Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Adolescent sexual behavior: estimates and trends from four nationally representative surveys.

CONTEXT Accurate information about trends over time in adolescent sexual behavior is essential to understand changes in adolescent pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases and to monitor the progress of health promotion activities in the United States METHODS Estimates from the National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG), the National Survey of Adolescent Males (NSAM), the Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) and the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health) were compared. While methodologies and populations varied by survey, adolescents aged 15-17 who attend high school were a common subpopulation among all four. For each survey, the prevalence of sexual intercourse, contraceptive use and multiple sexual partners was measured in this population. RESULTS Trend comparisons fell into four categories. First, some similar significant trends were found across surveys. The proportion of all males and of white males who reported ever having had sexual intercourse decreased significantly, while condom use rose significantly among males in both the NSAM and the YRBS. For such behaviors as ever having had sexual intercourse (among Hispanic males and black females), using the pill and using the condom (among all females) and having four or more lifetime sexual partners (among white males), a significant trend was found in one survey while a similar but nonsignificant trend was found in another. Several trend comparisons were not significant in any survey. Finally, having had intercourse in the past three months (among all males and all females), having had two or more partners in the past three months (for males) and having had four or more lifetime sexual partners (among white females and all males) showed a significant trend in one survey but lacked a parallel nonsignificant trend in another. Prevalence estimates in 1995 differed significantly in at least one comparison of surveys for all behaviors except having four or more lifetime sexual partners (both genders) and having two or more recent sexual partners (females). Gender differences within the YRBS and between the NSFG and the NSAM generally were consistent. CONCLUSIONS Trends over time and gender differences were similar across surveys, underscoring their value for tracking adolescent sexual behaviors. Differences in prevalence estimates across surveys probably result from differences in question wording, diverse interview settings and modes of data collection, and varying statistical power. These findings suggest a need to increase our understanding of how methodologies influence survey response in research on adolescents.
R&D and the Productivity Slowdown

The question I shall address in this pa-per is: Can the slowdown in productivity growth be explained, wholly or in part, by the recent slowdown in the growth of real R&D expenditures? But first we have to review the following questions: I) What is to be explained? Which productivity and what slowdown? 2) What is the mechanism by which R&D could have contributed to this slowdown? 3) What did happen to R&D in the relevant period? Besides traversing this somewhat familiar ground and reviewing some of the recent literature on this topic, I shall also report on some estimates of my own. The direct answer to the opening question is "probably not. " But how we get there needs documenting and may prove instructive on its own merits.
Antidumping Policy Under Imperfect Competition: Theory and Evidence

In this paper, I develop and test a model of dumping among imperfectly competitive firms in different countries that face stochastic demand. In the theoretical model, I show that foreign firms dump when they face weak demand in their own markets. I then show that an antidumping duty can improve an importing country's welfare by shifting some of the dumping firm's rents to the home country. I test this model using data on US antidumping cases from 1979 to 1996. Empirically, I find strong evidence that the US government is more likely to impose protection when demand in foreign countries is weak. After controlling for injury to the domestic industry and the strength of US aggregate demand, I find that reducing foreign aggregate demand two standard deviations below its trend increases the probability of protection by 2.8-3.4%.
Varieties of Capitalism

Scholarship on varieties of capitalism (VofC) explores the ways in which the institutions structuring the political economy affect patterns of economic performance or policy making and the distribution of well-being. Contesting the claim that there is one best route to superior economic performance, a number of schemas have been proposed to explain why countries have often been able to secure substantial rates of growth in different ways, often with relatively egalitarian distributions of income. Prominent among them is a VofC analysis focused on the developed democracies that distinguishes liberal and coordinated market economies according to the ways in which firms coordinate their endeavors. On the basis of institutional complementarities among subspheres of the political economy, it suggests that the institutional structure of the political economy confers comparative institutional advantages, notably for radical and incremental innovation, which explains why economies have not converged in the context of globalization. Although this framework is contested, it has inspired new research on many subjects, including the basis for innovation, the determinants of social policy, the grounds for international negotiation, and the character of institutional change. In this issue area, there is promising terrain for further research into the origins of varieties of capitalism, the factors that drive institutional change in the political economy, how institutional arrangements in the subspheres of the political economy interact with one another, the normative underlay for capitalism, and the effects of varieties of capitalism on multiple dimensions of well-being. Keywords: capitalism; political economy; globalization; politics; institutional change; economic growth; macroeconomics; innovation; complementarities; social policy
SEMIPARAMETRIC ESTIMATION OF A HEDONIC PRICE FUNCTION

