Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Elephant in the Executive Suite - Project Management 1

Project management, when viewed as a management discipline from the perspectives of various executive levels, functions, and types found within different enterprises, can be described as many things by those executives. The field of Project Management is complex, multifaceted, and evolving. Included within this management discipline is a wide-range of related management disciplines and knowledge-area sub-disciplines, all of which affect diverse stakeholders. However, individually, or employed in small sets, these specific views of project management neither address nor solve the larger issues associated with successfully implementing and employing project management within the overall enterprise to create benefits and value and to address stakeholder needs. In addition, a significant portion of the project management literature and defined processes and methodologies for the many management disciplines and sub-disciplines does not address the broader business, organizational, sociological, cultural, and stakeholder contexts within which they are usually implemented and employed. The authors propose a more holistic view, from both an enterprise and integrated viewpoint, of the key aspects of the project management discipline and related literature genre, which address the broader need for understanding by the wider range of executive stakeholders. This management construct allows the various facets of project management and its management knowledge-area sub-disciplines to be discussed, documented, and applied based upon the authors’ associated 3-dimensional management model, which they call “Project Business Management. ” This model allows the executive stakeholders to be characterized based upon their relative roles in governance, management, or operational functions within the enterprise. Their functioning can then be further understood with respect to their roles as stakeholder within the seventeen elements of this Project Business Management Model.
Enhanced attachment of Bradyrhizobium japonicum to soybean through reduced root colonization of internally seedborne microorganisms.

Internally seedborne microorganisms are those surviving common surface sterilization procedures. Such microbes often colonize the radicle surface of a germinating soybean (Glycine max) seed, introducing an undefined parameter into studies on attachment and infection by Bradyrhizobium japonicum. Bacterial isolates from surface-sterilized soybean seed, cv. Williams 82 and cv. Maverick, used in our studies, were identified as Agrobacterium radiobacter, Aeromonas sp. , Bacillus spp. , Chryseomonas luteola, Flavimonas oryzihabitans, and Sphingomonas paucimobilis. Growth of these microbes during seed germination was reduced by treating germinating seeds with 500 micrograms/mL penicillin G. The effects of this antibiotic on seedling development and on B. japonicum 2143 attachment, nodulation, and nitrogen fixation are reported here. Penicillin G treatment of seeds did not reduce seed germination or root tip growth, or affect seedling development. No differences in nodulation kinetics, nitrogen fixation onset or rates were observed. However, the number of B. japonicum attached to treated intact seedlings was enhanced 200-325%, demonstrating that other root-colonizing bacteria can interfere with rhizobial attachment. Penicillin G treatment of soybean seedlings can be used to reduce the root colonizing microbes, which introduce an undefined parameter into studies of attachment of B. japonicum to the soybean root, without affecting plant development.
Board Characteristics and Firm Performance: Case of Saudi Arabia

Corporate governance (CG) has received much attention in the current studies all over the world especially after many corporate scandals and the failures of some biggest firms around the world such as Commerce Bank (1991) Enron (2001), Adelphia (2002), and World Com (2002). The aim of this study is to examine the relationship between board mechanisms (audit committee size, audit committee composition, board size, and board composition) and firm performance (ROA) based on the annual reports of listed companies in the year 2011 of sample of non-financial firms in the Saudi Market (Tadawul). For the purpose of this study, data was collected from a sample of 102 non-financial listed companies. Furthermore, an analysis of regression analysis is utilized to examine the relationship between board characteristics and firm performance. The results of this study reveal that audit committee size, audit committee composition and board size have no effect on firm performance in the selected sample while board composition has a significant negative relationship with firm performance.
A bacterial ecto‐triphosphate diphosphohydrolase similar to human CD39 is essential for intracellular multiplication of Legionella pneumophila

As part of its pathogenesis, Legionella pneumophila persists within human alveolar macrophages in non‐acidified organelles that do not mature into phagolysosomes. Two L. pneumophila genes, lpg0971 and lpg1905, are predicted to encode ecto‐nucleoside triphosphate diphosphohydrolases (ecto‐NTPDases) that share sequence similarity with human CD39/NTPDase1. The predicted products possess five apyrase conserved domains that are typical of eukaryotic ecto‐NTPDases. In this study, we found that an lpg1905 mutant was recovered in lower numbers from macrophages, alveolar epithelial cells and the amoeba, Hartmannella vermiformis compared with wild‐type L. pneumophila and an lpg0971 mutant. Similar to human CD39, recombinant purified Lpg1905 exhibited ATPase and ADPase activity and possessed the ability to inhibit platelet aggregation. Mutation of a conserved Glu159 residue that is essential for CD39 activity inhibited ATPase and ADPase activity of Lpg1905. In addition, enzyme activity was inhibited in the presence of the specific ecto‐NTPDase inhibitor, ARL67156. The entry and replication defect of the lpg1905 mutant was reversed upon transcomplementation with lpg1905 but not lpg1905E159A encoding an enzymatically inactive form of the protein. Although several protozoan parasites exhibit ecto‐NTPDase activity, including Toxoplasma gondii, Trichomonas vaginalis and Trypanosoma cruzi, this is the first time a bacterial ecto‐NTPDase has been implicated in virulence.
Opening doors: factors influencing the establishment of a working relationship between paraprofessional home visitors and at-risk families.

