Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Law and Globalization from Below: Corporate social responsibility: a case of hegemony and counter-hegemony

INTRODUCTION One general observation is shared among scholars of the global political economy regardless of their disciplinary, analytic, or ideological inclinations. Namely, that corporate global rule is already here. Positive evidence abounds. Multinational corporations (MNCs) dominate the global economy, accounting for two-thirds of global trade in goods and services. Of the one hundred largest world economies, fifty-one are corporations. The top two hundred corporations generate 27.5 percent of the world gross domestic product and their combined annual revenues are greater than those of the 182 states that contain 80 percent of the world population. The combined sales of four of the largest corporations in the world exceed the gross domestic product of the whole of Africa (Chomsky 2002; Davidsson 2002; Ellwood 2002). Economic figures tell only part of the story. As a result of their vast wealth, MNCs have accumulated significant political and cultural powers as well. Economic globalization and trade liberalization have given them powers that match and often surpass that of national governments. In rich and poor countries alike, albeit in different ways, MNCs often enjoy decisive powers to shape public policy, to encourage or bar legislative measures, to promote or discourage social reforms, and to influence governmental action in key areas including employment, the environment, and social and civil rights. As corporations emerge as global private authorities, and as governments undergo structural adjustments, “we are back to the independent realm of economic action as a major locus of political power” (Beck, Giddens, and Lash 1994).
Involvement of COX-2/PGE2 signalling in hypoxia-induced angiogenic response in endothelial cells

To evaluate the impact of hypoxia on the angiogenic capability of endothelial cells (ECs), and further investigate whether the cyclooxygenase‐2 (COX‐2)/prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) signalling is involved in the angiogenic response of ECs to hypoxia. We explored the impact of various periods (1, 3, 6, 12, 24 hrs) of hypoxia (2% O2) on human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) in vitro. We observed cell viability, migration, tube formation, analysed COX‐2, vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), AQP1 mRNA transcription, protein expression and measured PGE2, VEGF protein concentration in cell supernatants. Then we treated HUVECs with COX‐2 selective inhibitor NS398, EP1/2 combined antagonist AH6809 and exogenous PGE2 to investigate the role of COX‐2/PGE2 signalling in the angiogenic response of ECs to hypoxia. The results demonstrated that short‐term hypoxic treatment enhanced HUVECs proliferation, migration, tube formation, significantly up‐regulated COX‐2, VEGF, AQP1 mRNA level, protein expression and promoted PGE2, VEGF release. The pharmacological inhibition study revealed that exposure of HUVEC to NS398 and AH6809 under hypoxia impaired the biological responses of ECs to hypoxia. Exogenous PGE2 augments the effects of hypoxia on HUVECs, and partially reversed the inhibitory effects of NS398 on HUVECs proliferation and angiogenic capability. Short‐term hypoxic treatment enhanced angiogenic capability of ECs, and COX‐2/PGE2 signalling may play a critical role in the biological response of ECs to hypoxia.
An Analysis of Operationalization and Acceptability of Business to Business Transaction: A mixed Method Approach

Business to business barter exchange is a form of transaction that is gaining popularity during the economic downtown despite the fact that money exchange supersede the traditional barter exchange due to a number of inherent problems it has. This study explores the operation and user’s acceptance of business to business barter exchange in Malaysia that has made barter exchange feasible in the present day sophisticated financial system. Mixed method data analysis was employed to analyze the qualitative and quantitative data collected for the study. The qualitative data was obtained through in-depth interview, observation and document analysis of BBX Malaysia. The quantitative data was obtained from the survey of the BBX members and analysed using PLS technique. The qualitative part explored the operation of BBX from organization through accountability to challenges. The quantitative aspect examined a number of hypotheses to determine the user’s future behavioral intention, premised on a number of previous models. The data was found to fit the model well with all the hypothesized links exhibiting the correct signs and four out of six part coefficients statistically significant. More effort should be made to maximize the factors that determine user’s acceptace of barter exchange in order to achieve its potential.
Statistical Models for Presence-Only Data: Finite-Sample Equivalence and Addressing Observer Bias

