Recent years have seen a significant increase in stakeholder pressure on firms to be not only economically sustainable but also from an environmental and social perspective. Besides operational changes in practices and products companies have reacted toward this increased pressure from a strategic perspective through structural changes of their top management team. A recent addition to the TMT has been the appointment of the chief officer of corporate social responsibility. In this paper, we take a behavioral perspective and investigate how (...) the employment of a chief officer of CSR to the TMT impact on firm performance. Specifically, we explore how certain characteristics of the newly appointed chief executive of CSR impact on a firm’s financial performance. We collected secondary, longitudinal data of listed companies in the United States. Results indicate that appointing a chief executive of CSR does under certain conditions and characteristics result in financial performance benefits. Furthermore, the greatest financial performance benefits can be achieved if the appointee is female and has a CSR functional background. (shrink)

In recent years, society has come to recognize that the work performed by scientists, like that of journalists and politicians, may be influenced by the interests they serve. As a result, scientists' research is increasingly contested as a source of reliable knowledge. Such has been the case in issues concerning the climate debate, for example, where research results are at times perceived to comfortably fit in with the viewpoints of interested parties outside science. In medicine, governmental as well as commercial (...) organizations influence the public health research agenda (McGarity and Wagner 2008). Also, studies sponsored by pharmaceutical companies, for example, often yield biased, favorable results for .. (shrink)

In the seminiferous tubule of the mammalian testis, one type A1 spermatogonium (diploid, 2n) divides and differentiates into 256 spermatozoa (haploid, n) during spermatogenesis. To complete spermatogenesis and produce ∼150 × 106 spermatozoa each day in a healthy man, germ cells must migrate progressively across the seminiferous epithelium yet remain attach to the nourishing Sertoli cells. This active cell migration process involves precisely controlled restructuring events at the tight (TJ) and anchoring junctions at the cell–cell interface. While the hormonal events (...) that regulate spermatogenesis by follicle‐stimulating hormone and testosterone from the pituitary gland and Leydig cells, respectively, are known, less is known about the mechanism(s) that regulates junction restructuring during germ cell movement in the seminiferous epithelium. The relative position of tight (TJs) and anchoring junctions in the testis is of interest. Sertoli cell TJs that constitute the blood–testis barrier (BTB) are present side by side with anchoring junctions and are adjacent to the basement membrane. This intimate physical association with the TJs, the anchoring junctions and the basement membrane (a modified form of extracellular matrix, ECM) suggests a role for the ECM in the junction dynamics of the testis. Indeed, evidence is accumulating that ECM proteins are crucial to Sertoli cell TJ dynamics. In this review, we discuss the pivotal role of tumor necrosis factor α (TNFα) on BTB dynamics via its effects on the homeostasis of ECM proteins. In addition, discussion will also be focused on the novel findings regarding the role of non‐basement‐membrane‐associated ECM proteins and components of focal adhesion (a cell–matrix anchoring junction type) in the regulation of junction dynamics in the testis. BioEssays 26:978–992, 2004. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. (shrink)

Reorienting the Political examines the reception of two controversial German philosophers, Carl Schmitt and Leo Strauss, in the Chinese-speaking world. This volume explores the powerful resonance of both thinkers in Chinese political thought from a cross-cultural and interdisciplinary perspective.

Artificial intelligence tools used in employment decision-making cut across the multiple stages of job advertisements, shortlisting, interviews and hiring, and actual and potential bias can arise in each of these stages. One major challenge is to mitigate AI bias and promote fairness in opaque AI systems. This paper argues that the equal opportunity merit principle is an ethical approach for fair AI employment decision-making. Further, explainable AI can mitigate the opacity problem by placing greater emphasis on enhancing the understanding of (...) reasonable users and affected persons as to the AI output. Both the equal opportunity merit principle and explainable AI should be integrated in the design and implementation of AI employment decision-making systems so as to ensure, as far as possible, that the AI output is arrived at through a fair process. (shrink)

