Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Nature and Role of Affect in Consumer Behavior

In the intervening years since publication of the chapter Affect and Consumer Behavior (Cohen & Areni, 1991) in the Handbook of Consumer Behavior (Kassarjian & Robertson, 1991), research in consumer behavior dealing with affect has exploded, making it one of the field's central research topics. Within psychology more generally, Schimmack and Crites (2005) located 923 references to affect between 1960 and 1980 and 4,170 between 1980 and 2000. Since research on affect has become more specialized, this chapter will concentrate on the various ways affect influences judgment and choice rather than on broader and historical perspectives. These will include the role of affect in information retrieval, differential processing of affectively colored information (including the role of affect in strengthening mental associations and memory consolidation), how and when affect provides information that influences judgments and decisions, and the motivational role of affect in guiding behavior and signaling the need for changes in vigilance, intensity, and direction. We begin, however, with some essential definitions.
Poverty, inequality and migration in Latin America

The causes and consequences of high inequality in incomes, assets, and many aspects of well-being in Latin America have recently (re-)emerged as a central research and policy issue. However, many open questions remain that will be dealt with in the contributions to this volume. First, the linkages between growth, inequality, and poverty in Latin America need further clarification. More analyses at the country and even sub-national level are required to understand these complex relationships and their most important determinants. Of particular relevance is to examine these relationships in the Latin American context of high economic instability with recurrent economic and financial crises, particularly in the 1990s. Secondly, measuring and addressing poverty remains a critical research area, in particular non-monetary including subjective indicators of well-being often tell a different story that needs to be considered when analyzing poverty trends and determinants. Lastly, the poverty/inequality issues need to be considered in an economic environment, where trade, migration, and economic integration are of particular importance. Thus the role of trade and migration in generating, sustaining, or reducing inequalities between and within countries is an area that requires further analysis.
Pharmaceutical Price Regulation: National Policies Versus Global Interests

Increasing global regulation of drug prices and expenditures already affects the efficiency of pharmaceutical R&D and of health care delivery, with important implications for patient care now and in the future. The author examines the effect of existing foreign regulation - price controls, rate-of-return regulations, and industrial policies - on U.S. and other multinational producers of innovative drugs. She explores the growing threat to global revenues from the regulatory use of international price comparisons and the increasing threat from parallel trade.
Effects of Blackboard's Discussion Boards, Blogs and Wikis on Effective Integration and Development of Literacy Skills in EFL Students.

This study aimed to investigate the effects of the online course tools, specifically discussion boards, blogs and wikis, the built-in facilities of Blackboard as computer-mediated communication integrated in e-learning environments on improving integrated reading and writing and on the attitudes of EFL college students towards literacy skills in e-learning environments. A pedagogical model was designed and described in a background of relevant research. The study made use of both quantitative and qualitative data to investigate the effects of these tools on both reading/writing performance and on attitudes. The findings indicated that the students’ performance on an integrated reading/writing test was improved and so were their attitudes towards literacy skills. The findings also showed that the e-course tools at issue facilitated students’ interactions and supported learning of the reading/writing skills in a growing online discourse community. The paper ends with a conclusion and discussion of pedagogical implications and recommendations for prospective research.
Angiotensin II Type 1 Receptor Antagonist Attenuates Lacrimal Gland, Lung, and Liver Fibrosis in a Murine Model of Chronic Graft-Versus-Host Disease

Chronic graft-versus-host disease (cGVHD), a serious complication following allogeneic HSCT (hematopoietic stem cell transplantation), is characterized by systemic fibrosis. The tissue renin-angiotensin system (RAS) is involved in the fibrotic pathogenesis, and an angiotensin II type 1 receptor (AT1R) antagonist can attenuate fibrosis. Tissue RAS is present in the lacrimal gland, lung, and liver, and is known to be involved in the fibrotic pathogenesis of the lung and liver. This study aimed to determine whether RAS is involved in fibrotic pathogenesis in the lacrimal gland and to assess the effect of an AT1R antagonist on preventing lacrimal gland, lung, and liver fibrosis in cGVHD model mice. We used the B10.D2→BALB/c (H-2d) MHC-compatible, multiple minor histocompatibility antigen-mismatched model, which reflects clinical and pathological symptoms of human cGVHD. First, we examined the localization and expression of RAS components in the lacrimal glands using immunohistochemistry and quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Next, we administered an AT1R antagonist (valsartan; 10 mg/kg) or angiotensin II type 2 receptor (AT2R) antagonist (PD123319; 10 mg/kg) intraperitoneally into cGVHD model mice and assessed the fibrotic change in the lacrimal gland, lung, and liver. We demonstrated that fibroblasts expressed angiotensin II, AT1R, and AT2R, and that the mRNA expression of angiotensinogen was greater in the lacrimal glands of cGVHD model mice than in controls generated by syngeneic-HSCT. The inhibition experiment revealed that fibrosis of the lacrimal gland, lung, and liver was suppressed in mice treated with the AT1R antagonist, but not the AT2R antagonist. We conclude that RAS is involved in fibrotic pathogenesis in the lacrimal gland and that AT1R antagonist has a therapeutic effect on lacrimal gland, lung, and liver fibrosis in cGVHD model mice. Our findings point to AT1R antagonist as a possible target for therapeutic intervention in cGVHD.
Collective Marketing Arrangements for Geographically Differentiated Agricultural Products: Welfare Impacts and Policy Implications

