Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Perceived entrepreneurial competences tested by business plan pedagogies

Although competence is a central concept in the field of entrepreneurship, research has rarely examined this concept in the field of entrepreneurship education. That is, studies on students' entrepreneurial competences in developing a business plan are scarce. Therefore, the goal of this article is to investigate the effects of two business plan programmes (real and fictitious) on the entrepreneurial competences of management students. The results indicate that the two pedagogies positively influence entrepreneurial competences. However, no significant differences exist between the two teaching protocols.
Subsidizing Migration? Mexican Agricultural Policies and Migration to the United States

Migration theories often ignore the role that states play in stimulating migration through public assistance policies. Using the case of Mexico, this article explores the role of the state as a migrant-producing actor by examining the relationship between migration and social assistance policies in the form of monetary cash transfers. It argues that direct, unconditional cash transfers, like those provided by agricultural programs such as Procampo, rather than providing the incentives needed to retain individuals in their home country, may instead be providing the resources needed to migrate, particularly if the amount of the transfer is insufficient to spur investment. Instead of discouraging migration by enhancing economic opportunities and reducing poverty, such policies can actually make it easier and more appealing for its beneficiaries to migrate.
Protease inhibitor related type III hyperlipoproteinaemia is common and not associated with apolipoprotein-E E2/E2 phenotype

Objective: To determine the prevalence of type III hyperlipoproteinaemia in a cohort of HIV infected patients taking protease inhibitors and its correlation with the apolipoprotein-E2 isoform. Design: Cross sectional study of 57 consecutive HIV infected subjects taking protease inhibitor therapy for a median of 12.5 (1–29) months, seen in an outpatient HIV clinic. Controls were 17 patients on non-nucleoside reverse transcriptor inhibitor therapy (NNRTI) for 9 (1–19) months and 50 antiviral naive patients. Methods: Fasting cholesterol, triglyceride, HDL cholesterol, lipoprotein (a), and glucose were measured. Lipoprotein electrophoresis was performed on patients with a cholesterol >6.5 mmol/l and a triglyceride concentration of >4.5 mmol/l. Apolipoprotein-E phenotype was determined in serum. Results: Dyslipidaemia was found in 43 (75%) PI treated patients—37 with triglyceride >2.3 mmol/l, 30 with cholesterol >6.5 mmol/l, and nine with HDL cholesterol <0.9 mmol/l. 38% had a lipoprotein (a) >300 mg/l. 11 patients (19.3%) had a type III hyperlipoproteinaemia pattern. Only one was homozygous for the E2 phenotype and none had clinical diabetes. An additional patient had a serum lipid profile compatible with type III hyperlipoproteinaemia and an E3/E2 phenotype in whom electrophoresis was not carried out before treatment. Six (35%) of the NNRTI and 16 (32%) of the antiviral naive patients had dyslipidaemia. 18 (31.6%) of the PI and none of the control patients had a cholesterol and/or triglyceride >8 mmol/l. Conclusion: Type III hyperlipoproteinaemia is common in this group of patients and need not be associated with the apolipoprotein-E2/E2 isoform. HIV protease inhibitors may interfere with lipoprotein receptor related protein.
Explaining Franchisors Tendency To Use Multi-Unit Franchising: Development Of A Theoretical Model

In this theoretical paper, we give an overview of the development of literature on multi-unit franchising, discuss the theoretical and methodological deficits, and develop a model for empirical test. The main focus of existing franchising research has been on single unit franchising. Although several empirical studies were published on multi-unit franchising in the last decade, the research deficit primarily results from the lack of theoretical foundation of this ownership strategy in franchising networks. As an attempt to address this research gap, we develop an integrative model. The propositions explain the franchisor’s tendency to use multi-unit franchising in context of transaction cost theory (franchisee’s specific investments and market uncertainty), resource based view (financial resources scarcity), organizational capabilities view (local market know-how and system specific assets) and agency theory (behavioral uncertainty). We plan to empirically test the proposed model in the near future.
The Institutional Sustainability in Protected Area Tourism—Case Studies of Jiuzhaigou National Scenic Area, China and New Forest National Park, United Kingdom

