Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Effect of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Activities on Companies With Bad Reputations

Based on theories of attribution and suspicion, three experiments highlight the mediating role of perceived sincerity of motives in determining the effectiveness of CSR activities. CSR activities improve a company's image when consumers attribute sincere motives, are ineffective when sincerity of motives is ambiguous, and hurt the company's image when motives are perceived as insincere. Variables affecting perceived sincerity include the benefit salience of the cause, the source through which consumers learn about CSR, and the ratio of CSR contributions and CSR-related advertising. High benefit salience of the cause hurts the company, in particular when consumers learn about it from a company source. This backfire effect can be overcome by spending more on CSR activities than on advertising that features CSR.
Paradigm Dominance in International Relations: The Development of International Relations as a Social Science

The concern of this study is admittedly narrow; it is focused on the issue of how International Relations has developed as a social science. Within that general focus it is concerned specifically with the dominance of a US view of the subject as a social science. Of course, such a definition of International Relations theory is partial, and certainly many Would resent the very suggestion that the subject is, or should become, a social science. However, my interest is with the reasons why US views of the subject have dominated the broad development of paradigms within the discipline. This issue has crucial relevance for any understanding of the evolution of the discipline, and for any possibility of inter-paradigm debate. My broad argument will be two-fold: on the one hand, the US view of International Relations as a social science has led to the subject strongly reflecting US policy concerns; on the other, this US concern with policy relevance has made it very difficult for the subject to evolve on a cross-national, cumulative basis. Both of these factors make the task of paradigm confrontation even more complex than is implied by those philosophers of social science who have taken the concept of ‘paradigm’ to imply an essentially relativistic epistemology. After outlining the development of the subject as a social science, this study will discuss the existence of a US dominance of the discipline, then conclude with an examination of the implications for the inter-paradigm debate.
Polarization Observations with the Cosmic Background Imager

Polarization observations of the cosmic microwave background with the Cosmic Background Imager from September 2002 to May 2004 provide a significant detection of the E-mode polarization and reveal an angular power spectrum of polarized emission showing peaks and valleys that are shifted in phase by half a cycle relative to those of the total intensity spectrum. This key agreement between the phase of the observed polarization spectrum and that predicted on the basis of the total intensity spectrum provides support for the standard model of cosmology, in which dark matter and dark energy are the dominant constituents, the geometry is close to flat, and primordial density fluctuations are predominantly adiabatic with a matter power spectrum commensurate with inflationary cosmological models.
What Develops in the Development of Second-Language Writing?.

Counts of register features have produced useful data on varieties of written English and on differences between writers of differing writing and language proficiency. This article reports an attempt to extend this procedure to an evaluation of the same foreign-language writers at two different stages. It shows that the procedure can differentiate the products of developing writers at two relatively close points in time, and that a more detailed examination of significant changes can be revealing about patterns of learning. The major changes were from features of spoken English to those more typical of formal writing, both in surface detail and in more fundamental characteristics. There was less change in complexity of construction or variety of vocabulary. Improved correctness in the structures used was balanced by errors in new structures being attempted. The subjects had been discriminating in their acceptance of academic style and actively sensitive to genre and other requirements.
Assessment and documentation of non‐healing, chronic wounds in inpatient health care facilities in the Czech Republic: an evaluation study

The foundation of health care management of patients with non‐healing, chronic wounds needs accurate evaluation followed by the selection of an appropriate therapeutic strategy. Assessment of non‐healing, chronic wounds in clinical practice in the Czech Republic is not standardised. The aim of this study was to analyse the methods being used to assess non‐healing, chronic wounds in inpatient facilities in the Czech Republic. The research was carried out at 77 inpatient medical facilities (8 university/faculty hospitals, 63 hospitals and 6 long‐ term hospitals) across all regions of the Czech Republic. A mixed model was used for the research (participatory observation including creation of field notes and content analysis of documents for documentation and analysis of qualitative and quantitative data). The results of this research have corroborated the suspicion of inconsistencies in procedures used by general nurses for assessment of non‐healing, chronic wounds. However, the situation was found to be more positive with regard to evaluation of basic/fundamental parameters of a wound (e.g. size, depth and location of a wound) compared with the evaluation of more specific parameters (e.g. exudate or signs of infection). This included not only the number of observed variables, but also the action taken. Both were significantly improved when a consultant for wound healing was present (P = 0·047). The same applied to facilities possessing a certificate of quality issued by the Czech Wound Management Association (P = 0·010). In conclusion, an effective strategy for wound management depends on the method and scope of the assessment of non‐healing, chronic wounds in place in clinical practice in observed facilities; improvement may be expected following the general introduction of a ‘non‐healing, chronic wound assessment’ algorithm.
Rhetoric and the Public Sphere

