Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Strategic Positioning and Competitive Advantage Development of Small and Medium-sized Travel Agencies in China

The paper begins with the decision-making of small and medium-sized travel agencies' competitive strategy based on the comparative analysis of strength and weaknesses of large and small-and-medium travel agencies,and then analyzes the development of competitive advantages of small and medium-sized travel agencies from four approaches,that is,accessibility,responsiveness,customization,and specialization.A practical 5W-model that can be used to develop competitive advantages by small and medium-sized travel agencies is presented in the last part of the paper,which provides a basic strategic framework for these travel agencies to cope with fierce market competition.
Image Segmentation Cues in Motion Processing: Implications for Modularity in Vision

The problem of processing visual motion is underconstrainedmany possible real world motions are compatible with any given dynamic retinal image. Recent psychophysical and neurophysiological experiments have shown that the primate visual system's normally veridical interpretation of moving patterns is attained through utilization of image segmentation cues unrelated to motion per se. These findings challenge notions of modularity in which it is assumed that the processing of specific scene properties, such as motion, can be studied in isolation from other visual processes. We discuss the implications of these findings with regard to both experimental and computational approaches to the study of visual motion.
Oral challenge with Shigella flexneri 2a in cynomolgus monkeys having extremely high titer of serum agglutinin.

(Macaca irus), we have already shown that the serum antibody was not responsible for the protection against Shigella flexneri 2a infection (Honjo et al., 1964, 1967). It seems necessary, therefore, to determine whether or not cynomolgus monkeys having an extremely high titer of serum antibody against S. flexneri 2a would have an enhanced resistance to experimental oral challenge with the homologous bacilli. The present brief paper deals with this problem. Eight cynomolgus monkeys weighing 1.7 to 2.6kg were inoculated with heat-killed S. flexneri 2a strain 5503. The heat-killed bacilli were prepared by heating a saline suspension of the lyophilized strain with a density of 109 live bacilli per ml in 60 C water bath for 60 minutes. On the 1st and 4th days of the inoculation schedule, the animals were subcutaneously injected with 0.5ml and on the 8th day with 0.5ml of a bacterial suspension intravenously and then on the 13th and 16th days with 1.0ml thereof intravenously. Seven days after the last injection, they, together with 5 control monkeys which had not been immunized, were challenged orally with 20mg
Quality management practices and quality results: a comparison of manufacturing and service sectors in Taiwan

In this paper we compare the quality management practices and quality results between Taiwanese manufacturing and service companies, based on a survey of 131 manufacturing and 109 service companies. The results presented here are focused on eight critical factors of quality management ‐ quality leadership, strategic quality planning, quality information and analysis, human resources management, quality assurance, supplier quality, customer orientation, quality citizenship ‐ and company quality results. The present study shows significant differences between manufacturing and service companies with manufacturing companies performing better in six critical dimensions of quality management as well as in quality results. Opportunities for improving quality management practices in Taiwanese service companies are identified.
A study of relationships among the perception of service quality from a liquor wholesale company, deal satisfaction, and maintaining business

The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of customer perception about service physical evidence and process quality by liquor wholesaler on customer satisfaction and maintaining business relationship. Also this paper tries to find out the moderating effect of relational duration on those service qualities and deal satisfaction. Based on the responses from 53 stores, the result of multiple regression analysis appears as follow that (1) the perception of intangible service quality is positively related to deal satisfaction, (2) deal satisfaction is positively related to maintaining business, and (3) the interaction of relational duration and each perception of service qualities is significant.
Business Architect: A Critical Role in Enterprise Transformation

The recent wave of innovations forces organizations to transform. Current business models easily become irrelevant, unresponsive, and unready. However, successful change is difficult. In the literature, failure rates of change efforts of over 70% have been shown. This article addresses the issue of connecting strategy and implementation from an architecture perspective by taking a holistic view on the business through a controlled language, modeling, and implementation. I contend that business architecture practice can contribute substantially to increase the success rate of enterprise transformations through alignment of the need, the approach, and internal context. I also argue that a controlled language is a key asset, since it provides rigor in defining and communicating what the right work/right way is when transforming the enterprise; thus, it resolves one of the big challenges caused by technological developments. By setting direction and communicating business needs with rigor, the business architect profession enables executive leaders to better supervise and monitor transformations.
Combination decongestion therapy in hospitalized heart failure: loop diuretics, mineralocorticoid receptor antagonists and vasopressin antagonists

