Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effectiveness of pictorial health warning on cigarette packages: A cross-sectional study in Sarawak, Malaysia.

INTRODUCTION Specific health warning placed on the tobacco product packages is considered as an effective and low-cost method for increasing the knowledge and awareness among the community. Thus, a study was conducted to assess the perception of pictorial health warnings (PHWs) against smoking among the adult rural population of Sarawak. METHODS Cross-sectional data were collected from 10 villages in Kota Samarahan and Kuching Division by face to face interview using modified Global Adult Tobacco Survey questionnaire. Nonprobability sampling method was adopted to select the villages. All the households of the selected villages were visited and an adult member was selected randomly from each house irrespective of the sex. After missing value imputation, 1000 data were analysed using statistical software IBM SPSS 20.0 version. RESULTS Analysis showed that 28.8% of the respondents were current smokers, 7.8% were past smokers and the rest were non-smokers. Six items of pictorial health warnings were evaluated with five point Likert's scales for attractiveness, fearfulness and adequacy of the information. Analysis revealed that the majority of the respondents had perceived awareness on PHWs, but the smokers believed that this was not adequate to make them quit smoking. Only one-fifth (19.7%) of them reported that current pictorial health warnings were sufficient to motivate people to quit smoking. CONCLUSION Though the PHWs on cigarette packages are appealing, it is not sufficient as a reason to stop smoking. Thus, an approach using an integrated anti-tobacco public health programme should be focused into the specific targeted community.
Why a Board? Group Decisionmaking in Corporate Governance

The default statutory model of corporate governance contemplates not a single hierarch but rather a multi-member body that acts collegially. Why? This article reviews evidence that group decisionmaking is often preferable to that of individuals, focusing on evidence that groups are particularly likely to be more effective decisionmakers in settings analogous to those in which boards operate. Most of this evidence comes not from neo-classical economics, but from the behavioral sciences. In particular, cognitive psychology has a long-standing tradition of studying individual versus group decisionmaking. This article contends that behavioral research, taken together with various strands of new institutional economics, sheds considerable light on the role of the board of directors. In addition, the analysis has implications for several sub-regimes within corporate law. Are those sub-regimes well-designed to encourage optimal board behavior? Two such sub-regimes are surveyed here: First, the seemingly formalistic rules governing board decisionmaking processes turn out to make considerable sense in light of the experimental data on group decisionmaking. Second, the adverse consequences of judicial review for effective team functioning turns out to be a partial explanation for the business judgment rule.
Growth hormone treatment of short children born small for gestational age: reappraisal of the rate of bone maturation over 2 years and metanalysis of height gain over 4 years

A minority of children born small for gestational age (SGA) fail to achieve sufficient catch‐up growth during infancy and remain short throughout childhood, apparently without being growth hormone (GH) deficient. A previous metanalysis of four trials revealed that GH treatment over a period of 2 years induced a dose‐dependent acceleration of linear growth and, to a lesser extent, of the rate of bone maturation in short, prepubertal children born SGA. The rate of bone maturation and the change in height SDS for bone age from the previous 2‐year metanalysis have been re‐analysed according to chronological age (two prepubertal age groups: group A, 3.0–5.9 years old; group B, 6.0–8.9 years old). The rate of bone maturation was slower in younger than in older prepubertal children; this difference was more marked in children receiving high‐dose (0.2 or 0.3 IU/kg/day) GH treatment (p ≤ 0.01). Accordingly, the change in height SDS for bone age was increased by high‐dose GH treatment in both age groups (p ≤ 0.01), and was more pronounced in younger than in older children (1.45 ± 0.28 versus 0.63 ± 0.20; p ≤ 0.01). Height SDS data from 100 short, prepubertal children born SGA have been analysed over 4 years. The change in height SDS appeared to be related to the average dose of GH. A mean GH dose of 0.1 IU/kg/day over 4 years was administered either as 0.1 IU/kg/day for 4 years (continuous) or as 0.2 IU/kg/day for 2 years, followed by 2 years without GH treatment (discontinuous). After 4 years of treatment, the increase in height SDS for the continuous and discontinuous treatment schedules was similar, being 1.42 ± 0.10 SDS and 1.58 ± 0.17 SDS, respectively. In a second regimen, a mean GH dose of 0.2 IU/kg/day over 3 years was administered either as 0.2 IU/kg/day for 3 years (continuous) or as 0.3 IU/kg/day for 2 years, followed by 1 year without GH treatment (discontinuous). After 3 years, the increase in height SDS with the continuous and discontinuous treatment schedules was similar, being 2.01 ± 0.18 SDS and 2.22 ± 0.16 SDS, respectively. GH administration was well tolerated in all treatment groups. In conclusion, the rate of bone maturation in short, prepubertal children born SGA treated with GH appeared to depend not only on the dose of GH, but also on the age of the child. GH treatment resulted in a prolonged increase in height SDS, the magnitude of the rise being dependent on the average GH dose rather than on the continuous or discontinuous mode of GH administration. □ Growth hormone, small for gestational age, catch‐up growth, short stature, rate of bone maturation, height, prepuberty
The Voluntary Choice of an Auditor of Any Level of Quality

