Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Spillover Effect of IPOs on the Investment Activity of their Supply Chains

Using a dataset that enables the identification of the supply chain of small-and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Japan, this paper examines the impact of business partners’ initial public offerings (IPOs) on the growth of investment activity. Empirical evidence suggests that IPOs of business partners facilitate growth in sales, cash and cash equivalents, and accounts receivable. Furthermore, the IPOs of business partners and cash holdings stimulate investment activities, especially when these firms, whose business partners go public, are financially constrained. These results indicate that positive liquidity shock in any firm propagates through the network of firms and stimulates investment activity, especially when these firms are financially constrained.
Antecedents to the export market orientation of Hungarian higher education institutions, and their export performance consequences

Research into the international competitiveness of the higher education sector has shown that the approaches which management literature has introduced into the business sphere during the last half-century are being more and more frequently applied by successful universities as well. The authors extend the theory of export market orientation to the higher education sector, and explore the association between export coordination, export experience, export market orientation, export performance and the competitive environment in the context of the Hungarian higher education sector. The aforementioned relations are analysed on two subsamples (universities with a top performance vs. higher education institutions with a lower performance in regard to internationalization and scientific research). Based on the results, the authors conclude that export experience is a significant predictor of export performance in both groups of institutions, while export coordination can only explain changes in export market orientation for the group comprising the universities that lag behind in terms of internationalization. They observe, moreover, that the influence of export market orientation on export performance is stronger in the case of top-performing Hungarian universities, and that for the same group, the intensity of competition in international markets improves international orientation.
Cooperative Protocols for Relay and Interference Channels with Half-Duplex Constraint

Enabling cooperation among nodes of a wireless network can significantly reduce the required transmit power as well as the induced intra-network interference. Due to the practical half-duplexity constraint of the cooperating nodes, they are prohibited to simultaneously transmit and receive data at the same time-frequency resource. The purpose of this dissertation is to illustrate the value of cooperation in such an environment. To understand how to cooperate efficiently, information theory is employed as a useful tool, which not only determines the fundamental limits of communication (i.e., capacity) over the considered network, but also provides insights into the design of a proper transmission scheme for that network. In this thesis, two simple but yet important types of wireless networks, namely Relay Channel, and Interference Channel are studied. In fact, these models constitute building blocks for larger networks. The first considered channel is a diamond-shaped relay channel consisting of a source, a destination, and two parallel relays. The second analyzed channel is an interference channel composed of two transmitter-receiver pairs with out-of-band transmitter cooperation, also referred to as conferencing encoders. While characterizing the capacity of these channels are difficult, a simpler and a more common approach is to find an achievable scheme for each channel that ensures a small gap from the capacity for all channel parameters. In chapter 2, the diamond relay channel is investigated in detail. Because of the halfduplex nature of the relays, each relay is either in transmit or receive mode, making four modes possible for the two-relay combination, specifically, 1) broadcast mode (both relays receive) 2,3) routing modes (one relay transmits, another receives) 4) multiple-access mode (both relays transmit). An appropriate scheduling ( i.e., timing over the modes) and transmission scheme based on the decode-and-forward strategy are proposed and shown to be able to achieve either the capacity for certain channel conditions or at most 3.6
Competitive Relationships Among Potato Production Areas in Northeastern America

In the northeastern American region the main potato growing areas include Maine, Prince Edward Island (P.E.I.), New Brunswick, and Quebec, producing 73 million hundredweight of potatoes in 2003. The region’s production is only about 15 percent of the U.S. total potato production, yet P.E. I, New Brunswick, and Quebec constitute the largest part of the Canadian potato industry and are the major source of U.S. potato imports. U.S. potato imports are almost entirely from Canada, entering primarily the northeastern markets. Maine was the leading producer in the region before 1990 and since was surpassed by P.E. I. In a 1997 study of the competitive conditions between the U.S. and Canadian potato industries, the U.S. International Trade Commission (USITC) found that U.S. imports of fresh and frozen potato products from Canada affected the growers in the Northeast region, and especially the growers in Maine. Economic studies considering Maine, P.E. I, New Brunswick, and Quebec as one production region are largely unavailable. This study provides some information about changes in potato production in the region and the competitive relationship among the region’s four potato-producing areas.
Influence of sodium intake on the reliability of active renin as a measure of the renin-angiotensin system in essential hypertension.