Congestion is the most common reason for admissions and readmissions for heart failure (HF). The vast majority of hospitalized HF patients appear to respond readily to loop diuretics, but available data suggest that a significant proportion are being discharged with persistent evidence of congestion. Although novel therapies targeting congestion should continue to be developed, currently available agents may be utilized more optimally to facilitate complete decongestion. The combination of loop diuretics, natriuretic doses of mineralocorticoid receptor antagonists and vasopressin antagonists represents a regimen of currently available therapies that affects early and persistent decongestion, while limiting the associated risks of electrolyte disturbances, hemodynamic fluctuations, renal dysfunction and mortality.
The Effects of Entrepreneurial Orientation on Firm Organisational Innovation and Market Orientation Towards Firm Business Performance

This research examines the relationships between entrepreneurial orientation, market orientation, innovativeness and firm performance on the moderating effect of external environmental factors on the market orientation and firm performance relationship. There has been relatively little research that examines the relationship between strategic orientations, such as entrepreneurial orientation, market orientation, organizational innovations and their consequences on firm performance in developing countries. This paper represents an attempt to do so from the Malaysian perspectives. A response rate of 398 SMEs in Malaysia and the findings show that the entrepreneurial orientation and innovativeness exert a positive effect on firm business performance, market orientation exhibits a negative effect on firm performance. The external environmental factors do have a moderating effect on the relationship between market orientation and firm performance. This paper provide recommendations for entrepreneurs of how their entrepreneurial orientation, market orientation and organizational innovations influenced their firm performance.
Loosely coupled SME network in manufacturing industry: A challenge in Niigata Sky Project

As the emerging nations add influence to the state of global economy, the new demand in air logistics is expected to catapult the increase in aircraft production, introducing a new horizon for potential suppliers to enter into the supply chain regime. This scenario may capture the attention not only from the industry institutions, but also from the public entities, that are in interest of plotting the economic viability of underlying jurisdiction. In such objective, the aviation cluster incubation project of “Niigata Sky Project (NSP)” which is implemented by “the City of Niigata, Japan”, implies a new perspective of implementing a sustainable industry cluster. Present commercial aircraft production is configured under the fundamental of securing a high standard of quality assurance. This prevalence has embedded a structure that requires highly competitive supplier selection policy, which public case can be observed through Germany. Niigata in this regard, demonstrates a lenient non-competitive attribution, and where the suppliers' competency is developed through their collaborative participation in the project. This case can be represented as “collaboratively institutionalized” versus the German case of “competitively institutionalized” cluster formation. Defining these distinctive practices' character and finding its applicable phases in the cluster's lifecycle, shall provide a new view for the cluster managers and SMEs in developing their organizational strengths for regional development.
Rosacea treatment using the new‐generation, high‐energy, 595 nm, long pulse‐duration pulsed‐dye laser

Rosacea results from sun‐induced hyper‐vascularity of exposed facial skin, often accompanied by acneiform papules and pustules. The pulsed‐dye laser has an unparalleled safety record and emits an ideal wavelength for treating the abnormal vessels that occur in rosacea patients. In this study we investigate the ability of the long pulse‐duration pulsed‐dye laser to improve rosacea.
Consumers’ attitude and behavior towards online music piracy and subscription-based services

Purpose – This paper analyzes consumers’ attitudes and behaviors towards online piracy and their willingness to try subscription-based music services. The objective is to develop and test an attitude-intention model which includes ethical considerations in consumers’ decision making process regarding music consumption. Design/methodology/approach – The study analyzes 505 consumer questionnaires using a structural equations model. Findings – Attitude toward online piracy is positively determined by economic and hedonic benefits and negatively by moral judgment. A favorable attitude toward online piracy, in turn, negatively influences consumers’ willingness to try subscription-based music services, which is also directly determined by their interest and involvement with the services themselves. Research limitations/implications – The limitations of the paper are linked mainly to the adapted scales, to the analysis of just two subscription-based music services (Napster and Spotify) and to the fact that all r.
A combinatorial approach to graphlet counting

MOTIVATION Small-induced subgraphs called graphlets are emerging as a possible tool for exploration of global and local structure of networks and for analysis of roles of individual nodes. One of the obstacles to their wider use is the computational complexity of algorithms for their discovery and counting. RESULTS We propose a new combinatorial method for counting graphlets and orbit signatures of network nodes. The algorithm builds a system of equations that connect counts of orbits from graphlets with up to five nodes, which allows to compute all orbit counts by enumerating just a single one. This reduces its practical time complexity in sparse graphs by an order of magnitude as compared with the existing pure enumeration-based algorithms. AVAILABILITY AND IMPLEMENTATION Source code is available freely at http://www.biolab. si/supp/orca/orca.html.
Sources of toxoplasma infection in pregnant women: European multicentre case-control study. European Research Network on Congenital Toxoplasmosis.

