Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
An Exploration of the Luxury Wine Trade

Despite the public profile of many luxury brands, little is known about the positioning and marketing of these products, or the consumer interpretations of each brand. This article reports on a two‐part study in an attempt to understand the dynamics of this market. The first study reports on the results of interviews with fine wine consumers, distributors, and retailers in Australia. Results reveal that the interpretation of these brands is a complex process, and that their positioning revolves around a number of product and marketing related features. The second study involves interviews with a number of leading producers of luxury wine brands. Results from these interviews examine the positioning of these brands, the evolution of each firm's strategy, and the challenges and benefits from operating in this market.
Health Perceptions of Mexican American Women

This article describes the health perceptions of a sample of moderately to highly acculturated Mexican American women. Using an ethnographic design, the author interviewed 13 women to determine their health perceptions. The interviews were guided by the domains of health described in the World Health Organization (WHO) definition of health. Three broad categories of health perceptions were identified: the physical body, the emotional component, and finding balance. With the addition of a spiritual component, the WHO definition was a useful tool for uncovering health perceptions. The process of in-depth ethnographic interviewing provided a contextual view of health in which the complexity of intrafamilial relationships was revealed, as were the importance of spirituality as a coping mechanism and the perception of health as an integrated, holistic experience.
An inquiry into born‐global firms in Europe and the USA

Companies that internationalise at or near their founding, “born globals,” are emerging in great numbers world‐wide. Characterised by a specific Gestalt of marketing‐related competencies, they are playing an increasing role in international trade. Born globals are investigated using data from case and survey‐based studies in Denmark and the USA. First introduces and describes the born‐global phenomenon. Then, hypotheses are developed and tested via a structural model that represents key factors in the international success of this important breed of firm. Results suggest that born‐global international performance is enhanced in the wake of managerial emphasis on foreign customer focus and marketing competence. Product quality and differentiation strategy also play important roles, particularly in the US firms. These and additional findings are discussed in light of their theoretical and practical implications.
The role of benchmarking within the cultural reform journey of an award‐winning Australian local authority

Wollongong City Council in New South Wales, Australia, won the Australian Quality Award in 1997 and the Australian Customer Service Award in 1998, the first local council to receive such awards. This article presents a case history of the cultural reform journey of the council since 1990, in particular the role played by benchmarking within a wider quality‐oriented programme. The article traces the evolutionary nature of the reform agenda over this period and shows that benchmarking has been introduced at the council in three stages as an integral part of an evolving and maturing culture based on corporate planning, quality, and performance management: stage 1 (process mapping and improvement), stage 2 (process benchmarking), and stage 3 (cost benchmarking). The article concludes by setting out a number of lessons based on the Wollongong experience for the introduction and use of benchmarking as part of a quality‐oriented cultural change programme.
Reliability of the Life Satisfaction Questionnaire to assess patients with chronic musculoskeletal pain

The aim of this study was to determine the reliability of the Life Satisfaction Questionnaire, Dutch version (LSQ-DV), to assess chronic pain patients. The study was designed as test–retest. The setting was the general rehabilitation centre. There were 51 patients over 18 years of age, suffering from chronic nonmalignant musculoskeletal pain. The main outcome measures were weighted κ of test and retest data on the nine questions of the LSQ-DV, and Spearman correlation coefficient (ρ) of the test and retest data on the mean LSQ score. The results were as follows: weighted κ varied from 0.34 to 0.82: eight of the nine weighted κ values were moderate to almost perfect whereas one (‘family life’) was low. The ρ value of the mean score was 0.74. The conclusion was that the reliability of the LSQ-DV in patients with chronic nonmalignant pain treated in a rehabilitation setting proved moderate to good for most domains, though low for the ‘family life’ domain. We recommend using the LSQ-DV in clinical practice and research, although the ‘family life’ score has to be interpreted with caution.
Unbound Valproate Fraction in Plasma and Subcutaneous Microdialysate in Steady State and After a Single Dose in Humans

