Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A qualitative look at child care selection among rural welfare-to-work participants

The welfare reforms of 1996 changed the administration of public assistance to children and families. One of the key provisions, requiring parents to join the workforce, resulted in an expanded need for child care. Prior research demonstrates that welfare recipients, particularly in rural areas, utilize informal child care arrangements. Further, recipients in rural communities face greater challenges due to a lack of transportation, geographic spread, and less access to services. This qualitative study examined the child care selection experiences of 33 welfare recipients in six rural Northern California counties. More families selected home-based than center-based child care. During their search processes, welfare recipients utilized both formal and informal routes to locate child care providers. Parents took advantage of their connections with the social service system, but also accessed their social networks for recommendations. Rural families also reported that their choices were constrained by the available programs, transportation, and by the quality of the programs they were able to access. Given the high rate of utilization of home-based arrangements among families in welfare-to-work programs, quality of care in such programs should be improved. Recommendations for increasing quality and access, as well as supports for welfare to work participants, are discussed.
The Complexity of Evidence: Reflections on Research Utilisation in a Heavily Politicised Policy Area

Exploring evidence utilisation in a heavily politicised policy area, this paper suggests that established models of research utilisation provide inadequate grounds to conceptualise the evidence and policy relationship in this context. This is because they operate at too high a level of abstraction and have a narrow understanding of the association. Using recent developments in UK drug classification policy as a case study, a newer ‘processual model’ is (tentatively) advocated. This highlights the complexity and nuance of the policy process and its accompanying use of evidence which, it is claimed, more accurately depicts the evidence and policy relationship in this particular scenario.
Measuring Portfolio Risk Under Partial Dependence Information

There is a recent interest in ﬁnding bounds for risk measures of portfolios when the marginal distributions of its risky components are assumed to be known. This problem is well studied when the dependence among the risks is unknown, but the bounds obtained are too wide to be useful inpractice. Unfortunately, additional dependence information, such as knowledge of some higher-order moments, makes the problem hard to deal with. We motivate that replacing the knowledge of the marginal distributions by the knowledge of the mean of the portfolio sum does not result in signiﬁcant loss of information, while making it possible to ﬁnd explicit bounds if also higher-order moments as source of dependence information are available. Effectively, we propose an elementary derivation of bounds on various risk characteristics, including distribution functions and Value-at-Risk(VaR). Our results make it possible for supervisory authorities to assess the robustness of risk models used in practice and to identify issues of incomparability of risk models across different institutions.
A Comparison of the Use of Alternative Therapies among Mexican Americans and Anglo-Americans in the Texas Rio Grande Valley

In a descriptive study with a convenience sample of 60 Mexican Americans and 60 Anglo-Americans, four research questions were asked: (a) What kinds of and how frequently are alternative therapies used by the Mexican Americans and Anglos in the Texas Rio Grande Valley? (b) Is there a difference in the kinds and amounts of therapies used by the two groups? (c) Do the participants self-report this information to their established, conventional, care provider? and (d) What are the participants’ subjective reports about these therapies? Findings showed that both groups used alternative practitioners, but that Mexican Americans reported using them more than twice as often as did Anglo-Americans. The most prevalent therapies sought by Mexican Americans were prayer, herbal medicine, massage, relaxation, spiritual healing, and chiropractic. The most prevalent therapies sought by Anglo-Americans were prayer, massage, chiropractic, herbal medicine, megavitamin therapy, and spiritual healing. Almost twice as many Mexican Americans (45%) report discussing their therapies with their established primary health provider than did Anglos (26.7%).
Earnings Management in Polish Companies

Earnings Management in Polish Companies This paper presents results of the investigation of a phenomenon known as "earnings management'' (EM) among the companies listed on the Polish stock market. The distribution of earnings per share (EPS) for the stocks around the threshold value of "zero" and the threshold of "recent performance" was analyzed in the period of years 1997-2010. Moreover, the changes of earnings for the stocks, which are suspected to manipulate their earnings, were also investigated. The results, which indicate asymmetric distribution of earnings around the zero threshold along with the relative deterioration of earnings in the year following the period when the companies were suspected to conduct earnings management practices, provide evidence that this phenomenon exists among Polish stock market companies. Zarządzanie Zyskiem w Polskich Spółkach Giełdowych W artykule zaprezentowano rezultaty analizy zjawiska znanego jako "zarządzanie zyskami'', wśród spółek z polskiego rynku kapitałowego. Przeanalizowano rozkład zysku na akcję wokół progu "zero'' oraz progu wyznaczonego w oparciu o wartości zysku na akcję z okresu przeszłego w okresie 1997-2010. Wyniki badania potwierdziły występowanie asymetrii rozkładu zysku na akcję wokół progu "zero'' oraz spadek zysków w latach następujących po "zarządzaniu zyskiem'' co wskazuje na występowanie analizowanego zjawiska na polskim rynku kapitałowym.
Commitment, Quits, and Work Organization in Japanese and U.S. Plants

