Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The productivity challenge. What to expect from better-quality labour and capital inputs?

ABSTRACT The aim of this article is to develop and implement an analytical framework assessing whether better-quality inputs, via a rise of TFP, could compensate an ageing-induced slowing of economic growth. Here ‘better-quality’ means more educated and older/more experienced workforces; and also better-quality capital proxied by its ICT content. Economic theory predicts that these trends should raise TFP. To assess these predictions, we use EU-KLEMS data, with information on the age/education mix of the workforce, as well as the importance on ICT in total capital, for 34 industries within 16 OECD countries, between 1970 and 2005. We generalize the Hellerstein–Neumark labour-quality index method to simultaneously capture workers’ age/experience or education contribution to TFP growth, alongside that of ICT. The conclusion of the article is that the quality of inputs matters for TFP. We find robust microeconometric evidence that better-educated and older/more experienced workers are more productive than their less-educated and younger/less-experienced peers. Also, ICT capital turns out to be more productive than other forms of capital. And when used in a growth accounting exercise covering the 1995–2005 period, these estimates suggest that up to 40% of the recorded TFP growth could be ascribed to the rising quality of inputs.
Epidemiology and trend of cancer in Isfahan 2005-2010

BACKGROUND: Cancer incidence rate is increasing in the world particularly in developing countries. The awareness regarding cancer incidence and distribution helps policy makers and researchers to design comprehensive plan for controlling cancer. The aim of this study was to determine the incidence rate and trend of cancer in Isfahan area, one of the most importance provinces of Iran. METHODS: Data of Isfahan cancer registry were derived from 2005 to 2010. Direct standardization through world standard population produced by the world health organization was used and adjusted standard rate (ASR) was calculated. The Poisson regression analysis was employed to estimate cancer incidence trend during 5 years. RESULTS: The new cases of cancer were 24771 patients from 2005 to 2010. Mean age of these patients was 56.1 ± 18.0 years and 54.6% were male. Male patients were approximately 7 years older than females. The most frequent cancer was gastrointestinal in men and breast cancer in women. The rate of cancer increased approximately 4 per 1000 population and incidence rate ratio (IRR) was 1.004 (95%CI: 1.002-1.005). CONCLUSIONS: The rate of cancer is increasing rapidly in Isfahan province. Cancer control and comprehensive prevention plan for Isfahan is necessary.
Konsolidasi demokrasi melalui pengembangan karakter kewarganegaraan

The tnnsition from auhorilarianisn to democncy is prolonged and complex process. From the national united background,fhe process of tansition flows through three phase (1) prelininuy step, i.e. struggling to replace rqime; (2) decision step, i.e. building demoaatic instiffiion: and (3) consolidation step, Le. lhe process in which instlution and denocralic practice intemalized in political cufture. Civic disposition, futir pivate and publh, as an element of civic education, buift very deternined by two otlrcrs compuent, i.e. civic knowledge and civic skill, is a facbr which an develop democracy consolidation. Civb disposition is a minor of civic cuftue, which is as denncntic political cufture,
The relationship between state fiscal effort and state graduation rates: A longitudinal study

THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN STATE FISCAL EFFORT AND STATE GRADUATION RATES: A LONGITUDINAL STUDY Melissa Christine Morris Old Dominion University, 2012 Director: Dr. William A. Owings In recent decades, the United States has been criticized for failing to produce citizens who can compete in a global society. Legislation, such as the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act of 2001, has been implemented with the intention of improving the U.S. education system. Under the guidelines of NCLB, states are tasked with meeting Annual Yearly Progress (AYP) objectives in order to receive federal monies. In addition to testing requirements, one AYP indicator used to measure academic proficiency for high school students is graduation rates. The fiscal and societal impact of students not graduating from high school can be seen when comparing unemployment rates, annual income, and tax contributions to those of graduates. With budget shortfalls at an all-time high, it is imperative that educational leaders and policymakers make well informed decisions about how to invest fiscal resources in order to yield the best results. The current study utilizes a production function model to examine the relationship between state fiscal effort and graduation rates over time. The use of fiscal effort provides a unique perspective by identifying how high a priority education is for states based on their wealth, not simply as a function of per pupil expenditures. A 2 (fiscal effort categories) x 8 (years) repeated measures analysis of variance was used to determine the relationship between sustained increases and decreases in fiscal effort over time on graduation rates for the years post-NCLB (2002 to 2009). The categories of states were determined using a linear regression analysis to identify the 10 states with the most sustained increasing fiscal effort and the 10 states with the most sustained decreasing fiscal effort. The results of this study did not support the interaction effect of fiscal effort categories and time on graduation rates, nor did it support the main effect of fiscal effort categories on graduation rates. The major findings from this study did show a statistically significant relationship between time and graduation rates for both increasing and decreasing fiscal effort categories. This finding suggests NCLB legislation has had a significant impact on graduation rates. Furthermore, these results refute previous research which reports high-stakes testing, commonly associated with NCLB legislation, negatively impacts graduation rates.
Dynamic Asset-Liability Management with Inflation Hedging and Regulatory Constraints

