Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The role of personality congruence, perceived quality and prestige on ready‐to‐wear brand loyalty

Purpose – In today's marketplace, successful branding requires building strong bonds with the consumers, by creating favorable, strong and unique brand associations in consumer minds. This study aims to identify the role of functional (perceived quality) and symbolic brand associations (personality congruence and brand prestige) in creating brand loyalty in the ready‐to‐wear sector from the perspective of Generation Y consumers.Design/methodology/approach – The research employs a structural equation modeling method based on data collected from 564 individuals born between 1977 and 1994. Turkey is chosen as the context of the study based on the fact that the ready‐to‐wear sector is one of the leading sectors in the country and about 30 percent of the population are Generation Y consumers.Findings – The findings of the study reveal that perceived quality has a direct positive effect on brand loyalty, suggesting appearance and product quality perception are critical in the preferences of Generation Y consume.
Simulation of radiofrequency ablation in real human anatomy

Abstract Purpose: The objective of the current work was to simulate radiofrequency ablation treatment in computational models with realistic human anatomy, in order to investigate the effect of realistic geometry in the treatment outcome. Materials and methods: The body sites considered in the study were liver, lung and kidney. One numerical model for each body site was obtained from Duke, member of the IT’IS Virtual Family. A spherical tumour was embedded in each model and a single electrode was inserted into the tumour. The same excitation voltage was used in all cases to underline the differences in the resulting temperature rise, due to different anatomy at each body site investigated. The same numerical calculations were performed for a two-compartment model of the tissue geometry, as well as with the use of an analytical approximation for a single tissue compartment. Results: Radiofrequency ablation (RFA) therapy appears efficient for tumours in liver and lung, but less efficient in kidney. Moreover, the time evolution of temperature for a realistic geometry differs from that for a two-compartment model, but even more for an infinite homogenous tissue model. However, it appears that the most critical parameters of computational models for RFA treatment planning are tissue properties rather than tissue geometry. Conclusions: Computational simulations of realistic anatomy models show that the conventional technique of a single electrode inside the tumour volume requires a careful choice of both the excitation voltage and treatment time in order to achieve effective treatment, since the ablation zone differs considerably for various body sites.
Doping among high school students in Uppsala, Sweden: A presentation of the attitudes, distribution, side effects, and extent of use

The aim of this study was to determine the extent of doping drug use among adolescents in Uppsala, Sweden, and to analyse the main reasons for the use. An anonymous multiple-choice questionnaire was distributed among pupils in the first and the third grades at high school; 2,742 pupils participated in the study. The results showed that 2.7% of the male and 0.4% of the female adolescents had used doping drugs at some time in their life. However, knowledge of how to get doping drugs far exceeded use. The main reasons for using doping drugs were to improve appearance and to enhance performance in sports. Some boys self-reported side effects of AAS. Despite the still predominantly negative attitude toward doping prevention programs have to be taken.
What Do Equity Markets Tell Us About the Drivers of Bank Default Risk? Evidence from Emerging Markets

We use the option-based Merton (1974) model to derive the implicit probability of default of 218 banks in 24 emerging economies in the period 1995-2009 from their stock prices. This solvency indicator is well comparable between banks in different countries since it does not require the selection of bank default criteria. Moreover, the implicit default probability is a continuous measure of bank solvency and thus enables us to analyze the emergence of solvency problems of banks over time. Using a panel estimation approach we find that capital adequacy, asset and management quality, profitability, bank size and the engagement in investment banking are the main drivers of bank default risk from the shareholders’ perspective.
A Three-Stage Model of Integrated Marketing Communications at the Marketing-Sales Interface

