Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
An empirical study on antecedents of aggregate customer satisfaction: Cross-country findings

In recent years, customer satisfaction has come to be used not only as a performance indicator for individual firms but also an aggregate measure for economic analysis. In particular, it has been reported that changes in customer satisfaction are a leading, positive indicator of other financial and economic indicators such as GDP growth and consumer spending. While the extant literature analyses the consequences of aggregate-level customer satisfaction, there has been relatively little study of its antecedents at the aggregate level. In our research, we have examined antecedents of aggregate customer satisfaction by analysing the relationships between various economic indicators and national customer satisfaction data from the US, Sweden and Japan. The results indicate the existence of two significant factors that affect customer satisfaction, both positively and negatively. One of these factors, an ‘economic growth factor’, has a positive impact on aggregate customer satisfaction, while the other, an ‘economic condition factor’, has a negative impact on it. The effects of these two antecedents are observed in all countries studied, regardless of differences in measurement methods or country-related institutional factors. Our findings provide useful information for predicting customer satisfaction index values and analysing subsequent financial performance of industries and firms.
Autoantigen can promote progression to a more aggressive TCL1 leukemia by selecting variants with enhanced B-cell receptor signaling

Significance These studies indicate that autoantigen-reactivity plays a role in the progression of a murine leukemia that models human chronic lymphocytic leukemia. This indication is consistent with the notion that chronic lymphocytic leukemia evolves by selection of normal B cells that bind autoantigen via the B-cell antigen receptor. (Auto)antigen engagement by the B-cell receptor (BCR) and possibly the sites where this occurs influence the outcome of chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). To test if selection for autoreactivity leads to increased aggressiveness and if this selection plays out equally in primary and secondary tissues, we used T-cell leukemia (TCL)1 cells reactive with the autoantigen phosphatidylcholine (PtC). After repeated transfers of splenic lymphocytes from a single mouse with oligoclonal PtC-reactive cells, outgrowth of cells expressing a single IGHV-D-J rearrangement and superior PtC-binding and disease virulence occurred. In secondary tissues, increased PtC-binding correlated with enhanced BCR signaling and cell proliferation, whereas reduced signaling and division of cells from the same clone was documented in cells residing in the bone marrow, blood, and peritoneum, even though cells from the last site had highest surface membrane IgM density. Gene-expression analyses revealed reciprocal changes of genes involved in BCR-, CD40-, and PI3K-signaling between splenic and peritoneal cells. Our results suggest autoantigen-stimulated BCR signaling in secondary tissues promotes selection, expansion, and disease progression by activating pro-oncogenic signaling pathways, and that—outside secondary lymphoid tissues—clonal evolution is retarded by diminished BCR-signaling. This transferrable, antigenic-specific murine B-cell clone (TCL1-192) provides a platform to study the types and sites of antigen-BCR interactions and genetic alterations that result and may have relevance to patients.
QscR, a LysR-Type Transcriptional Regulator and CbbR Homolog, Is Involved in Regulation of the Serine Cycle Genes in Methylobacterium extorquens AM1

ABSTRACT A new gene, qscR, encoding a LysR-type transcriptional regulator that is a homolog of CbbR, has been characterized from the facultative methylotroph Methylobacterium extorquens AM1 and shown to be the major regulator of the serine cycle, the specific C1 assimilation pathway. The qscR mutant was shown to be unable to grow on C1 compounds, and it lacked the activity of serine-glyoxylate aminotransferase, a key enzyme of the serine cycle. Activities of other serine cycle enzymes were decreased during growth on C1 compounds compared to the activities found in wild-type M. extorquens AM1. Promoter fusion assays, as well as reverse transcription-PCR assays, have indicated that the serine cycle genes belong to three separate transcriptional units, sga-hpr-mtdA-fch, mtkA-mtkB-ppc-mcl, and gly. Gel retardation assays involving the purified QscR have demonstrated the specific binding of QscR to the DNA regions upstream of sga, mtkA, gly, and qscR. We conclude that QscR acts as a positive transcriptional regulator of most of the serine cycle enzymes and also as an autorepressor.
Doughnut and Tilted Beam Generation Using a Single Printed Star Antenna

A novel printed star antenna is presented for generating both doughnut shaped and tilted beam radiation patterns. These patterns can be switched to scan the space in front of the antenna. The star is printed on finite-size stacked dielectric substrates backed by a finite size conducting ground plane. The radiation pattern depends on the feed position. The star antenna with a feeding point at the centre gives a doughnut pattern similar to that of a top loaded monopole antenna with a similar directivity of around 5 dBi. When the star is fed at any of its four corners, it has a tilted beam and depending on the star flare angle, it can provide a maximum directivity of 7.9 dBi. Hence, feeding the star at the four corners will generate four tilted beams in the four respective quadrants. Thus, by selecting an appropriate feed individually, a total of five distinct radiation patterns can be generated by just one single printed star antenna. A prototype star antenna with a flare angle of 10deg is fabricated. The characteristics of the antenna are predicted using electromagnetic modeling software and are verified by measurements using a multi-probe antenna test facility.
Understanding Attitudes Towards Migrants: A Broader Perspective