We examine how inflation risk affects the asset-liability investment allocation problem of a fund manager who is constrained by regulatory rules. The liability driven investment framework faces a time-varying investment opportunity set, characterized by a two-factor affine model of term structure, and is subject to annually-checked Value-at-Risk and maximum funding constraints required by regulatory authorities. We show that inflation-hedging is of particular importance for the long-term ALM investor and has an influential impact on asset allocation by interacting with liability-hedging and intertemporal hedge demands simultaneously. We also provide justification for the current practice that many managers tend to act myopically, instead of rebalancing strategically.
Enteral nutritional therapy: application of quality indicators.

OBJECTIVE Monitor the adequacy of enteral nutritional therapy at the intensive care unit aiming to improve the quality of nutritional assistance. METHODS Prospective and observational study developed at the adult intensive care unit from 2005 to 2008. Patients over 18 years of age with exclusive enteral nutritional therapy for over 72h participated in the sample. The average values and the percentile adequacy of energy and proteins calculated, prescribed and administered in each year were analyzed. The factors responsible for the non-conformity of the administration planned were classified into intensive care unit extrinsic or intrinsic causes. The quality indicators proposed by the ILSI Brazil were applied, and expressed into percentile goals. In the statistic analyses, confidence interval and the t Student e Mann-Whitney (p<0.05) tests were used, according to the Epi Info program. RESULTS One hundred and sixteen patients were followed up. There were statically difference in values of energy and protein administered in 2005 and in 2006, when compared to those in 2008. The adequacy calculated/prescribed remained close to 100% in all the surveys and the adequacy administered/prescribed increased from 74% in 2005, to 89% in 2008. An increase in interruptions of enteral nutritional therapy for external factors and the decrease in interruptions for intensive care unit internal factors were verified. The quality indicators equally reflect the evolution of the patient care. CONCLUSION In the four yearly surveys, a progressive enhancement of nutritional support was verified. Quality indicators allow nutritional care evolution monitoring, the comparison to other services data, and are a new perspective for enteral nutritional therapy assessment.
Direct clinician-delivered versus indirect family-supported rehabilitation of children with traumatic brain injury: A randomized controlled trial

Primary objectives: To explore the relative effectiveness of clinician-delivered vs family-supported interventions for children with chronic impairment after TBI. Research design: Randomized controlled clinical trial. Methods and procedures: Children aged 5–12 years in the chronic phase of their recovery were randomly assigned to the clinician-delivered or to the family-supported intervention group; both samples received intensive services for 1 year; physical outcome was measured by the SARAH scales, cognitive outcome by the WISC-III. Main outcomes and results: Parents in the family-supported intervention sample efficiently acquired the skills needed to deliver physical and cognitive interventions within the context of everyday routines of the child's life at home; family education level was not a factor. Although both groups demonstrated improvements, only the children in the family-supported intervention group demonstrated statistically significant — and clinically important — improvements on both outcome measures. Conclusions: This RCT provides compelling evidence for organizing cognitive and physical interventions and supports for children with TBI around the everyday routines of their lives, with intensive supports for their families.
Structural XML Query Processing

Since the boom in new proposals on techniques for efficient querying of XML data is now over and the research world has shifted its attention toward new types of data formats, we believe that it is crucial to review what has been done in the area to help users choose an appropriate strategy and scientists exploit the contributions in new areas of data processing. The aim of this work is to provide a comprehensive study of the state-of-the-art of approaches for the structural querying of XML data. In particular, we start with a description of labeling schemas to capture the structure of the data and the respective storage strategies. Then we deal with the key part of every XML query processing: a twig query join, XML query algebras, optimizations of query plans, and selectivity estimation of XML queries. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first work that provides such a detailed description of XML query processing techniques that are related to structural aspects and that contains information about their theoretical and practical features as well as about their mutual compatibility and general usability.
The State of Public Personnel Research

