Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Motivation Factors of Ecotourists in Ecolodge Accommodation: The Push and Pull Factors

Tourist motivations are important factors in understanding tourist behaviour in relation to destination choice; and motivation relates to the needs, goals and preference of the tourists. Extensive research work on tourist motivation factors has been documented in the tourism literature. However, there seems to be a lack of empirical study on the accommodation sector, in particular ecolodge accommodation. Attention to tourists' motivational factors in the ecolodge accommodation is essential for determining the tourists' choices or needs and tourist behaviour in terms of choosing ecolodge accommodation. Previous studies determine that tourist motivations are influenced by both push and pull forces; and these forces describe how an individual is pushed by motivating variables into making travel decisions and how they are pulled or attracted by destination attributes. This paper reports an exploratory qualitative study on ecotourists' motivation factors in the ecolodge accommodation by adopting pull and push motivation theory. In-depth interviews were conducted with 29 ecotourists who stayed in the two ecolodges in Sukau. The findings reveal that ecotourists are primarily attracted by the destination attributes (natural attractions, wildlife, local lifestyle and eco-activities) where ecolodges are located, which we term pull factors. At the same time, they are also pushed by their social–psychological desire to escape from their routine of normal life (push factors) by visiting ecolodges. This suggests that there are two different motivational forces among the ecotourists; and that ecotourists' motivational factors can be explained by employing “seeking” and “escaping” as motivational dimensions of leisure behaviour (Ross & Iso-Ahola, 1991, Annals of Tourism Research, 18(2) 226–237). The findings seem to inform that ecotourists' choices to stay in the ecolodges in Sukau are strongly influenced by the destination attributes or attractions around the ecolodges and not ecolodge accommodation attributes. The identification of motivational factors in this study provides a clearer account of what actually attracts the ecotourists to stay at ecolodges. It suggests that the marketing strategies for ecolodges should focus more on the destination attractions around the ecolodge accommodation. The ecolodge operators should position their ecolodges based on the unique destination attributes – wildlife and pristine environment – rather than the ecolodge attributes. Similarly, it is important for the ecolodge operators to conserve and protect their surrounding natural resources since these are the main motivational factors for tourists to patronize their ecolodges.
Recurrence Risk Stratification After Preoperative Chemoradiation of Esophageal Adenocarcinoma

Objective: To discern recurrence risk stratification and investigate its influence on postoperative surveillance in patients with esophageal adenocarcinoma (EAC) after neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy (CRT). Background: Reports documenting recurrence risk stratification in EAC after neoadjuvant CRT are scarce. Methods: Between 1998 and 2014, 601 patients with EAC who underwent neoadjuvant CRT followed by esophagectomy were included for analysis. The pattern, site, timing, and frequency of the first recurrence and potential prognostic factors for developing recurrences were analyzed. This cohort was used as the training set to propose a recurrence risk stratification system, and the stratification was further validated in another cohort of 172 patients. Results: A total of 150 patients (25.0%) achieved pathologic complete response (pCR) after neoadjuvant CRT and the rest were defined as the non-pCR group (n = 451) in the training cohort. After a median follow-up of 63.6 months, the pCR group demonstrated a significantly lower locoregional (4.7% vs 19.1%) and distant recurrence rate (22.0% vs.44.6%) than the non-pCR group (P < 0.001). Based on independent prognostic factors, patients were stratified into 4 recurrence risk categories: pCR with clinical stage I/II, pCR with clinical stage III, non-pCR with pN0, and non-pCR with pN+, with corresponding 5-year recurrence-free survival rates of 88.7%, 65.8%, 55.3%, and 33.0%, respectively (P < 0.001). The risk stratification was reproducible in the validation cohort. Conclusions: We proposed a recurrence risk stratification system for EAC patients based on pathologic response and pretreatment clinical stage. Risk-based postoperative surveillance strategies could be developed for different risk categories.
A study of the relationships between total quality management implementation factors and software quality

Many software development enterprises are using total quality management (TQM) methodology to improve developmental efficiencies and enhance the quality of software. How effective are these TQM programs in improving software quality? To answer this question, this paper examines the relationships between TQM implementation factors and several measures of software quality, including user satisfaction, the Capability Maturity Model level, and the extent of compliance with ISO 9000-3 guidelines. Data gathered from 247 software development sites show that, in general, there is a positive relationship between the TQM implementation factors and the indicators of software quality. However, the strengths of these relationships vary according to the factors considered.
Financial structure and economic growth link in African countries: a panel cointegration analysis

