Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Test of Labor Union Social Responsibility

Social responsibility is addressed to corporations, but can also be applied to other powerful organizations. This study tests the impact of labor union social responsibility on key measures of labor union attachment. After developing a scale of labor union social responsibility, craft union apprentice workers were surveyed and their responses analyzed with structural equation modeling. Labor union social responsibility was directly and positively related to union commitment and job satisfaction. Union commitment and job satisfaction fully mediated the negative relationship between labor union social responsibility and propensity to withdraw from the union, and the positive relationship between labor union social responsibility and union participation. The results suggest that labor union social responsibility can enhance union attachment and inform union strategy.
The social stratification of the costs of motoring in France (1984-2006)

This paper examines the evolutions and the role of the motoring expenditure in French household's budgets. It first presents the general trends of the budgetary weight of motoring expenditure. The fall in motoring expenditure budget since 1984 seems to suggest that the car is a 'normal' good, or even an 'inferior' good: the upward trend in household incomes has been accompanied by a fall in the share of expenditure on motoring. By using a classification the paper then presents how motoring expenditure conceals different rationale for French households. The expansion in car ownership thus demonstrates not so much a process of homogenisation as a form of polarisation illustrated here by the extremes of motoring expenditure devoted to renewal of a high quality car for some and the maintenance and use of a rather dilapidated one for others. Moreover, a close analysis of motoring expenditure reveals a three-fold rationale: a rationale of constraint, one of choice and one of risk.
HR accounting as a measurement tool

In tracing the history of human resource accounting, most reviewers would agree that the topic is now experiencing something of a revival. This research set out to explore why HR accounting is regarded as important, to whom it is important and its links with organisational and HR strategies. We used a survey-questionnaire approach to gather data. A scale was developed measuring the extent to which respondents thought each item reflected their organisation's view on the importance of measuring of human resources. Component analysis revealed two reasons why measuring human resources is perceived as being important. The first illustrates the view that ‘measurement reflects the strategic and competitive importance of human resources’, while the second suggests that,‘to earn credibility, HRM must be expressed in financial terms’. Further analysis highlighted the importance of senior management and financial managers' support for measuring human resources and drew attention to what may appear to be a ‘hard view' of HRM held by HR managers in relation to why they consider this important.
Firm value and the diversification choice: international evidence from global and industrial diversification

Our study examines the nature of industrial and global diversification for a sample of more than 12 000 firms across 35 emerging and developed countries during the period 1991–2006. Consistent with previous studies, we find that industrial diversification, either alone or combined with global diversification, results in a reduction of firm excess value. Global diversification alone, however, does not exert a significant impact on excess value. In an analysis of the decision to diversify, we find that firms in civil law countries or less developed nations are more likely to diversify, suggesting the greater utility of internal capital markets in economies where it is difficult to raise external capital. We observe that high leverage, larger size, lower levels of growth, R&D, free cash flow, profitability and Tobin's q encourage firms to diversify industrially. Higher values of q, firm size, R&D expenditures, free cash flow and liquidity, but reduced growth rates and profitability are associated with global diversification.
Inequality and Poverty Under Latin America’s New Left Regimes

Inequality and poverty fell sharply in many Latin American countries during a decade in which voters in ten countries chose left-leaning leaders. Are these developments related? Using data for 18 Latin American countries, this paper presents econometric evidence that social democratic regimes in Brazil and Chile were more successful at reducing inequality and poverty than the so-called populist regimes of Argentina, Bolivia, and Venezuela. Both groups implemented policies to redistribute income, but the social democratic regimes’ efforts were more effective. The left populists regimes such as Argentina and Venezuela started the 1990-2008 sample window with lower levels of inequality, so to some extent recent reductions in inequality are a return to “normal” levels (as estimated by fixed effects). Conversely, inequality and poverty in Brazil and Chile fell to historic lows. Moreover, overall terms of trade shocks were more favorable to Argentina and Venezuela, so part of the drop in inequality can be attributed to commodity price booms.
Elevated Glucose Levels Promote Contractile and Cytoskeletal Gene Expression in Vascular Smooth Muscle via Rho/Protein Kinase C and Actin Polymerization*

