Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Creating images and the psychology of marketing communication

Contents: C.W. Park, Foreword. Preface. Part I: Theories of Image. D.M. Boush, S.M. Jones, A Strategy-Based Framework for Extending Brand Image Research. L.A. Brannon, T.C. Brock, Measuring the Prototypicality of Product Categories and Exemplars: Implications of Schema Correspondence Theory. J. Kimura, Emergence and Change of Consumer Product Image in Social Constructionism Perspective. P.J. Mazzocco, T.C. Brock, Understanding the Role of Mental Imagery in Persuasion: A Cognitive Resources Model Analysis. B. Schmitt, From Image to Experience. Part II: Country Image. W. Na, Y. Son, C-H. Kim, R. Marshall, Building a National Image With Words: The Role of Word of Mouth in Establishing Korea's International Image. D-S. Cho, Y-G. Suh, Measuring the National Image: The Case of South Korea. G. Larsen, V. George, The Social Construction of Destination Image: A New Zealand Film Example. K. Jung, A-K. Kau, Chinese Consumers' Evaluation of Hybrid Country of Origin Products: Effects of Decomposed Elements of Country of Origin, Brand Name, and Consumers' Ethnocentrism. Part III: Individual and Celebrity Source Image. A.A. Parulekar, P. Raheja, Managing Celebrities as Brands: Impact of Endorsements on Celebrity Image. S. Yoon, P.T. Vargas, A Cultural Third-Person Effect: Actual and Expected Effects of Source Expertise Among Individualists and Collectivists. K.E. Kahle, L.R. Kahle, Sports Celebrities' Image: A Critical Evaluation of the Utility of Q Scores. K-H. Han, F. de Gregorio, A Range of Female Beauties: A Cross-Cultural Analysis of Cosmetics TV Commercials. Part IV: Corporate Image. Y. Yi, S. La, Well-Matched Employees Make Customers Happy: Effects of Brand-Employee Congruence. C-H. Kim, T. Suh, Managing the Multidimensionality of Corporate Image: From the Stakeholders' Multilayered Experience Perspective. C.S. Weeks, T.B. Cornwell, M.S. Humphreys, Conceptualizing Sponsorship: An Item and Relational Information Account. Part V: Individual Characteristics and Culture. W-S. Kim, D.M. Boush, A. Marquardt, L.R. Kahle, Values, Brands, and Image. K.I. Powers, Image Attributes of Automobiles and Their Influence on Purchase Price Decision. H. Jung, Assessing the Influence of Cultural Values on Consumer Susceptibility to Social Pressure for Conformity: Self-Image Enhancing Motivations vs. Information Searching Motivation. T-J. Liao, L-T. Bei, The Impact of Media and Culture on the Consumption Values of Women in China and Taiwan. Y-C. Shen, L-T. Bei, C-Y. Wu, Cross-Cultural Comparisons of Brand Personality in Print Media: The Case of Mainland China and Taiwan.
National Responses and Accessibility to STAR TV in Asia

STAR TV, the first commercial pan-Asia television service, commands huge potential as a communication network. Four ideal types are proposed to capture the variations in national policy responses to STAR TV: namely, (a) virtual suppression, as represented by Singapore and Malaysia; (b) regulated openness, as represented by Hong Kong and the Philippines; (c) illegal openness, as represented by Taiwan and India; and (d) suppressive openness, as represented by the People's Republic of China. A model of accessibility to satellite television, exemplified by STAR TV, is also suggested. The factors taken into account by the model include national regulation, competition from terrestrial television, technological innovation, linguistic barriers, cultural gaps, and national affluence, as well as the programming policy and financing of the satellite television service itself.
Processes and outcomes of ischemic stroke care: the influence of hospital level of care.

