Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
What Harm Is Done By Subsidizing Crop Insurance

Agriculture is subject to a wide variety of risks, including many hazards arising from wide-spread natural disasters. The U.S. federal crop insurance program, initially introduced on a small scale in 1938 in response to a campaign promise of President Franklin Roosevelt, now carries a total liability in excess of $114 billion and insures 262 million acres. The premiums paid by farmers in this program are highly subsidized (in excess of 60% of the total premium) and private insurance companies also receive significant taxpayer subsidies to operate and administer the program. Private insurance companies are also provided with an advantageous taxpayer–supported reinsurance agreement. In recent years, the program has accounted for nearly $10 billion annually in subsidies to farmers and insurance companies, making it the most expensive agricultural commodity program. The program is currently being debated in Congress as the new 2012 Farm Bill is considered. If anything, indications are that the next farm bill may expand federal crop insurance programs by introducing a “shallow loss” program intended to offer higher coverage levels. Whether such a program is implemented through the federal crop insurance program or as a component of other farm commodity programs remains to be seen. However, all Congressional observers agree that crop insurance will continue to play a key role in US farm policy. Before proceeding to the central question of this paper—what harm does subsidized crop insurance cause—we must first address two fundamental issues. First, it is important to describe the various ways in which the U.S. government subsidizes the federal crop insurance program. There are several different dimensions to subsidies in the federal crop insurance program. The most obvious subsidies are those that are paid to farmers through subsidized premium rates. Most observers agree that the Risk Management Agency has done an increasingly effective job in determining actuarially– sound premium rates for the various crop insurance programs currently available. However, from the viewpoint of a farmer buying insurance (or, for that matter, the taxpayer who is footing the bill) these unsubsidized premium rates are meaningless. Rather, it is the premium that farmers actually have to pay for coverage that is relevant to their participation in the program. Thus, the Goodwin is William Neal Reynolds Distinguished Professor in the Departments of Economics and Agricultural and Resource Economics at North Carolina State University. Smith is a professor in the Department of Agricultural Economics and Economics at Montana State University. Research support from the North Carolina Agricultural Research Service and the American Enterprise Institute is gratefully acknowledged.
Side and handedness effects on the cingulum from diffusion tensor imaging

In order to explore the microstructure of bilateral cingulum bundles associated with side and handedness, fractional anisotropy was extracted from diffusion tensor imaging. Distinguished from the conventional region of interest-based method, a fiber-based analysis method called scale-invariant parameterization method was employed to ascertain the anisotropy along the cingulum bundle in 31 normal right-handers and 14 normal left-handers. The statistical results showed a remarkable left-greater-than-right asymmetry pattern of anisotropy in most segments of cingulum bundles except the most posterior segment, for both right-handers and left-handers. Interestingly, higher anisotropy of the right-hander than the left-hander was found in the bilateral cingulum bundles. No significant handedness-by-side interaction was obtained in the present study, however.
Child Care and Women's Return to Work after Childbirth

The author examines the effects of child-care costs on womens return to work after childbirth in the United States. "We briefly discuss a model of womens return to work and our implementation of that model using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLS-Y). Empirical estimates of the effect of child care costs on return to work after childbirth follow. " (EXCERPT)
Family Practice Training over the First 26 Years: A Cross-Sectional Survey of Graduates of the University of Washington Family Practice Residency Network

