Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Support Distribution Machines

Most machine learning algorithms, such as classification or regression, treat the individual data point as the object of interest. Here we consider extending machine learning algorithms to operate on groups of data points. We suggest treating a group of data points as a set of i.i. d. samples from an underlying feature distribution for the group. Our approach is to generalize kernel machines from vectorial inputs to i.i. d. sample sets of vectors. For this purpose, we use a nonparametric estimator that can consistently estimate the inner product and certain kernel functions of two distributions. The projection of the estimated Gram matrix to the cone of semi-definite matrices enables us to employ the kernel trick, and hence use kernel machines for classification, regression, anomaly detection, and low-dimensional embedding in the space of distributions. We present several numerical experiments both on real and simulated datasets to demonstrate the advantages of our new approach.
The Web as a Medium: An Exploratory Comparison of Internet Users versus Newspaper Readers

As the amount of time and money spent on the Internet increases, so does concern over how this new medium fits into our current media consumption patterns. Past research has revealed that Internet usage has increased at the expense of other more traditional media. Further, the Internet has come under criticism of promoting anti-social behavior, depression, and withdrawal from society. However, others speculate that the Internet has a positive impact on society so powerful that it will become an integrated part of our consumption patterns and literally reshape the information gathering process and retail landscape. Regardless of one’s position for or against this new medium, research is needed to understand how the Internet fits into our daily life as compared to other more traditional media. This study investigates characteristics of Internet users compared to a more traditional medium – newspaper readers. Consumers of each medium are compared based on their perceived materialism, shopping innovativeness, self-esteem, and volunteer inclinations. Implications for marketers and researchers are discussed.
Information ethics for twenty-first century library professionals

Purpose – To provide an introduction to concepts and resources that will be useful to library professionals learning about information ethics.Design/methodology/approach – This paper argues for the importance of information ethics to twenty‐first century library professionals. It describes what various authors have said about how information ethics can be applied to the ethical dilemmas faced by library professionals.Findings – In order to deal effectively with their ethical dilemmas, library professionals must have a good working knowledge of information ethics. Codes of professional ethics can help to provide such knowledge, but they are not sufficient. Courses on information ethics must be part of the education of information professionals. Such courses should provide library professionals with an understanding of ethical theories and how they apply to concrete practical cases. Such courses should also make explicit the connection between information ethics and the mission of the library professional.R.
Low Dose Intermittent Epidural Anaesthesia with Lidocaine for Vaginal Delivery II

Abstract. Intermittent lumbar epidural block, using lidocaine without (series I), or with epinephrine (series II), for pain relief in labour was carried out in a total of 190 women with uncomplicated pregnancies. In a number of randomly selected cases in these two series the uterine contractility, the foetal heart rate pattern, and the acid‐base balance of the mothers and their foetuses were studied. Transitory decrease in uterine activity, primarily due to depressed intensity of the contractions, was observed after each injection in both series. This phenomenon was, however, much more pronounced in cases where epinephrine was added to the local anaesthetic solution. In both series the effect on the contractions declined with the number of injections. Ominous foetal heart rate patterns were rare and occurred almost exclusively in association with transient maternal hypotension. Good correlation was found between maternal arterial, and arterialized capillary blood with respect to the acid‐base components. The acid‐base values in foetal scalp blood, maternal capillary blood, and in umbilical cord blood showed a less pronounced tendency to metabolic acidosis in cases where epidural blocks were given than in cases in a non‐anaesthetized control group. Prolongation of the second stage was accompanied by the development of metabolic acidosis in anaesthetized, as well as in non‐anaesthetized cases. In the epidural series, however, this acidosis tended to appear later and to develop more slowly, indicating an overall good and stable intrauterine foetal condition.
An Examination of Free Cash Flow Hypothesis in Indian Repurchase Decisions

Repurchase of shares by Indian firms are on the rise in recent years. What motivates Indian firms to repurchase their own shares? Signalling and free cash flow hypotheses are two competitive and popular explanations identified in empirical research in US and other countries. Do Indian firms buy back their shares to correct market misvaluations or to return excess funds? In the present paper an effort is made to decipher the motives behind repurchase decisions of Indian firms. Since there are positive returns only on announcement day and not in post-announcement days the signalling hypothesis cannot be an explanation for positive overall CAR in Indian announcements. The study hypothesizes that Indian firms use repurchases as a part of overall corporate restructuring mechanism of distributing excess funds and build promoters' stake holding. The evidence shows that low-q firms with higher free cash flow ratio earn higher abnormal returns than other firms. The cross-sectional analysis generates positive coefficient for low-q firms with higher cash flow and promoters' control.
The disease pattern and utilisation of health care services in Pakistan.

