Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
From Provinces into Nations: Demographic Integration in Western Europe, 1870–1960. By Susan Cotts Watkins. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1991. Pp. xvii, 235. $42.50

clothes, education, health care, and so on) exceeded their production value (weeding, cleaning house, spinning, and so on) to such an extent that their economic value in preindustrial agriculture was negative. This is a very compelling and controversial claim, one that would be of interest to economic historians. Unfortunately, the determination of children's productivity is rather weak and based on very imprecise measures. Nardinelli uses the economic value of children in twentieth-century less developed countries (pp. 46-48) and in nineteenth-century America (pp. 49-51) to draw conclusions about the productivity of children in rural Great Britain. The evidence (both direct and indirect) presented from these sources is impressive, but the validity of its applicability to preindustrial agriculture in Great Britain is inadequately demonstrated.
The banking panics in the United States in the 1930s: some lessons for today

In this paper we discuss the lessons learned from the US banking panics in the 1930s for the response by the Federal Reserve to the crisis of 2008. We revisit the debate over illiquidity versus insolvency in the banking crises of the 1930s and provide empirical evidence that the banking crises largely reflected illiquidity shocks. In the recent crisis the Fed under Bernanke had well learned the lesson from the banking panics of the 1930s of conducting expansionary monetary policy to meet demands for liquidity. However, unlike in the 1930s, the deeper problem of the recent crisis was not illiquidity but insolvency and especially the fear of insolvency of counterparties. A number of virtually insolvent US banks deemed too big and too interconnected to fail were rescued by fiscal bail-outs. Copyright 2010, Oxford University Press.
Integrating Palliative Care in the ICU: The Nurse in a Leading Role

Palliative care is increasingly recognized as an integral component of comprehensive intensive care for all critically ill patients, regardless of prognosis, and for their families. Here we discuss the key role that nurses can and must continue to play in making this evidence-based paradigm a clinical reality across a broad range of ICUs. We review the contributions of nurses to implementation of ICU safety initiatives as a model that can be applied to ICU palliative care integration. We focus on the importance of nursing involvement in design and application of work processes that facilitate this integration in a systematic way, including processes that ensure the participation of nurses in discussions and decision making with families about care goals. We suggest ways that nurses can help to operationalize an integrated approach to palliative care in the ICU and to define their own essential role in a successful, sustainable ICU palliative care improvement effort. Finally, we identify resources including The IPAL-ICU ProjectTM, a new initiative by the Center to Advance Palliative Care that can assist nurses and other healthcare professionals to move such efforts forward in diverse critical care settings.
Prospects of mountain ecotourism in Oman: the example of As Sawjarah on Al Jabal al Akhdar

The continued existence of Oman's unique oasis settlements depends on the productivity of their lush crop fields and orchards. In the course of the country's modernisation process, the more remote of these settlements are rapidly abandoned, if poor infrastructural conditions and limited opportunities for income generation prevail. Given its potential to reconcile the cultural values and needs of oasis residents with the interests of national and international tourists, ecotourism may offer opportunities to slow down the widespread decline of Oman's traditional oasis agriculture and transform it into an asset, which offers additional income opportunities. This approach to tourism is in contrast to the mainstream of the country's current development policy, which increasingly favours beach hotels and easy access to remote areas through day trips on paved, well-illuminated roads. Using the example of a village in the northern Jabal al Akhdar range, this study discusses how ecotourism may become an avenue to preserve Omani mountain oases as culturally unique, agro-pastoral livelihood systems, which, for millennia, have effectively coped with a fragile, hyper-arid environment.
Attempting to Find Meaning in Illness to Achieve Emotional Coherence: The Experiences of Patients With Colorectal Cancer

The aim of the study was to explore the emotional and interactional perspectives of the meaning of illness in patients with colorectal cancer. Fifty-two respondents were included in the study. Data were obtained through an open-ended question at the time of diagnosis as well as 3 and 12 months after diagnosis. The constant comparative method of data analysis, consisting of an interpretation of the data, was used. The overall ascribed meaning was expressed in the main theme, attempting to find meaning in illness to achieve emotional coherence. The main theme consisted of 2 dimensions: unified and dichotomized embodiment. The unified embodiment dimension subthemes include gratefulness, confidence in oneself and others, and looking forward to creating a new future. The dichotomized embodiment dimension subthemes include altered self-value, loss of temporality, and infringement of body integrity. The characteristics of unified embodiment were hope and faith, a strong self-value, and an anticipated future. For dichotomized embodiment, the characteristics were the struggle, loss of temporality, nonmovement, and lack of hope and faith. The study provided a theoretical basis that is relevant for both nursing practice and nursing education.
The Birth of a Party: The Case of the Italian Partito Democratico1

