Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Brand‐Specific Design Effects: Form and Function

Product design is inherently a key component of brand strategy. Accordingly, significant resources are invested to improve product and brand performance; however, foundations for understanding the role product design plays in influencing actual consumer opinions from the marketplace have not been fully explored in the literature. This paper develops a conceptual framework illustrating how two critical design factors�form and function�impact consumer opinion and delineate brand-specific effects. Nonmonotonic effects are identified, as well as the interaction effects of the individual factors among the dimensions. A longitudinal model based on objective measures of form and function is tested with a data set developed from models available in the U.S. automotive market from 1999�2007; it includes 16 firms, 32 brands, and 137 products. The results indicate the relationships between factors of form and function are multifarious and complex, but clearly play a significant role in forming consumer opinions, although they do exhibit diminishing returns. The findings further indicate brand-specific effects exist, and consumer opinions vary by brand. The findings provide foundations for understanding the interplay between product development and brand management. Overall, this research supports the notion that brand strategies can be supported through the management of design dimensions.
Why Twitter Displaces Broadcast Sports Media: A Model

The rising popularity of Twitter and the concurrent decline in audience size for local television sportscasts has fueled concern that the new medium is displacing traditional broadcasters. A model is offered that identifies the salient latent constructs that make Twitter a more attractive medium for connected fans in ways that transcend Twitter’s obvious advantage in timeliness. Issues relating to Twitter’s brevity, the public–private blending of athletes, parasocial interaction between users and who they follow, community building, homophily, and self-presentation are all addressed. The model offers propositions that can be tested by future research and provides guidance to broadcasters willing to adapt to what Twitter offers. Understanding why Twitter engages sports fans in a manner unlike that of previous technologies offers application for sports broadcasters trying to maintain audience share, as well as guidance for researchers seeking to explain the allure of the 140-character medium.
Consumers' utilization of reference prices: the moderating role of involvement

Purpose – The purpose of this article is to investigate whether involved consumers utilize the same set of reference prices to evaluate an offer as compared to those who are less involved. Additionally, this study aims to investigate whether the processes employed in the two groups are different.Design/methodology/approach – A total of 200 students were enrolled to participate in a realistic shopping experience over a two‐week period. In the course of the study, subjects were asked to provide information on their reference prices. They were also asked to evaluate an advertised offer for a pair of jeans. The data were analyzed using a structural equations methodology.Findings – Under high involvement, consumers utilize perceived normal price, an external market‐based reference price, to adjust their internal standards, which in turn is used to evaluate retail price. In contrast, low‐involvement consumers do not use their internal standards. Rather, they evaluate retail prices directly against external mark.
Decidual macrophages: key regulators of vascular remodeling in human pregnancy

Successful remodeling of the uterine spiral arteries is essential for a complication‐free pregnancy and is best described in terms of its morphologic features. The molecular mediators and cellular sources of spiral artery remodeling are not known, although a role for uterine leukocytes has been proposed. Immunohistochemical assessment of placental bed biopsies demonstrated uterine NK cells, macrophages, and T lymphocytes in the wall and adventitia of spiral arteries at different stages of remodeling, regardless of the presence of extravillous trophoblast cells. Leukocytes were more prevalent in vessel adventitia than wall, and macrophages were the most abundant leukocyte population. Macrophages, separated from early pregnancy decidua, did not alter extravillous trophoblast cells invasion or vascular smooth muscle cell organization or differentiation status but did induce extracellular matrix breakdown (reduced immunostaining of laminin, P = 0.05; fibronectin, P = 0.02) and were able to phagocytose apoptotic vascular smooth muscle cells. Decidual macrophages were shown to secrete a wide range of cytokines (IL‐1β, ‐2, ‐4, ‐5, ‐6, ‐8, ‐10, and ‐13 and TNF‐α), proteases (matrix metalloproteinase‐1, ‐2, ‐7, ‐9, and ‐10), and angiogenic growth factors (angiogenin, keratinocyte growth factor, fibroblast growth factor B, vascular endothelial growth factor A, and angiopoietin‐1 and ‐2). We conclude that spiral artery remodeling involves the coordinated activity of a range of cell types, including extravillous trophoblast cells, decidual uterine NK cells, and macrophages in a carefully, spatiotemporally regulated manner.
The Nature of Entrepreneurship under Extreme and Marginalized Conditions – The Case of Kosova

