Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The word of mouth communication and management services

Communication by word of mouth (WOM) has been considered as a fundamental approach to managing the relationships that different stakeholders used to interact with the organization. The same is seen as non-burdensome for business and a source of information considered safe for customers. Thus, the main objective of this paper is to show how customer satisfaction affects the communication process. This study was conducted by applying a quantitative survey in a large hotel in the region of Goiania. The results indicate the widespread of this communication, having in view the excellent quality of services provided by an organization. Key words: Word of mouth communication, satisfaction, services.
Does heightening risk appraisals change people's intentions and behavior? A meta-analysis of experimental studies.

Several theories construe risk appraisals as key determinants of decisions and actions, and this idea has been supported in correlational studies. However, correlational data cannot answer the question, "Does heightening risk appraisals change people's intentions and behavior? " The present review meta-analyzed experimental evidence in order to address this issue. We identified 4 elements of risk appraisal-risk perception, anticipatory emotion, anticipated emotion, and perceived severity-and located experiments that (a) engendered a statistically significant increase in risk appraisal among treatment compared to control participants and (b) measured subsequent intention or behavior. Heightening risk appraisals had effects of d+ = . 31 (k = 217) and d+ = . 23 (k = 93) on intention and behavior, respectively. There was evidence that the elements of risk appraisal combined to influence outcomes. For instance, heightening risk perceptions had larger effects on outcomes when anticipatory emotions or perceived severity was also increased. Crucially, risk appraisal effects were augmented by coping appraisals: Risk appraisals had larger effects on outcomes when response efficacy and self-efficacy were enhanced or when response costs were reduced. The largest effect sizes were observed when risk appraisals, response efficacy, and self-efficacy were simultaneously heightened (d+ = .98 and .45, for intention and behavior, respectively). These findings indicate that heightening risk appraisals changes intentions and behavior. However, the direct effects of risk appraisals were generally small. Exploiting synergies among the elements of risk appraisal, and between risk appraisals and coping appraisals, should make for more effective behavior change interventions.
Effect of Price and Brand on Common Platform Appliance Failure

This main objective of this study is to determine if common platform dishwashing products have similar warranty failure rates when brands and price points are variable. Data for this study are based upon over four years of data involving one million individual sales and over 150,000 warranty failures of a common platform dishwashing appliance. It is concluded that there are similar failure rates between common platform dishwashers when different brands are at the same price point. Other conclusions indicate that there are non-similar failure rates between common platform dishwashers when the same brand is at different price points. There is a significant resource cost in the development of products. To minimise the resource cost and maximise the return on investment, many companies develop several new products from one common platform. Common platforms spread across several separate brands. Different brands attract different customers who have different perceptions of quality. Customers view quality as a mix of utility and reliability and expect high reliability during the warranty period. It is often assumed by the developer that the warranty failure rate will be similar for common product platforms even when products are marketed under different price points. The goal of this research is to test if this common assumption is accurate.
Lattice Boltzmann Models with Mid-Range Interactions

An extension of the standard Shan-Chen model for non ideal-fluids, catering for mid-range, soft-core and hard-core repulsion, is investigated. It is shown that the inclusion of such mid-range interactions does not yield any visible enhancement of the density jump across the dense and light phases. Such an enhancement can however be obtained by tuning the exponents of the effective interaction. The results also indicate that the inclusion of soft-core repulsion can prevent the coalescence of neighborhood bubbles, thereby opening the possibility of tailoring the size of multi-droplet configurations, such as sprays and related phase-separating fluids.
Achieving competitiveness through supply chain integration

Supply chain development can take place in several steps, from functional optimisation, then internal integration, dyadic integration and last, integration in chains and networks. Before external integration gives true value, order in own house must be achieved. This paper presents a case study of a Danish manufacturer that has gone through a major transformation process, and the paper intends to discuss how such a Business Process Reengineering (BPR) project aimed to achieve internal integration. The paper demonstrates how improved competitiveness can be obtained through a synchronous implementation of a new Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system together with BPR activities. From the very first day of the project, there was a clear focus on the construction and refinement of prototypes of core processes to meet competitive criteria. The paper provides further support for improving supply chain performance by creating transparency of vital supply chain information through ERP implementation and BPR.
A new approach of point-based rendering

A new approach of point-based rendering is presented for objects with complex shape. By this approach, an object is represented by a set of discrete sample points, each point stands for a sampled surface area whose boundary is assumed to be a circle when viewed along its normal. An algorithm is proposed to build a point-based model with level of details. Efficiency of the rendering process is ensured by performing adaptive sampling of the model without calculating the sample points on the fly. To get rid of the aliasing effects due to point sampling, we have developed a delta-z-buffer and a flag buffer to smooth the boundary of two adjacent sampled areas and to fill the holes that may appear inside the image of an object. Experimental results show that our new approach is capable of rendering complex objects consisting of only 50,000 points with acceptable image quality, and high rendering efficiency.
Cortical visual impairment in children: identification, evaluation and diagnosis