Purpose - This paper aims to use the newly developed panel data cointegration analysis and the dynamic time series modeling approach to examine the linkages between financial structure (market-based vs bank-based) and economic growth in African economies. Design/methodology/approach - The research investigates the dynamic relationship between financial structure and economic growth in a panel of a group of seven African developing countries over the period of 1986-2007. The paper uses various indicators/measures of financial structure and financial system, and employs the traditional time-series analysis for causality as well as the newly developed panel unit root and cointegration techniques and estimated finance-growth relationship using FMOLS for heterogeneous panel. Findings - From the dynamic heterogeneous panel approach, the paper firstly finds that market-based financial system is important for explaining output growth through enhancing efficiency and productivity. Second, the authors' empirical evidence supports the view that higher levels of banking system development are positively associated with capital accumulation growth and lead to faster rates of economic growth. Originality/value - Panel cointegration, group mean panel FMOLS and country-by-country time series investigations indicate that the market-based financial system is important for explaining output growth through enhancing efficiency and productivity, whereas the development of banking system is significantly associated with capital accumulation growth. Further results from the time-series approach show evidence of unidirectional causality running from market-oriented as well as bank-oriented financial systems to economic growth.
Accounting Information Systems Research Over the Past Decade: Past and Future Trends

This article reviews the extant accounting information systems (AIS) literature by conducting an analysis of AIS articles published in 18 leading accounting, management information systems, and computer science journals from 1999 to 2009 with a view to identifying whether or not the focus of AIS research has changed, and if so how it has changed, since the Poston and Grabskis (2000) review of AIS research from 1982 to 1998. We also report our insights into where AIS research is likely to be heading in the future. We analyse each of the 395 articles identified as reporting AIS research to identify their underlying theory, research method and research topic. Our results confirm the continuing decline in analytical and model-building research in AIS-related research and this decline is associated with a similar decline in the use of computer science theory to motivate this research. We also find that two theoretical platforms, in particular, now account for almost half (48 per cent) of all AIS research: cognitive psychology and economics. Experimental research methods and archival studies continue to grow as the preferred methods for testing the AIS-related theories derived from these theory domains.
Early and Late Posttraumatic Seizures in Traumatic Brain Injury Rehabilitation Patients: Brain Injury Factors Causing Late Seizures and Influence of Seizures on Long‐Term Outcome

Summary: Purpose: To demonstrate risk factors involved in the origin of late posttraumatic seizures (LPTSs) in civilian traumatic brain injury (TBI) rehabilitation patients and the occurrence of LPTSs in this population. as well as the time of the first late seizures, and influence of these seizures o n functional and occupational long‐term outcome.
Fire in the Brazilian Amazon: A Spatially Explicit Model for Policy Impact Analysis

This article implements a spatially explicit model to estimate the probability of forest and agricultural fires in the Brazilian Amazon. We innovate by using variables that reflect farm-gate prices of beef and soy, and also provide a conceptual model of field management and deforestation fires to simulate the impact of road-paving, cattle exports, and conservation area designation on the occurrence of fire. Our analysis shows that fire is positively correlated with the price of beef and soy, and that the creation of new conservation units may offset the negative environmental impacts caused by the increasing number of fire events associated with early stages of frontier development.
Study to assess in vitro antimicrobial activity of nine ear cleaners against 50 Malassezia pachydermatis isolates.

BACKGROUND Ear cleaning is an important part of the successful therapy of otitis externa. HYPOTHESIS/OBJECTIVES To evaluate the in vitro activity of nine commercially available ear cleaners (Cerumaural(®), CleanAural Dog(®), Epi-Otic(®), MalAcetic Aural(®), Otoclean(®), Otodine(®), Sancerum(®), Surosolve(®) and TrizUltra™ + Keto) against 50 Malassezia pachydermatis isolates from clinical cases of canine otitis externa. To the authors' knowledge, this is the first study to analyse the in vitro susceptibility of a large number of M. pachydermatis isolates to a variety of ear cleaner products. ANIMALS Forty-nine hospital population dogs diagnosed with otitis externa with Malassezia spp. present on cytological examination of ear swabs and culture. METHODS The antimicrobial activity of nine ear cleaners was tested against 50 M. pachydermatis isolates from 49 clinical cases of canine otitis externa using an in vitro agar diffusion test. RESULTS There were statistically significant differences in activity between ear cleaners, with five showing excellent in vitro anti-Malassezia activity (CleanAural Dog(®), Epi-Otic(®), MalAcetic Aural(®), Sancerum(®) and TrizUltra™ + Keto), two moderate activity (Otodine(®) and Surosolve(®)), one variable activity (Otoclean(®)) and one no activity (Cerumaural(®)). There was a significant overall difference in susceptibility between M. pachydermatis isolates tested (P < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL IMPORTANCE Ear cleaners with activity against Malassezia may help to reduce the unnecessary use of antibiotic-containing polypharmaceutical ear medications. This study shows that the use of a large number of isolates may provide a more accurate account of the in vitro activity of a product.
Systemically Administered Bone Morphogenetic Protein-6 Restores Bone in Aged Ovariectomized Rats by Increasing Bone Formation and Suppressing Bone Resorption*

