Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Metropolitan Institutional Reform and the Rescaling of State Space in Contemporary Western Europe

Throughout western Europe, metropolitan governance is back on the agenda. Since the early 1990s, new forms of city-suburban cooperation, regional coordination, regionwide spatial planning and metropolitan institutional organization have been promoted in major city-regions. In contrast to the forms of metropolitan governance that prevailed during the Fordist-Keynesian period - which emphasized administrative modernization, interterritorial equalization and the efficient delivery of public services - the newest wave of metropolitan governance reform is focused upon economic priorities such as territorial competitiveness and attracting external capital investment in the context of geoeconomic and European integration. This article develops an interpretation of the new metropolitan governance in western Europe in two steps. First, I situate the new metropolitan governance in historical context by underscoring its qualitative differences from earlier waves of metropolitan institutional reform. Second, building upon a critique of contemporary `new regionalist' discourses, I develop an interpretation of current metropolitan reform initiatives as important structural and strategic expressions of ongoing, crisis-induced transformations of state spatiality. To this end, I relate contemporary metropolitan reform projects: (a) to various broader trends and counter-trends of state spatial reorganization; and (b) to newly emergent political strategies oriented towards a reconfiguration of inherited approaches to entrepreneurial urban governance. From this perspective, contemporary forms of metropolitan institutional reform are interpreted as key expressions of ongoing processes of state rescaling through which territorial competitiveness is being promoted at a regional scale, albeit in highly contradictory, often self-undermining ways. The article concludes by summarizing some of the methodological implications of this analysis for future studies of urban-regional restructuring and the production of new state spaces.
The Effect of Peer Support on Postpartum Depression: A Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial

Objective: To evaluate the effect of peer support (mother-to-mother) on depressive symptomatology among mothers identified as high-risk for postpartum depression (PPD). Method: Forty-two mothers in British Columbia were identified as high-risk for PPD according to the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) and randomly assigned to either a control group (that is, to standard community postpartum care) or an experimental group. The experimental group received standard care plus telephone-based peer support, initiated within 48 to 72 hours of randomization, from a mother who previously experienced PPD and attended a 4-hour training session. Research assistants blind to group allocation conducted follow-up assessments on diverse outcomes, including depressive symptomatology, at 4 and 8 weeks postrandomization. Results: Significant group differences were found in probable major depressive symptomatology (EPDS > 12) at the 4-week (χ2 = 5.18, df = 1; P = 0.02) and 8-week (χ2 = 6.37, df = 1; P = 0.01) assessments. Specifically, at the 4-week assessment 40.9% (n = 9) of mothers in the control group scored > 12 on the EPDS, compared with only 10% (n = 2) in the experimental group. Similar findings were found at the 8-week assessment, when 52.4% (n = 11) of mothers in the control group scored > 12 on the EPDS, compared with 15% (n = 3) of mothers in the experimental group. Of the 16 mothers in the experimental group who evaluated the intervention, 87.5% were satisfied with their peer-support experience. Conclusions: Telephone-based peer support may effectively decrease depressive symptomatology among new mothers. The high maternal satisfaction with, and acceptance of, the intervention suggests that a larger trial is feasible.
Ethnic Identification in a Complex Civilization: Who Are the Lue?

