Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Trust and confidence in pensions: A literature review

This working paper presents the findings of a literature review, originally commissioned by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) in spring 2009, to look at existing research and analysis on trust and confidence, with special reference to pensions. Its main aim was to provide a greater understanding of the concepts of trust and confidence generally, but especially in relation to pensions. In so doing, the review aimed to cover the relationship between trust and confidence and individuals’ attitudes and behaviour around pensions and retirement planning, and issues around measuring trust and confidence in pensions. The review aimed to explore in depth the prevalence and nature of trust and confidence, including exploring issues such as: • definitions and categories of trust and confidence; • what engenders and influences trust and confidence; • the nature of the relationship between trust, and attitudes and behaviour towards pensions. The review also aimed to explore existing measures of trust and confidence in pensions and to highlight issues that might potentially have some bearing on policies over pensions information and communications, and future research and analysis in this field.
TIMING OF OVULATION FOLLOWING PROGESTERONE WITHDRAWAL IN THE RAT.

Ovulation in cycling rats was blocked by administration of progesterone, 10 mg daily for 7, 8 or 9 days, and the animals were autopsied on Days 1, 4 or 5 after the last injection. Regardless of treatment length, the majority of animals had not ovulated by Day 4, but had ovulated by the morning of Day 5 after withdrawal of progesterone. Observation of the actual time of occurrence of ovulation in some animals and results of administration of ovulation-blocking drugs to others suggest that the facilitation for LH release responsible for the first ovulation following progesterone withdrawal in the rat begins about 2 PM but lasts somewhat longer than in the 4-day proestrous cyclic animal. Pituitary LH content on Day 1 after cessation of progesterone treatment was higher than maximal cyclic proestrous values, but dropped to normal low estrous levels once ovulation had occurred. Ovarian and uterine weights, which were decreased following treatment, rose to normal values by the time of the first ovulation. (Endo.
A randomized trial comparing the ovulation induction efficacy of clomiphene citrate and letrozole

Background: Letrazole is an aromatase inhibitor, which is useful in ovulation induction. However, evidence on its efficacy over clomiphene citrate, which is the first of drug used for therapy of anovulation, is insufficient in Indian patients. Aims: To compare the efficacy of letrozole and clomiphene citrate in attaining optimal follicular growth. Materials and Methods: The study was conducted in the infertility clinic of Mahatma Gandhi Medical College and Research Institute, Pondicherry, India from June 2008 to December 2009. Fifty women with ovulatory dysfunction as a cause of infertility were enrolled and randomized into two groups of 25 each. Group 1 received clomiphene citrate in incremental dose from 50 mg up to150 mg and Group 2 patient received letrozole in incremental dose from 2.5 mg to 7.5 mg, depending upon the ovulation response. In both the groups, number of follicles, diameter of large follicle, endometrial thickness, and serum estradiol and pregnancy rate were compared. The data from both groups are represented as mean and standard deviation and statistically compared using Student's t test. Results: The number of follicles (1.89 ± 0.9 vs 1.18 ± 0.393) and serum estradiol levels (437.5 ± 293.7 pg/mL vs 291.82 ± 59.86 pg/mL) were higher in Group 1, while follicular diameter (20.67 ± 0.970 mm vs. 20.76 ± 0.903 mm) and endometrial thickness (8.5 mm vs.7.4 mm) were similar in both the Groups. Conclusions: Although letrozole is used for ovulation induction in anovulatory infertility, no significant beneficial effects of letrozole compared to use of clomiphene citratewere observedin ourstudy. Hence, we concur with the use of clomiphene citrate as the first line of drug for ovulation induction in Indian population and warrant larger size studiesto further validate our results.
A Profile of the Low-Wage Immigrant Workforce

Immigrants make up one in nine U.S. residents, one in seven U.S. workers, and one in five low-wage workers. Immigrants are overrepresented among both low-wage and less educated U.S. workers. Since so many immigrants work and so many hold low-wage jobs, they could potentially benefit from post- as well as pre-employment services. Unfortunately, most publicly funded training programs assume that participants have 9th grade levels of literacy, numeracy, and basic English skills. This brief recommends revamping the Workforce Investment Act and tailoring job-training programs to serve limited English proficient populations, build language assessment capacity, and combine job training with English language, basic education, and literacy instruction.
Exploring older adolescents' and young adults' attitudes regarding male hormonal contraception: applications for clinical practice.