Although recombinant human bone morphogenetic proteins (BMPs) are used locally for treating bone defects in humans, their systemic effect on bone augmentation has not been explored. We have previously demonstrated that demineralized bone (DB) from ovariectomized (OVX) rats cannot induce bone formation when implanted ectopically at the subcutaneous site. Here we showed in vitro that 17β-estradiol (E2) specifically induced expression of Bmp6 mRNA in MC3T3-E1 preosteoblastic cells and that bone extracts from OVX rats lack BMPs. Next we demonstrated that 125I-BMP-6 administered systemically accumulated in the skeleton and also restored the osteoinductive capacity of ectopically implanted DB from OVX rats. BMP-6 applied systemically to aged OVX rats significantly increased bone volume and mechanical characteristics of both the trabecular and cortical bone, the osteoblast surface, serum osteocalcin and osteoprotegerin levels, and decreased the osteoclast surface, serum C-telopeptide, and interleukin-6. E2 was significantly less effective, and was not synergistic with BMP-6. Animals that discontinued BMP-6 therapy maintained bone mineral density gains for another 12 weeks. BMP-6 increased in vivo the bone expression of Acvr-1, Bmpr1b, Smad5, alkaline phosphatase, and collagen type I and decreased expression of Bmp3 and BMP antagonists, chordin and cerberus. These results show, for the first time, that systemically administered BMP-6 restores the bone inductive capacity, microarchitecture, and quality of the skeleton in osteoporotic rats.
What Have Researchers Learned from Project STAR?

Project STAR was a large-scale randomized trial of reduced class sizes in grades K-3. Because of the scope of the experiment, it has been used in many policy discussions. For example, the California state-wide Class Size Reduction was justified in part on the successes of Project STAR. Recent (failed) proposals for Federal assistance for class size reductions in the Senate were motivated by Project STAR research. Even the recent discussion of small schools often conflates the notion of small schools and smaller classrooms. Because of the importance of Project STAR, it has been studied by many scholars looking at a wide variety of outcomes and even exploiting the randomization using its variation to understand variations in inputsother aspects of the education production function that do not directly relate to class size. This paper provides an overview of the academic literature using the Project STAR experiment.
What Do We Know About Different Systems of Corporate Governance?

Over the last few years, national and international regulators have taken conscious steps to make capital markets—especially those based in Europe—more shareholder-oriented. On one side, these are welcome initiatives as the recent spectacular corporate failures and anecdotal evidence suggest that managers' attitudes definitely need to change and more weight needs to be given to shareholders' concerns. On the other side, there is as yet very little research on the benefits and shortcomings of alternative systems of corporate governance. Evidence from the few existing studies is inconclusive as to whether there is an optimal system of corporate governance and whether such a system already exists in a particular country. The move in one particular direction may therefore be far too premature. Further, some of my own research suggests that very similar changes in regulation—such as changes in takeover regulation—may have very different outcomes depending on the initial corporate ownership and control that prevail in a given country.
PORT REFORM IN AUSTRALIA: ISSUES IN THE OWNERSHIP DEBATE

Australia port reform initiatives have taken on a variety of forms — from out-right sale and transfer of ownership, to the sale of particular assets of infrastructure or services, or to long-term lease arrangements; or in some cases state governments, unable to relinquish control, have opted for corporatization or commercialization strategies. Reform is driven by the belief that ownership impacts on efficiency and efficiency is perceived to suffer if governments either retain ownership or direct control. As a result a major aim of reform is to either remove or distance governments from day to day port operations. The sale of ports removes government control outright and privatized ports are subject to identical regulatory constraints as any company in the private sector. But corporatization strategies are such that government ownership is retained and ports have been transformed into statutory state owned corporations. Effectiveness of this strategy requires legislation to be such that port corporations are free to operate like their private sector counterparts. To date this has not occurred and some serious impediments are emerging which are embedded in legislation and which, rather than reduce, have indeed, increased government control.
The decision usefulness of reported cash flow and accrual information in a behavioural field experiment

Abstract While recent capital market studies tend to reveal some information content in cash flows, their results may not be generalisable to other contexts such as the assessment of solvency. Mandated accounting standards on cash flow emphasise the relevance of cash flow data for assessing solvency. However, there is a paucity of research that specifically investigates this contention. Accordingly, this study investigates the decision usefulness of reported cash flow and accrual information in a behavioural field solvency assessment experiment. Using a two-group between-subjects field experiment design, bankers with at least three years corporate lending experience made solvency judgments using either cash flow cues or accrual cues. We found that, as hypothesised, judgments based on cash flow information were more accurate than judgments based on accrual information. The difference in judgment accuracy was more pronounced for insolvent (failed) companies than for solvent (non-failed) companies. This observation suggests that cash flow information is more decision useful for firms experiencing financial distress. Our results therefore imply that cash flow information has greater decision usefulness than accrual information for assessing corporate solvency and support the mandate of the Statement of Cash Flows. Our results also support the normative arguments of proponents of cash flow reporting.
Role of calcium/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II in the regulation of vascular smooth muscle cell migration.

