Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Consumer Personality and Small Business Brand Loyalty

Competition for market share is fierce within a constantly transforming marketing environment (Morrish, 2011). The Information Age, technology, and the Internet have permanently altered consumer behavior (Terblanche, 2006). The belief that if a business is built consumers will purchase is a mindset of the past. Consumers can now research, customize, personalize, and purchase nearly everything online from their home computer, laptop, or mobile device (Meyer, 2007). Businesses must be proactive and clever to target and attract the consumer to their products or services. A carefully planned marketing strategy is the key to successful targeting (Walsh & Lipinski, 2009). Many small businesses are financially unable to fund dedicated in-house marketing departments or outside consulting firms to research, design, and plan long-term consistent targeted marketing campaigns (Walsh & Lipinski, 2009). Often small business owners rely solely on their intuition, independence, location, or luck to survive (Alstete, 2008). There are 22.8 million small businesses in the United States that are responsible for the majority of the nation’s workforce and over half of the gross national product (U.S. Census Bureau, 2010). Small businesses play an important role in the economic wellbeing of the nation (Walsh & Lipinski, 2009). The purpose of this study is to purport that targeting of customers using a consumer personality model will fuel small business survival via improved consumer brand loyalty.
Marketing logics, ambidexterity and influence

The duties of companies' chief marketing officers (CMOs) seem incompatible. They are expected to ensure that their company's market assets are properly exploited and recorded, while simultaneously enacting a proactive role in the company's business development. This study shows that about one in four CMOs have taken on this challenge, or adopted a marketing logic which could be referred to as ambidextrous. Furthermore, the study shows that this logic exerts a stronger impact on marketing's influence, compared to logics related to assuring brand consistency and measuring the performance of marketing processes. Three other ways to enact marketing management were also revealed, namely: an innovation; a communication; and a supporting marketing logic. This leads us to conclude that the influence of companies' marketing functions show up a heterogeneous picture within which the marketing logics of CMOs appear to be setting the tone.
Contribution of Quantitative EEG to the Diagnosis of Early Cognitive Impairment in Patients With Idiopathic Parkinson’s Disease

Cognitive dysfunction can emerge during the clinical course of Parkinson’s disease (PD) even beginning in early stages, which requires extended neuropsychological tests for diagnosis. There is need for rapid, feasible, and practical tests in clinical practice to diagnose and monitor the patients without causing any discomfort. We investigated the utility of quantitative analysis of digital EEG (qEEG) for diagnosing subtle cognitive impairment in PD patients without evident cognitive deficits (ie, “normal cognition”). We enrolled 45 patients with PD and age- matched 39 healthy controls in the study. All participants had Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) score greater than 25. qEEG analysis and extensive neuropsychological assessment battery were applied to all participants. Test scores for frontal executive functions, verbal memory processes, attention span, and visuospatial functions were significantly lower than healthy controls (P < .01). qEEG analysis revealed a significant increase in delta, theta, and beta frequencies, and decrease in alpha frequency band in cerebral bioelectrical activity in patient group. In addition, power spectral ratios ([alpha + beta] / [delta + theta]) in frontal, central, temporal, parietal, and occipital regions were significantly decreased in patients compared with the controls. The slowing in EEG was moderately correlated with MMSE scores (r = 0.411-0.593; P < .01). However, qEEG analysis and extensive neuropsychological assessment battery were only in weak correlation (r = 0.230-0.486; P < .05). In conclusion, qEEG analysis could increase the diagnostic power in detecting subtle cognitive impairment in PD patients without evident cognitive deficit, perhaps years before the clinical onset of dementia.
An Optimized Iris Recognition System for Multi-level Security Applications

This paper proposes an optimized iris recognition system which is suitable for client applications with several security levels. The innovations are the low dimensionality of the iris feature space and the hierarchical classification-based identification method; in this approach the biometric samples are processed in 3 stages to provide identification final decisions. The proposed design solution provides scalability, flexibility and a low computational complexity in biometric data processing. These benefits are important for costs optimization in security systems design.
Weather prediction by recurrent neural network dynamics

