Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Genetic evaluation for persistency of lactation in Holstein cows using a random regression model

A model for analyzing test day records including both fixed and random coefficients was applied to the genetic evaluation of first lactation data for Holstein cows. Data comprising 87045 test-day milk yield records from calving between 1997 and 2001 from Holstein herds in 10 regions of the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais. Six persistency of lactation measures were evaluated using breeding values obtained by random regression analyses. The Wilmink function was used to model the additive genetic and permanent environmental effects. Residual variance was constant throughout lactation. Ranking for animals did not change among criteria for persistency measurements, but ranking changes were observed when the estimated breeding value (EBV) for persistency of lactation was contrasted with those estimated for 305-day milk yield (305MY). The rank correlation estimates for persistency of lactation and 305MY were practically the same for sire and cows, and ranged from -0.45 to 0.69. The EBVs for milk yield during lactation for sires producing daughters with superior 305MY indicate genetic differences between sires regarding their ability to transmit desirable persistency of lactation traits. This suggests that selection for total lactation milk yield does not identify sires or cows that are genetically superior in regard to persistency of lactation. Genetic evaluation for persistency of lactation is important for improving the efficiency of the milk production capacity of Holstein cows.
CREATIVITY AND STANDARDIZATION: COMPLEMENTARY OR CONFLICTING DRIVERS OF TEAM EFFECTIVENESS?

We examine relationships between creativity, the use of standardized work practices, and effectiveness (measured as both performance and customer satisfaction) among 90 empowered teams of service technicians. Despite the seemingly contradictory natures of creativity and standardized procedures, our results indicate that they can be complementary. Specifically, standardization was found to moderate the relationship between creativity and both team performance and customer satisfaction, although the pattern of results differed for the two measures of effectiveness. We discuss how and when teams can effectively employ both work practices.
Determinants of US consumer mobile shopping services adoption: implications for designing mobile shopping services

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to examine critical determinants of US consumers' intentions to use mobile shopping services and to provide implications for retailers and mobile marketers in order to offer mobile shopping services that meet consumers' quality expectations.Design/methodology/approach – A sample of 400 mobile services users drawn from a purchased consumer panel participated in an online survey. The Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) model was adapted and incorporated with attitude and hedonic performance expectancy. Two steps of structural equation modeling were used to validate the measurement model and test the hypothesized relationships.Findings – The study found that utilitarian and hedonic performance expectancy, social influence, and facilitating conditions are critical determinants of US consumers' intentions to use mobile shopping services. Effort expectancy is a driving factor affecting utilitarian and hedonic performance expectancy of mobile shopping.
The Influence of Diabetes on Free Flap Transfer: II. The Effect of Ischemia on Flap Survival

Insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus causes microangiopathic changes in many tissues, including skin and muscle. It is not known if such changes are detrimental to free flap transfer, particularly after extended ischemia. To address this issue, we used an experimental design by using a syngeneic rat strain (Lewis) for free groin flap and muscle flap transplantations from streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats (2 month's duration of symptoms) to normal rats. Flaps from age-matched normal donors were transplanted to normal recipients for control comparisons. Groin flaps were stored ischemically for 12 or 18 hours at room temperature, or for 48 hours in the cold (4°C) before transplantation. Flap survival and vascular patency were assessed at 7 days. Cutaneous maximus muscle flaps were transplanted to the groins of recipients after 6 hours of room temperature ischemia. Vascular patency, muscle viability, flap weight change (edema), and dehydrogenase activity were assessed after 2 days of reperfusion. Seventy percent, 67%, and 73% of diabetic groin flaps survived after 12, 18, or 48 (cold) hours of ischemia, respectively, in comparison with 90%, 73%, and 87% of normal flaps undergoing the same respective ischemia periods. The differences were not significant, even when the data were pooled (p > 0.1). Muscle flaps also showed no significant differences for the parameters studied. These results support the use of microvascular reconstructive surgery in diabetic patients, suggesting that moderate ischemic challenges do not compromise free flap transfer or extremity replantation.Cooley BC, Hanel DP, Lan M, Li X, Gould JS: The influence of diabetes on free flap transfer: II. The effect of ischemia on flap survival. Ann Plast Surg 1992;29:65–69
Service Utilization, Perceived Changes of Self, and Life Satisfaction Among Women Who Experienced Intimate Partner Abuse