T HE initial stimulus for this paper' was provided by my inability to give a simple answer to the simple question: "Whom did you study in the field? " The reasons for this inability concern the ways in which ethnologists demarcate ethnic units and account for their survival. These are complex and important issues which require thoughtful and extensive research. It would be false to claim that this short paper raises all of the relevant questions and absurd to claim that it answers them. Nevertheless, I hope that this presentation of data about the Lue2 will both encourage others to recognize in their own work the need for identifying and delimiting ethnic entities and suggest some questions and field procedures which may help them to do this. Since comparison is basic to anthropology (Lewis 1956), it is important that our units be comparable (K6bben 1952:132). Yet, it is apparent that the neat ethnic labels which we anthropologists use frequently deceive us. In reading about various areas of the world one frequently encounters ethnic names with unclear referents and groups of people with no constant label. Raoul Naroll, in a recent article (1964), demonstrates that one source of confusion is our lack of agreement about the criteria which define the entities-variously called "tribes," "cultures," "societies," "peoples"-which we describe. Such lack of agreement is obviously a challenge to global comparisons. As this paper will demonstrate, it also has implications for ethnographic fieldwork. Naroll lists six criteria: trait distributions, territorial contiguity, political organization, language, ecological adjustment, and local community structurecommonly used to demarcate ethnic entities. In addition to Naroll's specific criticisms of them, I would add that these and similar criteria have three main shortcomings as delimiters of "culture-bearing units" (Naroll 1964:283). 1) Since language, culture, political organization, etc., do not correlate completely, the units delimited by one criterion do not coincide with the units delimited by another. 2) If by "culture" we wish to mean "a pattern, a set of plans, a blueprint for living" (Naroll 1964:288), then units delimited by combinations of these criteria, including the combination which Naroll suggests, are only occasionally and accidentally "culture-bearing units. " 3) It is often difficult to discern discontinuities of language, culture, polity, society, or economy with sufficient clarity to draw boundaries. It is this which makes me suggest that the delimitation of ethnic entities is especially problematic in all parts of the world which are continuously inhabited but not divided into either sharp ecological zones or strong and durable states. Under such conditions, it becomes quite
Trade and Labour Market Adjustment

While it is widely accepted that there are adjustment costs associated with the reallocation of resources in response to freer trade, in most models these costs are assumed to be very small. However, more recent evidence is casting doubt on this assumption. This paper develops a unique dataset based on harmonised labour force surveys for six economies, facilitating the comparison of short term labour market impacts from trade across countries. Data are reported at the individual worker level, allowing a comparison of impacts at both the industry and occupation levels. While the results of this empirical analysis at the industry level are very much in line with established research, the results at the occupation level are more varied. Overall, and as expected, impacts are generally larger for occupations than at the industry level. These results are consistent with modern trade theory which posits that an expanding export sector rewards mostly high skilled workers and that some workers may find it more difficult to switch occupations than to switch industries. Outcomes can also be explained in the context of labour market frictions and highlight the important role of labour market policy – as well as trade policy – in structural adjustment. Our results are consistent with sticky sector-specific human capital and information asymmetries, especially with respect to opportunities in different regions within the same country. A wide range of policies can be employed to address these labour market frictions to improve worker mobility and reduce adjustment costs. Further efforts to specify appropriate policies to accompany trade openness is warranted; doing so would go a long way towards improving employment outcomes and generating more inclusive growth.
The Role of Fairness in Wage Determination

Neoclassical wage theory is based on the premise that a worker's utility is based on his own wage and his own hours of work, without reference to the wages and hours of others. This article reviews anecdotal evidence that the wages of others are a powerful force in determining worker satisfaction, such that utility goes down when the wages of others go up. The resulting comparisons are a powerful force in determining wage structure, but do not exclude ultimate effect of neoclassical wage determinants.
Returns and Information Transmission Dynamics in Public and Private Real Estate Markets

type="main"> This paper examines U.S. public and private commercial real estate returns at the aggregate level and by the four major property types over the 1994–2012 time period. Returns are carefully adjusted for differences between public and private markets in financial leverage, property type focus and management fees. Unconditionally, we find that passive portfolios of unlevered core real estate investment trusts (REITs) outperformed their private market benchmark by 49 basis points (annualized) over the 1994–2012 sample period. Our baseline vector autoregression results suggest that REIT returns do not embed additional commercial real-estate-specific information useful in predicting private market returns. These results strongly suggest that equity REIT returns react to fundamental (latent) asset pricing information more quickly than private market returns given their greater liquidity and price revelation. REITs therefore serve as a fundamental information transmission channel to private market returns when asset pricing variables are omitted.
Newborn screening for cystic fibrosis

