Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Business model adaptation in new ventures: are technology-based firms different?

A firm’s business model (BM) is an important driver of its relative performance. Constructive adaptation to elements of the BM can therefore sustain the position in light of changing conditions. This study takes a configurational approach to understanding drivers of business model adaptation (BMA) in new ventures. We investigate the effect of human capital, social capital, and technological environment on BMA. We find that a universal, direct effects, analysis can provide useful information, but also risks painting a distorted picture. Contingent, two-way interactions add further explanatory power, but configurational models combining elements of all three (internal resource, external activities, environment) are superior.
What Drives the Liquidity Premium: Factors or Characteristics?

We investigate whether the liquidity premium is better explained by the risk-based model or the characteristic-based model. Based on three widely-used liquidity measures that are supposed to reflect different aspects of liquidity, we find that liquidity as a characteristic carries a significant liquidity premium that is beyond the size and book-to-market effects. In addition, liquidity as a factor does not yield a significant risk premium beyond that provided by Fama and French’s (1993) three factors. Finally, in direct comparisons under a liquidity-augmented two-factor capital asset-pricing model, the liquidity premium is better characterized by a characteristic-based model rather than a risk-based model, especially for the Amihud (2002) liquidity measure and for the post-1964 period.
Longitudinal influence of age, menopause, hormone replacement therapy, and other medications on parotid flow rates in healthy women.

BACKGROUND Recent investigations have demonstrated that parotid salivary dysfunction is not a normal process of aging, but may be the consequence of systemic conditions and their treatment, including medications and menopause. The purpose of this study was to assess longitudinally the influence of age, menopausal status, hormone replacement therapy, and other medications on stimulated parotid flow rates (SPFRs) in healthy women. METHODS Medical diagnoses, menopausal status, medication utilization, and 2% citric acid stimulated parotid salivas were collected from 396 women, aged 21 to 96 years, from the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging (National Institute on Aging, National Institutes of Health) over a 17-year span by three investigators. RESULTS There was no overall longitudinal effect of time on SPFR. Age at first visit was a significant predictor of a decrease in SPFR when adjusted for time and xerostomic medications. However, the deleterious effect of taking one xerostomic medication was equivalent to approximately 14 years of aging. Menopausal status and hormone replacement therapy were not consistently associated with diminished SPFR. CONCLUSIONS These results suggest that menopause and hormone replacement therapy are not associated with parotid salivary dysfunction. Aging may have a statistically significant yet small deleterious influence on SPFR; however, the adverse influence of xerostomic medications is much larger.
Governance Reforms and Firm Value: Worldwide Evidence

We examine the impact of governance reforms on firm value in 41 countries. Using a differencein-differences design, we find that firm value increases after enactment of the reforms and that the effect of these reforms primarily exists in countries with weak legal institutions. The effect of reforms on firm value is primarily due to provisions related to board independence and audit committee, not the separation of the roles of chief executive officer and chairman. In addition, the effect of reforms is concentrated among comply-or-explain reforms, and the role of countrylevel institutions is less important for these reforms than for regulation reforms. Taken together, our findings suggest exogenously imposed governance changes benefit shareholders, mainly in countries with weak institutional quality and for reforms with a comply-or-explain approach. JEL classification: G15; G34; K22
Direct Evidence of Mitochondrial Nuclear Division in the Ultra-micro Alga Cyanidioschyzon merolae

The fates of mitochondria and mitochondrial nuclei were followed in the “primitive” unicellular red alga Cyanidioschyzon merolae by microscopy and molecular biological techniques. The young mitochondrion contains one mitochondrial nucleus. The number of DNA molecules doubles during the late G2 phase and then returns to the normal value following division. The physical map of the mitochondrial genome was constructed and the size was determined. The genome was a single circle of about 32 kbp. Therefore, the mitochondrial nucleus contains 35 copies of mitochondrial DNA during interphase, which increases to 70 copies in late G2, and then decreases to 35 copies after mitochondrial division.
Glutathione S‐transferase Pi is a dopamine‐inducible suppressor of dopamine‐induced apoptosis in PC12 cells