This comparative analysis, using early 1980s data from management interviews, employee questionnaire surveys, and personnel office employment records in 41 manufacturing plants in Japan and 45 in the United States, explores how employee commitment to the firm is shaped by organizational structure, employment practice, and other attributes of factories. The authors investigate both behavioral and attitudinal dimensions of commitment, measured respectively by quit records and survey responses. The results for both dimensions generally support the model of “welfare corporatism” as a commitment-maximizing organizational form in Japanese and American industrial capitalism. Qualifying that conclusion, however, are several noteworthy differences between the countries: unionization, formal work rules, and on-the-job training, for example, appear to have negative effects on the commitment of U.S. workers that are absent in Japan.
Plaque-removal efficacy of four types of dental floss.

BACKGROUND Effective plaque removal is essential for gingival health, and dental floss is used to augment plaque removal achieved with a toothbrush. METHODS This randomized, controlled, examiner-masked, five-period crossover study examined plaque removal in 25 subjects following single use with an American Dental Association reference manual toothbrush alone and in combination with four floss products: three traditional (unwaxed, woven, and shred-resistant) and one powered flosser. Plaque was scored before and after brushing for 1 minute. The Rustogi modified Navy plaque index was used to focus scores on tooth areas contacted during the proper use of dental floss. RESULTS Mean plaque reductions (baseline minus postbrushing) in floss contact areas were as follows: 0.181 with the toothbrush alone; 0.228, 0.217, and 0.210 for the toothbrush in combination with the three traditional flosses, unwaxed, woven, and shred-resistant, respectively; and 0.252 for the toothbrush plus powered flosser. No statistically significant differences were found between the three traditional floss treatments. All four floss treatments showed greater (P <0.05) mean plaque removal than the toothbrush alone. Mean plaque removal with the powered flosser combination was greater than for the woven combination and shred-resistant combination (both P < or =0.006) and fell just short of significance compared to the unwaxed combination (P = 0.051). CONCLUSIONS All four floss products in combination with a manual toothbrush removed plaque significantly better than the toothbrush alone. Among floss types, there was evidence of superiority for the powered flosser, but there were no significant treatment differences between the three traditional floss products.
Measuring trade policy intervention: a cross-country index of relative price dispersion

In the debate about the relationship between trade policy and growth, various measures for trade intervention have been used. The author presents a new measure based on a country's relative price structure and the structure of relative world prices. This measure, he argues, conforms more closely than existing measures to the concept of trade intervention. The relationship between openness and trade liberalization is more complicated than is often believed. Whether a country intervenes does not tell the whole story about its trade policy, and misses an essential aspect of intervention: which goods are favored by subsidies and which are protected by tariffs. The debate has been confused by the failure to distinguish between trade intervention and outward orientation. Trade intervention implies policies that distort the flow or pattern of trade; outward orientation implies incentives to export that are greater than incentives for import substitution. The two may be related but a heavily interventionist policy could be outwardly oriented. The index of relative price dispersion that the author develops has the advantage that it is objective, measures intervention in both exports and imports, is comparable across countries, and is independent of fluctuations in exchange rates caused by macroeconomic mismanagement.
Long-Term Memory Biases Auditory Spatial Attention

Long-term memory (LTM) has been shown to bias attention to a previously learned visual target location. Here, we examined whether memory-predicted spatial location can facilitate the detection of a faint pure tone target embedded in real world audio clips (e.g., soundtrack of a restaurant). During an initial familiarization task, participants heard audio clips, some of which included a lateralized target (p = 50%). On each trial participants indicated whether the target was presented from the left, right, or was absent. Following a 1 hr retention interval, participants were presented with the same audio clips, which now all included a target. In Experiment 1, participants showed memory-based gains in response time and d′. Experiment 2 showed that temporal expectations modulate attention, with greater memory-guided attention effects on performance when temporal context was reinstated from learning (i.e., when timing of the target within audio clips was not changed from initially learned timing). Experiment 3 showed that while conscious recall of target locations was modulated by exposure to target-context associations during learning (i.e., better recall with higher number of learning blocks), the influence of LTM associations on spatial attention was not reduced (i.e., number of learning blocks did not affect memory-guided attention). Both Experiments 2 and 3 showed gains in performance related to target-context associations, even for associations that were not explicitly remembered. Together, these findings indicate that memory for audio clips is acquired quickly and is surprisingly robust; both implicit and explicit LTM for the location of a faint target tone modulated auditory spatial attention.
Strategies to Motivate Brokers Adopting On-line Trading in Hong Kong Financial Market