The marketing and sales functions in many firms are often at odds despite their common goal of increasing revenue and profit. The finger pointing goes both ways: Marketing complains of poor lead follow-up by sales, and in turn, sales grumbles about the quality of leads generated by marketing. This disconnect can be damaging; high lead volumes generated through effective marketing campaigns could actually hurt downstream sales because of wasted effort on poorly qualified leads and/or delays in sales follow-up resulting from limited sales force capacity. To examine the revenue and profit implications of coordinated communications efforts at the marketing-sales interface, the authors develop a three-stage model that captures the effects of sequential marketing/sales communications on lead generation, appointment conversion, and sales closure. The results, which are based on a collaborative effort with a large home improvement retailer, suggest a complex interplay among marketing efforts (multiple media that generate leads), delays in follow-up (time lag between inquiry and sales force contact), and sales efficiencies (appointment and sales conversion). The findings underscore the impact of multimedia spending on the timing and effectiveness of subsequent communications, implying that improved internal collaboration between marketing and sales can offer significant upside potential for the firm. Finally, the authors develop a managerial decision support tool to simulate the impact of varying communications budgets, timing, and allocation on the marketing and sales planning system.
Surface Drainage and Mulching Drip-Irrigated Tomatoes Reduces Soil Salinity and Improves Fruit Yield

A study on the effects of mulched drip irrigation combined with surface drainage on saline soil and tomatoes was conducted in coastal areas of eastern China, where the crops are subjected to excessive salt. The treatments contained three irrigation rates—200, 250 and 300 m3/ha—and three drain ditch depths—10, 20 and 30 cm. The contents of soil salinity, organic matter and available nutrient were observed, and the tomato plant height, stem diameter and leaf area index during different growth periods were recorded. Results showed that the total removal rate of salt from soil at a 0–1 m depth was 8.7–13.2% for the three drainages. Compared with the control, the treatments increased the content of available N (by 12.1–47.1%) and available K (by 5.0–21.9%) in the soils inside the mulch and decreased the content of available N (by 3.4–22.1%) and available K (by 7.5–16.4%) in the soils outside the mulch. For tomatoes, the plant height and the stem diameter was increased significantly by the irrigations but was not significantly affected by the drainages, and the leaf area index was increased by 0.39~1.76, 1.10~2.90 and 2.80~6.86 respectively in corresponding to the seedling, flowering and fruit-set stage. Moreover, yield-increase rates of 7.9–27.6% were found for the treatments compared to the control with a similar amount of applied water.
An evaluation of voluntary disclosure in the annual reports of commercial banks: Empirical evidence from Libya

The purpose of this research project is to help develop the disclosure literature in relation to the banking sector, which is currently sparse due to the limited empirical research studies on the extent of banking disclosure and its relationship with corporate-specific attributes. Specifically, this study seeks to accomplish four main objectives. One of the main objectives is to measure the extent of voluntary disclosure provided in the annual reports of Libyan commercial banks, over the period 2006 to 2011. The second objective is to examine if there has been any significant improvement in the levels of voluntary information disclosure provided in the annual reports. Thirdly, the study investigates whether there is any significant association between seven commercial bank-specific attributes (i.e. age of bank, size of bank, bank liquidity position, profitability, government ownership, foreign ownership, and listing status) and the extent of voluntary disclosure. Finally, this study explores the views and perceptions of Libyan commercial banks’ annual report preparers related to the current mandatory financial reporting and voluntary disclosure practice issues. This study uses a self-constructed, un-weighted disclosure index, comprising of 63 information items, to measure the extent of voluntary disclosure in 54 annual reports of listed and unlisted commercial banks, over a six-year reporting period. The research data were analysed using content, descriptive and multiple regression analyses. Overall, the results show that the extent of voluntary disclosure in the Libyan commercial banks’ annual reports is low, with an average of 38%, however there was an improvement in the general level of voluntary disclosure and its categories over a six-year period. The multiple regression results indicate that commercial bank size and listing status are significant independent variables in explaining variation in annual voluntary disclosure, while other independent variables are found to be insignificantly associated with the extent of voluntary disclosure.
A decade (2002-2012) of presidential intervention on cassava in Nigeria; the successes and challenges.

