Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The influence of satisfaction, trust and switching barriers on customer retention in a continuous purchasing setting

Adopts a holistic approach that examines the combined effects of satisfaction, trust and switching barriers on customer retention in a continuous purchasing setting. Argues that such an approach helps uncover hitherto neglected effects on retention and, in the process, unveils more cost effective ways of retaining customers. Drawing on this framework develops several hypotheses regarding the main and interaction effects of customer satisfaction, trust and switching barriers on retention. Tests these hypotheses on data from a large‐scale mail survey of fixed line telephone users in the UK, finding that both customer satisfaction and trust have strong positive effects on customer retention. Contrary to some assertions in the literature, however, finds that the effect of trust on retention is weaker than that of satisfaction. Nevertheless, the interaction between trust and satisfaction also has a significant effect on retention, indicating that building both customer satisfaction and trust is a superior strategy to a focus on satisfaction alone. Qualitative evidence from the survey offers further support for this finding. Even a “satisfying” service recovery process might be inadequate to prevent loss of trust, with significant implications for future consumer behaviour. Finally, the results show that switching barriers have both a significant positive effect on customer retention as well as a moderating effect on the relationship between satisfaction and retention. While service providers may be able to retain even dissatisfied customers who perceive high switching barriers, argues that ideally, firms should aim at a combined strategy that makes switching barriers act as a complement to satisfaction.
Mergers and Acquisitions in the German Hospital Market – Who are the Targets?

Since the introduction of the DRG system in 2004, the German hospital market experienced a stream of consolidations in terms of mergers and acquisitions, resulting in a decreasing number of hospital owners. In this study, I examine the ex-ante characteristics of hospitals prior to a merger or an acquisition occurring between 2005 and 2010 in Germany, predominantly focusing on the financial conditions of hospitals. The results reveal that hospitals with a higher probability of default and less liquid resources are more often the targets of acquisitions. On the other hand, hospitals with a lower equity-to-assets ratio exhibit a higher probability of merger. This pattern can be explained by different motives and rationales of hospital chains and potential investors.
Integrating Souvenirs with Tourism Development: Vietnam's Challenges

Abstract The idea of destination development often emphasizes transport connectivity, hospitality services, infrastructure building, attractions facilities and promotions with an indicative measure of visitor arrivals. In contrast, we underline the importance of souvenirs corollary to tourism development if it is related to traditional crafts especially in emerging destinations. Souvenirs in tourism are a useful tool in promoting a tourist destination's image. However, in Vietnam's tourism landscape, souvenir development has not played a corresponding role of image creation and commercial enterprise. We examine the problems of adapting Vietnamese souvenirs for tourism using stakeholder analysis. Attention to souvenirs in Vietnam provides an opportunity to illustrate the nexus between tourism development trajectories, image-making and the intricacies involved in national representation.
Inhomogeneous Si-doping of gold-seeded InAs nanowires grown by molecular beam epitaxy

We have investigated in situ Si doping of InAs nanowires grown by molecular beam epitaxy from gold seeds. The effectiveness of n-type doping is confirmed by electrical measurements showing an increase of the electron density with the Si flux. We also observe an increase of the electron density along the nanowires from the tip to the base, attributed to the dopant incorporation on the nanowire facets whereas no detectable incorporation occurs through the seed. Furthermore, the Si incorporation strongly influences the lateral growth of the nanowires without giving rise to significant tapering, revealing the complex interplay between axial and lateral growth.
A Re‐Examination of Marketing for British Non‐Profit Organisations

Examines marketing techniques used by British non‐profit organisations. Defines public sector and voluntary sector non‐profit organisation. Outlines the difficulties encountered in defining the marketing process in non‐profit organisations compared with normal business operations. Highlights four main areas of marketing for non‐profit organisations – research, promotion, pricing and distribution. Concludes that the non‐profit sector includes a number of organisations where ownership, structure and objectives do not correspond to the traditional model of business organisations. Affirms that British authors should view these dissimilarities as an opportunity to develop the marketing concept, marketing and marketing management in a much wider context than that of business marketing.
Reciprocal Concessions Procedure for Inducing Compliance: The Door-in-the-Face Technique