BACKGROUND The migration of vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs) is a key event in the pathogenesis of many vascular diseases. We have previously shown that VSMC migration in response to platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF) is suppressed when cultured cells are growth-arrested and induced to differentiate. The present study was undertaken to elucidate the mechanism of this suppression. METHODS AND RESULTS While both proliferating and growth-arrested VSMCs upregulated expression of the immediate early response genes, c-fos and JE (monocyte chemoattractant protein 1), growth-arrested VSMCs exhibited much smaller changes in intracellular calcium in response to PDGF and failed to activate the calcium/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II (CaM kinase II). Blocking calcium-calmodulin interactions (50 mumol/L W7) or the activation of CaM kinase II (10 mumol/L KN62) in proliferating cells blocked their migration by more than 90%, whereas inhibition of protein kinase C activation had no significant effect on migration. Pretreatment of growth-arrested VSMCs with the calcium ionophore ionomycin resulted in an approximately 2.5-fold activation of CaM kinase II and increased migration of growth-arrested cells to 84 +/- 6% that of proliferating cells. These effects of ionomycin were blocked by inhibitors of CaM kinase II. Constitutively activated (ie, calcium/calmodulin-independent) CaM kinase II introduced by gene transfection into growth-arrested cells significantly increased migration toward PDGF from < 20% to > 70% that of proliferating cells. CONCLUSIONS These results demonstrate that activation of CaM kinase II is required for VSMC migration, that its activation in response to PDGF is suppressed in growth-arrested VSMCs, and that this suppression of CaM kinase II activation is responsible, in large part, for the failure of growth-arrested VSMCs to migrate toward PDGF.
Human resource management and performance: Evidence from small and medium-sized firms

This article examines human resource management (HRM) practices in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). In particular, by examining the issue of causal order, it addresses a significant gap in the extant HRM–performance literature within the context of such firms. Significant simultaneous and longitudinal relationships between HRM practices and specific performance indicators are found. Controlling for past performance and thus, testing for the potential for reverse causality does not eliminate the significant relationship between human resource practices and performance. In sum, the use of human resource practices is found to positively enhance sustained competitive advantage. By explicitly examining the issue of causality in the human resources –performance relationship, this article makes a contribution to both the human resource and SME literatures.
UNDERSTANDING AND CONDUCTING EVENT STUDIES

Event studies have become one of the most important methodological approaches to empirical research in frnance and accounting. This paper discusses the nature of event studies, differentiating the four basic types: information content, market efficiency, model evaluation and metric explanation. A structure is identified for the conduct of event studies and the steps discussed. Specific studies in the literature are cited as illustrations of various points. Finally, a number of issues of interpretation, evaluation and design are discussed which are crucial to the effective conduct and understanding of an event study.
Politicisation of Conditional Cash Transfers: The Case of Guatemala

type="main" xml:id="dpr12122-abs-0001"> This article complements existing studies on the incumbency effects of conditional cash transfers (CCTs) by analysing the principal mechanisms by which Mi Familia Progresa (MIFAPRO) in Guatemala became increasingly politicised through clientelistic vote buying and threats of programme expulsion in case of non-electoral support. It finds that MIFAPRO constitutes an emblematic case with mixed effects that are particularly relevant in the diffusion of CCTs to other developing countries.
Distance and coupling: analyzing the pressures of accounting change in a city

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to analyze the accounting performance measurement (PM) change process in a Finnish city.Design/methodology/approach – Interpretive case study. Data consisted of 16 semi‐structured interviews. Analysis was based on institutional theory, particularly on “new institutional sociology” (NIS) studies.Findings – Budgeting and accounting PM became coupled into action when various intertwined (mostly institutional) pressures affecting change converged. Perceived crises were found to accelerate accounting change by deinstitutionalization, i.e. by breaking (drastically) existing routines and myths. Further, accounting rules and routines changed somewhat independently. Further, the notion of “distance” between rules and routines clarifies the dynamic nature of coupling of institutional rules and routines. Further, analysis of both internal and external institutional pressures facilitates understanding of the case events.Research limitations/implications – Case studies cannot be .