Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The demographic situation in Thailand

Basic aspects are reviewed of Thailands demographic situation from the 1st census in 1911 to the present. The growth rate has been high throughout most of this century and has accelerated particularly since World War 2 as mortality has fallen rapidly to low levels. Recently fertility has begun to drop substantially too owing mainly to a fall in marital fertility. Age at marriage is already quite high by Asian standards and has changed little in recent decades. The fall in marital fertility has been paralleled by rapid expansion of family planning services. Fertility is lower in urban than in rural areas with rate at marriage generally higher and contraceptive use more pervasive in the former than in the latter. For reasons not entirely clear the decline of fertility seems especially rapid in the northern region of the country. The urban population of Thailand is overwhelmingly concentrated in the Bangkok metropolitan area. Despite the rapid growth of Bangkok however the distribution of population among regions has changed little since 1947 and in fact the proportion in the central region which contains Bangkok has declined slightly. Presumably this change has occurred because migration from other regions has been more than offset by lower fertility in the central region. Population projections show that Thailand will have to plan for a population by the year 2000 that is at least half again as large as its 1970 population of somewhat over 36 million even if birthrates drop precipitously. Constant fertility would imply a population of 100 million by the end of the century.
[Vitamin D level in children with bloodstream infection].

OBJECTIVE To investigate the difference in serum 25(OH)D level between children with bloodstream infection and healthy children. METHODS A case-control study was conducted among 60 children with bloodstream infection who were hospitalized between January 2010 and December 2013 and had positive results of two blood cultures. Meanwhile, 60 aged-matched healthy children who underwent physical examination during the same period of time were enrolled as the healthy control group. Chemiluminescence was applied to measure the serum 25(OH)D level, and the constituent ratios of children with different serum 25(OH)D levels were compared between the two groups. RESULTS The bloodstream infection group had a significantly lower serum 25(OH)D level than the healthy control group (P<0.01). Compared with the healthy control group, the bloodstream group had significantly lower constituent ratios of children with normal Vitamin D level (8% vs 35%) or vitamin D insufficiency (22% vs 43%) (P<0.05). Compared with the healthy control group, the bloodstream group had significantly higher constituent ratios of children with vitamin D deficiency (42% vs 13%) or severely vitamin D deficiency (28% vs 8%) (P<0.01). CONCLUSIONS Vitamin D insufficiency prevails among children, and children with bloodstream infection have a significantly lower serum 25(OH)D level than healthy children.
Education in Production: Measuring Labor Quality and Management

Production function studies have used the education of the head of the household or the average education of farm workers to assess the contribution of schooling to farm efficiency. This paper critically examines the information content of these measures by developing a team production model which suggests separate education measures to approximate labor quality and managerial skills. Empirical analyses based on Chinese farm household data show that the new measures are statistically superior to the existing alternatives. There is contributes theralized decision making on the farms where the highest schooling--More--(58%) most to production efficiency.
Therapeutic Options in Nonulcer Dyspepsia

Dyspepsia, defined as pain or discomfort centered in the upper abdomen, affects an estimated 25% of the U.S. population each year; accounts for up to 5% of all visits to primary care physicians, and generates over $1.3 billion in prescription drug costs annually. In the majority of patients evaluated, no clear cause of symptoms can be identified, and the condition is termed functional or nonulcer dyspepsia (NUD). The pathophysiology of NUD remains unclear, but disturbances in gastrointestinal motility or sensation are often found. Clinically, NUD can be subdivided into dysmotility-like (in which discomfort, fullness, bloating, early satiety, or nausea [but not pain] predominate) or ulcer-like (in which epigastric pain is predominant). In ulcer-like NUD, antisecretory therapy is useful, but in dysmotility-like NUD, acid suppression is not superior to placebo. Cisapride accelerates gastric emptying and enhances gastric accommodation but probably does not blunt perception. Although cisapride relieves symptoms of dyspepsia without the adverse central nervous system effects often associated with metoclopramide, its cardiac toxicity has led to disuse. Antidepressants are of uncertain efficacy but are widely used. New prokinetics and other enteric neuromodulating agents are being tested in NUD and are likely to find an important place in clinical practice in the future.
[5,11,17,23-Tetra-tert-butyl-25,27-(3,6-dioxaoctan-1,8-dioxy)-26,28-bis(pyridin-2-ylmethoxy)calix[4]arene]sodium iodide–1,2,4,5-tetrafluoro-3,6-diiodobenzene–methanol (2/3/4)

