Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Search engine loyalty: considering the commitment-loyalty link from a hedonic versus utilitarian perspective

Although loyalty remains a popular subject in traditional contexts, the loyalty of internet users rarely gets studied, especially in noncommercial settings (e.g., search engines, portals, informative websites). This article provides an exploratory perspective on search engine loyalty through the use of a relational framework consisting of a two-dimensional commitment and hedonic versus utilitarian attitudes. The author tests a conceptual model that includes both the direct effect of commitment on action loyalty and the moderating effect of internet users' attitude towards the search engine. A search engine can offer affective and hedonic value to users, which enhances loyalty; switching costs have a negative impact, in the form of calculative commitment; and a 'depreciating effect' emerges from the interaction of commitment dimensions.
Hippocampal atrophy in relapsing-remitting and primary progressive MS: a comparative study

Background: In multiple sclerosis (MS), demyelination and neuroaxonal damage are seen in the hippocampus, and MRI has revealed hippocampal atrophy. Objectives: To investigate and compare hippocampal volume loss in patients with relapsing—remitting MS (RRMS) and primary progressive MS (PPMS) using manual volumetry, and explore its association with memory dysfunction. Methods: Hippocampi were manually delineated on volumetric MRI of 34 patients with RRMS, 23 patients with PPMS and 18 controls. Patients underwent neuropsychological tests of verbal and visuospatial recall memory. Linear regression was used to compare hippocampal volumes between subject groups, and to assess the association with memory function. Results: Hippocampal volumes were smaller in MS patients compared with controls, and were similar in patients with RRMS and PPMS. The mean decrease in hippocampal volume in MS patients was 317 mm3 (9.4%; 95% CI 86 to 549; p = 0.008) on the right and 284 mm3 (8.9%; 95% CI 61 to 508; p = 0.013) on the left. A borderline association of hippocampal volume with memory performance was observed only in patients with PPMS. Conclusion: Hippocampal atrophy occurs in patients with RRMS and PPMS. Factors additional to hippocampal atrophy may impact on memory performance.
NOVEL DRUG COMPOUNDS AGAINST NEOSPORA CANINUM AND TOXOPLASMA GONDII IN VITRO

Neospora caninum has recently been identified as an important cause of abortion in cattle worldwide. This parasite is closely related to Toxoplasma gondii. To identify the drug compounds for potential use against both parasites in vitro, nine novel drug compounds were incubated with either parasite on microtiter plate. The number of extracellular tachyzoites and the quantities of Vero cells left in the wells after incubating with those nine drugs were compared to the conventional drug control, a combination of sulfadiazine 25pg/ml and pyrimethamine 0.1 μg/ml. The most effective drugs against both N. caninum and T. gondii in this study were trifluralin analogues.
An NDT pulse shape study with TEAM problem 27

This paper performs a study of the effect of pulse shape on signal amplitude for TEAM Problem 27-Eddy Current NDT and Deep Flaws. A procedure is described to reduce the discretization errors in the finite element mesh. The results are compared with experimental waveforms. It is found that beyond a certain point the signal amplitude is insensitive to further decreases in the pulse turn-off time.
Role Profiles for Manager's at Different Hierarchical Levels.

This study systematically assessed the various roles essential to managers on different levels of the managerial hierarchy. A sample of 352 top, middle, and low-level managers from both large and small organizations in a variety of industries were asked to rate the various roles required by their positions. The analysis of variance results indicate that 7 of the 10 roles are influenced by hierarchical level. A quadratic discriminant analysis was utilized to identify a role profile for managers on different levels of the managerial hierarchy. Implications for the practice and teaching of management are discussed.
Organizational Structures and the Improvement of Working Conditions in Global Supply Chains

Exploitive working conditions have spurred the development of formal organizational structures that deploy mechanisms including legalization– adherence to a set of law-like rules and procedures–and worker participation to improve labor standards in global supply chains. Yet little is known about whether these structures are associated with improved working conditions, especially in organizations in which they compete with productivity-driving economic incentives. Drawing on the economic sociology of law and organizations and theories of organizational learning, we investigate whether and how these formal organizational structures, individually and in combination, are associated with improved working conditions. Using data on 3,276 suppliers in 55 countries, we find greater improvement at suppliers that adopt legalization structures (operationalized as management system standards) and worker participation structures (unions) and find that the combination of these structures amplifies improvement. We find l.
R&D, Agency Costs and Capital Structure: International Evidence

