Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Conceptual Process Model for Improving Youth Science Comprehension

Improving youth science comprehension in the United States is imperative to reverse current trends in student achievement and to meet an expected shortage of scientists in the future. This lag in achievement scores and need for future scientists is a problem. One challenge is to link inquiry-based learning and experiential education with curriculum designed to improve understanding, skill development, and reasoning abilities to achieve the broader impacts of improved science comprehension. The authors propose a conceptual process model for delivering Extension programs designed to enhance youth achievement in the sciences.
Significant Contributions to Finance Literature

Interest in the evolution of financial research has motivated the study of institutional sources of financial research [13], research productivity of doctoral programs [14], and geographic distribution of papers presented at finance association meetings [18]. A more recent empirical study sought to uncover differences in quality among finance articles by using citation counts as an index of significance [10]. The proposition that "significant" literature can be identified by how frequently it is referenced has also been invoked for analysis of literature in economics [16], psychology [5], and physics [6]. An alternate way of identifying the literature thought to be significant is to survey professional opinion. A study of this sort has been done on graduate programs in business [3]. Myopia may prevent recognition of works recently published, and time may erode positive perceptions of early works. Nonetheless, what represents seminal financial research ultimately will be determined by a jury of informed opinion. This study identifies through a survey of professional opinion those finance articles that have made significant contributions to the literature of finance. Accompanying the survey findings are an estimate of the number of years required for full recognition of significance, the criteria for significance, and several characteristics of the authors of distinguished articles.
Factors influencing applicant willingness to apply for the advertised job opening: the mediational role of credibility, satisfaction and attraction

The present study examined the effects of the information given in a job advertisement on the potential applicants' willingness to apply for the job opening with the mediating roles of credibility of and satisfaction from the information given in the ad and attraction to the organization. One hundred and fifty-four students were randomly assigned to the three different versions of job advertisement. Additionally, a questionnaire package was given to each participant. The results showed that advertisement type affected the willingness of potential applicants to apply for the job and this relationship was mediated by credibility.
Quantifying the Cost of Disability Transitions in Medicare

Objective: To investigate the impact of disability transitions on annual Medicare Part A and B cost. Method: We analyzed 6,385 community-dwelling beneficiaries who were continuously enrolled in fee-for-service Medicare Part A and B from 2008 to 2009. We estimated adjusted effects of disability transitions on Medicare cost using a generalized linear model. Results: Transitions to more severe disability states were associated with significantly higher average annual Medicare cost ranging from US$2,639 to US$5,405. Lower spending levels were observed for beneficiaries with improvements in functioning. Beneficiaries who transitioned from severe to moderate activities of daily living (ADLs) disability cost significantly less (−US$6,045) than those who remained severely disabled. Discussion: Interventions aimed at preventing disability progression and efforts to restore functional capacity are promising strategies for containing costs and generating savings for Medicare. Future research is needed to assess the longer term impact of disability in association with the progression of chronic conditions.
Job Mobility in Europe, Japan and the United States

Evidence about job mobility outside the United States is scarce and difficult to compare cross‐nationally because of non‐uniform data. We document job mobility patterns of college graduates in their first three years in the labour market, using unique uniform data covering 11 European countries and Japan. Using the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, we replicate the information in this survey to compare the results with the United States. We find that (a) US graduates hold more jobs than European graduates, (b) contrasting conventional wisdom, job mobility in Japan is only somewhat lower than the European average, and (c) there are large differences in job mobility within Europe.
A Tutorial for Olfaction-Based Multisensorial Media Application Design and Evaluation