Statistical modeling of presence-only data has attracted much recent attention in the ecological literature, leading to a proliferation of methods, including the inhomogeneous poisson process (IPP) model [15], maximum entropy (Maxent) modeling of species distributions [12] [9] [10], and logistic regression models. Several recent articles have shown the close relationships between these methods [1] [15]. We explain why the IPP intensity function is a more natural object of inference in presence-only studies than occurrence probability (which is only dened with reference to quadrat size), and why presence-only data only allows estimation of relative, and not absolute intensities. All three of the above techniques amount to parametric density estimation under the same exponential family model. We show that the IPP and Maxent models give the exact same estimate for this density, but logistic regression in general produces a dierent estimate in nite samples. When the model is misspecied, logistic regression and the IPP may have substantially dierent asymptotic limits with large data sets. We propose \innitely weighted logistic regression," which is exactly equivalent to the IPP in nite samples. Consequently, many already-implemented methods extending logistic regression can also extend the Maxent and IPP models in directly analogous ways using this technique. Finally, we address the issue of observer bias, modeling the presenceonly data set as a thinned IPP. We discuss when the observer bias problem can solved by regression adjustment, and additionally propose a novel method for combining presence-only and presence-absence records from one or more species to account for it.
Controlling the speed of virtual time for malware deactivation

We propose a mostly OS-independent, VMM-based method that deactivates malware at the granularity of a process. Specifically, the method slows malware processes extremely by shortening the timer interrupt intervals and modifying the system time value: the amount of time that elapses from the boot. We implemented a VMM based on the method, named HyperSlow, and confirmed that it can slow a particular process considerably.
IGH-LEVEL SEMANTICS OF IMAGES IN WEB DOCUMENTS USING WEIGHTED TAGS AND STRENGTH MATRIX

The multimedia information retrieval from World Wide Web is a challenging issue. Describing multimedia object in general, images in particular with low-level features increases the semantic gap. From WWW, information present in a HTML document as textual keywords can be extracted for capturing semantic information with the view to narrow the semantic gap. The high-level textual information of images can be extracted and associated with the textual keywords, which narrow down the search space and improve the precision of retrieval. In this paper, a strength matrix is being proposed, which is based on the frequency of occurrence of keywords and the textual information pertaining to image URLs. The strength of these textual keywords are estimated and used for associating these keywords with the images present in the documents. The high-level semantics of the image is described in the HTML documents in the form of image name, ALT tag, optional description, etc., is used for estimating the strength. In addition, word position and weighting mechanism is also used for further improving the association textual keywords with the image related text. The effectiveness of information retrieval of the proposed technique is found to be comparatively better than many of the recently proposed retrieval techniques. The experimental results of the proposed method endorse the fact that image retrieval using image information and textual keywords is better than those of the text based and the content-based approaches.
Reconnecting Consumers, Producers and Food: Exploring 'Alternatives'

Reconnecting Consumers, Producers and Food presents a detailed and empirically grounded analysis of alternatives to current models of food provision. The book offers insights into the identities, motives and practices of individuals engaged in reconnecting producers, consumers and food. Arguing for a critical revaluation of the meanings of choice and convenience, Reconnecting Consumers, Producers and Food provides evidence to support the construction of a more sustainable and equitable food system which is built on the relationships between people, communities and their environments.
Identifying and introducing interfaces and callbacks using Wrangler

Duplicating code can make it easier to read in some contexts, but in general it is detrimental in several ways: it increases the compilation time, the size of the source code and, more critically, the cost of maintenance and the probability of introducing new bugs during maintenance. We can avoid code duplication by introducing abstraction for reusable functionalities. This is an established and desirable practice, but it can take considerable effort and it is error prone by itself, which acts as a deterrent. In this paper, we provide two ways of automating abstraction through refactorings. The first way (that we call iterative) allows developers to introduce an abstraction layer by choosing manually the parts to abstract (one at a time), and the refactoring does the necessary code manipulations. The second way (that we call integrated) takes a partial mapping that identifies equivalent nodes of the ASTs of two modules, and automatically abstracts the mapped common parts to a separate module with a common interface, through the introduction of the template pattern. Implementation for both of the refactorings, their dependencies, and a matching algorithm to infer partial mappings between two ASTs, are available as part of the open-source refactoring tool Wrangler for Erlang.
Ageing with cerebral palsy; what are the health experiences of adults with cerebral palsy? A qualitative study

Objective To enhance understanding of the experiences of ageing with cerebral palsy (CP) in adulthood with a particular focus on experiences with health services. Design A qualitative descriptive methodology was applied to capture adults' views of ageing with CP and related interactions with health services. Semistructured interviews were undertaken with data systematically coded and interpreted by grouping information into categories. Themes that encompassed the categories were identified through thematic analysis. Setting All healthcare settings. Participants 28 adults (14 women) with CP, aged 37–70 years. Results 5 themes covered the breadth of participants' experiences: (1) acceptance of change; (2) exploring identity: cerebral palsy as only one part of self; (3) taking charge of help; (4) rethinking the future and (5) interacting with health professionals. Being seen and being heard were the features described in positive healthcare interactions. Participants also valued health professionals who reflected on who holds the knowledge? ; demonstrated a willingness to learn and respected participants' knowledge and experience. Conclusions Our findings could, and arguably should, inform more responsive strategies for disabled people in health services and, indeed, all health consumers. Our study supports other findings that impairments related to CP change and, for many, severity of disabling impact increases with age. Increased interactions with health and rehabilitation professionals, as a consequence of these changes, have the potential to impact the person's healthcare experience either positively or negatively. A ‘listening health professional’ may bridge their knowledge gap and, in recognising the person's own expertise, may achieve three things: a more contextualised healthcare intervention; a better healthcare experience for the person with CP and positive impact on the person's sense of autonomy and identity by recognising their expertise. Future research should identify whether this approach improves the healthcare experience for adults living with CP.
Type 1 Innate Lymphoid Cell Biology: Lessons Learnt from Natural Killer Cells