Previous work on the preferred specification of hedonic price models usually recommended a Box-Cox model. In this paper we note that any parametric model involves implicit restrictions and they can be reduced by using a semiparametric model. We estimate a benchmark parametric model which passes several common specification tests, before showing that a semiparametric model outperforms it significantly. In addition to estimating the model, we compare the predictions of the models by deriving the distribution of the predicted log(price) and then calculating the associated prediction intervals. Our data show that the semiparametric model provides more accurate mean predictions than the benchmark parametric model. Copyright 1996 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Machine Speed Upper Bound Support Use redundancy Algorithm Minimize under on Technique to Mitigate Resource Augmentation Competitive Ratio Multitasking Machine Service Variability SRPT

The completion times of jobs in a computing cluster may be influenced by a variety of factors including job size and machine processing variability. In this paper, we explore online resource allocation policies which combine size-dependent scheduling with redundant execution and opportunistic checkpointing to minimize the overall job flowtime. We introduce a simplified model for the job service capacity of a computing cluster while leveraging redundant execution/checkpointing. In this setting, we propose two resource allocation algorithms, SRPT+R and LAPS+R( ) subject to checkpointing overhead not exceeding the number of jobs which are processed. We provide new theoretical performance bounds for these algorithms: SRPT+R is shown to be O( 1✏ ) competitive under (1 + ✏)-speed resource augmentation, while LAPS+R( ) is shown to be O( 1 ✏ ) competitive under (2 + 2 + 2✏)-speed resource augmentation.
Models of Foreign Direct Investments Influence on Economic Growth: Evidence from Romania

Last decades developing and emerging countries’ priorities shifted towards international capital flows, as a complementary way to finance domestic economic growth. But also last years capital flows and their components are affected by domestic and global crisis that frequently destabilize both developed and developing economies. Central and Eastern Europe countries are looking for foreign direct investments as a critical component to solving capital deficit problem. But the causality relation between foreign direct investments and growth is not necessary unidirectional: several theoretical works argued that foreign direct investments is a direct result of growth but other studies show that foreign direct investments generate economic growth.In our paper we propose to model the relationship between foreign direct investment and economic growth in transition countries, especially in Romania. We use a neoclassical model with Cobb-Douglas production functions to analyze the effects of FDI on Romanian growth, followed by a short term GDP prognosis. Our basic results show that Romanian economic growth was positively influenced by fiscal policy, FDI and also by adhesion to EU.
Structural models of corporate bond prices.

In 1974, Merton wrote a seminal paper that explained how the then recently presented Black-Scholes model could be applied to the pricing of corporate debt. Many extensions of this model followed. The family of models is sometimes referred to as the family of structural models of corporate bond prices. It has found applications in bond pricing and risk management, but appears to have a more mixed empirical record than the so-called reduced-form models (e.g. Duffie and Singleton 1999), and is often considered imprecise. As a consequence, it is often avoided in pricing and hedging applications. This thesis examines three possible avenues for improving the performance of structural models: 1. Strategic interaction between debtors: Possible "Coordination failures" - races to recover value that can dismember firms - are a very important form of strategic interaction between debtors that can have a large influence on the value of debt. 2. The econometrics of structural models: The classic "calibration" methodology widely employed in the literature is an ad-hoc procedure that has severe problems from an econometric perspective. This thesis proposes a filtering-based approach instead that is demonstrably superior. 3. The non-default component of spreads: Corporate bond prices most probably do not only represent credit risk, but also other types of risk (e.g. liquidity risk). This thesis attempts to quantify and assess this non-default component.
Isoforms of creatine kinase: MM in the study of skeletal muscle damage

Abstract. Isoforms of creatine kinase (CK) MM have been analysed in plasma from normal subjects and patients with muscular dystrophy using isoelectric focusing techniques. Most plasma samples analysed contained three isoforms of CK‐MM of isoelectric points 7.26 (MMI), 6.85 (MMII) and 6.45 (MMIII) although in some plasma samples two additional isoforms of isoelectric points 7.12 and 6.65 were seen. Patients with muscular dystrophy were found to have a generally higher proportion of CK‐MMI in their plasma than normal subjects and this was relatively unaffected by large variations in the total creatine kinase activity. By comparison eccentric exercise in normal subjects was found to result in a large increase in total plasma CK activity which then declined to normal over a period of approximately 6 days. CK‐MMI was found to increase initially followed by CK‐MMII and CK‐MMIII. Analysis of the isoforms in biopsy samples of human muscle revealed the presence of two of the bands found in plasma (CK‐MMI and MMII) and a third muscle specific isoform, while incubation of muscle homogenates in plasma induced the formation of CK‐MMIII and the two isoforms of pi 7.12 and 6.65.
National Urban Policy in Sweden

