Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
An Experimental Investigation of Customer Reactions to Service Failure and Recovery Encounters

This study develops a model that addresses the following: (a) How does a customer's satisfaction with a service failure and recovery encounter affect cumulative satisfaction judgments and repatronage intentions? (b) To what extent do a customer's prior assessments of overall satisfaction and repatronage intentions formed before the service failure and recovery encounter carry over to influence subsequent overall satisfaction and repatronage intentions? (c) Can a highly satisfying service failure and recovery encounter enhance a customer's overall satisfaction with a service organization and increase repatronage intentions? The model is operationalized with data from two experiments conducted in different service settings in which actual customers "experienced" a hypothetical service failure and recovery encounter at an organization they had recently patronized. The results suggest that although excellent service recoveries can enhance customer satisfaction and increase repatronage intentions, viewing service failures as opportunities to impress customers with good service performance may involve substantial risks.
Do international medical graduates reduce rural physician shortages?

OBJECTIVES The authors examined whether international medical graduates (IMGs) constitute a greater percentage of the US physician workforce in rural underserved areas than in rural non-underserved areas. Research findings could help policymakers determine whether the role of international medical graduates in compensating for local physician shortages counterbalances international medical graduates' potential for exacerbating a national oversupply. METHODS This research was based on data from the American Medical Association Physician Masterfile and the Bureau of Health Professions' Area Resource File. The authors calculated the percentage international medical graduates of all US primary care physicians in rural areas, stratified by the Health Professional Shortage Area (HPSA) designation of underservice. RESULTS The study showed that international medical graduates do constitute a greater percentage of US primary care physicians in rural areas with physician shortages than in rural areas without physician shortages. This finding held true at the national, Census region, and state scales of analysis, but to varying degrees. The finer the scale of analysis, the greater the variation in international medical graduates' practice in rural, underserved areas. There was substantial interstate variation in the extent to which international medical graduates practice in rural underserved areas. CONCLUSIONS International medical graduates do help reduce rural physician shortages, but interstate variation points to the role of state policies in influencing international medical graduates' distribution in rural, underserved areas. Such variation also can come about from many different causes, so there is a need for further research to determine why international medical graduates help compensate for physician shortages more so in some states than in others.
Reach for Generation Y: using celebrity endorsement to communicate about nonprofit causes with young people in Australia

The popular contemporary global practice of using celebrities to endorse nonprofit causes can be a constructive means of stakeholder communication that offers the potential to increase awareness of, grow resources for and focus attention on these causes. However, if this communication practice is poorly executed, it risks devaluing complex social problems while more broadly challenging the nonprofit sector's role as a site of social change. This paper offers an analysis of the possibilities and pitfalls of using celebrities to communicate about nonprofit causes to Generation Y stakeholders. Based on findings from interviews with nonprofit leaders who have utilized this communication strategy, it offers an Australian perspective to the growing body of research into the increasingly popular strategy of celebrity endorsement of nonprofit causes. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Cytokine profiles in sickle cell anemia: Pathways to be unraveled

Sickle cell anemia (SCA) is a genetically inherited hemolytic disorder characterized by chronic inflammation. Cytokine expression affects the pivotal pathways that contribute to disease pathogenesis, but the mechanisms involved are not well understood. SCA is associated with a proinflammatory state, and an enhanced inflammatory response occurs during vasoocclusive crisis. The immune system thus plays an important role in this inflammatory condition, with several cell types secreting pro-inflammatory cytokines that contribute to the occurrence of common cyclical events in SCA patients, such as hemolysis, vascular occlusion and inflammation. Studies of these cytokines and chemokines in SCA patients have clarified the mechanisms that underlie this disease and highlighted the need for a better understanding of cytokine participation in SCA pathophysiology.
Employee Turnover in a Local Government Department

This study explored employee turnover in a local government department in Limpopo Province, South Africa. A cross-sectional mixed method design (questionnaires, key informant interview, focus group and document analysis) was used to collect employee turnover data from a stratified sample of participants as well as key role players in the department under investigation. The results of the study show a high overall employee turnover rate and high turnover among younger employees, females and employees in specific job categories. Job dissatisfaction in the department is attributed to poor compensation and better job offers elsewhere, inferior working conditions, and a lack of promotional opportunities. Low job satisfaction is attributed to problematic interpersonal relationships and the autocratic management style of supervisors. The findings of the study provide evidence of the most pressing turnover problems that a government department in a less affluent geographic region experiences. The impact of job satisfaction and job dissatisfaction on the productivity, efficiency and service delivery of a government department is highlighted. A number of human resource practices are recommended to manage employee retention in the department. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2014. v5n2p141
Association of Carotid Intimal Thickness with Fibrinogen & CRP in Diabetic Hypertensives

