Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Corporate Social Responsibility Under Authoritarian Capitalism: Dynamics and Prospects of State-Led and Society-Driven CSR

This article introduces the concept of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in the seemingly oxymoronic context of Chinese “authoritarian capitalism. ” Following an introduction to the emergence of authoritarian capitalism, the article considers the emergence of CSR in China using Matten and Moon’s framework of explaining CSR development in terms both of a business system’s historic institutions and of the impacts of new institutionalism on corporations arising from societal pressures in their global and national environments. We find two forms of CSR in China, reflecting the “multiplexity” of its business system: one in the mainly family-owned small and medium-sized enterprise sector reflecting concern with local reputation, and another in the corporate, mainly state-owned enterprise (SOE) sector, reflecting global and national societal expectations. We investigate the dynamics of CSR in China through the interplay of the global and national societal pressures and mediating and even leading roles played by the State and the Party. We consider the conceptual integrity and practical prospects for “state-led society-driven” CSR and future research opportunities, including those opened up by the three contributing articles to this special issue.
Effects of T-2 toxin on the regulation of steroidogenesis in mouse Leydig cells

T-2 toxin is one of the mycotoxins, a group of type A trichothecenes produced by several fungal genera including Fusarium species, which may lead to the decrease of testosterone secretion in primary Leydig cells derived from mouse testis. The previous study demonstrated T-2 toxin decrease the testosterone biosynthesis in the primary Leydig cells derived from the mouse testis directly. In this study, we further examined the direct biological effects of T-2 toxin on the process of steroidogenesis, primarily in Leydig cells of mice. Leydig cells of mature mouse were purified by Percoll gradient centrifugation and the cell purity was determined by 3β-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase (3β-HSD) staining. To examine the decrease in T-2 toxin-induced testosterone secretion, we measured the transcription level of three key steroidogenic enzymes including 3β-HSD-1, cytochrome P450 side-chain cleavage (P450scc) enzyme, and steroidogenic acute regulatory (StAR) protein in T-2 toxin/human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) co-treated cells. Our previous study showed that T-2 toxin (10−7, 10−8, and 10−9 M) significantly suppressed hCG (10 ng/ml)-induced testosterone secretion. The studies demonstrated that the suppressive effect is correlated with a decrease in the level of transcription of 3β-HSD-1, P450scc, and StAR (p < 0.05).
The Psychological Backstage of the Herd Behavior in the Financial Markets and the Dynamics of the ‘Cognitive Tâtonnement’ to Market Beliefs

This paper investigates one aspect of the herd behavior in financial markets: the cognitive mutual interaction among professional agents. Professional agents are in continuous contact and exchange information and interpretations in order to develop their expectations. We hypothesized that this exchange is very widespread and could grow in crisis situations. Data demonstrate the correctness of our hypothesis. In the second part of the paper we study a mathematical model of agents’ network in order to better comprehend the dynamics of market beliefs. The linear difference equation model shows how, under certain conditions, the expectations of financial agents can converge to a unique belief, in spite of initial differences.
Reduced contribution from Na+/H+ exchange to acid extrusion during anoxia in adult rat hippocampal CA1 neurons

The effect of anoxia on Na+/H+ exchange activity was examined in acutely isolated adult rat hippocampal CA1 neurons loaded with the H+‐sensitive fluorophore, BCECF. Five‐minute anoxia imposed under nominally HCO3–/CO2‐free conditions induced a fall in pHi, the magnitude of which was smaller following prolonged exposure to medium in which N‐methyl‐d‐glucamine (NMDG+) was employed as an extracellular Na+ (Na+o) substitute. Also consistent with the possibility that Na+/H+ exchange becomes inhibited soon after the induction of anoxia, rates of Na+o‐dependent pHi recovery from internal acid loads imposed during anoxia were slowed, compared to rates of Na+o‐dependent pHi recovery observed prior to anoxia. At the time at which rates of pHi recovery were reduced during anoxia, cellular adenosine triphosphate (ATP) levels had fallen to 35% of preanoxic levels, suggesting that ATP depletion might contribute to the observed inhibition of Na+/H+ exchange. In support, incubation of neurons with 2‐deoxyglucose and antimycin A under normoxic conditions induced a fall in cellular ATP levels that was also associated with reduced Na+o‐dependent rates of pHi recovery from imposed acid loads; conversely, pre‐treatment with 10 mm creatine attenuated the effects of anoxia to reduce both ATP levels and Na+o‐dependent rates of pHi recovery from internal acid loads. Taken together, the results are consistent with the possibility that functional Na+/H+ exchange activity in adult rat CA1 neurons declines soon after the onset of anoxia, possibly as a result of anoxia‐induced falls in intracellular ATP.
Remote sensing image classification by non-parallel SVMs