Agriculture used to be the mainstay of Nigeria before crude oil was discovered in commercial quantities in 1956. However, Nigeria neglected agriculture in preference to oil due to the oil boom in the early 1970s, resulting in the country to become a major importer of food, particularly of wheat and rice to the detriment of the country’s economy. Hence, the government of Nigeria, which wished to reduce the food importation bill of th e country, pursued a presidential intervention on cassava (PIC) programme. The government created policies that supported the industrialization of cassava, such as 10% cassava bread policy, 10% bioethanol in gasoline and replacement of paraffin with ethano l gel fuel as the cooking fuel. The paper presented both the success and challenges of the PIC in Nigeria. The PIC brought massive investment and employment in the cassava subsector, reduction in the food import bills of Nigeria and increase in cassava yie ld from 10.8 t/ha to 20 t/ha. As a result, Nigeria became the largest producer of cassava in the world. However, the PIC led to some problems, such as the expansion of cassava farm into virgin forest, cassava gluts in some areas of the country whereas scar city in other areas and increased amounts of cassava processing wastes which were among the challenges of the policy.
Correlates of customer loyalty to their bank: a case study in Nigeria

Purpose – This paper seeks to examine how customer expectations, perceived service quality and satisfaction predict loyalty among bank customers in Nigeria.Design/methodology/approach – A survey research was conducted that included qualitative technique to explore customers' expectations from bank services on the basis of which measurement scales were developed to measure the variables of the study. Respondents for the qualitative research include 18 participants for focus group discussions and 24 for in‐depth interview; they were operators of savings, current, and electronic bank accounts. The quantitative research had 247 bank customers who responded to questionnaire items that measured the research variables.Findings – A hierarchical regression analysis carried out revealed that perception of service quality and satisfaction are significant predictors of customer loyalty, with customer satisfaction contributing more.Research limitations/implications – It is implied that management of banks in Nigeria s.
The Rad52 Homologs Rad22 and Rti1 of Schizosaccharomyces pombe Are Not Essential for Meiotic Interhomolog Recombination, but Are Required for Meiotic Intrachromosomal Recombination and Mating-Type-Related DNA Repair

Proteins of the RAD52 epistasis group play an essential role in repair of some types of DNA damage and genetic recombination. In Schizosaccharomyces pombe, Rad22 (a Rad52 ortholog) has been shown to be as necessary for repair and recombination events during vegetative growth as its Saccharomyces cerevisiae counterpart. This finding contrasts with previous reports where, due to suppressor mutations in the fbh1 gene, rad22 mutants did not display a severe defect. We have analyzed the roles of Rad22 and Rti1, another Rad52 homolog, during meiotic recombination and meiosis in general. Both proteins play an important role in spore viability. During meiotic prophase I, they partially colocalize and partially localize to Rad51 foci and linear elements. Genetic analysis showed that meiotic interchromosomal crossover and conversion events were unexpectedly not much affected by deletion of either or both genes. A strong decrease of intrachromosomal recombination assayed by a gene duplication construct was observed. Therefore, we propose that the most important function of Rad22 and Rti1 in S. pombe meiosis is repair of double-strand breaks with involvement of the sister chromatids. In addition, a novel mating-type-related repair function of Rad22 specific to meiosis and spore germination is described.
ANALYSIS OF CONSUMER BEHAVIOR ON PURCHASE INTENTION OF COUNTERFEIT SHOES IN MANADO

The objective of this study is to understand the influence of attitude, value consciousness, social status, perceived price, and past experience toward consumer purchase intention of counterfeit shoes in Manado. The data was collected from 100 respondents that purchase counterfeit shoes and multiple regression analysis was used to test the relationship among variables. The result indicated that the perceived price has significant influence toward consumer purchase intention of counterfeit shoes in Manado. The characteristic of perceived price has substantial positive influence to the consumer purchase intention. The author recommends to shoes producers to pay more attention of the reasons why consumers in Manado consider the price is the main factor that influence the purchasing intention of consumers. Keywords: counterfeiting, counterfeit shoes, consumer behavior, consumer purchase intention
Facial Emotion Detection Using Convolutional Neural Networks and Representational Autoencoder Units