Purpose To describe the current practice setting, scope of practice, and adequacy of residency training of a large cohort of family practice (FP) residency graduates. Method In February 2000, questionnaires containing 120 demographic, practice, and training items were mailed to 1,498 graduates (1973–1999) of the University of Washington Family Practice Residency Network. Results A total of 983 (71%) graduates completed the survey. Of the 870 who were currently practicing family physicians, 38% were women, 73% worked full-time, 45% practiced in FP groups, and 97% were board certified in FP. A total of 37% practiced in communities of fewer than 25,000 residents, and 29% practiced in federally designated health provider shortage sites. Most cared for their patients in the hospital: 79% for adult medical patients, 54% for adult ICU/CCU patients, and 71% for children. Most provided maternity care: 63% delivered babies and 58% assisted at cesarean sections (12% as primary surgeon). Even in cities of over 100,000, 58% delivered babies. Large numbers of responders performed colposcopy, flexible sigmoidoscopy, vasectomy, and minor surgery. A higher proportion of the most recent graduates provided maternity care and performed colposcopy. Most graduates reported that residency training prepared them well. Conclusions FP residency training is modeled to prepare primary care physicians to meet the needs of all patients in all communities. These data document the success of this model in producing and sustaining family physicians to fulfill these roles in practice.
PENERAPAN SISTEM INFORMASI AKUNTANSI DAN KINERJA INDIVIDU PADA USAHA KECIL DAN MENENGAH DI NUSA PENIDA

ABSTRAK Penelitian ini dilakukan pada UKM yang terdapat di Kecamatan Nusa Penida. Jumlah sampel yang diambil sebanyak 30 orang dengan menggunakan metode purposive sampling khususnya judgment sampling. Pengumpulan data dilakukan dengan menggunakan kuesioner yang disebarkan pada responden. Teknis analisis data yang digunakan adalah regresi linier sederhana. Berdasarkan hasil analisis yang dilakukan didapatkan bahwa nilai koefisien regresi sebesar 0,493 yang menggambarkan bahwa sistem informasi akuntansi mempunyai pengaruh positif terhadap kinerja individu, artinya dengan semakin baiknya penggunaan sistem informasi akuntansi pada perusahaan maka kinerja individu pada perusahaan dalam hal ini UKM di Kecamatan Nusa Penida akan semakin baik pula. Sistem informasi akuntansi memberikan pengaruh terhadap kinerja individu pada UKM di Kecamatan Nusa Penida sebesar 34,5% dan sisanya sebesar 65,5% merupakan sumbangan dari variabel lain yang tidak dimasukkan dalam model yang diajukan dalam penelitian ini, sehingga derajat pengaruh antar variabel penelitian tergolong dalam korelasi moderat. Kata kunci: sistem informasi akuntansi, kinerja individu
INCLUSIVENESS OF OLD AND NEW FORMS OF CITIZENS' ELECTORAL PARTICIPATION

Advocates of forms of ‘direct democracy’ usually argue that its introduction is a way to make politics more accessible to citizens. In the past decade different types of direct involvement of citizens have become more widespread in Europe, while the Internet is becoming a valuable tool to inform citizens and to facilitate the act of voting. Research into the question of whether these developments indeed enhance the inclusiveness of political systems for all citizens is, however, scarce. The author focuses on gender and examines whether referenda, internet voting and ‘smart voting’ are used by men and women in equal proportions. Comparative research needs to take into account, it is argued, the fact that the context does make a difference. Data on referendums are most readily available for Switzerland, but this polity was one of the last to grant full political rights to women. Though electoral politics in Switzerland shows a substantial gender gap, referendums are gender neutral. Data on Internet voting and ‘smart voting’ show mixed results; though these new techniques might offer possibilities for enhancing inclusiveness, it takes careful designing to make it work that way.
Post-tsunami housing resident satisfaction in Aceh

Following the 2004 tsunami in Aceh, many aid agencies constructed houses. At that time there was much discussion regarding housing construction priorities and approaches. To quantify the perspectives and satisfaction of post-tsunami housing residents, individuals were surveyed in 30% (361/1,222) of Oxfam-funded houses in Aceh. The survey revealed that residents' satisfaction was highly correlated with adequate access to water, perceptions of improved livelihoods and homeowner consultations during planning and construction, as well as actual housing construction quality. Because the latter improved over time, residents who moved into their houses later tended to be more satisfied, even though they had to wait longer. Additionally, while it is imperative that residents are engaged in the construction process, it is not necessary to insist that residents participate directly in construction, particularly if participation will compromise construction quality. That consultation process should be clear regardin.
Ledipasvir–Sofosbuvir: A Once‐Daily Oral Treatment Option for Chronic Hepatitis C Virus Genotype 1 Infection

Chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) genotype 1 historically has been the most difficult to treat HCV genotype, and patients infected with this genotype had been previously treated with interferon‐based therapy. In recent years, however, treatment options for chronic HCV infection have rapidly changed to an all‐oral regimen. Ledipasvir–sofosbuvir is an oral fixed‐dose (ledipasvir 90 mg–sofosbuvir 400 mg) combination of two direct‐acting antiviral drugs. Four phase 3 clinical trials (ION‐1–4) evaluated ledipasvir–sofosbuvir with and without ribavirin in patients with HCV genotype 1. High rates of sustained virologic response (SVR) occurred with ledipasvir–sofosbuvir alone in treatment‐naïve and treatment‐experienced patients without cirrhosis as well as in treatment‐naïve patients with cirrhosis when administered for 12 weeks. In treatment‐experienced patients with cirrhosis, 24 weeks of ledipasvir–sofosbuvir was also highly effective. Furthermore, treatment‐naïve patients without cirrhosis (particularly those with HCV RNA serum concentrations < 6 million IU/ml) can achieve a similar SVR with only 8 weeks of therapy. Similarly, in patients coinfected with human immunodeficiency virus and HCV genotype 1 who were treated with ledipasvir–sofosbuvir for 12 weeks, a high SVR was observed in those with and without cirrhosis as well as treatment‐naïve and treatment‐experienced patients. Ledipasvir–sofosbuvir is well tolerated, with fatigue, headache, nausea, diarrhea, and insomnia being the most common adverse effects, which are typically mild to moderate in nature. This combination antiviral can be taken with or without food. Key factors to consider when prescribing ledipasvir–sofosbuvir are drug interactions including those mediated by the P‐glycoprotein transporter and increased pH, cost of the drug or insurance coverage, comorbid conditions, and patient and provider preferences. Postmarketing experience and ongoing clinical trials will further define the safety and role of ledipasvir–sofosbuvir in the treatment of HCV genotype 1.
Europe's party-political centre of gravity, 1957–2003

Europe's ‘political space’, its dimensionality and its impact on European policies have received increased academic attention lately. Yet, one very basic element of this political space, the party composition of EU member states' governments, has never been studied in a systematic way in the rich literature on European integration. In this paper we explain why the EU literature should pay more attention to the analysis of Europe's party-political ‘centre of gravity’. We give a systematic overview of the party composition of member governments from 1957 to 2003. This includes analyses of how the support for integration, the left/right political conviction, and the ideological homogeneity or heterogeneity of the member states affected the Council over the course of time. We draw on expert surveys, the data of the Comparative Manifesto Project, and data about government composition.
Risks and Outcomes of Peritonitis after Flexible Colonoscopy in CAPD Patients

Objective The ISPD 2005 guidelines for peritonitis recommend antibiotic prophylaxis for patients undergoing colonoscopy with polypectomy while on continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis (CAPD) but there is little literature to support this recommendation. This study aimed to look into the risks and outcomes of peritonitis after colonoscopy in CAPD patients. Patients and Methods All records of flexible colonoscopy performed on our CAPD patients from January 1994 to January 2006 were retrieved. Demographic and clinical data, use of antibiotics before colonoscopy, endoscopic findings, procedure performed, and peritonitis data were analyzed. Results 77 CAPD patients underwent 97 colonoscopies. No peritonitis developed in the 18 cases where antibiotics were given before colonoscopy. Among those without antibiotic prophylaxis, 4 episodes of peritonitis occurred within 24 hours after the procedure and 1 occurred 5 days later. All responded to intraperitoneal antibiotics. Colonic biopsy and polypectomy were not associated with more peritonitis (2 in 41 with biopsy vs 3 in 38 without biopsy, p = 0.67; 1 in 30 with polypectomy vs 4 in 49 without polypectomy, p = 0.64). Conclusion The risk of peritonitis after colonoscopy without antibiotic prophylaxis was 6.3%. All peritonitis episodes responded to intraperitoneal antibiotics. Colonic biopsy or polypectomy did not appear to increase the risk of peritonitis. Although statistically not significant when compared with patients without antibiotic prophylaxis, we observed no peritonitis after colonoscopy in patients that were given antibiotics for prophylactic purposes or for other reasons. The efficacy of prophylactic antibiotics would be better defined by large randomized trials.
Relation between bone density and primary implant stability.

