Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Politicization of Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights: In the Post-Millennium Development Goals negotiations

Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) emerged from a fragmentation of different meaning of SRHR coming together to form one complex policy area. SRHR has been politicized in the past by predominant activist groups such as human rights and feminists (including those working with both fields simultaneously). Politicization refers to the process by which an issue becomes prominent in a given political space. Despite its loose term, politicization can occur at different levels, international, national and local. At the international level, the post-Millennium Development Goals is an ongoing hotspot for a myriad of negotiations. SRHR is an excellent example of a politicized concept, whereby two coalitions can be discerned; an advocate coalition for the inclusion of SRHR in the post-MDG agenda and a counter coalition. This thesis explores how SRHR is politicized within the post-MDG negotiations by using frame theory. Frame theory illustrates how a human rights frame is preferred by the advocate coalition, while the counter coalition uses the natural family frame. Within the advocate and counter coalition considerable differences are identified. The paper concludes that SRHRs, as they are currently framed by both coalitions, could lead to an over emphasis on women and girls which could be problematic in the long-term perspective and have a negative effect on other goals. However, the next set of goals should not commit the same mistake as the MDGs and SRHRs need to be included from its very inception.
Zapotin, a Phytochemical Present in a Mexican Fruit, Prevents Colon Carcinogenesis

Abstract Zapotin (5,6,2′,6′-tetramethoxyflavone), found in the tropical fruit zapote blanco (Casimiroa edulis), is consumed in many parts of the world, including Central America and Asia. Previously, we have demonstrated in vitro chemopreventive activity of extracts derived from the seeds of C. edulis. In the present study, we examined the effects of natural and synthetic zapotin in SW480, SW620, and HT-29 colon cancer cell lines and on the generation of aberrant crypt foci (ACF) using mice. Zapotin treatment (IC50 = 2.74 × 10−7 M) resulted in a marked suppression of cell proliferation in the HT-29 cells. Cell cycle analysis demonstrated a significant accumulation of cells in the G2-M phase, with a concomitant decrease of cells in the G0-G1 phase, after treatment with zapotin (molecular weight = 342.35 g/mol; 1 μ M for 18, 24, and 48 h). Zapotin treatment enhanced apoptosis in all of the colon cancer cell lines studied. For the study of ACF, 5-wk-old CF-1 mice were given subcutaneous injections of azoxymethane (AOM; 10 mg/kg body weight, BW) weekly for 2 wk, and zapotin (5 or 10 mg/kg BW; 46 or 92 pmol/kg BW) or vehicle was administered intragastrically 7 days/wk. The mean number of ACF for the control group was 14.0 ± 2.3, whereas the mean numbers of ACF in the zapotin-treated groups were 6.2 ± 1.7 and 4.6 ± 1.4 at doses of 5.0 and 10.0 mg/kg BW, respectively. Loss of hexosaminidase, a lysosomal enzyme active in normal colonic crypts but decreased in up to 95% of ACF, was used as a second biomarker for colon carcinogenesis. Zapotin was found to significantly (P < 0.01) prevent loss of hexosaminidase in the colon of AOM-treated mice. The present study is the first to report the potent anticancer activity of zapotin and suggests a role for zapotin both as a chemopreventive and a chemotherapeutic agent against colon cancer.
Opening the Box: Information Technology, Work Practices, and Wages

Using 1994–95 survey data on customer service representatives in 303 U.S. bank branches, the authors investigate the effects on wages of information technology (IT), of work practices, and of those two factors in combination. Offline high-involvement practices (measured by the presence of quality circles) were related positively to wages, as was more extensive use of IT that supports sales efforts. Where IT was used more extensively to automate routine processes, wages were lower in branches that did not have high-involvement work practices. The effects are partially explained by higher education requirements and more extensive introductory training in higher-wage jobs.
Gastrointestinal manifestations of systemic sclerosis

In patients with systemic sclerosis (SSc), gastrointestinal (GI)-tract involvement is almost universal. Any segment of the GI tract from mouth to anus can be involved, and GI symptoms are a frequent cause of morbidity. In severe cases, GI-tract involvement can progress to the point of malnutrition requiring parenteral nutrition. GI-tract involvement in SSc contributes to disease-related mortality although mostly as a co-morbidity rather than direct cause of death. The review is intended to help address challenges in the assessment and treatment of GI-tract involvement in SSc.
A prospective study of pathogenesis of catheter-associated urinary tract infections.

