Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Wealth Impacts Arising from Hiring a Sustainability Officer

In recent decades practitioners and academics alike have been very attentive to corporate social responsibility (CSR). The recent expansion from “social” to “environmental” responsibility is reflected in intensified focus on “sustainability,” which now plays an important role in business and institutions (Flammer, 2011). This is supported by the research done by Accenture and United Nations Global Compact (UNGC). Our study investigates holding period return performance surrounding the hiring of a Sustainability Officer (SO), detecting significant subsequent increases in shareholder wealth.
The value of integrated logistics and finance services of third party logistics firms

The Integrated Logistics and Finance Service (ILFS), an innovative service developed by the alliance of Third Party Logistics (3PL) firm and financial institutions, offers finance and logistics solutions to optimise the availability of capital within a given budget-constrained supply chain. Comparing 3PL firm's Conventional Logistics Service (CLS), we inspect the value of ILFS for the budget-constrained supply chain. We show that under CLS the budget-constrained retailer could not apply for commercial loans successfully because of the asymmetric information between borrowers and lenders, while under ILFS the truth is opposite. We also show that a monopolistic finance market or competitive finance market under ILFS can create value for the budget-constrained supply chain. Furthermore, the competitive finance market under ILFS could decouple the operations and finance decisions of the budget-constrained retailer.
Communication technology in international business-to-business relationships

Purpose – This study aims to examine the antecedents and performance consequences of three types of communication technology (phone, e-mail and internet) in cross-border business-to-business relationships. Design/methodology/approach – Based on the proposed theoretical framework six hypotheses are advanced and tested. The authors use regression analysis on data from a survey of American exporters combined with secondary data on emerging European markets. Findings – This research finds that relationship-level variables are better predictors of ICT use than country-level variables, and that ICT use impacts dyadic performance. More specifically, information exchange predicted all three communication modes, while the use of warnings predicted both inter-personal communication methods. From an institutional standpoint, the authors find that bureaucratic barriers predict both phone and e-mail communication. At the firm level, it is found that firm-level technological skills are a significant predictor for the u.
4-Aminoquinaldine monohydrate polymorphism: Prediction and impurity aided discovery of a difficult to access stable form.

Crystal structure prediction studies indicated the existence of an unknown high density monohydrate structure (Hy1B°) as global energy minimum for 4-aminoquinaldine (4-AQ). We thus performed an interdisciplinary experimental and computational study elucidating the crystal structures, solid form inter-relationships, kinetic and thermodynamic stabilities of the stable anhydrate (AH I°), the kinetic monohydrate (Hy1A ) and this novel monohydrate polymorph (Hy1B°) of 4-AQ. The crystal structure of Hy1B° was determined by combining laboratory powder X-ray diffraction data and ab initio calculations. Dehydration studies with differential scanning calorimetry and solubility measurements confirmed the result of the lattice energy calculations, which identified Hy1B° as the thermodynamically most stable hydrate form. At 25 °C the equilibrium of the 4-AQ hydrate/anhydrate system was observed at an aw (water activity) of 0.14. The finding of Hy1B° was complicated by the fact that the metastable but kinetically stable Hy1A shows a higher nucleation and growth rate. The presence of an impurity in an available 4-AQ sample facilitated the nucleation of Hy1B°, whose crystallisation is favored under hydrothermal conditions. The value of combining experimental with theoretical studies in hydrate screening and characterisation, as well as the reasons for hydrate formation in 4-AQ, are discussed.
Current Status and Future Development of Global Tea Production and Tea Products

Tea is globally one of the most popular and lowest cost beverages, next only to water. Tea is consumed by a wide range of age groups in all levels of society. More than three billion cups of tea are consumed daily worldwide. Tea is considered to be a part of the huge beverage market, not to be seen in isolation just as a ‘commodity’. Tea active ingredients are of interest to functional foods markets. Africa, South America, the Near East and especially the Asian region produces a varied range of teas, this, together with a reputation in the international markets for high quality, has resulted in Asia enjoying a share of every importing market in the world. Huge populations in Asia, Middle East, Africa, UK, EU, and countries of the CIS consume tea regularly and throughout the day. The main tea producing countries globally are: in Africa: Burundi, Kenya, Malawi, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, Zimbabwe and others. In South America: Argentina, Brazil and others; In Near East: Iran and Turkey. In Asia: Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Viet Nam and others. In addition, the Russian Federation and CIS countries produce quantities of tea. Numerous types of teas are produced in the countries listed above. In China, for example, the country with the largest planting of tea and second in output, green tea is around half of the total export, black tea around one third and other teas one fifth. Depending on the manufacturing technique it may be described as green, black, oolong, white, yellow and even compressed tea. Many other teas and tea products continue to be developed by those active tea producing and consuming countries. The Intergovernmental Group on Tea monitors market conditions and provides an update of potential market prospects for tea over the medium term. The data in this paper is compiled essentially from their published data (FAO 2008) which examines the current situation and medium term prospects for production, consumption and trade of tea, and its impact on the world tea market. In summary, tea is considered as having a share of the global beverage market, a highly competitive field. A wide range of tea products continue to be developed, through product and process development for added-value, as market shares become more sophisticated and competitive. The tea industry must rise to these challenges, facing the future with confidence.
Enzyme systems from the thermophilic fungusTalaromyces emersonii for sugar beet bioconversion

