Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Role of Information and Communication Technology in the Transformation of the Healthcare Business Model: A Case Study of Slovenia

Background: The Slovenian healthcare business model (BM) has largely failed to integrate information and communication technologies (ICT) into its operational context, instead maintaining its rigid structure and traditional ‘way of doing business’. This situation often results in uncoordinated business operations, while additionally destabilising an already underfinanced healthcare system and compromising the general quality of healthcare. Aim: The aim of this study is to provide an analysis of the BM concept and its implications, and to identify the potential effects of informatisation on the existing healthcare BM in Slovenia. Based on the findings, the paper concludes by presenting a conceptualisation of a transformed healthcare BM adapted to the Slovenian healthcare environment. Method: The study employs a single explanatory/exploratory case study design, while the validation of the hypothesised constructs was undertaken through structured interviews with twelve prominent experts from the Slovenian healthcare system. Interviewees were: healthcare professionals (two general practitioners and two specialists), ICT experts from healthcare (one ICT consultant and three analysts), and healthcare managers (two managers of public healthcare centres and two managers of public clinics). Results: Findings present a roadmap for the redefinition of BM elements and the transformation of the Slovenian healthcare BM. It includes the specific reconfiguration of BM actors and their interactions, and the application of advanced ICT solutions, which could facilitate more effective utilisation of healthcare resources and promote an improved delivery of healthcare services and products. Conclusion: The presented development approach and derived conceptual solution could be transferable to other countries with similar socio-economic characteristics and comparable healthcare systems, subject to certain adjustments and inclusion of national specifics.
How to communicate sustainable tourism products to customers: results from a choice experiment

This multiphase and empirical study explores the best communication style for reaching different international tourism markets and provides an understanding of how purchase decisions could be better influenced in travel brochures. A pre-test experiment evaluated the perceived emotionality and rationality of communication elements in a fictional travel brochure designed for a typical beach holiday but managed according to sustainability principles. In phase two, a choice experiment was conducted to test how Swiss, German, British and US travellers could be influenced by varying visual and textual communication elements in the fictional brochure (based on Mexico for US respondents and Menorca for all others). The choice experiment produced 3006 responses from an online survey in the four countries. Results confirm a general preference for emotionally laden communication styles for sustainable tourism products, while respondents were indifferent to the emotionality of standard product feature communications. Respondents did not show a preference for the inclusion of a graph explaining the product's sustainability attributes.
Food Scares and Trust: A European Study

The complex interactions between the determinants of food purchase under risk are explored using the SPARTA model, based on the theory of planned behaviour, and estimated through a combination of multivariate statistical techniques. The application investigates chicken consumption choices in two scenarios: (a) a 'standard' purchasing situation; and (b) following a hypothetical Salmonella scare. The data are from a nationally representative survey of 2,725 respondents from five European countries: France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. Results show that the effects and interactions of behavioural determinants vary significantly within Europe. Only in the case of a food scare do risk perceptions and trust come into play. The policy priority should be on building and maintaining trust in food and health authorities and research institutions, while food chain actors could mitigate the consequences of a food scare through public trust. No relationship is found between socio-demographic variables and consumer trust in food safety information. Copyright 2008 The Authors. Journal compilation 2008 The Agricultural Economics Society.
Alerting system for sport activity based on ECG signals using proportional integral derivative

Exercise makes the body fit, but most people do not know the intensity of the exercise they are doing right or otherwise can be dangerous, because not everyone knows the maximum heart rate (MHR), Heart Rate Resting (HRRest), heart rate reserve (HRR) and Target Heart Rate (THR) for each individual, it is proposed an ECG signal-based warning system to find out how much a person's maximum limit in exercise based on age, gender, body mass index, MHR, RHR, THRmin and THRmax. The data is taken by using ECG sensors from the subjects who are doing sport activities using a treadmill by noting the resulted feature when the subject reaches the maximum limit of the heart rate (THRmax) target. Range is calculated from 50% of the THR value, which increases periodically during treadmill activities up to 85% of THR. When already exceed THRmax, then the system will automatically warn and decrease the level of exercise to medium to low levels in the cooling down level. For the % hardware errors in a row from 1 minute, 3 minutes, 5 minutes, and 10 minutes obtained % error with 0.77±0.14. The RMSE of the hardware and software test showed high accuracy because of the small value of error. The system succeeds to alert any intensity level of sport based on the Proportional integral derivative according to the bpm value generated by the subject during the treadmill exercise.
Inflow into Unemployment: Employment Spells and Unemployment Insurance