BACKGROUND Male hormonal contraceptive methods (HCM) are in Phase I clinical trials in the USA. International studies report that adults have positive attitudes regarding male HCM, but little is known about US minority young peoples' attitudes--a population that experiences high unintended pregnancy rates. METHODS Thirty urban African American young persons [50% males; mean age = 18.8 (SD = 2.5)] participated in semi-structured interviews to explore attitudes regarding male HCM. Data were independently analysed by two researchers according to qualitative research methodology, including transcript coding for content, categorization of codes, performance of content analysis for theme development, and corroboration of findings by a third researcher. RESULTS The data revealed five major themes that can facilitate and/or hinder male HCM adoption: (1) impact of reversing roles in HCM use; (2) men's lack of involvement in health care; (3) men's reliability to use HCM effectively; (4) perceived responsibility of men who use HCM; and (5) men's apprehension to use new medicines. Overall, participants had positive impressions about male HCM (67% male; 67% female) and female partner trust of males' use was high (85%), as were males' intentions (60%). CONCLUSIONS Findings provide a foundation for clinical interventions including: (1) increasing males' involvement in reproductive health; (2) helping males to overcome apprehensions about male HCM safety; and (3) standardizing male HCM education in the clinical setting. Future research efforts should examine whether study findings hold for other populations.
Neurobehavioral comorbidities of epilepsy: Role of inflammation

Epilepsy is associated with a high incidence of comorbid neurologic and psychiatric disorders. This review focuses on the association of epilepsy with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and depression. There is high concordance of these behavioral pathologies with epilepsy. We review data that unambiguously reveal that epilepsy, ASD, and depression are associated with elevated brain inflammatory markers and that these may interact with serotoninergic pathways. Interference with inflammatory pathways or actions can reduce the severity of seizures, depression, and ASD‐like behavior. Inflammation in the brain can be induced by seizure activity as well as by behavioral, environmental, and physiologic stressors. Furthermore, induction of inflammation at an early time point during gestation and in early neonatal life can precipitate both an ASD‐like phenotype as well as a more excitable brain. It appears likely that priming of the brain due to early inflammation could provide a means by which subsequent inflammatory processes associated with epilepsy, ASD, and depression may lead to comorbidity.
An in-depth analysis of the interaction transitions in a collaborative Augmented Reality-based mathematic game

ABSTRACT Collaborative learning has long been proved to be a crucial agent for enhancing students’ social skills, problem-solving abilities and individual learning performance. Understanding how students move from one phase to another in their collaboration process can inform educators of how best to facilitate such learning. However, this is still an area needing more vigorous research. This study explores the process of students’ co-construction of knowledge in a digital game-based learning environment using a sequential analysis approach, with the aim to identify the significant features of students’ interactional transitions that would potentially lead to better learning. To achieve this aim, we designed a collaborative learning environment in which 24 sixth graders worked in 6 groups to compete in an Augmented Reality-based mathematic game that we designed. The results from the analysis of their interaction show that phases of interaction in a digital game-based learning environment transited differently in many ways from those in online text-based forums, and that task types, modalities, participant characteristics and learning goals all played a crucial role in determining how learners co-constructed knowledge.
The Tromsø Heart Study: Responders and Non-responders to a Health Questionnaire, Do They Differ?