Both type 1 and type 2 diabetes are associated with increased risk of cardiovascular disease. This is in part attributed to the effects of hyperglycemia on vascular endothelial and smooth muscle cells, but the underlying mechanisms are not fully understood. In diabetic animal models, hyperglycemia results in hypercontractility of vascular smooth muscle possibly due to increased activation of Rho-kinase. The aim of the present study was to investigate the regulation of contractile smooth muscle markers by glucose and to determine the signaling pathways that are activated by hyperglycemia in smooth muscle cells. Microarray, quantitative PCR, and Western blot analyses revealed that both mRNA and protein expression of contractile smooth muscle markers were increased in isolated smooth muscle cells cultured under high compared with low glucose conditions. This effect was also observed in hyperglycemic Akita mice and in diabetic patients. Elevated glucose activated the protein kinase C and Rho/Rho-kinase signaling pathways and stimulated actin polymerization. Glucose-induced expression of contractile smooth muscle markers in cultured cells could be partially or completely repressed by inhibitors of advanced glycation end products, L-type calcium channels, protein kinase C, Rho-kinase, actin polymerization, and myocardin-related transcription factors. Furthermore, genetic ablation of the miR-143/145 cluster prevented the effects of glucose on smooth muscle marker expression. In conclusion, these data demonstrate a possible link between hyperglycemia and vascular disease states associated with smooth muscle contractility.
The Demand for Organic and Conventional Produce in London, UK: A System Approach

The majority of studies on consumer demand for organic products neglect the presence of non-organic competitors, ignoring their effect on consumer demand for organics. This article uses a demand system which includes both organic and non-organic fruits and vegetables, with actual (as opposed to stated) data for household purchases. Estimation of our model provides empirical evidence on the interrelationships between organic and non-organic products, as the relevant cross-price elasticities. Own-price elasticities indicate that organic fruits and vegetables are more price elastic than their non-organic counterparts, and that lower social class households with children have the most own-price elastic demand. Cross-price elasticities indicate relatively strong loyalty to organic products.
Improving the Teaching of the Arts: Pre-Service Teacher Self-Efficacy towards Arts Education.

Arts education is an essential component of a comprehensive education, requiring highly skilled teachers to achieve quality arts integration (Andrews, 2004). It equips students with skills necessary for the 21st century workforce, allowing nations to develop the human resources necessary to tap their cultural capital (UNESCO, 2006). A world trend however suggests that arts teaching by pre-service teachers is subject to lack of confidence, motivation and knowledge (Henessy, Rolfe & Chedoy, 2001; Russell-Bowie, 2004). Greater recognition of confirming and disconfirming experiences that shape pre-service teachers' self-efficacy beliefs for arts education is necessary. This paper provides insights into a research project that attempts to contribute towards filling this void in order to improve teacher effectiveness in the arts domain. After the first semester of teacher training, pre-service teachers completed a questionnaire based on their personal teaching beliefs for instructional design, student engagement and classroom management in arts education. Findings provide a greater understanding of how pre-service teachers regulate their own behaviour for teaching the arts, acting as validation beliefs of capabilities.
Assimilation and Contrast in Persuasion

The present research explores a contextual perspective on persuasion in multiple message situations. It is proposed that when people receive persuasive messages, the effects of those messages are influenced by other messages to which people recently have been exposed. In two experiments, participants received a target persuasive message from a moderately credible source. Immediately before this message, participants received another message, on a different topic, from a source with high or low credibility. In Experiment 1, participants' attitudes toward the target issue were more favorable after they had first been exposed to a different message from a low rather than high credibility source (contrast). In Experiment 2, this effect only emerged when a priming manipulation gave participants a dissimilarity mindset. When participants were primed with a similarity mindset, their attitudes toward the target issue were more favorable following a different message from a high rather than low credibility source (assimilation).
A MULTIDIMENSIONAL ASSESSMENT OF WELL-BEING BASED ON SEN'S FUNCTIONING APPROACH

A simple model is presented in order to analyse the main failures in the taxi market, mainly due to search costs, externalities, asymmetries in information. Also regulation, however, has been generally unsatisfactory: it has resulted in shortage of supply, high waiting time, high value of medallions, bad distribution of the service, little innovation. From the beginning of the eighties, a number of countries has experienced some forms of deregulation: even within a variety of situations, the outcomes have been quite disappointing. Instead of relying on deregulation, probably a new scheme of regulation, innovative with respect to the past, should be drawn.
Origins of metabolic complications in obesity: adipose tissue and free fatty acid trafficking

Purpose of reviewObesity is associated with a number of serious medical complications that are risk factors for cardiovascular disease (e.g., insulin resistance, dyslipidemia, and liver fat accumulation). Alterations in fatty acid trafficking, both between tissues and within cells, represent a key feature in the pathophysiology of the metabolic complications in obese patients. The ways by which fatty acid ‘re-routing’ may affect metabolic function are summarized in this article. Recent findingsEctopic fat accumulation (i.e., fat accumulation in nonadipose tissues) appears to be a key feature distinguishing metabolically healthy from metabolically abnormal patients. This observation has led to the belief that an imbalance in fatty acid trafficking away from adipose tissue toward nonadipose tissues is a primary cause for the development of metabolic alterations in obese patients. More recently, however, it has become apparent that fatty acid trafficking within nonadipose tissues cells (i.e., toward storage – in the form of triglycerides – and oxidation) may be equally important in determining a person's risk for development of metabolic disease. SummaryThe pathophysiology of the metabolic alterations associated with obesity is probably multifactorial within a complex network of coordinated physiological responses. Only through the integration of multiple concepts, will it be possible to further our understanding in this area and to help prevent the metabolic alterations associated with obesity.
Does Female Board Representation Influence Firm Performance? The Danish Evidence

