Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Business Groups Exist in Developed Markets Also: Britain Since 1850

Diversified business groups are well-known phenomenon in emerging markets, both today and historically. This is often explained by the prevalence of institutional voids or the nature of government-business relations. It is typically assumed that such groups were much less common in developed economies, and largely disappeared during the twentieth century. This working paper contests this assumption with evidence from Britain between 1850 and the present day. During the nineteenth century merchant houses established business groups with diversified portfolio and pyramidal structures overseas, primarily in developing countries, both colonial and independent. In the domestic economy, large single product firms became the norm, which over time merged into large combines with significant market power. This reflected a business system in which a close relationship between finance and industry was discouraged, but were there few restrictions on the transfer of corporate ownership. Yet large diversified business groups did emerge, which had private or closely held shareholding and substantial international businesses. The working paper argues that diversified business groups added value in mature markets such as Britain. In the domestic economy, Pearson and Virgin created well-managed and performing businesses over long periods. The much-criticized conglomerates of the 1970s-1990s era such as Hanson and BTR were also quite financially successful forms of business enterprise. The demise of many of them appears to owe at least as much to management fads as to serious financial under-performance.
Future Directions in Marketing Theory

RECENT controversial developments in marketing theory call for a reevaluation of goals and directions in the theoretical development of the discipline. In two widely read articles, one by Kotler and the other by Kotler and Levy, the authors clearly state the intention of extending marketing thought to processes and institutions previously considered to lie outside its traditional boundaries.1 This paper is designed to explore the probable causes for the Kotler-Levy position, to evaluate that position as an alternative to the more traditional one (quite well stated by Luck),2 and to suggest that there are at least two other appropriate directions in which marketing may
INFLUENCE OF INNOVATIVE BUSINESSES ON CONSUMER PREFERENCES: A STUDY ON LAPTOP USERS

Globalization raises new difficulties for businesses in terms of competition. Those businesses which operate in the global scale have increased the rate of competition. Competitors of acompany is not just those within its own national boundaries anymore but others which are established in another part of the world and getting a big market share. As globalization promotes competition, businesses become more enthusiastic about getting one step ahead of their competitors by innovation. Innovative businesses turn towards new, marketable and distinguishing products to influence consumers. Consumers meet a different technology each day and their expectations increase. Those businesses which are not innovative have no chance for competition anymore. From this perspective, innovation is vital for businesses. This study aimed to find out to what extent laptop computer users paid attention to innovation when buying products. The study was based on questions like "Do consumers, when they buy products, care about whether the relevant companies are innovative? " and "How much important is innovation when compared with marketing activities? " A questionnaire was administered to laptop computer users in this regard. The results suggest that all segments of the society pay attention to innovation, that they lean towards innovation when buying products, and that innovative businesses always tend to be preferred.
Phishing Attacks and Counter Measures

Phishing is a term used to describe various scams that use fraudulent e-mail messages, sent by criminals, to trick people into exposing personal information. The criminals use this information identity to rob bank accounts, or take over computers. Counterfeit web sites, using "hijacked" company brands and logos are created to lure individuals into revealing information that are confidential. These digital thugs are "phishing" for any data they can obtain to prey on people and further their criminal activities. E-mail has become an invaluable communication tool, both for business and personal use. Among the many security issues that affect computer users, there is a rapidly growing threat known as "phishing". Criminals use phishing attacks to lure the unsuspecting into visiting a fraudulent web site, calling a fraudulent phone number, or downloading malicious software, expressly to steal sensitive information such as credit card numbers, account credentials, social security numbers, PINS, or passwords.
A pNML Compact Model Enabling the Exploration of Three-Dimensional Architectures

In nano magnetic logic (NML), single-domain nanomagnets enable logic operations. Binary information can be encoded thanks to its bistable magnetization. Many implementations are currently discussed in literature, among them one promising candidate is perpendicular-nano magnetic logic (pNML). It features several advantages like the controllability of the switching mechanism, the simplicity of design, and the natural predisposition of being integrated in three-dimensional (3-D) architectures. Here we show how this technology can be adopted in the design of 3-D logic architectures. Physical equations and quantities have been gathered from experimental demonstrations of pNML devices; formulas have then been fitted and implemented in VHDL (VHSIC Hardware Description Language). In this paper, we present an analysis of pNML circuits: initially a Multiplexer has been manufactured and characterized, then our compact model has been tested through simulations. Moreover, the MUX has adopted to design a generic n-bit accumulator. Our results demonstrate that the compact model makes it possible to perform fast simulations, while maintaining a fine level of accuracy. Thanks to its flexibility, novel materials, geometric variations, and other technological improvements can be easily integrated in order to be tested at circuit level. We anticipate our essay to be a starting point for the exploration of large 3-D digital circuits.
Deriving dispersal distances from genetic data

