Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Big data diagnostics.

A little over a year ago, a damning report published in the journal Nature (1) sent a ripple through the public health and social science communities: in a season of unusually high flu outbreak, one of the world's newest biosurveillance systems was inaccurately predicting flu trends. Google Flu Trends (GFT),3 launched in 2008, is an attempt by Google to predict, in real time, the prevalence of influenza-like infection (2). In combination with computer modeling, the company mines data records for flu-related keyword searches, producing a map of on-the-ground flu activity. GFT predicts trends at the local and state levels, and nationally in at least 29 countries around the world (3). “The GFT effort is a prominent one in the field,” says Dr. David Lazer, a professor of political science and computer and information science at Northeastern University, in an e-mail to Clinical Chemistry . As his professional title would indicate, Lazer is no stranger to big data and has been a proponent for big data analysis in public health. The Nature report highlights that in the peak of the 2012–2013 US flu outbreak, GFT's national “peak of flu” was almost double that of the CDC. (The report also points out that in other countries, GFT was hitting projected targets.) Lazer, an early supporter of GFT, admits he had not closely examined the product. “It then was widely reported that it had missed by a huge margin last winter, which begged the question: why? ” he says. This past March, Lazer and a team of colleagues from Northeastern and Harvard universities published their answer to that question in the journal Science (4). In looking at GFT trends, Lazer and colleagues write that since well before 2013, “GFT had been persistently overestimating flu prevalence. ” For example, the team found …
Exploring consumers' experiential responses and shopping intentions toward visual user-generated content in online shopping environments

The purpose of this study is to explore online consumers' experiential response towards visual user-generated content in online shopping environments for fashion online shopping. The Stimulus-Organism-Response (S-O-R) framework has been widely used in online shopping environment studies to examine the effect of website attributes on online shoppers' internal affective and cognitive states, and shopping behaviour (Kawaf and Tagg, 2012). Recent literature in the field proposes a more holistic approach towards online experiences (e.g., Pentina, Amialchuk, and Taylor, 2011) which is conceptualise to mediate the relationship between website attributes and behavioural responses. Consumer experiences are considered to be a critical concept in consumer behaviour and marketing for understanding consumers and to create competitive advantage in online retailing (Schmitt, 2010). Building on existing online shopping environment research, the study conceptualises online experiences for fashion online. This study seeks to investigate online consumers' experiential responses (aesthetics, relational, emotional, Flow experience and interactivity) towards two visual user-generated stimulus: (1) Looks - photographs of individuals modelling their own fashion, and (2) Outfits - digital collages displaying an assortment of products centred around a theme. They are both features which have been created by community members in an online social shopping community, ASOS Fashion Finder. The context of this study was exploratory and utilised a mixed methods approach where 13 photo-elicited interviews (PEI) with female online shoppers of ASOS, aged 18-34, were conducted to identify and understand consumers' online experiential responses and online shopping intentions towards the two visual stimulus. Using the same sample criteria, an online survey with 555 responses was also conducted to measure and test relationships between consumers' experiential responses and shopping intentions. The results of this study provides insight to the experiential states of fashion online consumers for online retail marketing, and contributes knowledge to research literature and theory on online shopping environments and customer experiences.
Optimizing carbon storage and biodiversity protection in tropical agricultural landscapes

With the rapidly expanding ecological footprint of agriculture, the design of farmed landscapes will play an increasingly important role for both carbon storage and biodiversity protection. Carbon and biodiversity can be enhanced by integrating natural habitats into agricultural lands, but a key question is whether benefits are maximized by including many small features throughout the landscape (‘land‐sharing’ agriculture) or a few large contiguous blocks alongside intensive farmland (‘land‐sparing’ agriculture). In this study, we are the first to integrate carbon storage alongside multi‐taxa biodiversity assessments to compare land‐sparing and land‐sharing frameworks. We do so by sampling carbon stocks and biodiversity (birds and dung beetles) in landscapes containing agriculture and forest within the Colombian Chocó‐Andes, a zone of high global conservation priority. We show that woodland fragments embedded within a matrix of cattle pasture hold less carbon per unit area than contiguous primary or advanced secondary forests (>15 years). Farmland sites also support less diverse bird and dung beetle communities than contiguous forests, even when farmland retains high levels of woodland habitat cover. Landscape simulations based on these data suggest that land‐sparing strategies would be more beneficial for both carbon storage and biodiversity than land‐sharing strategies across a range of production levels. Biodiversity benefits of land‐sparing are predicted to be similar whether spared lands protect primary or advanced secondary forests, owing to the close similarity of bird and dung beetle communities between the two forest classes. Land‐sparing schemes that encourage the protection and regeneration of natural forest blocks thus provide a synergy between carbon and biodiversity conservation, and represent a promising strategy for reducing the negative impacts of agriculture on tropical ecosystems. However, further studies examining a wider range of ecosystem services will be necessary to fully understand the links between land‐allocation strategies and long‐term ecosystem service provision.
Which Matters? Accuracy or Boldness? Analysts Earnings Forecast and Institutional Holdings

