Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
An Investigation into the Role of Collaboration in the Development of a Regional Brand

Much literature exists on collaboration amongst competitors who are geographically proximate in a business cluster environment. Network studies likewise maintain that collaboration is critical to successfully develop and deliver products to end users. An in-depth study of a business cluster explains the precise nature, process, and role of collaboration amongst competitors in a region, the main aim of this thesis. Also, regional branding is an expanding field of research, therefore scholars recommend that more studies on the topic should be conducted. Regional branding studies indicate that where a particular product or service originates makes a difference to consumers and industrial buyers in their evaluation processes. The role of collaboration in the development of a regional brand has not been previously studied. Regional branding is important as the outside marketplace develops an image of a region based on the identity the people living there have subscribed to it. Therefore, more research is required to determine how competitors in a region develop that identity through collaboration, a secondary aim of this study. This study uses a realist approach to investigate regional interaction among actors to determine how collaboration occurs within a particular region. By using three sources of data – exploratory interviews, in-depth interviews, and marketing collateral and observing personnel in-situ communicating the attributes of the regional brand, it was uncovered how collaboration actually occurs in a regional setting. The study also determined the role collaboration played in the development of a regional brand and in maintaining product quality to uphold the prestige of the regional brand. The context for the study was the Central Otago Wine Region in the South Island of New Zealand. The main aim of this study is to understand and evaluate the nature, process, and role of collaboration amongst competing firms in a region. The subsequent research objectives are first, to examine collaboration and the role it plays in the development of a regional brand identity. Second is to understand and analyse the link of collaboration to wine quality assurance. A third objective is to
Endogenous viral gene ev21 is not responsible for the expression of late feathering in chickens

Abstract The late‐feathering (LF) gene K on the Z chromosome is an important gene in the chicken industry, which is frequently utilized for the feather sexing, a type of autosexing, of neonatal chicks. The K gene is closely associated with the endogenous ev21 gene from an avian leukosis virus and the incomplete duplication (ID) of prolactin receptor (PRLR) and sperm flagellar protein 2 (SPEF2) genes, and ev21 has been used as a molecular marker to detect LF birds. In the present study, a comprehensive survey for the presence or absence of ev21 and ID across 1,994 birds from 52 chicken breeds, three commercial hybrid groups, and the Red Jungle Fowl revealed that almost all LF breeds have both ev21 and ID. However, only one LF breed (Ingie) has only ID and no ev21. Moreover, this study revealed that almost all early (normal)‐feathering (EF) breeds lack both ev21 and ID, but only one breed (White Plymouth Rock) included EF birds with ev21 but no ID. Therefore, regarding LF expression, the results indicated that ID is responsible, but ev21 is not required. Henceforth, ID should be used as a molecular marker to detect LF birds instead of ev21. Because ev21 contains the full genome of an avian leukosis virus, there is a risk of disease development in breeds with this gene. Therefore, the Ingie breed, which has no ev21 at the K locus, represents excellent material for the establishment of new LF stocks.
Network Development and Application in Health Care

Abstract Service quality is important to health care. The research took advantage of a unique opportunity to study health care from the perspective of all relevant stakeholders. The major results of this research were insights concerning the structures and processes that characterise successful professional health care services and, more broadly, professional services generally. Rather than just communicating in a system prescribed way, successful professionals combine an ambiguous system with extensive interaction with other stakeholders to develop networks. In this way they achieve superior service quality for their patients.
PROGNOSTIC CATEGORIES FOR AMYOTROPHIC LATERAL SCLEROSIS

Objectives To generate a prognostic classification method for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) from a prognostic model built using clinical variables from a population register. Materials and Methods We carried out a retrospective multivariate analysis of 713 patients with ALS over a 20 year period from the South-East England Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (SEALS) population register. Patients were randomly allocated to ‘discovery’ or ‘test’ cohorts. A prognostic score was calculated using the discovery cohort and then used to predict survival in the test cohort. This score was used as a predictor variable in subsequent survival analyses, either as a raw value for a Cox regression or split into four prognostic categories (good, moderate, average, poor). Results A prognostic score generated from one cohort of patients predicted survival for a second cohort of patients (r2=0.72). Six variables were included in the survival model: age at onset, diagnostic delay, El Escorial category, use of riluzole, gender and site of onset. Cox regression demonstrated a strong relationship between these variables and survival (χ2 80.8, df 1, p<0.0001, n=343) in the test cohort. Kaplan-Meier analysis demonstrated a significant difference in survival between clinical categories (log rank 161.932, df 3, p<0.001). Conclusion It is possible to correctly classify patients into prognostic categories using clinical data easily available at time of diagnosis.
The influence of product design on establishing brand equity

