Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Foreign Direct Investment and Total Factor Productivity Growth: New Macro‐Evidence

Although the role of foreign direct investment (FDI) in facilitating technology transfer is well known in the literature, empirical evidence regarding the effect of FDI on growth is mixed. The contradictory results in the literature may be due to the failure to account for endogeneity and for the abortive capacity of the hosting countries. Using panel data for 49 countries over the period 1974–2008 and the existence of Investment Promotion Agencies in the receiving countries as an instrument, our results show that increased FDI stock leads to higher productivity growth. We also find a significant positive effect on the interaction between FDI stock and distance to the technological frontier, suggesting that the ability of technologically backward countries in absorbing technologies developed at the frontiers increases as more FDI stock is accumulated.
Impact of Cowpea-Based Food Containing Fish Meal Served With Vitamin C–Rich Drink on Iron Stores and Hemoglobin Concentrations in Ghanaian Schoolchildren in a Malaria Endemic Area

Background: Nutritional anemia is a public health problem among Ghanaian schoolchildren. There is need to employ dietary modification strategies to solve this problem through school and household feeding programs. Objective: To evaluate the effectiveness of cowpea-based food containing fish meal served with vitamin C–rich drink to improve iron stores and hemoglobin concentrations in Ghanaian schoolchildren. Methods: The study involved cross-sectional baseline and nutrition intervention phases. There were 150 participants of age 6 to 12 years. They were randomly assigned to 3 groups, fish meal –vitamin C (n = 50), vitamin C (n = 50), and control (n = 50), and given different cowpea-based diets for a 6-month period. Height and weight measurements were done according to the standard procedures, dietary data were obtained by 24-hour recall and food frequency questionnaire, hemoglobin concentrations were determined by Hemocue Hemoglobinometer, and serum ferritin and complement-reactive protein (CRP) were determined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Participants’ blood samples were examined for malaria parasitemia and stools for helminthes using Giemsa stain and Kato-Katz techniques, respectively. Results: Mean ferritin concentration was not significantly different among groups. End line mean or change in hemoglobin concentrations between fish meal–vitamin C group (128.4 ± 7.2/8.3 ± 10.6 g/L) and control (123.1 ± 6.6/4.2 ± 10.4 g/L) were different, P < . 05. Change in prevalence of anemia in fish meal–vitamin C group (19.5%) was different compared to those of vitamin C group (9.3%) and the control (12.2%). Levels of malaria parasitemia and high CRP among study participants at baseline and end line were 58% and 80% then 55% and 79%, respectively. Level of hookworm infestation was 13%. Conclusion: Cowpea-based food containing 3% fish meal and served with vitamin C–rich drink improved hemoglobin concentration and minimized the prevalence of anemia among the study participants.
Performance improvement of composition-graded AlGaAsSb/InP double heterojunction bipolar transistors

Compositional graded base Al<inf>x</inf>Ga<inf>1−x</inf>AsSb/InP DHBT is demonstrated to show DC current gain of ∼100 with 300Å base and base sheet resistance of 1000Ω/□. The improvement is more than 50% compared to uniform base GaAsSb/InP DHBT with the same base thickness and sheet resistance.
Strategic Voting and the Role of Polls: Evidence from an Embedded Web Survey

ABSTRACT What motivates people to vote strategically? Although a broad literature addresses this question, few studies capture the point at which individuals shift from sincere to strategic voters. Furthermore, the influence of polling information remains debated. The analysis in this article tackles strategic voting with an original embedded experiment in a web survey. Empirical analysis finds that respondents who were told of the margin of error in preelection polls were more likely to vote strategically. This analysis also suggests the limits to strategic voting even in ideal settings.
Metalloprotease Inhibitors GM6001 and TAPI-0 Inhibit the Obligate Intracellular Human Pathogen Chlamydia trachomatis by Targeting Peptide Deformylase of the Bacterium*