Hand function improvement in stroke survivors in the chronic stage usually plateaus by 6 months. Brain-computer interface (BCI)-guided robot-assisted training has been shown to be effective for facilitating upper-limb motor function recovery in chronic stroke. However, the underlying neuroplasticity change is not well understood. This study aimed to investigate the whole-brain neuroplasticity changes after 20-session BCI-guided robot hand training, and whether the changes could be maintained at the 6-month follow-up. Therefore, the clinical improvement and the neurological changes before, immediately after, (...) and 6 months after training were explored in 14 chronic stroke subjects. The upper-limb motor function was assessed by Action Research Arm Test (ARAT) and Fugl-Meyer Assessment for Upper-Limb (FMA), and the neurological changes were assessed using resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging. Repeated-measure ANOVAs indicated that long-term motor improvement was found by both FMA (F[2,26]= 6.367,p= 0.006) and ARAT (F[2,26]= 7.230,p= 0.003). Seed-based functional connectivity analysis exhibited that significantly modulated FC was observed between ipsilesional motor regions (primary motor cortex and supplementary motor area) and contralesional areas (supplementary motor area, premotor cortex, and superior parietal lobule), and the effects were sustained after 6 months. The fALFF analysis showed that local neuronal activities significantly increased in central, frontal and parietal regions, and the effects were also sustained after 6 months. Consistent results in FC and fALFF analyses demonstrated the increase of neural activities in sensorimotor and fronto-parietal regions, which were highly involved in the BCI-guided training.Clinical Trial Registration:This study has been registered atClinicalTrials.govwith clinical trial registration number NCT02323061. (shrink)

Autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis and gastrointestinal disorders such as stomach ulcers are often treated with drugs. NSAIDs, a common treatment in rheumatoid arthritis, may cause stomach ulcers which call for additional medications, notably antacids in the sense of drugs that suppress acid secretion by the stomach. Infection with Helicobacter pylori also plays a role in the ulcers. The infection is typically treated with antibiotics added to antacids. Considering NSAIDs and antacids, we suspect that overmedication is common to the (...) extent that particular diets are a better option. Current research and current treatments with these drugs are also problematic since circadian rhythms are mostly disregarded. All the processes involved in the disorders treated show marked variations in the course of the day. Hence experiments conforming to the guidelines of evidence-based medicine, and treatments in line with them, have outcomes strongly depending on the time factor. This calls for reforms in medicine with fresh inputs from biology. (shrink)

Adaptation to climate change impacts is a key research topic in business ethics that poses substantial implications on the good lives of human beings. The commercial port sector is a highly relevant study focus with its pivotal roles in supply chains and international trade. Hence, it is important to investigate whether the port planning system and practice is appropriate in tackling climate change impacts. But beforehand, we must thoroughly understand the attitude and behaviors of port planners and operators on ports’ (...) climate adaptation planning. Through a survey towards 21 ports in Canada, the paper investigates the attitude and behaviors of port planners and operators on ports’ climate adaptation planning. Towards the end, we propose a new approach so as to enable port stakeholders to carry out climate adaptation planning effectively. The paper offers important insight to researchers to investigate the ways in developing effective climate adaptation plans and practice for ports and other business sectors. (shrink)

Biology incorporated into other disciplines is often distorted, alarmingly so in some areas of medicine. Together with other forms of bias, this may have detrimental effects for patients depending on medical research for their health. A case study concerning omeprazole (Losec), one of the acid-suppressive drugs against gastric ulcers, and NSAIDs, non-steroid anti-inflammatory drugs, confirms that distorted biology together with biased health care policies foster disasters in current biomedicine and medical practice. In our country, The Netherlands, omeprazole is presumably the (...) most commonly used medication. NSAIDs are also used in large quantities, increasingly since they have become available as analgesic over-the-counter drugs. Unofficial and official sources tend to inform the general public that the drugs promote human health. We argue that their being used on a massive scale is actually a medical disaster. The health of many patients would be served better if the drugs they take were replaced by proper forms of diet, but the pharmaceutical industry, the most potent force affecting medication policies, appears to prevent a shift in the balance from over-medicalization towards healthy life styles. The shift should come from government agencies responsible for regulation in the medication market. Policies of these agencies are now a dismal failure. (shrink)