This article considers sustainable tourism development in two protected areas, Jiuzhaigou National Scenic Area in China and the New Forest National Park in the United Kingdom. An inductive approach is used to explore the “fourth component” of sustainable tourism development that is institutional sustainability. Primary data from in-depth interviews, together with a range of secondary data sources, are analyzed to understand the governance and management of each area. These reveal that whilst each area is committed to sustainable development, their approaches differ because of the political, economic, and socio-cultural contexts. The implications for policy and practice are then discussed.
Economic Efficiency of smallholder maize producers in Western Kenya: a DEA meta-frontier analysis

Maize is the main staple food for most Kenyan households, and it predominates where smallholder, as well as large-scale, farming takes place. In the sugarcane growing areas of Western Kenya, there is pressure on farmers on whether to grow food crops, or grow sugarcane, which is the main cash crop. Further, with small and diminishing land sizes, the question of productivity and efficiency, both for cash and food crops is of great importance. This paper, therefore, uses a two-step estimation technique (DEA meta-frontier and Tobit Regression) to highlight the inefficiencies in maize cultivation, and their causes in Western Kenya.
Sport-Specific Decision-Making in a Go/Nogo Reaction Task: Difference among Nonathletes and Baseball and Basketball Players

The present study examined whether Go/Nogo reaction time (RT) is a relevant index of the sport expertise relating to sport-specific decision-making. 57 male university students, 20 basketball players, 24 baseball players, and 13 sedentary students as a control group, performed a Simple RT task and Go/NoGo RT task which had baseball specific stimulus-response relations. Participants in baseball and basketball differed further in having high, medium, and low experience in the sports. For comparisons across sports, the basketball and the baseball players had significantly shorter reaction times than the nonathletes in both tasks. In contrast, reaction times varied significantly across experience for the baseball players in the Go/NoGo RT task but not for basketball players. These results suggested that Go/NoGo RT could be used as an index of expertise for sport-specific decision-making, if stimulus-response relation in Go/NoGo RT task has a natural relation for a particular sport-domain.
Dairy productivity in the Waikato region of New Zealand, 1994-2007

The dairy industry is a major contributor to both the New Zealand economy as a whole and to the Waikato regional economy in particular. The industry is experiencing a period of considerable change with increase in dairy conversion, increased intensification, and increasing use of nitrogen fertilizers, each of which has an associated environmental cost. In this paper, the productivity performance of the mature dairy industry in the Waikato region is investigated using panel data at the sub-regional level from 1994 to 2007. In general we show that, under a range of specifications, productivity growth independent of increasing land use and herd numbers has been significantly below the four percent industry target. This suggests that, if the four percent goal were to be met in the absence of substantial technological progress, further increases in fertilizer use, land use, and/or farming intensity would be required. Key words: Productivity, dairy industry, Waikato, New Zealand.
In vitro assessment of intestinal IGF-I stability.

Insulin-like growth factor (IGF-I) is a 7648-Da polypeptide consisting of 70 amino acids. Clinically, IGF-I might be used in type II diabetes, which requires a life-long treatment. Therefore, delivery routes other than parenteral injections are highly desirable. For convenience, the peroral route is the most attractive. Therefore, in an attempt to answer the feasibility of oral delivery of IGF-I we examined the metabolism of this polypeptide in the gut in the presence of crude porcine pancreatic enzymes (CPPE) and flushings of the small and large intestine from pig, rat, and dog. Moreover, incubation studies with purified pancreatic enzymes that are present in the intestine were performed to determine the most active enzymes responsible for the intestinal cleavage of IGF-I. IGF-I was mainly degraded by chymotrypsin (t(1/2) = 2.7 min) and trypsin (t(1/2) = 34.6 min), whereas in the presence of aminopeptidase M and carboxypeptidase A IGF-I was stable up to 90 min. IGF-I was degraded in flushings from the jejunum, ileum, and colon. However, there were no significant differences in the stability of IGF-I between the examined intestinal segments. The addition of serine protease inhibitors such as a combination of aprotinin, soybean trypsin inhibitor, and Nalpha-p-tosyl-L-lysine chloromethyl ketone (TLCK), as well as casein profoundly improved the stability. Because we were able to improve the stability of IGF-I in vitro in all species at the same degree we speculate that a similar extension of half-life might also be possible in the human intestinal system.
Export implicit financial performance: the case of French wine companies.

