Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Examining resilience of quality of life in the face of health-related and psychosocial adversity at older ages: what is "right" about the way we age?

PURPOSE This article examines resilience at older ages, focusing on the relationships between quality of life (qol) and adversity. Our objectives are to identify (a) the basis of adversity, (b) the characteristics of resilient individuals, and (c) the attributes that attenuate the full impact of adversity. DESIGN AND METHODS Resilience is defined as flourishing despite adversity. Analysis is carried out in a subsample of the Boyd Orr cohort (aged between 68 and 82 years) using questionnaire data. Adversity was identified as circumstances that produce a significant average decrease in qol (CASP-19 scores). Participants were classified into resilient and vulnerable groups based on high or low qol (CASP-19 scores dichotomized at the median) in the face of significant adversity. Shared characteristics that define these outcomes are reported. Attributes that attenuate the negative impact of adversity were analyzed using stratified logistic regression. RESULTS Adversity was typified by functional limitation; life getting worse in the domains of health, stress, and general living circumstances; and experiencing a negative life event. The resilient tended to report fewer multiple adversities. Indicators of protective attributes, which also characterized resilient outcomes relative to qol, included good quality relationships (5.105, confidence interval [CI] 95% 1.323-19.699), integration in the community (10.800, 95% CI 1.227-95.014), developmental coping (3.397, 95% CI 1.079-10.690), and adaptive coping styles (3.211, 95% CI 1.041-9.910). IMPLICATION Overall results indicate that policies that offer access to protection and help minimize adversity exposure where possible will promote resilience.
Minimum Bill Contracts: Theory and Policy

This paper examines the efficiency implications of minimum bill cont racts, and concludes that minimum bill provisions promote rather than impede efficient adaptation to changing circumstances. In particular , minimum bills provide a simple mechanism by which parties faced wit h uncertain demand and rising marginal cost can approximate joint-pro fit maximizing payment schedules in transaction-specific relationship s governed by long-term contracts. The paper also questions the merit of proposals for legislative or regulatory intervention to reduce mi nimum bill obligations in natural gas contracts, and considers the ap propriate legal status of these provisions in the event of contractua l failure. Copyright 1988 by Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
Taking sport seriously

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to introduce this special issue of Management Decision and discuss the key question “Should sport be taken seriously? ”. Design/methodology/approach – The themes of the special issue are discussed and each paper is introduced.Findings – Sport should be taken seriously because it has a significance beyond the field of play. It has become a commodified activity which creates and consumes wealth and can be used as a context for management research.Originality/value – Rarely before has sport been taken seriously in a management research context. This guest editorial and the special issue that follows it begin that debate.
The Effects of Chinese Regional Conditions on the Location Choice of Japanese Affiliates

In the 1990s, Japanese firms rapidly increased the number of locations of their affiliates in China, displaying considerable regional heterogeneity in the abundance of better educated human resources, wage costs, increasing numbers of special economic zones, industrial agglomeration and the enrichment of social infrastructure. This paper employs conditional logit estimations to examine how these heterogeneous factors affect the location choice of Japanese affiliates by correlating Japanese data to data from Chinese provinces and Special Cities. The results reveal that factors related to human resources are more important than the ‘hard’ factors in attracting foreign firms to invest China.
Effects of a Single Bout of Lower-Body Aerobic Exercise on Muscle Activation and Performance During Subsequent Lower- and Upper-Body Resistance Exercise Workouts

Abstract Tan, JG, Coburn, JW, Brown, LE, and Judelson, DA. Effects of a single bout of lower-body aerobic exercise on muscle activation and performance during subsequent lower- and upper-body resistance exercise workouts. J Strength Cond Res 28(5): 1235–1240, 2014—A single bout of lower-body aerobic exercise may negatively affect a subsequent lower-body resistance exercise workout. However, less is known regarding the effects of a lower-body aerobic workout on muscle activation and performance during a subsequent upper-body resistance exercise workout. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to compare muscle activation and performance during lower- and upper-body resistance exercise workouts after a single bout of lower-body aerobic exercise on an elliptical machine. Fourteen men (mean age = 24.1 ± 2.3 years, height = 180.8 ± 6.9 cm, body mass = 91.9 ± 16.4 kg) completed 4 trials in random order. Two trials consisted of 30 minutes on the elliptical machine, using the lower body only, at 70% of age-predicted maximum heart rate before either a back squat or bench press workout, consisting of 3 sets to failure performed at 75% 1 repetition maximum. The other 2 trials consisted of only the back squat or bench press resistance workouts. To quantify muscle activation, bipolar surface electromyography electrodes were placed on the rectus femoris and vastus lateralis or pectoralis major. Acute lower-body aerobic exercise on an elliptical machine significantly reduced the number of repetitions completed for the back squat but not the bench press exercise. There was no significant difference in muscle activation between the elliptical and no elliptical conditions. However, for both exercises and conditions, muscle activation increased significantly between the first and final repetitions for the first 2 sets but not for the third set. These results suggest that to optimize the quality of a lower-body resistance-training workout, the workout should not be preceded by lower-body aerobic exercise.
Gaining Bilateral Benefit through Holistic Performance Management and Reporting