Three experiments were conducted to test the effectiveness of a rejection-thenmoderation procedure for inducing compliance with a request for a favor. All three experiments included a condition in which a requester first asked for an extreme favor (which was refused to him) and then for a smaller favor. In each instance, this procedure produced more compliance with the smaller favor than a procedure in which the requester asked solely for the smaller favor. Additional control conditions in each experiment supported the hypothesis that the effect is mediated by a rule for reciprocation of concessions. Several advantages to the use of the rejection-then-moderation procedure for producing compliance are discussed. The foot-in-the-door technique has been investigated by Freedman and Eraser (1966) as a procedure for inducing compliance with a request for a favor. They demonstrated that obtaining a person's compliance with a small request substantially increases the likelihood of that person's compliance with a subsequent, larger request. Freedman and Fraser suggest that the mediator of the foot-in-thedoor effect is a shift in the self-perception of the benefactor. After performing or agreeing to perform an initial favor, a person "may become, in his own eyes, the kind of person who does this sort of thing, who agrees to requests made by strangers, who takes action on things he believes in, who cooperates with good causes. The basic idea is that the change in attitude need not be toward any particular person or activity, but may be toward activity or compliance in general. " Thus, one effective way to obtain a favor is to begin by making a minimal first request which is sure to produce compliance and then to advance to a larger favor (the one which was desired from the outset). It may well be, however, that an equally effective method for getting a favor done involves the exact opposite procedure. What would be the result of making an extreme first request which is sure
Adeno‐associated virus (AAV)‐mediated transduction of male germ line stem cells results in transgene transmission after germ cell transplantation

We explored whether exposure of mammalian germ line stem cells to adeno‐associated virus (AAV), a gene therapy vector, would lead to stable transduction and transgene transmission. Mouse germ cells harvested from experimentally induced cryptorchid donor testes were exposed in vitro to AAV vectors carrying a GFP transgene and transplanted to germ cell‐depleted syngeneic recipient testes, resulting in colonization of the recipient testes by transgenic donor cells. Mating of recipient males to wild‐type females yielded 10% transgenic offspring. To broaden the approach to nonrodent species, AAV‐transduced germ cells from goats were transplanted to recipient males in which endogenous germ cells had been depleted by fractionated testicular irradiation. Transgenic germ cells colonized recipient testes and produced transgenic sperm. When semen was used for in vitro fertilization (IVF), 10% of embryos were transgenic. Here, we report for the first time that AAV‐mediated transduction of mammalian germ cells leads to transmission of the transgene through the male germ line. Equally important, this is also the first report of transgenesis via germ cell transplantation in a nonrodent species, a promising approach to generate transgenic large animal models for biomedical research. —Honaramooz, A. , Megee, S. , Zeng, W. , Destrempes, M.M. , Overton, S.A. , Luo, J., Galantino‐Homer, H. , Modelski, M. , Chen, F. , Blash, S. , Melican, D. T. , Gavin, W. G. , Ayres, S. , Yang, F. , Wang, P. J., Echelard, Y. , Dobrinski, I. Adeno‐associated virus (AAV) ‐mediated transduction of male germ line stem cells results in transgene transmission after germ cell transplantation. FASEB J. 22, 374–382 (2008)
PRODUCTION OF HUMAN THERAPEUTIC PROTEINS IN TRANSGENIC ANIMALS

Since the first reports in 1987 of the recovery of active human tissue plasminogen activator [l] and sheep 0lactoglobulin [2] in mouse milk, the secretion of heterologous proteins into the milk of transgenic animals has been considered to be a potential system for the economical production of therapeutic proteins. This technology addresses major obstacles that have limited the production of therapeutic proteins by recombinant DNA technology. As transgenic livestock can express large quantities of recombinant proteins with appropriate post-translational modifications, they may be able to overcome the limitations in protein processing that have been noted in bacterial, yeast, and mammalian tissue culture systems. Moreover, the high cost of purifying proteins obtained from tissue culture bioreactors may be reduced when protein expression is targeted to the mammary gland, so that it can be harvested from milk. Considerable progress has been made in identifying and characterizing gene regulatory sequences that are useful for targeting tissue-specific expression to the mammary gland. Human proteins have been produced in the milk or blood of transgenic mice [3], rabbits [4,5], sheep [6,7], pigs [8,9], and goats [lo] (Table 1).
The Emergence of Electronic Market Intermediaries

In this paper, we provide preliminary findings of an empirical study which supports the hypothesis that electronic markets do not become “disintermediated” as they become facilitated by information technologies. We explore thirteen case studies of companies participating in electronic commerce and find evidence across markets which indicate necessary roles for electronic market intermediaries including matching suppliers and customers, providing trust, and providing interorganizational market information. Two specific examples are explored in greater detail to show the unsuccessful (Bargain Finder) and successful (Agents Inc.) identification of electronic market intermediary roles.
Cooperative frequency control for autonomous AC Microgrids

Distributed secondary control strategies have been recently studied for frequency regulation in droop-based AC Microgrids. Unlike centralized secondary control, the distributed one might fail to provide frequency synchronization and proportional active power sharing simultaneously, due to having different control parameters. This paper introduces a cooperative algorithm that regulates the system frequency while maintaining the power sharing properties of droop control. Dynamic consensus protocol is used to estimate the average of normalized active powers in the entire MG. This estimation is then added to primary control, compensating the frequency drop caused by the droop mechanism. The proposed controller is fully distributed, meaning that each source exchange information with only its direct neighbors through a sparse communication network. This controller has a unique feature that it does not require measuring the system frequency as compared to the other presented methods. An ac Microgrid with four sources is used to verify the performance of the proposed control methodology.
Die Young or Live Long: Modeling Subjective Survival Probabilities