Recently, multimedia researchers have added several so-called new media to the traditional multimedia components (e.g., olfaction, haptic, and gustation). Evaluating multimedia user-perceived Quality of Experience (QoE) is already non-trivial and the addition of multisensorial media components increases this challenge. No standardized methodology exists to conduct subjective quality assessments of multisensorial media applications. To date, researchers have employed different aspects of audiovisual standards to assess user QoE of multisensorial media applications and thus, a fragmented approach exists. In this article, the authors highlight issues researchers face from numerous perspectives including applicability (or lack of) existing audiovisual standards to evaluate user QoE and lack of result comparability due to varying approaches, specific requirements of olfactory-based multisensorial media applications, and novelty associated with these applications. Finally, based on the diverse approaches in the literature and the collective experience of authors, this article provides a tutorial and recommendations on the key steps to conduct olfactory-based multisensorial media QoE evaluation.
Defensiveness and Individual Response Stereotypy in Asthma

Objective Previous literature has shown that the psychological trait of defensiveness is related to elevated sympathetic reactivity to stress and to several cardiac risk factors. The aim of this study was to examine whether these previous findings on defensiveness extend to an asthmatic population. Methods Defensiveness was measured by the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale using a quartile split: high (upper 25%) and low (bottom 75%). Twenty-two defensive and 66 nondefensive participants with asthma were exposed to laboratory tasks (initial baseline rest period, reaction time task, and a shop accident film). Results During the tasks there was evidence of lower skin conductance levels and greater respiratory sinus arrhythmia amplitudes among defensive patients with asthma. After exposure to the tasks, defensive patients with asthma showed a decline on spirometry test measures compared with nondefensive asthmatic patients, who displayed an increase. Conclusions These data confirm individual response stereotypy and suggest that defensiveness may be characterized by sympathetic hypoarousal and parasympathetic hyperarousal among patients with asthma. Future studies are needed to determine whether defensiveness is a risk factor for stress-induced bronchoconstriction.
Studying food tastes among young adults using Bourdieu's theory

The purpose of this study was to study the relationship between social position and food tastes. The empirical data stem from a survey carried out in 1991 on 703 people aged 23–26 years. Bourdieu's theory of the relationship between social position and consumption was used as a theoretical framework. Bourdieu attacks the position often expressed by economists that consumers are similar in most respects except for their economic capital. He introduced the concept ‘cultural capital’ when describing different consumption practices and emphasizes the relationship between gender and food tastes. The social position variables in this study include economic and cultural capital, and gender. Participants were asked to evaluate exotic, healthy, filling, inexpensive and traditional food. Two dimensions of food orientations were observed: food as form and food as function. Economic capital was of importance concerning the costs of food and its filling functions. Groups rich in cultural capital were more interested in healthy and exotic food and less interested in filling food than those possessing less cultural capital. Women were more concerned about healthy food than men. Cultural capital had an independent effect when economic capital was constant.
“Agriculture as the Foundation”: A Continuing Imperative

Continuity and Change in China's Rural Development: Collective and Reform Eras in Perspective. By Louis PUTTERMAN. [New York & Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993. 379 pp. ? 37.50. ISBN 0-19-507872-1]. Peasant Power in China: The Era of Rural Reform, 1979-1989. By DANIEL KELLIHER. [New Haven & London: Yale University Press, 1992. xx + 264 pp. ? 20.00, $32.00. ISBN 0-300-05465-3. ] Agricultural Reform in China: From Communes to Commodity Economy. By SIMON G. POWELL. [Manchester & New York: Manchester University Press, 1992. 231 pp. ? 40.00. ISBN 0-7190-3382-9. ] China: Options for Reform in the Grain Sector. By THE WORLD BANK. [Washington D.C.: The World Bank, 1991. xv + 178 pp. ISBN 0-8123-1876-4. ] Rural Reform and Peasant Income in China: The Impact of China's Post-Mao Rural Reforms in Selected Regions. By ZHU LING. [Basingstoke & London: Macmillan, 1991. xiv + 204 pp. ? 35.00. ISBN 0-333-49743-0. ] The Agriculture of China. Edited by Xu GUOHUA and L. J. PEEL. [Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991. xi + 300 pp. ? 45.00. ISBN 0-19859208-6. ] Regional Productivity Growth in China's Agriculture. By SHENGGEN FAN. [Boulder, San Francisco & Oxford: Westview Press, 1990. xxvii + 196 pp. ? 21.95. ISBN 0-8133-7989-X. ] The Rural Economy of Pre-Liberation China: Trade Increase and Peasant Livelihood in Jiangsu and Guangdong, 1870 to 1937. By DAVID FAURE. [Hong Kong: Oxford University Press, 1989. xiv + 283 pp. ? 22.50. ISBN 0-19-582707-4. ] Commercialization and Agricultural Development: Central and Eastern China, 1870-1937. By LOREN BRANDT. [Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989. xiii + 232 pp. ? 30.00. ISBN 0-521-37196-1. ]
Stock Returns and Exchange Rate Volatility Spillovers in the MENA Region