Purpose of review Cortical visual impairment (CVI) is a major cause of visual loss in children worldwide. The definition of this condition is constantly evolving with respect to definition, identifying those at risk and technology for diagnosis. These advances can be used for early diagnosis, design of accommodations and services, as well as future therapies and prevention strategies. Recent findings Clinical questionnaires are being developed and tested for reliability in an attempt to identify those at risk for CVI. The definition is constantly being modified and now includes deficits in vision-guided motor planning and higher level executive functions. Neuroimaging techniques, such as MRI, functional MRI, and diffusion tensor imaging; electrophysiologic testing, such as sweep visual-evoked potentials; and perceptual testing, allow for further refinements in correlating structural defects and deficits in function. Summary Recent developments will allow identification of those children at risk for CVI and earlier interventions for specific deficits. A child's performance is built on previously mastered skills, making timely prediction of deficits and intervention essential.
Tissue-specific modulation of Na, K-ATPase alpha-subunit gene expression in uremic rats.

Chronic renal failure in the rat is associated with an impaired extrarenal potassium handling, whereas a renal adaptive mechanism of the remaining nephrons has been described. To understand the molecular basis of potassium homeostasis during renal failure we investigated the in vitro pump activity and the catalytic mRNA transcription in three different tissues: skeletal muscle, isolated adipocytes and kidney. The activity of the sodium pump, as measured by ouabain-sensitive 86Rb/K uptake in isolated adipocytes and skeletal muscle fibers, revealed a significant reduction of the pump activity in uremic rats. The reduction of the Na, K-ATPase activity in adipose tissue was associated with a similar decrement of both catalytic subunits (alpha 1 and alpha 2), whereas in the skeletal muscle tissue was only related to a decrease in the activity of the alpha 1 isoform. The expression of rat Na, K-ATPase catalytic isoforms mRNAs in kidney, muscle and adipose tissue from control and chronic renal failure rats was investigated at the molecular level with cDNA probes specific for the catalytic isoforms (alpha 1 and alpha 2). Northern blot analysis revealed that the respective catalytic mRNAs of uremic rats are regulated in a tissue-specific manner that are in agreement with the sodium-potassium pump activity. Muscle and adipose tissue showed a decrement in the levels of expression for the alpha 1 isoform mRNA. In contrast to these tissues, an increment in alpha 1 mRNA expression was observed in the kidney of rats with chronic renal failure. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Mobile phones and children: Is precaution warranted?

Are there health related arguments to recommend that children limit their use of mobile telephones? The International Expert Group on Mobile Phones from the UK concluded so, but did not come up with convincing scientific data to back this statement. The Health Council of the Netherlands approached the problem by considering whether developmental arguments might be found, i.e., asking if there reason to believe that the heads of children are more susceptible to the electromagnetic fields emitted by mobile telephones than those of adults. It concluded that no major changes in head development occur after the second year of life that might point at a difference in electromagnetic susceptibility between children and adults. The Health Council therefore sees no reason to recommend limiting the use of mobile phones by children. Bioelectromagnetics 25:142–144, 2004. © 2004 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Colistin: Understanding and Applying Recent Pharmacokinetic Advances

Colistin, the most widely used polymyxin antibiotic, was originally introduced in the late 1950s before the establishment of the present‐day drug approval process. Originally shelved due to toxicity concerns, colistin, in the form of its inactive prodrug colistin methanesulfonate, has undergone a renaissance in the past 15 years. Unfortunately, this is not because of an improved adverse‐effect profile but because colistin is among the only remaining antibiotics with activity against multidrug‐resistant gram‐negative bacilli. Pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic data are limited to guide the appropriate use of colistin; however, important advances have occurred over the past 5 years. Since its reintroduction, published reports regarding colistin have produced discordant results in terms of both efficacy and safety. Because the efficacy and toxicity of colistin are dose dependent, the impact of discordant dosing recommendations cannot be understated. This review highlights the issues leading to differing and often conflicting dosing recommendations, reviews the recent pharmacokinetic advances, and provides recommendations for the optimal use of colistin.
Hybrid beamformer design for mmwave wideband multi-user MIMO-OFDM systems : (Invited paper)

In this paper, analog-and-digital hybrid beamformer design is considered for millimeter-wave (mmWave) wideband multi-user (MU) multiple-input single-output (MISO)-OFDM downlink systems, where a single common analog beamformer is used for all subcarriers while a separate digital beamformer is applied to each subcarrier. By applying a signal-to-leakage-plus-noise ratio (SLNR) approach, an efficient beamformer design algorithm based on a trace quotient is derived for joint design of the common analog beamformer and the separate digital beamformers.
Mobilizing the Brand

