Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
CSR advertisements: a legitimacy tool?

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate how companies use corporate social responsibility (CSR) advertisements to legitimise their ethical positions and how CSR advertisements vary across countries.Design/methodology/approach – The paper evaluates CSR advertisements from Chevron and Banco Real published in the news/business magazines (The) Economist and Time in the UK as well as in Veja and Exame in Brazil, leaders in their categories. The advertisements were analysed using a set of semiotic concepts.Findings – Companies use different strategies for publicising CSR. There are campaigns that appeal to consumer rationality as well as campaigns that appeal to the emotions. There is also evidence that companies use their advertisements to respond to public pressure and thus create or maintain their legitimacy in the eyes of society.Originality/value – CSR communication is an emerging field, with research focusing on corporate social disclosure mainly through web sites and corporate reports. Howe.
The Lisbon Strategy, Competitiveness and the Labour Market -- The Case of Poland

The final goal of the paper is to answer the question why the employment targets of the Lisbon Strategy are difficult to be fulfilled in Poland. Our hypothesis is that in countries in transition including Poland the two general goals of the Lisbon Strategy: competitiveness increase and employment increase are not in line in the short run and they are contradictory to a substantial degree. In order to discuss the main question we analyse macroeconomic and labour market data for Poland for the period 1990-2005 and compare them with the other EU countries. The situation of the Polish labour market is very different from that of the EU-15. In 2004 the Polish unemployment rate was nearly three times greater than the average of the EU-15. Total employment rate was lower by about 16 percentage points in Poland than in the EU-15. These tendencies indicate to a completely different initial labour market situation in Poland as compared with the EU-15 countries and significantly different conditions for implementing the goals of the Lisbon Strategy. The data concerning relationships between GDP growth and employment indicate that the emergence of jobless growth in Poland was more likely than in the EU-15. The other side of the coin is a very fast increase of labour productivity in Poland which has a positive impact on the competitiveness of the Polish economy. One can say that Poland's unemployment and employment rates have been the price for accelerated growth in labour productivity and improvements in economic competitiveness of the country. If follows from the statistical data that some of the EU countries have already reached the employment targets of the Lisbon Strategy (Denmark, Netherlands, United Kingdom, Austria). There are also countries in which the realization of the employment targets is highly realistic (Finland, Portugal, Ireland, Germany, Luxembourg and probably Cyprus and Czech Republic). In the remaining countries including Poland the realization of the employment target in 2010 is remote assuming the existing relationships between the growth of employment and the growth of GDP are constant. We conclude that improvements of labour market flexibility, a reduction of non-wage labour cost and a faster development of SME's are important to increase employment rates in the Polish economy.
Long Menstrual Cycle Is Associated with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus in Korean Women

Background Long menstrual cycle is a risk factor for developing type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease in women. We aimed to evaluate the association between existing type 2 diabetes and oligomenorrhea before diagnosis of diabetes, and to observe the differences in this association among obese and non-obese Korean women. Methods Patients with type 2 diabetes (n=118) and without any clinical evidence of abnormal glucose regulation (n=258) who attended the outpatient clinic of a university hospital and were over age 30. Patients self-reporting a menstrual cycle over 40 days during their 20s were defined as oligomenorrhea before diagnosis of diabetes. Obesity was defined as having a body mass index (BMI) over 25 kg/m2. Results The frequency of oligomenorrhea before diagnosis of diabetes was almost two-fold higher in women with type 2 diabetes than in the control group (16.1% vs. 8.5%, P=0.03). Oligomenorrhea was associated with type 2 diabetes after adjusting for age, BMI, systolic blood pressure, triglycerides, and high density lipoprotein cholesterol (odds ratio, 3.89; 95% confidence interval, 1.37 to 11.04). Among women with oligomenorrhea before diagnosis of diabetes, the frequency of type 2 diabetes was significantly higher in obese subjects than in their non-obese counterparts (90.9% vs. 30.0%, P=0.03). Conclusion Having a long menstrual cycle could be a risk factor for the development of type 2 diabetes, especially in obese women.
Mechanisms of activation of maternal behaviour in mammals.

