Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Consumer characteristics and the use of social networking sites

Purpose – This study examined the antecedents and consequences of intensity of SNS use in a cross-cultural context. The purpose of this paper is to examine the impacts of three IT-related consumer characteristics – privacy concern, consumer innovativeness and propensity to share information – on the use of social networking sites (SNS) and examine if there are cross-national differences in the relationships between consumer characteristics and SNS use. Design/methodology/approach – The authors developed and tested a structural equation model including consumer characteristics related to SNS usage, by using survey data of 977 SNS users in Korea and the US. Findings – Consumer innovativeness, propensity to share information and privacy concern affected intensity of SNS use and the usage of SNS enabled social capital. In addition, the effects of innovativeness and privacy concern on the intensity of SNS use were greater in the US sample than in the Korean sample. People in the culture of high peer pressure a.
Frequency of HLA-DRB1 alleles in rheumatoid arthritis patients in Zahedan, southeast Iran

Background and Objectives: Analysis of the role of different alleles of human leukocyte antigen (HLA) in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients is necessary in many populations and geographical areas. The aim of the present study was to investigate the frequency of HLA-DRB1 alleles in RA patients, comparing with that in control group in southeast Iran. Design and Setting: Case-control study of rheumatoid arthritis patients referred to rheumatology clinic at university hospital. Patients and Methods: The frequency of HLA-DRB1 alleles was determined in 79 RA patients and 93 healthy subjects in Zahedan, southeast Iran. HLA-DRB1 allele types were identified by polymerase chain reaction with sequence-specific primer (PCR-SSP). Results: The HLA-DRB1FNx0110 allele showed a significantly higher frequency in patients with RA (OR=2.698, 95% CI=1.087-6.699, P=.045), while the frequency of DRB1FNx0103 allele in these subjects was significantly lower than that in the control group (OR=0.447, 95% CI=0.2285-0.8729, P=.021). The frequencies of DRB1FNx0101, DRB1FNx0104, DRB1FNx0107, DRB1FNx0109, DRB1FNx0111, DRB1FNx0113, DRB1FNx0114, DRB1FNx0115, DRB1FNx0116 were not significantly different between RA subjects and the control group. Conclusion: The data suggest that the DRB1FNx0110 allele is a risk factor and DRB1FNx0103 is protective for RA in this population.
Stock splits and the efficiency of the Nigerian stock market

This study investigates whether the Nigerian Stock Market is efficient in the semi strong form, that is, whether security prices on the Nigerian stock market adjust to publicly available information. Stock splits were used as information generating events. Monthly stock returns data over the period January 1981 December 1992 were employed in the analysis. Using residual analysis methodology, the market model, the market deducted returns model and the mean adjusted returns model were employed to test the semi-strong form efficiency of the Nigerian Stock market. The results show that the Nigerian stock market is inefficient in the semi-strong form. The results are unaffected by choice of model or choice of proxy for stock market return. The results are also the same for a sample of actively traded securities. From the writer's exchanges with stock market operators in Nigeria, the problems affecting pricing efficiency in the Nigerian stock market include inadequate information flow in the stock market, inefficient communication system, inadequate understanding of financial information by Nigerian investors, inadequate skills among some Nigerian stockbrokers, low level of automation in the country and interference by the regulatory authorities in the determination of secondary market price. it is suggested that efforts should be made by stock market operators and regulatory authorities to improve pricing efficiency in the Nigerian stock market to improve allocational efficiency of the market. Recommendations incude improvement in the adequacy and quality of information flow in the stock market, improvement in the automation of the stock market, improvement in the knowledge of stockbrokers in modern security analysis and portfolio management and improvement in the efficiency of Nigerian Telecommunication Pic.
Detection of antibiotic residues and concentrations in cows milk taken from local dairy farmers in Lembang sub district.

Antibiotics used on cattle medicine practices in local dairy farmers were unavoidable. These practices allow the antibiotic residues still left on milk. Even the concentrations were low, antibiotic residue consumed can cause health problems such as allergy, intoxication and antibioresistance. Besides that, milk with antibiotic residues cannot be treated with using microorganisms’ starter. Antibiotic residues-free milk would increase consumer safety and competitiveness on international trade.Eighteen local dairy farmers from three milk reception places that were members of South Bandung Dairy Farmers Cooperative were selected purposively. Milk samples were taken shortly after milking and qualitatively tested using Beta Star 25. When positives sample found, the test was continued for three days with Frontier Post Test (FPT), using Bacillus subtilis The results were analyzed descriptively and showed that 5 from 18 samples (27.78%) were antibiotic residue positives and Frontier Post Test result shown the decrease of antibiotic residue concentrations from day 1 until day 3. The average of antibiotic residue concentration from day 1 until day 3 on the pH of 6.0 was 19.60  4.62 mm; 9.80  5.22 mm and 7.00  5.20 mm, while on the pH of 8.0 was 10.40  4.34 mm; 9.00  3.81 mm and 1.40  0.55 mm.
Exporting, importing and the heterogeneity of Chinese manufacturing firms

