Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
How Far Is Too Far? The Antecedents of Offensive Advertising in Modern China

ABSTRACT Previous research has classified offensive advertising into matter (offensive products and services) and manner (offensive execution). This study was designed to (1) develop a more comprehensive schedule of offensive advertising and (2) identify the psychological predictors of taking offense. A survey conducted in Hong Kong and Shanghai showed that offensive advertising could be classified into three categories: advertisements dealing with offensive sexual matter, advertisements for offensive nonsexual matter, and advertisements displaying an offensive manner. Of these categories, manner was perceived as the most offensive. Self-esteem and susceptibility to interpersonal influence both were significant in predicting the level of offensiveness for all three types of offensive advertising.
Board Control, Remuneration Committees, and Top Management Compensation

Assesses the relationship between boards of directors, compensation committees and top management pay, focusing on the role and impact of corporate governance mechanisms and the structure of boards of directors to explain variations in top management pay in the UK. Uses data from the 'Financial Times' top 100 companies to examine the relationship between: top management compensation, non-executive directors and corporate performance; top management compensation, existence of compensation committees and proportion of non-executives on these committees; and the relationship between top management compensation and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) duality. Finds that, in general, boardroom control and vigilance has a limited effect in shaping top management compensation, neither the proportion of outside directors, nor CEO duality being related to management compensation; and companies adopting compensation committees have higher levels of top management pay. Demonstrates that the direct effect of boardroom control variables on the level of management compensation is minimal.
A study of cardiovascular autonomic function in normal pregnancy

Objective: The present study was designed to evaluate the physiological responses to noninvasive cardiovascular autonomic function tests in normal pregnancy and compare them with non- pregnant controls. Materials and Methods: The study population comprised of 90 apparently healthy, pregnant women divided equally into three groups based on their period of gestation and 30 otherwise healthy, non-pregnant women as controls. The standard autonomic function tests based on cardiovascular reflexes, including heart rate response tests and blood pressure response tests were performed. Result: It was observed that variability of mean between and within all the population groups and controls was significantly different. Multiple comparison analysis revealed a significantly lower Deep Breathing Difference in pregnant subjects, significant difference in Valsalva Ratio in third trimester group, a significantly lower Postural Tachycardia Index only during last trimester and a significantly higher fall in systolic blood pressure on standing only during 1 st trimester. A significantly lower alteration in diastolic blood pressure during isometric handgrip in later trimesters and a significant increase in overall cardiovascular autonomic score between and within all groups were also observed. Conclusion: The observations serve to corroborate that the cardiovascular indices in pregnant women are significantly altered in comparison to non-pregnant women, thus highlighting the importance of cardiovascular monitoring during pregnancy. The study also helped to reaffirm the efficacy of simple cardiovascular reflex tests in research on pregnancy physiology.
Characteristics of offset-structure polycrystalline-silicon thin-film transistors

In order to reduce anomalous leakage current from n-channel polycrystalline-silicon thin-film transistors (poly-Si TFTs), an offset structure that has an n/sup -/ region between channel and n/sup +/ source-drain electrodes has been proposed. Drain-current measurements of the poly-Si TFT prove that the offset structure is effective in reducing the anomalous leakage current, and that the optimization of the offset length and the doping concentration in the offset region enlarge the ON/OFF current ratio. Implantation of 5*10/sup 13/ cm/sup -2/ phosphorus ions in the offset region makes the ON/OFF current ratio more than one order of magnitude larger than that of conventional structure TFTs. <<ETX>>
Demographics and presenting clinical features of childhood systemic lupus erythematosus

Objectives. To review the presentation and characteristics of children with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). Methods. The records of children with sufficient American College of Rheumatology (ACR) criteria for SLE treated by the renal units of the Johannesburg and Chris Hani Baragwanath hospitals, and the arthritis clinic of the Johannesburg Hospital between January 1974 and March 2000 were reviewed. The clinical presentation, age distribution and race were examined. Results. A total of 36 children met the criteria. There were 26 girls and 10 boys, with a mean age of 11.5 and 10.2 years respectively. The male-to-female ratio was 1:2.6 overall, with a ratio of 1:1.2 under 10 years and 1:4 over 10 years. There were 15 white, 2 Indian and 5 coloured patients. The 14 black patients all presented after 1986. Rashes were found to be the commonest clinical feature present at the time of diagnosis, followed by polyarthritis and renal pathology. Constitutional symptoms were common, as were generalised lymphadenopathy and hepatosplenomegaly, while neurological, pulmonary and cardiac signs and symptoms were less common. Renal disease was present in 58% of patients on presentation. Conclusion. There is a diverse array of presenting features in childhood SLE. There has been increased recognition of the disease in young black South Africans since 1986.
The influence of entrepreneurial marketing processes and entrepreneurial self-efficacy on community vulnerability, risk, and resilience

