Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Theory and Research Concerning Social Comparisons of Personal Attributes

Social comparison theory has evolved considerably since Festinger (1954) originally proposed it. This article integrates these changes with insights offered by recent social comparison studies and by research on social cognition and the self. Contrary to the original theory or subsequent research, (a) the individual is not always an unbiased self-evaluator but may seek many goals through social comparison; (b) the social environment may not be inactive but may impose unwanted comparisons; and (c) the comparison process involves more than selecting a comparison target: It is bidirectional, rather than unidirectional, and it may adopt a variety of forms to meet the individual's goals. Research involving comparisons of personal attributes illustrates these principles. The couples we knew were also aging. , and paid rising taxes and suffered automobile accidents and midnight illnesses and marital woe; but under the tireless supervision of gossip all misfortunes were compared, and confessed, and revealed as relative. (Updike, 1985, p. 48) Salieri, speaking of Mozart, in Amadeus: Tonight. stands a giggling child who can put on paper, without actually setting down his billiard cue, casual notes which turn my most considered ones into lifeless scratches. [That] ensured that I would know myself forever mediocre. (Shatfer, 1980, p. 61) An important source of knowledge about oneself is comparisons with other people. In 1954, Festinger proposed a theory of social comparison based on this insight. Although interest in the theory has waxed and waned since then (Goethals, 1986b), social comparison research has enjoyed a resurgence recently: Over 100 journal articles on social comparison have appeared since 1982, which is almost three times the number published in the theory's first 12 years (Radloff& Bard, 1966). Moreover, social comparison processes are central to other prominent theories in social psychology, including relative deprivation (Masters & Smith, 1987; Olson, Herman. & Zanna, 1986), Tesser's self-evaluation maintenance model (Tenet, 1986), and Tajfel and Turner's (1979) social identity theory of groups. Although social comparison theory was once dubbed "everybody's second-favorite theory in social psychology (but almost nobody's first)" (Arrowood, 1978, p. 491 ), the literature has never before had more vitality. These developments call for a reexamination of social comparison theory. For some time, researchers have operated under an understanding of social comparison that goes beyond Festinger's (1954) original theory and that in some ways contradicts
It takes two to tango: an empirical study of perceived spousal/partner support for working women

Women on average still have more responsibility for home, family life, and child care than men. Extensive research has focused on the needs of, and support required by, these working women, most often exploring related organizational programs and benefits. This paper attempts to remedy this deficiency by examining the roles women perceive their spouses or partners play in these families in sharing home and family responsibilities and supporting the careers of these women. It explores the differences in the roles that women in early, middle, and late life perceive their spouses or partners play. Differences exist in women's perceptions of how spouses or partners manage family finances, support the women's careers, contribute to household management, and provide interpersonal support. Specific roles and the resulting support are related to the life satisfaction, job satisfaction, and work‐life balance of some but not all cohorts of the women surveyed.
Deception to Get a Date

Two studies examined whether some people use more deceptive self-presentation to initiate a dating relationship. Participants reviewed information depicting prospective dates and constructed profiles to be used by the prospects to select a date. In this context, high self-monitoring men and women engaged in more deceptive self-presentation to the person that they desired to date than low self-monitors. Study 2replicated this finding with a variety of personal dimensions and revealed that high self-monitors hold more favorable attitudes toward using deception in dating initiation and admit altering their self-presentation in an attempt to initiate a date. No sex differences in the amount of deceptive self presentation were found. These outcomes suggest that high self-monitors behave in a chameleon-like fashion during dating initiation, strategically and deceptively changing their self-presentation in an attempt to appear more desirable to the person they want to date. Motivations for using deception are discussed.
Clinical Epidemiology and Phenotypic Characteristics of Crohn's Disease in the Central Region of Saudi Arabia