In the recent years, new techniques so called non-parallel support vector machines (NSVM) have been developed and applied to some synthetic and UCI machine learning data sets, yielding competitive results especially in terms of computational complexity and classification performance compared to classical SVM [1]. In binary classification task, the aim of NSVM is to find two non parallel hyperplanes such that each plane is as close as possible to one of the two classes and also as far as possible from the other class. The study of NSVM algorithms was first began with proximal SVM classification which generates two parallel hyperplanes [2]. Afterwards, it has been demonstrated by several different approaches that classification problems could also be tackled with the use of non-parallel hyperplanes. The first non-parallel hyperplane classifier was introduced by Mangarisan and Wild (2006) named as the generalized eigenvalue proximal support vector machine (GEPSVM) [3]. They removed/dropped the parallelism condition of the generated planes and make the first plane be located as close as possible to one data set while keeping it furthest from the points of the other data set and vice versa. Each proximal plane was found by solving two generalized eigenvalue problems instead of solving a quadratic programming problem as it was required for classical Support Vector Machine. In some cases, better classification accuracy results were achieved with GEPSVM in a short span of time compared to classical support vector machine classification algorithms [4].
Cell Side-specific Sensitivities of Intracellular Ca2+ Stores for Inositol 1,4,5-Trisphosphate, Cyclic ADP-ribose, and Nicotinic Acid Adenine Dinucleotide Phosphate in Permeabilized Pancreatic Acinar Cells from Mouse*

In pancreatic acinar cells hormonal stimulation leads to a cytosolic Ca2+ wave that starts in the apical cell pole and subsequently propagates toward the basal cell side. We used permeabilized pancreatic acinar cells from mouse and the mag-fura-2 technique, which allows direct monitoring of changes in [Ca2+] of intracellular stores. We show here that Ca2+ can be released from stores in all cellular regions by inositol 1,4,5-trisphosphate. Stores at the apical cell pole showed a higher affinity to inositol 1,4,5-trisphosphate (EC50 = 89 nm) than those at the basolateral side (EC50 = 256 nm). In contrast, cADP-ribose, a modifier of Ca2+-induced Ca2+ release, and nicotinic acid adenine dinucleotide phosphate (NAADP) were able to release Ca2+ exclusively from intracellular stores located at the basolateral cell side. Our data agree with observations that upon stimulation Ca2+ is released initially at the apical cell side and that this is caused by high affinity inositol 1,4,5-trisphosphate receptors. Moreover, our findings allow the conclusion that in Ca2+ wave propagation from the apical to the basolateral cell side observed in pancreatic acinar cells Ca2+-induced Ca2+ release, modulated by cADP-ribose and/or NAADP, might be involved.
Imaging of Müllerian Duct Anomalies

Müllerian duct anomalies (MDAs) are relatively common disorders that are particularly relevant in patients with infertility, recurrent pregnancy loss, or a history of preterm labor. Accurate characterization of MDAs is crucial to the implementation of appropriate treatment. Various imaging modalities have been used in the evaluation of MDAs, including hysterosalpingography, ultrasound, and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Although hysterosalpingography and ultrasound may suggest a Müllerian duct anomaly, further evaluation by MRI is often required. MRI is the best imaging method available because of its superior ability to reliably visualize complex uterovaginal anatomy.
Mutagenesis of Erwinia carotovora subsp. carotovora with bacteriophage Mu d1 (Apr lac cts62): construction of his-lac gene fusions