The pathologies of the democratic public sphere, first articulated by Plato in his attack on rhetoric, have pushed much of deliberative theory out of the mass public and into the study and design of small scale deliberative venues. The move away from the mass public can be seen in a growing split in deliberative theory between theories of democratic deliberation (on the ascendancy) which focus on discrete deliberative initiatives within democracies and theories of deliberative democracy (on the decline) that attempt to tackle the large questions of how the public, or civil society in general, relates to the state. Using rhetoric as the lens through which to view mass democracy, this essay argues that the key to understanding the deliberative potential of the mass public is in the distinction between deliberative and plebiscitary rhetoric.
Maintaining and Testing Separability in Demand Systems

We derive a general elasticity representation of the necessary and sufficient conditions for direct weak separability of the utility function. Parametric restrictions required to implement the separability conditions are presented for three common demand systems: the Almost Ideal, Translog, and Rotterdam. Our empirical application uses the Rotterdam model to test a few separable structures within a complete U.S. demand system emphasizing food commodities. Results, based on size-corrected likelihood ratio tests, provide support for commonly used separability assumptions about food and meat demand.
Interleukin-6 and C-Reactive Protein in Pathogenesis of Diabetic Nephropathy

Introduction. Recent studies have shown that subclinical inflammation is a part of type 2 diabetes mellitus. This study was designed to explore the relationships between low-grade inflammation and renal microangiopathy in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus. Materials and Methods. Sixty patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus were included in the study and further divided into normoalbuminurics, microalbuminurics, and macroalbuminurics, of 20 patients each. We analyzed serum concentrations of highsensitivity C-reactive protein (HS-CRP) and interleukin-6 (IL-6) and studied their correlation with proteinuria. The patients and a control group of 20 healthy individuals were followed-up for a period of 6 months and the markers measured again. Results. A positive correlation was found between urinary albumin excretion and levels of HS-CRP (r = 0.781, P < .001) and IL-6 (r = 0.708, P < .001). The level of glcosylated hemoglobin (HbA1c) showed a significant positive correlation with urinary albumin excretion (r = 0.630, P < .001), CRP (r = 0.750, P < .001), and IL-6 (r = 0.680, P < .001). Levels of HbA1c, HS-CRP, and IL-6 significantly decreased in all three diabetic groups after 6 months of treatment. Also, the percentage of HbA1c decrement correlated well with the decrease percentage in HS-CRP (r = .277, P = .01). Conclusions. Inflammatory markers in early type 2 diabetic nephropathy are elevated and are independently associated with urinary albumin excretion. It is possible to hypothesize on the participation of locally released cytokines in the development of kidney damage.
Impact of Storage Structures and Soil Sodicity on Vitamin C Contents of Stored Oranges

A study was carried out on the impact of storage structures and soil sodicity on vitamin C contents of stored oranges. Three sets of four different types of passive evaporative cooling structures made of two different materials, clay and aluminium were constructed. One set consists of four separate cooling chambers. Two cooling chambers were made with aluminium container (round and rectangular shapes) and the other two were made of clay container (round and rectangular). These four containers were separately inserted inside a bigger clay pot interspaced with clay soil of 5 cm (to form tin-in-pot, potin-pot, tin-in-wall and wall-in wall) with the outside structure wrapped with jute sack. The other two sets followed the same pattern with interspacing of 7 cm and 10 cm respectively. The set with 7 cm interspace served as the control in which the interspace soil and the jute sack were constantly wetted at intervals of between 2 to 4 hours depending on the rate of evaporation with water at room temperature. The other two sets (5 cm and 10 cm interspaced soil) were constantly wetted with salt solution (sodium chloride, NaCl) at the same interval to keep the soil in moist condition. In addition, the control has no fans and the inner cooling chambers were not lined with polyethylene nylon while the other two sets have fans and their inner cooling chambers lined with polyethylene nylon. Freshly harvested oranges were used for the experiment and the temperature and relative humidity of the storage chambers and the ambient were monitored on daily basis at 8.00am, 12 noon and 6.00pm while the vitamin C contents were determined at interval of three days for a period of three weeks. The oranges kept inside the tin-in-wall and wall-in-wall structures in all the three interspaces retained the highest amount of vitamin C at the end of the storage period. The vitamin C values of 32.42 mg/100ml, 30.68 mg/100ml, 33.98 mg/100ml and 34.94 mg/100ml were recorded for the tin-in-pot, pot-in-pot, tin-in-wall and wall-in-wall respectively for the 5 cm soil interspace. The vitamin C values of 31.78 mg/100ml, 30.80 mg/100ml, 32.94 mg/100ml and 33.32 mg/100ml were recorded for the tin-in-pot, pot-in-pot, tin-in-wall and wall-in-wall respectively for the 7 cm soil interspace while the vitamin C values of 31.54 mg/100ml, 31.16 mg/100ml, 33.42 mg/100ml and 33.54 mg/100ml were recorded for the tin-in-pot, pot-in-pot, tin-in-wall and wall-in-wall respectively for the 7 cm soil interspace. Overall, the 7 cm soil interspace structures recorded the least amount of vitamin C of 128.84 mg/100ml while the 5 cm and 10 cm soil interspace structures recorded higher values of vitamin C contents of 132.02 mg/100ml and 129.66 mg/100ml respectively.
Pardicle: Parallel Approximate Density-Based Clustering