This paper uses U.S. micro level data on employment durations to quantify the effect of potential Unemployment Insurance (UI) entitlement on job separations. Economic theory motivates estimation of a competing risk hazard model for quits and layoffs. The estimation procedure simultaneously allows for unobserved heterogeneity, defective risks and sample selection into future spells. It also uses alternative assumptions about agents' ability to determine eligibility for future UI claims. Empirical results suggest that being entitled to UI compensation raises the layoff hazard, but workers with higher levels of potential UI entitlement do not appear to be more likely to get laid off.
The Repressed Nuclear Receptor CAR Responds to Phenobarbital in Activating the Human CYP2B6 Gene*

The endogenous CYP2B6 gene becomes phenobarbital (PB) inducible in androstenol-treated HepG2 cells either transiently or stably transfected with a nuclear receptor CAR expression vector. The PB induction mediated by CAR is regulated by a conserved 51-base pair element called PB-responsive enhancer module (PBREM) that has now been located between −1733 and −1683 bp in the gene’s 5′-flanking region. An in vitro translated CAR acting as a retinoid X receptor α heterodimer binds directly to the two nuclear receptor sites NR1 and NR2 within PBREM. In a stably transfected HepG2 cell line, both PBREM and NR1 are activated by PB and PB-type compounds such as chlorinated pesticides, polychlorinated biphenyls and chlorpromazine. In addition to PBREM, CAR also transactivates the steroid/rifampicin-response element of the humanCYP3A4 gene in HepG2 cells. Thus, activation of the repressed nuclear receptor CAR appears to be a versatile mediator that regulates PB induction of the CYP2B and other genes.
City Manager and City Administrator Role Similarities and Differences

The hiring of chief administrative officers, also known as city administrators, in municipalities with the mayor–council form of government has contributed to the professionalization of these city governments. Although some observers suggest that the role of city administrator is the functional equivalent of city manager, survey responses from 276 persons who have held both jobs note similarities and important differences.
Early-Warning Systems: A Survey and a Regime-Switching Approach

Previous early-warning systems (EWSs) for currency crises have relied on models that require a priori dating of crises. This paper proposes an alternative EWS, based on a Markov-switching model, which identifies and characterizes crisis periods endogenously; this also allows the model to utilize information contained in exchange rate dynamics. The model is estimated using data for the period 1972-99 for the Asian crisis countries, taking a country-by-country approach. The model outperforms standard EWSs, both in signaling crises and reducing false alarms. Two lessons emerge. First, accounting for the dynamics of exchange rates is important. Second, different indicators matter for different countries, suggesting that the assumption of parameter constancy underlying panel estimates of EWSs may contribute to poor performance.
The Performance of Immigrants in the Canadian Labor Market

In this article we examine the economic assimilation of immigrants to Canada. We provide new evidence on immigrants who arrived in the 1970s and document an increase in the dispersion of labor market outcomes across immigrants of different vintages over time. Our results confirm U.S. evidence of "permanent" differences across immigrant cohorts. What distinguishes the Canadian experience is small or negative rates of assimilation for most cohorts over the sample period. Finally, we test the overidentification of the assimilation process specified in previous studies and fail to reject the usual cohort fixed-effect specification.
Enterprising individuals and entrepreneurial learning

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to provide longitudinal case history data from an investigation into the practices of an enterprising individual associated with two firms in the UK tourism industry. The first business had to be closed down despite the partners employing turnaround strategies to recover from a lack of planning, since an effective work/life balance was not achieved; the second has proved to be more successful due to entrepreneurial learning in overcoming earlier errors.Design/methodology/approach – The methodology involved multiple in‐depth interviews with the key business owner and his partners in the two respective businesses together with supplementary interviews with staff and viewing documentation for triangulation purposes.Findings – The findings based on a longitudinal case history suggest that some enterprising individuals may learn from certain past mistakes but could still need others to support particular business practices for them to succeed. The results also suggest tha.
Selling the Game: Estimating the Economic Impact of Professional Sports through Taxable Sales

Sports leagues, franchises, and civic boosters tout the economic benefits of professional sports as an incentive for host cities to construct new stadiums or arenas at considerable public expense. Past league-sponsored studies have estimated that new stadiums, franchises, and mega-events such as the Super Bowl increase economic activity by potentially hundreds of millions of dollars in host cities. A detailed regression analysis of taxable sales in Florida over the period extending from 1980 to 2005 fails to support these claims. New stadiums, arenas, and franchises, as well as mega-events, appear to be as likely to reduce taxable sales as increase them. Similarly, strikes and lockouts in professional sports have not systematically lead to reductions in local taxable sales.
Taking donations in cyberspace