Most of the weather forecasting approaches attempted to forecast only single weather attribute at a time. Moreover, they did not consider generalised weather dynamics hidden in meteorological data. This paper presents a multiple weather attributes forecasting method for one-day-ahead prediction using NARX NN in local scale. In this approach, a case is represented in such a way that it can capture dynamic and chaotic behaviour of weather, case base is segmented to capture seasonality of weather and then NARX NN is used to map nonlinear relationships of the meteorological data as well as the dynamic behaviour of the system over a period of time. Forecasting performance of CBR methods and NARX NN is compared. From the empirical results, superiority of NARX NN method is established in forecasting of multiple weather attributes. For model training, validating and testing, collected historical records of weather station from 1980 to 2009 are used.
Periprocedural Myocardial Injury and Long-Term Clinical Outcome in Patients Undergoing Percutaneous Coronary Interventions of Coronary Chronic Total Occlusion.

BACKGROUND Periprocedural myocardial injury (PMI) after percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) might occur more frequently during challenging procedures such as PCI of chronic coronary total occlusion (CTO). The prognostic implication of PMI in CTO-PCI remains unclear. METHODS From January 2006 to September 2012, a total of 715 consecutive patients undergoing CTO-PCI were screened at three centers. Only patients with available pre-PCI and post-PCI troponin (cTn) were included (n = 442). PMI was defined as an elevation of cTn >5x the upper reference limit (URL), or a rise of cTn >20% if baseline values were elevated. RESULTS Patients were grouped into: (1) successful CTO-PCI and no-PMI (Group A; n = 195); (2) successful CTO-PCI with PMI (Group B; n = 133); failed CTO-PCI (Group C; n = 114). Occurrence of major adverse cardiovascular event (MACE) was assessed in 431 patients (97%), at a median follow-up of 25 months, and were significantly lower in patients successfully treated without PMI occurrence, while increased in cases of PMI or failed CTO-PCI (Group A, 9%; Group B, 15%; Group C, 28%; hazard ratio, 1.57 (95% confidence interval, 1.12-2.18); P<. 01). At Kaplan-Meier analysis, MACE-free survival was significantly higher in Group A (log-rank, 21.46; P<.001). CONCLUSION Successful CTO revascularization is still associated with a better long-term clinical outcome vs patients in whom it failed, regardless of the occurrence of PMI.
Thorium concentration in human tissues from two U.S. populations.

The concentrations of natural alpha-emitting isotopes of thorium (228Th, 230Th and 232Th) have been determined in 22 sets of human tissue samples obtained at autopsy from Grand Junction, CO and in 10 sets from Washington, DC. Tissues included lung, pulmonary lymph nodes, liver, kidney, bone, a few gonads, spleen and thyroid. Personal data on each individual's age, sex, smoking history and occupation were obtained whenever possible. The concentrations of 228Th, 230Th and 232Th were highest in lymph nodes for both populations with 2.6 and 5.1 pCi/kg of 228Th, 4.60 and 11.10 pCi/kg of 230Th, and 2.8 and 7.8 pCi/kg of 232Th in Washington, DC and Grand Junction, CO, respectively. The order of concentrations of all three isotopes in all other organs for both populations was as follows: (formula; see text) The data suggest that the non-mining residents who lived in the vicinity of uranium mine tailings do not have elevated 230Th concentrations in their lungs, when compared to the residents of Washington, DC who are not exposed to such tailings. However, 230Th concentration in bone of Grand Junction subjects was just significantly higher (at p less than 0.1) than that for Washington, DC subjects after suitable age adjustments. The data also suggest that 230Th is more available for accumulation in skeleton than would be supposed from its relative geochemical abundance.
Human-competitive machine invention by means of genetic programming

