Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Communicating Food Safety via the Social Media

This study examined the Chinese public’s use of Weibo (a microblog platform) and their cognitive, affective, and behavioral responses to a series of food safety crises. Based on a sample of 1,360 adult Weibo users across China, the study found that Weibo use contributed to cognitive and behavioral responses to food safety concerns, but access to other online and off-line news and information outlets was largely irrelevant. Emotional response toward the food safety incidents was a stronger predictor of both food safety risk perception and prevention action, relative to food safety incident awareness and factual awareness. Theoretical and social implications of study findings are discussed.
The Effects of Knowledge of Item Arrangement, Gender, and Statistical and Cognitive Item Difficulty on Test Performance

In two experiments the writers investigated the effects of statistical and cognitive difficulty ordering of test items, gender, and explicit labeling of item type on test performance of college students. Students were given tests with items written on various statistical and cognitive difficulty levels. In addition, some students received tests on which the items were explicitly labeled as to the cognitive difficulty (knowledge, comprehension, application) of the item. Analysis of the results indicated significant effects for gender and use of labels. Item ordering effects were not consistent across the two studies.
Reading Comprehension and Working Memory's Executive Processes: An Intervention Study in Primary School Students

ABSTRA C T Reading comprehension is a highly demanding task that involves the simultaneous process of extracting and constructing meaning in which working memory’s executive processes play a crucial role. In this article, a training program on working memory’s executive processes to improve reading comprehension is presented and empirically tested in two experiments with third-grade primary school students. Experiment 1 showed a greater gain after training the experimental group in contrast to the control group in reading comprehension and intelligence. In experiment 2, we focused on the training processes and compared training results of high and low pretest reading comprehension groups. Results confirmed the increase in reading comprehension, intelligence, and executive processes and showed that the low group reached a greater gain in reading comprehension after training than the high group did. The results of these experiments and their limitations are discussed in the context of recent theories on the role of executive processes in reading comprehension and the possibility of training working memory and intelligence.
The composite face illusion: A whole window into our understanding of holistic face perception

Two identical top halves of a face are perceived as being different when their bottom halves belong to different faces, showing that the parts of a face cannot be perceived independently from the whole face. When this visual illusion is inserted in a matching task, observers make more mistakes and/or are slower at matching identical top face halves aligned with different bottom halves than when the bottom halves are spatially offset: The composite face effect. This composite face paradigm has been used in more than 60 studies that have provided information about the specificity and nature of perceptual integration between facial parts (“holistic face perception”), the impairment of this process in acquired prosopagnosia, its developmental course, temporal dynamics, and neural basis. Following a review of the main contributions made with the paradigm, I explain its rationale and strengths, and discuss its methodological parameters, making a number of proposals for its optimal use and refinement in order to improve our understanding of holistic face perception. Finally, I explain how this standard composite face paradigm is fundamentally different than the application to facial parts of a congruency/interference paradigm that has a long tradition in experimental psychology since Stroop (1935), and which was originally developed to measure attentional and response interference between different representations rather than perceptual integration. Moreover, a version of this congruency/interference paradigm used extensively over the past years with composite faces lacks a baseline measure and has decisional, attentional, and stimulus confounds, making the findings of these studies impossible to interpret in terms of holistic perception. I conclude by encouraging researchers in this field to concentrate fully on the standard composite face paradigm, gaze contingency, and other behavioural measures that can help us take one of the most important challenges of visual perception research: Understanding the neural mechanisms of holistic face perception.
A Co-opetition-Based Approach to Value Creation in Interfirm Alliances

This study underlines the limitations of commonly used proxies to measure value creation in interfirm alliances and addresses these limitations in two ways. First, this study adopts a co-opetition-based approach in theoretically conceptualizing value creation in interfirm alliances as a three-dimensional construct and argues that in addition to “common benefit” and “private benefit cooperation” (generally known as “private benefits”), a third dimension, namely “private benefit competition” should also be considered as an integral dimension of value creation. Second, by analyzing data collected from 155 firms of five high-technology research-intensive sectors in India that engaged in 288 alliances characterized by varying degree of co-opetition, this study empirically validates the distinctiveness of these three dimensions and presents a 17-item multidimensional scale of value creation.
Adhesion to Bovine Dentin-Surface Characterization