OBJECTIVE To determine the pathogenesis of catheter-associated urinary tract infection (CAUTI) and the relative importance of each of the possible mechanisms of entry of infecting microorganisms to the catheterized urinary tract. MATERIAL AND METHODS We conducted a prospective study of 1,497 newly catheterized patients. Paired quantitative urine cultures were obtained daily, from the catheter specimen port and from the collection bag, using a technique that could detect 1 colony-forming unit/mL. We assumed that with extraluminal infections, caused by microorganisms ascending from the perineum in the mucous film contiguous to the external surface of the catheter, the organisms would be detected first in bladder urine or in far higher concentrations in urine from the specimen port than from the collection bag. With intraluminal CAUTIs, caused by microorganisms gaining access to the catheter lumen because of failure of closed drainage or contamination of collection bag urine, the organisms would be detected first or in far larger numbers in a collection bag specimen. RESULTS The probable mechanism of infection could be determined for 173 of 250 organisms (69.2 %) identified in 235 new-onset CAUTIs. Among these 173 cases, 115 (66%) were extraluminally acquired, and 58 (34%) were derived from intraluminal contaminants. For these determinable cases, CAUTIs caused by gram-positive cocci (enterococci and staphylococci) and yeasts were far more likely to be extraluminally acquired (extraluminal:intraluminal, 2.9) than were gram-negative bacilli, which caused CAUTIs by both routes equally (extraluminal: intraluminal, 1.2; P = 0.007). Surprisingly, no significant differences were noted in pathogenetic mechanisms between men and women. CONCLUSION We conclude that, in both men and women, CAUTIs occur by both extraluminal and intraluminal portals of entry but derive preponderantly from organisms that gain access extraluminally. Strategies for prevention of CAUTIs must focus on new technologies to prevent access of organisms by all possible routes.
Earnings-Based Compensation Contracts Under Asymmetric Information

We analyse a model with two-dimensional asymmetric information in which the employer has better information about the firm's earnings potential. The employee's contract consists of an annual bonus and stock options. We explain (1) how different degrees of asymmetric information about short-term earnings versus long-term earnings affect optimal contracts and (2) why firms offering more options have higher short-term performance and lower long-term performance. This provides new insights into the structure of earnings-based compensation.
Students Perception on the Entrepreneurship Curriculum at the University of South Africa’s Department of Agriculture and Animal Health

Abstract Entrepreneurship continues to assume a vital role in the South African economy as well as the economies of many developing nations across the globe. The creation of new business activities has become a major driver in the economy. South Africa has a high number of unemployed graduates in the agricultural sector across all disciplines. However, there has been a pervasive culture in the South African education system that when agricultural students complete their programmes at universities they prefer to work for government as extension and advisory services personnel, at research institutions and other related sectors. The study was conducted to assess whether the training provided as part of the curriculum creates opportunities for entrepreneurship for both undergraduate and postgraduate students at the University of South Africa (UNISA) within the Department of Agriculture and Animal Health. Work-integrated learning (WIL) offers students the chance to learn more about the working environment. There is unwillingness on the part of female students to become entrepreneurs. The Limpopo and KwaZulu-Natal provinces have a large number of students who are interested in entrepreneurship. The curriculum offers students training in innovation and organisational skills, but it is apparent that this programme does not assist in the development of students to embrace entrepreneurship. Students are not prepared to start their own businesses after completing of their studies, however, they prefer to work full-time while running their own businesses part-time.
Corporate social responsibility and environmental reporting in controversial industries