The title compound, [Na(C62H76N2O6)]I·1.5C6F4I2·2CH3OH, is composed of five components: a calix[4]arene derivative (hereinafter C4), a sodium cation, an iodide anion, a 1,2,4,5-tetrafluoro-3,6-diiodobenzene (tFdIB) molecule and a methanol molecule in a 1:1:1:1.5:2 ratio. The complex shows several interesting features: (i) the polyoxygenated loop of C4 effectively chelates a sodium cation in the form of a distorted octahedron and separates it from the iodide counter-ion, the shortest Na+⋯I− distance being greater than 6.5 Å; (ii) the cavity of C4 is filled by a methanol molecule; (iii) a second methanol molecule is hydrogen-bonded to the N atom of a pyridinyl substituent pendant of C4 and halogen-bonded to the I atom of a tFdIB molecule; (iv) the two I atoms of another tFdIB molecule are halogen-bonded to two iodide anions, which act as monodentate halogen-bond acceptorss; (v) one of the two tFdIB molecules is located about a centre of inversion.
Evaluation of Algorithms for Tracking Multiple Objects in Video

As video tracking research matures, the issue of tracker performance evaluation has emerged as a research topic in its own right, as evidenced by a series of workshops devoted solely to this purpose (the workshops on performance evaluation of tracking and surveillance-PETS). However, evaluations such as PETS have been limited to small scenarios with a handful of moving objects. In this paper, we present an evaluation methodology and set of experiments focused on large-scale video tracking problems with hundreds of objects in close proximity. The scale and complexity of this data exposes a number of issues. First, the association of computed tracks to image-truth tracks may have multiple plausible solutions, resulting in a combinatorial grouping problem that must be solved with an approximate solution. Second, computed tracks may be only partially correct, complicating the association problem further and indicating that multiple measures are required to characterize performance. We have created a system that associates computed tracks to manually-generated image-truth tracks, and calculates various measures such as the per-frame probability of detection, false alarm rate, and fragmentation, which is the number of computed tracks associated to a single track. We also normalize fragmentation by track length to reward fewer computed tracks for longer true tracks. The measures were used to compare three tracking methods on an aerial video sequence containing hundreds of objects, long occlusions, and deep shadows.
Neoadjuvant Therapy for Esophageal Adenocarcinoma in the Community Setting—Practice and Outcomes

There has been an alarming rise in the incidence of esophageal adenocarcinoma which continues to have poor survival rates primarily due to lack of effective chemotherapy and presentation at advanced stages. Over a dozen chemotherapeutic agents are FDA approved for esophageal cancer (EC), and a two or three-drug combination is typically prescribed as first-line therapy for the majority of EC patients, administered either pre or post-operatively with esophageal resection. We have noticed significant variability in adjuvant and neoadjuvant regimens used in the community setting. The aim of this study was to review the various drug regimens used in the neoadjuvant setting for EC patients with adenocarcinoma undergoing resection at a single tertiary referral center in the Midwest. A total of 123 patients (stage II–III) underwent esophageal resection after neoadjuvant treatment at the center. Overall, 18 distinct drug regimens were used in 123 patients including two patients who received targeted therapy. Median survival post-surgery for this group was 11.2 months with no single regimen offering a survival advantage. These results reveal an unclear algorithm of how accepted regimens are prescribed in the community setting as well as a dire need for agents that are more effective. Additionally, it was noted that although proteomic markers have been found to predict drug response to 92% of the FDA-approved drugs in EC (12 of 13), according to pathology reports, molecular diagnostic testing was not used to direct treatment in this cohort. We therefore propose potential strategies to improve clinical outcomes including the use of a robust molecular oncology diagnostic panel and discuss the potential role for targeted chemotherapy and/or immunotherapy in the management of EC patients.
The OMC - a deliberative-democratic mode of governance? The cases of employment and pensions 1