Studies show that companies with developed performance management systems typically tend to have superior success in terms of financial, customer satisfaction and shareholder value. This paper describes that the reason for this performance can basically be seen in either (1) a better commitment of process owners through the application of holistic performance indices, (2) a better internal and/or external perception of the companies’ values through holistic reporting or (3) improved strategic resource deployment based on holistic performance indices. A research design is described, which is intended to point out reasons for the improved performance depending on selected context-variables.
Factors Influencing Retailers' Decision to Sell PDO/PGI Fresh Meat

Abstract The objective of this paper is to analyze retailers' attitudes toward region of origin labeling in fresh meat and the factors influencing retailers' decision to sell these quality labeled meats. Data come from a survey conducted with retailers in Spain (Aragon) in 2002. Firstly, retailers' attitudes toward region-of-origin labeled meat are investigated. Secondly, factors affecting the probability to sell region-of-origin labeled for two meat products (beef and lamb) and the level of sales are determined. To do this, a probit model has been specified to analyze the probability to sell region-of-origin labeled beef/lamb and an ordered probit, to study the level of sales for beef/lamb.
Assessing Effective Sustainability of Fiscal Policy within the G–7

This paper introduces a new unit root test, using "Feedback Covariates", in order to test for sustainability of fiscal policy within the G-7.Non-sustainability is considered as the null hypothesis of both a unit root in the debt process and the nullity of a deficit correction in response to inherited debt. We characterize the distribution of the FADF (Feedback Augmented Dickey-Fuller) statistics under both the null and the near unit root alternative and we compare the FADF statistics with the ones related to single equation approaches. This test is applied to public debt normalized by GDP, rather than by a discount factor, consistently with a definition of effective sustainability, which focusses on policy implications. We are still unable to reject the null hypothesis of non-sustainability for four countries. Nevertheless, our results confirm the potential of our approach in terms of power gains aind show that standard unit root tests lead to accept too often the null hypothesis of non-stationnarity. (This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)
Variability analysis of fetal heart rate signals as obtained from abdominal electrocardiographic recordings

The present paper introduces an original method of digital signal processing for an automatic analysis of non-invasive abdominal ECG recordings on pregnant women starting from the 25th week of gestation. The procedure has been implemented on a DEC-VAX 750 digital computer at the Department of Electrical Engineering, Polytechnic of Milano and the signals are recorded at the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology "L. Mangiagalli", University of Milano, Italy. The experimental results presented in here are still preliminary as only few cases have been considered up to now (about 20) and the goal of the paper is mainly focused on the algorithmic aspects of the whole procedure implemented in the computer and on the approach of heart rate variability (HRV) signal analysis both in the mother and in the fetus. Abdominal ECG lead processing is illustrated starting from the step of maternal (M) and fetal (F) QRS recognitions through linear digital filtering (derivative and low-pass FIR filter, Weber-Cappellini window) and weighted averaging techniques synchronized with maternal QRS's. Figure 1 a shows the original abdominal lead; figure 1 b the filtered signal for MQRS recognitions; figure 2 a the template of maternal cardiac cycle as obtained after the averaging operation synchronized with the instants of MQRS occurrence. The subtraction of the template results in the abdominal lead shown in figure 1 c in which the contribution of MECG is practically entirely reduced even in the case of MQRS and FQRS overlapping. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Adam Smith and the Great Deceleration in the U.S. Economy

From Adam Smith's perspective, the most prominent macroeconomic happening of the post-World War II period was not the Great Moderation, nor was it the recent Great Recession. Instead, it was the secular deceleration in economic growth occurring in the U.S., or the Great Deceleration. Smith's growth theory and his measure of aggregate output are employed in analyzing and documenting this Great Deceleration. From Smith's perspective, the most likely causal forces are the same ones that were retarding economic growth in eighteenth-century England: government command over resources and also its growth-inhibiting policies. On a positive note, Smith would consider the Great Deceleration as reversible.
Conceptual framework and theoretical development on CLV research

