Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Undergraduate students' perceptions the role and utility of written assessment feedback

Student dissatisfaction in higher education with written feedback on their assessed work is a topical issue given the publicised findings of the National Student Survey. This paper presents excerpts from interviews with students about their experience with written feedback together with analytical and interpretive commentary. The context of the research was a post-92 university with a wide range of higher education provision and a commitment to widening participation and student retention. The paper begins with an overview of feedback studies in higher education and a summary of current agenda. The data and analysis are presented in three sections. A final discussion section outlines some salient findings from the research.
Price Dispersion in an Automobile Insurance Market

From automobile insurance data for Alberta over the period 1974-81, we find thatpremiums are highly correlated across driver classes in a given year, but that premiums for a given driver class are not correlated over a period of more than 5 years. Firms' relative market shares among drivers over age 25 and married males under 25 are inversely related to their deviations from the mean premiums.In these driver classes, the variance of real premiums decreases with the numberof firms in the market and increases with the real loss cost per car insured and the number of cars insured. From these results we conclude that the price dispersion in automobile insurance in Alberta is based on costly consumer search.
Diffusion of Web-Based Product Innovation

Customers have proven to be a precious source of new solutions in various product categories and, by becoming directly involved in the innovation process, they can help companies better anticipate market changes. The web can greatly simplify these activities by making it easier to manage systematic interactions with a select group of customers at a low cost. However, empirical evidence regarding the actual diffusion of web-based tools supporting collaborative innovation remains weak. After reviewing the past findings on web-based tools for customer integration, this article presents an exploratory analysis of over 200 brand and corporate sites. It highlights the tools that firms mainly use and identifies some relevant industrial and firm specificities.
Carbon Management Accounting and Reporting in Practice: A Case Study on Converging Emergent Approaches

Purpose: In contrast to the reporting, stakeholder and regulatory focus, company-internal issues of carbon accounting have so far rarely been investigated in depth. This case study focuses on carbon accounting, as one aspect of accounting for impacts on the environmental capital and details the “convergence” process between two emergent corporate carbon management accounting approaches within a multinational company. Based on a qualitative analysis of this in-depth case study, we raise questions about what could be considered an effective carbon management accounting system. Design/methodology/approach: The research has been conducted with an in-depth case study, using participant observation (Spradley, 1980). We follow a pragmatic research approach and the proposal of Malmi and Granlund (2009) “to create theories useful for practice is to solve practical problems with practitioners and synthesize the novel solutions to a more general form”. Findings: This case study demonstrates that it is possible to connect two corporate carbon management accounting approaches focusing on products and the organization into a combined carbon management accounting system. This has potential impact in making carbon management accounting in organizations leaner, and more efficient in terms of performance measurement and external communication.Research limitations/implications: This research is based on a single case study and more case studies in different industries could highlight further practical implementation difficulties and approaches to overcome. Practical implications: This paper unveils that different carbon management accounting approaches can emerge in parallel in the same corporation. The paper discusses possibilities and challenges to converge them in terms of methodology (emission factors for example) and/or in terms of information systems, on which the calculations are based. Originality/value: This is, to our knowledge, the first case study of an organization explicitly acknowledging the existence of multiple emerged carbon management accounting approaches and trying to make sense of them in a convergence process to create an overarching carbon accounting system.
Sibling Sex Composition and Educational Outcomes: A Review of Theory and Evidence for the UK

Studies from US data have found mixed results regarding sibling sex composition effects and educational outcomes. Some researchers have found that sisters hurt women's education, others have found the opposite, and some have found no effects. This paper reviews the theoretical foundations for sibling sex composition effects and tests the theories using British data, on a sample of children born between 3 and 9 March 1958, from the National Child Development Survey. Methods from previous studies are replicated and extensions considered for ability, credit constraints, and family size. No sibling sex composition effects are found, but estimation results support the quantity–quality model.
The Effect of Data Breaches on Shareholder Wealth

Many companies face the risk of a data breach exposing stored personal information of customers and employees. The frequency of such incidents has been increasing over time and can result in significant costs for the affected firm. This article examines the stock market's assessment of the cost of data breaches at publicly traded companies in which personal information such as customer and/or employee data are exposed. Using event study methodology on a sample of 77 events between the beginning of 2004 and the end of 2006, we find that the overall effect of a data breach on shareholder wealth is negative and statistically significant. Based on a cross‐sectional analysis of the cumulative abnormal returns, we find a negative association between market reaction and firms that are less forthcoming about the details of the breach. We also find that firms with higher market‐to‐book ratios experience greater negative abnormal returns associated with a data breach. Further, we find that firm size and subsidiary status mitigate the negative effect of a data breach on the firm's stock price and that the negative market reaction to a data breach is more significant in the most recent time periods of the sample.
Foreign Ownership and Information Asymmetry