Abstract National urban policy in Sweden is framed within a three-tiered administrative system of city, county (region), and state. As a result of national legislation, local authorities possess a planning monopoly. The state, however, influences local decision making through its financial and environmental policies. Regional government bears some responsibility for protecting national interests from local whim, but is playing a decreasing role in the urban policy sphere as local planning prerogatives are in ascendancy. Sweden has, generally, been successful in solving its urban housing shortage with a minimum of social dislocation. In addition, the social conscience of Swedish urban policy is matched by sensitivity for the environment. Increasingly over the past two years, however, financial exigencies have compromised social and environmental objectives and now a government in crisis confronts a national urban policy at the crossroads.
A Novel Broadband Linear-in-Magnitude RF Envelope Detector With Enhanced Detection Speed and Accuracy

In this letter, a novel linear-in-magnitude RF envelope detector is presented which features high detection speed, low detection error and covers a wide range of carrier frequencies. The proposed detector topology employs a voltage-mode input stage which is AC-coupled to a full-wave rectifier. A prototype was implemented in a 0.13 μm CMOS process. Experimental results demonstrated a 3 dB operating frequency of up to 4.2 GHz and a maximal detection speed equal to 190 MHz. The input dynamic range ( ± 1 dB linear error) was 35.5 dB at 1 GHz and 25.3 dB at 3.5 GHz, respectively.
Genetic Algorithm Based on Sugeno Integral

For the actual need of future research and application, this paper proposes a new method that is a new fuzzy control system of fuzzy integral-genetic algorithm (FI-GA). By fuzzy integral, it can study comprehensive evaluation of population diversity and individual quantity on three attributes: individual difference extent, the difference extent of individual’s fitness and the difference extent of population lifetime, thereby dynamically adjust the rate of crossover (Pc) and mutation rate (Pm) in genetic algorithm. It improves the controller of fuzzy control for parameters Pc and Pm of genetic algorithm. The results of experiment show that the proposed genetic algorithm, combining fuzzy measure and fuzzy integral, performances better than simple genetic algorithm (SGA).
Integration of solid-state lead-lag VAr compensator and self-excited induction generator for low cost power generation

Application of inductively loaded current controlled solid-state lead-lag (ICSL) VAr compensator for voltage control of SEIG has been reported in this paper. From both theoretical and experimental results it is observed that the integrated system of ICSL VAr Compensator and SEIG is able to supply power to wide range of loads at constant output voltage with acceptable supply frequency variation. The system is proposed for application in renewable energy conversion where the SEIG can be driven by unregulated microhydro turbine in constant water head or by wind turbine in a limited range of wind speed variation. The results are critically analysed and the effectiveness of the system for low cost remote area power supply has been discussed in the paper.
One Region, One Money: Implications of Regional Currency Consolidation for Financial Services

The lecture explores causes and consequences of the declining usefulness of the separate currency denominations maintained by that large number of small open economies whose currencies play little or no role in international finance. So far, official multinational entities capable of taking up new threats to international financial stability, like the Group of Seven (G7), the G10 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors, the International Monetary and Financial Committee (IMFC) comprising 24 IMF Governors, and the Financial Stability Forum (FSF), have given little visible attention to these market-driven tendencies toward currency consolidation. As a result, there is scant official guidance on what to do about these tendencies so as to contribute to greater international financial stability in a multilateral framework. More such attention is overdue because the intermediate stages of currency competition in an emerging-market country in which there is more than one monetary standard in domestic use carry high risks to the stability of that country and its financial sector. The Geneva Papers on Risk and Insurance (2002) 27, 5–28. doi:10.1111/1468-0440.00149
Evaluating the effects of septic tank on shallow wells in Iba housing estate, Ojo LGA, Lagos

Water samples from 30 shallow wells were measured for depth, depth to water table, and distance to septic tank. In situ parameters including electrical conductivity, pH, total dissolved solids, and temperature were measured using portable meters. Chemical parameters including salinity, chloride, calcium, alkalinity and total hardness were determined using titrimetry method. Sulphate and nitrate were determined by spectrophotometer while magnesium was determined by atomic absorption spectrophotometer. Results of the functional linear relationship of the parameters show that electrical conductivity and salinity have a significant linear relationship with TDS obtained at 0.999 and 1.000 respectively. Factor analysis extracted four factors and explains 89.2% of total variance. Factors I and II represent wastewater/sewage and nitrate sources. The study concluded that microbiological test and appropriate treatment will be required to make it fit for consumption. It was recommended that the locations of septic tanks around wells should follow international standards to prevent contamination.
Field-Based Validation of a Tactile Navigation Device

