Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Multidimensional engagement and store performance

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of multidimensional engagement (job engagement and organization engagement) on retail stores’ performance directly and indirectly through job performance and job satisfaction. Design/methodology/approach Data were collected from frontline retail store employees. A variance-based structural equation modeling (PLS) is used to examine the relationships between multidimensional engagement, job performance, job satisfaction, and store performance. The bootstrap method was applied to examine the mediation role of job performance and job satisfaction. Findings This study supports the existence of a multi-dimension engagement consisting of job engagement and organization engagement and the relationship between these engagements. Further, this study reveals that job engagement and organization engagement are important determinants of store performance. Practical implications This study provides an avenue for retail store managers to increase their store performance through the development of employee engagement. To improve the store performance, this study suggests that store managers provide a challenging job and encourage employees to use their creativity in serving customers. It is also important to store managers to support employees in performing their jobs, including procedural fairness in stores. Originality/value This study is one of the first attempts to examine the effect of multidimensional engagement on organization performance at a business unit level (retail store).
The emerging use of bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells in the treatment of human chronic wounds

Introduction: Close to 5 million people in the USA are affected by chronic wounds, and billions of dollars are spent annually for their treatment. Despite advances in chronic wound management over the past decades, many patients afflicted with chronic wounds fail to heal or their ulcers recur. There is emerging evidence that the use of bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (BM-MSCs) can offset this situation of impaired healing. Areas covered: This article provides a review of the use of BM-MSC for the treatment of chronic wounds, the current development of stem cell delivery to chronic wounds and related challenges are also described in this manuscript. Expert opinion: Numerous animal studies and a few pilot studies in human wounds have shown that BM-MSC can augment wound closure. Still, the primary contribution of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) to cutaneous regeneration and the long-term systemic effects of MSCs are yet to be established. In addition, we need to determine whether other types of stem/progenitor cells will be more effective. Therefore, more randomized controlled clinical trials need to be undertaken. It is of importance to remember that even with the most advanced and sophisticated therapeutic approaches, proper wound care and adherence to basic principles remain critical.
Distribution of Soy-Derived Phytoestrogens in Human Breast Tissue and Biological Fluids

OBJECTIVE: Soy-derived phytoestrogens may exert several health-beneficial effects. Although plasma and urine levels of these compounds after ingestion have been thoroughly investigated, little is known about their tissue distribution, which is particularly important for tissues with high endogenous estrogen and estrogen receptor concentrations. We aimed to investigate the concentrations of genistein, daidzein, and equol in human breast tissue homogenate and to compare these with the corresponding values in serum and urine. METHODS: A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study was undertaken to evaluate the concentrations of soy-derived phytoestrogens achieved in breast tissue homogenate, serum, and urine after ingestion of either a soy-based food supplement (n = 9) or a placebo tablet (n = 19) for 5 consecutive evenings before aesthetic breast surgery. To account for the heterogeneity of the breast tissue samples, markers for cellularity, epithelial content, blood vessel content, and total fat were determined. RESULTS: Urine concentrations of genistein, daidzein, and equol were significantly higher in the soy-supplemented subjects than in the subjects ingesting the placebo (P < .05). Only genistein was found to be significantly higher in serum of the soy group than in the placebo group, and no significant differences were found in breast tissue homogenate concentrations of all analytes between the 2 groups. CONCLUSION: Intake of soy-based food supplements for 5 consecutive days did not result in significantly higher genistein, daidzein, and equol concentrations in breast tissue homogenate when compared with the placebo group. The concentrations were in the low nanomolar range, whereas in the corresponding serum samples, concentrations were a hundred-fold higher. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: I
Desorption kinetics of fluoranthene and trifluralin from Lake Huron and Lake Erie, USA, sediments

Desorption kinetics were determined for fluoranthene (FLU) and trifluralin (TF) spiked onto Lake Erie and Lake Huron, USA, sediments at three concentrations (10, 40, 100 mg/kg dry wt). Following four months of equilibration, desorption was measured by extraction with Tenax® and the data were fit to a first‐order three‐compartment kinetic model. The rate constants of the rapidly (krap), slowly (kslow), and very slowly (kvs) desorbing fractions were on the order of 10−1/h, 10−2–3/h, and 10−4/h, respectively. The t99.9 (time required for 99.9% of the FLU and TF to desorb from each pool value) for each compartment indicated that FLU and TF desorption from rapid, slow, and very slow compartments were on the order of hours, days, and years, respectively. Higher rates of desorption were observed for FLU and TF from the Lake Huron sediments and this was not apparently related to the total organic carbon (TOC), particle size distribution, or polarity (carbon‐to‐nitrogen ratio) of the sediments. In general, the total fraction of the initial contaminant amounts that desorbed over the time course was directly related to concentration, which we hypothesized was due to the combined effects of saturation of high‐energy (slow and very slow) binding sites in the organic carbon matrix and hysteresis. In extrapolations to field conditions, FLU and TF were predicted to persist in the sediments for years due to the very slow desorption of an estimated 31 to 53% of the bulk concentrations. Based on the rapidly desorbing fractions, the bioavailable amounts of the contaminants were predicted to be between 31 to 55% of bulk sediment concentrations.
Effect of Primer Selection on Estimates of GB Virus C (GBV-C) Prevalence and Response to Antiretroviral Therapy for Optimal Testing for GBV-C Viremia