Board diversity has become a major issue within corporate governance where a number of studies seek to explore the impact of diversity on firm performance. The debate focuses on questions such as whether a corporation's board should reflect the firm's stakeholders or be more in line with society in general. This article uses a sample of listed Danish firms during the period of 1998-2001 in a cross sectional analysis. Despite that fact that Denmark has gone very far in the liberalisation of women, Danish board rooms are still to a large extent dominated by men. Contrary to a number of other studies, this article does not find any significant link between firm performance as measured by Tobin's Q and female board representation. This is also the case for board members' educational background as well as the proportion of foreigners. It is argued that board members with an unconventional background are socialised unconsciously adopting the ideas of the majority of conventional board members, which entails that a potential performance effect does not materialise. Copyright (c) 2007 The Author; Journal compilation (c) 2007 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
Changing the Social Norm of Tax Compliance by Voting

This paper argues that there is a social norm of tax compliance that affects individual reporting decisions and that can be affected by voting on different aspects of the fiscal system. Experimental results are consistent with a central role for social norms. Individual compliance after a vote is decidedly different from prevote compliance under the identical fiscal regime, in particular, compliance always falls dramatically after the group signals its rejection of the social norm by voting against greater enforcement. However, the results also suggest that social norms can be affected by group communication; in particular, postvote reporting with communication approaches full compliance. Copyright 1999 by WWZ and Helbing & Lichtenhahn Verlag AG
A decade of irrigation transforms the soil microbiome of a semi‐arid pine forest

The impact of climate change on the soil microbiome potentially alters the biogeochemical cycle of terrestrial ecosystems. In semi‐arid environments, water availability is a major constraint on biogeochemical cycles due to the combination of high summer temperatures and low rainfall. Here, we explored how 10 years of irrigation of a water‐limited pine forest in the central European Alps altered the soil microbiome and associated ecosystem functioning. A decade of irrigation stimulated tree growth, resulting in higher crown cover, larger yearly increments of tree biomass, increased litter fall and greater root biomass. Greater amounts of plant‐derived inputs associated with increased primary production in the irrigated forest stands stimulated soil microbial activity coupled with pronounced shifts in the microbiome from largely oligotrophic to more copiotrophic lifestyles. Microbial groups benefitting from increased resource availabilities (litter, rhizodeposits) thrived under irrigation, leading to enhanced soil organic matter mineralization and carbon respired from irrigated soils. This unique long‐term study provides new insights into the impact of precipitation changes on the soil microbiome and associated ecosystem functioning in a water‐limited pine forest ecosystem and improves our understanding of the persistency of long‐term soil carbon stocks in a changing climate.
Devolution, constitutional change and economic development: Explaining and understanding the new institutional geographies of the British state

Goodwin M. , Jones M. and Jones R. (2005) Devolution, constitutional change and economic development: explaining and understanding the new institutional geographies of the British state, Regional Studies 39 , 421–436. This paper is concerned with the new institutional geographies of devolution and state restructuring, particularly in the UK. As part of perhaps the biggest change to the UK state since the Acts of Union, the Labour Party has established the Scottish Parliament, elected Assemblies for Wales, Northern Ireland, and London, and Regional Development Agencies within England's regions. The paper offers a conceptual framework through which to explore these new institutional geographies. It extends Jessop's strategic‐relational approach to the state by arguing that it is no longer enough simply to refer to a multivariate ‘hollowing out’ of the nation state in an era of economic and political restructuring. The paper suggests that devolution represents a geographically uneven ‘filling‐in’ of the state's institutional and scalar matrix, which is leading to an increasingly complex spatial division of the state. This appears to be creating uneven capacities to act and the implications of this are discussed.
The Influence of Stakeholder Involvement on The Effectiveness of Place Branding

Abstract The assumption in the governance literature is that stakeholder involvement enhances the chances of success of governance processes. Place branding has a strong governance character in that it involves many different actors and the government is one of the parties in the branding process. This article draws on survey data acquired from professionals involved in city marketing and branding in the Netherlands to analyse whether stakeholder involvement leads to a clearer brand concept and increased effectiveness of city brands in terms of attracting target groups. The analysis shows that involving stakeholders does make a difference and has positive effects on the clarity of the brand concept.
MONETARY POLICY, HOUSING BOOMS, AND FINANCIAL (IM)BALANCES

