Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Evaluating the e-business capability model: empirical evidence from the UK technology-based companies

This study as a whole has investigated factors that have impacted on the adoption and use of e-business. As a result of recognising the gaps that exist in the current empirical studies, this study was able to identify relevant dimensions and group these into three broad categories consisting of 'technological', 'organisational' and 'people', embedded in three proposed E-Business Capability (EBC) factors (business strategy, supply chain strategy and e-business adoption). The main purpose of this study is to investigate whether any relationships exist among EBC factors and whether they impact on business performance. This is accomplished by developing a psychometrically sound EBC framework instrument that is designed specifically to investigate these issues. This study can, however, conclude that there are two promising implications for future research: they are, firstly, that the EBC model developed can be used as a solid foundation for further investigation. Moreover, equally importantly, the empirical method used can be strongly recommended for future investigation. Future research programmes can make use of both of these to further investigate developing/developed country context to produce empirically underpinned generalised models.
Oral Health Knowledge, Attitude and Practices amongst Health Professionals in Ludhiana, India

Objective: To assess oral health knowledge, attitude towards dental treatment and oral hygiene practices amongst the health care professionals in private hospitals of Ludhiana city. Methodology: A cross-sectional study of oral health knowledge, attitude towards dental treatment and practices of health professionals (doctors, nurses, technicians and pharmacists) was carried out using self-administered questionnaire. For attitude of health professionals toward dental treatment and oral hygiene practices of health professionals, chi-square test was used. Results: Males had a higher oral health knowledge score than the females. The doctors had a highest score knowledge followed by pharmacists, nurses and technicians. Attitude towards dental treatment varied. All participants believed that regular visits to the dentist were necessary. The driving factor for their last visit was dental caries. The most common reason mentioned by the health professionals for not visiting the dentists was busy schedule. More than 50% of health professionals brushed their teeth more than 3 minutes. Flossing was more common in females as compared to males and mouthwash was more frequently than floss. Conclusion: Despite high literacy rate for health care professionals, oral health knowledge was average. They showed a positive attitude towards dental treatment. Oral health knowledge should be inculcated in the curriculum for all health care professionals. This will improve their oral health status and provide knowledge relevant to importance of oral health and its maintenance, as well. If they have an adequate knowledge, they can further teach the masses.
Corporate environmentalism in a small emerging economy: stakeholder perceptions and the influence of firm characteristics

This study presents a neo-institutional perspective of the perceptions of corporate environmentalism held by stakeholder groups relative to each other and the influence that specific firm-level characteristics, such as size, ownership, compliance record, and location, have on these perceptions. Empirical evidence is gathered from the emerging economy context of Trinidad and Tobago and its pollution-intensive oil, gas, and petrochemical sectors. Results indicate that non-governmental and community-based organizations (NGOs/CBOs) are most critical and business chains least critical of corporate environmentalism. All stakeholders perceive larger firms and those with strong compliance records as having stronger corporate environmentalism, while government stakeholders perceive foreign-owned firms, business chain perceives urban-based firms, and NGOs/CBOs perceive state-owned firms as having stronger corporate environmentalism. These preliminary findings can guide corporate managers in handling stakeholder relations and can guide policy-makers seeking to circumvent industry-stakeholder friction in emerging economies. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.
Development of a 16S rRNA Gene Primer and PCR-Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism Method for Rapid Detection of Members of the Genus Megasphaera and Species-Level Identification

ABSTRACT The genus Megasphaera is relevant to the environment, human health and food, and renewable energy for the future. In this study, a primer set was designed for PCR-restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) analyses to detect and identify the members of Megasphaera. Direct detection and identification were achieved for environmental samples and isolates.
Clinical and Endoscopic Features of Undifferentiated Gastric Cancer in Patients with Severe Atrophic Gastritis.

OBJECTIVE Differentiated gastric cancer generally develops in the atrophic gastric mucosa, although undifferentiated cancer is sometimes encountered in patients with severe atrophic gastritis. We characterized the endoscopic features of undifferentiated gastric cancer in patients with severe atrophic gastritis. METHODS Stage IA early gastric cancer was diagnosed in 501 patients who were admitted to our hospital between April 2003 and March 2012. The endoscopic and pathological findings were compared among 29 patients with undifferentiated cancer and severe atrophic gastritis, 104 patients with undifferentiated cancer and mild/moderate atrophic gastritis and 223 patients with well-differentiated cancer and severe atrophic gastritis. Endoscopic atrophic gastritis was classified according to the Kimura-Takemoto classification as no gastritis, C-1 and C-2 (mild), C-3 and O-1 (moderate) or O-2 and O-3 (severe). RESULTS The tumors were larger and showed deeper mural invasion in the patients with undifferentiated cancer and severe atrophic gastritis than in those with well-differentiated cancer and severe gastritis or undifferentiated cancer and mild/moderate gastritis. On endoscopy, undifferentiated cancer associated with severe gastritis was often red in color. CONCLUSION It is often difficult to diagnose early undifferentiated gastric cancer, especially in patients with severe atrophic gastritis. The present study characterized the important endoscopic features of such tumors.
A Longitudinal Study of the Impacts of an Annual Event on Local Residents