In 1979–80, 21329 subjects, 20–54 years old, were invited to a screening for coronary heart disease risk factors in Tromsø. 16621 (77%) attended the screening, the response rate was higher in women than in men, lower in single than married and lowest in young (20–29 years) men. At the screening, the men and women were given a second questionnaire which they were asked to fill in and return by mail. 14667 (88.2%) of the subjects did so. Based on information obtained at the screening, the differences between these 14667 subjects and the 1954 men and women who failed to return the questionnaire are presented. 10.9% of the women did not return the questionnaire, the corresponding figure for men was 12.6%. The differences in age, body mass index (kg/m2), blood lipids and blood pressure were minor or non-existent. The subjects who returned the questionnaire tended to be married, non-smokers and report respiratory symptoms less often than non-responders.
Job stressors and long-term sick leave due to depressive disorders among Japanese male employees: findings from the Japan Work Stress and Health Cohort study

Background Research on the association between job strain or other job stressors and depressive disorders is still limited. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the prospective association of job strain, role stressors and job insecurity with long-term sick leave due to depressive disorders. Methods A prospective study was conducted of a total of 15 256 men aged 18–67 years with no previous history of mental disorders employed in six manufacturing factories located in several regions of Japan. At baseline, they were surveyed using a self-administered questionnaire, including self-reported measures of job strain, as well as its components (job overload and job control), role stressors (role ambiguity and role conflict), social support at work, job insecurity and other demographic and psychological covariates. During the follow-up, a long-term sick leave of 30 days or more due to depressive disorders was recorded. Results During 5.14 years of follow-up on average, 47 incident cases of sick leave of 30 days or more due to depressive disorders were observed. High job control at baseline was associated with a lower risk of long-term sick leave due to depressive disorders, after adjusting for demographic variables, depressive symptoms and neuroticism at baseline (hazard ratio 0.28, 95% CI 0.11 to 0.71); high role ambiguity was associated with the higher risk (hazard ratio 3.49, 95% CI 1.43 to 8.49). Conclusion Job control and role ambiguity may be important predictors of long-term sick leave due to depressive disorders among male employees, independent of depressive symptoms and neuroticism.
Car detection from high-resolution aerial imagery using multiple features

Detecting cars in high-resolution aerial images has attracted particular attention in recent years. However, scene complexity, large illumination change and occlusions make the task very challenging. In this paper, we propose a robust and effective framework for car detection from high-resolution aerial imagery. More specifically, we first incorporate multiple diverse and complementary image descriptors, Histogram of Oriented Gradients (HOG), Local Binary Pattern (LBP) and Opponent Histogram. Subsequently taking computational efficiency and runtime complexity into account, we adopt an interactive bootstrapping approach to collect hard negatives for training an intersection kernel support vector machine (IKSVM). After training, detection is performed by exhaustive search. Finally for post-processing, we employ a greedy procedure for eliminating repetitive detections via non-maximum suppression. Furthermore, contextual information is utilized to refine the detections. Experimental results on Vaihingen dataset have demonstrated that the proposed method can achieve state-of-the-art performance in various real scenes.
Central Corneal Thickness and Intraocular Pressure in Type II Diabetes

Background: Diabetes is a rapidly-growing global health problem with a significant impact on morbidity and mortality due to diabetes-related complications. Objective: The purpose of this study was to assess the impact of type II diabetes on the central corneal thickness (CCT) and intraocular pressure (IOP). Patients and Methods: This prospective case-control study was performed at the ophthalmic department of Al-Zahraa University Hospital. It was conducted on 30 participants with type II diabetes and 10 healthy control (both eyes were included). Diabetics were categorized into 3 groups, diabetics without retinopathy, with non-proliferative diabetic retinopathy (NPDR) and with proliferative diabetic retinopathy (PDR). Each group contained 10 participants. Complete ophthalmic examination was done for all participants including, visual acuity, slitlamp, fundus examination, measurement of IOP and CCT. Fundus photography and measurement of glycosylated hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) were done for diabetics. Results: Diabetics with PDR exhibited significantly higher IOP and CCT values compared to other groups. The IOP was significantly correlated with CCT and with the duration of diabetes. Conclusion: Diabetics with PDR had a significantly elevated IOP and thicker corneas than normal subjects. These data emphasize the importance of considering CCT measurements in diabetics for proper interpretation of IOP.
The asymmetric wealth effects of housing market and stock market on consumption in China

