Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Castration coverage and attitudes towards a castration program in Lilongwe, Malawi

The aim of this study was to measure the castration coverage and the attitudes among people towards castration in an area in Lilongwe, the capital of Malawi, where a castration program has been running for a few years. Another aim was to review the literature to examine the link between castration coverage and rabies prevalence. Two areas (Area 25 and Area 23) in Lilongwe were studied through standardized household interviews. In Area 25, a non-governmental organization had been castrating dogs weekly to twice weekly for free for 3 years. In Area 23, no official organization had done castrations, and this area therefore acted as a control in the study. In each area, 200 households were interviewed. In both areas, the castration coverage was found to be quite low; 22% and 28% of the adult dogs included in the study was castrated in Area 25 and 23, respectively. There was no statistically significant difference in castration coverage between the areas (p = 0.44). However, attitudes towards castrations of dogs seemed to be more positive in Area 25 than in Area 23. This difference was found to be statistically significant (p=<0.01). Generally, attitudes towards castration of dogs were positive in both areas.
Creating crony capitalism: neoliberal globalization and the fueling of corruption

This article examines how neoliberal policies mandated by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) impact on corruption in developing countries. Combining domestic political analysis with world systems and dependency theories, we hypothesize that these reforms concentrate losses on influential social groups such as businesses and civil servants, who then engage in corrupt practices to maintain their privileged positions. Using an original dataset of IMF policy reforms from 1980 to 2014, we find robust empirical support for our argument. Results of regression-based analysis demonstrate an effect of IMF policy reforms that hold across multiple samples and measure of corruption: 141 countries using a corruption control measure from the International Country Risk Guide; 70 countries on the Business Environment and Enterprise Performance Survey; and 19 countries from the International Crime Victims Survey. Our findings elucidate the link between neoliberal globalization and political capitalism, while offering important policy lessons regarding the design of IMF policy reforms.
Exploring The Romanian Students' Awareness And Attitudes Towards Globalization

The study described in this paper aimed to estimate the level of awareness and the attitudes of the Romanian students towards globalization, in connection with the alarming rates of emigration among holders of tertiary education recorded in the past decade in Romania. To this purpose, we designed a 19 item questionnaire, and applied it to a sample of 159 volunteers (67 females, 92 males, aged 20-23), all students in the second and third years of the study program of the Department of Computer and Information Technology. Besides measuring the students' attitudes and their perception of the four dimensions (economic, political, ecological, and cultural) of globalization, we included several additional items intended to evaluate the awareness regarding the role of the tansnational corporations and of the ICT in globalization. The results revealed that the students have mostly positive attitudes towards globalization, but these are based on a superficial and cliché-istic understanding of the actual meaning and implications of globalization. As 42% of the respondents report that they plan to find jobs abroad after graduation, chances are that they might become innocent and vulnerable players in game controlled by unfathomable interests.
Issues and Impacts of the Apricot Value Chain on the Upland Farmers in the Himalayan Range of Pakistan

The livelihood of the people in the Himalayan range of Pakistan is largely dependent on the cultivation of fruits. Apricot and apple are the major fruits of this region, which are marketed throughout the country and also exported to other countries. Due to high perishability and the poor farm-to-market infrastructure in the region, farmers are unable to get maximum returns. This study was conducted keeping in view the importance of the region and the impacts of fruits on the livelihood of the farmhands. Cross-sectional data from 200 respondents were collected through a multistage random sampling technique. Factor analysis was employed to find out the constraint in the apricot production and propensity score matching estimates were employed to see the impact of apricot production on the farming communities in the study area. The results of the factor analysis show the most important group of constraints in the growth of the apricot industry is awareness, which is an internal factor. This is followed by production, policy, and marketing constraints. The least important is processing technology. Furthermore, the results show that apricot production has a significant positive impact on decreasing the poverty level of the household, depicting a great potential for the development of resilient livelihoods.
Mismatch Negativity as a Psychophysiological Index of Cognitive Function in Schizophrenia

It is now widely accepted that cognitive deficits, beyond other psychiatric symptoms (e.g., delusion, hallucination, emotional flattening, social withdrawal and apathy), is far most relevant to social functional outcome in schizophrenia. Accordingly, the treatment target has been shifted to the area, developing new drugs that facilitate cognitive function and building up new psychosocial rehabilitation programs that directly approach the cognitive deficits. Despite the desirability to target these deficits, no standard neuropsychological test batteries exist for assessing the level of cognitive function. Mismatch negativity (MMN), an auditory event-related potential component, is a measure of preattentive information processing and its amplitude has repeatedly been demonstrated to be reduced in schizophrenia. MMN deficits are a robust feature in chronic schizophrenia and indicate abnormalities in automatic context-dependent auditory information processing and auditory sensory memory in schizophrenia. Moreover, the deficits have been related to poor social functioning level and social skills acquisition, hypofunction of NMDA system, and illness duration, which indicate the validity of accepting MMN as a biomarker of the disease. In this article, we present a summary of the discussions about the plausibility of MMN to be used as a neurobiological index for assessing the cognitive function and also its predictability of social functional outcome in schizophrenia.
How do loss aversion and technology acceptance affect life insurance demand?