We examine the choice of auditor by 380 incorporated societies in New Zealand. Incorporated societies may choose whether to be audited, and are free to choose an auditor of “any level of quality. ” We measure audit quality levels, in order of increasing quality, as: (1) whether the entity chooses to be audited, (2) whether the auditor is a qualified or unqualified accountant, (3) whether the qualified accountant is an individual or a chartered accountancy firm, (4) whether the audit firm is large, and (5) whether the large audit firm is a member of the Big 5. We test whether variables representing demand for auditing by incorporated societies are associated with mechanisms that indicate auditor quality to users. We find that larger entities, and entities with higher salaries as a proportion of revenues and higher debt as a proportion of assets are more likely to be audited; they are also more likely to choose chartered accountancy firms and to choose larger audit firms. Entities with a higher proportion of.
Incentive Regulation and Productive Efficiency in the U.S. Telecommunications Industry

This study evaluates the effect of incentive regulation on the productivity of U.S. local exchange carriers between 1988 and 1993. Introducing pure price-cap schemes has a strong and positive, but lagged, effect on technical efficiency. Where price-cap schemes operate in conjunction with an earnings-sharing scheme, there is immediate effect on technical efficiency, but the impact is less strong than the effect of a pure price-caps scheme. Where only an earnings-sharing scheme operates, its effect is detrimental to technical efficiency. Weaker, though broadly positive, results are obtained as to the effect of incentive regulation on scale efficiency. Copyright 1997 by University of Chicago Press.
Trustworthy government : leadership and management strategies for building trust and high performance

Part One: Trust: The Hidden Ingredient in High Performance 1. The Crisis of Trust in Today's Organizations 2. Organizational Performance and the Dynamics of Trust 3. Overcoming Barriers to Trust Part Two: Keys to Building Trustworthy Organizations 4. Trustworthy Leadership: Helping People to Lead Themselves 5. Creating Participation and Involvement 6. Developing Effective Communications 7. Fair Performance Appraisal and Incentive Systems 8. Managing Power, Politics, and Conflict Part Three: Liberating Public Organizations: TranscAnding the Bureaucratic Machine 9. Reinventing Training for a New Learning Paradigm 10. Revitalizing Personnel Systems Conclusion: Realizing the Vision of High-Trust Public Organizations.
Carbon and Water Footprints and Energy Use of Greenhouse Tomato Production in Northern Italy