The open method of co-ordination’s (OMC’s) emphasis on transparency, democratic participation and learning has led to a particular interest in this governance mechanism from the perspective of deliberative democracy. This article analyses the ‘democratic’ dimension of the OMC from a normative and an empirical perspective. We first present relevant theories of deliberative democracy, from which we derive a list of normative criteria, which we then use to explore the democratic quality of the OMC in the areas of employment and pensions. The empirical analysis reveals that there are important differences in the democratic quality of the OMC between these two areas, but that, ultimately, the OMC (as yet) does not live up to its own democratic ambitions.
Extensive Differences in Gene Expression Between Symbiotic and Aposymbiotic Cnidarians

Coral reefs provide habitats for a disproportionate number of marine species relative to the small area of the oceans that they occupy. The mutualism between the cnidarian animal hosts and their intracellular dinoflagellate symbionts provides the nutritional foundation for coral growth and formation of reef structures, because algal photosynthesis can provide >90% of the total energy of the host. Disruption of this symbiosis (“coral bleaching”) is occurring on a large scale due primarily to anthropogenic factors and poses a major threat to the future of coral reefs. Despite the importance of this symbiosis, the cellular mechanisms involved in its establishment, maintenance, and breakdown remain largely unknown. We report our continued development of genomic tools to study these mechanisms in Aiptasia, a small sea anemone with great promise as a model system for studies of cnidarian–dinoflagellate symbiosis. Specifically, we have generated de novo assemblies of the transcriptomes of both a clonal line of symbiotic anemones and their endogenous dinoflagellate symbionts. We then compared transcript abundances in animals with and without dinoflagellates. This analysis identified >900 differentially expressed genes and allowed us to generate testable hypotheses about the cellular functions affected by symbiosis establishment. The differentially regulated transcripts include >60 encoding proteins that may play roles in transporting various nutrients between the symbiotic partners; many more encoding proteins functioning in several metabolic pathways, providing clues regarding how the transported nutrients may be used by the partners; and several encoding proteins that may be involved in host recognition and tolerance of the dinoflagellate.
Bayesian health modeling for aerial dynamic system using object-oriented approach

The health modeling for aerial system is a difficult problem, especially when the system is composed of identical or almost identical system, the system parameters and sensors measurements are subject to uncertainty, and the health state of system evolves over time. In order to solve this problem, a novel object-oriented modeling approach is proposed. This approach is based on the Bayesian theory and can provide corresponding algorithms for different levels of system in constructing the dynamic Bayesian network of entire system health step by step in a bottom-up fashion. The effectiveness and robustness of the resulting dynamic Bayesian network are verified through experiments on a particular aerial fuel delivery system.
Suspended Partisanship in the House: How Most Laws Are Really Made

