Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The weakest link? Product market strategies, skill and pay in the hotel industry

There is a widely held assumption that product market strategies, skill and pay are linked. Supportive evidence is typically drawn from manufacturing and using quantitative analyses. Emergent research of the link in services is ambivalent and has methodological limitations. This article addresses this weakness. It compares the skills and pay of room attendants in upper and mid-market hotels using qualitative research. It finds that the link is weak, even decoupled. The findings suggest a reconceptualization is needed of the link in services and that interventions other than product market re-positioning are needed to deliver higher skills and better pay.
A smooth transition regression equation of the demand for UK M0

The econometric analysis of UK M0 has, so far, been confined to linear models. Using quarterly data over the period 1970:4–1997:2 in a single-equation money demand system, this article shows that a linear error-correction equation of the demand for UK M0 contains significant non-linearity and parameter non-constancy of smooth transition regression (STR) type. A constant-parameter exponential STR (ESTR) equation is then estimated, suggesting that interest rate changes have been an important factor in explaining fluctuations in the demand for UK M0.
Affective startle potentiation in juvenile offenders: The role of conduct problems and psychopathic traits

Emotion processing difficulties are observed in antisocial individuals exhibiting serious antisocial behavior. This study examined emotion processing in 40 male juvenile offenders (JOs) and 52 male controls by measuring startle reflex responses to aversive sounds during the passive viewing of affective and neutral images. JOs as a group exhibited reduced startle-elicited blinks across all slide categories compared to normal controls. Moreover, within the offender group those with more conduct disorder symptoms and higher levels of psychopathic traits displayed reduced startle amplitudes compared to lower-scoring offenders. The finding that startle magnitudes were inversely related to severity of conduct problems supports a dimensional or continuous approach to understanding externalizing disorders. Reductions in amygdala activity could lead to blunted startle magnitudes. The current findings not only provide further evidence that antisocial children have a general defensive motivational system dysfunction and present with impairments in neural systems that subserve emotion processing, but also show for the first time that those with more severe conduct problems have reduced startle responses compared to those who are less severely affected. The implications of these findings for interventions with JOs are discussed.
Nonclassical estrogen receptor α signaling mediates negative feedback in the female mouse reproductive axis

Ovarian estrogen exerts both positive and negative feedback control over luteinizing hormone (LH) secretion during the ovulatory cycle. Estrogen receptor (ER) α but not ERβ knockout mice lack estrogen feedback. Thus, estrogen feedback appears to be primarily mediated by ERα. However, it is now recognized that, in addition to binding to estrogen response elements (EREs) in DNA to alter target gene transcription, ERα signals through ERE-independent or nonclassical pathways, and the relative contributions of these pathways in conveying estrogen feedback remain unknown. Previously we created a knockin mouse model expressing a mutant form of ERα (AA) with ablated ERE-dependent but intact ERE-independent activity. Breeding this allele onto the ERα-null (−/−) background, we examine the ability of ERE-independent ERα signaling pathways to convey estrogen feedback regulation of the female hypothalamic–pituitary axis in vivo. ERα−/AA exhibited 69.9% lower serum LH levels compared with ERα−/− mice. Additionally, like wild type, ERα−/AA mice exhibited elevated LH after ovariectomy (OVX). Furthermore, the post-OVX rise in serum LH was significantly suppressed by estrogen treatment in OVX ERα−/AA mice. However, unlike wild type, both ERα−/AA and ERα−/− mice failed to exhibit estrous cyclicity, spontaneous ovulation, or an afternoon LH surge response to estrogen. These results indicate that ERE-independent ERα signaling is sufficient to convey a major portion of estrogen's negative feedback actions, whereas positive feedback and spontaneous ovulatory cyclicity require ERE-dependent ERα signaling.
Factors Affecting Consumer Willingness to Pay for Certified Traceable Food in Jiangsu Province of China

Using data collected from a survey conducted in Jiangsu Province, China, we study consumer perceptions of and attitudes toward food traceability systems (FTS). Through econometric analysis, we examine the main factors that influence the willingness of consumers to pay a price premium for certified traceable food, as well as the actual premium these consumers are willing to bear. Our results indicate that an overwhelming majority of consumers in China are concerned about food safety, but consumers’ willingness to pay (WTP) a price premium for certified traceable food is limited. Income, education, perception of and attitudes toward FTS, as well as the degree of concern over food safety, have significant effects on the consumer's WTP a price premium for certified traceable food. However, the effects of these factors on the actual premium a consumer is willing to pay are quite different. Conditioned on the consumer being willing to pay a positive price premium, income level and the degree of concern over food safety are the only two factors that have significant effects on the actual premium consumers are willing to pay. A partir de donnees tirees d’un sondage mene dans la province du Jiangsu, en Chine, nous avons etudie la perception et l’attitude des consommateurs envers les systemes de tracabilite des aliments. A l’aide d’analyses econometriques, nous avons examine les principaux facteurs qui influencent le consentement des consommateurs a payer un prix superieur pour des aliments dont la tracabilite est certifiee ainsi que le prix reel qu’ils sont prets a payer. Les resultats de notre etude indiquent qu’une tres grande majorite de consommateurs en Chine sont preoccupes par la securite alimentaire, mais que leur consentement a payer un prix superieur pour des aliments dont la tracabilite est certifiee est limite. Le revenu, le niveau de scolarite, la perception et l’attitude envers les systemes de tracabilite, de meme que le degre de preoccupation concernant la securite alimentaire, ont des effets considerables sur le consentement des consommateurs a payer un prix superieur pour des aliments dont la tracabilite est certifiee. Toutefois, les effets de ces facteurs sur le prix reel qu’un consommateur est pret a payer sont tres differents. Lorsque des consommateurs consentent a payer un prix superieur, le niveau de revenu et le degre de preoccupation concernant la securite alimentaire sont les deux seuls facteurs qui influencent fortement le prix reel qu’ils sont prets a payer.
The Determinants of Life Insurance Demand: A Focus on Saving Motives and Financial Literacy

This paper investigates the determinants of life insurance demand among life insurance policyholders of five major life insurance companies in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. From a sample of 259 individuals, the study analysed the influence of demographic variables, saving motives and financial literacy, on life insurance demand. To determine the relationship between the demographic factors and life insurance demand one way ANOVA tests were conducted. The relationship between financial literacy and saving motives (precautionary, bequest, life cycle and wealth accumulation motives) with life insurance demand was then analysed using a multiple regression. Results revealed that demographic variables and saving motives were significantly related to life insurance demand. Financial literacy, however, was found to be insignificant in determining life insurance demand.
Comorbidity: The Ultimate Geriatric Syndrome Framework for Evaluating Disease Severity Measures in Older Adults With Comorbidity

Background. Accounting for the influence of concurrent conditions on health and functional status for both research and clinical decision-making purposes is especially important in older adults. Although approaches to classifying severity of individual diseases and conditions have been developed, the utility of these classification systems has not been evaluated in the presence of multiple conditions. Methods. We present a framework for evaluating severity classification systems for common chronic diseases. The framework evaluates the: (a) goal or purpose of the classification system; (b) physiological and/or functional criteria for severity graduation; and (c) potential reliability and validity of the system balanced against burden and costs associated with classification. Results. Approaches to severity classification of individual diseases were not originally conceived for the study of comorbidity. Therefore, they vary greatly in terms of objectives, physiological systems covered, level of severity characterization, reliability and validity, and costs and burdens. Using different severity classification systems to account for differing levels of disease severity in a patient with multiple diseases, or, assessing global disease burden may be challenging. Conclusions. Most approaches to severity classification are not adequate to address comorbidity. Nevertheless, thoughtful use of some existing approaches and refinement of others may advance the study of comorbidity and diagnostic and therapeutic approaches to patients with multimorbidity.
A study of shareholder reaction to technology motivated joint ventures and strategic alliances: strategic and financial perspectives

This paper empirically examines the market reaction to the creation of joint ventures and strategic alliances in general, and to technology motivated joint ventures and strategic alliances, within the British manufacturing industry during the 1994–1999 period. More specifically, the study will examine the motivations for inter-firm linkages and partnership choice from both the strategic management and financial management perspectives. Although the empirical results are mixed in terms of the hypotheses tested, they are consistent with the theoretical arguments presented in strategic management literature.
The smallest stocks are not just smaller: global evidence

Using an international Thomson Reuters Datastream database, where size coverage is unusually wide and data errors have been reduced to a low level, we show that some specification decisions, and especially those related to size, may have a significant impact on asset-pricing test results. We also show that, in data with wider coverage with respect to size, the Fama and French factor portfolios need to be adjusted and their number increased. Specifically, (i) standard asset-pricing models leave pricing errors for the 10% smallest stocks, and (ii) two additional risk factors (i.e. one micro-stock factor and one extreme book-to-market factor) are needed to capture this mispricing. This holds both in USA and international data. Further research is needed to measure the separate relevance of the possible economic interpretations and to identify more economic explanations for the additional risks associated with the smallest stocks.
Firm-Specific Competencies Determining Technological Innovation: A Survey in Greece

This paper investigates the ‘importance’ and ‘awareness’ of firm–specific competencies as determinants of technological innovation in the context of a European newly industrialised country. A literature–based portfolio model was developed including 17 established innovation–determining factors, related to the firm’s technical, market, human resource and organisational competencies. The ‘importance’ of those factors as determinants of innovation in the Greek industry was tested with a survey of 105 manufacturing firms. Using correlation and regression analyses the author classified the competencies into ‘major importance’, ‘moderate importance’ and ‘unimportant’ ones. ‘Major importance’ determinants of innovation included the intensity of R&D, strength in marketing, proportion of university graduates and engineers in the staff, proportion of staff with managerial responsibility, proportion of professional staff with previous experience in another company and incentives offered to the employees to contribute to innovation. The ‘awareness’ of the important competencies differentiating Greek innovative companies was tested by comparing the above ‘objective’ results with the perceptions of the responding managers. The perceptual analysis confirmed the importance of the statistically–driven variables at the aggregated level. At the level of the individual variables, a number of inconsistencies were identified. The managers overestimated the importance of international work experience of professional staff and of training and underestimated the importance of the potential contribution of shop–floor employees. Relating the results to the Greek institutional context, the study’s general finding was that the important determinants of innovation were scarce in the Greek business environment. The highly innovative companies were the ones to overcome country–specific innovation barriers, such as negligible industrial R&D, general weakness in marketing, outdated educational system, limited labour mobility and cultural problems with involving shop–floor employees in the innovation process.
Does fluvastatin favour HCV replication in vivo? A pilot study on HIV–HCV coinfected patients

Summary. Fluvastatin showed anti‐hepatitis C virus (HCV) activity in vitro, through the inhibition of geranylgeranylation of cellular proteins, and a synergistic effect with interferon (IFN)‐α. Nevertheless statins up‐regulate low‐density lipoprotein (LDL) receptor, required for HCV cell entry, and the closely related scavenger receptors SRBI and CD36; moreover they reduce class II major histocompatibility complex expression on antigen presenting cell, modulating T‐cell activation. In vivo LDL levels have been identified as prognostic indicator of sustained viral response to IFN in patients with HCV infection, suggesting that lipid‐lowering agents might conversely favour HCV entry into the hepatocytes and translate into higher viral replication. We evaluated the effect of fluvastatin on HCV‐RNA levels, CD36 expression and T‐cell homeostasis in HCV‐RNA positive patients. HCV‐RNA was measured at baseline and after 4 weeks in 42 HCV/HIV‐1 co‐infected patients, randomized to receive either fluvastatin 80 mg qd or no treatment. CD36 expression and markers of T‐cell activation were evaluated by means of flow cytometry. Plasma interleukin (IL)‐10, IFN‐γ and IL‐7 were measured by ELISA. Serum cholesterol and LDL decreased significantly in the treatment group (P = 0.0001 and 0.01, respectively). Surprisingly a significant increase of HCV‐RNA levels was seen after 4 weeks of fluvastatin (P = 0.03). The percentages of naive/activated/apoptotic cells and CD36 expression remained unchanged. Fluvastatin did not inhibit HCV‐RNA replication in vivo; conversely we observed a significant increase of HCV‐RNA levels. CD36 expression on monocytes were not up‐regulated by statins as previously reported in vitro. The correlation between HCV infectivity, oxidized‐LDL receptor and statins in HCV infection need further evaluation.
Discrete localizations of hedgehog signalling components in the developing and adult rat nervous system

Sonic hedgehog (Shh), a morphogen molecule implicated in embryonic tissue patterning, displays inductive, proliferative, neurotrophic and neuroprotective activities on various neural cells. Shh might exert its biological functions through binding to patched (Ptc) associated with smoothened (Smo), leading to downstream activation of target genes such as the transcription factor Gli1. We have performed a detailed localization of cells expressing transcripts of Shh, Ptc, Smo and Gli1 in brain and spinal cord of the adult rat as well as in the developing cerebellum. In the adult, Shh‐positive cells were mainly observed in forebrain structures, in the Purkinje cells of the cerebellum and in motor neurons. Ptc‐positive cells were frequently observed in brain areas devoid of any Shh transcripts, except in the median eminence or the facial nucleus, suggesting local Shh signalling. Interestingly, Smo transcripts were predominantly present within circumventricular organs, in granular cells of the dentate gyrus and in neurons of the reticular thalamic nucleus. The presence of Shh, Ptc and Smo transcripts in hypothalamic areas may indicate a role of Shh signalling in the modulation of neuroendocrine functions. The expression pattern of these three genes as well as of Gli1, and their developmental regulation in the cerebellum, suggest a possible role for Hedgehog signalling in the control of various cell populations within the cerebellum, particularly in granule cell proliferation and/or differentiation that might be impaired in proliferative states such as medulloblastomas.
The role and expression of miR-100 and miR-203 profile as prognostic markers in epithelial ovarian cancer.

