Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Interactive Financial Effects between Corporate Social Responsibility and Irresponsibility

Firms typically present a mixed picture of corporate social performance (CSP), with positive and negative indicators exhibited by the same firm. Thus, stakeholders’ judgements of corporate social responsibility (CSR) typically evaluate positives in the context of negatives, and vice versa. We present two alternative accounts of how stakeholders respond to such complexity, which provide differing implications for the financial effects of CSP: reciprocal dampening and rewarding uniformity. Our US panel study finds a U-shaped relationship – firms that exhibit solely positive or solely negative indicators outperform firms that exhibit both – which supports the notion that stakeholders’ judgements of CSR reward uniformity.
The Effects of Perceived Price and Brand Image on Value and Purchase Intention: Leisure Travelers' Attitudes Toward Online Hotel Booking

ABSTRACT This study investigates the effects of perceived price and brand image on perceived quality, trust, perceived value, and travelers' purchase intentions for online hotel booking. The results of this study suggest that if leisure travelers perceive that a price offered by a hotel is more affordable than their internal price standard or competing prices, they tend to believe that quality might be low, but they tend to have high consumer value and are more likely to have greater purchase intention. It is also noted that brand image significantly affects quality and trust perceived by consumers. Overall, trust appears to play an important role in improving long-term customer value in online dynamics.
Changes in retail shopping behaviour in the aftermath of an earthquake

Christchurch, the second largest city in New Zealand with a pre-earthquake population of 376,700, was rattled by two major earthquakes in a span of 6 months from September 2010. With significant loss of life, collapsed buildings and damaged infrastructure, consumers were confronted with the notion that retail spaces, in the event of an earthquake, had the potential to be unsafe and a source of potential personal harm. This paper presents the results of a qualitative study that explored how consumers modified their retail shopping behaviour following a sequence of earthquake events over the 2010/2011 timeframe in Christchurch, New Zealand. Participants discussed a range of issues, including their experiences with the earthquakes, and the changes they had to make to their shopping activities in order to adapt to their new circumstances. The findings of this study have implications for any setting where shoppers are affected by unexpected events beyond their control and where an impression of personal danger suddenly becomes associated with their day-to-day shopping activities.
Shiga Toxin 1c-Producing Escherichia coli Strains: Phenotypic and Genetic Characterization and Association with Human Disease

ABSTRACT The distribution of the stx1c allele among Shiga toxin (Stx)-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) and the virulence characteristics of stx1c-harboring STEC are unknown. In this study, we identified stx1c in 76 (54.3%) of 140 eae-negative, but in none of 155 eae-positive, human STEC isolates (P < 0.000001). The 76 stx1c-harboring E. coli isolates belonged to 22 serotypes, and each produced Stx1c as demonstrated by latex agglutination. Characterization of putative virulence factors demonstrated the presence of the locus of proteolysis activity (LPA) and the high-pathogenicity island in 65.8 and 21.1%, respectively, of the 76 Stx1c-producing E. coli isolates. Moreover, all but three of these strains contained saa, the gene encoding an STEC autoagglutinating adhesin. The virulence profiles of Stx1c-producing E. coli isolates were mostly serotype independent and heterogeneous. This enabled us to subtype the isolates within the same serotype. The individuals infected with Stx1c-producing E. coli strains were between 3 months and 72 years old (median age, 23.5 years) and usually had uncomplicated diarrhea or were asymptomatic. We conclude that Stx1c-producing E. coli strains represent a significant subset of eae-negative human STEC isolates, which belong to various serotypes and frequently possess LPA and saa as their putative virulence factors. The phenotypic and molecular characteristics determined in this study allow the subtyping of Stx1c-producing STEC in epidemiological and clinical studies.
Pathophysiological characterization of isolated diastolic heart failure in comparison to systolic heart failure.

