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Changed dietary habits in Western countries such as reduced fiber intake represent an important lifestyle factor contributing to the increase in inflammatory immune-mediated diseases. The mode of action of beneficial fiber effects is not fully elucidated, but short-chain fatty acids (SCFA) and gut microbiota have been implicated. The aim of this study was to explore the impact of dietary fiber on lupus pathology and to understand underlying mechanisms. Here, we show that in lupus-prone NZB/WF1 mice low fiber intake deteriorates disease progression reflected in accelerated mortality, autoantibody production and immune dysregulation. In contrast to our original assumption, microbiota suppression by antibiotics or direct SCFA feeding did not influence the course of lupus-like disease. Mechanistically, our data rather indicate that in low fiber-fed mice, an increase in white adipose tissue mass, fat-inflammation and a disrupted intestinal homeostasis go along with systemic, low-grade inflammation driving autoimmunity. The links between obesity, intestinal leakage and low-grade inflammation were confirmed in human samples, while adaptive immune activation predominantly correlated with lupus activity. We further propose that an accelerated gastro-intestinal passage along with energy dilution underlies fiber-mediated weight regulation. Thus, our data highlight the often-overlooked effects of dietary fiber on energy homeostasis and obesity prevention. Further, they provide insight into how intricately the pathologies of inflammatory immune-mediated conditions, such as obesity and autoimmunity, might be interlinked, possibly sharing common pathways.

The Portable FPV System with Smartaudio is a method used simply to control a radio-controlled vehicle specifically those that use Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) or other type of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) in the driver or Pilot’s view point. Incorporated to the system is a special feature called Smartaudio. Smartaudio is a type of VTX telemetry protocol in which it is a combination of an audio signal and a digital control signal. The two said signals are combined together to one simple audio signal. This signal can be used to control the VTX or Video Transmitter. And it is a simple serial signal. This basically allows the Pilot of the UAV to change settings for video transmitter via the On Screen Display (OSD) menu. So having Smartaudio feature makes things like switching VTX channels, power levels less difficult for Pilots, with no need to push switches or obscure push button menus. When pilots switched over to this system that supports Smartaudio it is seen just how quickly it can change multiple settings using OSD, giving more freedom and accessibility.

Background Proprioceptive position sense (PPS) plays a critical role in movement and coordination of the upper limbs. It is commonly affected in neurological disorders such as unilateral spastic cerebral palsy (USCP) and stroke. However, UL PPS is often not considered during assessment or treatment in motor rehabilitation programs, in part due to limitations of current methods to quantify PPS. Traditional methods assess the similarity or symmetry of angles of a single joint and may not be sufficiently sensitive nor accurate. Emerging methods such as the use of robotic technology typically are limited to 2D and are also not standardizable as they are not easily available to clinics and research labs. This study aims to introduce a standardized and accessible way to quantify multi-joint PPS using 3D kinematic measures. Methods We developed novel multi-joint angle and distance-based measures of symmetry to assess upper limb PPS. Healthy adults (N = 17) and children with USCP (N=9) participated in this study. Kinematics were extracted during upper limb 3D pose matching tasks using a VICON Nexus system. Brunner-Munzel permutation tests were used for statistical comparisons between groups. Pearson’s correlation coefficient was used to investigate the relationship between the different symmetry measures and pose matching tasks. Results We introduced novel angle and distance-based measures of symmetry to estimate PPS. Healthy adults scored higher on both these symmetry measures compared to children with USCP. Angle and distance-based symmetries did correlate with each other. Exploratory factor analysis indicated that both angle symmetry and joint distance symmetry were highly loaded by the latent factor that best explained variance in the data. These results suggest that the two measures of pose symmetry are not redundant. It was also observed that distance symmetry was less sensitive to the different poses while angle symmetry varied across poses. Conclusions Symmetry measures derived from kinematics during upper limb pose matching tasks can estimate multi-joint PPS. Angle and distance-based symmetries together provide information about an individual’s ability to sense joint position. This framework will allow clinicians and researchers to measure PPS of upper limbs only using kinematic acquisition devices.

Sinensetin, a plant-derived polymethoxylated flavonoid found in Orthosiphon aristatus var. aristatus and several citrus fruits, has been found to possess strong anticancer activities and a variety of other pharmacological benefits and promising potency in intended activities with minimal toxicity. This review aims to compile an up-to-date reports of published scientific information on sinensetin pharmacological activities, mechanisms of action and toxicity. The present findings about the compound are critically analyzed and its prospect as a lead molecule for drug discovery is highlighted. The databases employed for data collection are mainly through Google Scholar, PubMed, Scopus and Science Direct. In-vitro and in-vivo studies showed that sinensetin possessed strong anticancer activities and a wide range of pharmacological activities such as anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, antimicrobial, anti-obesity, anti-dementia and vasorelaxant activities. The studies provided some insights on its several mechanisms of action in cancer and other disease states. However, more detail mechanistic studies are needed to understand its pharmacological effects. More in vivo studies in various animal models including toxicity, pharmacokinetic, pharmacodynamic and bioavailability studies are required to assess its efficacy and safety before submission to clinical studies. In this review, an insight on sinensetin pharmacological activities and mechanisms of action serves as a useful resource for a more thorough and comprehensive understanding of sinensetin as a potential lead candidate for drug discovery.

