Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Costs and Outcomes of an Extra Care Housing Scheme in England

Extra care housing, which provides support and care for people in specially designed accommodations, has now been part of the range of housing and care services available to older people in England for several years. Currently, the United Kingdom evidence base tells us little about the financing, estimation of the costs, or burden to the public purse of housing with care. The United Kingdom has significant state welfare provision in the areas of health and social care. The objective of this in-depth case study was to investigate the cost and outcome consequences for a sample of people who moved into an extra care housing scheme in Bradford, England, and to reflect on the methodological implications for future research in this developing area. The main finding of the study was that the overall cost per person increased after a move to extra care housing, but that this increase was associated with improved social care outcomes and improvements in quality of life.
Post-translational modifications of the extracellular matrix are key events in cancer progression: Opportunities for biochemical marker development

The aim of this review is to discuss the potential usefulness of a novel class of biochemical markers, designated neoepitopes. Neoepitopes are post-translational modifications (PTMs) of proteins and are derived by processes, such as protease cleavage, citrullination, nitrosylation, glycosylation and isomerization. Each PTM results from a specific local physiological or pathobiologial process. Identification of each modification to a tissue-specific protein may reveal a unique disease-specific biochemical marker. During cancer metastasis, the host tissue is extensively degraded and replaced by cancer-associated extracellular matrix (ECM) proteins. Furthermore, severe cellular stress and inflammation, caused by cancer, results in generation of PTMs, which will be distributed throughout the ECM. This gives rise to release of protein-specific fragments to the circulation. Here we highlight the importance of remodeling of the ECM in cancer and the generation of PTMs, which may be cancer specific and reflect disease progression; thus having potential for biochemical marker development.
A structural equation model: The relationship between travel motivation and information sources in the senior travel market

A few studies in the travel research literature indicate a relationship between travel motivation and the use of information sources for travel decisions. This study will propose and test a causal model specifying these relationships using structural equation modelling. When specific client groups are matched with their preferred information sources, marketers can easily access the target group. The application of LISREL will also be discussed.
Efficiency differences between private and state-owned enterprises in the international petroleum industry

Technical (managerial), scale and allocative efficiency differences between private and state owned firms in the international petroleum industry are estimated. The estimation of Aigner-Chu deterministic frontiers, maximum likelihood stochastic frontiers, and maximum likelihood Gamma frontiers make this analysis the most complete and sophisticated testing of property rights theory available. The empirical findings suggestceteris paribus, that state firms could satisfy the demand for their output with something less than half of their current resource inputs simply by being converted to private, for profit enterprizes.
Esthesioneuroblastoma Treated with Endoscopic Craniofacial Resection: AReport of a Case

Herein the author presents a case of esthesioneuroblastoma, a rare malignancy affecting the sinonasal cavity. This uncommon lesion is thought to originate from the olfactory neuroepithelium. The mass may invade the orbit and intracranial space, and may metastasize to the neck or to distant sites. This case was successfully treated with an endoscopic craniofacial resection, multilayer skull base reconstruction, and postoperative radiation. The differential diagnosis, radiographic findings, and surgical and adjuvant treatment of this rare tumor are discussed.
Antiapoptotic effects of anthocyanins on rotator cuff tenofibroblasts

Degeneration of the rotator cuff tendon, which involves apoptosis of the tenofibroblasts, is one of the most common shoulder problems that can lead eventually to a full‐thickness rotator cuff tendon tear. The current authors evaluated both the ability of anthocyanins, which are powerful antioxidants, to reduce apoptosis in oxidation‐stressed rotator cuff tenofibroblasts, and the molecular mechanism for this antiapoptotic action. Anthocyanins demonstrated a dose‐dependent ability to inhibit H2O2‐induced apoptosis in cultured tenofibroblasts, as assessed by MTT assay and FACS analysis. H2O2 increased the phosphorylation of extracellular regulated kinase1/2 (ERK1/2) and of c‐Jun N‐terminal kinase (JNK) and the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS). In contrast, treatment with anthocyanins decreased this activation of ERK1/2 and JNK, as confirmed by Western blot analysis, and reduced the production of ROS, as verified by fluorescent microscopic and FACS analyses. These findings suggest that anthocyanins, by suppressing JNK, ERK1/2, and intracellular ROS production, have a concentration‐dependent antiapoptotic effect on rotator cuff tenofibroblasts exposed to an oxidative stressor, and may have therapeutic potential. © 2010 Orthopaedic Research Society. Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Orthop Res 28:1162–1169, 2010
The Informal Economy and the Growth of Small Enterprises in Russia