The Case Study section of the International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Innovation serves two purposes. First, the case studies presented are concerned with problematical issues that are pertinent to students of entrepreneurship. Thus they constitute appropriate teaching and learning vehicles on a variety of postgraduate and undergraduate programmes. Each case study is accompanied by a set of guidelines for the use of tutors. Second, it is envisaged that those engaged in entrepreneurial activities will find the cases both interesting and useful. The teaching aim of this case study is to offer students an alternative standpoint on entrepreneurship development. This case study is built on the case of Kosova, which is considered as a unique environment for entrepreneurship due to its extreme and marginalized conditions for entrepreneurial activities. It emphasizes the role of political and social developments and their influence on entrepreneurship in Kosova. The case also highlights several barriers and opportunities to doing business in such an extreme environment.
Community and cluster centre residential services for adults with intellectual disability: long-term results from an Australian-matched sample.

BACKGROUND Changes in residential accommodation models for adults with intellectual disability (ID) over the last 20 years in Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States have involved relocation from institutions primarily into dispersed homes in the community. But an evolving alternative service style is the cluster centre. METHODS This paper reports on the relocation of a matched group of 30 pairs of adults with moderate and severe IDs and challenging behaviour who were relocated from an institution into either dispersed housing in the community or cluster centres but under the same residential service philosophy. Adaptive and maladaptive behaviour, choice-making and objective life quality were assessed prior to leaving the institution and then after 12 and 24 months of living in the new residential model. RESULTS Adaptive behaviour, choice-making and life quality increased for both groups and there was no change in level of maladaptive behaviour compared with levels exhibited in the institution. However, there were some significant differences between the community and cluster centre group as the community group increased some adaptive skills, choice-making and objective life quality to a greater extent than the cluster centre group. CONCLUSIONS Both cluster centre and dispersed community living offer lifestyle and skill development advantages compared with opportunities available in large residential institutions. Dispersed community houses, however, offer increased opportunities for choice-making, acquisition of adaptive behaviours and improved life quality for long-term institutionalized adults with IDs.
Employees’ perceptions of symbolic corporate identity elements and employer-employee relationships at Lonmin Platinum

Apart from historical and contextual factors complicating the mining industry, Lonmin Platinum’smanagement of employee relationships was further complicated by its diverse workforce ofapproximately 20 000 employees consisting of literates, semi-literates and illiterates. In addition,the company comprised five business units, each with their own corporate identity. Within thiscontext it was expected that Lonmin’s relationship with its employees would take some strain.While the relationship between corporate image and stakeholder management has been debated,the impact of symbolic corporate identity elements on specific relationship dimensions has not yetbeen investigated and is addressed in this article by means of the following research question:What is the relationship between employees’ perceptions of symbolic corporate identity elementsand employer-employee relationships at Lonmin Platinum? This study indicated a relationship between employees’ perceptions of how effectively the company reached it objectives, specifically a safe working environment, a healthy working environment,socio-economic empowerment and accountability, and the quality of its employee relationships.
Endogenous Canine FIX Antigen Exists in Chapel Hill Strain Hemophilia B Canine