Background/Aims: Despite the remarkable increase in the incidence of Crohn's disease among Saudis in recent years, data about Crohn's disease in Saudi Arabia are scarce. The aim of this study was to determine the clinical epidemiology and phenotypic characteristics of Crohn's disease in the central region of Saudi Arabia. Patients and Methods: A data registry, Inflammatory Bowel Disease Information System (IBDIS), was used to register Crohn's disease patients who presented to the gastroenterology clinics in four tertiary care centers in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia between September 2009 and February 2013. Patients’ characteristics, disease location, behavior, age at diagnosis according to the Montreal classification, course of the disease, and extraintestinal manifestation were recorded. Results: Among 497 patients with Crohn's disease, 59% were males with a mean age at diagnosis of 25 years [95% Confidence Interval (CI): 24-26, range 5-75 years]. The mean duration from the time of complaint to the day of the diagnosis was 11 months, and the mean duration of the disease from diagnosis to the day of entry to the registry was 40 months. Seventy-seven percent of our patients were aged 17-40 years at diagnosis, 16.8% were ≤16 years of age, and 6.6% were >40 years of age. According to the Montreal classification of disease location, 48.8% of patients had ileocolonic involvement, 43.5% had limited disease to the terminal ileum or cecum, 7.7% had isolated colonic involvement, and 16% had an upper gastrointestinal involvement. Forty-two percent of our patients had a non-stricturing, non-penetrating behavior, while 32.8% had stricturing disease and 25.4% had penetrating disease. Conclusion: Crohn's disease is frequently encountered in Saudi Arabia. The majority of patients are young people with a predilection for males, while its behavior resembled that of western societies in terms of age of onset, location, and behavior.
Strategic investment decision- making processes: The influence of contextual factors

Purpose - – This paper aims to examine the relationship between key contextual factors (type of strategic investment decision-making (SIDM), decision uncertainty, organizational goals, financial and non-financial corporate performance, firm size, and decision-maker background) and three significant dimensions of SIDM processes (procedural rationality, strategy formulation and political behaviour). Design/methodology/approach - – A survey was mailed to the financial directors of manufacturing companies selected from the UK Financial Analysis Made Easy database. Factor analysis and multiple regression analysis were used to analyse the survey results. Findings - – The findings reveal that SIDM is more complex and less systematic than the normative literature suggests, with a combination of contextual factors influencing the decision-making process. Further, the regression results suggest that SIDM is shaped by the interplay of procedural rationality, strategy formulation and political behaviour and that none of these on its own can sufficiently explain SIDM practice. Research limitations/implications - – The survey data are drawn from UK manufacturing companies, so the findings may not be generalisable beyond that context. Practical implications - – The findings suggest a need for firms to recognise that strategy formulation and political aspects of decision-making are as important as “rational” financial analysis in SIDM practice. Further, since SIDM practice is shaped by a combination of contextual factors, a comprehensive overview of these factors is necessary to direct SIDM outcomes. Originality/value - – This study adds to the limited prior research examining the links between contextual factors and SIDM processes. Prior studies have tended to focus on only one dimension, or on limited factors, and have reported inconsistent findings. This paper provides a broader view of the complex nature of SIDM processes.
Religion and ideological support for social movements : The case of animal rights

This paper intersects two recent trends in social movement research: rediscovery of the centrality of both ideology and religion to understanding social movements. Using two recent national surveys, we assess the extent to which three religious beliefs and one religiously linked belief are related to ideological support for the animal rights movement in the general public. Among both women and men, the belief that God is in nature and a religiously linked opposition to science facilitate support for animal rights, counteracting the negative impact of greater church attendance. However, biblical literalism and a gracious image of God have little effect on acceptance of animal rights. We conclude by considering implications of these results for subsequent research on religion and ideological support for racial movements.
Esaim: Control, Optimisation and Calculus of Variations Homogenization and Diffusion Asymptotics of the Linear Boltzmann Equation

We investigate the diffusion limit for general conservative Boltzmann equations with oscillating coefficients. Oscillations have a frequency of the same order as the inverse of the mean free path, and the coefficients may depend on both slow and fast variables. Passing to the limit, we are led to an effective drift-diffusion equation. We also describe the diffusive behaviour when the equilibrium function has a non-vanishing flux.
Should Insertion of Intramedullary Nails for Tibial Fractures Be With or Without Reaming?: A Prospective, Randomized Study With 3.8 Years' Follow-up

Objective To determine if any differences exist in healing and complications between reamed and unreamed nailing in patients with tibial shaft fractures. Design Prospective, randomized. Setting Level 1 trauma center. Patients Forty-five patients with displaced closed and open Gustilo type I–IIIA fractures of the central two thirds of the tibia. Intervention Stabilization of tibial fractures either with a slotted, stainless steel reamed nail or a solid, titanium unreamed nail. Main Outcome Measurements Nonunions, time to fracture healing, and rate of malunions. Results The average time to fracture healing was 16.7 weeks in the reamed group and 25.7 weeks in the unreamed group. The difference was statistically significant (P = 0.004). There were three nonunions, all in the unreamed nail group. Two of these fractures healed after dynamization by removing static interlocking screws. The third nonunion did not heal despite exchange reamed nailing 2 years after the primary surgery and dynamization with a fibular osteotomy after an additional 1 year. There were two malunions in the reamed group and four malunions in the unreamed group. There were no differences for all other outcome measurements. Conclusion Unreamed nailing in patients with tibial shaft fractures may be associated with higher rates of secondary operations and malunions compared with reamed nailing. The time to fracture healing was significantly longer with unreamed nails.
Understanding customer knowledge sharing in web-based discussion boards: An exploratory study

