Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Differences between Presidents’ and Sales Managers’ Perceptions of the Industry Environment and Firm Strategy in Small Industrial Firms: Relationship to Performance Satisfaction

The industrial sales force is the primary source of information about the competitive environment. Differences of perceptions of that environment between the national sales manager and the firm president in small industrial firms may reflect inadequate environmental information input into strategic decision‐making. The sales force is a major element in implementation of strategy and differences between perceptions of firm strategy may reflect inadequate coordination and communication between the chief strategy decision‐maker and the manager who is responsible for implementing that strategy in the market place. It would be expected that these differences in perceptions would impact negatively strategy formulation and execution resulting in unsatisfactory firm performance. This study surveyed the environmental and strategy perceptions of presidents and national sales managers in small to medium‐sized industrial firms as well as presidents’ satisfaction with firm profitability and marketing/sales effectiveness. The average absolute difference in environment perceptions has a negative relationship with satisfaction with profit. The average absolute difference in strategy perceptions has a negative relationship with marketing/sales effectiveness. This latter relationship is especially strong in an environment high in capital spending variation and for larger firms. The authors suggest implications for managers based on these results.
Technology Transfer for Product Life Cycle Extension: A Model for Successful Implementation

This paper examines the logistical and operational issues relating to technology transfer. It documents the specific problems encountered as well as the solution designed to overcome these problems. The paper presents a model for technology transfer that incorporates a sequence of stages or steps that should be considered when planning, scheduling and executing a transfer from one location to another. The model ensures that roles are clarified, appropriate training is undertaken, validation processes are considered, supply to the market is maintained and all relevant information and equipment is transferred in a controlled, timely and cost effective manner.
Insurance use and economic growth in Latin America. Some panel data evidence

Empirical and theoretical analyses suggest that there is a positive relationship between financial development and economic growth. A higher degree of financial development brings about growth in the long term by means of risk diversification, efficient capital use, increased savings opportunities, and trade of goods and services. As a gear of the financial engine, the insurance industry helps to diversify risk. The authors perform an empirical assessment of the relationship between the use of insurance and economic growth in eleven Latin American countries from 1980 to 2009. From a growth equation specification, a 1% increase in insurance use is associated with a rise in economic growth ranging from 0.17% to 0.44%.
New Low-Temperature Applications of Anaerobic Wastewater Treatment

Low-temperature or psychrophilic (<20°C) anaerobic biological treatment of simple industrial wastewaters has recently been proven feasible as an alternative to more expensive mesophilic (ca. 37°C) technology. We implemented novel expanded granular sludge bed (EGSB)-based bioreactor designs for 27 psychrophilic anaerobic digestion (PAD) trials for the treatment of a broad range of simple and complex synthetic wastewaters representing dairy, food-processing and pharmaceutical sector effluents. A variety of operating parameters, such as hydraulic retention time, organic and volumetric loading rates and upflow velocity, were tested. Chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal efficiencies were recorded, which were comparable to previous mesophilic trials. Specific methanogenic activity, toxicity and biodegradability batch assays were employed to monitor the metabolic capabilities of microbial consortia in anaerobic reactors. The prevalence of psychrotolerant communites was observed and psychrophilic populations were detected in two of the reactors. The potential of PAD with respect to global sustainable development is discussed.
Age driven influence of role‐models on entrepreneurship in a transition economy

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the differential impact of entrepreneurial role models over entrepreneurial activities at different stages of an individual's life cycle in Romania.Design/methodology/approach – To attain this objective, the paper adopts a socio‐institutional approach to entrepreneurship. The authors carry out a rare‐events logit model using a robust Romanian dataset from 2006 comprising 1,449 individuals.Findings – The results indicate that the effect of entrepreneurial role models on entrepreneurial activities differs across age groups. The results indicate that for older individuals the positive effect of role models over entrepreneurship is diluted. In contrast, younger individuals, who have been mainly exposed to a market‐based economy, have a more positive societal valuation of entrepreneurial examples, which increases the positive effect that the knowledge of an entrepreneur has on their attitudes towards entrepreneurial activities.Originality/value – The main contr.
Investor Sentiment and the Near-Term Stock Market

We investigate investor sentiment and its relation to near-term stock market returns. We find that many commonly cited indirect measures of sentiment are related to direct measures (surveys) of investor sentiment. However, past market returns are also an important determinant of sentiment. Although sentiment levels and changes are strongly correlated with contemporaneous market returns, our tests show that sentiment has little predictive power for near-term future stock returns. Finally, our evidence does not support the conventional wisdom that sentiment primarily affects individual investors and small stocks.
Virtual Action Planning in Parkinson's Disease: AControl Study

