Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Differences in response patterns in a mixed mode: online/paper & pencil business survey

This paper investigates if significant differences exist between online and paper & pencil participants in a quarterly business survey in the German business–related services sector when respondents may freely choose to respond either online or by more conventional methods. It also analyzes the determinants of online participation and studies if item–nonresponse is reduced when respondents participate online. Online respondents, indeed, significantly differ from paper & pencil participants with respect to their ordinal sales and price assessments, with online participants being less optimistic on both counts than their paper & pencil counterparts. These differences are not attributable to observable firm characteristics as far as sales judgements are concerned and they disappear once it is controlled for observable firm heterogeneity in the case of price assessments. Significant differences in the judgement of demand, profit and employment as well as in the expectations concerning sales, prices, demand, profit and employment cannot be found. Binary probit model estimation results indicate that online participation is not significantly affected by sector affiliation, affiliation to East or West Germany nor information technology endowment. Firms with between 1 and 19 employees are, however, significantly less likely than larger firms to participate online. A significant correlation between online participation and unit–nonresponse does not exist, as a bivariate probit model with sample selection estimation results show. In general, item–nonresponse tends to be higher for online–respondents.
Lipoproteomics I: Mapping of proteins in low‐density lipoprotein using two‐dimensional gel electrophoresis and mass spectrometry

The molecular mechanisms underlying the relationship between low‐density lipoprotein (LDL) and the risk of atherosclerosis are not clear. Therefore, detailed information about the protein composition of LDL may contribute to reveal its role in atherogenesis and the mechanisms that lead to coronary disease in humans. Here, we sought to map the proteins in human LDL by a proteomic approach. LDL was isolated by two‐step discontinuous density‐gradient ultracentrifugation and the proteins were separated with two‐dimensional gel electrophoresis and identified with peptide mass fingerprinting, using matrix assisted laser desorption/ionization‐time of flight‐mass spectrometry and with amino acid sequencing using electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry. These procedures identified apo B‐100, apo C‐II, apo C‐III (three isoforms), apo E (four isoforms), apo A‐I (two isoforms), apo A‐IV, apo J and apo M (three isoforms not previously described). In addition, three proteins that have not previously been identified in LDL were found: serum amyloid A‐IV (two isoforms), calgranulin A, and lysozyme C. The identities of apo M, calgranulin A, and lysozyme C were confirmed by sequence information obtained after collision‐induced dissociation fragmentation of peptides characteristic for these proteins. Moreover, the presence of lysozyme C was further corroborated by demonstrating enriched hydrolytic activity in LDL against Micrococcus lysodeikticus. These results indicate that in addition to the dominating apo B‐100, LDL contains a number of other apolipoproteins, many of which occur in different isoforms. The demonstration, for the first time, that LDL contains calgranulin A and lysozyme C raises the possibility that LDL proteins may play hitherto unknown role(s) in immune and inflammatory reactions of the arterial wall.
Supply Chain Redesign: Transforming Supply Chains into Integrated Value Systems

Supply Chain Redesign delivers practical guidance for every aspect of supply chain redesign: mapping existing supply chains; identifying changes that promise the best ROI; intelligently leveraging new technologies; strengthening relationships with key partners; designing products that support lean supply chains; implementing new approaches to strategic cost management; and much more. Coverage includes key success factors, emerging trends, and detailed case studies from Nortel and GM.
Bus use and older people: A literature review applying the Person–Environment–Occupation model in macro practice

The same reasons that prompt older people to give up driving can also result in difficulties with accessing public transport. Difficulties using public transport can limit older people's participation in society, thereby impacting negatively on their health. Focusing on public buses, this review explicates the link between bus usability and the health of older people and frames existing evidence on bus usability issues. The Person–Environment–Occupation (PEO) model offers a framework by which bus usability can be assessed. A combination of person-centred, environmental, and occupation-related factors, including bus design, service provision and performance, information, and the attitudes of staff and the community, impact on older people's ability to catch buses. More systematic research needs to take place in order to develop a comprehensive understanding of bus usability. Occupational therapy has a key role to play in conceptualizing, implementing, and evaluating improvements in bus usability for older people.
The impact of ownership

