Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
MD-01-2021-0024_proof 1560..1584

Purpose – The purpose of the current study is to revisit the relationship between CSR and firm market performance. The authors examine whether a gap between the firm’s internal and external CSRmoderates the CSR-firmmarket performance relationship. Additionally, the authors propose that the moderating effect of the CSR gap on this relationship is mediated by firm visibility. Design/methodology/approach – The initial sample is the Fortune 500 firms during the years 2004–2013. The final panel data sample consisted of 1,300 firms and 6,128 observations from 2004 to 2013. The authors obtained data from five different sources: Compustat North America Fundamental Annual, GMI Ratings, Execucomp, IBES and KLD Stats. Findings –The results of this research find evidence that both internal CSR and external CSR were positively related to firm market performance, but that the relationship was stronger for firms with equal emphasis on external and internal CSR activities. Furthermore, the negativemoderating effect of the CSR gap wasmediated by the firm visibility. Originality/value – The findings of the study advance our understanding of the CSR-FP relationship. First, the theoretical arguments and the empirical evidence highlight that the CSR-FP relationship exists and that its magnitude is contingent upon the gap between internal and external CSR investments. Second, the authors enhanced theoretical understanding of how and why CSR relates to firm performance by exploring firm visibility as a mediator. Specifically, the authors introduced firm visibility as a mechanism which explains the effect of the interaction of overall CSR with the CSR gap on firm performance.
Evaluation and Potential Valorization of Different Wastes from the Honduran Agro-Food Industry

Apart from the usual wastes produced by the agricultural industry, climate change and the extreme meteorological conditions that are taking place in the Caribbean countries result in additional wastes produced by ruined crops which products cannot be sold in the market. However, a valorisation of these wastes can be carried out to improve their integration into the markets as raw materials in other processes, in order to make profit from them. In this way, these raw materials can be employed in the production of biodegradable products more environmentally friendly than conventional plastic, due to their high content in starch and/or proteins. Some authors have studied the production of bioplastics from agro-wastes which are rich in starch and/or proteins by modifying the processing methods used to produce conventional plastic resulting in products whose properties vary depending on the process. This research work addressed the evaluation of four different varieties of agricultural wastes produced in Region 11, Honduras. Their chemical characterization was successfully carried out and one possible valorization route was stablished according to the obtained results. The results have highlighted the possibility of employing the studied agrowastes as raw materials in other industries improving their profits and decreasing the waste load.
Images Published by Cancer Patients in Social Media and Their Reception: A Systematic Review

This paper presents a systematic review of the discourses that emerge from the study of cancer images posted by patients and caregivers on Instagram, Imgur, Pinterest, Twitter and Facebook. It presents the types of images that posters use to visualise cancer and how they are perceived by viewers. Results indicate that three factors affect visibility and engagement: (a) the framing, (b) the purpose, and (c) the emotions portrayed. They also show that viewers prefer images that (a) show the patient improving their condition through treatment, (b) tell a personal story and (c) take on an optimistic tone. This type of image reflects the common idea of the cancer patient as a survivor, which is particularly visible in breast cancer posts. For patients faced with uncertainty, fear or frustration, the standardisation of survivorship images may challenge identity-formation and create a sense of isolation. However, we also find that patients who use photographs to express negative emotions (such as sadness or frustration) are met with emotional support from viewers. Our findings show that, beyond virality and standardised discourses, visual social media and photography can provide a positive venue for the communication of more diverse cancer experiences from patients and caregivers.
Comparison of temperature dependent Young’s modulus of oriental beech (Fagus orientalis L.) that determined by ultrasonic wave propagation and compression test

Ahsap malzemenin mekanik ozellikleri bircok dogal ve cevresel faktorlere bagli olarak degismektedir. Sicaklik bu faktorlerden biridir ve bu calismada sicakligin kayin odunu Young’s modulu’ne etkisi incelenmistir. Lif yonlu (L) basma testi ornekleri 2, 5 ve 8 saat sure boyunca 120, 150, 180 ve 210°C sicakliga maruz birakilmistir. Sicakliga maruz birakma isleminde atmosferik ortamda calisan etuv kullanilmistir. Statik ve dinamik Young’s modulu degerleri basma testi ve ultrasonik dalga yayilimi yontemleri ile belirlenmistir. Ultrasonik olcumlerin basarisini belirlemek icin elde edilen sonuclar birbirleri ile regresyon analizi ile karsilastirilmistir. 20x20x60 mm olculerindeki tum test ornekleri 20±2°C sicaklik ve %65 bagil nem kosullarinda iklimlendirilmistir. Test edilen orneklerin deformasyon verileri bi-aksiyal ekstensometre kullanilarak elde edilmistir ve sonrasinda gerilme-sekil degistirme egrileri olusturulmustur. Statik Young’s modulu degerleri gerilme-sekil degistirme egrilerinin dogrusal elastik bolgesindeki gerilme-sekil degistirme verilerinden hesaplanmistir. Edyn ultrasonik dalga hizi ve ornek yogunlugundan tahmin edilmistir. Hizlar, ultrasonik olcumler ile elde edilen dalga ucus sureleri kullanilarak hesaplanmistir. Sicaklik ve sure baglaminda dinamik ve statik elastikiyet modulleri arasindaki kabul edilebilir ve iyi dereceli iliskiler 0.78 ile 0.94 arasinda degisen belirtme katsayilari ile belirlenmistir. Sonuc olarak sicakliga maruz birakilmis dogu kayini odununun L yonundeki Young’s modulu ultrasonik olcumler ile iyi bir sekilde tahmin edilebilir.
Syntactic context effects on auditory word recognition

