Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A child-derived material deprivation index

This thesis details the development of a child-derived index of child material deprivation. Whilst child poverty has come to the fore in academic and policy circles in recent decades, definitions and measures have tended to draw on adult-derived understandings of poverty. The aims of this thesis are to test whether children’s own perceptions of poverty can be used to form a scientifically robust and practically useful measurement tool, and to demonstrate the use of such a tool. The research draws on Mack and Lansley’s (1985) consensual approach to poverty measurement. Focus groups and surveys with children were used to produce a child-derived index of material deprivation. Analysis indicates that this index, whilst open to development and improvement, is a useful tool in measuring child poverty and in understanding the relationship between child poverty and children’s subjective well-being. It can also be used to compare children’s and adults’ conceptions and reports of poverty. Findings indicate that commonly used indicators of poverty such as income, receipt of free school meals and adults in paid work appear to make much more sense to adult conceptions of poverty than they do to children’s conceptions. These findings reinforce the view that children’s conceptions of their needs can be used to further our understandings of child poverty and its impacts. The work is split into four parts: a literature and data review, providing the rationale and justification for the work; a methodological section detailing the development of the child-derived index of material deprivation; a substantive section providing examples of uses of the index and exploring what it can contribute to understandings of child poverty; and a conclusion detailing limitations, drawing together findings, and making recommendations for research and policy.
Coordinating Care for Falls via Emergency Responders: A Feasibility Study of a Brief At-Scene Intervention

Falls account for a substantial portion of 9-1-1 calls, but few studies have examined the potential for an emergency medical system role in fall prevention. We tested the feasibility and effectiveness of an emergency medical technician (EMT)-delivered, at-scene intervention to link elders calling 9-1-1 for a fall with a multifactorial fall prevention program in their community. The intervention was conducted in a single fire department in King County, Washington and consisted of a brief public health message about the preventability of falls and written fall prevention program information left at scene. Data sources included 9-1-1 reports, telephone interviews with intervention department fallers and sociodemographically comparable fallers from three other fire departments in the same county, and in-person discussions with intervention department EMTs. Interviews elicited faller recall and perceptions of the intervention, EMT perceptions of intervention feasibility, and resultant referrals. Sixteen percent of all 9-1-1 calls during the intervention period were for falls. The intervention was delivered to 49% of fallers, the majority of whom (75%) were left at scene. Their mean age (N = 92) was 80 ± 8 years; 78% were women, 39% had annual incomes under $20K, and 34% lived alone. Thirty-five percent reported that an EMT had discussed falls and fall prevention (vs. 8% of comparison group, P < 0.01); 84% reported that the information was useful. Six percent reported having made an appointment with a fall prevention program (vs. 3% of comparison group). EMTs reported that the intervention was worthwhile and did not add substantially to their workload. A brief, at-scene intervention is feasible and acceptable to fallers and EMTs. Although it activates only a small percent to seek out fall prevention programs, the public health impact of this low-cost strategy may be substantial.
Reinduction of Atrial Fibrillation Immediately After Termination of the Arrhythmia Is Mediated by Late Phase 3 Early Afterdepolarization–Induced Triggered Activity