Cognitive planning deficits affect patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) and traditional psychometric tests meet difficulties to evaluate their impact on daily life activities. Virtual reality (VR) may provide a new means of assessment. The objective of this study was firstly to develop a virtual environment (VE) useful to explore planning and secondly to examine the effectiveness of using VR in the assessment of cognitive planning for patients with PD. A virtual supermarket (VS) was designed in which participants carried out a task close to daily activities: a test of shopping list. There were two preliminary sessions to familiarize the participants with the software and the supermarket's layout. Then, during the assessment session, participants completed the task, without any time limitation. Global intellectual efficiency was assessed in order to exclude patients with dementia. Data related to the performance in the VS were recorded. Five patients with PD and five age-matched healthy volunteers, meeting inclusion criteria, constituted our convenience sample. The patients did not perform as well as the control group. In particular, the session's duration and the distance covered were longer. The patients' path is specific with numerous stops, turning around, and hesitancies. Finally, their motivation for further training sessions is aroused. The results underline the potential of using VR in the assessment of cognitive planning in PD. A larger analysis is currently being carried out to confirm and to explore all the outcome measures.
Methylphenidate effects on search strategy of an animal model of attention-deficit/ hyperactivity disorder

This study is aimed at investigating the effects of methylphenidate about search strategy use on the spontaneously hypertensive rat, an animal model of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder in the Morris water maze. The methylphenidate group rats were given intraperitoneal injection of methylphenidate (10 mg/kg) dissolved in saline 30 min before daily training for 6 consecutive days. In the same way, the model group and the control group rats were only administered equalized volume of saline, respectively. From the second day of trials, the frequency of using tendency-straight strategy to search the hidden platform was significantly increased in all of the training rats. Additionally, the methylphenidate group rats used straight strategy more frequently than the model group rats did on days 1, 3 and 6, respectively. The data indicated that methylphenidate might play a positive role in improving spatial learning ability of the spontaneously hypertensive rat by adding its straight search strategy use in the Morris water maze. Key words: Methylphenidate, spontaneously hypertensive rat, Wistar Kyoto rat, behaviour, search strategy.
The contribution of fundamental frequency, amplitude envelope, and voicing duration cues to speechreading in normal-hearing subjects.

The ability to combine speechreading (i.e., lipreading) with prosodic information extracted from the low-frequency regions of speech was evaluated with three normally hearing subjects. The subjects were tested in a connected discourse tracking procedure which measures the rate at which spoken text can be repeated back without any errors. Receptive conditions included speechreading alone (SA), speechreading plus amplitude envelope cues (AM), speechreading plus fundamental frequency cues (FM), and speechreading plus intensity-modulated fundamental frequency cues (AM + FM). In a second experiment, one subject was further tested in a speechreading plus voicing duration cue condition (DUR). Speechreading performance was best in the AM + FM condition (83.6 words per minute,) and worst in the SA condition (41.1 words per minute). Tracking levels in the AM, FM, and DUR conditions were 73.7, 73.6, and 65.4 words per minute, respectively. The average tracking rate obtained when subjects were allowed to listen to the talker's normal (unfiltered) speech (NS condition) was 108.3 words per minute. These results demonstrate that speechreaders can use information related to the rhythm, stress, and intonation patterns of speech to improve their speechreading performance.
Blue Carbon: Coastal Ecosystems, Their Carbon Storage, and Potential for Reducing Emissions

Blue Carbon: Coastal Ecosystems, Their Carbon Storage, and Potential for Reducing Emissions Juha Siikamaki a , James N. Sanchirico b , Sunny Jardine c , David McLaughlin d & Daniel Morris e a Resources for the Future (RFF) b Department of Environmental Science and Policy , University of California , Davis c University of Delaware d RFF e Center for Climate Policy and Economics, RFF Published online: 28 Oct 2013.
Fruit and Vegetable Prices and Perceptions in Mercalaspalmas Wholesale Market

En este articulo se estudia el comportamiento de los precios de las frutas y hortalizas en un mercado mayorista. Los objetivos que se pretenden son: a) explorar el comportamiento de los precios y sus cambios y b) identificar factores estadisticamente significativos en la precepcion de los precios y cuantificar su efecto sobre el precio de mercado. Para ello se usan datos diarios de precios modales obtenidos del mercado mayorista Mer-calaspalmas desde el ano 2006 hasta mediados del 2010. Los resultados muestran una flexibilidad similar en el aumento y en la reduccion de precios e identifican al producto como elemento determinante en la fijacion de los precios. se estima una fuerte permanencia del precio, en el sentido de que sus cambios se hacen con retraso y de forma lenta, y se identifican como factores significativos en la percepcion de los precios los siguientes: el tiempo que un precio lleva en el mercado, el tiempo que un producto lleva sin cotizar en el mercado, las cantidades comercializadas a un mismo precio y el indice de precios del mercado. sin embargo, el efecto cuantitativo de este conjunto de factores sobre el precio percibido es muy reducido.
The Extreme Decline of Investor Sentiment and Market Efficiency: Evidence from the Electric Appliances Industry in Japan