We examine the incentives of atomistic producers to differentiate and collectively market products. We analyze market and welfare effects of alternative producer organizations, discuss circumstances under which they will evolve, and describe implications for the ongoing debate between the EU and the United States. As fixed costs of development and marketing increase and the anticipated market size falls, it becomes essential to increase the producer organization's ability to control supply to cover the fixed costs associated with the introduction of differentiated products. Counterintuitively, stronger property right protection for producer organizations may enhance welfare even after a differentiated product has been developed.
Optimization of isolated perfused/ventilated mouse lung to study hypoxic pulmonary vasoconstriction

Hypoxic pulmonary vasoconstriction (HPV) is a compensatory physiological mechanism in the lung that optimizes the matching of ventilation to perfusion and thereby maximizes gas exchange. Historically, HPV has been primarily studied in isolated perfused/ventilated lungs; however, the results of these studies have varied greatly due to different experimental conditions and species. Therefore, in the present study, we utilized the mouse isolated perfused/ventilated lung model for investigation of the role of extracellular Ca2+ and caveolin-1 and endothelial nitric oxide synthase expression on HPV. We also compared HPV using different perfusate solutions: Physiological salt solution (PSS) with albumin, Ficoll, rat blood, fetal bovine serum (FBS), or Dulbecco's Modified Eagle Medium (DMEM). After stabilization of the pulmonary arterial pressure (PAP), hypoxic (1% O2) and normoxic (21% O2) gases were applied via a ventilator in five-minute intervals to measure HPV. The addition of albumin or Ficoll with PSS did not induce persistent and strong HPV with or without a pretone agent. DMEM with the inclusion of FBS in the perfusate induced strong HPV in the first hypoxic challenge, but the HPV was neither persistent nor repetitive. PSS with rat blood only induced a small increase in HPV amplitude. Persistent and repetitive HPV occurred with PSS with 20% FBS as perfusate. HPV was significantly decreased by the removal of extracellular Ca2+ along with addition of 1 mM EGTA to chelate residual Ca2+ and voltage-dependent Ca2+ channel blocker (nifedipine 1 μM). PAP was also reactive to contractile stimulation by high K+ depolarization and U46619 (a stable analogue of thromboxane A2). In summary, optimal conditions for measuring HPV were established in the isolated perfused/ventilated mouse lung. Using this method, we further confirmed that HPV is dependent on Ca2+ influx.
Contributing role of extracellular vesicles on vascular endothelium haemostatic balance in cancer

Extracellular vesicles (EVs) generated during tumourigenesis are thought to play a major role in the hypercoagulant state observed in cancer patients. They exhibit negatively charged phospholipids and tissue factor (TF) that promote coagulation cascade activation. In addition, they contain surface proteins and cytoplasmic molecules, both originating from the producing cell that can impact target cells’ expression. By targeting endothelial cells of blood vessels, these EVs could disturb the physiological anticoagulant properties of these cells and be partly responsible for the vascular endothelium activation observed in cancer patients. Indeed, vascular endothelium naturally exhibits heparin-like proteoglycan, TF pathway inhibitor and protein C anticoagulant pathway that prevent thrombosis in physiological condition. An overexpression of TF and a decreased expression of coagulation cascade inhibitors have been reported after EVs’ treatment of endothelial cells. The induction of apoptosis and an increased expression of platelet adhesion molecules have also been highlighted. These events may promote thrombus formation in cancer. The aim of this paper is to provide a targeted review on the current evidence and knowledge of roles and impact of EVs on endothelial surface anticoagulant and procoagulant factors and cellular adhesion molecules expression.
The Impact of Personal Dispositions on Privacy and Trust in Disclosing Health Information Online