Purpose – This paper aims to analyse the growing body of literature on small and medium‐sized enterprise (SME) internationalisation by considering a set of propositions regarding the drivers and inhibitors of an entry mode decision.Design/methodology/approach – Following a quantitative methodological approach, a survey was applied to a sample of SMEs to empirically test the proposed conceptual model. Logistic regression analysis was used to analyse the data.Findings – Results from the study revealed the importance of the firm's international experience, its ability to innovate, the market potential for growth and market‐specific knowledge as key predictors for choosing an equity‐entry mode. SMEs are rather flexible in nature and tend to perform activities with low‐cost structures, thereby minimising the relevance of the perceived risk associated with the host country.Practical implications – Empirical findings are relevant as they may assist SME managers to make financially sound entry mode choices, which.
Hand-arm vibration syndrome among a group of construction workers in Malaysia

Objectives To determine the extent of hand transmitted vibration exposure problems, particularly hand-arm vibration syndrome (HAVS), among construction workers in Malaysia. Methods A cross-sectional study was conducted on a construction site in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. 243 workers were recruited. Questionnaire interviews and hand examinations were administered to 194 respondents. Vibration magnitudes for concrete breakers, drills and grinders were measured using a 3-axis accelerometer. Clinical outcomes were compared and analysed according to vibration exposure status. Results Vibration total values for concrete breakers, impact drills and grinders were 10.02 ms−2, 7.72 ms−2 and 5.29 ms−2, respectively. The mean 8 h time-weighted hand transmitted vibration exposure, A(8), among subjects on current and previous construction sites was 7.52 (SD 2.68) ms−2 and 9.21 (SD 2.48) ms−2, respectively. Finger tingling, finger numbness, musculoskeletal problems of the neck, finger coldness, abnormal Phalen's test and abnormal light touch sensation were significantly more common in the high vibration exposure group (n=139) than the low–moderate vibration exposure group (n=54). Mean total lifetime vibration dose among exposed subjects was 15.2 (SD 3.2) m2 h3 s−4 (ln scale). HAVS prevalence was 18% and the prevalence ratio of stage 1 and higher disease in the high vibration exposure group versus the low–moderate vibration exposure group was 4.86 (95% CI 1.19 to 19.80). Conclusions Hand transmitted vibration is a recognisable problem in tropical countries including Malaysia. The current study has identified clinical symptoms and signs suggesting HAVS among construction workers exposed to hand transmitted vibration in a warm environment.
Mobile satellite broadcasting with angle diversity - performance evaluation based on measurements

This paper focuses on the achievable angle diversity gain in mobile satellite broadcasting in various environments. Multiple satellite signals within the S-band were recorded simultaneously along the east coast of the U.S. over a traveling distance of 3700 km. The first-order statistical data analysis shows that the required C/N margin for a certain service availability can be significantly decreased by combining two satellite signals. Depending on their elevation angles, the diversity combining gain is analyzed in terms of cumulative distribution functions (CDFs) for various environments. The results for angle diversity are compared to time diversity using an interleaver of variable length. Combining angle diversity and time interleaving results in a further improvement of the service availability.
Director Characteristics, Gender Balance and Insolvency Risk: An Empirical Study

This study examines the characteristics of the directors and owners of private companies in relation to insolvency risk, with a specific focus on the incidence and impact of female directors. We analyse data on over 900,000 limited companies in 2007-8 including over 17,000 that ceased trading due to insolvency. In the context of an enhanced failure prediction model, which controls for a wide range of company, industry characteristics and governance, we isolate the effects of having female directors on the likelihood of insolvency. The results provide compelling evidence of a relationship between the gender composition of directorships and insolvency risk.
Managing Knowledge Workers: New Skills and Attitudes to Unlock the Intellectual Capital in Your Organization