The Chapel Hill strain (CH) hemophilia B canines are well characterized animal models of hemophilia B extensively used to evaluate treatment for hemophilia B (1). The application of gene therapy towards treatment of hemophilia B relies heavily on the use of the hemophilia B canine model (2, 5). A missense point mutation (14477 G A) in the coding sequence of canine FIX (cFIX) has been identified as the molecular defect in the CH canine (6). The point mutation results in the substitution of glutamic acid for glycine at amino acid 379 in the catalytic domain of the molecule. Aberrant protein folding of the cFIX molecule leads to a lose of function. mRNA isolated from CH canine hepatocytes is quantitatively and qualitatively indistinguishable from mRNA isolated from normal dogs. However, CH cFIX antigen was not detected in plasma by ELISA or radioimmunoassay. Thus CH canines are considered CRM negative (cFIX antigen) (6). We found it interesting that these animals rarely produce FIX inhibitor following plasma transfusion (2, 3), which might be expected if the animals were CRM+ (7). In our studies characterizing recombinant cFIX expression following gene transfer in the Chapel Hill canines, we routinely detected endogenous mutant cFIX antigen using Western blot analysis. The plasma of CH and normal canines was obtained from the Francis Owens Blood Research Laboratory (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill). Whole blood clotting time (WBCT) and activated partial thromboplastin time (APTT) assays confirmed that the plasma isolated from the hemophilic dogs had no detectable functional activity. Whereas ELISA results consistently demonstrated 1% of cFIX, Western Blot demonstrated normal levels of CH cFIX (Fig. 1). Polyclonal sheep anti-cFIX antibody (Affinity Biological, Inc., Canada) conjugated to horseradish peroxidase reproducibly detected an apparent 61 Kd protein. A smaller 50 Kd cleavage product was observed at low dilutions of plasma. These results are consistent with a previous report of purified normal canine factor IX (8). In addition, using a monoclonal mouse anti-human FIX antibody (Haematologic Technologies, Inc., Vermont) previously reported as specific for cFIX (8), we observed the same Western blot results (data not shown). These results suggest that denaturing conditions expose epitopes not accessible for antibody binding. Our finding that the Chapel Hill strain is CRM+, may explain the lack of inhibitor development in this hemophilia B animal model. The recent description of a transient inhibitor to cFIX following gene transfer in the CH dogs can not be attributed to the fact that the animals are CRM+ (3). This suggests that characterization of the inhibitor response in the CH dogs warrant further study.
The News Effect and Asset Pricing in Taiwan Stock Market

This study investigates the relationship between the news effect and the abnormal returns. The content analysis is applied to quantify the public news related to the listed stocks in the Taiwan Stock Market. By Referring to Demers and Vega (2011), this study constructs the net optimism of public news (SR) and considers the SR as the proxy variable of news effect. The study samples are the listed stocks in the Taiwan Stock Exchange for the period from January 2004 through December 2012. The portfolios are established by sorting the SR and the news effect is measured by the high portfolio SR minus the low portfolio SR. By following the methodology of Florackis, Gregoriou and Kostakis (2011), we estimate the abnormal returns of SR portfolios by using the asset pricing models that involve the single-factor model of Black, Jensen and Scholes (1972), three-factor model of Fama and French (1993) and the four-factor model of Carhart (1997). The empirical results show that there is a significant positive relationship between the net optimism of public news (SR) and the abnormal returns. The strategy of positive excess returns could be generated by buying stocks with high SR and shorting stocks with low SR. In addition, the two-stage regression analysis of Fama and MacBeth (1973) is applied to examine whether the news effect could explain the portfolios abnormal returns in the Taiwan Stock Market. The empirical results show that the news effect extracted from the public information could increase the explanatory of abnormal returns. The public news could explain the anomalies in the financial theories if it is investigated properly which is consistent to the findings of Vega (2006), Tetlock (2007), Tetlock, Saar-Tsechansky and Macskassy (2008) and Demers and Vega (2011).
The Role of Market Orientation and Organizational Innovativeness in Enhancing the Supply Chain Agility of Korean Apparel Firms