The objective of this paper is to investigate the role of Investor Relations (IR) in the performance of companies listed on the Bucharest Stock Exchange. The study is motivated by the findings in the literature that investor relations may boost information disclosure, analyst following, institutional investor share, liquidity, and business valuation. The current article contributes to the relevant literature by making use of the recently released unique database of VEKTOR scores on company investor relations for 2019 and 2020. The main finding based on regression methodology shows that IR scores have a strong positive relationship with firm performance. Specifically, a one standard deviation rise in the IR score corresponds to a 2.6% rise in company ROA. Companies may be advised to strengthen their investor relations based on these findings about the beneficial role of investor relations.

We propose a novel approach for interpreting the success of different book genres through the analysis of book sales. The drivers of success shaping the sales of books have been studied in literature over recent years, focusing mainly on factors such as writing, reviews, and ads. Our study aims to uncover the book genres that may affect the success of books, in terms of number of sales and overall income per genre. To achieve this, we employing a network science approach and create a complex network of book genres based on big data collected from the Amazon platform. The result is a graph of 609 genres, extracted from 9.4 million book sales, in which 39 different genre clusters form. Our graph centrality analysis shows that the most popular genre is Children’s books, and the most expensive genre is Computers and Technology. Furthermore, the obtained network model, with its clusters, can aid the publishing market by creating better computational intelligence tools for the prediction of books’ success.

Following the 2010 Deepwater Horizon accident of a massive blow-out in the Gulf of Mexico, scientists from government, industry, and academia collaborated to advance oil spill modeling and share best practices in model algorithms, parameterizations, and application protocols. This synergy was greatly enhanced by research funded under the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative (GoMRI), a 10-year enterprise that allowed unprecedented collection of observations and data products, novel experiments, and international collaborations that focused on the Gulf of Mexico, but resulted in the generation of scientific findings and tools of broader value. Operational oil spill modeling greatly benefited from research during the GoMRI decade. This paper provides a comprehensive synthesis of the related scientific advances, remaining challenges, and future outlook. Two main modeling components are discussed: Ocean circulation and oil spill models, to provide details on all attributes that contribute to the success and limitations of the integrated oil spill forecasts. These forecasts are discussed in tandem with uncertainty factors and methods to mitigate them. The paper focuses on operational aspects of oil spill modeling and forecasting, including examples of international operational center practices, observational needs, communication protocols, and promising new methodologies.

Background Neurorehabilitation has become in a widely used approach in spinocerebellar ataxias, but there are scarce powerful clinical studies supporting this notion. Objective The objective of this study was to assess the efficacy of a 24-week neurorehabilitative treatment in spinocerebellar ataxia type 2 patients. Methods A total of 38 spinocerebellar ataxia type 2 patients were enrolled in a rater-blinded, 1:1 randomized, controlled trial using neurorehabilitation for 24 weeks. The treated group received 6 hours of neurorehabilitation therapy, emphasizing on balance, coordination, and muscle strengthening on weekdays, whereas the control group did not receive this intervention. Primary outcome measure was the Scale for the Assessment and Rating of Ataxia score, whereas secondary outcome measures included the count of Inventory of Non-Ataxia Symptoms and saccadic eye movement variables. Results The rehabilitated group had high levels of adherence and retention to the therapy and showed a significant decrease of Scale for the Assessment and Rating of Ataxia score at 24 weeks when compared with the controls, mainly for the gait, stance, sitting, finger chase, and heel-shin test items. Changes in Scale for the Assessment and Rating of Ataxia scores were inversely correlated with the mutation size in the rehabilitated group. The nonataxia symptom count and saccadic measures were unchanged during the study. Conclusions A comprehensive 24-week rehabilitation program significantly improves the motor cerebellar symptoms of spinocerebellar ataxia type 2 patients as assessed by the ataxia rating score likely as result of the partial preservation of motor learning and neural plasticity mechanisms. These findings provide evidence in support of this therapeutic approach as palliative treatment in spinocerebellar ataxia type 2 suggesting its use in combination with other symptomatic or neuroprotective drugs and in prodromal stages. © 2018 International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society.