From the Publisher: Knowledge workers are not just employees in high-tech companies. People in advertising agencies, consulting companies, financial institutions - anyone who uses their head more than their hands to create wealth - are all knowledge workers. Managing Knowledge Workers provides practical strategies for managing, motivating, and retaining knowledge workers, without breaking the bank. Managing Knowledge Workers focuses not just on understanding the value of knowledge in your organization, but on managing the human side of intellectual capital.
Prevalence and factors associated with parental concerns about development detected by the Parents’ Evaluation of Developmental Status (PEDS) at 6-month, 12-month and 18-month well-child checks in a birth cohort

Objectives Early identification of developmental vulnerability is vital. This study aimed to estimate the prevalence of moderate or high developmental risk on the Parents' Evaluation of Developmental Status (PEDS) at 6-month, 12-month and 18-month well-child checks; identify associated risk factors; and examine documentation of the PEDS at well-child checks. Design, participants A prospective birth cohort of 2025 children with 50% of those approached agreeing to participate. Demographic data were obtained via questionnaires and linked electronic medical records. Telephone interviews were conducted with parents to collect PEDS data. Primary and secondary outcomes Multiple logistic regression analyses identified risk factors for moderate or high developmental risk on the PEDS. A Cumulative Risk Index examined the impact of multiple risk factors on developmental risk and documentation of the PEDS at the well-child checks. Results Of the original cohort, 792 (39%) had 6-month, 649 (32%) had 12-month and 565 (28%) had 18-month PEDS data. Parental concerns indicating moderate or high developmental risk on the PEDS were 27% (95% CI 24 to 30) at 6 months, 27% (95% CI 24 to 30) at 12 months and 33% (95% CI 29 to 37) at 18 months. Factors associated with moderate or high developmental risk were perinatal risk (OR 12 months: 1.7 (95% CI 1.1 to 2.7)); maternal Middle Eastern or Asian nationality (OR 6 months: 1.6 (95% CI 1.1 to 2.4)), (OR 12 months: 1.7 (95% CI 1.1 to 2.7)); and household disadvantage (OR 6 months: 1.5 (95% CI 1.0 to 2.2). As the number of risk factors increased the odds increased for high or moderate developmental risk and no documentation of the PEDS at well-child checks. Conclusions Children with multiple risk factors are more likely to have parental concerns indicating developmental vulnerability using the PEDS and for these concerns to not be documented.
High Incidence of Chronic Pain Following Surgery for Pelvic Fracture

Objectives:To determine the incidence of chronic pain after surgery for pelvic fracture using a strict definition and measures of intensity and health-related quality of life. Methods:In April 2004, a questionnaire was sent to 221 patients who underwent surgery for pelvic fracture in the period 1996 to 2000. Chronic pain was defined as pain at present that related back to the pelvic fracture and was not a consequence of other disease. Health-related quality of life was measured using the 15D questionnaire. Results:The response rate was 72.9% after a median follow-up of 5.6 years. Chronic pain was seen in 48.4% (95% confidence interval, 40.7%-56.2%). These patients had a combination of somatic nociceptive, visceral nociceptive, and neuropathic pain and had significantly lower health-related quality of life. Also, the use of opioids (14.1% vs. 4.8%) and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatories/paracetamol (57.7% vs. 21.7%), the request for financial compensation (75.6% vs. 45.8%), and complications related to leg function (62.8% vs. 20.5%) were significantly higher in the group with chronic pain than in the group without chronic pain. Conclusions:Chronic pain after pelvic fracture is a major problem that affects a patient's quality of life. The use of analgesics was higher in these patients, and they had more complications. Chronic pain after surgery for pelvic fracture deserves more attention.
Performance Implications of In-role and Extra-role Behavior of Frontline Service Employees

Despite the growing body of literature on different employee behaviors such as organizational citizenship behavior or boundary spanning behavior, few research studies have investigated the impact of both in-role and extra-role behavior on performance outcomes, especially in business services settings. In this study we investigate how in-role behavior, extra-role behavior, and their interrelation influences employee performed productivity and quality in business security services. Data from 1,174 frontline service employees is analyzed using structural equation modeling. The results indicate that performance quality is directly influenced by in-role employee behavior oriented towards customers, while performance productivity is influenced by both in-role and extra-role employee behavior oriented towards employees and customers. Opportunities for future research and managerial implications of the results are discussed.
Financial Crises and Bank Earnings Volatility: The Role of Bank Size and Market Concentration