Health is an important aspect of human life. In general terms, better health status of individuals reflects reduced illnesses, low level of morbidity, and less burden of disease in a given population. It is widely recognised that improved health not only lowers mortality, morbidity and level of fertility, but also contributes to increased productivity and regular school attendance of children as a result of fewer work days lost due to illness, which in turn have implications for economic and social well-being of the population at large. Hence investing in health is vital for promoting human resource development and economic growth in a country [World Bank (1993)]. A view of Pakistan’s health profile indicates that the sector has expanded considerably in terms of physical infrastructure and its manpower in both the public and private sector. This has contributed to some improvement in selected health status indicators over the years. However, the public health care delivery system has been inadequate in meeting the needs of the fast growing population and in filtering down its benefits to the gross-root level. As such, Pakistan still has one of the highest rates of infant and child mortality, total fertility and maternal mortality when compared with many other countries in the Asian region [UNDP (2000)]. Due to low priority given to social sector development in the past and low budgetary allocations made to the health sector, the evidence shows that mortality and morbidity indices have not reduced to the desired level and large gaps remain in the quality of care indicators, especially in rural areas [Federal Bureau of Statistics (2000)]. High levels of infant and child mortality and fertility in Pakistan point towards the fact that health and illness problems are severe for young children and mothers.
Strategic information sharing in decision-making hierarchies

Strategic information sharing in decision-making hierarchies Helge Klapper, University of Vienna, enrolment: Fall 2012, expected final date: Fall 2016, helge.klapper@univie.ac. at Research Gap and Method The purpose of this paper is to build a framework to study how information is passed on and aggregated in organizations. To that end we have developed a model which traces how information originally distributed among members of the organization with private information and potentially diverging interests, is being revealed to a final decision-maker. The approach details a two-layered hierarchical group, tasked with selecting a candidate, in which information is located at the lower level and decision rights either are given to the supervisor (centralized decision making), the subordinates (decentralized), or a combination of both (intermediate). The decision structures mirror important aggregation rules often found in organizations: consensus/majority rule (decentralized), hierarchical decisions (centralized), and intermediate rules such as the possibility of a veto by the supervisor. We model the strategic information exchange from the perspective of (boundedly) rational subordinates who have to decide whether to share their private information.
Recombinant human parathyroid hormone

On 27 July the US Food and Drug Administration held a public hearing on an application for a licence for the use of recombinant human parathyroid hormone in the treatment of postmenopausal osteoporosis. The application, from Eli Lilly, is for teriparatide (Forsteo), the N-terminal fragment rhPTH(1-34). The hearing's advisory panel voted unanimously in favour of the parathyroid hormone and approval could be expected after resolution of a few technical concerns. The application was partly based on solid evidence that parathyroid hormone, given as a daily injection for several weeks or months in experimental animals, increases bone mass and strength.1 This evidence led to a multicentre randomised controlled trial in women with osteoporosis, which showed that treatment with parathyroid hormone reduced spine fractures by 66% to 90% (according to whether smaller fractures and those causing minor symptoms were counted) and other fractures by 50%. 2 The first experiments showing an anabolic effect of parathyroid hormone on bone in young rats took place in various North American laboratories …
An empirical investigation of the influence of optimum stimulation levels in retailing

Purpose – A person's optimum stimulation level (OSL) reflects one's desired level of environmental stimulation and predisposition to act in the presence of environments. The purpose of this paper is to propose a comprehensive model, which illustrates that consumers with different levels of OSL have differing evaluations of retail store elements, shopping value and subsequent shopping behaviours.Design/methodology/approach – To examine the relationship between OSL and consumer perceptions and behaviours, interviews were conducted with retail shoppers in Taiwan (n=147). Findings – Taiwanese shoppers with a high OSL were found to have more favourable evaluations of a store's ambient, design, layout and density elements than did consumers with a low OSL. Additionally, the high OSL shoppers reported higher hedonic and utilitarian values from their shopping. Most importantly, the shoppers with a high OSL spent more time and money in stores.Practical implications – With this research, hopefully retailers will pay.
Antibodies to outer membrane proteins but not to lipopolysaccharide inhibit pulmonary proliferation of Pasteurella multocida in mice