This study investigates the effects of two organizational variables (market orientation and organizational innovativeness) and the interaction between these two variables on supply chain agility as well as examines the moderating effect of 1) firm size and 2) the extent of global sourcing. Employing a web-based e-mail survey method, the study issued 1,320 questionnaires to South Korea apparel manufacturing companies; data from 147 completed surveys were analyzed. Market orientation, organizational innovativeness, and the interaction between the two variables positively affect supply chain agility. Firm size and global sourcing do not have any significant moderating effects on the relationship between organizational characteristics and supply chain agility. Companies with high market orientation and high organizational innovativeness have more agile supply chains than companies with only market orientation or organizational innovativeness. Firms need to effectively enhance market orientation and organizational innovativeness simultaneously to enhance supply chain agility. The lack of a moderating effect from firm size suggests that all companies should promote a greater degree of market orientation and organizational innovativeness to enhance supply chain agility regardless of firm size.
Protein 2A is not required for Theiler's virus replication

Nonpolar mutations were introduced into all 12 regions of the genome of Theiler's murine encephalomyelitis virus. In agreement with data previously reported for other picornaviruses, mutations in regions 2B, 2C, 3A, 3B, 3C, and 3D totally abrogated viral RNA replication. Viruses with deletions in each of the capsid proteins retained RNA replication proficiency, although they were unable to propagate from cell to cell. As reported previously, mutations in the leader protein did not impair RNA replication or virus production in BHK-21 cells. Surprisingly, region 2A also appeared to be dispensable for the replication process. Indeed, up to 77 of the 133 amino acids of 2A could be deleted without significantly affecting RNA replication. 2A mutant viruses had only a slow cytopathic effect for BHK-21 cells and were totally avirulent for mice. As was the case for mutants lacking the leader protein, viruses with deletions in 2A propagated in BHK-21 cells, but their propagation was highly restricted in L929 cells.
Relaxant effect of ketamine and its isomers on histamine-induced contraction of tracheal smooth muscle.

The mechanism by which racemic (R(+/-)) ketamine relaxes airway smooth muscle is unclear and there is no information on the differential effects of ketamine and its isomers. In this study, we have examined the spasmolytic effect of R(+/-) ketamine and its isomers S(+) and R(-) ketamine and the role of intracellular calcium and opioid receptors in R(+/-) ketamine-induced relaxation. The tension of isolated guinea pig tracheal strips was measured isometrically with a force displacement transducer and contraction elicited with histamine 10(-5) mol litre-1. In histamine-preconstricted strips, the two ketamine isomers (4.5-18.0 x 10(-4) mol litre-1) produced equipotent relaxation. A subthreshold dose of each isomer of ketamine (10(-4) mol litre-1) which alone did not relax histamine-induced contraction (S(+), P < 0.01; R(+/-), P < 0.01; R(-), P < 0.05) significantly potentiated adrenaline 1.25-5.0 x 10(-9) mol litre-1-induced relaxation (potency: S(+) > R(+/-) > R(-)). Increase in extracellular Ca2+ (1.8-14.4 x 10(-3) mol litre-1) significantly reduced R(+/-) ketamine-induced relaxation. S(-) Bay K 8644, at concentrations up to 2.0 x 10(-6) mol litre-1, partially antagonized R(+/-) ketamine-induced relaxation whereas at 10(-5) mol litre-1 or higher it potentiated the response. Naloxone 1.5-6.0 x 10(-6) mol litre-1 did not affect the relaxation caused by R(+/-) ketamine. We conclude that although both ketamine isomers produced equipotent spasmolytic effects on airway smooth muscle precontracted with histamine, they differed in their ability to potentiate the relaxing effect of adrenaline. S(+) ketamine produced the greatest potentiation. Changes in intracellular Ca2+ level secondary to a reduction in the L-type Ca2+ current may partially mediate the spasmolytic effect of R(+/-) ketamine.
Academic Achievement and the Implementation of School-wide Behavior Support

