Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Influence of Supplier Appraisal on Procurement Performance in the Real Estate Industry in Kenya: A case study of International House Ltd.

Procurement has increased in importance exponentially, as it has become a corporate weapon to realize organizational competitiveness. Thus, the function performance is of paramount importance to organizations in achieving their competitive advantage. To achieve this, supplier management becomes a critical issue. However, many organizations fail to carry out the supplier appraisal programs and when it is done it is not well structured and does not achieve the desired results. This study sought to establish the influence that the supplier appraisal has on the procurement performance in the real estate industry. It deeply studied how supplier appraisal criteria, models, practices and supplier development influence procurement performance. To achieve this objective, the study employed a descriptive research design. The data was collected using a questionnaire from the employees of International House Ltd. The study used stratified sampling method in coming up with a sample size of 36. The collected data was edited, coded and entered for analysis using statistical package for analysis (SPSS) version 17. Descriptive statistics such as frequencies and percentages and augmented with measures of central tendency (mean) and dispersion (standard deviation) were used. Additionally, multiple linear regression analysis was conducted to determine the relationship between dependent and independent variables. The findings were presented in pie charts, bar graphs, and tables for clarity. The study established that the research model predicts 57.1% of the procurement performance in the real estate industry.
Auditory responses from the frontal cortex in the short‐tailed fruit bat Carollia perspicillata

Based on neuroanatomical findings it was hypothesized that an area in the bat frontal cortex is part of a sensorimotor feedback loop and probably important to goal-directed behaviors guided by auditory information. The present report describes the basic stimulus preferences and response properties of neurons from this area in the short-tailed fruit bat Carollia perspicillata. Responses to acoustic stimuli mimicking biosonar pulse-echo (i.e. FM-FM) combinations were found to be facilitated throughout but only rarely exhibited tuning to pulse-echo delay. As opposed to the often sharply delay-tuned FM-FM neurons in the species' auditory cortex, frontal cortical FM-FM neurons seem to be suited for indicating the presence of an insonified object irrespective of its distance and hence are likely to function as novelty detectors and to trigger changes in the bats' orientation behavior.
Small and Medium Enterprise Development in Sri Lanka: A Review

Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) play an important role in any economy through generation of employments,contributing to the growth of GDP,embarking on innovations and stimulating of other economic activities.This sector is said to be the backbone of all developed and developing nations. So, the development of this sector is paramount important for any country irrespective of their level of development.This is even more important to developing countries where poverty and unemployment are the persisting problems in those economies. Having understood this fact, successive governments in Sri Lanka have taken various steps, from time to time, to promote this vital sector since independence. But,when analyzing the present contribution of this sector in the national economy,it is clear that the sector has not achieved desired level of contribution when compared with other developed and developing countries in the region.So,there seems to be a vast opportunity for Sri Lanka to harness the opportunity by developing this vital sector.So,the objective of this paper is to provide a brief overview of SME sector in Sri Lanka,and to make suggestion for enhancing the capacities of SMEs for a sustainable development in Sri Lanka.
Changes in lipid oxidation stability and antioxidant properties of avocado in response to 1-MCP and low oxygen treatment under low-temperature storage

Avocado (Persea americana Mill.) pulp is rich in unsaturated fatty acids, including oleic, linoleic, and palmitoleic acids, which tend to oxidize during storage. Oxidation of avocado oil in pulp can lead to the formation of volatile compounds responsible for off-flavors and to nutritional losses. Antioxidant systems in cells inhibit lipid oxidation and thus may contribute to protection against oxidative deterioration of fatty acids. The aim of this study was to determine the fatty acid profile of avocado pulp and to evaluate the extent of lipid oxidation and antioxidant properties of avocado pulp resulting from treatment with 1-methylcyclopropane (1-MCP) prior to low O 2 treatment under low-temperature storage conditions. The avocado (cv. Fuerte) fruit was treated with 1 µL L-1 1-MCP for 24 h at 20oC, stored at 5oC for 21 days under a low O 2 atmosphere (3.5% O 2 and 96.5% N2), and then stored at 20oC for 14 days to simulate shelf storage conditions. We found that combined treatment of avocados with 1-MCP and low O 2 and under low-temperature storage conditions lowered peroxide levels and increased iodine levels, which effectively controlled lipid oxidation and ripening. In the sensory evaluation test, off-flavors were not identified in either the treated or control avocado pulp at the early stages of ripening but were identified in the control at the over-ripe stage. Avocado fruit treated with 1-MCP and low O 2 had higher saturated fatty acid (palmitic acid) and lower mono-unsaturated fatty acid (oleic acid and palmitoleic acid) than controls. In control fruit, total antioxidant activity, SOD activity, and α-tocopherol content decreased under low-temperature and room temperature storage conditions. Under the same conditions, fruit treated with 1-MCP and low O 2 had increased total antioxidant activity, SOD activity, and α-tocopherol content. Taken together, these results show that pre-storage treatment of avocado fruit with a combination of 1-MCP and a low O 2 atmosphere effectively reduces lipid oxidation by enhancing the antioxidant activity of avocado pulp.
The role of attitude and intentions in the adoption of banking services by Tanzanians

