Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Equilibrium in Servicing Industries: An Economic Application of Queuing Theory

The purpose of this article is to investigate the nature of equilibrium in markets in which service an d waiting time play an important role. The author shows that if consu mers do not know which firms are charging which prices, all firms cha rge the same price. If firms reveal their prices by advertising, the market separates with consumers with a high (low) cost of time buying from firms with high (low) prices and short (long) queues. If firms are allowed to advertise, they will, but they benefit from a collusiv e agreement restricting advertisement, provided the agreement is enfo rceable. Copyright 1988 by the University of Chicago.
Log-Likelihood-Ratio based Selective Decode and Forward Cooperative Communication

This paper presents exact ABER performance analysis for selective decode and forward (SDF) cooperative diversity system with BPSK modulation under Rayleigh fading where the relay has a MAP based receiver and the retransmission is based on log- likelihood-ratio (LLR) threshold. We also derive the optimum LLR threshold that minimizes ABER performance. It is shown that the LLR relay based SDF cooperative diversity system performs better than a SNR threshold based SDF system with lower implementation complexity than lambda-MRC and C-MRC schemes.
Suppression of Cdc27B expression induces plant defence responses.

SUMMARY Non-host resistance is the most general form of disease resistance in plants because it is effective against most phytopathogens. The importance of hypersensitive responses (HRs) in non-host resistance of Nicotiana species to the oomycete Phytophthora is clear. INF1 elicitin, an elicitor obtained from the late-blight pathogen Phytophthora infestans, is sufficient to induce a typical HR in Nicotiana species. The molecular mechanisms that underlie the non-host resistance component of plant defence responses have been investigated using differential-display polymerase chain reaction (PCR) in a model HR system between INF1 elicitin and tobacco BY-2 cells. Differential-display PCR has revealed that Cdc27B is down-regulated in tobacco BY-2 cells after treatment with INF1 elicitin. Cdc27B is one of 13 essential components of the anaphase-promoting complex or cyclosome (APC/C)-type E3 ubiquitin ligase complex in yeast. This APC/C-type E3 ubiquitin ligase complex regulates G2-to-M phase transition of the cell cycle by proteolytic degradation. In this study, we investigated the roles of this gene, NbCdc27B, in plant defence responses using virus-induced gene silencing. Suppression of NbCdc27B in Nicotiana benthamiana plants induced defence responses and a gain of resistance to Colletotrichum lagenarium fungus. Elicitin-induced hypersensitive cell death (HCD) was inhibited mildly in plants silenced with tobacco rattle virus::Cdc27B. Cdc27B could manage the signalling pathways of plant defence responses as a negative regulator without HCD.
Intercropping and its application to banana production in East Africa: A review

Bananas are very important in Kenya for domestic consumption and export. They are extensively grown where they are mainly intercropped with short term crops. There has been an increase in the grower interest in using intercropping, growing two or more crops simultaneously on the same land in the development of new cropping systems for their land. Intercropping could reduce management inputs and result in sustainable systems that more effectively use and even potentially replenish natural resources used during crop production for long term management of farmland. While intercropping has been practiced more widely in the developing countries of Central America, Asia and Africa, developed countries have not adopted it well. Some benefits of intercropping to the grower are risk minimization, effective use of available resources, efficient use of labour, increased production per unit area of land, erosion control and food security. This paper discusses the effects of intercropping on pest and disease control, physiology of the crops grown, cultural practices such as date of planting, spacing and plant density, soil fertility and time of planting among other effects and lastly banana production in East Africa in relation to intercropping and declining soil fertility in banana-based cropping systems.
Abandoning (entrepreneur)ship: children and victims first