Abstract Objective: To determine the odds ratio and population attributable fraction associated with food and environmental risk factors for acute toxoplasmosis in pregnancy. Design: Case-control study. Setting: Six large European cities. Participants: Pregnant women with acute infection (cases) detected by seroconversion or positive for anti-Toxoplasma gondii IgM were compared with pregnant women seronegative for toxoplasma (controls). Main outcome measures: Odds ratios for acute infection adjusted for confounding variables; the population attributable fraction for risk factors. Results: Risk factors most strongly predictive of acute infection in pregnant women were eating undercooked lamb, beef, or game, contact with soil, and travel outside Europe and the United States and Canada. Contact with cats was not a risk factor. Between 30% and 63% of infections in different centres were attributed to consumption of undercooked or cured meat products and 6% to 17% to soil contact. Conclusions: Inadequately cooked or cured meat is the main risk factor for infection with toxoplasma in all centres. Preventive strategies should aim to reduce prevalence of infection in meat, improve labelling of meat according to farming and processing methods, and improve the quality and consistency of health information given to pregnant women.
Activation of Protein Kinase C Isozymes Protects LLCPK1 Cells from H2O2 Induced Necrotic Cell Death

Background/Aims: We have previously reported that ischemia/reperfusion injury (IRI) to the kidney leads to induced expression of RACK1 and changes in the level of expression and subcellular distribution of PKC isozymes α, βII and ζ. In order to further define the role of PKC isozymes in IRI we investigated the effect of activation or inhibition of the isozymes on cytotoxicity mediated by H2O2 in LLCPK1 cells. Methods: Cytotoxicity was analyzed by Trypan blue assay and LDH release assay. Translocation of PKC isozymes postinjury in LLCPK1 cells was analyzed by immunostaining and Western blot analysis. Results: Western blot analysis showed that the expression of PKC-α was up-regulated in a triphasic pattern with the initial induction within the first 10 min of injury followed by higher levels of expression at 2 and 24 h postinjury. The expression of PKC-ζ was highly induced within the first 15 min of injury but its expression was down-regulated to that of normal levels by 30 min postinjury. Immunocytochemistry showed that both PKC-α and PKC-ζ translocated to the nucleus and perinuclear region during H2O2 treatment. Following injury, PKC-α expression was localized to the nuclear membrane at earlier time points but a translocation to the nucleus occurred at later time points. PKC-ζ translocated to nucleus at 30 minutes post injury and relocated back to the nuclear membrane at later time points. Conclusion: These data suggest that activation of PKC-α and PKC-ζ is involved in the H2O2 induced injury of LLCPK1 cells.
Open Innovation in Human Resources and the Use of Crowdsourcing

While innovation is getting more and more importance and is accepted as a crucial social and economic phenomenon, companies try new ways to make it better. It is a must for managers and already in to do lists but traditional innovation is petered out at the same time. Moreover, the cost of traditional innovation is a burden for companies. Thus, getting innovation from inside people is out fashion now, companies try to get new ideas from outer sources. Thatâ€™s how open innovation has emerged and crowdsourcing is one of open innovation tools that helps companies to get new ideas and approaches with low costs or no fee. This article aims to explain how open innovation has emerged and how companies use crowdsourcing as an open innovation tool specifically in HR.
Low-Density Lipoprotein Cholesterol, Apolipoprotein B, and Risk of Coronary Heart Disease

Coronary heart disease (CHD) affects 17 million people in the United States and accounts for over a million hospital stays each year. Technological advances, especially in genetics and genomics, have changed our understanding of the risk factors for developing CHD. The purpose of this article is to review low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), apolipoprotein B (apo B), and risk of CHD. The article focuses on five topics: (1) a description of lipoprotein classes, normal lipoprotein metabolism, and the biological mechanism of atherosclerosis; (2) a review of selected epidemiologic and clinical trial studies examining the associations between elevated LDL-C and apo B with CHD; (3) a brief review of the familial forms of hyperlipidemia; (4) a description of variants in genes that have been associated with higher LDL-C levels in candidate gene studies and genome-wide association studies (GWAS); and (5) nursing implications, including a discussion on how genetic tests are evaluated and the current clinical utility and validity of genetic tests for CHD.
Campylobacter laridis causing bacteremia in an immunosuppressed patient.