Foreign ownership has two competing effects on information asymmetry. Short term investment horizon, superior information processing capability, controlling positions, and increased agency costs associated with foreign ownership increases information asymmetry, while demand for more disclosure, better accounting and auditing standards, use of international auditors, incentive alignments, long term investment horizon and greater monitoring decreases information asymmetry. In this article, we examine and find a significant and positive impact of foreign ownership on information asymmetry measured by bid-ask spread in China. On balance, foreign equity investors tend to enhance their informational advantages more than improving the general informational environments in local markets. These results have implications for transparency and disclosure policies as well as privatization in emerging markets.
Validating the Construct of Public Service Motivation in For-profit Organizations: A preliminary study

Delineating the theoretical link between individuals’ discretion and motivations in the private sector and their public service behaviours in Chinese society, this study explored public service motivation (PSM) in for-profit organizations. A survey of 348 employees from three engineering consulting organizations in China validated the construct of PSM in for-profit organizations. Besides the positive correlation between conscientiousness and PSM, the current study demonstrated that a positive correlation exists between PSM and community citizenship behaviour (CCB) with love of money (LOM) as a marginal moderator: the positive relationship between PSM and CCB is marginally stronger when LOM is higher, vice versa.
Genotyping of human cystic echinococcosis in Xinjiang, PR China

The Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, multi-ethnic province in northwestern China, is one of the most important foci of human cystic echinococcosis (CE) in the world. Two Echinococcus granulosus genotypes (G1 and G6) are known to infect the intermediate hosts in this area but, to date, the source of the human infection remains unclear. The current study aimed to genetically analyse 67 hydatid cysts removed from 47 CE patients for which epidemiological, clinical and serological data were also recorded. Mitochondrial cox 1 gene sequencing suggested that the E. granulosus G1 genotype is the major source of infection (45/47 CE patients). Nevertheless, for the first time in China, 2 patients were found with hydatid cysts of the G6 genotype. In addition, 45 E. granulosus gravid tapeworms, isolated from 13 dogs, were genotyped. The majority of adult worms (42/45) exhibited the G1 genotype, whereas 3 adult tapeworms with the G6 genotype were found in one dog, that also harboured E. granulosus tapeworms of the G1 genotype. This sympatric occurrence of G1 and G6 genotypes of E. granulosus, not only in the same area but also in the same definitive host, raises the interesting question of putative genetic recombination between these E. granulosus genotypes.
Interregional labour mobility, inequality and wage convergence

The objectives of the paper are to examine the determinants of interregional labour migration for German regions using the data on gross flows of labour movements across regions. This is one of the few studies where data on labour migration is used. There also was a wage convergence after reunification between regions of East and West Germany and this to a certain extent provides an explanation for non-linear relationship between wage differences among regions and migration. As the study distinguishes the blue-collar and white-collar wage difference between regions, different relationships between migration and blue and white-collar workers' wage differences can be assessed. We also test the hypothesis whether highly skilled workers migrate to the regions where inequality is greater while less skilled workers tend to migrate to the regions where inequality is low.
Cocaine and metabolite excretion in saliva under stimulated and nonstimulated conditions.

The accessibility of saliva for rapid, noninvasive sampling makes it an attractive biological fluid for detecting drug use. However, little is known about salivary excretion patterns of the major cocaine metabolites, benzoylecgonine (BE) and ecgonine methyl ester (EME). Additionally, there is a general lack of information on the effects of salivary collection conditions on cocaine excretion in saliva. This study documents the profile of cocaine and metabolites in human saliva under stimulated and nonstimulated saliva flow conditions. Saliva samples were obtained periodically from six healthy volunteers who were administered three, equally spaced, single intravenous doses of 25 mg of cocaine during a 6-h test session. On different days, whole saliva was obtained either under nonstimulated or stimulated (sour candy) conditions. The samples were analyzed for cocaine and metabolites by GC/MS. Cocaine, BE, and EME were detected and quantitated in the saliva of all subjects. Cocaine was the predominant analyte identified in all samples. Nonstimulated saliva contained substantially more drug than stimulated samples. The ratio of the area under the curve (AUC) of cocaine in nonstimulated saliva to that of stimulated saliva was variable and ranged from 3.0 to 9.5. The AUC ratios of BE and EME were similar to those observed for cocaine. The lowering of cocaine concentration in saliva in the stimulated flow condition was likely due to an increase in saliva pH associated with increased saliva flow rate; it is known that an increase in saliva pH retards cocaine partitioning into this biological fluid. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Rural infrastructure development in the Volta region of Ghana: barriers and interventions

