Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
On the pleasures of the mind.

Preprint of Chapter in D. Kahneman, E. Diener, and N. Schwarz (Eds.), Well-being: The Foundations of Hedonic Psychology New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 1999. THE PRINTED VERSION WILL DIFFER SLIGHTLY. Pleasures of the mind are different from pleasures of the body. There are two types of pleasures of the body: tonic pleasures and relief pleasures. Pleasures of the body are given by the contact senses and by the distance senses (seeing and hearing). The distance senses provide a special category of pleasure. Pleasures of the mind are not emotions; they are collections of emotions distributed over time. Some distributions of emotions over time are particularly pleasurable, such as episodes in which the peak emotion is strong and the final emotion is positive. The idea that all pleasurable stimuli share some general characteristic should be supplanted by the idea that humans have evolved domain-specific responses of attraction to stimuli. The emotions that characterize pleasures of the mind arise when expectations are violated, causing autonomic nervous system arousal and thereby triggering a search for an interpretation. Thus pleasures of the mind occur when an individual has a definite set of expectations (usually tacit) and the wherewithal to interpret the violation (usually by placing it in a narrative framework). Pleasures of the mind differ in the objects of the emotions they comprise. There is probably a small number of categories of objects of emotions that we share with other mammals. I discuss two: the unknown (giving rise to curiosity) and skill (giving rise to virtuosity); two others being nurturing and sociality. There is also a uniquely human category of objects of emotion: suffering.
Student-Teachers’ Attitudes toward Students with Disabilities: Associations with Contact and Empathy

There is little research on student-teachers’ attitudes and contact with students with disabilities, and even fewer researchers have investigated student-teachers’ empathy. This study investigated the association between student-teachers’ contact with students with disabilities and their attitudes toward students with disabilities as well as the association between student-teachers’ attitudes toward students with disabilities and their level of empathy. Student-teachers’ contact with students with disabilities was not associated with their attitudes toward students with disabilities. However, higher student-teacher empathy was associated with attitudes that were more positive toward students with disabilities. While most educators would agree that future teachers should be exposed to as many diverse students as possible, this study points to an interpersonal quality that may play a more vital role in shaping future teachers’ attitudes toward students with disabilities. This affects how we prepare future teachers and highlights the need for empathy training for future teachers.
Prospective study of infective endocarditis among injection drug users.

To determine the effect of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection and other factors on infective endocarditis (IE) among injection drug users (IDUs), the incidence of IE was determined according to HIV status in a cohort of IDUs. A nested case-control study assessed IE risk factors. IE incidence (117 cases) was higher among HIV-seropositive than HIV-seronegative IDUs (13.8 vs. 3.3 cases/1000 person-years) during 1988-1998. Multivariate analysis of HIV-infected case patients revealed an inverse association between IE and CD4 lymphocyte count (odds ratio [OR] for 200-499 cells/mm(3), 2.01; OR for <200 cells/mm(3), 3.61) and with alcohol intake (OR for 1-21 drinks/week, 0.43; OR for >21 drinks/week, 0.32). Women had an increased risk of IE (OR, 3.26), as did persons with increasing injection drug use frequency (OR for less than daily use, 3.15; OR for at least daily use, 6.07). This study confirms that IE is more common among IDUs with advanced HIV immunosuppression even after accounting for injection drug use behaviors.
Responses to dynamic leg exercise in man as influenced by changes in muscle perfusion pressure.

The influences of induced alterations in muscle perfusion pressure on the physiological responses to rhythmic exercise in man were investigated. The experiments were carried out in healthy subjects performing leg exercise on a cycle ergometer at light to exhaustive work intensities. Increased muscle perfusion pressure was brought about by exposing the working legs of the supine subject to a subatmospheric pressure of -50 mm Hg (Lower Body Negative Pressure, LBNP), decreased perfusion pressure by instead applying a supraatmospheric pressure of 50 mm Hg (Leg Positive Pressure, LPP). In this way, the perfusion pressure in dynamically exercising large muscle groups could be altered in a controlled fashion. The influences of such manipulation of the perfusion pressure on the physiological adjustments to incremental-load exercise were studied and analysed. The main results and conclusions were as follows: (1) Exercise-induced increases in cardiac output were attenuated by LBNP, an effect caused by curtailment of stroke volume secondary to suction-induced sequestration of blood volume in capacitance vessels not affected by the action of the leg muscle pump. This situation resembles that of dynamic leg exercise in the upright body position. Thus, supine exercise with LBNP at -50 mm Hg seems to be a valid model of upright leg exercise, not only in that it increases perfusion pressure in working muscles but also by causing similar changes in the central circulation as a shift from supine to upright leg exercise. (2) Exercise-induced increases in systolic arterial pressure were markedly exaggerated by LPP, an effect attributable to increased exercise responses in both cardiac output and total peripheral resistance. The exaggerated pressor response supports the notion of a muscle chemoreflex drive in response to flow-restricted exercise tending to reduce the existing flow error. (3) Exercise-induced increases in O2 uptake and blood lactate concentration were both attenuated by LBNP and exaggerated by LPP. The changes in blood lactate levels are attributable to perfusion-pressure dependent variations in muscle blood flow, resulting in opposite changes in the share contributed by anaerobic metabolism to the energy release. Possible explanations for the fact that impaired muscle perfusion was associated with increased O2 uptake at given external work loads are discussed. (4) Exercise-induced responses of the pulmonary ventilation were attenuated by LBNP and markedly exaggerated by LPP. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)
An Empirical Investigation into the Role of EQ/Emotional Intelligence Competencies in Mental Well-being