This paper aims to study what factors affect the adoption of online trading towards brokers in Hong Kong. By using the adoption model, Decomposed Version Theory of Planned Behavior (DTPB), we identify the factors that affect brokers towards online trading. A hypothesized model has been proposed to design the questionnaire. A statistical analysis has been conducted to investigate whether the attributes, variables, and belief structure of the proposed model correlated with each other or not. After such analysis, the factors that influenced brokers' behavior have been identified as well as the strengths of their relationships. Such results are very helpful to support the planning of related parties in launching Internet trading.
Factors influencing successful discontinuance of mechanical ventilation after open heart surgery: a clinical study of 41 patients

Circulatory, respiratory, and metabolic variables were measured with a mobile clinical bedside unit in 41 patients during the first 48 hours after open heart surgery. Calculations were carried out off-line by a computer program. The variables were measured during controlled mechanical ventilation and compared with those obtained during spontaneous breathing and after resumption of mechanical ventilation; attempts at spontaneous breathing were categorized as successful or unsuccessful. The variables were compared before, during, and after the successful and the unsuccessful attempts at spontaneous breathing.In the series as a whole, the onset of spontaneous breathing was characterized by increases in cardiac output, radial arterial and pulmonary arterial pressures, and mixed venous oxygen tension (Pvo2) and content (Cvo2), as well as diminished arterial and mixed venous oxygen content differences (avDO2); no significant changes in oxygen consumption (Vo2) were seen.Unsuccessful attempts disturbed the patient's physiological equilibrium by reducing oxygen delivery and not increasing Vo2, while increasing ventilatory work. In general, resumption of controlled ventilation restored the physiological variables to their control conditions. Successful attempts at spontaneous breathing did not greatly affect the physiological variables. The indication for resumption of controlled ventilation after periods of spontaneous breathing is the combination of increased ventilatory work with diminished circulatory and respiratory functions.
Regional Integration Agreements and Foreign Direct Investment: Theory and Preliminary Evidence

In this paper we investigate the effects which economic integration exerts upon the magnitude and character of foreign direct investment (FDI) flows. Drawing upon the existing literature on trade flows we investigate the impact of regional integration agreements (RIAs) on FDI flows and analyse their welfare implications. An empirical investigation of some 381 bilateral FDI flows in 1995 is presented, the results of which suggest, in broad terms, that it is not the presence of RIAs that determines the magnitude and direction of bilateral FDI flows but rather the economic characteristics of both the investing and the host country.
Quality of Internet-based information on gastrointestinal diseases.

BACKGROUND The Internet is becoming an increasingly common source of health information for patients. OBJECTIVE To examine the quality of gastrointestinal disease- and symptom-related Internet sites that might be searched by patients. METHODS A total of 120 websites were evaluated from July to November 2009 using the DISCERN instrument to determine the quality of content of health and treatment information. RESULTS There was substantial variability in the quality of Internet resources regarding gastrointestinal diseases and their symptoms. Information-based and institutional websites were rated highest. Resources related to celiac disease, colon cancer and abdominal pain scored the highest. CONCLUSIONS Overall, the quality of web-based resources was variable. Because patient education is important in the management of gastroenterological diseases, the increasing use of the Internet poses new opportunities and challenges for physicians.
Development of a prediction model and risk score for procedure-related complications in patients undergoing percutaneous computed tomography-guided lung biopsy.

