Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The adoption and use of target costing in Dutch listed firms

This paper reports the results of a survey study among Dutch listed manufacturing companies on the adoption and use of costing practices that resemble the Japanese target costing concepts. Twenty-two of thirty-two responding firms claimed to use costing practices similar to target costing. The distribution of adoption over industries confirmed the expectation that assembling firms show a relatively high adoption of target costing. The adoption of these techniques appears to be related to an intense competitive and unpredictable enviromnent. Similar to target costing studies in Japan and Germany, the main objective for adopting these techniques in the sample is to reduce costs. The product development and design departments appear to be leading in the target cost management process, while the accounting department is only moderately involved. Finally, the most frequently adopted organizational form for target cost management are team structures, in which multiple functions combine knowledge and capabilities in the product development process.
Making Engagement Worth It: Measuring and Managing How Entrepreneurs Exchange Value with Their Community

While business leaders use the tools of Customer Value Management to understand and improve the value they offer to customers, the potential for these tools to explain and improve decision-making expands beyond the business–customer relationship. This is because the cornerstone framework of measuring and improving a value exchange applies to all sorts of decisions. We present a case study in which Customer Value Management techniques were used to analyze the value of a particular community through the perspective of entrepreneurs themselves, allowing us to uncover how entrepreneurs decide whether it is ‘worth it’ to start a business in their community. We also demonstrate a strong link between the value perceived by entrepreneurs and their loyalty to the community, showing ‘how good is good’ when it comes to enticing entrepreneurs to engage with and promote the local startup ecosystem. This case study offers a framework that can be used by community leaders to manage the value exchange with members and constituents in the community. Once leaders better understand the value proposition that drives decisions among community members, they are empowered to maximize that value by focusing scarce resources on the greatest opportunities for improvement. By doing this, they help foster genuine loyalty and deeper engagement among community members, which helps generate growth and development that creates even more value for the region.
Secure and Robust Identification via Classical-Quantum Channels

We study the identification capacity of classical-quantum channels (“cq-channels”), under channel uncertainty and privacy constraints. To be precise, we consider first compound memoryless cq-channels and determine their identification capacity; then we add an eavesdropper, considering compound memoryless wiretap cqq-channels, and determine their secret identification capacity. In the first case (without privacy), we find the identification capacity always equal to the transmission capacity. In the second case, we find a dichotomy: either the secrecy capacity (also known as private capacity) of the channel is zero, and then also the secrecy identification capacity is zero, or the secrecy capacity is positive and then the secrecy identification capacity equals the transmission capacity of the main channel without the wiretapper. We perform the same analysis for the case of arbitrarily varying wiretap cqq-channels (cqq-AVWC), with analogous findings, and make several observations regarding the continuity and super-additivity of the identification capacity in the latter case.
Effect of time in hardness test on artificially demineralized human dental enamel

A cross-sectional microhardness (CSMH) test was carried out in human dental enamel exposed to a demineralizing solution in order to evaluate two different times of indentation in sound tissue and artificially induced caries. Twenty caries-free extracted human molars had one of their smooth surfaces sectioned and the enamel surface was isolated with nail polish except for an area of 6 mm 2 . These specimens were submitted to artificially induced enamel caries on a lactate buffer containing 0.1 ppm fluoride (F) during 28 days. All specimens were bisected to create groups A and B in which CSMH test was performed employing a Knoop indenter with a 25 g load for 5 or 10 s, respectively. Student’s paired t-test (p<0.05) was used to determine statistically significant differences between groups A and B in 7 depths. There were no significant differences between any of the analyzed depths. Since the present experiment showed no significant difference when comparing indentations made with a 25 g load during either 5 or 10 s in different depths, this method can be used with either one of the time intervals tested without compromising a CSMH test on artificially demineralized human enamel.
Determinants of trust in a service provider: the moderating role of length of relationship

Trust is a key factor in the establishment of long‐term relationships between service representatives and their customers. Prior research has documented that both “person‐related” (e.g. empathy, politeness and customer/service representative similarity) and “offer‐related” (customization, competence, reliability and promptness) service representative characteristics have an impact on trust. However, the relative importance of these characteristics, and in some cases the direction of their relationships with trust, has varied across studies. In this paper, we posit a contingency model of trust, suggesting that the effects of the above variables on trust are moderated by length of the customer/service provider relationship. Our model is tested in a business‐to‐business context by means of a mail survey involving 677 small business owners. The small business owners provided data about their relationships with their insurance industry service providers. Our results demonstrate how service representatives and firms can work toward the establishment of trust with their clients under varying market conditions.
Research, Knowledge Spillovers and Innovation Evidence from the Italian Manufacturing Sector ∗

In order to assess the relationship between internal and external innovative inputs and innovative output at firm level, a knowledge production function is estimated for a representative sample of Italian manufacturing firms over the period 1998-2003. To account for endogeneity of RD knowledge diffusion in the regional space positively impacts on the probability to innovate of the recipient firm only if the latter has an appropriate endowment of human capital.
Vertebral fractures in patients with rheumatoid arthritis treated with corticosteroids.