In this article, we examine the presence of volatility spillovers between nominal exchange rates and stock returns in three MENA countries: Egypt, Morocco and Turkey. The multivariate GARCH model we use does not produce evidence of cross-market effects for the general stock indices returns. Nevertheless, bidirectional shock and volatility spillovers between exchange rates and stock returns exist at the industry sector level. These findings are more pronounced in Egypt and Turkey. The different results are due to the different exchange rate regimes/policies adopted by the three countries. While exchange rates in Egypt and Turkey were allowed to float, Morocco followed a more tightly managed exchange rate regime.
The Quest for Good Governance: How Societies Develop Control of Corruption

1. Understanding control of corruption 2. Diagnosis and measurement 3. The road to Denmark: historical paths to corruption control 4. Structure and agency: determining control of corruption 5. Understanding contemporary achievers 6. Domestic collective action capacity 7. International agency and its anticorruption impact 8. From critical mess to critical mass: some tentative policy conclusions.
Decision-making in the European Union's Council of Ministers

This thesis presents a theory of voting behaviour for the governments represented in the European Union's Council of Ministers and analyses a large original data set covering all legislation adopted by the EU from 1999 to 2004. It argues that the governments' voting behaviour is dominated by party political preferences rather than national preferences over EU integration issues. The already very elaborate EU policies and processes for adopting laws mean that most issues related to decisions on the degree of integration are solved outside the Council. Instead, decision-making in the Council is over actual policy content and the level of regulation. Consequently, the governments negotiate over possible policy outcomes along the traditional left/right political dimension. In addition to presenting the actors in the Council as political parties rather than national representatives, the thesis argues that the governments act strategically rather than sincerely when deciding how best to pursue their policy preferences. The Council members consider their possibilities for influencing new legislation as dictated by their voting power, and voting behaviour is the result of strategic estimations of when support or disagreement needs to be voiced, and how. Empirically, the prediction is a difference between left- and right-wing governments and, within this policy space, between small- and large member states. The theory is tested in a series of multivariate analyses and geometrical scaling methods. A range of alternative hypotheses from the literature is included in each of the empirical tests. The evidence supports the theory: Legislative politics in the Council take place within a one-dimensional policy space, and each of the Council members' ideal policy points are found to be aligned with their preferences over left/right political issues in the domestic sphere. Furthermore, the member states that experienced a change in government during this period similarly changed their voting behaviour in the Council, indicating that EU politics are indeed a party political matter. When taking into account also the governments' voting power, larger Council members in the opposition are generally more likely to oppose the majority than smaller members. However, smaller members frequently use the option of making formal statements following a vote as a mean of voicing disagreement. The findings are robust across different stages of the legislative process as well as most policy areas, although a variance in magnitude appears.
Welfare Dynamics Measurement: Two Definitions of a Vulnerability Line and Their Empirical Application