This thesis studies the internationalization strategies of Chinese manufacturing firms. Using rich information from a merged dataset with survey data and trade data of Chinese manufacturing firms over the period 2002 to 2006, we study the firms’ exporting and importing behaviour and their relationships with firm heterogeneity. I first investigate firms’ decision to export taking into account firms’ import activities, unobserved heterogeneity and initial conditions. Sunk entry costs and firms’ importing experience and characteristics including age, size, productivity, labour-force quality, financial health and ownership are found to be significant determinants of firms’ export behaviour. Compared to the extensive studies on firm-level exports, the importing side has been largely neglected. I then examine the casual relationship between importing and firm productivity using propensity score matching with difference-in-differences techniques. More productive firms are found to self-select into the import markets and at the same time participation in the import markets improves the firms’ productivity. Finally, I explore the links between the two sides of firms’ international trade activities. Estimates across different specifications show that access to foreign inputs improves firms’ export performances. Importing more and better quality inputs raises the number of export varieties, export value and export quality.
Effects of Noise Level and Cognitive Function on Speech Perception in Normal Elderly and Elderly with Amnestic Mild Cognitive Impairment

Objective and Background:Along with auditory function, cognitive function contributes to speech perception in the presence of background noise. Older adults with cognitive impairment might, therefore, have more difficulty perceiving speech-in-noise than their peers who have normal cognitive function. We compared the effects of noise level and cognitive function on speech perception in patients with amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI), cognitively normal older adults, and cognitively normal younger adults. Methods:We studied 14 patients with aMCI and 14 age-, education-, and hearing threshold-matched cognitively intact older adults as experimental groups, and 14 younger adults as a control group. We assessed speech perception with monosyllabic word and sentence recognition tests at four noise levels: quiet condition and signal-to-noise ratio +5 dB, 0 dB, and −5 dB. We also evaluated the aMCI group with a neuropsychological assessment. Results:Controlling for hearing thresholds, we found that the aMCI group scored significantly lower than both the older adults and the younger adults only when the noise level was high (signal-to-noise ratio −5 dB). At signal-to-noise ratio −5 dB, both older groups had significantly lower scores than the younger adults on the sentence recognition test. The aMCI group’s sentence recognition performance was related to their executive function scores. Conclusions:Our findings suggest that patients with aMCI have more problems communicating in noisy situations in daily life than do their cognitively healthy peers and that older listeners with more difficulties understanding speech in noise should be considered for testing of neuropsychological function as well as hearing.
Demand for road travel

This paper reports the main results of a wider ongoing BTE project to forecast road travel to the year 2000. Road travel can be segmented into the passenger car travel market and the commercial vehicle travel market. Alternative approaches to analyse demand for road travel are reviewed briefly in a general way. For each of the identified markets, aggregate demand models (at a state level) were developed for two components of road travel - fleet size and its usage. Time series data were used to estimate the models of fleet size, while available information from the abs surveys of motor vehicle usage was used to estimate models of vehicle usage (total number of kilometres travelled) (a).
Analyticity, crossing symmetry, and the limits of chiral perturbation theory.

The chiral Lagrangian for Goldstone-boson scattering is a power-series expansion in numbers of derivatives. Each successive term is suppressed by powers of a scale, Λ χ , which must be less than of order 4πf/√N where f is the Goldstone-boson decay constant and N is the number of flavors. The chiral expansion therefore breaks down at or below 4πf/√N. Because of crossing symmetry, some «isospin» channels will deviate from their low-energy behavior well before they approach the scale at which their low-energy amplitudes would violate unitarity. The breakdown of the chiral expansion is associated with the appearance of physical states other than Goldstone bosons
Reported foodborne outbreaks due to noroviruses in Belgium: the link between food and patient investigations in an international context