Better understanding of word recognition requires a detailed account of how top-down and bottom-up information are integrated. In this paper, we use a combination of modeling and experimental work to investigate the mechanism by which expectations from syntactic context influence the processing of perceptual input during word recognition. The distinction between facilitatory and inhibitory mechanisms for the syntactic category constraint is an important aspect of this problem that has previously been underspecified. Syntactic category is also a relatively simple test case for the issue of context in other domains, and our findings demonstrate an approach that can be scaled up to more complex contextual constraints. We first report simulations in jTRACE that predict that the speed with which changes in lexical activation can be observed in dependent measures should depend on the composition of the set of response candidates allowed by the task. This points to an explanation for conflicts that have occurred between different methods regarding the existence and timing of syntactic constraints on lexical cohort competition, and it is relevant for the design and interpretation of experiments involving cohort competition more broadly. These insights informed a new design for the visual world paradigm that distinguishes facilitatory and inhibitory mechanisms and ensures that activation of words from the wrong syntactic category should be detectable if it is occurring. We demonstrate how failure to ensure this could have obscured such activation in previous work, leading to the appearance of an inhibitory constraint. We find that wrong-category competition does occur, a result that is incompatible with an inhibitory syntactic category constraint.
Prediction of body weight from linear body measurement in two breeds of cattle

The study compared live weight and linear body measurements of two breeds of cattle (White Fulani and Muturu Cattle) and regressed linear body measurements on live weight. A total of eighty-six cattle of forty-three per a breed were reared at the cattle production unit of the Teaching and Research Farm, Akwa Ibom State University – Obio Akpa Campus, Nigeria in a semi intensive management system. Parameters measured were; live weight (LW), face length (FCL), head circumference (HC), ear length (EL), neck length(NL), neck circumference(NC), height at wither(HW), body length(BL), body circumference(BC), hind limb(HL), fore limb(FL), and tail length(TL). The data obtained were subjected to statistical analysis for morphometric traits and prediction was done through linear model regression method using SPSS statistical software package. Breed of cattle significantly (P>0.05) affected all linear body measurements and live weight exception of NL . Linear body Parameters of both breeds were compared. The mean live weight of White Fulani and Muturu were 251.28kg and 149.81kg, respectively. Means of FL, EL, NL, BL, HL, TL and BC, NC and HW of White Fulani were significantly (P<0.01) higher than Muturu breed but the HC of Muturu was significantly (P<0.01) higher than White Fulani breed. Muturu breed had higher R2 of 0.98 in BL and BC than White Fulani breed. In conclusion, White Fulani was considered a larger breed than Muturu cattle. Live weight can be accurately predicted from linear body measurements through BC and BL in both breeds.
Correlations Between Clinical and Metabolic Variables and Smoking among Antipsychotic- Naïve First-Episode and Nonadherent Chronic Patients with Psychosis

An interaction between smoking and antipsychotic medications could potentially affect treatment efficacy and promote metabolic side effects. We investigated the contribution of smoking status towards Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) scores and metabolic syndrome- related parameters (plasma lipid and glucose concentrations, and body mass index) among two groups of unmedicated patients with psychosis from the Croatian population: antipsychotic-naïve first-episode patients and nonadherent chronic patients. Previous data are inconsistent regarding the effects of smoking on clinical psychopathology among antipsychotic-naïve or minimally medicated patients with first-episode psychosis, and no studies have examined the potential influence of smoking on clinical psychopathology and metabolic parameters among nonadherent patients with chronic psychosis. Information about smoking status and antipsychotic nonadherence was obtained via auto-anamnestic and hetero-anamnestic information. PANSS data were obtained while patients were in a psychotic state during the illness requiring hospitalization. Plasma total cholesterol, LDL cholesterol, HDL cholesterol (HDL- c), triglyceride, and glucose levels were determined after a 12-hour fasting period. Compared with non-smoking antipsychotic-naïve first-episode individuals, antipsychotic-naïve smokers exhibited significantly lower depression factor scores, and significantly higher triglyceride levels and triglyceride/HDL- c ratio (p < 0.05). Compared with non-smoking nonadherent chronic individuals, nonadherent smokers exhibited significantly lower negative symptoms and negative factor scores, and lower HDL- c levels. Contributions of smoking to clinical and metabolic parameters ranged from ~ 3.4 % to 10 %. Our present results indicated that smoking may be associated with less severe clinical psychopathology, and with increased risk for metabolic abnormalities, among unmedicated patients with first-episode psychosis and chronic psychosis.
Kinematic and dynamic-controlled variations in earthquake-size distribution-a case study from Southern California