This paper aims to clarify whether weak form market efficient hypothesis holds in markets with deteriorated investor sentiment by focusing on the return dynamics of the Japanese electric appliances industry stocks. The contributions derived by our empirical analysis are as follows. First, this paper revealed that when investor sentiment is very stable, two successive days’ returns have no relation. Hence in markets with very stable sentiment, weak form market efficient hypothesis holds. Second, we clarified that when investor sentiment is deteriorated, two successive days’ returns are statistically significantly connected. Therefore, in markets with extremely declined investor sentiment, weak form market efficient hypothesis does not hold.
Continuous Reporting and Continuous Assurance: Opportunities for Behavioral Accounting Research

The movement to more continuous reporting (CR) and continuous assurance (CA) of financial statements appears to be a matter of when and how such changes will take place, rather than if they will occur. Research evidence suggests that computing infrastructures and software applications have advanced to the point where it is now technically and economically feasible to begin preparing and disseminating financial statements on at least a monthly basis (Hunton, Wright, and Wright 2003), and someday it is likely that full or partial financial and nonfinancial disclosures will be processed and presented in real time. Additionally, information consumers are demanding, and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA), and International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) are contemplating reporting and assurance changes of this nature. Thus, whether “continuous” is defined in terms of monthly, daily, hourly, or real‐time reporting, rapidly converging marke.
The Social Costs of Real Estate Market Information Gaps in Ghana1

Real estate markets function efficiently when driven by information regimes in which legitimate information corresponds with information that must count in market decisions. Where there are mismatches between legitimate information and information that must count, gaps naturally emerge in the information order. If the conditions for the creation and widening of such gaps are not removed, tenure insecurity, real estate transaction constraints and social costs tend to be heightened. This article presents a view of the conditions that have created information gaps in the Ghanaian real estate economy together with their allied tenure insecurity and social costs. Propositions for alleviating these information gaps are consequently proffered.
Minimizing the total variation under a general convex constraint for image restoration

In this paper, we present a general framework for image restoration; despite its simplicity, certain variational and certain wavelet approaches can be formulated within this framework. This permits the construction of a natural model, with only one parameter, which has the advantages of both approaches. We give a mathematical analysis of this model, describe our algorithm and illustrate this by some experiments.
Two Counters of Jumps

This paper introduces a class of two counters of jumps option pricing models. The stock price follows a jump-diffusion process with price jumps up and price jumps down, where each type of jumps can have different means and standard deviations. Price jumps can be negatively autocorrelated as it has been observed in practice. We investigate the volatility surfaces generated by this class of two counters of jumps option pricing models. Our formulae, like the jump-diffusion models with a single counter of jumps, are able to generate smiles, and skews with similar shapes to those observed in the options markets. More importantly, unlike the jump-diffusion models with a single counter of jumps, our formulae are able to generate term structures of implied volatilities of at-the-money options with ∩-shaped patterns similar to those observed in the marketplace.
Insights into the Biosynthesis of the Benzoquinone Ansamycins Geldanamycin and Herbimycin, Obtained by Gene Sequencing and Disruption

ABSTRACT Geldanamycin and the closely related herbimycins A, B, and C were the first benzoquinone ansamycins to be extensively studied for their antitumor properties as small-molecule inhibitors of the Hsp90 protein chaperone complex. These compounds are produced by two different Streptomyces hygroscopicus strains and have the same modular polyketide synthase (PKS)-derived carbon skeleton but different substitution patterns at C-11, C-15, and C-17. To set the stage for structural modification by genetic engineering, we previously identified the gene cluster responsible for geldanamycin biosynthesis. We have now cloned and sequenced a 115-kb segment of the herbimycin biosynthetic gene cluster from S. hygroscopicus AM 3672, including the genes for the PKS and most of the post-PKS tailoring enzymes. The similarities and differences between the gene clusters and biosynthetic pathways for these closely related ansamycins are interpreted with support from the results of gene inactivation experiments. In addition, the organization and functions of genes involved in the biosynthesis of the 3-amino-5-hydroxybenzoic acid (AHBA) starter unit and the post-PKS modifications of progeldanamycin were assessed by inactivating the subclusters of AHBA biosynthetic genes and two oxygenase genes (gdmM and gdmL) that were proposed to be involved in formation of the geldanamycin benzoquinoid system. A resulting novel geldanamycin analog, KOS-1806, was isolated and characterized.
Mathematical modeling of cancer progression and response to chemotherapy