The challenged to developers is to automate relative humidity and temperature which control and monitoring approaches is using SMS based on the notification as part of the technology innovation. Thus, it complicates in the banana tissue culture laboratory implementation to have efficient monitoring system supplements the concept of the study that makes it more interesting and timelier in the implementation of Internet of Things Approach. The project intent to help the owner to automatically control and monitor temperature and humidity in banana tissue culture laboratory to provide appropriate temperature and relative humidity for banana which is the basic requirements to maintain the fast growth and resistant to diseases and infection. The prototype was tested with a white-box testing approach which surpass the requirements to the real laboratory. A survey questionnaire was also being used as part of evaluating the functionality and usability of the prototype that a very agree on both are the result.

Thalassemia is one of the genetic diseases that cause anemia and ineffective erythropoiesis. Increased levels of several inflammatory cytokines have been reported in β-thalassemia and might contribute to ineffective erythropoiesis. However, the mechanism by which tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α) is involved in ineffective erythropoiesis in thalassemic patients remains unclear. The objective of this study is to investigate the effect of TNF-α on the erythropoietin (EPO) and erythropoietin receptor (EPOR) expression involved in proliferation of β-thalassemia/hemoglobin (Hb) E erythroid progenitor cells compared with cells from healthy subjects.CD34-positive cells were isolated from heparinized blood by using the EasySep® CD34 selection kit. Cells were then cultured with suitable culture medium in various concentrations of EPO for 14 days. The effect of TNF-α on percent cell viability was analyzed by trypan blue staining. In addition, the percentage of apoptosis and levels of EPOR protein were measured by flow cytometry.Upon EPO treatment, a higher cell number was observed for erythroid progenitor cells from both healthy participants and β-thalassemia/Hb E patients. However, a reduction of apoptosis was found in EPO-treated cells especially for β-thalassemia/Hb E patients. Interestingly, TNF-α caused higher levels of cell apoptosis and lower levels of EPOR protein in thalassemic erythroid progenitor cells.TNF-α caused a reduction in the level of EPOR protein and EPO-induced erythroid progenitor cell proliferation. It is possible that TNF-α could be involved in the mechanism of ineffective erythropoiesis in β-thalassemia/Hb E patients.Amaç: Talasemi anemi ve inefektif eritropoeze neden olan genetik hastalıklardan birisidir. Enflamatuvar sitokinlerin bir çoğunun seviyelerinde artma b-talasemide gösterilmiş olup, bu durum inefektif eritropoeze katkıda bulunabilir. Ancak, tümör nekrozlaştırıcı faktör-alfa’nın (TNF-α) talasemik hastalarda inefektif eritropoeze nasıl bir mekanizma ile neden olduğu bilinmemektedir. Bu çalışmanın amacı b-talasemi/hemoglobin (Hb) E eritroid öncül hücrelerinde sağlıklı kontrollerin hücreleri ile karşılaştırıldığında TNF-α’nın eritropoetin (EPO) ve eritropoetin reseptör (EPOR) sunumu üzerine etkisinin araştırılmasıdır. Gereç ve Yöntemler: CD34-pozitif hücreler EasySep® CD34 seçim kiti yardımı ile heparinli kandan izole edildi. Hücreler 14 gün boyunca uygun kültür ortamında değişik EPO konsantrasyonlarında kültürde bekletildi. TNF-α’nın hücre canlılık yüzdesine etkisi tripan mavisi boyası ile incelendi. Bunun yanında, apopitoz yüzdesi ve EPOR protein seviyeleri akış sitometrisi ile ölçüldü. Bulgular: EPO tedavisi ile eritroid öncül hücrelerinin sayısında hem sağlıklı katılımcılarda hem de b-talasemi/Hb E hastalarında artış olduğu görüldü. Ancak özellikle b-talasemi/Hb E hastalarında EPO ile muamele edilmiş hücrelerde apopitozda azalma görüldü. İlginç olarak, TNF-α talasemik eritroid öncül hücrelerde hücre apopitoz oranında artmaya ve EPOR protein seviyelerinde azalmaya neden oldu. Sonuç: TNF-α EPOR protein düzeyi ve EPO ile uyarılmış eritroid öncül hücre çoğalmasında azalmaya neden oldu. b-talasemia/Hb E hastalarında TNF-α inefektif eritropoez mekanizmasında yer alıyor olabilir.