This study investigated the role of product design on brand equity by investigating the effect of consumers' perception about product design on brand equity. For this purpose, this research essentially verified the importance of product design on product evaluation. With the verification of the importance of product design, this study examined consumers' perceptions of design and found several generalisable types of design image across product categories. After finding types of design image, in order to verify the importance of consumers' perception of product design on brand equity, this research investigated the effect of the design image which can be formed by the response of product design on brand image and equity. For the purpose of the research, this study is composed of three empirical studies. In the first step, the effect of design attributes on consumers' product evaluation was investigated. The results show that when the design attribute is provided to consumers, they use this information as an important criterion to evaluate product quality. Moreover, providing the criteria for evaluation of the design attribute enhanced the effect of design attribute on product evaluation. Consumers can pay attention to the design attribute more because consumers process the design attribute information easily by providing the criteria for the evaluation of it. In the second step, consumers' psychological responses to product design were examined and a framework of design image dimensions and its generalisable 43item design image scale were developed. Design image is composed of six image dimensions which are uniqueness, aesthetics, utility, femininity, nobleness and compactness. In the third step, the relationships among design image, brand image and brand equity were investigated, and the effects of design image on brand image and equity were compared between utilitarian and symbolic products. Design image has significant effects on brand image and equity in both products, and design image has a direct effect on brand equity in the symbolic product.
Wideband microstrip-line 3-dB power divider under triple-mode resonance

A novel wideband 3-dB power divider is proposed and designed under triple-mode resonance of a cross-shaped microstrip-line resonator. A 50-25Ω impedance transformer is firstly formed by directly tap-feeding this triple-mode resonator at its two different positions. The bandwidth of this impedance transformer can be properly controlled by changing the characteristic impedance of the two loaded stubs. Afterwards, a 3-dB power divider is constructed using this 50-25Ω impedance transformer as its two arms in parallel. The design parameters of the proposed power divider are analyzed and initially determined based on its equivalent ideal transmission-line model. Finally, a 3-dB power divider is designed and fabricated. Simulated results are well confirmed by experiment, showing good wideband power splitting and port-to-port isolation performance.
Ionized calcium and the heart. Elucidation of in vivo concentration-response relationships in the open-chest dog.

Pharmacological relationships between ionized calcium and cardiac electric and mechanical parameters were explored in the open-chest dog. A technique that allows the determination of reliable, repeatable concentration-response relationships in vivo was developed. This method consists of alternating infusions of sodium citrate and calcium gluconate and direct measurement of serum ionized calcium by an ion-specific electrode. With this technique, four consecutive curves for ionized calcium vs. the first derivative of the left ventricular pressure (dP/dt) were essentially superimposable within the limits of 2-10 mg/100 ml. Relationships between ionized calcium and the electrocardiograph (ECG) interval measured from the end of the S wave to the peak of the T wave (SaTc) proved to be superior to other ECG measurements as a correlate of ionized calcium. Ionized calcium correlated better than total calcium with physiological function in several situations. Postsurgical ionized calcium levels (4.92 ± 0.10 mg/100 ml) were consistently higher than preanesthetic values (4.57 ± 0.07 mg/100 ml, P < 0.025), whereas total calcium measurements were not significantly different (X = 5.3 ± 0.10 mEq/liter, X = 5.1 ± 0.10 mEq/liter, P < 0.1). This difference in ionized calcium was shown to be able to account for significant alterations in dP/dt, suggesting that fluctuations in ionized calcium may be involved in the regulation of the contractile state of the heart.
How Different is the Long-Run Performance of Mergers in the Telecommunications Industry?

Using a sample of telecommunications mergers during the 1990–1993 period, we find that acquiring firms underperform relative to their size and industry-matched control firms. The annual cumulative abnormal returns (CARs) to these firms are significantly negative for five years following the merger. Shareholders of the acquiring firm suffer a wealth loss of nearly 20% over the five-year post-merger period. We obtain similar results from three- and five-year holding period returns (HPRs). Our findings are consistent with those of earlier studies and indicate that regulated industries also experience post-merger underperformance. We do find upon disaggregation of the sample that larger mergers exhibit positive long-run performance while the mid-size and smaller mergers underperform relative to their control firms. We further observe that conglomerate mergers demonstrate superior long-run performance while that for non-conglomerate mergers is consistent with the aggregate sample findings and suggests significant underperformance.
Discourse and/as Social Practice - the Analysis of the Problem of Resistance and Hegemony

