Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Antecedents of consumer brand engagement and brand loyalty

ABSTRACT Literature on consumer engagement is growing significantly, yet there is limited empirical research on its drivers and outcomes. This study examines the key drivers and outcomes of consumer brand engagement (CBE) in the context of Australian mobile phone service providers. The results reveal that consumer involvement, consumer participation and self-expressive brand have differing effects on the CBE dimensions (cognitive processing, affection and activation) and brand loyalty. Specifically, involvement, participation and self-expressive brand are all found to positively impact cognitive processing. Also, involvement and self-expressive brand positively influence affection. While, a positive relationship is established between involvement and activation, self-expressive brand emerges as a negative driver of activation. Further, the results show that affection and activation positively influence brand loyalty. Surprisingly, cognitive processing negatively impacts brand loyalty, whilst involvement (unlike participation and self-expressive brand) has a positive direct effect on brand loyalty. Managerial and academic implications, as well as areas for future research are discussed.
Executive Forum: : The Disappearing Saver – Some Ways Forward in this Difficult Market

Looks at the savings market, its importance to building societies and the way it is changing, with specific reference to the competition from other sectors and the emergence of postal accounts. Five areas of focus are examined which may provide some ways forward for building societies in achieving competitive advantage. These are (1) customer retention, (2) service quality, (3) customer segmentation, (4) serving customer needs, and (5) a consideration of customer profitability. Now would seem to be the right time for building societies to consider carefully how they can provide a superior service to particular groups of customers.
Improving Service Levels through Reverse Factoring

Does 'reverse factoring' - a supply chain finance solution that has recently become popular in industry - allow for operational benefits? Are the benefits automatic, or do they need to be explicitly required in the reverse factoring arrangement? We explore these questions through a periodic review inventory model of a supplier (she) that serves demands of two corporate customers, A and B. The customers have the same payment term toward the supplier and the same minimum service level requirements, but customer A (he) can offer reverse factoring. The supplier chooses her base stock policy and internal cash retention policy in order to minimize her average total cost, while satisfying the customers' service level requirements. We use simulation-based optimization to determine the optimal policies and cost. Through numerical experimentation, we find that the supplier does not automatically offer a better service to customer A, but would rather collect any financial savings resulting from reverse factoring. These savings are however large enough that customer A can require a significant service level improvement. We find that the maximum improvement depends on the initial service level requirement, the demand uncertainty, the absolute difference between the supply lead time and the payment term, and the relative size of expected demand from customer A. Our work contributes to a better understanding of the operational dimensions of supply chain finance.
Managing consumer resistance to innovations

Many new products and services are being introduced into the market. This dissertation examines consumers' reactions to such innovations. In particular, the research focuses on how consumer resistance towards innovations can be managed. Three different research questions on this phenomenon are investigated in separate empirical studies. The first study focuses on how product bundling can facilitate the evaluation and adoption intention of radical innovations. The second study shows that the forced use of technology-based self-service may lead to negative attitudes towards the technology and the service provider, and shows how such negative effects can be reduced. Building on this research, the final study investigates the role of consumer expertise on the post-adoption evaluation of a new technology-based self-service in a forced use situation. His main research interests include consumer acceptance of and resistance to innovations, consumer behavior, marketing strategy, and food marketing.
Luxury perceptions: luxury brand vs counterfeit for young US female consumers

Purpose – The purpose of this study is twofold: expand the body of empirical knowledge of consumer luxury brand perceptions by using the Brand Luxury Index (BLI) scale to compare and contrast young female consumers’ luxury perceptions for a luxury brand and counterfeits of that brand, and use the data from the research to investigate the psychometric properties of the BLI scale.Design/methodology/approach – A convenience sample of 215 female students across multiple programmes of study completed separate, modified BLI scales for the luxury brand and the counterfeits of that brand. The BLI scale taps five dimensions or factors of brand luxury using non‐personal‐oriented perceptions and personal‐oriented perceptions.Findings – This study used a modified version of the original BLI scale. Results show that all rated perceptions of the luxury brand were significantly higher than those for the counterfeits of that brand. Between‐subjects effects revealed that luxury perceptions of those whose last handbag acqu.
Membrane type 1 matrix metalloproteinase expression correlated with the clinicopathological feature and invasion and metastasis in oral squamous cell carcinoma