Privacy issues are major concerns in disclosing sensitive personal information such as health-related information. This study investigates the impact of personal dispositions on forming privacy concern and trust in context of disclosing personal health information online, based on utility theory and prospect theory. The study is among the first to provide a comprehensive list of constructs related to the personal dispositions in this context. The conceptual model shows health status, personality traits, culture, prior privacy invasions and experience with the website as salient constructs, which form individuals’ personal dispositions in their encounter with online requests for personal health information. Data were collected using a lab experiment. The results show that personal dispositions have significant impacts on factors that determine privacy concern, trust, and intention to disclose personal health information online. This work contributes to the research in health information privacy concern based on utility and prospect theories and sheds some light on the role of culture in the examination of privacy-trust constructs. Furthermore, the results of this study could be of use for web-based healthcare providers and other health-related websites, which collect personal information from their clients online.
Reducing Inequalities in Health and Diet: Findings from a Study on the Impact of a Food Retail Development

The health and diet impacts of a large-scale food retail development within a deprived area of Glasgow (Springburn) are reported. The study used a prospective quasi-experimental design which compared changes in diet and psychological health in an area where a new hypermarket was built (the intervention area) with a similarly deprived comparison area in Glasgow (Shettleston). A postal survey was undertaken both before and one year after the hypermarket was built, to assess changes in diet, self-reported health, and perceptions of neighbourhood. Changes in the retail structure of both areas were assessed through a ‘before-and-(repeated)-after’ intervention shop count survey. Qualitative data on diet, the neighbourhood, and the impact of the store were collected through focus groups. The quantitative study found limited improvements in diet and health. There was weak evidence for the impact of the hypermarket on population diet. There was weak evidence that poor psychological health in the intervention area reduced. Amongst those who ‘switched’ to the new hypermarket there was weak evidence of a small improvement in mean fruit and vegetable consumption but good evidence of psychological health improvement. Qualitative and retail survey results reinforce this, identifying perceptions of areal improvement through redevelopment and a small positive impact of the new store on the retail structure of the intervention area.
Developing Emotion-Libras 2.0: An Instrument to Measure the Emotional Quality of Deaf Persons while Using Technology

An important issue in the capture of the real user experience while interacting with technology is the ability to assess emotional quality. There are several methods for emotional quality evaluation in the literature. However, when the target users are deaf participants, communication problems arise. A substantial part of the deaf community communicates in sign language. Because user experience researchers are seldom fluent in sign language, they require the assistance of an interpreter whenever users are deaf signers. Evaluation of emotional quality may lose accuracy because of the mediation of an interpreter; consequently, emotional quality evaluation requires a special instrument that can be used in an intuitive and independent way by researchers and their deaf subjects. The authors present the process of creation and improvement of Emotion-Libras, an instrument for assessing the emotional quality of people with hearing disabilities when interacting with technology.
Vascular guide wire navigation with a magnetic guidance system: experimental results in a phantom.

PURPOSE To investigate the efficacy of a second-generation prototype magnetic guidance system in complex vessel phantoms versus conventional navigation in simulated interventional radiology procedures and to analyze procedure and fluoroscopy times. MATERIALS AND METHODS The magnetic guidance system consists of two focused-field permanent magnets on each side of the body that create a 0.1-T navigation field and is integrated with a modified C-arm single-planar digital angiography system. Forty-nine navigations in a glass phantom and 80 navigations in a three-dimensional liver phantom were performed with a magnetically tipped floppy 0.014-inch guide wire and a conventional 0.014-inch microcatheter system. Rates of success and fluoroscopy and procedure times were quantified for both techniques. For the liver phantom experiment, the Mann-Whitney U test was used. For the glass phantom experiment, the Wilcoxon matched pair test was used with the Hodges-Lehmann estimator. RESULTS In the glass phantom experiments, 42 of 49 turns were successfully performed with both methods. Procedure time to reach a target did not differ significantly between methods, while fluoroscopy time was significantly different when compared with that of the magnetic guidance system (P <.01). Navigation in the liver phantom was successful in 80 of 80 turns with the magnetic guidance system and in 76 of 80 turns with conventional navigation. With the support of the magnetic guidance system, procedure time and fluoroscopy time were significantly different from those with conventional navigation (P <.001). CONCLUSION The magnetic guidance system allows the precise navigation of a magnetic guide wire in complex vessel phantoms with significantly shorter fluoroscopy and procedure times.
Block-based codebook model with oriented-gradient feature for real-time foreground detection

In this paper, a novel approach is proposed to achieve the foreground objects detection in video surveillance system using codebook method. The block-based background model upgrades the pixel-based codebook model to block level which can utilize the dependency and find relationships between neighbouring pixels, thus improving the processing speed and reducing memory during model construction and foreground detection. Moreover, by adding the orientation and magnitude of the block gradient, the codebook model contains not only information of color, but also the texture feature. The texture information can further reduce noises and refine more entire foreground regions. Experimental results prove that our method has better performance compared with the standard codebook and some other former algorithms.
A trade‐off between precopulatory and postcopulatory trait investment in male cetaceans