The thermostable enzyme systems produced by the thermophilic ascomycete fungus Talaromyces emersonii cultivated on various carbon sources were investigated for the production of high value products from sugar beet. A broad range of enzymatic activities relevant to cellulose, hemicellulose, and pectin hydrolysis were identified in T. emersonii culture filtrates. In hydrolysis experiments conducted at 71ºC, the enzyme cocktails generated sugar-rich syrups from untreated sugar beet plants. Maximal levels of sugar beet hydrolysis were obtained with T. emersonii enzyme cocktails induced with sorghum/ beet pulp (68%) and sugar beet plant (56%). The principle monosaccharides released were glucose, xylose, and arabinose with minor amounts of galactose and galacturonic acid. Northern analysis of RNA isolated from T. emersonii when sugar beet plants were used as the sole carbon inducing source showed that genes required for polysaccharide hydrolysis and five carbon monosaccharide metabolism were co-ordinately expressed.
Performance Level of Dhaka Stock Market: A Quantitative Analysis

The stakeholders of the stock markets in Bangladesh are trying their best to make better infrastructure of stock markets in comparison to other stock-markets in Asian nations. To bring the stock market in an operational and informational order, two stock markets have been set up in Bangladesh of which the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) is one of them. Consequently, the traders of the markets are rolling fund, stakeholders and other philanthropist organizations are using data for estimating indices such as price per share, price earning ratio, current market price of the share etc. mainly to know whether the markets are running efficiently. The data on these indicators of 1 st quarter of the financial years 2004, 2005, 2006 & 2007 have been collected to test the EMH (Efficient Market Hypothesis) because this hypothesis states that market prices instantaneously or fully reflect all relevant available information. It means that the market prices of the securities will always equal their intrinsic values. Thus, the hypothesis holds that the share price movements are random and systematic. According to this hypothesis, it is possible to earn normal returns by randomly choosing securities at a given risk level. This research attempts to test whether the series on the industry such as bank, insurance, service, food and allied and textile really follow the behavior of normal distribution. The different descriptive statistics, non-parametric estimators and ARCH models are used for testing the hypotheses. The results may be important to the planners, security analysts, investors and security exchange regulatory bodies for improving the market status in this connection. The estimated results are found very useful.
Basement membrane protein nidogen‐1 shapes hippocampal synaptic plasticity and excitability

The basement membrane (BM) is a specialized form of extracellular matrix (ECM) underlying epithelia and endothelia and surrounding many types of mesenchymal cells. Nidogen, along with collagen IV and laminin, is a major component of BMs. Although certain ECM proteins such as laminin or reelin influence neuronal function via interactions with cell‐surface receptors such as integrins, behavioral neurological impairments due to deficits of BM components have been recognized only recently. Here, alterations in neuronal network function underlying these behavioral changes are revealed. Using nidogen‐1 knockout mice, with or without additional heterozygous nidogen‐2 knockout (NID1−/−/NID2+/+ or NID1−/−/NID2±), we demonstrate that nidogen is essential for normal neuronal network excitability and plasticity. In nidogen‐1 knockouts, seizurelike behavior occurs, and epileptiform spiking was seen in hippocampal in vivo EEG recordings. In vitro, hippocampal field potential recordings revealed that lack of nidogen‐1, while not causing conspicuous morphological changes, led to the appearance of spontaneous and evoked epileptiform activity, significant increase of the input/output ratio of synaptically evoked responses in CA1 and dentate gyrus, as well as of paired pulse accentuation, and loss of perforant‐path long‐term synaptic potentiation. Nidogen‐1 is thus essential for normal network excitability and plasticity. © 2009 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Classical conditioning of activities of salivary neurones in the cockroach