Modeling of subjective survival is critical to the use of mortality expectations in economic models and the life insurance industry. Subjective scaling factors that are used to adjust average survival probabilities for individual expectations are often based on a single observation of personal life expectancy and assumed to be constant for any projected target age. Using survey data on subjective survival probabilities over a range of target ages and from an array of age cohorts, we estimate individual subjective scalings of population mortality probabilities. We show that both cohort age and target age matter: comparing subjective survival probabilities with the cohort life table, we show that respondents are generally pessimistic about overall life expectancy, but are optimistic about their probability of surviving to advanced ages; and that older respondents in our middle-aged sample are more optimistic than younger ones. Hence, our data suggests that individuals tend to expect to either die young or to live long. We propose a new model to incorporate cohort- and target age-varying subjective survival beliefs and illustrate the effect of these variations on optimal life cycle consumption plans. The proposed model contributes to the explanation of both the retirement savings puzzle and conservative spending patterns in retirement.
4E-BP3, a New Member of the Eukaryotic Initiation Factor 4E-binding Protein Family*

Translation initiation in eukaryotes is mediated by the cap structure (m7GpppN, where N is any nucleotide) present at the 5′ end of all cellular mRNAs, except organellar. The cap is recognized by eukaryotic initiation factor 4F (eIF4F), which consists of three polypeptides, including eIF4E, the cap-binding protein subunit. The interaction of the cap with eIF4E facilitates the binding of the ribosome to the mRNA. eIF4E activity is regulated in part by two translational repressors, 4E-BP1 and 4E-BP2, which bind to it and prevent its assembly into eIF4F. We report here the isolation of 4E-BP3, a new member of the 4E-BP family. 4E-BP3 is homologous to 4E-BP1 and 4E-BP2, exhibiting 57 and 59% identity, respectively. The homology is most striking in the middle region of the protein, which contains the eIF4E binding motif and residues that are phosphorylated in 4E-BP1. 4E-BP3 is a heat stable protein that binds to eIF4E in vitro as well as in vivo. Further, 4E-BP3 overexpression specifically reduces eIF4E-dependent translation. The overlapping function and expression of the different 4E-BP family members imply that there is redundancy in this translational control mechanism, underscoring its importance.
Intranet Adoption and Inter-Functional Co-ordination

Intranets are a recent development in groupware technology based on the same open format as the Internet. The literature on computer aided communication suggests that groupware can facilitate information sharing and inter-functional co-ordination within firms. Inter-functional co-ordination is a significant component of a market orientation and is associated with marketing performance. This paper reports the results of a survey of Intranet adoption by New Zealand firms, and the effect of Intranets on inter-functional co-ordination. The level of Intranet adoption is shown to be moderate (38% of responding firms) and independent of characteristics such as company resources or objectives. The presence of an Intranet is not significantly associated with the level of inter-functional co-ordination. There is, however, evidence of a learning curve, indicating that companies begin to experience co-ordination benefits from an Intranet after one year or more.
Anxiety-Related Stroop Interference in Adolescents

Abstract A group of 16- to 18-year-old students was presented with threat-related and neutral Stroop stimuli on separate cards. Participants were assigned to anxiety groups on the basis of their scores on the Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI; A. T. Beck & R. A. Steer, 1990). It was found, as predicted, that the high-anxiety group took significantly longer to identify the color of the threat-related word than the neutral words, whereas there was no difference for the low-anxiety group. There was a significant linear relationship between interference on the task and BAI scores, showing that as anxiety increases there is a corresponding increase in interference produced by the threat-related stimuli when compared with the neutral stimuli. This study demonstrates an anxiety-related Stroop interference effect for adolescents consistent with that reported in the adult literature.
Distinct Innate Immune Phagocyte Responses to Aspergillus fumigatus Conidia and Hyphae in Zebrafish Larvae

