Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Competitive priorities in operations and technology management: Literature review

These days an ability of a company to achieve operational excellence in multiple priorities is considered by researchers and practitioners as a source of company's competitive advantage. However, the current state of knowledge does not have a consensus on how competitive priorities emphasis can be achieved. This paper is devoted to the literature review analysis on the topic of competitive priorities and their role in operations strategy and business performance. The analysis was based on the articles published in top-tier journals in Operations and Technology Management field during 1969-2015. On the basis of this analysis, the current state of competitive priorities concept in Operations and Technology Management has been described and suggestions for future research have been developed.
Turbulent Rayleigh–Bénard convection for a Prandtl number of 0.67

For the Rayleigh-number range 107 ≲ Ra ≲ 1011 we report measurements of the Nusselt number Nu and of properties of the large-scale circulation (LSC) for cylindrical samples of helium gas (Prandtl number Pr = 0.674) that have aspect ratio Γ ≡ D/L = 0.50 (D and L are the diameter and the height respectively) and are heated from below. The results for Nu are consistent with recent direct numerical simulations. We measured the amplitude δ of the azimuthal temperature variation induced by the LSC at the sidewall, and the LSC circulation-plane orientation θ0, at three vertical positions. For the entire Ra range the LSC involves a convection roll that is coherent over the height of the system. However, this structure frequently collapses completely at irregular time intervals and then reorganizes from the incoherent flow. At small δ the probability distribution p(δ) increases linearly from zero; for Γ = 1 and Pr = 4.38 this increase is exponential. No evidence of a two-roll structure, with one above the other, was observed. This differs from recent direct numerical simulations for Γ = 0.5 and Pr = 0.7, where a one-roll LSC was found to exist only for Ra ≲ 109 to 1010, and from measurements for Γ = 0.5 and Pr ≃ 5, where one- and two-roll structures were observed with transitions between them at random time intervals.
Reputation and Competition in the Credit Ratings Market - Evidence from Commercial Mortgage-Backed Securities

We examine a quasi-experimental setting where a rating agency (S&P) is completely shut out of a large segment of the commercial mortgage-backed securities market for more than one year, following a procedural mistake. We exploit the fact that many tranches of CMBS deals have multiple ratings. Subsequent to the drop in its business volume (but not before), S&P assigned higher ratings than other raters, in particular for large deals and for deals from important issuers. The results suggest that issuing optimistic ratings is a strategy that can be used by a rating agency with a weak reputation to gain market share in a market with strong competition.
Personality Types of Entrepreneurs

85 German entrepreneurs were psychometrically assessed on 12 primary trait characteristics. The sample consisted of 49 men and 36 women whose mean age was 45.6 yr. (SD = 10.3). Occupational domains were production (40%) and services (60%). The mean duration of entrepreneurship within these domains was 13.1 yr. (SD = 9.3). By factor analysis five personality types of entrepreneurs could be identified: Creative Acquisitor, Controlled Perseverator, Distant Achiever, Rational Manager, and Egocentric Agitator. These types correspond with types found in research by Miner and with the Myer-Briggs Indicator. In addition, correlations between general type potential and both job and life satisfaction of entrepreneurs were found. The results are discussed with regard to intercultural stability of personality types and implications for research and application.
The relationship between obesity and craniofacial structure in obstructive sleep apnea.

STUDY OBJECTIVE To evaluate the interaction between craniofacial structure and obesity in male patients with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). DESIGN Retrospective analysis of a cohort of OSA patients. The relationships between neck circumference (NC), body mass index, apnea severity, and craniofacial and upper airway soft-tissue measurements from upright lateral cephalometry were examined. Patients were divided into groups; small to normal NC (group A), intermediate NC (group B), or large NC (group C). SETTING A university teaching hospital and tertiary sleep referral center. PATIENTS A consecutive series of patients with OSA who underwent polysomnography and lateral cephalometry. MEASUREMENTS AND RESULTS Group A patients were less obese and had more craniofacial abnormalities such as a smaller mandible and maxilla and a more retrognathic mandible. Group B patients had both upper airway soft-tissue and craniofacial abnormalities. Group C patients were more obese with larger tongues and soft palates, and an inferiorly placed hyoid. Group C patients also had fewer craniofacial abnormalities than group A or B patients. There was no difference in airway size among the three groups. CONCLUSIONS We conclude that there is a spectrum of upper airway soft-tissue and craniofacial abnormalities among OSA patients: obese patients with increased upper airway soft-tissue structures, nonobese patients with abnormal craniofacial structure, and an intermediate group of patients with abnormalities in both craniofacial structure and upper airway soft-tissue structures.
Implementing Type-Safe Software Product Lines using Records and TraitsI

