Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Apparel shopping: a focus on the attitudes of women towards online shopping

This study evaluates women's attitude as an overall inclination towards apparel shopping online via e-mail questionnaire. Its findings suggest that women generally show positive attitudes towards shopping online for apparel. Women who shop for apparel online are aware of some of the discouraging features of online shopping, but these features do not deter them from buying online. The implication for online retailers is that they should focus on making the experience of online shopping more accommodating and more user-friendly. This is important because the positive features of online shopping ('convenience', 'usefulness', 'ease of use', and 'efficiency') appear to be more important than the negative features ('lack of security', 'privacy of information' and 'online fraud').
The changing workforce, workplace and nature of work: implications for health human resource management.

We cannot ensure timely access to care without having the right providers and support services in place all along the patient journey – not just the surgeons but the whole team of professionals in our hospitals, in rehab and home care and behind the scenes in planning, sharing information and keeping the workforce healthy and productive. – Michael Decter, Chair, Health Council of Canada (June 2005)
The influence of periodic external fields in multi-agent models with language dynamics

We investigate large-scale effects induced by external fields, phenomenologically interpreted as mass media, in multiagent models evolving with the microscopic dynamics of the binary naming game. In particular, we show that a single external field, broadcasting information at regular time intervals, can reverse the majority opinion of the population, provided the frequency and the effectiveness of the sent messages lie above well-defined thresholds. We study the phase structure of the model in the mean field approximation and in numerical simulations with several network topologies. We also investigate the influence on the agent dynamics of two competing external fields, periodically broadcasting different messages. In finite regions of the parameter space we observe periodic equilibrium states in which the average opinion densities are reversed with respect to naive expectations. Such equilibria occur in two cases: (i) when the frequencies of the competing messages are different but close to each other; (ii) when the frequencies are equal and the relative time shift of the messages does not exceed half a period. We interpret the observed phenomena as a result of the interplay between the external fields and the internal dynamics of the agents and conclude that, depending on the model parameters, the naming game is consistent with scenarios of first- or second-mover advantage (to borrow an expression from the jargon of business strategy).
The Politics of Bank No-Lending Activities Regulation: A Cross Country and Time Dynamic Study of the Role of Government and Private Industry Groups

I run a cross country study that narrows down the evidence in favor of the influence of industrial private interests on bank legislation, specifically bank non-lending activities like non-financial firm, insurance, real estate and securities activities entry. Building on the methodology proposed by Braun and Raddatz (2008) I find that industry promoters of financial development have a preference to restrict bank entry into non-lending activities, a result that is consistent with a bank power aversion flavor of private interest theory. Through the proposed methodology, I am also able to disentangle evidence supportive of tollbooth theory where governments restrict the law to generate opportunities for rent extraction. I also find some weak support for public interest theory and in various cases, governments that are perceived as of high regulatory quality, tend to resemble a flip flopping pattern of regulatory changes more consistent with tampering theory.As a whole, a puzzle emerges because current theoretical and empirical research suggests that financial development is favored by providing greater freedoms in bank-non lending activities, however, the private interest story suggest the opposite. As a possible resolution to the puzzle I suggest that the restrictions on bank non lending activities favored by industrial interests drive financial development only when they are supported by industries with external capital needs and with growth opportunities. Further, such beneficial impact from restrictions will become evident only under such specific conditions and on the longer term. However a more immediate and stronger impact on financial development is possible when control of government corruption improves and non lending activities such as non financial firm and insurance activities bank entry are freed.
The elderly's uses and attitudes towards the Internet

Despite the growth of the Internet, one area that marketers have not really discussed is the elderly's use of the Internet. Given the rapid growth of this population as well as the potential the Internet holds for them, it is a subject worth consideration. This paper discusses the use of the Internet by a national random survey of elderly consumers and the impact of attitude, innovation, and demographics on their use. This study shows that the elderly consumers have favorable intentions towards using the Internet; most learned to use the Internet on their own; and they preferred to learn more about the Internet if such classes were offered at convenient locations. Those seniors with higher levels of income are more willing to both use the Internet and purchase products online; while education levels positively impacted only Internet use. Finally, this paper provides implications for marketers and suggestions for future research.
Perception of US branded apparel in Shanghai