We examine the impact of R&D intensity and agency costs on the value of firms across 13 economies. Unsurprisingly, R&D adds value while high agency costs reduce value. What is surprising is that R&D adds value even when agency costs are high. We are able to show that in those firms, where agency costs are high and R&D intensity is high, the debt control hypothesis is at work. In contrast to the stylized fact of high R&D firms having low levels of debt, these firms have higher levels of debt.
Packaging as Brand Communication: Effects of Product Pictures on Consumer Responses to the Package and Brand

This paper examines the impact of product imagery (on packages) on consumers’ beliefs about the brand and their evaluations of both the brand and package. An empirical study using food products demonstrates that packages displaying a picture of the product can communicate information about the brand, and thus change brand beliefs. In addition, consumers who placed the most importance on these beliefs also had a better evaluation of the brand itself when its package included a product picture. This research thus provides evidence that consumers use packaging, an extrinsic cue, to infer intrinsic product attributes. In addition, consumers reported a more positive attitude toward the package itself when it included a product picture.
Brain, Mind, and the Evolution of Connectivity

One of the more exciting challenges facing the neuroscience of the twentyfirst century is the exploration of connectivity in the human brain. Each organ of the body has a unique mandate. The heart pumps blood, the thyroid secretes hormones, the gut absorbs nutrients. The ‘‘job’’ of the brain is to analyze, communicate, and integrate information through the orderly transfer of neural signals from one region to another. The axonal pathways that mediate these transfers exert a decisive influence on regional functional specializations. Occipital and frontal neurons, for example, serve radically different functions, not because of differences in their genes or molecules, but because of differences in their connectivity patterns. Two levels of connectivity contribute to the functional organization of the brain. First, genetically determined, species-specific and relatively fixed axonal connections specify the type of information that a given region will process. Second, experience-induced modifications in the synaptic strengths of these connections enable the gradual accumulation of a knowledge base that is unique for each individual. Although anatomical connections have been investigated rigorously in many animal species, little progress has been made in unraveling the connectivity of the human brain. The literature tends to ignore this major gap, giving the misleading impression that the human brain is like a large monkey brain with similar, if not identical, connections. The connectivity of the human brain needs to be explored directly if we are to identify the biological features that give human consciousness its unique qualities. Unfortunately, only very few of the methods used to trace axonal connections in laboratory animals can be adapted to the human brain. Even these few methods (such as those based on anterograde and retrograde degeneration) face considerable methodological hurdles when applied to tissue obtained at post-mortem. Unexpected developments in this area may come from
Pharmacologic control of temperature regulation.

During the past two decades the physiology and pharmacology of thermoregulation have been the subjects of a considerable volume of research and numerous books and reviews. The physiologic aspects have been reviewed in detail most recently by Cabanac (1). The effects of drugs on temperature regulation have been discussed at two symposia, which resulted in books containing the proceedings (2, 3), and a third symposium in this series was held in Banff in September 1976. In reviewing this prodigious development of knowledge of the subject, any demarcation of these reports into "pharmacologic" is somewhat arbitrary since in many cases drugs have been used as tools to elucidate physiologic mechanisms. With respect to the actions of drugs on central thermoregulatory mechanisms, many of the compounds studied affect the CNS by modifying the activity of the several neuronal pathways that impinge on the central thermostats or that mediate the effector responses controlling body temperature. The role of the putative neuro­ transmitters involved constitutes perhaps the most debatable topic in thermoregula­ tion (4). Because there has been no recent exhaustive review of this subject we restrict the present discussion to the role of these neuroamines and the effects of drugs on their activity in the CNS. A convenient model on which to base a discussion of the role of amines in thermoregulation is the neural net described by Carlson (5). He divided the system into afferent, central, and efferent components. Of these three components there is little or no evidence for a role of amines in the afferent sensory division. Conversely there is good evidence for a role of amines in the peripheral effector part of the neural net; its pharmacology is easy to analyze and is well understood. The central compo-
Examining the Relationship between Service Environment and Customer Satisfaction in Service Encounters in Selected Superstores in Enugu, South East Nigeria

The development of services as part of marketing activities began a few years ago when scholars began to treat services no longer as physical product appendages but as marketing activities on their own. Services thus metamorphosed from being “product marketing carriers” or product augmenter to being “self-carriers”. That is, services that used to be the final pack by which products were delivered to customers and were not seen as a process or marketing activities on their own now became self-asserting. Thus, if services have fully become distinctive marketing activities that couldoffer customer satisfaction, how about the environment where these services are performed – whether as service offering or product carrier or augmenter? What contribution does the service environment make in order to enhance customer satisfaction from service offering? In other words, how does superior service delivery depend on the environment where such service is delivered in order to produce customer satisfaction? That is, what is the correlation between strong service environment and superior service delivery? This is what this study examined and found that the service environment, to a large extent, determines the mode and manner of satisfactory service delivery. The mode and manner of service delivery determine customers’ satisfaction. Keywords: Service Environment, Satisfaction, Superior Service, Service Delivery, Quality Service
Long-term outcome of adults with systemic anaplastic large-cell lymphoma treated within the Groupe d'Etude des Lymphomes de l'Adulte trials.

