Furthermore, the proximal sugar bound to the isoprenoid lipid carrier, undecaprenyl-phosphate (Und-P), is the minimal structure required for translocation. In Escherichia coli K-12, N-acetylglucosamine (GlcNAc) is the proximal sugar of the O16 and enterobacterial common antigen (ECA) subunits. Both O16 and ECA systems have their respective translocases, WzxO16 and WzxE, and also corresponding polymerases (WzyO16 and WzyE) and O-antigen chain-length regulators (WzzO16 and WzzE), respectively. In this study, we show that the E. coli wzx E gene can fully complement a wzx O16 translocase deletion mutant only if the majority of the ECA gene cluster is deleted. In addition, we demonstrate that introduction of plasmids expressing either the WzyE polymerase or the WzzE chain-length regulator proteins drastically reduces the O16 LPS-complementing activity of WzxE. We also show that this property is not unique to WzxE, since WzxO16 and WzxO7 can cross-complement translocase defects in the O16 and O7 antigen clusters only in the absence of their corresponding Wzz and Wzy proteins. These genetic data are consistent with the notion that the translocation of O-antigen and ECA subunits across the plasma membrane and the subsequent assembly of periplasmic O-antigen and ECA Und-PP-linked polymers depend on interactions among Wzx, Wzz, and Wzy, which presumably form a multiprotein complex.
The Configuration of Organizational Images Among Firms in the Canadian Beer Brewing Industry

We integrate the literature on organizational image management and neo-institutional theory to arrive at a better understanding of how organizations routinely represent themselves positively in their external environment. Drawing on a cross-sectional exploratory study of the website communications of 36 firms in the Canadian brewing industry, we investigate how these organizations construct essential and distinctive organizational images in reference to a map of identity attributes and image categories at the organizational field level. We conclude that organizational self-categorizations explain the field-level configuration of images we discovered by establishing legitimacy claims targeted at relevant stakeholders.
Experimental design and metabolic flux analysis tools to optimize industrially relevant Haemophilus influenzae type b growth medium

Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib), a Gram‐negative capsulated bacterium, is a causative agent of meningitis worldwide. The capsular polysaccharide, a high molecular mass polymer consisting of the repeated units of the polyribosyl‐ribitol‐phosphate, is considered the main virulence factor and it is used as an antigen to vaccines, conjugated to a carrier protein. The industrial production of the polysaccharide requires the cultivation of Hib in rich medium, which impacts process costs and product recovery. In this study, a central composite rotational experimental design strategy was used to access the influence of key components of culture medium (soy peptone, yeast extract and glucose) on biomass formation and polysaccharide production in shake‐flasks. The optimized medium formulation, containing half of the usual yeast extract and soytone concentrations, was further validated in batch bioreactor cultivations. High polysaccharide production (∼500 mg/L) was obtained in a cheaper and more competitive production process for use in Hib vaccine production. In addition, simulations of a metabolic model describing Hib central metabolism were used to assess the role of key amino acids on growth. A chemically defined medium supplemented only with amino acids from α‐ketoglutarate and oxaloacetate families as well as phenylalanine was suggested as a promising alternative for reduced acetate accumulation and enhanced polysaccharide production in Hib cultures. © 2017 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Biotechnol. Prog. , 33:1508–1519, 2017
Capital Flows and Money Supply: The Degree of Sterilisation in Pakistan

In this study an attempt has been made to develop and estimate the domestic credit policy reaction function to analyse the monetary implications of interventions and sterilisation policy in Pakistan using quarterly data ranging from 1982 Q3 through 2001 Q2. By employing Johansen multivariate cointegration technique, this paper has considered the degree of sterilisation that the Pakistan has used in controlling capital flows. The evidence suggests that Pakistan sterilises around 72 percent of international reserve inflows in the long-run while 88 percent in the short-run during the period of study.
Agri-environmental auctions with synergies

Auctions are increasingly used in agri-environmental contracting. However, the issue of synergy effect between agri-environmental measures has been consistently overlooked, both by decision-makers and by the theoretical literature on conservation auction. Based on laboratory experiments, the objective of this paper is to compare the performance of different procurement auction designs (simultaneous, sequential and combinatorial) in the case of multiple heterogeneous units where bidders may potentially want to sell more than one unit and where their supply cost structure displays positive synergies. The comparison is made by using two performance criteria: budget efficiency and allocative efficiency. We also test if performance results are affected by information feedback to bidders after each auction period. Finally we explain performance results by the analysis of bidding behaviour in the three mechanisms.
Technological intensities and economic performance: a study of foreign and local electronics firms in Malaysia

This article compares technological intensities (TI) and economic performance of foreign and local electronics firms in Malaysia. The results show that foreign firms enjoyed higher labour productivity, wages and export intensity than local firms, though technological intensities between both sets of firms were similar. The econometric results show a strong and positive relationship between labour productivity and technological intensity in all the samples. The higher coefficient of TI in the local sample compared to the foreign sample shows that productivity in local firms is driven much more from in-house technological effort at host-sites than in foreign firms who can access technology from their parent plants. However, the relationship between TI (contributed by differences in R&D intensity) and export-intensity in the local sample is negative demonstrating that much of such effort is devoted to inward-oriented production. Reversing the relationship also produced the same negative relationship in the local sample. Skills intensity enjoyed a positive relationship with TI with similar coefficients. The positive and significant relationship between wages, and R&D and TI shows that the more technology-intensive local firms pay higher wages to attract human capital.
Can mandatory pretransfusion approval programmes be improved?