Purpose – Although a high proportion of the Ghanaian population live and work in under‐developed areas, research on rural infrastructure development is scarce. The purpose of this paper is to explore the challenges confronting rural infrastructure development and the requisite incentives needed to boost it.Design/methodology/approach – An inductive methodological approach was adopted using a structured questionnaire to survey the perceptions of rural contractors.Findings – Incentive systems identified include the provision of mobilization funds for projects; a plant pool for rural contractors; special allowance for rates of project items; and provision of letters of credit to secure loans for projects. Key challenges confronting rural construction were identified as a lack of financial institutions willing to support projects with funds; lack of potable water; lack of good health care systems; and lack of a goods market to supply materials.Research limitations/implications – Identification of challenges a.
Corporate governance and different types of voluntary disclosure

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of corporate governance on voluntary disclosure of different types of information in annual reports of Malaysian listed firms.Design/methodology/approach – A linear regression model is used to test the association between the level of voluntary disclosure of five key information categories and corporate governance. The sample consists of 100 firms over three different socio‐economic periods: 1996, 2001 and 2006.Findings – There are significant increases in all the key information categories with better communication most pronounced between 1996 and 2001, and a noticeably lower level of communication growth between 2001 and 2006. The strength of a firm's corporate governance structure clearly influences the voluntary disclosure of information relating to corporate and strategic directions, directors and senior management, financial and capital markets, forward‐looking projections and corporate social responsibility in 2001 and 2006.Research l.
Coronary Procedures After TAVI With the Self‐Expanding Aortic Bioprosthesis Medtronic CoreValve™, Not an Easy Matter

OBJECTIVES To evaluate the feasibility of coronary procedures after transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) with the CoreValve™ device. BACKGROUND Due to its design, CoreValve™ prosthesis may interfere with coronary procedures. Data on this issue are sparse. METHODS Between 2007 and 2015, 550 patients underwent CoreValve™ TAVI in our hospital. Among them, 16 underwent coronary angiogram after TAVI and were included in our retrospective study. For each patient, we compared the characteristics of coronary angiograms performed before and after TAVI. RESULTS Coronary angiogram was deemed successful in 9 patients. The mean number of different catheters used in attempts to cannulate the coronary arteries was 3.6 ± 1.4 and the rate of selective intubation was low. Fluoroscopy time (13.2 ± 5.8 vs. 7.2 ± 4.6 min, P = 0.003), dose area product (5,347 ± 4,919 vs. 3,433 ± 3,420 cGy/m2 , P = 0.004), and contrast volume (157.7 ± 69.6 vs. 108.3 ± 42.6 mL, P = 0.006) were more important in coronary angiograms performed after CoreValve™ implantation. Percutaneous coronary intervention was successfully performed in 6 out of 7 patients who required it. CONCLUSION Coronary procedures after CoreValve™ TAVI are feasible, but challenging. This problem is currently rare but will be more common as the indications of TAVI are expanded to younger patients with longer life expectancies. Recommendations for post-TAVI coronary procedures are needed, particularly for centers unfamiliar with the management of post-TAVI patients.
Automatic Filling Values to Services: A Road Map

It is common for users to explicitly or implicitly compose on-line services to accomplish daily tasks, such as shopping for a pair of shoes on-line. However, unnecessary and repetitive data typing into the services would negatively impact the user experience and decrease the efficiency of service composition. Recent studies have proposed several approaches to help users fill in values to services automatically. However, existing approaches suffer the following two drawbacks: 1) poor accuracy of filling values to services, 2) not designed for service composition. In this position paper, we first present the recent approaches improving the process of filling values to services. We then present our recent achievements and results of using our proposed approaches to help users fill values to services. Lastly, we discuss the various opportunities and challenges in the research field of filling values to services.
Effects of Electrical Stimulation and Insulin on Na+–K+‐ATPase ([3H]Ouabain Binding) in Rat Skeletal Muscle