Chemical compatibility is a key consideration throughout the chemical industry wherever two or more chemicals have the potential to mix, either inadvertently or by design. One of the most comprehensive tools available for determining chemical compatibility, the NOAA Chemical Reactivity Worksheet (CRW), has gained significant traction since the release of the third version (CRW3) in 2012. In 3 years, this free software has been downloaded >200,000 times and has become the chemical compatibility tool of choice at many organizations. As a result of an ongoing partnership between the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), The Dow Chemical Company, The Center for Chemical Process Safety (CCPS), Materials Technology Institute (MTI) and other industrial/academic/government volunteers, a fourth version of the CRW (CRW4) has been developed. The expanded capabilities of this new version include a materials of construction section, improved import/exporting/data sharing capabilities, additional reactive groups to aid in determining compatibility decisions, several user interface enhancements, along with the correction of minor issues found in the CRW3. This article will describe past development, the new features included in the CRW4, followed by a brief discussion of future development plans for the software tool. Such developments should solidify this tool's position as the gold standard within the chemical industry for determining chemical hazards. © 2016 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Process Saf Prog 36: 24–29, 2017

The present paper evaluates the Romanian public universities from funding efficiency point of view over the past 7 years, respectively 2012-2018. In order to evaluate the funding efficiency, we employed a nonparametric method, namely data envelopment analysis (DEA) for three-cycle system (technical efficiency from constant return to scale, technical efficiency from variable return to scale and scale efficiency). Based on our empirical findings 11 universities showed to be efficient when we applied VRS and only two universities with CRS approach. When scale efficacy was applied, our sample reduced to only two public universities as being efficient. This study identifies characteristics that describe differences within the public universities efficiency based on funding in higher education system in Romanian

The present paper empirically examines the relation between corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices and company financial performance (CFP) for firms listed on the Bucharest Stock Exchange. Likewise, the paper analyzes the CSR policies adopted by the companies as CSR practices towards six types of stakeholders that influence the CFP. Using principal component analysis, we developed a CSR index and several specific indices for CSR practices. By estimating cross-sectional regression models, our study provides support for a positive link between CSR and CFP, when companies implement CSR policies regarding employees, environmental protection, and ethics as social practices. Further, empirical findings show that companies responsive to the CSR concept and those considering international standards and regulations for quality products and services in their business strategy enhance CFP.

Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) is a serious complication in β-thalassemia. The mechanism of PAH development is believed to be through chronic platelet activation and red cell (RBC) membrane abnormality contributing to a hypercoagulable state and thrombosis, which consequently leads to the development of PAH. Extracellular vesicles (EVs) shed from the plasma membrane of platelets and RBCs are found to be associated with thrombotic risk. This study aimed to investigate the involvement of phosphatidylserine (PS)-bearing cells and EVs in accelerating the progression of the hypercoagulable state in transfusion-dependent thalassemia (TDT) patients. Fresh whole blood samples from splenectomized TDT-β-thalassemia/HbE patients (11 with PAH and 14 without PAH) and 15 normal subjects were analyzed for platelet activation by measuring P-selectin expression using flow cytometry and the number of dense granular using an electron microscope. The amounts of PS-bearing RBCs, large RBC-EVs, platelets, and medium EVs were determined by flow cytometry. Platelet activation in PAH patients was not significantly different from other groups; however, the amounts of PS-bearing large RBC-EVs, platelets, and medium platelet-derived EVs were significantly increased in PAH patients as compared to normal subjects, but they were not different from patients without PAH. This could be affected by antiplatelet therapy that reduced the levels of platelet activation and the amount of PS-bearing cells, including EVs, in PAH patients as well as in patients without PAH.

The relation between the level of implementation of environmental practices and corporate financial performance (CFP) becomes important, especially when environmental policies, with corresponding standards and regulations, are adopted by the company on a voluntary basis and when companies economic activities affect stakeholders. In our research, we relate environmental practices with CFP by designing a way of measuring a particular environmental rating for which we didn't found any similar approach in the bibliographical references. Our results show that there is a significant difference in CFP between companies adopting environmental policies and those which are not adopting environmental policies. We used as financial measures Return on Assets (ROA), Return on Equity (ROE), and Price to Book Value (PBV) on a sample of 21 companies from the manufacturing industry listed on the Bucharest Stock Exchange (BSE), over the period of 2011-2013.

This below paper studies the international directly invested capital and develops on coordinates already drawn by our previous working papers seeing facts developed at the world scale. Our previous findings inventory will here reach a new item regarding Europe and Asia, i.e. Eurasia continental block, which isn’t quite a region according to our previous papers’ standard requirements, but it contains some unexpected and interesting specific features.