This paper uses the 2010/2011 Christchurch earthquake and re-development efforts as an exemplar to explore how entrepreneurial marketing processes combined with entrepreneurial self-efficacy can be leveraged to help a community reduce its vulnerability to natural disasters and enhance its resilience. Manyena's (Manyena, S. B. (2006). The concept of resilience revisited. Disasters, 30, 433–450; Manyena, S. B. (2012). Disaster and development paradigms: Too close for comfort? Development Policy Review, 30, 327–345) vulnerability–resilience theory is used as the conceptual framework to delineate the prophylactic benefits of building a community's entrepreneurial marketing process capabilities and the notion of entrepreneurial self-efficacy as defensive mechanisms to mitigate the effect of disasters. This work has resulted in an augmented disaster risk equation that considers: (1) the risk that a natural disaster poses on a community (as a function of the vulnerability of the community's tangible assets); (2) the hazard potential of the disaster; and (3) the resilience of its social and economic systems. This paper develops a measure of the symbiotic interrelationship of a community's entrepreneurial marketing process capabilities and community-level entrepreneurial self-efficacy to illustrate how leveraging the entrepreneurial, marketing, social, and engineering educational resources of a community can create a less vulnerable and more resilient community. In doing so, the paper develops a set of research propositions to guide future research and policy.
Do Formal Business Plans Really Matter? – An Exploratory Study of Small Business Owners in Australia

Abstract This exploratory study examines the findings of a survey of small business owners in Australia, their use of formal business planning and its relationship to business performance. While the use of formal business plans is widely considered to be a positive for small business management, previous research has been equivocal on the relationship between use of such plans and profitability. This study used a statistical analysis to examine the relationship between use of formal business plans and business performance and character. The findings suggest that possession of a formal business plan was significantly associated with higher gross revenues and growth in sales. A discriminant analysis found twelve variables that differentiated firms with formal plans from those without. These provide insight into the nature of formal planning within small firms. However, the issue remains as to whether the plan is responsible for the growth or the growth responsible for the plan.
The propensity to pay dividends among Nigerian listed companies

This study examined the disappearing dividend phenomenon in the Nigerian market from 2003 to 2012. It also investigated the impact of financial crisis on the payout decisions. The dividend pattern was explained using descriptive analysis. Panel logistic regression was employed to explain the determinants of the choice "to pay" or "not to pay" dividends while multinomial logistic regression was used to examine the determinants of four mutually exclusive payout choices. Findings indicate a reduction in the proportion of dividend payers and the amount of dividends paid in the latter years. Determinants of the choice "to pay" or "not to pay" include foreign ownership, retained earnings to total equity, profitability, cash flow and past dividends. Thus, the study supports the clientele effect, free cash flow hypothesis and dividend smoothing hypothesis in explaining the decision "to pay" or "not to pay" dividends. However, the implication stated in the catering theory is not supported in the binomial model. Multinomial estimates revealed that firms alter their payout decisions in line with the necessity to maintain financial flexibility and to mitigate going concern risks during the crisis. Firms with higher leverage and lower cash flows have a higher likelihood to omit dividends during the crisis. Thus, free cash flow and transaction costs hypothesis became relevant during crisis. Clientele effect which was supported in the pre-crisis period became insignificant during the crisis. Catering theory became relevant during crisis as investor's demand for dividends have a positive impact on dividend- increase decisions. In consistency with dividend smoothing hypothesis, results indicate that some firms endeavour to maintain their dividend levels despite the crisis. Profitability as a characteristic of a dividend payer is significant in the crisis and the non-crisis periods. The study found no evidence in support of the implication stated in the life cycle theory
HERSCHEL/HIFI SPECTRAL MAPPING OF C+, CH+, AND CH IN ORION BN/KL: THE PREVAILING ROLE OF ULTRAVIOLET IRRADIATION IN CH+ FORMATION

The CH+ ion is a key species in the initial steps of interstellar carbon chemistry. Its formation in diverse environments where it is observed is not well understood, however, because the main production pathway is so endothermic (4280 K) that it is unlikely to proceed at the typical temperatures of molecular clouds. We investigate the formation of this highly reactive molecule with the first velocity-resolved spectral mapping of the CH+ J = 1−0, 2−1 rotational transitions, three sets of CH Λ-doubled triplet lines, 12C+ and 13C+ , and CH3OH 835 GHz E-symmetry Q-branch transitions, obtained with Herschel/HIFI over a region of ≈12 arcmin2 centered on the Orion BN/KL source. We present the spatial morphologies and kinematics, cloud boundary conditions, excitation temperatures, column densities, and 12C+ optical depths. Emission from all of C+, CH+, and CH is indicated to arise in the diluted gas, outside the explosive, dense BN/KL outflow. Our models show that UV irradiation provides favorable conditions for steady-state production of CH+ in this environment. Surprisingly, no spatial or kinematic correspondences of the observed species are found with H2 S(1) emission tracing shocked gas in the outflow. We propose that C+ is being consumed by rapid production of CO to explain the lack of both C+ and CH+ in the outflow. Hence, in star-forming environments containing sources of shocks and strong UV radiation, a description of the conditions leading to CH+ formation and excitation is incomplete without including the important—possibly dominant—role of UV irradiation.
Benefits of diversification into emerging equity markets with changing correlations: An Australian perspective