In mammals, the activation of maternal behaviour depends on internal maternal factors related with parturition. The nature of these factors may vary between species, although oestradiol, foetus expulsion and intracerebral oxytocin are the most commonly encountered. They induce a period of specific receptivity to some sensory cues provided by the neonate. These cues (tactile, olfactory, auditory, .) also vary between species. The interactions between the mother and her progeny during this period, known as the sensitive period, facilitate the maintenance of maternal responsiveness beyond the initial phase of activation by the factors internal to the mother. The ability of mothers to display a well-adapted maternal behaviour is also modulated by maternal experience gained at the first parturition. Furthermore, this capacity is also influenced by the nature of the interactions experienced in infancy with the own mother of the female, which can lead to a non-genomic transmission of some individual characteristics of maternal behaviour or sensitivity to stress across generations.
Diagnosis of breast cancer: contribution of US as an adjunct to mammography.

PURPOSE To determine the value of ultrasonography (US) as an adjunct to mammography for the diagnosis of breast cancer. MATERIALS AND METHODS In a 2-year prospective study, 4,811 mammograms were classified according to level of suspicion of malignancy. Targeted US was performed to analyze (a) circumscribed lesions, possibly cysts; (b) palpable lesions visible at mammography; (c) palpable lesions not visible at mammography; and (d) nonpalpable lesions visible at mammography. After US was performed in 1,103 cases (23%), cases were reclassified for level of suspicion. RESULTS In 338 cases, breast cancer was diagnosed. The sensitivity of mammography for all 4,811 cases was 83%; the specificity was 97%. After US, the combined sensitivity increased to 91%, with a specificity of 98%. The increase was significant (P < .001). The increase in sensitivity was highest among women younger than 50 years. The positive predictive value for mammography was high (72%), which reflects a high threshold for biopsy; this may have augmented the yield of US. CONCLUSION The use of US as an adjunct to mammography resulted in an increase in diagnostic accuracy. Its contribution to the diagnosis of breast cancer in this study was 7.4%.
Open-source Software Development and Distributed Innovation

Open-source software development is a production model that exploits the distributed intelligence of participants in Internet communities. This model is efficient because of two related reasons: it avoids the inefficiencies of a strong intellectual property regime and it implements concurrently design and testing of software modules. The hazard of open source is that projects can 'fork' into competing versions. However, open-source communities consist of governance structures that constitutionally minimize this danger. Because open source works in a distributed environment, it presents an opportunity for developing countries to participate in frontier innovation. Copyright 2001, Oxford University Press.
Effects of Interference Between Selected Loci on the Mutation Load, Inbreeding Depression, and Heterosis

A classical prediction from single-locus models is that inbreeding increases the efficiency of selection against partially recessive deleterious alleles (purging), thereby decreasing the mutation load and level of inbreeding depression. However, previous multilocus simulation studies found that increasing the rate of self-fertilization of individuals may not lead to purging and argued that selective interference among loci causes this effect. In this article, I derive simple analytical approximations for the mutation load and inbreeding depression, taking into account the effects of interference between pairs of loci. I consider two classical scenarios of nonrandomly mating populations: a single population undergoing partial selfing and a subdivided population with limited dispersal. In the first case, correlations in homozygosity between loci tend to reduce mean fitness and increase inbreeding depression. These effects are stronger when deleterious alleles are more recessive, but only weakly depend on the strength of selection against deleterious alleles and on recombination rates. In subdivided populations, interference increases inbreeding depression within demes, but decreases heterosis between demes. Comparisons with multilocus, individual-based simulations show that these analytical approximations are accurate as long as the effects of interference stay moderate, but fail for high deleterious mutation rates and low dominance coefficients of deleterious alleles.
Amides from the Stems of Cinnamomum burmannii