This essay is about strategic organization. I begin and end with its relation to the field of entrepreneurship (ENT). This essay is about the strategic (re)organization of the field of entrepreneurship. Like other newer, perhaps niche fields (e.g. international business [IB]), entrepreneurship scholars have been adrift in perceived pre-paradigmatic frustration trying to find a collective voice that could move the field toward the legitimacy and rewards of more established business disciplines. Since neither the 200 year history of the field nor the current array of definitions and research questions has provided closure, I take a different and objective (but still provocative) approach to the problem. I see the current conundrum in entrepreneurship as an opportunity to exploit, i.e. a unique time to assess the field and to determine and unite around a path that is best for ENT researchers as a whole, as opposed to letting other fields, or an imperfect history, or any individuals, set the agenda. I call on interested ENT researchers to continue the conversation started here toward a closure that sets the best direction for the field’s future. I begin by arguing that the current entrepreneurship field can benefit from greater definitional consensus. I then drill down to first principles to understand from where consensus can emerge. I propose five possible alternative directions for building on those principles toward possible field definitions. I close with a preliminary analysis of the possible criteria to use to assess the array of possible definitions.
Cellular mechanisms of aminoglycoside ototoxicity

Purpose of reviewTo summarize advances in the study of the interaction between sensory hair cells and aminoglycoside antibiotics. Recent findingsAminoglycosides enter hair cells through mechanotransduction channels and initiate an active signaling pathway that leads to cell death. Early expression of heat shock proteins can protect hair cells from aminoglycosides, although signaling from surrounding supporting cells appears to promote hair cell death. Studies of certain human deafness mutations have revealed new insights into the role of mitochondria in aminoglycoside ototoxicity. SummaryThe cellular mechanisms of aminoglycoside ototoxicity continue to be an active topic of research and newly developed animal models offer great promise for future advances. Nevertheless, proven clinical methods for the prevention of ototoxic injury are not yet available.
Characteristics of women undergoing repeat induced abortion

Background: Although repeat induced abortion is common, data concerning characteristics of women undergoing this procedure are lacking. We conducted this study to identify the characteristics, including history of physical abuse by a male partner and history of sexual abuse, of women who present for repeat induced abortion. Methods: We surveyed a consecutive series of women presenting for initial or repeat pregnancy termination to a regional provider of abortion services for a wide geographic area in southwestern Ontario between August 1998 and May 1999. Self-reported demographic characteristics, attitudes and practices regarding contraception, history of relationship violence, history of sexual abuse or coercion, and related variables were assessed as potential correlates of repeat induced abortion. We used χ2 tests for linear trend to examine characteristics of women undergoing a first, second, or third or subsequent abortion. We analyzed significant correlates of repeat abortion using stepwise multivariate multinomial logistic regression to identify factors uniquely associated with repeat abortion. Results: Of the 1221 women approached, 1145 (93.8%) consented to participate. Data regarding first versus repeat abortion were available for 1127 women. A total of 68.2%, 23.1% and 8.7% of the women were seeking a first, second, or third or subsequent abortion respectively. Adjusted odds ratios for undergoing repeat versus a first abortion increased significantly with increased age (second abortion: 1.08, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.04–1.09; third or subsequent abortion: 1.11, 95% CI 1.07–1.15), oral contraceptive use at the time of conception (second abortion: 2.17, 95% CI 1.52–3.09; third or subsequent abortion: 2.60, 95% CI 1.51–4.46), history of physical abuse by a male partner (second abortion: 2.04, 95% CI 1.39–3.01; third or subsequent abortion: 2.78, 95% CI 1.62–4.79), history of sexual abuse or violence (second abortion: 1.58, 95% CI 1.11–2.25; third or subsequent abortion: 2.53, 95% CI 1.50–4.28), history of sexually transmitted disease (second abortion: 1.50, 95% CI 0.98–2.29; third or subsequent abortion: 2.26, 95% CI 1.28–4.02) and being born outside Canada (second abortion: 1.83, 95% CI 1.19–2.79; third or subsequent abortion: 1.75, 95% CI 0.90–3.41). Interpretation: Among other factors, a history of physical or sexual abuse was associated with repeat induced abortion. Presentation for repeat abortion may be an important indication to screen for a current or past history of relationship violence and sexual abuse.
Low pressure mediated enhancement of nanoparticle and macromolecule loading into porous silicon structures