Newborn screening for cystic fibrosis (CF NBS) has been introduced in almost all of the Western countries, and most of the children with CF are now being identified via CF NBS before disease-related symptoms develop. This review summarizes the evidence that has been generated to date to support the benefit of CF NBS and the various screening algorithms that are used in different jurisdictions. A special focus is directed towards the challenges arising from false-negative and -positive screening results. Finally, we review the emerging data reporting on positively-screened newborns, in whom confirmatory sweat testing resulted in an inconclusive diagnosis for CF.
Gambling with Tax Dollars

Municipalities often spend money in the hopes of generating new tax revenue. Because the estimated increase in tax revenues is uncertain, these policies are essentially gambles with tax dollars. This paper shows that it is possible for a welfare-maximizing government to exhibit risk-loving behavior even though individual taxpayers are risk-averse. This risk-loving behavior may occur when the government has the option to provide an indivisible public good, such as a park. Interestingly, the poorest and wealthiest municipalities do not find gambles optimal. For communities that find gambles optimal, both the provision of the public good and tax rates are affected.
A Variable Circular-Shift Image-Encryption Algorithm

A new algorithm is presented for lossless image encryption using a private key. The image is regarded as a stream of bytes, and grouped into variable-length blocks whose sizes depend on the key. Circular shifting is applied to the bits in each block where the number of shifted bits depends on the key. Empirical analysis using different types of test images of different sizes showed that this new algorithm is effective and resistant to statistical attacks. The idea presented by this algorithm may be generalized to apply to input data other than images, and may be combined with other encryption methods.
Mega-urban Regions and World City Formation: Globalisation, the Economic Crisis and Urban Policy Issues in Pacific Asia

In Pacific Asia, the globalisation of trade, production and finance underlies an accelerated urban transition focusing on a limited number of mega-urban regions. Intercity competition for world city status among these regions has intensified following the 1997 economic crisis. With governments compelled to devote greater amounts of public resources to creating a built environment to host global investment, a number of key policy issues are emerging. These include demands for inclusive governance and more livable cities; the appearance of new forms of urban poverty; low economic resilience in the face of growing global economic turbulence and the spatial unevenness of global economic growth. With the rise of civil society as a political force, addressing these issues calls for a sharper focus on cities not simply as economic agglomerations or collectivities of consumers in the world market, but also as arenas for the formation of political communities.
The fundamental plane of EDisCS galaxies - The effect of size evolution

We study the evolution of spectral early-type galaxies in clusters, groups, and the field up to redshift 0.9 using the ESO Distant Cluster Survey (EDisCS) dataset. We measure structural parameters (circularized half-luminosity radii Re, surface brightness Ie, and velocity dispersions σ )f or 154 cluster and 68 field galaxies. On average, we achieve precisions of 10% in Re ,0 . 1 dex in logIe, and 10% in σ . W e sample≈20% of cluster and ≈10% of field spectral early-type galaxies to an I band magnitude in a 1 arcsec radius aperture as faint as I1 = 22. We study the evolution of the zero point of the fundamental plane (FP) and confirm results in the literature, but now also for the low cluster velocity dispersion regime. Taken at face value, the mass-to-light ratio varies as Δ log M/LB = (−0.54 ± 0.01)z = (−1.61 ± 0.01) log(1 + z) in clusters, independent of their velocity dispersion. The evolution is stronger (Δ log M/LB = (−0.76 ± 0.01)z = (−2.27 ± 0.03) log(1 + z)) for field galaxies. A somewhat milder evolution is derived if a correction for incompleteness is applied. A rotation in the FP with redshift is detected with low statistical significance. The α and β FP coefficients decrease with redshift, or, equivalently, the FP residuals correlate with galaxy mass and become progressively negative at low masses. The effect is visible at z ≥ 0.7 for cluster galaxies and at lower redshifts z ≥ 0.5 for field galaxies. We investigate the size evolution of our galaxy sample. In agreement with previous results, we find that the half-luminosity radius for a galaxy with a dynamical or stellar mass
Ultra‐short course immunotherapy in children and adolescents during a 3‐yrs post‐marketing surveillance study