Diabetes and hypertension are two major diseases which account heavily for overall mortality and morbidity. Various associations have been studied between diabetes and hypertension with different markers to diagnose and assess the severity of these diseases. However, in current scenario carotid intimal thickness, fibrinogen and CRP have been most sought after. Not only these markers help in assessing the disease but also provide a lead to prognosis. The objective is to find association of Carotid Intimal thickness with fibrinogen and CRP in Diabetic Hypertensives. This was a prospective, non-interventional cross sectional study. Subjects were identified using inclusion criteria and investigations were done using standard guidelines. Patient privacy and confidentiality was maintained. In this study CRP was found significantly high in diabetic hypertensives. Fibrinogen was found significantly high in diabetic hypertensives. Carotid intimal thickness was on higher side in diabetic hypertensives. There was significant association between CRP and carotid intimal thickness in diabetic hypertensives. There was significant association between Fibrinogen and carotid intimal thickness in diabetic hypertensives. From this study we can conclude that there is a significant association of markers of inflammation CRP and fibrinogen wit carotid intimal thickness in diabetic hypertensives.
Comparing CEO Employment Contract Provisions: Differences between Australia and the U.S.

This study compares CEO employment contracts across two common law countries: the United States and Australia. Although the regulatory regimes of these jurisdictions enjoy many comparable features, there are also some important institutional differences in terms of capital market, tax, and regulatory structures, which are discussed here. Debate has raged in the United States on the issue of whether executive compensation is efficient and determined at arm's length, or skewed due to a power imbalance between managers and shareholders. A comparative analysis of the kind undertaken in our study provides an additional perspective on the optimal contracting and managerial power models of executive pay in U.S. academic literature. Even if one model has greater explanatory power in the U.S. context, this will not necessarily be the case in other jurisdictions, such as Australia. In order to do our comparison, we create pairs of U.S. and Australian firms that are matched on a number of dimensions including firm size and industry. We find that Australian CEOs have significantly greater base salaries than their U.S. counterparts, while U.S. CEOs are more likely to be compensated with restricted stock and stock options than the Australians. More striking is the fact that U.S. CEO employment contracts tend to last longer than Australian contracts, and are more likely to have arbitration provisions, change-in-control provisions, tax gross ups, do not compete clauses, and SERPs. We also find that Australian contracts are much more apt to include performance hurdle requirements before CEOs can receive restricted stock and options, and restrictions on CEO hedging of restricted stock and options. A number of the contractual differences we document appear to be consistent with key institutional differences between the two countries.
VLR Group Signatures - How to Achieve Both Backward Unlinkability and Efficient Revocation Checks

Verifier-Local Revocation (VLR) group signatures are a particular case of dynamic group signature schemes where the revocation process does not influence the activity of the signers. The verifiers use a Revocation List and in all known schemes, checking a signature requires a computational time linear in the number of revoked members. Usually, it requires one pairing per revoked user. Recently, Chen and Li proposed a scheme where Revocation Check uses exponentiations instead of pairings. In this paper, we first propose a correction of their scheme to enable a full proof of the traceability property and we succeed with a constant additional cost only to extend this tweaked scheme to ensure Backward Unlinkability (BU). This important property prevents the loss of anonymity of past signatures when a user is revoked. We thus obtain the scheme with the most efficient Revocation Check among VLR schemes enabling BU.
Specificità finanziarie delle medie imprese italiane: un'analisi del campione Mediobanca-Unioncamere

The aim of this paper is to offer some empirical insights into the financial decisions of the Italian medium firms in order to point out the factors affecting their capital structure strategy. Then, this paper carries out an empirical comparison of manufacturing leading versus medium companies and, afterwards, of district versus non-district firms as regard their financial decisions and the associated financial characteristics. The Mediobanca-Unioncamere ME sample is analyzed.
A study of the difference between nominal and actual hand forces in two-handed sagittal plane whole-body exertions

Given a task posture, changes in hand force magnitude and direction with regard to joint locations result in variations in joint loads. Previous work has quantified considerable vertical force components during push/pull exertions. The objective of this work was to quantify and statistically model actual hand forces in two-hand, standing exertions relative to the required nominal horizontal and vertical hand forces for a population of widely varying stature and strength. A total of 19 participants exerted force on a fixed handle while receiving visual feedback on the magnitude of force exerted in the required horizontal or vertical direction. A set of regression equations with adjusted R2 values ranging from 0.20 to 0.66 were developed to define actual hand force vectors by predicting off-axis forces from the required hand force magnitude. Off-axis forces significantly increase the overall magnitude of force exerted in two-hand push/pull and up/down standing force exertions. Statement of Relevance:This study quantifies and statistically models actual hand forces in two-hand, standing exertions. Inaccuracies in hand force estimates affect the ability to accurately assess task-oriented strength capability. Knowledge of the relationship between nominal and actual hand forces can be used to improve existing ergonomic analysis tools, including biomechanical simulations of manual tasks.
Characterization of a double‐hit murine model of acute respiratory distress syndrome