Purpose – The proliferation and advance of web‐based technologies create expanded opportunities for retailers to gain a better understanding of their customers. However, the success of these web‐based discussion boards depends solely on whether customers are willing to share their knowledge and experience with other customers in these discussion boards. Thus, this study aims at identifying the factors that drive knowledge sharing among customers in web‐based discussion boards.Design/methodology/approach – An exploratory study with 104 respondents was conducted to identify and categorize the key factors of customer knowledge sharing in web‐based discussion boards.Findings – The results indicate that the enjoyment of helping others is the most frequently cited reason for customer knowledge sharing in web‐based discussion boards. On the other hand, the lack of knowledge self‐efficacy is the mostly cited reason explaining why customers do not want to share knowledge with others.Research limitations/implicatio.
Ranking and selection techniques with overlapping variance estimators

Some ranking and selection (R&S) procedures for steady- state simulation require an estimate of the asymptotic variance parameter of each system to guarantee a certain probability of correct selection. We show that the performance of such R&S procedures depends on the quality of the variance estimates that are used. In this paper, we study the performance of R&S procedures with two new variance estimators -overlapping area and overlapping Cramer-von Mises estimators- which show better long-run performance than other estimators previously used in R&S problems.
Randomised study of sequential versus combination chemotherapy with capecitabine, irinotecan and oxaliplatin in advanced colorectal cancer, an interim safety analysis. A Dutch Colorectal Cancer Group (DCCG) phase III study.

BACKGROUND Results on overall survival in randomised studies of mono- versus combination chemotherapy in advanced colorectal cancer patients may have been biased by an imbalance in salvage treatments. This is the first randomised study that evaluates sequential versus combination chemotherapy with a fluoropyrimidine, irinotecan and oxaliplatin. PATIENTS AND METHODS A total of 820 patients were randomised between first-line capecitabine, second-line irinotecan and third-line capecitabine + oxaliplatin (arm A) versus first-line capecitabine + irinotecan, and second-line capecitabine + oxaliplatin (arm B). The primary end point was overall survival. We present the results of an interim analysis on the safety data in the first 400 patients. RESULTS In first-line the incidence of grade 3-4 diarrhoea, nausea, vomiting and febrile neutropenia was significantly higher in arm B. However, when toxicity over all lines was considered only grade 3 hand-foot syndrome occurred more frequently in arm A (12% versus 6%, respectively, P = 0.041). The incidence of cardiovascular toxicity was low. In two out of five patients with sudden death (one in arm A, four in arm B) cardiovascular risk factors were present. CONCLUSIONS Both treatment arms had an acceptable safety profile. These data imply that the results on survival will be the major determinant for the selection of either strategy. Capecitabine plus irinotecan appears to be a feasible first-line treatment for patients with advanced colorectal carcinoma.
Restraint and seclusion in a Norwegian university psychiatric hospital

Objectives. There has recently been an increased focus on the use of coercion in psychiatric care and on the need to consider the patients’ autonomy. Staff that are faced with aggressive, violent, or self-harming inpatients, must consider patient and staff safety, as well as the need to provide humane and efficient treatment. Although physical and pharmacological restraint and seclusion are used regularly in psychiatric institutions in many countries, little has been published about staff’s motivation for using the interventions, and the effects they have. In the present work, the objectives were to identify the number of incidents and the characteristics of the patients involved, the staff’s reasons for the use and choice of a particular type of intervention, the effects of the interventions, and possible alternatives to the use of restraint and seclusion.
On the scattered field generated by a ball inhomogeneity of constant index

We consider the solution of a scalar Helmholtz equation where the potential (or index) takes two positive values, one inside a ball of radius " and another one outside. In this short paper, we report that the results recently obtained in the two dimensional case in (1) can be easily extended to three dimensions. In particular, we provide sharp estimates of the size of the scattered field caused by this ball inhomogeneity, for any frequencies and any contrast. We also provide a broadband estimate, that is, a uniform bound for the scattered field for any contrast, and any frequencies outside of a set which tends to zero with ".
Variation in virulence among clades of Escherichia coli O157:H7 associated with disease outbreaks