Background—Atrial fibrillation (AF) at times recurs immediately after termination of the arrhythmia. The mechanism(s) responsible for the extrasystole that reinduces AF is largely unknown. We hypothesized that abbreviation of action potential duration (APD) would permit very rapid rates of excitation, known to induce intracellular calcium loading, which in turn could promote delayed and/or early afterdepolarizations (EADs). Methods and Results—Acetylcholine (ACh, 1 &mgr;mol/L) was used to abbreviate atrial APD and permit rapid-pacing induction of AF in isolated coronary-perfused canine right atria. Transmembrane action potentials, pseudo-ECG, and tension development were recorded. AF or rapid pacing was associated with an increase in tonic tension. Termination of AF or rapid pacing (cycle length, 150 to 80 ms) resulted in a dramatic rise of phasic tension, prolongation of repolarization of the initial beats at the regular rate (cycle length, 700 ms), and the development of late phase 3 EADs and extrasystoles. These extrasystoles initiated AF in 15 cases (involving 9 right atria) within the first 11 seconds after termination of AF or rapid pacing. This novel EAD mechanism is observed only in association with marked APD abbreviation. The calcium channel blocker nifedipine reduced, and the sarcoplasmic reticulum calcium release blocker ryanodine eliminated, the post–rapid pacing–induced increase in phasic tension, late phase 3 EADs, and extrasystoles that initiate AF. Conclusions—These data suggest that calcium overload conditions present after termination of vagally mediated AF contribute to the development of late phase 3 EAD-induced triggered activity and that this mechanism may be responsible for the extrasystolic activity that reinitiates AF.
Stimulatory effect of melanin-concentrating hormone on luteinising hormone release.

Alpha-melanocyte-stimulating hormone (alpha-MSH) and melanin-concentrating hormone (MCH) are two peptide neurotransmitters widely distributed in the mammalian brain, the former originating mainly from cell bodies in the arcuate nucleus and the latter from cell bodies in the zona incerta and lateral hypothalamus. Within the hypothalamus they innervate the pre-optic area, median eminence (ME) and ventromedial nucleus (VMN). Both peptides stimulate sexual behaviour and in this report we have investigated their effect on another gonadal steroid-dependent function, luteinising hormone (LH) release. alpha-MSH, MCH or a combination of the two were injected bilaterally (100 ng/side) into either the medial pre-optic area (MPOA), ME, or VMN of anaesthetised (Saffan 3 ml/kg i.p.) rats that had previously been ovariectomised and adrenalectomised (O+A) and then primed with 5 microg/rat s.c. oestradiol benzoate (OB), 48 h before peptide administration. MCH stimulated LH release when applied to the MPOA and ME; alpha-MSH was inhibitory in the ME and in this model was ineffective in the MPOA. Neither peptide was effective in the VMN. The two peptides were then injected into the MPOA of O+A rats primed with OB followed 48 h later by 0.5 mg/rat s.c. progesterone, which normally induces an LH surge. alpha-MSH, but not MCH, inhibited this induced rise in LH. Administration of anti-MCH antiserum (0.5 microg/side neat serum) also had an inhibitory effect on LH release in this model. These results show that MCH has a stimulatory effect on LH release when administered into the ME and MPOA. In the MPOA, this may be physiologically significant since blocking endogenous MCH with an anti-MCH antiserum inhibits LH release. On the other hand, alpha-MSH has an inhibitory effect on LH release in the MPOA and ME. In the teleost skin these two peptides are functionally antagonistic; it seems that a similar antagonism exists between their effects on LH release.
Plasma paraoxonase and arylesterase activities in smokers and smokeless tobacco users as Maraş powder

Abstract Context: Maraş powder (MP), a different type of smokeless tobacco (ST) prepared from a tobacco called Nicotiana rustica Linn, is widely used in the Southern Turkey. Smoking and ST cause oxidative stress (OS) in the human body. Paraoxonase (PON) and arylesterase (ARE) are antioxidant enzymes. Objective: To investigate the effects of MP on activities of PON, ARE, and malondialdehyde (MDA) levels in plasma and to compare these parameters in smokers and MP users (MPU). Materials and methods: The study consisted of smokers, MPU, and control group (CG) neither smoking nor using MP healthy subjects. PON and ARE activities were measured spectrophotometrically using paraoxon and phenylacetate substrates, respectively. Results: PON and ARE activities were decreased whereas MDA levels were increased in tobacco groups compared to the CG. The differences of ARE and MDA values between the tobacco groups and CG were found statistically significant (p < 0.01). But no significant differences were detected between the groups in the activity of PON (p > 0.05). However, the lowest activities of the enzymes were obtained in MPU. Conclusion: Our results can help to evaluate harmful effects of cigarette and ST as MP. These effects can be attributed to increased OS. Increased plasma MDA levels and decreased ARE activities may be important in assessing oxidant/antioxidant imbalance in MPU as well as smokers. Also, using of MP has harmful effects at least cigarette smoking.
ANALYSIS OF DOMESTIC DEBT: IMPLICATION FOR ECONOMIC GROWTH IN NIGERIA