Understanding the impact of an event on residents' quality of life (QOL) is becoming increasingly important because local residents are the key source of attendees for most events and help ensure the event's survival. This study compares the host community perceptions of the impacts of the Australian Formula 1 Grand Prix over time to determine whether there were changes in resident perceptions of the event's influence on residents' QOL. The same methods were used in each of two separate data collection phases spaced three years apart. Using postal surveys, 279 responses were received each year, although these represented different response rates. Cluster analysis was used to identify residents with varying perceptions. The findings suggest that, over time, the number of respondents in the “unconcerned” category had grown and those with extreme positive and negative perceptions had decreased. The respondents to Phase 2 of the study had an increased appreciation of the economic contribution of the event and the impact on residents' QOL appeared to be less damaging, with fewer concerns about noise and the operational components of the event in the latter cohort. The paper concludes with a discussion of the implications for event organisers and local tourism authorities in managing events for improved residents' QOL.
Active Middle Ear Implant Application in Case of Stapes Fixation: A Temporal Bone Study

Hypothesis: Driving the oval window directly with an active middle ear implant (AMEI) can produce high levels of input to the inner ear. Background: Treatment of otosclerosis bypasses the stapes with a piston that penetrates the vestibule. Although this treats the conductive component of hearing loss, it does not treat the sensorineural part, which can be improved using an additional conventional hearing aid. Active middle ear implants have been proposed to be an alternative in treating otosclerosis in cases of mixed hearing losses. Methods: Seven temporal bones were prepared to expose the stapes and round window (RW). Stapes and RW velocities were measured while driving with an AMEI the stapes head with a bell-shaped tip. The stapes footplate was then fixed with acrylic cement; fixation was confirmed through attenuated RW velocities. A cylinder tip (0.5 mm) was then used to drive the inner ear through a stapedotomy with and without interposition of fascia. Results: Driving the stapes with an AMEI produced mean maximum equivalent ear canal sound pressure levels (SPL) of 138 dB (0.25-8 kHz at 1 V [RMS]). Stapes fixation caused a ∼25-dB attenuation. Driving with a cylinder tip through the stapedotomy produced 114 dB SPL (24 dB less than normal) and 110 dB SPL (28 dB less than normal) performance with and without fascia, respectively. Performance with fascia was greater than without. Conclusion: Driving the oval window with an AMEI in a scenario of stapes fixation was demonstrated to be feasible, with performance comparable to traditional AMEI coupling to the incus or stapes. These possibilities offer new perspectives to treat mixed hearing loss in case of fixed footplate.
Hedge Fund Performance Attribution at Strategy Level Under Different Market Conditions

We investigate US hedge funds’ performance across different economic and market conditions for the longest period to date, 1990-2014. The paper examines the impact of multiple business cycles and rising/falling markets on exposures and excess returns delivered to investors. We use a twin nonlinear multi-factor agile model with pre-defined and undefined structural breaks, based on a regime switching process conditional on different states of the market. During difficult market conditions the majority of hedge fund strategies do not provide significant alphas to investors. At such times hedge funds reduce both the number of their exposures to different asset classes and their portfolio allocations. Some strategies even reverse their exposures. Directional strategies share more common exposures under all market conditions compared to non-directional strategies. Factors related to commodity asset classes are more common during these difficult conditions whereas factors related to equity asset classes are most common during good market conditions. Falling stock markets are harsher than recessions for hedge funds.
FInest - Future Internet enabled optimisation of transport and logistics networks

This report presents the forth deliverable of work package 6 “Proactive Event Driven Monitoring”. The aim of this module within FInest is to provide event-driven monitoring capabilities to facilitate the end-to-end visibility of logistics processes and real-time information regarding actual execution. To this end, a proof-of-concept application has been built based on the FISH use case. This document is complementary to the proof-of-concept demo and provides additional information to form a comprehensive understanding of how the event processing module works, its capabilities, and the results obtained. The use case selected applies a wide range of rules operators and demonstrates the potential benefits of applying event processing techniques to logistic processes. The applied rules have been validated by the domain partners in terms of their relevance and correctness.
Empirical Testing of the APT Model with Pre-Specifying the Factors in the Case of Romanian Stock Market