Noting the difficulties of measuring a company’s export performance and especially financial performance, we develop a new measurement approach grounded on modern portfolio theory. The export intensities and the global financial performance of exporting companies being known, this approach allows deducing the export margin ratio, export risk and correlation of domestic activities with export activities. Using a sampling from French companies in the wine industry from 2001-2005, these implicit financial export performance characteristics are estimated. Main results found: export activities permit a better global margin-risk relationship essentially due to diversification gains because export financial performance seems to be inferior to the domestic one for a great majority of companies.
Impact of CRM Implementation on Hotel Efficiency: Evidence from the Slovenian Hotel Sector

Managers know that it is easier to get business from existing customers than to attract entirely new customers. Many firms therefore aim to form deeper and stronger relationships with their customers in order to increase loyalty and repeat purchases. A central concept in this regard is customer relationship management (CRM). However, while previous research shows there are benefits attached to forging closer ties with customers, there are also some costs involved. Yet, very little research has investigated the central question of whether CRM endeavours are an efficient use of a firm's resources. In this paper, the authors address this gap and investigate the effect of CRM implementation on the cost and technical efficiency of hotels. They find support for the hypothesis that while CRM increases technical efficiency, it decreases cost efficiency. The authors discuss the managerial implications of their findings and provide directions for future research.
Intergenerational dependence in education and income

This paper takes up Goldberger's suggestion to investigate the links across generations using nonmonetary measures of status. It is found that the links in educational attainment are somewhat stronger than, and statistically significant from, those in income even if the income data are adjusted for measurement errors. This result accords well with the theoretical work of Galor and Zeira and others which emphasizes the role of market imperfections in human capital accumulation persistence.
Economic Value Added - a General Perspective

This paper explains the concept of Economic Value Added (EVA) that is gaining popularity in India. The paper examines whether EVA is a superior performance measure both for corporate reporting and for internal governance. It relied on empirical studies in U.S.A. and other advance economies. It concluded that though EVA does not provide additional information to investors, it can be adapted as a corporate philosophy for motivating and educating employees to differentiate between value creating and value destructing activities. This would lead to direct all efforts in creating shareholder value. The paper brings to attention the dangerous trend of reporting EVA casually that might mislead investors.
Grading bulbar redness using cross-calibrated clinical grading scales.

PURPOSE To determine the between-scale agreement of grading estimates obtained with cross-calibrated McMonnies/Chapman-Davies (MC-D), Institute for Eye Research (IER), Efron, and Validated Bulbar Redness (VBR) grading scales. METHODS Modified reference images of each grading scale were positioned on a desk according to their perceived redness (within a 0 to 100 range) as determined in a previous psychophysical scaling experiment. Ten observers were asked to represent perceived bulbar redness of 16 sample images by placing them, one at a time, relative to the reference images of each scale. Only 0 and 100 were marked on the scale, but not the numerical position of the reference images. Perceived redness was taken as the measured position of the placed image from 0 and was averaged across observers. RESULTS Overall, perceived redness depended on the sample image and the reference scale used (repeated measures ANOVA; P = 0.0008); six sample images had a perceived redness that was significantly different between at least two of the scales. Between-scale correlation coefficients of concordance ranged from 0.93 (IER vs. Efron) to 0.98 (VBR vs. Efron). Between-scale coefficients of repeatability ranged from five units (IER vs. VBR) to eight units (IER vs. Efron) of the 0 to 100 range. CONCLUSIONS The use of cross-calibrated reference grades for bulbar redness grading scales allows comparison of grading estimates obtained with different scales. Perceived redness is dependent on the dynamic range of the reference images of the scale, with redness estimates generally being found to be higher for scales with a shorter dynamic range.
FEMALE PROMISCUITY IS POSITIVELY ASSOCIATED WITH NEUTRAL AND SELECTED GENETIC DIVERSITY IN PASSERINE BIRDS

