Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Risk Mitigation of Corporate Social Performance in US Class Action Lawsuits

We investigated the relationship between corporate environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance and litigation risk by examining US class action lawsuits. We found that a 1 standard deviation improvement in the ESG controversies of an average company in the sample reduced litigation risk from 3.1% to 2.4%. Moreover, an average company with low ESG performance exhibited a loss in market value twice as large as that of a company with high ESG performance—an abnormal loss of US$1.14 billion. Implementation of our findings with a trading strategy yielded positive monthly alphas, suggesting that investors benefit from lower litigation risk and the insurance-like protection of high ESG performance. Disclosure: The authors report no conflicts of interest. This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors. Editor’s note: Submitted 24 April 2020 Accepted 1 December 2020 by Stephen J. Brown. This article was externally reviewed using our double-blind peer-review process. When the article was accepted for publication, the authors thanked the reviewers in their acknowledgments. Jie Cao and one anonymous reviewer were the reviewers for this article.
Exploring Japanese Fourth Graders’ Motivation to Read: A Mixed-Method Study

ABSTRACT This study employed the mixed method explanatory sequential design to investigate Japanese fourth grade students’ reading motivation. A total of 102 students first completed the Motivation for Reading Questionnaire (MRQ) to investigate the differences in reading motivation among different dimensions in three categories (Competence and Self-Efficacy, Goals for Reading, and Social Reasons for Reading). Then, all students were categorized into three groups: high, medium, and low. Four students from each motivation group were selected for semi-structured interviews to specify critical factors impacting their reading motivation. Both quantitative and qualitative results clearly indicate the cultural influence on students’ motivation to read, including collectivist culture and educators’ and parents’ reading beliefs. This research supports the view of sociocultural theories that an individual’s learning and development are closely tied to the social and cultural contexts in which the learner is situated.
Transformative rare events: Leveraging digital affordance actualisation

ABSTRACT This paper conceptualises the COVID-19 pandemic as a “rare event. ” Rare events channel managerial attention to magnified issues and foster resource mobilisation and learning. We draw on a case study of a US consumer lender to develop a model explaining how organisations actualise digital affordances as part of their rare event response and, in doing so, leverage the transformative experience towards establishing a “new normal. ” The model and its instantiation contribute conceptual understanding and advice for how IS managers may effectively address rare events and, in particular, the COVID-19 pandemic, including the aftermath of its lockdown and the transition to the new business status quo. The model emphasises the importance of understanding the evolution of digital affordances as possessing teleological paths where affordances are developed in steps corresponding to where an organisation focuses its managerial attention, with indirect consequences of possibilities to attend to other objectives enabled by digital technologies. Overall, the model contributes to theory by explaining the role of rare events in the evolution of affordances, including some that can be transformative and introducing the rare events literature into the IS discipline.
Gender norms in the Indian migrant community in Australia: family, community, and work roles

ABSTRACT An examination of gender norms allows us to develop gender equity strategies. There is limited research on gender roles among the Indian migrant community in Australia. Therefore, the objectives of this study were to explore the gender norms among men and women in the Indian community in Australia across their family, employment, and community roles. Focus group sessions were conducted with 40 first and second-generation Indian men and women divided into younger (18–40 years) and older age groups (41+ years). Thematic analysis revealed differences in gender norms between men and women. Women described the need to perform multiple roles; provide men with financial control; and ensure family harmony. On the other hand, men attributed a family-oriented role for women; mainly contributed to the family’s financial wellbeing; and expressed distress at the Australian legal system that they believed favoured women. The findings from the present study suggest the need for the promotion of culturally relevant gender equity strategies for members of the Indian community.
Using Mobile Food Delivery Applications during COVID-19 Pandemic: An Extended Model of Planned Behavior

ABSTRACT The purpose of this study was to identify the factors influencing consumers’ behavioral and continuance intention to use mobile food delivery applications (MFDAs) during COVID-19 pandemic. Based on the theory of Planned Behavior, we examined the impact of social isolation, food safety, delivery hygiene, subjective norms, dining attitudes, and behavioral control on behavioral and continuous intention to use MFDAs. Data were collected from 432 users and analyzed using Structured Equation Modeling. The results showed that delivery hygiene, subjective norms, attitudes, and behavioral control were related to both behavioral and continuance intention to use MFDAs, whereas perceived food safety was related to behavioral intention and social isolation was related to continuance intention. Moreover, behavioral intention mediated the impact of perceived food safety, delivery hygiene, attitudes, and behavioral control on continuance intention. This study incorporated situational factors into theory of Planned Behavior, which might guide the practitioners to use MFDAs during COVID-19.
Online Grocery Shopping at Multichannel Supermarkets: The Impact of Retailer Brand Equity