Migration is a controversial issue. Reading of the popular media in virtually any country, alongside an array of opinion polls suggest that residents see controls on immigration as essential and that people would prefer to see existing rules on entry tightened rather than relaxed. This stands in contrast to the evidence which points to significant gains for movers and, in many cases, benefits also for destination and origin countries – as reviewed in the forthcoming Human Development Report 2009. This paper makes several important contributions to an already rich literature about public opinion and migration. It highlights that attitudes are not as monochrome as might initially appear. A more detailed analysis of the nature, patterns and correlates of opinions toward migration in both developed and developing countries shows that values favourable toward diversity are in fact widely held, albeit with important variations. We also cast important light on how policies toward migration and underlying structural characteristics affect attitudes. Moreover, as many migrants do not end up in developed or OECD countries, public opinions in developing countries are of interest. As far as we are aware, this paper is the first published attempt to explore attitudes in countries in all parts of the human development spectrum. While the data investigated is largely drawn from 2005/2006, we frame key questions in both a longer term perspective, and highlight attitudes towards migrants when jobs are scarce, which has heightened relevance during periods of recession.
Divorce and the Housing Movements of Owner-Occupiers: A European Comparison

Divorce usually carries a range of economic consequences for both men and women, the housing situation of the ex-partners being among the most important ones. So far, however, the housing consequences of this life event, and in particular the way these are influenced by institutional arrangements, have been somewhat of a neglected topic. This paper focuses on one aspect of this process, more specifically the impact of divorce on tenure changes of homeowners, using comparative panel data for 12 European countries. It is concluded that although divorce significantly raises the odds of experiencing a tenure change for homeowners in all countries under consideration, this process is fairly similar across European welfare states. While institutional arrangements mitigating the economic consequences of divorce for women do not seem to explain much variation between countries, cross-national differences in tenure changes for homeowners are partly influenced by social housing policies and the extent of family support.
A Comparative Historical Explanation of the Environmental Policies of Two Woodworkers' Unions in Canada

The Industrial Wood and Allied Workers of Canada (IWA) has cooperated with timber corporations in engaging in an anti-environmentalist campaign in British Columbia. In contrast, the Pulp Paper and Woodworkers of Canada (PPWC) has, on occasion, cooperated with environmental organizations. It is contended here that the IWA's history of purging radicals from its ranks, its longstanding policy of cooperating with management, and its relatively undemocratic political structure are the primary reasons for its anti-environmentalist policies. Conversely, the PPWC has never expelled radicals from leadership positions; it has always maintained an adversarial relationship with management; and its political structure is very democratic. Thus, the specific histories and political structures of the PPWC and the IWA are the primary reasons for their different environmental policies. Therefore, it is argued that there is nothing inherent in woodworkers or woodworkers' unions that would preclude them from cooperating with the environmental movement.
Seamless: seam erasure and seam-aware decoupling of shape from mesh resolution

A parameterization decouples the resolution of a signal on a surface from the resolution of the surface geometry. In practice, parameterized signals are conveniently and efficiently stored as texture images. Unfortunately, seams are inevitable when parametrizing most surfaces. Their visual artifacts are well known for color signals, but become even more egregious when geometry or displacement signals are used: cracks or gaps may appear in the surface. To make matters worse, parameterizations and their seams are frequently ignored during mesh processing. Carefully accounting for seams in one phase may be nullified by the next. The existing literature on seam-elimination requires non-standard rendering algorithms or else overly restricts the parameterization and signal. We present seam-aware mesh processing techniques. For a given fixed mesh, we analytically characterize the space of seam-free textures as the null space of a linear operator. Assuming seam-free textures, we describe topological and geometric conditions for seam-free edge-collapse operations. Our algorithms eliminate seam artifacts in parameterized signals and decimate a mesh---including its seams---while preserving its parameterization and seam-free appearance. This allows the artifact-free display of surface signals---color, normals, positions, displacements, linear blend skinning weights---with the standard GPU rendering pipeline. In particular, our techniques enable crack-free use of the tessellation stage of modern GPU's for dynamic level-of-detail. This decouples the shape signal from mesh resolution in a manner compatible with existing workflows.
Load frequency resilient control of power system against delayed input cyber attack