This article discusses the birth of the Democratic Party in October 2007 through the merger of the Democrats of the Left and the Daisy. It examines the long history of the merger and the brief history of the constituent process, the new party's identity and organizational features, and the role it might assume in the party system. Our findings indicate: (a) that ethical and religious issues could hinder the building of a shared party identity and political culture; (b) that the party organization has to face the stratarchic imperative; and (c) that the electoral strategy, so important for the new party's birth, will also strictly condition its future, as indicated by its 2008 election performance.
The Empire Illuminated: Electricity, "ethical" colonialism and enlightened monarchy in photographs of Dutch royal celebrations, 1898-1948

This article examines photographs of royal festivals in the Netherlands and the Netherlands Indies (colonial Indonesia) during the reign of Queen Wilhelmina (1898-1948). The association of electricity with the royal House of Orange in vernacular visual culture expressed the idealised connections made, in colonial as well as in Dutch politics, between the queen and the Ethical Policy in the Indies. Electric lights and nocturnal illuminations featured strongly in images of royal celebrations in the Indies from the early 1900s onwards—a pattern that was not followed in the Netherlands until the late 1930s. Monarchy was thus particularly linked with modernity in Dutch colonies in Asia during the twentieth century.
The US zero-coupon yield spread as a predictor of excess daily stock market volatility

Slope of the yield curve has often been cited as an indicator of economic activity. Based on this premise, we extend the study to examine whether one can use the US zero-coupon yield spread to predict excess stock market volatility of three international stock markets – the United States, the United Kingdom and Hong Kong. By using daily trading data and changes in the US yield spread, our study entails four spread maturity spectrums, three stock markets, 7-trading day forecast horizons and four probit models. In the static models, we find evidence to support a US spread–volatility relationship in all three stock markets in the medium spread maturity up to 3 days ahead. In the dynamic models, although the predictive power of yield spread weakens slightly, the lagged dependent variable plays an important role.
Molecular subtyping scheme for serotypes HS1 and HS4 of Campylobacter jejuni

We describe a molecular subtyping scheme for two principal O (heat-stable [HS]) serotypes of Campylobacter jejuni, HS1 and the HS4 complex. A 16S rRNA gene-specific probe confirmed that almost all the C. jejuni strains had three copies of this gene, and strains could be assigned with complete typeability to 1 of 16 combined (Pst1 and HaeIII) 16S ribotypes. Macrorestriction profiles (mrps) consisting of up to 10 SmaI fragments from approximately 40 to approximately 480 kbp were resolved by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE). There were 11 mrps among the HS1 strains and 9 mrps among HS4 strains which corresponded to valid types--they occurred in multiple isolates, hosts, places, and times. There were 14 additional single-strain mrp fingerprints in HS1 and 20 in HS4. PFGE exhibited complete typeability when formaldehyde fixation of cells was employed, and PFGE was generally more differential than ribotyping. The data presented elucidate a high-resolution genotypic subtyping scheme for these common subspecific phenotypes of C. jejuni, which is both coherent and efficient for epidemiological purposes.
Births: final data for 2003.

OBJECTIVES This report presents 2003 data on U.S. births according to a wide variety of characteristics. Data are presented for maternal demographic characteristics including age, live-birth order, race, Hispanic origin, marital status, and educational attainment; maternal characteristics (medical risk factors, weight gain, and tobacco and alcohol use); medical care utilization by pregnant women (prenatal care, obstetric procedures, complications of labor and/or delivery, attendant at birth, and method of delivery); and infant characteristics (period of gestation, birthweight, Apgar score, abnormal conditions, congenital anomalies, and multiple births). Also presented are birth and fertility rates by age, live-birth order, race, Hispanic origin, and marital status. Selected data by mother's State of residence are shown, as well as data on month and day of birth, sex ratio, and age of father. Trends in fertility patterns and maternal and infant characteristics are described and interpreted. METHODS Descriptive tabulations of data reported on the birth certificates of the 4.09 million births that occurred in 2003 are presented. Denominators for population-based rates are derived from the U.S. 2000 census. RESULTS In 2003 there were 4,089,950 live births reported in the United States, 2 percent more than the number in 2002. The crude birth rate (CBR) and general fertility rate (GFR) rose slightly. Childbearing among teenagers declined for the 12th straight year to another historic low. Birth rates for women aged 20-24 years also declined, whereas rates for women aged 25-44 years increased 2-6 percent, reaching highs not reported since the mid- to late 1960s. All measures of unmarried childbearing increased considerably in 2003, but smoking during pregnancy continued to decline. Timely initiation of prenatal care improved slightly. The cesarean delivery rate jumped another 5 percent to another all-time high, and the rate of vaginal birth after previous cesarean dropped 16 percent, an all-time low. Key measures of birth outcome-the percentages of preterm and low birthweight (LBW) births-rose. The twinning rate increased, but the rate of triplet and higher order multiple births was essentially stable.
The Relationships between Sentiment, Returns and Volatility