This study focuses on perceptions of registered brands sold in Shanghai. Brand identity has been studied in Western settings; this study expands understanding of brand identity from a Chinese perspective. Chinese shoppers in Shanghai shopping malls were asked to compare US and Chinese brands in a survey about their perceptions of product attributes, brand identification and store environment. In the analysis of data, US brands were evaluated more positively than Chinese on attributes of design innovation, workmanship, brand image, service, and display of products, while Chinese brands received more positive marks on fit and price satisfaction. Low brand loyalty among the Chinese shoppers meant that brand image and competition among brands are keen. To remain competitive, US companies which plan to increase their market in China need to pay attention to product quality and how brand identity is interpreted within Chinese culture.
Curcumin Alters the Pharmacokinetics of Warfarin and Clopidogrel in Wistar Rats but Has No Effect on Anticoagulation or Antiplatelet Aggregation

Abstract This study examined the effects of curcumin on the pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic properties of warfarin and clopidogrel in Wistar rats. Results showed that oral administration of curcumin at 25 mg/kg, 50 mg/kg, and 100 mg/kg for 7 days had no substantial effects on the pharmacodynamics of warfarin and clopidogrel in this animal model. However, oral administration of 100 mg/kg curcumin for 7 days significantly increased the AUC0-∞ and Cmax of the two drugs (by × 1.6 and × 1.5, respectively, for warfarin, and × 1.61 and × 1.81, respectively, for clopidogrel carboxylic acid). However, compared to warfarin alone, different doses of curcumin combined with warfarin had no effects on the prothrombin time in rats. Similarly, a combination of curcumin and clopidogrel had no significant effect on the maximum platelet aggregation rate of rats compared with the use of clopidogrel alone. This work demonstrated that preadministration of 100 mg/kg curcumin affected the pharmacokinetics of warfarin and clopidogrel but had no effect on pharmacodynamic parameters such as anticoagulation rate and antiplatelet aggregation.
Inversion-based control of series-parallel HEV for municipal trucks

This paper will undertake simulation of series-parallel Hybrid Electric Vehicles (HEVs) with application to municipal truck. The height, weight and power requirement of these types of vehicles makes them increasingly complex and complicated. The first step to understanding the complexity is to use a model for the vehicle. This will then lead to a simulation of an overall system. To accomplish this, the modeling and the control of municipal truck are realized with the assistance of Energetic Macroscopic Representation (EMR) and implemented into MATLAB-Simulink®.
Processing, surface expression, and immunogenicity of carboxy-terminally truncated mutants of G protein of human respiratory syncytial virus

Posttranslational processing and cell surface expression were examined for three C-terminally truncated mutants of the G protein of respiratory syncytial virus expressed from engineered cDNAs. The truncated mutants, encoded by cDNAs designated G71, G180, and G230, contained the N-terminal 71, 180, and 230 amino acids, respectively, of the 298-amino-acid G protein. To facilitate detection of G71, which reacted inefficiently with G-specific antisera, we constructed a parallel set of cDNAs, designated G71/13, G180/13, and G230/13, to encode the same truncated species with the addition of a C-terminal 13-amino-acid reporter peptide which could be detected efficiently with an antipeptide serum. G71, G180, and G230 were expressed as species of Mr 7,500, 48,000, and 51,000, respectively, compared with 84,000 for parental G protein. The proteins encoded by G180 and G230, like parental G protein, contained both N-linked and O-linked carbohydrate. Also, the protein encoded by G71/13 appeared to be O glycosylated, showing that even this highly truncated form contained the structural information required to target the protein for O glycosylation. As for parental G protein, the estimated Mrs of the proteins encoded by G180 and G230 were approximately twice the calculated molecular weight of the polypeptide chain. Experiments with monensin showed that most of this difference between the calculated and observed Mr was due to posttranslational processing in or beyond the trans-Golgi compartment, presumably owing to the addition of carbohydrate or aggregation into dimers or both. Like parental G protein, all three truncated forms accumulated abundantly at the cell surface, and in each case the C terminus was extracellular. Thus, the N-terminal 71 amino acids of the G protein contained all the structural information required for efficient membrane insertion and cell surface expression, whereas the extracellular domain was dispensable for these activities. Cotton rats were immunized with recombinant vaccinia viruses expressing the G71, G180, G230, or parental G protein to compare their abilities to induce serum antibodies and resistance to challenge virus replication. The G71 and G180 recombinants failed to induce significant levels of G-specific antibodies or resistance to challenge, whereas the immunogenicity of G230 equaled or exceeded that of parental G protein. This suggested that the C-terminal 68 amino acids of the 236-amino-acid ectodomain do not contribute to the major epitope(s) of the G protein that is involved in inducing protective immunity.
Learning What is Essential in Questions

