Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Absorption of nutrients in patients with pulmonary tuberculosis

The findings of radionuclide investigation of enteric absorption in 222 newly-discovered patients with pulmonary tuberculosis, including 62 with concurrent diseases of the gastroenteric tract and hepatobiliary system, are presented. Pulmonary tuberculosis is accompanied by disturbances in the enteric absorption of fat and protein. In the absence of concurrent diseases of the gastroenteric tract and hepatobiliary system, these disturbances commonly appear to be moderate, but with concurrent diseases they can be significant or acute. As compared with the patients whose absorption is not disturbed or moderately changed, the rate of side effects caused by antituberculous drugs is higher in the patients with significantly or seriously disturbed enteric absorption. Treatment of the disturbed enteric absorption with consideration for its multifactorial causality in tuberculosis patients can contribute to a lower rate of side effects caused by antituberculous drugs and to a higher efficacy of management of such patients.
Comparison of Clinical and Biochemical Parameters in Adolescent Girls with Polycystic Ovary Syndrome in Different Clinical Settings

Objective: The aim of this study is to identify different polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) phenotypes in adolescent girls presenting to different clinical subspecialties and assess the metabolic syndrome (MS) among these phenotypes. Design: Retrospective chart review of Adolescent girls with PCOS seen in Pediatric Endocrine (PEndo), Pediatric Adolescent Medicine (PAMed) clinics. Main outcome measure: Compare the clinical and laboratory hallmarks for PCOS and evaluate for MS among adolescent populations presenting in sub-specialty clinics. Results: One hundred and sixty two charts from PEndo, PAMed clinics on post-menarchal girls with PCOS diagnosis were reviewed. Adolescent girls presented in PEndo clinic have distinct PCOS phenotype that showed statistically significant free testosterone (FT) (p=0.0257) with possibly more hirsutism. In addition 17 hydroxyprogesterone (17 OHP) levels were higher (p=0.0257) in patients from PEndo clinic as compared to other clinic. To quantify the risk of MS, we regrouped patients having body mass index (BMI)>90 percentile from both the clinics and divided them in hyper-androgenemia (HA) if FT ≥ 4.0 pg/mL and non-HA phenotype. 35.9% (28/78) met the criteria for MS in HA phenotype. When compared, HA phenotype had higher rate of MS as compared to non- HA (35.9% Vs 0.1%). Conclusion: Adolescent girls with PCOS presenting in the sub-specialty clinics are likely to have different phenotypes. HA phenotype had increased rate of MS syndrome. Understanding the heterogeneous nature of this disorder will address specific health needs of an individual patient and help us tailor appropriate medical therapy.
Delimiting cross-border areas for policy implementation: a multi-factor proposal

ABSTRACT This article debates the concept of border area and identifies a number of factors which should be considered when delimiting cross-border areas for policy implementation (CBAPI). These include historical, spatial, demographic, cultural, data, institutional, economic, infrastructural and environmental factors. The relevance of this debate for the border studies is twofold. Firstly, it covers a void in existing literatures, thus adding a valuable conceptual contribution to the delimitation of cross-border areas. Secondly, it provides a concrete theoretical platform for interested entities such as the European Commission to appropriately delimit CBAPI, for programmes like the INTERREG-A.
Economic Uncertainty and Bank Risk: Evidence from Emerging Economies

This paper examines the impact of economic uncertainty on the risk of banks in emerging markets. Using the data of approximately 1500 banks in 34 emerging economies during the period of 2000-2016, we find consistent evidence that bank risk increases with the level of uncertainty. Economic uncertainty mainly exerts its impact by affecting banks’ return and its volatility, and the effect of nominal uncertainty is seemingly more conspicuous relative to that of real uncertainty. We also find that the effect of uncertainty on bank risk is conditional on banks’ characteristics such as size and efficiency. Moreover, macroprudential policies can play a stabilizing force by mitigating bank risk as economic uncertainty surges.
Are Latin American Performance Audits Leading to Changes?

