Is corporate social responsibility always a function of good management?

The debate on the relationship between business and society is an issue of practical importance and theoretical interest. This paper discusses the perspectives on the social responsibilities of organisations to indicate the diversity of approaches to the legitimacy and the boundaries of corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices. Classical Theories of Social Responsibility, The Stakeholder Theory, The Social Demandingness Theory, and The Social Activist Theory are critiqued. Finally, major arguments behind the social responsibility theories are discussed and an ethical relativism framework is proposed to assess the morality and the legitimacy of CSR practices. Keywords: Corporate social responsibility; philantrophy; relativism; management; stakeholde

Meaning of self-care: Lived experiences of Iranian diabetic patients

BACKGROUND: Diabetes continuously disrupts a patient’s well-being and quality of life. Successful self-care could potentially decrease overall costs and rates of mortality and morbidity. Patients’ experiences could be used to elucidate what they believe about illness and its management. The overall aim of this study was to illuminate the meaning of self-care among diabetic patients in Southeast of Iran.METHODS: Sixteen diabetic patients with a mean age of 34 and 10 years’ experience in self-care for their disease were interviewed. The interviews were recorded, transcribed verbatim, and analyzed with a Ricoeur’s phenomenological hermeneutic method.RESULTS: The meaning of self- care was comprehensively understood as being empowered. This can be divided into four themes: seeking information, being independent, being optimistic or pessimistic and trust in God.CONCLUSION: The results in this study suggest that cultural and religious components could affect diabetic patients' self-care. Nurses might use patients’ religious beliefs to relieve their stress, help them to retain a sense of control, maintain hope and sense of meaning and purpose in their life.KEYWORDS: self-care, Diabetic patients, IRA

Seroepidemiological detection of antibodies against Leptospira spp using microscopic agglutination test in Urmia cows and sheep

The study was designed to determine the level of incidence, titer and various serovars of leptospira in 203 cows and 166 sheep at Urmia abattoir in 2011. Blood samples were collected during the slaughter of animals and sera were separated to evaluate the serological reaction to Leptospira spp by Microscopic Agglutination Test (MAT) using live antigens representing Leptospira interrogans serogroups: pomona, grippotyphosa, canicola, hardjo, icterrohaemoragiae, and ballum. Overall, 36% of cows and 19.3% of sheep including 33.8% of bulls, 40.5% of female cows, 18.3% of rams and 25% of ewes had a positive reaction to at least one of the leptospira serovars. The most prevalent serovars in cows were pomona (22.7%), grippotyphosa (13.8%), and hardjo (8.4%), and in sheep were grippotyphosa (66.7%), pomona (26.2%) and canicola (7.1%). Other serovars were not detected in cows and sheep. The most prevalent serological titers of 1:100 and 1:200 in cows was 18.2% and 26.6%, and for sheep were 13.5% and 8%, respectively, and of 1:400 in sheep was 2.3%. Cows with a positive reaction to one, two and three serovars were 28.6%, 5.9%, and 1.5% and sheep positive to one and two serovars were 13.3% and 6%, respectively. Age comparison in seropositive cows and sheep showed a significantly increased infection (p<0.05) from young to adult ruminants, while no differences were seen regarding gender. The main mixed serovars were between grippotyphosa/pomona, grippotyphosa/canicola and canicola/pomona. The gender comparison of the serovars' distribution revealed that the pomona and grippotyphosa were predominant among other leptospiral serovars in cows and sheep, respectively. In conclusion, the rate of leptospirosis in Urmia cows was about 2 fold in sheep. The most current serovars in cows and sheep were pomona and grippotyphosa, respectively. The majority of animals was infected with one serovar, but polyserovars, are also possible. The highest titer (1:200) was observed in cows and 1:400 in sheep. There was no gender difference, but age was significant between cows and sheep. Finally, leptospirosis as a zoonotic disease must be seriously considered in Urmia cows rather than in sheep, and therefore, a serious effort must be made to reduce the rate of serological infection and the risk of public health, as well