Nowadays the industrial control systems (ICS) like smart grids involve the IT infrastructure as well as open communication networks. This makes the smart grids vulnerable to cyber attacks which can cause a heavy impact on human life and economy as well. Here, we consider time-delay-switch (TDS) attack on the load frequency control (LFC) of smart grid. TDS attack can destabilize the power system because the adversary introduces the delays in the control signal communication channel of the LFC system. TDS attack on control channel is also termed as delayed input attack. To counter this adverse situation, linear matrix inequality (LMI) based H∞ resilient controller is designed by utilizing the Lyapnov-Krasovskii (LK) functional based delay-dependent stability criteria. The effectiveness and resilience of the designed controller is verified by the numerical simulation on the linear time invariant (LTI) model of LFC for two-area power system.
Developing Iran’s government strategies for strengthening the national system of innovation using SWOT analysis

This article offers a method for formulating government strategies for improving and strengthening national innovation systems in particular for the developing countries. For this purpose, the SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) analysis (as an instrument for examining the innovation system situation) is recommended as well as studying the best practices for formulating the strategies. This method has been implemented in Iran, as a developing country. Before executing the process, ten essential elements comprising six major functions and four major interactions were briefly examined to describe the innovation system of a country. The results were used to describe the implementation stages of the recommended method for Iran. Copyright , Beech Tree Publishing.
Error Management at Multiple Organizational Levels: Impact on Customer Self-Esteem and Delight

A 2 × 2 × 2 experimental study was conducted to examine the influence of error management (service recovery efforts) in the form of apology at three organizational levels (frontline, manager, and company) on customer self-esteem and delight. Results showed significant main effects of all three apology levels and interaction effect of frontline and company apology on customer delight with the service recovery process. Results also support the main effects of frontline and company apology, and the interaction effect of frontline and manager apology on customer self-esteem. Moreover, customer self-esteem partially mediated the relationship between apology levels and delight indicating potential theoretical and managerial implications.
Consensus Statement on Epidemiological Studies of Medical Conditions in Tennis, April 2009

Background:The reported incidence, severity and nature of injuries sustained in tennis vary considerably between studies. While some of these variations can be explained by differences in sample populations and conditions, the main reasons are related to differences in definitions and methodologies employed in the studies. Objective:This statement aims to review existing consensus statements for injury surveillance in other sports in order to establish definitions, methods and reporting procedures that are applicable to the specific requirements of tennis. Design:The International Tennis Federation facilitated a meeting of 11 experts from 7 countries representing a range of tennis stakeholders. Using a mixed methods consensus approach, key issues related to definitions, methodology and implementation were discussed and voted on by the group during a structured one-day meeting. Following this meeting, 2 members of the group collaborated to produce a draft statement, based on the group discussions and voting outcomes. Three revisions were prepared and circulated for comment before the final consensus statement was produced. Results:A definition of medical conditions (injuries and illnesses) that should be recorded in tennis epidemiological studies and criteria for recording the severity and nature of these conditions are proposed. Suggestions are made for recording players' baseline information together with recommendations on how medical conditions sustained during match play and training should be reported. Conclusions:The definitions and methodology proposed for recording injuries and illnesses sustained during tennis activities will lead to more consistent and comparable data being collected. The surveillance procedures presented here may also be applicable to other racket sports.
Default in a General Equilibrium Model with Incomplete Markets

We extend the standard model of general equilibrium with incomplete markets (GEI) to allow for default. The equilibrating variables include aggregate default levels, as well as prices of assets and commodities. Default can be either strategic, or due to ill-fortune. It can be caused by events directly affecting the borrower, or indirectly as part of a chain reaction in which a borrower cannot repay because he himself has not been repaid. Each asset is defined by its promises A, the penalties lambda for default, and the limitations Q on its sale. The model is thus named GE(A,lambda,Q). Each asset is regarded as a pool of promises. Different sellers will often exercise their default options differently, while each buyer of an asset receives the same pro rata share of all deliveries. This model of assets represents for example the securitized mortgage market and the securitized credit card market. Given any collection of assets, we prove that equilibrium exists under conditions similar to those necessary to guarantee the existence of GEI equilibrium. We argue that default is thus reasonably modeled as an equilibrium phenomenon. Moreover, we show that more lenient lambda which encourage default may be Pareto improving because they allow for better risk spreading. Our definition of equilibrium includes a condition on expected deliveries for untraded assets that is similar to the trembling hand refinements used in game theory. Using this condition, we argue that the possibility of default is an important factor in explaining which assets are traded in equilibrium. Asset promises, default penalties, and quantity constraints can all be thought of as determined endogenously by the forces of supply and demand. Our model encompasses a broad range of moral hazard, adverse selection, and signalling phenomena (including the Akerlof lemons model and Rothschild-Stiglitz insurance model) in a general equilibrium framework. Many authors (including Akerlof , Rothschild and Stiglitz) have suggested that equilibrium may not exist in the presence of adverse selection. But our existence theorem shows that it must. The problem is the inefficiency of the resulting equilibrium, not its nonexistence. The power of perfect competition simplifies many of the complications attending the finite player, game theoretic analyses of the same topics. The Modigliani-Miller theorem typically fails to hold when there is the possibility that the firm or one of its investors might default.
[Expression of vascular endothelial growth factor in U937 foam cells and the inhibitory effect of drugs].