This article uses Russian regional data to estimate the determinants of the informal economy and to examine the relationship between the informal economy and the growth of legally registered small private enterprises during the transition period. After obtaining an estimate of the size of the informal economy in each Russian region from 1992 to 1999, an analysis is performed to find whether reform progress and institutional qualities account for the informal economy. An evaluation of the links between the informal economy and the growth of small enterprises within Russia is then carried out. The findings suggest that Russia's informal economy resulted from a delay in reform and low qualities of institutions. It was found that the growth of small enterprises is positively affected by the informal economy. These results imply that the informal economy helped entrepreneurial activities to grow in the face of government failure, but these informal activities tend to become official over time.
Investment behaviours and IPO returns: evidence from Taiwan

This article uses Buy-Sell Imbalance (BSI) as an indicator of investment behaviour to analyse the correlation between investor trading behaviours and returns of Initial Public Offerings (IPOs). After controlling for variables, such as market excess return, the size factor, and the book-to-market factor and momentum factor, this article finds that if IPOs are more popular to individual investors when issuing, the short-term returns are higher. In contrast, there is little sign that institutional investors exhibit such effect. In Taiwan's stock market where individual investors are the dominant players, the investment behaviours of individual investors exhibit certain influences on IPO share prices. This article also divides the IPO samples into two groups, one group favoured by investors and the other not at the time of issue. The result shows that IPOs favoured by individual investors have significantly lower long-term returns after 1 year of their listings, while IPOs favoured by institutional investors have different results. The two groups show no significant differences in average operational performances; therefore, this article suggests that the price correction of overly optimistic individual investors is the reason for the poorer long-term returns of IPOs favoured by individual investors.
The Financing Behaviour of Firms in a Developing Economy: The Nigerian scenario

The goal of this study is to ascertain the validity of the asymmetry of information idea in explaining the financing choice of firms in Nigeria. The sample covers 60 firms quoted in the Nigerian Stock Exchange. The Nigerian nation does not have a well developed capital market and so remain heavily on internal funding. Using a regression analysis, this study reveals that leverage is a decreasing function of profitability. This supports the pecking order theory. The current economic problems in Nigeria can be attributed not to too much reliance on financial markets, but to too little. There is some sort of misalignments between the capital market and the money market which is likely to affect the efficiency of one in meeting the financing needs of corporations. There should be complementary roles between the two markets. In Nigeria, this expected complementary roles between the two markets lag. While it makes sense, for instance for banks to brave up towards meeting the long term financing needs of firms, it is also very necessary for the other fund providers to design financing products that would help fill up arising financing gaps not covered by banks. We recommend that firms would have to device other strategic ways of diversifying their funding sources. One is by balancing their investments in both fixed and current assets.
Dietary modifications of the biliary bile acid glycine: taurine ratio and activity of hepatic bile acid-CoA:amino acid N-acyltransferase (EC 2.3.1) in the rat

Effects of dietary manipulations on the biliary bile acid glycine: taurine (G: T) ratio and the activity of hepatic bile acid-Co A: amino acidN-acyltransferase (EC 2.3.1) in the post-mitochondrial fraction of liver homogenates were examined in the rat. The G:T ratio in rats fed on the diet containing 100 g pectin/kg (2.18) was markedly higher than that in the animals fed on the diet containing 100 g cellulose/kg (0.09). The diets containing either 10 g cholesterol/kg or 5 g sodium cholate/kg, especially the latter, also increased the G:T ratio (0.77 and 2.33 respectively) compared with a control diet free of these steroids (0.34). When the saturating concentrations of taurine (20 mM) and glycine (100 mM) were the substrates, dietary pectin relative to cellulose significantly increased the activity of both taurine- and glycine-dependent bile acid-CoA: amino acidN-acyltransferase, but neither dietary bile acid nor cholesterol influenced it. In spite of the marked difference in the G:T ratio among the rats given various types of experimental diet, the bile acid-CoA: amino acid N-acyltransferase reaction produced taurine- but little glycine-conjugated bile acid when both taurine and glycine coexisted at physiological concentration ranges in the assay media. Dietary manipulations modified the hepatic taurine concentrations and the changes were inversely correlated with those in the G: T ratio. However, hepatic concentration of taurine (1.67–4.82 μmol/g) in rats given various types of experimental diet was comparable with or even higher than the reported Michaelis constant (Km) value ofN-acyltransferase for this compound (0.8–2.5 mM). In contrast, glycine concentrations (1.81–2.58 μmol/g) were much lower than the Km value for this amino acid (35–40 mM) under various dietary conditions. Thus, neither the substrate specificity of the bile acid conjugation enzyme nor the alteration in the hepatic concentration of taurine or glycine accounted for the change in the G: T ratio in the present study.
Factor Ownership, Taxes, and Specialization