PURPOSE Systemic anaplastic large-cell lymphoma (ALCL) is a T-cell lymphoma, whose anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) expression varies according to age. Long-term outcomes of chemotherapy-treated adults are not definitively established and should be evaluated. PATIENTS AND METHODS Patients treated in three Groupe d'Étude des Lymphomes de l'Adulte prospective clinical trials with confirmed systemic ALCL after immunohistopathologic review and defined ALK expression status were analyzed. RESULTS Among the 138 adult patients with ALCL, 64 (46%) were ALK positive, and 74 (54%) were ALK negative. Median follow-up was 8 years. At diagnosis, significantly more patients younger than 40 years old were ALK positive than ALK negative (66% v 23%, respectively; P < .001). Comparing patients with ALK-positive and ALK-negative ALCL, β(2)-microglobulin was ≥ 3 mg/L in 12% and 33% (P = .017); International Prognostic Index was high (score, 3 to 5) in 23% and 48% (P = .03); complete response rates to first-line treatment were 86% and 68% (P = .01); and 8-year overall survival (OS) rates were 82% (95% CI, 69% to 89%) and 49% (95% CI, 37% to 61%), respectively (P < .001). The survival difference mostly affected patients age ≥ 40 years. Multivariate analysis identified β(2)-microglobulin ≥ 3 mg/L (P < .001) and age ≥ 40 years (P = .029), but not ALK status, as prognostic for OS. These two variables distinguished four survival risk groups, with 8-year OS ranging from 84% to 22%. CONCLUSION Results of this long-term study enabled refinement of the prognosis of adult systemic ALCL, with ALK prognostic value dependent on age, and could provide guidance for eventual treatment adjustment.
Firms' Financing Choices in EU Accession Countries

The paper presents evidence on firms' actual and target capital structure in five EU accession countries of Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union - Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Poland, Romania and Estonia. We provide the insights into the issue of financial constrains of private companies and compare the level of indebtedness and the determinants of firms' capital structure choice in selected EU accession countries and EU countries. A dynamic non-linear adjustment model is adopted to explicitly model the adjustment of companies leverage to a target leverage.
Parameters influencing FVIII pharmacokinetics in patients with severe and moderate haemophilia A

In haemophilia A patients factor VIII (FVIII) recovery and half‐life can vary substantially. There are parameters known to modulate FVIII pharmacokinetics (PK), but they explain only about 34% of the variability. The aim of this study was to identify new parameters that influence FVIII PK and thus to expand the current knowledge. FVIII PK were determined in 42 haemophilia A patients (37 severe, 5 moderate) without inhibitor. Patients' characteristics and laboratory parameters were evaluated for an association with FVIII PK. We analysed plasma levels of low‐density lipoprotein receptor‐related protein 1 (LRP1) and protein C (PC) activity, which had been hypothesized to influence FVIII activity. Furthermore, four variations in intron 6 of the LRP1 gene, which had been shown to influence LRP1, were investigated. FVIII half‐life differed widely from 6.2 to 20.7 h, with a median of 10.0 h. Patients with blood group O had shorter FVIII half‐life compared to patients with non‐O blood group (median FVIII half‐life 9.0 h vs. 10.4 h, P = 0.018). Age was significantly associated with FVIII half‐life (r = 0.32, P = 0.035). Besides age, also VWF antigen (r = 0.52, P < 0.001) and blood group (r = −0.37, P = 0.015) was associated with FVIII half‐life. No correlation was found with FVIII‐ or LRP1‐genotype, LRP1 or PC concentrations. Our data showed large differences in FVIII PK between individual patients and revealed age, blood group and VWF levels as important determining factors for FVIII half‐life. FVIII genotype or levels of LRP1 or PC had no influence on FVIII PK.
Graphical Analysis of Static and Dynamic Elastic Modulus of Shaving Sheet

