Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Transitional Dynamics in a Growth Model with Government Spending, Technological Progress and Population Change

Abstract This paper extends public spending-based growth theory along three directions: we assume that exogenous and constant technological progress does exist and that both population change and the ratio of government expenditure to income follow a logistic trajectory. By focusing on the choices of a benevolent social planner we find that, if the inverse of the intertemporal elasticity of substitution in consumption is sufficiently high, the ratio of consumption to private physical capital converges towards zero when time goes to infinity. Through two examples we see that, depending on the form of the underlying aggregate production function and on whether, for given production function, technological progress equals zero or a positive constant, our model may or may not yield an asymptotic balanced growth path (ABGP) equilibrium. When there is no exogenous technological progress, an equilibrium where population size, the ratio of government spending to total income and the ratio of consumption to private physical capital are all constant does exist and the equilibrium is a saddle point. In case of positive technological progress numerical simulations show that the model still exhibits an ABGP equilibrium.
Season-dependent symptoms in consultation-liaison patients

INTRODUCTION: We investigated those psychiatric patients whose reason for seeking medical help was primarily a physical condition. Our objectives were to analyse to what extent they suffered from seasonal variation in mood and behaviour during winter, and to examine whether these patients were evenly distributed between the categories of the ICD-10 Classification of Mental and Behavioural Disorders (ICD-10) by their primary diagnosis of mental disorder. METHOD: Patients attending the psychiatric services of a consultation liaison unit were interviewed for diagnosis, and were asked to fill in a questionnaire on seasonal variation in mood and behaviour. RESULTS: Our results suggest that there are many patients fulfilling the criteria based on the Seasonal Pattern Assessment uestionnaire (SPA) for seasonal affective disorder (SAD) or for subsyndromal SAD, not only in the ICD-10 diagnosis category of mood (affective) disorders but also in other disorder categories. CONCLUSION: This observation is of importance to hospital and private clinicians, as it emphasizes the need to assess the clinical picture in detail and to consider treatment alternatives for patients presenting with mental disorder with a seasonal pattern. (Int J Psych Clin Pract 2000; 4:151-154)
CCR2 and CCR5 gene polymorphisms in children with recurrent respiratory infections.

Recurrent lower respiratory infections in infancy represent a major health problem because of their high incidence and possible consequences on lung function (1, 2). On the basis of data acquired from a recent epidemiological study carried out in Italy on 18 737 children aged 6–7 years, lifetime pneumonia in 1999 showed a 7? 9% frequency (SIDRIA project, unpublished data). Several environmental risk factors have been associated with lower respiratory infections, but knowledge about genetic predisposition is very limited (3). Analysis of polymorphic genes involved in regulation of the immune system is disclosing promising perspectives. In particular, chemokines and their receptors are involved in host inflammatory response against invading pathogens (4). Chemokines are a family of pro-inflammatory cytokines that attract and activate specific types of leukocytes (5). Their actions are mediated by subfamilies of G-proteincoupled receptors, indicated as CCR or CXCR (6). A common 32-bp deletion in the CCR5 gene (CCR5D32) and a G-to-A nucleotide substitution in the CCR2 gene at position 190 (CCR264I) have been described (7, 8). These variant alleles have been first associated with resistance to HIV-1 infection and delay in the progression to AIDS (9– 12). Recently, their involvement has been investigated in asthma, allergic diseases and insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (13–15). Since CCR2 and CCR5 allelic forms have an important role in regulating the immune response during the infectious process we evaluated the distribution of these genetic polymorphisms in children with recurrent respiratory tract infections.
German Productivity - A Reassessment via the New Ifo Productivity Database

A detailed analysis of the German productivity development is indispensable for understanding, why Europe is lagging behind the US growth since the mid 1990s. In this paper a new and unique database is used to analyze the sources of German productivity growth since 1970. It is shown that investment in information and communication technology (ICT) played a minor role in the German productivity development. The results include detailed descriptive statistics and projections for output and labor productivity growth for the coming decade. The base-case projection puts overall trend output growth at 1.53 percent per year over the next decade. Average labor productivity will grow at an annual rate of 1.59 percent.
Hope, health work and quality of life in families of stroke survivors.