Purpose – To illustrate that potential donors often can have difficulty in determining how to give to libraries and offer solutions that libraries can employ to eliminate those barriers.Design/methodology/approach – Uses real‐life examples to illustrate various ways donors can give to libraries and presents options libraries can use to make giving simple and easy.Findings – Libraries currently under‐use the potential of online donations. This can be overcome by prominently posting donation options on the library's Web home page, and make donating to the library simple and easy.Originality/value – Suggests options for libraries to incorporate that can simplify the online giving process.
Forecasting Turning Points in International Visitor Arrivals in the Balearic Islands

The aim of this paper is to forecast turning points in international visitor arrivals to the Balearic Islands using the leading indicator approach. The paper prepares two indexes, one for the UK and one for Germany using macro-economic variables. The UK and Germany are the major tourist markets for the Balearic Islands and represent more than 80% of international visitor arrivals. Previous studies have used econometric models and time-series models to forecast the number of international visitor arrivals, but uncertainty persists.
The THz emission properties of GaAs photoconductive antenna with strong electric fields

The terahertz (THz) emission properties of GaAs photoconductive antennas with strong electric fields are discussed; the transient transport characteristics of non-equilibrium carriers (hot electrons) within the photoconductive antenna were comparatively analyzed. It is shown that there are significant differences in the average drift velocity variation with strong and weak electric field. In the initial phase, optical wave scattering is mainly caused by small-angle scattering, carriers are accelerated by ballistic transport to reach higher electron energy in a shorter time, and the transient drift-velocity quickly rises, which is a main reason of the stronger THz radiation.
Factors influencing professional decision making on unplanned hospital admission: a qualitative study.

BACKGROUND Unplanned admissions to hospital are a challenge for healthcare systems internationally. In the UK variation in unplanned admission rates across geographical areas, general practices and GPs remains largely unexplained. AIM To identify factors influencing professional decision making around unplanned hospital admission. DESIGN AND SETTING Qualitative study with a purposive sample of health and social care professionals from three primary care trusts, two acute hospitals, social services and an ambulance service in the South West of England. METHOD Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 19 professionals. Interviews were audio-recorded and transcribed. Data were analysed thematically drawing on the constant comparative method. RESULTS The main factors influencing professional decision making around unplanned admissions were: lack of availability of seamless care on a 24/7 basis; 'professional tribalism' and poor information flow; service targets and performance management; commissioning culture and the impact of a 'market approach'; and clinical governance structures, tolerance of risk and the role of peer support. A tension was perceived between the need to reduce unplanned admissions by tolerating more risk in primary care and a risk averse culture in secondary and emergency care. CONCLUSION Professional decision making that leads to unplanned admission to hospital is influenced by a range of organisational and individual health or social care professional factors. Finding ways to modify and ameliorate the effects of these systems and individual influences should be considered an important goal in the design of new interventions.
Suspension biomechanics of swimming microbes

Micro-organisms play a vital role in many biological, medical and engineering phenomena. Some recent research efforts have demonstrated the importance of biomechanics in understanding certain aspects of micro-organism behaviours such as locomotion and collective motions of cells. In particular, spatio-temporal coherent structures found in a bacterial suspension have been the focus of many research studies over the last few years. Recent studies have shown that macroscopic properties of a suspension, such as rheology and diffusion, are strongly affected by meso-scale flow structures generated by swimming microbes. Since the meso-scale flow structures are strongly affected by the interactions between microbes, a bottom-up strategy, i.e. from a cellular level to a continuum suspension level, represents the natural approach to the study of a suspension of swimming microbes. In this paper, we first provide a summary of existing biomechanical research on interactions between a pair of swimming micro-organisms, as a two-body interaction is the simplest many-body interaction. We show that interactions between two nearby swimming micro-organisms are described well by existing mathematical models. Then, collective motions formed by a group of swimming micro-organisms are discussed. We show that some collective motions of micro-organisms, such as coherent structures of bacterial suspensions, are satisfactorily explained by fluid dynamics. Lastly, we discuss how macroscopic suspension properties are changed by the microscopic characteristics of the cell suspension. The fundamental knowledge we present will be useful in obtaining a better understanding of the behaviour of micro-organisms.
Do traditional symptoms of hypothyroidism correlate with biochemical disease?