PURPOSE The present study was aimed to evaluate the clinical significance of miR-100 and miR-203 in epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) patients. METHODS The expression levels of miR-100/203 in EOC tissue and adjacent non-cancerous samples were determined by real-time RT-PCR. Associations between miRNAs expressions and various clinicopathological characteristics were analyzed. Survival rate was determined with Kaplan-Meier and statistically analyzed with the log-rank method between groups. Survival data were evaluated through multivariate. Cox regression analysis. FINDINGS Our findings showed that miR-100 was significantly down-regulated in EOC tissue specimens than in adjacent non-cancerous tissues. The expression level of miR-203 was significantly higher in EOC tissues compared to adjacent non-cancerous tissues. Decreased expression of miR-100 was strongly associated with high FIGO stage (P=0.012). The high expression of miR-203 was significantly correlated with advanced FIGO stage (p=0.006), advanced histological grade (p=0.03). Kaplan-Meier analysis and log-rank test have suggested that EOC patients with down-regulated miR-100 expression and up-regulated miR-203 expression have shorter overall survival when compared with patients with other expression groups (log-rank test P<0.001). Multivariate Cox proportional hazards model indicated that the status of miR-100 and miR-203 expression levels were independent predictor of overall survival in patients with EOC. CONCLUSION Decreased expression and increased expression of miR-100 and miR-203 may be correlated with progression and poor prognosis of EOC.
Outcome of mechanical ventilation for adults with hematologic malignancy.

BACKGROUND Patients with hematologic malignancy who develop respiratory failure generally have a very poor prognosis. A few such patients, however, enjoy long-term survival. The objective of this study was to identify clinical characteristics of patients with hematologic malignancy and respiratory failure that are predictive of outcome. METHODS We performed a retrospective chart review of all patients who required mechanical ventilation for acute respiratory failure while on the leukemia or bone marrow transplantation units at the Johns Hopkins Oncology Center between January 1985 and October 1991 (n = 157). RESULTS Overall hospital mortality was 83%. Major organ system dysfunction, as measured by the acute physiology score (APS) of the APACHE III prognostic system, was significantly (P < 0.05) related to hospital mortality. Three disease-specific clinical characteristics were predictive of mortality: 1) stage beyond first complete remission, 2) duration of neutropenia greater than 30 days, and 3) treatment with bone marrow transplantation, especially if HLA-mismatched. None of the 15 (10%) patients with neutropenia greater than 30 days or the four patients who underwent HLA-mismatched transplantation survived to discharge. Age was also a significant predictor of hospital mortality. CONCLUSIONS Overall outcome of patients with hematologic malignancy and acute respiratory failure is poor. A larger prospective study will be required to confirm the relative value of disease-specific variables identified in this study when combined with established predictive variables. In the future, it may be possible to develop a predictive instrument that is specifically tailored for patients with hematologic malignancy who develop respiratory failure.
Range-based models in estimating value-at-risk (VaR)

This paper introduces new methods of estimating Value-at-Risk (VaR) using Range-Based GARCH (General Autoregressive Conditional Heteroskedasticity) models. These models, which could be either based on the Parkinson Range or Garman-Klasss Range, are applied to 10 stock market indices of selected countries in the Asia-Pacific Region. The results are compared using the traditional methods such as the econometric method based on the ARMA-GARCH models and RiskMetricsTM. The performance of the different models is assessed using the out-of-sample VaR forecasts. Series of likelihood ratio (LR) tests namely: LR of unconditional coverage (LRuc), LR of independence (LRind), and LR of conditional coverage (LRcc) are performed for comparison. The result of the assessment shows that the model based on the Parkinson Range GARCH (1,1) with Student’s t distribution is the best performing model on the 10 stock market indices. It has a failure rate, defined as the percentage of actual return that is smaller than the one-step-ahead VaR forecast, of zero in 9 out 10 stock market indices. The finding of this paper is that Range-Based GARCH Models are good alternatives in modeling volatility and in estimating VaR.
Investor Protection, Firm Informational Problems, Big N Auditors, and Cost of Debt around the World

SUMMARY: This paper examines the effects of investor protection, firm informational problems (proxied by firm size, firm age, and the number of analysts following), and Big N auditors on firms' cost of debt around the world. Using data from 1994 to 2006 and over 90,000 firm-year observations, we find that the cost of debt is lower when firms are audited by Big N auditors, especially in countries with strong investor protection. Second, we find that firms with more informational problems (i.e., higher information asymmetry problems) benefit more from Big N auditors in terms of lower cost of debt only in countries with stronger investor protection. JEL Classifications: G14; G15; G32; K22; M42.