CONTEXT Many older patients with symptoms of congestive heart failure have a preserved left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF). However, the pathophysiology of this disorder, presumptively termed diastolic heart failure (DHF), is not well characterized and it is unknown whether it represents true heart failure. OBJECTIVE To assess the 4 key pathophysiological domains that characterize classic heart failure by systematically performing measurements in older patients with presumed DHF and comparing these results with those from age-matched healthy volunteers and patients with classic systolic heart failure (SHF). DESIGN AND SETTING Observational clinical investigation conducted in 1998 in a general community and teaching hospital in Winston-Salem, NC. PARTICIPANTS A total of 147 subjects aged at least 60 years. Fifty-nine had isolated DHF defined as clinically presumed heart failure, LVEF of at least 50%, and no evidence of significant coronary, valvular, or pulmonary disease. Sixty had typical SHF (LVEF < or =35%). Twenty-eight were age-matched healthy volunteer controls. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Left ventricular structure and function, exercise capacity, neuroendocrine function, and quality of life. RESULTS By echocardiography, mean (SE) LVEF was 60% (2%) in patients with DHF vs 31% (2%) in those with SHF and 54% (2%) in controls. Mean (SE) LV mass-volume ratio was markedly increased in patients with DHF (2.12 [0.14] g/mL) vs those with SHF (1.22 [0.14] g/mL) (P<.001) and vs controls (1.49 [0.17] g/mL) (P =.002). Peak oxygen consumption by expired gas analysis during cycle ergometry was similar in the DHF and SHF groups (14.2 [0.5] and 13.1 [0.5] mL/kg per minute, respectively; P =.40) and in both was markedly reduced compared with healthy controls (19.9 [0.7] mL/kg per minute) (P =.001 for both). Ventilatory anaerobic threshold was similar in the DHF and SHF groups (9.1 [0.3] and 8.7 [0.3] mL/kg per minute, respectively; P<.001) and in both was reduced compared with healthy controls (11.5 [0.4] mL/kg per minute) (P<.001). Norepinephrine levels were similar in the DHF (306 [64] pg/mL) and SHF (287 [62] pg/mL) groups (P =.56) and in both were markedly increased vs healthy controls (169 [80] pg/mL) (P =.007 and.03, respectively). Brain natriuretic peptide was substantially increased in both the DHF (56 [30] pg/mL) and the SHF (154 [28] pg/mL) groups compared with healthy controls (3 [38] pg/mL) (P =.02 and.001, respectively). Quality-of-life decrement score as assessed by the Minnesota Living with Heart Failure Questionnaire was substantially increased from the benchmark score of 10 in both groups (SHF: 43.8 [3.9]; DHF: 24.8 [4.4]). CONCLUSION Patients with isolated DHF have similar though not as severe pathophysiologic characteristics compared with patients with typical SHF, including severely reduced exercise capacity, neuroendocrine activation, and impaired quality of life.
Changing Patterns in the Surgical Treatment of Diverticular Disease

This paper includes a brief historic summary of the surgical aspects of diverticular disease and of corresponding developments in the Massachusetts General Hospital from 1911 to the present. The 350 cases observed in 1974–1983 are compared with 338 seen in the previous decade. Major trends include 1) a decrease in hospital admissions for diverticular disease but a sustained number of operations; 2) increased severity of the disease in hospitalized patients manifested by an increased percentage of patients with immunosuppression or serious other diseases (p < 0.001), an increased number with sepsis and general peritonitis (p < 0.001); 3) an increased percentage of cases with one-stage resection and anastomosis (p < 0.02); 4) in patients with general peritonitis, resection of the perforated segment at the time of the original operation was accompanied by the lowest mortality (p < 0.02); 5) incidental splenectomy appears to be dangerous, with three deaths in eight cases; and 6) overall mortality in the last decade is 6.4%; for emergency cases 10.2%, for urgent 9.7%, and for elective cases 2.4%.
“Having it all” – at what cost? Strategies of Chinese highly skilled women in Japan to combine career and family