OBJECTIVES To examine the relationship between roentgenological deformities of the vertebral column and clinical manifestations of vertebral fractures in patients with RA, treated with glucocorticosteroids (Cs). METHODS In all outpatients of Utrecht University Hospital with RA, who were currently using Cs (n = 52), roentgenograms of the thoracic and lumbar vertebral column were taken. Roentgenological deformities were scored à vue using the Kleerekoper score, and quantitatively using the Heidelberg and Utrecht scoring methods. Clinical manifestation of a vertebral fracture was defined as a vertebral deformity leading to prescription of therapy: bedrest and/or analgesics. Clinical manifestations of fractures were also recorded in a control group of 55 RA patients not on Cs, matched for age and gender. RESULTS The prevalence of vertebral deformities in the Cs-treated RA patients, assessed with the Kleerekoper score, was 58% (30 of 52 patients). In 7 of the Cs-treated patients clinical manifestations of a vertebral fracture were present, versus 1 in the control group (p = 0.03). No significant correlation between the 3 deformity scores and the cumulative dose of Cs was found. No (inverse) correlation between serum osteocalcin and the daily dosage of prednisone was found. CONCLUSION Corticosteroids in active RA are associated with fractures, even when low doses are used: the prevalence of vertebral deformities (58%) in the Cs-treated RA patients was much higher than the frequency in postmenopausal women of the same age reported in the literature, and the reported incidence of clinically manifestations of vertebral fractures was higher in the Cs-treated RA patients than in the control group of RA-patients not treated with Cs.
Mediating Role of Knowledge Management in Effect of Management Accounting Practices on Firm Performance

While adopting knowledge management can improve firm performance, it is determined by implementing level of management accounting practices. Furthermore, it plays mediating role in the relationship between implementing management accounting practices and firm performance. This paper employs path analysis to investigate causal relationships among the variables. Then it uses procedures suggested by Sobel (1982) to examine the mediation of adopting knowledge management. Moreover, this paper utilizes techniques modified from analytic hierarchy process introduced by Saaty (1980) to rank contributing levels of adopting knowledge management and implementing management accounting practices to improved firm performance. The findings offer evidence on relationships among the variables as well as mediating role of adopting knowledge management in effect of implementing management accounting practices on firm performance. This paper also reveals that adopting knowledge management is more important to improved firm performance than implementing management accounting practices. This paper is useful to management researchers as well as business managers.
Public Equity and Audit Pricing in the U.S.

To what degree are audit fees for U.S. firms with publicly traded equity higher than fees for otherwise similar firms with private equity? The answer is potentially important for evaluating regulatory regime design efficiency and for understanding audit demand and production economics. For U.S. firms with publicly-traded debt, we hold constant the regulatory regime, including mandated issuer reporting and auditor responsibilities. We vary equity ownership and thus public securities market contextual factors, including any related public firm audit fees from increased audit effort to reduce audit litigation risk and/or pure litigation risk premium (litigation channel effects). In cross-section, we find that audit fees for public equity firms are 20% to 22% higher than fees for otherwise similar private equity firms. Time-series comparisons for firms that change ownership status yield larger percentage fee increases (decreases) for those going public (private). Results are consistent with litigation channel effects giving rise to substantial incremental audit fees for U.S. firms with public equity ownership.
Incidental captures of sea turtles by swordfish and albacore longlines in the Ionian sea

Incidental catches in pelagic longline fishing pose a serious threat to sea turtle populations throughout the world’s seas and oceans. In this work, carried out in the framework of the EC-DG-Fisheries 98/008 project, information on sea turtle catch rates from swordfish and albacore longline fishing activities observed in Italian waters off the Ionian Sea during 1999 and 2000, are reported. In addition, biometric data, health status, and tagging return rate of sea turtles captured are provided. A total of 200 sea turtles were caught (198 loggerhead turtles and 2 green turtles), comprising 0.5–15.7% of the total catch in number of individuals. The estimates of the sea turtles caught by the total fishing effort of both longlines in the whole study area were 1084 specimens in 1999 (95% Cl=667–1502) and 4447 specimens in 2000 (95% Cl=3189–5705). Although all sea turtles were released alive, nearly half of them had hooks that could not be removed and remained deeply embedded in the digestive tract.
The Product Well Placed