The aim of the present study was to characterize a murine model of acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) abiding by the Berlin definition of human ARDS and guidelines for animal models of ARDS. To this end, C57BL/6NCrl mice were challenged with lipopolysaccharide (LPS; 15 mg/kg, i.p.) followed 18 h later by injection of oleic acid (OA; 0.12 mL/kg, i.v.). Controls received saline injection at both time points. Haemodynamics were monitored continuously. Arterial blood gas analyses were performed just before and every 30 min after OA challenge. Ninety minutes after OA challenge, the chest of mice was scanned using micro‐computed tomography (CT). Cytokine concentrations were measured in plasma samples. Lungs were harvested 90 min after OA challenge for histology, immunohistochemistry, lung weight measurements and tissue cytokine detection. A histological lung injury score was determined. Eighteen hours after LPS challenge, mice exhibited a severe systemic inflammatory response syndrome. Oxygenation declined significantly after OA injections (Pao2/Fio2 283 ± 73 and 256 ± 71 mmHg at 60 and 90 min, respectively; P < 0.001). Bilateral patchy infiltrates were present on the micro‐CT scans. Histology revealed parenchymal damage with accumulation of polymorphonuclear neutrophils, intra‐alveolar proteinacous debris and few hyaline membranes. The lung wet : dry ratio indicated damage to the alveolar capillary membrane. Cytokine patterns evidenced a severe local and systemic inflammatory state in plasma and lung tissue. In conclusion, the described two‐hit model of ARDS shows a pathological picture of ARDS closely mimicking human ARDS according to the Berlin definition and may facilitate interpretation of prospective experimental results.
Tubular linear motor position detection by hall-effect sensors

The Permanent Magnet Tubular Linear Motor (PMTLM) system using Hall-effect sensors as the position feedback devices is discussed in this paper. In order to have high precision position detection, simulation by the Finite Element Analysis (FEA) software Flux 2D and real experimentation are conducted. By choosing suitable Hall-effect sensor mounting positions, detecting the axial and radial directions of magnetic field and using double Hall sensors, high precision results are obtained. The results show the possibility of using Hall-effect sensors for linear motor position detection especially for low-cost linear servo systems.
Currents induced in anatomic models of the human for uniform and nonuniform power frequency magnetic fields.

We have used the quasi-static impedance method to calculate the currents induced in the nominal 2 x 2 x 3 and 6 mm resolution anatomically based models of the human body for exposure to magnetic fields at 60 Hz. Uniform magnetic fields of various orientations and magnitudes 1 or 0.417 mT suggested in the ACGIH and ICNIRP safety guidelines are used to calculate induced electric fields or current densities for the various glands and organs of the body including the pineal gland. The maximum 1 cm(2) area-averaged induced current densities for the central nervous system tissues, such as the brain and the spinal cord, were within the reference level of 10 mA/m(2) as suggested in the ICNIRP guidelines for magnetic fields (0.417 mT at 60 Hz). Tissue conductivities were found to play an important role and higher assumed tissue conductivities gave higher induced current densities. We have also determined the induced current density distributions for nonuniform magnetic fields associated with two commonly used electrical appliances, namely a hair dryer and a hair clipper. Because of considerably higher magnetic fields for the latter device, higher induced electric fields and current densities were calculated.
Predictive value and diagnostic accuracy of F-18-fluoro-deoxy-glucose positron emission tomography treated grade 1 and 2 follicular lymphoma

F-18-fluoro-deoxy-glucose positron emission tomography (PET) is a powerful tool for the imaging of aggressive B-cell lymphomas. In contrast, there is relatively little data on PET in follicular lymphoma grade 1 (FL-1) and grade 2 (FL-2). In this manuscript, we present our findings utilizing PET in treated FL-1 and FL-2. A retrospective review of patients who underwent PET examinations at our institution produced 95 PET examinations among 31 patients with FL-1 and FL-2. PET was obtained at initial staging, mid-induction and post-treatment. Results were compared with clinical follow-up. PET had high sensitivity (95%) and specificity (88%) for lesion detection in treated FL-1 and FL-2. Abnormal foci in FL-1 and FL-2 had similar intensities. Post-induction PET positive patients had shorter mean progression free survivals compared with PET negative patients (p-value ≤0.001), post-salvage PET positive trended toward shorter mean response duration compared with negative patients (p-value: 0.09). Our results indicate that PET is accurate in the diagnostic assessment of treated FL-1 and FL-2 and, post-treatment PET positive patients are likely to relapse prior to PET negative patients.
Influentials, Imitables, or Susceptibles? Virality and Word-of-Mouth Conversations in Online Social Networks