A software product line (SPL) is a set of related software systems with well-defined commonality and variability that are developed by reusing common artifacts. In this paper, we present a novel technique for implementing SPLs by exploiting mechanisms for fine-grained reuse which are orthogonal to class-based inheritance. We formalize our proposal by means of FEATHERWEIGHT RECORD-TRAIT JAVA (FRTJ), a minimal core calculus where units of product functionality are modeled by traits, a construct for fine-grained behavior reuse, and by records, a construct that complements traits to model the variability of state. Records and traits are assembled in classes that are used to build products. The composition of product functionality is realized by explicit operators of the calculus, allowing code manipulations for modeling product variability. The FRTJ type system ensures that the products in the SPL are type-safe by type-checking the records, traits and classes shared by different products only once. Moreover, type-safety of an extension of a (type-safe) SPL can be guaranteed by checking only the newly added parts.
Atmospheric Movement of Bacteria and Fungi in Clouds of Dust in Erbil City, Iraq

In this study monthly aerosol samples collected at Erbil city, Iraq, throughout 2008-2009 yielded significant concentration of viable (culture forming) bacteria and fungi only when the dust was present. The results indicated the concentration of total bacteria was ranged from 3×10 4 to 36×10 6 CFU/g, and concentration of fungi varied a wide range from 6×10 3 to 36×10 3 CFU/g. The dominant group of bacteria isolated from the dust was Pseudomonas 25.6%, including P. corrugate, P. diminuta, P. marginata and P. agaramicus, followed by Zanthomonas 17.9%, including Z. orgzae, Staphylococcus 12.8%, including S. xylosus, S. epidermidis, S. homonis and S. cohini, Bacillus 10.2%, including B. subtilis and B. licheniformis, Curtobacterium, Micrococcus and Streptococcus 5.1%, Ctrubacterium, Rhodococcus and Agrobacterium 3.4%. Our data also confirms the existence of Aspergillus which comprised 23.4% of fungi colonies, followed by Penicillium 12.8%, Emerciella sp. 10.62%, Tetracoccosporium, Eurotium sp. 8.51%, Rhizopus sp. , Sterile fungus, Trichocladium sp. 6.4%, Alternaria sp. , Phoma sp. , Yeast, Curvularia sp. , Ascochyta sp. , Taeniolella sp. , Trichophyton, Fusarium sp. , 2.12% of total isolated fungi.
Reducing invasion by targeting vulnerable life stages: effects of fire on survivorship of Lespedeza cuneata

There is growing interest in whether invasive species may be controlled by targeting key life stages. In this study, I test whether fire applied at potentially vulnerable life stages can increase mortality and limit the spread of the invasive legume, sericea. Although laboratory experiments indicated that fire inflicted extremely high mortality on sericea seeds, fire enhanced germination rates in the field suggesting that seeds may be protected from fire by mixing with soil. Furthermore, fire had little effect on seedling survival even for very young plants. This suggests that sericea seedlings may quickly reach a size from which they are capable of resprouting. These results illustrate that, although certain life stages are presumed to be vulnerable to disturbance, such untested assumptions can result in unanticipated outcomes due to interactions between biotic and abiotic factors. Introduction. All invaders possess unique characteristics that allow successful invasion into native ecosystems. Despite such differences, all species share key demographic features such as survivorship, growth rate, and fecundity (1) that, coupled with transitions between key life stages, may offer an opportunity to utilize management practices targeting vulnerable life stages of invasive species in order to reduce invasion success (2, 3). Fire is a common management tool in grasslands as it typically favors native species which are adapted to burning. Although some problematic invaders are able to resprout following fire, presumably during colonization, these species could potentially be vulnerable to fire at the seed or seedling stage. In this study, I examine the possibility that the timing of prescribed burns may be utilized to induce mortality by targeting potentially vulnerable life stages of the model invasive legume sericea (Lespedeza cuneata ((Dum.-Cours.) G. Don)). In this study, I addressed the following questions: 1) Does fire have suppressive or facilitative effects on sericea recruitment? 2) Is this suppressive or facilitative effect on sericea recruitment due to changes in seed germination or seedling survivorship? 3) At what size or life stage does sericea become insensitive to burning? To test these ideas, I manipulated the timing of prescribed burns to quantify the probability of mortality on sericea plants of different ages under field conditions. In addition, I quantified the germination rates of sericea seeds under different burning conditions in the lab.
Immobilization of fibronectin in chitosan substrates improves cell adhesion and proliferation