We analyze consumption movements as a function of income and wealth (stocks and housing) with data from China from 1999 to 2010 using a panel vector autoregression model. We find that housing wealth has a negative impact on consumption, but the link is minor, so fluctuation in the housing market should not create sharp movements in consumption. House price control policies implemented in China may encourage limited spending on other goods. Moreover, we find an asymmetric response of consumption to stock market changes. There is a positive response to upward stock wealth change, but no response to downward stock wealth change. Because the results indicate that stock wealth, housing wealth, and consumption Granger cause one another, the Chinese government could influence the stock market and consumption through control of housing prices; the government could also foster the development of the stock market so as to attract investment out of housing, which would help control housing prices. Our results using two different measures of housing wealth and two measures of consumption suggest caution is necessary to avoid inflated wealth effect estimations if inappropriate variables are selected.
Numerical skills and aphasia

The aim of this study was to investigate numerical difficulties in 50 patients with left hemispheric lesions. Aphasic patients were grouped according to their type of aphasia diagnosed by the Aachener Aphasia Test. The overall error rate in various transcoding and calculation tasks was clearly correlated with the severity of the language deficit, global aphasics being the most impaired patients. Broca's and Wernicke's aphasics scored similarly at the quantitative level, and amnesic aphasics were less impaired. Interestingly, qualitative analysis of the errors indicated that each group presented with specific difficulties, partially reflecting the nature of the language problems. In simple calculation, multiplication was found to be the most impaired operation, in particular in Broca's aphasics. This result supports the hypothesis that the retrieval of multiplication facts is preferentially mediated by verbal processing. Calculation procedures were mainly impaired in Wernicke's and global aphasics. (JINS, 1999, 5, 213–221.)
Earning Management and Cost stickiness

This study investigates the effects of incentives for earnings management on the stickiness of selling, general, and administrative expenses. It first shows that cost behaviors are different for earnings management suspect firms and non-suspect ones. Specifically earnings management suspect firms mitigate cost stickiness, when faced with declining sales. This result is probably due to managers aggressively cutting costs for earnings management or preparing for bad times when faced with declining sales.
Growth indices in breastfed infants pre and postnatally exposed to tenofovir compared with tenofovir-unexposed infants

We evaluated growth indices in two cohorts of Malawian infants exposed to tenofovir, lamivudine and efavirenz in utero and during 12 months of breastfeeding, and to stavudine/zidovudine, lamivudine and nevirapine in utero and during 6 months of breastfeeding. Growth indices were similar in the two cohorts at one and 6 months but were significantly better in the first group at 12 months, suggesting no negative effect of tenofovir and a significant benefit of extended breastfeeding.
Cash Flow from Operations, Accruals and Earnings Persistency

Persistency of earnings is an important measure of earnings quality. It is generally accepted that the more the persistency is, the higher the quality of earnings is. We analyze the characteristic factors influencing earnings persistency, use data of A-share listed companies during 1998-2004, and find that earnings persistency is significantly related to the nature of earnings, the cash content of earnings and the quality of accruals.
Predictors of bacteremia and gram-negative bacteremia in patients with sepsis. The Veterans Affairs Systemic Sepsis Cooperative Study Group.