SUMMARY The Belgian data for foodborne norovirus (NoV) outbreaks became available for the first time with the introduction of an extraction and detection protocol for NoV in the National Reference Laboratory for foodborne outbreaks in September 2006. In 2007, 10 NoV foodborne outbreaks were reported affecting 392 persons in Belgium. NoV became the most detected agent in foodborne outbreaks followed by Salmonella (eight foodborne outbreaks). The major implicated foods were sandwiches (4/10), where food handlers reported a history of gastroenteritis in two outbreaks. A food handler was implicated in the limited number of Belgian NoV outbreaks which is in accord with internationally recorded data. Forty foodborne and waterborne outbreak events due to NoV, epidemiological and/or laboratory confirmed, from 2000 to 2007 revealed that in 42·5% of the cases the food handler was responsible for the outbreak, followed by water (27·5%), bivalve shellfish (17·5%) and raspberries (10·0%).
Free-electron-laser-based biophysical and biomedical instrumentation

A survey of biophysical and biomedical applications of free-electron lasers (FELs) is presented. FELs are pulsed light sources, collectively operating from the microwave through the x-ray range. This accelerator-based technology spans gaps in wavelength, pulse structure, and optical power left by conventional sources. FELs are continuously tunable and can produce high-average and high-peak power. Collectively, FEL pulses range from quasicontinuous to subpicosecond, in some cases with complex superpulse structures. Any given FEL, however, has a more restricted set of operational parameters. FELs with high-peak and high-average power are enabling biophysical and biomedical investigations of infrared tissue ablation. A midinfrared FEL has been upgraded to meet the standards of a medical laser and is serving as a surgical tool in ophthalmology and human neurosurgery. The ultrashort pulses produced by infrared or ultraviolet FELs are useful for biophysical investigations, both one-color time-resolved spectroscopy and when coupled with other light sources, for two-color time-resolved spectroscopy. FELs are being used to drive soft ionization processes in mass spectrometry. Certain FELs have high repetition rates that are beneficial for some biophysical and biomedical applications, but confound research for other applications. Infrared FELs have been used as sources for inverse Compton scattering to produce a pulsed, tunable, monochromatic x-ray source for medical imaging and structural biology. FEL research and FEL applications research have allowed the specification of spin-off technologies. On the horizon is the next generation of FELs, which is aimed at producing ultrashort, tunable x rays by self-amplified spontaneous emission with potential applications in biology.
Controlling false positive selections in high-dimensional regression and causal inference

Guarding against false positive selections is important in many applications. We discuss methods based on subsampling and sample splitting for controlling the expected number of false positives and assigning p-values. They are generic and especially useful for high-dimensional settings. We review encouraging results for regression, and we discuss new adaptations and remaining challenges for selecting relevant variables, based on observational data, having a causal or interventional effect on a response of interest.
Combining antidepressants for treatment-resistant depression: a review.

OBJECTIVE Many patients with depression remain poorly responsive to antidepressant monotherapy. One approach for managing treatment-resistant depression is to combine antidepressants and to capitalize on multiple therapeutic mechanisms of action. This review critically evaluates the evidence for efficacy of combining antidepressants. METHOD A MEDLINE search of the last 15 years (up to June 2001), supplemented by a review of bibliographies, was conducted to identify relevant studies. Criteria used to select studies included (1) published studies with original data in peer-reviewed journals, (2) diagnosis of depression with partial or no response to standard treatments, (3) any combination of 2 antidepressants with both agents used to enhance antidepressant response, (4) outcome measurement of clinical response, and (5) sample size of 4 or more subjects. RESULTS Twenty-seven studies (total N = 667) met the inclusion criteria, including 5 randomized controlled trials and 22 open-label trials. In the 24 studies (total N = 601) reporting response rates, the overall mean response rate was 62.2%. Methodological limitations included variability in definitions of treatment-resistant depression and response to treatment, dosing of medications, and reporting of adverse events. CONCLUSION There is limited evidence, mostly in uncontrolled studies, supporting the efficacy of combination antidepressant treatment. Further randomized controlled trials with larger sample sizes are required to demonstrate the efficacy of a combination antidepressant strategy for patients with treatment-resistant depression.
Executive Remuneration and Corporate Performance

This paper investigates the existence of a relationship between executives' remuneration and corporate performance with respect to financial performance measures: ROE, ROS and sales growth. The results suggest that there is a relationship between: a) bonus and ROE, b) bonus and ROS, c) fringe benefits and ROE, d) fringe benefits and ROS and e) fringe benefits and sales growth.
The TOC-based algorithm for solving product mix problems

The five steps of the theory of constraints (TOC) emphasize exploiting constraints in order to increase the throughput of a system. The product mix decision is one application of the TOC five steps. However, these steps were considered to be implicit or incomplete, the criticism being that they result in deriving an infeasible solution when a plant has multiple resource constraints. This paper follows the essence of these five steps and presents an explicit algorithm to address the problem. When testing its effectiveness by using a dual-simplex method with bounded variables, this algorithm gives the same result in each iteration.
Population‐based prevalence of CDKN2A and CDK4 mutations in patients with multiple primary melanomas