X-ray photo-electron spectroscopy (XPS) and secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) were used to characterize the dentin surface, to determine the effects of different pre-conditioning procedures on the elemental composition of the dentin surface, and to investigate the interaction between dentin and a dentin bonding agent (ScotchBond) by studying the changes in the elemental composition of dentin as a result of the interaction. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was used to characterize sample surface morphology, which was then correlated with surface elemental composition. The results showed that: (a) the elemental composition of the smear layer was similar to that of the underlying dentin; (b) cleaning with hydrogen-peroxide did not produce any modification in the elemental composition of the dentin surface; and (c) acid-etching led to an almost complete demineralization of the dentin, leaving behind an organic-rich surface. The results suggest that bonding systems that use acid-etching as a pre-conditioning procedure should be based on agents able to interact with the organic components of dentin, since bonding agents that rely on a chelation-to-calcium reaction are unlikely to be successful. The investigation of the interaction between the bonding agent and dentin led to a postulated adhesive-bonding reaction mechanism and suggested a partially cohesive failure in the bonding agent during fracturing of a dentin-bonding-agent-bonded assembly.
Short-term memory processes in children with reading and arithmetic learning disabilities.

The role of phonemic coding in short-term memory was studied in 45 children with a reading disability, 38 children with a specific arithmetic disability, and 89 children who were achieving normally in school. The children, aged 7 to 13, were administered a series of tasks that involved the visual or auditory presentation of rhyming and nonrhyming letters and either an oral or a written response. The youngest children (7 to 8 years) with a reading disability did not show any difference between the recall of nonrhyming and rhyming letters, whereas the normal children of the same age did. The older reading disabled children (9-13), like their normal counterparts, had significantly poorer recall of rhyming as opposed to nonrhyming letters. However, their overall levels of performance were significantly lower than normals. The same pattern was found with children with arithmetic disabilities for the visual presentation of stimuli. For the auditory presentation of stimuli, the performance of children with arithmetic disabilities resembled that of the normal children, except at the youngest ages in the study. Whereas a deficiency in phonological coding may characterize the younger children with learning disabilities, older children with learning disabilities appear to be using a phonemic code but have a more general deficit in short-term memory.
White Boys to Terrorist Men

There is an important distinction between hate crimes and hate group activity. Although reported hate crimes appear to be declining, there is evidence that hate group activity is increasing. This includes hate group consolidation, the increase in hate Web sites, and more sophisticated recruitment of youth. This research explores how hate groups, specifically racist skinheads, target specific youth populations for recruitment. Using a layman's interpretation of Durkheim's “anomie,” skinheads look for youth that live in a world of change. Based on ethnographic research and guided interviews, this research finds that older Nazi skinheads manipulate anomic teens and indoctrinate them into a world of terror.
Post-Fordist Work: A Man's World?

There is debate about whether the post-Fordist or high-performance work organization can overcome the disadvantages women encounter in traditional gendered organizations. Some authors argue that substituting a performance logic for control by the clock offers opportunities for combining work and family life in a more natural way. Critics respond that these organizational reforms do not address the nonresponsibility of firms for caring duties at a more fundamental level. The authors address this debate through an analysis of overtime work, using data from a survey of 1,114 employees in 30 Dutch organizations. The findings reveal that post-Fordist work is associated with more overtime hours than traditional forms of work and that far from challenging gendered organization, it reproduces and exacerbates the traditional male model of work.
Field of Study and Flexible Work

In this article, the relationship between study programs in higher education and the risk of holding a temporary contract is investigated in a comparative perspective. We find that the effects fields of study have on the type of contract can be better explained by their link to occupational positions than by field specificity differentials. Furthermore, fields of study are more important in explaining the individual risk of holding a temporary contract in the German rather than in the UK labor market. This may be attributable to the higher degree of standardization of the German educational system.
Fixed Life Projects: Agency Conflicts and Optimal Leverage

This paper analyses a model of the conflicts between equityholders and debtholders, regarding the optimal exercise moment for a firm to invest in a concession contract. This setting reflects the reality of, not only traditional concessions, but also image rights and audiovisual rights contracts. The results support the coexistence of two different incentives (overinvestment and underinvestment) in one single type of real flexibility (option to invest). Overinvestment incentives are shown to clearly dominate underinvestment incentives, in terms of their impact in the value of the firm, and they influence the investment behaviour of equityholders at expiry of the investment option. Varying predictions are presented regarding agency costs and optimal debt levels, under different market conditions and for different asset characteristics, and this fact reiterates the impact of agency conflicts in lowering optimal debt levels. The results also show how in different cases different debt repayment schedules can optimize the value of the firm operating the concession, even if in some of these cases the optimal debt repayment schedule is the one more sensitive to agency costs.
Smoking may be considered an established risk factor for sporadic ALS