This paper examines how the impact of financial crises on bank earnings volatility (proxied by the volatility of return on assets) varies with bank size and market concentration. Using fixed effects panel regression analysis for more than 1800 banks from OECD and non-OECD economies for the period 1998-2008, we find that large banks face lower earnings volatility in the wake of financial crises than small banks. Moreover, earnings volatility is lower in less concentrated banking systems. These results are robust to the use of absolute and relative bank size definitions, different types of banks, and various types of financial crisis.
What Counts as a Choice?

People everywhere select among multiple alternatives, but are they always making choices? In five studies, we found that people in U.S. American contexts, where the disjoint model of agency is prevalent, are more likely than those in Indian contexts to construe their own and other individuals’ behaviors as choices, to construe ongoing behaviors and behaviors recalled from memory as choices, to construe naturally occurring and experimentally controlled behaviors as choices, to construe mundane and important actions as choices, and to construe personal and interpersonal actions as choices. Indians showed a greater tendency to construe actions as choices when these actions involved responding to other people than when they did not. These findings show that whether people construe actions as choices is significantly shaped by sociocultural systems of meanings and practices. Together, they suggest that the positive consequences associated with maximizing the availability of personal choice may not be universal and instead may be limited to North American contexts.
Inhibition of Indoleamine 2,3-Dioxygenase Activity by Levo-1-Methyl Tryptophan Blocks Gamma Interferon-Induced Chlamydia trachomatis Persistence in Human Epithelial Cells

ABSTRACT Gamma interferon (IFN-γ) induces expression of the tryptophan-catabolizing enzyme indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase (IDO1) in human epithelial cells, the permissive cells for the obligate intracellular bacterium Chlamydia trachomatis. IDO1 depletes tryptophan by catabolizing it to kynurenine with consequences for C. trachomatis, which is a tryptophan auxotroph. In vitro studies reveal that tryptophan depletion can result in the formation of persistent (viable but noncultivable) chlamydial forms. Here, we tested the effects of the IDO1 inhibitor, levo-1-methyl-tryptophan (L-1MT), on IFN-γ-induced C. trachomatis persistence. We found that addition of 0.2 mM L-1MT to IFN-γ-exposed infected HeLa cell cultures restricted IDO1 activity at the mid-stage (20 h postinfection [hpi]) of the chlamydial developmental cycle. This delayed tryptophan depletion until the late stage (38 hpi) of the cycle. Parallel morphological and gene expression studies indicated a consequence of the delay was a block in the induction of C. trachomatis persistence by IFN-γ. Furthermore, L-1MT addition allowed C. trachomatis to undergo secondary differentiation, albeit with limited productive multiplication of the bacterium. IFN-γ-induced persistent infections in epithelial cells have been previously reported to be more resistant to doxycycline than normal productive infections in vitro. Pertinent to this observation, we found that L-1MT significantly improved the efficacy of doxycycline in clearing persistent C. trachomatis forms. It has been postulated that persistent forms of C. trachomatis may contribute to chronic chlamydial disease. Our findings suggest that IDO1 inhibitors such as L-1MT might provide a novel means to investigate, and potentially target, persistent chlamydial forms, particularly in conjunction with conventional therapeutics.
Serum antioxidant vitamin levels of people in Khon Kaen, northeastern Thailand.