This article examines the nature of empirical research in two public personnel journals by focusing on the purpose of published research, as well as the research designs and statistical techniques that are employed. The analysis indicates that public personnel scholars are actively engaged in the testing of empirical theory and the development of a cumulative knowledge base, although the methodological rigor of this research is at time lacking. Thus the current state of public personnel research deviates from the atheoretical and noncumulative nature characteristics of public administration research generally.
A note on modelling household food waste behaviour

ABSTRACT Food waste is increasingly recognized as a global challenge, with both public and private efforts aimed at reducing food waste from farm to fork. However, analyses of food waste often fail to treat the problem as an economic phenomenon, where consumers’ utility maximizing decisions result in discarded food. In an effort to guide future research, this article presents a conceptual model of household food waste, showing that decisions to discard food depend on food prices and wage and nonwage income.
American Samoan women's health: experiences and attitudes toward breast and cervical cancer screening.

BACKGROUND Cancer is the second leading cause of death among Samoan women and, compared to women of other ethnicities in the United States, Samoan women present at earlier ages with advanced stages of both breast and cervical cancers. Our goal was to gain a better understanding of issues that may prevent women in American Samoa from using available cancer screening resources. METHODS Following approval from the Office of Samoan Affairs, we conducted four focus group sessions, in which a total of 55 women from urban and rural sites participated. Women were asked about their perceptions regarding barriers, knowledge, and past utilization of available cancer screening services. RESULTS Among the participants, professional women were more aware and had higher utilization rates of age-specific screening services. Barriers to health care services included lack of awareness and fears regarding poor confidentiality. DISCUSSION Our findings, which have been reviewed by participants, highlight the further need for outreach and education about female cancers. Screening rates could be increased and all services may benefit from increased collaboration between the American Samoa Department of Public Health and Lyndon B. Johnson (LBJ) Tropical Medical Center. Our findings underline a need for additional staff training in professionalism, particularly in the areas of confidentiality and respect for patients.
Risk factors for future development of systemic lupus erythematosus in children with idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura

The risk of later development of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) in childhood idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP) is currently unknown. We retrospectively evaluated the incidence and risk factors of this complication in 222 children with ITP who were followed for a mean of 4.2 ± 4.9 years. During that time 3.6% of the children (8/222) developed SLE; all were females with positive anti‐nuclear antibody (ANA), older (12.7 ± 3.6 vs. 6.4 ± 4.3 years old; P < 0.01), and were more likely to have chronic ITP (87.5 vs. 46%; P = 0.02), and had high titers of ANA. The majority of children with ITP who had a positive ANA (14/22, 64%) did not develop SLE. Pediatr Blood Cancer 2006;47:657–659. © 2006 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Do locals benefit from being in the ‘tourist capital’? Views from Livingstone, Zambia

This study used 268 household and 13 key informant interviews to get the views of Livingstone city residents on economic, environmental and sociocultural effects of tourism on local households and the city. Results show very few economic benefits at household level with residents perceiving big tourism-related businesses, the state and its officials to be the main beneficiaries. Although tourists were commended for helping vulnerable residents, they were blamed for contributing to prostitution and diseases by local residents; and were targeted for petty thefts by unemployed youths. Sociocultural effects of tourism are significant for residents but are routinely ignored or glossed over by tourism development practitioners. Tourism had resulted in a general improvement in the city environs. It is concluded that tourism development projects must target increased benefits for residents to increase benevolent attitudes from them towards tourism in their city, and to ensure a more sustainable variant of tourism is achieved in the tourist capital.
Quantitative Fiber Tracking of the Optic Radiation Is Correlated with Visual-Evoked Potential Amplitude in Preterm Infants

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Children born preterm are at risk for adverse outcome, including visual impairment. We examined the relationship between neonatal DTI and sVEP in children born preterm to determine whether visual outcomes are related to early measurements of brain microstructure. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Subjects were born at <34 weeks gestation and imaged before term-equivalent age. DTI fiber tracking was used to delineate the optic radiations and measure tract-specific average FA, Dav, and parallel and transverse diffusivity. Visual-evoked response amplitudes were measured as a function of spatial frequency, contrast, and vernier offset size with sVEP at 6–20 months after birth. The association between DTI and sVEP was assessed by using the Spearman correlation coefficient and linear regression for repeated measures. RESULTS: Nine children with 15 scans were included. The peak response amplitudes for spatial frequency sweeps were associated with increasing FA and decreasing Dav and transverse diffusivity (P ≤ .006) but not with parallel diffusivity (P = 1). There was only modest association with the swept contrast condition and no detectable association with the vernier offset sweeps. CONCLUSIONS: Microstructure of the optic radiations measured shortly after birth is associated with quantitatively measured responses elicited by moderate-to-high contrast spatiotemporal gratings in infancy. These findings are in keeping with studies showing a relationship between brain microstructure and function. While the clinical impact is not known, quantitative neuroimaging of white matter may ultimately be important for predicting outcome in preterm neonates.
Role of an N-terminal loop in the secondary structural change of photoactive yellow protein.