With postmodern societies placing a strong emphasis on making full use of one’s time, it is increasingly common to extol busy individuals as more achieving. In this context, although feeling a social expectation to be busy might imply that individuals are regarded as competent and desirable, its accompanying stressors may also detrimentally impact their mental health. Utilising data from a seven-day diary study, the current research examined the relationship between people’s daily perceived pressure to be busy and their daily emotional (...) wellbeing. Multilevel modelling revealed that daily social pressure to be busy was a significant predictor of daily negative affect, anxiety, and depressive symptoms at the within-person level. Of import, individuals’ trait emotional complexity acceptance moderated these relationships, with those lower on emotional complexity acceptance reporting significantly higher negative affect, anxiety, and depressive symptoms on days they felt greater social pressure to be busy. These effects were not observed among those higher on emotional complexity acceptance. Together, the current findings suggest that social pressure to feel busy is generally related to poorer daily emotional wellbeing, and that those with higher trait emotional complexity acceptance have an advantage of maintaining their emotional wellbeing in the face of such a social pressure. (shrink)

Social media applications such as Twitter, YouTube and Facebook have attained huge popularity, with more than three billion people and organizations predicted to have a social networking account by 2015. Social media offers a rapid avenue of communication with the public and has potential benefits for communicable disease control and surveillance. However, its application in everyday public health practice raises a number of important issues around confidentiality and autonomy. We report here a case from local level health protection where the (...) friend of an individual with meningococcal septicaemia used a social networking site to notify potential contacts. (shrink)

The present article allows to explore, analyze and reflect on the consequences and problems posed by biobanks and attempts to prove the need of social and humanitarian support in establishing and functioning of biobanks as a new type of scientific institutions. The basis of the article is the latest publications devoted to social and humanitarian aspects of biobanking and Russian experience of the initial formation of this subject domain. The article marks and classifies different aspects of biobanking that objectively demands (...) the participation of specialists in ethics and social sciences. The cases of biobanking development and risks are estimated; the objective need of applied ethics and social sciences specialists’ participation in biobanking is proved. (shrink)

In folk songs, which can be described as melodies reflecting the feelings and thoughts of the people, it is possible to find all kinds of events experienced by the person or society, all kinds of emotions that can be felt, in other words, the joy, sadness, life and beliefs of individuals and/or society, in short, all elements of life. Folk songs are one of the most important sources in which society's perception of religion, religious life, and how religion is theoretically (...) or practically embodied in daily life can be determined. With this study, it is aimed to determine the reflections of the subject of “religion (Islam)” in the folk songs of Âşık Veysel, (the existence of the subject of religion, how it takes place theoretically and practically), and to classify and evaluate the materials found. Before moving on to the main topic in the study, brief and concise information was given about Âşık Veysel and his folk songs/poems. In the main part of the study, the religious elements contained in the lyrics of Âşık Veysel's compositions/adaptations and lyrics in a total of thirty-seven pieces of broken air style procedural (rhythmic) works belonging to him were examined in the form of substances. The works belonging to him that he sang as poems without melody, the works that were in a unmetered folk song style (uzun hava, rhythmless) and free rhythm, and the works whose lyrics belonged to other bards/poets and were performed by Âşık Veysel were not subjected to examination. This limitation of the scope of the study is due to the fact that Veysel's folk songs are more widespread, visible and listened to, as well as the fact that the analysis of all his works exceeds the volume of the article. Based on the saying “what is inside the cube seeps out of it”, a number of results have been achieved as a result of studying the religious elements found in the lyrics of the songs composed and sung by Âşık Veysel in the metered folk song style(kırık hava, rhythmic) style. Many religious and mystical topics such as Allah, prophets, holy books, worldly life, the hereafter, heaven, hell, death, mourning, fate, spiritual/luminous beings, sacrifice, prayer, curse, martyrdom, veteran, sects, loyalty and dhikr have been directly or indirectly included in folk songs, which are usually seen to be sung/written in an admonitory style. Prayer, zakat, fasting, hajj, etc. practical issues have not been included at all. (shrink)

Over the past two decades, Victor and Cullen's (Adm Sci Q 33:101-125, 1988) typology of ethical climates has been employed by many academics in research on issues of ethical climates. However, little is known about how managerial practices such as communication and empowerment influence ethical climates, especially from a functional perspective. The current study used a survey of employees from Taiwan's top 100 patent-owning companies to examine how communication and empowerment affect organizational ethical climates. The results confirm the relationship between (...) these two managerial practices and organizational ethical climates. We discuss our results and their implications for both future academic research and practice. (shrink)

