Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Poverty, Household Characteristics and Child Health Care in Nigeria

Poverty is a household name in developing countries such as Nigeria and has been recognized as a major problem inhibiting economic growth and development. As such, this study examined poverty, household characteristics and child health care in Nigeria with the aim of finding out how poverty affects child health care considering host of household characteristics. The theoretical framework is based on household utility maximization derived from the human capital analysis, while logit regression estimation technique was adopted for our analysis. Parental education influenced children health status and also positively significant in child height for age. Also, household size and economic status are also significant factors in determining child health status. The study therefore recommends that government should put in place policies to reduce the identified constraints to child health care.
Achieving customer loyalty through service excellence in internet industry

Purpose – This paper aims to investigate the antecedents to attitudinal and behavioural loyalty of customers of Internet service providers (ISPs). In addition, this study endeavours to identify the relationship between overall service quality and cognitive as well as affective evaluations of customers. An assessment of service quality dimensions is also included to fill the void of research on modelling service quality in high tech services. Design/methodology/approach – The paper reviews the most cited articles on the topic published in academic journals with a view to identify dimensions that customers use to evaluate the quality of a service providers, and to determine loyalty formation through customer cognitive and affective evaluations in Internet industry. Findings – The exogenous constructs of the conceptual model include influential factors such as network quality, customer service, information support and security which make up the perception of overall service quality. The endogenous constructs.
A job to believe in: recruitment in the Scottish voluntary sector

The voluntary sector is an important source of employment in the UK and is increasingly providing services previously provided by the public sector. However, the ability of the sector to provide such services is dependent on the quantity and quality of suitable labour. This article examines recruitment issues in seven case-study voluntary organisations offering social care in Scotland. Interviews were conducted with 137 managers and employees in these organisations. In addition, to assess potential labour supply, interviews and focus groups were conducted with careers advisers and potential employees. The findings suggest that, with a tightening labour market, uncompetitive pay and misconceptions about the sector, recruitment is a problem. However, job satisfaction is high for current employees, and potential employees whose values are commensurate with the sector might be attracted. The findings thus have relevance not just for the case-study organisations, but for HRM in the voluntary sector generally.
A Methodological Review of Studies on Effects of Financial Aid on College Student Success

The nationally growing concerns on college student success have encouraged scholarly investigation in the effectiveness of financial aid policies that aim to narrow the achievement gaps between social groups. Studies on effects of financial aid though reco gnize the role of financial aid in increasing college access, choice and subsequent persistence, they disagree to a great extent on effects of specific types of financial aid (e.g. loan) when utilizing different analytical methods and/or dissimilar data sets. With no careful scrutiny on the soundness of the research design when adopting policy recommendations, the initiatives on closing the achievement gap would likely to be jeopardized or result in vain. In this paper, we first reviewed methodological issues critical to financial aid studies on college student success, including measures of financial aid, nature of outcome variables, longitudinal process and contexts of student success, differential aid effects across subgroups and the omitted variable bias (as well as self-selection bias). Both advantages and disadvantages adopted by researchers to account for these methodological challenges were discussed. We then proposed the limitations incurred by various data sources, and issues related to data availability, quality and reliability. Finally, directions for future research were suggested.
Mutuality, De-Mutualization and Communities: The Implications of Branch Network Rationalization in the British Building Society Industry

The paper examines the withdrawal of branches from local communities by financial institutions. It assesses whether mutually owned building societies are more adept than the former societies that have converted to public limited companies (plcs), or the high street banks, in serving disadvantaged communities. The paper shows that during the mid-1990s: mutual building societies were more likely than former societies that have converted to plcs to maintain their branch network; mutual societies were less likely than banks to withdraw from socially deprived locations and more likely to open branches in such places; differences between mutual societies and convertors are less marked, but mutual institutions appear less likely than convertors to close branches in deprived communities. Among the remaining mutual building societies there are differences of perspective, with more commercially-minded societies less positive than socially-concerned mutuals about the need to maintain or even expand branches in disadvantaged areas.
NADPH oxidases in oxidant production by microglia: activating receptors, pharmacology and association with disease