This study reports on the carbon, water, and energy footprints of tomatoes grown in a greenhouse in Northern Italy and two possible future variations of heating and carbon dioxide (CO2) fertilization on the current setup. The heat supply in place, consisting of natural gas (NG) and canola oil combustion, is compared to cogeneration and incineration of municipal solid waste for heating and CO2 from industrial exhaust for fertilization. As a benchmark, the current system is also compared to a conventional system, in which heat is delivered solely based on NG. Each kilogram (kg) of fresh tomatoes (“Cuore di Bue” variety) produced in the current greenhouse emits 2.28 kg CO2 equivalents (eq) and uses 95.5 megajoules (MJ) eq energy and 122 liters (L) of water. Relative to the system in place, the carbon footprint (CF) is 57.5% and 18% higher with conventional NG heating and cogeneration and is 40% lower with waste valorization. Further, 33%, 55%, and 63% less energy and 9%, 96%, and 14% less water are used in the conventional, cogeneration, and waste valorization scenarios, respectively. This confirms that there are multiple strategies to reduce the impact of the tomato production under consideration.
Human Capital Development in Technical Vocational Education (TVE) for Sustainable National Development

The globalization process, knowledge economy and the emergence of new modes of production in the industries in the 21 st century has brought about new challenges for the developing economies and their labor markets. However, there is a clear indication now that human skills plays an important role in sustaining the current pace of growth and development through enhanced productivity of human capital. The paper discussed extensively on human capital development in TVE for sustainable national development in Nigeria. The paper also stressed on the concept of TVE and role of TVE human capital development for sustainable national development in Nigeria. The paper concludes that TVE institutions at all levels should be well equipped with good infrastructures, workshop facilities as well as employing qualified teachers to enable the graduates of the program to acquire the required skills for gainful employment in order for them to contribute to the development of their society and the nation at large. Keywords: Human Capital Development, Technical Vocational Education, Productivity, Sustainable National Development.
The Effect of R&D Expenditure (Investments) On Firm Value: Case Of Istanbul Stock Exchange

The relationship between Research and Development (R&D) and creating value has been widely discussed in the past. Most of the studies revealed that there were positive relationships between R&D investments and firm value. The research has shown that R&D investments create value for firms due to their competitive advantages for the firm, when they are used as a differentiation strategy that creates new products of processes that are hard to be easily imitated by the competitors and that this creates brand equity. This study tested the ability of R&D investments to explain returns using single and multiple variable regression models. It was observed that (i) there were positive and strong relationships between the intensity of R&D investments and returns and (ii) firm size, contrary to expectations, was not related with returns.
Monoallelic Expression of Pax5: A Paradigm for the Haploinsufficiency of Mammalian Pax Genes?

Abstract It is generally assumed that most mammalian genes are transcribed from both alleles. Hence, the diploid state of the genome offers the advantage that a loss-of-function mutation in one allele can be compensated for by the remaining wild-type allele of the same gene. Indeed, the vast majority of human disease syndromes and engineered mutations in the mouse genome are recessive, indicating that recessiveness is the ‘default’ state. However, a minority of genes are semi-dominant, as heterozygous loss-of-function mutation in these genes leads to phenotypic abnormalities. This condition, known as haploinsufficiency, has been described for five of the nine mammalian Pax genes, which are associated with mouse developmental mutants and human disease syndromes. Recently we have reported that the Pax5 gene is subject to allele-specific regulation during B cell development. Pax5 is predominantly transcribed from only one of its two alleles in early B-lymphoid progenitors and mature B cells, while it transiently switches to a biallelic mode of transcription in pre-B and immature B cells. As a consequence, B-lymphoid tissues are mosaic with regard to the transcribed allele, and heterozygous mutation of Pax5 therefore results in deletion of B lymphocytes expressing only the mutant allele. The allele-specific regulation of Pax5 raises the intriguing possibility that monoallelic expression may also be the mechanism causing the haploinsufficiency of other Pax genes. In this review, we discuss different models accounting for the haploinsufficiency of mammalian Pax genes, provide further evidence in support of the allele-specific regulation of Pax5 and discuss the implication of these findings in the context of the recent literature describing the stochastic and monoallelic activation of other hematopoietic genes.
Shedding of Membrane Vesicles Mediates Fibroblast Growth Factor-2 Release from Cells*