A novel amide, cinnabutamine (1), along with five known amides, cinnaretamine (2), N-trans-caffeoyl-5-hydroxytyramine (3), N-trans-feruloyltyramine (4), N-trans-feruloyl-5-methoxytyramine (5) and N-cis-feruloyl-5-methoxytyramine (6), were isolated from the stems of Cinnamomum burmannii (Lauraceae). Their structures were characterized and identified by spectral analysis.
Deep learning based traffic direction sign detection and determining driving style

Intelligent automobiles and advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) are some of the major technological developments that affect human daily life. Today, many studies are being generated to develop state of the art transportation systems. The general objective in these studies is to cope with negative effects of traffic. In this work, our aim is to contribute to the development of ADAS by determining driver behavior and traffic direction sign detection. The data employed are acquired by smartphone sensors, which are accelerometer, gyroscope, GPS, and camera, while the subject car moves between two specific points. The proposed method consists of two simultaneously running algorithms. The first one determines driver maneuvers, and the second one is the deep learning based algorithm that detects traffic direction sign using Convolution Neural Network (CNN). Here, the results of these two simultaneously running algorithms are assessed, and driving type is determined. GPS data is used for synchronization. Consequently, it is determined whether riding style is safe or aggressive, involving in traffic direction sign detection.
Circuit analysis and optimization with automatically derived Volterra kernels

The problem of the symbolic analysis of nonlinear dynamical behaviour in the design of analogue circuits and systems is addressed in this paper. Where classical circuit and system level simulators basically rely on numerical simulations for that analysis, a symbolical method is considered here. This method is based on the Volterra Series (VS). A short introduction on the use of VS in system analysis is given. An implementation of a symbolic system analysis tool in its first stages based on VS is described. Complexity and efficiency of the implemented methods are discussed. An example is given where the implemented analysis tool is used optimise a simple circuit. The results are verified with Spice. Finally, an outlook on the open problems of the current implementation is given.
The Role of Culture in Public Goods and Other Experiments

Burgeoning literature within the social sciences studies the effects of culture on collective action. In economics, this topic can be found in the rising fields of behavioral economics (Camerer, Loewenstein, and Rabin 2004; Diamond, Vartiainen, and Jahnssonin 2007; Thaler 2007; Wilkinson 2007) and experimental economics (Friedman and Sunder 1994; Friedman 2004; Kagel and Roth 1995), where increasing notice is taken of individuals who do not behave uniformly as self-interested, rational utility maximizers. Instead, altruism (Andreoni and Miller 2008), reciprocity (Fehr and Gachter 2000; Fischbacher and Gachter 2010; Rabin 1993), social welfare maximization (Charness and Rabin 2002), and inequality aversion (Bolton and Ockenfels 2000; Fehr and Schmidt 1999) have been proposed as explanations for behavior in collective action situations.
Dialectical behaviour therapy for women with borderline personality disorder

Background Dialectical behaviour therapy (DBT) is widely considered to be a promising treatment for borderline personality disorder (BPD). However, the evidence for its efficacy published thus far should be regarded as preliminary. Aims To compare the effectiveness of DBT with treatment as usual for patients with BPD and to examine the impact of baseline severity on effectiveness. Method Fifty-eight women with BPD were randomly assigned to either 12 months of DBT or usual treatment in a randomised controlled study. Participants were recruited through clinical referrals from both addiction treatment and psychiatric services. Outcome measures included treatment retention and the course of suicidal, self-mutilating and self-damaging impulsive behaviours. Results Dialectical behaviour therapy resulted in better retention rates and greater reductions of self-mutilating and self-damaging impulsive behaviours compared with usual treatment, especially among those with a history of frequent self-mutilation. Conclusions Dialectical behaviour therapy is superior to usual treatment in reducing high-risk behaviours in patients with BPD.
Cognitive style and innovation in organizations