Frequency-magnitude relation of earthquakes from Gutenberg-Richter law is computed in Southern California. A supporting dataset is created, by merging coordinates and magnitudes of relocated earthquakes with kinematic parameters from focal mechanisms. Models of increasing complexity are evaluated to test their dependence on differential stress and kinematics. Parameter b-value is confronted against Aλ, a streamlined version of the kinematic fault parameter, depending on rake values. Multiple regressions of b-values against Aλ at increasing depths are performed, to test the significance of the variation along vertical dimension. A linear equation is finally valued as the most probable model to relate the two parameters.
A UTO NF: A UTOMATED A RCHITECTURE O PTIMIZA - TION OF N ORMALIZING F LOWS U SING A M IXTURE D ISTRIBUTION F ORMULATION

Although various flow models based on different transformations have been proposed, there still lacks a quantitative analysis of performance-cost trade-offs between different flows as well as a systematic way of constructing the best flow architecture. To tackle this challenge, we present an automated normalizing flow (NF) architecture search method. Our method aims to find the optimal sequence of transformation layers from a given set of unique transformations with three folds. First, a mixed distribution is formulated to enable efficient architecture optimization originally on the discrete space without violating the invertibility of the resulting NF architecture. Second, the mixture NF is optimized with an approximate upper bound which has a more preferable global minimum. Third, a block-wise alternating optimization algorithm is proposed to ensure efficient architecture optimization of deep flow models.
Cooperation or Competition: Avoiding Player Domination for Multi-target Robustness by Adaptive Budgets

Despite incredible advances, deep learning has been shown to be susceptible to adversarial attacks. Numerous approaches were proposed to train robust networks both empirically and certifiably. However, most of them defend against only a single type of attack, while recent work steps forward at defending against multiple attacks. In this paper, to understand multi-target robustness, we view this problem as a bargaining game in which different players (adversaries) negotiate to reach an agreement on a joint direction of parameter updating. We identify a phenomenon named player domination in the bargaining game, and show that with this phenomenon, some of the existing max-based approaches such as MAX and MSD do not converge. Based on our theoretical results, we design a novel framework that adjusts the budgets of different adversaries to avoid player domination. Experiments on two benchmarks show that employing the proposed framework to the existing approaches significantly advances multi-target robustness.
Prior COVID-19 Infection Predisposes to Worse Outcomes After Autologous Breast Reconstruction

Background Major shifts in health care systems worldwide have occurred because of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). With nearly half of all Americans now having a history of COVID-19 infection, there is a pressing need to better understand the importance of prior COVID-19 infection as a potential surgical risk factor. The aim of this study was to investigate the impact of a history of prior COVID-19 infection on patient outcomes after autologous breast reconstruction. Methods We performed a retrospective study using the TriNetX research database, which contains deidentified patient records from 58 participating international health care organizations. All patients who underwent autologous breast reconstruction between March 1, 2020, and April 9, 2022, were included and were grouped based on history of a prior COVID-19 infection. Demographic, preoperative risk factors, and 90-day postoperative complication data were compared. Data were analyzed by propensity score–matched analysis on TriNetX. Statistical analyses were performed by Fisher exact, χ2, and Mann-Whitney U tests as appropriate. Significance was set at P values of <0.05. Results Patients with a history of autologous breast reconstruction within our temporal study window (N = 3215) were divided into groups with (n = 281) and without (n = 3603) a prior COVID-19 diagnosis. Nonmatched patients with prior COVID-19 had increased rates of select 90-day postoperative complications, including wound dehiscence, contour deformities, thrombotic events, any surgical site complications, and any complications overall. Use of anticoagulant, antimicrobial, and opioid medications was also found to be higher in those with prior COVID-19. After performing propensity-score matching, each cohort consisted of 281 patients without statistically significant differences between any baseline characteristics. When comparing outcomes between matched cohorts, patients with a history of COVID-19 had increased rates of wound dehiscence (odds ratio [OR], 1.90; P = 0.030), thrombotic events (OR, 2.83; P = 0.0031), and any complications (OR, 1.52; P = 0.037). Conclusions Our results suggest that prior COVID-19 infection is a significant risk factor for adverse outcomes after autologous breast reconstruction. Patients with a history of COVID-19 have 183% higher odds of postoperative thromboembolic events, warranting careful patient selection and postoperative management.
Effect of Coils Geometry on Dynamic Wireless Power Transfer for Electric Vehicles

