Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
'Doi moi' and health: the effect of economic reforms on the health system in Vietnam.

The article examines changes which have taken place in the health system in Vietnam as a result of the economic reform process dating back to the late 1980s. With the liberalization of the economy have come not only growth for many, and increased choice, but also increased income and regional disparities and the problem of access to social services for those households which are less successful in the market economy. While state official policy emphasizes equity and free access to services for the poor, health costs for patients have risen substantially in the form of official and unofficial payments to staff and payments for drugs. The public sector faces an unprecedented challenge in the form of dramatic decreases in the utilization of public facilities; a shift towards self-prescription and, to a lesser extent, private practice by public employees; and, increasing reliance on foreign donors for support to preventive programmes. The article makes some recommendations on priorities for health policy in Vietnam to face these challenges.
Political Consumerism: A Substitute for or Supplement to Conventional Political Participation?

Political consumerism, i.e., the use of consumer power to influence politics, is often described as an alternative to conventional political participation. It is assumed to appeal most of all to those who are less politically active, have less trust in the representative political system or have difficulty being heard through conventional political channels. In this paper, survey data are used to analyse political consumerism as an emerging form of political participation. It is argued that political consumerism is less alternative than often portrayed. Rather than being a ‘new’ or post-conventional kind of political participation, political consumerism should be seen as an extension to the conventional, or ‘old,’ participation repertoire.
Is Technical Analysis in the Foreign Exchange Market Profitable? A Genetic Programming Approach

Abstract Using genetic programming techniques to find technical trading rules, we find strong evidence of economically significant out-of-sample excess returns to those rules for each of six exchange rates over the period 1981–1995. Further, when the dollar/Deutsche mark rules are allowed to determine trades in the other markets, there is significant improvement in performance in all cases, except for the Deutsche mark/yen. Betas calculated for the returns according to various benchmark portfolios provide no evidence that the returns to these rules are compensation for bearing systematic risk. Bootstrapping results on the dollar/Deutsche mark indicate that the trading rules detect patterns in the data that are not captured by standard statistical models.
Looking for cohesion: the role of search for meaning in the interaction between teacher and reform

Teachers’ reactions to reforms are often perceived in terms of agreement or resistance. In this article, an alternative is explored. More specifically, the interaction between teachers and reforms within the school are explored in order to gain greater insight into the manner in which teachers make sense of the reforms confronting them: How do teachers relate their own frames of reference to the perceived frames of reference of the reforms. Based upon the relevant literature, four forms of search for meaning are distinguished: assimilation, accommodation, toleration and distantiation. The reform stories of four teachers are analysed in particular to show how different forms of search for meaning are employed and the role that this can play in the implementation of the reform. The results indeed show teachers to use different forms of search for meaning to construct a workable relationship between their own frame of reference and the perceived frames of reference of the reforms. The role of such search for meaning is to maintain a balance between continuity and change in the work of the teacher and a balance between pressure to reform and professional autonomy.
Acute decrease of cardio-ankle vascular index with the administration of beraprost sodium.

AIM A novel arterial stiffness index, the cardio-ankle vascular index (CAVI), has been proposed. To clarify the properties of CAVI, the effects of beraprost sodium (BPS), a prostaglandin (PG) I2 analogue, which has a potent vasodilating effect, on CAVI were studied and comparing with brachialankle pulse wave velocity (baPWV) in healthy volunteers. METHODS Male volunteers (n=18, 46.3±4.2 yr) were enrolled in this study and administered BPS (40 µg). CAVI and baPWV were measured every hour for 4 hours. RESULTS When BPS was administered to 18 healthy volunteers, systolic blood pressure and diastolic blood pressure fluctuated slightly, but the means did not change. CAVI significantly decreased in the 1st hour from 8.3±0.34 (mean±SE) to 7.9±0.34 (p<0.05) and this decrease persisted for 3 hours, whereas baPWV did not significantly change. ΔbaPWV each time was significantly correlated with both Δsystolic blood pressure and Δdiastolic blood pressure, but ΔCAVI did not correlate with either Δsystolic blood pressure (r=-0.12, p=0.38) or Δdiastolc blood pressure (r=-0.22, p=0.10). CONCLUSIONS Beraprost sodium did not decrease blood pressure, but decreased CAVI, whereas baPWV did not change. These results indicate that CAVI partly reflected the contraction of arterial smooth muscle cells.
Discussion of “Expectations Management and Beatable Targets: How Do Analysts React to Explicit Earnings Guidance?”*