In the current study, we intended to analyze the expression of membrane type 1 matrix metalloproteinase (MT1-MMP) in oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) and its correlations with clinicopathologic characteristic, and to further identify the function of MT1-MMP in promoting cancer invasion from the point of view of the extracellular matrix degradation. We collected 122 cases of OSCC tissue specimens from patients. Test results were correlated with clinical and pathological parameters. The effects of MT1-MMP in oral cancer cells on the regulation of associated MMPs expression and the invasive and migratory abilities were analyzed. Our results demonstrated that the high expression of MT1-MMP in tumors significantly correlated with the lymph node metastasis, pathological grade, recurrence and follow-up, and high expression of MT1-MMP at the invasive front of tumor significantly correlated with the lymph node metastasis. Furthermore, the patients with higher expression of MT1-MMP had shorter survival time in OSCC. Multivariate analysis indicated that MT1-MMP expression could serve as an independent prognostic indicator for the survival of patients with OSCC. In addition, MT1-MMP, through regulating associated MMPs expression, contributes to promoting the invasion and metastasis in oral cancer cells. In conclusion, MT1-MMP may play an important role in OSCC invasion and metastasis and could act as a promising target for prognostic prediction.
Hierarchical block matching method for fast rotation of binary images

In this paper, we develop a block matching method for fast rotation of binary images. We define coarse and fine blocks to extract bit patterns of an original image and calculate their predrawn mapping patterns (PMPs) using the given rotation angle. The traditional calculation for rotation of images can be thus replaced with simple matching of bit patterns of blocks and drawing of their two dimensional (2-D) PMPs at the output plane. A scheme of overlapping blocks is also used to solve problems of hole generation and topology variation usually occurring in rotation. Experimental results demonstrate that our proposed method performs best in terms of rotation speed compared to other algorithms.
Perception and Reaction of Subscribers to Service S' Cost of GSM Roviders in Nigeria Telecomminication Sector

In Nigeria today, subscribers own more than one network line in order to have access to various network they intent to call at all time, not this alone the tariff / service cost charge by GSM providers are quite higher compare to each order. Base on this,the study investigates the perception and reaction of subscribers to services’ cost of GSM providers in Nigeria telecommunication sector. 150 copies of questionnaire were administered with close monitoring,100% rate of return were eventually achieved. Purposive and random samplings were used to select the representative members of GSM provider in the state. Simple regression method and Kruskal –Wallis Test were used for the analysis, the resultsrevealedthat all null hypotheses are rejected and alternative hypotheses are accepted, that is, there ischain relationship between customer service cost/ tariff charges by GSM providers and customer’s retention, value of services, new customer generation and that network reliability and accessibility will improve subscribers’ reaction positively if at all the service cost is relatively high. From the findings,it was recommended that managers should endeavor to enhance the market share of their organisation through effective customers’ service packages. Also, market survey should be carried out on regular basis to determine and re-determine the perception and reaction of subscribers toward GSM provider in Nigeria. Key words: Subscribers Reaction, Perception, and Service’ Cost/ Tariff.
Budgeting for Information Security and ROI Approach

Information security expenditure involves heavy investment in people, processes and tools. Information system security projects cover a number of non-quantifiable factors not amenable to simplistic cost benefit or ROI analysis. Associated cost/benefits are contingent upon uncertain factors, including level, type, nature and extent of security. Moreover security projects have to comply and deal with statutory issues and differ from case to case. For such projects, the expected productive life, the training period, the periodicity and quantum of benefits/inflows and the expected future outflows required for maintenance, have to be estimated, making quantification complex. The proposed method uses the concept of Total Cost of Ownership, consisting of Direct and Indirect Costs of deploying and maintaining the system for base level security. Option price based ROI method is used to create the second metric for additional level of advanced security. We use the metrics to estimate the net pay offs of the different choices under different probable conditions. The result is a decision matrix to assist stakeholders in decision-making.
Central Bank Liquidity Provision and Core Funding Markets

The global financial crisis can be divided into three distinct phases – Phase I: a contained banking crisis (July 2007 to August 2008); Phase II: financial system collapse and global recession (September 2008 to April 2009); and Phase III: euro area sovereign debt and banking crisis (April 2010 to December 2012). In this paper, we examine how the evolution of the financial crisis can be explained from the perspective of a system-wide liquidity shock that hit funding markets in both the conventional banking and market-based financing (or shadow banking) sectors. While a significant shock to any of the broader funding markets would be likely to have negative economic implications, there is a subset of markets (the core funding markets) that lie at the centre of the financial system for which shocks of sufficient magnitude could have potentially catastrophic consequences. Given their centrality to the financial system, it was the runs in these core funding markets that defined the crisis. Subsequently, it was the policy interventions by central banks in these markets, complemented by the actions of the fiscal authorities, that allowed the recovery to take hold.
Revisiting the Factors Influencing Entry and Success of Entrepreneurship

This paper provides a review of literature on entrepreneurship and related schools of thought. It examines the research findings relating to the effect of various macroeconomic and microeconomic factors on entry, exit and success of entrepreneurs. It also critically examines classification of Necessity Entrepreneurs based on low post-entry performance. The main contribution of the article is in identifying several research gaps in entrepreneurship literature which can be taken up as research problems by scholars of this field. This article proposes Exit Barrier as one of the factors influencing the entry to entrepreneurship.
Polar directional characteristics of the urban mobile propagation channel at 2.2 GHz