OBJECTIVE Processes of stroke care play an increasingly important role in comparing hospital performance. The relationship between processes of care and outcomes for stroke is unclear. Moreover, in terms of stroke care regionalization, little information is available with regard to the relationships among hospital level of care, processes and outcomes of stroke care. We used nationwide population-based data to examine the relationship between processes of care and mortality and the relationships among hospital level of care, processes and mortality for ischemic stroke. DESIGN Cross-sectional study. SETTING General acute care hospitals throughout Taiwan. PARTICIPANTS A total of 31 274 ischemic stroke patients admitted in 2010 through Taiwan's National Health Insurance Research Database. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Processes of care and 30-day mortality. Multilevel models were used after adjustment for patient and hospital characteristics to test the relationship between processes of care and 30-day mortality and the relationships among hospital level of care, processes and 30-day mortality. RESULTS The use of thrombolytic therapy, antithrombotic therapy, statin treatment and rehabilitation assessment was associated with lower mortality. Hospital level of care was associated with the use of thrombolytic therapy, antithrombotic therapy, statin treatment and rehabilitation assessment, and mortality. These processes of care were mediators of the relationship between hospital level of care and mortality. CONCLUSIONS Outcomes among patients with ischemic stroke can be improved by thrombolytic therapy, antithrombotic therapy, statin treatment and rehabilitation assessment. Among patients with ischemic stroke, admission to designated stroke center hospitals may be associated with lower mortality through better processes of care.
Recruitment of Child Soldiers in Nepal: An Analysis of Child Recruitment in the People's Liberation Army

Based on children’s perceptions of recruitment, academic discourse often suggests that children voluntarily enlist in armed groups in Asia in response to political indoctrination. Using Nepal as a case study, secondary sources are analyzed to test the hypothesis that children do not voluntarily enlist in armed groups. Academic literature, official party documents, humanitarian and media reports are triangulated to contextualize agency in child recruitment in the People’s Liberation Army, the armed group of the Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist during the Maoist revolution between 1996-2006. Festinger’s (1957) theory of cognitive dissonance is used to analyze nonphysical elements of force involved in child recruitment. The research findings confirm the hypothesis and indicate that children assented to forced recruitment. Political indoctrination had little influence in coercing enlistment in comparison to other nonphysical elements of force. In attempt to improve psychosocial and socio-economic factors, particularly basic human needs exacerbated by conflict, enlistment was often coerced with rewards that positively influenced children’s perceptions of recruitment as voluntary. However, children’s perceptions of recruitment were negatively influenced when rewards were unfulfilled and when recruitment was coerced with threats.
Short‐term forecasting through intermittent assimilation of data from Taiwan and mainland China coastal radars for Typhoon Meranti (2010) at landfall

[1] Radial velocity (Vr) and reflectivity (Z) data from eight coastal operational radars of mainland China and Taiwan are assimilated for the first time using the ARPS 3DVAR and cloud analysis package for Pacific Typhoon Meranti of 2010. It is shown that the vortex-scale circulations of Meranti can be adequately established after only 2 hourly assimilation cycles while additional cycles provide more details for subvortex-scale structures. Subsequent 12 h forecasts of typhoon structure, intensity, track, and precipitation are greatly improved over the one without radar data assimilation. Vr data lead to a larger improvement to the intensity and track forecasts than Z data, while additional Z data further improve the precipitation forecast. Overall, assimilating both Vr and Z data from multiple radars gives the best forecasts. In that case, three local rainfall maxima related to typhoon circulations and their interactions with the complex terrain in the southeast China coastal region are also captured. Assimilating radar data at a lower 3 or 6 hourly frequency leads to a weaker typhoon with larger track forecast errors compared to hourly frequency. An attempt to assimilate additional best track minimum sea level pressure data is also made; it results in more accurate surface pressure analyses, but the benefit is mostly lost within the first hour of forecast. Assimilating data from a single Doppler radar with a good coverage of the typhoon inner core region is also quite effective, but it takes one more cycle to establish circulation analyses of similar quality. The forecasts using multiple radars are still the best.
λ-Carrageenan P32 Is a Potent Inhibitor of Rabies Virus Infection