This study explored the growth experiences of women abused by their intimate partner, specifically focusing on the associations between social services and empowerment, perceived changes of self, and life satisfaction. The potential effects of demographic variables, social support, coping, and experience of partner abuse were also explored. A survey study was conducted through the collaboration of social workers in the Centers of Prevention and Intervention for Domestic Violence and private sectors in Taiwan. Through contact by their social workers, 191 participants completed the questionnaires. The results revealed that the participants had growth mainly in their psychological and interpersonal domains. The independent variables in the regression model explained 45.3% (adjusted) variance in perceived changes of self. In addition to empowerment and negative impact of violence, intensity of contact and professional relationship were two important service variables that directly and significantly correlated with perceived changes of self. A significant amount of variance (adjusted R2 = .556) in life satisfaction could be explained by the independent variables. Social support and empowerment directly correlated with life satisfaction. The findings also supported the mediation effect of empowerment. Seven variables (e.g., social support, coping method, and professional relationship) indirectly associated with perceived changes of self and life satisfaction through empowerment.
Illiquidity, stock return and corporate capital structure: Evidence from seasoned equity offering

The post-issue underperformance of seasoned equity offering (SEO) is generally explained by asymmetric information and deteriorating operating performance. We complement these traditional explanations with a new parameter, the liquidity, which results from the change of capital structure due to equity offering. The new issuing of equity lowers the debt to asset ratio, lowers the information asymmetry, thus increasing stock liquidity, which is in accordance with the hypotheses presented by Kyle(1985)’s model; Evidence that stocks become more liquid after SEO, thus lower the expected return, resulting to underperformance, combined with the high stock illiquidity before SEO, which coincides the high return, proving that Amihud’s (2002) hypothesis about the relation between liquidity and stock is applicable in explaining the stock return puzzle during SEO period.
On the Full and Global Accuracy of a Compact Third Order WENO Scheme

Recently, Arandiga et al. showed in [SIAM J. Numer. Anal. , 49 (2011), pp. 893--915] for a class of weighted ENO (WENO) schemes that the parameter $\varepsilon$ occurring in the smoothness indicators of the scheme should be chosen proportional to the square of the mesh size, $h^2$, to achieve the optimal order of accuracy. Unfortunately, these results cannot be applied to the compact third order WENO reconstruction procedure introduced in [D. Levy, G. Puppo, and G. Russo, SIAM J. Sci. Comput. , 22 (2000), pp. 656--672], which we apply within the semidiscrete central scheme of [A. Kurganov and D. Levy, SIAM J. Sci. Comput. , 22 (2000), pp. 1461--1488], a commonly used scheme for the numerical solution of conservation laws and convection-diffusion equations. The aim of this paper is to close this gap. In particular, we will show that we achieve the optimal order of accuracy in the WENO reconstruction ($h^3$ in the smooth case and $h^2$ near discontinuities) for $\varepsilon = K h^q$ with $q \le 3$ and $pq \ge .
Chinese consumers’ adoption of a ‘green’ innovation – The case of organic food

Abstract Little research has been published on Chinese consumer-citizens' adoption of or willingness to adopt sustainable lifestyle elements. A case in point is organic food – a more sustainable alternative to conventional food. Organic food is a Western invention. However, organic food products are now available in upscale supermarkets in East and South-East China metropolises such as Shanghai, Beijing, and Guangzhou. This paper reports the results of a study investigating what motivates early adopters of organic food in China. The data were collected in Guangzhou by means of a mall-intercept survey. As in Western Europe, the early adoption of organic food in China is positively related to what Schwartz termed ‘universalism values’. Also as in the West, the personal attitude towards buying organic food in China is strongly linked to beliefs about its healthiness, taste, and environmental friendliness. Social norms play a minor role for the intention to buy organic food, probably because the early adopters have few role models and face few expectations in this respect.
Leveraged Buy Out and Tax Saving Advantage: A Double-Sided Moral Hazard Model

We consider a double moral hazard model with three agents: the entrepreneur, the LBO fund and the bank. The entrepreneur and the LBO fund have to exert efforts in order to improve the productivity of their project; efforts are not observable. We show that the bank's payments decrease with the outcome of the project. When the project is not very risky, the entrepreneur and the LBO fund exert first best efforts and they get equal shares of the project's outcome. When it is highly risky, debt gives high powered incentives to the two agents to provide efforts but it still not sufficient to induce them to provide the first best efforts. However, these efforts are more efficient than those that could be provided if the entrepreneur asks the LBO fund for advice and money. Moreover, when the entrepreneur asks for advice from a consultant and for money from a bank, they get equal shares whether the project is very risky or not. When the project is lowly risky, the identity of the advisor (consultant/ LBO fund) is irrelevant. When it is highly risky, the optimal efforts depend on their impact on the performance of the project.
Bank Ownership, Credit and Local Economic Growth