This paper applies a factor-augmented vector autoregressive model to U.S. data with the aim of analyzing monetary transmission via private sector balance sheets, credit risk spreads, and house prices and of exploring the role of monetary policy in the housing and credit boom prior to the global financial crisis. We find that monetary policy shocks have a persistent effect on house prices, real estate wealth, and private sector debt and a strong short-lived effect on risk spreads in money and mortgage markets. Moreover, the results suggest that monetary policy contributed considerably to the unsustainable precrisis developments in housing and credit markets. Although monetary policy shocks contributed discernibly at a late stage of the boom, feedback effects of other (macroeconomic and financial) shocks via lower policy rates kicked in earlier and appear to have been considerable.
REIT Style and Performance

Executive Summary. Applying a performance style model developed by Sharpe, we investigate the style and performance of real estate investment trusts from March 1984 through December 1997. Total returns of the S&P 500, S&P MidCap 400, S&P SmallCap 600, Lehman Brothers' government bond index, and Salomon Brothers' three-month Treasury bill index are used to replicate the performance of all REIT, equity REIT and mortgage REIT portfolios. We find that all REITs and equity REITs have remarkably stable style attributes over time: they behave similarly to a portfolio of 40% small capitalization stocks and 60% bonds (including Treasury bills). The behavior of mortgage REITs, however, has been more erratic. Sharpe's alpha, a performance measure similar to Jensen's alpha, indicates that equity REITs performed approximately at par to its style portfolio prior to 1994 and has dramatically outperformed its style portfolio since then. All REITs and mortgage REITs that underperformed at first, outperformed their respect.
Observed and simulated precipitation responses in wet and dry regions 1850–2100

Global warming is expected to enhance fluxes of fresh water between the surface and atmosphere, causing wet regions to become wetter and dry regions drier, with serious implications for water resource management. Defining the wet and dry regions as the upper 30% and lower 70% of the precipitation totals across the tropics (30° S–30° N) each month we combine observations and climate model simulations to understand changes in the wet and dry regions over the period 1850–2100. Observed decreases in precipitation over dry tropical land (1950–2010) are also simulated by coupled atmosphere–ocean climate models (−0.3%/decade) with trends projected to continue into the 21st century. Discrepancies between observations and simulations over wet land regions since 1950 exist, relating to decadal fluctuations in El Niño southern oscillation, the timing of which is not represented by the coupled simulations. When atmosphere-only simulations are instead driven by observed sea surface temperature they are able to adequately represent this variability over land. Global distributions of precipitation trends are dominated by spatial changes in atmospheric circulation. However, the tendency for already wet regions to become wetter (precipitation increases with warming by 3% K−1 over wet tropical oceans) and the driest regions drier (precipitation decreases of −2% K−1 over dry tropical land regions) emerges over the 21st century in response to the substantial surface warming.
The Role of Pharmacogenetics in Atrial Fibrillation Therapeutics: Is Personalized Therapy in Sight?

Abstract: Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common sustained cardiac arrhythmia worldwide requiring therapy. Despite recent advances in catheter-based and surgical therapy, antiarrhythmic drugs (AADs) remain the mainstay of treatment for symptomatic AF. However, response in individual patients is highly variable with over half the patients treated with rhythm control therapy experiencing recurrence of AF within a year. Contemporary AADs used to suppress AF are incompletely and unpredictably effective and associated with significant risks of proarrhythmia and noncardiac toxicities. Furthermore, this “one-size” fits all strategy for selecting antiarrhythmics is based largely on minimizing risk of adverse effects rather than on the likelihood of suppressing AF. The limited success of rhythm control therapy is in part due to heterogeneity of the underlying substrate, interindividual differences in disease mechanisms, and our inability to predict response to AADs in individual patients. Genetic studies of AF over the past decade have revealed that susceptibility to and response to therapy for AF is modulated by the underlying genetic substrate. However, the bedside application of these new discoveries to the management of AF patients has thus far been disappointing. This may in part be related to our limited understanding about genetic predictors of drug response in general, the challenges associated with determining efficacy of response to AADs, and lack of randomized genotype-directed clinical trials. Nonetheless, recent studies have shown that common AF susceptibility risk alleles at the chromosome 4q25 locus modulated response to AADs, electrical cardioversion, and ablation therapy. This monograph discusses how genetic approaches to AF have not only provided important insights into underlying mechanisms but also identified AF subtypes that can be better targeted with more mechanism-based “personalized” therapy.