The purpose of this phenomenological study was to identify and describe factors that influence the establishment of a working relationship between paraprofessionals and at-risk families. In-depth, semi-structured interviews were conducted with a purposive sample of 6 family visitors and 6 public health nurses hired to visit at-risk families in their homes. Analysis revealed that nurses have an important role to play in marketing home visiting programs and facilitating family visitor access to the home. Factors related to the family visitor, the client, and the client's household influenced relationship development. Family visitor-client engagement occurred through "finding common ground" and "building trust. " Increased understanding of these factors will help both nurses and family visitors to access those families who are hard to reach and resist support and the provision of services. The findings have implications for nurses who are responsible for hiring, training, and supervising family visitors.
Using Card-Based Games to Enhance the Value of Semi-Structured Interviews

This article reports on the use of the card-based game method in semi-structured interviews in three separate research projects. The essence of the method is simple: cards are created with words or images to represent the concepts or terms that are central to the topics in a semi-structured interview; the cards then act as visual cues to facilitate focus and prompt reflection. Of greater interest is the application of the approach in specific contexts, and the benefits that accrue from its application. This research demonstrates that the card game method can be used to provide qualitative validation of theoretical models, and can be applied variously to elicit and explore definitions, priorities, processes, challenges, issues, difficulties, views on the future and critical success factors. The card game method and other innovative techniques that involve the interviewee in activities have the potential to enhance the value of semi-structured interviews.
A strategy to communicate corporate social responsibility: cause related marketing and its dark side

Cause related marketing (CRM) is a strategy that aims to communicate a company's striving for corporate social responsibility and to improve brand image. A strategy to increase consumers' emotional involvement toward a product–cause association is to describe the cause in vivid terms. In two experiments we investigated how vivid messages might increase the effectiveness of CRM strategy. We sought to demonstrate that a vivid description of the cause could influence consumers' preferences and trust in the effective use of money collected by selling the product. Experiment 1 results showed that individuals prefer products associated with a vivid message of the social cause rather than products associated with a pallid message. Experiment 2 results suggested that vivid messages induce more positive affective reactions and a higher trust in the effective use of money than pallid ones. In the final section, the implications of CRM for corporate social responsibility are discussed. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.
Exploring consumer confusion in the watch market

Observes that consumer confusion is a concern for manufacturers because it can lead to weakened brand loyalty, a deterioration of brand image and lost sales. Argues that watch manufacturers in particular suffer from consumer confusion caused by product proliferation, imitation strategies and inaccurate/inadequate information. Consumer confusion is also of concern to retailers because it can distort retail image and lead to promiscuity. Reports on an empirical study using the accompanied‐shopping method conducted with 30 watch buyers. The study revealed the importance of the retail environment, store loyalty and the salesperson for the clarification of consumer confusion. Discusses implications for marketing action for both watch manufacturer and retailer.
Neurobiology of Disease Involvement of 5-HT 1 A Receptors in Prefrontal Cortex in the Modulation of Dopaminergic Activity : Role in Atypical Antipsychotic Action

Llorenç Dı́az-Mataix,1* M. Cecilia Scorza,1* Analı́a Bortolozzi,1* Miklos Toth,2 Pau Celada,1 and Francesc Artigas1 1Department of Neurochemistry, Institut d’ Investigacions Biomèdiques de Barcelona Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientı́ficas, Institut d’Investigacions Biomèdiques August Pi i Sunyer, 08036 Barcelona, Spain, and 2Department of Pharmacology, Weill Medical College, Cornell University, New York, New York 10021
The impact of work experience of small and medium-sized enterprises owners or managers on their competitive intelligence awareness and practices