Previous papers that test whether sentiment is useful for predicting volatility ignore whether lagged returns information might also be useful for this purpose. By doing so, these papers potentially overestimate the role of sentiment in predicting volatility. In this paper we test whether sentiment is useful for volatility forecasting purposes. We find that most of our sentiment measures are caused by returns and volatility rather than vice versa. In addition, we find that lagged returns cause volatility. All sentiment variables have extremely limited forecasting power once returns are included as a forecasting variable.
The Determinants of an Environmentally Responsive Firm: An Empirical Approach

Abstract Our empirical results indicate that a firm's formulation of an environmental plan is positively influenced by customer pressure, shareholder pressure, government regulatory pressure, and neighborhood and community group pressure but negatively influenced by other lobby group pressure sources and a firm's sales-to-asset ratio. Firms which view environmental issues as important in the next 5 years are also more likely to have a plan. Relative to the manufacturing sector, firms in the natural resource sector are more likely to formulate environmental plans while firms in the service sector are less likely to have plans. Our results provide insight into how firms react to environmental issues. They also offer policymakers a list of determinants which can be used either as an alternative or complement to environmental regulation.
An assessment of the impact of valuation error on property investment performance measurement

Analyses the effect of valuation error on the implied precision of investment performance measurement of property assets. A prerequisite for measuring the absolute or relative performance of commercial property investments is that valuations provide a reliable proxy for prices. However, there are conceptual and empirical grounds to suggest that uncertainty is inherent in the valuation process. This is primarily due to the structure of the commercial property market and the techniques and guidelines of the property valuation process. Sampling theory is used to measure portfolio valuation error confidence bands for hypothetical property investment portfolios based on different assumptions concerning assumed levels of valuation error, size of portfolio and number of measurement time periods. It is concluded that, for the majority of investment portfolios, property investment performance measures will include some uncertainty and thus the property fund manager should be sceptical of the implied precision in reported measures of return.
Implied Volatility Function Approximation with Korean ELWs (Equity-Linked Warrants) via Gaussian Processes

A lot of researches have been conducted to estimate the volatility smile effect shown in the option market. This paper proposes a method to approximate an implied volatility function, given noisy real market option data. To construct an implied volatility function, we use Gaussian Processes (GPs). Their output values are implied volatilities while moneyness values (the ratios of strike price to underlying asset price) and time to maturities are as their input values. To show the performances of our proposed method, we conduct experimental simulations with Korean Equity-Linked Warrant (ELW) market data as well as toy data.
New Places in Old Spaces: Mapping Tourism and Regeneration in Budapest

Abstract The aim of this paper is to map some of the new developments that have been taking place in Budapest since 1989, in particular focusing on the role that tourism and cultural regeneration have played in transforming old spaces into new places. The redevelopment of former socialist cities is politically complex, as new power relationships need to be negotiated, heritage values must be reassessed, and widening economic and social disparities should be addressed. Tourism needs to be managed carefully if it is to contribute in a positive way to economic development, heritage conservation and promotion, and enhancement of the local quality of life. A number of examples are used to demonstrate the spatial transformations that are taking place in Budapest. In some cases, historic spaces have been accorded new and symbolic status (e.g. as World Heritage Sites); some attractions have been re-packaged as itineraries or trails (e.g. the Cultural Avenue project). Some socialist heritage has been removed to the outskirts of the city (e.g. Statue Park). Some previously derelict areas are being transformed and regenerated into national cultural or international business spaces. New shopping and leisure areas are also being created in accordance with Budapest's desire to be recognized as a dynamic and cosmopolitan city. Questions are then raised about the implications of these developments for the future planning of the city as a new tourism destination in a competitive market.
Mitochondrial permeability transition pore component cyclophilin D distinguishes nigrostriatal dopaminergic death paradigms in the MPTP mouse model of Parkinson's disease.