ABSTRACT The relative impact of placement and audience characteristics on product placement recall is assessed with survey data from 3,532 individuals who viewed a DVD movie rental the previous day. Eleven American movies were selected and the executional characteristics of 88 placements therein were coded. Viewing the movie on a large screen emerged as the most important factor on recall: in addition to its main effect, it increases the positive impact of visual characteristics of the placement. Another key finding is the detrimental effect of multiple simultaneous placements: not only do they reduce placement recall, they eliminate the otherwise positive impact of a placement's level of plot integration and auditory mention.
Development and Application of Integrated Services in Metropolitan Area Transmission Network

With the high-speed development of contemporary communication industry, Metropolitan networks is required to be a multi-Service platform for transmission. This article introduces the application of two key technologies, PTN and MSTP from the point of application, and the development process and construction program of it's metropolitan transmission network with the example of a prefecture.
Measuring the Cost of Regulatory Funding Ratio Constraints for Defined Benefit Pension Plans

As a risk management tool, pension regulators require pension funds to maintain their short term and nominal funding ratios higher than a certain level with a high probability, while pension funds typically have long term and real ambitions. This thesis aims at measuring the effects of such regulatory constraints on pension funds’ investment decisions. We address the problem in a complete market where equity risk, stochastic interest rate and stochastic inflation are present. We find that regulatory constraints significantly limit pension funds’ portfolio choice. When the funding ratio constraints are binding, pension funds are forced to hold more nominal assets and less equity than without constraints, thus leading to utility losses. The utility losses are more significant when constraints are short term as opposed to long term and when investors are less risk averse. When stochastic interest rate and stochastic inflation is present, the constrained investors suffer from much less utility losses compared to the myopic portfolio case because of the demand to hedge the liabilities. Another important finding of our paper is that when the current funding ratio is close to the regulatory “floor”, investors with different risk aversion hold similar portfolios since they are obliged to meet the constraints and have to put their own risk appetite aside in such situations. Chapter
The Bacillus subtilis addAB genes are fully functional in Escherichia coli

An Escherichia coli recBCD deletion mutant was transformed with plasmids containing the Bacillus subtilis add genes. The transformants had relatively high ATP‐dependent exonuclease‐ and ATP‐dependent helicase activities, and their viability, the ability to repair u.v. ‐damaged DNA and the recombination in conjugation were nearly completely restored. The B. subtilis Add enzyme did not show Chi‐activity in phage lambda recombination. The individual B. subtilis Add proteins were not able to form an enzymatically active complex with the E. coli RecB,C,D proteins, and they could not complement the recB,C,D deficiency.
RKIP Contributes to IFN-γ Synthesis by CD8+ T Cells after Serial TCR Triggering in Systemic Inflammatory Response Syndrome

Systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS) is associated with the development of severe medical complications, including progression to multiple organ dysfunction syndrome and even death. To date, only marginal improvements in terms of therapeutic options have been established for patients affected by SIRS. Raf kinase inhibitor protein (RKIP) is a regulator of MAPK and NF-κB signaling cascades, which are both critical for production of the proinflammatory cytokines responsible for SIRS initiation. By testing a T cell–dependent mouse model of SIRS that utilizes staphylococcal enterotoxin A specific for Vβ3+ T cells, we show that RKIP is necessary for the exaggerated production of IFN-γ from SIRS splenocytes. This effect was not due to differences in T cell expansion, IL-10 production, or APC priming, but rather a cell-intrinsic defect lying downstream of the TCR in staphylococcal enterotoxin A–specific CD8+ T cells. Importantly, mice lacking RKIP were still able to proliferate, survive, and contribute to cytokine production in response to pathogen associated molecular pattern-TLR–mediated stimuli, despite the TCR-dependent defects seen in our SIRS model. Finally, by blocking RKIP in wild-type SIRS splenocytes, the IFN-γ response by CD8+ Vβ3+ T cells was significantly diminished. These data suggest that RKIP may be a potential therapeutic target in SIRS by curbing effector cytokine production from CD8+ T cells during serial TCR triggering.
On the information content of advertising