Photoactive yellow protein (PYP) is photoconverted to its putative active form (PYP(M)) with global conformational change(s). The changes in the secondary structure were studied by far-UV circular dichroism (CD) and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy using PYP, which lacks N-terminal 6, 15, or 23 amino acid residues (T6, T15, and T23, respectively). Irradiation of truncated PYPs induced the loss of the CD signal, where the maximal difference was located at 222 nm. The reduction of the CD signal was significantly larger than the calculated CD of the N-terminal helices, indicating that it is mainly accounted for by the unfolding and/or structural change of the helices located outside the N-terminal region. The difference FTIR spectra between dark and photosteady states recorded using the solution samples demonstrated that large absorbance changes in the amide mode of the beta-sheet were reduced and downshifted by truncation. The structural change of the beta-sheet is therefore closely correlated with the N-terminal loop. NaCl decelerates the decay of intact PYP(M) and T6(M) at low concentrations (<500 mM) but accelerates decay at high concentrations (>1000 mM). For T15(M) and T23(M), NaCl accelerates their decay at >100 mM but never decelerates their decay, suggesting that the electrostatic interaction, which plays an important role for the recovery of PYP from PYP(M), is lost by removing positions 7-15. The electrostatic interaction between this region and the beta-scaffold is likely to promote the conformational change of PYP(M) for recovery of PYP.
Trade Diversion and Antidumping Effectiveness: Insights from a Residual Demand Model

A residual demand model is developed to predict the likely eﬀects of an antidumping duty in the presence of trade diversion. A key insight is that the ability of an AD duty to increase the welfare of producers in the country imposing the duty hinges on the import supply elasticity for product from non-named sources. The only instance in which this is not true is when supply for product from the named source is perfectly elastic. In this case, the welfare gain to domestic producers is maximised irrespective of the supply elasticity for imports from non-named sources. A comparison of the residual demand model with the Armington model suggests the latter signiﬁcantly understates both trade diversion and domestic producer gains from the duty.
A closer look at instructional coaching: lessons from two schools' successful implementations of job-embedded professional development

Professional development is an investment for districts and schools because it aims to positively impact student achievement by increasing the efficacy and performance of teachers. District and school leaders are charged with selecting and implementing adult learning aligned with district and school visions for instruction, in order to provide teachers with innovative, high quality professional development experiences. Instructional coaching has emerged as a popular form of job-embedded professional development in the last decade because it provides teachers with support through modeling, demonstration, observation/feedback, and reflection. This multi-site case study involved closely examining the instructional coaching models of two high schools that have experienced success with coaching as professional development for teachers. The schools were selected because they have implemented instructional coaching as their primary professional development model for more than two consecutive years and attribute gains in student achievement at least in part to their coaching initiatives. The goal of my study was to identify key components and strategies for implementing a successful instructional coaching program. Through interviews of 20 participants, including coaches, principals, and teachers, and reviews of important documents and artifacts, I was able to answer the primary research question of what can be learned from an exemplary implementation model of instructional coaching. To answer the primary research question, I focused on two secondary questions: (a) What are the roles of the key players (principals, coaches, and teachers) in a successful coaching model? , and (b) What are the most important influences in successful coaching programs? This research found that principals must be actively engaged in the instructional coaching process with strong support for the coach/teacher relationship. Strong leadership is vital to the success of coaching initiatives. Coaches must be highly skilled in both pedagogical knowledge and interpersonal relations in order to build strong, trusting relationships with teachers and must build and maintain impeccable systems of communication with the principals and teachers they serve. The coach/teacher relationship should be a partnership where teachers are given voice and choice in the coaching process. This research also substantiates the value of instructional coaching in building strong professional learning communities and teacher leadership through a strong commitment to a culture of open and honest dialogue around teaching and learning. My study has found that job-embedded coaching can be a highly successful initiative to improve teacher practice when implemented strategically.