As the customer relationship management is highly recognized by more companies and has put it into practice, how to have a full life cycle management of targeted business customers has become the actual customer management issues for common concern. The definition of customer lifetime value, qualitative and quantitative studies in this paper were retrospectively analyzed and summarized, the analysis of customer lifetime value model of the current situation and existing deficiencies were made and from various angles the direction of future research which further clarify the customer lifetime value for the important role of enterprises, and relevant research findings will be used to provide information to verify and expand in the context of the market.
The employment issue in the European Union

The aim of this paper is to look at a basic issue when confronting the mediocrity of the employment situation in the European Union: Which theoretical explanation should be adopted for explaining employment and unemployment levels? We discuss the variant of the "mainstream consensus" attributable to the European Commission, and we present an alternative approach to explaining the employment content of EU growth, based on a Keynesian viewpoint, with some hints concerning policy implications.
Sustainability seen from the perspective of consumers

An important step in promoting sustainable consumption is to find out how consumers understand the concept of sustainability. In this paper, we report on a study among Norwegian consumers in which we explored their understanding of sustainability at two levels. First, we investigated consumers' understanding of the general sustainability concept; specifically, we studied how important the following five sustainability dimensions are in consumers' conception of sustainability: the environmental, social, economic, temporal and the developmental dimension. Second, we investigated how consumers' understanding of sustainability manifests itself in consumption decisions: We studied consumers' opinions about how important various attributes are for sustainable products and which product labels they consider indicative of sustainable products. We found that all five sustainability dimensions occurred as elements of consumers' understanding of the sustainability concept. The environmental dimension, the social dimension and the developmental dimension were particularly outstanding. With regard to attributes that are important for sustainable products, consumers placed high emphasis on recyclability of the packaging, fair payment of producers, low energy use and low carbon dioxide emissions during production and shipping. Humane animal treatment was also considered an important attribute of sustainable products. The product labels that were considered most indicative of sustainable products were the Nordic Swan and the Norwegian Debio label. Consumers' judgments of how indicative the labels are of sustainable products were related positively to familiarity with the labels.
Ultrabroadband Infrared Luminescence and Optical Amplification in Bismuth-Doped Germanosilicate Glass

This letter reports the ultrabroadband infrared luminescence from 1000- to 1700-nm wavelength range and demonstrate optical amplification at the second optical communication window in a novel bismuth-doped germanosilicate glass. The full-width at half-maximum of the luminescence is about 300 nm and the optical gain is larger than 1.37 within the wavelength region from 1272 to 1348 nm with pump power 0.97 W. This material could be useful to fabricate ultrabroadband optical fiber amplifiers.
Enhancing the antitumor efficacy of a cell-surface death ligand by covalent membrane display

Significance A recombinant soluble version of the transmembrane death ligand Apo2L/TRAIL has shown compelling preclinical results as a potential cancer therapeutic, but studies in cancer patients have demonstrated little efficacy. Supported membrane display of Apo2L/TRAIL, to mimic the endogenous ligand more faithfully, markedly augments receptor clustering and apoptosis stimulation in cancer cells. Covalent attachment of Apo2L/TRAIL to the surface of liposomes offers a therapeutically tractable approach to membrane display that substantially increases tumor exposure, caspase activation, and antitumor potency. These findings open new avenues for clinical investigation of Apo2L/TRAIL as a cancer therapeutic and may apply to other members of the TNF superfamily, such as FasL and CD70, which are expressed on immune-cell surfaces and are important candidates for cancer immunotherapy. TNF superfamily death ligands are expressed on the surface of immune cells and can trigger apoptosis in susceptible cancer cells by engaging cognate death receptors. A recombinant soluble protein comprising the ectodomain of Apo2 ligand/TNF-related apoptosis-inducing ligand (Apo2L/TRAIL) has shown remarkable preclinical anticancer activity but lacked broad efficacy in patients, possibly owing to insufficient exposure or potency. We observed that antibody cross-linking substantially enhanced cytotoxicity of soluble Apo2L/TRAIL against diverse cancer cell lines. Presentation of the ligand on glass-supported lipid bilayers enhanced its ability to drive receptor microclustering and apoptotic signaling. Furthermore, covalent surface attachment of Apo2L/TRAIL onto liposomes—synthetic lipid-bilayer nanospheres—similarly augmented activity. In vivo, liposome-displayed Apo2L/TRAIL achieved markedly better exposure and antitumor activity. Thus, covalent synthetic-membrane attachment of a cell-surface ligand enhances efficacy, increasing therapeutic potential. These findings have translational implications for liposomal approaches as well as for Apo2L/TRAIL and other clinically relevant TNF ligands.
Establishment of an Osteocyte‐like Cell Line, MLO‐Y4