The relative information value of direct response to that of “general” advertising was assessed through a content analysis of 8,457 full-page magazine advertisements. Resnik and Stern's 14-item information scale (22) was used to determine the amount and type of information in the magazine ads analyzed. The results indicate that as one moves from lower levels of information content to higher levels, the proportion of direct response ads shifts from significantly smaller to significantly larger proportions when compared to the “general” ads. Additionally, a significantly higher proportion of direct response ads exhibited 8 out of 14 of the information cues measured. Overall, the direct response ads analyzed outperformed the “general” ads in amount of and most types of information studied.
O C ] 2 M ay 2 01 7 1 Decentralized demand response for temperature-constrained appliances

The evolution of the power grid towards the socalled Smart Grid, where information technologies help improve the efficiency of electricity production, distribution and consumption, allows to use the fine-grained control brought by the Internet of Things capabilities to perform distributed demand response when requested by the grid. In this paper, we study the demand-response potential of coordinated large numbers of appliances which have to maintain some temperature within a fixed range through the ON/OFF functioning of a temperature modifier. We introduce a mathematical model and methods to coordinate appliances with given requirements, in order to offer a global energy demand reduction for a desirable duration while still satisfying the temperature constraints, and with limited communication overhead. We quantify the maximum power reduction that can be attained, as a function of the reduction duration asked by the grid.
The impact of rebranding on club member relationships

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the response of members to a rebranding strategy implemented by a member‐owned organisation. More specifically, the authors examine the impact of rebranding awareness and attitude towards rebranding on the members' perceived value of their memberships, their satisfaction and, subsequently, their commitment to the organisation.Design/methodology/approach – The research employed in‐depth interviews followed by a quantitative survey. Data were collected online from 264 current members of Dogs SA and data analysis employed SEM principles.Findings – Findings demonstrate that the members' awareness of a rebranding attempt can significantly enhance perceived membership value, leading to increased levels of satisfaction. With both perceived value and satisfaction antecedents of membership commitment, the importance of such improvements cannot be underestimated.Research limitations/implications – Despite a high response rate of 88 per cent, only ten per cent of th.
The Causes Of Species Richness Patterns Across Space, Time, And Clades And The Role Of “Ecological Limits”

A major goal of research in ecology and evolution is to explain why species richness varies across habitats, regions, and clades. Recent reviews have argued that species richness patterns among regions and clades may be explained by “ecological limits” on diversity over time, which are said to offer an alternative explanation to those invoking speciation and extinction (diversification) and time. Further, it has been proposed that this hypothesis is best supported by failure to find a positive relationship between time (e.g., clade age) and species richness. Here, I critically review the evidence for these claims, and propose how we might better study the ecological and evolutionary origins of species richness patterns. In fact, ecological limits can only influence species richness in clades by influencing speciation and extinction, and so this new “alternative paradigm” is simply one facet of the traditional idea that ecology influences diversification. The only direct evidence for strict ecological limits on richness (i.e., constant diversity over time) is from the fossil record, but many studies cited as supporting this pattern do not, and there is evidence for increasing richness over time. Negative evidence for a relationship between clade age and richness among extant clades is not positive evidence for constant diversity over time, and many recent analyses finding no age-diversity relationship were biased to reach this conclusion. More comprehensive analyses strongly support a positive age-richness relationship. There is abundant evidence that both time and ecological influences on diversification rates are important drivers of both large-scale and small-scale species richness patterns. The major challenge for future studies is to understand the ecological and evolutionary mechanisms underpinning the relationships between time, dispersal, diversification, and species richness patterns.
An efficient metric of setup time for pulsed flip-flops based on output transition time

In this paper, a new metric to compute the setup time of pulse-triggered flip-flops (pulsed-FFs) is proposed. With the emergence of new technologies, digital circuits are pushing towards high-speed and energy efficient modes. Setup time is an essential aspect of the timing constraints of a synchronous digital circuit. It is a key parameter to determine the minimum clock cycle, which gives the timing and energy performances of circuits. Due to their small input-to-output delay (D-to-Q), pulsed-FFs are key candidate to be the determinant sequential cell of high-speed but also energy efficient circuits. This paper shows that, for pulsed-FFs, the conventional setup time metric based on minimum data-to-output delay is loosely extracted during automatic standard-cell characterization. Thereby, we propose a new metric for characterizing the setup time of pulsed-FFs based on the output transition time. Quantitative and qualitative advantages of the proposed metric are validated with SPICE simulations in 28nm fully-depleted silicon on insulator (FDSOI) technology. The obtained gain motivates a potential integration into standard-cell characterization tools.