Passerine birds show large interspecific variation in extrapair paternity rates. There is accumulating evidence that such promiscuous behavior is driven by indirect, genetic benefits to females. Sexual selection theory distinguishes between two types of genetic benefits, additive and nonadditive effects, mediated by preferences for good and compatible genes, respectively. Good genes preferences should imply directional selection and mating skew among males, and thus reduced genetic diversity in the population. In contrast, compatible genes preferences should give balancing selection that retains genetic diversity. Here, we test how well these predictions fit with patterns of variation in genetic diversity and promiscuity levels among passerine birds. We found that more promiscuous species had higher nucleotide diversity at autosomal introns, but not at Z‐chromosome introns. We also found that major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class IIB alleles had higher sequence diversity, and therefore should recognize a broader spectrum of pathogens, in more promiscuous species. Our results suggest that female promiscuity targets a multitude of autosomal genes for their nonadditive, compatibility benefits. Also, as immunity genes seem to be of particular importance, we hypothesize that interspecific variation in female promiscuity among passerine birds has arisen in response to the strength of pathogen‐mediated selection.
Inflation and Economic Growth in China: An Empirical Analysis

Using official provincial data for gross provincial product, consumer price index and other explanatory variables from 1986 to 2006, the present paper investigates the nonlinear effects of inflation on economic growth in China. The main finding of the study is that the inflation threshold effect is highly significant and robust in China. Above the 2.50 percent threshold, every 1-percentage point increase in the inflation rate impedes economic growth by 0.61 percent; below this threshold, every 1-percentage point increase in the inflation rate stimulates growth by 0.53 percent. This indicates that high inflation harms economic growth, whereas moderate inflation benefits growth. We suggest that China should maintain a moderate inflation rate for long-run growth.
Is What's Bad for the Goose (Tenant), Bad for the Gander (Landlord)? A Retail Real Estate Perspective

We explore the economic dependence and financial market feedback effects among firms with economic linkages, notably landlord-tenant when shocks occur to the system. In particular, we examine 157 major tenant bankruptcy announcements of retail real estate firms over the 2000 to 2010 period. The contracting mechanism associated with retail leases provides several unique features such as percentage rents and co-tenancy clauses that are absent in other type of leases. We find that in a good economy, a tenant bankruptcy has a less negative or more positive effect on a landlordâ€™s stock return, which is consistent with the growth option hypothesis. We also find that landlords who have properties located in markets with a highly diversified economic base are more likely to exercise the growth option given a tenant departure and thus realize higher stock returns.
Social capital benchmarking system: Profiting from social capital when building network organizations

In knowledge economy, companies and organizations build sustainable competitive advantages not only relying on their internal intellectual capital but also on the intellectual capital of other companies, organizations and institutions and specifically on those of the cluster, microcluster or territory where the company is located. This kind of intellectual capital, basically external and of a relational nature is one of the main constituents of the networked organization and from now on will be called as Social Capital because it is embedded in the social fabric (texture) of the nearby environment. Social Capital Benchmarking System is both a new management method and a new management tool, that identifies, audits and benchmarks the resources and capabilities or the social capital, existing in alternative cluster locations that are necessary to develop the specific network organization that each particular business model requires. The system has been successfully piloted in five European enterprises.
Measuring hospital nurses’ well-being at work – psychometric testing of the scale