An unusual species, Campylobacter laridis , belonging to the group of nalidixic acid resistant thermophilic Campylobacter species, was isolated from the blood of a 71-year-old man with multiple myeloma, hyperviscosity syndrome, and renal failure. The organism was first recognized in the laboratory by gram-stain reaction and resistance to nalidixic acid. The organism differs from C. jejuni and C. coli by its resistance to nalidixic acid, whereas anaerobic growth in the presence of trimethylamine N-oxide hydrochloride differentiates this organism from other Campylobacter species. Biochemical characterization and DNA homology studies confirmed the identity of this species as being C. laridis . To our knowledge, this is the first recorded case of bacteremia due to C. laridis in humans.
The Status Seeking of Decision Maker in a Work Group and its Effects on Teamwork and Team Performance

This paper discusses the relationship of team performance and status seeking behavior under: in context the manager decides his own efforts only,and in context the can also decide colleagues' efforts. Combining numerical analysis it gets three managerial insights: firstly,team performance will decrease if the manager prefers status more,and this inverse relationship will be more significant in context2. Secondly,a practical manager can improve team performance,however,this may be not true in context2. Thirdly,the relationship between the decision maker's optimal efforts level and his colleagues' efforts is determined by his characteristics.
UNO: uniflying host and smart NIC offload for flexible packet processing

Increasingly, smart Network Interface Cards (sNICs) are being used in data centers to offload networking functions (NFs) from host processors thereby making these processors available for tenant applications. Modern sNICs have fully programmable, energy-efficient multi-core processors on which many packet processing functions, including a full-blown programmable switch, can run. However, having multiple switch instances deployed across the host hypervisor and the attached sNICs makes controlling them difficult and data plane operations more complex. This paper proposes a generalized SDN-controlled NF offload architecture called UNO. It can transparently offload dynamically selected host processors' packet processing functions to sNICs by using multiple switches in the host while keeping the data centerwide network control and management planes unmodified. UNO exposes a single virtual control plane to the SDN controller and hides dynamic NF offload behind a unified virtual management plane. This enables UNO to make optimal use of host's and sNIC's combined packet processing capabilities with local optimization based on locally observed traffic patterns and resource consumption, and without central controller involvement. Experimental results based on a real UNO prototype in realistic scenarios show promising results: it can save processing worth up to 8 CPU cores, reduce power usage by up to 2x, and reduce the control plane overhead by more than 50%.
Independent Metalloregulation of Ace1 and Mac1 in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

ABSTRACT Ace1 and Mac1 undergo reciprocal copper metalloregulation in yeast cells. Mac1 is functional as a transcriptional activator in copper-deficient cells, whereas Ace1 is a transcriptional activator in copper-replete cells. Cells undergoing a transition from copper-deficient to copper-sufficient conditions through a switch in the growth medium show a rapid inactivation of Mac1 and a corresponding rise in Ace1 activation. Cells analyzed after the transition show a massive accumulation of cellular copper. Under these copper shock conditions we show, using two epitope-tagged variants of Mac1, that copper-mediated inhibition of Mac function is independent of induced protein turnover. The transcription activity of Mac1 is rapidly inhibited in the copper-replete cells, whereas chromatin immunoprecipitation studies showed only partial copper-induced loss of DNA binding. Thus, the initial event in copper inhibition of Mac1 function is likely copper inhibition of the transactivation activity. Copper inhibition of Mac1 in transition experiments is largely unaffected in cells overexpressing copper-binding proteins within the nucleus. Likewise, high expression of a copper-binding, non-DNA-binding Mac1 mutant is without effect on the copper activation of Ace1. Thus, metalloregulation of Ace1 and Mac1 occurs independently.
Levofloxacin for the Treatment of Respiratory Tract Infections Based on Treatment Guidelines

Introduction Respiratory tract infections (RTIs) are a frequent cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. Pneumonia is the sixth-leading cause of death in the USA, and in Taiwan it was responsible for 24.44 deaths per 100,000 population in 2004. The burden of cost of treatment of RTIs is also very high throughout the world, therefore, determining the best way to treat RTIs is a very important issue. In this article, we attempt to focus on the review of levofloxacin for the treatment of RTIs. Levofloxacin has been available for a long time and currently remains very active against the majority of common bacterial respiratory tract pathogens. Address of correspondence Chi-Huei Chiang, MD Division of Pulmonary Immunology and Infectious Diseases, Chest Department, Taipei Veterans General Hospital, No. 201, Section 2, Shih-Pai Road, Taipei, Taiwan The characteristics of levofloxacin Levofloxacin has low resistance, good activity levels and high respiratory penetration, and it is well tolerated with good adherence (1–6). In addition, levofloxacin is particularly well suited for shorter courses of therapy at higher doses (7). Short-course, high-dose therapy may reduce the emergence of resistant strains, decrease the impact on endogenous flora, and offer high cure rates. Additionally, short-course, high-dose therapy results in less total drug exposure, avoidance of adverse effects, enhanced patient and healthcare convenience, and greater adherence. High-dose, short-course levofloxacin (750 mg for 5 days) therapy has been found effective in eradicating Streptococcus pneumoniae and reducing remission. Chi-Huei Chiang, MD Division of Pulmonary Immunology and Infectious Diseases, Chest Department, Taipei Veterans General Hospital Department of Medicine, National Yang-Ming University, Taipei, Taiwan