AIMS This study aims to relate bone density in Hounsfield units (Hu) with the primary implant stability measured by insertion torque (Ncm) and resonance frequency analysis (ISQ). MATERIALS AND METHODS Ten patients were included in this study. A total of 54 implant sites were provided from 10 computerized tomography scans. The computerized tomography scan was used for the preoperative evaluation of bone density for each patient. The bone mean density around planned implants was determined with Physioplanet TM software. Bone quality according resistance to drilling, insertion torque and resonance frequency measurements were recorded. RESULTS A statistically significant relationship was observed between bone quality density and location with ISQ values. CONCLUSIONS This research demonstrates a strong relationship between the bone density values from computerized tomography and the location in the maxillaries. A correlation exists between bone quality, according to the Lekholm & Zarb classification, and Hu computerized tomography values. The primary implant stability measured with resonance frequency analysis depends on bone density values, bone quality and implant location.
Generalizing the OLS and Grid Estimators

The vast majority of market valuations employ either some formal estimator such as ordinary least squares (OLS) or rely upon an informal set of rules defining the grid adjustment estimator. The success of the grid adjustment estimator suggests the data do not obey the ideal assumptions underlying OLS. However, the grid adjustment estimator's lack of a formal statistical foundation makes it difficult to use for inference and other purposes. This article demonstrates how to generalize the grid estimator and OLS to potentially obtain the best features of both. Interestingly, the generalization defines a spatial autoregression. On an empirical example the spatial autoregression outperforms the grid estimator which in turn outperforms OLS. Copyright American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association.
Effects of ethanol and promethazine on awareness of errors and judgements of performance

Ethanol may affect detection and processing of errors in performance tasks, and thus influence the speed accuracy trade-off. In this double-blind study, 11 volunteers, (seven female, four male) took part in four sessions in which they received ethanol (Eth; mean blood alcohol concentration at 60min: 87.3, SD: 18.4), placebo (Pla), promethazine 20mg (P20) and 30mg (P30) in randomized order. A computerized four choice reaction time test (FCRT), other performance measures and visual analogue scales (VAS) were administered before dosing and at intervals up to 2.5h after. During the FCRT volunteers reported errors verbally. These reports were recorded together with error signals from the computer. The overall pattern of effects was as expected for Eth, with increases in errors for most tasks, and subjective drowsiness. P30 affected only the FCRT, and both P30 and P20 caused drowsiness. The number of errors made by the volunteers in the FCRT was significantly increased for both Eth (N 5.20, p 0.01) and P30 (N 3.81, p 0.01) compared to Pla (1.84) with no significant change in response speed. The proportion of errors detected was slightly but not significantly reduced (Pla 68%, Eth 63%, P30 57%). These results show that error processing is not significantly impaired by ethanol, and a reduction in awareness of errors cannot account for the increased errors which occur when performance is impaired by ethanol.
Pre-hypertension and hypertension in adolescence: how much does it occur in a Nigerian community?