Chlamydia trachomatis is an obligate intracellular bacterium responsible for a number of human diseases. The mechanism underlying the intracellular parasitology of Chlamydiae remains poorly understood. In searching for host factors required for chlamydial infection, we discovered that C. trachomatis growth was effectively inhibited with GM6001 and TAPI-0, two compounds known as specific inhibitors of matrix metalloproteases. The inhibition was independent of chlamydial entry of the cell, suggesting that the loss of extracellular metalloprotease activities of the host cell is unlikely to be the mechanism for the growth suppression. Nucleotide sequences of candidate metalloprotease genes remained unchanged in a chlamydial variant designated GR10, which had been selected for resistance to the inhibitors. Nevertheless, GR10 displayed a single base mutation in the presumable promoter region of the gene for peptide deformylase (PDF), a metal-dependent enzyme that removes the N-formyl group from newly synthesized bacterial proteins. The mutation correlated with an increased PDF expression level and resistance to actinonin, a known PDF inhibitor with antibacterial activity, as compared with the parental strain. Recombinant chlamydial PDF was covalently labeled with a hydroxamate-based molecular probe designated AspR1, which was developed for the detection of metalloproteases. The AspR1 labeling of the chlamydial PDF became significantly less efficient in the presence of excessive amounts of GM6001 and TAPI-0. Finally, the PDF enzyme activity was efficiently inhibited with GM6001 and TAPI-0. Taken together, our results suggest that the metalloprotease inhibitors suppress chlamydial growth by targeting the bacterial PDF. These findings have important biochemical and medical implications.
Control of the multimillennial wildfire size in boreal North America by spring climatic conditions

Wildfire activity in North American boreal forests increased during the last decades of the 20th century, partly owing to ongoing human-caused climatic changes. How these changes affect regional fire regimes (annual area burned, seasonality, and number, size, and severity of fires) remains uncertain as data available to explore fire–climate–vegetation interactions have limited temporal depth. Here we present a Holocene reconstruction of fire regime, combining lacustrine charcoal analyses with past drought and fire-season length simulations to elucidate the mechanisms linking long-term fire regime and climatic changes. We decomposed fire regime into fire frequency (FF) and biomass burned (BB) and recombined these into a new index to assess fire size (FS) fluctuations. Results indicated that an earlier termination of the fire season, due to decreasing summer radiative insolation and increasing precipitation over the last 7.0 ky, induced a sharp decrease in FF and BB ca. 3.0 kyBP toward the present. In contrast, a progressive increase of FS was recorded, which is most likely related to a gradual increase in temperatures during the spring fire season. Continuing climatic warming could lead to a change in the fire regime toward larger spring wildfires in eastern boreal North America.
East Kalimantan: The Decline of a Commercial Aristocracy

Lindsay's brief explanation as to why there are no standard forms of the two tuning systems of the gamelan {slendro and pelog) go straight to the heart of the matter. The reasons she gives for this lack of standardization are (i) historical, for Javanese tradition ruled that the ancient, sacred gamelan sets could not be copied exactly, and (ii) aesthetic, for expert Javanese musicians desire variations of tuning between gamelan sets, knowing that certain pieces sound best when played on instruments that produce certain intervallic structures, which are determined by their tuning. This booklet is highly recommended, not only for general readers and tourists, but also for students and scholars of Indonesia. It will give its readers a listening framework within which to enjoy and make cultural sense of the gamelan music of Central Java.
Labor Demand and the Structure of Adjustment Costs

This study examines the nature of the costs that firms face in adjusting labor demand in response to shocks induced by changes in output demand and prices. Empirical work on monthly plant-level time-series data shows that adjustment proceeds in jumps. Employment is unchanged in response to small demand shocks, but moves instantaneously to a new long-run equilibrium if the shocks are large. Results in the large literature that assumes smooth adjustment are due to aggregation of this inherently nonlinear relation over subunits experiencing different shocks. The finding has implications for cyclical changes in productivity and for examining the effects of policies such as severance pay, layoff and plant-closing restrictions, and mandatory listing of job vacancies, all of which change the cost of adjusting employment.
Toward Methodological Emancipation in Applied Health Research