Microglia are the resident immune cells of the CNS and constitute a self‐sustaining population of CNS‐adapted tissue macrophages. As mononuclear phagocytic cells, they express high levels of superoxide‐producing NADPH oxidases (NOX). The sole function of the members of the NOX family is to generate reactive oxygen species (ROS) that are believed to be important in CNS host defence and in the redox signalling circuits that shape the different activation phenotypes of microglia. NOX are also important in pathological conditions, where over‐generation of ROS contributes to neuronal loss via direct oxidative tissue damage or disruption of redox signalling circuits. In this review, we assess the evidence for involvement of NOX in CNS physiopathology, with particular emphasis on the most important surface receptors that lead to generation of NOX‐derived ROS. We evaluate the potential significance of the subcellular distribution of NOX isoforms for redox signalling or release of ROS to the extracellular medium. Inhibitory mechanisms that have been reported to restrain NOX activity in microglia and macrophages in vivo are also discussed. We provide a critical appraisal of frequently used and recently developed NOX inhibitors. Finally, we review the recent literature on NOX and other sources of ROS that are involved in activation of the inflammasome and discuss the potential influence of microglia‐derived oxidants on neurogenesis, neural differentiation and culling of surplus progenitor cells. The degree to which excessive, badly timed or misplaced NOX activation in microglia may affect neuronal homeostasis in physiological or pathological conditions certainly merits further investigation.
From Hong Kong’s Capitalist Fundamentals to Singapore’s Authoritarian Governance: The Policy Mobility of Neo-liberalising Shenzhen, China

Shenzhen Special Economic Zone (SEZ) has been the flagship labouratory of Deng Xiaoping’s reform and open-door policy and the forerunner of China’s capitalist transformation. The initiation of the Shenzhen SEZ was driven by the imperative of political and economic survival along the state hierarchy and was informed by the international practices of export processing zones (EPZs). Shenzhen’s capitalist fundamentals, such as the commodification of land and labour, were largely established through imitating its ‘big master’ Hong Kong across the border. However, Shenzhen’s policy learning style has gradually shifted from laissez-faire Hong Kong to authoritarian Singapore, propelled by the aspiration, shared among policy-making party élites across China’s administrative hierarchy, of perpetuating the single-party rule. Theoretically, this paper demonstrates how policy mobility is shaped path-dependently by the pre-structured institutional/ideological regime, in what ways the idiosyncratic geographical/historical conjuncture matters, and why political representation and participation are crucial to policy selection and mutation.
VENTILATOR-INDUCED INJURY AUGMENTS INTERLEUKIN-1&bgr; PRODUCTION AND NEUTROPHIL SEQUESTRATION IN LIPOPOLYSACCHARIDE-TREATED LUNGS

ABSTRACT Mechanical ventilators are commonly used to support critically ill patients; however, inappropriate ventilator settings might initiate or augment lung injury. To determine whether a large tidal volume (Vt) augments inflammatory responses and neutrophil sequestration in the lungs of rats receiving intratracheal lipopolysaccharides (LPS). Rats received intratracheal instillation of LPS (0.5 mg/kg) followed by 4 h of mechanical ventilation (MV) at 60 strokes per min with a Vt of 10 mL/kg as control MV, or 30 strokes per min with a Vt of 20 mL/kg of body weight as high-volume MV (HMV). In addition, monoclonal antibodies against rat intercellular adhesion molecule 1 (ICAM-1) or immunoglobulin G (50 mg/kg) were administered 30 min before LPS instillation and MV. Our study demonstrates that HMV enhances pulmonary permeability and induces neutrophil recruitment into the alveolar space and pulmonary edema. Intratracheal instillation of LPS caused marked lung injury, neutrophil recruitment, and production of cytokines and chemokines. Combining LPS instillation and HMV synergistically upregulated interleukin 1&bgr; (IL-1&bgr;) production and neutrophil sequestration in lung tissues. The ICAM-1 expression in lung tissues was responsible for the synergistic effects of neutrophil sequestration. Synergistic upregulation of IL-1&bgr; production and neutrophil sequestration was attenuated by blocking ICAM-1 by neutralizing antibody pretreatment. High Vt MV in LPS-injured lung causes synergistic production of IL-1&bgr; and sequestration of neutrophil via ICAM-1-dependent effects.
A Note on Evaluating Agricultural Policy in the Presence of Health Care Cost Externalities: Dairy Production Quotas and Coronary Heart Disease Costs

