Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Intrafirm trade with ASEAN countries by Japanese and US multinational corporations

During the last decade, the role of multinational corporations in international trade has received a steadily increasing attention. In a wide sense, multinational corporations are reported to manage an increasing share of international trade thereby bridging the gap between production for local and foreign markets and intensifying the international division of labour. In a narrow sense, trade between parent companies and their overseas affiliates (so called intrafirm trade) has provoked attention because this trade may challenge - by its very nature - conventional understanding of determinants of international trade and the impact of trade policies. The evidence on intrafirm trade is scant at best, however, and is almost exclusively related to the US. Therefore this paper tries to update and improve the empirical basis on intrafirm trade by giving answers to the following questions: - Which role does intrafirm trade play in international trade of home-countries other than the US? - Is intrafirm trade of major home countries region-specific and/or industry-specific and if so what are the specific characteristics of regions and industries where intrafirm trade is relatively important? - How has intrafirm trade developed over time? - Does the structural pattern of intrafirm trade conform to that of the underlying activity, that is foreign direct investment?
Comparison of Resource Utilization in the Treatment of Open‐Angle Glaucoma between Two Cities in Finland: Is More Better?

Introduction: Glaucoma is a progressive optic neuropathy associated with neural rim loss of the optic disc and the retinal nerve fibre layer typically causing visual field (VF) deterioration. Generally, glaucomatous lesions in the eye and in the visual field progress slowly over the years. In population‐based cross‐sectional studies, the percentage of unilateral or bilateral visual impairment varied between 3–12%. In screening studies, 0.03–2.4% of patients have been found to suffer visual impairment. Glaucoma has previously been associated with substantial healthcare costs and resource consumption attributable to the treatment of the disease. The disease also causes reduction in health‐related quality of life (HRQoL) in patients with glaucoma.
Reproducible delayed appearance of platelet clumps and acanthocytes in blood components collected from a single donor

Dear Sir, Platelet (PLT) clumps sometimes occur in whole bloodand apheresis-derived PLT concentrates (PCs) and interfere with the preparation processes. Visual inspections are performed in blood centres as a quality control measure to detect PLT clumps, foreign substances and swirling just prior to obtaining apheresis PCs (van der Meer et al., 2015). If clumps are observed, they are eliminated by agitation or removed by transfer to another bag. In Japan, all PLT products are obtained using apheresis devices. In the apheresis procedure, small and visible clumps appear in a collection bag during and after apheresis, which normally disappear within a few hours with suitable resting and agitation (Ringwald et al., 2014). Occasionally, PLT clumps persist throughout the storage period, which may make the product unusable. However, little information is available regarding the delayed appearance of PLT clumps during the storage period or the relationship between PLT clumps and red blood cell (RBC) morphology. Here, we report a case in which a large amount of clump formation occurred during the storage period in PC that had previously passed the visual inspection; in addition, abnormal morphology was observed in RBCs collected from the same PLT apheresis donor. A PC unit was collected using the PLT apheresis system (CCS, Haemonetics, Braintree, MA, USA) from a 33-year-old PLT apheresis donor, and passed the visual inspection. In this case, visual inspections were performed by the blood centre staff who had received specific education and training for blood processing. In the subsequent collections, at least one of the authors conducted the additional visual inspection and checked the process control record for confirmation. This PC unit passed visual inspection; however, PLT clumps suddenly appeared on day 3 (the expiration date in Japan) in our blood centre inventory, and a similar phenomenon was observed twice total. Numerous PLT clumps were seen in the lower part of the PC container (Fig. 1a). Chain aggregates were observed in the entire microscopic field (Fig. 1b, 400× magnification). Pseudopod formations were clearly observed (Fig. 1c, 400× magnification). In vitro testing was performed to determine the PLT quality,
Mountains and Arid Climates of Middle Latitudes