We test for impact of bank ownership differences on the relationship between financial development and economic growth at local level with a unique panel data. Using instrumentation techniques, we find that credit availability positively affects economic growth at a local level. While credit from state owned banks, private banks and foreign banks, all contribute to local economic growth, credit from private and foreign banks have a significantly higher impact on economic growth compared to credit from state owned banks. However, in rural areas where private and foreign banks have limited presence, credit from state owned banks significantly contribute to local economic growth. Our findings are robust under different specifications and sub-samples.
The Effect of Relationship Marketing on Customers’ Loyalty (Evidence from Zemen Bank)

Abstract Every firm without good marketing team and strategies is bound to fail. In order to be competitive and profitable in the industry, bankers should acquire and retain profitable customers. Definitely this is done with Relationship marketing. Relationship marketing is a philosophy of doing business, a strategic orientation that focuses on keeping and improving current customers rather than acquiring new customers. The aim of this study is to investigate the influence of Relationship marketing underpinnings on customers‟ loyalty. The study also investigated the mediating role of top management commitment between relationship marketing and customers‟ loyalty. The study is based on information collected from both primary and secondary sources of data. The sample for this study is taken from customers of Zemen bank in Addis Ababa. Data analyses were done using frequencies, percentages, means, standard deviations, cross-tabulations, and tables followed by discussions. Moreover, inferential statistics of bivariate correlations and simple and multiple regressions were used. Findings of this study reveal that there is a significant and strong correlation between relationship marketing and customers‟ loyalty. Moreover, the study reveals that there is significant effect of trust, commitment, communication, and gratitude on predicting customers’ loyalty. Of these relationships, Gratitude emerged as the strongest factor which influences customers’ loyalty while conflict management remained statistically insignificant and negligible influence on customers’ loyalty in the cumulative model. However, all underpinnings had statistically significant influence on customers’ loyalty as individual. Moreover, management commitment had mediating effect between relationship marketing and customers’ loyalty. Depending on the findings, practical implications of this study is in order to ensure loyalty among bank customers; bankers should build a better relationship marketing strategy. Therefore, banks competitiveness and profitability will depend on their ability to build strong relationship bonds with their customers continuously. Furthermore, future research directions were also suggested on this study. Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:auto; mso-para-margin-right:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:0in; mso-para-margin-left:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:. 0001pt; text-align:right; mso-line-height-alt:0pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}
Getting Sick and Disabled People off Temporary Benefit Receipt: Strategies and Dilemmas in the Welfare State’s Frontline

This article explores responses by frontline workers in the Norwegian Labour and Welfare Service (NAV) to activation policy measures. Frontline workers in NAV are required to write work capability assessments for long-term sick and disabled benefit recipients within a reformed organizational structure with holistic agencies (‘one-stop shops’). These policy mechanisms are intended to empower the frontline workers and make them emphasize work and activation in their evaluation of the employability of the beneficiaries. However, a large number of long-term sick and disabled people remain in receipt of temporary benefits. Key findings emerging from this study’s fieldwork suggest that frontline workers often perceive the task of clarifying the employability status of longterm sick and disabled people to be demanding. Their assessments hinge on criteria set by actors outside the frontline office—and these criteria are hard to obtain. Consequently, the limited range of exit options restricts the discretion of the frontline workers, which results in locking claimants with complex problems into temporary benefit. Their attention tends to be drawn to concerns that are likely to be unintended, which are to keep claimants’ income safe and to secure a smooth workflow within the office as well as to smooth benefit transactions. The context of a generous welfare state with a strongly rights-based benefit scheme is regarded as a likely contributor to these concerns.
Evaluations of cirrus contamination and screening in ground aerosol observations using collocated lidar systems

[1] Cirrus clouds, particularly subvisual high thin cirrus with low optical thickness, are difficult to screen in operational aerosol retrieval algorithms. Collocated aerosol and cirrus observations from ground measurements, such as the Aerosol Robotic Network (AERONET) and the Micro-Pulse Lidar Network (MPLNET), provide us with an unprecedented opportunity to systematically examine the susceptibility of operational aerosol products to cirrus contamination. Quality assured aerosol optical thickness (AOT) measurements were also tested against the Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observations (CALIPSO) vertical feature mask (VFM) and the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) thin cirrus screening parameters for the purpose of evaluating cirrus contamination. Key results of this study include: (1) quantitative evaluations of data uncertainties in AERONET AOT retrievals are conducted; although AERONET cirrus screening schemes are successful in removing most cirrus contamination, strong residuals displaying strong spatial and seasonal variability still exist, particularly over thin cirrus prevalent regions during cirrus peak seasons; (2) challenges in matching up different data for analysis are highlighted and corresponding solutions proposed; and (3) estimates of the relative contributions from cirrus contamination to aerosol retrievals are discussed. The results are valuable for better understanding and further improving ground aerosol measurements that are critical for aerosol-related climate research.
Survival of TNF-alpha antagonists in rheumatoid arthritis: a long-term study.