Background: Vaccine-preventable diseases (VPD) are common causes of morbidity and mortality reported worldwide among children under five years old. However, routine coverage rates for recommended vaccines in many countries are still below the national targets. Objective: To systematically collate and synthesize evidence on public health interventions and strategies used in increasing the childhood vaccination uptake. Design: A systematic literature search was conducted using studies that published in last 10 years. The present study was conducted using electronic search resources (PubMed/MEDLINE, Google scholar and Science Direct) and manually searched of references for evidence present in published studies. The inclusion criteria set was public health intervention studies with aimed to increase vaccine uptake of recommended childhood vaccinations. Two independent authors reviewed studies found for agreement on the quality of studies before it be selected as evidence data. The disagreement was resolved through discussion and the third author was added when necessary for consensus. The quality of study methodology was graded using the Effective Public Health Practice Project qualitative assessment tool for quantitative study. Results: There were 17 of 21 studies were synthesized in the final discussion. Current study found that 76% of the public health interventions studies, used strategies by targeting the parents or guardians while 12% of the interventions targeting the health care workers and the rest is targeting the community. Interventions used in the studies were mobile-based messages (41%), face-to-face parent/community-based (29%), health care service delivery (18%) and internet/the web-based (12%). Conclusion: Improving vaccine uptake using latest technology communication like mobile-based messages or the internet-based for educational intervention should be consider for immediate action in facing vaccination hesitancy. However, these methods are needed further assessment for cost effective. Any strategies used should tailor to target population’s need, socio-cultural background, reasons for hesitancy, and the specific organization goals.

Smart antenna networks are receiving a lot of interest in these days, as new advanced and fast processors are being developed. Capable of pointing the main beam in a certain desired direction and create nulls in the radiation pattern in the direction of interference, smart antenna networks are a good solution in a bandwidth limited environment as the number of users continuously grow. This technique is called beamforming. For many years smart antennas were not practical as they involve the use of a processor that runs an adaptive algorithm. Slow processors meant low speed of convergence and a slow adaptation. There are a lot of adaptive algorithms that can fur fill the job that a smart antenna system has to accomplish. The main purpose of this paper is however to present the main advantages of creating a MATLAB GUI (Graphical User Interface) in order to study these algorithms. The GUI described studies 62 adaptive algorithms, some described in literature, some propose by the authors. We will make a short description of the LMS (Least Mean Squares Algorithm), the APA (Affine Projection Algorithm) and the GASSAPA (Gradient Adaptive Scalar Step Size Affine Projection Algorithm) and compare them with the use of the graphical interface.

The consumption of organic food is on the rise due to increasing health consciousness among Malaysians regarding food intake, as well as to the growth of the organic agricultural sector in this country. Therefore, this study attempts to investigate Malaysian consumers’ awareness and intention towards organic food consumption. A questionnaire survey was conducted for this study and the questionnaire was distributed to respondents in the townships of Shah Alam and Subang Jaya. Early results show respondents are highly aware of organic food, they find organic food to be good for their health as well as have the intention to purchase organic food products for their families.

The household is likely to base on one family structure—i.e., two spouses, sometimes together with a number of children. The latest are also likely to grow up, fulfill the age of majority, but sometimes stay further home, in the same old household with their parents while though they get some jobs around and earn some money in the labour market, as well as their parents. Other kinds of human relationships than legal family might equally make it. And households of one or another kind are found to work similarly, as economically. Besides, household is unanimously admitted among economic entities—i.e., it is autonomous in its economic functions, never subordinated to anyone else, and enough influenced by its environment. The literature exposed below will see the household making its own: (i) production, (ii) consumption and (iii) time reserve allowing. The below paper will then search for some insights in this particular economic area.

As a result of a two-year joint effort between the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and The Dow Chemical Company, an enhanced version (3.0) of the NOAA Chemical Reactivity Worksheet now is available. In addition to addressing previously identified limitations with version 2.0 of this tool, several enhancements have been incorporated into the tool to help with the generation and presentation of chemical compatibility charts. This article covers the development and use of this new tool, highlighting the enhancements that position this tool to become the gold standard within the chemical industry for determining chemical compatibility. © 2013 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Process Saf Prog 33: 4–18, 2014

Objective: The major pathophysiological features of β-thalassemia are anemia and ineffective erythropoiesis. Ineffective erythropoiesis has been shown by an intense marrow erythroid hyperplasia and increased apoptosis during basophilic to orthochromatic normoblast stages. Some cytokines like interferon-γ (IFN-γ), tumor necrosis factor α (TNF-α) and interleukin-1 (IL-1) have been found to involved in apoptosis. Although the pro-apoptotic activity of IFN-γ and TNF-α is well documented, there are only few studies on IL-1, especially on erythroid lineage. In this in vitro study, the role of cytokine IL-1α and IL-1β in apoptosis of erythroid progenitor cells from β- thalassemia/HbE patients was assessed. Methods: Erythroid progenitor cells were isolated from peripheral blood of healthy subjects and β-thalassemia/HbE patients. Cells were then cultured, with and without 20 ng/ml IL-1α and IL-1β. Total cells and percent cell viability were performed by using trypan blue staining. Percent cell apoptosis was analyzed by using flow cytometer. Results: Both IL-1α and IL-1β were significantly decreased erythroid progenitor cells. IL-1 at 20 ng/ml reduced the glycophorin A positive cells and percent cell viability of erythroid progenitor cells from β-thalassemia/HbE patients, while there was increased apoptosis in this group. The highest percent apoptosis was observed in 20 ng/ml IL-1β treated β-thalassemia/HbE erythroid progenitor cells. Conclusion: IL-1β could be involved in apoptosis of erythroid progenitor cells from β-thalassemia/HbE patients which might be related with ineffective erythropoiesis of the disease. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3126/ajms.v3i4.6805 Asian Journal of Medical Science Vol.3(4) 2012 pp.8-14