Teacher’s Identity, Marketization of Higher Education, and Curriculum

For a long time, education has been praised as a morality in itself. Great philosophers have proudly called themselves “teachers”, and education was considered a special gift given to young gifted people. But in today’s world, in which everything, including even human feelings, have changed and become commodified, education has not been an exception. There have been many changes in education such as internationalization, increased competition and cooperation, neoliberalism, marketization, privatization, and new teaching methods. The idea that education is simply another market commodity has become pervasive in different discourses. Marketization which is one of the consequences of neoliberalism policies is an attempt that appraises everything related to higher education based on a market, where demand and supply and all the educational activities are determined and evaluated based on the price mechanism (Brown, 2014). This trend has fundamental effects on different aspects of the higher education including teacher’s identity and curriculum design. In this article, the researcher defines the concept of identity and then describes the type of teacher’s identity that is promoted by the marketization of higher education. Also, characteristics and some of the consequences of marketization of higher education and the effects of such trend on curriculum design are discussed

Predicting Short-term Demand and Exploring Influencing Factors in Bike Sharing Systems

M.S

Cuidado especial para las muestras de tejido bucal después de la biopsia: Almacenamiento y transporte adecuados — Un estudio comparativo.

Objective: Biopsy is the gold standard for the diagnosis of oral lesions. Correct management and care of biopsy at all steps (before, during and after obtaining a biopsy) is highly important to provide proper tissue samples for microscopic assessment by pathologists. This study aimed to assess and compare the knowledge of dental students (DSs) and general dentists (GDs) on post-oral biopsy instructions. Material and Methods: A questionnaire including two parts was used: 1) Demographic data and self-evaluation of biopsy knowledge by the participants and 2) 11 items about the correct oral biopsy storage and transport to a histopathology laboratory. The data collected from the questionnaires were analyzed by STATA. Results: 48 GDs and 131 DSs participated in this study. The knowledge score of the DSs (5.43±2.01) was significantly lower than GDs (8.33±1.78) (p&lt;0.05). Moreover, there was no significant relationship between GDs' knowledge and their working experience, age, gender and the university they graduated from. However, there was a significant relationship between DSs' school year and their knowledge. Conclusion: The findings showed that the knowledge of DSs was lower than GDs. Since, these students will care for the oral and dental health of the community in the future, upgrading their training (by improving the quantity and quality of theoretical and practical training) is necessary to both understand the different aspects of biopsy, and to be familiar enough with proper oral biopsy storage and transport processes.Objetivo: La biopsia es el estándar de oro para el diagnóstico de lesiones bucales. El manejo y cuidado correctos de la biopsia durante todos los pasos (antes, durante y después de obtener una biopsia) es muy importante para proporcionar muestras de tejido adecuadas para la evaluación microscópica por parte de los patólogos. Este estudio tuvo como objetivo evaluar y comparar los conocimientos de estudiantes de odontología (SD) y dentistas generales (GD) sobre las instrucciones posteriores a la biopsia oral. Material y Métodos: Se utilizó un cuestionario que constaba de dos partes: 1) Datos demográficos y autoevaluación del cono-cimiento de la biopsia por parte de los participantes y 2) 11 ítems sobre el correcto almacenamiento y trans-porte de la biopsia oral a un laboratorio de histopatología. STATA analizó los datos recopilados de los cuestionarios.Resultados: 48 GD y 131 SD participaron en este estudio. La puntuación de conocimiento de los DS (5,43 ± 2,01) fue significativamente menor que la de los GD (8,33 ± 1,78) (p &lt;0,05). Además, no hubo una relación significativa entre los conocimientos de los GD y su experiencia laboral, edad, género y la universidad de la que se graduaron. Sin embargo, hubo una relación significativa entre el año escolar de los DS y sus conocimientos. Conclusión: Los hallazgos mostraron que el conocimiento de los SD era menor que el de los GD. Dado que estos estudiantes se ocuparán de la salud bucodental de la comunidad en el futuro, es necesario mejorar su formación (mejorando la cantidad y calidad de la formación teórica y práctica) tanto para comprender los diferentes aspectos de la biopsia como para estar familiarizados suficientemente con los procesos adecuados de almacenamiento y transporte de biopsias orales