This paper principally analysed the importance of domestic debt on economic growth of Nigeria. The objective of the study is to investigate the relationship between government domestic debt and economic growth and policy that is likely to improve private sector investment and break growth resistance problem. To empirically determine the relationship between domestic debt and some macroeconomic variables, we employed the error correction model procedures following an examination of properties of the time series using unit root and co-integration test. Findings show that domestic debt and credit have a significant and direct relationship with GDP and that debt servicing has inverse relationship with GDP and also government expenditure has a direct but not significant relationship with GDP. The implication of the findings concludes that domestic debt should be invested in productive sector of the economy and more specifically in the real sector and further productivity gain will be achieved in the improvement on capital project expenditure. KEYWORDS: Domestic debt, credit, servicing, investment and economic growth
Corporate community involvement disclosures in annual report: A measure of corporate community development or a signal of CSR observance?

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to examine whether corporate community involvement disclosures (CCID) in annual reports can be construed as a measure of corporate community development (CCD) or a mere signal of corporate social responsibility (CSR) observance.Design/methodology/approach – Using content analysis and a quality score index, the study examined a panel data set covering the period from 1999 to 2008. The data was collected from a sample of 270 annual reports of 27 UK companies taken from the top 100 companies for corporate responsibility (BITC ranking, 2008). The research framework involves the use of signalling theory to investigate the information content of CCID.Findings – It is found that the volume of corporate community disclosure (CCID) has a significant association with its total quality score (TQS) although the impact was found to be very small. CCID was also found to be strongly and positively associated with the volume of total CSR disclosed in annual reports. Hence the quanti.
The Agency Problems of Hedging and Earnings Management

This paper uses a principal-agent model to study the interaction between hedging and earnings management. The key assumption is that hedging makes earnings management more costly. In this model, hedging is efficient if the hedging decision is contractible, since it reduces both the risk premium and the equilibrium amount of earnings management. However, when the hedging decision is not contractible, a strategy of discouraging hedging but allowing earnings management may be optimal, since encouraging hedging may require a more costly compensation scheme to compensate the agent for reduced earnings management. Here, encouraging truth-telling is costly and inefficient when there is no opportunity to hedge. However, with hedging, the cost of motivating truth-telling can be reduced. In some situations, a strategy of motivating hedging and truth-telling is optimal. Hedging and earnings management are strategic substitutes in this paper, which is consistent with existing empirical evidence. This study also provides an alternative explanation for that evidence.
Normalization of Proliferation and Tight Junction Formation in Bladder Epithelial Cells from Patients with Interstitial Cystitis/Painful Bladder Syndrome by d‐Proline and d‐Pipecolic Acid Derivatives of Antiproliferative Factor