Abstract Ensuring drug loading efficiency and consistency is one of the most critical stages in engineering drug delivery vectors based on porous materials. Here we propose a technique to significantly enhance the effciency of loading by employing simple and widely available methods: applying low pressure with and without centrifugation. Our results point toward the advantages of the proposed method over the passive loading, especially when the difference between the dimensions of loaded materials and the pore diameter is small, an increase of up to 20-fold can be observed. The technique described in this study can be used for efficient and reproducible loading of porous materials with therapeutic molecules, nanoparticles and contrast imaging agents for biomedical applications.
Bacterial colonization of leaves: a spectrum of strategies.

ABSTRACT Bacteria associated with plant leaves, or phyllobacteria, probably employ a range of colonization strategies. Steps in these colonization strategies include modification of the leaf habitat, aggregation, ingression, and egression. Considerable evidence indicates that bacteria can modify their environment to enhance their colonization of plants, such as by increasing local nutrient concentrations or by producing a layer of extracellular polysaccharides. This local habitat modification may occur on the surface of leaves, as well as in the leaf interior, and may be enhanced by the formation of bacterial aggregates. The conspicuous presence of bacterial aggregates on leaves and the finding that the behavior of bacteria on plants varies in a density-dependent manner indicate the potential importance of cooperative interactions among phyllobacteria. Such cooperative interactions may occur among both homogeneous and heterogeneous populations, thus influencing the development of microbial communities. While the sites commonly colonized by most phyllobacteria have not been unambiguously identified, there is strong circumstantial evidence that a sizable proportion of cells, particularly of phytopathogenic strains, are localized within "protected sites" on plants. The likelihood that these protected sites are located in the interior of leaves indicates that phytopathogenic bacteria have access to more resources and greater protection from stresses associated with the leaf surface than bacteria that are restricted to the leaf surface. The internal and external leaf-associated populations probably form a continuum due to the processes of ingression and egression. For a specific pathogen, however, the extent of egression that occurs prior to disease induction is likely to influence the success of disease predictions based on external population size, i.e., the number of bacteria in leaf washings. In this review, we illustrate the complexity of the ecology of leaf-associated bacteria and propose a model of leaf colonization that emphasizes the common elements in bacterial colonization strategies, as well as allows for distinct behavior of different phyllobacterial species.
Dementia and neuropsychiatric symptoms in nursing-home patients in Nord-Trøndelag County.

BACKGROUND Earlier studies have revealed a high prevalence of dementia among nursing home patients. We conducted a descriptive study of dementia and neuropsychiatric symptoms among patients in nursing homes in Nord-Trøndelag County, Norway. MATERIAL AND METHODS 704 nursing home patients were included and studied with the Norwegian versions of the clinical demential rating scale (CDR) and the neuropsychiatric inventory (NPI). RESULTS The study indicated that 575 patients (82%) had dementia. Of these, 430 patients (75%) had at least one clinically significant neuropsychiatric syndrome in addition, most commonly delusions, apathy or irritability. The neuropsychiatric symptoms could be grouped in four categories: psychosis, apathy, affective symptoms and agitation. INTERPRETATION The findings are comparable with earlier studies of Norwegian nursing home patients. The high prevalence of dementia and neuropsychiatric symptoms is of significance for the clinical practice, running and planning of nursing homes.
The Implications of Labour Market Restructuring in Industrialized Societies for Occupational Health and Safety

Over the past 20 years the labour markets of industrialized countries have undergone a series of profound changes. These changes have been associated with significant changes in work processes but until recently no attention was given to the consequences of this for occupational health and safety (OHS). This article reviews available evidence on the impact of particular labour market and work arrangements on the incidence of occupational injury and disease, the reporting and treatment of OHS problems and regulatory regimes. The evidence is fragmentary and far more research is needed.
An Empirical Analysis of Fiscal Adjustments