AIM This paper reports a study to examine the relationships among hope, family health promotion, and quality of life after stroke, by testing hypotheses derived from the Developmental Model of Health and Nursing. BACKGROUND Little attention has been given to the influences of family strengths on health promotion behaviours and quality of life after stroke. The majority of studies have focused on stroke survivors, not their spouses. METHOD A descriptive, correlational study was carried out with 40 families of stroke survivors with moderate to severe functional impairments and their spouses. Both partners completed the Herth Hope Index (measure of hope), the Health Options Scale (measure of health work), the Reintegration to Normal Living Index (measure of quality of life) and a demographic questionnaire. RESULTS For both partners, moderate, positive relationships were found between hope and health work (r = 0.52, r = 0.39, P < 0.01) and between hope and quality of life (r = 0.59, r = 0.32, P < 0.05). Family health work was positively associated with quality of life of stroke survivors (r = 0.50, P </= 0.001), but not their spouses. Spouses' employment status, number of supports and functional independence at discharge predicted 40.6% and 46.3% of the variance in quality of life for stroke survivors and spouses, respectively, with the combination of hope and health work contributing an additional 17.8% in predicting stroke survivors' quality of life but no additional variance to the prediction of spouses' quality of life. CONCLUSION Theoretical relationships of the Developmental Model of Health and Nursing were supported for stroke survivors, but the model was less useful in explaining spouses' experiences of hope, health work and quality of life. Findings provide direction for identifying 'at risk' families and raise awareness of the contribution of caregiver burden to quality of life in families of stroke survivors.
Motives for Outward FDI of Chinese Private Firms Firm Resources, Industry Dynamics, and Government Policies

Using recent survey data, this study examines the impact of firm resources, industry dynamics, and government policies on the outward foreign direct investment (FDI) motives of Chinese firms, based on the integrated ‘strategy tripod’ framework. The results suggest that supportive government policies are important motivators for both strategic asset-seeking and market-seeking outward FDI. Firms' technology-based competitive advantages and a high level of industry research and development (R&D) intensity tend to motivate strategic asset-seeking outward FDI, whereas firm's export experience and higher level of domestic industry competition tend to induce market-seeking outward FDI.
Nearest-Neighbour Predictions in Foreign Exchange Markets

The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the debate on the relevance of non-linear predictors of high-frequency data in foreign exchange markets. To that end, we apply nearest-neighbour (NN) predictors, inspired by the literature on forecasting in non-linear dynamical systems, to exchange-rate series. The forecasting performance of univariate and multivariate versions of such NN predictors is first evaluated from the statistical point of view, using a battery of statistical tests. Secondly, we assess if NN predictors are capable of producing valuable economic signals in foreign exchange markets. The results show the potential usefulness of NN predictors not only as a helpful tool when forecast daily exchange data but also as a technical trading rules.
Architectural support for server-side PHP processing

PHP is the dominant server-side scripting language used to implement dynamic web content. Just-in-time compilation, as implemented in Facebook's state-of-the-art HipHopVM, helps mitigate the poor performance of PHP, but substantial overheads remain, especially for realistic, large-scale PHP applications. This paper analyzes such applications and shows that there is little opportunity for conventional microarchitectural enhancements. Furthermore, prior approaches for function-level hardware acceleration present many challenges due to the extremely flat distribution of execution time across a large number of functions in these complex applications. In-depth analysis reveals a more promising alternative: targeted acceleration of four fine-grained PHP activities: hash table accesses, heap management, string manipulation, and regular expression handling. We highlight a set of guiding principles and then propose and evaluate inexpensive hardware accelerators for these activities that accrue substantial performance and energy gains across dozens of functions. Our results reflect an average 17.93% improvement in performance and 21.01% reduction in energy while executing these complex PHP workloads on a state-of-the-art software and hardware platform.
Gender differences in earnings and occupational attainment in Europe

Despite significant increases in female labour market participation and educational achievement in the EU in recent decades, women still trail men in terms of employment rates, earnings and occupational attainment. This thesis is about the interplay between the characteristics of individuals associated with productivity, labour market returns to these characteristics, and country-level work/family reconciliation policies in influencing female employment and gender inequalities in the labour market in the enlarged EU. It explores variations in the ways EU member states support individuals in combining work and family life and the extent to which these policies promote gender equality in the labour market in terms of pay and occupational attainment. The approach of the thesis is quantitative and comparative, based on the secondary analysis of micro social datasets and comparable policy indicators, using advanced statistical techniques. It is also multi-disciplinary, drawing on the literature and methods from the fields of labour economics and comparative social policy. Results from the study suggest that the existing work-family reconciliation policies in the EU have not caught up sufficiently with the dramatic advances in women’s labour market position. To various extents, they retain elements of the traditional male breadwinner model. Even in the Nordic countries, which rank highest on most measures of gender equity in work/family reconciliation policies, women tend to earn less than men, on average, and to work in a narrower range of occupations than their male counterparts. At the other extreme, Eastern-European and Mediterranean countries tend to have more traditional gender-role attitudes and a policy environment less compatible with the dual-earner/dual-carer model of the family. However, women who work, particularly those who work full-time, typically enjoy more equality with men in terms of their wages and occupational attainment.
CHRONIC OBSTRUCTIVE PULMONARY DISEASE Profiling serum biomarkers in patients with COPD: associations with clinical parameters

