Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Measuring and Ranking Value Drivers

Analysis of the strength of value drivers is crucial to understand their influence in the process of free cash flow generation. The paper addresses the issue of value driver measurement and ranking. The research reveals that, value drivers have similar pattern across industries. Furthermore, it is found that the effect of operating cost and interest expenses, on free cash flow, is much more important than sales (revenue).
A problem with inclusion in learning disability research

People with severe learning disability are particularly difficult to include in the research process. As a result, researchers may be tempted to focus on those with learning disability who can be included. The problem is exacerbated in this field as the political agenda of inclusion and involvement is driven by those people with learning disability who are the higher functioning. To overcome this we should first detach the notion of consent from ideas about autonomy and think instead of it as a way to avoid wronging others; this fits the original historical use of consent in research. This allows us to think in terms of including participants to the best of their abilities rather than in terms of a threshold of autonomy. Researchers could then use imaginative ways to include the least able and to ensure they are not wronged in research or by exclusion from it.
Does Food Safety Information Impact U.S. Meat Demand

A theoretical model of consumer response to publicized food safety information on meat demand is developed with an empirical application to U.S. meat consumption. Evidence is found for the existence of pre-committed levels of consumption, seasonal factors, time trends, and contemporaneous own- and cross-commodity food safety concerns. The average demand response to food safety concerns is small, especially in comparison to price effects, and to previous estimates of health related issues. This small average effect masks periods of significantly larger responses corresponding with prominent food safety events, but these larger impacts are short-lived with no apparent food safety lagged effects on demand.
Effects of storage period and egg weight of Japanese quail eggs on hatching results (short communication)

study was undertaken to determine the effects of storage period and egg weight of hatching eggs of Japanese quails on fertility, hatchability results. Eggs were obtained 150 females quails, all at 15 weeks of age. A total of 1942 hatching eggs were separated into 3 groups as light-weight (9.50-10.50 g), medium-weight (10.51- 11.50 g), and heavy-weight (11.51-12.50 g). Based on storage period, eggs were divided into 5 groups as group 1 (0-3 days), group 2 (4-6 days), group 3 (7-9 days), group 4 (10-12 days), and group 5 (13-15 days). The influence of storage period on hatchability of fertile eggs and early, middle, and late period embryonic mortality rates was found significant (P<0.01). The effect of egg weight on fertility rate, hatchability of fertile eggs and early embryonic mortality was significant (P<0.05, P<0.01). The significant differences between storage period groups were observed in hatchability of fertile eggs. The differences between egg weight groups for fertility rate, hatchability of fertile eggs and early embryonic mortality was significantly higher in light weight group than the other egg weight groups. Results of this study concluded that a 12 day pre-incubation storage of hatching eggs of Japanese quails did not appreciably affect hatching parameters. Use of medium or heavy weight eggs for hatching may reduce early embryonic mortality rate.
Design and implementation of a new execution model for CAPE

CAPE, which stands for Checkpointing-Aided Parallel Execution, is an approach based on checkpoints to automatically translate and execute OpenMP programs on distributed-memory architectures. This approach demonstrates high-performance and completes compatibility with OpenMP on distributed-memory system. This paper presents a new design and implementation model for CAPE that improves the performance and makes CAPE even more flexible.
Péripartum cardiomyopathy: Causes, diagnosis, and treatment

Peripartum cardiomyopathy is a life-threatening condition of unknown cause that occurs in previously healthy women during the peripartum period. It is characterized by left ventricular dysfunction and symptoms of heart failure that can arise in the last trimester of pregnancy or up to 5 months after delivery. We review its possible causes and how to recognize and manage it.
Excitatory amino acids and multiple sclerosis: evidence from cerebrospinal fluid.