In recent years the African banking industry has received much attention from international investors. The international attention received by Africa is due to trends such as globalisation and the profit potential that exists at the bottom of the economic pyramid. Within Africa, Tanzania has become a hub of investment for both international and South African banks. Banks such as South African based First National Bank have publically stated that one of their main priorities at the moment is securing the bank as a participator in the Tanzanian financial service industry. The Tanzanian banking market is currently served by fourty-eight banks and the minister of finance encourages further investment and entry into the country. Despite the large number of banks in Tanzania, the penetration rate of banked individuals remains low with approximately nine per cent of the population being members of the formal banking system. The low penetration indicates the Tanzanian population’s reluctance or inability to partake in the banking sector. Research suggests that poor attitudes held by Tanzanians towards the banking industry are a key factor causing the low penetration rate of banking in the country. While consumer behaviour literature has found that attitudes exert a critical influence on consumers’ behavioural intention, attitudes cannot be viewed as the sole predictor of behaviour. The Theory of Planned Behaviour, that evolved from the Theory of Reasoned Action, extends the relationship between attitudes and intentions to include the influence of subjective norms and perceived behavioural control. Thus the Theory of Planned Behaviour states that behavioural intentions are determined by: (1) attitudes, (2) subjective norms and (3) perceived behavioural control.
Physical fitness as a determinant of vagal modulation.

The association between increasing age and decreasing vagal modulation is well known. However, the importance of fitness as a determinant of the decline in vagal modulation with age is not established. To test the hypothesis that decreasing vagal modulation is largely a function of declining fitness rather than increasing age, we studied a sample of healthy volunteers with a wide range of fitness levels, but a narrow age range. We assessed fitness by measuring the maximal oxygen uptake (VO2max) achieved during incremental bicycle exercise. Vagal modulation was assessed by calculating high frequency power (0.15-0.40 Hz) of the RR variability power spectrum from 24-h ECG recordings. We studied 37 healthy volunteers who were 22-44 yr old. In our sample, VO2max ranged from 25 to 70 mL.min-1.kg-1 (mean of 45 +/- 13). Age was not significantly related to high frequency power, but VO2max was highly correlated with high frequency power (r = 0.74, P = 0.0001), indicating that physical fitness is strongly associated with vagal modulation. Thus, the decline in vagal modulation often attributed to increasing age may, instead, be the result of a decline in fitness.
Unravelling the structure of the lamellipodium

Pushing at the cell front is the business of lamellipodia and understanding how lamellipodia function requires knowledge of their structural organization. Analysis of extracted, critical‐point‐dried cells by electron microscopy has led to a current dogma that the lamellipodium pushes as a branched array of actin filaments, with a branching angle of 70°, defined by the Arp2/3 complex. Comparison of different preparative methods indicates that the critical‐point‐drying‐replica technique introduces distortions into actin networks, such that crossing filaments may appear branched. After negative staining and from preliminary studies by cryo‐electron tomography, no clear evidence could be found for actin filament branching in lamellipodia. From recent observations of a sub‐class of actin speckles in lamellipodia that exhibit a dynamic behaviour similar to speckles in the lamella region behind, it has been proposed that the lamellipodium surfs on top of the lamella. Negative stain electron microscopy and cryo‐electron microscopy of fixed cells, which reveal the entire complement of filaments in lamellipodia show, however, that there is no separate, second array of filaments beneath the lamellipodium network. From present data, we conclude that the lamellipodium is a distinct protrusive entity composed of a network of primarily unbranched actin filaments. Cryo‐electron tomography of snap‐frozen intact cells will be required to finally clarify the three‐dimensional arrangement of actin filaments in lamellipodia in vivo.
Urban specialization in the internet age: Empirical findings for Germany

Declining spatial transaction costs will affect patterns of urban specialization. The underlying hypothesis is that production locations of goods and services which require face-to-face contacts will continue to be concentrated in core cities of large agglomerations even in the Internet age while locations of standardized production activities with a high codified information content will spread to more peripheral locations. The paper provides empirical evidence on changes in employment specialization patterns of nine different types of German districts (ranging from core cities of agglomerations to low density rural districts) for the period 1976 to 2002. Obviously there is an increasing concentration of "white collar" employees relative to "blue collar" workers in core cities which even gains momentum in particular in the second half of the 1990s.
Internal Auditors' Perceptions of the Effectiveness of Red Flags to Detect Fraudulent Financial Reporting