Background: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is an inflammatory lung disease associated with significant systemic consequences. Recognition of the systemic manifestations has stimulated interest in identifying circulating biomarkers in these patients. A systematic analysis was undertaken of multiple protein analytes in the serum of well characterised patients with COPD and matched controls using novel protein microarray platform (PMP) technology. Methods: Forty-eight patients (65% men) with COPD (forced expiratory volume in 1 s ,55%) and 48 matched controls were studied. Anthropometric parameters, pulmonary function tests, 6-minute walk distance, the BODE index and the number of exacerbations were measured and the association of these outcomes with the baseline levels of 143 serum biomarkers measured by PMP was explored. Results: Thirty biomarker clusters were identified and ranked by computing the predictive value of each cluster for COPD (partial least squares discriminant analysis). From the 19 best predictive clusters, 2–3 biomarkers were selected based on their pathophysiological profile (chemoattractants, inflammation, tissue destruction and repair) and the statistical significance of their relationship with clinically important end points was tested. The selected panel of 24 biomarkers correlated (p,0.01) with forced expiratory volume in 1 s, carbon monoxide transfer factor, 6-minute walk distance, BODE index and exacerbation frequency. Conclusion: PMP technology can be useful in identifying potential biomarkers in patients with COPD. Panels of selected serum markers are associated with important clinical predictors of outcome in these patients.
Identifying Conflict and Violence in Micro-Level Surveys

The overall goal of the report is to increase the capacity of researchers and policy makers to identify comparatively, and across time, how individuals, households and communities are affected by violent conflict. The report provides an extensive overview of existing practices and datasets used in this field of research. We investigate existing methodologies and data-bases used to operationalize the variables of interest and discuss the channels linking violent conflict to individual and household welfare. Special attention is paid to methodological issues on how to design a module and operationalize variables that allow researchers to analyze the welfare effects of violent conflict across countries and across time. We develop and discuss a generic household module that can be easily inserted into future socio-economic surveys implemented in conflict-affected countries. This module will enable researchers to address specific violence-related issues comparatively across different conflict settings and systematically across time. The module proposed builds on previous experiences on survey designs in conflict-affected areas. We review existing conflict- and violence-related questionnaires, with a special focus on World Bank's Living Standard Measurement Surveys (LSMS), and propose suggestions on how to improve questionnaires in order to deepen the understanding of the nature of violent conflict and the channels whereby conflict and violence affect the welfare characteristics and choices of individuals and households in conflict areas.
Understanding Chinese Families: A Comparative Study of Taiwan and Southeast China

This book provides the reader with a comprehensive introduction to the distinguishing features of Chinese families. This first full scale study seeks to understand Chinese families within the Chinese social context and draws comparisons with existing western theories and models of the family. It also explores the connection between two Chinese societies across the Taiwan Strait and investigates if the unique features of Chinese families can be applied to broaden the scope of family analysis in general. This book covers ten core areas, including co-residence, marriage, fertility, education, mobility, gender preferences, family supports, filial feedbacks, housework allocation, and the dynamics of family norm changes. The book uses theory-based empirical studies with data collected from a unique panel survey conducted in various areas across the Taiwan Strait, namely Taiwan and Southeast China. The two focal points of the study are geographically close, ethnically homogeneous, and are open to the modern market economy. A comprehensive analysis of these two areas provides new insights into the similarities and differences of Chinese families, to what extent they are distinct from Western ones, and how these similarities and differences were formed. The uniquely complex nature of intra-family interactions in Chinese families and the rapidly changing social background against which these interactions occur make this a hugely fascinating topic.
What Is the Optimal Time to Start Helmet Therapy in Positional Plagiocephaly?