Abstract Genetic programming is a systematic method for getting computers to automatically solve problems. Genetic programming uses the Darwinian principle of natural selection and analogs of recombination (crossover), mutation, gene duplication, gene deletion, and certain mechanisms of developmental biology to progressively breed, over a series of many generations, an improved population of candidate solutions to a problem. This paper makes the points that genetic programming now routinely delivers human-competitive machine intelligence for problems of automated design and can serve as an automated invention machine.
Development of microsatellite markers for Crepis mollis (Asteraceae)1

Premise of the study: Polymorphic microsatellite markers were developed for the threatened species Crepis mollis (Asteraceae) to investigate population and conservation genetics. Methods and Results: Illumina sequencing was conducted on pooled genomic DNA from 10 individuals of two populations. Ten polymorphic and 10 monomorphic microsatellite loci with di-, tri-, tetra-, penta-, and hexanucleotide repeat motifs were developed and characterized in C. mollis. In the polymorphic markers, up to 17 alleles per locus were detected with an observed and expected heterozygosity ranging from 0.120 to 0.780 and 0.102 to 0.834, respectively. Furthermore, the polymorphic markers were tested for cross-amplification in three congeneric species (C. biennis, C. foetida, and C. sancta) and amplified in up to three loci. Conclusions: The markers developed in this study are the first microsatellites tested on C. mollis and will be useful for performing population and conservation genetic studies in this threatened species.
Intrinsic Interference: a New Type of Viral Interference

The hemadsorption-negative plaque test has revealed a new type of viral interference, termed intrinsic interference. Several unrelated types of noncytopathic viruses were shown to induce in infected host cells a state of interference unique in being directed solely against superinfection by Newcastle disease virus (NDV). The NDV-refractory state arises only in those individual cells of a population actually infected by the inducing virus, and presumably results from the action of a protein(s) coded for by the viral genome. Thus, intrinsic interference differs fundamentally from that mediated by an extrinsic protein detectable under conditions favoring resistance to a broad spectrum of viruses and characteristic of interference induced by interferon, the latter being coded for by the cell genome. Intrinsic interference is defined as a viral genome-induced cellular state of resistance to challenge by high multiplicities of NDV, coexistent with a state of susceptibility to a broad spectrum of other viruses, similarly tested at high multiplicities. The capacity to induce intrinsic interference was demonstrated with rubella virus, Sindbis virus (arbovirus, group A), West Nile virus (arbovirus, group B), poliovirus (MEF, type 2), the lactic dehydrogenase virus (Riley's agent), and an unidentified nonhemadsorbing, noncytopathic adventitious virus. A state of intrinsic interference was also observed in the V5 line of mouse cells carrying a murine leukemia virus, probably resulting from some heretofore unsuspected contaminating virus. The molecular basis for intrinsic interference is not known, but it appears to involve a step in the NDV growth cycle beyond that of viral attachment, entry, and eclipse.
Anthrax protective antigen administered by DNA vaccination to distinct subcellular locations potentiates humoral and cellular immune responses

Based on the hypothesis that immune outcome can be influenced by the form of antigen administered and its ability to access various antigen‐processing pathways, we targeted the 63 kDa fragment of protective antigen (PA) of Bacillus anthracis to various subcellular locations by DNA chimeras bearing a set of signal sequences. These targeting signals, namely, lysosome‐associated membrane protein 1 (LAMP1), tissue plasminogen activator (TPA) and ubiquitin, encoded various forms of PA viz. lysosomal, secreted and cytosolic, respectively. Examination of IgG subclass distribution arising as a result of DNA vaccination indicated a higher IgG1:IgG2a ratio whenever the groups were immunized with chimeras bearing TPA, LAMP1 signals alone or when combined together. Importantly, high end‐point titers of IgG antibodies were maintained until 24 wk. It was paralleled by high avidity toxin neutralizing antibodies (TNA) and effective cellular adaptive immunity in the systemic compartment. Anti‐PA and TNA titers of ≈105 and ≈103, respectively, provided protection to ≈90% of vaccinated animals in the group pTPA‐PA63‐LAMP1. A significant correlation was found between survival percentage and post‐challenge anti‐PA titers and TNA titers. Overall, immune kinetics pointed that differential processing through various compartments gave rise to qualitative differences in the immune response generated by various chimeras.
Recovery of intentional dynamic balance function after intravenous sedation with midazolam in young and elderly subjects