This study uses the fiscal expansion and consolidation experiences of the industrial countries over the period 1970 to 1995 to examine the interplay between fiscal adjustments and economic performance. A key finding is that fiscal consolidation need not trigger an economic slowdown, especially over the medium term. Fiscal consolidation that concentrates on the expenditure side, especially transfers and government wages, is more likely to succeed in reducing the public debt ratio than tax-based consolidation. Also, the greater the magnitude of the fiscal consolidation, the more likely it is to succeed in reducing the debt ratio.
Effect of insulin on acetylcholine-induced vasodilation in normotensive subjects and patients with essential hypertension.

BACKGROUND The present study was designed to directly test the vasodilation action of insulin and its relation to endothelium-dependent mechanisms. METHODS AND RESULTS In 18 normotensive subjects and 27 patients with untreated mild to moderate essential hypertension, we studied the effect of intrabrachial insulin on the changes in forearm blood flow (strain-gauge plethysmography) induced by intrabrachial acetylcholine (at doses of 0.15, 0.45, 1.5, 4.5, and 15 micrograms.min-1.dL-1), an endothelium-dependent vasodilator, or sodium nitroprusside (at doses of 1, 2, and 4 micrograms.min-1.dL-1), and endothelium-independent vasodilator. Local hyperinsulinemia (deep venous plasma insulin, 48 +/- 6 and 51 +/- 5 microU/mL in control subjects and hypertensive patients, respectively) did not affect basal forearm blood flow and stimulated forearm glucose extraction (control subjects, 3 +/- 1% to 11 +/- 2%, P < .001; hypertensive patients, 3 +/- 1% to 6 +/- 1%, P < .001; P < .01 for the between-group difference). In both normotensive and hypertensive subjects, insulin significantly potentiated acetylcholine-induced vasodilation, whereas it did not alter the vasodilatory response to sodium nitroprusside. NG-monomethyl-L-arginine, an inhibitor of endothelial nitric oxide synthesis, blunted insulin-induced facilitation of acetylcholine vasodilation in normotensive but not in hypertensive subjects. In contrast, in hypertensive patients but not in normotensive control subjects, the potentiation of the vascular response to acetylcholine induced by local hyperinsulinemia was abolished by intrabrachial ouabain, an inhibitor of Na(+)-K+ pump. CONCLUSIONS In healthy humans and essential hypertensive patients alike, local physiological hyperinsulinemia per se does not increase forearm blood flow but potentiates the vasodilation induced by acetylcholine regardless of metabolic insulin resistance. This effect is endothelium-dependent because it is not seen with nitroprusside and is related to the L-arginine-nitric oxide pathway in normotensive subjects and to smooth muscle cell hyperpolarization in essential hypertensive patients.
Portfolio Entrepreneurship: Habitual and Novice Founders, New Entry, and Mode of Organizing

With the purpose of advancing our understanding of portfolio entrepreneurship, we separate the act of entrepreneurship (new entry) from its mode or organizing (internal vs. independent organization). Analyzing a cohort of 2,253 novice and habitual business founders, we find that portfolio entrepreneurship is a common phenomenon and that the majority of portfolio entrepreneurs use the internal mode of organizing. Whether or not business founders subsequently pursue portfolio entrepreneurship is explained by their human capital (education and start–up experience) and social capital (business networks and links with government support agencies). Further, novice entrepreneurs are more likely to organize portfolio entrepreneurship within their existing firms while habitual entrepreneurs more often organize subsequent acts of portfolio entrepreneurship by creating another new independent organization. Implications for entrepreneurship research are discussed.
A method for recording evoked local field potentials in the primate dentate gyrus in vivo