Three antioxidant vitamins, the alpha- and beta-carotenes as well as vitamin E, were measured in sera of a normal population in Northeastern Thailand using HPLC. The mean serum beta-carotene level of females was significantly higher than the value for males, i.e, 37.55 (95%CI=34.59-40.51) versus 32.97 (95% CI=30.01-35.93) micro/dl. The beta-carotene level tended to decrease as age increased, particularly in the male population. The mean serum beta-carotene level was also higher in females than in males, i.e., 7.08 (95%CI=6.57-7.59) and 6.26 (95% CI=5.77-6.75) micro/dl, respectively. The average serum alpha-tocopherol (Vitamin E) level of the whole population was 1.08 (95% CI=1.04-1.12) micro/dl and did not show age or sex differences. In general, the serum antioxidant vitamins of smokers were lower than those of the non-smokers but a significant difference was observed only for alpha-tocopherol. Alcohol drinking resulted in slightly lower serum beta-carotene values, whereas coffee or tea drinking and betel nut chewing did not cause any differences with these three antioxidant vitamins. However, we report higher in serum beta-carotene levels of people in Ban Fang district than in Chonnabot district. The results from our study give the base line data of serum antioxidant vitamins in a Thai population and also suggest future intensive study on the relationship of dietary intake and cancer prevention.
All-optical reversible multiplexer

The advantages of reversible logic systems and circuits have drawn a significant interest in recent years as a promising computing paradigm having application in low power CMOS, quantum computing, nanotechnology, and optical computing. This paper proposes a novel reversible multiplexer circuit with the help of all-optical Toffoli and Feynman gate. Operational principle of reversible multiplexer is described and is supported with logical simulation.
Does customer satisfaction lead to profitability

Purpose – Many researches have proposed a virtuous chain of effects from improved customer satisfaction to profits. In particular, satisfaction is thought to improve share‐of‐spending, which in turn leads to higher customer revenue and customer profitability. This paper aims to examine these proposed linkages using data from the institutional securities industry.Design/methodology/approach – The data used in the analyses were collected as part of an ongoing telephone satisfaction survey of 81 clients of an institutional securities firm across two continents (North America and Europe). Mediation analysis was used to test the hypothesized effects.Findings – Customer revenue was found to correlate negatively with customer profitability for unprofitable customers, and positively for profitable customers.Research limitations/implications – One of the limitations of this research is that it tests the propositions within a single industry. Future research should attempt to replicate these findings in other conte.
Connecting low energy leptonic CP-violation to leptogenesis

It was commonly thought that the observation of low energy leptonic $CP$-violating phases would not automatically imply the existence of a baryon asymmetry in the leptogenesis scenario. This conclusion does not generically hold when the issue of flavor is relevant and properly taken into account in leptogenesis. We illustrate this point with various examples studying the correlation between the baryon asymmetry and the $CP$-violating asymmetry in neutrino oscillations and the effective Majorana mass in neutrinoless double beta decay.
Noninvasive tracing of human liver metabolism : comparison of phenylacetate and apoB-100 to sample glutamine

Diraison, Frédérique, Valérie Large, Cyrille Maugeais, Michel Krempf, and Michel Beylot. Noninvasive tracing of human liver metabolism: comparison of phenylacetate and apoB-100 to sample glutamine. Am. J. Physiol. 277 (Endocrinol. Metab. 40): E529–E536, 1999. —The labeling pattern of hepatic glutamine during infusion of [3-13C]lactate provides information on liver intermediary metabolism and allows us to correct apparent gluconeogenic rates for isotopic dilution in the oxaloacetate (OAA) pool. Liver glutamine can be sampled by its conjugation with phenylacetate to form phenylacetylglutamine (PAGN) but also by purifying the glutamine of the apolipoproteinB-100 of very low-density lipoprotein (apoB-100-VLDL). We compared these methods in normal and non-insulin dependent diabetes subjects. We tested also whether apoB-100-VLDL alanine enrichment could solve the problem of dilution of gluconeogenic precursor enrichments between peripheral blood and liver (prehepatic dilution). In both normal and diabetic subjects, the labeling patterns of glutamine obtained from PAGN or apoB-100VLDL were comparable. Therefore, metabolic fluxes and correction factors for dilution in the OAA pool were also comparable. With both methods, gluconeogenic rates were not increased in diabetic patients. Use of the enrichment of apoB-100-VLDL alanine to correct for prehepatic dilution led to high estimates of gluconeogenesis; it remains uncertain whether this enrichment provides a correct estimate of liver pyruvate enrichment.