Background and objective: Computerized dynamic posturography using an intentional postural‐sway task can be used to assess body‐leaning ability and postural‐control ability to prevent falls. Falls are the leading cause of morbidity and mortality for the elderly. The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the recovery of intentional dynamic balance function after intravenous sedation with midazolam in elderly subjects in comparison with that in young subjects. Methods: Midazolam was administered in small, divided doses over 4–5 min until the Wilson sedation score reached three in 20 young and 18 elderly male volunteers. The dynamic limits of the stability test, in which subjects leaned their body intentionally as indicated by a cursor moving on a computer screen, was determined before (baseline) and 50, 70, 90, 110, and 130 min after administration of midazolam. Results: The changes from baseline values of path sway and movement time 50 min after the administration of midazolam in elderly subjects (106.8 ± 101.0%, 4.6 ± 3.0 s; mean ± SD) were significantly greater than those (32.9 ± 87.2%, 1.9 ± 2.8 s) in young subjects (P = 0.024, P = 0.008), respectively. Conclusions: The elderly show slower recovery of the intentional dynamic balance function than do young adults after intravenous sedation with midazolam.
Automated Soft Contact Lens Detection using Gradient based Information

: The personal identiﬁcation number (PIN), credit card numbers and email passwords etc have something in common. All of them can easily be guessed or stolen. Currently, users have been encouraged to create strong passwords by using biometric techniques like ﬁngerprint, palmprint, iris and other such traits. In all biometric techniques, iris recognition can be considered as one of the best, well known and accurate technique but it can be spoofed very easily using plastic eyeballs, printed iris and contact lens. Attacks by using soft contact lens are more challenging because they have transparent texture that can blur the iris texture. In this paper a robust algorithm to detect the soft contact lens by working through a small ring-like area near the outer edge from the limbs boundary and calculate the gradient of candidate points along the lens perimeter is proposed. Experiments are conducted on IIITD-Vista, IIITD-Cogent, UND 2010 and our indigenous database. Result of the experiment indicate that our method outperforms previous soft lens detection techniques in terms of False Rejection Rate and False Acceptance Rate.
SUNY Buffalo State Faculty and Administrator Perceptions of Using Electronic Portfolios for Promotion and Tenure Reviews

Electronic portfolios are used at many institutions of higher education in the United States for faculty tenure and promotion reviews. Commonly referred to as an e-portfolio, their purpose is to replace traditional paper portfolios with electronic portfolios which can be viewed online and are easily shared. Though e-portfolios can be used for many purposes, this study will focus on their application in the tenure and promotion process. The purpose of this research is to gather faculty and administrator views towards utilizing e-portfolios for promotion and tenure reviews at Buffalo State. With the expected benefits e-portfolios offer, they will likely be a future consideration for the college. Running head: SUNY BUFFALO STATE FACULTY AND ADMIN Martino 3
Setting a Worm Attack Warning by using Machine Learning to Classify NetFlow Data

e present a worm warning system that leverages the reliability of IP-Flow and the effectiveness of machine learning techniques. Our system aims at setting an alarm in case a node is behaving maliciously. Typically, a host infected by a scanning or an email worm initiates a significant amount of traffic that does not rely on DNS to translate names into numeric IP addresses. Based on this fact, we capture and classify NetFlow records to extract features that uniquely identify worm's flow. The features are encapsulated into a set of feature patterns to train the support vector machines (SVM). A feature pattern includes: no of DNS requests, no of DNS responses, no of DNS normals, and no of DNS anomalies, for each PC on the network within a certain period of time. The SVM training is performed by using five of the most dangerous scanning worms: CodeRed, Slammer, Sasser, Witty, and Doomjuice as well as five email worms: Sobig, NetSky, MyDoom, Storm and Conficker. Eleven worms have been used during the test: Welchia, Dabber, BlueCode, Myfip, Nimda, Sober, Bagle, Francette, Sasser, MyDoom, and Conficker. The results of experiments manifest the soundness of the worm warning system.
Stock Market Reaction to the Global Financial Crisis: The Role of Corporate Governance and Product Quality Ratings in the Lehman Brothers' Event