Rosewich M, Schulze J , Fischer von Weikersthal‐Drachenberg K J, and Zielen S. Ultra‐short course immunotherapy in children and adolescents during a 3‐yrs post‐marketing surveillance study. Pediatr Allergy Immunol 2010: 21: e185–e189. © 2009 John Wiley & Sons A/S
Chloramphenicol causes fusion of separated nucleoids in Escherichia coli K-12 cells and filaments

Chloramphenicol is frequently used for better visualization of the Escherichia coli nucleoid. Here, we show that chloramphenicol causes not only rounding off of the nucleoid but also fusion of as many as four separated nucleoids. Nucleoid fusion occurred in fast-growing cells and in filaments obtained by dicF antisense RNA induction or in ftsZ84(Ts) and pbpB(Ts) mutants. Thus, treatment with chloramphenicol erroneously suggests that DNA segregation is inhibited.
Effects of Endothelium-Derived Hyperpolarizing Factor and Nitric Oxide on Endothelial Function in Femoral Resistance Arteries of Spontaneously Hypertensive Rats

In hypertension, endothelium-dependent relaxation is attenuated and this attenuation contributes to the increased peripheral resistance. However, the role of endothelium-derived hyperpolarizing factor (EDHF) in the arteries of hypertensive rats remains unclear. Therefore, the aim of this study was to evaluate the role of EDHF in the femoral resistance arteries of hypertensive rats. The femoral resistance arteries were isolated from 5-, 15- and 25-week-old spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR) and age-matched Wistar Kyoto rats (WKY). Changes in internal diameter were examined with videomicroscopy. EDHF-mediated dilatation was determined by differences between the degree of acetylcholine (ACh)-induced dilatation in the presence of NG-monomethy-L-arginine (L-NMMA) plus a prostaglandin I2 inhibitor (indomethacin) and the degree of such dilatation in the presence of L-NMMA, indomethacin and KCl. Charybdotoxin (CTx) and apamin (a Ca2+-activated K+ channel [KCa] inhibitor)−sensitive EDHF dilatation was also compared between in 5-, 15- and 25-week-old SHR and WKY. ACh-induced vasodilatation was not different between 5-week-old SHR and WKY. There was no difference between NO- and EDHF-mediated vasodilatation in 5-week-old rats. ACh-induced vasodilatation was weaker in 15-week-old SHR than in WKY. NO-mediated vasodilatation did not differ between the two groups. EDHF-mediated dilatation was attenuated in SHR but not in WKY. ACh-induced dilatation was weaker in 25-week-old SHR than in WKY. NO- and EDHF-mediated vasodilatation were attenuated in SHR but not WKY. EDHF-mediated vasodilatation was attenuated before the loss of NO-mediated vasodilatation in the femoral resistance arteries of SHR. The attenuation of this vasodilatation was mediated by the CTx plus apamin–sensitive EDHF.
Using Cross‐Section Data to Adjust Technical Efficiency Indexes Estimated with Panel Data

This article proposes a procedure to incorporate cross-sectional information in the estimation of technical efficiency indexes obtained from panel data. A conventional index of technical efficiency is estimated in a first stage using panel data on inputs and outputs. The individual effects from the first stage are then adjusted using cross-sectional information, obtaining a corrected technical efficiency index. The model is applied to a panel of eighty-two Spanish dairy farms, where only cross-sectional information about input quality is available. An analysis of variance is performed between some variables and both the corrected and the uncorrected indexes, finding that the conclusions derived from the two analyses are different. Copyright 1999, Oxford University Press.
Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and Supplier-Oriented Upgrading in the Czech Motor Vehicle Industry