Abstract Being both foreign and female, Chinese highly skilled women face double discrimination in corporate Japan. Yet this study argues that due to their transnational networks and expertise they turn unfavorable circumstances for work–family balance into strategies to improve work–career compatibility to a degree still unattainable for many Japanese women. While outcomes thus seem rosy from a labor market perspective, these strategies come at a cost both for the women and for the Japanese labor market. Strategies include leaving Japan to join the Chinese labor market, family separation, and delayed marriage or childbirth.
Loyalty programs and a sense of community

Purpose – Previous research has explored the impact of customer participation in organizational‐sponsored loyalty programs on customer loyalty; however, the findings are mixed. Other research, outside the loyalty program literature, reveals that customers who socially interact with other customers, via participation in brand communities, often exhibit an intense loyalty to the sponsoring brands. Proposes to investigate the following questions: “Can loyalty programs be differentiated based on whether or not members perceive a sense of community? ”; and “Does a perception of a sense of community impact member loyalty to sponsoring organizations? ”Design/methodology/approach – Q‐technique factor analysis is utilized analyzing statements from loyalty program participants. Principal component factor and cluster analyses confirm a two‐tiered classification schema distinguishing loyalty programs based on perceptions of communal benefits. Differences between the two factors are explored. A survey developed from the.
Impact of Pseudomonas aeruginosa quorum sensing on cellular wound healing responses in vitro

Abstract The virulent capacity of Pseudomonas aeruginosa can largely be ascribed to quorum sensing, i.e. the ability to evade host defence by a coordinated production and secretion of virulence factors. When P. aeruginosa is harboured in chronic wounds, a non-healing condition is often observed. In this study, we examined the in vitro cellular responses of the major cell types of re-epithelialization to supernatants of P. aeruginosa wild-type or an isogenic mutant not expressing quorum sensing-regulated virulence genes. We observed impairment of cell migration in keratinocytes (p = 0.009) and fibroblasts (p = 0.043) when supplementing medium with 20% P. aeruginosa culture supernatants. Cell proliferation was not significantly reduced, except for keratinocytes (p = 0.040). Data show compliance with in vivo observations of proliferating, non-motile epithelial cell behaviour in bacterially contaminated chronic wounds. Our findings suggest that quorum sensing may serve as an interesting target for controlling P. aeruginosa virulence in modern wound care.
Customer satisfaction in business‐to‐business marketing: the case of retail organizations and their suppliers

Develops an orientation system for measuring customer satisfaction. Reveals dimensions of satisfaction experienced by retailers, taking account of the relevant literature, empirical studies on the satisfaction of retail organizations with their suppliers and the results of discussion with experts. Confirms that these are verified according to empirical criteria and quantified in respect of their contribution to delivering satisfaction to retailers. Identifies approaches on which to base activities, allowing suppliers of branded articles to give their customers greater customer satisfaction.
Algebraic Multigrid for Markov Chains and Tensor Decomposition

The majority of this thesis is concerned with the development of efficient and robust numerical methods based on adaptive algebraic multigrid to compute the stationary distribution of Markov chains. It is shown that classical algebraic multigrid techniques can be applied in an exact interpolation scheme framework to compute the stationary distribution of irreducible, homogeneous Markov chains. A quantitative analysis shows that algebraically smooth multiplicative error is locally constant along strong connections in a scaled system operator, which suggests that classical algebraic multigrid coarsening and interpolation can be applied to the class of nonsymmetric irreducible singular M-matrices with zero column sums. Acceleration schemes based on fine-level iterant recombination, and over-correction of the coarse-grid correction are developed to improve the rate of convergence and scalability of simple adaptive aggregation multigrid methods for Markov chains. Numerical tests over a wide range of challenging nonsymmetric test problems demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed multilevel method and the acceleration schemes. This thesis also investigates the application of adaptive algebraic multigrid techniques for computing the canonical decomposition of higher-order tensors. The canonical decomposition is formulated as a least squares optimization problem, for which local minimizers are computed by solving the first-order optimality equations. The proposed multilevel method consists of two phases: an adaptive setup phase that uses a multiplicative correction scheme in conjunction with bootstrap algebraic multigrid interpolation to build the necessary operators on each level, and a solve phase that uses additive correction cycles based on the full approximation scheme to efficiently obtain an accurate solution. The alternating least squares method, which is a standard one-level iterative method for computing the canonical decomposition, is used as the relaxation scheme. Numerical tests show that for certain test problems arising from the discretization of high-dimensional partial differential equations on regular lattices the proposed multilevel method significantly outperforms the standard alternating least squares method when a high level of accuracy is required.
Thai Nurses’ Experience of Caring for Persons Who Had a Peaceful Death in Intensive Care Units