In this paper, we present three field-based evaluations of a tactile land navigation system. In Experiment 1, we transition from a laboratory setting to rugged terrain used to train US Army soldier land navigation. Navigation in this challenging terrain requires careful attention to one's surroundings. Participants navigated 3 waypoints along 600 meters through heavily wooded terrain, using 1) map and compass, 2) standard alpha-numeric handheld GPS device, and 3) the tactile GPS system, while also responding to radio requests for information. Experiment 2 used the same challenging terrain during night operations, where participants must also search for live and silhouette targets, using 1) handheld GPS device, 2) head-mounted map-based GPS, and 3) the tactile GPS system. In addition to navigating, participants searched for silhouette and live (human) targets. Experiment 3 had participants navigate with 1) a commercial GPS arrow display, 2) the tactile GPS system, and 3) both together. We conclude that tactile navigation displays can be used in strenuous outdoor environments and can outperform visual displays under conditions of high cognitive and visual workload.
Determinants of Health Costs due to Farmers’ Exposure to Pesticides: An Empirical Analysis

Pesticide spraying by farmers has an adverse impact on their health. However, in studies to date examining farmers' exposure to pesticides, the costs of ill-health and their determinants have been based on information provided by farmers themselves. Some doubt has therefore been cast on the reliability of these estimates. In this study, we address this by conducting surveys among two groups of farmers who use pesticides on a regular basis. The first group is made up of farmers who perceive that their ill-health is due to exposure to pesticides and have obtained at least some form of treatment (described in this paper as the 'general farmer group'). The second group is composed of farmers whose ill-health has been diagnosed by doctors and who have been treated in hospital for exposure to pesticides (described here as the 'hospitalised farmer group'). Cost comparisons are made between the two groups of farmers. Regression analysis of the determinants of health costs show that the most important determinants of medical costs for both samples are the defensive expenditure, the quantity of pesticides used per acre per month, frequency of pesticide use and number of pesticides used per hour per day. The results have important policy implications.
Ultrafine particles and nitrogen oxides generated by gas and electric cooking

OBJECTIVES To measure the concentrations of particles less than 100 nm diameter and of oxides of nitrogen generated by cooking with gas and electricity, to comment on possible hazards to health in poorly ventilated kitchens. METHODS Experiments with gas and electric rings, grills, and ovens were used to compare different cooking procedures. Nitrogen oxides (NOx) were measured by a chemiluminescent ML9841A NOx analyser. A TSI 3934 scanning mobility particle sizer was used to measure average number concentration and size distribution of aerosols in the size range 10–500 nm. RESULTS High concentrations of particles are generated by gas combustion, by frying, and by cooking of fatty foods. Electric rings and grills may also generate particles from their surfaces. In experiments where gas burning was the most important source of particles, most particles were in the size range 15–40 nm. When bacon was fried on the gas or electric rings the particles were of larger diameter, in the size range 50–100 nm. The smaller particles generated during experiments grew in size with time because of coagulation. Substantial concentrations of NOX were generated during cooking on gas; four rings for 15 minutes produced 5 minute peaks of about 1000 ppb nitrogen dioxide and about 2000 ppb nitric oxide. CONCLUSIONS Cooking in a poorly ventilated kitchen may give rise to potentially toxic concentrations of numbers of particles. Very high concentrations of oxides of nitrogen may also be generated by gas cooking, and with no extraction and poor ventilation, may reach concentrations at which adverse health effects may be expected. Although respiratory effects of exposure to NOx might be anticipated, recent epidemiology suggests that cardiac effects cannot be excluded, and further investigation of this is desirable.
Understanding Popular Culture

@contents: Selected Contents: Acknowledgements Why Fiske Still Matters Henry Jenkins Reading Fiske and Understanding the Popular Kevin Glynn, Jonathan Gray and Pamela Wilson Notes on Contributors Preface Chapter 1 The Jeaning of America Chapter 2 Commodities and Culture Chapter 3 Productive Pleasures Chapter 4 Offensive Bodies and Carnival Pleasures Chapter 5 Popular Texts Chapter 6 Popular Discrimination Chapter 7 Politics References Index