This is our third article already in the previously promised series to focus on FDI & DIA, as unitary fluid substance world owned, and so flows and stocks and country actors carrying these, but respective amounts unevenly distribute on these country actors. Once more, our approach on FDI won’t change any of its previous paradigm, coordinates and criteria considered, i.e dynamics mean individual country versus world speed difference along the 1994-2015 interval, in which the 1994 stocks accumulate FDI&DIA flows since 1990, and top countries range up to an important majority of stocks amounts in the total and so a relatively stable percentage, on the one hand, and down to 0.2% on FDI/inflows and to 0.1% of the same total world stocks on DIA/outflows, on the other. This time we will stay in Europe to focus on two so-called ‘sub-regions’ of this continent with interesting FDI-DIA contents, that will then interestingly aggregate for something that might equally become a territory more economically homogeneous than previously thought.

This chapter describes the ways in which CSR practices can develop and strengthen company’s relation with their key stakeholders in order to create both social and financial value to the companies. Using companies CSR reports, current study identifies theoretically for the case of Romania the mechanisms and the important contingencies in whether the CSR practices are considered by stakeholders authentically and effective and if these practices persist in time. The importance of relation between company and stakeholders through CSR practices is due because of the long term success of the company as there are outside immediate profit maximization goals. We conclude from companies CSR reports and websites that in order to achieve long term financial performance, they (the companies) engage in specific CSR activities as social activities. Thus, companies select ‘the right’ social activities turning them into companies’ strategies addressed to specific types of stakeholders, namely to those are trying to strengthen their relation with.

The advents of technology have reshaped the way people live, work and communicate. This high-tech development is also observed in the process of teaching and learning especially in higher learning institution. Aligned with the use of technology in institutions of higher education, a growing concern of academic dishonesty issue has emerged. This paper aims to investigate the reasons students engaged in plagiarism and their level of awareness towards plagiarism activity. A total of 99 sets of questionnaires were collected from students of a degree business program in a public university in Malaysia. The findings indicate that the level of awareness among students on plagiarism is high. However, that does not stop them from engaging with plagiarism having easy access of the internet and the fact that they have a habit of doing last minute work. Different perceptions between genders on plagiarism were also investigated and discussed.

The increased attention of companies’ managers towards the benefits of corporate social responsibility (CSR) has led many corporations to integrate CSR practices into their business strategy. Consequently, the literature has examined the relation between CSR and firm performance. Although CSR is adopted by companies on a voluntary basis, more heated discussions regarding the effects of CSR on company financial performance has lead various authors to different results. This chapter empirically analyzes the CSR effects on company financial performance in developing countries, especially Romania. As empirical method we employed univariate analysis to investigate whether the company financial performance of companies which implement CSR (considered experiment group) is higher than non-CSR companies (considered control group). T-test is used to find out if there is any statistically difference in mean company financial performance between ROA, ROE, ROS, PBV, PER, and EPS of experiment group and control group. The sample used included 68 companies listed on the Bucharest Stock Exchange (BSE) for the 2011 fiscal year. The empirical research reveals that there is not a significant difference in mean company financial performance between CSR companies and non-CSR companies.

This article continues the previously promised series to focus on FDI & DIA, as unitary fluid substance world owned, and so flows and stocks and country actors carrying these, but respective amounts unevenly distribute on these country actors. This meets circumstances of a game theory, or so. Dynamics mean individual country versus world speed difference along the 1994-2015 interval, in which the 1994 stocks accumulate FDI & DIA flows since 1990, and top countries range up to an important majority of stocks amounts in the total (85-95%) and so a relatively stable percentage, on the one hand, and down to 0.2% on FDI/inflows and to 0.1% of the same total world stocks on DIA/outflows, on the other. This time it will be for a changing organizational context, i.e. from countries to regions.

This article continues the previously promised series to focus on FDI & DIA, as unitary fluid substance world owned, and so flows and stocks and country actors carrying these, but respective amounts unevenly distribute on these country actors. This meets circumstances of a game theory, or so. Dynamics mean individual country versus world speed difference along the 1994-2015 interval, in which the 1994 stocks cumulate FDI & DIA flows since 1990, and top countries range up to an important majority of stocks amounts in the total (85-95%) and so a relatively stable percentage, on the one hand, and down to 0.2% on FDI/inflows and to 0.1% of the same total world stocks on DIA/outflows, on the other. This article below, again, will start treating (analyzing and debating) about the Asian continent.