Group 1 innate lymphoid cells (ILCs) comprise the natural killer (NK) cells and ILC1s that reside within peripheral tissues. Several different ILC1 subsets have recently been characterized; however, no unique markers have been identified that uniquely define these subsets. Whether ILC1s and NK cells are in fact distinct lineages, or alternately exhibit transitional molecular programs that allow them to adapt to different tissue niches remains an open question. NK cells are the prototypic member of the Group 1 ILCs and have been historically assigned the functions of what now appears to be a multi-subset family that are distributed throughout the body. This raises the question of whether each of these populations mediate distinct functions during infection and tumor immunosurveillance. Here, we review the diversity of the Group 1 ILC subsets in their transcriptional regulation, localization, mobility, and receptor expression, and highlight the challenges in unraveling the individual functions of these different populations of cells.
Dissolved Phosphorus Pools and Alkaline Phosphatase Activity in the Euphotic Zone of the Western North Pacific Ocean

We measured pools of dissolved phosphorus (P), including dissolved inorganic P (DIP), dissolved organic P (DOP) and alkaline phosphatase (AP)-hydrolyzable labile DOP (L-DOP), and kinetic parameters of AP activity (APA) in the euphotic zone in the western North Pacific Ocean. Samples were collected from one coastal station in Sagami Bay, Japan, and three offshore stations between the North Pacific subtropical gyre (NPSG) and the Kuroshio region. Although DIP concentrations in the euphotic zone at all stations were equally low, around the nominal method detection limit of 20 nmol L-1, chlorophyll a (Chl a) concentrations were one order of magnitude greater at the coastal station. DOP was the dominant P pool, comprising 62–92% of total dissolved P at and above the Chl a maximum layer (CML). L-DOP represented 22–39% of the total DOP at the offshore stations, whereas it accounted for a much higher proportion (about 85%) in the coastal surface layers. Significant correlations between maximum potential AP hydrolysis rates and DIP concentrations or bacterial cell abundance in the offshore euphotic zone suggest that major APA in the oligotrophic surface ocean is from bacterial activity and regulated largely by DIP availability. Although the range of maximum potential APA was comparable among the environmental conditions, the in situ hydrolysis rate of L-DOP in the coastal station was 10 times those in the offshore stations. L-DOP turnover time at the CML ranged from 4.5 days at the coastal station to 84.4 days in the NPSG. The ratio of the APA half-saturation constant to the ambient L-DOP concentration decreased markedly from the NPSG to the coastal station. There were substantial differences in the rate and efficiency of DOP remineralization and its contribution as the potential P source between the low-phosphate/high-biomass coastal ecosystem and the low-phosphate/low biomass oligotrophic ocean.
Dirty-Paper Coding for the Gaussian Multiaccess Channel With Conferencing

We derive the capacity region of the two-user dirty-paper Gaussian multiaccess channel (MAC) with conferencing encoders. In this MAC, prior to each transmission block, the transmitters can hold a conference in which they can communicate with each other over error-free bit pipes of given capacities. The received signal suffers not only from additive Gaussian noise but also from additive interference, which is known noncausally to the transmitters but not to the receiver. The additive interference is modeled as Gaussian or uniform over a sphere. We show that the interference can be perfectly mitigated, i.e., that the capacity region without interference can also be achieved in its presence. This holds irrespective of whether the transmitters learn the interference before or after the conference. It follows as a corollary that also for the MAC with degraded message sets, the interference can be perfectly mitigated if it is known noncausally to the transmitters. To derive our results, we generalize Costa's single-user writing-on-dirty-paper achievability result to channels with dependent interference and not-necessarily Gaussian noise.
Interfacing the Brain Directly with Musical Systems: On Developing Systems for Making Music with Brain Signals

The authors discuss their work on developing technology to interface the brain directly with music systems, a field of research generally known as Brain-Computer Interfacing (BCI). The paper gives a brief background of BCI in general and surveys various attempts at musical BCI, or Brain-Computer Music Interface (BCMI) systems designed to make music from brain signals, or brainwaves. The authors present a technical introduction to the electroencephalogram (EEG), which measures brainwaves detected by electrodes placed directly on the scalp. They introduce approaches to the design of BCI and BCMI systems and present two case study systems of their own design: the BCMI-Piano and the Inter-Harmonium.
Failing the Future: A Dean Looks at Higher Education in the Twenty-first Century