This paper will explore the hypothesis that, as fewer amendments are being allowed on the House floor to major bills, the majority leadership is compensating by allowing for the consideration of more non-controversial bills, sponsored by more members, under the suspension of the rules procedure as a means of partially satisfying members= needs for reelection, public policy influence, and power in the House. Roughly three-fourths of the bills enacted in the last, full Congress (the 106 Congress) were initially considered in the House under the suspension of the rules process which allows for just 40 minutes of debate and no amendments, and requires a two-thirds vote for passage. The trend towards increased lawmaking by this process is especially significant given the general perception that Congress has become more partisan in recent years and, therefore, more prone to confrontation and gridlock than to cooperation and consensus. Bipartisan lawmaking under suspension of the rules is viewed here as complementary to, rather than contradictory of, the conditional party government theory that holds that when there is high intra-party homogeneity and inter-party polarization, members give their leaders greater power and leeway in fashioning legislative strategies and procedures. The suspension bridge allows leaders to fulfill their party maintenance responsibilities of satisfying members= needs while giving them greater latitude in carrying out their institutional maintenance responsibilities of building winning coalitions to pass legislation of national importance to the party. Finally, the paper discusses whether the growing reliance on the suspension process and restrictive rules tends to devalue the work of committees and the role deliberative lawmaking in Congress. _______________________________________________________________________ The author wishes to thank Erin Sparkuhl of the University of California, Los Angeles, for her work as a research assistant at the Woodrow Wilson Center in helping to compile the data for this paper.
Director Primacy: The Means and Ends of Corporate Governance

Any model of corporate governance must answer two basic sets of questions: (1) Who decides? In other words, when push comes to shove, who has ultimate control? (2) Whose interests prevail? When the ultimate decisionmaker is presented with a zero sum game, in which it must prefer the interests of one constituency class over those of all others, whose interests prevail? On the means question, prior scholarship has almost uniformly favored either shareholder primacy or managerialism. This article argues that control - the power and right to exercise decisionmaking fiat - is vested neither in the shareholders nor the managers, but in the board of directors. According to this "director primacy" model, the corporation is a vehicle by which the board of directors hires various factors of production. The board of directors thus is not a mere agent of the shareholders, but rather is a sui generis body - a sort of Platonic guardian - serving as the nexus of the various contracts making up the corporation. As a positive theory of corporate governance, director primacy thus claims that fiat - centralized decisionmaking - is the essential attribute of efficient corporate governance. As a normative theory of corporate governance, director primacy claims that resolving the resulting tension between authority and accountability is the central problem of corporate law. On the ends question, prior scholarship has tended to favor either shareholder primacy or various forms of stakeholderism. Again, director primacy rejects both approaches. Although shareholder primacy and the shareholder wealth maximization norm are often conflated, one can have the latter without necessarily endorsing the former. Hence, this article argues that director decisionmaking primacy can be reconciled with a contractual obligation on the board's part to maximize the value of the shareholders' residual claim.
The role of hip arthroscopy in the diagnosis and treatment of hip disease.

OBJECTIVE To report the results of arthroscopy performed on adults with hip disease who did not respond to extended conservative treatment and to evaluate the relationship between clinical findings, radiologic tests and surgical abnormalities. DESIGN A case study. SETTING New England Baptist Hospital, Boston, Mass. PATIENTS Fifty-nine patients (32 women, 27 men) with refractory hip pain, between the ages of 17 and 69 years, who were seen between January 1989 and January 1992. INTERVENTION Hip arthroscopy. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Cause of hip pain, results of physical examination and operative findings. RESULTS In 26 patients the cause of hip pain was traumatic; in 21 the cause was idiopathic. On physical had pain on straight leg examination, 56% of patients reported painful clicking of the hip joint, 37% had pain on straight leg raising, 9% had decreased extension and 34% had had episodes of locking of the joint. Five percent had pain predominantly in the thigh, 41% reported at least one episode of "giving way" of the hip and 7% had snapping of the iliotibial band. At arthroscopy, 69% of patients had synovitis in the hip joint, 59% had a tear of the acetabular labrum, 39% had loose bodies, 32% had degenerative arthritis and 27% had a chondral defect. On statistical analysis, significant (p < 0.05) relationships were found between acetabular labral tears and preoperative complaints of clicking or giving way, between loose bodies and preoperative locking and between degeneration of the hip joint and thigh pain. CONCLUSION Arthroscopy of the hip is a valuable diagnostic and therapeutic procedure for patients with hip pain refractory to conservative therapy.
Thermal flow sensor integrated to PDMS-based microfluidic systems