In this article, I trace the historical groundings of what have become methodological conventions in the use of qualitative approaches to answer questions arising from the applied health disciplines and advocate an alternative logic more strategically grounded in the epistemological orientations of the professional health disciplines. I argue for an increasing emphasis on the modification of conventional qualitative approaches to the particular knowledge demands of the applied practice domain, challenging the merits of what may have become unwarranted attachment to theorizing. Reorienting our methodological toolkits toward the questions arising within an evidence-dominated policy agenda, I encourage my applied health disciplinary colleagues to make themselves useful to that larger project by illuminating that which quantitative research renders invisible, problematizing the assumptions on which it generates conclusions, and filling in the gaps in knowledge needed to make decisions on behalf of people and populations.
The Rational Nonpurchase of Long-Term-Care Insurance

Only a tiny fraction of the nonpoor population currently purchases private insurance coverage against long-term-care (LTC) costs. Studies generally attribute the failure to purchase private coverage to "unawareness" by potential purchasers of the benefits of coverage and a misperception that Medicare currently covers long-term care. I explore alternative reasons for failure to purchase coverage by well-informed, expected utility-maximizing risk-averse individuals for whom LTC is associated with a large increase in mortality and for whom family members represent an alternative source of care. There may be no demand for LTC insurance even if it is made available at actuarially fair premiums because the main consequence of coverage is to enhance the expected value of one's estate.
Serum retinol and total carotene concentrations in obese pre-school children.

BACKGROUND Obesity among pre-school children and its repercussions on adult life are growing problems, but there has been little research focusing on its relationship with the deficiency of serum retinol and carotenoids in our region. MATERIAL/METHODS In a case-control study, a group of 46 preschool children, were matched by sex and age (23 obese and 23 non-obese subjects; average age 5.74 and 5.76 years, respectively). Serum retinol and carotenoid levels were evaluated according to Underwood and Sauberlich. Other aspects evaluated included nutritional status using the weight/height z-score (Obesity ZWH > or = 2), serum levels of triglicerides (TG), total cholesterol (TC) and the VLDL-c, HDL-c, and LDL-c fractions, classified according to Kwiterovich. RESULTS Serum retinol insufficiency was 18.2% vs. 6.7% (p=0.38) for cases and controls, respectively. Low carotenoid levels were found in the obese in relation to the non-obese (82% vs. 26,6%, p=0,0054 and OR=12,4). No statistically significant difference between the case and control groups was found for TC and cholesterol fractions, TG and retinol. The findings for the tested parameters were as follows: high TC (cases 30.4%, controls 21.7%; p=0.50), LDL-c (cases and controls 34.8%; p=0.50), low HDL-c (cases 17.4%, controls 26%; p=0.47), high TG (cases 31.8%, controls 17.4%, p=0.65) and high VLDL-c (cases 21.7% and controls 8.7%; p=0.20). CONCLUSIONS The association of obesity, hyperlipidemia and low serum level of carotenoids, which are essential to antioxidant protection, may be one of many factors predisposing obese children to a high risk of atherosclerosis later in life.
Influence of co-administered danshensu on pharmacokinetic fate and tissue distribution of paeonol in rats.