The benefits of international equity diversification have been discussed extensively in theoretical and empirical research. Recently the role of the emerging equity markets has attracted investors’ interests who wish to hold an international equity portfolio. Much of the previous research has taken the viewpoint of an investor from a country with a significant economy in world terms and has assumed the correlations constant over time. This review focuses on research in the area from the perspective of an Australian investor. This review of research into international diversification indicates there are still benefits in diversifying internationally and all investors are expected to benefit from investing into emerging markets and, these benefits are expected to be more apparent for Australian investors. This study develops a theoretical framework for further research into the area and recommends using a time-varying correlation model, which can estimate the benefits of diversification more accurately.
Asset Prices and Insurance Loadings

We analyze an equilibrium model in which agents exposed to idiosyncratic risk can purchase insurance policies in addition to financial assets. The price of an insurance contract depends nonlinearly on the claims and explicitly contains safety loadings, proportional to variance. We consider random loading factors that vary with business cycles. To extract economic information from the equilibrium, we expand the stochastic discount factor (SDF) in the volatility of consumption growth, a natural small parameter. We obtain the true dependence of the SDF on idiosyncratic risk and insurance loadings. Our expression for the stochastic discount factor displays a threshold loading such that the equilibrium SDF is monotone increasing in the cross-sectional variance of idiosyncratic risk for loadings above the threshold. The SDF is monotone decreasing for loadings below the threshold. One consequence, for loadings below the threshold, is that countercyclical idiosyncratic risk has the opposite influence on the SDF to that of the classic Constantinides and Duffie (1996) tradeless equilibrium.
Fundomentol Asymmetry in Decoy Rote After Neor ond For Focusing

The resting level of accommodation, or dark focus (DF), was compared before and after subjects maintained 8-min of clear focus on targets either at the far point (FP) of accommodation or at an equivalent dioptric distance on the near side of the DF. Although both conditions showed significant shifts in tonic accommodation in the direction of their respective fixation targets, only after near fixation was the shift maintained in darkness for 24-min postfixation. After FP viewing the aftereffect decayed in darkness with a significant linear trend (P < 0.05). Thus, maintaining focus on a near target is more likely to induce an enduring adaptive shift in tonic accommodation than is far-target viewing, for reasons associated with the systems controlling far and near accommodation, respectively. Additional analyses provided further evidence that the degree of separation of the target from the DF is a highly significant factor controlling individual differences in initial adaptation levels. Invest Ophthal
Learning from Many: Partner Exposure and Team Familiarity in Fluid Teams

In services where teams come together for short collaborations, managers are often advised to strive for high team familiarity so as to improve coordination and consequently, performance. However, inducing high team familiarity by keeping team membership intact can limit workers’ opportunities to acquire useful knowledge and alternative practices from exposure to a broader set of partners. We introduce an empirical measure for prior partner exposure and estimate its impact (along with that of team familiarity) on operational performance using data from the London Ambulance Service. Our analysis focuses on ambulance transports involving new paramedic recruits, where exogenous changes in team membership enable identification of the performance effect. Specifically, we investigate the impact of prior partner exposure on time spent during patient pickup at the scene and patient handover at the hospital. We find that the effect varies with the process characteristics. For the patient pickup process, which is less standardized, greater partner exposure directly improves performance. For the more standardized patient handover process, this beneficial effect is triggered beyond a threshold of sufficient individual experience. In addition, we find some evidence that this beneficial performance impact of prior partner exposure is amplified during periods of high workload, particularly for the patient handover process. Finally, a counterfactual analysis based on our estimates shows that a team formation strategy emphasizing partner exposure outperforms one that emphasizes team familiarity by about 9.2% in our empirical context. This paper was accepted by Jay Swaminathan, operations management.
Do Responsible Buyers Source from Responsible Suppliers? Buyer-Supplier Ties and Corporate Social Responsibility