Fibroblast growth factor-2 (FGF-2), a polypeptide with regulatory activity on cell growth and differentiation, lacks a conventional secretory signal sequence, and its mechanism of release from cells remains unclear. We characterized the role of extracellular vesicle shedding in FGF-2 release. Viable cells released membrane vesicles in the presence of serum. However, in serum-free medium vesicle shedding was dramatically down-regulated, and the cells did not release FGF-2 activity into their conditioned medium. Addition of serum to serum-starved cells rapidly induced intracellular FGF-2 clustering under the plasma membrane and into granules that colocalized with patches of the cell membrane with typical features of shed vesicle membranes. Shed vesicles carried three FGF-2 isoforms (18, 22, 24 kDa). Addition of vesicles to endothelial cells stimulated chemotaxis and urokinase plasminogen activator production, which were blocked by anti-FGF-2 antibodies. Treatment of intact vesicles with 2.0 m NaCl or heparinase, which release FGF-2 from membrane-bound proteoglycans, did not abolish their stimulatory effect on endothelial cells, indicating that FGF-2 is carried inside vesicles. The comparison of the stimulatory effects of shed vesicles and vesicle-free conditioned medium showed that vesicles represent a major reservoir of FGF-2. Thus, FGF-2 can be released from cells through vesicle shedding.
Prognostic Significance of TP 53 Mutations and Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms in Acute Myeloid Leukemia : A case Series and Literature Review

With an incidence of 3 to 5 per 100,000, acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is the most commonly occurring acute leukemia in adults in the United States (Yamamoto and Goodman, 2008; Sant et al., 2010; Smith et al., 2011; Dores et al., 2012; Siegal et al., 2013). The response to treatment and overall survival (OS) of patients is variable, with a median OS ranging from a few months to over 10 years (Mrózek et al., 2012). Age at diagnosis and patient performance status (PS) has long been established in prognostication. Patients older than age 60 and those with an Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) performance status (PS) of greater than 2 have been shown to have inferior outcomes compared with their younger, healthier counterparts (Estey, 2001; Stone,
Toll-like receptor 9 is correlated to disease activity in Chinese systemic lupus erythematosus population.

BACKGROUND Toll like receptor (TLR) 9 has been shown to play a crucial role in the pathogenesis of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) in animal models. Its pathogenic role in human SLE, however, was poorly elucidated. This study was performed to investigate the role of TLR9 involved in the aberrant signaling pathway and its correlation with disease activity in SLE. METHODS mRNA level of TLR9 and interferon (IFN) regulatory factor 5 (IRF5) in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) were determined by real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR). IFN-a expression was measured in the serum of the SLE patients by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). RESULTS TLR9 expression was significantly higher in SLE patients than that in health controls (P = 0.011). SLE patients with positive anti-dsDNA antibody had significantly higher expression of TLR9 than that with negative anti-dsDNA antibody (P = 0.001). TLR9 expression was positively correlated with fever (P = 0.017), alopecia (P = 0.046), safety of estrogens in lupus erythematosus national assessment SLE disease activity index (SELENA-SLEDAI) score (r(s) = 0.385, P = 0.003), and the level of IRF5 (r(s) = 0.35, P = 0.027) and IFN-a (r(s) = 0.627, P = 0.001) in SLE patients. CONCLUSION TLR9 is associated with SLE disease activity and might be involved in the IFN-a pathway of SLE.
Packing for Perth: The Growth of a Southern African Diaspora

Southern African decolonization, the civil war and post-apartheid turmoil are creating a Southern African diaspora across the Anglo world. Australia has become a popular destination within this diaspora that South Africans now refer to emigration in general as “packing for Perth. ” Thus far, little work has been done on this migratory phenomenon. This article seeks to develop an overview of the birth and developments of this diaspora, with a focus on the growth of the South African Australian community. As an overview, the article provides insights on how this emergent diaspora relates to earlier migrations, the factors behind post-apartheid emigration, the patterns and characteristics of post-apartheid migration, and the significance of Australia as a destination for South African migrants.
Price Competition between Market Makers