Covalent grafting of biomolecules is a strategy to improve the biocompatibility and bioactivity of materials. However, it is critical to maintain the biological activity of the biomolecule upon its attachment to the surface. In the present study we compared the biological properties of chitosan, in which the surface was enriched with fibronectin (Fn), using two methodologies: chemical immobilization, using a water‐soluble carbodiimide; and simple adsorption. X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy studies confirmed the successful immobilization of Fn onto modified membranes. SaOs‐2 cells were seeded onto these surfaces to assess the biological consequences of such modifications. The presence of Fn stimulated cell adhesion on chitosan. It was found that after 7 days of culture in the presence of covalently attached Fn, the cells are confluent; significantly fewer cells were detected in unmodified film and in film with adsorbed Fn. This result is consistent with the fact that considerable desorption of Fn from chitosan takes place within 24 h in culture medium. This study showed that Fn may be easily covalently attached onto chitosan substrates, improving the biological performance of the material. The technique could find applications in tissue‐engineering strategies, as the surface modification of chitosan‐based substrates could be carried out in more complex geometries, such as in scaffolds or particles. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Anticonvulsant effects of intra‐hippocampal injection of TRH in amygdala kindled rats

THE anticonvulsant effects of intra-hippocampal thyrotropin-release hormone (TRH) were examined in amygdala kindled rats. Subjects were implanted unilaterally with an electrode in the amygdala and bilaterally with guide cannulae in the hippocampus, aimed at the dorsal and ventral dentate gyri. Rats were kindled daily with suprathreshold electrical stimulation (800 μA, 1 ms pulse width, 100 Hz, duration 0.5 s) until seizures were reliably elicited. The afterdischarge (AD) duration, seizure duration, and seizure stage were recorded daily, and AD thresholds were determined after kindling was completed. TRH was infused into each of the four cannulae of freely moving rats at doses of 0 (vehicle), 1.25, 2.5 and 5 μg/site. Five minutes after the last infusion, the rats received electrical stimulation at their AD threshold (mean = 135 μA) + 50 μA. TRH reduced the AD and seizure duration in a dose-dependent manner. At the dose of 2.5 μg/site, TRH also reduced AD and seizure duration in rats stimulated with suprathreshold current (800 μA). However, TRH had minimal effects on seizure stage irrespective of the stimulation intensity. These results suggest that the seizure-induced elevations of TRH in the hippocampus, as demonstrated in previous studies, may be part of an endogenous anticonvulsant compensatory mechanism and that further elevations of TRH in the hippocampus can produce anticonvulsant effects mainly by reducing the AD and seizure duration.
The Biomechanics of Throwing: Simplified and Cogent

The majority of shoulder injuries occur due to repetitive overhead movements, with baseball pitching being the most common mechanism for overuse injury. Before studying the treatment of these shoulder injuries, it is paramount that the health professional have an understanding of the etiology of and the underlying mechanisms for shoulder pathology. The act of overhead throwing is an eloquent full-body motion that requires tremendous coordination from the time of force generation to follow-through. The shoulder complex is a crucial component of the upper body kinetic chain as it transmits force created in the lower body to the arm and hand to produce velocity and accuracy with ball release. The focus of this article is on the biomechanics of the throwing motion, with emphasis on the kinematics of the shoulder. The established phases of the throwing motion will be reviewed in a stepwise manner and the contributions of osseous and soft-tissue structures to the successful completion of each phase will be discussed.
Citizens' use and acceptance of e-government applications of Turkish social security institutions

The purpose of the study is to examine the usability features and individual acceptance of e-government applications of the three Turkish social security institutions. An experimental study with 45 adults revealed information on the interaction between usability features (learnability, memorability, efficiency, errors and satisfaction) and user acceptance (perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use) of those applications. The tests revealed significant relationships between constructs of usability and acceptance of those e-government applications. Further analysis illustrated that the participants' education level, previous usage of the sites, experience in computer and internet use and frequency of internet usage affected the accomplishment of the given tasks. In the applications, the participants commonly experienced problems in finding a relevant link to the task in hand and in using the interfaces. The study suggests that the e-government applications should include reusable learning objects to instruct use of the applications in order to promote those applications.
Difficulties for extending Wegner and colleagues’ model of the sense of agency to deficits in delusions of alien control

Wegner and colleagues have offered an explanation of the sense of agency over one’s bodily actions. If the orthodox view is correct and there is a sense of agency deficit associated with delusions of alien control, then Wegner and colleagues’ model ought to extend to an explanation of this deficit. Data from intentional binding studies opens up the possibility that an abnormality in representing the timing of mental events leads to a violation of the principle of priority in those suffering from delusions of alien control. However, the model ultimately fails as it is unable to accommodate action monitoring deficits associated with delusions of alien control, in particular the theory of mind deficiencies predicted by such accounts have not materialised. There are theory of mind problems associated with schizophrenia but they are not associated with delusions of alien control. Such accounts thereby fail to adequately explain delusions of alien control.
Demonstration of Photon Coupling in Dual Multiple-Quantum-Well Solar Cells