The aim of this paper is to discuss how approaches to discourse can face the charges for discursive idealism, and to show it empirically through the analysis of gender discourse in the mapping and reception of the life and work of Marija Juric Zagorka, the first Croatian woman journalist, proto-feminist and the writer of popular fiction. The method is critical discourse analysis, which follows Foucault’s concept of discourse, but attempts to overcome the criticism Foucault received for overemphasizing the potential of discourse to manipulate people. This is the reason motivating many revisions of Foucault's method mainly by attempting to introduce a theory of action in order to make a socially active subject link discourse and reality. CDA authored by Norman Fairclough introduces a three-dimensional concept of discourse (as text, discursive practice and social practice) and uses the Gramscian concept of hegemony (rather than ideology) to strategically try and surpass the charge for discourse determinism. Seeing discourse as social practice enables us to combine the perspectives of structure and action, because practice is at the same time determined by its position in the structured network of practices and a lived performance, a domain of social action and interaction that both reproduces structures and has the potential to transform them. Gramsci's concept of hegemony sees cultural production as a tool that maintains domination by securing the spontaneous consent of the subordinated. The results suggest a possible (subversive) intervention into the sphere of discursive practices (hegemonic struggle of different voices for supremacy in the order of discourse defining the reception of Zagorka) and indicate that detailed empirical research on discursive effects in a series of domains is a method of research on political investment of the order of discourse into social change.
Analysis and synthesis of nonlinear time-delay systems via fuzzy control approach

Takagi-Sugeno (TS) fuzzy models (1985, 1992) can provide an effective representation of complex nonlinear systems in terms of fuzzy sets and fuzzy reasoning applied to a set of linear input/output (I/O) submodels. In this paper, the TS fuzzy model approach is extended to the stability analysis and control design for both continuous and discrete-time nonlinear systems with time delay. The TS fuzzy models with time delay are presented and the stability conditions are derived using Lyapunov-Krasovskii approach. We also present a stabilization approach for nonlinear time-delay systems through fuzzy state feedback and fuzzy observer-based controller. Sufficient conditions for the existence of fuzzy state feedback gain and fuzzy observer gain are derived through the numerical solution of a set of coupled linear matrix inequalities. An illustrative example based on the CSTR model is given to design a fuzzy controller.
Trading and Exchanges: Market Microstructure for Practitioners

This book is about trading, the people who trade securities and contracts, the marketplaces where they trade, and the rules that govern it. Readers will learn about investors, brokers, dealers, arbitrageurs, retail traders, day traders, rogue traders, and gamblers; exchanges, boards of trade, dealer networks, ECNs (electronic communications networks), crossing markets, and pink sheets. Also covered in this text are single price auctions, open outcry auctions, and brokered markets limit orders, market orders, and stop orders. Finally, the author covers the areas of program trades, block trades, and short trades, price priority, time precedence, public order precedence, and display precedence, insider trading, scalping, and bluffing, and investing, speculating, and gambling.
Practice nurses' workload and consultation patterns.

BACKGROUND There are calls for the role of the practice nurse to be developed and extended. Before areas for further training and education can be identified, baseline data are needed on practice nurses' current activity and workload. AIM A study was undertaken to analyse the activity of practice nurses in two large inner city general practices and to assess the skills mix of the nursing staff required to meet the needs of the practices. METHOD The study practices had a combined list of 26,000 patients, 80% of patients attracting a deprivation allowance. Each practice employed three practice nurses. A nurse activity index with 45 codes was constructed to describe patient-nurse consultations. Activity codes were categorized into traditional treatment tasks, extended role tasks or diagnosis and management tasks. For eight months, practice nurses in practices Y and Z recorded activity index codes for each patient consultation. Practice Y also recorded the source of referral and the age and sex of the patient. RESULTS There were 13,898 practice nurse consultations during the study period, equivalent to an annual nurse consultation rate of 0.8 per patient. Compared with the practice population as a whole, the patients attending the practice nurses in practice Y were older (mean age 43 years versus 37 years, P < 0.001). Those attending the practice nurses in practice Y were also more likely to be female (61% of consultations were with female patients compared with 50% of the practice population as a whole, P < 0.001). In practice Y, patients referred themselves to the practice nurse in 42% of consultations, 32% were follow-up consultations and in 25% of cases the patient had been referred by a doctor. The most common reasons for nurse consultation were blood tests (15% of procedures in practice Y and 18% in practice Z) and dressings (13% in both practices). Most procedures in practices Y and Z were in the traditional treatment category (61%), 26% were in the extended role category and 9% in the diagnosis and management category (3% coded 'other', 1% uncoded). Between practices, the greatest difference in recorded procedures was for asthma check ups (7% of procedures in practice Y compared with 2% in practice Z). CONCLUSION This study describes the workload of practice nurses in two inner city practices over eight months. Other practices could use the activity index to make comparisons over time and between practices. Up to 60% of nurses' work in the study practices could be done by a nurse without extended training and up to 30% could be done by a health care assistant, but with some loss of quality. It is suggested that half the nursing hours available to a practice should be offered by a nurse with extended training in order to undertake and develop extended role tasks and diagnosis and management tasks.
The Profitability of Momentum Trading Strategies in the Irish Equity Market