Objectives: A 2003 evidence-based review of exogenous risk factors for sporadic amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) identified smoking as the only risk factor that attained “probable” (more likely than not) status, based on 2 class II studies. The purpose of the current, evidence-based, update was to see if the conclusion of the previous review needed to be modified, based on studies published since. Methods: A Medline literature search was conducted for the period between 2003 and April 2009 using the search terms smoking and (ALS or “amyotrophic lateral sclerosis” or MND or “motor neuron disease”). The references of primary articles and reviews were checked to assure completeness of the search. Primary articles published since the previous review were classified as before. Results: Twenty-eight titles were identified, but only 7 articles met inclusion criteria. Of these, 1 provided class II evidence, and 1 class III evidence: both showed increased risk of ALS with smoking. The class II study showed a dose-response effect, and risk decreasing with number of years since quitting smoking. Five articles provided class IV or V evidence, which may not be relied upon to draw conclusions. Conclusions: Smoking may be considered an established risk factor for sporadic amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) (level A rating; 3 class II studies, 1 class III study). Evidence-based analysis of epidemiologic data shows concordance among results of better-designed studies linking smoking to ALS, and lets those results drive the conclusions.
Quality Tourism Experiences: Reviews, Reflections, Research Agendas

“Quality tourism experiences,” including its singular form, is a well used phrase in tourism industry literature and traveller dialogues. Yet definitions of a quality tourism experience remain elusive. Tourism studies, recreation and marketing literature similarly resonate with numerous applications of the phrase as well as its contributing terms. A social constructivist approach was applied to a literature review, in order to reflect on the status of “quality tourism experiences,” its meanings, as well as research approaches used and research agendas proffered. From the review emerged multiple interpretations and constructions as well as an emphasis on complexity. Research approaches were predicated to post/positivistic approaches. Research agendas essayed to understand specific dimensions of quality tourism experiences along with more holistic frames.
Growth in Children with Clefts: Serial Hand-Wrist X-Ray Evidence

Objective Serial hand-wrist x-rays were assessed for Tanner-Whitehouse 2 skeletal ages of children with cleft palate, unilateral cleft lip and palate, and bilateral cleft lip and palate. The skeletal ages were compared by cleft type to see whether growth delay might explain the small body size for age and delayed maturation sometimes seen elsewhere in children with clefts. Design This is a retrospective study of serial x-rays collected between 1950 and 1968 at the Philadelphia Growth Center. The author was blind to age, sex, and diagnosis while reading these films. Participants These x-rays were taken as part of routine auxological evaluation of the normality of growth status. Main Outcome Measures Distributions of skeletal age patterns in advance of or delayed from chronological age and frequencies of clinically significant deviant patterns are presented. Conclusions Boys and girls with cleft palate show different maturational patterns, supporting a sex influence on the etiologies of at least some of these anomalies. Boys with unilateral cleft lip and palate and bilateral cleft lip and palate have different maturational patterns, consistent with these anomalies having different sets of etiological factors. Girls with unilateral cleft lip and palate almost always have advanced skeletal ages; whereas, boys sometimes do not. These results support the need for keeping both sex and diagnostic categories separate when conducting etiological searches.
Pathways to the Presidency: Biographical Sketches of Women of Color Firsts

According to recent data, only 3 percent of all college and university presidents are women of color. While the numbers remain disturbingly low, some of these women of color are making history as the "first" of their gender, race, and ethnicity to become president of a public, baccalaureate degree–granting college or university. In this article, Caroline Sotello Viernes Turner presents biographical sketches of three of these women. They are acknowledged to be the first Mexican American, Native American, and Asian Pacific/Asian American women who are presidents of such colleges in the United States. Women from these respective racial and ethnic groups have become university presidents only recently. Using in-depth interviews and cross-case comparisons, the author examines the paths these women presidents have taken and how their narratives contribute important information about women of color in higher education administration. She asserts that from their stories we can learn about the "pathway to the pres.
Metabolic Impairments Precede Changes in Hunger and Food Intake Following Short-Term Administration of Second-Generation Antipsychotics