Mental well-being, a pivotal but controversial construct viewed from multiple lenses, has been garnering attention of scholars and practitioners due to high pressure environment, a concomitant of global economic meltdown. Mental well-being is described as a positive and sustainable condition which enables individuals/groups to thrive even in adversity. It, to a considerable extent, depends on perception and management of negative emotions where emotional intelligence plays an important role (Sharma, 2007a, 2008). Emotional intelligence (EI) has been studied in relation to various workplace behaviours like leadership, employee development, performance and customer satisfaction, but there is dearth of research relating EQ/EI competencies to mental well-being. Thus, the significance of the subject and paucity of empirical researches in this sphere have provided impetus to investigate the role of EQ/EI competencies, personal effectiveness and demographic variables in mental well-being.
Primaquine-Induced Hemolytic Anemia: Susceptibility of Normal versus Glutathione-Depleted Rat Erythrocytes to 5-Hydroxyprimaquine

Primaquine is an important antimalarial agent because of its activity against exoerythrocytic forms of Plasmodium spp. Methemoglobinemia and hemolytic anemia, however, are dose-limiting side effects of primaquine therapy. These hemotoxic effects are believed to be mediated by metabolites, although the identity of the toxic specie(s) and the mechanism underlying hemotoxicity have remained unclear. Previous studies showed that an N-hydroxylated metabolite of primaquine, 6-methoxy-8-hydroxylaminoquinoline, was capable of mediating primaquine-induced hemotoxicity. The present studies were undertaken to investigate the hemolytic potential of 5-hydroxyprimaquine (5-HPQ), a phenolic metabolite that has been detected in experimental animals. 5-HPQ was synthesized, isolated by flash chromatography, and characterized by NMR spectroscopy and mass spectrometry. In vitro exposure of 51Cr-labeled erythrocytes to 5-HPQ induced a concentration-dependent decrease in erythrocyte survival (TC50 of ca. 40 μM) when the exposed cells were returned to the circulation of isologous rats. 5-HPQ also induced methemoglobin formation and depletion of glutathione (GSH) when incubated with suspensions of rat erythrocytes. Furthermore, when red cell GSH was depleted (>95%) by titration with diethyl maleate to mimic GSH instability in human glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase deficiency, a 5-fold enhancement of hemolytic activity was observed. These data indicate that 5-HPQ also has the requisite properties to contribute to the hemotoxicity of primaquine. The relative contribution of N-hydroxy versus phenolic metabolites to the overall hemotoxicity of primaquine remains to be assessed.
Black Gold, Green Earth

This study examines 21 environmental sustainability reports from Fortune Global 500 petroleum companies to determine how competitive advantage and institutional language is used by corporations to explain their corporate social responsibility (CSR). Results suggest the environmental sustainability discourse of the world’s largest petroleum companies contains both institutional and competitive advantage language. Also, results indicate that corporations blend the two forms of CSR communication to create a comprehensive environmental CSR profile that simultaneously enhances their position within the industrial field and offers buffering protection due to intraindustry homogeneity. Competitive advantage language is used to describe the quality, scope, and innovation of their environmental CSR as superior to other companies within their industry, particularly when communicating about technology and innovations regarding conservation efforts and manufacturing processes. Institutional language is used to describe governmental regulations and laws, industry standards for CSR reporting and expenditures, and type of CSR initiatives and partnerships. Finally, the form CSR communication takes is deeply contextualized by industry and institutional pressures as well as organizational idiosyncrasies thereby challenging the universality of CSR initiatives.
« Approches pragmatique et dispositionnaliste du rapport aux savoirs scientifiques des enseignants d'éducation physique, agrégés et normaliens »

Dans le cadre d’une approche pragmatique, nous etudionsles savoirs scientifiques juges utiles par une populationsinguliere de professeurs d’educationphysique : les agreges, anciens elevesde l’Ecole normale superieure. A partir dequestionnaires ouverts, sont identifies le contenu et la formede ces savoirs, leurs modes d’acquisition et leurs fonctions pourl’intervention. Les resultats sont confrontesa ceux de Terral et Collinet (2007) obtenus sur unechantillon generaliste, en vue de discuter del’impact eventuel d’experiences originales desocialisation. Au final, les enseignants interrogesprivilegient les savoirs technologiques sur les savoirsscientifiques et sont partages entre des dispositionsapplicationnistes et contextualistes.
People can talk about their practices