Plasma renin activity (PRA), active renin (AR), prorenin, and angiotensinogen were assessed in 486 hypertensive and 175 normotensive subjects with a sodium intake of 10 or 200 mEq/d during supine and upright posture and after infusion of angiotensin II. PRA and AR levels were compared in hypertensive subjects in each condition. With low sodium intake, particularly while upright, there was a significant correlation between PRA and AR. In upright subjects with low sodium intake who had a PRA of 2.4 ng/mL per hour or less (1.85 nmol.L-1.h-1 or less), the correlation was also strong. With high sodium intake, the correlation was weaker. With intermediate sodium excretion, the correlation was intermediate. Prorenin was less predictive of PRA than was AR, and angiotensinogen had a marginal role. Using PRA during sodium restriction while upright as the standard for determining renin status, the precision of AR for predicting renin status was excellent. AR may be used for surrogate assessment of the renin-angiotensin system activity when the system is activated.
Seagulls of the Berlengas Natural Reserve of Portugal as Carriers of Fecal Escherichia coli Harboring CTX-M and TEM Extended-Spectrum Beta-Lactamases

ABSTRACT Escherichia coli isolates containing the following extended-spectrum beta-lactamases have been detected in 11 of 57 fecal samples (19.3%) in Berlengas Island seagulls: TEM-52 (eight isolates), CTX-M-1 (one isolate), CTX-M-14a (one isolate), and CTX-M-32 (one isolate). Most of the extended-spectrum beta-lactamase-positive isolates harbored class 1 or class 2 integrons, which included different antibiotic resistance gene cassettes.
Are trade costs higher for services than for manufactures? Evidence from firm-level data

Using a unique database, I estimate the costs of trading with European Union countries, relative to the costs of trading with the domestic market, for services and manufacturing firms located in the Basque Country region of Spain. I find that, despite the dramatic improvement in information and communication technologies, international trade costs for services are still much larger than for manufactures. Based on standard elasticities of substitution used in the literature, our results suggest that the tariff equivalent of international trade costs is between 50% and 60% larger for services than for manufactures.
Effect of Glycemic Regulation on Endocan Levels in Patients With Diabetes

Endothelial-specific molecule 1 (endocan) is expressed by endothelial cells and may have a major role in the regulation of cell adhesion and in the pathogenesis of inflammatory disorders. We aimed to assess change in endocan levels after 3 months of lifestyle change recommendations and guideline-based treatment. Diabetic patients (n = 77) who had neither chronic kidney disease nor chronic inflammatory disease were included. After baseline evaluation, the patients were advised lifestyle changes, and their medical treatment was determined individually according to recommendations of the American Diabetes Association (ADA) guidelines. At the end of third month patients were reevaluated. Baseline endocan levels were significantly increased in the study group compared with the control group. The third-month laboratory workup showed significant reductions in hemoglobin A1c, urinary albumin-to-creatinine ratio (UACR), and endocan levels. Only δ-UACR was independently correlated with δ-endocan in multivariate linear regression analysis. Our findings suggest that serum endocan concentrations are elevated in patients with type 2 diabetes and decrease following anti-hyperglycemic treatment. Furthermore, decrease in endocan concentrations might be associated with improved glycemic control and reductions in UACR.
Open‐Market Stock Repurchases by Insurance Companies and Signaling

The signaling hypothesis of share repurchases implies that management uses repurchases to signal either that their firm's future operating performance will improve or that shares of their stock are simply underpriced by the market. This study examines which of the two interpretations can better explain open‐market share repurchase programs announced by insurance companies. We find no evidence that future‐operating performance of insurers improves following the repurchase announcement. In addition, changes in future operating performance cannot explain the announcement‐period abnormal return. Instead, the stock undervaluation prior to the repurchase announcement can significantly explain the announcement‐period abnormal return, particularly for life insurers. Overall, our results suggest that the positive market reaction to insurers’ open‐market share repurchase announcements is due to the stock undervaluation by the market, but not due to positive information content about future operating performance conveyed in the repurchase announcement.
MDCT angiography of the pulmonary arteries: influence of body weight, body mass index, and scan length on arterial enhancement at different iodine flow rates.

OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study was to assess whether body weight, body mass index, and scan length influence arterial enhancement during CT angiography (CTA) of the pulmonary arteries at different iodine flow rates. MATERIALS AND METHODS CTA examinations of the pulmonary arteries performed for routine clinical care of 120 patients between March and December 2003 were retrospectively evaluated. Patients had received either 120 mL of contrast medium with an iodine concentration of 300 mg I/mL (group A) or 90 mL of contrast medium with an iodine concentration of 400 mg I/mL (group B). The iodine dose was 36 g, and the injection rate was 4 mL/s in all examinations. The iodine flow rate was 1.2 g I/s in group A and 1.6 g I/s in group B. Arterial attenuation along the z-axis was measured per patient, and the influence of body weight, body mass index, and scan length on enhancement of the pulmonary arteries in the two groups was assessed. RESULTS In group A and in group B, body weight and body mass index correlated significantly with mean enhancement along the z-axis (r = -0.35 and -0.26 for group A and -0.48 and -0.40 for group B). Scan length showed no correlation with pulmonary attenuation. Mean pulmonary artery enhancement was significantly higher in group B with a difference of 51 H compared with group A. CONCLUSION Pulmonary artery attenuation in CTA of the pulmonary arteries shows a small but significant correlation with body weight and body mass index independently of the iodine flow rate used. A higher iodine flow rate improves pulmonary artery enhancement.
Introduction: research on health care organizations and markets--the best and worst of times.