Question answering (QA) systems are easily distracted by irrelevant or redundant words in questions, especially when faced with long or multi-sentence questions in difficult domains. This paper introduces and studies the notion of essential question terms with the goal of improving such QA solvers. We illustrate the importance of essential question terms by showing that humans’ ability to answer questions drops significantly when essential terms are eliminated from questions.We then develop a classifier that reliably (90% mean average precision) identifies and ranks essential terms in questions. Finally, we use the classifier to demonstrate that the notion of question term essentiality allows state-of-the-art QA solver for elementary-level science questions to make better and more informed decisions,improving performance by up to 5%. We also introduce a new dataset of over 2,200 crowd-sourced essential terms annotated science questions.
Human bone marrow , umbilical cord or liver mesenchymal stromal cells fail to improve liver function in a model of CCl 4-induced liver damage in NOD / SCID / IL-2 R g ( null ) mice

Background aims. Transplantation is the gold standard procedure for treating acute and chronic end-stage liver diseases. Given the shortage of organs, the development of cellular sources other than human liver is urgent. The main objective of this project was to examine the effect of mesenchymal stromal cell (MSC) (bone marrow, umbilical cord and liver MSCs) intravenous injection on liver regeneration in a model of hepatic damage in NOD/SCID/IL non-obese diabetic/severe combined immunodeficient/Interleukin-2Rg(null) (NSG) mice. Methods. Mice received 3 intraperitoneal injections of CCl4 Carbon tetrachloride per week for 4 weeks. Forty-eight hours after the last injection of CCl4, mice received 500,000 MSCs or phosphate-buffered saline by intravenous injection. We examined hepatic damage by means of quantitative image analysis and blood enzyme analysis 24 h, 1 week or 8 weeks after MSC or phosphate-buffered saline injection. We also examined MSC homing by means of real-time polymerase chain reaction of human albumin. Results. We adapted a model of liver injury in immunodeficient mice. In this model, accumulation of collagen in newly formed scar septa was apparent up to 8 weeks after CCl4 treatment. Human albumin DNA was found in all organs tested. However, intravenous MSC injection, even after CXCR4 C-X-C chemokine receptor type 4 transduction and whatever the origin of MSCs, failed to improve liver damage. Conclusions. In this liver injury model, MSCs were propagated in various tissues, particularly filtering organs. For the treatment of hepatic damage, intravenous administration of moderate doses of MSCs does not appear to be effective. Yet, this adapted liver injury model is appropriate for investigating engraftment of human cells.
Characterization of a 2D ion chamber array for the verification of radiotherapy treatments

In this study we investigated the characteristics of a commercial ion chamber array and its performance in the verification of radiotherapy plans. The device was the 2D Array Seven29™ model (PTW, Freiburg, Germany). This is a two-dimensional detector array with 729 ionization chambers uniformly arranged in a 27 × 27 matrix with an active area of 27 × 27 cm2. The detector short-, medium- and long-term reproducibility have been tested through an extensive set of repeated measurements. Short-term reproducibility was well within 0.2%. Medium- and long-term reproducibility were within 1%, including set-up reproducibility errors and linac output fluctuations. Dose linearity was also assessed. The system response to dose was verified to be linear within the range 2–500 MU. Output factors matched very well pinpoint chamber measurements performed in the same experimental conditions with a maximum local percentage difference of 0.4%. Furthermore, the 2D Array sensitivity to millimetric collimator positional changes and to perturbation effect of irradiated area was tested. The comparison with ion chamber data carried out in water was very satisfying. Finally, measurements of wedge-modulated fields and IMRT beam sequence matched very well ion chamber dose profiles acquired in a water tank. The extensive tests performed in this investigation show that the 2D Array Seven29 is a reliable and accurate dosimeter and that it could be a useful tool for the quality assurance and the verification of radiotherapy plans.
Effects of an acute strawberry (Fragaria × ananassa) consumption on the plasma antioxidant status of healthy subjects

BACKGROUND: Berries are raising increasing interest in the last years because of their nutritional quality and the several bioactive compounds with antioxidant properties that contain. Many studies reported significant increases in the plasma antioxidant capacity after long term and acute consumptions of antioxidant-rich foods. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this work was to confirm the healthy effect of strawberry consumption, evaluating the impact of an acute strawberry intake for 15 days on the plasma oxidative status of healthy volunteers. METHODS: To investigate the possible changes in the total antioxidant capacity of plasma, TEAC, FRAP, BAP and –SHp tests were performed; furthermore, the proteins’ carbonyl residues test and the d-ROMs test were conducted to evaluate the protection provided by the strawberry consumption against radical damage. RESULTS: Acute strawberry consumption improved the plasma TAC, increasing FRAP and BAP values, both immediately after the strawberry consumption and the washout period. Similarly, the strawberry intake decreased proteins’ carbonyl residues and d-ROMs test values. CONCLUSIONS: This study confirms the nutritional quality of Alba strawberry cultivar and demonstrates that the acute strawberry intake improves the plasma antioxidant capacity, and protects plasma proteins from the radical damage, also after the washout period.
Corporate Board Structure in the United States and India: A Comparative View