Abstract Motivated by the rise of social media platforms that achieve a fusion of content and community, we consider the role of word-of-mouth communications (WOM) structured through a network. Using a data set from YouTube, we examine how cascades of WOM interactions enhance the popularity of videos. We first estimate the impact of channel influence and other network parameters in initiating WOM communications. The probit estimation considers the selection effect in videos that are likely to be associated with a greater propensity to trigger WOM. We find that factors related to a channel’s ability to be a connector and a translator is most likely to result in the incidence of WOM. We then examine how cascades of WOM conversations have persistent impacts on subsequent video popularity. Empirically, the main issue here is heterogeneity in the epidemic potential of a video. Since the threshold might vary across videos, we use a finite mixture model. We also conduct a simultaneous estimation using latent instrumental variables to address endogeneity from unobservables. Our research has implications for researchers and practitioners by highlighting how WOM travels through networks of influence and susceptibility in disseminating awareness, and holds insights in regard to designing social recommendation systems and identifying trending topics in social media.
Can Hedonic Store Environments Help Retailers Overcome Low Store Accessibility?

This paper presents an empirical investigation of the relationship between store accessibility, store type, and commitment. Based on commodity theory, we predict and test whether the hedonic level of a store interacts with store accessibility to change the relationship between store accessibility and store commitment. Results of a field study indicate that the negative effect of low store accessibility on store commitment is dampened in stores that have higher hedonic attributes. The results are replicated in a laboratory experiment, which rules out an alternative hypothesis for the effect. The implications of these findings and directions for future research are discussed.
Logistics Leadership – Logistics Organizations of the Future

Reports on recent research on “leading edge” firms, which shows that logistics plays an important role in a firm′s competitiveness. Details the evolution of advanced logistics management, analyses the essence of logistical leadership and outlines likely characteristics of the leading logistics organizations of tomorrow. Suggests that leading firms use logistical competence strategically to realize competitive advantage. Sophisticated solutions are required and information has come to play a vital role in this regard.
Plasma Concentration of Adrenocorticotropic Hormone in Traffic Policemen

Plasma Concentration of Adrenocorticotropic Hormone in Traffic Policemen: Francesco Tomei, et al. University of Rome “La Sapienza”, Department of Occupational Medicine— The aim of this study is to evaluate whether traffic policemen exposed to urban pollutants and possible psycho‐social stressors could be at risk of changes on plasma adrenocorticotropic hormone [ACTH(P)] levels compared to a control group. Traffic policemen were matched by sex, age, length of service and drinking habit (<50 g of wine or beer per day) with a control group after excluding principal confounding factors; 62 traffic policemen with outdoor activity (34 men and 28 women) and 62 control subjects with indoor activity (34 men and 28 women) were included in the study. The levels of ACTH(P) were significantly higher in male and female traffic policemen than in the control subjects (respectively P=0.040, P=0.043). The authors hypothesise that occupational exposure to chemical and physical stressors, that may interact with possible psycho‐social stressors, could cause a change in ACTH(P) levels in traffic policemen.
Branding and relationship marketing within the trifecta of power: Managing simultaneous relationships in consumer goods marketing

This article examines the relevance of relationship marketing to consumer goods branding. Relationship marketing has not established a strong presence within this sector of marketing, and has been the subject of pointed criticism. The authors argue that the consumer goods branding literature suffers from an adherence to the notion that brand managers and consumers interact directly, and with minimal interference from third parties. The rise of powerful retail channel captains in almost all consumer goods industries, and in almost all developed economies, has rendered this notion obsolete. If the additional complexities of simultaneous relationships between the brand manager, the retailer and the consumer within a 'trifecta' of balanced power within the consumer goods channel are included, then the discipline of relationship marketing has a role to play. The results of a detailed case study of branding within the dairy products category in New Zealand supermarkets is used to support this argument.
Doxycycline Is Anti-Inflammatory and Inhibits Staphylococcal Exotoxin-Induced Cytokines and Chemokines

ABSTRACT Proinflammatory cytokines mediate the toxic effect of superantigenic staphylococcal exotoxins (SE). Doxycycline inhibited SE-stimulated T-cell proliferation and production of cytokines and chemokines by human peripheral blood mononuclear cells. These results suggest that the antibiotic doxycycline has anti-inflammatory effects and is therapeutically useful for mitigating the pathogenic effects of SE.