Escherichia coli O157:H7, a toxin-producing food and waterborne bacterial pathogen, has been linked to large outbreaks of gastrointestinal illness for more than two decades. E. coli O157 causes a wide range of clinical illness that varies by outbreak, although factors that contribute to variation in disease severity are poorly understood. Several recent outbreaks involving O157 contamination of fresh produce (e.g., spinach) were associated with more severe disease, as defined by higher hemolytic uremic syndrome and hospitalization frequencies, suggesting that increased virulence has evolved. To test this hypothesis, we developed a system that detects SNPs in 96 loci and applied it to >500 E. coli O157 clinical strains. Phylogenetic analyses identified 39 SNP genotypes that differ at 20% of SNP loci and are separated into nine distinct clades. Differences were observed between clades in the frequency and distribution of Shiga toxin genes and in the type of clinical disease reported. Patients with hemolytic uremic syndrome were significantly more likely to be infected with clade 8 strains, which have increased in frequency over the past 5 years. Genome sequencing of a spinach outbreak strain, a member of clade 8, also revealed substantial genomic differences. These findings suggest that an emergent subpopulation of the clade 8 lineage has acquired critical factors that contribute to more severe disease. The ability to detect and rapidly genotype O157 strains belonging to such lineages is important and will have a significant impact on both disease diagnosis and treatment guidelines.
Abuse and disabled children: hidden needs…?

In order to look at current practices in recording the abuse of disabled children, a questionnaire was sent out to the 121 Chairs of the Area Child Protection Committees in the United Kingdom. Of the 73 responders, over 50% claimed to identify the disability of an abused child but only 10% could given an actual figure. The lack of statistical evidence made it impossible to calculate anything except an approximation of the rate of abuse of disabled children. Schedules completed over a period of 1 year in two Social Services Departments for all disabled children who were conferenced for abuse showed that they were less likely to be put on the child protection register than a comparison group of non-disabled children. Semi-structured interviews with eight of the key workers for the disabled children revealed that they were concerned that there was a tendency ‘not to see’ the abuse of disabled children and they did not feel there was sufficient training regarding the interface between abuse and disabilities. Taking into account the responses to the study, a number of national and local recommendations were made. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
The influence of service-learning on intercultural sensitivity

This quantitative study examines the influence of service-learning on levels of intercultural sensitivity of international school students in Hong Kong using the Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI). IDI scores are found to correlate with a variety of demographic variables and variables related to four models of service programs. One service-learning model evidences statistically significant posttest gains in the Encapsulated Marginality stage.
A developmental angle to understanding the mechanisms of biased cognitions in social anxiety

Social anxiety disorder (SAD) is debilitating and common, affecting 7.3–12.1% of the population (e.g., Wittchen et al., 1999; Kessler et al., 2005). Age-of-onset data show that SAD symptoms are often first experienced in late childhood or adolescence (Kessler et al., 2005). While adolescence is a period when many typical social fears and worries emerge, major questions remain as to why some youths are more vulnerable to experiencing persistent and impairing social anxiety. A key gap in current theoretical models of SAD etiology is an understanding of the mechanisms by which risk factors are expressed during development. In this opinion paper, we address this gap by first discussing the nature of age-typical increases in social fears and worries in the transition to adolescence and outlining possible brain-based developmental mechanisms by which these arise. Next, we discuss how these age-typical changes in neurocognitive functioning might, in a subset of adolescents, enable maladaptive processing biases in relation to social cues to emerge or be exacerbated. These processing biases may, in turn, contribute to the onset of persistent social anxiety.
"Dragon, Kung Fu and Jackie Chan ...": Stereotypes about China Held by Malaysian Students

This study explored stereotypes about China held by young Malaysians. It focused on the learners of the Mandarin language in a big public university. The study not only examined the content but also assessed the favourability and salience of the language learners' stereotypes, which had not been done in the previous studies. The stereotypes about China provided by the participants were diverse; they referred to culture, politics, language, history, climate, landscape, economics, religion and the Chinese people. Overall, the stereotypes were favourable. Especially the stereotypes referring to Chinese traditional and popular culture and cultural symbols were among the most frequent and most salient images of China. An interesting finding was that transnational popular culture played an important role in the formation of the stereotypical images about China. The study concludes by highlighting some pedagogical implications based on these findings. China's ascendance in global politics and economy has heightened the interest of the mass media and the general public toward the country. Perceptions about China have fluctuated over the years and between the countries. In 2005, a BBC World Service survey of public opinion about China revealed that the respondents in most of the 22 polled countries viewed China's global presence and its economic power positively (Program on International Policy Attitude 2005). At the same time, China's growing military might was perceived negatively by 59% of the respondents. It is interesting to note that the younger respondents or those between 18 and 29 years old had more positive perceptions about the country compared to the older people.