BACKGROUND Hypertension is an important worldwide public-health challenge because of its high frequency and concomitant risks of cardiovascular and kidney disease. Previous studies have documented that hypertension may begin in adolescence, perhaps even in childhood. OBJECTIVES This study set out to determine the prevalence of pre-hypertension and hypertension in adolescence in a Nigerian community. METHODS A cross-sectional screening of blood pressure of secondary school students was conducted in Sagamu local government area of Ogun State, Nigeria. Total sample of 1638 adolescents aged between 12 and 18 years were chosen from stratified schools and from various classes of selected schools. Their blood pressure was assessed. RESULTS The prevalence of pre-hypertension in this population ranged from 0-10.5% in male students and 0-2.9% in female students across the age. In the whole population the prevalence of systolic and diastolic pre-hypertension were 1.6% and 0.5% respectively for male adolescents while that of female students were 0.4% and 0.5% respectively. The low prevalence of 0.1% was observed for systolic and diastolic hypertension in male and 0.1% for female systolic hypertension. Furthermore, pre-hypertension prevalence was increased with age. CONCLUSION In conclusion, our data demonstrated a low prevalence of pre-hypertension and hypertension in Nigerian adolescents living in Sagamu local government area of Ogun state, south west Nigeria.
Growth Empirics: A Panel Data Approach—A Comment

This paper comments on recent developments in the literature on the econometric analysis of international growth and convergence. It notes that panel estimates of the neoclassical model, accommodating level effects for individual countries through heterogeneous intercepts, deal with some of the econometric difficulties arising in some of the earlier cross-sectional studies. But it notes that, in dynamic panels, heterogeneity in growth effects and in speeds of convergence renders this estimator inconsistent also. The pervasiveness of such heterogeneity is demonstrated in three samples of countries, and the effects of (incorrectly) imposing homogeneity on estimated parameters are illustrated and discussed.
DSP-based real-time implementation of a neural network observer and hybrid H∞ Adaptive Controller for servo-motor drives

This paper presents a method for sensorless speed control of a non-salient permanent magnetic synchronous motor (PMSM). Special attention is put on the neural-based strategies and applied to the sensorless PMSM. An embedded hybrid Hinfin adaptive controller is implemented for trajectory tracking control of a PMSM servo drive system. The proposed control structure employs neural observer (DRNN) and Hinfin tracking controller algorithm to run on the hardware processor of the DSP. The result is a powerful tested for the rapid design and implementation of the controller for a low speed operation conditions. Experimental results are provided to verify the effectiveness of the proposed observer and controller.
Impact of Bispectral Index for monitoring propofol remifentanil anaesthesia. A randomised clinical trial

Previous research has shown that the use of the bispectral index (BIS) monitor to measure the depth of anaesthesia reduces the amount of anaesthetics administered and the recovery time from general anaesthesia. The effect of BIS on recovery from anaesthesia and consumption of anaesthetics in a paediatric population receiving total intravenous anaesthesia (TIVA) with propofol and remifentanil has not been studied.
Knowledge bases, innovativeness and competitiveness in creative industries: the case of Hamburg’s video game developers

Due to its growing economic power, creative industries have climbed scholars’ and policy-makers’ agendas in recent years. However, in comparison with a high number of cluster studies on rather traditional industries, systematic research on knowledge production, innovation processes and competitiveness in creative industry clusters is still underrepresented. This paper aims to fill this gap by investigating the video game development industry in Hamburg, Germany, from a knowledge base perspective. The paper concludes that both the symbolic and the synthetic knowledge are the dominant elements that contribute to video game development in Hamburg. On a more critical note, it doubts whether the currently discussed knowledge base perspective is sufficient to explain the competitiveness of creative industries and proposes to analyse procedural knowledge in future research in order to be able to do so.
The influence of the quality of the physical environment, food, and service on restaurant image, customer perceived value, customer satisfaction, and behavioral intentions.

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to propose an integrated model that examines the impact of three elements of foodservice quality dimensions (physical environment, food, and service) on restaurant image, customer perceived value, customer satisfaction, and behavioral intentions.Design/methodology/approach – Data were collected from customers at an authentic upscale Chinese restaurant located in a Southeastern state in the USA via a self‐administered questionnaire. Anderson and Gerbing's two‐step approach was used to assess the measurement and structural models.Findings – Structural equation modeling shows that the quality of the physical environment, food, and service were significant determinants of restaurant image. Also, the quality of the physical environment and food were significant predictors of customer perceived value. The restaurant image was also found to be a significant antecedent of customer perceived value. In addition, the results reinforced that customer perceived value is indeed a .