Cotter, Tuna, and Wysocki (2006) are intent on demonstrating that management uses public forecasts to guide security analysts toward beatable earnings targets. Three major questions arise. First, have the authors made a convincing case for management guidance? Second, are their hypotheses adequately formulated and tested? Third, assuming that they have made their case for management guidance, what implications if any does this have for capital-market policymakers?
Towards A Comprehensive Primary School Curriculum for Conflict Transformation and Conflict Management

The purpose of this study was aimed at analysing the current Zimbabwean primary school curriculum content and policy with a view to examine its relevance in laying a foundation for the acquisition of the requisite knowledge, skills and attitudes for conflict transformation ,conflict management and peace-building. The need for the inclusion of conflict resolution and peace education in the school curriculum has been highlighted at a number of international fora especially in Africa. The study was deliberately delimited to the primary school level on the basis that any long lasting cultural practice begins at childhood. The study carried out document analysis on nine selected primary school syllabi from Grade One up to Grade Seven level. The study also examined administration policies and documents. The study found out that most of the syllabi contained valuable aspects that could be utilised to introduce conflict transformation, conflict management and peace education. However issues such as human rights and gender education were not well articulated in the syllabi. Methodologies were found to be relevant for peace education. The study found out that assessment methods were not relevant to assess behavioural changes.
Dietary folate, B vitamins, genetic susceptibility and progression to advanced nonexudative age-related macular degeneration with geographic atrophy: a prospective cohort study.

BACKGROUND There is growing evidence of the importance of nutrition in age-related macular degeneration (AMD), but few studies have explored associations with folate and B vitamins. No effective therapeutic strategy for geographic atrophy (GA) is available, and prevention could be of great value. OBJECTIVE We investigated associations between dietary folate, B vitamins, and progression to GA and whether these associations might be modified by genetic susceptibility. DESIGN Among 2525 subjects (4663 eyes) in the Age-Related Eye Disease Study, 405 subjects (528 eyes) progressed to GA over 13 y. Folate and B vitamins were log transformed and calorie adjusted separately for men and women. Ten loci in 7 AMD genes [complement factor H, age-related maculopathy susceptibility 2/high-temperature requirement A serine peptidase 1, complement component 2, complement component 3, complement factor B, collagen type VIII α 1, and RAD51 paralog B] were examined. Survival analysis was used to assess associations between incident GA and dietary intake of folate and B vitamins. Interaction effects between these nutrients and genetic variation on AMD risk were also evaluated. Subjects with at least one eye free of advanced AMD at baseline were included in these analyses. RESULTS There was a reduced risk of progression to GA with increasing intake of thiamin, riboflavin, and folate after adjusting for age, sex, and total energy intake (P-trend = 0.01, 0.03, and 0.001, respectively). After adjustment for demographic, behavioral, ocular, and genetic covariates, trends remained statistically significant for folate (P-trend = 0.007) and were borderline for thiamin (P-trend = 0.05). Riboflavin did not retain statistical significance (P-trend = 0.20). Folate was significantly associated with lower risk of incident GA among subjects homozygous for the complement component 3 (C3) R102G rs2230199 nonrisk genotype (CC) (HR = 0.43; 95% CI: 0.27, 0.70; P = 0.0005) but not subjects carrying the risk allele (G) (P = 0.76). Neither folate nor any B vitamin was significantly associated with neovascular AMD. CONCLUSIONS High folate intake was associated with a reduced risk of progression to GA. This relation could be modified by genetic susceptibility, particularly related to the C3 genotype. This trial was registered at clinicaltrials.gov as NCT00594672.
Psychology, Consumer Sentiment and Household Expenditures: A Disaggregated Analysis

The aim of the paper is to assess the role of the Italian Consumer Sentiment Index (CSI) as an autonomous driving force of consumption decisions. We test for the presence of “rule of thumb” consumers as originally proposed by Cambell and Mankiw (1991), using sentiment measures distinguished by working condition of the household. Consumption data are disaggregated according to durability. The role of sentiment results to be stronger for service expenditures. Psychological motives of employees are found to have a particularly significant influence on consumption decisions. Moreover, CSI can not be explained by economic fundamentals alone, capturing also the effects of the political cycle and exceptional circumstances.
Cautions on the Use of Economics Experiments in Law

The recent move to import empirical results into law and policymaking have introduced challenges related to drawing proper inferences from quantitative studies. The purpose of this essay is to elaborate on three specific cautions on the use of economics experiment results. First, critiques of experiment designs based on external or ecological validity are oftenmisplaced. Second, some legal scholars have fallen into the problematic habit of applying results from experiments directly to law and policy rather than applying well-supported theories. Third, the divergent purposes behind economics studies and legal scholarship give rise, in part, to problematic cherry-picking of experimental studies by legal scholars.
Characterization of epitopes defining two major subclasses of polytropic murine leukemia viruses (MuLVs) which are differentially expressed in mice infected with different ecotropic MuLVs