The initial analysis of the data obtained from an extensive measurement campaign in Tokyo and Yokohama metropolitan areas are presented. Measurements were performed in non-line-of-sight (nLoS) macrocell scenario for which both vertically and horizontally polarized antennas were employed for transmitting and receiving signals. We are specifically interested to investigate the principal propagation mechanisms in such environments. This was done by obtaining the angular spread of the received signals in azimuth and elevation which was achieved by rotating a vertically deployed linear array at the mobile-terminal (MT). The propagation mechanisms were analyzed in respect to the orientation of the street where MT is located.
Adaptability as a Special Demand on Open Educational Resources: The Cultural Context of e-Learning

Producing and providing Open Educational Resources (OERs) is driven by the concepts of openness and sharing. Although there already are a lot of free high-quality resources available, practitioners often rather rewrite learning resources than creatively embed (and thus, reuse) existing OERs. In this paper, we analyse the reasons for this in two different educational contexts. As a result of this analysis, we found that the uncertainty on possible adaptation needs is one of the major barriers. In order to overcome this barrier and make different learning contexts comparable, we analysed the context of learners and in particular, in the research project ‘Learning Culture’, we investigated the field of culturally motivated expectations and attitudes of learners. This paper shows the results of this research project and discusses which cultural issues should be taken into consideration when OERs are to be adapted from one to another cultural context.
Dry Etched Waveguide Laser Diode on GeOI

We demonstrate a top-top contact, dry etched mirror facet III-V waveguide laser diode grown on germanium-on-insulator (GeOI). A 3 × InGaAs/GaAs quantum well designed to lase at 985 nm was grown on a GaAs buffer, which was lattice matched to the GeOI platform in order to realize the monolithic integration of III-V electronic and photonic devices with silicon and SiO2. Lasing occurred at ~ 985 nm with a threshold current density of ~ 2 kA/cm2. Pulsed measurements, and SEM and TEM characterization methods were used. The issue of heat transfer limited the performance of the laser.
Firm Object Classification using Butterworth Filters and Multiscale Fourier Descriptors

Object classification is an important task in computer vision techniques. In this paper we proposed a region based object classification technique using multiscale Fourier descriptors and Butterworth filters. By using the Butterworth Low pass Filters (BLF) and Butterworth High pass Filters (BHF) at varied scales. While applying the Butterworth Low pass Filter (BLF) at varied parameters, the internal region of the image is more concentrated which results in the smoothed image. Similarly while applying the Butterworth High pass filter (BHF) at varied parameters, the external region of the image is more concentrated which results in the sharpened image. The proposed algorithm is capable of eliminating the variation in size, rotation and translation of the object. The evaluation outcomes show that filtering done with BHF outperforms the BLF and shows better classification results.
A comparative analysis of voltage magnitude deviation and unbalance on standard and premium efficient induction motors

Experimental tests were carried out to determine if there are any noticeable differences in the way premium and standard efficiency motors operate under abnormal voltage conditions such as over voltage under voltage and voltage unbalance. The results for four motors are compared in terms of efficiency and overcurrent conditions and the differences in the performance of the motors are highlighted. In addition, two 3-phase motors were connected to a single phase variable frequency drive and the effect of voltage magnitude deviations on system efficiency was investigated.
Linköping University Post Print Face-Centered Cubic ( Al 1x Cr x ) 2 O 3

We report the discovery of a face-centered cubic (Al1-xCrx)2O3 solid solution [0.60<x<0.70] in films grown onto Si substrates using reactive dual magnetron sputtering from Al and Cr targets at 400 °C. The proposed structure is NaCl-like with 33% vacancies on the metal sites. The unit cell parameter is 4.04 Å as determined by x-ray diffraction. The films have <100> preferred orientation and exhibit hardness values up to 26 GPa and elastic modulus of 220-235 GPa.
Respiratory Symptoms and Lung Function Among Danish Woodworkers

A cross-sectional study including 54 furniture factories and three control factories was conducted to survey lung function and prevalence of respiratory symptoms among woodworkers. Spirometry was performed on 2423 persons. Questionnaires regarding respiratory symptoms and wood dust exposure were completed by 2033 woodworkers and 474 controls. Personal passive dust measurements were performed on 1579 persons. The arithmetic mean ± SD for equivalent inhalable dust was relatively low (1.19 ± 0.86 mg/m3). Woodworkers had increased frequency of coughing with negative interaction between dust exposure and smoking. A dose-response relationship was seen between dust exposure and asthma symptoms, and a positive interaction for asthma was seen between female gender and dust exposure. Increased frequency of wheezing and a cross-shift decrease in forced expiratory volume in 1 second among workers using pinewood was seen. In conclusion, wood dust exposure might cause respiratory symptoms, despite a relatively low exposure level.
Intratubular disinfection with tri-antibiotic and calcium hydroxide pastes