Abstract The second-generation antipsychotics (SGAs) are associated with weight gain and an increased incidence of metabolic diseases. The metabolic impairments are assumed a consequence of increased body adiposity secondary to central nervous system–associated increases in food intake. We have previously reported that, independent of weight gain, 9 days of olanzapine administration to control subjects is associated with insulin resistance and increases in postprandial levels of insulin and glucagon-like peptide 1 to a mixed meal challenge. This current report describes previously unpublished data on the effects of the SGAs olanzapine and aripiprazole compared with placebo on detailed hunger and satiety responses over the 12-day inpatient evaluation as well as postprandial ghrelin and leptin responses prior to and following administration of the 2 SGAs. We found no changes in hunger, fullness, or in the orexigenic hormone ghrelin or satiety hormone leptin, consistent with our previous report indicating no change in weight during this study. The results indicate that the SGAs are associated with metabolic changes prior to changes in hunger, satiety, and food intake, and this temporal separation suggests that there are differential mechanisms mediating SGA-associated changes in metabolism and food intake.
Training mental quickness in beginning/intermediate tennis players.

The trainability of anticipatory skills for tennis was assessed. Subjects (N = 34) from a beginning/intermediate tennis class were randomly assigned to either a mental quickness or a physical quickness (control) training group. They were tested in three laboratory tennis simulation tasks and three on-court tasks (serves, ground strokes, and volleys) 1 week before and after the 3-week quickness training program. Quickness Training × Gender × Test Session (2 × 2 × 2) ANOVAs with repeated measures on the third factor were conducted. For the laboratory tasks, the mental quickness group made faster decisions in reaction to serves, exhibited faster anticipation times, and showed improved accuracy in predicting serve type and location. No improvements in accuracy were found for the physical quickness group. For filmed match-play situations, the mental quickness group improved reaction times with training and committed fewer response errors. Implications for the design of instructional methods used in dynamic and.
Interaction of vasopressin with area postrema during volume expansion.

Effects of arginine vasopressin (AVP) on inhibition of renal sympathetic nerve activity (RSNA) during activation of cardiopulmonary reflexes by volume expansion were examined in conscious sinoaortic-denervated rabbits. The role of the area postrema in mediating these effects was also evaluated in rabbits subjected to area postrema lesion. Animals were subjected to 12% volume expansion with whole blood alone or during infusion of AVP (0.6 mU . kg-1 . min-1). Volume expansion in area postrema-intact animals caused a progressive reflex inhibition of RSNA (maximum = -36.5 +/- 3.3% delta RSNA). Vasopressin infusion did not significantly alter resting arterial pressure, right atrial pressure, heart rate, or RSNA. However, maximum inhibition of RSNA during volume expansion (-62.6 +/- 3.2% delta RSNA) was significantly augmented during AVP infusion, and the augmentation was reversed by a specific vascular (V1) AVP receptor antagonist. Vagotomy eliminated RSNA responses to volume expansion with or without AVP. In area postrema-lesioned animals, the RSNA response to volume expansion was similar to that of intact animals (-31.8 +/- 2.3% delta RSNA). However, AVP did not augment the RSNA response to volume expansion in lesioned animals (-30.4 +/- 2.5% delta RSNA). Thus exogenous AVP augmented cardiopulmonary reflex-mediated inhibition of RSNA due to volume expansion. This effect appeared to be mediated by the V1 AVP receptor and to require the presence of an intact area postrema.
Expression of Proteins Associated with Cell-Matrix Adhesion in Proliferative Vitreoretinopathy Designed by Dispase Model

Purpose During recent years, the interaction of cell surface molecule, extracellular matrix proteins, and cytoskeletal elements has been a topic for research for the purpose of understanding the mechanisms of pathologic conditions. This study aims to evaluate the expression of CD44, as a cell surface adhesion molecule; fibronectin (FN), as an extracellular and a cell surface protein; vinculin and actin/α-smooth muscle actin (α-SMA), as cytoskeletal elements; and the interactions of these proteins in the microenvironment of proliferative vitreoretinopathy (PVR). Methods This experimental study was designed by the intravitreal Dispase model in rabbits and proteins' expression were evaluated via immunohistochemical staining. Results As a cell surface protein, CD44 expression was determined in only four eyes focally and weakly, but in a small number of cells. Among the cytoskeletal proteins, vinculin expression was the most extensive and the strongest in intensity in epi- and subretinal membranes. Alpha-SMA expression was mostly present within small foci of cells. Fibronectin expression was determined in some of the eyes only faintly. Conclusions Vinculin seems to be involved in PVR pathogenesis. Variability in co-distribution of the expression of vinculin, FN, and α-SMA reflects the dynamic interactions evolving between cell and extracellular matrix during the epi- and subretinal membrane formations. The results of this study were determined not to be in support of the assumption that CD44 has a functional role in the pathogenesis of PVR. (Eur J Ophthalmol 2007; 17: 89–103)