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the perceptions of the public entities audited in Latin America (the auditees) about the effectiveness of the performance audits carried out on their institutions by their supreme audit institutions (SAIs; the auditors) to determine to what extent these audits are promoting changes in these public entities. After revising the webs of the SAIs of all Latin American countries, a sample of the entities evaluated with performance audits was selected and a questionnaire (focused on the audit process, the actions taken afterwards, and the follow&#8208;up processes) was sent to them. The results show, as in other Organisation for Economic Co&#8208;operation and Development settings, different degrees of real implementation of performance audits in this geographical area. The audited entities that perceive performance audits useful and trust in the SAIs' activities are also those that implement more recommendations and sooner.
The Transnational Political Involvement of Nigerian Immigrants in New York City: Motivations, Means and Constraints

Africans represent a small but rapidly growing immigrant population in the United States. Nigerians, who constitute the largest group, form a well-organized community with numerous ethnic, hometown and social associations. Through some of these organizations, many Nigerians have successfully intervened in the economic and social development and the political processes of their hometowns. Their political involvement in the U.S. is less. In this article I use quantitative and qualitative data to analyze the motivations that Nigerian immigrants have for political involvement in Nigeria or the U.S., the means that enable this participation, and the constraints to participating. Findings suggest the importance of gender, class and acculturation for shaping political participation. The Transnational Political Involvement of Nigerian Immigrants in New York City 51
Leveraging support for conservation from ecotourists: can relational values play a role?

Abstract Costa Rica is a global ecotourism destination, yet tourism growth has contributed to conflicts over water use. Given the potential for tourism revenue to address important environmental challenges, this study examined factors that influence financial support for conservation, evaluating the role of relational values both as an independent measure and comparing how tourists respond to “relational” program design features (where a personal connection is emphasized) to those without. A survey (n = 263) with a choice experiment revealed that tourists were willing to contribute US$18–52 to conservation depending on who administers the program, what it supported (water-related programs or biodiversity conservation), and where funds were allocated. Locally run programs at visited sites were most preferred, receiving the largest contributions. A mixed logit model analyzed the relationship between tourist identity, knowledge of a regional drought, values, and conservation preferences from the choice model. Relational elements, such as identifying as an ecotourist, led to larger contributions and were significantly and positively correlated with strong environmental values. The ecological motivation of many tourists to this area suggests that emphasizing relationships between nature and people may encourage conservation contributions, while providing opportunities to increase tourist awareness of the impact of their travel.
The Regional Impact of Tourism when Data is Scarce. An Application to the Province of Salta

ABSTRACT Availability of updated and detailed official statistics at subnational level can sometimes be challenging, particularly in the developing world. This kind of data problems can become discouraging to governments trying to understand how their policies impact the economy, life and ecology of small regional areas. We use the case of the province of Salta, in Argentina, to show how, regardless of bad data problems, analysis of policy can be carried on successfully. Based on survey data and location quotients methodology we build a social accounting matrix for Salta. This estimated matrix allows use an input-output analysis to understand the relevance of tourism promotion programmes in the region.
Essays on Development, Finance, and International Law

This dissertation presents three chapters about development, finance, and international law. The first chapter investigates the effect of human rights litigation on market valuations of publicly traded defendants. I find little evidence of trial court filings and closures affecting stock prices, but I find suggestive evidence of an effect from domestic appellate jurisprudence that changes the viability of such litigation. The second chapter uses detailed state administrative data on individual students to examine how eliminating public subsidies to attend for-profit institutions impacts students’ college enrollment and completion behavior. We find little evidence that the elimination of public subsidies to attend for-profit institutions led students to pursue higher education in community colleges and public universities. The third chapter analyzes field experiments pertaining to Indian life insurance agents’ quality of advice. We document how agents recommend strictly dominated products because they provide high agent commissions. We also exploit a policy change requiring disclosure of a particular product’s commissions to show how agents respond by simply substituting to other products with high commissions but no disclosure requirements.
Regional ski tourism risk to climate change: An inter-comparison of Eastern Canada and US Northeast markets

Abstract Climate change has become a business planning reality in the ski industry, with differential impacts and adaptive capacity important for intra- and inter-regional market competitiveness. Potential climate change impacts are examined at 171 ski areas in Ontario, Québec and the US Northeast using the SkiSim2 model with regional parameterizations of snowmaking capacity. With advanced snowmaking, mid-century season length losses are limited to 12–13% under a low emission pathway (RCP 4.5), increasing to 15–22% under high emissions (RCP 8.5). By late-century, low and high emission pathways diverge creating very different futures for the ski industry. Season length and skiable terrain losses increase only marginally in the low emission pathway, while transformational impacts occur under a high emission pathway, with only 29 ski areas in Québec and high-elevation areas of the US Northeast able to maintain a 100-day season and open regularly for the economically important Christmas-New Year holiday. A low emission future, where current national pledges to Paris Climate Agreement are achieved, is crucial to preserve the Eastern North America ski tourism marketplace. The results are compared with previous studies that have neglected the adaptive capacity of snowmaking and substantially overestimated the impact of mid-century and lower emission climate change scenarios.
Vítor Constâncio: Role and effects of the ECB non-standard policy measures