Simulations from a global climate model with and without orography have been used to investigate the role of mountains in maintaining extensive arid climates in middle latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere. Dry climates similar to those observed were simulated over central Asia and western interior North America in the experiment with mountains, whereas relatively moist climates were simulated in these areas in the absence of orography. The experiments suggest that these interior regions are dry because general subsidence and relatively infrequent storm development occur upstream of orographically induced stationary wave troughs. Downstream of these troughs, precipitation-bearing storms develop frequently in association with strong jet streams. In contrast, both atmospheric circulation and precipitation were more zonally symmetric in the experiment without mountains. In addition, orography reduces the moisture transport into the continental interiors from nearby oceanic sources. The relative soil wetness of these regions in the experiment without mountains is consistent with paleoclimatic evidence of less aridity during the late Tertiary, before substantial uplift of the Rocky Mountains and Tibetan Plateau is believed to have occurred.
Gehörbezogene automatische Spracherkennung / Automatic Speech Recognition Based on Human Hearing

Dr.-Ing. habil. Günther Ruske studierte Elektrotechnik an der TU München, promovierte 1977 und wurde Akademischer Rat. Seit 1983 ist er Leiter des Projekts „Erkennung lautsprachlicher Information" im Sonderforschungsbereich 204. 1988 habilitierte er sich auf dem Gebiet „Mustererkennung". Interessensgebiete sind automatische Mustererkennung, Sprachverarbeitung, digitale Signalverarbeitung.
Photodynamic therapy (PDT) of cancer: from local to systemic treatment

Photodynamic therapy (PDT) requires a medical device, a photosensitizing drug and adequate use of both to trigger biological mechanisms that can rapidly destroy the primary tumour and provide long-lasting protection against metastasis. We present a multidisciplinary view of the issues raised by the development of PDT. We show how spectroscopy, photophysics, photochemistry and pharmacokinetics of photosensitizers determine the mechanism of cell death and clinical protocols. Various examples of combinations with chemotherapies and immunotherapies illustrate the opportunities to potentiate the outcome of PDT. Particular emphasis is given to the mechanisms that can be exploited to establish PDT as a systemic treatment of solid tumours and metastatic disease.
Buyer-Supplier Relationship in SMEs

In today’s world, relationship has immense value for all organizations. The status of relationship is not limited to the internal partners alone, but the thinking is much beyond that. Supplier is an important partner in any organization, and hence, maintaining relationship is important for an organization who is an industrial buyer. Considering supplier as a part of the organization, it is a crucial task for the organization to build a relationship between the buyer and supplier because the status of relationship depends upon the operating practice of the organization. In other words, we can say that the relationship model must fit with the organization’s operation system. This paper explores customer and supplier relationships from the perspective of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). A critique of supply chain literature highlights some key problems when such theory is applied to understanding the purchasing behavior of SMEs. This paper sets out an alternative rationale for exploring what SMEs ‘do’ in terms of building a buyer-supplier model.
Comment on “Restoring Voluntary Control of Locomotion After Paralyzing Spinal Cord Injury”

Van den Brand et al. (Reports, 1 June 2012, p. 1182) claim to have restored voluntary control of locomotion after paralyzing spinal cord injury. They have not considered recent findings that their upright posture paradigm contributes to locomotor capability after such injuries. We propose that postural adjustments that activate the locomotor central pattern generator in the upright posture, rather than direct voluntary control of locomotion, account for their results.
Anxiety symptoms and functioning in patients with type 2 diabetes