The paper explicitly models price competition in financial markets in which prices are quoted by competing dealers before future demand is observed. The strategic behaviour of informed insiders and uninformed liquidity traders implies that a growing number of market makers leads to a higher risk exposure for the individual market maker which induces higher individual bid-ask-spreads and higher transaction costs for the liquidity traders. Under certain conditions liquidity traders would prefer a monopolistic market maker rather than several competing market makers. The results hold under various assumptions on the strategy space of the market makers.
The behaviour of a small foreign exchange market with a long-term peg–Barbados

This article is a first analysis of daily transactions in the foreign exchange market of Barbados, a small open economy that has had an unchanged peg to the US dollar for over 30 years. As a result of the credibility of the peg, we expect that capital flows will respond to differentials between US and comparable Barbadian interest rates, and that this will result in uncovered interest parity, when allowance is made for market frictions and large discrete events. The tests appear to confirm this.
The Influence of Managerial Ownership on Bank Market Value, Performance, and Risk: Evidence from Banks Listed on the STOXX Global Index

We follow agency theory to assess the influence of managerial ownership on the market value, performance, and risk of 123 listed banks in 23 countries included in the STOXX Global Index in 2007 and 2010. After controlling for bank characteristics, regulatory restrictions, and macroeconomic conditions, our findings show a positive relation between managerial ownership and both market value (Tobin's Q) and performance (ROA and ROE). Moreover, we find a negative relation between managerial ownership and risk (EDF, NPL/L, and Z‐SCORE). Bank market value and performance is a non‐linear, inverse U‐shaped function of managerial ownership. The negative relation between managerial ownership and bank risk is also non‐linear and U‐shaped. Our results remain robust to reverse causality. In their effort to immunize the global financial system from systemic risks, central banks and practitioners should find our results relevant for regulation purposes.
Interrupting the intergenerational cycle of poverty with the Malawi Social Cash Transfer

Cash transfer programs throughout the world were designed within a Social Protection framework to alleviate poverty in the short term and to interrupt the long-term intergenerational cycle of poverty. In this study, we examine the potential of the Malawi Social Cash Transfer Scheme (SCTS) to interrupt the intergenerational cycle of poverty in ultra-poor and labor-constrained households in Malawi. Using qualitative data from 16 focus groups with 163 children, we map the voices of children to various dimensions in a framework of intergenerational poverty. The framework identifies financial, material, environmental, human, social, cultural and political capital as important inputs for older generations to transfer to younger ones in order to avoid lifelong poverty. We found that focus-group participants reported dramatic and widespread changes in their lives resulting from the cash transfer in nearly all of the framework's dimensions. Participants reported that the cash allowed them to gain access to goods and materials, including food, healthcare, school supplies, clothing, blankets, housing and livestock. Respondents described changes in their lives, such as providing less labor for the household, allocating more time to schooling, enjoying adequate and high-quality foods, accessing healthcare and purchasing medicine. They also described better mental health, with new hopes and dreams for the future. These changes have the potential to interrupt the intergenerational cycle of poverty. Nevertheless, despite these widespread and positive benefits to children, whether the SCTS will become part of the national policy, and the scheme's long-term sustainability, is still uncertain.
The relative impact of government and private R&D on productivity growth: a quantitative analysis

Although in recent years, the relative performance between government-funded and privately-financed R&D in a national science and technology policy setting has attracted significant attention in Taiwan, no statistical evidence on this issue has yet been provided. This paper, therefore, sets out to estimate the relative impact on productivity from these two sources of R&D funding by measuring the stock of R&D capital and developing an adjusted production function model. Our examination is based upon longitudinal data covering the period from 1981 to 2001, with the estimation showing that the impact on the growth of total factor productivity from privately-financed R&D is around three times that of government-funded R&D. Furthermore, the estimation also demonstrates that R&D investment has a significant effect on the enhancement of total factor productivity. Some implications arising from these findings are also provided by this study.