Recent research indicates that school-wide positive behavior is associated with decreased exclusionary, reactive and punitive discipline practices (Horner, Sugai, Todd, & Lewis-Palmer, 2005; Luiselli, Putnam, & Sunderland, 2002), increased student satisfaction (Lewis-Palmer, Horner, Sugai, Eber, & Phillips, 2002), and improved perceptions of school safety (Schneider, Walker, & Sprague, 2000). Our focus in this review is on research examining the relationship between school-wide behavior support and improved academic performance. First, we review the relationship between academic achievement and problem behavior. Second, we consider relationships between school-wide positive behavior support and improved academic performance as measured by grades and standardized test performance. Third, we explore why school-wide positive behavior support should improve academic performance. We end with the summary of relationships between achievement and behavior as well as recommendations for further research.
Government Bonds in Domestic and Foreign Currency: The Role of Institutional Factors

This paper studies how institutional factors affect the size and currency composition of government bonds for a large sample of economies. Important for the debate on limiting financial crises, we find that less flexible exchange rate regimes are associated with larger foreign currency bond markets, suggesting countries either aim to signal their commitment to a fixed exchange rate regime or face moral hazard from international bailouts. We also find evidence that bigger economies with wider domestic investor bases have relatively larger domestic currency and smaller foreign currency bond markets. And foreign investor demand is mainly geared to foreign currency bonds.
The Aggregate News Confidence Index by Linguistic Analysis

We construct a market aggregate news confidence index (ANCI) by collecting the huge Chinese financial news related to each stock listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange. ANCI is constructed by using linguistic analysis which could also be a sentiment proxy for the decision reference. The empirical results show that daily ANCI could be a leading index to the trading volume, trading value, turnover and volatility index in the Taiwan stock market. On the other hand, weekly and monthly ANCI could be a leading index to the market returns. We find that trading volume, trading value, turnover ratio and volatility index will increase when the previous daily or weekly ANCI is positive. On the other hand, the investors’ fear gauge of the volatility index decreases when the lagged term of ANCI increases. The application of portfolio management confirms that investors could buy selected portfolios with lower turnover, smaller size or lower stock price to book value while the higher confident scenarios is distinguished. This study contributes to previous studies that the degree of confidence reflected by the qualitative news reports should be incorporated in the field of the sentiment proxy for decision making.
Response to intracranial hypertension treatment as a predictor of death in patients with severe traumatic brain injury.

OBJECT The normalization of increased intracranial pressure (ICP) in patients with severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) is assumed to limit secondary brain injury and improve outcome. Despite evidence-based recommendations for monitoring and treatment of elevated ICP, there are few studies that show an association between response to ICP-directed therapeutic regimens and adjusted mortality rate. This study utilizes a large prospective database to examine the effect of response to ICP-lowering therapy on risk of death within the first 2 weeks of injury in patients who sustained TBI and are older than 16 years. METHODS The current study is based on 1426 patients with severe TBI (Glasgow Coma Scale [GCS] score < 9) of whom 388 were treated for elevated ICP (> 25 mm Hg) between 2000 and 2008 at 22 trauma centers enrolled in a New York State quality improvement program. This prospectively collected database also contains information including age, admission GCS score, pupillary status, CT scanning parameters, and hypotension, which are all known early prognostic indicators of death. Treatment of elevated ICP consisted of administration of mannitol, hypertonic saline, barbiturates, and/or drainage of CSF or decompressive craniectomy. The factors predicting ICP response to treatment and predicting death at 2 weeks were evaluated using logistic regression analyses. RESULTS Increasing age and fewer hours of elevated ICP on Day 1 were found to be significant predictors (p = 0.001 and 0.0003, respectively) of a positive response to treatment. Response to ICP-lowering therapy (p = 0.03), younger age (p < 0.0001), fewer hours of elevated ICP (p < 0.0001), and absence of arterial hypotension on Day 1 (p = 0.001) significantly predicted reduced risk of death. CONCLUSIONS Patients who responded to ICP-lowering treatment had a 64% lower risk of death at 2 weeks than those who did not respond after adjusting for factors that independently predict risk of death.