Our two-day workshop on non-standard monetary policy measures is coming to a conclusion. Similar workshops have become a regular part of our annual conference schedule here at the ECB for almost ten years now. They keep offering novel insights and help to deepen our understanding on the transmission and optimal conduct of non-standard measures. This workshop was no exception. In my concluding remarks, I will share personal takeaways regarding some of the non-standard measures deployed by the ECB since the beginning of the global financial crisis. These policies include the provision of liquidity on demand at fixed rate full allotment since October 2008; facilities to provide medium-term liquidity to banks against collateral in a series of long-term refinancing operations (LTROs); the Outright Monetary Transactions (OMT) programme; the use of forward guidance in our monetary policy communication as well as the large-scale asset purchase programme (APP) and the use of negative interest rates. The workshop papers provide a rich set of analysis relevant for many of these non-standard measures that I will refer to in my remarks.
Factors influencing child fostering practices in Bayelsa State, Nigeria.

This study examined child fostering practices in Bayelsa State as a way of understanding the influence of socio-economic and cultural factors on critical family decisions. Functionalism, Social Action and Rational Choice perspectives provided the theoretical anchor upon which the thematic phenomenon was discussed. Quantitative data were collected from 408 questionnaire respondents. Six In-depth Interviews (IDIs) and two Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) were conducted among biological and foster parents. The mean age of the respondents was 32.5±10.8 years. More than half of the respondents had negative perception about child fosterage; poverty, desire to have children enrolled in school, effective training of fostered children, death of parents, and marital separation are implicated in the decision by families to have their children fostered. Despite the influence of modernism, the practice has remained virile in Bayelsa state due to persistent high fertility, poverty and its traditional and symbolic significance among other reasons.
Directed Technical Change, Capital Intensity Increase and Energy Transition: Evidence from China

This paper analyses the causes of China’s energy transition since 1978 when the economic reform policy was launched. We aim to determine if increasing capital intensity in the Chinese economy is driving a shift in the energy mix towards modern energy sources, such as solar electricity. The empirical investigation is based on national level time series data from 1978 to 2015. The results of a Granger Causality test show that increasing capital intensity causes transition to modern energy in the long run, but not vice versa. The impulse-response analysis, based on the Johanson cointegration and vector error correction model (VECM), verifies that capital intensity determines energy transition in the long-run and the adjustment period to an exogenous shock from capital intensity is around five years. This is in line with China’s National Five-year Plans which often introduce major shifts in energy and industrial policy. We conclude China’s energy transition is driven by capital deepening and biased technical change towards capital-intensive modern energy in the long run. The rate of change is increased by exogenous investment shocks partly as a result of policy initiatives introduced by China’s Five Year Plans.
Implementation of Turkish Foreign Policies and Government Support as Driving Forces of Promoting International Students

The aim of this study was to examine the effect of the implementation of Turkish foreign policies and the government support as the key drivers of promoting international students to study in Turkey. As a way of internationalization of higher education, the study also reviewed the recent development of migration policies and the Grand Student Projects Support as related to the trends of international student movement in Turkey as compared to the other countries in the world. In this literature review article, a search for required and reliable source of information has been made with regard to the subject area using computer and electronic databases; Organization for Co-operation and Development (OECD), Routledge, SAGE, Council of Higher Education of Turkey (CoHE) and The Ministry of National Education of Turkey (MoNE), UNESCO Institution for statistics, Turkish National Education Statistics and other reliable sources. The study findings indicate that the Turkish government and higher education institutions (HEIs) continue to recognize the importance of international students as their number increased more doubled than in the past two decades. The growing number of international students studying in Turkey has largely been driven by the Turkish scholarship initiative programs and migration policy reforms. Further, student immigration plays major role in strengthening peace friendly and the tie between Turkey and other nations by demonstrating the educational and cultural interest.
e-Learning versus Traditional Learning in Pakistan

The advance of science and technology has brought about significant diversity in education as well as in teaching methodology. Emerging technologies have made education more productive and more customized, have given instruction a more scientific basis and have made it more powerful. E-learning involves an alternative way to provide education. The objectives of the study were to examine the use of e-learning and traditional learning in Pakistan at the higher education level and to compare the effectiveness of e-learning and traditional learning with the use of surveys. A small sample group of Bachelor of Computer Science and Master of Computer Science of Allama Iqbal Open University (AIOU) were selected as the traditional group and the same number of distance students of the same subjects attending Virtual University of Pakistan were selected for the study. A questionnaire was developed for both target groups to inquire their opinions of traditional and online learning. The tool was administered in person on the AIOU campus and at the Virtual University Study Centre at Wah Cantt. It was found that e-learning was more effective than the traditional one.
Political “Postwriting” on Facebook: Public Perceptions About Parliamentarians’ (Un)Real SNS Involvement