Background: Information technology has assisted in globalisation, which then assisted in making international trade easier. Consequently, businesses no longer compete with local competitors only but also with international ones, leading to intense competition in all business sectors. Businesses will hardly practice what they are not aware of and therefore needs to know about their competitive landscape. Competitive intelligence (CI) gathers information from both the internal and external business environments, and analyses these for use by decision makers. Whilst awareness of the importance of CI is wide, it is not practiced optimally, making the need for creating awareness of the benefits of CI important. Objectives: The objective of this research was to establish the influence of owners’ and managers' working experience of CI practice and awareness in the small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) environment. Method: This research was quantitative in nature and a questionnaire was used to collect data from SMEs owners and managers in The City of Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality. Results: This research indicates that SMEs in the study are aware of CI through education and training. Moreover, the study reveals that the working experience of owners and managers has a great influence on awareness and practice of CI and one should implement training programmes in this domain to assist with building competitive advantage. Conclusion: Small and medium-sized enterprises owners or managers’ years of working experience has a greater influence on awareness and practice of CI. Put differently, years of working experience is a great predictor of CI awareness and practice.
The Safety and Tolerability of Venlafaxine Hydrochloride: Analysis of the Clinical Trials Database

The tolerability and safety of venlafaxine hydrochloride, a new serotonin and norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor, are reviewed in this article. The data presented here are based on a pool of 3,082 patients who were treated with this agent during clinical trials. Of these patients, 2,897 received venlafaxine for depression; 455 of these patients were treated for more than 360 days. The tolerability and safety profiles of venlafaxine were similar to those previously reported for selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors. Patients receiving venlafaxine experienced nausea, insomnia, dizziness, somnolence, constipation, and sweating more often than did patients receiving placebo but reported anticholinergic events less frequently than did patients receiving tricyclics. This is accounted for by the fact that, unlike the tricyclics, venlafaxine lacks significant affinity for muscarinic cholinergic receptors. Resolution of venlafaxine-associated nausea occurred rapidly in the vast majority of the patients who reported it at the start of therapy. Serious adverse events were rare among venlafaxine-treated patients. A small percentage of the patients given venlafaxine experienced modest but significant increases in blood-pressure readings, similar to those observed among imipramine-treated patients. At mean daily venlafaxine dosages of up to 300 mg, the percentage of venlafaxine-treated patients who had sustained elevations in supine diastolic blood pressure during treatment ranged from 2% to 6%, compared with 2% and 5% among the placebo- and imipramine-treated patients, respectively. All of the 14 patients who took an overdose of venlafaxine recovered without sequelae. Tolerability and safety in the elderly did not differ significantly from that observed in younger patients.
Third-Party Payer Exchanges: The Case for an Enhanced Model of Service Quality for Nonprofit Organizations

This paper explores service quality in the seldom investigated context of nonprofit organizations dependent on third-party payments for services. Building on Parasuraman, Zeithaml, and Berry's (1985) conceptual model of service quality and the theory of exchange, a qualitative study, using a Canadian sample, provides support for an enhanced conceptual model of service quality applicable to the nonprofit sector. This model holds insight into strategic marketing decisions faced by nonprofit managers, and it provides a foundation for a research agenda to gain further insights into issues of service quality.
Influence of imposed feed intake patterns during lactation on reproductive performance and on circulating levels of glucose, insulin, and luteinizing hormone in primiparous sows.

Thirty-six primiparous sows were assigned to one of five treatments designed to mimic the lactation feed intake patterns observed in a previous study of commercial farms: high energy intake (HHH) or low energy intake during each week of a 3-wk lactation (LLL), or reduced intake during wk 1 (LHH), wk 2 (HLH) or wk 3 of lactation (HHL). The metabolizable energy intake of sows was either 16.5 (H) or 6.5 (L) Mcal/d. Diets were equal in lysine, providing 45 g/d. The HHH sows had a shorter (P < .05) weaning-to-estrus interval (9 +/- 3.2 d) than the sows in the LLL (23 +/- 3.5 d), HLH (22 +/- 3.5 d), and HHL (18 +/- 3.2 d) groups. The LH pulse frequencies of HHH (d 14: 1.5 pulses/8 h; d 21: 2.1 pulses/8 h) were greater (P < .05) than those of LLL (.2 pulses/8 h) and HLH (.5 pulses/8 h) on d 14 and those of LLL (0 pulses/8 h) and HHL (.9 pulses/8 h) on d 21 of lactation. No differences (P > .1) in mean serum concentrations of LH were observed among treatment groups either on d 21 of lactation or on d 1 postweaning. When fed a low-energy diet, sows had lower (P < .05) concentrations of serum insulin and plasma glucose than did sows fed a high-energy diet. Our results indicate that energy intake during lactation influences circulating insulin and glucose levels and LH pulse frequency and amplitude during midlactation and during the postweaning period.
The Making of an Immigrant Niche 1