Dispersal is one of the most important factors determining the genetic structure of a population, but good data on dispersal distances are rare because it is difficult to observe a large sample of dispersal events. However, genetic data contain unbiased information about the average dispersal distances in species with a strong sex bias in their dispersal rates. By plotting the genetic similarity between members of the philopatric sex against some measure of the distance between them, the resulting regression line can be used for estimating how far dispersing individuals of the opposite sex have moved before settling. Dispersers showing low genetic similarity to members of the opposite sex will on average have originated from further away. Applying this method to a microsatellite dataset from lions (Panthera leo) shows that their average dispersal distance is 1.3 home ranges with a 95% confidence interval of 0.4–3.0 home ranges. These results are consistent with direct observations of dispersal from our study population and others. In this case, direct observations of dispersal distance were not detectably biased by a failure to detect long–range dispersal, which is thought to be a common problem in the estimation of dispersal distance.
Micro-computed tomography measurements of peripheral lung pathology in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

BACKGROUND The smaller airways, < 2 mm in diameter, offer little resistance in normal lungs, but become the major site of obstruction in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). OBJECTIVE To examine bronchiolar remodeling and alveolar destruction in COPD using micro-computed tomography (micro-CT). METHODS Micro-CT was used to measure the number and cross-sectional lumen area of terminal bronchioles (TB) and alveolar mean linear intercept (Lm) in 4 lungs removed from patients with very severe (GOLD-4) COPD and 4 unused donor lungs that served as controls. These lungs were inflated with air to a transpulmonary pressure (P(L)) of 30 cm H(2)O and held at P(L) 10 cm H(2)O while they were frozen solid in liquid nitrogen vapor. A high resolution CT scan was performed on the frozen specimen prior to cutting it into 2-cm thick transverse slices. Representative core samples of lung tissue 2 cm long and 1 cm in diameter cut from each slice were fixed at -80 degrees C in a 1% solution of gluteraldehyde in pure acetone, post-fixed in osmium, critically point dried, and examined by micro-CT. RESULTS A 10-fold reduction in terminal bronchiolar number and a 100-fold reduction in their minimal cross-sectional lumen area were measured in both emphysematous and non-emphysematous regions of the COPD lungs. CONCLUSIONS The centrilobular emphysematous phenotype of COPD is associated with narrowing and obliteration of the terminal bronchioles that begins prior to the onset of emphysematous destruction.
Objectively evaluating student case presentations.

Evaluation and documentation of student performance is of major importance to a radiology elective coordinator. To better assess a variety of aspects of competence and learning, an oral case presentation was included in the final elective evaluation. This article describes the 31-item checklist designed to assess the level of student achievement of the objectives for the oral presentation. In addition to developing this standard evaluation instrument, methodologies were used to increase the validity and reliability of the oral presentation; the examiners were briefed in advance, the checklist included cognitive and noncognitive measures, and a simple grading score was used for each item. Students who received the checklist and written course objectives at the beginning of the elective earned better grades than those students who did not receive the materials. Student evaluations reveal that the oral case presentation as presently organized is felt to be of value.
Securities Lending and Corporate Governance

Shares are being "lent" on the financial capital markets on a large scale. This serves to facilitate an efficient clearing and settlement process, but it also used to enable certain investment strategies. From that perspective this so-called practice of securities lending of stock lending has a positive effect. It adds to the efficiency of the financial markets. The downside is however that institutional investors in practice lose the voting right they have on the "lent" shares, whereas the "lending" is executed through an actual legal transfer of these shares. Even more, there are indications that shares are sometimes borrowed with the sole purpose of influencing the outcome of the vote at a general meeting of shareholders. Adequate measures are necessary to address these downsides without losing the positive effects of securities lending along the way.
Stochastisch-Lokale Suche

Stochastisch-lokale Suchverfahren gehören zu den am meisten verwendeten und erfolgreichsten Techniken zur Lösung schwieriger kombinatorischer Probleme in der künstlichen Intelligenz (Intellektik) und verwandten Gebieten. Beispiele hierfür sind das aussagenlogische Erfüllbarkeitsproblem, Routingund Schedulingprobleme, sowie Probleme aus dem Bereich E-Commerce und aus der Bioinformatik. Aufgrund ihrer Leistungsfähigkeit, Flexibilität und relativ einfachen Implementierung genießen stochastisch-lokale Suchverfahren eine stetig zunehmende Popularität und wissenschaftliche Bedeutung; darüberhinaus ergeben sich vielfältige Forschungsmöglichkeiten, die im folgenden ebenfalls umrissen werden.
Modulation of uterine function by endocrine and paracrine factors in ruminants