The aim of the current study was to characterize the observed discrepancy between unbound plasma valproate (VPA) in single dose and steady state in humans. Unbound and total plasma VPA and subcutaneous microdialysate VPA concentrations were estimated in single dose (6 subjects, n = 33) and steady state (11 subjects, n = 110). Trough plasma samples from 14 patients with total VPA concentrations of 300 &mgr;mol/L and 14 patients with VPA concentrations ranging from 600 to 700 &mgr;mol/L were analyzed for the unbound VPA fraction and compared with the unbound VPA fraction in spiked plasma samples from healthy subjects containing similar total VPA concentrations. The unbound plasma VPA fraction was significantly higher (P < 0.001) in the steady-state group compared with the single-dose group. The unbound VPA fraction was significantly higher in steady state compared with spiked plasma samples at high and low total VPA concentrations (P < 0.001). The difference between microdialysate and unbound plasma VPA concentrations was significant in the steady-state group (P < 0.001), while no difference was observed in the single-dose group. The mean (± SD) subcutaneous microdialysate-to-unbound plasma ratio in the single-dose and steady-state groups was 1.08 (± 0.401) and 0.74 (± 0.123), respectively. The ratio difference between the groups was significant (P < 0.001). The results of the current study show that unbound plasma fractions of VPA are consistently higher in steady state compared with single dose. Together with the finding of higher unbound VPA fraction in steady state compared with spiked plasma samples, these results provide indirect evidence of displacement of VPA from plasma proteins by product(s) of VPA biotransformation. In addition, subcutaneous microdialysate VPA levels were consistently lower than unbound plasma levels in steady state but not after single dose. The mechanisms underlying this observation need to be studied further.
A genetic study of febrile convulsions

SUMMARYThe incidence of febrile convulsions was the same in parents and in sibs of 208 children with febrile convulsions–9% or three times the prevalence in the population. The findings and the rate in second- and third-degree relatives were compatible with transmission by a single dominant gene with incomplete penetrance. Half the affected relatives with epilepsy were distant. Rate of epilepsy in parents and sibs, uncles, aunts, and cousins was not higher than the prevalence in the population. 3We found no evidence that some families might differ from others in the mode of transmission nor that some cases were nongenetic. 4] There was clinical and EEG evidence of a different degree of expressivity in some families. Probands with parents, uncles, aunts, or cousins with febrile convulsions had twice as high a rate of recurrence as children with no relatives with febrile convulsions. Probands with a relative with convulsions developed 3-per-second spike-and-wave paroxysms in the EEG twice as often as probands with a negative family history. More than half the probands with solely epilepsy in the family had severe or multiple natal or neonatal complications. When a relative had febrile convulsions, one-fifth of the probands had natal or neonatal complications. 6] Recurrent spontaneous convulsions persisted in 3 children (1.4%), all severely brain damaged. One was a congenital idiot, I had an intercurrent encephalitis, and I was mentally retarded.
Linking Product Development Outcomes to Market Valuation of the Firm: The Case of the U.S. Pharmaceutical Industry*

The purpose of this research was to examine empirically the effects of new product development outcomes on overall firm performance. To do so, first product development and finance literature were connected to develop three testable hypotheses. Next, an event study was conducted in order to explore whether the changes in the stock market valuation of firms are influenced by the outcomes of efforts to develop new products. The pharmaceutical industry was chosen as the empirical context for the present study's analysis largely because the gate-keeping role played by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) provides a specific event date on which to focus the event study methodology. As such, this study's events were dates of public announcements of the FDA decisions to approve or to reject the New Drug Applications submitted by the sponsoring firms. Consistent with the efficient market hypothesis, this study's results show that market valuations are responsive strongly and cleanly to the success or failure of new product development efforts. Hence, one of this study's key results suggests that financial markets may be attuned sharply to product development outcomes in publicly traded firms. This study also finds that financial market losses from product development failures were much larger in magnitude than financial market gains from product development successes—indicating an asymmetry in the response of financial markets to the success and failure of new product development efforts. Hence, another implication of this study's results is that managers should factor in a substantial risk premium when considering substantial new development projects. The present study's results also imply that managers should refrain from hyping new products and perhaps even should restrain the enthusiasm that the financial community may build before the product fully is developed. The effect on firm value is severe when expectations about an anticipated new product are not fulfilled. Managers in effect should take care to build reasonable and realistic expectations about potential new products.
Accurate simple closed-form approximations to Rayleigh sum distributions and densities

Sums of Rayleigh random variables occur extensively in wireless communications. A closed-form expression does not exist for the sum distribution and consequently, it is often evaluated numerically or approximated. A widely used small argument approximation for the density is shown to be inaccurate for medium and large values of the argument. Highly accurate, simple closed-form expressions for the sum distributions and densities are presented. These approximations are valid for a wide range of argument values and number of summands.
Hyaluronic Acid-zinc Protoporphyrin IX Conjugates for Photodynamic Antitumor Therapy