The bacteriophage Mu d1(Apr lac cts62 ) obtained from an Escherichia coli double lysogen carrying the defective Mu d1 phage and a Mu-P1 hybrid phage was utilized as a vector for phage mutagenesis in Erwinia carotovora subsp. carotovora. Among ampicillin-resistant transductants. 1.4% were auxotrophs. The synthesis of beta-galactosidase was derepressed upon starvation for histidine in two different his-lac fusion strains.
Learning While Having Fun: The Use of Video Gaming to Teach Geriatric House Calls to Medical Students

Although most health professionals perform home visits, there is not a structured method for performing them. In addition, in‐training health professionals' exposure to home visits is limited for logistical reasons. A new method for medical students to learn how to perform an effective home visit was developed using an instructional video game. It was expected that students would learn the principles of a home visit using a video game while identifying the usefulness of video gaming (edutainment) in geriatrics education. A video game was created simulating a patient's house that the students were able to explore. Students played against time and distracters while being expected to click on those elements that they considered to be risk factors for falls or harmful for the patient. At the end of the game, the students received feedback on the chosen elements that were right or wrong. Finally, evaluation of the tool was obtained using pre‐ and posttests and pre‐ and postexposure feedback surveys. Fifty‐six fourth‐year medical students used the video game and completed the tests and the feedback surveys. This method showed a high level of engagement that is associated with improvement in knowledge. Additionally, users' feedback indicated that it was an innovative approach to the teaching of health sciences. In summary, this method provides medical students with a fun and structured experience that has an effect not only on their learning, but also on their understanding of the particular needs of the elderly population.
An M-CAT binding factor and an RSRF-related A-rich binding factor positively regulate expression of the alpha-cardiac myosin heavy-chain gene in vivo

Cardiac muscle-restricted expression of the alpha-myosin heavy-chain (alpha-MHC) gene is regulated by multiple elements in the proximal enhancer/promoter. Within this region, an M-CAT site and an A-rich site were identified as potential regulatory elements. Site-specific mutations in each site, individually, reduced activity from the wild-type promoter by approximately 85% in the adult rat heart, demonstrating that these sites were positive regulatory elements. alpha-MHC, beta-MHC, and chicken cardiac troponin T (cTnT) M-CAT sites interacted with an M-CAT-binding factor (MCBF) from rat heart nuclear extracts that was immunologically related to transcriptional enhancer factor 1, a factor that binds within the simian virus 40 enhancer. The factor that bound the A-rich region (ARF) was antigenically related to the RSRF family of proteins, ARF was distinct from myocyte-specific enhancer factor 2 (MEF-2) on the basis of DNA-binding specificity and developmental expression. Like MEF-2, ARF DNA-binding activity was present in the heart and brain; however, no ARF activity was detected in extracts from skeletal muscle or C2C12 myotubes. MCBF and ARF DNA-binding activities were developmentally regulated with peak levels in the 1- to 2-day neonatal heart. The activity of both factors increased nearly fivefold in adult rat hearts subjected to a pressure overload. By comparison, the levels of alpha-MHC binding factor 2 did not change during hypertrophy. Binding sites for MCBF and ARF are present in several genes that are upregulated during cardiac hypertrophy. Our results suggest that these factors participate in the alterations in gene expression that occur during cardiac development and hypertrophy.
Continuous Code Reviews: A Social Coding tool for Code Reviews inside the IDE

Code reviews play an important and successful role in modern software development. But usually they happen only once before new code is merged into the main branch. We present a concept which helps developers to continuously give feedback on their source code directly in the integrated development environment (IDE) by using the metaphor of social networks. This reduces context switches for developers, improves the software development process and allows to give feedback to developers of external libraries and frameworks.
Design of Split Ring Resonators for Enhanced Two-Color Operation of Quantum Dot Infrared Photodetectors