ABSTRACT GB virus C (GBV-C; also called hepatitis G virus) is a common cause of infection associated with prolonged survival among HIV-infected individuals. The prevalences of GBV-C viremia vary widely in different studies, and there has been poor agreement among different laboratories performing GBV-C RNA detection in quality control studies. To determine the optimal method of measuring GBV-C RNA in clinical samples, samples obtained from 939 HIV-infected subjects were studied using reverse transcription (RT)-PCR methods amplifying four separate regions of the GBV-C genome. Primers amplifying the E2 coding region were 100% specific; however, their sensitivity was only 76.6%. In contrast, primers amplifying three additional conserved regions of the GBV-C genome (the 5′ nontranslated region and the nonstructural protein-coding regions 3 and 5A) were more sensitive but produced higher rates of false-positive results. Using low-specificity primer sets influenced the significance of association between GBV-C viremia and response to antiretroviral therapy. Using a quantitative GBV-C RNA method, the GBV-C RNA concentration did not correlate with baseline or set point HIV RNA levels; however, a correlation between negative, low, and high GBV-C RNA levels and increasing reduction in HIV RNA following antiretroviral therapy was observed. Subjects with both GBV-C E2 antibody and viremia had significantly lower GBV-C RNA levels than did viremic subjects without E2 antibody. These studies demonstrate that accurate detection of GBV-C RNA by nested RT-PCR requires the use of primers representing multiple genome regions. Analyses based on testing with single primers do not lead to reliable conclusions about the association between GBV-C infection and clinical outcomes.
Prevalence and pattern of smoking in Pakistan.

OBJECTIVE To determine the prevalence and pattern of smoking amongst Pakistanis. SAMPLING DESIGN: A two stage stratified sample design was adopted for the survey, Primary Sampling Units (PSU's) and Secondary Sampling Units (SSU's). SETTING Urban and Rural, Pakistan 1990-94. SUBJECTS Stratified systematic sample of 9441 males and females aged 15 years and above. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Smokers were defined as, subjects who were currently smoking and who had smoked > or = 100 cigarettes/beedis or chillum/huqqa in their life time. RESULTS In Pakistan 21.6% (36% males and 9% females) of 9441 subjects were smokers. In urban areas it was 20.7% and in rural 22.0%, males were predominant in both urban and rural areas. Proportion of smokers who used cigarette/beedi were significantly higher in males (60%) while chillum/huqqa were more in females (62%). Prevalence increased with age upto 64 years, after which it declined but in urban females it continued to rise with age. Among both males and females; illiterate, married individuals with poor general health were more likely to smoke. These factors were 2 to 3 times more in males and 2 to 5 times more in females who were more likely to be smokers than those who were literate, single individuals with good general health. CONCLUSION Smoking was more prevalent in illiterate, married persons and those with poor general health.
Rosemary and Cancer Prevention: Preclinical Perspectives

Colorectal cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death in Australia. Nutrition, particularly intake of vegetables and certain plant components, has been reported to have a major role in cancer risk reduction. Recently, there has been a growing research interest in rosemary, a common household plant grown in many parts of the world. This study aims to review scientific evidence from all studies, published from 1996 to March 2010 that examined the protective effects of rosemary on colorectal cancer and other types of cancer. Literature evidence from animal and cell culture studies demonstrates the anticancer potential of rosemary extract, carnosol, carnosic acid, ursolic acid, and rosmarinic acid. No evidence for other rosemary constituents was found. The reported anticancer properties were found to arise through the molecular changes in the multiple-stage process of cancer development, which are dose related and not tissue or species specific. This is evidenced by the ability of rosemary to suppress the development of tumors in several organs including the colon, breast, liver, stomach, as well as melanoma and leukemia cells. The results suggested that the different molecular targets modulated by rosemary and its active constituents are useful indicators of success in clinical cancer chemo-prevention trials.
NYSE Closure and Global Equity Trading: The Case of Cross-listed Stocks