Deschênes et al. examined the association between anxiety symptoms and functioning in patients with type 2 diabetes (T2D). The authors conducted a 3-year follow-up study, and path coefficients indicated that elevated anxiety was associated with subsequent poor functioning and that poor functioning was associated with subsequent elevated anxiety. In addition, the reciprocal relationship between anxiety symptoms and functioning was independent of depressive symptoms. I have a concern with their study. Whitworth et al. determined the effect of lifetime major depressive disorder (L-MDD) and lifetime generalized anxiety disorder (L-GAD) on psychological symptoms and glycemic control in patients with T2D. In that study, L-MDD plus L-GAD elevated the risk of higher HbA1c and worse diabetes management by increasing the severity of current depressive symptoms. Deschênes et al. reported that adjusted odds ratios (ORs) of prediabetes plus elevated depressive symptoms and prediabetes plus elevated anxiety symptoms for incident T2D were 10.65 (95% confidence interval [CI] 4.60–24.66) and 8.95 (95% CI 3.54–22.63), respectively. However, the adjusted ORs of elevated depressive symptoms without prediabetes and elevated anxiety symptoms without prediabetes for incident T2D were not significant. Although anxiety and depressive symptoms themselves did not become risk factors for incident T2D, path analysis by Deschênes et al. showed a relationship among anxiety symptoms, functioning, and depressive symptoms in patients with T2D. Finally, there is a report that diabetes distress mediates the association between depression and glycemic control, and I think that the assessment of diabetes distress and depression, in addition to anxiety and functioning, in patients with T2D would be needed for physical and mental care. Acknowledgement
Infrastructure, public health linked, crisis in Flint shows: Aging US systems pose risks to health

The old saying goes, “As goes General Motors, so goes the nation. ” But when the automotive giant left Flint, Michigan, in the latter half of the 20th century, the once-great industrial city was left without jobs, deeply in debt and polluted, culminating in a water crisis that has drawn national outcry.
Recombinant human epidermal growth factor on oral mucositis induced by intensive chemotherapy with stem cell transplantation

Oral mucositis (OM) is one of the most common and debilitating complications in patients undergoing intensive chemotherapy followed by hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT). The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficacy and safety of recombinant human epidermal growth factor (rhEGF) oral spray for OM induced by intensive chemotherapy followed by HSCT. Patients were randomly assigned to either the rhEGF group or placebo group. The severity of OM and self‐reported quality of life (QOL) were assessed daily. A total of 58 patients were analyzed. Baseline characteristics were similar between the two groups. The incidence of NCI grade ≥2 OM was higher in the rhEGF group (78.6% vs. 50%, P = 0.0496). However, the duration of OM in patients with NCI grade ≥2 tended to be shorter in the rhEGF group (8.5 days vs. 14.5 days, P = 0.262). The QOL analysis in patients with World Health Organization (WHO) grade ≥3 OM showed that rhEGF significantly reduced limitations in swallowing (P = 0.039) and drinking (P = 0.042). The duration of hospitalization (P = 0.047), administration of total parenteral nutrition (P = 0.012), and the usage of opioid analgesics (P = 0.018) were significantly shorter in the rhEGF group with WHO grade ≥3 OM. Adverse events were mild and similar between the two groups. In conclusion, this analysis showed that rhEGF did not reduce the incidence of NCI grade ≥2 OM. However, the patients with WHO grade ≥3 OM in the rhEGF group showed better results compared to the placebo group for several secondary endpoints. Am. J. Hematol. 88:107–112, 2013. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Role of Special Coagulation Studies for Preoperative Screening of Thrombotic Complications in Simultaneous Pancreas-Kidney Transplantation.

BACKGROUND Vascular thrombosis is a well-known complication after simultaneous pancreas-kidney (SPK) transplantation procedures. The role of preoperative special coagulation studies to screen patients at high risk for vascular thrombosis is unclear and not well studied. METHODS This study reports a retrospective medical record review of 83 SPK procedures performed between April 2007 and June 2013 in a single institution. All SPK transplantation recipients underwent preoperative screening for hypercoagulable state. RESULTS Eighteen of 83 patients (21.69%) were diagnosed with vascular thrombosis of the pancreas. Of the 23 patients with at least 1 positive screening test, only 4 had a thrombotic event (17.39%). On the other hand, 14 of 60 patients with negative screening tests developed vascular thrombosis (23.33%). The hypercoagulable screening workup had a positive predictive value of 17.39% and a negative predictive value of 76.67%. The workup also demonstrated low sensitivity (22.22%) and specificity (70.77%). CONCLUSION No differences were seen in patient or graft survival between groups at 12 months. This retrospective study did not show any benefit of using special coagulation studies to rule out patients at risk for vascular thrombosis after SPK transplantation.
Two-phase routing for load balancing in lossless and lossy networks

Shortest path routing algorithms dominate the Internet, but have their limitations that degrade the network performance as the traffic load is increasing. Shortest path routing may cause congestion on certain links while other links remain underutilized. Two-phase routing algorithms can reduce congestion due to adverse traffic patterns by means of load balancing. In this paper, we present the performance of two-phase routing algorithms in real wide area network topologies, and regular topologies typical for data centers. Also, we will analyze the influence of load balancing on goodput of TCP transport protocols in datacenter networks.
Chemical Synthesis of ZnO Nanocrystals

A new chemical process to synthesize pure ZnO nanocrystal colloidal for bioimaging applications is reported. Zinc acetate dihydrate was dissolved and refluxed in a methanol solution at a low temperature (68degC) and ambient environment. Biocompatible surface capping agents were introduced to the synthesis process to control the particle nucleation and growth and, therefore, the particle size and its surface chemistry. Five types of capping agents were investigated for their effectiveness in limiting the particle growth. Three capping agents-3-amino- propyl trimethoxysilane (Am), tetraethyl orthosilicate (TEOS), and mercaptosuccinic acid (Ms)-were found effective in capping the ZnO nanoparticles and limiting the growth of the particles, while the other two-3-mercaptopropyl trimethoxysilane (Mp) and polyvinylpyrrolidone (Pv)-caused agglomeration or forming large clusters in the solutions. Particles synthesized were in the size range of 10-30 nm after capping, and grew to 60 nm and 100 nm in 3 weeks and 6 weeks respectively during storage at ambient conditions. Refluxing time was found to affect only the first precipitation time. Washing by ethanol and slow drying were found critical in converting Zn(OH)2 into ZnO. XRD analyses revealed forming of single phase ZnO Wurzite (P63mc) structure. TEM analysis determined the single crystal size of 6 nm. Photo- luminescence (PL) spectra showed high intensity in UV emission and low intensity in the visible emission, which imply a good surface morphology of the ZnO nanoparticles with few surface defects. Optical absorption spectra indicated absorption at the wavelength of 380 nm from the uncapped ZnO, corresponding to the bandgap of bulk ZnO. The capped ZnO absorbed at a shorter wavelength (350 nm) indicating a much smaller particle size. Capping effectiveness of each agent is discussed through possible capping mechanisms and chemical reactions.
Consumers' Responsiveness toward Marketing Mix of Super Stores in Bangladesh: A Case study on Meena Bazaar

This paper investigates the factors that are responsible in determining the marketing activities of super stores in Bangladesh. By investigating the marketing activities of one of the fast growing super shops, it addresses the preference of consumers as well as the service of them. The research focuses on product's quality, distribution channels, pricing, promotional activities and customer opinion regarding "Meena Bazaar" in Dhaka City. The study reveals that Meena Bazaar promotes their products at premium price in order to maintain quality and their promotional programs have significant influence toward consumers' response. The findings of this study suggest that Meena bazaar should try to hold this performance level and take more large scale promotional efforts which will help them to achieve leadership position among the superstores in Bangladesh.
ADHD Children’s Emotion Regulation in FACE© – Perspective (Facilitating Adjustment of Cognition and Emotion): Theory, Research and Practice

Children with ADHD are known to display primary features of impulsivity, inattention and/or hyperactivity [1]. They also constitute a diverse group, encompassing predominantly inattentive (ADHD-I), hyperactive/impulsive (ADHD-HI) and combined (ADHD-C) sub‐ types with multiple comorbidities and developmental paths [2]. ADHD children’s cognitive functioning and outcomes have been investigated extensively. Remarkably, much less re‐ search and prevention efforts have been devoted to their emotional processes and outcomes [2-4]. Consistent with a surge in research placing emotions at the centre of various psycho‐ pathologies over the past decade, a start has been made toward gaining a more balanced view of ADHD children’s functioning.
Cross Border Traveler Satisfaction to the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone of China

ABSTRACT Since the implementation of China's reform policies, the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone has emerged as an important window to the outside, as well as a strategic gate allowing tourists from the Asia-Pacific region to enter China via Hong Kong, one of China's major points of entry. This study aims to measure the level of satisfaction of cross border travelers with hotel services in the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone (SSEZ). A total of 148 travelers were interviewed. The cross border travelers' perceptions of 34 hotel attributes were factor-analyzed by using principal component analysis with orthogonal VARIMAX rotation. Five dimensions, representing 65.9% of the explained variance, were extracted from the original variables. The five dimensions (factors) were ‘room quality,’ ‘staff service quality,’ ‘facilities,’ ‘food and beverage quality,’ and ‘value. ’ The results indicated that there was a significant difference between cross border travelers' overall perceived importance levels and the overall levels of satisfaction. Of the five hotel factors, four factors emerged as significant independent variables. The ‘staff service quality’ was the most important determinant of cross border travelers' overall satisfaction and followed by ‘food and beverage quality,’ ‘value,’ and ‘room quality. ’ Implications of the findings for hotel operators in the SSEZ were discussed.
Astronomers and their shady algorithms

The vast quantities of data which may be produced by modern radio telescopes have outstripped conventional visualisation techniques available to astronomers. While research in other areas of visualisation finds some application in astronomy, problems peculiar to the field require new techniques. This paper presents a brief overview of some of the problems of visualisation for astronomy and compares different shading algorithms. A more comprehensive overview may be found in Norris (1994) and Gooch (1995).
Sectoral analysis of calendar effects in Malaysia: Post financial crisis (1998-2008)

The Asian financial crisis in 1997 revealed several flaws in financial markets. As a result, various measures were taken to overcome these weaknesses in order to address the efficiency of the financial system where information was more readily available to investors. It is the intention of this paper to investigate whether the stock prices anomalies in the market still persist after the financial crisis. The focus is on Malaysia, a developing nation. The calendar effects which were widely researched were studied for a period of 10 years after the financial crisis in Malaysia. Based on seven sector indices, it was observed that there were significant results in January for month-of-the-year and Monday for day-of-the-week effect. The investigation found that the Malaysian stock market has yet to be fully efficient and investors could still be able to benefit from these anomalies. Key words: Calendar effects, efficient market.
Factors Influencing Consumer Bidding Behavior in Online Auction (Consumer-to-Consumer)

According to the critical analysis of theoretical and empirical literature, there is a need to better understand and to examine the relationship between consumer bidding behavior in online auctions and the related influencing factors. Online auction is a relatively new field of study. It is important to further research the area of online auctions. The theoretical structure, research questions, research hypotheses, and the hypothesized research model are introduced. Theory of Reasoned Auction, Theory of Planned Behavior, and Technology Acceptance Model are used as theoretical foundations of this study. This study focuses on the relationship between consumer bidding behaviors in online auctions, and factors influencing those behaviors. The research is focused on the following influencing factors: customer satisfaction, ease of use of the web site, and demographic profile. A non-experimental, quantitative, correlational research design was conducted to study the relationship between influencing factors and consumer bidding behavior. The target population was people with online shopping experience with eBay who have current access to the Internet. After IRB approval, the researcher collected the date by a paper and pen questionnaire at a public beach in Boca Raton. The questionnaire was handed out to the eligible participants. The questionnaires were dropped in a closed box. The data for this study collected from at least 146 eligible participants using pen and paper questionnaire as an instrument. Findings helped to serve the online consumers and the vendors, as well as being a scholarly contribution to the study of online bidding. This study used SPSS software to analyze the collected data. Descriptive statistics, Cronbach alpha, Pearson r correlation, simple regression, and multiple regressions, were applied in this study. The study findings indicated that an individual's bidding behavior is influenced positively by factors like consumer satisfaction and ease of use and bidding behavior is not influenced by demographic characteristics.