Theoretical research on political communication between MPs and the public has focused on the role, activities, and perceptions of the MPs themselves without noting the existence of an intermediate layer: parliamentary assistants (PAs). This study attempts to investigate how the public perceives, practically and ethically, the (non)involvement of MPs, that is, reliance on PAs for SNSs (social network sites) communication with the public and to fill out the theoretical void in the discourse process. Questionnaires were sent to all 120 members of the 20th Israeli Knesset (MKs), with 44 responding. We examined the extent of their involvement and the MKs’ use patterns of Facebook, creating a model of four MK involvement levels. The idea was to check the extent of PAs’ authoring posts on behalf of MKs, what we call “Postwriting” (= post ghostwriting) in the MK’s name (or giving the impression that the MKs had themselves posted). Then we conducted a public opinion poll (N = 505) in order to discern what the public thought about the nature of its relationship with MKs on Facebook, compared to the findings that emerged from the model of the MKs’ involvement in actual practice. The two parts of the study also enabled us to investigate the ethical perceptions and implications arising from the study.
Paying for infrastructure in the post-recession era: Exploring the use of alternative funding and financing tools

ABSTRACT While municipalities in the United States face many challenges, one of the most critical is an aging stock of infrastructure. Concurrent with this issue is a new fiscal reality where local governments face unfunded pension liabilities, difficulties in raising revenues, and potentially declining state and federal support. As a result, meeting infrastructure needs may require alternative strategies (e.g., green bonds or social impact bonds, public-private partnerships, or privatization) beyond traditional financing mechanisms like general obligation bonds. Though these tools are available to a wide range of governments, not much is known about how frequently they are used and why some governments choose to use them while others do not. Using a survey of local governments, this research explores the extent to which cities are already using or considering using alternative tools to meet their infrastructure needs and the factors associated with the decision to use or pursue using those tools. It finds that the factors associated with the use of these tools are dependent on the nature and type of tool, with alternative funding tools like developer fees more associated with a decline in political support for municipal bonds and alternative financing tools like green bonds associated with budgetary imbalances.
Economic Growth and Monetary Policy Transmission Mechanism: An Empirical Assessment of Nigeria

This work investigates the monetary policy transmission mechanisms and their efficacy in predicting economic growth in Nigeria using the ARDL methodology. Variables included in the model were growth rate of real domestic gross product (RGDP), M2 broad money supply definition, cash reserve ratio (CRR), nominal exchange rate (EXCR); inflation rate (INFL), interest rate and deposit money banks credit to the private sector (BCR). The unit root test using the ADF test revealed that all our variables were integrated at levels I (0). The study proceeded to estimate the ARDL bounds tests; the ARDL long run estimations; the diagnostic tests, normality and stability tests respectively. The critical findings from our result and analysis revealed that broad money supply (M2), exchange rate (EXCR), cash reserve ratio (CRR) and the rate of inflation (INFL) were the major monetary policy transmission mechanism predicting the level of economic growth in Nigeria. Likewise, the study identified interest rate (INTR) and deposit money banks credit to the private sector (BCR) as weak transmission variables driving economic growth and prices in Nigeria. The study concludes that the monetary policy transmission mechanisms have had a mixed bag in predicting economic growth in Nigeria. This conclusion was arrived based on the fact that the findings suggest that the negative impacts outweigh the positives, especially, as the critical variables like interest rate, credit to the private sectors and exchange rate depreciation plays a key role in driving economic growth. The monetary authority should be religious in seeing through monetary policies, especially, in maintaining consistency. Devaluation or depreciation of the naira also is not pro-growth in Nigeria and should be jettisoned, pending the diversification of our economy and improvements in our domestic productive capacities. Evidently, access to private sector credit at a lower interest should be pursued vigorously. Keywords: monetary policy, transmission mechanism, economic growth and devaluation DOI : 10.7176/RJFA/10-18-06 Publication date :September 30 th 2019
Information-based interventions for household water efficiency in England and Wales: evidence, barriers and learning opportunities

ABSTRACT Following the call of the UK’s Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs in its recent Water Efficiency and Behaviour Change Rapid Evidence Assessment 2018, this article seeks to understand the key barriers to effective information-based interventions to encourage household water efficiency in England and Wales and their implications. We review the evidence on information provision to conserve water in England and Wales. We then set out the current key barriers, highlight what might have contributed to the barriers and, based on learnings from the literature, clarify some underlying confusion and suggest ways to improve.