DBSCAN is a widely used is density-based clustering algorithm for particle data well-known for its ability to isolate arbitrarily-shaped clusters and to filter noise data. The algorithm is super-linear (O(nlogn)) and computationally expensive for large datasets. Given the need for speed, we propose a fast heuristic algorithm for DBSCAN using density based sampling, which performs equally well in quality compared to exact algorithms, but is more than an order of magnitude faster. Our experiments on astrophysics and synthetic massive datasets (8.5 billion numbers) shows that our approximate algorithm is up to 56× faster than exact algorithms with almost identical quality (Omega-Index ≥ 0.99). We develop a new parallel DBSCAN algorithm, which uses dynamic partitioning to improve load balancing and locality. We demonstrate near-linear speedup on shared memory (15× using 16 cores, single node Intel® Xeon® processor) and distributed memory (3917× using 4096 cores, multinode) computers, with 2× additional performance improvement using Intel® Xeon Phi™ coprocessors. Additionally, existing exact algorithms can achieve up to 3.4 times speedup using dynamic partitioning.
Astronomy by Correspondence

This study of the correspondence between the director of the National Astronomical Observatory in Mexico and a variety of individuals produces a portrait of astronomy in the Mexican culture of the period. The letters analyzed here can be divided into three groups according to the author’s main interests: observing the sky, creating theories, and daily life. By inquiring about the previous knowledge, intentions, and attitudes of the senders, it is possible to understand the process of appropriation of knowledge about astronomy. The letters shed light on aspects of the public interested in science that other approaches cannot.
Trapezium Excision and Suture Suspensionplasty (TESS) for the Treatment of Thumb Carpometacarpal Arthritis

Basilar thumb arthritis, or first carpometacarpal arthritis, is a common condition affecting older women and some men. It is estimated that as many as one third of postmenopausal woman are affected. Surgical treatment of this condition includes options ranging from arthrodesis to prosthetic arthroplasty. Intermediate options include complete or partial trapezial excision with or without interposition of a cushioning/stabilizing material (auto source, allo source, synthetic source). A multitude of methods appear to offer similar end results, although some methods definitely involve more surgical work and perhaps greater patient risk. Through retrospective evaluation of a cohort of patients who underwent suture suspensionplasty, we determined the postoperative effect on strength, motion, patient satisfaction, complications, and radiographic maintenance of the scaphoid-metacarpal distance. This review shows the method to be clinically effective and, by comparison with a more traditional ligament reconstruction trapezial interposition arthroplasty, the method does not require use of autograft or allograft tendon and has fewer surgical steps. Forty-four patients were included in this retrospective study. The results showed that 91% of patients were satisfied with the procedure. Pinch and grip strength remained the same preoperatively and postoperatively. A Disabilities of the Arm, Shoulder, and Hand patient-reported outcome instrument (DASH) scores averaged 30 at final follow-up. Three patients developed a late complication requiring further surgical intervention. In summary, this technique appears to be technically reproducible, requires no additional tendon material, and achieves objectively and subjectively similar results to other reported procedures used to manage first CMC Arthritis.
Celebrating, challenging and re-envisioning serious leisure

In this article, we explore and expand theorizing about serious leisure examining its complexities and contradictions and its potential for the social sphere, applying particularly the critical lens of feminist communitarianism. Beginning with a critique of the reliance on activity-based definitions of serious leisure in empirical research and conceptualizations of serious leisure as embedded in a series of dualisms such as positive–negative, work–leisure and serious–casual, we suggest serious leisure be re-envisioned as a complex experience influencing and influenced by the sociopolitical context. We also explore the functional, normative nature of previous literature on serious leisure and the possibility of re-envisioning serious leisure as an expressive and creative experience that nurtures diversity. Advocating for increased attention to the sociopolitical context and the adoption of a critical lens, we suggest that serious leisure experiences may be gendered, commodified and stratified. We advocate for a more complex analysis of serious leisure linked to social and political spheres and celebrate its potential as an avenue for nurturing social ties and building identity. Finally, based on the preceding analysis, we offer a re-envisioned definition of serious leisure for consideration.
From Few to Many: Illumination Cone Models for Face Recognition under Variable Lighting and Pose