Interstitial cystitis/painful bladder syndrome is a chronic bladder disorder with epithelial thinning or ulceration, pain, urinary frequency and urgency, for which there is no reliably effective therapy. We previously reported that interstitial cystitis/painful bladder syndrome bladder epithelial cells make a glycopeptide antiproliferative factor or ‘APF’ (Neu5Acα2‐3Galβ1‐3GalNAcα‐O‐TVPAAVVVA) that induces abnormalities in normal cells similar to those in interstitial cystitis/painful bladder syndrome cells in vitro, including decreased proliferation, decreased tight junction formation, and increased paracellular permeability. We screened inactive APF derivatives for their ability to block antiproliferative activity of asialylated‐APF (‘as‐APF’) in normal bladder cells and determined the ability of as‐APF‐blocking derivatives to normalize tight junction protein expression, paracellular permeability, and/or proliferation of interstitial cystitis/painful bladder syndrome cells. Only two of these derivatives [Galβ1‐3GalNAcα‐O‐TV‐(d‐pipecolic acid)‐AAVVVA and Galβ1‐3GalNAcα‐O‐TV‐(d‐proline)‐AAVVVA] blocked as‐APF antiproliferative activity in normal cells (p < 0.001 for both). Both of these antagonists also 1) significantly increased mRNA expression of ZO‐1, occludin, and claudins 1, 4, 8, and 12 in interstitial cystitis/painful bladder syndrome cells by qRT‐PCR; 2) normalized interstitial cystitis/painful bladder syndrome epithelial cell tight junction protein expression and tight junction formation by confocal immunofluorescence microscopy; and 3) decreased paracellular permeability of 14C‐mannitol and 3H‐inulin between confluent interstitial cystitis/painful bladder syndrome epithelial cells on Transwell plates, suggesting that these potent APF antagonists may be useful for the development as interstitial cystitis/painful bladder syndrome therapies.
A Labor-Income-Based Measure of the Value of Human Capital: An Application to the States of the United States

We argue that a sensible measure of the aggregate value of human capital is the ratio of total labor income per capita to the wage of a person with zero years of schooling. The reason for that is that total labor income not only incorporates human capital, but also physical capital: given human capital, regions with higher physical capital will tend to have higher wages for all workers and, therefore, higher labor income. We find that one way to net out the effect of aggregate physical capital on labor income is to divide labor income by the wage of a zero-schooling worker. For the average U.S. state, our measure suggests that the value of human capital during the 1980s grew at a much larger rate than schooling. The reason has to do with movements in the relative productivities of the different workers: in some sense, some workers and some types of schooling became a lot more relevant in the 1980s and, as a result, measured human capital increased.
Primary Systems and Candidate Ideology

The nomination of ideologically extreme candidates in party primaries has led many scholars and observers to speculate about the role played by different kinds of primary systems. Models of candidate competition that account for the two-stage nature of the electoral process suggest that more restrictive primary systems produce more ideologically extreme candidates. In contrast with previous research that examines the relationship between primaries and legislative ideology, we focus on how primary systems affect the ideological extremity of candidates’ campaign platforms. Using data on more than 85,000 major party candidates for Congress and state legislatures from 1980-2012, we find no evidence that the restrictiveness of primary participation rules is systematically associated with candidate ideology.
Master data quality barriers: an empirical investigation

Purpose – The development of IT has enabled organizations to collect and store many times more data than they were able to just decades ago. This means that companies are now faced with managing huge amounts of data, which represents new challenges in ensuring high data quality. The purpose of this paper is to identify barriers to obtaining high master data quality.Design/methodology/approach – This paper defines relevant master data quality barriers and investigates their mutual importance through organizing data quality barriers identified in literature into a framework for analysis of data quality. The importance of the different classes of data quality barriers is investigated by a large questionnaire study, including answers from 787 Danish manufacturing companies.Findings – Based on a literature review, the paper identifies 12 master data quality barriers. The relevance and completeness of this classification is investigated by a large questionnaire study, which also clarifies the mutual importance .
Text and non-text segmentation based on connected component features

Document image segmentation is crucial to OCR and other digitization processes. In this paper, we present a learning-based approach for text and non-text separation in document images. The training features are extracted at the level of connected components, a mid-level between the slow noise-sensitive pixel level, and the segmentation-dependent zone level. Given all types, shapes and sizes of connected components, we extract a powerful set of features based on size, shape, stroke width and position of each connected component. Adaboosting with Decision trees is used for labeling connected components. Finally, the classification of connected components into text and non-text is corrected based on classification probabilities and size as well as stroke width analysis of the nearest neighbors of a connected component. The performance of our approach has been evaluated on the two standard datasets: UW-III and ICDAR-2009 competition for document layout analysis. Our results demonstrate that the proposed approach achieves competitive performance for segmenting text and non-text in document images of variable content and degradation.
After portal branch ligation in rat, nuclear factor κB, interleukin‐6, signal transducers and activators of transcription 3, c‐fos, c‐myc, and c‐jun are similarly induced in the ligated and nonligated lobes