Zinc (II) protoporphyrin (ZnPP) strongly inhibits antioxidative enzyme heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1), and ZnPP generates reactive oxygen species (ROS) upon light irradiation. ZnPP can induce lethal oxidative stress in the tumor, when ZnPP is selectively delivered to the tumor followed by light irradiation. In this study, ZnPP was conjugated to hyaluronic acid (HA-ZnPP) for improving its solubility in aqueous media and tumor selective delivery of ZnPP by the enhanced permeability and retention (EPR) effect. Though photosensitizing activity of the HA-ZnPP was quenched in phosphate buffered saline, it was partially recovered by addition of lecithin. Similar to other polymer-conjugated ZnPP, cellular uptake of the HA-ZnPP was lower than that of the free ZnPP in HeLa cells. In tumor-bearing mice, plasma halflife of HA-ZnPP became longer than that of free ZnPP, and thus selective accumulation of the HA-ZnPP in the tumor by the EPR effect was observed. Combination of the HA-ZnPP and light irradiation potentially suppressed the tumor growth, approximately 60% tumor volume reduction was observed without apparent adverse effects at day 31 after the drug treatment. These data demonstrate that HA is a preferable carrier for ZnPP, and the HA-conjugated ZnPP is a promising antitumor agent for photodynamic therapy.
Retrospective Evaluation of the Relationship Between the First Dental Visit and the Dental Condition of Six- and Seven-Year-Old Children.

BACKGROUND The delayed time of a childfs first dental visit can influence a future dental condition. OBJECTIVES To assess the dental condition of children in relation to the age at which their first dental visit took place and the frequency of subsequent visits. MATERIAL AND METHODS The study involved 584 parents of 6.7-year-old children regarding the age and the reason for the first childfs dental visit, the frequency of subsequent visits and caries preventive counseling obtained during the visits. The childrenfs dental condition was assessed by dmft and DMFT values. RESULTS Nine point five percent of the children first visited the dentist up to 1 year old, 44.0% over 3, and 38.7% have not yet had. The highest dmft and DMFT values were among children having their first dental visit at the age of < 2 . 3. The most frequent reason for the first visit was a check-up (54.3%) and a carious lesion (42.4%). Higher dmft and DMFT values were among children with a symptomatic first visit than with an asymptomatic one. Caries severity in the primary teeth was correlated with the reason for the first dental visit and the frequency of subsequent visits. CONCLUSIONS Caries severity in primary teeth may be predicted by the reason for the first dental visit and the frequency of subsequent visits.
Paediatric exploratory ingestions of paracetamol.

AIM To review paediatric exploratory ingestions of paracetamol presenting to Christchurch Hospital Emergency Department. METHOD A retrospective review of all paediatric patients presenting with paracetamol ingestion over a 12 month period. RESULTS During the study period there were 88 paediatric presentations for possible toxic ingestions involving paracetamol and 85 of these were exploratory self-ingestion. The male to female ratio was 43:42 and the mean age was 35 months. Paracetamol suspension was ingested in 79/85 cases and tablets in 6/85. The mean four hour plasma level was 162 mumol/L and all levels were well below the possible toxic level (1300 mumol/L). There was very poor correlation between estimated dose ingested and plasma level. CONCLUSION Toxicity from paediatric exploratory ingestion of paracetamol is extremely rare. To reduce the potential for poisoning, bottles and prescriptions of paracetamol should have less than a total dose of 4 g. The authors recommend that unwitnessed exploratory ingestions of paracetamol in children require no treatment if the estimated maximum ingested dose is below 140 mg/kg. Above this dose, treatment is based on the result of a plasma paracetamol level drawn four hours after ingestion. Gastrointestinal decontamination should be reserved for the rare occasions of a definite witnessed ingestion of a dose exceeding 140 mg/kg.
Radiosensitization by Pan ErbB Inhibitor CI-1033 in Vitro and in Vivo