Acknowledgments ix A Personal Preface: Reflections on Five Years in a Dean's Office I 1. Facing the Future: An Introduction 33 2. "60 Minutes" at the University of Arizona: The Polemic against Tenure 53 3. Raising Standards While Lowering Anxieties: Rethinking the Promotion and Tenure Process 81 4. Paying the Price of Antifeminist Intellectual Harassment 98 5. Creating the Family-Friendly Campus 131 6. Teaching and Learning in a World of Cognitive Diversity 159 7. Setting an Agenda for Change 173 8. Failing the Future or, How to Commit National Suicide at the End of the Twentieth Century 214 A Closing Refrain: Reflections at a Graduation 249 Appendix 1. University of Arizona College of Humanities Promotion and Tenure Procedures 257 Appendix 2. Summary Checklist of Selected Family-Friendly Initiatives and Programs 269 Notes 273 Works Cited 281 Index 291
Critical influence factors for e-learning education system continuance intention

This study explores students' continuance intention in e-learning education system by synthesizing Bhattacherjee's IS continuance theory as basis with the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT), and innovation diffusion theory. The integrated model was empirically tested with 180 bachelor students who had the experience of using the e-learning education system. The results indicate that students' perceived usefulness, satisfaction, effort expectancy, social influence and compatibility have the significant effects on their continuance intention. Based on the research findings, we offer discussions.
Enhanced prognostic value from cardiopulmonary exercise testing in chronic heart failure by non-linear analysis: oxygen uptake efficiency slope.

AIMS Predicting survival from peak exercise oxygen uptake (peak VO2) in chronic heart failure (CHF) is hindered by its reduction if exercise duration is submaximal. The oxygen uptake efficiency slope (OUES) is a non-linear description of the ventilatory response to exercise, which has the potential to describe abnormalities even early in exercise. We evaluated the physiology of OUES and assessed its potential for prognostic information in patients with CHF. METHODS AND RESULTS Two hundred and forty-three patients with CHF (mean age 59+/-12 years) underwent cardiopulmonary exercise testing between May 1992 and July 1996. Mean peak VO2 was 16.2+/-6.7 mL/kg/min, VE/VCO2 slope 38+/-12.5, ventilatory anaerobic threshold 10.9+/-3.5 mL/kg/min, and OUES 1.6+/-0.7 L/min. The value for each variable fell across the New York Heart Association classes (P<0.0001 by analysis of variance for each). When only the first 50% of each exercise test was used to calculate the variables, the value obtained for OUES changed the least (peak VO2 25% difference and OUES 1% difference). After a median of 9 years of follow-up, 139 patients (57%) had died. Each of the exercise variables was a significant univariate predictor of prognosis but in a multivariable model, only OUES was identified as the sole significant independent prognostic variable. CONCLUSION OUES provides an effective, independent measure of pathological exercise physiology. Its numerical value is relatively insensitive to the duration of exercise data from which it is calculated. Its prognostic value seems to be stronger than the best available existing measures of exercise physiology.
Patch-sweeping with robust prior for high precision depth estimation in real-time systems

This paper presents a novel real-time approach for robust high precision and high quality depth estimation. It extends recent work on real-time Patch-Sweeping by combining the advantages of a robust hybrid stereo-based disparity estimator with the high accuracy of the Patch-Sweeping approach. It overcomes limitations of the existing Patch-Sweep approach, such as limited search range. Further, it implicitly benefits from the high robustness as well as time consistency of the disparity estimator. The presented overall algorithmic system concept introduces a powerful alternative to traditional real-time depth estimation approaches. Additionally, the proposed algorithmic structures allow a high degree of parallelization. Based on this, the computational effort could be efficiently balanced between GPU and CPU processing. The target platform of the proposed algorithmic chain is a real-time immersive 3D video communication system which requires highly accurate 3D estimation results for a high quality virtual eye contact generation.
Design of Unknown Input Observer for Linear Time-delay Systems

This paper deals with the unknown input observer (UIO) design problem for a class of linear time-delay systems. A case in which the observer error can completely be decoupled from an unknown input is treated. Necessary and sufficient conditions for the existences of such observers are present. Based on Lyapunov stability theory, thedesign of the observer with internal delay is formulated in terms of linear matrix inequalities (LMI). The design of the observer without internal delay is turned into a stabilization problem in linear systems. Two design algorithms of UIO are proposed. The effect of the proposed approach is illustrated by two numerical examples.