Dynamic Wireless Power Transfer (DWPT) uses transmitting coils embedded in the road for charging the on-board battery of an Electric Vehicle (EV) while driving. The present work describes a method of finding optimal geometric parameters for receiver coils that corresponds to improved energy transfer. Stationary and dynamic scenarios were simulated to investigate the effect of said coils’ dimension on the electromagnetic coupling coefficient, k, and the energy transfer efficiency, η. In the stationary scenario, k exhibits a nonmonotonic dependence on the receiver coil dimension, with its peak corresponding to the optimal coil dimension. The dynamic scenario shows oscillations of k and η along the travel path. Both scenarios are analyzed and explained by the spatial distribution of the magnetic field generated by the transmitter coils. A method for selecting the optimal configuration for the dynamic case is suggested. The method relies on the magnetic flux behavior of the transmitter coils, and can be applied to other receiver configurations as well. Finally, we show that the addition of a ferrite plate between the receiver array and the EV chassis is shown to screen the nonionizing radiation emitted by the transmitter coils and reduce it to well below the allowed standards.
Multiagent Newton–Raphson Optimization Over Lossy Networks

In this work, we study the problem of unconstrained convex optimization in a fully distributed multiagent setting, which includes asynchronous computation and lossy communication. In particular, we extend a recently proposed algorithm named Newton–Raphson consensus by integrating it with a broadcast-based average consensus algorithm, which is robust to packet losses. We show via the separation of time-scale principle that under mild conditions (i.e., persistency of the agents activation and bounded consecutive communication failures), the proposed algorithm is provably locally exponentially stable with respect to the optimal global solution. Finally, we complement the theoretical analysis with numerical simulations and comparisons based on real datasets.
Loan Officers Impede Graduation from Microcredit: Strategic Communication in a Large Microfinance Institution

Graduating borrowers from microcredit to larger loans represents an important opportunity for increasing livelihoods. We demonstrate that loan officers impede borrower graduation due to common features of their compensation. We implement an experiment with 243 loan officers in which we change compensation and find that it causes loan officers to endorse more borrowers for graduation. Relative to those endorsed before the change, borrowers endorsed afterwards exhibit better repayment in graduation loans and their businesses grow more upon receiving graduation loans. Utilizing existing and novel survey data on the organizational practices of microfinance institutions around the world, we find that about half of all microfinance institutions have internal graduation programs and of these between 31% and 54% employ the same compensation practices as our partner lender. This suggests that loan officer incentives may be a significant deterrent to borrower graduation worldwide. *We thank Daniela Aizencang, Tomás Alburquerque, Shreya Chandra, Ana Paula Franco, and Astha Vohra for outstanding research assistance on this project. We are grateful to Nava Ashraf, Oriana Bandiera, Abhijit Banerjee, Iwan Barankay, Emily Breza, Shawn Cole, Bob Gibbons, Dean Karlan, Asim Khwaja, Cynthia Kinnan, Rocco Macchiavello, Charity Troyer Moore, Ben Olken, Rohini Pande, Andrea Pratt, Antoinette Schoar, and Chris Woodruff for helpful discussions. This project was implemented in collaboration with J-PAL Latin America and the Caribbean. We also thank the HBS Latin America Research Center for support. This project is registered in the AEA RCT Registry (AEARCTR-0004963) and was approved by IRB at Harvard University.
RIHOG-BoVWs for Rotation-invariant Human Detection

Rotation-invariant human detection is of vital significance to many applications, including victim detection via a daylight camera on an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). With this problem in mind, we propose a powerful rotation-invariant object-level description method, i.e., RIHOG-BoVWs, which is achieved by local-level feature calculation and high-level semantic feature extraction. In local-level feature calculation, we consider Rotation-invariant Histograms of Oriented Gradients (RIHOG) as the local descriptor and project gradient information into the frequency domain, where the rotation-invariant representation vector is constructed. In high-level semantic feature extraction, Bag of Visual Words (BoVWs) model is employed to achieve global description from local features without considering their spatial structures. Experimentally, we first confirm the sufficient discrimination power of the RIHOG-BoVWs on the public Freestyle Motocross dataset, and then demonstrate the high performance of RIHOG-BoVWs on a victim dataset which has varied backgrounds and body postures.