This paper presents the development of a thermal flow sensor integrated to a microchannel aiming its application in biological and chemical systems. The sensor is composed by a thin-film nickel heater deposited on a glass slice by electroplating and a microchannel fabricated on PDMS by soft lithography. Computer simulations were utilized to determine the electrical behavior of the sensor and the temperature distribution. The results show the sensor presents adequate sensibility with low interference in the fluid flow and its fabrication can be easily introduced in the standard fabrication process of PDMS-based microsystems.
Ethnic-Minority Businesses in the UK: A Review of Research and Policy Developments

In recent years there have been important academic and policy-related developments in the field of ethnic-minority entrepreneurship in the UK. It is a subject that is marked by increasing theoretical sophistication and activity on the part of policy makers and practitioners. We investigate the principal theoretical and policy developments in UK research, and identify issues for future investigation. In relation to theoretical developments, the contribution of a ‘mixed-embeddedness’ perspective is highlighted; this stresses the importance of social, economic, and institutional processes (rather than ‘ethnic culture’). Although the number of initiatives directed at ethnic-minority businesses is growing, their effectiveness in promoting ‘upward mobility’ is still open to question. Further attention needs to be accorded to the rationale and ultimate beneficiaries of such measures. Future research needs to locate ethnic-minority entrepreneurship in its political and economic contexts. Potential new topics for policy and research include: the social contribution of ethnic-minority entrepreneurship, ethnic-minority women in self-employment, and ‘new communities’.
The Role of Temporary Agency Work in Different Industrial Relations Systems - A Comparison between Germany and the USA

Although temporary agency work has been growing over the last decade, its use differs widely in different industrial relations systems. Drawing on theoretical and empirical insights, propositions are developed on why companies deploy temporary agency work. These propositions are then contrasted with case-study evidence collected in Germany and the USA to analyse the deployment of agency work in two different industrial relations systems and the role that agency work plays in these diverse settings. The main conclusions of the research are that differences in the deployment of temporary agency workers exist with regard to legal regulation and employers' strategies of labour use while similarities exist regarding the supply of agency labour.
The Stock Market Effects of the Sale of Live Broadcasting Rights for English Premiership Football

An analysis is reported of the short-term effects of the announcements in 1996 and 2000 of the winning bids for the live English Premiership television broadcasting rights on the share prices of British Sky Broadcasting (BSkyB) and several football clubs. Over time, the commercial fortunes of football and broadcasting have become increasingly intertwined. Meanwhile, a number of leading clubs have acquired stock exchange listings. The reaction of BSkyB investors to the 1996 announcement was neutral; however, among the football clubs the reaction was favorable. BSkyB investors viewed the 2000 announcement more positively, while the football clubs' share price reaction was muted.
The Economy of Tomorrow How to Produce Socially Just, Sustainable and Green Dynamic Growth for a Good Society Case Study of Bangladesh

 Bangladesh has been able to raise its GDP growth rate by at least one percent for each of the past three decades. The challenge now is to accelerate economic growth to eight to ten percent over the foreseeable future. In order to do so, the drivers of growth need to be better prioritized. Bangladesh should strategically capitalize on the advantages of its growing domestic market, accelerate its efforts to bring about structural change in the economy, put the needed infrastructure in place, better develop human capabilities, create a conducive environment for job creating businesses, and strengthen institutional, legal and administrative capacities.
An adaptive MMSE RAKE receiver

For the detection of a spread spectrum signal in wireless communications, the traditional RAKE receiver is a popular and effective method of utilising the diversity offered by a multi-path communication channel. The more recent MMSE receiver is useful for suppression of multiple access interference and noise, as well as exploiting multipath components within the span of the filter. In this paper we introduce a structure which employs adaptive despreading on each finger of the RAKE receiver.