The purpose of this study is to investigate the level of effectiveness of 42 red flags for detecting fraudulent financial reporting as perceived by 82 internal auditors. According to Practice Advisory 1210.A2-2.2: Responsibility for Fraud Detection (IIA, 2004), internal auditors have a responsibility to exercise 'due professional care' . with respect to fraud detection. The Professional Practices Framework (IIA, 2005) expects internal auditors to deter, detect, investigate and report fraud. While Statement of Auditing Standard (SAS) No. 99 requires external auditors to use red flags in financial statement audits, internal auditors also use them in conducting operational, compliance and financial statement audits. Of the 42 red flags, we found 15 were rated as more effective, 14 were considered effective, and 13 were perceived to be ineffective as indicators that fraud might be present. SAS No. 99 further categorizes these red flags into three groups - opportunities, incentives and pressures, and attitudes and rationalizations. The results also show that internal auditors consistently rated red flags categorized as opportunity and attitudes and rationalizations as more effective in detecting fraudulent financial reporting activity than red flags labeled incentives and pressures.
Inhibition of starch digestion by the green tea polyphenol, (-)-epigallocatechin-3-gallate.

SCOPE Green tea has been shown to ameliorate symptoms of metabolic syndrome in vivo. The effects could be due, in part, to modulation of postprandial blood glucose levels. METHODS AND RESULTS We examined the effect of coadministration of (-)-epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG, 100 mg/kg, i.g.) on blood glucose levels following oral administration of common corn starch (CCS), maltose, sucrose, or glucose to fasted CF-1 mice. We found that cotreatment with EGCG significantly reduced postprandial blood glucose levels after administration of CCS compared to control mice (50 and 20% reduction in peak blood glucose levels and blood glucose area under the curve, respectively). EGCG had no effect on postprandial blood glucose following administration of maltose or glucose, suggesting that EGCG may modulate amylase-mediated starch digestion. In vitro, EGCG noncompetitively inhibited pancreatic amylase activity by 34% at 20 μM. No significant change was induced in the expression of two small intestinal glucose transporters (GLUT2 and SGLT1). CONCLUSIONS Our results suggest that EGCG acutely reduces postprandial blood glucose levels in mice when coadministered with CCS and this may be due in part to inhibition of α-amylase. The relatively low effective dose of EGCG makes a compelling case for studies in human subjects.
Corporate governance practices in Europe: revisiting the independence criteria on Board of Directors.

In this study we examine the corporate governance practices in Europe according to the best practices guideline of 17 countries. We focus on the independence criteria and in particular the recommendations of the codes of best practices regarding the proportion of independent members in the board of directors, audit committee and the division of duties between the CEO and Chairman. We wish to understand how these best practices are enforced in the actual corporate governance guidelines in Europe. We then develop firm-level statistic for a sample of 463 European listed firms to measure the level of compliance of the firms with their respective country codes and also with the Anglo-Saxon best practices of corporate governance. As the definition of independence in the countries’ best practices is different, to measure the degree of independence for the sample of firms we develop our own criteria of independence taking into account the European commission recommendation of (2005), the SEC rules on corporate governance, the OECD principles of (2004) and the countries’ best practice guidelines. We measure the level of compliance of the firms with their respective country codes. We also analyze the level of compliance of the companies with the Anglo-Saxon principle of corporate governance to see if there is any convergence towards the Anglo-Saxon model. This study contributes to the existent literature by presenting descriptive statistics on the compliance of European firms to their national guidelines and Anglo-Saxon principles of corporate governance. The findings show that the best practices in Europe differ from one country to another regarding their recommendations on the proportion of independence. We show a high level of compliance of the firms with their respective country codes. We also show a high level of compliance with the Anglo-Saxon best practices of corporate governance suggesting convergence in a firm-level versus the Anglo-Saxon model of corporate governance.
Logistics and Supply Chain Integration

Examine a Supply Chain PART ONE: EXAMINE A SUPPLY CHAIN PART TWO: LOGISTICS IN MANUFACTURING ORGANISATIONS PART THREE: LOGISTICS IN SERVICE ORGANISATIONS, CUSTOMER SERVICE AND TRANSPORT PART FOUR: INTERNATIONAL LOGISTICS (WITH DAVID TAYLOR) PART FIVE: INFORMATION COMMUNICATION PART SIX: INTEGRATION OF THE SUPPLY CHAIN PART SEVEN: APPLIED INTEGRATION ISSUES IMPLEMENTING CHANGE IN THE SUPPLY CHAIN
Optimal Exercise of Mortgage Options: Default and Refinancing