Cortex Moutan (root bark of Paeonia suffruticosa Andrew) and Radix Salviae miltiorrhizae (root and rhizome of Salvia miltiorrhiza Bunge) are two herbs widely used in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) to treat cerebrovascular and cardiovascular diseases. In clinical practice, these two herbs are prescribed together. Studies on the pharmacokinetic interaction between the active constituents of these two herbs (paeonol and danshensu, respectively) can provide substantial foundation for understanding its mechanism and empirical evidence to support the clinical practice. A simple and sensitive high-performance liquid chromatographic (HPLC) method coupled with ultraviolet detector was developed for determination of paeonol in plasma and different tissues (heart, liver, spleen, lung, kidney, and brain) of male Sprague-Dawley rats. When co-administering danshensu, the peak plasma concentration of paeonol was decreased (p < 0.01), the mean residence time (MRT) was prolonged (p < 0.001), the volume of distribution (Vd/F) was increased (p < 0.001), and the concentrations of paeonol in heart, brain, and lung were dramatically increased (p < 0.01 or p < 0.001), compared with these values for rats administered paeonol alone. The results showed that the co-administration of danshensu could alter pharmacokinetic fate and tissue distribution of paeonol in rats, especially in heart and brain, providing substantial foundation for the investigation of the impact of danshensu on paeonol in clinical applications.
Dissection of the host range of the fungal plant pathogen Alternaria alternata by modification of secondary metabolism

The filamentous fungus Alternaria alternata contains seven pathogenic variants (pathotypes), which produce different host‐specific toxins and cause diseases on different plants. The strawberry pathotype produces host‐specific AF‐toxin and causes Alternaria black spot of strawberry. This pathotype is also pathogenic to Japanese pear cultivars susceptible to the Japanese pear pathotype that produces AK‐toxin. The strawberry pathotype produces two related molecular species, AF‐toxins I and II: toxin I is toxic to both strawberry and pear, and toxin II is toxic only to pear. Previously, we isolated a cosmid clone pcAFT‐1 from the strawberry pathotype that contains three genes involved in AF‐toxin biosynthesis. Here, we have identified a new gene, designated AFTS1, from pcAFT‐1. AFTS1 encodes a protein with similarity to enzymes of the aldo‐ketoreductase superfamily. Targeted mutation of AFTS1 diminished the host range of the strawberry pathotype: ΔaftS1 mutants were pathogenic to pear, but not to strawberry, as is the Japanese pear pathotype. These mutants were found to produce AF‐toxin II, but not AF‐toxin I. These data represent a novel example of how the host range of a plant pathogenic fungus can be restricted by modification of secondary metabolism.
Evaluating Implementation and Impacts of Problem Based Economics in U.S. High Schools

This paper presents a year long study involving Economics teachers in public U.S. high schools. These teachers implemented units from a Problem Based Economics curriculum after being trained and provided with detailed materials and guidelines for instruction. The study included 15 teachers, and 1162 students who provided data consisting of a) student and teacher background surveys; b) student and teacher checklists of practices used and their helpfulness; and c) pre-, post- and final (delayed post) content tests. The study relates the background characteristics of the teachers and students to learning outcomes. The students who appeared to perform less well than expected based on prior achievement were students for whom English is a second-language and students with mid-to-average prior achievement. Overall, the largest gains in learning were seen among students who reported low prior achievement, while high prior-achieving students also outperformed expectations. This suggests an overall curvilinear relationship between prior achievement and learning in problem based instruction. Specific problem based practices were associated with long-term learning gains, while other more traditional or non-problem-based practices were associated only with short-term learning. Implications for high school reform efforts and connections to observation and interview findings are discussed.
The Australian labour market in 2014: Still ill?

The Australian labour market remained in a subdued state during 2014. Participation and employment rates fell, while unemployment and underemployment rates rose. Of the limited employment growth that did occur, most was in the part-time workforce and concentrated on prime-aged and older workers. After exhibiting serious weakness in 2013, the youth labour market deteriorated further in 2014. A rise in job vacancies was a sign of possible improvement, but employers’ confidence has not yet recovered to nearly the extent necessary to end the labour market slowdown of recent years.
THE EFFECT OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AND HUMAN CAPITAL ON ECONOMIC GROWTH