The role of rabbit antibodies against Pasteurella multocida outer membrane proteins and lipopolysaccharides (LPS) in resistance remains unknown. Pooled immune sera against P. multocida outer membranes were prepared from specific-pathogen-free rabbits immunized with sucrose gradient-purified P. multocida outer membranes. Western immunoblotting showed that purified outer membrane protein antibodies reacted strongly against the outer membrane proteins but not the purified LPS. Affinity-purified LPS antibodies exhibited strong reactivity against purified LPS and very little reactivity against outer membrane vesicles. Mice were inoculated intranasally with immune serum or normal rabbit serum, challenged intranasally with 10(6) CFU of P. multocida, and euthanatized 48 h later to determine the number of P. multocida organisms in the lungs. Mice inoculated with pooled immune serum had a 3,300-fold reduction (P less than 0.001) in the numbers of P. multocida in the lungs as compared with the controls. Similarly, mice inoculated with purified outer membrane protein antibodies had a 201-fold reduction (P less than 0.001) in the numbers of P. multocida. Conversely, mice inoculated with affinity-purified LPS antibodies had a 1.1-fold reduction (P greater than 0.50) in the numbers of P. multocida. These results show that antibodies against the outer membrane proteins but not the LPS are the components of rabbit immune sera which inhibit P. multocida proliferation in mouse lungs.
Assessment and optimization of the nutritional situation in Croatian boarding schools

The aim of this study was to assess the nutritional quality of the food supply in Croatian boarding schools and to provide suggestions aimed at its improvement. The work is based on a nutritional survey and nutrition optimization. The survey assessed the food supply in female, male and co-educational boarding schools in Zagreb, Croatia. Particularly, the diets of students aged 15-19 years were investigated and the relationship between students' anthropometric measurements and the supply of energy, protein, fat and carbohydrates was analysed. Based on the survey results, nutrition optimization was applied to determine diets meeting the recommended dietary allowances (RDAs) of selected nutrients at least cost. The survey showed that the diets provided in Croatian boarding schools are generally characterized by an oversupply of energy and fat to female pupils and an undersupply of many micro- nutrients to pupils of both genders. This seems to promote the development of obesity in female students. Furthermore, it could be shown by means of nutrition optimization that the nutritional situation in the boarding schools could easily be improved by a reasonable selection and combination of dishes that would also lead to a reduction of food costs. Menu planning by means of nutrition optimization could help to improve the nutritional quality of the food supply in Croatian boarding schools and simultaneously decrease the corresponding food costs. s Z ˇ
Mandatory IFRS Adoption: The Trade-Off between Accrual and Real-Based Earnings Management

This paper examines whether firms substitute accrual and real-based earnings management once the International Financial Reporting System (IFRS) becomes mandatory. Using a sample of 53,853 firm-year observations from 37 countries between 2000 and 2008, we document a decrease (increase) in accrual (real-based) earnings management activities for mandatory IFRS adopters only in countries with strict enforcement regimes. Moreover, we show that the switch from accrual to real-based earnings management activities leads to a much larger decline in performance. Taken together the results document that the accounting regulators' efforts to increase earnings quality by reducing managerial discretion may have the unintended consequence of increasing real-based earnings management and reducing firms' performance.
Marketing in emerging countries: evidence from a liberalized economy

Following a review of the current economic trends in emerging nations, discusses the importance of marketing within the macro and micro contexts of business environments in a typical liberalized economy. Provides a background to changes taking place within the market environments of emerging nations which have instituted policies to liberalize their economies, with a focus on Ghana, which has been hailed as a successful bright star of the developing world. In the context of developing countries, highlights the relevance of marketing and follows this by identifying a number of areas in which effective marketing strategies are gaining increased importance in Ghana’s evolving marketplace, and in this context, discusses case studies of three companies which have achieved superior performance as a result of improved marketing practices. Addresses the implications of the changing environment for business and marketing managers of both foreign and domestic firms.
ENTREPRENEURIAL AND MARKETING ORIENTATION RELATIONSHIP TO PERFORMANCE: THE SME PERSPECTIVE

The aim of this research is to examine the mediating effect of market orientation on the relationship between entrepreneurial orientation and performance of SMEs in Malaysia. It proposed a quantitative analysis in which market orientation and entrepreneurial orientation are key success factors of SMEs. Data were collected by means of a mail survey questionnaire completed by owner/managers randomly selected from a sampling frame of registered SMEs. The questionnaire developed by Covin and Slevin (1989) was used to measure the entrepreneurial orientation of the firm, market orientation was measured using a nine item scale adapted from Narver and Slater (1990) and performance measurement was based on subjective evaluation involving self-reported measures. The findings reveal that significant relationships exist between entrepreneurial orientation and performance, and also between market orientation and performance, while market orientation was found to partially mediate the entrepreneurial orientation and performance relationships. These findings may be of help to the owner/managers of SMEs to be more market and entrepreneurial oriented in order for them to survive in the intensely competitive market environment.
Crossing Domain-Specific Boundaries in Search of Innovation: Exploring the Potential of 'Pyramiding'