ABSTRACT Aspergillus fumigatus is the most common filamentous fungal pathogen of immunocompromised hosts, resulting in invasive aspergillosis (IA) and high mortality rates. Innate immunity is known to be the predominant host defense against A. fumigatus; however, innate phagocyte responses to A. fumigatus in an intact host and their contributions to host survival remain unclear. Here, we describe a larval zebrafish A. fumigatus infection model amenable to real-time imaging of host-fungal interactions in live animals. Following infection with A. fumigatus, innate phagocyte populations exhibit clear preferences for different fungal morphologies: macrophages rapidly phagocytose conidia and form aggregates around hyphae, while the neutrophil response is dependent upon the presence of hyphae. Depletion of macrophages rendered host larvae susceptible to invasive disease. Moreover, a zebrafish model of human leukocyte adhesion deficiency with impaired neutrophil function also resulted in invasive disease and impaired host survival. In contrast, macrophage-deficient but not neutrophil-deficient larvae exhibited attenuated disease following challenge with a less virulent (ΔlaeA) strain of A. fumigatus, which has defects in secondary metabolite production. Taking these results together, we have established a new vertebrate model for studying innate immune responses to A. fumigatus that reveals distinct roles for neutrophils and macrophages in mediating host defense against IA.
Malaria: looking for selection signatures in the human PKLR gene region

The genetic component of susceptibility to malaria is both complex and multigenic and the better‐known protective polymorphisms are those involving erythrocyte‐specific structural proteins and enzymes. In vivo and in vitro data have suggested that pyruvate kinase deficiency, which causes a nonspherocytic haemolytic anaemia, could be protective against malaria severity in humans, but this hypothesis remains to be tested. In the present study, we conducted a combined analysis of Short Tandem Repeats (STRs) and Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNPs) in the pyruvate kinase‐encoding gene (PKLR) and adjacent regions (chromosome 1q21) to look for malaria selective signatures in two sub‐Saharan African populations from Angola and Mozambique, in several groups with different malaria infection outcome. A European population from Portugal, including a control and a pyruvate kinase‐deficient group, was used for comparison. Data from STR and SNP loci spread along the PKLR gene region showed a considerably higher differentiation between African and Portuguese populations than that usually found for neutral markers. In addition, a wider region showing strong linkage disequilibrium was found in an uncomplicated malaria group, and a haplotype was found to be associated with this clinical group. Altogether, this data suggests that malaria selective pressure is acting in this genomic region.
Income Distribution and Poverty Alleviation for the Native Hawaiian Community

This paper raises an important question about the linkages between growth, income distribution and poverty alleviation. It argues that “high economic growth is no guarantee of lower levels of poverty. ” It further advocates that “one must understand the economic characteristics of poor groups” and also “examine how economic growth is achieved, how it is shared by different groups and what policies are adopted to alleviate poverty. ” On the basis of the analysis of the recent experiences of high growth performance of the Hawaiian economy and the persistent poverty conditions of the ‘natives hawaiians’, the paper has attempted to bring out a number of analytical issues of wider relevance.
The suppression of pulsatile luteinizing hormone secretion during lactation in the rat.

The inhibition of LH secretion during lactation may be the consequence of a pituitary insensitivity to GnRH stimulation and/or an inhibition of GnRH release from the hypothalamus. To assess the contribution that these mechanisms may make to the suppression of LH secretion during lactation, we described the pattern of LH secretion in lactating rats and the magnitude of LH secretion in response to a GnRH stimulus. We assessed the effect of the strength of the suckling stimulus (two and eight pups), the length of lactation (5 and 10 days), and the presence of the ovaries on the pattern of LH secretion. We also examined the pattern of LH secretion after removal of a large suckling stimulus. In the intact rat, the pattern of LH secretion during lactation was uniformly nonpulsatile, despite significant differences between animals suckling two and eight pups in pituitary responsiveness to GnRH. In intact rats suckling two pups during day 10 of lactation, significant LH secretion was stimulated by 0.4-ng pulses of GnRH every 50 min, while animals with eight pups secreted little LH in response to the same stimulus. It was concluded that a two-pup suckling stimulus was sufficient to completely suppress pulsatile GnRH release without affecting pituitary function, whereas an eight-pup suckling stimulus also depressed pituitary sensitivity to GnRH. In ovariectomized (ovx) rats suckling two pups, seven of nine animals showed no postcastration rise in LH secretion or evidence of pulsatile LH secretion during day 5 of lactation. In the remaining two animals, a castrate pattern of pulsatile LH secretion was observed, with a LH interpulse interval of 31 +/- 6 min. By day 10 of lactation, all animals suckling two pups had castration patterns of LH secretion, with a LH interpulse interval of 35 +/- 2 min, which was significantly different from the LH interpulse interval of 26 +/- 1 min observed in ovx animals without pups. Therefore, a two-pup suckling stimulus is capable of retarding the increase in LH pulse frequency characteristically seen in the rat after castration. In ovx rats suckling eight pups, the postcastration rise in LH secretion was completely inhibited in all animals examined on days 5 and 10 of lactation, and the pattern of LH secretion was uniformly nonpulsatile. A consistent pattern of pulsatile LH secretion was not reinitiated until 72 h after removal of the suckling stimulus (LH interpulse interval, 31 +/- 2 min). (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)