In this paper we compare the impact of hardware, software, and communication equipment, widely referred to as information and communication technologies (ICT), on economic growth among the advanced industrialized countries. We use nonparametric techniques that allow us to estimate the output elasticities of ICT and human capital directly for each country and time period in our sample. Our results indicate that countries with high levels of ICT capital have high output elasticities of human capital. In addition, countries with high levels of human capital have high output elasticities of ICT, a result suggesting complementarity between the two.
Spectral Form and Duration as Cues in the Recognition of English and German Vowels

Pairs of short and long vowels, such as English / / and /3: / as in shut vs. shirt, differ from each other in both spectral form and duration. Experiments were carried out on two such pairs of English vowels and two pairs of German vowels, using synthetic speech, in order to assess the relative importance of the two cues in the discrimination of the vowels. The results confirmed the hypothesis that the importance of the duration cue is inversely proportional to the distance between the qualities of a given pair of vowels. The results showed in addition that spectral form is in general more important than duration in vowel recognition in both English and German, since it is only when two vowels are very close in quality that the duration cue is more important for their discrimination. To examine the possibility that the different linguistic background of speakers of English and German might influence the amount of attention they devote to spectral form and duration, English and German subjects were presented with a test in which they had to discriminate a pair of back, unrounded vowels, [ ] and [ :], that occur neither in English nor in German. For the English subjects the duration cue was slightly more important than the spectral form cue. The Germans, on the other hand, discriminated the vowels largely on the basis of the spectral form cue. These results are in accordance with predictions that might be made from consideration of the phonological systems of the two languages.
Friction law for water flowing in carbon nanotubes

Previous molecular dynamics (MD) studies have suggested relationships that fail to predict the measurements of water flow through membranes of carbon nanotubes (CNTs). Through MD simulations of water transport over a flow rate range much wider than ever reported (0.002–1,400m/s) and use of flexible boundary condition, we discover a universal phenomenological logarithmic relationship between the CNT-water friction stress and flow rate, which is independent on tube chiralities, size and wetting properties. This logarithmic relationship is quantitatively in good agreement with the experimental observations. It thus provides a new basis for understanding the mechanisms of liquid slip at atomically smooth surfaces.
Integrating mobile phones into teaching and learning: A case study of teacher training through professional development workshops

This paper presents the development and implementation of a professional development workshop series on integrating mobile phones into science teaching for a group of teachers in Sri Lanka. The series comprised a 3-day Planning Workshop followed by implementation of the planned lessons in real classrooms and a subsequent 1-day Reviewing Workshop. During the Planning Workshop, teachers were provided with a hands-on-session on the use of mobile phones in science teaching followed by collaborative lesson planning activities. The methodological approach taken to evaluating the initiative was qualitative, and data were collected using observations and fieldnotes. The data were analysed using thematic analysis techniques with the support of NVivo8 (QSR International Pty Ltd., Victoria, Australia) qualitative data analysis software. It was found that as professional development for teachers was provided separately as Planning and Reviewing Workshops, these workshops supported the teachers in recognising the educational potential of mobile phones, in learning how to use them in science teaching and learning, in changing their attitudes towards the use of mobile phones in teaching and in sharing knowledge and skills relating to mobile phone applications in science teaching and learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
Gambling on the market: The role of for-profit provision in early childhood education and care

Since 1997 there has been an unprecedented expansion of the childcare for-profit market in the UK. The repercussions of this for understanding of ‘quality’ and definitions of good practice for early education and care have barely been explored. But in the current economic recession the market is now beginning to shrink, and there is considerable turnover of nursery places. The built-in instability of the for-profit market serves to highlight its problematic nature and difficulties of relying on it as a vehicle for delivering government policies. This article explores the economic rationales for and the limitations of a market approach to early education and care services. It considers the direct and indirect research evidence about the functioning of such a market. It argues that any conceptualization of early childhood services in the UK now has to take account of the growth of the for-profit childcare market and the economic rationales of the marketplace.