The purpose of this note is to illustrate that the health cost externalities related to food consumption are significant and can be large enough to have implications for the economic evaluation of agriculture and food policy. The individual dietary intake of fats can affect the probability of being afflicted with coronary eart disease (CHD). While fat consumption is primarily a private decision, much of the annual $7.4 billion cost of CHD in Canada is borne socially through publicly funded health care, disability and pension plans. This note calculates the per-unit disease cost externality from saturated fatty acid consumption in Canada to be $5.07 per kilogram of saturated fatty acid. To demonstrate the importance for policy analysis, the disease cost externality was incorporated in a conventional welfare analysis of dairy production quotas in Canada. The externality was large enough to make the restrictive production quotas no further from social optimum than the competitive equilibrium. The importance of the disease cost externality suggests much more research is needed to incorporate these and other health cost externalities into many types of agricultural policy analysis. L'objet de la presente note est de demontrer que les externalites “couts de sante” lies a la consummation alimentaire sont significatives et qu'elles sont assez importantes pour etre prises en compte dans l'evaluation economique des politiques agro-alimentaires. L'ingestion de graisses peut influer sur les probabilites de contracter des troubles coronariens. Si la consommation de graisses releve d'une decision personnelle, une bonne partie des couts de 7,4 milliards de dollars imputables a ces maladies au Canada est assumee par la societe dans son ensemble, par l'entremise des programmes publics de soins de sante, d'invalidite et de pension. Nous estimons a 5,07 dollars par kilo d'acides gras satures l'externalite“couts de sante” associee a la consommation d'acides gras satures au Canada. Pour mettre en evidence son importance dans les analyses de politiques, nous avons integre l'externalite“couts de sante” dans une analyse sociale classique des contingents de production laitiere au Canada. Ces externalites sont assez importantes pour rendre les contingents restrictifs de production pas plus eloignes de l'optimum social que l'equilibre concurrentiel. L'importance des externalites “couts des frais de sante” souleve la necessite d'intensifier les recherches avant qu'on puisse incorporer ces externalites et d'autres liees aux couts de sante dans de nombreux types d'analyse des politiques agricoles.
On the Sample Complexity of Multichannel Frequency Estimation via Convex Optimization

The use of multichannel data in line spectral estimation (or frequency estimation) is common for improving the estimation accuracy in array processing, structural health monitoring, wireless communications, and more. Recently proposed atomic norm methods have attracted considerable attention due to their provable superiority in accuracy, flexibility, and robustness compared with conventional approaches. In this paper, we analyze atomic norm minimization for multichannel frequency estimation from noiseless compressive data, showing that the sample size per channel that ensures exact estimation decreases with the increase of the number of channels under mild conditions. In particular, given <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$L$ </tex-math></inline-formula> channels, order <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$K \left ({\log K}\right) \left ({1+\frac {1}{L}\log N}\right)$ </tex-math></inline-formula> samples per channel, selected randomly from <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$N$ </tex-math></inline-formula> equispaced samples, suffice to ensure with high probability exact estimation of <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$K$ </tex-math></inline-formula> frequencies that are normalized and mutually separated by at least <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\frac {4}{N}$ </tex-math></inline-formula>. Numerical results are provided corroborating our analysis.
European stock market dependencies when price changes are unusually large

This article studies dependencies between European stock markets when returns are unusually large ‘extreme’, using daily data on stock market indices for Germany, the UK, France, The Netherlands and Italy from 1973 to 2001. Dependency is measured by the conditional probability of an unusually large return in one market given an unusually large return in another and is estimated using an approach from multivariate extreme value theory. It finds the following. First, dependencies between markets in situations of unusually large returns have become closer over time. Second, they are generally higher for large negative returns than for large positive ones. Third, dependencies differ depending on the country pair considered. For example, stock markets in the Netherlands and France are more closely and those in the UK and Italy less closely linked to the German market. Fourth, overall dependencies are quite symmetric, in the sense that the conditional probability for an unusually large change given a large change in the other country is similar irrespective of which of the two countries the probability is conditioned on.
The importance of household size and composition in constructing poverty profiles: An illustration from Vietnam

The calculation of income-poverty profiles should allow for household size and composition but rarely does so. Failure to do this means that the poverty profile will be distorted. The appropriate adjustments are straightforward requiring simple assumptions which whilst arbitrary are better than ignoring the problem. Not making these adjustments distorts not only the relationship between household size and poverty but all aspects of the poverty profile correlated to household size. For the case of Vietnam this article shows that if the adjustments are not made rural poverty is under-stated as is poverty amongst those with little education minority ethnic groups and female headed households. Far fewer children live in poverty than is suggested when the appropriate data adjustments are not made. (authors)
Public investment and economic growth