Mobile devices and services are proposed to be powerful channels for both distribution and marketing communication. In this article, the authors study the effects of mobile channel additions on consumer-brand relationship dimensions. Surveys of three different brands reveal positive effects of mobile channel addition (SMS/MMS) usage on brand satisfaction, direct relationship investments, indirect relationship investments, and main channel usage. The results suggest that SMS channel additions are perceived as complements to the brands’ main channel, whereas MMS channel additions today primarily are perceived as supplementary channels. Moreover, the findings suggest that a promising strategy for increasing consumption of the brand’s main channel is facilitation of the consumers’ direct relationship investment in the mobile services. Implication for service researchers and industry players are discussed.
Downlink interference management for D2D communication underlying cellular networks

Device-to-Device (D2D) communication underlying cellular networks and reusing cellular resources enhances the network capacity and spectrum efficiency, but causes severe interference which can degrade the system performance. In this paper, we concentrate on managing the downlink interference from D2D communication to cellular networks when sharing channel resources. First of all, a strategy based on interference-suppression-area (ISA) is proposed to classify the cellular user equipments (CUEs). Secondly, resource scheduling is processed to reduce the interference from D2D communication to CUEs inside the ISA. Finally, the size of ISA is discussed, which will influence the system performance heavily. The simulation results show that this interference management strategy by resources scheduling within ISA significantly improves system performance, and there exists an optimal size of ISA maximizing the system performance.
Mirror, Mirror, on the Wall, What's Unfair in the Reflections on Advertising?

The author responds to Pollay's review of the “conventional wisdom” or “prevailing opinion” about the unintended consequences of advertising. After (re)constructing the implicit train of thought underlying Pollay's reflections, he suggests that the thin strands of the arguments Pollay cites compose only the weakest logical thread. The author finds unfairness in the attacks of critics who would smash the advertising mirror because they do not like what they see in it.
Researching Sensitive Issues and Ethnicity: Lessons from Sexual Health

Researchers are generally familiar with the need to adapt their research methods in order to minimise the impact of sensitivity. However, are different considerations required for studies of ethnicity or with ethnic minority respondents? This paper provides insight into strategies used by the authors to tackle sensitivity in qualitative and quantitative research studies of sexual health and ethnicity. Drawing on examples from these studies, the paper demonstrates the relevance of Lee's model of sensitivity, and examines ways in which ethnicity may add further dimensions to our ability to understand, identify and limit sensitivity in the research process. The paper identifies techniques available to researchers for handling sensitivity in general, as well as those that may be useful for researching sensitive topics among ethnic minority populations. The paper concludes that, given the transitional and contextual nature of ethnicity and sensitivity, formulaic approaches for tackling the latter are inappropriate. Instead, strategies are best developed in collaboration with the study communities.
Visualization of the Cysteinyl-phosphate Intermediate of a Protein-tyrosine Phosphatase by X-ray Crystallography*

Protein-tyrosine phosphatases (PTPs) are signal transduction enzymes that catalyze the dephosphorylation of phosphotyrosine residues via the formation of a transient cysteinyl-phosphate intermediate. The mechanism of hydrolysis of this intermediate has been examined by generating a Gln-262 → Ala mutant of PTP1B, which allows the accumulation and trapping of the intermediate within a PTP1B crystal. The structure of the intermediate at 2.5-Å resolution reveals that a conformationally flexible loop (the WPD loop) is closed over the entrance to the catalytic site, sequestering the phosphocysteine intermediate and catalytic site water molecules and preventing nonspecific phosphoryltransfer reactions to extraneous phosphoryl acceptors. One of the catalytic site water molecules, the likely nucleophile, forms a hydrogen bond to the putative catalytic base, Asp-181. In the wild-type enzyme, the nucleophilic water molecule would be coordinated by the side chain of Gln-262. In combination with our previous structural data, we can now visualize each of the reaction steps of the PTP catalytic pathway. The hydrolysis of the cysteinyl-phosphate intermediate of PTPs is reminiscent of GTP hydrolysis by the GTPases, in that both families of enzymes utilize an invariant Gln residue to coordinate the attacking nucleophilic water molecule.
Silymarin protects against paracetamol‐induced lipid peroxidation and liver damage