Recording evoked local field potentials (LFPs) in the hippocampus in vivo has yielded us useful information about the neural mechanisms of learning and memory. Although this technique has been used in studies of the hippocampus of rodents, lagomorphs, and felines, it has not yet been applied to the primate hippocampus. Here, we report a method for recording evoked LFPs in the hippocampus of monkeys. A stimulation electrode and a recording electrode were implanted in the perforant pathway and dentate gyrus, respectively, under the guidance of electrophysiological recording. With a low stimulus intensity just above the threshold, the potential appeared as a slow positive‐wave component, which was regarded as field excitatory postsynaptic potential (putative fEPSP); as stimulation intensity increased, the fEPSP amplitude increased, followed by a sharp negative component which was regarded as putative population spike. When the coordinates of the recording or stimulation electrode were moved stepwise, we observed a systematic change in the waveforms of evoked LFPs; this change corresponded to the structural arrangement through which the electrode passed. In a test for short‐term synaptic plasticity by paired‐pulse stimulation, potentials evoked by the second pulse were influenced by the first one in a manner dependent on interpulse intervals. In a test for long‐term synaptic plasticity by high‐frequency stimulation, the slopes of the fEPSPs and the area of population spikes were increased for more than 1 h. These results indicate that the method developed in the present study is useful for testing theories of hippocampal functions in primates. © 2010 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Strategic Management and the Performance of Public Organizations: Testing Venerable Ideas against Recent Theories

Miles and Snow, among others, argue that strategy content is an important influence on organizational performance. Their typology, applied recently to public organizations in the United Kingdom, divides strategic actors into four general types: prospectors, defenders, analyzers, and reactors. This article begins by integrating work on strategy content or strategic management into the O'Toole-Meier formal theory of public management. This study shows that strategy content is a subset of generally accepted management functions in public organizations. The article then proceeds to test the strategic management concepts in a large, multiyear sample of public organizations. The results show that strategy can be separated out from other elements of management for a distinguishable assessment of its impact on organizational performance. Unlike the predictions of Miles and Snow and the empirical findings of Boyne and Walker, however, we find that the defender strategy is the most effective for the primary mission of the organization and that the prospector and reactor strategies work best in regard to the goals of the more politically powerful elements of the organization's environment.
Zimmerman's contentious conjectures: describing the present and prescribing the future of empirical management accounting research

We provide a discussion of three of Zimmerman's (2001) conjectures about, and prescriptions for improving, the current unsatisfactory state of empirical management accounting research: its focus on describing practice instead of testing theories; its focus on decision-making instead of control; and reliance on social sciences other than economics. We suggest that these conjectures are based on inaccurate descriptions of current empirical management accounting research and the prescriptions offer potentially misleading guidance for future research. In contrast to Zimmerman (2001), we believe that the current research is guided by theory from a variety of social sciences (primarily economics, psychology and sociology) and that this diversity is appropriate for the applied field of management accounting. We argue that while economics provides a good basis for much empirical research in management accounting, other social sciences offer more potential to explain important features of management accounting such as understanding people's preferences, how they think, how they interact with other people and the process of change. Our conclusion is that empirical management accounting research will be better off if it appeals less to disciplinary identity and instead uses a variety of theoretical frameworks from the social sciences to provide more complete explanations of management accounting practice.
Urban Containment and Residential Segregation: A Preliminary Investigation

A fundamental purpose of traditional land-use controls is to exclude undesirable land uses from residential communities. However, such regulations have been shown to limit the ability of low-income households and people of colour to find suitable housing in decent neighbourhoods. Urban containment is an attempt to regulate land uses in ways that reduce if not eliminate social exclusion. This paper uses information from a nation-wide survey of metropolitan planning organisations to identify metropolitan areas with urban containment programmes in place. A theory is developed and a model is applied to 242 metropolitan statistical areas to test the hypothesis that areas with urban containment witnessed greater reductions in residential segregation than those without. Preliminary statistical investigations show this to be the case. Policy implications and an outline for further research are provided.