The finding that the neurotransmitter dopamine induces apoptosis in neurons implies the existence of a cellular mechanism by which dopaminergic neurons protect themselves from dopamine‐induced apoptosis. By profiling the expression of a number of genes in differentiating PC12 cells which exhibit elevated levels of dopamine biosynthesis, we found that expression of glutathione S‐transferase class Pi (GSTp) mRNA was selectively up‐regulated. Interestingly, dopamine added to the culture medium of PC12 cells also augmented their expression of GSTp mRNA. Suppression of GSTp expression by transfection of its antisense expression vector augmented dopamine‐induced apoptosis of PC12 cells. Conversely, overexpression of GSTp made the resultant PC12 transfectants highly resistant to dopamine‐induced apoptosis. Transfection of the antisense or sense GSTp expression vectors also resulted in corresponding augmentation or suppression of dopamine‐induced activation of cell‐associated Jun‐N‐terminal kinase (JNK), which has been suggested to mediate dopamine‐induced apoptosis in neuronal cells. These results indicate that GSTp is a dopamine‐inducible suppressor of dopamine‐induced apoptosis in PC12 cells, and suggest that this activity is exerted through inhibition of JNK activity.
E-business technologies : supporting the net-enhanced organization

Chapter 1: Introduction to Electronic Business. Chapter 2: Impacts of Electronic Business. Chapter 3: Barriers to Electronic Business. Chapter 4: The Internet and World Wide Web for E-business. Chapter 5: Electronic Business Applications Development. Chapter 6: Telecommunication Technologies for E-business. Chapter 7: Client/Server Technologies for E-business. Chapter 8: Integrating Back-Office Communications. Chapter 9: Providing Content for Electronic Business. Chapter 10: Privacy and Security in E-business. Chapter 11: Electronic Payment Systems in E-business. Chapter 12: Electronic Business Architecture. Glossary. Index.
Highly nonlinear AlGaAs waveguides for broadband signal generation

In the last decade silicon on insulator-based waveguides have progressively attracted the attention of the nonlinear-optics research community. Due to the strong refractive index contrast of such waveguides and thanks to the very high nonlinear refractive index of silicon, strong nonlinear effects can be achieved in SOI structures, even at moderate pump power level (e.g. P < 1 mW) [1]. However, silicon also exhibits a very strong nonlinear absorption coefficient that severely limits the waveguide performance at power level above 1 mW. Very recently nonlinear AlGaAs waveguides were demonstrated, showing both efficient continuous wave and pulsed nonlinearities [2] with no two-photon absorption (TPA) effect, even at high power level.
DEVELOPING AN INSTRUMENT TO MEASURE THEINTENTION TO USE ELECTRONIC COMMERCE IN SMALLAND MEDIUM SIZED BUSINESSES IN CHILE

Due to the potential benefits that electronic commerce (e-commerce) may provide to small to medium sized enterprises (SMEs) and the fact that a small number of SMEs are currently using it, the major contribution of this paper is the development of an instrument to study the initial adoption of e-commerce in SMEs in Chile. This instrument could also help other developing countries to determine the e-commerce adoption intention. The instrument is developed by using Ajzens Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) that suggests the steps to elicit important constructs from a target population. A detailed explanation of the elicitation process is offered and the final instrument is presented.
Transplantation of Endothelial Progenitor Cells Accelerates Dermal Wound Healing with Increased Recruitment of Monocytes/Macrophages and Neovascularization

Endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs) act as endothelial precursors that promote new blood vessel formation and increase angiogenesis by secreting growth factors and cytokines in ischemic tissues. These facts prompt the hypothesis that EPC transplantation should accelerate the wound‐repair process by facilitating neovascularization and the production of various molecules related to wound healing. In a murine dermal excisional wound model, EPC transplantation accelerated wound re‐epithelialization compared with the transplantation of mature endothelial cells (ECs) in control mice. When the wounds were analyzed immunohistochemically, the EPC‐transplanted group exhibited significantly more monocytes/macrophages in the wound at day 5 after injury than did the EC‐transplanted group. This observation is consistent with enzyme‐linked immunosorbent assay results showing that EPCs produced in abundance several chemoattractants of monocytes and macrophages that are known to play a pivotal role in the early phase of wound healing. At day 14 after injury, the EPC‐transplanted group showed a statistically significant increase in vascular density in the granulation tissue relative to that of the EC‐transplanted group. Fluorescence microscopy revealed that EPCs preferentially moved into the wound and were directly incorporated into newly formed capillaries in the granulation tissue. These results suggest that EPC transplantation will be useful in dermal wound repair and skin regeneration, because EPCs both promote the recruitment of monocytes/macrophages into the wound and increase neovascularization.
Application of atomic magnetometry in magnetic particle detection

We demonstrate the detection of magnetic particles carriedby water in a continuous flow using an atomic magnetic gradiometer.Studies on three types of magnetic particles are presented: a singlecobalt particle (diameter ~;150 mum, multi-domain), a suspension ofsuperparamagnetic magnetite particles (diameter ~;1 mum), andferromagnetic cobalt nanoparticles (diameter ~;10 nm, 120 kA/mmagnetization). Estimated detection limits are 20 mum diameter for asingle cobalt particle at a water flow rate 30 ml/min, 5x103 magnetiteparticles at 160 ml/min, and 50 pl for the specific ferromagnetic fluidat 130 ml/min. Possible applications of our method arediscussed.
Organisational innovation in SMEs

This study considers determinants of organisational innovation in small to medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs), as expressed by the number of product innovation adoptions. Drawing upon data from 150 manufacturing firms in Greece, the study attempts to identify the importance of strategic orientation and competitive structure. First, strategy‐driven characteristics, such as market orientation and learning, are shown to increase SMEs' innovative performance. Second, competition‐related characteristics, and in particular industry concentration and barriers to entry, appear to have significant effects on SMEs' innovative activity. Overall, the empirical findings suggest that market‐ and learning‐oriented SMEs facing strong competition tend to be more innovative. These results are discussed in the context of Greek SMEs in food, beverages and textile sectors, taking into account the specific conditions prevailing. Apart from providing some new evidence in the important area of SMEs, this study has also important implications for managers and policy makers while revealing considerable scope for further research.
Marked Genomic Diversity of Norovirus Genogroup I Strains in a Waterborne Outbreak

ABSTRACT Marked norovirus (NoV) diversity was detected in patient samples from a large community outbreak of gastroenteritis with waterborne epidemiology affecting approximately 2,400 people. NoV was detected in 33 of 50 patient samples examined by group-specific real-time reverse transcription-PCR. NoV genotype I (GI) strains predominated in 31 patients, with mixed GI infections occurring in 5 of these patients. Sequence analysis of RNA-dependent polymerase-N/S capsid-coding regions (∼900 nucleotides in length) confirmed the dominance of the GI strains (n = 36). Strains of NoV GI.4 (n = 21) and GI.7 (n = 9) were identified, but six strains required full capsid amino acid analyses (530 to 550 amino acids) based on control sequencing of cloned amplicons before the virus genotype could be determined. Three strains were assigned to a new NoV GI genotype, proposed as GI.9, based on capsid amino acid analyses showing 26% dissimilarity from the established genotypes GI.1 to GI.8. Three other strains grouped in a sub-branch of GI.3 with 13 to 15% amino acid dissimilarity to GI.3 GenBank reference strains. Phylogenetic analysis (2.1 kb) of 10 representative strains confirmed these genotype clusters. Strains of NoV GII.4 (n = 1), NoV GII.6 (n = 2), sapovirus GII.2 (n = 1), rotavirus (n = 3), adenovirus (n = 1), and Campylobacter spp. (n = 2) were detected as single infections or as mixtures with NoV GI. Marked NoV GI diversity detected in patients was consistent with epidemiologic evidence of waterborne NoV infections, suggesting human fecal contamination of the water supply. Recognition of NoV diversity in a cluster of patients provided a useful warning marker of waterborne contamination in the Lilla Edet outbreak.
Foreign Direct Investment, Labour Market Regulation and Self-Interested Governments