Mating with multiple partners is common across species, and understanding how individual males secure fertilization in the face of competition remains a fundamental goal of evolutionary biology. Game theory stipulates that males have a fixed budget for reproduction that can lead to a trade‐off between investment in precopulatory traits such as body size, armaments, and ornaments, and postcopulatory traits such as testis size and spermatogenic efficiency. Recent theoretical and empirical studies have shown that if males can monopolize access to multiple females, they will invest disproportionately in precopulatory traits and less in postcopulatory traits. Using phylogenetically controlled comparative methods, we demonstrate that across 58 cetacean species with the most prominent sexual dimorphism in size, shape, teeth, tusks, and singing invest significantly less in relative testes mass. In support of theoretical predictions, these species tend to show evidence of male contests, suggesting there is opportunity for winners to monopolize access to multiple females. Our approach provides a robust dataset with which to make predictions about male mating strategies for the many cetacean species for which adequate behavioral observations do not exist.
Underlying conditions in chronic pulmonary aspergillosis including simple aspergilloma

Chronic pulmonary aspergillosis (CPA) is a condition caused by the ubiquitous fungus Aspergillus fumigatus in non-immunocompromised individuals. Numerous underlying conditions have been associated with CPA. Details of the underlying conditions of 126 CPA patients attending our tertiary referral clinic from all over the UK were extracted from the clinical notes, and the distribution of these underlying conditions was analysed. For those with several underlying pulmonary conditions, one was nominated as the primary condition. Many patients presented with multiple underlying conditions, and a total of 232 underlying conditions were identified for the 126 patients. Previous classical tuberculosis and non-tuberculous mycobacterial infection were the most common primary underlying conditions (15.3% and 14.9%, respectively). Others included allergic bronchopulmonary aspergillosis (ABPA), chronic obstructive pulmonary condition (COPD) and/or emphysema, pneumothorax and prior treated lung cancer. Some conditions were found more often as one of multiple underlying conditions, while others were found only as secondary underlying conditions. Tuberculosis, non-tuberculous mycobacterial infection and ABPA remain the predominant risk factors for development of CPA, with COPD, prior pneumothorax or treated lung cancer also relatively common among our referrals. Many patients have multiple underlying pulmonary conditions. CPA should be considered when upper lobe cavitary or fibrotic disease and systemic symptoms are present in those with lung disease.
Chromosome Markers and Progression in Bladder Cancer1

The chromosome constitution of 62 papillary tumors and 75 invasive transitional cell carcinomas of the bladder has been examined. Of the 62 papillary tumors, 12 were benign and were found to be preponderantly diploid; 2 of these tumors recurred, however, and in each a few karyotypically abnormal cells were present on the original examination. The modal chromosome number in the 50 papillary cancers ranged in the dipboid area (44 to 49 chromosomes) with the karyotypic picture being different from tumor to tumor. Of the 50 papillary cancers, 32 had 1 to 2 marker chromo somes. Twelve of the papillary tumors recurred; only 1 did not have a marker. Thus, the recurrence of the 11 papillary tumors with markers indicates that their presence may be of value in predicting the behavior of papillary cancers of the bladder. The chromosomal picture in the recurrent papillary tumors did not differ materially from the original one, al though a slight modification in the chromosome number may occur. On the other hand, invasive transitional cell cancer of the bladder was accompanied by a large number of chromosomes and a relatively large number of marker chromosomes with many complicated karyotypic pictures. The presence of marker chromosomes in papillary cancers may be indicative of the likelihood of recurrence and/or progression of such tumors and should attract the attention of those involved in the care of patients with these cancers.
On-line EM Algorithm for the Normalized Gaussian Network

A normalized gaussian network (NGnet) (Moody & Darken, 1989) is a network of local linear regression units. The model softly partitions the input space by normalized gaussian functions, and each local unit linearly approximates the output within the partition. In this article, we propose a new on-line EM algorithm for the NGnet, which is derived from the batch EM algorithm (Xu, Jordan, & Hinton 1995), by introducing a discount factor. We show that the on-line EM algorithm is equivalent to the batch EM algorithm if a specific scheduling of the discount factor is employed. In addition, we show that the on-line EM algorithm can be considered as a stochastic approximation method to find the maximum likelihood estimator. A new regularization method is proposed in order to deal with a singular input distribution. In order to manage dynamic environments, where the input-output distribution of data changes over time, unit manipulation mechanisms such as unit production, unit deletion, and unit division are also introduced based on probabilistic interpretation. Experimental results show that our approach is suitable for function approximation problems in dynamic environments. We also apply our on-line EM algorithm to robot dynamics problems and compare our algorithm with the mixtures-of-experts family.