SUMMARY Secretion of saliva to aid swallowing and digestion is a basic physiological function found in many vertebrates and invertebrates. For mammals, classical conditioning of salivation in dogs was reported by Pavlov a century ago. However, conditioning of salivation or of related neural activities in non-mammalian species has not been reported. In many species of insects, salivation is regulated by salivary neurones. In this study, we found that salivary neurones of the cockroach Periplaneta americana exhibited a strong response to sucrose solution applied to the mouth and a weak response to odours applied to an antenna, and we studied the effect of conditioning on the activities of salivary neurones. After three sets of differential conditioning trials in which an odour was presented just before the presentation of sucrose solution and the other odour was presented alone, the response of salivary neurones to sucrose-associated odour significantly increased but that to the odour presented alone was unchanged. Backward pairing trials in which an odour was presented after the presentation of sucrose solution were not effective in achieving conditioning. Our study of the change in the level of saliva secretion in response to electrical stimulation of salivary neurones suggested that the magnitude of increase in odour response of salivary neurones by conditioning is sufficient to lead to an increased level of salivation. This study suggests classical conditioning of salivation in an insect.
Performance of Combined Support Vector Machine and Principal Component Analysis in recognizing infant cry with asphyxia

Combined Support Vector Machine (SVM) and Principal Component Analysis (PCA) was used to recognize the infant cries with asphyxia. SVM classifier based on features selected by the PCA was trained to differentiate between pathological and healthy cries. The PCA was applied to reduce dimensionality of the vectors that serve as inputs to the SVM. The performance of the SVM utilizing linear and RBF kernel was examined. Experimental results showed that SVM with RBF kernel yields good performance. The classification accuracy in classifying infant cry with asphyxia using the SVM-PCA is 95.86%.
Sustainability of Tourism in National Parks through the Timesharing Contract Models and "All Inclusive" Services

The paper deals with multidisciplinary (economic, socio-cultural and legal) analysis of tourism sustainability in national parks through the conclusion of the timesharing contract with special (all inclusive) services provided by national parks. National parks might apply the timesharing contract model for achieving tourism sustainability by building tourist objects (villas and apartments) on the outskirts of national parks (areas outside the protected zone) providing timesharing service users with services that national parks offer through their natural resources. Such a timesharing contract with “all inclusive” services should be primarily concluded by means of the right to use system, in which the owner or the proprietor would be a person in charge of the national park management and the user a person who takes advantage of the entire service package once in a year (from the timesharing accommodation to services such as photo-saphari, boat excursions, cycling trails…) or sub-leases his own facility and pertaining package of services. In such a process it is very important that the mentioned model pays attention to maintain the number of such guests on the annual level in a national park, while ad hoc guests remain, from the point of view of tourism sustainability, a variable, that is, an unstable factor. In certain situations even the fee simple system of timesharing could be an adequate model of national park management in terms of tourism sustainability. The results of the paper are replies to set working hypotheses from the economic, socio-cultural and legal aspects. The conclusion is that national parks at the global level need a model which will guarantee financial and tourism sustainability, while from the legal point of view, the timesharing contract in interaction with the special all inclusive service model is hypothetically an excellent variant of tourism sustainability in national parks, which is considered in greater detail in the paper.
An abnormal screening glucose challenge test in pregnancy predicts postpartum metabolic dysfunction, even when the antepartum oral glucose tolerance test is normal

Objective In pregnancy, a normal result on the oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) that follows an abnormal screening glucose challenge test (GCT) is considered a reassuring finding, requiring no further intervention. The obstetrical and metabolic implications of this presentation, however, have not been well studied. Thus, we sought to characterize the obstetrical and postpartum metabolic significance of an abnormal GCT in women with normal glucose tolerance (NGT) on antepartum OGTT.
Fitts' Reciprocal Tapping Task, a Measure of Motor Capacity?

Employing Fitts' reciprocal tapping task, the capacity of the motor system in bits processed/second was assessed across different ages. In Exp. I a comparison was made among Grades 1, 5, 9, and university females. Motor capacity and average movement time/tap were significantly lower for Grade 1 girls than the other three grades. In addition, within-subject variability and percentage error rate decreased with increasing grade level. These findings were discussed in comparison to other studies looking at motor capacity changes across ages. Exp. II was designed to study the changes in motor capacity throughout 25 days of practice by two 5-yr. -old children. Two different methods were used to calculate motor capacity. One method (Kay, 1962) which assessed motor capacity separately for each tapping condition led to the conclusion that capacity increased with practice. A second method (Fitts & Peterson, 1964) treating all tapping conditions together in a regression equation and measuring capacity as the reciprocal of the slope (1/b) showed capacity to decrease with practice for one subject and oscillate with practice for the other subject. The general conclusion drawn from the two experiments was that motor capacity, as assessed by Fitts' tapping task, is not an extremely useful measure. Consideration of movement time is usually just as informative.
Portfolio Manager Ownership and Fund Performance