OBJECTIVES To propose a risk score predicting the potential occurrence of procedure-related complications in patients undergoing computed tomography (CT)-guided lung biopsy. METHODS Institution review board approval was obtained. A total of 342 CT-guided lung biopsies were retrospectively evaluated taking into account procedure-related complications and associated risk factors, including patient gender and age, previous radiation therapy (RT) and/or chemotherapy (CHT), lesion size, depth and location, incomplete pulmonary fissures, associated diffuse lung diseases, previous pneumothorax (PNX), lung volumes, punctured fissures, thoracic access, needle size and operator experience. Complications were assessed on chest X-ray and/or CT scans. Stepwise logistic regression was used to identify risk factors, to evaluate their correlation with procedure-related complications and to calculate models of risk (MoRs). RESULTS PNX requiring chest tube placement occurred in 39 patients (11.4%), high-grade pulmonary parenchymal haemorrhage occurred in 62 patients (18.1%) and haemothorax occurred in 12 patients (3.5%). Risk factors increasing the incidence of complications were lesion size (P = 0.01), lesion depth (P = 0.01) and incomplete pulmonary fissures (P = 0.01); previous chemo-radiation therapy was correlated to a lower incidence of complications (P = 0.01). MoR for PNX was as follows: risk base line = 60%; age = +0.15%/year; punctured fissures = +20%; incomplete fissures = +9%; previous CHT/RT = -10%. MoR for parenchymal haemorrhage was as follows: risk base line = 20%, lesion depth = +0.8%/mm; age = +0.25%/year; incomplete fissures = +15%. MoR for haemothorax was as follows: risk base line = 1%; previous PNX = +20%; incomplete fissures = 7%; both previous PNX and incomplete fissures = +67%. CONCLUSION This study provides MoRs to predict the risk of complications in patients undergoing CT-guided percutaneous lung biopsies.
Statistical approaches to assessing the effects of neutralizing antibodies

Carefully conducted large-scale clinical trials have provided strong evidence that type I interferons favorably influence clinical and MRI outcomes in patients with multiple sclerosis. Some patients develop neutralizing antibodies (NAbs) to these treatments, reflecting an immune system response. The clinical significance of these NAbs has been uncertain because titers vary widely, and even highly elevated NAb titers decrease to undetectable levels in some patients. Whether NAbs decrease the efficacy of these treatments is a critically important scientific question. We argue that a longitudinal data analysis is the most appropriate approach to address this question.
Performance of unlisted Italian companies acquired by multinationals from emerging markets : The case of Indian acquisitions

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to shed lights on both economic and social impacts associated to the increasing amount of western companies acquired by multinationals from emerging countries. Focussing on the Italian context, its main intent is to analyze changes in targets’ performance and capability to contribute to stakeholders’ wealth to assess the business and social viability of this type of deal. Design/methodology/approach – Operations of mergers and acquisitions (M & As) were identified through Zephyr (Bureau VanDijk’s database). Only acquisitions of a controlling interest were considered for a total of eight case studies. Financial Statements and Management Reports over a eight-year period have been analyzed to understand the rationale of the deal and to assess financial performance and company social impact before and after the merger. Findings – Results suggest that foreign investors mainly search for know-how and technical expertise and their arrival does not lead to better financial p.
Tutz , Binder : Boosting Ridge Regression

Ridge regression is a well established method to shrink regression parameters towards zero, thereby securing existence of estimates. The present paper investigates several approaches to combining ridge regression with boosting techniques. In the direct approach the ridge estimator is used to fit iteratively the current residuals yielding an alternative to the usual ridge estimator. In partial boosting only part of the regression parameters are reestimated within one step of the iterative procedure. The technique allows to distinguish between variables that are always included in the analysis and variables that are chosen only if relevant. The resulting procedure selects variables in a similar way as the Lasso, yielding a reduced set of influential variables. The suggested procedures are investigated within the classical framework of continuous response variables as well as in the case of generalized linear models. In a simulation study boosting procedures for different stopping criteria are investigated and the performance in terms of prediction and the identification of relevant variables is compared to several competitors as the Lasso and the more recently proposed elastic net. For the evaluation of the identification of relevant variables pseudo ROC curves are introduced.
Stakeholder Perceptions of the Determinants of Reputation in South African Public Schools

This research focuses on perceptions of reputation in black township schools in South Africa. The call for the provision of equal education compels school managers to be proactive in their efforts to build reputation for continuity and to remain educationally effective. Data was generated from four categories of stakeholders: parents, educators, school managers and clerks by means of narratives and semi-structured interviews. The findings revealed reputation as multi-dimensional and that there were main reputational signals that stakeholders focused on when making their judgments, these included academic performance, organisational climate and emotional appeal. All participants regarded character, academic and experiential reputations as the main determinants of a general school’s reputation. Only internal stakeholders regarded social responsibility as important in determining reputation. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2014. v5n20p1439