Although osteocytes are the most abundant cells in bone, their functional role remains unclear. In part, this is due to lack of availability of osteocyte cell lines which can be studied in vitro. Since others have shown that cell lines can be readily developed from transgenic mice in which the SV40 large T‐antigen oncogene is expressed under the control of a promoter which targets the cells of interest, we used this approach to develop an osteocyte cell line. We chose as a promoter osteocalcin, whose expression is essentially limited to bone cells and which is expressed more abundantly in osteocytes than in osteoblasts. From these transgenic mice, we isolated cells from the long bones using sequential collagenase digestion and maintained these cells on collagen‐coated surfaces which are optimal for osteocyte maintenance and growth. We describe here the properties of a cell line cloned from these cultures, called MLO‐Y4 (for murine long bone osteocyte Y4). The properties of MLO‐Y4 cells are very similar to primary osteocytes. Like primary osteocytes and unlike primary osteoblasts, the cell line produces large amounts of osteocalcin but low amounts of alkaline‐phosphatase. The cells produce extensive, complex dendritic processes and are positive for T‐antigen, for osteopontin, for the neural antigen CD44, and for connexin 43, a protein found in gap junctions. This cell line also produces very small amounts of type I collagen mRNA compared with primary osteoblasts. MLO‐Y4 cells lack detectable mRNA for osteoblast‐specific factor 2, which appears to be a positive marker for osteoblasts but may be a negative marker for osteocytes. This newly established cell line should prove useful for studying the effects of mechanical stress on osteocyte function and for determining the means whereby osteocytes communicate with other bone cells such as osteoblasts and osteoclasts.
Forming Service Relationships with Hotel Business Travelers: The Critical Attributes to Improve Retention

Customer defections have been linked to service encounter failure in service organizations. This study embraces the idea of improving customer retention through proactively promoting the important role of the interpersonal service encounter to build long-term service relationships between customers and service organizations. More specifically, this study determined the critical relational attributes in the face-to-face service encounter that were most influential in the formation of a service relationship from the business traveler’s perspective. Five critical relational attributes were selected and tested in a high interpersonal service context; namely, a hotel reception encounter. Through factor analysis, the number of factors (critical relational attributes) was reduced from five to four. The results from multiple regression analysis revealed that hotel guests perceived personalization, social bonding, reliability, and familiarization to be most influential in the relationship formation process in that order of significance. Based on the findings, management could develop proactive relationship-building strategies to build customer loyalty and thus reduce the need to use recovery strategies by focusing on the psychological needs emulated in the critical relational attributes.
Navigating transdermal diffusion with multiphoton fluorescence lifetime imaging

We demonstrate the potential of fluorescence lifetime imaging by time‐correlated single‐photon counting as a method for monitoring the transdermal diffusion pathway and diffusion rate of pharmaceuticals in human skin. The current application relies on observing subtle changes in the fluorescence lifetime of the intrinsic fluorophores present in the intracellular region between corneocytes of the stratum corneum. We have comprehensively characterized the measured fluorescence lifetimes from intracorneocyte junctions in three skin section types (dermatomed skin, epidermal membranes and stratum corneum) revealing statistically significant differences of the short lifetime component between each of the types, which we attribute to the sample preparation and imaging method. We show using epidermal membrane sections that application of a drug/solvent formulation consisting of ethinyl estradiol and spectroscopic grade ethanol to the surface gives rise to a slight but statistically significant shortening of the fluorescence lifetime of the long‐lived emitting species present in the sample, from approximately 2.8 ns to 2.5 ns. The method may be useful for future studies where the kinetics and pathways of a variety of applied formulations could be investigated.
Split-Awards Procurement and Innovation

In many procurement settings, it is possible for a buyer to split a production award between suppliers. In this article, we develop a model of split-award procurement auctions in which the split choice is endogenous. We characterize the set of equilibrium bids and allocations for optimizing agents in an environment in which suppliers are fully informed about each other's costs. Split-award equilibria simultaneously exhibit strong collusive features and cost-efficiency properties. Despite the former property of the equilibria, upstream investment considerations may lead a buyer to prefer a split-award auction format to a winner-take-all auction format.
DH_FFP and RANK_FFP: Solving Constraint Satisfaction Problems Via Ordering the Domain Values

Fail First Principle (FFP) is a general heuristic algorithm (for solving constraint satisfaction problems) considering the order of variables. However, FFP neglects the order of values in domains. In this paper, we describe two algorithms, DH_FFP and Rank_FFP based on FFP. DH_FFP partitions a domain recursively with the middle value after choosing the variable that has the smallest domain. Rank_FFP makes use of the heuristic information between variables and constraints, evaluating and ranking every partition of a domain. We implemented these two algorithms and embedded into the constraint solving platform "Ming Yue SOLVER 1.0" designed by us. The experimental results show that both DH_FFP and Rank_FFP enhance FFP to much extent on both solving efficiency and size