ABSTRACT Online shopping for food products is quickly accelerating worldwide, particularly following the impact of COVID-19 pandemic. Most e-grocers are multichannel supermarkets that have developed the online channel. This paper aims to investigate the intention to purchase at the online channel of a multichannel supermarket as a function of retailer brand equity and technology acceptance model (TAM)-based variables. The model was tested through structural equation modeling using EQS. Results based on a survey answered by 154 customers of a leading multichannel supermarket in Germany show that variables defining retailer brand equity, i.e., retailer awareness, retailer associations, retailer perceived quality, and retailer loyalty contribute, together with perceived usefulness, to explain intentions to shop online at multichannel supermarkets.
Psychoanalytic ecofeminist Dorothy Dinnerstein: theorizing the roots of rapacity

ABSTRACT This article proposes that Dorothy Dinnerstein’s philosophy can help us understand the problem of miseducation that places male-dominated and ‘masculine’ rapacity at the center of so many human endeavors, including capitalist economic exploitation and environmental exploitation. Dinnerstein argues that early childhood experiences of female domination lead to reactive and immature adult preferences for excessive, triumphing, rapacious, male rule. In Dinnerstein’s theory, the solution to this psychologically deep-rooted problem is for men to do half of the childcare work. This article acknowledges and refutes arguments against Dinnerstein’s theory, and expounds its soundness and benefits. Dinnerstein’s thought can help us put a brake on the capitalist rapacity that threatens our very survival while increasing possibilities for human self-actualization.
Improving Competitiveness Through Vocational and Higher Education: Indonesia’s Vision For Human Capital Development In 2019–2024

This article explores Indonesia’s readiness to upgrade its human capital in response to changes in population and economic structure in order to harness the technological advances of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. The symptoms of premature deindustrialisation can be clearly observed in Indonesia, suggesting that it needs to improve its productivity to adapt to digital disruption and structural economic change. Supplyside advancement will require infrastructure and human resource development. On the production side, Indonesia will need to revitalise its manufacturing, service and resource-based sectors, treating them as value chains to be integrated into global networks. Indonesia’s education policy framework to upgrade human resources and improve the country’s competitiveness focuses on five areas: access to education; quality of education; synergies between government, industry and higher education; industry linkages; and incentives. Meanwhile, the disruption caused by the Covid-19 pandemic is forcing the Indonesian education system to instantly revolutionise its teaching methods to adapt to pandemic and post-pandemic conditions.
Integrating Economics into Research on Natural Capital and Human Health

In the past two decades, there has been a rapid expansion in research that examines the linkages between natural capital and human health. These nature–human health connections range from mangroves mitigating mortality from coastal storms to a walk in nature temporarily lowering blood pressure. While the evidence base for research on natural capital and human health is growing and study designs are becoming more advanced, we find that very few studies use an economic approach. A review of the literature reveals that few studies evaluate the costs of delivering nature’s benefits to human health, even fewer studies use benefit–cost analysis or a cost-effectiveness approach to compare alternative policy interventions, and no study evaluates the net benefits of natural capital for human health. In this article, we discuss why an economic approach is critical to advancing research on the connections between nature and human health and present a conceptual model for conducting more practice- and policy-relevant research.
Evaluation of Mehlich 3 and ammonium bicarbonate-DTPA extractants for prediction of available zinc in calcareous soils in central Thailand.

This study was conducted in order to evaluate the efficiency of Mehlich 3 and ammonium bicarbonate-DTPA (AB-DTPA) extractants for predicting available zinc (Zn) in calcareous soils in the central part of Thailand. The relationships between the amounts of Zn extracted by Mehlich 3 and ABDTPA with those extracted by DTPA (the conventional extraction method widely used in soil testing laboratories in Thailand) and those taken up by corn were elucidated. The results showed that the amount of Zn extracted by both Mehlich 3 and AB-DTPA was significantly correlated with that extracted by DTPA (r = 0.951** and r = 0.950**, respectively) and that absorbed by corn (r = 0.954** and r = 0.925**, respectively). Moreover, the coefficient of determination (r2) for the relationship between amounts of Zn taken up by corn and extracted by the three extractants was 0.845 (DTPA), 0.855 (ABDTPA) and 0.910 (Mehlich 3). Accordingly, Mehlich 3 and AB-DTPA could be used effectively for estimating Zn availability in calcareous soils in central Thailand. However, Mehlich 3 was superior to AB-DTPA.
Pandemics, Protests, and Firearms