Abstract Cross-listing in the US opens a new information channel for cross-listed stocks and makes the cross-listed stocks more dependent on the US market as a source of information and intermarket competition for order flow. We test this proposition by examining the effects of closures of the NYSE on trading of cross-listed stocks in their home markets. We use daily and intraday trading data for stocks from 36 countries that cross-list on the NYSE during the period 2009–2018 to estimate measures of stock liquidity and information efficiency of stock prices on normal days and on days when the NYSE is closed due to US public holidays and natural hazards. We document that, when the NYSE is closed, stocks that cross-list on the NYSE see a significant reduction in stock liquidity and information efficiency of stock prices in their home markets, over and above the reduction experienced by their domestic counterparts. In addition, we investigate several channels that could explain the documented reduction in liquidity and price efficiency - information, substitute and arbitrage channels. We document that cross-listed stocks are more affected by NYSE closure when they have greater dependence on the US market, and when arbitrage strategies are easier to implement, providing some evidence for the information channel and arbitrage channel arguments.
Accounting Conservatism and Board Monitoring

This paper provides a theoretical foundation for findings in empirical studies that document a positive association between conservatism and strong corporate governance through the board’s monitoring efficiency. We construct a model with a board that decides whether to replace the incumbent manager based on accounting information and the outcome of its monitoring strategy, which also depends on the accounting information. If accounting is used only for the replacement decision, conservatism is harmful. However, conservatism is beneficial if accounting is relevant to the monitoring decision because it enhances the net benefit of monitoring. The net benefit of conservatism increases if the board becomes more efficient in monitoring. We also discuss earnings management and specific empirical implications.
On the Short- and Medium-Term Effects of Formalisation: Panel Evidence from Vietnam

ABSTRACT This paper analyses the consequences of formalisation on the performance of informal firms, using a panel dataset from Vietnam. We find that switching firms (before switching) have higher profit and value added compared to non-switching firms; suggesting heterogeneity. Becoming formal leads to an additional increase in switching firms’ profit and value added. The benefits of formalisation materialise in the short-term (one year) and persist in the longer-term (three or more years). These benefits run through various channels such as better access to powered equipment or higher business association membership; but not better access to credit.
Quality Polarization and International Trade

This paper builds a model that examines firm heterogeneity across two dimensions: productivity and quality. We show that when firms are able to choose their input quality and there exists a negative relationship between a firm's product quality and their marginal cost, this can lead to a non-unimodal distribution of quality across firms. Trade liberalization, represented by reductions in trade costs, and stronger vertical linkages, represented by an increase in the cost share of intermediate goods, shift the distribution of firms towards the modes of the distribution, which we call quality polarization. With this approach, we are able to explain empirical trade patterns relating to firm size, prices, and quality of exported goods.
Target P/E ratio determinants in the Turkish Stock Market: Earning volatility effect

This paper investigates that what are the determinants of target PE in the case of Turkish Stock Market. The general outputs: i) Projected dividend yield is the dominant factor on PE. ii) Boosted investments and growing top-line raise PE ratio. iii) PE ratios come down as companies' financial leverage and working capital needs grow. iv) Although stabilizing foreign exchange risks and gross profit margins with the aid of hedge tools and product diversity of the companies decreases the acceleration of profitability, it eventually augments PE ratio. Data from Borsa Istanbul covering 2000-2014 term have been modeled by GMM.
Effect of Consumer Awareness on Corporate Social Responsibility under Asymmetric Information

This paper studies the interaction between a firm and consumers under the consideration of corporate social responsibility. The firm can be either socially responsible or socially irresponsible; however, the consumers cannot observe the firm’s exact type, which is private information. The firm can try to signal its type through pricing and other information sharing mechanisms (e.g., issue sustainability reports and obtain third-party certifications). We find that due to the existence of asymmetric information, increasing consumer awareness of corporate social responsibility does not necessarily help promote responsible corporate behaviors. Specifically, when a larger fraction of consumers become socially concerned or when the consumers have stronger willingness to reward (punish) the responsible (irresponsible) firm, the responsible firm could be worse off whereas the irresponsible firm could be better off. This is because the seemingly attractive trend in consumer behavior will affect the responsible firm’s signaling cost as well as its equilibrium strategy (separating vs. pooling). In addition, we find that improving the signaling accuracy will always benefit the responsible firm but may or may not hurt the irresponsible firm. Our results suggest that addressing the information asymmetry issue is the key in promoting corporate social responsibility. In particular, concerned parties should first exert efforts to create transparency in firms’ sustainability practices before making investments to educate consumers and influence their purchasing behaviors.
The Equilibrium Relationships between Performance-Based Pay, Performance, and the Commission and Detection of Fraudulent Misreporting