Academic ethical values, having the well-deserved place by nursing and other scientific fields, and developing of the nursing science are proportionate to obeying the academic ethical values and internalizing those values. This study was carried out to determine the nurse academicians’ attitudes related to ethical values and related factors. The descriptive research was carried out between the dates of May and June 2017. The scope of the research consisted of nurse academicians working for two universities in Turkey and the sample (...) of the study consisted of 103 nurse academicians who had accepted to participate in the research. Data were collected by using “Descriptive Characteristics Information Form” and “Academic Ethics Values Scale”. Ethical considerations: Ethic approval from the institution, the Training and Research Hospital Noninvasive Clinical Studies Ethics Committee at the University of İzmir Katip Çelebi, and written approval from the owner of the scale were taken in order to carry out the study. The average age of the participants was 35.7 ± 9.6, 95% of them were female, and 51.5% of them were working as research assistants. The nurse academicians’ total item point average was 177,99 ± 11,01 and the attitudes of nurse academicians towards academic ethical values were positively. When the sub-dimension item point averages of the scale were examined, the lowest item point average was determined for the sub-dimension of “Scientific Research” as the highest item point average were being determined for the sub-dimension of “Teaching Process”. In this study that the participants’ attitudes towards academic ethical values were found meaningful at a high level, it was seen that academic assignment and age were important factors for the nurse academicians’ attitudes towards the colleagues and the teaching process. (shrink)

There has been plenty of empirical evidence which shows that the single-particle picture holds to a good approximation in atomic nuclei. In this picture, protons and neutrons move independently inside a mean-field potential generated by an interaction among the nucleons. This leads to the concept of nuclear shells, similar to the electronic shells in atoms. In particular, the magic numbers due to closures of the nucleonic shells, corresponding to noble gases in elements, have been known to play an important role (...) in nuclear physics. Here we propose a periodic table for atomic nuclei, in which the elements are arranged according to the known nucleonic shells. The nuclear periodic table clearly indicates that nuclei in the vicinity of the magic numbers can be understood in terms of a shell closure with one or two additional nucleons or nucleon holes, while nuclei far from the magic numbers are characterized by nuclear deformation. (shrink)

Background and objectives Conscientious refusal of abortion has been discussed widely by medical ethicists but little information on practitioners' opinions exists. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) issued recommendations about conscientious refusal. We used a vignette experiment to examine obstetrician-gynecologists' (OB/GYN) support for the recommendations. Design A national survey of OB/GYN physicians contained a vignette experiment in which an OB/GYN doctor refused a requested elective abortion. The vignette varied two issues recently addressed by the ACOG ethics committee—whether the (...) doctor referred and whether the doctor disclosed their objection to the abortion. Participants and setting 1800 OB/GYN randomly selected physicians were asked to complete a mail survey containing the vignette. The response rate was 66% (n=1154) after excluding 40 ineligible cases. Measurement Physicians indicated their approval for the vignette doctor's decision. Main results Overall, 43% of OB/GYN physicians responded that the conscientious refusal exercised by the vignette physician was appropriate. 70% rated the vignette doctor as acting appropriately when a referral was made. This dropped to 51% when the doctor disclosed objections to the patient, and to 12% when the doctor disclosed objections and refused to make a referral. Consistent with previous research, males were more likely to support disclosure and refusal to refer. Highly religious physicians supported non-referral but not disclosure. Conclusion OB/GYN physicians are less likely to support conscientious refusal of abortion if physicians disclose their objections to patients. This is at odds with ACOG recommendations and with some models of the doctor–patient relationship. (shrink)

A class of solutions of field equations in \\) gravity proposed by Harko et. al. for a Bianchi type I space–time with dark matter and Holographic Dark Energy is mentioned. Exact solutions of field equations are obtained with volumetric power and exponential expansion laws. The negative value of the deceleration parameter represents the present acceleration of the universe. It is observed that EoS parameter of HDE is a decreasing function, converges to the negative value in Power-law model whereas in exponential (...) model, it behaves like cosmological constant. The overall density parameter approaches to some constant values close to 1 which is in agreement with the observational data of the universe. The physical and geometrical parameters of the models are discussed in detail. The statefinder diagnostic pair and jerk parameter are analyzed to characterize completely different phases of the universe. (shrink)