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» BACKGROUND Sustainably raising agricultural productivity for the 2 billion people living in smallholder farming households in the developing world is critical for reducing world poverty and meeting rising food demand in the face of climate change. Nevertheless, most smallholder farmers have no access to science based agricultural advice. The widespread adoption of basic mobile phone technology pre...Continue Reading »
50 pages | 243 engagements |
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» Abstract The increasing use of messaging applications such as WhatsApp for both social and personal purposes has determined an increase in the widespread use of these technologies, even in healthcare. A growing number of healthcare professionals have adopted WhatsApp in their daily work in order to share information with peers and patients. Past research has highlighted the advantages and disadvan...Continue Reading »
50 pages | 220 engagements |
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» Abstract This study aims to examine the effects of maintenance service firms’ resources and capabilities on maintenance performance, measured by the turnaround time of medical devices (TAT). The theoretical framework used in this study is based on the resource based view (RBV) and agency theory (AT). The hypotheses were tested using information on 764 medical devices and 60 maintenance servi...Continue Reading »
50 pages | 217 engagements |
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» Abstract Climate variability with unexpected droughts and floods causes serious production losses and worsens food security, especially in Sub‐Saharan Africa. This study applies stochastic bioeconomic modeling to analyze smallholder adaptation to climate and price variability in Ethiopia. It uses the agent‐based simulation package Mathematical Programming‐based Multi‐Agent Systems (MPMAS) ...Continue Reading »
50 pages | 210 engagements |
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» 1 INTRODUCTION Is joint service delivery beneficial for public sector organizations? We know from the literature on inter‐municipal cooperation that knowledge sharing and scale economies frequently make joint service delivery efficient (Hulst et al. 2009; Bel et al. 2014; Bel and Warner 2015; Silvestre et al. 2017; Voorn et al. 2017). However, joint service delivery is also prone to failure, due...Continue Reading »
50 pages | 221 engagements |
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» Abstract Through the proliferation of channels and ways to engage in these channels, customers today have an unprecedented range of options to individualize their customer journey. This study investigated the underlying and overt reasons for customers’ interaction choices using focus groups, expert interviews, and laddering interviews with motor insurance customers to make three central cont...Continue Reading »
50 pages | 285 engagements |
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» Abstract Along with water, gas, electricity, and telephone, cloud computing has been considered as the fifth utility. Like other utility services available in today’s social computing services are readily available on demand (Buyya, Yeo, Venugopal, Broberg, & Brandic, 2009). The purpose of the study is to develop a hybrid two stage, structural equation modeling (SEM) – artificial n...Continue Reading »
50 pages | 239 engagements |
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» Introduction Treatment of type 2 diabetes should aim at improving vascular structure and function in the micro and macrocirculation besides metabolic control [1]. Arterial stiffness, a key parameter of vascular changes, is characterized by an increased pulse wave velocity along the arterial tree of both the forward and backward (reflected) pulse wave leading to increased central systolic blood pre...Continue Reading »
50 pages | 199 engagements |
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» Introduction Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) comprising Crohn’s disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC) affect an estimated 1.5 million Americans, 2.2 million individuals in Europe, and several thousands more worldwide.1, 2 The therapeutic goal has evolved from relief of IBD‐related symptoms to the more ambitious goal of mucosal healing, though considerable debate exists about the optima...Continue Reading »
50 pages | 214 engagements |
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» 1. Introduction Over the past few decades, climate change has adversely affected both physical and biological systems in most continents across the globe (Rosenzweig et al., 2007). According to Porter et al. (2014), in the past 30 years climate change has contributed to global agricultural production declining by 1–5% per decade. Its effects are also predicted to manifest in severe consequen...Continue Reading »
50 pages | 230 engagements |
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» Abstract The debate on eco innovation is a recent and emergent topic between practitioners and in the academy. Especially in developing economies, such as in Brazil, this topic is very incipient mainly in Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs) context. Hence, the purpose of this study is to identify what are the determinant factors for the successful adoption of eco innovation in Brazilian SMEs...Continue Reading »
50 pages | 358 engagements |
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» Abstract The minimum covariance determinant (MCD) method is a highly robust estimator of multivariate location and scatter, for which a fast algorithm is available. Since estimating the covariance matrix is the cornerstone of many multivariate statistical methods, the MCD is an important building block when developing robust multivariate techniques. It also serves as a convenient and efficient too...Continue Reading »
50 pages | 361 engagements |
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» Abstract Background Researchers recently investigated the effectiveness of virtual reality (VR) in helping children with cerebral palsy (CP) to improve motor function. A systematic review of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) using a meta analytic method to examine the effectiveness of VR in children with CP was thus needed.Purpose The purpose of this study was to update the current evidence abou...Continue Reading »
50 pages | 195 engagements |
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» Abstract In this paper, we examine the effective timing of economic policies actions in the tourism industry of a small open economy such as Singapore. The effective timing of policy actions is an open challenge issue to researchers and also a much needed rule of thumb to policy makers and private agents. This paper aims to (a) derive the influencing factors of a tourism demand function and (b) id...Continue Reading »
50 pages | 222 engagements |
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» Abstract The crop intensification program (CIP) was introduced in Rwanda in 2007 by the Ministry of Agriculture and Animal Resources (MINAGRI), Rwanda, as a solution to the land fragmentation, low use of agricultural inputs and low access to extension services. However, due to the voluntary nature of farmers’ participation and their reluctance to participate, this study aimed at assessing th...Continue Reading »
50 pages | 267 engagements |
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» Introduction The process of intrinsic apoptosis is tightly regulated by the BCL 2 family of proteins. In human cancers, the anti apoptotic BCL 2 proteins play a critical role in protecting cells, which are often “primed” for apoptosis, from committing to irreversible cell death1. To date, the most well described of the anti apoptotic BCL 2 genes are BCL 2, BCL XL, and MCL 1, and recent...Continue Reading »
50 pages | 197 engagements |
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» Introduction Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) is a member of family Solanaceae, cultivated worldwide, ranked first among the processing crops and second as a vegetable crop. In Pakistan it is cultivated on about 58.196 thousand hectares with an annual production of 574.052 thousand tons (FAO, 2013). It contains valuable nutrients like vitamin A and C, calcium, phosphorus, potassium and magnesium (...Continue Reading »
50 pages | 206 engagements |
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» Purpose This paper aims to analyze the economic and financial reporting consequences of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) adoption. Design/methodology/approach Literature review. Findings The survey of the IFRS adoption literature shows that the implementation of IFRS has been successful in reducing information asymmetry, improving the quality of information for users, enhancing t...Continue Reading »
50 pages | 198 engagements |
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» ABSTRACT The Ministry of Agriculture has designed a planting calendar technology so that farmers can carry out thecultivation using the technical guidelines. But at the operational level the adoption rate of the planting calendartechnology is still relatively low. This paper aims to describe how the process of adoption of agriculturaltechnology innovation, especially regarding the planting calenda...Continue Reading »
50 pages | 195 engagements |
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» Abstract Interest in food products with eco friendly characteristics and certifications has grown in recent decades. Consumers are also increasingly demanding ready to eat products, especially in urban environs, where modern lifestyles tend to limit their available time. Understanding the pro environmental behaviour of convenience food consumers is particularly challenging because there is often a...Continue Reading »
50 pages | 199 engagements |