The traditional measurement method of thin wood-based panel’s elastic modulus is carried out on the test piece for three-point or four-point bending static deformation test, the determination process is complex, time consuming, and makes damage to specimen. Use materials mechanics quick measuring instrument of sheet board wood, which is self-developed and based on the principle of cantilever’s free vibration and cantilever bending to test three standards of thin wood-based panels’ and medium density fiberboard’s dynamic modulus of elasticity and static bending elastic modulus, use SPSS (Statisti-cal Program for Social Sciences) software to establish the relationship graphics of sheet’s dynamic and static bending modulus of elasticity, relationship graphics of dynamic bending and three-point bending elastic modulus, and use linear regression to do correlation analysis on measurement results, while taking advantage of three-point bending to measure same test pieces’ three-point bending modulus of elasticity to compare and authenticate. The results show that: the average of cantilever vibration dynamic elastic modulus is higher than cantilever bending static elastic modulus, and there is a very significant linear correlation between them; cantilever vibration dynamic modulus of elasticity and three-point bending modulus of elasticity have significant linear correlation, which shows that taking advantage of materials mechanics fast measuring instrument of sheet wood to measure the modulus of elasticity of thin wood-based panel and medium density fiberboard quickly.
THE INFLUENCE OF CULTURAL, SOCIAL, PERSONAL, AND PSYCHOLOGICAL ON CONSUMER PURCHASE DECISION- STUDY ON TONASA CEMENT PRODUCT IN MANADO CITY

ABSTRACT There are some factors on the cultural, social, personal and psychological to customer purchase decision. This research is design to analyze the influence of cultural, social, personal, and psychological to customer purchase decision for Tonasa cement products in Manado city. Use the multiple regression analysis method, so the researcher can analyze the influence of the independent variable to dependent variable, which is employee performance. The independent variable in this research is cultural, social, personal, and psychological. Based on the result on the analysis of data using multiple linear regression analysis techniques, the t test, obtained results which indicate that the influence of cultural, social, personal, and psychological to customer purchase decision for Tonasa cement products in Manado city. This result is there is no significant difference for cultural, social, personal, psychological to costumers purchase decision for Tonasa cement product in Manado city. Keywords: Cultural, Social, Personal, Psychological, Customer Purchase Decision
Brand strategies of Western MNCs as drivers of globalization in Central and Eastern Europe

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore how selected fast‐moving consumer goods markets in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) have developed since the opening of CEE and what market structures have emerged since then. Particular attention is paid to the role of Western multinational corporations (MNCs) as drivers of globalization in this market‐reshaping process.Design/methodology/approach – Based on household panel data the dissemination of international brands is analyzed in four product categories and four countries of the region. In addition, the question of whether the level of economic development of countries or the product character has an impact on the penetration levels of international brand is examined.Findings – The outcomes of this retrospective study furnish evidence for the globalization of fast‐moving consumer goods markets in CEE. Although the level of diffusion of international brands varies by product category and country, the strong influence of Western MNCs in the shaping of .
Access to renal transplantation for minority patients with ESRD in Canada.

BACKGROUND The incidence of end-stage renal disease is increasing worldwide. Renal transplantation generally is the preferred modality of renal replacement therapy; however, in the United States, it is known that minority groups experience decreased access to renal transplantation. It is unknown whether similar differences exist in Canada. METHODS Using the Canadian Organ Replacement Register, we identified 25,632 Canadian patients 18 years or older initiating renal replacement therapy during 1990 to 1998. We used Cox regression models to examine adjusted renal transplantation rates among whites, aboriginals, blacks, South Asians, and East Indians during an 8-year period. RESULTS Adjusted overall transplantation rates were decreased in comparison to whites for aboriginals (rate ratio [RR], 0.54; 95% confidence interval, 0.45 to 0.63), blacks (RR, 0.54; 95% confidence interval, 0.46 to 0.66), South Asians (RR, 0.69; 95% confidence interval, 0.61 to 0.79), and East Indians (RR, 0.66; 95% confidence interval, 0.56 to 0.78). Race was at least as strong a predictor of transplantation as other known predictors, including age, sex, primary renal diagnosis, and comorbidities. Disparities in renal transplantation rates increased over time from 1990 to 1998 for all racial groups in comparison to whites. CONCLUSION Renal transplantation rates differ substantially by race in Canada, and these differences appear to be worsening over time. Future work should focus on identifying the specific barriers responsible for these differences in care.
Accelerated Long-Term Forgetting Limited to the Recollection Component of Recognition Memory in a Temporal Lobe Epileptic Patient

ABSTRACT Accelerated long-term forgetting (ALF) is a frequent finding in patients with temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE). Here we report the case of a TLE patient who complained of marked difficulties in remembering personal events and information even though repeated neuropsychological assessments had failed to detect any deficit on common laboratory memory tests. The patient underwent an experimental investigation that involved estimating recollection and familiarity processes in the performance on verbal and visual recognition tests, over intervals ranging from 10 minutes to 7 days. Results showed accelerated forgetting confined to the recollection component only, which was particularly evident in the verbal test.