We analyse with an event study approach the stock market reaction to one of the most important episodes in the global nancial crisis (Lehman Brothers ling for chapter 11). Our inquiry on abnormal returns of about 2,700 stocks around the event date documents that the shock induces investors to incorporate insights from (or re-adjust the pre-event expected impact of) corporate social responsibility (CSR) ratings in stock evaluation in a sort of "flight to CSR quality". The main CSR domains with signi cant eff ects on abnormal returns (corporate governance and product quality) are exactly those in which the defaulted company presented weaknesses according to its ex-ante CSR ratings. We also document that the reaction to the Lehman event extends beyond the event date and that investors rationally attribute more value to the direct information on strengths and weaknesses in each CSR rating domain than to aliation/non aliation to the CSR stock market index (FTSE KLD 400 Social Index). A more general result of our paper is that investors seem to discover, after the event, that CSR ratings provide original information which is not captured by traditional - nancial rating indicators.
A Variation-Tolerant Subthreshold to Superthreshold Level Shifter for Heterogeneous Interfaces

This brief presents a subthreshold to superthreshold level shifter (LS) for linking heterogeneous interfaces. As conventional LSs convert subthreshold signals to superthreshold ones, different device characteristics result in an imbalance of driving capability. However, process and temperature variations make the yield of LS much worse. With the proposed bootstrapping technique, this work not only eliminates tremendous imbalance of MOS driving capability but also reduces degradation due to process and temperature variations. According to Monte Carlo simulations, our design shows high concentration to driving current, delay time, and duty cycle. The delay variation coefficient is only 14%. Implemented in a 65-nm CMOS SPRVT process, the measured results show that our proposal shifts the voltage level from 0.2 to 1.0 V with an average of 12.9 ns delay time at 5 MHz. In addition, the measured delay time and duty cycle have high concentration even when temperature varies from -20°C to 120°C.
Structural Reliability and Stability of Nonmetric Conjoint Analysis

Structural reliability and stability of nonmetric conjoint analysis are examined under conditions of severe structural perturbation and substantial variation in the number of stimulus profiles. The individual-level part worth functions are jackknifed. The jackknifed parameters, derived relative importance weights, and standard errors of estimated parameters are examined across the different treatment conditions. The results indicate that conjoint analysis is a fairly robust procedure for assessing an individual's preferences.
Accounting for the cost of occupational accidents

Occupational accidents are a substantial expense to society and individual companies. This loss of value could be avoided by preventing occupational accidents from happening. When focusing on accident prevention, an extra incentive for managers could be to illustrate the actual financial consequences for the company. This, however, presents some challenges due to the current set-up of many management accounting systems. The paper explores these issues in the context of the Systematic Accident Cost Analysis (SACA) project, which was carried out during 2001 by The Aarhus School of Business and PricewaterhouseCoopers Denmark with financial support from The Danish National Working Environment Authority. It focused on developing and testing a method for the evaluation of the occupational costs and how this might be linked to management accounting and control systems. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.
Ethyl 6-chloro-2-oxo-4-phenyl-1,2-dihydroquinoline-3-carboxylate

In the title compound, C18H14ClNO3, the dihydroquinolin-2-one ring system is almost planar (r.m.s. deviation = 0.033 Å). The carboxylate plane and the phenyl group are twisted away from the dihydroquinolin-2-one ring system by 50.3 (1) and 64.9 (1)°, respectively. In the crystal structure, inversion-related molecules form R 2 2(8) dimers via pairs of N—H⋯O hydrogen bonds.