BACKGROUND Recent evidence suggests an altered glutamate homeostasis in the brain of patients with multiple sclerosis (MS), as seen in experimental models of MS. OBJECTIVE To test whether the excitotoxic insult contributes to the pathological process in MS by measuring glutamate and aspartate levels in the cerebrospinal fluid of MS patients and control individuals. PARTICIPANTS Twenty-five patients with the relapsing-remitting form of MS during a stable clinical phase, 30 patients with relapsing-remitting MS during relapse, and 25 patients with the secondary progressive form of MS were included in the study. Data were compared with those of 20 age-matched control subjects without diseases of the central and peripheral nervous systems. METHODS Glutamate and aspartate levels in the cerebrospinal fluid were measured by high-performance liquid chromatography. RESULTS Cerebrospinal fluid glutamate levels were significantly higher in patients assessed during relapse compared with those of the patients with relapsing-remitting MS examined during the stable clinical phase and the controls (P<.001). The levels of glutamate detected in patients with relapsing-remitting MS during the stable phase who had active lesions were significantly higher than in those without neuroradiological evidence of disease activity (P<.001). Significantly higher levels of glutamate were found in patients with secondary progressive MS with an increase of 1 or more points on the Expanded Disability Status Scale score compared with stable patients with secondary progressive MS and control subjects (P<.001). CONCLUSIONS Neurotoxic events occur in MS patients, and they can be responsible for oligodendrocyte and neuronal cell death in patients with this demyelinating disease. The manipulation of glutamate-altered homeostasis or antagonizing glutamate receptor-mediated excitotoxicity may have therapeutic implications in MS patients.
Cross-validation of generalised body composition equations with diverse young men and women: the Training Intervention and Genetics of Exercise Response (TIGER) Study

Generalised skinfold equations developed in the 1970s are commonly used to estimate laboratory-measured percentage fat (BF%). The equations were developed on predominately white individuals using Siri's two-component percentage fat equation (BF%-GEN). We cross-validated the Jackson–Pollock (JP) generalised equations with samples of young white, Hispanic and African–American men and women using dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) as the BF% referent criterion (BF%-DXA). The cross-sectional sample included 1129 women and men (aged 17–35 years). The correlations between BF%-GEN and BF%-DXA were 0·85 for women and 0·93 for men. Analysis of measurement error showed that BF%-GEN underestimated BF%-DXA of men and women by 1·3 and 3·0 %. General linear models (GLM) confirmed that BF%-GEN systematically underestimated BF%-DXA of Hispanic men and women, and overestimated BF%-DXA of African–American men. GLM were used to estimate BF%-DXA from the JP sum of skinfolds and to account for race/ethnic group bias. The fit statistics (R and standard error of the estimate; see) of the men's calibration model were: white, R 0·92, see 3·0 %; Hispanic, R 0·91, see 3·0 %; African–American, R 0·95, see 2·6 %. The women's statistics were: white and African–American, R 0·86, see 3·8 %; Hispanic, R 0·83, see 3·4 %. These results showed that BF%-GEN and BF%-DXA were highly correlated, but the error analyses documented that the generalised equations lacked accuracy when applied to these racially and ethnically diverse men and women. The inaccuracy was linked to the body composition and race/ethnic differences between these Training Intervention and Genetics of Exercise Response (TIGER) study subjects and the men and women used to develop the generalised equations in the 1970s and using BF%-DXA as the referent criterion.
Efficient Multi-modal Route Planning with Transfer Patterns

In these days, there is a big interest in route planning systems with different types of transportation. We study a way to efficiently compute optimal paths with real data in a multi-modal scenario considering walking, transit and car. Therefore, we implement Transfer Patterns, which is a state-of-the-art route planning approach [8]. This allows to obtain shortest paths queries within milliseconds. When using a Pareto-cost model various optimal paths are provided for the user. However, the high number of optimal solutions also includes a lot of unreasonable routes, although they are Pareto-optimal. To address this problem, we use a filtering procedure called Types aNd Thresholds (TNT) [10], which provides a both small and diverse set of reasonable optimal paths decreasing the number of transfer patterns and hence resulting in faster query times. To our knowledge this is the first work which realizes the combination of these two approaches (Transfer Patterns with TNT). We present an evaluation on query times of selected optimal paths, which shows different and reasonable route options with an average query time of 14 milliseconds for the Freiburg network.
Nicotinic Acetylcholine Receptors in the Mesolimbic Pathway: Primary Role of Ventral Tegmental Area α6β2* Receptors in Mediating Systemic Nicotine Effects on Dopamine Release, Locomotion, and Reinforcement