Purpose – Over the last few decades, corporate social responsibility (CSR) has received a large amount of attention in research and in practice. As a response to the growing awareness of and concern about social and environmental issues, an increasing number of companies are proactively publishing their CSR-related principles and activities. The overall research question of this study is derived from legitimacy theory and is aimed at elucidating the relationship between industry sector and CSR communication. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach – The empirical examination encompasses a sample that includes the annual reports of all German DAX-30 companies from 1998 to 2009. First, based on a content analysis, categories of CSR-related communication are defined. Second, these categories are used in a quantitative analysis with a longitudinal perspective to evaluate the hypothesis that companies in controversial industries communicate their CSR more intensely than companies in.
Village Committee Elections in China: Institutionalist Tactics for Democracy

Earlier institutionalist studies in Chinese politics have shown how conservatives and local bureaucrats took advantage of institutional designs in the Leninist system of the People's Republic of China to delay and undermine the implementation of reforms. There has been less discussion of how reformers adapted their strategies to existing institutional constraints to overcome the opposition of conservatives. Using the implementation process of the Organic Law of the Village Committees, this article describes how the reformers adapted to the Chinese institutional setting to promote political reform over opposition at the elite and local levels. As the case of the village elections shows, the reformers in China designed a strategy to promote reform incrementally. Each step along the way was arranged to appear to be a natural response to the interaction between the initial reform policy and unforeseen consequences brought about by the previous policy. In this process, reformers deliberately manipulated a crucial variable—time—to bring about gradual change in the important actor, that is, the peasants, from spectators into participants, and thereby to change the balance of power between proponents and opponents of the reform. Other political players were also carefully enfranchised at different stages of the implementation process to help reformers in their struggle against conservatives.
Use of Corticosteroids in Early Pregnancy is Not Associated With Risk of Oral Clefts and Other Congenital Malformations in Offspring

Corticosteroids are commonly used to treat inflammatory diseases. There is conflicting evidence regarding the association of corticosteroid use in pregnancy and congenital malformations in offspring. We conducted a prevalence study of 83,043 primiparous women who gave birth to a live-born singleton in northern Denmark, in 1999–2009. Through medical registries, we identified prescriptions for corticosteroids, congenital malformations, and covariates. Furthermore, we summarized the literature on this topic. Overall, 1449 women (1.7%) used inhaled or oral corticosteroids from 30 days before conception throughout the first trimester. Oral cleft in the offspring was recorded for 1 of the users (0.08%) and 145 of the nonusers (0.2%), prevalence odds ratio (OR) 0.47 [95% confidence interval (CI), 0.07–3.34]. The prevalence OR for congenital malformations overall was 1.02 (95% CI, 0.79–1.32). According to published studies, the use of corticosteroids in early pregnancy was associated with congenital malformations overall with relative estimates ranging from 0.8 (95% CI, 0.4–1.7) to 2.1 (95% CI, 0.5–9.6). For oral clefts, the ORs ranged from 0.6 (95% CI, 0.2–1.7) to 5.2 (95% CI, 1.5–17.1). We found no evidence of an association between use of corticosteroids in early pregnancy and risk of congenital malformations in offspring.
Is the Audit Fee Disclosure a Leading Indicator of Clients' Business Risk?