Rabies, caused by rabies virus (RABV), is an acute, fatal encephalitic disease that affects many warm-blooded mammals. Currently, post-exposure prophylaxis regimens are effective for most rabies cases, but once the clinical signs of the disease appear, current treatment options become ineffective. Carrageenan has been reported as a potent inhibitor of many viruses. In this study, the λ-carrageenan (λ-CG) P32 was investigated for its potential role in inhibiting RABV infection. Our results show that P32 specifically inhibits the replication of several RABV strains but not vesicular stomatitis virus in multiple cell lines and shows low cytotoxicity. P32 mainly abrogated viral replication during the early stage of the post-adsorption period. Further studies demonstrated that P32 could affect not only viral internalization but also viral uncoating by blocking cell fusion mediated by RABV glycoprotein. Moreover, P32 can fully inhibit RABV infection in vitro during the post-adsorption period, whereas heparin and heparan sulfate, which possess similar structures to P32, showed significant but not complete inhibition of RABV infectivity. Collectively, our results indicate that λ-CG P32 is a promising agent that can inhibit RABV infection mainly by inhibiting viral internalization and glycoprotein-mediated cell fusion and can be used for the development of novel anti-RABV drugs.
Body Mass Index and Diabetes in Asia: A Cross-Sectional Pooled Analysis of 900,000 Individuals in the Asia Cohort Consortium

Background The occurrence of diabetes has greatly increased in low- and middle-income countries, particularly in Asia, as has the prevalence of overweight and obesity; in European-derived populations, overweight and obesity are established causes of diabetes. The shape of the association of overweight and obesity with diabetes risk and its overall impact have not been adequately studied in Asia. Methods and Findings A pooled cross-sectional analysis was conducted to evaluate the association between baseline body mass index (BMI, measured as weight in kg divided by the square of height in m) and self-reported diabetes status in over 900,000 individuals recruited in 18 cohorts from Bangladesh, China, India, Japan, Korea, Singapore and Taiwan. Logistic regression models were fitted to calculate cohort-specific odds ratios (OR) of diabetes for categories of increasing BMI, after adjustment for potential confounding factors. OR were pooled across cohorts using a random-effects meta-analysis. The sex- and age-adjusted prevalence of diabetes was 4.3% in the overall population, ranging from 0.5% to 8.2% across participating cohorts. Using the category 22.5–24.9 Kg/m2 as reference, the OR for diabetes spanned from 0.58 (95% confidence interval [CI] 0.31, 0.76) for BMI lower than 15.0 kg/m2 to 2.23 (95% CI 1.86, 2.67) for BMI higher than 34.9 kg/m2. The positive association between BMI and diabetes prevalence was present in all cohorts and in all subgroups of the study population, although the association was stronger in individuals below age 50 at baseline (p-value of interaction<0.001), in cohorts from India and Bangladesh (p<0.001), in individuals with low education (p-value 0.02), and in smokers (p-value 0.03); no differences were observed by gender, urban residence, or alcohol drinking. Conclusions This study estimated the shape and the strength of the association between BMI and prevalence of diabetes in Asian populations and identified patterns of the association by age, country, and other risk factors for diabetes.
The Impact of Government Weekend Policy Changes and Foreign Institutional Holdings On Weekly Effect of Tourism Stock Performance

Since the Taiwanese government implemented a 2-day weekend policy, traveling activities have become increasingly popular, and foreign institutional holdings (FIHs) on stocks of tourism firms have soared. This study investigates the influence of the weekend policy changes and increasing FIHs on the weekly effect of tourism stock returns over the period between 1994 and 2004. First, this study tests whether there is any weekly effect of tourism stock returns and whether weekly effects, if any, persist or diminish after the weekend policy changes. It is found that a significantly negative Tuesday effect on tourism stock returns existed. Second, the impact of the increasing FIHs on the negative Tuesday effect is examined. The increasing FIHs on tourism stocks not only weaken the negative Tuesday effect, but also decrease the risk of negative Tuesday returns. Policy implications based on the main findings are provided to guide tourism business managers, policy makers and investors.
Strategic Government Spending in South Korea and Taiwan: Lessons for Emergent Democracies