This paper considers the value of using interviews to research routine practices. Interviewing could easily be framed as inappropriate for this task, either because such practices are too difficult for respondents to talk about as a result of having sedimented down into unthinking forms of embodied disposition or because this method is out of step with a current enthusiasm for research styles that do not focus unduly on the representational. The discussion starts with how some key proponents of social practice theory have characterised the possibility of talking with people about these matters before turning to my own experience with two interview projects that attempted to do so inside city offices and older person households. I conclude that people can often talk in quite revealing ways about actions they may usually take as a matter of course and offer suggestions about how to encourage them.
Gender Differences in Depictions of Social and Physical Aggression in Children's Television Cartoons in the US

The main purpose of this study was to explore gender differences in depictions of social and physical aggression in children's television cartoons. With the knowledge that boys tend to commit physical aggression more than girls and that girls tend to perpetrate social aggression more than boys, it was expected that these gender differences in aggression type would be reflected in the cartoons. A content analysis of cartoons appearing on Cartoon Network, Nickelodeon, and Toon Disney was conducted. The findings showed that acts of physical aggression were more likely to be carried out by male characters, whereas acts of social aggression were more likely to be committed by female characters. Both the perpetrators and receivers of physical and social aggression tended to be children or teen characters, rather than adult characters. For a majority of the aggressive acts, immediate retribution or a defensive response did not result.
Emotionally intelligent research

Key to this paper is not so much the emotions of the researcher that emanate from fieldwork, but those of the researched (and their emotional intelligence). Using a vignette of research on the impact of the 2001 foot and mouth disease outbreak on rural economies in the north of England, the paper explores emotions as clues and ways of seeing. It is broadly influenced by a social constructionist approach that views emotion as created and understood in the context of relationships with others and made meaningful through discourses, language and signifiers. It does not, though, deny the physical sensations that accompany emotion and the ways in which emotions are embodied as individuals interact with others (human and non-human).
Value propositions

Despite significant interest in value propositions, there is limited agreement about their nature and role. Moreover, there is little understanding of their application to today’s increasingly interconnected and networked world. The purpose of this article is to explore the nature of value propositions, extending prior conceptualisations by taking a service ecosystem perspective. Following a critical review of the extant literature in service science on value propositions, value co-creation, service-dominant logic and networks and drawing on six metaphors that provide insights into the nature of value propositions, we develop a new conceptualisation. The role of value propositions is then explored in terms of resource offerings between actors within micro, meso and macro levels of service ecosystems. We illustrate these perspectives with two real-world exemplars. We describe the role of value propositions in an ecosystem as a shaper of resource offerings. Finally, we provide five key premises and outline a research agenda.
Prepared for Practice? Graduating Social Work Students' Reflections on Their Education, Competence and Skills

The paper encompasses the views of 13 Swedish graduating social work students on their education, competence, skills and expectations for their future roles as social workers. It presents the findings of the first phase of a longitudinal study where students in Sweden and Australia are followed from university and during the first 18 months in the profession. A qualitative methodology was employed and semi-structured interviews were conducted with the students just prior to graduating. The most salient theme was the strong wish for more time in contact with the field. All of the students would have preferred at least one additional period of field placement. A strong wish for clarity, particularly in relation to understanding what it means to practise social work, emerged. Although most of the graduates talked about their self-development and described themselves as having become more critical and more self-confident, they perceived themselves as more or less unprepared for most social work positions and expected to receive considerable support and guidance in their workplaces. The proportion of theoretical and research courses in comparison to the teaching of practice skills and field placements within Swedish social work education is discussed.
Comparison of Antiallergic Drugs in an Experimental Model of Ocular Anaphylaxis

Purpose: To compare the efficacy of antiallergic drugs in an experimental ocular anaphylaxis model. Materials and Methods: Fifty-two rats were divided into 8 groups. Dithiothreitol and ovalbumin (OVA) were applied to both eyes of previously OVA-inoculated rats in groups 1–5 and 7. In groups 1–5, antiallergic efficacy of the drugs (lodoxamide, sodium cromoglycate, levacobastine, cimetidine, and diclofenac sodium) instilled on the right eyes were compared with the buffer instilled on the left eyes, measuring the amount of extravasated Evans blue (EB) dye by spectrophotometric analysis. Group 6 served as a control of EB dye extravasations in nonimmunized eyes. Histopathologic examinations for anaphylaxis and controls were done in groups 7 and 8. Results: Only levacobastine and lodoxamide decreased vascular permeability at a significant ratio (46%, p < 0.01 and 31%, p < 0.05, respectively). Conclusion: Levacobastine and lodoxamide but none of the three other drugs mentioned above were found to be effective in decreasing vascular permeability.
Gratitude, gratitude intervention and subjective well‐being among Chinese school teachers in Hong Kong