This paper aims to investigate the effect of financial analysts' earnings forecast on the institutional trading. In specific, we address three issues regarding the effect of financial analysts earnings forecast on the institutional holdings: (1) Do institutional investors pay more attention and more sensitive to analyst earnings forecast with higher forecast accuracy? (2) Do institutional investors prefer analysts with higher accuracy on earnings forecast? (3) Do institutional investors prefer analysts with bold attitude toward earnings forecast? Firstly, our empirical results show that institutional investors do pay attention to the accuracy of financial analysts earnings forecast. That is, firms with higher accuracy of analysts' earnings forecast tend to attract more institutional investors' attention and thus higher institutional holdings. Secondly, our results evidence that institutional investors prefer analysts with higher accuracy in their earnings forecast. That means institutional investors tend to follow more closely those analysts whose earnings forecasts are more accurate. Finally, we find that institutional investors in general are indifferent to the boldness of analysts earnings forecast. However, institutional investors will pay more attention and follow more closely those analysts whose earnings forecasts are not only accurate but also close to the consensus.
Revising a Supply Chain Curriculum with an Emphasis on the Triple Bottom Line

This paper discusses a benchmarking study that we conducted over the summer of 2008 as part of the ongoing re-design of our Supply Chain & Operations Management (SC&OM) curriculum. The motivation for this study was our desire to emphasize sustainability (or the triple bottom line of economics, environmental, and social equity performance) more strongly in all of our Supply Chain & Operations Management courses. We performed an analysis of our Supply Chain & Operations Management program compared to nineteen other undergraduate programs in Supply Chain and/or Operations Management in the United States. We found only one other program that requires a course in sustainability and no other programs that require elements of sustainability within their required courses. In addition, we found that we needed to cover purchasing and transportation topics in greater depth. Both of these topics are fertile areas for discussion of sustainability topics. Finally, through our benchmarking study and the research we conducted, we determined that we needed to add more experiential sustainability exercises in our Supply Chain & Operations Management courses.
Structure and distribution of pentapeptide repeats in bacteria

We report the discovery of a novel family of proteins, each member contains tandem pentapeptide (five residue) repeats, described by the motif A(D/N)LXX. Members of this family are both membrane bound and cytoplasmic. The function of these repeats is uncertain, but they may have a targeting or structural function rather than enzymatic activity. This family is most common in cyanobacteria, suggesting a function related to cyanobacterial‐specific metabolism. Although no experimental information is available for the structure of this family, it is predicted that the tandem pentapeptide repeats will form a right‐handed β‐helical structure. A structural model of the pentapeptide repeats is presented.
Empirical study on the relationship among government holding, asset injection and listed companies performance – evidence from China securities market

This paper aims to investigate the private placement of equity (PPE) by asset injection in China. It analyzes the influence to shareholders’ wealth and performance in the state-holding listed companies and private-holding listed companies. The key findings of this paper are the shareholders’ wealth and performance increased in the short-term, but decreased in long-term after announcement of asset injection by major shareholders. After asset injection, the state-holding listed companies experience larger decline in the long-term shareholders wealth and performance than private-holding listed companies.
Made in Oman: Promoting Manufacturing and Export in the Sultanate of Oman

Oman’s manufacturing sector has shown promising growth during the past decades. This paper analyzes the role of the manufacturing and export sector in economic growth and development. Then, after analyzing government policy toward manufacturing in Oman, this paper uses research gathered from companies in Rusayl to determine the biggest problems currently facing manufacturing in Oman and the effectiveness of government policy toward the sector. Problems found included excessive bureaucracy, Omanization, and transport costs. These findings were then presented to the appropriate public institutions, with their reactions documented. Recommendations for change include streamlining government services, expediting the construction of the Gulf Railway, and implementing an innovative credit-based s o l u t i o n t o O m a n i z a t i o n .
Managing quality in manufacturing versus services: a comparative analysis

Reveals that the majority of those writing on the subject of managing quality in a service environment argue that this is more difficult than in manufacturing. Tries to redress this balance by presenting a number of reasoned arguments. The material presented is based heavily on opinion rather than fact, but intends to cause researchers and students alike to question some of the traditional arguments and perhaps even spark a debate on the topic which examines key features of manufacturing and examines the difficulties they present in relation to the management of quality. Concludes that while the management of quality in services is different to manufacturing, it is not always the case that it is more difficult.
Best Practices for Quality Improvement—Lessons from Top Ranked Engineering Institutions