We develop an agency model in which managerial information manipulation creates pooling and entails ex post costs internal and/or external to the firm. We examine the implications of the strategic interactions between shareholders (who set internal governance and managerial incentive compensation), the manager (who exerts effort and reports on its outcome), and an external regulatory authority or RA (who investigates for fraud and levies penalties ex post). When the RA cannot pre-commit to an ex post investigation strategy, a fraudulent equilibrium obtains if the firm's internal governance costs are sufficiently high. Consistent with (so far fairly scant) post-SOX empirical evidence, but the opposite of the implications of signal-jamming models and equilibria with pre-commitment, the model implies an increase in minimum internal governance standards or ex post fraud penalties (as with SOX) results in decreased equilibrium pay-for-performance sensitivity and firm performance.
State-mediated Capitalism From Below and the Small-scale Peasant Aquaculture in Nayarit (Mexico)

This thesis presents a historical case study of small-scale peasant shrimp production and its forms of organisation in the region known as “La Costa” in the northwest Mexican state of Nayarit. This case study constitutes a good example of the evolution of peasant communities over a century of history in which various government policies left their mark on the development of the political economy of the region in the period following the Mexican Revolution. From that time, La Costa became the setting for a process of peasantisation and for a set of policies supporting the development of cooperatives for the exploitation of water resources. This period was defined by the struggle faced by these communities to consolidate their political, economic, and administrative autonomy. In the 1990s, these same communities and their cooperatives suffered the effects of neoliberal policies (privatisation, trade liberalisation, deregulation) in their Mexican incarnation, which have had the effect of undermining peasant production and promoting a search for new ways of surviving, along with the appearance of new strata and social actors. Using the concepts of early simple commodity production and advanced simple commodity production as used by Terence J. Byres (1996), the process described in this thesis constitutes an example of a process of capitalist development from below, in a region with a high population density and a significant level of state intervention in political and regulatory terms, in the context of a labour surplus (Lewis, 1954). It could be argued that it shows how neoliberalism has changed the way we need to conceptualise the "classical agrarian question" and to interpret the labour surplus in middle income societies as suggested by Bernstein (2009b).
Expression of WT1 during normal human kidney development

Wilms Tumor 1 (WT1) is a zinc finger protein, expressed by human podocytes in the adult kidney, which plays a relevant role in different phases of nephrogenesis in experimental animals. Since no data are available for specific role in the human fetal kidney, this study aimed at investigating the expression of WT1 during the different phases of nephrogenesis. To this end, the expression of WT1 was evaluated in the kidneys, from four human fetuses and two newborns. WT1 immunoreactivity was detected in all the examined kidneys, but not in the kidneys of the newborn at term. Immunostaining for WT1 was observed in podocytes of the glomeruli and in the subcapsular regions, in areas of active glomerulogenesis. The extent and the intensity of immunoreactivity for WT1 changed from one case to the next according to the different gestational age. This study confirms in human kidney the relevant role played by WT1 during nephrogenesis. Its expression pattern suggests a main role in the regulation of the process of Mesenchimal-Epithelial-Transition and in the development and maturation of podocytes. Further studies are needed to verify the correlation between the expression pattern of WT1 and that of other genes products involved in nephrogenesis, in order to better understand their relationship at protein level.
Log‐linear non‐uniform association models for agreement between two ratings on an ordinal scale

In agreement studies, when objects are rated independently by two raters (or twice by the same rater), an association between their ratings on two categories arises, reflecting the distinguishability of these two categories for these raters. When ratings are performed on an ordinal scale, this association between ratings on two categories increases when the distance between these categories increases on the ordinal scale. Goodman's log‐linear models derived for the analysis of agreement between two raters on an ordinal scale assume that distinguishabilities between adjacent categories are either constant, or a priori fixed. Log‐non‐linear models that allow variations of the distinguishabilities between adjacent categories along the scale, may lead to difficulties in parameter estimation.
Colorectal carcinoma survival among hereditary nonpolyposis colorectal carcinoma family members

Patients with hereditary nonpolyposis colorectal carcinoma (HNPCC) reportedly have better prognoses than sporadic colorectal carcinoma (CRC) patients, but it has been unclear whether this could be due to differences in stage at diagnosis. The current study compared stage and survival in a retrospective cohort of HNPCC family members who developed CRC with the same factors in an unselected hospital series of patients with sporadic CRC.
Determining the Value of a Virtual Community to Its Participants

We seek to understand the perceived value of virtual communities based on three site assets: community members, knowledge (content), and technology. Extending Preece's two-dimensional model of community (sociability) and technology (usability) and considering perceived site value instead of community success, we formulate a three-dimensional model, which we empirically test for its impact on perceived value and site use. The empirical analysis draws on survey data from 144 users of the Slash dot site. We find all of our hypotheses confirmed, indicating in general that increased site technology asset quality, content quality and community asset quality increase perceived site value.