Polytropic murine leukemia viruses (MuLVs) arise in mice by recombination of ecotropic MuLVs with endogenous retroviral envelope genes and have been implicated in the induction of hematopoietic proliferative diseases. Inbred mouse strains contain many endogenous sequences which are homologous to the polytropic env genes; however, the extent to which particular sequences participate in the generation of the recombinants is unknown. Previous studies have established antigenic heterogeneity among the env genes of polytropic MuLVs, which may reflect recombination with distinct endogenous genes. In the present study, we have examined many polytropic MuLVs and found that nearly all isolates fall into two mutually exclusive antigenic subclasses on the basis of the ability of their SU proteins to react with one of two monoclonal antibodies, termed Hy 7 and MAb 516. Epitope-mapping studies revealed that reactivity to the two antibodies is dependent on the identity of a single amino acid residue encoded in a variable region of the receptor-binding domain of the env gene. This indicated that the two antigenic subclasses of MuLVs arose by recombination with distinct sets of endogenous genes. Evaluation of polytropic MuLVs in mice revealed distinctly different ratios of the two subclasses after inoculation of different ecotropic MuLVs, suggesting that individual ecotropic MuLVs preferentially recombine with distinct sets of endogenous polytropic env genes.
Why Does the Law Matter? Investor Protection and its Effects on Investment, Finance, and Growth

Investor protection is associated with greater investment sensitivity to q and lower investment sensitivity to cash flow. Finance plays a role in causing these effects; in countries with strong investor protection, external finance increases more strongly with q, and declines more strongly with cash flow. We further find that q and cash flow sensitivities are associated with ex post investment efficiency; investment predicts growth and profits more strongly in countries with greater q sensitivities and lower cash flow sensitivities. The paper’s findings are broadly consistent with investor protection promoting accurate share prices, reducing financial constraints, and encouraging efficient investment. IN THIS PAPER, WE study how investor protection affects firm-level resource allocations. Our analyses center on two hypotheses. Our first hypothesis is that stock prices more strongly predict both investment and external finance in countries with stronger investor protection laws. Tobin (1969) shows in a frictionless setting that marginal q predicts real investment. In this framework high marginal q firms should, all else equal, also raise the most capital as these firms invest more. We use average q (q) as a proxy for marginal q, and test whether investment and external finance are more sensitive to q in countries with stronger investor protection laws.
Returns to Speculators and the Theory of Normal Backwardation

A nonparametric statistical procedure is employed to examine the returns to speculators in wheat, corn, and soybeans futures markets. We find that the theory of normal backwardation is supported. Moreover, the presence of the risk premiums to speculators tends to be more prominent in recent years than in earlier years. We also find that large wheat speculators as a whole possessed some superior forecasting ability. The evidence is inconsistent with the hypothesis that commodity futures prices are unbiased estimates of the corresponding future spot prices. THE CLASSIC ECONOMIC RATIONALE for futures markets is that they facilitate hedging. That is, futures markets allow those who deal in commodities to obtain contracts through which the risk of price changes can be transferred to those who are willing to assume it. A side benefit of the market is that a publicly known, uniform future value for a commodity is created. Therefore, all commodity market participants can make production, storage, and processing decisions by looking at the pattern of futures price, even if they don't take positions in the futures market. Many believe that the current price of a futures contract equals the market consensus expectation of the spot price on the delivery date. ' Keynes [10], however, in his theory of normal backwardation, suggests that it is unlikely that the above two functions can be fulfilled simultaneously. He argues that hedgers use the futures market to avoid risks, and that they pay a significant premium to speculators for this insurance. He concludes implicitly that the futures price is an unreliable estimate of the spot price prevailing on the date of expiration of the futures contract. Keynes' conclusion is based upon the argument that the long (short) speculator realizes the premium by refusing to purchase a contract from the short (long) hedger except at a price below (above) that which the futures price is expected to approach.2 Over the years, various studies have sought to confirm the existence of such a risk premium to speculators in the
Determinants of strategic planning effectiveness: extension of earlier work

Purpose – This paper aims to report the results of a study which extends the research of Elbanna by testing the relationship between strategic planning practice and participation on the one hand and the effectiveness of strategic planning on the other.Design/methodology/approach – The paper extends the work of Elbanna by conducting the study in a new setting, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) with a broader sample: private and public organizations. The study tries to control for the possible impact of the methodology on research results by adopting the same methods and measures as the initial study had adopted.Findings – The conclusions of the combined studies show that, in Arab countries, strategic planning practice enhances strategic planning effectiveness; unexpectedly, and contrary to previous research in developed economies, management participation does not contribute here to the effectiveness of strategic planning.Originality/value – Although previous research provides valuable knowledge concerning st.
Have internet message boards changed market behavior

