Corporate Social Responsibility and Corporate Financial Performance: Evidence from Korea

This paper studies the empirical relation between corporate social responsibility (CSR) and corporate financial performance in Korea using a sample of 1122 firm-years during 2002-2008. We measure corporate social responsibility by both an equal-weighted CSR index and a stakeholder-weighted CSR index suggested by Akpinar et al. (2008). Corporate financial performance is measured by ROE, ROA and Tobin’s Q. We find a positive and significant relation between corporate financial performance and the stakeholder-weighted CSR index, but not the equal-weighted CSR index. This finding is robust to alternative model specifications and several additional tests, providing evidence in support of instrumental stakeholder theory

Adherence with tobramycin inhaled solution and health care utilization

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Adherence with tobramycin inhalation solution (TIS) during routine cystic fibrosis (CF) care may differ from recommended guidelines and affect health care utilization.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We analyzed 2001-2006 healthcare claims data from 45 large employers. Study subjects had diagnoses of CF and at least 1 prescription for TIS. We measured adherence as the number of TIS therapy cycles completed during the year and categorized overall adherence as: low ≤ 2 cycles, medium >2 to <4 cycles, and high ≥ 4 cycles per year. Interquartile ranges (IQR) were created for health care utilization and logistic regression analysis of hospitalization risk was conducted by TIS adherence categories.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Among 804 individuals identified with CF and a prescription for TIS, only 7% (n = 54) received ≥ 4 cycles of TIS per year. High adherence with TIS was associated with a decreased risk of hospitalization when compared to individuals receiving ≤ 2 cycles (adjusted odds ratio 0.40; 95% confidence interval 0.19-0.84). High adherence with TIS was also associated with lower outpatient service costs (IQR: $2,159-$8444 vs. $2,410-$14,423) and higher outpatient prescription drug costs (IQR: $35,125-$60,969 vs. $10,353-$46,768).</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Use of TIS did not reflect recommended guidelines and may impact other health care utilization.</p

Semantic Knowledge Influences Prewired Hedonic Responses to Odors

Background Odor hedonic perception relies on decoding the physicochemical properties of odorant molecules and can be influenced in humans by semantic knowledge. The effect of semantic knowledge on such prewired hedonic processing over the life span has remained unclear. Methodology/Principal Findings The present study measured hedonic response to odors in different age groups (children, teenagers, young adults, and seniors) and found that children and seniors, two age groups characterized by either low level of (children) or weak access to (seniors) odor semantic knowledge, processed odor hedonics more on the basis of their physicochemical properties. In contrast, in teenagers and young adults, who show better levels of semantic odor representation, the role of physicochemical properties was less marked. Conclusions/Significance These findings demonstrate for the first time that the biological determinants that make an odor pleasant or unpleasant are more powerful at either end of the life span

Proximal tibial osteophytes and their relationship with the height of the tibial spines of the intercondylar eminence: paleopathological study

Tibial spiking (i.e., spurring of tibial spines), eburnation, and osteophytes are considered features of osteoarthritis. This investigation employed direct inspection of the medial and lateral tibial plateaus in paleopathological specimens to analyze the frequency and morphological features of osteoarthritis and to define any relationship between the size of osteophytes and that of the intercondylar tibial spines. A total of 35 tibial bone specimens were evaluated for the degree of osteoarthritis and presence of eburnation. Each plateau was also divided into four quadrants and the presence and size of bone outgrowths were recorded in each quadrant. The “medial/lateral tibial intercondylar spine index” for each specimen was calculated as follows: (medial/lateral intercondylar tibial spine height)/(anteroposterior width of the superior tibial surface). The relationships between medial and lateral tibial height indexes with the degree of osteoarthritis were then tested. Osteophytes were observed more frequently in the anterior quadrants of both tibial plateaus than in the posterior quadrants (29 vs 16 for the medial tibial plateau [p = 0.01] and 28 vs 20 for the lateral tibial plateau [p = 0.04]). Eburnation was seen more frequently in the posterior regions of both tibial plateaus than in the anterior regions (17 vs 5, p &lt; 0.01). In specimens with no signs of osteoarthritis the lateral intercondylar tibial index was significantly lower than that in specimens with some degree of osteoarthritis (p = 0.02). The medial intercondylar tibial index of the specimens with no signs of osteoarthritis was not significantly different from that of the specimens with some degree of osteoarthritis (p = 0.45). There was a positive correlation between the lateral spine height index and the overall grading of osteoarthritis, (r = 0.6, p &lt; 0.01). In the anteromedial and posteromedial quadrants of the lateral tibial plateau, the association between the lateral intercondylar tibial spine index and the grade of osteophytes was 0.5 (p &lt; 0.01) and 0.7 (p &lt; 0.01) respectively. Spiking of the lateral tibial intercondylar spine is associated with osteophyte formation and osteoarthritis. Eburnation occurs mainly in the posterior parts of the tibial plateaus while osteophytes arise mainly in the anterior parts. These findings suggest that stresses occurring in the flexed knee may contribute to many of the morphological abnormalities of osteoarthritis