We examine the profitability of momentum-based trading strategies in the Irish equity market between 1988 and 2007. We investigate a range of trading strategies over alternative backward-looking ranking periods and forward-looking holding horizons as well as for alternative size momentum portfolios. We find that returns to momentum-based strategies are highly nonnormally distributed, giving rise to concern about the validity of inferences based on standard statistical tests of their abnormal performance. We therefore apply a bootstrap procedure to construct nonparametric p-values for the portfolio performance measures. Overall, we find little evidence that momentum-based trading strategies would have yielded an abnormal risk-adjusted return over the period. The Irish equity market appears to be quite efficient in this respect.
More porous fibrin gel structure obtained by interaction with Lys-plasminogen than with Glu-plasminogen

The effect of Glu1- and Lys78-plasminogen on the assembly and structure of fibrin gels was studied in purified fibrinogen–thrombin system and in plasminogen-free plasma, using turbidity, liquid permeation and three-dimensional (3D) confocal laser microscopy methods. In the purified fibrinogen system using the turbidity method, the final optical density of the fibrin gels increased with increasing concentrations of Lys-plasminogen. The fiber mass/length ratio μ increased with increasing concentrations of both Glu1- and Lys78-plasminogen, the effect of Lys78-plasminogen being much stronger. The permeability coefficient (Ks) analyzed with the permeation method revealed that fibrin gels formed in the presence of Lys78-plasminogen were more permeable (porous) than the control gels. The effect on the gel structure was inhibited by the fibrinolytic inhibitor ϵ-aminocaproic acid. The same results were obtained in plasma milieu for both μ andKs as in the purified system, i.e. the gels became more porous with increasing concentrations of Lys78-plasminogen. 3D microscopy pictures of the gels verified the findings.
Risk based assessment of IT Control Frameworks: a case study

Businesses are constantly advised to implement Information Technology Governance (ITG) frameworks or adapt best practices to gain efficiency, accountability, and/or to meet regulatory compliance. However, organisations require a clear statement of the business value to be gained from implementing resource intensive IT control-based structured environments. Business value has many facets, depending on the industry, size of the organisation, and how business value is perceived. Business risk provides both positive and negative metrics for an assessment of potential business gain and loss. It has often been contested that the implementation of control frameworks is a liability that is not supported by measurable business benefits. This study proposes to investigate the relationship between IT control frameworks, best practices and standards, and business risk treatment. The expectation is that the value generated by the relationship will become apparent and that by implication the costs and benefits of ITG can be identified. At present there are many tools available to assist business managers with risk management. An assessment of a representative set of control frameworks, best practices and standards is made to identify which risks may be treated, the scope of a framework, and what benefits may be expected from implementing those frameworks and best practices. Part of the literature review investigates the challenges that organisations face when implementing IT control frameworks and best practices. Also, the set of related problems is explored and the research focuses on one researchable problem, how to identify business value from managing IT risks in control-based structured environments. The research question is: How could a business realise the value of managing IT risk in control-based structured environments? Identifying business value in risk based IT control-based structured environments is a complex and subjective domain that suits qualitative research methods. Research reports in the subject area suggest that case study research methods are most commonly used to obtain factual data and to construct theory. Consequently in this study face-to-face semi-structured interviews, document collection, analysis and observation are the main source of data gathered for
Internal Liquidity Risk in REIT Excess Returns

Because REITs distribute most taxable income to shareholders, internal liquidity is important for REIT investment decisions. We employ American REIT data to investigate the effects of internal liquidity risk on REIT excess returns. Our firm-level results show that internal liquidity risk positively relates to REIT excess returns when controlling for variables possibly affecting REIT returns. Besides, our results show that internal liquidity risk effects are stronger for REITs with smaller size and higher leverage ratio. We also find that an industry-wide internal liquidity risk state variable materially explains aggregated REIT excess returns when controlling for bond and equity market risk factors and other major state variables. We conclude that internal liquidity risk should be incorporated into REIT pricing.
The ergodicity analysis of two-dimensional discrete wavelet-based fBm fields

The article explores the ergodicity property of the two-dimensional (2-D) discrete wavelet transform for a fractional Brownian motion (fBm) field that consists of one approximation image and three detail images. The decorrelation and ergodicity of the three detail images of fBm fields are shown to be achieved.