Uterine adenogenesis in the neonate is critical as uterine glands are essential for pregnancy in adult ruminants. The uterus is stimulated by estrogens (E2) and progesterone (P4) that prepare it to respond to biochemical signals from the conceptus (embryo/fetus and placenta). Interferon tau (IFNT) is responsible for pregnancy recognition and modification of uterine gene expression including sensitivity to placental lactogen and placental growth hormone that stimulate development and gene expression by epithelial cells of uterine glands. P4 is permissive for most actions of IFNT. Novel genes are expressed by uterine luminal and superficial glandular epithelia in response to P4 and IFNT as those cells are in direct contact with conceptus trophectoderm. But, uterine glandular epithelium and stromal cells respond to P4 and IFNT by expressing classical interferon stimulated genes. Uterine receptivity to implantation requires loss of expression of receptors for P4 and E2 by uterine epithelia. P4 stimulates P4 receptor-positive stromal cells to express fibroblast growth factor 10 (FGF10) and hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) that act via their respective receptors on uterine epithelia and trophectoderm to regulate cellular functions and gene expression. FGF10 and IFNT are hypothesized to activate complementary cell signaling pathways that modulate expression of genes for implantation, modify phenotype of uterine stromal cells, silence expression of genes for P4 and E2 receptors, signal pregnancy recognition, suppress genes for immune recognition, alter membrane permeability to enhance conceptus-maternal exchange of factors, increase endometrial vascularity, and activate genes for transport of nutrients into the uterine lumen. Those actions are essential for a successful outcome of pregnancy.
Hedge funds and prime broker dealers: steps towards a "best practice proposal"

The rapidly growing hedge fund industry has brought substantial benefi ts to fi nancial markets. At the same time, hedge funds can in some circumstances give rise to a number of potential risks. Not unlike in the period following the Asian crisis and the collapse of Long-Term Capital Management, governments, regulators, and central banks have been called upon to assess whether additional regulatory initiatives are required to mitigate these risks. There are three potential regulatory objectives that can be invoked. They are investor protection, market integrity protection and fi nancial system protection. The link between hedge funds and the stability of the fi nancial system relates to the possibility that large losses in one or several hedge funds get transmitted to one or several large internationally active banks. This paper discusses the benefi ts and the risks of hedge funds. It outlines the steps towards a best practice proposal aimed at strengthening the credit relationship between prime broker dealers and hedge funds. The objective of such an internationally endorsed standard would be to minimize the risks of the credit links between prime broker dealers and hedge funds being unwound in a disorderly fashion in times of extended market stress. The basic elements of the proposal are: • Prime broker dealers should ensure that they have a complete risk metric of each of the largest hedge funds they are exposed to. • Prime broker dealers should ensure that they invest suffi cient resources in collateral risk management systems to complement their market risk management systems. • Prime broker dealers should permanently monitor variation margins, traditional initial margins and portfolio risk based or VaR-based initial margins. In addition, they should conduct rigorous periodical stress-testing.
Antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibodies in polychondritis.

Sir: We recently published an algorithm based on combinations of synovial fluid (SF) cell number thresholds and types which should considerably extend the diagnostic use of SF cytology in non-septic/crystal arthritis. ' Key branch points depend on accurate values for total and differential nucleated leucocyte counts (white cell count (WCC)), ragocytes, and Reiter's cells (cytophagocytic mononuclear cells (CPMs))2; and the recognition of specific cell types for example, LE cells, tart cells. The receipt and analysis of clinical SF specimens is often delayed (60% of SFs in our laboratory are processed the same day as taken, 22% after overnight fridge storage, others arriving one or more days late). Schumacher's group reported large falls in WCC in SF kept at room temperature for a few hours, though other cytological changes were not described.3 We investigated the effects of fridge (4°C) storage over one to three days on these key cytological indices, and the accuracy of algorithm derived diagnoses in 51 knee aspirates chosen randomly from routine diagnostic specimens, satisfying the following: (a) receipt within four hours of arthrocentesis ('fresh'); (b) possessing sufficient cells (>022xl09/1) and volume (>1-5 ml), lacking bloodstaining or clots. There were 48 'inflammatory' (25 rheumatoid, seven spondyloarthritic, eight Reiter's/reactive, and eight miscellaneous, including crystal and septic) and three osteoarthritic SFs. Fluids were examined 'fresh' and then refrigerated without dilution in the original 2 ml Li-heparin bottle. Aliquots (0-25 ml) were taken daily and processed for (a) wet preparation (ragocyte count and crystals); (b) total WCC by haemocytometer; (c) cytocentrifuigation and Jenner-Giemsa staining for cytology. A differential WCC (percentage polymorphonuclear leucocytes, small lymphocytes, monocytes), CPM count (as percentage monocytes), and the presence or absence of eosinophils, mast, plasma, and inclusion body cells were noted as described. ' Fluids were examined blind to clinical details, and serial assessments were carried out by the same investigators. In the 48 inflammatory SFs (table 1) the total WCC fell by 45% over three days, owing to falling polymorphonuclear leucocyte numbers; this only became significant Table 2 Effect ofsynovialfluid storage oni algorithm derived diagnoses. Results are given as number (percentage)
BRAND PERSONALITY CREATION THROUGH ADVERTISING (Study KFC on Television Commercial Break)