α6* nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs) are highly and selectively expressed by mesostriatal dopamine (DA) neurons. These neurons are thought to mediate several behavioral effects of nicotine, including locomotion, habit learning, and reinforcement. Yet the functional role of α6* nAChRs in midbrain DA neurons is mostly unknown. The aim of this study was to determine the composition and in vivo functional role of α6* nAChR in mesolimbic DA neurons of male rats. Immunoprecipitation and immunopurification techniques coupled with cell-specific lesions showed that the composition of α6* nAChR in the mesostriatal system is heterogeneous, with (non-α4)α6β2* being predominant in the mesolimbic pathway and α4α6β2* in the nigrostriatal pathway. We verified whether α6* receptors mediate the systemic effects of nicotine on the mesolimbic DA pathway by perfusing the selective antagonists α-conotoxin MII (CntxMII) (α3/α6β2* selective) or α-conotoxin PIA (CntxPIA) (α6β2* selective) into ventral tegmental area (VTA). The intra-VTA perfusion of CntxMII or CntxPIA markedly decreased systemic nicotine-elicited DA release in the nucleus accumbens and habituated locomotion; the intra-VTA perfusion of CntxMII also decreased the rate of nicotine infusion in the maintenance phase of nicotine, but not of food, self-administration. Overall, the results of these experiments show that the α6β2* nAChRs expressed in the VTA are necessary for the effects of systemic nicotine on DA neuron activity and DA-dependent behaviors such as locomotion and reinforcement, and suggest that α6β2*-selective compounds capable of crossing the blood–brain barrier may affect the addictive properties of nicotine and therefore be useful in the treatment of tobacco dependence.
The impact of customer relationship characteristics on customer switching behavior

Purpose – The purpose of this research is to show how relationship marketing has recognized the importance of building long‐term relationships in increasing firms' profitability and guaranteeing their future viability. Owing to the damaging effects that customer switching behavior could have on the development of successful relationships, understanding customers' switching decisions can represent a key step in the process of establishing, developing and maintaining successful relational exchanges. The current study aims to contribute in this direction by introducing the heterogeneity of customers in their relationship characteristics (depth, length and breadth) into the analysis of customers' propensity to switch service providers.Design/methodology/approach – The data set used to carry out this study has been obtained from a panel survey (Home Online) of technology users in the United Kingdom, and the proposed hypotheses are tested on the fixed‐line telephone sector using logistic regression. This techni.
Angiotensin, the hypovolaemia hormone, aggravates hypertension, obesity, diabetes and cancer

Dear Sir, The role of the renin–angiotensin system in cardiovascular disease is the subject of much clinical and fundamental research and great advances are being made as eloquently detailed in the review by Fyhrquist and Saijonmaa in the Journal of Internal Medicine [1]. However, angiotensin II (Ang II) has been implicated in other medical problems and may be a vital link in the pathology of not only cardiovascular but also that of obesity, diabetes and even cancer, thus suggesting a common aetiology. Blockade of the production of Ang II (inhibiting the converting enzyme or renin), or antagonists against the angiotensin type I receptor improve the pathology and decrease organ damage in hypertension [2–4], obesity [5], diabetes [6] and cancer [7, 8]. The precise role and mechanisms of action of Ang II in these problems are unknown and could occur in the initiation, development or maintenance of the pathology in each of these conditions.
The Role Of Qualitative Research In Productivity