There is no doubt that the way in which entities operate and engage with each other, locally, nationally and internationally, will be profoundly influenced by the factors that are rapidly gaining attention: economic collapse of nation states; political collaboration on structural reform to address climate change; the integration of social media into every aspect of our communication; the development of fast moving communities of interest; and the changing role of government in partnership with third parties to deliver services. These are just some of the forces creating a new paradigm for HRM. The potential for major transformation within organizations and the intersection with community, customer and supply chain relationships offer a huge opportunity for HR to reinvent itself as a major source of inspiration and innovation in leadership and management. Our paper describes steps that every HR leader needs to take to adapt to the changing environments: redefine the boundaries of our role; be the owners and drivers of the brand that reflects a commitment to service towards staff, customers, suppliers and the community; be recognized professionally; take ownership of the competencies required to work successfully at a strategic level; be the thought leaders on internal and external factors impacting on how our organizations operate. We need to use our knowledge and networking to highlight global trends and maintain a high level of vigilance on workforce issues; build internal trust that allows us to challenge the role of the HR function has dramatically changed in just a few short years. Where will HR be as a profession in another three years?.

Proper identification of environment's air quality based on limited observations is an essential task to meet the goals of environmental management. Various classification methods have been used to estimate the change of air quality status and health. However, discrepancies frequently arise from the lack of clear distinction between each air quality, the uncertainty in the quality criteria employed and the vagueness or fuzziness embedded in the decision-making output values. Owing to inherent imprecision, difficulties always exist in some conventional methodologies when describing integrated air quality conditions with respect to various pollutants. Therefore, this paper presents two fuzzy multiplication synthetic techniques to establish classification of air quality. The fuzzy multiplication technique empowers the max-min operations in "or" and "and" in executing the fuzzy arithmetic operations. Based on a set of air pollutants data carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, ozone, and particulate matter (PM(10)) collected from a network of 51 stations in Klang Valley, East Malaysia, Sabah, and Sarawak were utilized in this evaluation. The two fuzzy multiplication techniques consistently classified Malaysia's air quality as "good." The findings indicated that the techniques may have successfully harmonized inherent discrepancies and interpret complex conditions. It was demonstrated that fuzzy synthetic multiplication techniques are quite appropriate techniques for air quality management.

In this study, the electric field signatures of negative ground flashes pertinent to the Swedish thunderstorms were recorded simultaneously during the summer of 2014 using wide (up to 100 MHz) and narrow (at 3 MHz and 30 MHz as central frequencies) bandwidth antenna systems. The electric field signatures were recorded for a time duration of 250 ms. In the analysis, the whole flash was considered and a total of 98 flashes were chosen where electric field signatures of all wideband, 3 MHz and 30 MHz signals were present. It is observed that preliminary breakdown pulses are stronger radiators at 3 and 30 MHz compared to the return strokes. A comparison of our results with those of the previous studies obtained from different geographical regions clearly shows that the strength of preliminary breakdown pulses is higher in the temperate region (Sweden for instance) and is a function of latitude.

As the education world places countless emphasis on achievement and success, the issue of academic dishonesty particularly involving plagiarism has reached prevalent extents especially in the institutions of higher learning. Since this contemporary problem in higher education requires very urgent attention to curb, various factors were assessed for their influence on students’ degree of plagiarism act. Therefore, this paper focuses on the extent of the business students’ self-perceived plagiarism and factors contributing to the act. A total of 152 questionnaires were collected from final year students of four business degree programs in one of a public university in Malaysia. Findings revealed that negative attitude, followed by competence lacking were the major contributors of self-perceived plagiarism. Discussion and significance of the study are further discussed.© 2016. The Authors. Published for AMER ABRA by e-International Publishing House, Ltd., UK. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).Peer–review under responsibility of AMER (Association of Malaysian Environment-Behaviour Researchers), ABRA (Association of Behavioural Researchers on Asians) and cE-Bs (Centre for Environment-Behaviour Studies), Faculty of Architecture, Planning & Surveying, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia.Keywords: academic dishonesty, self-perceived plagiarism

With global warming and climate change, the demands for food and water have challenged governments and civil societies. In environmental democracy, governments’ transparent processes will see positive citizen-centric developments. Through quantitative research design 384 questionnaires were administered to residents in Johor Bharu, Johor, Malaysia. The findings revealed significant, positive attitude towards environmental democracy. From the three variables, community knowledge is rated the most influential predictor towards environmental democracy. The implication from this study showed that the communities are concerned with environmental issues in the district as participation and volunteerism will ensure the wellbeing of their flora and fauna.© 2016. The Authors. Published for AMER ABRA by e-International Publishing House, Ltd., UK. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).Peer–review under responsibility of AMER (Association of Malaysian Environment-Behaviour Researchers), ABRA (Association of Behavioural Researchers on Asians) and cE-Bs (Centre for Environment-Behaviour Studies), Faculty of Architecture, Planning & Surveying, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia.Keywords: environmental democracy; sustainable development; civil society; attitude