SUMMARY: This study hypothesizes a link between observed audit prices and future reported changes in clients' economic condition. As predicted, results from a traditional audit fee model, estimated using a large sample of U.S. public company engagements spanning from 2000 to 2007, reveal a significant inverse relation between audit fees and the one-year-ahead change in a measure of clients' operating performance. Additional analysis indicates that the relation extends to more forward-looking changes (up to five years ahead) and is stronger for negative versus positive changes in performance. Results also indicate that audit fees reflect future changes in clients' earnings that are unaccounted for by analysts' forecasts. In contrast, the findings reveal little evidence of a relation between audit fees and future changes in clients' solvency, including bankruptcy status. Collectively, the study's results provide initial evidence suggesting that the audit fee disclosure is a leading indicator of the operatin.
Analysis of growth rates of rice and sorghum in Andhra Pradesh

The growth rates of rice and sorghum for three distinct administrative and agro-climatic regions of Andhra Pradesh were studied using the time series data from 1970-71 to 1999-2000. The growth pattern was examined by fitting on exponential function (Y=AB t ). The growth pattern in area, production and yield of rice showed an upward trend at state and regional level except in Rayalaseema region which showed a decline in area and production. Telangana region showed highest growth rates in area, production and yield during the study period. Coastal Andhra region showed highest growth rates in terms of area, production and yield next only to Telangana region. In case of sorghum the growth rates of area and production showed a downward trend in all the regions and the state as a whole. The growth of yield in sorghum crop Rayalaseema region was highest during 1970-80 and total period followed by state as a whole and Telangana region.
Cyprus: From Boom to Bail�?In

This is a case study of how a country nearly reached bankruptcy in March 2013, within five years of entering the eurozone. The magnitude of the requested assistance is extremely large relative to GDP (100%) and studying this event provides useful lessons for avoiding such crises in the future. The crisis resulted from a worsening European economic environment (especially in Greece), bad choices with regards to public finances, weak corporate governance within the local banking sector, inadequate and/or difficult regulation of cross-border banking, worsening competitiveness, and bad political decisions at the European and, especially, the local (Cypriot) level. Local politics, reflected in short-term political calculations and/or inadequate understanding of the magnitude of the crisis, delayed corrective action for 18 months until election time, making a bad situation almost impossible to deal with. Overconfidence can be one behavioural explanation for why local politicians ignored the dramatic costs of inaction. — Alexander Michaelides
Comparison of methods for the isolation of thermotolerant Campylobacter from poultry.

Human campylobacteriosis has become the major cause of foodborne gastroenteritis in industrialized countries. Although there have been numerous studies investigating the prevalence of Campylobacter in animals and raw meat, sensitive and low-cost detection methods are needed to implement effective control measures during primary production and to use as tools in risk assessment studies. Thermophilic Campylobacter spp. in naturally contaminated (n = 64) and inoculated (n = 16) broiler samples were detected using two International Organization for Standardization (ISO)-approved methods. Both enrichment broths (those of Preston and of Park and Sanders) were inoculated with (i) Campylobacter jejuni ATCC35921, (ii) boneless breast from broilers, (iii) boneless breast rinse solution, (iv) boneless breast rinse solution inoculated with C. jejuni ATCC35921 before centrifugation, and (v) boneless breast rinse solution inoculated with C. jejuni ATCC35921 after centrifugation. The results indicated that the Park and Sanders broth was superior to the Preston broth for recovery of Campylobacter spp. , and no significant differences (P > 0.05) were found between ISO (meat pieces) and modified ISO (centrifuged chicken rinse solution) methods for the detection of Campylobacter spp.
International Asset Pricing and Portfolio Diversification with Time‐Varying Risk

The authors test the conditional capital asset pricing model (CAPM) for the world's eight largest equity markets using a parsimonious generalized autoregressive conditional heteroskedasticity (GARCH) parameterization. Their methodology can be applied simultaneously to many assets and, at the same time, accommodate general dynamics of the conditional moments. The evidence supports most of the pricing restrictions of the model, but some of the variation in risk-adjusted excess returns remains predictable during periods of high interest rates. The authors' estimates indicate that, although severe market declines are contagious, the expected gains from international diversification for a U.S. investor average 2.11 percent per year and have not significantly declined over the last two decades. Copyright 1997 by American Finance Association.
Board of directors' governance challenges and earnings management