Abstract: In this paper, we examine the role of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in supply-chain formation and the consequence of buyers’ initiatives in promoting CSR. Using firm-level CSR measures from the KLD dataset and buyer-supplier pairs from the Compustat Segment dataset, we first introduce CSR similarity between buyers and suppliers as a selection criterion for supply-chain formation and examine why socially responsible (irresponsible) buyers often source from responsible (irresponsible) suppliers. Although social status (i.e., CSR) similarity derived from matching theory can partially explain such supply-chain formation, this similarity fails to explain fully why these formations occur. Concerns over sourcing cost moderates the effect of responsible buyers sourcing from responsible (and usually expensive) suppliers, leading to situations in which responsible buyers source from irresponsible suppliers. Moreover, supplier information transparency offered by a firm’s CSR status moderates irresponsible buyers’ sourcing from irresponsible suppliers. Finally, we find supportive evidence that if one party improves its CSR, then the other party will do the same, irrespective of the selection made. Such a relation sheds us understand a key aspect of CSR promotion: CSR pressure placed upon downstream firms could be propagated along the chains, thus forcing firms on these chains to be more responsible.
The initiator element of the adenovirus major late promoter has an important role in transcription initiation in vivo

Previous results showed that the structure and function of the adenovirus major late promoter (MLP) can be analyzed genetically in its correct location, despite its essential role in the viral life cycle. This genetic approach was extended to investigate the in vivo role of the initiator (INR), a transcriptional element that surrounds the start site of transcription. The analysis was designed to investigate if the INR is an alternative basal element to the canonical TATA box of the MLP, its relative importance in the functioning of the promoter, and if its function was affected by upstream activating elements. Accordingly, two different mutations in the INR were created and tested in the genome, either by themselves or together with mutations in the TATA box or one of the two upstream activating elements, the upstream promoter element (UPE) and the inverted CAAT box. The mutant viruses were examined first in one-step growth experiments, and then levels of late mRNA accumulation were measured by primer extension, transcription initiation was assayed in isolated nuclei, and viral DNA accumulation was determined by Southern hybridization. Neither mutation in the INR alone had any discernible phenotypic effects but when coupled to a phenotypically silent mutation in the TATA box gave rise to viruses with growth defects that were attributable to a significantly lowered rate of transcription initiation from the MLP. These results suggest that the INR plays a role in vivo and can act as an alternative basal element in the absence of a functioning TATA box. A virus with mutations in both the INR and the UPE, although viable, likewise had a severe deficiency in transcription, suggesting that the function of the INR is affected by that of the UPE. This contrasts with the previous report that a TATA box-UPE double mutation is not recoverable in virus. In addition, the virus with mutations in both the INR and the inverted CAAT box was phenotypically wild type, unlike the previously described TATA box-CAAT box double mutant, which had a severe transcription deficiency. Taken together, the present and previous genetic results can be interpreted as evidence that in the MLP, the TATA box and the UPE are the more important of the two basal and activating elements, respectively, but that the INR and CAAT can function in transcription initiation. We consider the role of the INR in the formation of the preinitiation complex and speculate on possible protein-protein interactions.
Soil Moisture Estimation over Vegetated Agricultural Areas: Tigris Basin, Turkey from Radarsat-2 Data by Polarimetric Decomposition Models and a Generalized Regression Neural Network

Determining the soil moisture in agricultural fields is a significant parameter to use irrigation systems efficiently. In contrast to standard soil moisture measurements, good results might be acquired in a shorter time over large areas by remote sensing tools. In order to estimate the soil moisture over vegetated agricultural areas, a relationship between Radarsat-2 data and measured ground soil moistures was established by polarimetric decomposition models and a generalized regression neural network (GRNN). The experiments were executed over two agricultural sites on the Tigris Basin, Turkey. The study consists of four phases. In the first stage, Radarsat-2 data were acquired on different dates and in situ measurements were implemented simultaneously. In the second phase, the Radarsat-2 data were pre-processed and the GPS coordinates of the soil sample points were imported to this data. Then the standard sigma backscattering coefficients with the Freeman–Durden and H/A/α polarimetric decomposition models were employed for feature extraction and a feature vector with four sigma backscattering coefficients (σhh, σhv, σvh, and σvv) and six polarimetric decomposition parameters (entropy, anisotropy, alpha angle, volume scattering, odd bounce, and double bounce) were generated for each pattern. In the last stage, GRNN was used to estimate the regional soil moisture with the aid of feature vectors. The results indicated that radar is a strong remote sensing tool for soil moisture estimation, with mean absolute errors around 2.31 vol %, 2.11 vol %, and 2.10 vol % for Datasets 1–3, respectively; and 2.46 vol %, 2.70 vol %, 7.09 vol %, and 5.70 vol % on Datasets 1 & 2, 2 & 3, 1 & 3, and 1 & 2 & 3, respectively.