Productivity is the relationship between efforts and assigned tasks (inputs) and results (outputs). The paper explores the role of qualitative research to understand the resources of efforts, strategic approaches, modern methods, BPR systems in order to increase productivity. Modern organizations need to identify some intelligent steps. The steps from market analysis, evaluating competitors and suggesting strategies are based on the qualitative research approaches. This particular research paper justifies that the qualitative research approach is the essential domain in formulating modern strategies to achieve excellence in organizational productivity. It is a prime requisite for today’s managers to adopt and inculcate such dimensions in their strategic decisions to take their companies to the climax. This research is an effort to develop a framework for increasing productivity through qualitative research approaches. The framework covers global trends in achieving productivity through the specific roles of qualitative research to bring companies to the right track in any competitive era. Two objectives are mainly focused in this paper: First objective of the paper is to identify the roles of qualitative research pertinent to the productivity including some of the contents of achieving organizational success which can give managers an edge to work. The second objective is to develop a framework which will help modern marketing and management gurus to know and beat the best in today’s fast changing and adopting technological era. This research is exploratory in nature and based on literature survey and structured & unstructured interviews from topic related expert people with in Pakistan and abroad. The studies relating to the success & failure stories of local & international companies, social and economic problems which are affecting business environment will also be touched upon in order to relate the role of qualitative research in ensuring the higher level productivity. Thus, this paper comprises on four main sections: First is about the introduction and concepts, Second relates to the role of the qualitative research in developing countries, Third is regarding the development of framework, Fourth is based on methodology and Fifth is followed by the conclusions, significance of the study and some important references.
Improved methods for axenic culture of Labyrinthula terrestris, causal agent of rapid blight of turfgrasses.

The genus Labyrinthula is a group of unicellular microorganisms with spindle-shaped cells that move in an ectoplasmic network. Most Labyrinthula species are saprotrophic and found in coastal marine or estuarine habitats; however, exceptions exist, such as Labyrinthula terrestris , a terrestrial plant pathogen that causes rapid blight on cool-season turfgrasses. Labyrinthula spp. can be grown in culture, which facilitates studies on their biology and pathology. However, axenic culture of L. terrestris has always been challenging. We modified the most commonly used Labyrinthula growth medium, serum seawater agar (SSA), and designed 2 media for improved pure culture, modified SSA (MSSA) and grass extract SSA (GESSA). A comparative assessment of these 2 media and basic SSA was made to measure the growth responses of 18 L. terrestris isolates. Results indicate that the average colony area was greatest on GESSA followed by MSSA, while cultures lived longest on MSSA followed by GESSA. We also suggest an improved long-term culture technique to maintain viable L. terrestris isolates for at least 2 years.
A Behavior Based Covert Channel within Anti-Virus Updates

This paper presents a new behavior based covert channel utilizing the database update mechanism of anti-virus software. It is highly covert due to unattended, frequent, automatic signature database update operations performed by the software. The design of the covert channel is described; its properties are discussed and demonstrated by a reference implementation. This paper uses these points to strengthen the inclusion of behavior-based covert channels within standard covert channel taxonomy.
Post Caesarean Surgical Site Infections

Surgical site infections add to the morbidity, mortality; delay recovery and add to the hospital stay and costs. These are avoidable in most circumstances by altering host, microbial and environmental factors in favour of the host. Caesarean section is a clean contaminated type of surgery where procedure- related chances of infection are less. Careful pre-, inter- and post-surgical prevention and management of associated risk factors, with stringent infection control practices in the operation room can help to achieve minimal infection rates in patients undergoing caesarean section deliveries.
Customer Orientation and Market Action

I. CUSTOMER ORIENTATION AND MARKET ACTION. 1. A Customer Orientation. 2. Market Action. 3. Understanding and Anticipating Customer Needs. II. THE PURCHASE AND CONSUMPTION EXPERIENCE. 4. The Customer Experience Model. 5. Customers in the Market Place. 6. Customer Information Processing. 7. Customer Choice. 8. Customer Satisfaction and Priority Setting. 9. Macro Satisfaction and Firm Strategy. III. IMPLEMENTATION AND QUALITY IMPROVEMENT. 10. Customer Orientation and the Design Function. 11. From Customer Satisfaction to Quality Improvement. Index.
Moderating Role of Entrepreneurial Orientation on the Relationship between Relationship Lending and Financial Performance of manufacturing SMEs in Kenya