The presence of multiple primary cutaneous melanomas (MPM) has been advocated as guidance to identifying melanoma families. Frequencies of CDKN2A mutations in materials of sporadic MPM cases from pigmented lesion clinics vary between 8 and 15%. Patients with MPM have therefore been regarded as good candidates for CDKN2A mutational screening. We describe a population‐based study where all persons in Norway diagnosed with MPM between 1953 and 2004 (n = 738 alive per April 2004) were invited to participate. Three‐hundred‐and‐ninety patients (52.8%) responded confidentially. Mutations in CDKN2A were found in 6.9% of the respondents. Eighty‐one MPM patients (20.8%) reported that they belonged to melanoma families, and 17 (21.0%) of these harboured a CDKN2A mutation, compared to 3.2% of the nonfamilial cases. The probability of finding a CDKN2A mutation increased when the patients had three or more melanomas, or a young age of onset of first melanoma. We identified five novel CDKN2A variants (Ala57Gly, Pro81Arg, Ala118Val, Leu130Val, and Arg131Pro) and four that previously have been reported in melanoma families (Glu27X, Met53Ile, Arg87Trp, and Ala127Pro). A large deletion (g.13623_23772del10150) encompassing exon 1α and the 5′ part of exon 2 was detected in six patients with a family history of melanoma. Three patients, belonging to the same family, had the CDK4 Arg24His mutation. The frequency of CDKN2A mutations was lower than previously reported in other studies, an observation which probably is due to the population‐based design of our study. © 2007 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
The Tripartite Model of Anxiety and Depression: Symptom Structure in Depressive and Hypertensive Patient Groups

The structure of self-reported symptoms representative of the tripartite model was examined using data drawn from the Medical Outcomes Study (Tarlov et al., 1989). Participants were persons who had been diagnosed 48 months previously as suffering from either depression (N = 315) or hypertension (N = 403). Results of confirmatory factor analyses were broadly consistent with the tripartite model (L. A. Clark & Watson, 1991). Factors emerged corresponding to each of the 3 posited first-order dimensions of negative affect, positive affect, and physiologic arousal. Nonetheless, some discrepancies were found between the observed data and the hypothesized tripartite model. First, the obtained physiologic arousal factor was best viewed as reflecting nonspecific somatic distress rather than physiologic arousal. Finally, although differentiable in the strictest statistical sense, all three domains were significantly correlated (.36 to .86, absolute value). In particular, contrary to the tripartite model, positive and negative affect covaried markedly (-.81 to -.86). Findings raise issues concerning the utility of the tripartite model as a heuristic framework for enhancing understanding of individual differences in normal mood as well as mood disorders.
Outsourcing and Employment: A Decomposition Approach

In this paper we study the employment effects of changes in the levels and patterns of outsourcing in the Austrian economy over the periods 1995-2000 and 2000-2003. Based on an input-output framework we apply a hierarchical decomposition analysis to disentangle the employment effects of changes in labour productivity, technical input coefficients and final demand components. Outsourcing is modelled as changes in the shares of domestically produced intermediates. For this some further details can be derived by distinguishing between intermediate imports of energy, material and service products or according to educational intensities of the imported intermediate products. Following this approach first allows to study the direct and indirect effects of changes in the levels and structures of outsourcing.Second, the framework takes account of all 60 sectors (products) of the economy and thus also includes employment effects of service offshoring. Third, we also calculate the employment effects for three employment groups distinguished by educational attainment levels. This paper thus provides a comprehensive picture of employment effects of outsourcing in the Austrian economy.
The H‐Y Response in Mid‐Gestation and Long After Delivery in Mice Primed Before Pregnancy

The mechanisms underlying maternal tolerance of the semi‐allogeneic fetus are not completely understood. The maternal immune system's response to the male antigen, H‐Y is an example of the conflicting evidence that both supports and refutes the idea that the immune system in pregnant females is fundamentally different from that in non‐pregnant females. Although multiple pregnancies may inactivate H‐Y specific T cells, the immune system of the pregnant female can also generate a cytotoxic response to this antigen. To help understand this apparent conflict, we immunized female mice against H‐Y with male spleen cells before pregnancy and examined the subsequent anti H‐Y response during mid‐pregnancy. The pregnant mice studied were able to mount cytotoxic immune responses to H‐Y that were equivalent to those generated in their non‐pregnant counterparts. Moreover the experience of pregnancy did not impair the ability to maintain immunologic memory to H‐Y. The data support the idea that pregnancy does not violate general rules of antigen specific immunity, even if the antigen is expressed on the fetus.