The perfect concept of Advertising and its application on the mass media cannot be separated with one central aspect from any sold product or certain service, named Brand personality and depends on five main aspects, which are Sincerity, Excitement, Competence, Ruggedness and Sophistication, especially for Kentucky Fried Chicken in Manado City.This research’s purposes are to figure out whether Brand Personality give significant influence to the Advertising of KFC at Manado City, simultaneously and to figure out whether Brand Personality give significant influence to the Advertising of KFC at Manado City, partially. To achieve those objectives, Multiple Regression Analysis is used. Its’ conclusions are Brand Personality generally give the significant influence for the Advertising of KFC and each Brand Personality partially give the significant influence for the Advertising of KFC. Based on the results, company’s managers and employees must maintain and enhance the good understanding about three Brand Personality, must improve customers’ understanding about Sophistication and Excitement, and must give more concern about other influencing factors of the customers’ understanding about the advertising and its contents. Keywords : brand personality, advertising
Método para avaliação de benefícios em cadeias de suprimento

Objetiva-se neste trabalho apresentar um método para realizar análises quantitativas de desempenho de configurações operacionais alternativas em cadeias de suprimentos empresarias. A aplicação do método pode evidenciar pontos de alavancagem nas transações entre os agentes para ganhos em eficiência econômica do sistema como um todo. O trabalho propõe a utilização dos conhecimentos advindos do método computacional conhecido como system dynamics SD. Foi realizado um estudo de caso junto a uma Cooperativa de Laticínios do interior do Estado de São Paulo, no qual modelos de simulação foram construídos baseados na análise prévia dos elementos do sistema. Deste modo, tornou-se possível examinar as relações de causalidade através da construção de cenários alternativos e controle sistemático das variáveis pesquisadas. Do exame dos cenários alternativos e do desempenho do sistema frente aos “distúrbios” aos quais as variáveis são submetidas, natureza do processo de simulação, pôde-se ganhar um maior aprendizado sobre o sistema em estudo. Palavras chave: Cadeias de suprimento. Pensamento sistêmico. Modelagem computacional.
Consumer Idealized Design: Involving Consumers in the Product Development Process

A considerable portion of the growing body of literature devoted to the design process deals with the roles of internal marketing, production, and research and development teams and their interaction. Such design methodologies could be greatly enhanced by focusing more attention on understanding consumer needs and behavior, especially in the initial stages of product development. Susan Ciccantelli and Jason Magidson describe Consumer Idealized Design, a process for involving consumers in the actual design of a new manufactured good or service. They summarize three case studies involving the application of the process.
IT governance in the Brazilian central government: developments and constraints

This paper is based on a case study conducted from October 2011 to August 2012 in the Secretariat for Logistics and Information Technology SLTI of the Ministry of Planning, Budget and Management in Brazil. SLTI was successful in improving IT governance in the central government from the mid-2000s onwards, through the adoption of initiatives focused on: 1 enacting, disseminating and enforcing rules and regulations; 2 human resources training and skill development; 3 providing technical assistance through consultancies. The Secretariat effectively disseminated throughout public bodies of the central government the importance of establishing IT committees, conducting IT procurement planning and designing an IT strategy. Nonetheless, this study also shows a number of drawbacks that need to be addressed to further improve IT governance in the Brazilian central government. Particularly, it is necessary to increase the participation of non-IT management staff in the IT committees as a way of promoting greater alignment between IT strategies and organisational objectives and to intensify communication exchange between IT divisions in order to avoid duplication of procurement procedures and inefficient allocation of financial and human resources.
Routine bone scans in patients with prostate cancer related to serum prostate‐specific antigen and alkaline phosphatase

Objective To evaluate the need for a bone scan as a routine staging procedure in patients with newly diagnosed prostate cancer in relation to serum prostate‐specific antigen (PSA) and alkaline phosphatase (ALP) levels, and thus determine whether a reduction of the use of this staging method is possible in patients with a low probability of osseous metastasis.