Little research currently exists on a vulnerability line that distinguishes the poor population from the population that is not poor but that still faces significant risk of falling back into poverty. This paper attempts to fill this gap by proposing vulnerability lines that can be straightforwardly estimated with panel or cross-sectional household survey data, in rich- and poor-country settings. These vulnerability lines offer a means to broaden traditional poverty analysis and can also assist with the identification of the middle class or resilient population groups. Empirical illustrations are provided using panel data from the United States (Panel Study of Income Dynamics) and Vietnam (Vietnam Household Living Standards Survey) for the period 2004-2008 and cross-sectional data from India (National Sample Survey) for the period 2004-2009. The estimation results indicate that in Vietnam and India during this time period, the population living in poverty and the middle class have been falling and expanding, respectively, while the opposite has been occurring in the United States.
Te laag, te traag en te omstreden: Waarom streefcijfers voor topvrouwen te laag worden ingezet

Veel Nederlandse arbeidsorganisaties werken met streefcijfers voor het percentage vrouwen dat zij binnen een zekere termijn willen zien aan hun top. Het vertalen van deze streefcijfers in concrete acties is echter geen sinecure. Wij laten in dit artikel zien dat cognitieve vertekeningen en sekse stereotypen een rol spelen in het realiseren van een streefcijfer voor het aantal vrouwelijke professoren aan een universiteit. In een experiment tonen wij aan dat een meerderheid van de deelnemers onderschat welk percentage vrouwen zou moeten worden aangenomen om een bepaald streefcijfer te bereiken. Niet alleen onderschatten zij het percentage vrouwelijke kandidaten dat dient te worden aangenomen om een 50/50 vertegenwoordiging te bereiken, maar ook de tijdsduur die hiervoor nodig is. Een analyse van de argumenten die deelnemers gebruiken om hun schatting te onderbouwen, laat zien dat deze onderschatting samenhangt met cognitieve vertekeningen, zoals het verwarren van instroom en aantal, en het onderschatten van de toenemende uitstroom van vrouwen. De onderschattin g hangt ook samen met seksestereotypen, bijvoorbeeld daar waar deelnemers veronderstelde sekse verschillen in individuele keuzes van mannen en vrouwen verantwoordelijk houden voor de huidige verdeling, en daar waar deelnemers bij kwaliteit eerder denken aan mannelijke academici dan aan vrouwelijke academici. Voor organisaties die streefcijfers (of quota) gebruiken om tot een meer evenredige vertegenwoordiging van mannen en vrouwen in (de top van) organisaties te komen is inzicht in beide mechanismen onontbeerlijk.
Customer-order information, leadtimes, and inventories

We have an inventory to manage. The scenario is standard in all respects save one. Instead of arriving unannounced, customers provide advance warning of their demands. How should we use this information, and what is its effect on system performance? The answers turn out to be strikingly simple. There are very simple policies which perform effectively, in some cases optimally. Also such "demand leadtimes" improve performance, in precisely the same way that replenishment leadtimes degrade it.
Using marijuana, drinking alcohol or a combination of both: the association of marijuana, alcohol and sexual risk behaviour among adolescents.

Background Although the association between alcohol use and sexual risk behaviour has been well-documented, there is little understanding of whether marijuana use alone or combining marijuana with alcohol use contributes to sexual risk behaviour among adolescents. METHODS A diverse sample of sexually active adolescents (n = 616) aged 12-18 years (50.32% Hispanic; 31.17% Black) completed a survey on alcohol use, marijuana use and sexual risk behaviour during a visit to a primary care clinic. RESULTS Adolescents were more likely to report having had two or more sexual partners in the past 3 months if they reported using both alcohol and marijuana (OR=3.90, P<0.0001), alcohol alone (OR=2.51, P<0.0001) or marijuana alone (OR=1.89, P<0.001) compared with adolescents who reported no use during the past month. Adolescents were more likely to report having both two or more partners and condomless sex if they used both alcohol and marijuana (OR=3.19, P<0.001) or alcohol alone (OR=3.41, P<0.01) in the past month compared with adolescents who reported using marijuana alone or had no use of either. CONCLUSIONS Providers should screen for both alcohol and marijuana use among adolescents and discuss how use of alcohol or alcohol in conjunction with marijuana may be associated with sexual risk behaviours.
Three essays on imperfect competition and exchange rate pass-through in the presence of multiple exchange rates