OBJECTIVES To investigate the efficacy, safety and survival of tumour necrosis factor (TNF) α antagonists in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). METHODS One hundred and fifty-one RA patients treated with TNF-α inhibitors during the time period 2000 to 2009 were studied. Kaplan-Meier statistic analysis was applied, in which discontinuation from anti-TNF-α therapy was used as the terminal event. RESULTS Eighty-two patients received infliximab, 49 adalimumab and 20 etanercept: they were followed up over 7, 5 and 4 years, respectively. Anti-TNF-α therapy resulted in a rapid clinical improvement associated with a reduction in inflammatory markers in the first year of the treatment, which was sustained throughout the following years. Ninety (59.6%) patients were withdrawn during the observational period overall. The patients who discontinued infliximab, adalimumab and etanercept therapy were 55/82 (67.1%), 27/49 (55.1%) and 8/20 (40%) respectively. The main reasons for discontinuation were drug adverse events and inefficacy. According to Kaplan-Meier methods, the 'survival rate' of infliximab after the first year of treatment reached 82.9%, while after 7 years the proportion was 32.9%. With regard to adalimumab, after the first year of treatment its 'survival rate' was 83.7% and after 5 years it reached 44.9%. As far as etanercept is concerned, after the first year of treatment, the 'survival rate' reached 70% and after 4 years it remained 60%. CONCLUSIONS TNF-α antagonists constitute an effective therapeutic option for patients with RA refractory to disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs. They demonstrate an acceptable safety profile. Their survival rate is high in the first years of treatment, while after the fifth year it decreases considerably.
LATE PROGNOSIS IN TUBERCULOUS MENINGITIS Ole Wasz-Höckert, M.D., and Marta Donner, M.D., From The Children's Hospital, The Ophthalmological Hospital, and The Oto-laryngological Hospital, University of Helsinki (Acta Paedi atrica, Volume 51, Supplement 141)

disturbance. Calcifications in the skull were observed in 26 of 100 cases studied. Neurological changes covered a wide range. Some alterations of E.E.G. were observed in 18.5%. Lesser changes occurred in 85% of those examined. One patient was blind and another had a severe visual defect. Varying degrees of auditory defects were frequent. School studies showed a prevalence of deafness from complete loss of hearing to slight evidence of dysfunction.
Waterfall: Video Distribution by Cascading Multiple Swarms

Video on demand services have been increasingly proliferated in the Internet. One popular way to disseminate video files among numerous users is to leverage peer-to-peer (P2P) systems (e.g., BitTorrent). However, BitTorrent is not designed with video streaming requirements and hence suffers from long setup delay. In this paper, the drawbacks of existing P2P-based streaming solutions are analyzed in terms of sequential delivery. Then we propose Waterfall that splits the whole swarm into multiple swarms, which are then cascaded by the scene sequence. In this way, peers in a swarm download the chunks of the same video scene from the peers in the same swarm as well as the ones in the preceding swarm that already moved on to the next scene. The average setup delay and maximum playback rate of Waterfall are analyzed. Experiments from a wide area network testbed reveal that Waterfall achieves two to three times higher playback rate and significantly low setup delay than the prior BitTorrent-based streaming solutions.
Is There Flow-Driven Price Impact in Corporate Bond Markets?

We document the extent to which mutual fund flows drive price pressure in the corporate bond markets. In contrast to well-documented evidence reported in equity fund studies, fund flows have only limited impact on corporate bond prices. We attribute this puzzling finding to liquidity-sensitive trading conducted by corporate bond funds. Funds on average maintain 14% of their net assets in cash and selectively trade high liquidity bonds. They sell only 66 to 78 basis points of their bond holdings for one percent outflows of their total assets, instead of selling one-to-one. However, during market stress episodes such as the 2008 financial crisis and the Taper Tantrum, we observe significant flow-driven price pressure. Flows to low cash holding funds also exert temporary price pressure at the aggregate market level. Our results suggest that significant flows during market stress can potentially have destabilizing impact on the corporate bond markets despite funds’ liquidity management.