Maximum number of privately funded engineering institutions have been established in India in the last two decades to meet the growing needs of technical manpower required by the Engineering and IT companies as well as aspiring students after completion of the Pre-University Program. However, a large number of institutions have not been able to attract the talented students for their undergraduate programs. The private managements of those institutions have realized then, the need for maintaining high quality in imparting engineering education. In addition, the regulatory bodies like NBA insist on maintaining the quality in the educational programs before giving accreditation. Therefore, the young institutes need to know the best practices adopted by the high performing institutions and introduce those best practices in their programs. In this paper, an attempt has been made to identify the best practices of the reputed and ranking institutes, to classify and codify those practices so as to enable the young institutes to implement them. Quality indicators have been identified through literature review, by summarizing previous studies, by conducting discussion with experts in the field. A few top ranked engineering institutions are selected to identify and list the best practices, by referring to the finding of various magazines. Practices followed with respect to the quality indicators identified have been composed by conducting structured interviews and discussions with various core groups & stake holders of these institutions. The details of literature review, data collection & analysis, findings and policy implications of the research work are presented in this paper. The best practices enlisted through this study will act as guidelines to implement the quality initiatives for the young institutions.
Understanding practices at the “ethnic” marketing/entrepreneurship interface: a case study of Kirit Pathak

This paper reports on a case history drawn from a larger investigation that profiled “successful” Asian entrepreneurs in order to encourage future entrepreneurship within the broad Asian community in the UK. Asian entrepreneurs were chosen for the larger study due to their propensity to engage in entrepreneurial activities in the UK in comparison to other ethnic communities. Ten case histories were developed via personal interviews with entrepreneurs in the Asian Eye “Rich‐List” of the 100 wealthiest Asians in the UK and data was supported with information from Web sites, newspapers etc. One case history is presented in this paper in order to explore the richness of the qualitative data and this serves as a learning vehicle for future ethnic businessmen and women working at the marketing/entrepreneurship interface.
A Polymorphism in the APE 1 Gene Promoter is Associated with Lung Cancer Risk

Apurinic/apyrimidinic endonuclease 1 (APE1) is an essential enzyme in the base excision repair pathway, which is the primary mechanism for the repair of DNA damage caused by oxidation and alkylation. We hypothesized that polymorphisms of APE1 are associated with risk for lung cancer. In the hospital-based matched case-control study, a total of 730 lung cancer cases and 730 cancer-free controls were genotyped for four APE1 haplotype-tagging polymorphisms (that is, -656T>G, 400A>G, 630T>C, and 1350T>G). Among them, the single-nucleotide polymorphism -656T>G located in the promoter region of APE1 was significantly associated with risk for lung cancer. We found that, compared with -656 TT homozygotes, the variant genotypes were associated with a significantly decreased risk [adjusted odds ratio, 0.51; 95% confidence interval (95% CI), 0.33-0.79 for -656 TG; adjusted odds ratio, 0.43; 95% CI, 0.25-0.76 for -656 GG, respectively]. Furthermore, we found a statistically significant reduced risk of -656T>G variants among heavy smokers (adjusted odds ratio, 0.52; 95% CI, 0.30-0.93 for -656 TG; adjusted odds ratio, 0.27; 95% CI, 0.13-0.57 for -656 GG, respectively), with a significant gene-smoking interaction (P = 0.013). A similar gene-smoking interaction in the context of APE1 haplotypes was also observed. The in vitro promoter assay revealed that the -656 G allele had a significantly higher transcriptional activity than that of the -656 T allele. Together, our results suggest that polymorphisms of the APE1 gene possibly interact with smoking and may contribute to the development of lung cancer. (Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2009;18(1):223–9)
Impact of Participatory Micro Credit on Integrated Community Development in Uttar Pradesh

Micro credit in India hinges on four pillars i.e. micro saving, inter loaning, micro enterprise and micro insurance. The whole micro credit system has led to empower women to a great extent and initiate small enterprises like dairy, poultry, honey production, seed production, etc. and small cottage industries at the rural level besides, meeting out social and personal expenses. On these lines a study named “Impact of Participatory Micro credit on Integrated Community Development in Uttar Pradesh. ” was planned with objectives to study different components of participatory micro credit . Two major systems of micro credit were existing in the study area. Though the SHG was central in both systems, NGOs were main self help group promoting institution. Banks also acted as self help group promoting institution but on limited scale. Existing micro credit system included four components i. e. saving, Internal loaning, micro enterprise and micro insurance. Micro credit related activities facilitated improvement in the socio economic status of the SHG members. Micro insurance has been recently initiated and has low acceptance due to poor condition of the farmers and also because of low awareness.
Emergence of protein kinase CK2 as a key target in cancer therapy