Purpose: Overexpression of the ErbB family of receptor tyrosine kinases has been associated with uncontrolled growth of many tumor types and, therefore, presents a promising molecular target for cancer therapy. CI-1033 is a small molecule tyrosine kinase inhibitor that differs from other 4-anilinoquinazolines by being a pan ErbB (instead of epidermal growth factor receptor-specific) irreversible (instead of reversible) inhibitor. Therefore, we investigated the antitumor effect of CI-1033 alone and in combination with ionizing radiation in vitro and in vivo. Experimental Design: We selected three human colon carcinoma cell-lines (LoVo, Caco-2, which express activated epidermal growth factor receptor and ErbB-2 family members, and SW620, which does not), and analyzed the effects of CI-1033 both in vitro and in vivo. For in vivo studies LoVo and Caco-2 cells were implanted s.c. in the flank of nude mice. After the tumor reached ∼100 mm3, treatment was initiated with 20 mg/kg of CI-1033 (orally once daily × 5 for 3 successive weeks), radiation treatment (a total of 30 Gy given in 2 Gy once daily × 5 for 3 successive weeks), or a combination of both CI-1033 and radiation treatment. Results: We found that exposure of LoVo and Caco-2, but not SW620 cells, to CI-1033 in the range of 1–3 μm could inhibit constitutive signaling by tyrosine kinases, arrest cell growth, inhibit cells in G1, stimulate expression of p53, and induce apoptosis. The inhibition of cell growth by CI-1033 seemed to produce only minimal radiosensitization in LoVo and Caco-2 cells. In contrast, the combination of CI-1033 and radiation produced significant (P < 0.0005 and P = 0.0002, respectively) and prolonged suppression of tumor growth in both the tumor types when compared with either treatment alone. Conclusions: These findings suggest that CI-1033 can increase the effectiveness of radiation therapy. The extent of suppression of tyrosine kinase activity by CI-1033, rather than the amount of activity in untreated cells, seemed to be more closely associated with the efficacy of combination treatment.
Inward Exporting of Professional Services: Lessons From an Exploratory Study of Australian Educational Firms

Inward export activities for services companies have been largely neglected in the literature. Little is known about how professional service firms export to overseas consumers who travel to the domestic market of the firm. This study utilizes a resource-based perspective to explore the main barriers and drivers of export performance for professional education services. A case study of Australia's education industry, as well as interviews with executives from four Australian education institutions, was conducted. Findings show that inward exporters confront most barriers in the domestic market where the service is provided, and drivers of export performance combine firm- and country-specific resources.
Survey Into the Seafood Consumption Preferences and Patterns in the Portuguese Population: Education, Age, and Health Variability

ABSTRACT A survey into the seafood consumption preferences and patterns in the Portuguese population was carried out. Consumers were asked to state their preferences toward different kinds of fish products, to indicate their consumption frequencies of a total of 23 products, to mention the average meal portion, and to inform about the usual culinary treatments applied to the raw products. It was observed that the sensory characteristics of each product and cultural habits seem to influence serving size. For horse mackerel and canned sardines, an inverse correlation between education level and consumption frequency was found. Moreover, the consumption frequency of soaked cod, the main salted and dried fish in the Portuguese market, decreased with higher education. Older consumers were much fonder of wild fish and much more unwilling to consume farmed fish than the younger ones. It was also found that obese people deviate from other weight groups in that their preferences and consumption quantities are displaced to foods other than seafood.
Regular and promotional sales in new product life-cycle: A competitive approach

In this paper, we consider the application of the Lotka-Volterra model with churn effects, LVch, (Guidolin and Guseo, 2015) to the case of a confectionary product produced in Italy and recently commercialized in a European country. Weekly time series, referring separately to quantities of regular and promotional sales, are available. Their joint inspection highlighted the presence of compensatory dynamics suggesting the study with the LVch to estimate whether competition between regular and promotional sales exists and how it affects product life-cycle. The study of sales under promotion with respect to regular ones represents a new way of dealing with promotional activities effects, whereas the innovation diffusion literature on new product growth has typically considered the effect of pricing and advertising through the generalized Bass model (Bass et al., 1994). In that model, the total amount of sales, regular plus promotional sales, is analyzed with a univariate approach, while price and advertising expenditures are used as exogenous inputs, without a feedback control. Conversely, exploiting the availability of two distinct time series and studying their interaction, our results show that competition has a symmetric character. Regular sales may access the residual market of those under promotion indicating the beneficial effect of promotional efforts, but the reverse effect is also present. Short-term forecasts on the evolution of the two series are then built with a two stage procedure based on an iterated SARMAX. The predicted values are further validated with observed real data. A comparison with Euler standard predictions is also performed.
A New Paradigm and New Strategies for Shariah-Compliant Portfolio Optimization – Management and System-Oriented Approach

In this paper we analyze the effects of different strategies to construct Shariah compatible financial portfolios. The difference between conventional and current Shariah portfolio management is the application of sector screens and financial screens by which the asset universe is reduced. Yet, here different schools of scholars define different screening rules leading to significant differences with respect to compliance, but also with respect to performance. After analyzing this discrepancy we propose several new strategies to apply the inconsistent rule systems and a new paradigm for defining Shariah-compliance. Under this new paradigm compliance is attributed to the portfolio and not to the individual assets of the universe. We report results of an empirical study analyzing the potentials of these strategies and of the paradigm. We can show that under the proposed concepts Shariah-compliant portfolios can be realized which have return and risk profiles comparable to the conventional non-constrained portfolios.