AIM To study the expression of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) in U937 foam cells and the inhibitory effect of salvianolic acid B and Ginkgo biloba extract in vitro. METHODS U937 cells were incubated with 80 mg.L-1 oxidized low density lipoprotein (OX-LDL) for 48 h and a macrophage-derived foam cell model was established. The VEGF concentration in the media was determined by ELISA; the VEGF protein expression in cells was measured with immunohistochemistry; the VEGF mRNA level in cells was measured by in situ hybridization; the positive ratio detected by a morphometrical analysis system was used as the amount of the VEGF protein expression and the mRNA level. RESULTS After U937 cells were incubated with OX-LDL, VEGF expression level increased greatly both in the cells and in the media. Salvianolic acid B and Ginkgo biloba extract were shown to remarkably inhibit the increase of VEGF. After treated with 10 micrograms/L-1 salvianolic acid B and Ginkgo biloba extract, the VEGF protein concentration in the media and positive ratio in the cells decreased compared with foam cells. After treated with 10 micrograms.L-1 salvianolic acid B and 100 micrograms.L-1 Ginkgo biloba extract, the VEGF mRNA level decreased measured by in situ hybridization. CONCLUSION A high VEGF expression level was determined in U937 foam cells. Salvianolic acid B and Ginkgo biloba extract were found to inhibit VEGF expression significantly in U937 foam cells in vitro.
Design of Public Voluntary Environmental Programs for Nitrate Pollution in Agriculture: An Evolutionary Approach

The joint evolution of participation and compliance of farmers in a public VA, along with the evolution of the pollution stock is examined. Replica- tor dynamics, modeling participation and compliance, are combined with pollution stock dynamics. Fast-slow selection dynamics are used to capture the fact that distinct decisions to participate in and comply with the public VA evolve in di¤erent time scales. Conditions for evolutionary equilibria and evolutionary stable strategies regarding participation and compliance are derived. Depending on the structure of the legislation and auditing probability, polymorphic equilibria indicating partial participation and par- tial compliance or monomorphic equilibria of full (or non) compliance could be the outcome of the evolutionary processes. Multiple equilibria and irre- versibilities are possible, while convergence to evolutionary equilibria could be monotonic or oscillating. Full participation and compliance can be at- tained if the regulator is pre-committed to certain legislation and inspection probabilities, or by appropriate choices of the legislatively set emission level and the non-compliance …ne. Budget constraints associated with monitoring costs seem to produce polymorphic equilibria.
Analysis of Hard-Decision and Soft-Data Fusion Schemes for Cooperative Spectrum Sensing in Rayleigh Fading Channel

This paper investigates the performance of hard-decision and soft-data fusion schemes for a cooperative spectrum sensing (CSS) in noisy-Rayleigh faded channel. Hard-decision fusion operations on the local binary decisions and soft-data fusion operations on the energy values obtained from the different cognitive radio (CR) users are performed at fusion center (FC)and a final decision on the status of a primary user (PU) is made. More precisely, the performance of CSS with various hard-decision fusion schemes (OR-rule, AND-rule, and majority-rule) and soft-data fusion schemes (square law selection (SLS), maximal ratio combining (MRC), square law combining (SLC), and selection combining (SC)) is analyzed in this work. Towardsthat, novel and closed-form analytic expressions are derived for probability of detection under all soft schemes in Rayleigh fading channel. A comparative performance between hard-decision and soft-data fusion schemes has been illustrated for different network parameters: time-band width product, average sensingchannel signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), and detection threshold. The optimal detection thresholds for which minimum total error rate is obtained for both soft and hard schemes are also indicated.
Test-Execution-Based Reliability Measurement and Modeling for Large Commercial Software

The paper studies practical reliability measurement and modeling for large commercial software systems based on test execution data collected during system testing. The application environment and the goals of reliability assessment were analyzed to identify appropriate measurement data. Various reliability growth models were used on failure data normalized by test case executions to track testing progress and provide reliability assessment. Practical problems in data collection, reliability measurement and modeling, and modeling result analysis were also examined. The results demonstrated the feasibility of reliability measurement in a large commercial software development environment and provided a practical comparison of various reliability measurements and models under such an environment. >