Although the dominant paradigm of immigrant employment views immigrants as clustered in a limited number of occupations or industries that comprise a niche, the explanations of how immigrants enter and establish these niches remain incomplete. While most researchers emphasize the importance of social networks, the social network approach begs the issue of how to account for the insertion and consolidation of immigrant networks as opposed to those dominated by incumbent native workers. This article seeks to answer this question through a case study of immigrant professional employees in New York City government. I argue that the growth of this immigrant niche resulted from changes in the relative supply of native workers and in the structure of employment, which opened the bureaucracy to immigrants and reduced native/immigrant competition. These shifts opened hiring portals; given the advantages of network hiring for workers and managers, and an immigrant propensity for government employment, network recruitment led to a rapid buildup in immigrant ranks.
How do corporate associations influence customer relationship strength? The effects of different types of trust

This study uses the term of corporate associations to represent all the information that a person holds toward a specific firm, and differentiates two key sub-dimensions of corporate ability associations (CAA) (i.e. product quality and innovative ability) and corporate social responsibility associations (CSRA) (i.e. philanthropic responsibility and ethical responsibility). Further, a conceptual model is proposed to investigate how these associations enhance customer relationship strength through different aspects of trust. According to distinct sources, this study examines competence-based trust, benevolence-based trust, and identity-based trust. A survey on young consumers is conducted focusing on corporate brands providing electronic products in China. Results support most hypotheses. Specifically, CAA can enhance competence-based and benevolence-based trust while having no influence on identity-based trust. CSRA affects relationship strength mainly through non-competence-based trust. Three categories of trust all contribute to enhancing the company–customer relationship, and interestingly identity-based trust is the most effective driver of relationship strength.
Accounting Choices for Tangible Assets: A Study of Greek Firms

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the choices of Greek firms regarding the measurement of an item of a fixed tangible asset subsequent to its initial recognition, including impairment recognition, under IAS 16 and IAS 36 using a sample of Greek firms for the years 2005, 2007 and 2009. Results indicate that the cost model is more likely to be adopted by the more leveraged firms. In addition, it has been examined the compliance of the sample firms with disclosure requirements of IAS 16 and IAS 36. It appears that the disclosure compliance of the sample firms with the disclosure requirements of IAS 16 and 36 is influenced by firm’s choice of valuation method for the measurement of an item of a fixed tangible asset subsequent to its initial recognition. It appears that the firms that adopt the revaluation method exhibit lower compliance rates.
Controllability of SISO Volterra Models via Diffusive Representation

Abstract The problem under consideration is the controllability of a wide class of convolution Volterra systems, namely the class of “diffusive” systems, for which there exists an input-output state realization whose state evolves in the so-called diffusive representation space. We first show that this universal state variable is approximately controllable, and then deduce that such Volterra systems always possess suitable controllability properties, stated and proved. Then, we show how to solve the optimal null control problem in an LQ sense. A numerical example finally highlights these results.
The Qualitative Study on the Emotional Labor of Fashion Sales Personnel -Focused on Fast Fashion Sales Personnel-

This study investigates the emotional labor of fast fashion sales personnel using the qualitative research method. The research was performed through an in-depth interview with 10 sales personnel (managers, coordinators, head cashiers, and sales associates) who experienced fast fashion brands from July to October in 2011. The results of this study provide that fast fashion brands do have specific feeling rules and display behavior. Even though the sales personnel spend an extremely short time (about 1 minute) to serve customers, most of them experience exhaustion, fatigue, burnout and self-alienation because of emotional dissonance. Sales personnel do deep-acting and surface acting simultaneously and interviewees who have longer and more sales experience express less emotional dissonance. To reduce the negative results of emotional labor, the company plays an important role through the organizational culture; in addition, deep-acting could be recommended for a beginner until they are comfortable with sales. The results of this study provide the elements of emotional labor in a fast fashion and practical suggestions for store operation and sales personnel training.
Sales Effects of Attention to Feature Advertisements: A Bayesian Mediation Analysis

There is much evidence that the presence of a feature advertisement can increase the sales and market share of the featured product. However, little is known about how feature ad characteristics (e.g., size, color, and location of the advertisement) affect the sales outcomes and how the effects take place. Prior research has predicted that feature advertisements lead to behavioral outcomes through their effect on consumers' attention. Building on this idea, the authors propose a Bayesian statistical model to study how feature ad characteristics affect sales of the featured products and the mediating role of attention in these relationships. They use data from eye-tracking tests of feature advertisements, aggregated and matched with sales data at the level of the feature advertisement. Their approach accounts for endogeneity in the key variables involved and overcomes limitations of standard mediation analyses. They show that the gaze duration on a feature advertisement affects sales of the featured product beyond the mere presence of the advertisement and that a standard mediation analysis that does not accommodate endogeneity produces biased estimates of the effects of feature ad characteristics on sales. Their proposed methodology is widely applicable to mediation analyses. The findings imply that attention data collected in lab tests can help marketers compare the relative sales outcomes of different feature ad designs and improve the effectiveness and efficiency of feature adverting decisions.