ABSTRACT The present questionnaire-based study combines and expands technology acceptance and behavioural (risk and loss aversion) variables in explaining the demand for life insurance products. Loss aversion is inversely related to the proxy for life insurance demand and two technology acceptance related factors (usefulness of online technology and acceptance of smart devices) have a significant positive influence.
An evaluation on the outcomes of the Sekolah Rakan Alam Sekitar(SERASI) programme in Sabah, Malaysia

This study evaluated the implementation of SERASI Programme in Sabah in terms of attitude change and outcomes. Evaluation of attitude change focused on three attitude components namely cognitive, affective and behavioural. Intended and unintended outcomes of the programme were also evaluated. The evaluation showed that the implementation of SERASI in the 39 schools had enhanced and improved environmental attitude amongst teachers and students. Collective change of attitude among the teachers and students may have resulted in behaviors that in turn produced positive environmental outcomes. Based on the teachers' years of service, it was found that there was a significant difference in environmental attitude after SERASI implementation. It was also found that there was no significant difference in environmental attitude between teachers who attended environmental education courses and those who did not. The results showed there was no Significant difference in environmental attitude between teachers who teach environment related subjects and non-environment related subjects, between graduate and non-graduate teachers, and between primary and secondary school teachers. For students, it was found that there was a significant difference in environmental attitude between leaders and non-leaders, and between primary and secondary school students. The results showed that there was a positive correlation between teachers' understanding on SERASI and their environmental attitude. Positive correlations were found among the cognitive, affective and behavioral components of teachers' and students' environmental attitudes. Based on the results, 88.5% of teachers and 90.3% of students responded that their schools' surroundings were more pleasant and cleaner after SERASI was implemented. Therefore, this particular outcome was the most obvious outcome of SERASI in the 39 schools. These findings were concluded by both qualitative and quantitative data analyses. There were other intended and unintended outcomes found in the research. For future research pertaining to the evaluation of SERASI Programme, studies should include more districts and schools, and other aspects of SERASI. The research findings are important to the organisers of SERASI Programme and to other relevant organisations working closely in the field of environmental education in Sabah.
The EXPERF Scale: A Cross-National Generalized Export Performance Measure

A large number of studies have attempted to identify factors that are correlated with exporting success. However, much controversy exists about the key determinants of export performance and their relative importance. A major reason for this lack of consensus is the absence of a unified measure for capturing export performance. In this study, an attempt is made to develop a generalized export performance measure, the EXPERF scale, that can be applied to multiple countries. Results from a survey of top executives of U.S. and Japanese exporters support a three-dimensional scale for measuring export performance. The three dimensions of the export performance (EXPERF) scale are financial export performance, strategic export performance, and satisfaction with export venture. Implications of the study for further research and managerial practice are also discussed.
ANALISIS DESKRIPSI PENGARUH WORK ENGAGEMENT TERHADAP KINERJA KARYAWAN: ABILITY (A), EFFORT (E), SUPPORT (S) PT SURVEYOR INDONESIA