Purpose – This study seeks to investigate the changes in stock market behavior between the pre and post internet/message board eras.Design/methodology/approach – The study examines the stock return behavior for a large subset of firms in the S&P 100 both before and after the implementation of the firms' message boards on Yahoo! Finance.Findings – The data shows a significant increase in daily trading volume after a firm's message board was established which suggests that either new investors were drawn to the market or existing investors were induced to trade more frequently. The results also show that daily returns are significantly lower in the post‐message board era and that the market may have become riskier as the variance of these daily returns is significantly higher. These results hold after controlling for market and industry wide events and they are not unique to the stock market bubble of the late 1990s or the NBER‐dated recession of 2001.Originality/value – This study builds on the work of Ast.
Strikes, Scabs, and Tread Separations: Labor Strife and the Production of Defective Bridgestone/Firestone Tires

This paper provides a case study of the effect of labor relations on product quality. We consider whether a long, contentious strike and the hiring of replacement workers at Bridgestone/Firestone’s Decatur, Illinois, plant in the mid‐1990s contributed to the production of defective tires. Using several independent data sources and looking before and after the strike and across plants, we find that labor strife at the Decatur plant closely coincided with lower product quality. Monthly data suggest that defects were particularly high around the time concessions were demanded and when large numbers of replacement workers and returning strikers worked side by side.
WHAT ARE EFFECTIVE METHODS OF TEACHING CRITICAL THINKING SKILLS TO MIDDLE SCHOOL STUDENTS

This paper examines the effectiveness of teaching methods designed to engage middle school students in critical thinking. An examination of the history of teaching critical thinking reveals that despite a rich history of thinkers and philosophers of rational and critical thought, historically schooling has not taught critical thinking but instead obedience and recitation. A critical review of the literature found mixed results within studies at times. Positive results occurred when both teaching critical thinking as its own subject as well as within contexts such as: reading and writing, discussion, group work, computers, reasoning strategies, questioning strategies, and artistic expression. The most effective and motivating methods allowed students to express their ideas and involved content relevant to students’ lives. The author provides suggestions for further research of effective and meaningful methods of teaching critical thinking skills to students.
New light on the early Islamic West African gold trade: coin moulds from Tadmekka, Mali

Tadmekka, a town at the southern edge of the Sahara desert, has produced good evidence for making gold coins in the ninth–tenth century AD, the first concrete proof of coinage in pre-colonial West Africa. These were produced by melting gold dust or nuggets in ceramic moulds, similar to those used for the first pellet-like coinage of the European Iron Age. The authors suggest these coins were not political statements, but were probably blank and intended to facilitate the busy early Islamic caravan trade to destinations north, south or east. On arrival at the Mediterranean coast, these blank pieces would have been melted down or converted into inscribed coins by the local authorities.
Capital Flows to Central and Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union

This paper studies the relationship between creditor protection and credit volatility. During the negative phase of the business cycle, credit contracts more in countries with poor creditor protection. For similar shocks to business conditions, credit is more volatile in countries where creditors are weakly protected. We test this idea using a dataset on legal determinants of finance in a panel of data of aggregate credit growth for a sample of 139 countries during the period 1990-2003. We find support for the view that better legal protections significantly reduce the impact of exogenous shocks on credit. The results are statistically and economically significant and robust to alternative measures of creditor protection, the inclusion of variables that reflect different stages of economic development and the restriction of our sample to only developing countries.
The role of electronic commerce in creating virtual tourism destination marketing organisations

Co‐operation is crucial to the successful marketing of tourism destinations, and electronic commerce offers exciting new opportunities for co‐operation among tourism suppliers. This article examines the reciprocal linking of Websites to create “virtual” tourism destination organisations, whereby consumers can access information and purchase multiple components of a holiday online. A very simple starting point in the formation of a virtual destination marketing organisation is the linking of individual suppliers’ Websites, so that a visitor arriving at one site can click through to complementary sites which contribute to the total destination offer. This paper examines the theoretical and practical benefits of virtual co‐operation and reports on a survey, which examines the extent to which electronic commerce is superseding or complementing traditional hierarchical marketing organisations. Based on a sample of tourism suppliers’ Websites in Northern Ireland, very little co‐operation was observed. The reasons for this are discussed and recommendations made for future co‐operation.