We present a generative appearance-based method for recognizing human faces under variation in lighting and viewpoint. Our method exploits the fact that the set of images of an object in fixed pose, but under all possible illumination conditions, is a convex cone in the space of images. Using a small number of training images of each face taken with different lighting directions, the shape and albedo of the face can be reconstructed. In turn, this reconstruction serves as a generative model that can be used to render (or synthesize) images of the face under novel poses and illumination conditions. The pose space is then sampled and, for each pose, the corresponding illumination cone is approximated by a low-dimensional linear subspace whose basis vectors are estimated using the generative model. Our recognition algorithm assigns to a test image the identity of the closest approximated illumination cone. Test results show that the method performs almost without error, except on the most extreme lighting directions.
Predisposing Factors for Nephrolithiasis and Nephrocalcinosis in Cystic Fibrosis

Objective Cystic fibrosis (CF) is characterized by chronic pulmonary disease, insufficient pancreatic and digestive function, and abnormal sweat concentration. There is controversy about predisposing factors of nephrolithiasis and nephrocalcinosis in patients with cystic fibrosis. We assessed the results of metabolic evaluation in patients with cystic fibrosis and its correlation with nephrocalcinosis. Methods Forty five CF patients, mean age 47.1 months, were enrolled in the study. No one had past history of nephrolithiasis and/or nephrocalcinosis. The records were reviewed for clinical characteristics and all patients underwent metabolic evaluation including serum electrolyte measurements and spot urine analysis. Ultrasonography was performed in all patients to detect nephrocalcinosis and urolithiasis. Findings Nephrocalcinosis was found in 5 (11%) patients. No patient had clinical symptoms of nephrolithiasis and/or micro/macroscopic hematuria. Metabolic evaluation of the CF patients versus normal reference values showed decreased serum uric acid in 48.8%, elevated serum phosphate in 24.4%, and urine oxalate excretion in 51%. Metabolic evaluation of the nephrocalcinosis positive patients versus nephrocalcinosis negative group showed no statistical difference in serum electrolytes. The mean value of urine calcium excretion was lower in patients with nephrocalcinosis (P=0.001). Despite lack of any significant correlation, higher numerical hyperoxaluria was observed in patients with severe steatorrhea. There was no statistical correlation between steatorrhea and urine calcium as well as oxalate excretion. Conclusion Hypocalciuria in the nephrocalcinotic CF patients may be seen. It can be hypothesized that hypocalciuria may be due to a primary defect in renal calcium metabolism in CF patients.
Differently Literate: Gender identity and the construction of the developing reader

ABSTRACT This paper argues that three specific areas of influence contribute to shaping the attitudes and expectations of adolescent reading in Britain: that of the family, that of the friendship group and that of the peer group in school. I examine pupils' perceptions of themselves as readers, and the ways in which their early reading experiences have been differentiated in relation to their gender. I provide evidence that reading is constructed within both domestic and school settings as an interest more appropriate for adolescent girls than it is for boys, and examine ways in which their reading experience has been influenced by other members of the family and the wider community. Finally I identify the role of the school curriculum in promoting particular versions of literacy that have more appeal for girls than boys in the survey.
ADAPTATION TO ENVIRONMENT

Lisch states that the majority were of asthenic physique and looked ill, and Lutman and Favata mention the slender build and nervous temperaments of their cases. All those mentioned in this paper and four others under treatment at the present time are phlegmatic rather than excitable and, excepting case 2 with pituitary dysfunction, cannot be said either to be of any constitutional type or to look ill.
Measuring Race and Gender Differences in Undergraduate Students’ Perceptions of Campus Climate and Intentions to Leave College: An Analysis in Black and White

Student perceptions of campus climate environments and intentions to leave college were examined for 391 participants. Differences by race were found for perceptions of the campus climate being cold and uncaring and for expectations to encounter racism in college. Perceptions of campus climate were related to African American students’ intent to leave college, whereas academic behaviors predicted White students’ intentions. Gender moderated the relationship between perceptions of class size and African American students’ intentions. Implications for future policy, practice, and research are discussed.
A Collaborative Research

Almost 50 percent of all poultryproducing households in Ghana are located in three regions (Northern, Upper Eastern, and Ashanti)—key regions to target for HPAI prevention and surveillance among small-scale poultry production systems. Because they have diversified income sources and derive small proportions of their total household income from poultry, poultry-producing households are likely to be resilient against HPAI shocks. The impact of HPAI on incomes is small; however, larger smallscale poultry producers stand to lose significant proportions of their wealth (assets) as a result of HPAI shocks. Households in the areas with medium HPAI risk (Central, Western, Eastern, Ashanti, and Brong Ahafo regions) are most vulnerable to HPAI and should be encouraged to adopt HPAI control and mitigation measures. Controlling Avian Flu and Protecting People’s Livelihoods in Africa and Indonesia