Who's Afraid of the Boss: Cultural Differences in Social Hierarchies Modulate Self-Face Recognition in Chinese and Americans

Human adults typically respond faster to their own face than to the faces of others. However, in Chinese participants, this self-face advantage is lost in the presence of one's supervisor, and they respond faster to their supervisor's face than to their own. While this “boss effect” suggests a strong modulation of self-processing in the presence of influential social superiors, the current study examined whether this effect was true across cultures. Given the wealth of literature on cultural differences between collectivist, interdependent versus individualistic, independent self-construals, we hypothesized that the boss effect might be weaker in independent than interdependent cultures. Twenty European American college students were asked to identify orientations of their own face or their supervisors' face. We found that European Americans, unlike Chinese participants, did not show a “boss effect” and maintained the self-face advantage even in the presence of their supervisor's face. Interestingly, however, their self-face advantage decreased as their ratings of their boss's perceived social status increased, suggesting that self-processing in Americans is influenced more by one's social status than by one's hierarchical position as a social superior. In addition, when their boss's face was presented with a labmate's face, American participants responded faster to the boss's face, indicating that the boss may represent general social dominance rather than a direct negative threat to oneself, in more independent cultures. Altogether, these results demonstrate a strong cultural modulation of self-processing in social contexts and suggest that the very concept of social positions, such as a boss, may hold markedly different meanings to the self across Western and East Asian cultures

Neonatal Administration of Thimerosal Causes Persistent Changes in Mu Opioid Receptors in the Rat Brain

Thimerosal added to some pediatric vaccines is suspected in pathogenesis of several neurodevelopmental disorders. Our previous study showed that thimerosal administered to suckling rats causes persistent, endogenous opioid-mediated hypoalgesia. Here we examined, using immunohistochemical staining technique, the density of μ-opioid receptors (MORs) in the brains of rats, which in the second postnatal week received four i.m. injections of thimerosal at doses 12, 240, 1,440 or 3,000 μg Hg/kg. The periaqueductal gray, caudate putamen and hippocampus were examined. Thimerosal administration caused dose-dependent statistically significant increase in MOR densities in the periaqueductal gray and caudate putamen, but decrease in the dentate gyrus, where it was accompanied by the presence of degenerating neurons and loss of synaptic vesicle marker (synaptophysin). These data document that exposure to thimerosal during early postnatal life produces lasting alterations in the densities of brain opioid receptors along with other neuropathological changes, which may disturb brain development

The "Persuadable Middle" on Same-Sex Marriage: Formative Research to Build Support among Heterosexual College Students

Same-sex marriage is a controversial policy issue that affects the welfare of gay and lesbian couples throughout the USA. Considerable research examines opinions about same-sex marriage; however, studies have not investigated the covariates of the “persuadable middle”— those individuals who are neutral or unsure about their views. This group of people is often the target of same-sex marriage campaigns, yet they have received no empirical attention.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/89607/1/Woodford et al 2011 Persuadable Middle.pd

Collision sellar lesions: experience with eight cases and review of the literature

The concomitant presence of a pituitary adenoma with a second sellar lesion in patients operated upon for pituitary adenoma is an uncommon entity. Although rare, quite a great variety of lesions have been indentified coexisting with pituitary adenomas. In fact, most combinations have been described before, but an overview with information on the frequency of combined pathologies in a large series has not been published. We present a series of eight collision sellar lesions indentified among 548 transsphenoidally resected pituitary adenomas in two Neurosurgical Departments. The histological studies confirmed a case of sarcoidosis within a non-functioning pituitary adenoma, a case of intrasellar schwannoma coexisting with growth hormone (GH) secreting adenoma, two Rathke’s cleft cysts combined with pituitary adenomas, three gangliocytomas associated with GH-secreting adenomas, and a case of a double pituitary adenoma. The pertinent literature is discussed with emphasis on pathogenetic theories of dual sellar lesions. Although there is no direct evidence to confirm the pathogenetic relationship of collision sellar lesions, the number of cases presented in literature makes the theory of an incidental occurrence rather doubtful. Suggested hypotheses about a common embryonic origin or a potential interaction between pituitary adenomas and the immune system are presented

RECIST revised: implications for the radiologist. A review article on the modified RECIST guideline

The purpose of this review article is to familiarize radiologists with the recently revised Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumours (RECIST), used in many anticancer drug trials to assess response and progression rate. The most important modifications are: a reduction in the maximum number of target lesions from ten to five, with a maximum of two per organ, with a longest diameter of at least 10 mm; in lymph nodes (LNs) the short axis rather than the long axis should be measured, with normal LN measuring <10 mm, non-target LN ≥10 mm but <15 mm and target LN ≥15 mm; osteolytic lesions with a soft tissue component and cystic tumours may serve as target lesions; an additional requirement for progressive disease (PD) of target lesions is not only a ≥20% increase in the sum of the longest diameter (SLD) from the nadir but also a ≥5 mm absolute increase in the SLD (the other response categories of target lesion are unchanged); PD of non-target lesions can only be applied if the increase in non-target lesions is representative of change in overall tumour burden; detailed imaging guidelines. Alternative response criteria in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma and gastrointestinal stromal tumours are discussed