Abstract Objective: The aim of this study was to compare the in vitro intradentinal antimicrobial ability of the calcium hydroxide and tri-antibiotic pastes. Materials and methods: Standard bovine dentin tubes were sterilized and then infected with Enterococcus faecalis by a new contamination protocol of great depths of dentin. The specimens were filled with the medications, divided into two test-groups: calcium hydroxide (Group 1) and tri-antibiotic (Group 2) pastes. After 15 days, the teeth were evaluated by microbiological culture and confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM) with viability dye assay LIVE/DEAD inside dentinal tubules. In experiment of culture, the bacterial collection of the dentin fragments was done for counting the colony-forming units. Results: The tri-antibiotic paste had a slightly greater antimicrobial effect; however, there was no statistical difference between the groups. Conclusions: It was concluded that the tri-antibiotic paste and the calcium hydroxide paste exercise the same effect on intra-tubular decontamination against E. faecalis. So, due the multiples advantages, the calcium hydroxide paste can be the choice for dentinal decontamination in regenerative procedures.
iKnow usability: A case study

University Sts Cyril and Methodius has recognized the need to modernize student activities within university management by introducing the iKnow system as a system delivering electronic student services since 2012. Yet, still some faculties rise the question whether iKnow will fully replace the outdated Student Services Desk. This largely depends on good usability. A case study on usability was performed on iKnow electronic services in order to improve the first software release from 2012. The results were used to improve the user interface and overall services in the second software release. The study shows that the “timing” and user satisfaction criteria were improved the most.
CARE Peri-Urban Lusaka Small Enterprise (CARE PULSE) Project Zambia

Two years after its inauguration, CARE Zambia launched the Peri-Urban Lusaka Small Enterprise (PULSE) Project. The overall goal is to increase household income, economic security and employment opportunities among the families of poor micro-entrepreneurs in peri-urban areas of Zambia, through the provision of sustainable savings and credit services. The program provides working capital to micro and small-scale entrepreneurs, mostly women, who reside in the peri-urban areas of Mtendere and George. This service has recently been extended to Mandevu, Chawama and some peri-urban areas of Lusaka.
Shc Interaction with Src Homology 2 Domain Containing Inositol Phosphatase (SHIP) in Vivo Requires the Shc-Phosphotyrosine Binding Domain and Two Specific Phosphotyrosines on SHIP*

The adapter protein Shc has been implicated in mitogenic signaling via growth factor receptors, cytokine receptors, and antigen receptors on lymphocytes. Besides the well characterized interaction of Shc with molecules involved in Ras activation, Shc also associates with a 145-kDa tyrosine-phosphorylated protein upon triggering via antigen receptors and many cytokine receptors. This 145-kDa protein has been recently identified as an SH2 domain containing 5′-inositol phosphatase (SHIP) and has been implicated in the regulation of growth and differentiation in hematopoietic cells. In this report, we have addressed the molecular details of the interaction between Shc and SHIPin vivo. During T cell receptor signaling, tyrosine phosphorylation of SHIP and its association with Shc occurred only upon activation. We demonstrate that the phosphotyrosine binding domain of Shc is necessary and sufficient for its association with tyrosine-phosphorylated SHIP. Through site-directed mutagenesis, we have identified two tyrosines on SHIP, Tyr-917, and Tyr-1020, as the principal contact sites for the Shc-phosphotyrosine binding domain. Our data also suggest a role for the tyrosine kinase Lck in phosphorylation of SHIP. We also show that the SH2 domain of SHIP is dispensable for the Shc-SHIP interaction in vivo. These data have implications for the localization of the Shc·SHIP complex and regulation of SHIP function during T cell receptor signaling.
The Current State and Value of Farm Record Keeping

Despite the purported merits of good farm record keeping, and heavy investments made by some state Extension programs, little is known about the current state of farm financial records and the value farmers place on those records. Through the use of a survey, this study provides an overview of the current state of Midwestern farm financial records. This study also used a second price auction to determine the values farmers place on their financial records by eliciting the minimum amount farmers were willing to accept to give up their records. Survey results indicate that most farmers have a basic understanding of farm recordkeeping but do not practice more advanced accounting and financial techniques. The auction results indicate financial records are extremely valuable but exhibit wide diversity in valuations among farmers.
Spiral resonators for optimally efficient strongly coupled magnetic resonant systems

The wireless efficiency of the strongly coupled magnetic resonance (SCMR) method greatly depends on the Q-factors of the TX and RX resonators, which in turn are strongly dependent on the geometrical parameters of the resonators. This paper analytically derives the equations that can be used to design optimal spiral resonators for SCMR systems. In addition, our analysis illustrates that under certain conditions globally maximum efficiency can be achieved.