SUMMARY. To improve the appropriateness of blood‐component prescribing, a mandatory haematologist pretransfusion approval programme of all non‐red‐cell components was instituted. This was associated with a 33% decrease in the units of fresh frozen plasma (FFP) transfused. Platelet transfusions increased but utilization of both platelets and FFP are now the lowest of the six comparable blood transfusion regions in New Zealand.
Customer satisfaction and customer loyalty as predictors of future business potential

This paper analyses the relationship between customer satisfaction, customer loyalty and the future business potential of existing customers. The data for the analysis come from the Danish Customer Satisfaction Index 2006. Here a total of approximately 2000 private customers evaluated their preferred property insurance provider. Based on theoretical considerations, six assumptions are developed and tested.
Mechanism of the Carotid Sinus in Experimental Hypertension

• In recent years interest has been renewed in the role of baroreceptors in hypertension. It was emphasized again by Heymans and Neil that the baroreceptors function not only as regulators, but also as moderators, since they constantly decrease high central sympathetic vasoconstrictor and cardiac accelerator outflow to normal levels. Bemoval of this function by disruption of the buffer nerves results in the well-known experimental neurogenic hypertension. Despite their apparently important function in cardiovascular regulation, it is not clear what role they do play in the pathogenesis of hypertension. Since experimental neurogenic hypertension and human hypertension differ in several ways, any participation of the baroreceptors in the mechanism of either human or experimental non-neurogenic hypertension has been doubted by many investigators.
The Physical Context of Creativity

Creative processes are complex and consist of sub-processes, e.g. value creation, scaffolding, imagination and materialization. Creativity takes place in a physical context, i.e. in a confined space. Such space restricts and enables the free flow of sensory experiences and proximity of other people. The confinements may make certain sensory experiences available, e.g. vision of source material, sight and sound (including noise). This framing allows certain cognitive processes and restricts others. This may induce emotions that, in turn, facilitate or reduce the enhancement of creativity. Physical space affects the well-being of people, the channels of information, the availability of knowledge tools and sets the stage for coherence and continuity, which may contribute to competitive advantages.
Process algebra to model self-organizing behavior in Wireless Sensor Networks

This paper presents an extension of the ¿-calculus that allows the high-level modeling of self-organizing protocols for Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs). Process algebras (PA) as ¿-Calculus allow a high-level description of interactions among processes. Because the most important characteristic of self-organization is the restriction of interactions to neighboring elements (localized interactions), we extend the ¿-Calculus with the locality awareness, a necessary abstraction to allow the modeling of self-organization in WSNs. To get full locality awareness in ¿-Calculus we extended it with concepts for modeling spatiality, probability and time. Moreover, new types of channels are included in the ¿-Calculus to include the different types of communication existing in a WSN: distribution, broadcast and aggregation. In order to validate our new PA, we successfully model a self-organizing clustering algorithm for WSNs.
Robotics in Colorectal Surgery

Minimally invasive surgery has been shown to offer many advantages to general surgical patients but has not been widely adopted for colorectal disease. Initial fears surrounding the oncological safety of laparoscopic colectomies have largely subsided but the technical challenges still remain. Surgical robots or telemanipulators present the laparoscopic surgeon with unrivaled dexterity and vision, which may allow colonic resections to be completed with greater ease. Although initial studies suggest promising results using currently available systems, it will take further time for patient benefits to be proven, therefore justifying the greater expense of operating with this new technology.
A mapping of competitive priorities, manufacturing practices, and operational performance in groups of Danish manufacturing companies

A sample of 63 Danish companies is divided into four strategic groups. Each group represents a distinct manufacturing strategy. These strategic groups are then used to investigate relationships with the implementation of bundles of manufacturing practices such as JIT and TQM, and with operational performance. The results suggest that using strategic groups as a representation of companies' manufacturing strategy can improve the understanding of companies' implementation of bundles of manufacturing practices and of their operational performance. The results indicate that the degree of environmental fit differs amongst the groups and that companies do not necessarily have to conduct an extensive implementation of all bundles of manufacturing practices in order to perform well on important performance dimensions according to their manufacturing strategy. Finally, the study adds to the scarce literature on small country studies.
Establishing the next generation at work

In this study, the authors investigated leader gene rativity as a moderator of the relationships between leader age, leader-member exchange, and thr ee criteria of leadership success (follower perceptions of leader effectiveness, follower satis faction with leader, and follower extra effort). Data came from 128 university professors paired to one research assistant for each professor. Results showed positive relationships between leade r g and leader generativity, and negative relationships between leader age and follower perce tions of leader effectiveness and follower extra effort. Consistent with expectations based on leadership categorization theory, leader generativity moderated the relationships between le ader age and all three criteria of leadership success, such that leaders high in generativity wer e b tter able to maintain high levels of leadership success at higher ages than leaders low in generativity. Finally, results of mediated moderation analyses showed that leader-member excha nge quality mediated these moderating effects. The findings suggest that, in combination, leader age and the age-related construct of generativity importantly influence leadership proce sses and outcomes.
Mala Tempora Currunt: How Do PE-Backed Firms React to Financial Crises?

How has PE backing influenced the operating performance of firms (primarily in terms of ROA and ROE) during the recent financial crisis (2006–2010)? In this study, the authors use a dataset of 939 European PE-backed firms and a control sample of 2,516 European non-PE-backed firms. They find that PE-backed firms are more profitable than non-PE-backed firms. Even though the recent financial crisis had a negative effect on the operating performance of both PE- and non-PE-backed firms, the authors report strong evidence that the former have a greater ability to withstand turbulent economic environments.