For many years, it has remained unquestioned that developing innovation mainly happens within the boundaries of organizations' own R&D and/or marketing departments, i.e. is an activity based on (re-)using local expertise. The negative effect of this local search behavior on the novelty of the outcome, however, is one of the reasons why researchers and innovation managers are increasingly discussing the idea of opening up innovation processes by drawing on external problem solvers. In particular, problem solvers located in contextually distant but analogous domains (i.e. domains linked by similar problems) are capable of contributing to overcoming 'local search bias': As they do not suffer from 'functional fixedness' but experience a similar ('analogous') problem, they are capable of coming up with highly novel solutions. In theory, a recently introduced search approach known as 'pyramiding' holds great potential for crossing domain-specific boundaries and identifying problem solvers from contextually distant domains. Although initial practical applications of this search method, for example in the course of applying the lead user method, provide anecdotal evidence, systematic research on the potential of pyramiding for crossing domain-specific boundaries is still lacking to date. This study addresses this gap by analyzing 1,147 interviews conducted in the course of pyramiding search processes in eight lead user studies. The authors find that pyramiding is an apt means of systematically crossing domain-specific boundaries: More than one third of those interviewees who were able to provide a valid referral in their interview performed the creative task of referring into one or more analogous domains previously unknown to the searching organization. The interviewees' levels of expertise as well as their domain origins influence the likelihood of a domain-crossing referral. Moreover, the type of industry in which the search field is located is found to moderate the effect of expertise on the likelihood of a referral into an analogous domain.
Outbreaks of Vesicular stomatitis Alagoas virus in horses and cattle in northeastern Brazil

The current article describes outbreaks of vesicular stomatitis (VS) in horses and cattle in Paraiba and Rio Grande do Norte states, northeastern Brazil, between June and August 2013. The reported cases affected 15–20 horses and 6 cattle distributed over 6 small farms in 4 municipalities, but additional data indicated the involvement of a large number of animals on several farms. The disease was characterized by blisters; eruptive lesions in coronary bands, lips, mouth, and muzzle; salivation; claudication and loss of condition. Swollen lower limbs and lips, and ulcerated and erosive areas in the lips and muzzle were observed in some horses. A necrotizing vesiculopustular dermatitis and stomatitis was observed histologically. Vesicular stomatitis virus was isolated from the vesicular fluid of a horse lesion and shown to be serologically related to the VS Indiana serogroup (VSIV) by virus neutralization. Convalescent sera of affected horses and cattle, and from healthy contacts, harbored high levels of neutralizing antibodies against the isolated virus (named VSIV-3 2013SaoBento/ParaibaE). Genomic sequences of VSIV subtype 3 (Vesicular stomatitis Alagoas virus) were amplified by reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction out of clinical specimens from a cow and a horse from different farms. Nucleotide sequencing and phylogenetic analysis of the phosphoprotein gene indicated that the 2 isolates were derived from the same virus and clustered them in VSIV-3, along with VS viruses identified in southeastern and northeastern Brazil in the last decades. Thus, the present report demonstrates the circulation of VSIV-3 in northeastern Brazil and urges for more effective diagnosis and surveillance.
Determinants and pre-hire outcomes of social recruiting technology adoption and use: an Australian study

Social Recruiting technologies such as LinkedIn and Twitter have been fast emerging as one of the modern recruitment methods. However, research on their effective usage is scarce and outpaced by organisational practice. The current study addresses this gap by investigating the drivers of SR technology adoption on one hand, and their pre-hire outcomes on the other.
Personal Fear of Death and Grief in Bereaved Mothers

The study explored the relation of fear of death (Multidimensional Fear of Death Scale) to maternal grief (Perinatal Grief Scale-33) following miscarriage, stillbirth, neonatal death, or infant/child death. The 400 women participants were recruited from the website, e-mail lists, and parent groups of an organization that supports bereaved parents. Fear of death had a statistically significant relation with maternal grief. Fear of the Unknown, Fear of Premature Death, and Fear of Conscious Death made significant unique contributions to the variance in maternal grief. The fear of death operative in maternal grief seems to be the fear of personal extinction.
Characterising the deal-proneness of consumers by analysis of price sensitivity and brand loyalty: an analysis in the retail environment

This study characterises the ‘deal-proneness’ of consumers by analysis of the consumer-level characteristics of price sensitivity and brand loyalty. The study first develops a multinomial logistic (MNL) latent class model suitable for use with universal product code (UPC) point-of-sale (hypermarket) scanner data. The model is then used to assess the deal-proneness of consumers with respect to monetary promotions (price reductions) and non-monetary promotions (store flyers). The results show that almost 47% of consumers can be considered deal-prone, in that both kinds of sales promotions have a significant effect on their choice behaviour. The findings provide important insights for retail management in seeking to optimise the results obtained from promotional budgets.