A record number of firearm background checks were completed at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and during the protests following the murder of George Floyd. Using monthly state-level data, we show that the increase in firearm background check rates in March 2020 and June 2020 differ from previous gun-buying events in at least two important ways. First, the increases in the background check rates surrounding COVID-19 and the George Floyd protests are significantly larger than previous gun-buying events. Second, the gun-buying events of 2020 are nonpartisan; the effect in Republican-leaning states is statistically indistinguishable from the effect in Democrat-leaning states. Our estimates suggest that there were 62 percent more background checks completed between March and August 2020 than expected, which amounts to over 7 million additional background checks. We provide evidence that the recent spikes in background checks are not motivated by gun policy uncertainty and discuss policy recommendations that may alleviate any negative outcomes associated with expanded gun ownership during an unprecedented pandemic.
Natural Frequency Method: estimating the preferred walking speed of Tyrannosaurus rex based on tail natural frequency

Locomotor energetics are an important determinant of an animal's ecological niche. It is commonly assumed that animals minimize locomotor energy expenditure by selecting gait kinematics tuned to the natural frequencies of relevant body parts. We demonstrate that this allows estimation of the preferred step frequency and walking speed of Tyrannosaurus rex, using an approach we introduce as the Natural Frequency Method. Although the tail of bipedal dinosaurs was actively involved in walking, it was suspended passively by the caudal interspinous ligaments. These allowed for elastic energy storage, thereby reducing the metabolic cost of transport. In order for elastic energy storage to be high, step and natural frequencies would have to be matched. Using a 3D morphological reconstruction and a spring-suspended biomechanical model, we determined the tail natural frequency of T. rex (0.66 s−1, range 0.41–0.84), and the corresponding walking speed (1.28 m s−1, range 0.80–1.64), which we argue to be a good indicator of preferred walking speed (PWS). The walking speeds found here are lower than earlier estimations for large theropods, but agree quite closely with PWS of a diverse group of extant animals. The results are most sensitive to uncertainties regarding ligament moment arms, vertebral kinematics and ligament composition. However, our model formulation and method for estimation of walking speed are unaffected by assumptions regarding muscularity, and therefore offer an independent line of evidence within the field of dinosaur locomotion.
Time variation in the probability of failing to detect a case of polymerase chain reaction testing for SARS-CoV-2 as estimated from a viral dynamics model

Viral tests including polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests are recommended to diagnose COVID-19 infection during the acute phase of infection. A test should have high sensitivity; however, the sensitivity of the PCR test is highly influenced by viral load, which changes over time. Because it is difficult to collect data before the onset of symptoms, the current literature on the sensitivity of the PCR test before symptom onset is limited. In this study, we used a viral dynamics model to track the probability of failing to detect a case of PCR testing over time, including the presymptomatic period. The model was parametrized by using longitudinal viral load data collected from 30 hospitalized patients. The probability of failing to detect a case decreased toward symptom onset, and the lowest probability was observed 2 days after symptom onset and increased afterwards. The probability on the day of symptom onset was 1.0% (95% CI: 0.5 to 1.9) and that 2 days before symptom onset was 60.2% (95% CI: 57.1 to 63.2). Our study suggests that the diagnosis of COVID-19 by PCR testing should be done carefully, especially when the test is performed before or way after symptom onset. Further study is needed of patient groups with potentially different viral dynamics, such as asymptomatic cases.
Species-specific but not phylosymbiotic gut microbiomes of New Guinean passerine birds are shaped by diet and flight-associated gut modifications

Animal hosts have evolved intricate associations with microbial symbionts, where both depend on each other for particular functions. In many cases, these associations lead to phylosymbiosis, where phylogenetically related species harbour compositionally more similar microbiomes than distantly related species. However, evidence for phylosymbiosis is either weak or lacking in gut microbiomes of flying vertebrates, particularly in birds. To shed more light on this phenomenon, we compared cloacal microbiomes of 37 tropical passerine bird species from New Guinea using 16S rRNA bacterial gene sequencing. We show a lack of phylosymbiosis and document highly variable microbiomes. Furthermore, we find that gut bacterial community compositions are species-specific and tend to be shaped by host diet but not sampling locality, potentially driven by the similarities in habitats used by individual species. We further show that flight-associated gut modifications, coupled with individual dietary differences, shape gut microbiome structure and variation, contributing to the lack of phylosymbiosis. These patterns indicate that the stability of symbiosis may depend on microbial functional diversity rather than taxonomic composition. Furthermore, the more variable and fluid host–microbe associations suggest probable disparities in the potential for coevolution between bird host species and microbial symbionts.
Phylogeny, function and ecology in the deep evolutionary history of the mammalian forelimb