Multiple-quantum-well (MQW) top cells can enhance the performance of multi-junction solar cells since the absorption edge of top and middle subcells can be tuned with the MQWs to maximize the efficiency. The radiative dominance of MQW top cells can enhance photon coupling, which can potentially reduce the spectral sensitivity of the device and, thus, raise the energy harvest. We present experimental results on photon coupling in dual-junction cells with GaInP top cells containing GaInAsP quantum wells along with theoretical calculation based on a detailed balance model. It is observed that at high concentration, approximately 50% of the dark current of an MQW top cell is transferred to the photocurrent of the cell in the bottom, which is much higher than any previously reported values.
The Role Of Corporate Governance And Its Impact On Risk And Firm Performance Of Real Estate Industry: Pavilion Reit

The main purpose of this study is to identify corporate governance and its impact on firm performance of Real Estate Investment Trust over the period between 2011 and 2015. The study is to show how the firm performance influenced by corporate governance and risk performance. The information acquired from yearly report of Pavilion REIT Management Sdn. Bhd. ( Pavilion REIT) from 2011 until 2015. The estimation of liquidity ratio and operating ratio used to see the general performance of Pavilion REIT in 5 years. The extra estimation is the asset size, this variable has a negative and no significant relationship with liquidity risk. To see the relationship of risk elements to the firm performances, this paper is using profitability ratio, liquidity ratio, activity ratio, leverage ratio, and Gross Domestic Product (GDP). This study will identify and explore about the risk that the company faced that affect the performances of the company like credit risk, liquidity risk and market risk. At the end of this study, the finding shows that the relationship between the corporate governance and risk performance and its impact on the Pavilion REIT Management Sdn. Bhd. ’s financial performances. Thus to address this, the relationship between corporate governance, risk performance and firm performance are observed.
Do Analysts Understand Momentum? Evidence from Target Prices

Target prices are analysts’ forecasts of a firm’s stock price. Although target prices can be used to help market participants make investment decisions, much is still unknown about how analysts make these forecasts. Because prior literature documents momentum in stock returns, in this paper, I examine whether target prices reflect the information in returns over the six months prior to the target price announcement date. I find that target prices systematically underestimate the persistence of these six month returns. I further find that the forecasted return in target price revisions is more pessimistic following periods of very good stock performance and more optimistic following periods of very poor stock performance. However, I find that target prices made by ‘All-Star’ analysts reflect the information in six month returns when these target prices follow a period of very poor stock performance.
Cholesterol of myelin is the determinant of gray‐white contrast in MRI of brain

The relative brightness of adult white matter in T1‐weighted MRI arises from myelin, but the mechanisms responsible remain to be clarified. Koenig et al. [Magn. Reson. Med. 14, 482 (1990)] conjectured that the cholesterol of myelin (∼ 30% of its lipid) was responsible. We present 1/T1 and magnetization transfer contrast imaging data [Wolff and Balaban, Magn. Reson. Med. 10, 135 (1989)] on a model system— 50% lipid—50% water by weight, with the lipid one‐half phosphatidyl cholinc (PC) and one‐half cholesterol—and a control in which the lipid is all PC. The differences between the model and control samples mimic the myelin contribution to white matter in both experiments. © 1991 Academic Press, Inc.
Profitability and Technical Efficiency of Pig Production in Nigeria: the Case of Ekiti State

Abstract The study examined the profitability and technical efficiency of pig production in Ekiti State, Nigeria. A multi-stage sampling technique was employed in the selection of 80 pig farmers. Primary data were collected through structured questionnaire from the selected pig farmers. The data obtained from the farmers were analysed using descriptive statistics, cost benefit analysis and stochastic frontier production function. Findings revealed that majority (82.5 %) of the respondents were male, 40 % were within the active age of 35–46 years that can effectively withstand the rigors and stress involved in pig production, 76.25 % were married with a mean household size of 6people. The cost and return analysis showed that, in one production year, the gross margin was ₦694,592($3,484.44), while the rate of return on investment was ₦0.34 and the Cost Benefit Ratio (CBR) was 1.34 indicating that the enterprise is profitable since BCR is greater than 1. The result of stochastic frontier production function revealed that herd size (P < 0.05), quantity of feed (P < 0.01), capital (P < 0.01) and labour (P < 0.05) increase technical efficiency of the respondents, while inefficiency in the study area was reduced by age of the respondents (P < 0.1), educational level (P < 0.01), household size (P < 0.05), farming experience (P < 0.01) and breed of pig (P < 0.1) reared by the respondents. The mean technical efficiency was 0.86. Although the pig farmers exhibit high technical efficiency in the study area, efficiency could still be increased by 14 % through better use of available resources given current state of technology which could be achieved through farmers’ specific factors like age, education and farming experience.