This study assessed the dispositional gratitude and its relationships with orientations to happiness and burnout in a sample of 96 Chinese school teachers in Hong Kong and investigated the effectiveness of an eight‐week gratitude intervention programme using a pre‐test/post‐test design with outcome measures of subjective well‐being in the same sample of teachers. The results indicated that the dispositional gratitude of teachers correlated substantially and positively with a meaningful life orientation to happiness and with personal accomplishment, and correlated substantially and negatively with the two negative components of burnout: emotional exhaustion and depersonalisation. The effects of the gratitude intervention were evident in the increase in scores on satisfaction with life and on positive affect, especially for teachers in the low‐gratitude group. Implications of the findings on the relationships between gratitude and burnout and the effectiveness of gratitude intervention for teachers of different levels of dispositional gratitude are discussed.
Homework Completion at the Secondary School Level: A Multilevel Analysis

ABSTRACT The author aimed to test empirical models of variables posited to predict homework completion at the secondary school level. Student- and class-level predictors of homework completion were analyzed in a survey of 1,046 8th-grade students from 63 classes and of 849 11th-grade students from 48 classes. Most of the variance in homework completion occurred at the student level, with parent education and teacher feedback being two significant predictors at the class level. At the student level, the variation in homework completion was positively associated with teacher feedback, self-reported grade, learning-oriented reasons for doing homework, homework interest, and homework management. Girls reported statistically significant higher scores in homework completion than did boys.
Partitioning controls on Amazon forest photosynthesis between environmental and biotic factors at hourly to interannual timescales

Gross ecosystem productivity (GEP) in tropical forests varies both with the environment and with biotic changes in photosynthetic infrastructure, but our understanding of the relative effects of these factors across timescales is limited. Here, we used a statistical model to partition the variability of seven years of eddy covariance‐derived GEP in a central Amazon evergreen forest into two main causes: variation in environmental drivers (solar radiation, diffuse light fraction, and vapor pressure deficit) that interact with model parameters that govern photosynthesis and biotic variation in canopy photosynthetic light‐use efficiency associated with changes in the parameters themselves. Our fitted model was able to explain most of the variability in GEP at hourly (R2 = 0.77) to interannual (R2 = 0.80) timescales. At hourly timescales, we found that 75% of observed GEP variability could be attributed to environmental variability. When aggregating GEP to the longer timescales (daily, monthly, and yearly), however, environmental variation explained progressively less GEP variability: At monthly timescales, it explained only 3%, much less than biotic variation in canopy photosynthetic light‐use efficiency, which accounted for 63%. These results challenge modeling approaches that assume GEP is primarily controlled by the environment at both short and long timescales. Our approach distinguishing biotic from environmental variability can help to resolve debates about environmental limitations to tropical forest photosynthesis. For example, we found that biotically regulated canopy photosynthetic light‐use efficiency (associated with leaf phenology) increased with sunlight during dry seasons (consistent with light but not water limitation of canopy development) but that realized GEP was nonetheless lower relative to its potential efficiency during dry than wet seasons (consistent with water limitation of photosynthesis in given assemblages of leaves). This work highlights the importance of accounting for differential regulation of GEP at different timescales and of identifying the underlying feedbacks and adaptive mechanisms.
Online Adaptive Learning Solution of Multi-Agent Differential Graphical Games

Distributed networks have received much attention in the last year because of their flexibility and computational performance. The ability to coordinate agents is important in many real-world tasks where it is necessary for agents to exchange information with each other. Synchronization behavior among agents is found in flocking of birds, schooling of fish, and other natural systems. Work has been done to develop cooperative control methods for consensus and synchronization (Fax and Murray, 2004; Jadbabaie, Lin and Morse, 2003; Olfati-Saber, and Murray, 2004; Qu, 2009; Ren, Beard, and Atkins, 2005; Ren, and beard, 2005; Ren, and Beard, 2008; Tsitsiklis, 1984). See (Olfati-Saber, Fax, and Murray, 2007; Ren, Beard, and Atkins, 2005) for surveys. Leaderless consensus results in all nodes converging to common value that cannot generally be controlled. We call this the cooperative regulator problem. On the other hand the problem of cooperative tracking requires that all nodes synchronize to a leader or control node (Hong, Hu, and Gao, 2006; Li, Wang, and Chen, 2004; Ren, Moore, and Chen, 2007; Wang, and Chen, 2002). This has been called pinning control or control with a virtual leader. Consensus has been studied for systems on communication graphs with fixed or varying topologies and communication delays.