A debate persists over how economic performance fuels democratization. It is fanned partly by the divergent experiences of the East and Southeast Asian nations of Indonesia, South Korea, Thailand, Taiwan and the Philippines. This paper provides a theoretical model that shows that economic downturns lead to democratization and evaluates the conclusion systematically with data from South Korea and Taiwan. It departs by treating democratization as an outcome of strategic interaction between government and non-government actors. The model and statistical results corroborate that economic downturns motivate government and non-government actors to credibly pursue political reforms and democratization in East and Southeast Asia. This paper makes three contributions: First, it provides a model to show democratization as the outcome of strategic responses under weak economic conditions. Second, the model’s conclusions are tested with different operationalizations of democratization, ensuring that the findings are robust to alternative specifications. Third, the evidence from East and Southeast Asia expands strategic treatment and systematic analyses to critical cases to augment theoretical and empirical bases towards the debate.
China: an East Asian alternative to neoliberalism?

ABSTRACT The political-economic evolution of post-Mao China has been portrayed as a historically inevitable embrace of neoliberalism; as an exemplification of the East Asian developmental state and as an extension of Soviet New Economic Policy-style state capitalism. This paper evaluates these portrayals through a broad historical and geographical framework. It examines the position of China as a new state after 1949. It then places the shifting logics of socioeconomic regulation in China in relation to (1) the global neoliberal hegemony since the 1980s and (2) the concomitant shifts in the economic policies of Japan, South Korea and Taiwan. In so doing, the paper demonstrates how the Communist Party of China creatively adapted and re-purposed regulatory logics from the Washington Consensus and East Asian policies to consolidate its own version of Leninist state-led development.
How Natural Resources Affect Authoritarian Leaders’ Provision of Public Services: Evidence from China

This article examines the effects of natural resource extraction on authoritarian governments’ provision of public services, using subnational data from China. Facing no electoral constraint that would reflect the policy preferences of citizens, Chinese local leaders instead allocate public funds differentially based on their need for quality labor in local economic development, a critical criterion for their political success. When the local economy benefits from natural resources, the need for skilled local labor dissipates, and leaders invest less in social services that enhance labor productivity. Using panel data across all prefecture-level cities (1992–2010), I find evidence that mineral resource abundance leads local governments to provide fewer public services for education and health care. Meanwhile, services unrelated to labor quality remain unaffected. The results are robust to the inclusion of key confounding factors such as FDI inflows and state-owned enterprises’ output contributions. Additional analyses reject alternative mechanisms including political turnover.
Media and Minkaohan Uyghurs: Representation, Reaction, and Resistance

Zheng, Liang (Ph.D., Communication, School of Journalism and Mass Communication) Media and Minkaohan Uyghurs: Representation, Reaction and Resistance Thesis directed by Professor Marguerite J. Moritz Chinese media have seen a grand transformation since the 1980s. However, the relationship between Chinese media and its 56 ethnic minority groups is underresearched. This dissertation intends to contribute to this field by examining media and in the context of the Uyghurs, a Turkic-speaking Muslim people who reside in China’s far west Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. Uyghurs number nine million, and consequently this research focuses on a sub-group of them: Minkaohan, who are ethnic Uyghurs who have attended Mandarin-language schools. This dissertation examines the post 9/11 representation of Uyghurs in Chinese state media and shows how Minkaoahan react to these portrayals. By examining Minkaohan, we can better understand the degree to which Chinese media depicts or disregards complexity in its representations of Uyghurs and the meaning-making practices of Minkaohan. This dissertation also studies how Han Chinese in Xinjiang perceive Uyghurs in relation to media. Based on a content analysis on four state newspapers and 38 in-depth interviews, this dissertation finds that Uyghurs are represented in China’s state media in a partial and biased way. The content analysis identifies an important shift in Uyghur representation after 9/11, corresponding to an increase in negative depictions of Uyghurs as more related to terrorism and a greater threat to China.
Chronic Posttraumatic Stress Disorder in Vietnamese Refugees: A Prospective Community Study of Prevalence, Course, Psychopathology, and Stressors