AIMS Mitochondrial damage due to Ca(2+) overload-induced opening of permeability transition pores (PTP) is believed to play a role in selective degeneration of nigrostriatal dopaminergic neurons in Parkinson's disease (PD). Genetic ablation of mitochondrial matrix protein cyclophilin D (CYPD) has been shown to increase Ca(2+) threshold of PTP in vitro and to prevent cell death in several in vivo disease models. We investigated the role of CYPD in a mouse model of MPTP (1-methyl-4-phenyl-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridine)-induced PD. RESULTS We demonstrate that in vitro, brain mitochondria isolated from CYPD knockout mice were less sensitive to MPP+ (1-methyl-4-phenyl-pyridinium ion)-induced membrane depolarization, and free radical generation compared to wild-type mice. CYPD knockout mitochondria isolated from ventral midbrain of mice treated with MPTP in vivo exhibited less damage as judged from respiratory chain Complex I activity, State 3 respiration rate, and respiratory control index than wild-type mice, whereas assessment of apoptotic markers showed no differences between the two genotypes. However, CYPD knockout mice were significantly resistant only to an acute regimen of MPTP neurotoxicity in contrast to the subacute and chronic MPTP paradigms. INNOVATION Inactivation of CYPD is beneficial in preserving mitochondrial functions only in an acute insult model of MPTP-induced dopaminergic neurotoxicity. CONCLUSION Our results suggest that CYPD deficiency distinguishes the modes of dopaminergic neurodegeneration in various regimens of MPTP-neurotoxicity.
The Ecological Footprint Intensity of National Economies

At least three perspectives—industrial ecology (IE), ecological modernization theory (EMT), and the “environmental Kuznets curve” (EKC)—emphasize the potential for sustainability via refinements in production systems that dramatically reduce the environmental impacts of economic development. Can improvements in efficiency counterbalance environmental impacts stemming from the scale of production? To address this question we analyze cross‐national variation in the ecological footprint (EF) per unit of gross domestic product (GDP). The EF is a widely recognized indicator of human pressure on the environment. The EF of a nation is the amount of land area that would be required to produce the resources it consumes and to absorb the wastes it generates. The most striking finding of our analyses is that there is limited variation across nations in EF per unit of GDP. This indicates limited plasticity in the levels of EF intensity or eco‐efficiency among nations, particularly among affluent nations. EF intensity is lowest (ecoefficiency is highest) in affluent nations, but the level of efficiency in these nations does not appear to be of sufficient magnitude to compensate for their large productive capacities. These results suggest that modernization and economic development will be insufficient, in themselves, to bring about the ecological sustainability of societies.
Making News: Financial Market Effects of Federal Reserve Disclosure Practices

As recently as early 1994, market participants had to infer the stance of U.S. monetary policy according to the type and size of the open market operations conducted by the Federal Reserve's Trading Desk. Thus, investors were exposed to uncertainty about both the timing and the motivation for monetary policy actions. Since then, changes in disclosure practices regarding monetary policy decisions have potentially mitigated both types of uncertainty. We examine the effects of the greater openness and transparency of these new practices on the way a wide array of financial market instruments respond to unanticipated policy decisions. In general, the financial markets' response to policy does not seem to be related to what the Federal Reserve says after a surprise decision is announced or to when it decides to act. The invariance of the response of asset prices to policy across time and announcement regimes suggests that what the Federal Reserve says when it acts is of second-order importance to the act itself.
Vietnamese International Students' Experiences in a New Zealand University: A Narrative Study

This narrative study explored the adjustment experiences of six Vietnamese international students at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. Data for the study were based on two sources; in-depth interviewing and the researcher's field notes. Each of participants was interviewed twice on their adjustment experiences in New Zealand. Thematic analysis was applied to their stories and positioning theory provided a theoretical lens to further analyze and interpret the participants' stories. The findings of the study indicated that the participants experienced many new and different things. Most experienced a stressful academic environment during their first few weeks but they felt better as time passed. The most common challenges they faced related to language issues. Difficulties came from differences between cultures with a mismatch between the participants' previous learning experiences and teaching and learning in the new environment. The participants felt stressed by the amount of self-directed learning expected. These challenges brought benefits such as becoming independent and self- regulated learners. After one trimester one participant had happily adapted and thought of a future life in New Zealand. Three participants had gradually adapted and come to enjoy their new life Two of the six students were clear that they did not belong in New Zealand and wanted to finish their degree and then go back to Vietnam. The study concluded that the participants had diverse difficulties studying and living in New Zealand, mostly related to the different academic environment, language and culture. The participants used various coping strategies to deal with their challenges in the new environment and the main source of their support was from friends and families.
q de Tobin marginal et transmission des chocs financiers

Empirical studies of physical investment usually rely on Tobin's average q (the market value of the firm divided by the replacement cost of capital), rather than marginal q (the present value of a stream of expected marginal profits) because the latter is unobservable. We build marginal q series in four OECD countries (France, USA, Germany and Japan) from V.A. R. models for financial returns and profit rates. We find that marginal q is the sum of two components: a permanent one related only to the current profit rate and a temporary one which summarizes expectations on future financial and real returns. At last we study the effects of financial or real shocks in the V.A. R. , and their transmission through marginal q to investment.