The breathtaking pace of change in the way health care is financed and delivered has brought challenges and new activities to all participants in the health care system. Employers are assuming roles as value purchasers; consumers, physicians and other health professionals are finding they must learn new ways to interact with each other; federal and state officials increasingly are using their power as purchasers as well as regulators to assure quality of care for their beneficiaries; hospitals and medical groups are learning how to assume and manage risk. The direction and speed of this transformation also creates-or should create-a similar sea change in the way researchers do their jobs: what questions we ask, how we ask them, how we find answers, and how and to whom we convey the resulting information. For health services researchers, this could be the best of times. Major experimentation in social programs (Medicare, Medicaid, and public assistance, in particular), coupled with unprecedented levels of change in health care markets, creates a dizzying array of natural experiments crying out for research about what works (or does not work) and why. But if research does not rise to the challenge, this also could be the worst of times. If we miss the wave (or seek out calmer research waters), we may discover we have nothing to say about the issues that matter most to public and private decision makers, consumers, and other potential customers for our work. This challenge is particularly important for government research groups such as the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research (AHCPR). At a time of strained public resources it is more important than ever that public research dollars be used to provide timely and pertinent information that can be used to promote and improve the nation's health (Gaus and Fraser 1996). AHCPR was created by Congress in 1989 to generate and disseminate information that improves the delivery of health care: to determine what
The Influence of Client Attributes and Organizational Climate on Tax Professionals

Tax professionals in accounting firms must meet professional standards in working with their clients, but may also face pressure from both their clients and firms when making ethical decisions. The purpose of this study is to examine the influence of client attributes and organizational climate on tax professionals’ ethical decision making within accounting firms. Based on an experimental design with 149 practicing tax professionals, results indicate that tax professionals are not swayed by client importance or social interaction with the client when making ethical decisions. However, tax professionals are more likely to engage in ethical behavior when their own accounting firm monitors and tracks the quality of client service and has an organizational climate that emphasizes policies and rules; unethical behavior is more common when accounting firms emphasize using personal ethics in decision making. The results of the study suggest the importance of strong policies and procedures to promote ethical decision making in firms.
A fuzzy rule-based fingerprint image classification

This paper aims to present an improved rule-based fingerprint classification using coherence method and a fuzzy rule-based (or simply fuzzy-based) fingerprint classification. The improved classification using coherence method has been applied to fingerprint images that do not previously produce any singular points while the fuzzy rule-based classification is designed based on the uncertainty in classifying tented arch, left-loop and right-loop fingerprint images. Two common classification schemes have been used, i.e. 5-class and 4-class schemes. The performance measure uses the success rate and it has been found to achieve 88.38% and 88.33% in the 5-class scheme for the improved rule-based and fuzzy rule-based classifications, respectively. On the 4-class scheme, it has been found to be 92.2% and 92.13%, respectively. The study has also considered weighting the success rate based on the natural proportion of the fingerprints. The success rates have been found to be 89.33% and 90.18% for the improved rulebased and fuzzy rule-based classifications, respectively for the 5-class scheme. On the 4-class, it has been found to be 90.36% and 91.25%, respectively.
The development of sponsored online brand communities : a meta study

The purpose is to understand the development of sponsored Online Brand Communities (OBCs) by analyzing recent literature and giving recommendations on company development strategies. This is a meta-study. 51 related articles were collected via Scopus and Web of Science and analyzed by conceptual analysis and network analysis. We focus on the development of OBCs, which is analyzed by four sub-questions including the characteristics, development strategies, influential individual factors and impacts of OBCs. There are two parts to the main conclusions to conduct the development strategies of the firms. First, firms need to concentrate on satisfying the hedonic and information needs of consumer participation and attempt to increase consumers’ perceived benefits and consumer satisfaction in order to develop the company. Second, in developing OBCs, managers should build a small sized, low- tenure community with high connection to the social networking sites in a creative atmosphere to stimulate customers creating more innovative ideas. Furthermore, the need for firms to open OBCs with appropriate types of products innovation is increasingly important. Therefore, consumers’ brand loyalty, community commitment, purchase frequency, customer visit frequency, brand recognition and brand image will increase and thus benefits the firms in the long run.
On the soft-decision in the iterative receiver for coded MIMO systems