In this paper, we propose using metamaterials for enhanced operation of quantum dot infrared photodetectors (QDIPs) in one- and two-color detection and theoretically calculate its absorption and responsivity. To do so, first, a split ring resonator (SRR) is designed and proposed to resonate at the wavelength of intersubband transition from ground state to first excited state of quantum dots, which is around 9.8 <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\mu \text{m}$ </tex-math></inline-formula>. The results show enhanced absorption and responsivity by a factor of 1.5. In addition, another SRR is proposed to support two operation wavelengths and designed to resonate with the two peak absorption wavelengths of QDIP. The results of simulation confirm enhanced absorption and responsivity for both the wavelengths at 9.8 and <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$6~\mu \text{m}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> by a factor of 1.5.
Assessing the gap between conservation need and protection status for select rare ecosystems in Alaska

Rare ecosystems support unique assemblages of flora and fauna within a small geographic area. As such, their conservation represents an effective method of biodiversity protection. The description, mapping, and assessment of rare ecosystems is a necessary and initial conservation action, yet this has not been completed for Alaska. Here, we provide the first comprehensive treatment of rare terrestrial ecosystems for the state. Thirty‐five rare systems, representing different levels of ecological organization and geographic scale, are presented. In addition, a gap analysis was conducted to evaluate the systems' current level of land management protection relative to their conservation need. Eleven of the mapped ecosystems are considered adequately protected, two are moderately protected, and 22 are less protected. Conservation ranks are incongruously aligned with land management protection levels such that the rarest systems are often not well protected and the less‐imperiled systems are often well protected. On the ecoregion scale, systems with arctic distributions are less protected than are those with boreal and maritime distributions. This rare ecosystem assessment complements species‐ and landscape‐scale conservation studies previously completed for Alaska. Collectively, the recommendations from these assessments provide a science‐based strategy for biological conservation in a vulnerable region of the world.
Drug-induced state-dependent learning: review of an operant procedure in rats

Drug discrimination and drug state dependence are often thought to be based on the same drug actions, and to differ only in the doses needed to produce them, with discrimination occurring at low doses and state dependence at high doses. Testing this hypothesis has been hampered by the use of discrimination and state dependence procedures that differed in many respects. In 1986, Colpaert introduced a procedure to study state dependence in rats that used the same response, the same reinforcer, and the same reinforcement schedule that are commonly used in drug discrimination. Using this procedure, differences between drug state dependence and drug discrimination were found with some drugs (e.g. alcohol), consistent with the hypothesis that the procedures differ in the drug properties they measure, but not with other drugs (e.g. chlordiazepoxide). Thus, state dependence and drug discrimination can generate different outcomes, but the conditions in which they do require further study. However, all the studies conducted with the procedure introduced by Colpaert clearly show that state dependence is not necessarily only a high-dose phenomenon, but can also occur at doses at which many central nervous system drugs produce their characteristic effects. This finding led to the hypothesis that state dependence may be involved in the therapeutic and other effects of psychoactive drugs.
Validity of the Dutch version of the Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Assessment Questionnaire, ALSAQ‐40, ALSAQ‐5

The objective was to validate the Dutch translation of the 40‐item and 5‐item Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Assessment Questionnaire (ALSAQ‐40, ALSAQ‐5). Eighty‐one ALS patients participated in this cross‐sectional study. The measures used were the ALSAQ‐40, the ALSAQ‐5, MOS Short‐Form‐36 (SF‐36) and Revised ALS Functional Rating Scale (ALSFRS‐R). The Dutch ALSAQ‐40 was sensitive to differences in disease severity (all scales Kruskal‐Wallis, p<0.05), had no floor and few ceiling effects (Communication, Eating and Drinking scales), had excellent internal consistency reliability (all scales Cronbach's alpha >0.90, all item to subscale correlations above 0.40) and showed good construct validity as it correlated as expected with SF‐36 and ALSFRS‐R scores. The total and item scores of the ALSAQ‐5 were strongly correlated with the corresponding total and subscale scores of the ALSAQ‐40 (Spearman's rho >0.80). The ALSAQ‐5 and ALSAQ‐40 showed comparable correlations with the subscales of the SF‐36 and the ALSFRS‐R, except for Activities Daily Living and Independence (ADL). All other results of the Dutch ALSAQ‐40 and ALSAQ‐5 were comparable to those of the original UK questionnaires. It is concluded that the psychometric properties of the Dutch version of the ALSAQ‐40 and the ALSAQ‐5 are good and similar to those of the original English version.
Pathogenesis of Herpes Simplex Virus Type 1-Induced Corneal Inflammation in Perforin-Deficient Mice