Emotion being a subjective thing, leveraging knowledge and science behind labeled data and extracting the components that constitute it, has been a challenging problem in the industry for many years. With the evolution of deep learning in computer vision, emotion recognition has become a widely-tackled research problem. In this work, we propose two independent methods for this very task. The first method uses autoencoders to construct a unique representation of each emotion, while the second method is an 8-layer convolutional neural network (CNN). These methods were trained on the posed-emotion dataset (JAFFE), and to test their robustness, both the models were also tested on 100 random images from the Labeled Faces in the Wild (LFW) dataset, which consists of images that are candid than posed. The results show that with more fine-tuning and depth, our CNN model can outperform the state-of-the-art methods for emotion recognition. We also propose some exciting ideas for expanding the concept of representational autoencoders to improve their performance.
Lhermitte's sign in subacute combined degeneration of the cord

Lhermitte's sign is a common early symptom of subacute combined degeneration of the cord occurring in 11 out of 44 patients admitted to the National Hospitals for Nervous Diseases during the decade 1962-71 with this diagnosis. Two patients, in both of whom it was the presenting complaint, are described in detail. It is concluded that, in these cases, Lhermitte's sign is due to stretching of demyelinated fibres in the posterior columns in the cervical cord, produced by neck flexion. The symptoms disappear after treatment with vitamin B12. The clinical importance of this symptom is emphasized.
The Art of Lean Software Development

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Is Neutral Really Neutral? The Effects of Neutral User-Generated Content on Product Sales

This article aims to specify the performance implications of neutral user-generated content (UGC) on product sales by differentiating mixed-neutral UGC, which contains an equal amount of positive and negative claims, from indifferent-neutral UGC, which includes neither positive nor negative claims. The authors propose that positive and negative UGC only provide opportunities for consumers to process product-related information, whereas both mixed- and indifferent-neutral UGC affect consumers’ motivation and ability to process positive and negative UGC. The results of three studies using multiple measures (text and numerical UGC), contexts (automobiles, movies, and tablets), and methods (empirical and behavioral experiment) indicate contrasting premium and discount effects such that mixed-neutral UGC amplifies the effects of positive and negative UGC, whereas indifferent-neutral UGC attenuates them. Empirical evidence further indicates that ignoring mixed- or indifferent-neutral UGC leads to substantial under- or overestimates of the effects of positive and negative UGC. The effects of neutral UGC on product sales thus are not truly neutral, and the direction of the bias depends on both the type of UGC and the distribution of positive and negative UGC.
Relaxation of subarachnoid hemorrhage-induced spasm of rabbit basilar artery by the K+ channel activator cromakalim.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Cerebral vasospasm resulting from subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH) is refractory to most vasodilators. However, despite evidence that a mechanism underlying the vasospasm may be smooth muscle cell membrane depolarization resulting from decreased K+ conductance, the ability of K+ channel activators to relax the spasm has not been thoroughly investigated. The purpose of this study, therefore, was to investigate whether K+ channel activation selectively relaxes SAH-induced vasospasm. METHODS Three days after SAH in the rabbit, relaxation of the basilar artery in response to the K+ channel activator cromakalim as well as to staurosporine (protein kinase C antagonist), forskolin (adenylate cyclase activator), and sodium nitroprusside (guanylate cyclase activator) was measured in situ with the use of a cranial window. Relaxation in response to these agents was also investigated in control vessels contracted with serotonin. Membrane potential of the smooth muscle cells of the basilar artery from SAH and control rabbit was measured in vitro with the use of intracellular microelectrodes. RESULTS Cromakalim completely relaxed the SAH-induced spastic basilar artery, while staurosporine, forskolin, and sodium nitroprusside were significantly less efficacious. In contrast, sodium nitroprusside and forskolin were more efficacious relaxants in serotonin-contracted control vessels than in SAH vessels. The K+ channel blocker glyburide and high [K+] prevented cromakalim-induced relaxation. Glyburide did not inhibit forskolin-induced relaxation of serotonin-contracted control vessels. Cromakalim concentration-dependently repolarized spastic basilar artery smooth muscle cells, and the repolarization was prevented by glyburide. CONCLUSIONS These results suggest that K+ channel activation selectively relaxes SAH-induced vasospasm. We speculate that the ability of K+ channel activators to selectively relax the spasm may be due, at least in part, to the underlying inhibition of K+ channels after SAH.
Type X collagen biosynthesis and expression in avian tibial dyschondroplasia.

