Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Are the timings and risk factors changing? Survival analysis of timing of first antenatal care visit among pregnant women in Nigeria (2003–2013)

Background Child and maternal mortality and morbidity remain among the top global health challenges despite various efforts and multitude of resources directed to improving this situation over time. This study assessed trend of the timings of first antenatal care (ANC) visit in Nigeria and also identified the risk factors associated with it. Methods The data obtained from three consecutive Nigerian Demographic and Health Surveys in 2003, 2008, and 2013 were pooled. We focused on the ANC attendance history during the current pregnancies or the last pregnancies within 5 years preceding the survey irrespective of how the pregnancy ended. The gestational age at time of first ANC visit was computed as the survival time, while others who did not attend ANC were censored. Basic descriptive statistics and survival analysis methods were used to analyze the data. Results A total of 45,690 pregnancies were studied, of which 70% were from rural areas. Mothers were mostly (45%) aged 25–34 years and 47.1% had no formal education, while only 37.9% were involved in decisions on the use of health care facility. Prevalence of ANC use was 60.5% in 2008 and 65.8% in both 2003 and 2013. Less than one-third (32.3%) of the women accessed ANC within first 3 months of pregnancy, with highest rate (41.7%) among women with higher education and those from North Central Nigeria (42.7%). The hazard of the timing of first ANC visit was higher in years 2003 and 2013 than in 2008. Conclusion Initiation of ANC visit in Nigeria is generally late with most women making first visit during second trimester, with significant variations across the years studied. The increase in coverage of ANC recorded in 2003 and 2013 was not accompanied by earlier commencement of ANC visit. Maternal health stakeholders should do more to ensure that all pregnant women start ANC visit earlier.
Enzyme‐linked immunoadsorbent assay for the detection of cytomegalovirus‐IgM: Comparison between eight commercial kits, immunofluorescence, and immunoblotting

Eight commercially available enzyme‐linked immunoadsorbent assays (ELISA) for the detection of cytomegalovirus (CMV)‐specific IgM were used in parallel to determine the presence of CMB‐IgM in 123 serum samples from pregnant women. The results obtained with the eight kits were compared. Based on concordance of six or more of the eight kits, we assessed sensitivity, specificity, and overall agreement, as well as incidence of false‐positive and ‐negative results for each kit. The results obtained by ELISA were then compared with those obtained by immunofluorescence (IF) and immunoblotting (IB).
Enduring Impacts of Land Retirement Policies: Evidence from the Conservation Reserve Program

We examine the persistence of cropland retirements induced by the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP), the largest U.S. conservation program. We analyze micro data on observed land-use choices following CRP contract expiration over 1995–1997 and predict that 42% of CRP acres would not have been returned to crops within a year if the program had expired in 1997. These results indicate that temporary cropland retirement payments under CRP generate land-use changes that often extend beyond contract periods. The analysis suggests that targeted signing bonuses for first-time enrollees would increase the longer-term impacts of CRP and perhaps other incentive-based land-use programs. (JEL Q24)
The Big Payoff: Educational Attainment and Synthetic Estimates of Work-Life Earnings. Special Studies. Current Population Reports.

Does going to school pay off? Most people think so. Currently, almost 90 percent of young adults graduate from high school and about 60 percent of high school seniors continue on to college the following year. People decide to go to college for many reasons. One of the most compelling is the expectation of future economic success based on educational attainment. This report illustrates the economic value of an education, that is, the added value of a high school diploma or college degree. It explores the relationship between educational attainment and earnings and demonstrates how the relationship has changed over the last 25 years. Additionally, it provides , by level of education, synthetic estimates of the average total earnings adults are likely to accumulate over the course of their working lives. These synthetic estimates of work-life earnings, which are based on data from the Current Population Survey (CPS), are illustrative and do not predict actual future earnings. The synthetic work-life earnings are " expected average amounts " based on cross-sectional earnings data for the preceding calendar year by age, sex, full-or part-time work experience, race, Hispanic origin, and educational attain-1 This report refers to " work-life earnings " rather than " lifetime earnings. " The latter would account for the probability of life events, which might alter the average number of years people work, such as early death or accidents leading to disability. estimates are thus based on 1997-1999 earnings data and are shown in terms of " present value " (constant 1999 dollars). 2 These synthetic estimates are shown in detail in three tables at the end of this report. We are more educated than ever. In 2000, 84 percent of American adults ages 25 and over had at least completed 2 See the Methodology section of this report for a detailed explanation of the limitations of these estimates. The estimates in this report are based on responses from a sample of the population. As with all surveys, estimates may vary from the actual values for the entire population because of sampling variation , or other factors. All statements made in this report have undergone statistical testing and meet Census Bureau standards for statistical accuracy. " Synthetic " estimates of work-life earnings are created by using the working population's 1-year annual earnings and summing their age-specific average earnings for people ages 25 to 64 years. The resulting totals represent …
Evaluation of the Liver Function of Cirrhotic Patients. Based on the Formation of Monoethylglycine Xylidide (MEGX) from Lidocaine