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to validate cognitive style (i.e. linear, nonlinear, and balanced thinking) with innovation intentions and behaviors. It was hypothesized that a balanced linear/nonlinear thinking style and the inclination toward more innovative intentions are strongly related. Design/methodology/approach – A survey questionnaire of business students in the USA and France was employed. Formally validated measures of thinking style and innovation were replicated in this project. Findings – The results of an analysis of 186 respondents found a significant, direct relationship between balanced thinking style and innovative intention and behavior measures. Research limitations/implications – The results demonstrate that cognitive style and innovation are related, but the direct validation of actual innovative behaviors, in situ, needs to be included in the next step of this research stream. Further, the composition of groups can also be evaluated using these measures. Practical implicati.
The Effect of Government Spending on Economic Growth: Testing the Non‐Linear Hypothesis

type="main"> Theoretical models suggest a non-linear relationship between government size and long-run economic growth. However, testing this hypothesis empirically in cross-country studies is complicated by the endogeneity of government spending and the accurate identification of inflexion points. This paper examines the non-linear hypothesis by incorporating threshold analysis in a cross-country growth regression. The methodology utilizes a sample-splitting framework and follows an objective strategy for identifying and testing changes in the slope. The results provide evidence in support of the non-linear hypothesis for a broad panel of countries.
Age-Related Differences in Psychosocial Function of Children with Craniofacial Anomalies

Background: Age is a frequent consideration for surgical timing in pediatric craniofacial surgery for optimal psychosocial development. However, systematic evaluations of the effects of age in children under active treatment have not been thoroughly evaluated. Methods: Ninety-nine patients (age, 8 to 17 years; 46.5 percent male) from the University of California, Los Angeles, Craniofacial Clinic were prospectively evaluated using the Pediatric Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System to assess anger, anxiety, depression, and quality of peer relationships. Patients were stratified into three age groups by years: group A, 8 to 10 years, n = 30; group B, 11 to 13 years, n = 41; and group C, 14 to 17 years, n = 28. Analyses of variance and logistic regression analyses were performed. Results: Significant differences in anxiety (F2,96 = 5.1; p = 0.008), depression (F2,96 = 9.7; p < 0.001), peer relationships (F2,96 = 3.5; p = 0.03), and anger (F2,96 = 4.9; p = 0.009) were found among the age groups. Group A demonstrated the highest anxiety, highest depression, and lowest peer relationship scores overall. Although there were no differences in anger between groups A and C, group B had the lowest anger scores. Children with poor scores of higher severity, defined as greater than 1 SD worse than the national mean, were compared. Group A contributed the highest percentages of more severely affected children in all categories. A logistic regression analysis demonstrated that group A was a statistically significant predictor for scores of higher severity in both anxiety (OR, 3.8; 95 percent CI, 1.3 to 11.5; p = 0.02) and peer relationships (OR, 3.4; 95 percent CI, 1.3 to 9.3; p = 0.02). Conclusions: Children between 8 and 10 years of age with craniofacial anomalies constitute a high-risk subset for psychosocial dysfunction. The authors’ work suggests that tight surveillance with family and school awareness may be necessary for this age group. CLINICAL QUESTION/LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Risk, II.
Practices of Excellent Companies in the Retail Industry

The organisations used in this report are not only retail stores, but specialty retail stores. The distinction of a specialty retail operation is that it carries one category or a number of categories of items as opposed to a department retail store which carries a larger number of items and different items including bedding, housewares, furniture (for example, Bullocks and May Company) and even tyres and tools (Sears, for example). The three business operations examined in this report include Nordstrom (commonly thought of as a department store, but in fact, it is a specialty store on a grand scale), the Gap, and The Body Shop.
Does location in a science park really matter for firms’ intellectual capital performance?