This article uses an extension of Mankiw, Romer and Weil's augmented Solow-Swan growth model to examine whether public investment has a distinct role as a determinant of economic growth. It considers both the predictions of the model in steady state and in transition to steady state. For the steady state model, there is no significant effect from public investment on the level of output per worker. Using standard ordinary least squares (OLS) methods for the transition model, it observes a significant contribution to economic growth from public investment. When instrumental variables methods are used, however, the associated standard errors are much larger and the contribution of public investment is statistically insignificant.
Clinical Effectiveness of Monocanalicular and Bicanalicular Silicone Intubation for Congenital Nasolacrimal Duct Obstruction

Background Numerous surgical techniques of silicone tube intubation in congenital nasolacrimal duct obstruction (CNLDO) have been described; these techniques can be divided into monocanalicular intubation (MCI) and bicanalicular intubation (BCI). The aim of this study was to compare the clinical effectiveness of MCI versus BCI of CNLDO. Methods In a prospective, nonrandomized, comparative case study, patients with CNLDO underwent probing under endoscopic control and either BCI or MCI under general anesthesia. Demographic data, including age and sex, duration of preoperative symptoms, method of previous treatment, operative time, timing of silicone tube removal, follow-up periods, complications, and outcomes, were analyzed. Results The study included 30 eyes from 22 patients for BCI and 30 eyes from 24 patients for MCI. The mean age in the BCI group was 23.3 months and in the MCI group was 23.1 months. Mean follow-up was 16.4 ± 5.9 weeks for BCI group and 11.6 ± 8.2 weeks for MCI group. Operation time was slightly longer in the BCI group. Tubes were most often removed in the operating room under general anesthesia for BCI (66.7%) and in an office setting under topical anesthesia for MCI (100%). Overall, BCI had a 93.3% success rate (28/30), and MCI had a 90.0% success rate (27/30). Conclusions Although there was no significant difference between the success rates of the 2 groups, MCI allowed technical ease of insertion and tube removal. Moreover, the tubing does not threaten the unprobed part of the lacrimal drainage system. These advantages of MCI should be considered when selecting treatment methods for CNLDO.
Estimating the impact of exchange rate volatility on exports: evidence from Asian countries

The paper examines the impact of exchange rate volatility on the exports of five Asian countries. The countries are Turkey, South Korea, Malaysia, Indonesia and Pakistan. The impact of a volatility term on exports is examined by using an Engle-Granger residual-based cointegrating technique. The results indicate that the exchange rate volatility reduced real exports for these countries. This might mean that producers in these countries are risk-averse. The producers will prefer to sell in domestic markets rather than foreign markets if the exchange rate volatility increases.
Decomposition of Industrial Energy Consumption in Indian Manufacturing: The Energy Intensity Approach

Increasing energy consumption has been one of the major issues in the environmental and industrial economics in the context of global climate change. Recent literature has dealt with several methodological and application issues related to the technique of decomposing changes in industrial energy consumption. In this paper, we examine these issues in the context of another commonly adopted approach to decomposition of aggregate changes in energy intensity of Indian manufacturing industries. The industrial sector accounts for about 37 percent of the total final energy consumption in India. Of this the manufacturing sector consumes about 66 percent (2004-05). The manufacturing sector is one of the energy intensive industries among other industries in India. The scope of the study includes an empirical analysis of General Parametric Divisia Method. This paper follows the energy intensity approach rather the energy consumption approach. This method involves decomposition of the aggregate energy intensity index measured in terms of energy consumption per unit of output. The analysis also includes a comparison of the time series analysis versus the period-wise decomposition. The factors considered are changes in production structure and sectoral energy intensities. The results of the analysis confirm that the changes in sectoral energy intensity play a greater role in the variation in the total energy intensity of Indian Manufacturing compared to the changes in the production structure of the Industries.
Research on Women in Family Firms

Based on a review of 48 articles and other research works published since 1985, the current work examines both obstacles to and positive aspects of women's involvement in family firms. The most important findings of this work concern the important role that wives play for the continuity and growth of the family firm and the factors that can help or hinder daughters to progress professionally and achieve leadership positions in this type of firm. Research questions and methods and implications for future research and practice are also presented.
Reducing toxic chemical releases and transfers: Explaining outcomes for a voluntary program

Relatively little is known about the possibilities and limitations of voluntary public programs. The so-called 33/50 Program for reducing releases of certain toxic chemicals into the environment provides a useful instance for examination. In an investigation of toxics-reduction outcomes, with states as units of analysis, economic and policy variables help to explain the results. In particular, channels and approaches used In communicating policy intentions are related to outcomes. Voluntary programs can make a difference, but the details of execution, including the extent and nature of field efforts, influence outcomes.