Determination of the functional hepatic reserve is still controversial. Many tests have been proposed, but the assay based on formation of the lidocaine metabolite, monoethylglycine xylidide, seems to offer a promising approach to this problem. In this study we evaluated the effectiveness of the monoethylglycine xylidide test in the clinical evaluation of 31 cirrhotic patients submitted to three different therapeutic options (sclerotherapy, transjugular intrahepatic protosystemic shunt and surgical procedures) and in 1 patient submitted to right hepatectomy for giant hepatic angioma. We found a statistically significant difference between Child A and C patients and between Child B and C patients. The test did not differentiate Child A from Child B patients. We found no correlation between the Child-Pugh score, serum bilirubin, albumin and prothrombin time. There were no differences among the three groups of patients that could be statistically related to their therapy. The monoethylglycine xylidide test seems to be an attractive alternative to previous methods for the evaluation of the functional hepatic reserve, but further studies are necessary to assess the prognostic value of the test in cirrhotics, to separate the independent contribution of portosystemic shunting and hepatocyte dysfunction to monoethylglycine xylidide formation, and to evaluate the test as a prognostic index in cirrhotic patients submitted to general surgery.
Constrained Control of Positive Systems with Delays

This technical note addresses controller design for continuous-time delayed linear systems. The control is under positivity constraint, which means that the resulting closed-loop systems are not only stable, but also positive. Bounded control is also considered, further requiring that the trajectory of the closed-loop system is bounded by a prescribed boundary, if the initial condition is bounded by the same boundary. The contribution lies in three aspects. First, some necessary and sufficient conditions are presented for the existence of controllers satisfying the positivity constraint. Second, a necessary and sufficient condition is established, determining whether the trajectory of a positive system can be bounded by a prescribed boundary, provided that the initial condition is bounded by the same boundary. Third, a sufficient condition is presented for bounded control, and it is shown to be also necessary if asymptotic stability is not required.
100% FTTx coverage is economically feasible even in rural &#60;1 people/km2 areas

Fiber to the end-user (FTTx) has long been considered to be too expensive to be deployed to cover all end users especially those living in the far rural areas. The conclusion after working with some municipalities in Jamtland is now that FTTx is both technically and economically feasible. The architecture tested is an IP-Only broadband network capable of carrying end-user services up to 10/100Gbps to any point in the network. Building such a broadband infrastructure, is feasible mostly due to the fact that cost of standard IP-network components are diminishing and by utilizing novel network designs made possible because the limitations of the old Telecom infrastructure no longer apply and lastly that the take rate of permanent households is close to 100% due to the fact that the copper networks is removed.
Corporate social responsibility and corporate financial performance in China: an empirical research from Chinese firms

Purpose – Although the relationship between corporate social responsibility (CSR) and financial performance has become a hot topic of the Western management community after several decades of arguments, there is still little empirical literature about the relationship between Chinese companies' CSR and financial performance. According to the investigation of Chinese companies, this paper aims to use stakeholder theory to answer this question.Design/methodology/approach – A theoretical framework is proposed based on the stakeholder theory by defining nine kinds of stakeholders and viewing the companies taking CSR as giving responses to the interest requirement of these stakeholders. Some agent variables are also set to depict CFP. Subsequently, this paper uses the data collected in 2007 and 2008 from Chinese firms to explore the relationship between CSR and corporate financial performance (CFP) empirically.Findings – The results show that companies' social responsibility activity can improve their financia.
The New Barbary Wars: Forecasting Maritime Piracy

This paper extends systematic analyses of maritime piracy by verifying the robustness of empirical results and examining the forecasting ability of empirical models. Recent research by Ward, Greenhill and Bakke (2010) finds that statistically significant relationships frequently offer poor guidance when it comes to anticipating the inception of civil war. We assess the predictive ability of purported causal factors of piracy using evaluative statistical tools such as receiver-operating characteristic plots, out-of-sample predictions, and outlier analysis. Statistical results for in-sample and out-of-sample tests show that while factors such as military capacity, population size, coastline length, and trade volumes are statistically related to piracy, state fragility has by far the strongest predictive effect despite only being moderately statistically significant in the models. Outlier analysis demonstrates that while several countries experience higher numbers of piracy incidents than predicted, empirical models are generally robust to the presence of outliers. For policymakers, the findings suggest that counter-piracy efforts focused on capacity-building measures have the greatest potential for reducing the piracy threat.
Regional destination image perception of tourists within a winescape context