Several studies have emphasized the involvement of transcription factors, cytokines, and proto‐oncogenes in initiating the regenerative process after partial hepatectomy. To assess whether these events do specifically occur in a cellular system undergoing regeneration, we studied the induction of nuclear factor κB (NFκB), interleukin‐6 (IL‐6), signal transducers and activators of transcription 3 (Stat3), c‐fos, c‐myc, c‐jun, after portal branch ligation (PBL), which produces atrophy of the deprived lobes (70% of the liver parenchyma), whereas the perfused lobes undergo compensatory regeneration. Nuclear extracts and total RNA were prepared from control livers as well as from atrophying and regenerating lobes at 0.5, 1, 2, 5, and 8 after PBL. NFκB and Stat3 induction were studied by electrophoretic mobility shift assays and Western blotting. IL‐6 and proto‐oncogenes expressions were assessed by reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction and Northern blotting, respectively. Assays were also performed after a sham operation. NFκB and Stat3 protein expression and DNA binding were rapidly and similarly induced in nuclear extracts from the atrophying and regenerating lobes. IL‐6 was elevated in both lobes from 1 to 8 hours after PBL as well as c‐fos, c‐myc, and c‐jun during the first 2 hours. IL‐6 and Stat3 but not NFκB were also elevated after a sham operation. These findings suggest that the cellular and molecular changes occurring early in a regenerating liver are nonspecific, possibly stress‐induced, cellular responses. They do not indicate the future evolution towards atrophy or regeneration.
Institutions and Development in Mexico: Are Formal Economic Reforms Enough?

This paper examines whether the current political arrangements framing the Mexican politics help in consolidating and advancing those economic reforms that have been implemented in Mexico since the 1982 severe economic crises. I will argue that these arrangements create impediments to the co-ordination required to sustain and advance those policy changes that are needed under the new economic model. Formal and informal institutional environments that do not provide for the adequate enforcement of political exchanges also generate high transaction costs. Politicians will have to design complex mechanisms to protect their rent allocation. Many political transactions will not be implemented, and those that may be so will tend to generate relatively inefficient public policies. The capability of the political system to enforce the new economic rules as well as property and other legal rights is also weak. As these factors play a key role for the allocative efficiency of markets and, consequently, for growth and development, the paper concludes that formal macroeconomic and structural reforms in economic sectors may not be enough.
Creativity in Life Sciences Research

Studies in the literature on the performance of research scientists have examined a range of organisational factors but have often ignored personality characteristics. The present paper describes the preliminary work in examining personality using the Kirton Adaption-Innovation theory (KAI). In the course of the work, interesting patterns were detected in the sub-factors of which the KAI inventory is composed. This led to the idea of characterising researchers according to one of four types, as determined by the sub-factors of KAI. The paper describes the characteristics of the four types according to their level of creative performance and skills performance and also their level of job satisfaction. It suggests that this characterisation may hold useful insights regarding the deployment of research scientists.
Impact of RFID on manufacturing effectiveness and efficiency

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of radio frequency identification (RFID) technology utilization in manufacturing firms on manufacturing efficiency and effectiveness.Design/methodology/approach – Using systems theory as a basis, a RFID utilization and outcome(s) performance model was developed from the literature. Data from a sample of 155 manufacturers were collected and the model was assessed using a structural equation methodology.Findings – Findings indicate that utilization of RFID technology leads to improved manufacturing efficiency and manufacturing effectiveness. Improvements in efficiency lead directly to improved organizational performance, and improvements in effectiveness lead directly to improved supply chain performance.Research limitations/implications – Data were collected during the growth stage of RFID technology adoption and were only collected from firms in the manufacturing sector. Results should be interpreted with these limitations in mind.Practical impl.