This paper documents the range of portfolio manager ownership in the funds they manage and examines whether higher ownership is associated with improved future performance. Almost half of all managers have ownership stakes in their funds, though the absolute investment is modest. Future risk-adjusted performance is positively related to managerial ownership, with performance improving by about three basis points for each basis point of managerial ownership. These findings persist after controlling for various measures of fund board effectiveness. Fund manager ownership is higher in funds with better past performance, lower front-end loads, smaller size, longer managerial tenure, and funds affiliated with smaller families. It is also higher in funds with higher board member compensation and in equity funds relative to bond funds. Future performance is positively related to the component of ownership that can be predicted by other variables, as well as the unpredictable component. Our findings support the notion that managerial ownership has desirable incentive alignment attributes for mutual fund investors, and indicate that the disclosure of this information is useful in making portfolio allocation decisions.
Using service convenience to reduce perceived cost

Purpose – In this study, service convenience and service quality are used as proxy constructs of customer's and supplier contributions co‐create customer value. The purpose of this paper is to test the relationship between service convenience and customer satisfaction based on the direct and indirect paths via perceived service quality. It also explores the relative importance of various dimensions of service convenience.Design/methodology/approach – A structural equation model was developed and tested using data surveyed from domestic airlines customers in Vietnam. The operationalization of service convenience was based on five consumption stages.Findings – This study reinforces the view that customers use the judgment of their own contribution (via convenience) to evaluate the contribution of the supplier (via service quality), and the resources contributed by both sides will co‐create value for the customers.Research limitations/implications – Further research may test the role of service convenience i.
Abnormally short activated partial thromboplastin time values are associated with increased risk of recurrence of venous thromboembolism after oral anticoagulation withdrawal

This study prospectively evaluated the relationship between activated partial thromboplastin time (aPTT) and risk of venous thromboembolism (VTE) recurrence after oral anticoagulant (OA) withdrawal in patients with a previous unprovoked VTE event. Six hundred twenty‐eight patients (331 males; median age: 67 years) were followed after OA interruption (mean follow‐up = 22 months). Three to four weeks from OA discontinuation patients were given a complete thrombophilic work‐out, including aPTT (automated aPTT). Recurrent symptomatic VTE events (objectively documented) occurred in 71/628 (11·3%, 6·8/100 person‐years) patients. The VTE recurrence rate was 17·5% and 7·5% in patients with aPTT in the lower (ratio ≤0·90) and in the upper (ratio >1·05) quartiles. The recurrence risk was more than twofold higher in patients with ratio ≤0·90 versus those of the reference category [Relative risk (RR): 2·38 (95% confidence interval (CI): 1·18–4·78)]. As expected, the increase in recurrence risk disappeared after adjustment for factor VIII, IX and XI levels [RR: 1·74 (95%CI: 0·43–2·76)]. In contrast, the risk was persistently increased in patients with a ratio ≤0·90 [RR: 2·07 (95%CI: 1·02–4·18)] after adjustment for age, gender and d‐dimer level. The aPTT predictive value was independent of the presence of inherited thrombophilic alterations. In conclusion, abnormally short aPTT values are associated with a significantly increased risk of VTE recurrence.
Exploitation of Nucleic Acid Packaging Signals To Generate a Novel Influenza Virus-Based Vector Stably Expressing Two Foreign Genes

ABSTRACT At the final step in viral replication, the viral genome must be incorporated into progeny virions, yet the genomic regions required for this process are largely unknown in RNA viruses, including influenza virus. Recently, it was reported that both ends of the neuraminidase (NA) coding region are critically important for incorporation of this vRNA segment into influenza virions (Y. Fujii, H. Goto, T. Watanabe, T. Yoshida, and Y. Kawaoka, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 100:2002-2007, 2003). To determine the signals in the hemagglutinin (HA) vRNA required for its virion incorporation, we made a series of deletion constructs of this segment. Subsequent analysis showed that 9 nucleotides at the 3′ end of the coding region and 80 nucleotides at the 5′ end are sufficient for efficient virion incorporation of the HA vRNA. The utility of this information for stable expression of foreign genes in influenza viruses was assessed by generating a virus whose HA and NA vRNA coding regions were replaced with those of vesicular stomatitis virus glycoprotein (VSVG) and green fluorescent protein (GFP), respectively, while retaining virion incorporation signals for these segments. Despite the lack of HA and NA proteins, the resultant virus, which possessed only VSVG on the virion surface, was viable and produced GFP-expressing plaques in cells even after repeated passages, demonstrating that two foreign genes can be incorporated and maintained stably in influenza A virus. These findings could serve as a model for the construction of influenza A viruses designed to express and/or deliver foreign genes.