This study's purpose is to conceptualise a wine regional destination's perceived image, in the process integrating multiple theories such as servicescape, place-based and destination choice. The research (n = 334 respondents) outlines the conceptualisation of a wine region destination's image in the form of a winescape framework as perceived by visitors. The winescape construct is identified within a framework of eight dimensions for a well-known US wine region. The most important winescape dimension is the natural beauty/geographical setting. The first-time and repeat visit dynamic impacts upon visitors' wine tourism behaviour and perception of the region's winescape. For in-state and out-of-state-based visitors there are pronounced differences in their perception of the region's winescape dimensions. Increasing distance from the destination region is pivotal in the perception of the winescape dimensions. The decision to engage in wine tourism is seemingly impulsive from a timing viewpoint, and the motivations guiding the visitors' behaviour are mainly of a hedonic nature.
Occupational Segregation, Wage Discrimination, and Impact on Poverty In Rural Bangladesh

This study quantifies occupational segregation and wage discrimination in rural labour market of Bangladesh. Wage equations for seven employment categories was estimated applying Heckman's two-step procedure. Multinomial logit analysis was applied to estimate occupational attainment for males from a set of personal characteristics and then an occupational distribution for females was simulated. Data set used was a part of an eight-village census undertaken by the Institute of Development Studies, Sussex. Ideally the capacity to transform time and strength of labour into income between men and women should differ due to the difference in productivity. This analysis shows that more than seventy per cent of total gender pay gap remains unjustified and is due mainly to the concentration to the low paid work owing to job discrimination. Development programmes in the rural sector have achieved some success in bringing poor women into the paid job but failed to reduce within job discrimination. Attempts to reduce poverty will not bring the desired goal unless women have free access to paid work and the unjustified job segregation and pay discrimination are considerably reduced.
Analysis of the causes of the seizure and destruction of carcasses and organs in a slaughterhouse in central Italy in the 2010-2016 period

Meat safety and hygiene are fundamental issues for producers and endusers. To achieve these goals, the inspection of carcasses and organs at slaughter is critical. The results of post-mortem inspection are the basis for planning preventive measures against consumer risks and for limiting economic losses. In this retrospective study, the causes of the seizure and destruction of carcasses and organs were analysed at a slaughterhouse in central Italy from 2010 to 2016. 436,646 slaughtered animals were taken into consideration, for a total of 61,799 seizures (73.29% pigs, 23.87% cattle, 2.77% sheep and 0.07% horses). The organs or groups of organs that most frequently showed lesions in pigs were liver (72.38%), heart (10.77%) and pluck (10.20%); in cattle, lungs (64.86%), liver (31.20%) and stomachs (11.63%); in sheep, liver (77.15%), pluck (18.70%) and lung (3.80%); in horses, liver (75.56%), kidney (68.89%) and lung (31.11%). Among the diagnoses, parasitic diseases of the liver (ascariasis and distomatosis) were especially frequent in all species, followed by pericarditis and polyserositis in pigs and diseases affecting the respiratory system in cattle. The data obtained show that postmortem inspection is of fundamental importance for limiting risks for the consumer and ensuring meat safety. It is also evident, even more than ten years after the coming into force of the so-called hygiene package regulations, that the slaughterhouse can still act as an epidemiological observatory to provide the data needed for the development of plans for the control and eradication of the most frequent diseases in the area.
Why do Acquiring Banks in Mergers Concentrate in Well-Developed Areas? Regional Development and Mergers and Acquisitions (M&As) in Banking

Colombo L. V. A. and Turati G. Why do acquiring banks in mergers concentrate in well-developed areas? Regional development and mergers and acquisitions (M&As) in banking, Regional Studies. The paper focuses on all mergers and acquisitions (M&As) transactions of regional relevance that occurred in the Italian banking sector between 1995 and 2006. A strong direct effect of regional economic and social characteristics on the concentration of the banking industry in Italy is found, as well as on the agglomeration of acquiring banks in well-developed regions. This effect survives to a number of robustness checks, including controls for banks’ profitability and efficiency, and for their institutional characteristics, indicated by the banking literature as the key factors driving concentration in banking. Possible theoretical explanations supporting the empirical findings are also investigated, and their policy implications are discussed.
A Multilayer Convolutional Encoder-Decoder Neural Network for Grammatical Error Correction

We improve automatic correction of grammatical, orthographic, and collocation errors in text using a multilayer convolutional encoder-decoder neural network. The network is initialized with embeddings that make use of character N-gram information to better suit this task. When evaluated on common benchmark test data sets (CoNLL-2014 and JFLEG), our model substantially outperforms all prior neural approaches on this task as well as strong statistical machine translation-based systems with neural and task-specific features trained on the same data. Our analysis shows the superiority of convolutional neural networks over recurrent neural networks such as long short-term memory (LSTM) networks in capturing the local context via attention, and thereby improving the coverage in correcting grammatical errors. By ensembling multiple models, and incorporating an N-gram language model and edit features via rescoring, our novel method becomes the first neural approach to outperform the current state-of-the-art statistical machine translation-based approach, both in terms of grammaticality and fluency.
Molecular genetic analysis of Korean patients with coagulation factor XII deficiency