Since the discovery and the development of the financial equilibrium asset pricing models, they were constantly and repeatedly tested mainly for the big markets and scarcely for the smaller or the emerging ones. Romania belongs to the last category, hence empirical testing of these models for its case was almost inexistent. So, this paper examines the validity and the applicability of the Arbitrage Pricing Theory model for the Romanian stock exchange, conditioned of course by the available data. The data used is represented by monthly returns of 60 companies, listed on the Bucharest Stock Exchange, using a 6-year period, from 01.01. 2005 to 31.12. 2010. The pre-specifying of possible economic factors method was implied, using a total of 16 economical variables, among which some were used also in the more famous studies, and the rest were added. The obtained results show as significant for influencing assets’ return a number of 4-6 variables with respect to the testing approach, but of course the conclusions can be subdued to potential errors, they are not exhaustive and can surely be improved. Keywords: APT, Bucharest stock exchange, Factor loadings, Multiple regressions, Pre-specifying factors.
Logistics versus supply chain management: An international survey

Supply chain management (SCM) remains an important topic among logistics managers, researchers and educators. This paper opens by describing four unique perspectives on the relationship between logistics and SCM. Next, the results of an international survey of logistics/SCM experts are reported. Over 200 questionnaires were faxed to leading logistics educators in North America, Europe, South America and Asia. Based on these experts' perceptions, cluster analysis confirms the existence of the four perspectives on logistics versus SCM—relabelling, traditionalist, unionist and inter-sectionist. The paper closes with a discussion on implications of the four perspectives for educators, researchers and practitioners.
Zymological indicators: a new concept applied to the detection of potential spoilage yeast species associated with fruit pulps and concentrates

In a survey of the microbial quality of raw materials used in fruit juice processing, yeast counts in fruit concentrates and pulps were found to range from <1 to 2·9×103cfu g−1. Ascomycetous yeasts were represented by 76% of the isolates while 24% were basidiomycetes. The identification of strains isolated by the simplified identification system (SIM) revealed 19 yeast species representing 12 genera. The most frequently isolated yeasts belonged to the genera Saccharomyces, Pichia, Cryptococcus, Kluyveromyces andCandida . Fatty acid yeast composition allowed the separation of contaminating yeasts into one of three major groups. Group I included yeasts without linoleic (C 18:2) and linolenic (C 18:3) fatty acids such as Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Group II comprised yeasts without C 18:3 fatty acid like Zygosaccharomyces rouxii and Torulaspora delbrueckii, and group III included yeasts with C 18:2 and C 18:3 acids that belong, among others, to one of the following yeast genera:Pichia, Candida, Kluyveromyces or Cryptococcus. Species-specific PCR primers were used for the rapid detection and identification of the most dangerous species affecting fruit concentrate stability. The simplified protocol used consisted of PCR-amplification of conserved tracts in the ITS region of the rDNA unit, thus enabling the detection of potentially dangerous flora such as Zygosaccharomyces species and T. delbrueckii in contaminated fruit concentrates. Results from PCR-typing were in full agreement with the fatty acid compositions of these species. The grouping of contaminant yeasts into three main groups showed that fatty acid composition may be used to differentiate yeasts according to their technological significance. Yeasts isolated in this work as being most dangerous to product stability belong to either group II (Z. rouxii and T. delbrueckii) or group I (Saccharomyces spp.). Group III was comprised of several species regarded as indicators of deficiencies in ‘good manufacturing practices’. Thus, each of the groups delineated may be considered to be a zymological indicator of technological significance. The conjugation of fatty acid profiles with PCR-typing methods may be used as a rapid detection system for contaminant yeasts. The fatty acid profiles provide a preliminary identification of yeasts potentially dangerous to product stability present within 48 h of isolation. Whereas the PCR-typing method is mainly used to confirm isolate identity, when required, after the initial diagnosis has been performed, over a period of 4 h.
Ricoh in the NTCIR4 CLIR Tasks

This paper describes Ricoh’s participation in the NTCIR-4 CLIR tasks. We used the same approach as we took at the NTCIR-3 IR tasks for Japanese. We applied our system using a Traditional/Simplified Chinese converter and n-gram indexing for the Chinese IR task. The results show that our simple approach for Chinese IR can provide information retrieval for both
The Limits of Information? A Game Theoretic Contribution to Understanding the Development of an Indicators Policy for the UK Construction Industry