This document examines foreign direct investment (FDI) when multinationals and labour unions bargain over labour contracts and lobby the self-interested government for taxation and labour market regulation. We demonstrate that right-to-manage bargaining predicts higher returns for FDI than does non-unionization or efficient bargaining. This advantage is further magnified in the presence of credible wage contracts. When the labour market is nonunionized, or there is a bargain over employment, the ruling elite reaps the surplus of FDI through taxation or regulation. In the absence of credible contracts, unions have incentives to claim a bigger share of the revenue of FDI.
Pericytes and their potential in regenerative medicine across species

The discovery that pericytes are in vivo counterparts of Mesenchymal Stem/Stromal Cells (MSCs) has placed these perivascular cells in the research spotlight, bringing up hope for a well‐characterized cell source for clinical applications, alternative to poorly defined, heterogeneous MSCs preparations currently in use. Native pericytes express typical MSC markers and, after isolation by fluorescence‐activated cell sorting, display an MSC phenotype in culture. These features have been demonstrated in different species, including humans and horses, the main targets of regenerative treatments. Significant clinical potential of pericytes has been shown by transplantation of human cells into rodent models of tissue injury, and it is hoped that future studies will demonstrate clinical potential in veterinary species. Here, we provide an overview of the current knowledge on pericytes across different species including humans, companion and large animal models, in relation to their identification in different body tissues, methodology for prospective isolation, characterization, and potential for tissue regeneration. © 2017 International Society for Advancement of Cytometry
Trust-aware Collaborative Denoising Auto-Encoder for Top-N Recommendation

Both feedback of ratings and trust relationships can be used to reveal users' tastes for improving recommendation performance, especially for cold users. However, both of them are facing data sparsity problem, which may severely degrade recommendation performance. In this paper, we propose to utilize the idea of Denoising Auto-Encoders (DAE) to tackle this problem. Specially, we propose a novel deep learning model, the \textit{Trust-aware Collaborative Denoising Auto-Encoder} (TDAE), to learn compact and effective representations from both rating and trust data for top-N recommendation. In particular, we present a novel neutral network with a weighted hidden layer to balance the importance of these representations. Moreover, we propose a novel correlative regularization to bridge relations between user preferences in different perspectives. We also conduct comprehensive experiments on two public datasets to compare with several state-of-the-art approaches. The results demonstrate that the proposed method significantly outperforms other comparisons for top-N recommendation task.
Characteristic Analysis of Permanent-Magnet Synchronous Generator With Slotless Stator Structure Considering Magnetic/Mechanical Air Gap Using Semi-3-D Analytical Method

In this paper, we analyze a permanent-magnet synchronous generator (PMSG) with a slotless stator considering the magnetic and mechanical air gap using the semi three-dimensional (3-D) analytical method. We employ various methods to perform characteristic analyses of PMSGs, such as the numerical method and the analytical method. The 3-D analysis method is also among the methods employed, but it requires complex and time-intensive mathematical operations. On the other hand, the semi-3-D analytical method with the numerical method has an advantage that it can be analyzed easily. In addition, we propose a method for calculating the electrical parameters considering the magnetic and mechanical air gap using the semi-3-D analytical approach.
VEGF regulation of endothelial nitric oxide synthase in glomerular endothelial cells.