OBJECTIVE Tibial dyschondroplasia (TD) is an abnormality of growth plate cartilage characterized by the presence of non-vascularized, non-mineralized tissue. The objective of this study was to examine structural and functional alterations of the growth plate-specific type X collagen in TD cartilage. DESIGN Collagen biosynthesis was examined in organ cultures and in cultured chondrocytes from normal growth plate and TD cartilage. Thermal stability of type X collagen extracted from normal and TD cartilage organ cultures to protease digestions by trypsin plus chymotrypsin or bacterial collagenase was determined. The expression of collagen genes was examined in cultured normal and TD chondrocytes. RESULTS Synthesis of total collagen and of type X collagen was greater than threefold higher in organ cultures from the TD lesion compared with normal growth plate. The increase in type X collagen synthesis in the lesion was compensated by a reduction in the relative proportions of types II and XI collagens. The thermal denaturation and collagenase cleavage properties of purified types II and X collagens from TD cartilage were normal. The expression of type X collagen gene was threefold higher in cultured TD chondrocytes compared to chondrocytes from normal growth plate. Normal growth plate chondrocytes in primary cultures synthesized predominantly type X collagen (80% of total collagen). In contrast, TD chondrocytes synthesized mainly types I and II collagens and type X collagen represented only 22% of total collagen. TD cells initiated the synthesis of type I collagen within 5 days of primary culture, whereas normal chondrocytes did not synthesize this collagen during the same culture period. Although type X collagen synthesis was reduced in TD chondrocytes, the mRNA levels for type X collagen were substantially higher than in normal chondrocytes. CONCLUSION Accumulation of type X collagen in TD cartilage results from its increased biosynthesis which is due largely to increased expression of the gene for this collagen, although, the chondrocyte culture studies suggest the possibility of postranscriptional defect in type X collagen synthesis or processing in TD lesion. Moreover, the TD chondrocytes in contrast with normal chondrocytes display evidence of prompt loss of their specific phenotype during short-term primary cultures.
Measuring the Dynamic Effects of Promotions on Brand Choice

Promotions are being used with increasing frequency by manufacturers facing highly competitive markets, which is causing concern among some marketers who feel that frequent promotions can hurt a brand. Nevertheless, there is little empirical evidence to either support or dispel such fears. To fill this gap in the literature, the authors propose a brand choice model that provides an estimate of the dynamic effects of promotions on loyalty to the brand and customers’ sensitivity to the price of the brand, and measures whether promotional purchases reinforce or reduce subsequent response to similar promotions. They estimate a random effects heteroskedastic covariance probit time-varying parameter model on household scanner panel data from the liquid detergent category. Their results indicate that increased purchases using coupons erode brand loyalty and increase price sensitivity. In addition, the authors find that the effect of features and displays on brand choice is reinforced by prior feature and display purchases, respectivly, as well as by feature and display purchases associated with price cuts. Future research directions are also discussed.