Mammals are the only living members of the larger clade Synapsida, which has a fossil record spanning 320 Ma. Despite the fact that much of the ecological diversity of mammals has been considered in the light of limb morphology, the ecological comparability of mammals to their fossil forerunners has not been critically assessed. Because of the wide use of limb morphology in testing ecomorphological hypothesis about extinct tetrapods, we sought: (i) to estimate when in synapsid history, modern mammals become analogues for predicting fossil ecologies; (ii) to document examples of ecomorphological convergence; and (iii) to compare the functional solutions of distinct synapsid radiations. We quantitatively compared the forelimb shapes of the multiple fossil synapsid radiations to a broad sample of extant Mammalia representing a variety of divergent locomotor ecologies. Our results indicate that each synapsid radiation explored different areas of morphospace and arrived at functional solutions that reflected their distinctive ancestral morphologies. This work counters the narrative of non-mammalian synapsid forelimb evolution as a linear progression towards more mammalian morphologies. Instead, a disparate array of early-evolving shapes subsequently contracted towards more mammal-like forms.
Inhibition mechanism and antibacterial activity of natural antibacterial agent citral on bamboo mould and its anti-mildew effect on bamboo

Bamboo, a natural material, has been widely used in the fields of decoration, architecture and furniture. However, bamboo is easy to mildew and lose its use value. In this paper, the inhibition mechanism and antibacterial activity of a natural antibacterial agent citral on bamboo mould and its anti-mildew effect on bamboo were studied. The results showed that citral could change the shape of mycelium, destroy the integrity of mycelium structure, cell wall and cell membrane structure, thereby causing leakage of nucleic acids, proteins and other substances in the cell, as well as destroy the pH balance of the inside and outside of the cell, to inhibit or kill mould. When the concentration of citral is 100 mg ml−1, the antibacterial rates of citral against Penicillium citrinum (PC), Trichoderma viride (TV), Aspergillus niger (AN) and a hybrid fungi group comprising PC, TV and AN (Hun) were more than 100%. However, compared with the direct effect of citral on mould, the antibacterial property of bamboo treated with citral was significantly reduced, the mildew proof effect can be achieved only if the concentration of citral to treat bamboo is increased to more than twice the concentration of citral directly acting on mould.
Molecular Characterization and Expression Profiling of Chemosensory Proteins in Male Eogystia hippophaecolus (Lepidoptera: Cossidae)

Abstract Eogystia hippophaecolus Hua, Chou, Fang et Chen (Lepidoptera: Cossidae) is a notorious carpenterworm pest of sea buckthorn, Hippophae rhamnoides L. (Elaeagnaceae). Chemosensory proteins (CSPs) are thought to be responsible for initial biochemical recognition during olfactory perception by the insect. We examined the structure, function, and expression profiles of these proteins in four structures (e.g., antennae, labipalp, legs, and external genitalia) of male adults. Molecular weight, isoelectric point, hydrophilicity and hydrophobicity of proteins, and signal peptide prediction of 18 E. hippophaecolus CSPs (EhipCSPs) were investigated via software. Expression profiles in the four male structures were analyzed by fluorescence quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction. Bioinformatics analysis showed that most EhipCSPs are low-molecular-weight proteins with hydrophobic regions and a high proportion of alpha-helices, consistent with the general characteristics of insect CSPs. Eight EhipCSPs (EhipCSP2, EhipCSP5, EhipCSP7, and EhipCSP13–17) were predominantly expressed in the labipalp (P < 0.01), and three (EhipCSP6, EhipCSP8, and EhipCSP9) were predominantly expressed in legs (P < 0.01). We speculate that these proteins may be related to contact sensations, host recognition, and other functions. Two EhipCSPs (EhipCSP4 and EhipCSP11) were highly expressed in the external genitalia (P < 0.01), suggesting that they may be involved in spousal positioning or mating activities. Most EhipCSPs were differentially expressed in the four structures, with wide overall expression, indicating an important role in olfactory recognition in multiple tissues. Our findings establish the foundation for further investigation of EhipCSPs and potential development of nonpesticide control measures.