This paper proposes an approach for the soft-decision in the coded multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) iterative receiver. A quadratic cost function approximation for the maximum a-posteriori (MAP) detection is considered to apply the computationally efficient sphere decoding (SD) method and a numerically stable approach for the soft-decision is proposed.
Occurrence of Deformed Fish and Their Fitness-related Traits in Kirikuchi Charr, Salvelinus leucomaenis japonicus, the Southernmost Population of the Genus Salvelinus

Abstract Kirikuchi charr, Salvelinus leucomaenis japonicus, is the southernmost population of the genus Salvelinus. It is endemic to the Kii Peninsula, central Honshu Island, Japan. As a consequence of anthropogenic disturbances, a few populations of Kirikuchi charr with low genetic diversity now survive only in small, isolated habitats. This study investigated the occurrence of deformed individuals and assessed differences between deformed and nondeformed fish in fitness-related traits, i.e., body size, body condition, growth rate, reproductive traits, survival rate, and habitat use, for two small isolated populations of Kirikuchi charr in the upper drainage of the Totsu River system of the Kii Peninsula. The two populations contained deformed fish in the respective proportions of 8.0–17.4% and 3.0–5.8% between 2003 and 2005. Annual survival rates of deformed fish were approximately half those of nondeformed fish. Other traits were not significantly different between deformed and nondeformed fish. These results indicate that the occurrence of deformities is an important ecological indicator that reflects the decline in fitness of small, isolated populations.
Security in Cloud Computing : A Security Assessment of Cloud Computing Providers for an Online Receipt Storage

Considerations with regards to security issues and demands must be addressed before migrating an application into a cloud computing environment. Different vendors, Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services and Google AppEngine, provide different capabilities and solutions to the individual areas of concern presented by each application. Through a case study of an online receipt storage application from the company dSafe, a basis is formed for the evaluation. The three cloud computing vendors are assessed with regards to a security assessment framework provided by the Cloud Security Alliance and the application of this on the case study. Finally, the study is concluded with a set of general recommendations and the recommendation of a cloud vendor. This is based on a number of security aspects related to the case study's existence in the cloud. With dSafe's high demands of data locality, integrity and security, Google AppEngine is discarded as an option due to the lack of focus on business related applications, whilst Microsoft Azure is the recommended cloud vendor - closely followed by Amazon Web Services - due to its suitable technical solutions with regards to existing implementation, risk mitigation capabilities and audit results.
Proposal for a measurement model for software tests with a focus on the management of outsourced services

The need for outsourcing IT services has shown a significant growth over the past few years. This article presents a proposal for a measurement model for Software Tests with a focus on the management of these outsourced services by governmental organizations. The following specific goals were defined: to identify and analyze the test process; to identify and analyze the existing standards that govern the hiring of IT services and to propose a Measurement Model for outsourced services of this type. As to the analysis of the data collected (documentary research and semi-structured interviews), content analysis was adopted, and in order to prepare the metrics, the GQM – Goal, Questions, Metrics – approach was used. The result was confirmed by semi-structured interviews. Here is what the research identifies as possible: to establish objective and measurable criteria for a measurement size as the input to evaluate the efforts and deadlines involved; to follow up the test sub-processes and to evaluate the service quality. Therefore, the management of this type of service hiring can be done more efficiently.
Towards alarm flood reduction

Alarm systems play critically important role for the safe and efficient operation of modern industrial plants. However, most existing industrial alarm systems suffer from poor performance due to too many alarms needing to be handled by operators in control rooms. This paper proposes a method to reduce the alarm flood by detecting redundant alarms so that they can be filtered later before being transmitted to operators. To do that, an approach based on pattern mining is selected. That method is then applied on an actual dataset coming from a General Electric power plant. The results show that removing redundant alarms allow significantly reducing alarm flood, without loss of efficiency nor safety.
Species identification of cyst and root‐knot nematodes from potato by electrophoresis of individual females

To carry out rapid and reliable species identification of Globodera and Meloidogyne specimens, two electrophoretic methods were modified and adapted for an automated electrophoresis system (PhastSystem, Pharmacia). Proteins of individual Globodera cysts were identified using isoelectric focusing and a sensitive silver stain. Proteins of young single Meloidogyne females were separated using polyacrylamide gradient gels and stained for the isozymes esterase and malate dehydrogenase.