Exercise has been reported to increase the Na+–K+‐ATPase (Na+–K+ pump) α2 isoform in the plasma membrane 1.2‐ to 1.9‐fold, purportedly reflecting Na+–K+ pump translocation from an undefined intracellular pool. We examined whether Na+–K+ pump stimulation, elicited by muscle contraction or insulin, increases the plasma membrane Na+–K+ pump content ([3H]ouabain binding) in muscles from young rats. Stimulation of isolated soleus muscle for 10 s at 120 Hz caused a rapid rise in intracellular Na+ content, followed by an 18‐fold increase in the Na+ re‐extrusion rate (80 % of theoretical maximum). Muscles frozen immediately or 120 s after 10–120 s stimulation showed 10–22 % decrease in [3H]ouabain binding expressed per gram wet weight, but with no significant change expressed per gram dry weight. In soleus muscles from adult rats, [3H]ouabain binding was unaltered after 10 s stimulation at 120 Hz. Extensor digitorum longus (EDL) muscles stimulated for 10–60 s at 120 Hz showed no significant change in [3H]ouabain binding. Insulin (100 mU ml−1) decreased intracellular Na+ content by 27 % and increased 86Rb uptake by 23 % soleus muscles, but [3H]ouabain binding was unchanged. After stimulation for 30 s at 60 Hz soleus muscle showed a 30% decrease in intracellular Na+ content, demonstrating increased Na+–K+ pump activity, but [3H]ouabain binding measured 5 to 120 min after stimulation was unchanged. Stimulation of soleus or EDL muscles for 120–240 min at 1 Hz (continuously) or 10 Hz (intermittently) produced no change in [3H]ouabain binding per gram dry weight. In conclusion, the stimulating effects of electrical stimulation or insulin on active Na+, K+‐transport in rat skeletal muscle could not be even partially accounted for by an acute increase in the content of functional Na+–K+ pumps in the plasma membrane.
The girl who cried pain: a bias against women in the treatment of pain.

An apparatus is configured for use with a chair having a supporting surface, and includes a cushioning member adapted to be placed above the supporting surface, a bottom sheet connected to the cushioning member and having an engagement surface opposite the cushioning member, a top sheet having a bottom surface positioned in confronting relation to the engagement surface and a top surface opposite the bottom surface, and a selective gliding assembly positioned between the top and bottom sheets. The top sheet has at least one end connected to the bottom sheet, and the top sheet further has a slip resistant material positioned on the top surface. The selective gliding assembly includes engagement members positioned on the engagement surface and on the bottom surface of the top sheet, and the engagement members engage each other to resist forward sliding of the top sheet and to permit rearward sliding of the top sheet.
Fitness of Streptococcus pneumoniae Fluoroquinolone-Resistant Strains with Topoisomerase IV Recombinant Genes

ABSTRACT The low prevalence of ciprofloxacin-resistant (Cpr) Streptococcus pneumoniae isolates carrying recombinant topoisomerase IV genes could be attributed to a fitness cost imposed by the horizontal transfer, which often implies the acquisition of larger-than-normal parE-parC intergenic regions. A study of the transcription of these genes and of the fitness cost for 24 isogenic Cpr strains was performed. Six first-level transformants were obtained either with PCR products containing the parC quinolone resistance-determining regions (QRDRs) of S. pneumoniae Cpr mutants with point mutations or with a PCR product that includes parE-QRDR-ant-parC-QRDR from a CprStreptococcus mitis isolate. The latter yielded two strains, T6 and T11, carrying parC-QRDR and parE-QRDR-ant-parC-QRDR, respectively. These first-level transformants were used as recipients in further transformations with the gyrA-QRDR PCR products to obtain 18 second-level transformants. In addition, strain Tr7 (which contains the GyrA E85K change) was used. Reverse transcription-PCR experiments showed that parE and parC were cotranscribed in R6, T6, and T11; and a single promoter located upstream of parE was identified in R6 by primer extension. The fitness of the transformants was estimated by pairwise competition with R6 in both one-cycle and two-cycle experiments. In the one-cycle experiments, most strains carrying the GyrA E85K change showed a fitness cost; the exception was recombinant T14. In the two-cycle experiments, a fitness cost was observed in most first-level transformants carrying the ParC changes S79F, S79Y, and D83Y and the GyrA E85K change; the exceptions were recombinants T6 and T11. The results suggest that there is no impediment due to a fitness cost for the spread of recombinant CprS. pneumoniae isolates, since some recombinants (T6, T11, and T14) exhibited an ability to compensate for the cost.
Flexner at 100: A Brief View from Oxford

Of all the principles set out by Flexner in 1910, the most fundamental, that of academic and scientific excellence, is more relevant to medical education in the United Kingdom today than ever before. To realize this, undergraduate medical education (UGME) at Oxford has evolved to incorporate the tutorial method of teaching to promote independent and critical thought. Coupled with the usual didactic experiences, each medical student is also required to complete a 26-week research experience before going on to clinical study. Outcome measures reveal that Oxford graduates have consistently achieved highest marks in the U.K. equivalent of the United States Medical Licensing Examination. In contrast to UGME in the United Kingdom, postgraduate medical education (PGME) occurs largely outside the academy and often emphasizes the practical at the expense of the underlying Flexnarian principles of academic excellence. A reassertion of Flexner's belief that universities and medical schools should be the center for all medical education would greatly benefit PGME in the United Kingdom and be a tribute to Flexner's enduring legacy.