In the UK over the last decade, benchmarking has been consistently promoted as a solution to the problems of industry and the construction industry in particular. Government support of benchmarking in construction through the development of a key performance indicators programme found justification in the public goods aspects of the innovation process and because of the presence of market failures of information facing construction clients. However, attempts to merge benchmarking approaches into a single framework did not lead to a combined programme as intended. A game theoretic analysis of the implementation of government policy is presented to account for difficulties encountered by policy actors and to explain why a suitable mechanism to facilitate mutual benchmarking could not be devised. A key performance indicator (KPI) system that supports clients and suppliers in any sector – here we consider construction - is highly problematic, not only because the types of information and types of processes that generate the information used by clients and suppliers are generally different, but because the exchange of information between suppliers and clients and vice versa potentially leads to loss of commercially valuable information.
Collaboration and trust in two organic food chains

Purpose – Organic food offers a good case to study the relationships of actors in the food chain, because of its added value based on production methods, the imbalance of power and the different value systems. The obvious problems identified call for solutions that include more efficient collaboration. This paper attempts to determine the presence of collaboration along the Finnish organic food chain, from the farmers to the multiple retailers. Collaboration is approached by focusing on communication and trust between the actors.Design/methodology/approach – A case study with two cases.Finding – Collaboration was found only in a few dyadic relationships, not at the chain level. Findings suggest that high frequency of communication is not an indication of collaboration, and is less important than the quality of communication in the creation of trust, the prerequisite for collaboration. Particularly the competence demonstrated as an exchange partner, seemed to hold the key for a trustful relationship. Neith.
Methods for the isolation of intact epithelium from the mouse intestine

Methods are described for the isolation of intact intestinal epithelium in several novel forms. The first method described is for application to segments of bowel that must be studied without killing the animal, e.g., a resected length of bowel. In this method, the isolated segment is everted onto a glass rod and incubated at 37°C in fresh 30 mM ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA) in calcium‐magnesium‐free Hank's balanced salt solution (CMF) for either 15 or 20 minutes. At the end of the incubation, the epithelium is isolated by vibration into a tube of cold CMF. If it is incubated for 20 minutes, the entire epithelium is isolated in the form of single crypt‐villus units. If it is incubated for 15 minutes, the epithelium is isolated in the form of small intact sheets, but not all of the epithelium is removed.
WHY DOES FUNDING STATUS VARY AMONG STATE AND LOCAL PLANS

*Alicia H. Munnell is the Peter F. Drucker Professor of Management Sciences in Boston College’s Carroll School of Management and Director of the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College (CRR). Kelly Haverstick is a research economist at the CRR. Jean-Pierre Aubry is a research associate at the CRR. The authors would like to thank Beth Almeida and Ed Macdonald for very helpful comments. Introduction
On a three-dimensional gait recognition system

The University of Southampton Multi-Biometric Tunnel is a high performance data-capture and recognition system; designed with airports and other busy public areas in mind. It is able to acquire a variety of non-contact biometrics in a non-intrusive manner, requiring minimal subject cooperation. The system uses twelve cameras to record gait and perform three-dimensional reconstruction; the use of volumetric data avoids the problems caused by viewpoint dependence - a serious problem for many gait analysis approaches. The early prototype by Middleton et al. was used as the basis for creating a new and improved system, designed for the collection of a new large dataset, containing gait, face and ear. Extensive modifications were made, including new software for managing the data collection experiment and processing the dataset. Rigorous procedures were implemented to protect the privacy of participants and ensure consistency between capture sessions. Collection of the new multi-biometric dataset spanned almost one year; resulting in over 200 subjects and 2000 samples. Experiments performed on the newly collected dataset resulted in excellent recognition performance, with all samples correctly classified and a 1.58% equal error rate; the matching of subjects against previous samples was also found to be reasonably accurate. The fusion of gait with a simple facial analysis technique found the addition of gait to be beneficial -- especially at a distance. Further experiments investigated the effect of static and dynamic features, camera misalignment, average silhouette resolution, camera layout, and the matching of outdoor video footage against data from the Biometric Tunnel. The results in this thesis prove significant due to the unprecedented size of the new dataset and the excellent recognition performance achieved; providing a significant body of evidence to support the argument that an individual's gait is unique. L. Middleton, D. K. Wagg, A. I. Bazin, J. N. Carter and M. S. Nixon. A smart environment for biometric capture. Automation Science and Engineering, Proceedings of IEEE International Conference on, 57-62, 2006.