ABSTRACT Herpetic stromal keratitis (HSK) is an inflammatory disease of the cornea that often results in blindness. It is mediated by a host immune response which is triggered by herpes simplex virus (HSV) infection. Immune effector mechanisms are hypothesized to be important in disease development. We investigated, in a mouse model, whether perforin-dependent cytotoxicity is an important effector mechanism in the production of HSK. Wild-type (C57BL/6) and perforin-deficient (PKO) mice were infected intracorneally with HSV-1 strain F. Clinical disease and histologic lesions of the cornea at 23 days postinfection (p.i.) were significantly less severe in HSV-1-infected PKO mice than in infected wild-type mice. mRNA for the chemokine macrophage inflammatory protein 1α (MIP-1α) was detected by reverse transcription-PCR in the corneas of infected wild-type mice but not in the corneas of infected PKO mice at 23 days p.i. Adoptive transfer of wild-type HSV-1 immune T-cell-enriched splenocytes into HSV-1-infected PKO mice restored the disease phenotype which was seen in infected wild-type mice. In contrast, mice carrying a null-function mutation in the Fas ligand, which is involved in an alternative cytotoxic mechanism, developed clinical disease and histologic lesions which were comparable to those in wild-type mice. Viral clearance from the eyes of PKO mice was not impaired. There was no significant difference between the infectious viral titers isolated from the eyes of PKO and wild-type mice. Our findings show that perforin is important in the pathogenesis of HSK.
Academic achievement, depression and anxiety during medical education predict the styles of success in a medical career: A 10-year longitudinal study

Aim: Our study investigated the styles of success in the medical career in young physicians, in comparison with the same subjects examined 4–10 years earlier. Methods: The participants were first studied when they applied to the medical university (1999). Questionnaires were sent to all students each year (2000–2005). Fifty-four medical doctors participated in the first phase of the study completed a questionnaire four years after graduation. The current questionnaire included measures of burnout, satisfaction with medicine as a career, quality of life (QOL) and postgraduate examination results. Previous questionnaires had included measures of academic achievement, depression and anxiety. Results: We can describe three different styles of success, which can be predicted during medical education. Physicians with the best professional competence have the lowest income. However, physicians with the lowest professional competence gain the highest income. Those with the highest QOL (general well-being and life satisfaction) have the lowest professional stress and vulnerability to burnout. Anxiety and academic achievement (during the second and fourth year of study) are the significant predictors of specific style belonging. Conclusions: Our results may be useful to medical school admissions and resident selection committees to identify candidates at risk for less satisfaction or less competence.
Investigating the use of scattering coefficients for replay attack detection

Widespread adoption of speaker verification for security relies on the existence of effective anti-spoofing countermeasures. This paper presents a countermeasure based on spectral features to detect replay spoofing attacks on automatic speaker verification systems. In particular, the use of hierarchical scattering decomposition coefficients and inverse- mel frequency cepstral coefficients are explored. Our best system achieved a relative improvement of around 70% in terms of equal error rate on the development set and 20% on the evaluation set, when compared to the baseline on the ASVspoof 2017 database. In addition, we show that features with a shorter window can be beneficial to detecting replayed speech, in contrast to speech synthesis and voice conversion attack.