BACKGROUND Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) regulation of endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS) and signaling pathways involved have not been well studied in glomerular endothelial cells (GENCs). METHODS GENCs grown from tsA58 Immortomice were used. Immunoblotting and in-cell Western blot analysis were employed to assess changes in VEGF receptor signaling pathway and eNOS phosphorylation of ser1177. Immunokinase assay and immunoblotting with phosphospecific antibodies were performed to assess activity of kinases. RESULTS VEGF rapidly induced tyrosine phosphorylation of type 1 and type 2 VEGF receptors. Physical association between VEGF-receptor 2 (VEGF-R2) and insulin receptor substrate (IRS-1) and phosphatidylinositol 3'-kinase (PI3K) was induced by VEGF, which augmented PI3K activity in VEGF-R2 immunoprecipitates. VEGF stimulated Akt phosphorylation in a PI3K-dependent manner. VEGF increased eNOS phosphorylation on Ser1177. Activation of eNOS was associated with nitric oxide generation as measured by medium nitrite content. Signaling mechanisms involved in VEGF stimulation of eNOS were explored. VEGF-induced eNOS phosphorylation was abolished by SU1498, a VEGF-R2 inhibitor, LY294002, a PI3K inhibitor, and infection of cells with an adenovirus carrying a dominant negative-mutant of Akt, demonstrating the requirement of the VEGF-R2/IRS-1/PI3K/Akt axis for activation of eNOS. VEGF also activated extracellular signal-regulated protein kinase (ERK) in a time-dependent manner; and VEGF-stimulated eNOS phosphorylation on Ser1177 was prevented by PD098059, an upstream inhibitor of ERK, demonstrating that ERK was involved in VEGF regulation of eNOS. ERK phosphorylation was abolished by LY294002, suggesting ERK was downstream of PI3K in VEGF-treated GENC. CONCLUSIONS Our data demonstrate that in GENC, VEGF stimulates VEGF-R2/IRS-1/PI3K/Akt axis to regulate eNOS phosphorylation on Ser1177 in conjunction with the ERK signaling pathway.
‘JUST A NOT-FOR-PROFIT’: SUPPORTING SUSTAINABILITY WITH BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE IN THE NOT-FOR-PROFIT SECTOR

This paper describes an ongoing qualitative single case study exploring business intelligence initiatives within the context of sustainability using the balanced scorecard for sustainability (SBSC) framework, which was developed for the corporate sector. For our study, the concepts incorporated in the SBSC framework are applied as a business intelligence model in the not-for-profit sector with illustrations from the case, the Royal Flying Doctor Service (RFDS) Queensland section. The findings suggest that the SBSC framework is helpful for identifying challenges for a not-for-profit although the pervading organisational culture in a not-for-profit seems to be overlooked. The researchers argue that the use of this framework in a qualitative empirical study with an Australian perspective is relevant and innovative. It is planned to extend the study nationally at a later time. It is believed that this model may have applicability beyond the local context and be useful for other organisations in the not-for-profit sector.
Virtual reality training and EMG control of the MANUS hand prosthesis

The design of multifunctional upper limb prosthetics has been investigated in recent years. Several areas or research need to be developed for successful implementation of dextrous upper limb prosthesis, in particular better EMG interfaces for implementing command languages. This article introduces a novel three-bit EMG command language concept as a user interface for the multifunctional MANUS prosthesis prototype. Following the global approach proposed by MANUS, a training process and the supporting Virtual Reality training software are also presented. The last section describes the evaluation process and the results.
High-Resolution Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy (FESEM) Imaging of Cellulose Microfibril Organization in Plant Primary Cell Walls

Abstract We have used field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) to study the high-resolution organization of cellulose microfibrils in onion epidermal cell walls. We frequently found that conventional “rule of thumb” conditions for imaging of biological samples did not yield high-resolution images of cellulose organization and often resulted in artifacts or distortions of cell wall structure. Here we detail our method of one-step fixation and dehydration with 100% ethanol, followed by critical point drying, ultrathin iridium (Ir) sputter coating (3 s), and FESEM imaging at a moderate accelerating voltage (10 kV) with an In-lens detector. We compare results obtained with our improved protocol with images obtained with samples processed by conventional aldehyde fixation, graded dehydration, sputter coating with Au, Au/Pd, or carbon, and low-voltage FESEM imaging. The results demonstrated that our protocol is simpler, causes little artifact, and is more suitable for high-resolution imaging of cell wall cellulose microfibrils whereas such imaging is very challenging by conventional methods.