Background: Although helmet therapy is widely accepted in the treatment of severe positional plagiocephaly, treatment regimens, especially regarding starting age, are controversial. This study investigated the importance of starting age to optimize the management of helmet therapy. Methods: Sixty-two infants with severe positional plagiocephaly were enrolled in this prospective longitudinal study. Twenty-four started helmet therapy before 6 months of age (group 1) and 38 were older than 6 months (group 2). Cranial diagonal measurements were taken. Resulting differences and Cranial Vault Asymmetry Index values were compared and categorized by age at initiation of therapy. The Mann-Whitney U test was used for statistical analysis. Results: Duration of therapy was significantly shorter in group 1 (14 weeks) compared with group 2 (18 weeks) (p = 0.013), with significantly better outcomes. The Cranial Vault Asymmetry Index in group 1 was reduced to a normal mean value less than 3.5 percent. Infants in group 2 did not achieve normal values (index value, 4.5 percent) (p = 0.021). The relative improvement in asymmetry was significantly better in group 1 (75.3 percent) compared with group 2 (60.6 percent) (p = 0.001). After 4 to 11 weeks of treatment, group 1 already showed a better absolute reduction (p < 0.001) and a better relative reduction (p = 0.002). Conclusions: Optimal starting age for helmet therapy is months 5 to 6 of life, and early recognition of infants in need is essential. Delaying the onset of treatment significantly deteriorates the outcome. The still often-practiced regimen of starting helmet therapy after physiotherapy should be replaced by a combined therapy in severe cases. CLINICAL QUESTION/LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Therapeutic, II. Figure. No caption available.
Beetroot juice increase nitric oxide metabolites in both men and women regardless of body mass

Abstract The nitrate (NO3−) present in beetroot juice (BJ) has been studied for its effect on the cardiovascular system by converting to nitric oxide (NO). In the present study, we evaluated the effect of BJ on the excretion of NO metabolites and its relationship with body mass in both men and women. NO metabolites – urinary NO3−, nitrite (NO2−) and NOx were analyzed by using a high-performance liquid chromatography system. There were significant increases in urinary NO3−, NO2− and NOx in BJ as compared to PLA (BJ without NO3−). No significant difference between men and women was observed in NO metabolites after BJ at any time point. There were no significant relationships between urinary NO3−, NO2− and NOx and body mass in BJ intervention for both men and women. In conclusion, urinary NO metabolites after BJ consumption increases in similar manner between sexes regardless of body mass.
The complete chloroplast genome sequence of the medicinal plant Andrographis paniculata

Abstract The complete chloroplast genome of Andrographis paniculata, an important medicinal plant with great economic value, has been studied in this article. The genome size is 150,249 bp in length, with 38.3% GC content. A pair of inverted repeats (IRs, 25,300 bp) are separated by a large single copy region (LSC, 82,459 bp) and a small single-copy region (SSC, 17,190 bp). The chloroplast genome contains 114 unique genes, 80 protein-coding genes, 30 tRNA genes and 4 rRNA genes. In these genes, 15 genes contained 1 intron and 3 genes comprised of 2 introns.
Fabrication of Thin-Film Silicon Membranes With Phononic Crystals for Thermal Conductivity Measurements

Thermoelectricity struggles with the lack of cheap, abundant, and environmentally friendly materials. Silicon could overcome this deficiency by proposing high harvested power density, simplicity, availability, harmlessness, CMOS compatibility, and cost reduction. However, despite its high Seebeck coefficient and electrical conductivity, silicon is an inefficient thermoelectric material due to a high thermal conductivity (κ). Modern nanofabrication techniques enable reduction of κ in silicon through attenuation of thermal phonons. In this letter, the design and the fabrication of nanostructured material onto κ measurement platforms are presented. The proposed fabrication process is versatile and ensures compatibility with CMOS technologies. The proposed devices enable precise κ measurement owing to a careful management of thermal losses. Characterization resulted in a two-fold (κ = 59 ± 10 W/m/K) reduction below bulk value for a 54-nm-thick plain silicon membranes. Further reduction is measured at κ = 34.5±7.5 W/m/K for membranes with phononic crystals.
Estimating the Consumption-Capital Asset Pricing Model Without Consumption Data: Evidence from Denmark

This paper evaluates the ability of the multifactor model of Campbell (1993, 1996) to explain time-series and cross-sectional patterns of Danish stock and bond returns. The model is obtained by substituting consumption out of the intertemporal budget constraint of the representative agent in the traditional consumption-based capital asset pricing model (C-CAPM). This enables the model to be estimated without the use of consumption data. Estimation of the model results in reasonable preference parameter estimates. Unlike previous research based on this model, the restrictions implied by both the conditional and unconditional model are generally not rejected, and Hansen and Jagannathan’s (1997) specification error measures generally imply small pricing errors.
Econometric Policy Evaluation: Note

for successive values of the endogenous variables y,, with the x, treated as deterministic forcing variables. Here 0 is a parameter vector and the Et are random shocks. Lucas correctly observed that such a formulation is inconsistent with a view of agents as optimizers: except in special cases in which the future is irrelevant to present decisions, it makes no sense to think of agents as optimizing if they know that their budget constraints are liable to shift arbitrarily (i.e., in a way which is not characterized probabilistically) as government policy changes. Lucas was led to augment the foregoing equation by adding to the system a government policy function