This phenomenological study describes the lived experience of caring for persons who had a peaceful death in the intensive care units. Ten intensive care nurses in south Thailand participated in individual interviews. Van Manen’s approach was utilized to synthesize data. The lived experience of Thai nurses caring for persons who had a peaceful death is: understanding the other through valuing experience and enhancing relationships with others by recognizing time is short and is a priority. Boykin and Schoenhofer’s theory of nursing as caring provided the theoretical lens for interpreting the meaning of the phenomenon.
Arrogance—A Dangerous Weapon of the Physics Trade?

A a scientist who is not a physicist and you might hear that we physicists are an arrogant bunch. And to a layperson, scientists in general often seem arrogant. No, we shrug, we’re not really arrogant, we are just very objective and thus usually right! We are certainly a group with admirable strength in our convictions. Could there be a problem with welltempered arrogance? I have worked in a number of high-quality research institutions and have learned that arrogance is, for good reason, a prized commodity. During my early career at Bell Labs, a senior executive asserted that arrogance was something to be proud of, something to be nurtured. And since Bell Labs has had such phenomenal historic success, we should not dismiss his point lightly. Now, 20 years later, I am a senior manager at a large research laboratory, and I understand better what he was trying to get at. But do we understand the downside of arrogance? I have come to believe that while arrogance is a tool that can be powerfully used when cutting through the misconceptions that surround the natural world, it is a double-edged sword. The problem with arrogance is the subject of this article, and I hope that I may convince you that we should keep this weapon in its scabbard much of the time.
Ecology of larval trematodes in three marine gastropods

To comprehend natural host–parasite systems, ecological knowledge of both hosts and parasites is critical. Here I present a view of marine systems based on the snail Ilyanassa obsoleta and its trematodes. This system is reviewed and two others, those of the snails Cerithidea californica and Littorina littorea, are then summarized and compared. Trematodes can profoundly affect the physiology, behaviour and spatial distribution of hosts. Studying these systems is challenging because trematodes are often embedded in host populations in unappreciated ways. Trematode prevalence is variable, but can be high in populations of all three hosts. Conditions under which single- and multiple-species infections can accumulate are considered. Adaptive relations between species are likely the most important and potentials for adaptation of parasites to hosts, hosts to parasites, and parasites to other parasites are also considered. Even if colonization rate is low, a snail population can develop high trematode prevalence, if infections persist long and the host is long-lived and abundant. Trematodes must be adapted to use their snail hosts. However, both I. obsoleta and L. littorea possess highly dispersed planktonic larvae and trematode prevalence is variable among snail populations. Host adaptation to specific infections, or even to trematodes in general, is unlikely because routine exposure to trematodes is improbable. Crawl-away juveniles of C. californica make adaptation to trematodes in that system a possibility. Trematode species in all three systems are not likely adapted to each other. Multiple-species infections are rare and definitive hosts scatter parasite eggs among snail populations with variable prevalences. Routine co-occurrence of trematodes in snails is thus unlikely. Adaptations of these larval trematodes to inhabit the snail host must, then, be the basis for what happens when they do co-occur.
Country of origin effects: a literature review

This paper provides a comprehensive review of the literature regarding the effect of country of origin on consumer perceptions of products and services. Results reveal that consumer perceptions differ significantly on the basis of product/service and country of origin. The country of origin may be an important element in the perceptions consumers have of products and services especially where little other information is known. However, the question of how much influence the country of origin provides in product and service evaluations remains unanswered and a number of other major issues have yet to be resolved. Directions for future research are developed.
Relationship between volume status and blood pressure during chronic hemodialysis.