This paper examines the incentives of regions to levy source-based.capital taxes, when the tax revenue is not needed to finance the regional public sector. It is assumed that capital is completely mobile among regions, but that labor is completely immobile. Since each region can produce the same two tradable goods, using the same technology, then differences in tax rates on capital will lead to some specialization. If residents of one region own more of the nation's capital (per person), then these tax differences may be an equilibrium phenomenon. Regions with below-average capital endowment per person will levy capital taxes to lower the cost of the capital they import, even though these taxes lead to capital flight, and specialization in the labor-intensive good.
Sustainable leadership practices for enhancing business resilience and performance

– The purpose of this paper is to present an alternative leadership model to the prevailing shareholder‐first approach that research, management experts and practice indicate can lead to higher performance and resilience of a firm. , – This conceptual paper is based on published literature, empirical research, and observations conducted in firms worldwide. , – Avery and Bergsteiner's 23 principles differentiate sustainable or “honeybee” practices from shareholder‐first or “locust” leadership. Sustainable practices are arranged in a pyramid with three levels of practices and five performance outcomes at the apex. A total of 14 foundation practices can be introduced immediately. At the next level in the pyramid, six higher‐level practices emerge once the foundations are in place. Finally, three practices cover the key performance drivers of innovation, quality, and staff engagement – all of which end customers' experience. Together the 23 practices influence five outcomes, namely brand and reputation, customer satisfaction, operational finances, long‐term shareholder value, and long‐term value for multiple stakeholders. , – Given that research and practice show that operating on sustainable principles enhances business performance and resilience, executives are urged to adopt these practices over business‐as‐usual. If self‐interest does not motivate this change, as it appears to have already done at Wal‐Mart, then major stakeholders or legislators can be expected to force such changes in the future. , – This paper provides an answer to the question of whether there is there an alternative to the shareholder‐first leadership model. Its response is: yes, a demonstrably effective alternative already operates among many successful enterprises around the world.
Composition of Renal Lymph and Its Significance.∗

Various concepts of the function of renal lymph have been evolved, based largely on indirect evidence(1). The present report deals chiefly with electrolyte concentrations in renal lymph, preliminary data from a study designed to obtain more direct and definitive evidence of its function. Procedure. Healthy mongrel dogs of both sexes were anesthetized with sodium pentobarbital (25 mg/kg). A polyethylene catheter was inserted into jugular vein via 15 gauge needle and utilized for plasma sampling and administration of fluids and drugs. The thoracic duct was cannulated and thoracic duct lymph collected in most experiments. Both ureters were catheterized at their junction with the bladder and urine collected separately from each kidney. Femoral arterial pressure was recorded with a mercury manometer. A left flank incision was employed to expose the kidney. The fat at both poles was usually ligated to engorge the capsular lymphatics and permit their cannulation with #50 polyethylene tubing. Renal lymph was collected in small glass tubes capped with one-hole stoppers to prevent evaporation and volumes estimated to the nearest . 05 ml. During the prolonged period of exposure the kidney was covered with saran wrap to prevent evaporation. Sodium and potassium were analyzed with a Baird flamephotometer using internal standards, and chlorides by the method of Schales and Schales(2). Serum, renal lymph, and thoracic duct lymph proteins were analyzed with a Spinco paper electrophoresis apparatus while total protein was determined by the falling drop method(3). Heparin prevented clotting in blood and thoracic duct lymph samples. Results. Concentrations of Na, Cl, and K in plasma, thoracic duct lymph and renal lymph are given in Table I. Na concentrations of plasma and thoracic duct lymph are similar (averages = 145.7 ± .77 and 145.6 ± 2.6 meq/l. Renal lymph, however, has an average concentration of 162.1 ± 2.8 meq/l, 11.3% higher than the average plasma value, a difference which is significant (P value = <.001).
Analysis of feedback to obtain steady-state solutions in four-step modelling