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of being located in a science park (SP) on the level of a firm's intellectual capital (IC) performance. Design/methodology/approach – Using a sample of 183 Italian firms (i.e. 61 tenant and 122 non-tenant firms), and through the GLS technique, the authors regress the firms’ IC performance across various explicative variables including a dummy that discriminates tenant and non-tenant firms. Findings – Consistently with expectations, the results show that the location of a firm in a SP leads to improved IC performance. Moreover, the authors find that some other firm characteristics, such as size, age, and leverage, are important predictors of its IC-based performance. Research limitations/implications – The sample is small and the impact on performance might be biased by factors related to the regional context (e.g. level of industrialization, quality of education, and science system). Practical implications – Implications for policy makers: s.
Evaluation of a Disinfection Procedure for Hysteroscopes Contaminated by Hepatitis C Virus

Abstract We assessed the ability of a standard disinfection procedure to eliminate hepatitis C virus (HCV) from the air-water channel of hysteroscopes. The residual HCV RNA remaining after the disinfection procedure was measured by polymerase chain reaction. When correctly applied to hysteroscopes, the standard disinfection procedure was sufficient to eliminate the risk of HCV transmission.
The antigenic composition of the various anatomic structures of the canine kidney.

Previous studies from this laboratory (1) have shown that within the frame of reference of the isolated glomerulus, the “nephrotoxic” antigen(s), the heterologous serum to which can produce glomerulonephritis in the donor species, is localized within the basement membrane of the glomerular capillaries. The parietal capsule and the cellular elements of the glomerulus could be excluded as sites of this antigen(s). In the course of these investigations additional methods were evolved whereby tubular epithelial cells from the cortex of the kidney and tubular basement membrane could be obtained in relatively pure form. Heterologous serums developed against these two additional renal components failed to produce glomerulonephritis in the donor species. The present investigation was, therefore, designed to determine and contrast the antigenic composition of all the isolated principal renal structures on an in vitro basis.
A Wideband Dual-Mode  $LC$-VCO With a Switchable Gate-Biased Active Core

A wideband inductance-capacitance voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO) with a gm-switching technique was designed and fabricated in the 65-nm CMOS process. With a switchable secondary gate-biased active core and a primary core, the VCO operates in two different modes. In the LF mode, in which switches turn on the secondary core, the increased start-up gain facilitates LF oscillation. In the HF mode, in which the switches isolate the secondary core from the primary core, the reduced capacitive loading allows for HF oscillation. In addition, since the gate bias of the secondary core transistors guarantees the high transconductance of the secondary core, the switch size can be minimized, which further extends the upper boundary of the oscillation frequency. The VCO achieved a 41% frequency range, i.e., 3.36-5.1 GHz, and a phase noise of -123.1 dBc/Hz at an offset of 1 MHz from an output frequency of 4.21 GHz. The active silicon area was 0.24 mm2, and the power consumption was 8.7 mW at 5 GHz.
An in vitro study of the susceptibility of mobile and cystic forms of Borrelia burgdorferi to metronidazole

The aim of this study was to examine the susceptibility of mobile and cystic forms of Borrelia burgdorferi to metronidazole. Because B. burgdorferi is a microaerobic bacterium like Helicobacter pylori, metronidazole (MZ) was chosen in the susceptibility test. For both microaerobic and aerobic incubation the normal mobile spirochetes were resistant to this antibiotic with an MBC ≥512 μg/ml. Conversion of mobile spirochetes to cystic forms was not observed when they were incubated with MZ. When they were incubated under microaerobic conditions, the biologically active cystic forms had an MBC ≥4 μg/ml, but the MBC was ≥32 μg/ml with aerobic incubation at 37°C. Staining with acridine orange (AO), dark field microscopy (DFM), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) revealed that the contents of the cysts were degraded when the concentration of MZ was ≥MBC. Some cysts were also ruptured. When incubated with a sufficient concentration of MZ, core structures did not develop inside the cysts, and AO revealed less RNA in the cysts. Our observations may help efforts to treat resistant infections caused by B. burgdorferi with a combination of MZ and other antibiotics in order to eradicate both cystic and mobile forms of B. burgdorferi.