BACKGROUND The relationship between volume status and blood pressure (BP) in chronic hemodialysis (HD) patients remains incompletely understood. Specifically, the effect of interdialytic fluid accumulation (or intradialytic fluid removal) on BP is controversial. METHODS We determined the association of the intradialytic decrease in body weight (as an indicator of interdialytic fluid gain) and the intradialytic decrease in plasma volume (as an indicator of postdialysis volume status) with predialysis and postdialysis BP in a cross-sectional analysis of a subset of patients (N=468) from the Hemodialysis (HEMO) Study. Fifty-five percent of patients were female, 62% were black, 43% were diabetic and 72% were prescribed antihypertensive medications. Dry weight was defined as the postdialysis body weight below which the patient developed symptomatic hypotension or muscle cramps in the absence of edema. The intradialytic decrease in plasma volume was calculated from predialysis and postdialysis total plasma protein concentrations and was expressed as a percentage of the plasma volume at the beginning of HD. RESULTS Predialysis systolic and diastolic BP values were 153.1 +/- 24.7 (mean +/- SD) and 81.7 +/- 14.8 mm Hg, respectively; postdialysis systolic and diastolic BP values were 136.6 +/- 22.7 and 73.9 +/- 13.6 mm Hg, respectively. As a result of HD, body weight was reduced by 3.1 +/- 1.3 kg and plasma volume was contracted by 10.1 +/- 9.5%. Multiple linear regression analyses showed that each kg reduction in body weight during HD was associated with a 2.95 mm Hg (P=0.004) and a 1.65 mm Hg (P=NS) higher predialysis and postdialysis systolic BP, respectively. In contrast, each 5% greater contraction of plasma volume during HD was associated with a 1.50 mm Hg (P=0.026) and a 2.56 mm Hg (P < 0.001) lower predialysis and postdialysis systolic BP, respectively. The effects of intradialytic decreases in body weight and plasma volume were greater on systolic BP than on diastolic BP. CONCLUSIONS HD treatment generally reduces BP, and these reductions in BP are associated with intradialytic decreases in both body weight and plasma volume. The absolute predialysis and postdialysis BP levels are influenced differently by acute intradialytic decreases in body weight and acute intradialytic decreases in plasma volume; these parameters provide different information regarding volume status and may be dissociated from each other. Therefore, evaluation of volume status in chronic HD patients requires, at minimum, assessments of both interdialytic fluid accumulation (or the intradialytic decrease in body weight) and postdialysis volume overload.
Industry Productivity in the Manufacturing Sector: The Role of Offshoring

Two sources of industry productivity growth are firm productivity improvements and the reallocation of productive resources from less productive to more productive firms. This paper studies the role of offshoring in improving industry productivity through these two channels, using a new Canadian manufacturing data base that links the Annual Survey of Manufactures and the Importer Register database at the commodity level. The database provides information on direct imports of intermediate inputs by firms. This allows us to estimate offshoring intensity in Canada at the firm level, and to differentiate those imports by region of origin.
A model of trust in online relationship banking

The role of trust encompasses the exchanges and interactions of a retail bank with its customers on various dimensions of online banking. Specifically lays stress on the bank‐to‐customer exchanges taking place through the technological interface. Hypothesizes shared value, communication and opportunistic behaviour as antecedents to trust. Trust and commitment also have a causal relationship. Proposes and empirically tests five hypotheses with a sample of 510 Internet users of various profiles in India. Develops a structural equation model (Lisrel) and establishes all hypotheses. Observes that shared value is most critical to developing trust as well as relationship commitment. Communication has a moderate influence on trust, while opportunistic behaviour has significant negative effect. Also finds higher perceived trust to enhance significantly customers’ commitment in online banking transaction. An important contribution concerns how trust is developed and sustained over different levels of customer relationship in online banking. The future commitment of the customers to online banking depends on perceived trust.