The purpose of this study was to determine the moderating role of entrepreneurial orientation (EO) on the relationship between relationship lending and financial performance of manufacturing SMEs in Kenya. Relationship lending has gained a lot of interest worldwide as it is seen as an avenue to help bridge the information gap between SMEs and the banks thus ultimately helping SMEs access credit. Further, although credit is important to SMEs, entrepreneurial orientation (EO) is key as it determines the success or failure of SMEs. There is little research that has been done to determine if EO moderates the relationship between relationship lending and SME performance in Kenya. The study used a crossectional survey research design with the population being the 620 manufacturing SMEs involved in relationship lending arrangements with commercial banks in Kenya. Stratified random sampling was used to pick a sample of 160 from which the proprietors / CEOs of the respective companies filled the questionnaires. The main data collection instrument was a semi structured questionnaire. The hypotheses in this study were tested using structural equation modeling and hierarchical moderated multiple regression (MMR). The study found evidence that EO moderates the relationship between relationship lending and financial performance of manufacturing SMEs in Kenya. Further the study determined that relationship lending positively impacts on financial performance of SMEs. It also found Keywords: Relationship lending, Financial performance, Entrepreneurial Orientation, SMEs.
Attribution of the spatial pattern of CO2-forced sea level change to ocean surface flux changes

Climate models taking part in the coupled model intercomparison project phase 5 (CMIP5) all predict a global mean sea level rise for the 21st century. Yet the sea level change is not spatially uniform and differs among models. Here we evaluate the role of air–sea fluxes of heat, water and momentum (windstress) to find the spatial pattern associated to each of them as well as the spread they can account for. Using one AOGCM to which we apply the surface flux changes from other AOGCMs, we show that the heat flux and windstress changes dominate both the pattern and the spread, but taking the freshwater flux into account as well yields a sea level change pattern in better agreement with the CMIP5 ensemble mean. Differences among the CMIP5 control ocean temperature fields have a smaller impact on the sea level change pattern.
DOTA: A Large-Scale Dataset for Object Detection in Aerial Images

Object detection is an important and challenging problem in computer vision. Although the past decade has witnessed major advances in object detection in natural scenes, such successes have been slow to aerial imagery, not only because of the huge variation in the scale, orientation and shape of the object instances on the earth's surface, but also due to the scarcity of well-annotated datasets of objects in aerial scenes. To advance object detection research in Earth Vision, also known as Earth Observation and Remote Sensing, we introduce a large-scale Dataset for Object deTection in Aerial images (DOTA). To this end, we collect 2806 aerial images from different sensors and platforms. Each image is of the size about 4000 Ã— 4000 pixels and contains objects exhibiting a wide variety of scales, orientations, and shapes. These DOTA images are then annotated by experts in aerial image interpretation using 15 common object categories. The fully annotated DOTA images contains 188, 282 instances, each of which is labeled by an arbitrary (8 d.o.f.) quadrilateral. To build a baseline for object detection in Earth Vision, we evaluate state-of-the-art object detection algorithms on DOTA. Experiments demonstrate that DOTA well represents real Earth Vision applications and are quite challenging.
Methodology to measure the quality of service in healthcare information and telecommunications infrastructures

—The telecommunications industry in last decade went through the dramatic changes motivated by mobility, wireless technologies and miniaturization. The continuous increase in the complexity and the heterogeneity of healthcare telecommunications infrastructures requires reliable methodology to assess the quality of service provision. This article presents a cost eﬀective methodology to assess the user’s perception of quality of service provision utilizing the existing Staﬀordshire University network by adding a component of measurement to the existing model presented by Walker. This paper oﬀers a cost eﬀective approach to assess the QoS pro-vision within the University campus network, which could be easily adapted to any campus network or healthcare organization in the world.