Protein kinase CK2, a protein serine/threonine kinase, plays a global role in activities related to cell growth, cell death, and cell survival. CK2 has a large number of potential substrates localized in diverse locations in the cell including, for example, NF‐κB as an important downstream target of the kinase. In addition to its involvement in cell growth and proliferation it is also a potent suppressor of apoptosis, raising its key importance in cancer cell phenotype. CK2 interacts with diverse pathways which illustrates the breadth of its impact on the cellular machinery of both cell growth and cell death giving it the status of a “master regulator” in the cell. With respect to cancer, CK2 has been found to be dysregulated in all cancers examined demonstrating increased protein expression levels and nuclear localization in cancer cells compared with their normal counterparts. We originally proposed CK2 as a potentially important target for cancer therapy. Given the ubiquitous and essential for cell survival nature of the kinase, an important consideration would be to target it specifically in cancer cells while sparing normal cells. Towards that end, our design of a tenascin based sub‐50 nm (i.e., less than 50 nm size) nanocapsule in which an anti‐CK2 therapeutic agent can be packaged is highly promising because this formulation can specifically deliver the cargo intracellularly to the cancer cells in vivo. Thus, appropriate strategies to target CK2 especially by molecular approaches may lead to a highly feasible and effective approach to eradication of a given cancer.
Gate length scaling and high drive currents enabled for high performance SOI technology using high-κ/metal gate

CMOS devices with high-k/metal gate stacks have been fabricated using a gate-first process flow and conventional stressors at gate lengths of 25 nm, highlighting the scalability of this approach for high performance SOI CMOS technology. AC drive currents of 1630muA/mum and 1190muA/mum have been demonstrated in 45 nm ground-rules at 1V and 200nA/mum off current for nFETs and pFETs, at a Tinv of 14 and 15 respectively. The drive currents were achieved using a simplified high-k/metal gate integration scheme with embedded SiGe and dual stress liners (DSL) and without utilizing additional stress enhancers. Devices have been fabricated with Tinv's down to 12 and 10.5 demonstrating the scalability of this approach for 32 nm and beyond.
Earnings Management to Avoid Earnings Decreases and Losses: Empirical Evidence from Japan

The main purpose of this study is to investigate whether and how Japanese firms manage reported earnings. We first investigate whether Japanese firm managers engage in earnings management to avoid decreases in earnings and losses by examining earnings distribution. However, the test of earnings distribution does not capture the magnitude of earnings management and does not specify the method by which earnings are managed. Then, we estimate discretionary accruals to capture the magnitude of earnings management and investigate how Japanese firms manage reported earnings. If managers of the firms engage in earnings management, we would find that discretionary accruals of these firms are unusually higher than other firms. First, this study finds that Japanese firms manage reported earnings to avoid decreases in earnings and losses. Especially, the distribution of earnings indicates that Japanese firm managers are more likely to engage in earnings management to avoid losses than the U.S. firms. Second, we find that managers control accounting accruals with discretion to increase reported earnings when pre-managed earnings are losses or decreases. Third, our results show that the prevalence of earnings management is associated with the cost of earnings management, i.e., the firms which are able to manage earnings at lower cost are more likely to engage in earnings management to move from negative pre-managed earnings to positive post-managed earnings. Finally, we present three possible explanations for the reason why Japanese firm managers are more likely to manage earnings to avoid losses than the U.S. firms.
Association of autoantibodies against small nuclear ribonucleoproteins (snRNPs) with symptomatic Toxocara canis infestation

Several studies have demonstrated the occurrence of autoantibodies in the course of infestations with helminth parasites and a number of target proteins have been identified. Sera from patients suffering from toxocarosis, a disease caused by the parasitic roundworm Toxocara canis, and from healthy individuals were tested for autoantibodies by immunofluorescence and immunoblot assays using HEp‐2 cells as antigen. A considerable proportion of the sera from patients with toxocarosis‐associated symptoms were autoantibody‐positive, with a speckled staining pattern in the immunofluorescence test (62%) and with anti‐snRNP reactivity in the immunoblot assay (98%). In contrast, significantly fewer sera from asymptomatic individuals scored positive in these assays (18% in the immunofluorescence test, P < 0·005; 24% in the immunoblot, P < 0·005). Although the causative link between Toxocara infestation and the occurrence of autoantibodies is still unclear, our results show that increased amounts of autoantibodies are associated with clinical symptoms of inflammation. Thus a serum test for autoantibodies in toxocarosis patients might be a valuable gatekeeper assay for the decision for or against anti‐inflammatory treatment.