Rugraff E. Foreign direct investment (FDI) and supplier-oriented upgrading in the Czech motor vehicle industry, Regional Studies. The Czech Republic has succeeded in building a new comparative advantage in motor vehicle and motor component production. Yet, the Czech-owned companies only contribute weakly to the Czech upgrading. The Czech-owned companies are totally absent from first-tier suppliers and are only linked by casual technological relationships to foreign-owned multinational subsidiaries. This kind of relationship limits the vertical spillovers from foreign-owned multinational subsidiaries and is responsible for the existence of a weak link in the Czech automotive system that may foster the relocation of foreign-owned subsidiaries in foreign countries.
Export and Domestic Prices Under Inflation and Exchange Rate Movements

It is almost invariably taken for granted in theoretical descriptions of the international price mechanism and in the construction of trade models that a country's export price for a particular product is identical to its domestic price. Any impact of foreign or domestic events on prices is expected to fall identically on the export and the domestic price for a good. In contrast to these conventional assumptions, the few empirical studies of international prices have shown that there are fairly substantial and long-lasting divergences between export and domestic price changes for the same or closely related products. If there can be divergences between export and domestic prices, a type of relative price mechanism may be at work: the depreciating country should find export prices rising relative to domestic prices of the same goods. Since a producer can shift more easily from domestic to export sales of a product than from production of home goods to production of export goods we should expect the changes within commodities between domestic sales and exports to occur more rapidly. Since the evidence is strong that there are divergences between export and domestic prices, we wish to trace through the effects of foreign price changes and exchange rate changes on export and domestic prices and see whether a mechanism of the hypothesized type exists. In this paper we concentrate our attention on price movements, but offer some evidence that the response of exports to these price divergences is in the expected direction.
Forecasting US Air Travelers to Europe, Caribbean and Asia

Travel and tourism are among the most important economic contributors to most, if not all, countries. According to the World Tourism Organization (WTO), the number of international arrivals showed remarkable growth, from 25 million international arrivals in 1950 to 699 million in 2000. This indicates an average annual growth rate of 7%. In the same period, tourism receipts recorded an average annual growth rate of 11%. In 2002, international tourism generated worldwide receipts of US$474 billion, corresponding to US$1.3 billion a day or US$675 per tourist arrival. In view of the important role that international tourism plays in the global economy, this research applied four time-series forecasting techniques to project the trend of US air travelers, a major source market, to Europe, Caribbean and Asia, the three leading outbound markets (second to Canada and Mexico) from the US in the period 2003–2005. Experimental outcomes reveal declining trends. This paper discusses the underlying factors for such trends. Lastly, this paper ends with a detailed discussion on policy implications.
Tourism and Foreign Direct Investment in Vietnam

Abstract The paper examines Vietnam's tourism industry in the late twentieth century and the contribution of Foreign Direct Investment to its development. Aspects of tourism in the country and official policies are discussed, recent trends indicating a slowdown in growth rates. There has also been a marked reduction in investment as a result of internal and external factors including the Asian financial crisis of the 1990s. Future prospects are considered and barriers to overcome in realizing objectives identified. Findings suggest the challenges confronting emerging destinations and economics as they seek to develop tourism and some of the limitations of relying on Foreign Direct Investment.
A comparison of the Goldmann applanation and non‐contact (Keeler Pulsair EasyEye) tonometers and the effect of central corneal thickness in indigenous African eyes

The Keeler Pulsair EasyEye non‐contact tonometer (NCT) was introduced into practice at Rachel Eye Center Abuja, Nigeria, where the patients are indigenous Africans. This was compared to the ‘gold standard’ Goldmann applanation tonometer (GAT) to determine if the instrument was accurate in Africans, with particular reference to the influence of central corneal thickness (CCT).