Abstrak Work engagement adalah seperangkat sikap kerja yang membawa karyawan untuk merasakan emosi positif terhadap pekerjaan mereka untuk menjadi pribadi yang bermakna,mempertimbangkan beban kerja mereka untuk dikelola, dan memiliki harapan tentang masa depan pekerjaan mereka. Metodologi penelitian ini menggunakan pendekatan kuantatif dengan populasi target dalam studi ini adalah karyawan PT Surveyor Indonesia yang menjabat sebagai kepala bagian (kabag) sebanyak 120 orang. Teknik pengumpulan data menggunakan kuesioner skala likert. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa workengagement mempunyai rentang skor teoretik antara 30 sampai 150, dan rentang skor empiris antara 113 sampai dengan 145. Hasil perhitungan data diperoleh rata-rata sebesar 130,63; simpangan baku sebesar 7,04; varians sebesar 49,5542; median sebesar 130,0; dan modus sebesar 131.Nilai koefisien jalur work engagement terhadap kinerja karyawan sebesar 0,363 dengan nilai thitung sebesar 5,24. Oleh karena nilai thitung lebih besar dari nilai ttabel pada dk = 88 untuk α = 0,05 sebesar 1,99 maka H0 ditolak dan H1 diterima, yang berarti terdapat pengaruh langsung positif variabel work engagement terhadap variabel kinerja karyawan. Implikasinya penelitian ini adalah bahwa Work engagement berpengaruh langsung positif terhadap kinerja karyawan. Berarti bahwa kinerja karyawan PT. Surveyor Indonesia dapat ditingkatkan dengan memperbaiki work engagement. Abstract The problem of this research is how does the de Work engagement is a set of work attitudes that bring employees to feel positive emotions towards their work to be meaningful personal, consider their workload to be managed, and have hope about the future of their work. The methodology of this study uses a quantative approach with the target population in this study are employees of PT Surveyor Indonesia who served as head of the section (kabag) as many as 120 people. The technique of collecting data using the Likert scale questionnaire. The results showed that workengagement had a theoretical score range between 30 to 150, and a range of empirical scores between 113 and 145. The results of the calculation of data obtained an average of 130.63; standard deviation of 7.04; variance of 49.5542; median of 130.0; and mode equal to 131. The value of work engagement path coefficient on employee performance is 0.363 with a tcount of 5.24. Because the value of tcount is greater than the value of t table at dk = 88 for α = 0.05 at 1.99, H0 is rejected and H1 is accepted, which means that there is a positive direct effect of work engagement variable on employee performance variables. The implication of this study is that Work engagement has a positive direct effect on employee performance. Means that the performance of employees of PT. Surveyor Indonesia can be improved by improving work engagement.Keywords: Work engagement, employee performance
A Review on Breast Cancer Biomarkers BRCA1 and BRCA2

About 5-10% of breast carcinomas are hereditary and BRCA1 and BRCA2 play a major role in the hereditary susceptibility for this disease. Germline mutations in the BRCA2 cancer susceptibility gene are associated with an increased risk of pancreatic cancer. The likelihood of harboring a BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutation is dependent on one's personal and/or family history of cancer and can be estimated using various mutation probability models.
The last half-century : societal change and politics in America

"The Last Half-Century" represents the culmination of a lifetime of scholarship by Morris Janowitz. In this comprehensive and systematic analysis of the major trends in American society during the past fifty years, he probes the weakening of popular party affiliations and the increased inability of elected representatives to rule. Centering his work on the crucial concept of social control, Janowitz orders and assesses a vast amount of empirical research to clarify the failure of basic social institutions to resolve our chronic conflicts. For Janowitz, social control denotes a society's capacity to regulate itself within a moral framework that transcends simple self-interest. He poses urgent questions: Why has social control been so drastically weakened in our advanced industrial society? And what strategies can we use to strengthen it again? The expanation rests in part on the changes in social structure which make it more and more complicated for citizens to calculate their political self-interest. At the same time, complex economic and defense problems also strain an already overburdened legislative system, making effective, responsive political rule increasingly difficult. Janowitz concludes by assessing the response of the social sciences to the pressing problem of social control and asserts that new forms of citizen participation in the government must be found.
Various financial regulation effects on the lending market: evidence from Korea

Abstract This study examined whether changes in loan portfolio composition exist and how such portfolios are constructed when newly introduced macro-prudential instruments, namely risk-weight adjustments and countercyclical capital buffers (CCBs), are incorporated into South Korean housing loans. Burdened by fast-growing household debts, the South Korean Financial Authority (SKFA) implemented a macro-prudential policy. The findings are as follows: First, raising the risk weight for housing loans via the SKFA's policy does not show the evidence that banks make small and medium enterprise (SME) loans increase by cutting their housing loan. Second, incorporating CCBs into housing loans is effective to a limited extent. Third, CCB incorporation is considerably more effective under strong inflationary pressure than it is otherwise. Finally, the policy effects of the new macro-prudential instruments, particularly increasing the risk weight for housing loans, are limited in South Korea.
Monetary Policy and Financial Inclusion in Sub-Sahara Africa: A Panel VAR Approach

ABSTRACT This article investigates the dynamic and bi-causal link between monetary policy and financial inclusion in sub-Saharan Africa using a panel VAR framework. The researcher obtained data from World Development Indicators (WDI) spanning from 1990 to 2014 for 48 sub-Saharan African economies. The findings suggest that a bi-causal relationship exists between monetary policy and financial inclusion. Specifically, it is evident that monetary policy affects financial inclusion, and financial inclusion is also influenced by monetary policy. The policy implication of this study is that the effectiveness of monetary policy depends on financial inclusion. Hence, the efforts of governments in sub-Saharan African countries should aim at policies that enhance financial inclusion for effective implementation of monetary policy. Also, promoting financial inclusion will require governments in sub-Saharan Africa to reduce their monetary policy rates.
Perceptions held by masters students of the NOMA Track Module on ‘Nutrition, Human Rights and Governance’