A community cohort of 145 Vietnamese boat refugees in Norway was prospectively studied for presence of chronic posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) after resettlement. Ten percent had PTSD on arrival and/or after 3 years. This group had been exposed to significantly more traumatic stress before their escape (e.g., reeducation camps, combat, and other war incidents) and had more psychopathology (SCL-90-R Global Assessment Scale) after resettlement. A logistic regression analysis indicated that different types of traumatic stress had an independent relationship with chronic PTSD. Nine SCL-90-R items discriminated between the PTSD group and the rest both on arrival and follow-up. These were not anxiety items, but related to interpersonal sensitivity, somatization, and aggression. The inclusion of additional diagnostic features in the criteria for chronic PTSD is indicated.
Volatility Linkages among India, Hong Kong and Singapore Stock Markets

This paper analyzes the volatility linkages among three Asian stock exchange markets, namely India, Singapore and Hong Kong, during the period July 1997 to October 2005. We use a multivariate GARCH model to identify the source and magnitude of spillovers. The empirical analysis showed that the markets exhibit a strong GARCH effect and are highly integrated reacting to information which influence not only the mean returns but their volatility as well.
More than Money: Impact Investing for Development

Much of development policy is geared toward increasing investment and creating the conditions that allow private capital flows to take the place of development assistance. The renowned development success storiesâ€”Taiwan, South Korea, Eastern Europe, Costa Rica, and Chinaâ€”have all been marked by a dramatic increase in private investment, both domestic and foreign.
Development of a large-scale Mandarin Radio Speech Corpus

The Taiwan Mandarin Radio Speech Corpus consists of roughly 300 (and growing) hours of audio recordings, selected from Taiwan's National Education Radio (NER) archive. The corpus includes speech from hundreds of speakers and various speech styles (spontaneous conversational and read news). This corpus provides a rich resource for research in speech and automatic speech recognition (ASR). In this paper, we briefly introduce the corpus development approach and report two preliminary experimental results using this corpus.
Sexual behaviors and condom use at last vaginal intercourse: a national sample of adolescents ages 14 to 17 years.

INTRODUCTION Data on adolescents' sexual and condom use behaviors provides an empirical basis for a range of social, educational, clinical, and public health endeavors. AIMS This study has two purposes: to describe the recent and lifetime prevalence of a variety of sexual behaviors; and, to describe factors associated with condom use at last penile-vaginal intercourse. METHODS Data included those from male (N = 414) and female (N = 406) adolescents (ages 14-17 years) from a nationally representative probability sample. Survey items addressed occurrence (past 90 days, past year, lifetime) of solo masturbation, partnered masturbation, oral sex given to a partner, oral sex received from a partner, vaginal intercourse, and anal intercourse. Participants reporting partnered sexual behaviors in the past year completed additional items about condom use, location of sex, partner characteristics, other sexual behaviors, and alcohol or marijuana use at the most recent sexual event. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Adjusted rates (by gender) of sexual behaviors, and characteristics of most recent vaginal sex event as a function of condom use/non-use. RESULTS Lifetime prevalence of solo masturbation was common for males (80%) and females (48%). Lifetime prevalence of penile-vaginal sex increased with each year of age for both adolescent men and women; however, penile-vaginal sex within the previous 90 days was much less frequently reported. Rates of condom use for penile-vaginal sex were 80% for males and 69% for females. Lifetime anal sex rates were 4.7% for males and 5.5% for females. CONCLUSION Sexual behavior among adolescents was more prevalent and diverse in older adolescent cohorts. Condom use for penile-vaginal intercourse was reported for a majority of events.
A Comparison of the Economic Volatility Spillover Effect of Hong Kong with China and USA

Hong Kong has been part of China now for over twenty years. The economic activities between the two regions are more integrated due to policies for enhancing trade and finance, location convenience and fast economic growth in China. This article examined the economic integration between Hong Kong and China in terms of the volatility spillover effect of four economic indicators, namely real GDP growth rate, inflation rate, M2 supply and the three-month interbank offer rate. We used the Bivariate Multivariate GARCH model. As the USA has been the biggest trade partner of Hong Kong, the economic effect of the USA on Hong Kong was also analyzed. We found that the economic volatility of China significantly spills over to Hong Kong while there is less evidence found for a spillover effect from the USA. As the Hong Kong Dollar is still strictly pegged with the US Dollar, this paper provides evidence for the evaluation of Hong Kong? s monetary policy on the exchange rate system.