The four-step travel demand model with feedback has been widely applied in developed cities; in contrast, its applications in developing countries are still very limited. When applying the model with feedback, it is important to figure out what kinds of feedback solutions should be used to obtain the uniquely converged outputs in an efficient way. Therefore, in this study, using the person-trip data collected in Jabodetabek metropolitan area of Indonesia in 2002, a newly developed four-step feedback model has been applied to compare the performances of different feedback solutions. Two major methods, i.e. the Constant Weights (CW) method and the Method of Successive Averages (MSA), are dealt with, where the CW method includes the conventionally applied Direct Feedback (DF) method as a special case. An empirical analysis result reveals that the application of the new feedback model based on the DF method converges most efficiently. It is further found that when using the CW method, the weight on the new matrix should be at least not less than 0.50 to make the feedback procedure converge quickly. Moreover, it is numerically confirmed that the trip matrices from different feedback solutions for one certain feedback process will lead to a unique convergence; in addition, the successive travel impedance matrices from any certain one of the feedback solutions could also converge finally.
Foreign Students in U.S. Doctoral Programs

In 1996, foreigners represented over half of the doctoral student population in economics, up from 20 percent in 1972. This article presents a profile of foreign students in economics Ph.D. programs in the United States based on survey and interview data collected in 1996. In addition to exploring students' assessment of their education, interests and career plans, the authors offer explanations for the rising proportion of foreign students, explore the implications of this phenomenon, and suggest the need for further research on the teaching of economics and the practice of the profession, both in the United States and abroad.
A Finite Element-Based Circuit Model Approach for Skewed Electrical Machines

This paper presents a finite element-based circuit model approach for permanent magnet synchronous machines, electrically excited synchronous machines, and wound rotor induction machines, taking skewing of the rotor or the stator into account. These models utilize lookup tables created by 2-D finite element simulations in advance. Inspired by the finite element multislice technique, a multiple evaluation of these lookup tables is performed to consider skewing. The resulting models are comparable with quasi-static finite element multislice models with voltage fed coils. The only difference is caused by interpolation errors. However, the simulation cost is significantly lower and the memory demand for the lookup tables is acceptable.
Discrete wavelet transforms with multiclass SVM for phoneme recognition

A phoneme recognition system based on Discrete Wavelet Transforms (DWT) and Support Vector Machines (SVMs), is designed for multi-speaker continuous speech environments. Phonemes are divided into frames, and the DWTs are adopted, to obtain fixed dimensional feature vectors. For the multiclass SVM, the One-against-one method with the RBF kernel was implemented. To further improve the accuracies obtained, a priority scheme was added, to forecast the three most likely phonemes. After classification, all frames were again re-grouped, in order to evaluate the accuracy of the system according to the substitution, deletion and insertion errors. The percentage correct and accuracy, obtained from the designed phoneme recognition system, were 63.08% and 53.27% respectively. All tests were carried out on the TIMIT database. This phoneme recognition system is intended to be implemented on a dedicated chip, to improve the speed of the software implementation by approximately 100 times.
Valuation approaches in practice : valuation of Hagar hf. and Icelandair Group hf.

This final assignment is an attempt to find which valuation approach gives the most reliable results when compared to market value. In order to achieve this, previous studies focusing on the material are reviewed and the main results summarized. Furthermore, an attempt is made to clarify whether practitioners choose the valuation approaches that have proven to be most accurate or whether they choose to use other approaches. Finally, two companies listed on Nasdaq OMX Iceland are valuated with theoretical valuation approaches and the results compared to their market value. The main results show that of the three valuation approaches discussed, discounted free cash flow approach and relative valuation approach perform equally well while the dividend discount model is in fact inaccurate. Moreover, the results imply that the valuation approaches most used by practitioners are the two previously mentioned approaches, which must be considered positive. However, the results provide some support to the fact that practitioners are not estimating cost of capital in accordance with theories. Cost of capital is a crucial factor of dividend discount approach and discounted free cash flow approach and consequently, estimating cost of capital incorrectly leads to inaccurate valuation results. Lastly, only two multiples of relative valuation approach reflected the market price of Hagar hf. while none of the multiples reflected the market value of Icelandair Group hf. Respectively, the results of the discounted free cash flow approach did not reflect the market value of the firms.
Implementing lean production systems: barriers to change

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is help understand why implementing continuous improvement (CI) strategies can be difficult at times. It also addresses the problem of resistance to change within even those firms whose CEO is most fully committed to implementation of CI programs.Design/methodology/approach – The study focuses on a Fortune 500 manufacturing plant located in the Eastern USA. A survey was distributed to both salaried and unionized hourly employees.Findings – Results from the survey show that the problem lies primarily with an aging and high seniority hourly workforce and a lack of committed leadership at this research site. For example, salaried employees consistently provided higher positive ratings of CI initiatives. In addition, higher seniority was directly correlated with negative ratings. Finally, the study found that employees do not feel valued when they contribute to the improvement processes and that 100 per cent of the hourly male employees disagreed that “The Company considers.