Background A NOMA Track module on ‘Nutrition, Human Rights and Governance’ was developed jointly by four academic institutions in Norway, South Africa and Uganda, and incorporated into their respective Masters programmes in nutrition. The module consisted of three study units each of six weeks’ duration (totalling 18 weeks), presented consecutively in the three countries, built on one another. Objectives The perceptions of participating students about various aspects of the module were documented to inform future curriculum endeavours. Methods A mixed methods approach was followed. A module evaluation form completed by students for each study unit was analysed. In-depth telephonic interviews were voice recorded and transcribed. Through an inductive process, emerging themes were used to compile a code list and content analysis of the unstructured data. Results The overall positive module evaluation by 20 participants (90,9% response rate) can be ascribed to the planning and content of the module, enlightening study visits, the expertise of lecturers and an interactive approach which enhanced student learning. Logistical issues regarding timemanagement and administrative differences among the academic institutions caused some concerns. Students experienced some resistance against qualitative research in natural science faculties. Students benefitted from being exposed to different teaching styles and education systems at universities in different countries. Constructive alignment of teaching and learning activities could be optimised through involvement and empowerment of all relevant lecturers. Conclusion The successful implementation of the module not only provides nutrition Masters students with knowledge to operationalise a human rights-based approach during future interactions in their professional practice, but also serves as an example of the benefits and challenges of interdisciplinary and transnational collaboration in module development. ______________________________ a NOMA: NO=Norway, MA= Master; NOMA signifies Norway’s current approach to strengthen higher education institutions in collaborative countries in the South Stellenbosch University http://scholar.sun.ac.za
Sexual economic theory & the human mating market

ABSTRACT In this study, we apply economic principles to the heterosexual human mating market using data on the socio-demographics, biology, attractiveness, sexual behaviour, and reproductive history of 3,261 Australian online dating participants. More specifically, by using survey participants attractiveness ratings as a proxy for market value, we are able to quantitatively explore theories of sexual economics (SET), which conceptualizes sexual access as an economic resource supplied by women in the human mating market. Our study tests this theory further by incorporating heterosexual market substitutes (namely, 953 bisexual and pansexual individuals) to more accurately integrate the relevant supply and demand forces impacting market value and the commodity of sexual access. We find not only that bisexual and pansexual women (but not men) enjoy a market premium (7.3% higher; p < 0.001) relative to their heterosexual counterparts, but that, contrary to SET, women’s market value in our sample does not diminish with age. We further find that in line with theory and evidence from evolutionary studies, men with (proxied) resources realize a higher market value (6.1% higher for every increased level of educational attainment; p < 0.001) than those without. In conclusion, SET is just one possible model that seeks to understand the complex multi-dimensionality of modern human sexuality and reproduction through an economics lens. As the internet and online dating now provide a low-cost conduit for human mating market participants, so to can it facilitate further large sample scientific studies of mating market dynamics such as this.
Soft Power and Exports

This paper seeks to help establish a stylized fact: a country&#8217;s exports rise when its leadership is approved by other countries. I show this using a standard gravity model of bilateral exports, a panel of data from 2006 through 2017, and an annual Gallup survey that asks people in up to 157 countries whether they approve of the job performance of the leadership of China, Germany, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States. Holding other things constant, a country&#8217;s exports are higher if its leadership is approved by the importer&#8212;&#8220;soft power&#8221; promotes exports. The soft power effect is statistically and economically significant; a 1% increase in leadership approval raises exports by around two&#8208;thirds of a percent. This effect is reasonably robust, and different measures of soft power deliver similar results. I conservatively estimate that the &gt;20 percentage point decline in foreign approval of American leadership between 2016 (the final year of Obama&#8217;s presidency) and 2017 (Trump&#8217;s first year) lowered American exports by at least U.S.$3 billion.
Looking Back At The Controversy: Unexpected Wealth Effects Of A Transitory Clause

This paper analyzes the effect of adopting an optional provision contained in a broader regulatory change in Chile (tender offer law or Ley de OPAs). Although the motivation for the Ley de OPAs was to strengthen corporate governance mechanisms in Chile, the availability of this optional provision (transitory article ten) for the controlling shareholders was believed to work the opposite way. In this paper we find no evidence indicating that the decision to adopt this transitory article significantly harmed minority shareholders. Several robustness checks confirm this. However, the evidence indicates that these firms realized on average significantly positive abnormal returns in the weeks that followed the decision. This abnormal return is significant only for firms with less concentrated ownership. We conjecture that this positive reaction is related to the decision to adopt the transitory article.