Background: Valid and reliable methods to measure nurses’ well-being at work are needed. Well-being at work refers to a positive viewpoint and experience in a work context. Aim: The aim of this study is to test the psychometric properties of nurses’ well-being at work-scale (NWB-scale). Method: The NWB-scale was tested in a Finnish hospital (N = 233) using statistical methods. Results: The NWB-scale consists of 67 items and 12 factors: patients’ experience of high-quality care, assistance and support among nurses, nurses’ togetherness and collaboration, satisfying practical organization of work, challenging and meaningful work, freedom to express diverse feelings in a work community, well-conducted everyday nursing, status related to the work itself, fair and supportive leadership, opportunities for professional development, fluent communication with other professionals, and being together with other nurses in an informal way. Content validity was good based on expert evaluations. Construct validity of the scale was also very good based on exploratory factor analysis. Reliability (internal consistency) was assessed by Cronbach’s alpha coefficient, which ranged from 0.66 to 0.91. Conclusions: Based on psychometric properties, NWB is a valid and reliable scale to measure hospital nurses’ well-being at work. Extrapolation to other professionals and settings needs required modification and careful testing.
Fostering Growth in the Survivorship Experience: Investigating Breast Cancer Survivors' Lived Experiences Scaling Mt. Kilimanjaro from a Posttraumatic Growth Perspective

The aim of this study was to use an ethnographic case study approach to explore breast cancer survivors’ experiences scaling Mt. Kilimanjaro from a posttraumatic growth perspective. Three breast cancer survivors who participated in interviews and observations during a nine-day climb on the mountain were included in this study. Findings are presented first as three individual case studies and then offered as a cross-case analysis to emphasize themes that illustrated the women’s shared experiences of growing from adversity. Participation in the climb on Mt. Kilimanjaro provided an opportunity for the women to (a) nurture priorities, (b) foster self-belief, and (c) cultivate connections. Future research should conduct investigations into the role of physical activity as a facilitator of the
Can serum estradiol levels on the fourth day of IVF/ICSI cycle predict outcome in poor responder women?

Abstract We aimed to investigate the value of fourth day serum estradiol levels in predicting cycle outcome in poor responders. The medical records of 426 patients with low oocyte yield following controlled ovarian hyperstimulation (COH) treatment for a procedure in our institution’s center for ART between 2008 and 2013 were evaluated. Eighty-eight patients exhibiting poor ovarian response (POR) were included in the study. The clinical outcomes of IVF/ICSI were compared based on the basal hormone profile, clinical, and laboratory parameters. Cycle day 4 E2 levels below 110 pg/ml had an odds ratio of 6.05 (95% CI 2.33–15.7; p < 0.001) for embryo transfer. The early follicular response to ovarian stimulation can be anticipated with the cycle day 4 estradiol levels during COH. When a low day 4 serum estradiol level is encountered, abandoning the current COH and proceeding with agents that increase ovarian response to ovarian stimulation before the next treatment cycle can be a realistic approach.
Labor and product market reforms: questioning policy complementarity

This article proposes a dynamic efficiency wages model with imperfect competition on labor and product markets. In this framework, job insecurity generates a perverse effect on workers incentives, which shifts up the real wages schedule and may yield employment losses. Product market regulation and redundancy payments contribute to reducing labor turnover, thus easing the workers incentive constraint. Consequently, and against conventional wisdom, regulations may have a positive impact on employment, and a substitution effect may emerge across deregulation policies. Moreover, in some cases, a complementarity arises between regulations in product and labor markets, both interacting to ensure more stable labor relations.
Comment on “Apatite 4He/3He and (U-Th)/He Evidence for an Ancient Grand Canyon”

Flowers and Farley (Reports, 21 December 2012, p. 1616; published online 29 November 2012) use thermochronometry to propose that the western paleo–Grand Canyon was nearly as deep 70 million years ago (Ma) as today. However, lithologies, facies relations, geomorphology, and paleotopography of Miocene interior-basin deposits near the mouth of the Grand Canyon show that no paleocanyon existed in that area during filling of the basin, ~17 to ~5 Ma.