Purpose - This study examines the relationship between corporate governance and earnings management in U.S. context and provides further insights on the effects of board of directors' characteristics on earnings management. The study uses a sample of three groups of U.S. firms; where firms with relatively high negative, firms with relatively high positive and those with low levels of discretionary accruals in the year 2004 are examined. Descriptive statistics, univariate analysis, multivariate analysis, board of directors' characteristics and possible relationships between corporate governance variables and earnings management proxy provide the basis for discussion. The findings indicate that firms with annually elected boards, small size boards, 100% independent nominating committees and 100% independent compensation committees have more negative discretionary accruals. However, firms with 75% to 90% independent board or firms with a board size of between 9 and 12 have higher positive discretionary accruals. Research Implications - Certain board characteristics may be important factors associated with constraining the propensity of managers to engage in earnings management. The study's major contributions to the existing literature are its findings that income-increasing and income-decreasing discretionary accruals have a different relationship with corporate governance practices and its expansion of the scope of corporate governance from board independence and audit committee independence to other corporate governance characteristics. This study provides evidence that supports U.S. regulators' initiatives that stronger corporate governance mechanisms provide greater monitoring of the financial accounting process and may be important factors in improving the integrity of financial reporting.
A Comparison of the Influence of Purchaser Attitudes and Product Attributes on Organic Wine Preferences

Despite considerable theoretical support for the proposition that wine consumers’ purchase decisions would be influenced by whether a wine was organic, this study found that taste overwhelmed all other considerations in respondents’ selection of wine. This experimental study used sensory evaluation in conjunction with a survey of participants’ attitudes toward sustainability and other environmental issues. The study’s methodology was supported theoretically by a means–end approach, evaluative conditioning, and consumer involvement. Despite the strong theoretical underpinnings that suggested personal attitudes would drive purchase decisions, the results indicate that taste alone consistently influenced participants’ preference for wines. Once the respondents tasted the wine, the fact that the wine was organic had no further influence on the wine purchase decision.
Iron deficiency anaemia in infancy and early childhood

In inner cities in the UK, iron deficiency anaemia (IDA) occurs in infants with the same frequency as in developing countries. Evidence is now accumulating to show that IDA is associated with developmental delay, and that the association is causal. IDA is readily preventable, even in a profoundly socially disadvantaged population, by the provision of an iron supplemented formula in place of unmodified cows’ milk. In the United States there has been a substantial reduction over the last 20 years in the prevalence of IDA among infants and young children from low income families.1-3 None the less there is no evidence of a similar downward trend in the UK.4 The lack of urgency in dealing with this problem in the UK is puzzling. We have therefore summarised the existing data on the epidemiology of IDA in the UK and on its causes and consequences. We also suggest some strategies for prevention. The special needs of preterm infants are well recognised, and have been specifically excluded. After release from a relatively hypoxic intrauterine environment, mean haemoglobin concentration falls by 30% to 110 g/1 by the eighth postnatal week, followed by a rise to 125 g/1 at 4 months. Mean haemoglobin then increases gradually to 135 g/1 in preadolescents.5 The lower 95% limit of the reference range from 6 months to 4 years for haemoglobin is 110 g/1, with corresponding values of 32% for packed cell volume, and 72 fl for mean corpuscular volume (MCV). Iron deficiency without anaemia implies that haemoglobin synthesis is impaired, but that haemoglobin concentration has not fallen sufficiently to meet the definition of anaemia. It is usually recognised on the basis of criteria other than haemoglobin concentration: serum ferritin ( 2.5 μg/g haemoglobin), MCV <72 fl, or a response to oral …
Estimating the effect of news media consumption on political participation

Limor Peer is Research Associate, Readership Institute at Media Management Center, Northwestern University, and Adjunct Assistant Professor, Department of Communication Studies, Northwestern University. Edward C. Malthouse is Associate Professor, Integrated Marketing Communications, Medill School of Journalism, Northwestern University. Bobby J. Calder is the Charles H. Kellstadt Distinguished Professor of Marketing, Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University.