ObjectiveHypothyroidism often remains undetected because of the difficulty associating symptoms with disease. To determine the relation between symptoms and biochemical disease, we assessed symptoms and serum thyroid function tests, concurrently, for patients with and without hypothyroidism.DesignCross-sectional study.Setting/PatientsSeventy-six newly diagnosed case patients with overt hypothyroidism and 147 matched control patients identified through outpatient laboratories in Michigan and Colorado.Measurements and main resultsPatient symptoms were assessed by questionnaire. Case patients reported a higher proportion of hypothyroid symptoms than did control patients (30.2% vs 16.5%,p<.0001). Univariate analysis identified three significant predictors of an elevated level of thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) (p<.05), and 13 symptoms which, when they had changed in the past year, were reported more often by case patients with hypothyroidism than by control patients (p<.005). Individuals reporting changes in 7 or more symptoms were significantly more likely to have hypothyroidism (likelihood ratio [LR]=8.7, 95% confidence interval [CI] 3.8, 20.2); those reporting changes in 2 or fewer symptoms were less likely to have hypothyroidism (LR=0.5, 95% CI 0.4, 0.7). ConclusionsIn this sample, the number of hypothyroid symptoms reported was directly related to the level of TSH. The association was stronger when more symptoms were reported. Symptoms that had changed in the past year were more powerful than symptoms reported present at the time of testing. This suggests that traditional symptoms are valuable when deciding which patients to test for hypothyroidism.
SUSTAINABLE SHAREHOLDER VALUE: ANALYSIS OF VALUE DRIVERS

The issues related to the shareholder value maximization have been frequently debated in the academic literature in the last three decades. However, different authors emphasize different types of value drivers. Thus, the purpose of the paper is to detect the most important factors affecting the value creation process in companies. Content analysis of the relevant discourse from Scopus, EBSCO, Thomson Reuters Web of Knowledge and other databases was performed to achieve the established objective. Frequency tables generated by AQUAD 6.0 and cluster analysis provided by Hamlet II 3.0 assisted the authors in obtaining critical factors stimulating value creation process in companies. The analysis performed by the authors revealed that the sustainable shareholder value is based on the long-term and stable economic performance, accompanied by the properly implemented corporate governance system, high CSR standards, rational capital budgeting politics and high financial results accountability. Considering the factors affecting shareholder wealth, it is possible to increase investment attractiveness of a company for the existing and potential strategic and retail investors. Besides, the distilled factors can be used for predicting shareholders’ return. DOI: http://dx.doi. org/10.5755/j01.em. 19.2. 3601
Conference on 'Malnutrition matters' Symposium 4: Food for thought: challenging problems in malnutrition Child undernutrition in affluent societies: what are we talking about?

In this paper we set out to explore the prevalence of child undernutrition found in community studies in affluent societies, but a preliminary literature review revealed that, in the absence of a gold standard method of diagnosis, the prevalence largely depends on the measure, threshold and the growth reference used, as well as age. We thus go on to explore describe the common clinical ‘syndromes’ of child undernutrition: wasting, stunting and failure to thrive (weight faltering) and how we have used data from two population-based cohort studies, this paper to explore how much these different ‘syndromes’ overlap and the extent to which they reflect true undernutrition. This analysis revealed that when more than one definition is applied to the same children, a majority are below the lower threshold for only one measure. However, those with both weight faltering and low BMI in infancy, go on in later childhood to show growth and body composition patterns suggestive of previous undernutrition. In older children there is even less overlap and most children with either wasting or low fat seem to be simply growing at one extreme of the normal range. We conclude that in affluent societies the diagnosis of undernutrition is only robust when it relies on a combination of both, that is decline in weight or BMI centile and wasting. Undernutrition: Malnutrition: Wasting: Stunting: Failure to thrive
Anomalous Behavior in a Traveler's Dilemma?

The notion of a Nash equilibrium has joined supply and demand as one of the two or three techniques that economists instinctively try to use first in the analysis of economic interactions. Moreover, the Nash equilibrium and closely related game-theoretic concepts are being widely applied in other social sciences and even in biology, where evolutionary stability often selects a subset of the Nash equilibria. Many people are uneasy about the stark predictions of the Nash equilibrium in some contexts where the extreme rationality assumptions seem implausible. Kaushik Basu’s (1994) “traveler’s dilemma” is a particularly convincing example of a case where the unrelenting logic of game theory is at odds with intuitive notions about human behavior. The story associated with the dilemma is that two travelers purchase identical antiques while on a tropical vacation. Their luggage is lost on the return trip, and the airline asks them to make independent claims for compensation. In anticipation of excessive claims, the airline representative announces: