Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Incorporating impoverished communities in sustainable supply chains

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore recent calls to include social and environmental considerations in supply chains by analyzing the sourcing of raw materials from impoverished communities to reduce environmental impacts and social exclusion in biofuels production.Design/methodology/approach – A case study methodology based on interviews and focus groups with supply chain members and other stakeholders is conducted in Brazil, a major biofuels producer and user. Two supply chain cases, fuel ethanol and biodiesel, illustrate the challenges of recent government policies and industry attempts to improve sustainability within the supply chain.Findings – Although government and industry recognize the importance of providing opportunities for impoverished communities in biofuels supply chains, there remain considerable pressures to economize at the expense of sustainable supply chain policies. Sourcing from impoverished farmers who lack basic business knowledge, and distrust industry and governmen.
Trends in the internationalization of grocery retailing: the European experience

The three traditional views of retail internationalization involve the diffusion of retail concepts, operational involvement in foreign markets and the international- ization of a retail management function. None of these identified categories is new, but there is evidence that there is an unprecedented level of interest in internationalization as a viable strategic option for retailers. This paper examines these themes within die grocery sector in Europe, through an empirical investigation of activity in the post-war period.
The Dynamics Underlying Service Firm—Customer Relationships

Researchers have argued that consumers frequently view marketing efforts as intrusive and that they fail to exhibit either trust or commitment. However, studies have found that some customers develop strong emotional relationships with firms, often independently of firm-driven relationship-building efforts. These confusing findings indicate that there is a need for additional research to explore the dynamics underlying service firm—customer relationships. The aim of this study is to elucidate customers' conception and manifestation of their relationships with service firms. Therefore, the objectives are to uncover the extent to which various types of customers exhibit relational links with service firms and to generate insights into the manner in which such identification is manifested. After a review of recent studies into relationship marketing, the authors present and explain the research design and method. Then, the authors present the findings that emerged during the focus groups and in-depth interviews with soccer supporters.
Roles of radiation dose, chemotherapy, and hormonal factors in breast cancer following Hodgkin's disease.

BACKGROUND Female survivors of Hodgkin's disease (HD) have a strongly elevated risk of breast cancer, but factors responsible for the increased risk are not well known. METHODS We investigated the effects of radiation dose, chemotherapy (CT), and reproductive factors on breast cancer risk in a nested case-control study in The Netherlands in a cohort of 770 female patients who had been diagnosed with HD before age 41. Detailed treatment information and data on reproductive factors were collected for 48 case patients who developed breast cancer 5 or more years after diagnosis of HD and 175 matched control subjects. The radiation dose was estimated to the area of the breast where the case patient's tumor had developed and to a comparable location in matched control subjects. Relative risks (RRs) of breast cancer were calculated by conditional logistic regression. Statistical tests were two-sided. RESULTS The risk of breast cancer increased statistically significantly with radiation dose (P(trend) =. 01); patients who received 38.5 Gy or more had an RR of 4.5 (95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.3 to 16) times that of patients who received less than 4 Gy. Patients who received both CT and radiotherapy (RT) had a statistically significantly lower risk than those treated with RT alone (RR = 0.45, 95% CI = 0.22 to 0.91). Breast cancer risk increased with increasing radiation dose among patients who received RT only (RR = 12.7, 95% CI = 1.8 to 86, for patients receiving > or =38.5 Gy) but not among patients treated with CT and RT. Sixty-nine percent of control subjects treated with RT and more than six cycles of CT, but only 9% of those who received RT alone, reached menopause before age 41. Reaching menopause before age 36 was associated with a strongly reduced risk of breast cancer (RR = 0.06, 95% CI = 0.01 to 0.45). CONCLUSION Breast cancer risk increases with increasing radiation dose up to at least 40 Gy. The substantial risk reduction associated with CT may reflect its effect on menopausal age, suggesting that ovarian hormones promote tumorigenesis after radiation has produced an initiating event.
Introducing Competition in the French Electricity Supply Industry: Erosion of the Public Hierarchy by the European Institutional Integration

This book focuses on the diversity of electricity reforms in Western Europe, drawing evidence from ten European Union memberstates plus Norway and Switzerland as associate members. The contributors analyse the various ways of introducing competition in the European electricity industries, and consider both the strategies of electricity companies and their behaviour in electricity marketplaces. They also offer an explanation of the differences of reforms by the institutions and the industrial structures of each country which shape the types of marketrules, industrial restructuring and public service regulations which have been adopted.
The Role of Trust and Co‐operation in Marketing Channels: A Preliminary Study

There exists at present a gap in channel theory on the role of co‐operation and trust in the functioning of interfirm relationships. These variables have not featured as major factors in the explanations of how channels co‐ordinate their activities, survive and grow. This article introduces trust as an important determinant of channel behaviour, indicates the importance of trust in co‐operative behaviour and presents the results of an introductory study on trust in marketing channels.
Moving Forward and Making a Difference: Research Priorities for the Science of Service

Given the significant, sustained growth in services experienced worldwide, Arizona State University’s Center for Services Leadership embarked on an 18-month effort to identify and articulate a set of global, interdisciplinary research priorities focused on the science of service. Diverse participation from academics in a variety of disciplines working in institutions around the world—in collaboration with business executives who lead organizations ranging from small startups to Global 1000 companies—formed the basis for development of the priorities. The process led to the identification of the following 10 overarching research priorities: • Fostering service infusion and growth • Improving well-being through transformative service • Creating and maintaining a service culture • Stimulating service innovation • Enhancing service design • Optimizing service networks and value chains • Effectively branding and selling services • Enhancing the service experience through cocreation • Measuring and optimizing the value of service • Leveraging technology to advance service For each priority, several important and more specific topic areas for service research emerged from the process. The intent is that the priorities will spur service research by shedding light on the areas of greatest value and potential return to academia, business, and government. Through academic, business, and government collaboration, we can enhance our understanding of service and create new knowledge to help tackle the most important opportunities and challenges we face today.
Determinants of improved maize seed and fertilizer adoption in Kenya

The study quantifies factors affecting adoption of improved maize varieties and fertilizer by households in maize growing zones of Kenya. It uses Heckman two-stage model to analyze data collected from 1850 households in 2002. Credit was important in explaining the adoption of improved maize seed and fertilizer. Likewise the ability to access hired labour was positively associated with adoption of improved maize varieties and fertilizer. Education of household head and number of extension contacts played a role in the adoption of improved maize varieties. Distance to market was negatively associated with adoption of fertilizer. Use of fertilizer affected the adoption of improved maize varieties and the converse was true. The area planted to improved maize varieties was positively affected by household characteristics (education and age of household head), institutional factors (number of extension contacts) and other variables such as ability to hire labour. Use of fertilizer was strongly and positively associated with the intensity of use of improved maize. These findings suggest that provision of credit and strengthening of research/extension farmers linkages are likely to play a significant role in enhancing the use of improved maize seed and fertilizer and therefore increasing maize productivity in Kenya. Key words: Adoption, fertilizer, households, Heckman, Kenya, maize, seed.
Carotenoid-deficient maize seedlings fail to accumulate light-harvesting chlorophyll a/b binding protein (LHCP) mRNA.

Yellow leaves of chlorophyll-deficient seedlings and white leaves of carotenoid-deficient seedlings contain no detectable light-harvesting chlorophyll a/b binding proteins (LHCP). Chlorophyll-deficient leaves contain plastids which are arrested in development prior to chloroplast formation [Mascia, P.N. and Robertson, D.S. (1978) Planta (Berl.) 143, 207-211] while carotenoid-deficient leaves contain plastids which are arrested in development at a rudimentary stage [Bachmann, M. D. , Robertson, D.S. , Bowen, C.C. , and Anderson, I.C. (1967) J. Ultrastruc. Res. 21, 41-60]. Chlorophyll-deficient leaves have normal levels of nuclear-encoded LHCP mRNA while carotenoid-deficient leaves contain only trace amounts of LHCP mRNA. Similar results were obtained with carotenoid deficiencies caused by nuclear gene mutations and by treatment with the herbicide norflurazon which blocks carotenoid biosynthesis. We conclude that events at early stages of plastid development influence the accumulation of a nuclear-encoded mRNA.
Loss of Nuclear p27 Expression and Its Prognostic Role in Relation to Cyclin E and p53 Mutation in Gastroenteropancreatic Neuroendocrine Tumors

Purpose: Gastroenteropancreatic neuroendocrine tumors (GEP-NET) are classified by the WHO, yet its prognostic value needs to be confirmed. Therefore, we aimed to determine the prognostic role of cell cycle key regulatory genes p53, p27kip1 (p27), and cyclin E in this tumor entity. Experimental Design: Tumor specimen from 89 patients with a complete follow-up were studied immunohistochemically for p27 and cyclin E expression and for p53 mutations. The functional relevance of p27 was evaluated in the neuroendocrine cell lines BON1 (human) and INS1 (rat) by the use of small interfering RNA. Results: Twenty-six of 29 benign, well-differentiated endocrine tumors (WHO class 1) showed a high expression (>50%) of p27, whereas all 10 poorly differentiated endocrine carcinomas (WHO class 3) displayed a low expression of p27. Metastatic well-differentiated endocrine carcinomas (WHO class 2) showed a low p27 expression in 20 of 50 (40%) patients, which conferred a poor prognosis (median survival, 57 versus 140 months; P = 0.037). This prognostic dichotomy was improved by the use of a combination of p27 and cyclin E (high cyclin E/low p27 versus low cyclin E/high p27: median survival 53 months versus not reached; P = 0.0044). p53 mutations were rare (1 of 10 poorly differentiated endocrine carcinomas). Conclusions: Loss of p27 and overexpression of cyclin E play a critical role in the aggressiveness of gastroenteropancreatic neuroendocrine tumors. This coincides with increased cell cycle progression. We propose a discussion whether to incorporate the immunohistochemical expression of p27 into a revised classification to individualize therapeutic strategies in this tumor entity.
A comparison of web assurance services based on trust formation and outcomes

This study examines the effectiveness of Web assurance services in developing institution-based trust with consumers. As many consumers are hesitant to engage in electronic commerce transactions due to a lack of trust with businesses, assurance services are expected to help bridge that gap. To gain a better understanding of how these services affect consumers' perceptions of Web sites, two factors are examined. The first factor is company type. As Web seals are expected to provide more benefit to companies without established reputations, company type is manipulated as either a known or unknown company. The second factor is seal type. As a number of Web seals are currently available, this study examines how these various services affect consumers' perceptions. Six scenarios are examined: a combination Big 5 with WebTrust seal, WebTrust, TRUSTe, BBBOnline Reliability, a self-provided seal, and no seal. The results show that there is an interaction between company type and seal type whereby unknown companies benefit more from WebTrust than known companies. However, there is still some incremental benefit to known companies. Further analysis shows that the Web seals create trust both through the assurances they attest to and their individual provider attributes. The formation of trust is important, as it is shown to influence consumers' willingness to purchase products. A comparison of the seal types reveals that consumers do perceive various services as offering different levels of assurance, as well as providers as having different levels of attributes. As assurances are shown to be one of the key components in establishing trust, as well as effecting outcomes such as willingness to purchase and perceived risk, consumers' recognition of these assurances is essential to the success of these services.
Consumer attitude and the usage and adoption of home‐based banking in the United Kingdom

This paper seeks to develop our understanding of consumer attitudes towards bank delivery channels. Accordingly, a questionnaire was designed to obtain information about which delivery channels consumers had used when acquiring four types of financial service. This information was then contrasted with data on how these consumers would acquire the same services if they had to purchase them again at some time in the future. The questionnaire also obtained information about the factors which consumers believed to be important in encouraging and discouraging the adoption of home‐based banking. In concluding, the paper discusses and assesses some of the strategic implications of the study’s findings for financial service providers.
Surface Enhanced Raman Scattering of Electrospun Nanofibers Embedded with Silver Nanoparticles Prepared

3 Introduction . 4 Broader Impact . 5 Procedure . 5 Materials . 5 Equipment . 6 Experimental . 8 Results . 10 PMMA Nanofibers . 10 Silver Nanoparticle Synthesis . 18 Electrospinning/Characterizing the Composite . 19 Raman Spectroscopy . 22 Discussion . 23 Conclusion . 24 Summary . 24 Future Work . 25 References . 26 Acknowledgments . 26
Design and analysis of compressors using CNTFET

This paper enumerates the efficient design and analysis of a 5 to 2 Compressor and a 5 to 3 Compressor using Full Adder cell. The Full Adder is designed using Stanford University CNTFET model and proposed 10nm CNTFET model. There are many issues facing while integrating more number of transistors like short channel effect, power dissipation, scaling of the transistors. To overcome these problems, the carbon nano tubes have promising applications in the field of electronics. The carbon nanotube is emerging as a viable replacement to the MOSFET. The transient and power analyses are obtained with operating voltage at 0.9V. Simulations and analyses are carried out for the Full Adder Cell and the two Compressors. The simulation results are presented and the analyses are compared with circuits designed using 32nm MOSFET. The comparison of results indicated that the proposed 10nm CNTFET based design is more efficient in power savings and speed.
A Comparison of Stimulus Variability in Lexical Tone and Melody Perception

Music and language share perceptual resources, and both map sound to invariant categories—invariant over and within speakers for language and over instruments and keys for music. The effects of stimulus variability on lexical tone and musical interval tasks among non-tone language speakers were compared using a matching (XAB) task under varying levels of stimulus variability. Listeners perceived Mandarin words better with single rather than multiple speakers and showed similar advantages in melodic interval perception for low (single instrument) versus high (multiple instruments) variability sets. Lexical tone and musical interval perception were affected similarly by increasing stimulus variability, on average. However, the magnitude of variability effects within subjects was not well correlated between the tasks, providing no evidence for shared category-mapping mechanism for the two domains. Instead, it suggests that crossover between tone and melody processing is driven by shared encoding of acoustic-phonetic features, and that differences in performance and learning by tone language speakers and musicians in the other domain represent progress along a phonetic–phonological–lexical continuum.
Word Sense Disambiguation using Latent Semantic Analysis

In this paper, we implement Latent Semantic Analysis (LSA) and apply it to the problem of Word Sense Disambiguation (WSD). We use training and test data from SENSEVAL-3 to create term-document matrices, to which we apply LSA. We combine this LSA-based classifier with a pre-existing WSD classifier combination system in an attempt to improve the accuracy of the system. Our LSA-based classifier is less effective than a comparable TF-IDF based classifier, but still effective enough to add information to the combiner.
Inductores de valor no financieros para empresas de internet después de la burbuja

RESUMEN This paper is focused on the analysis of non-financial value drivers for different Internet business models. During the period of growth of the Internet bubble, web traffic data --like unique visitors, page views, subscribers, etc.-were broadly accepted as drivers for valuing Internet firms. However, after the bubble, the appropriateness of these value drivers has raised controversy. The experiments achieved in this paper reveal that web traffic drivers are suitable for valuing e-commerce business models focused on the final consumer, like e-tailers o e-auctions. However, these drivers are not appropriate for valuing business models based on online marketing, like portals, since revenues coming from marketing activities are quite influenced by fluctuations in the worldwide Internet publicity market. Hence, we propose new value drivers for this kind of business models.
Institutional factors that influence the survival of traditional irrigation schemes in Nyandira, Mvomero District, Morogoro-Tanzania

Many studies on irrigation institutions in Tanzania have not focused on the survival of the traditional irrigation schemes. Therefore this study aimed to fill that knowledge gap. The main objective of this study was to assess institutional factors that influence survival of traditional irrigation schemes in Mvomero District, Tanzania. The study adopted a cross-sectional research design and data was collected from a sample of 200 respondents through household questionnaire survey. Additionally, focus group discussions and key informant interview methods were used in collecting the data. Multistage, purposive and simple random sampling methods were used. Qualitative data were analysed using content analysis and quantitative data by Statistical package for social science. The results show that enforcement on water payment fees (β = +0.796), water committee (β = +0.159) and users conformity to rules and regulations (β = +0.060) are statistically significant at p < 0.001 while rules on water distribution (β = +0.0125) and land ownership (β = +0.096) are statistically significant at p < 0.01. Also, 57% of respondents had a positive attitude towards the importance of water permits. Furthermore, Gender relations are similar on access to (95%) and control (94%) over resources thus it was practiced jointly. Based on these results it is concluded that water user associations should be registered and apply for water permits to get public funds. This will strengthen the survival of traditional irrigation schemes in Tanzania. Keywords: Institutional factors, Water permits and Gender Relations.
Genotype by environment interaction and association of morphoyield variables in upland cotton.

Legacy of seed cotton yield and other quantitative traits is highly persuaded by environmental aspects, therefore, phenotypic response of a genotype is ascertained by genetic and environmental factors upon it, although occurrence of a third effect, of no less importance i.e. genotype-by-environment interaction (GEI). Studies were conducted in 2010 and 2011 evaluating G × E interactions and correlation in upland cotton using randomized complete block design at the University of Agriculture, Peshawar, Pakistan. The GEI was characterized using eight upland cotton cultivars viz., SLH284, CIM-446, CIM-473, CIM-496, CIM-499, CIM-506, CIM-544 and CIM-707. Significant (p≤0.01) mean squares for genotypes, environments and G × E interactions revealed genetic variability among cotton genotypes as well as environments inconsistency. The contribution to the total sums of squares, regardless of trait, revealed that genotypes and genotype × environment play principal role followed by environments, while replications (experimental error) share was minimal. The environment accounts for 61.86%, 26.99% and 18.64% of total variation for bolls plant, seed cotton yield and sympodia plant, respectively, considering the larger effects of environment in combination with genotypes on plant growth and morphology. Seed cotton yield has significant (p≤0.01) positive correlation with boll number, and positive with morphological traits. Based on two-year studies, CIM-496 exhibited the best performance followed by CIM-554 and SLH-284 for improvement in seed cotton and lint yields.
Earthquake monitoring and warning system

The project aims at designing an earthquake monitoring and warning system that is capable of detecting earthquakes as well as warning people to take necessary precautions. This system will not only attempt to save human lives, but will also store the data for later use by professionals working at this sector. The objective of this project is to design a LabVIEW based control system by collaborating MEMS accelerometer sensor with Arduino microcontrollers in a ZigBee wireless network. The system also has telecom VAS capabilities to alert people and control machines. Existing earthquake systems are moreover designed for aftershock management and they hardly deal with real-time data. However, this system is mainly designed to react as soon as the sensor nodes come across a p-wave.