Coagulation factor XII (FXII) participates in the initiation of blood coagulation, fibrinolysis, complement systems, and bradykinin generation. Hereditary FXII deficiency is caused by mutations in the F12 gene. In this report, we describe three Korean patients with FXII deficiency. In all three patients, prolonged activated partial thromboplastin time (aPTT) was detected on preoperative coagulation screening, without a history of bleeding tendency. Patient 1 was a 4-year-old girl with congenital heart anomaly. Her aPTT was prolonged at 67.5 s (reference range, 29–42 s) and the FXII activity was 5% (48–177%). Patient 2 was a 50-year-old man with anal fistula. His aPTT was 95.2 s and FXII activity was less than 0.5% (below the detection limit). Patient 3 was a 53-year-old woman with pituitary macroadenoma. Her aPTT was 238.8 s and FXII activity was less than 0.5%. Direct sequencing analyses of F12 revealed two mutations in all three patients. Patient 1 was compound heterozygous for two missense mutations, c.1583C>T (p.S528F) and c.1744G>A (p.G582S). Patient 2 was homozygous for a nonsense mutation, c.405C>A (p.C135X). Patient 3 was compound heterozygous for a frameshift mutation and a missense mutation, c. 1093_1094insC (p.K365QfsX69) and c.1744G>A (p.G582S). All four mutations were novel. To the best of our knowledge, these are the first genetically confirmed cases of FXII deficiency in Korea. FXII deficiency should be included in differential diagnoses of prolonged aPTT, particularly in those without bleeding tendency.
The Association between Web-Based Corporate Performance Disclosure and Financial Analyst Behavior Under Different Governance Regimes

In this study, we assert and test that the determination of corporate performance communication and financial analysts' earnings forecasting work are closely intertwined processes. The resulting endogeneity in capital markets' information dissemination and use is strongly influenced by a country's governance regime. Results from simultaneous equation regressions show significant interrelationships between financial analysts' activities and corporate disclosure transparency for North American firms. Moreover, analyst following underlies corporate disclosure, which ultimately leads to a reduction in the dispersion of analysts' earnings forecasts. In contrast, capital markets' information dynamics for continental European firms are much weaker. Copyright (c) 2007 The Authors; Journal compilation (c) 2007 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
Integrating User eXperience practices into software development processes: implications of the UX characteristics

User eXperience (UX) is a key factor in the success of software systems. Many software companies face challenges in their work with UX. Existing research does not analyze UX practices and challenges in relation to other software quality characteristics or, in particular, in relation to usability. A better understanding of these challenges can help researchers and practitioners better address them in the future. In this empirical study, we have interviewed 17 practitioners with different backgrounds and occupations from eight software development companies. Their responses are coded, and analyzed with thematic analysis. We report eight themes of challenges that practitioners face in their work with UX. While some of these challenges partly overlap with those reported in existing literature about usability or other software quality characteristics, the participants of our study either view many of the challenges as unique to UX, or more severe in the case of UX. Although at a superficial level challenges of UX and other quality characteristics overlap, we differentiate these challenges at a deeper level through the five main characteristics of UX: subjective, holistic, dynamic, context-dependent and worthwhile. In particular, we identified that these characteristics have at least 20 implications (i.e. additional difficulties) for day-to-day work of practitioners. We found that 11 of these implications have been previously reported in literature. However, to the best of our knowledge, the remaining nine implications are unique to our study. These implications can explain why practitioners perceive the challenges to be more severe than for other quality characteristics. Most importantly, they can explain the industry’s lopsided focus on the pragmatic aspect of UX. Our findings can be useful for researchers in identifying new and industry-relevant research areas and for practitioners to learn from empirically investigated challenges in UX work, and base their improvement efforts on such knowledge. Identifying and investigating the overlaps underlines the importance of these challenges, and can also help finding research areas not only for enhancing UX work but also software quality in general. It also makes it easier for practitioners to spot, better understand as well as find mitigation strategies for UX, through learning from past experiences and developments in the area of software quality.
Formation of a Coalition-Proof Stable Cartel

Formation of coalitions in oligopolies is modeled as a noncooperative game in which firms' strategies have a binary form (to cooperate or not). The author demonstrates a one-to-one correspondence between stable cartels defined by C. d'Aspremont et al. (1983) and the Nash equilibria of this game. Using a 'coalition-proof Nash equilibrium,' they define the concept of a coalition-proof stable cartel and prove that there is a unique equilibrium.