This dissertation consists of three essays on exchange rates and prices. The first two essays are devoted to theoretical study, and the other is an empirical study. This research analyzes the strategic interactions between international firms. The first essay (chapter II) explores the relationship between price leadership and exchange rate uncertainty. The research investigates the incentives to lead and follow in a model in which exporting firms have the different degrees of exchange rate uncertainty. As exchange rate uncertainty increases, firms will take a flexible strategy as a dominant strategy. Over certain ranges of exchange rate variability, only one firm has a flexible strategy as its dominant strategy, and the other firm is induced to be a price leader, resulting in a dominant strategy Nash-equilibrium. Which firm will be the price leader depends on the mark-up and substitutability of products. The particular attention of this research is also given to the implication of exchange rate variability for exchange rate pass-through;The second essay (chapter III) focuses more on brand loyalty. In many markets, consumers who have previously purchased from one firm have (or perceive) costs of switching to a competitor's product, even when the two firm's products are functionally identical. I explicitly analyze the effect of rival exchange rate for diverse cases (perfect foresight for exchange rates, imperfect foresight for exchange rates, perfect capital mobility, and imperfect capital mobility). In the case of the imperfect foresight, the exchange rate pass-through is affected by the exchange rate uncertainty. Due to the brand loyalty, current price decisions will affect future profits through market shares. The expected future profit is affected by expected competition situations that depend on the interactive movement of future exchange rates;In the last essay (chapter IV), I test the strategic behaviors between exporting firms with simultaneous estimation techniques (three stage least squares). Exchange rate pass-through is estimated, and the effect of the rival exchange rate is emphasized. Also, I demonstrate the problem associated with tests which use trade-weighted exchange rate. Most importantly, this research highlights the importance of market structure in exchange rate pass-through studies.
Deposits and Relationship Lending

The authors empirically examine the hypothesis that access to deposits with inelastic rates (core deposits) permits a bank to make contractual agreements with borrowers that are infeasible if the bank must pay market rates for its funds. Access to core deposits insulates a bank's costs of funds from exogenous shocks, allowing the bank to insulate its borrowers against exogenous credit shocks. The authors find that, controlling for competitive conditions in loan markets, banks funded more heavily with core deposits provide more smoothing of loan rates in response to exogenous changes in aggregate credit risk. This suggests that a distinctive feature of bank lending is that firms and banks form multiperiod lending relationships in which loans need not break even period by period. It also partially explains the declining share of bank loans (or near substitutes for bank loans) in credit markets. As banks have increasingly been forced to pay market rates for an increasing share of their funds, multiperiod relationship lending has become increasingly less feasible and bank loans have lost some of their comparative advantage over securities. The authors' results suggest that access to core deposits is one of the foundations of relationship lending.
Caspase Enzyme Activity Is Not Essential for Apoptosis During Thymocyte Development1

Caspases, a family of cysteine proteases, are critical mediators of apoptosis. To address the importance of caspases in thymocyte development, we have generated transgenic mice that express the baculovirus protein p35, a viral caspase inhibitor, specifically in the thymus. p35 expression inhibited Fas (CD95)-, CD3-, or peptide-induced caspase activity in vitro and conferred resistance to Fas-induced apoptosis. However, p35 did not block specific peptide-induced negative selection in OT1 and HY TCR transgenic mouse models. Even the potent pharmacological caspase inhibitor zVAD-FMK (benzyloxycarbonyl-Val-Ala-Asp-fluoromethyl-ketone) could not prevent peptide-induced deletion of OT1 thymocytes, although it improved basal thymocyte survival in vitro. Moreover, the developmental block observed in rag1−/− thymocytes, which lack pre-TCR signaling, was also not rescued by p35 expression. These results indicate that caspase-independent signal transduction pathways can mediate thymocyte death during normal T cell development.