This Wireless communication capabilities enable location-based applications such as management telecommunication work teams and other professional groups in field. The accuracy and reliability localization may be degraded by noise. In order to improve the localization precision is proposed a filtering algorithm that is characterized throw robustness and simplicity for estimation application. The particle filter (PF) algorithm offers a proper solution when the challenges studied are nonlinear or include non Gaussian noise. In this work are analyzed and compared two filtering algorithms: the standard particle filter and the cost reference particle filter, for tracking a mobile device. The results underline the robustness and the reliability of the cost reference particle filter to exemplify the errors which are characteristic in filtering algorithms.

Proinflammatory cytokines play a role in the pathogenesis of anemia of chronic disease (ACD), which is a common cause of anemia in rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Anemia in RA is associated with increased apoptosis of erythroid cells. However, there is unclear information on the mechanism of ACD in the disease. The purpose of this study is to investigate the role of cytokines on nitric oxide-mediated apoptosis in erythroid progenitor cells of ACD in RA patients. Erythroid progenitor cells from healthy subjects and RA patients with ACD were treated with cytokines like interleukin-1β, tumor necrosis factor-α, and interferon-γ at concentrations of 2, 20, and 40 ng/ml for 14 days. Cell viability and cell apoptosis were analyzed by trypan blue staining and flow cytometry, respectively. The results showed that the highest effect of cytokines on reduction cell viability and induction cell apoptosis was found in 20 ng/ml IFN-γ-treated cells of RA patients. In addition, IFN-γ showed significantly increased nitric oxide production and iNOS mRNA expression, which was measured by Griess assay and real-time PCR, respectively. The percentage of cell apoptosis and NO production was reduced after an inducible nitric oxide synthase inhibitor, SMT, treatment. In conclusion, IFN-γ could induce nitric oxide production–mediated apoptosis process, which might be involved in the pathogenesis of ACD in RA patients.

Mesenchymal cells isolated from chick limb-buds, when plated in micromass culture, differentiate into chondrocytes, forming a mineralizable matrix. Because these cells produce prostanoids during differentiation, this system was used to test the hypothesis that E-series prostanoids are involved in chondrocyte-mediated calcification. Prostaglandins E(2) (PGE(2)) and E(1) (PGE(1)), and the E-series analog, misoprostol (MP), increased chondrocyte cAMP content in the presence of the phosphodiesterase inhibitor IBMX. The increases for PGE(1) and PGE(2) at their saturation concentrations were twofold to threefold greater than for MP at its saturation concentration. At culture day 7, 9, or 11 (the day that mineralization commenced), the maximal cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP) production was at a concentration of 250--500 ng/ml PGE(2), 500--1000 ng/ml PGE(1), and less-than-or-equal5000 ng/ml MP. At these concentrations, PGE(1) and PGE(2), but not MP, stimulated chondrocyte differentiation. (45)Ca accumulation in mineralizing, as compared to nonmineralizing, similarly treated control cultures was not altered by the addition of indomethacin and/or prostanoid when the phosphate source was inorganic phosphate. Because the prostanoids decrease alkaline phosphatase activity, initial beta-glycerophosphate-mediated mineralization was inhibited by each of the prostanoids.

This below article will empirically analyse the determinants of new companies’ formation basing on a panel data, covering the period 2010-2019, for 42 counties (including Bucharest municipality) of Romania. An OLS regression equation will be employed with new companies’ formation as dependent variable, and regional GDP, existing entrepreneurship, density of population, immigrants and unemployment rate as independent ones. We estimate the model with cross sections and/or with time fixed and/or random effects and we will also use an LSDV model using dummy variables in order to observe the similarities. Decisions in using a period fixed effect model FEM will be based on Hausman test and redundancy test under Eviews environment. Most of determinants considered will be found significant in their influences on new companies’ formation in Romanian counties.

This paper deals with (non-) blocking phenomena arising in the context of morphological voice marking patterns, such as active versus passive (as in e.g. Latin), or active versus non-active (as in e.g. Albanian and Modern Greek). Starting from the observation that across languages with voice (or voice-related) marking non-blocking effects arise only with unaccusatives (specifically, with so-called “alternating unaccusatives”), but not for instance with passives or reflexives, the paper presents a variety of facts that converge in showing that this situation is due to a difference in the respective featural make-up of passives and unaccusatives. The central claim that is defended is that the passive morphology is being reanalysed as a morpheme that relates not just to an [–external argument] feature, but to a [+activity] feature (in the sense of Kallulli 2007) in a predicate structure (here: v 0) also containing a [–external argument] feature.