The complex, constantly evolving and multifaceted nature of cancer has made it difficult to identify unique molecular and pathophysiological signatures for each disease variant, consequently hindering development of effective therapies. Mathematical modeling and computer simulation are tools that can provide a robust framework to better understand cancer progression and response to chemotherapy. Successful therapeutic agents must overcome biological barriers occurring at multiple space and time scales and still reach targets at sufficient concentrations. A multiscale computer simulator founded on the integration of experimental data and mathematical models can provide valuable insights into these processes and establish a technology platform for analyzing the effectiveness of chemotherapeutic drugs, with the potential to cost-effectively and efficiently screen drug candidates during the drug-development process.
Self-organizing maps to generate state trajectories of manipulators

This paper presents a self-organized artificial neural network model, called State Trajectory Generator (STRAGEN) capable of generating state trajectories. The model is incremental, it can grow and diminish dynamically during the training phase and adapt itself to the represented space. STRAGEN can consider different criteria to choose neighbors and to adapt to different domains or different characteristics of a same domain. This capacity enables STRAGEN with a representation strategy that can deal with heterogeneous information. Moreover, different criteria also allow STRAGEN to generate trajectories that optimize different measures of the problem space. The algorithm was tested to generate trajectories in a robotic manipulators domain, with two and three dimensions.
Enhancement of the Recycling and Activation of β-Adrenergic Receptor by Rab4 GTPase in Cardiac Myocytes*

We investigate the role of Rab4, a Ras-like small GTPase coordinating protein transport from the endosome to the plasma membrane, on the recycling and activation of endogenous β-adrenergic receptor (β-AR) in HL-1 cardiac myocytes in vitro and transgenic mouse hearts in vivo. β1-AR, the predominant subtype of β-AR in HL-1 cardiac myocytes, was internalized after stimulation with isoproterenol (ISO) and fully recycled at 4 h upon ISO removal. Transient expression of Rab4 markedly facilitated recycling of internalized β-AR to the cell surface and enhanced β-AR signaling as measured by ISO-stimulated cAMP production. Transgenic overexpression of Rab4 in the mouse myocardium significantly increased the number of β-AR in the plasma membrane and augmented cAMP production at the basal level and in response to ISO stimulation. Rab4 overexpression induced concentric cardiac hypertrophy with a moderate increase in ventricle/body weight ratio and posterior wall thickness and a selective up-regulation of the β-myosin heavy chain gene. These data provide the first evidence indicating that Rab4 is a rate-limiting factor for the recycling of endogenous β-AR and augmentation of Rab4-mediated traffic enhances β-AR function in cardiac myocytes.
Impact Of Earnings Announcements On Changes In Investors' Beliefs: Evidence From The People's Republic Of China

This study examines whether corporate earnings announcements affect investors' beliefs about future earnings using a sample of companies in the People's Republic of China. Revisions in financial analysts' consensus forecasts are used as a proxy for the change in the aggregate belief of investors in the market. Changes in the analysts' forecasts dispersion are used to measure the degree of convergence or divergence of the market's belief after the earnings announcements. Results show that both forecast revisions and changes in forecast dispersion are significantly and positively associated with the unexpected element in the earnings announcements. The results indicate that accounting earnings of Chinese companies contain information useful to the market and that the information is reflected in the analysts' subsequent forecasts of the companies' future earnings. The findings are also consistent with results from recent analytical studies, such as Kim and Verrecchia (1994), Barry and Jennings (1992) and Morse, Stephan and Stice (1991), that information disclosure may increase (rather than reduce) the disagreement among investors.
Re-Inventing Public Education

This article focuses on the changing role of knowledge in education policy making within the knowledge society. Through an examination of key policy texts, the Scottish case of Integrated Children Services provision is used to exemplify this new trend. We discuss the ways in which knowledge is being used in order to re-configure education as part of a range of public services designed to meet individuals’ needs. This, we argue, has led to a ‘scientization’ of education governance where it is only knowledge, closely intertwined with action (expressed as ‘measures’) that can reveal problems and shape solutions. The article concludes by highlighting the key role of knowledge policy and governance in orienting education policy making through a re-invention of the public role of education.