We are the first to provide closed-form analytic solutions for the joint problem of mortgage refinancing and default. Our solution takes into account reduction in mortgage interest rates and the "cash-out" motive for refinancing. The model predicts how long the households are likely to wait before defaulting, even if default is costless, when their mortgage goes "underwater" and we also derive the optimal default strategy under costly default. Our solutions for default are generally consistent with empirical works on mortgage default. Although our refinancing results are comparable to other closed-form solutions and numerical models, we offer additional results for "cash-out" refinancing.
Knowledge Sources and IT Applications among SMEs: An Empirical Investigation in Saudi Arabia

The differences between large organizations and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), in terms of their characteristics and challenges, may result in different practices toward many dimensions such as managing knowledge resources. Most KM research has been conducted in large organizations and in a western context. SMEs in developing countries such as Saudi Arabia have different situations and circumstances that need further investigation. The research empirically investigated, the sources from which Saudi Arabian SMEs acquire their knowledge to operate and compete, and explored the extent to which information technology (IT) applications are used for the purpose of knowledge acquisition. Data based on surveying 143 SMEs and interviewing 17 SME managers, shows that both internal and external knowledge sources are important to SMEs with differences in terms of the variety of external sources and the limitations of internal sources. Among the external sources, customers and suppliers are the most significant knowledge sources for SMEs, while employees are the main internal knowledge source that SMEs rely on. The use of IT for such purposes is quite limited among SMEs except Internet and email which are intensively used by many SMEs.
Stent insertion or endoluminal brachytherapy as palliation of patients with advanced cancer of the esophagus and gastroesophageal junction. Results of a randomized, controlled clinical trial.

SUMMARY Esophageal cancer often presents as advanced stage disease with a dismal prognosis, with only 10-15% of patients surviving 5 years. Therefore, in a large proportion of patients, palliative treatment is the only option available. The aim of this study was to prospectively compare the palliative effect of self-expandable stent placement with that of endoluminal brachytherapy regarding the effect on quality of life and on specific symptoms. Sixty-five patients with advanced cancer of the esophagus or gastroesophageal junction were randomized to treatment with either an Ultraflex expandable stent or high-dose-rate endoluminal brachytherapy with 7 Gy x 3 given in 2-4 weeks. Clinical assessment and health-related quality of life (HRQL) were measured at inclusion and 1, 3, 6, 9 and 12 months later. The HRQL was measured with standardized questionnaires (European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer Quality of Life Questionnaire Core 30, European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer Quality of Life Questionnaire Oesophageal Module and Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale). Twenty-eight patients completed the stent treatment and 24 patients the brachytherapy. The group of patients treated with stent reported significantly better HRQL scores for dysphagia (P < 0.05) at the 1-month follow-up, but most other HRQL scores, including functioning and symptom scales, deteriorated. Among brachytherapy-treated patients, improvement was found for the dysphagia-related scores at the 3-months follow-up, whereas other significant changes of scores were few. The median survival time was comparable in the two groups (around 120 days). In conclusion, insertion of self-expandable metal stents offered a more instant relief of dysphagia compared to endoluminal brachytherapy, but HRQL was more stable in the brachytherapy group.
Origin of tectal cholinergic projections in amphibians: A combined study of choline acetyltransferase immunohistochemistry and retrograde transport of dextran amines

Immunohistochemistry for choline acetyltransferase (ChAT) revealed an extensive network of cholinergic fibers in the tectum of amphibians. The distribution of ChAT immunoreactive fibers was not restricted to superficial retinocipient layers, but also included deep tectal layers. The aim of the present study was to investigate the origin of the cholinergic inputs to the tectum of amphibians. For that purpose, application of retrograde tracers in the tectum of the anuran Rana perezi and the urodele Pleurodeles waltl was combined with ChAT immunohistochemistry. Double-labeled cells were found primarily in the nucleus isthmi of both species. The cholinergic isthmotectal projection is bilateral and topographically arranged and all retrogradely labeled cells found in this nucleus were ChAT immunoreactive. Remarkably, abundant cholinergic cells in two tegmental nuclei, the pedunculopontine tegmental nucleus (anurans) and the laterodorsal tegmental nucleus (anurans and urodeles), were demonstrated to provide additional cholinergic innervation to the tectum. We compare the present results with previously reported studies in amphibians and other vertebrates, and discuss the possible functional significance of the cholinergic innervation of the amphibian tectum.