BACKGROUND We analyzed data from the Department of Veterans Affairs trial of steroid therapy for systemic sepsis to identify predictors of bacteremia and gram-negative bacteremia. METHODS Of the 2568 patients screened for entry in the trial, 465 met the following criteria: presence of four of seven clinical signs of sepsis; blood cultures at the time of screening; and complete data on nine clinical parameters. The multivariate logistic regression model was used to identify predictors of bacteremia and gram-negative bacteremia. Predicted probabilities of having these types of infections were calculated using the identified predictors. Patients were then classified into groups with and without bacteremia (and gram-negative bacteremia) based on the predicted probability. Misclassification error rates were calculated for each method of categorization by comparing the true with the predicted grouping of patients. RESULTS Three factors were independently predictive of bacteremia and gram-negative bacteremia: elevated temperature, low systolic blood pressure, and low platelet count. Using these three factors, classification methods were identified that predicted blood infection better than chance, but misclassification was also high. For predicting bacteremia, the maximum predicted positive rate was 83%, with a specificity of nearly 100% and a sensitivity of only 5%. For predicting gram-negative bacteremia, the maximum predicted positive accuracy was 100%, with a specificity also of 100% and a sensitivity of almost 0%. CONCLUSIONS Using simple clinical parameters, we could not predict either bacteremia or gram-negative bacteremia with sufficient accuracy to be clinically meaningful; however, our approach represents a step in the direction of forecasting the bacterial organism responsible for sepsis in advance of culture results.
The Effect of Different Diagnostic Criteria on the Prevalence and Incidence of Post-Stroke Dementia

There is little agreement about the prevalence and incidence of vascular dementia (VaD) mainly because investigators have used different diagnostic criteria. The aim of this study was to examine the influence of different diagnostic criteria on the prevalence and cumulative incidence of VaD in first-ever stroke patients (n = 194) clinically evaluated at 1, 6, 12, and 24 months after stroke. Post-stroke VaD was diagnosed using the DSM-III, DSM-III-R, DSM-IV, ICD-10-NA, NINDS-AIREN, and ADDTC criteria. The prevalence of dementia was highest at 1 month; ranging from 11.3% with the NINDS-AIREN to 20.1% with the ICD-10-NA. The incidence was highest at 6 months, ranging from 2.6% with the ADDTC to 5.2% with the ICD-10-NA. Agreement among diagnostic criteria was high, with the exception of the ADDTC. In conclusion, both the prevalence and incidence of dementia are highest directly after stroke, but exact rates are influenced by the diagnostic criteria used.
Essays on foreign direct investment and entry behaviour

This thesis consists of three essays that contribute to international trade and industrial organization. The first essay investigates the extent to which R & D expenditure differences are caused by different foreign expansion decisions, namely export and Direct Investment Abroad (DIA). We adopt an international oligopoly specification that takes into account the effects of competitors' foreign expansion strategy on R & D , in which the R & D decision is endogenized. Then, this paper uses a panel data set of Japanese electronics firms to study not only the effect of own DIA but also that of other firms' DIA on own R & D . We find that the endogenous R & D model is supported by the empirical evidence. Our data support the predictions of the model associated with the level of technology transfer costs, which suggest that transfer costs are high for Asian and low for North American countries. The second essay examines whether direct investment in distribution leads to manufacturing direct investment. The primary purpose of direct investment in distribution is to promote exports. However, by engaging in economic activities, multinational firms can learn about local markets. This might increase benefits from manufacturing direct investment. By using data on Japanese electronics firms, we find that there exists a learning effect of distribution direct investment in Asia. In other words, distribution direct investment increases the probability of manufacturing investment. This suggests that distribution affiliates are important in learning about local markets prior to setting up manufacturing affiliates due to the high uncertainty of Asian markets.
Measuring Productivity Change Without Neoclassical Assumptions: A Conceptual Analysis

The measurement of productivity change (or difference) is usually based on models that make use of strong assumptions such as competitive behaviour and constant returns to scale. This survey discusses the basics of productivity measurement and shows that one can dispense with most if not all of the usual, neoclassical assumptions. By virtue of its structural features, the measurement model is applicable to individual establishments and aggregates such as industries, sectors, or economies.