The effect of silymarin on liver damage induced by acetaminophen (APAP) intoxication was studied. Wistar male rats pretreated (72 h) with 3‐methylcholantrene (3‐MC) (20 mg kg−1 body wt. i.p.) were divided into three groups: animals in group 1 were treated with acetaminophen (APAP) (500 mg kg−1 body wt. p.o.), group 2 consisted of animals that received APAP plus silymarin (200 mg kg−1 body wt. p.o.) 24 h before APAP, and rats in group 3 (control) received the equivalent amount of the vehicles. Animals were sacrificed at different times after APAP administration. Reduced glutathione (GSH), lipid peroxidation and glycogen were measured in liver and alkaline phosphatase (AP), gamma‐glutamyl transpeptidase (GGTP) and glutamic pyruvic transaminase (GPT) activities were measured in serum. After APAP intoxication, GSH and glycogen decreased very fast (1 h) and remained low for 6 h. Lipid peroxidation increased three times over the control 4 and 6 h after APAP treatment. Enzyme activities increased 18 h after intoxication. In the group receiving APAP plus silymarin, levels of lipid peroxidation and serum enzyme activities remained within the control values at any time studied. The fall in GSH was not prevented by silymarin, but glycogen was restored at 18 h. It was concluded that silymarin can protect against APAP intoxication through its antioxidant properties, possibly acting as a free‐radical scavenger.
A Lightweight Privacy-Preserving Data Aggregation Scheme for Fog Computing-Enhanced IoT

Fog computing-enhanced Internet of Things (IoT) has recently received considerable attention, as the fog devices deployed at the network edge can not only provide low latency, location awareness but also improve real-time and quality of services in IoT application scenarios. Privacy-preserving data aggregation is one of typical fog computing applications in IoT, and many privacy-preserving data aggregation schemes have been proposed in the past years. However, most of them only support data aggregation for homogeneous IoT devices, and cannot aggregate hybrid IoT devices’ data into one in some real IoT applications. To address this challenge, in this paper, we present a lightweight privacy-preserving data aggregation scheme, called Lightweight Privacy-preserving Data Aggregation, for fog computing-enhanced IoT. The proposed LPDA is characterized by employing the homomorphic Paillier encryption, Chinese Remainder Theorem, and one-way hash chain techniques to not only aggregate hybrid IoT devices’ data into one, but also early filter injected false data at the network edge. Detailed security analysis shows LPDA is really secure and privacy-enhanced with differential privacy techniques. In addition, extensive performance evaluations are conducted, and the results indicate LPDA is really lightweight in fog computing-enhanced IoT.
Definition of the Cattle Killer Cell Ig–like Receptor Gene Family: Comparison with Aurochs and Human Counterparts

Under selection pressure from pathogens, variable NK cell receptors that recognize polymorphic MHC class I evolved convergently in different species of placental mammal. Unexpectedly, diversified killer cell Ig–like receptors (KIRs) are shared by simian primates, including humans, and cattle, but not by other species. Whereas much is known of human KIR genetics and genomics, knowledge of cattle KIR is limited to nine cDNA sequences. To facilitate comparison of the cattle and human KIR gene families, we determined the genomic location, structure, and sequence of two cattle KIR haplotypes and defined KIR sequences of aurochs, the extinct wild ancestor of domestic cattle. Larger than its human counterpart, the cattle KIR locus evolved through successive duplications of a block containing ancestral KIR3DL and KIR3DX genes that existed before placental mammals. Comparison of two cattle KIR haplotypes and aurochs KIR show the KIR are polymorphic and the gene organization and content appear conserved. Of 18 genes, 8 are functional and 10 were inactivated by point mutation. Selective inactivation of KIR3DL and activating receptor genes leaves a functional cohort of one inhibitory KIR3DL, one activating KIR3DX, and six inhibitory KIR3DX. Functional KIR diversity evolved from KIR3DX in cattle and from KIR3DL in simian primates. Although independently evolved, cattle and human KIR gene families share important function-related properties, indicating that cattle KIR are NK cell receptors for cattle MHC class I. Combinations of KIR and MHC class I are the major genetic factors associated with human disease and merit investigation in cattle.
THE RISE AND FALL OF ENTREPRENURIAL OPPORTUNITIES: A PROCESS MODEL FOR CORPORATE ENTREPRENEURSHIP.

The article presents an analysis of entrepreneurial opportunities in established organizations, focusing on the decision making procedures through which a company determines if it will act on such occasions. A model of the process of corporate entrepreneurship is presented. This process is represented as consisting of two phases. The phases involve opportunity-based theories of entrepreneurship and attention-based accounts of corporate actions, and are described as a converging and a screening phase.
Enterprise diversity in the business of wine: what is a business case study?

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to introduce the special issue of case studies in the enterprise diversity of wine business and to situate the wine business cases selected for this special issue, which feature a diversity of formats and approaches.Design/methodology/approach – Rigour and relevance underpinned the choice of case studies for this special issue. All of the cases are informed by theory, and all share a common concern with the understanding of wine business phenomena and origins in or links to practice.Findings – There is no consensus view on what a case is and what it is for in business research and teaching generally, and that this is appropriate given pluralistic approaches to teaching and research in the various business disciplines. Supporting this argument, the various types of cases encountered in the business literature are considered and an overview offered based on purpose, motivation, similarities and differences and common themes.Originality/value – Each of the wine business.