Abstract This study contributes to the existing body of knowledge concerning corporate governance practices by examining the corporate board and governance structures of American and Indian listed companies in a comparative study. Two hundred companies have been considered out of which 100 companies are listed on NYSE (New York Stock Exchange) and 100 companies are listed on BSE (Bombay Stock Exchange). T-test has been used for comparison between sample means from the two data sets (United States and India). To measure the year-wise variation in the mean values of variables, one-way ANOVA (analysis of variance) has been applied. Results of the study demonstrates that boards of US listed companies are relatively larger with majority of independent directors on board, prominence of combined board leadership structure and relatively more gender diverse as compared to Indian boards. The paper can be quite useful to academics and policy makers in terms of understanding developed and developing country corporate governance structures.
Identifying Required Job Skills of E-Business Project Managers Based on Corporate Homepages and Job Search Websites

The project manager is central to the success of any project. Thus, identifying the roles and skills requirement of the e-business project manager is very important to business organizations that are engaged in some aspects of e-business. This research collected 126 job ads for e-business project managers. By analyzing these job ads, this study identified the roles and skills necessary for e-business project managers. Three important roles were: a linker of technology to business, a strategy-minded developer, and an Internetoriented technology expert. Important skills requirement included: understanding of business, system development, problem solving, management, social, architecture/network, and software.
Building Competitive Advantage of Small and Medium Sized Enterprises through Knowledge Acquisition and Sharing

The level of success enjoyed by an organisation is dependent on its competitive advantage over the competitors. A firm’s competitive advantage is positively correlated to its level of knowledge on existing market conditions, and ability to adapt and exploit the prevailing market conditions. However, discourse in existing literature on ways through which small and medium enterprises (SMEs), often constrained by lack of resources, can acquire requisite knowledge needed to build competitive advantage and for continued existence are minimal. This paper discusses how SMEs could enhance their skills and competitiveness by leveraging on the resources and knowledge inherent in networks and partnership arrangements. Specifically, it explains how these arrangements could be utilized to develop knowledge resources and capabilities. This work is theoretical in nature and relies heavily on the review of pertinent existing literature on knowledge acquisition, competitive advantage, networks, partnerships, and performance. Organisations, especially SMEs, the paper argues, can acquire and develop knowledge resources and capabilities via networks and partnerships. The acquired knowledge and capabilities can then be leveraged to create competitive advantage for the enterprises. Keywords: competitive advantage, small and medium enterprises, knowledge sharing, knowledge acquisition, learning, partnerships, networking
Carvedilol, a new vasodilator and beta adrenoceptor antagonist, is an antioxidant and free radical scavenger.

The antioxidant effect of carvedilol, a new vasodilating, beta adrenoceptor blocker was studied and compared with five other beta blockers. Carvedilol rapidly inhibited Fe(++)-initiated lipid peroxidation, measured as thiobarbituric acid reactive substance (TBARS), in rat brain homogenate with an IC50 of 8.1 microM. Under the same conditions, the IC50 values of atenolol, pindolol propranolol, celiprolol and labetalol were over 1.0 mM. Carvedilol protected against Fe(++)-induced alpha-tocopherol depletion in rat brain homogenate with an IC50 of 17.6 microM; propranolol, celiprolol and labetalol, up to 200 microM, did not show any effect. Using dihydroxyfumarate/Fe(++)-ADP as a OH.radical generating system and 5,5-dimethyl pyrroline-N-oxide (DMPO) as a trapping agent, the characteristic DMPO-OH signals were monitored by electron paramagnetic resonance. Carvedilol dose-dependently decreased the intensity of the DMPO-OH signal, with an IC50 of 25 microM, whereas propranolol, at 500 microM, and U74500A, a 21-aminosteroid, at 100 microM, had no effect. The antioxidant effect of carvedilol mainly resides in the carbazole moiety, and the substitution of a hydroxyl group at certain positions on the phenyl ring of either carbazole or the ortho-substituted phenoxylethylamine part of carvedilol resulted in an increase in antioxidant activity. Furthermore, the protective effect of carvedilol analogs against OH. -mediated neuronal death positively correlated to their antioxidant effect. We conclude that carvedilol is a far more potent antioxidant than other commonly used beta blockers. The apparent mechanism of carvedilol's inhibition of lipid peroxidation is mainly via scavenging free radicals. This novel property of carvedilol may contribute to the known cardioprotective activity of this compound.