Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
T-SPOT.TB assay usage in adults and children

The diagnosis and treatment of TB infection is one of the public health priorities. Until recently, diagnosis of TB infection has been based on the tuberculin skin test (TST). However, this is neither 100% sensitive nor specific for the diagnosis of TB infection owing to its many drawbacks. More recently, T-cell-based IFN-γ release assays (IGRAs) have been developed. In this article, we review the clinical performance of one of the IGRAs, T-SPOT.TB assay, for the diagnosis of TB infection in adults and children. We discuss the principle of the assay, its utility in active TB diseases, latent TB infection and the performance of the test in specialized subgroups of patients, such as immunocompromised individuals. When compared with the TST, the T-SPOT.TB assay has better specificity in bacillus Calmette–Guérin-vaccinated individuals, and data suggest that T-SPOT.TB may be more sensitive than the TST. Data in groups at high risk of progression to disease support the idea that T-SPOT.TB performs better than the TST. In addition, application of T-SPOT.TB by using bodily fluids such as cerebrospinal fluid, bronchoalveolar lavage fluid and pleural fluid may offer new diagnostic approaches in extrapulmonary TB disease. Although IGRAs cannot distinguish active TB disease from latent TB infection, these assays perform better than the TST for the detection of TB infection.
Does Development Studies Have a Core

Should graduate courses in development studies contain a core element, which would be compulsory for all students, or should students be free to take whatever combination of course elements they choose? In the end, the principal determining consideration is whether development studies in fact possesses an identifiable core of central ideas. The argument presented here is that such a core does indeed exist, and that it has three major components. The philosophical component is the development of the idea of development, in its main vicissitudes since the Scottish Enlightenment. The historical component requires the integration of studies of national development experiences with an understanding of their changing global content. The practical component involves the purging of ideological biases from existing technical knowledge, with a view to salvaging what will be needed in any conceivably desirable future social order.
Integrated performance measurement systems: a development guide

The performance management process is seen as a closed loop control system which deploys policy and strategy, and obtains feedback from various levels in order to manage the performance of the business. The performance measurement system is the information system which is at the heart of the performance management process and it is of critical importance to the effective and efficient functioning of the performance management system. Research identifies two critical elements with respect to the content and structure of the performance measurement system. These are: integrity and deployment. The viable systems model (VSM) provides a framework for assessing the integrity of the performance measurement system. The reference model developed for integrated performance measurement systems provides a framework against which performance measurement systems can be designed and audited.
Whistle-Blowing

The act of blowing the whistle on wrongdoing poses an ethical dilemma to the individual, the organization, and society. To help identify the key individual and organizational determinants that encourage or prohibit whistle-blowing in the U.S. federal government, this article presents a logistic regression analysis of survey data collected by the Merit Systems Protection Board, covering 36,926 federal employees from 24 agencies. Findings suggest that, although whistle-blowing is a rare event within most federal agencies, its likelihood is positively associated with norm-based and affective work motives, but negatively associated with several key indicators of organizational culture, including perceptions of respect and openness, cooperativeness and flexibility in the work setting, and fair treatment and trust in supervisors. This indicates intrinsic individual motives, together with organizational culture and leadership, should be taken into account when developing and sustaining policies to promote ethical behavior and responsible public service in the federal government.
Poverty, policy, and industrialization : lessons from the distant past

Pessimists say industrialization increased poverty; optimists say it did not. The authors argue that how much industrialization eradicates poverty depends on the form industrialization takes. It is not economic growth by itself, but the processes and policies associated with different growth regimes which make the poor poorer. The authors address two questions : 1) what happened to the proportionate share of the population living in poverty, and to the living standards of the poor, during nineteenth century industrial revolutions? ; and 2) why did poverty statistics behave the way they did? Modern economic growth may erode traditional entitlements that serve as safety nets in preindustrial societies. It may be convenient to think otherwise, but typically the poor in preindustrial European and North American societies were not supported by the family and private institutions. Much of the responsibility for the poor lay with the state and other formal, statelike institutions that intervened in food markets. Where laissez-faire policies were adopted during the Industrial Revolution, as in America and England, many of the poor (especially the extremely poor) became more vulnerable to adverse conditions.
The development of activity-based costing journal literature, 1987-2000

This paper contains an analysis of the activity-based costing (ABC) literature which has been accumulated in the UK and USA accounting journals over the fourteen-year period since the first articles on ABC emerged. This evidence is used both longitudinally and cross-sectionally to gain insights into how ABC started, how it has been communicated, how it has been researched, how it is constituted, how it has generated attention and how it has developed and changed. From the analysis conclusions are drawn on these issues and on the role of academic research when confronted by a new practical innovation of this type.
A Delphi Approach to the Preparation of Early-Career Agricultural Educators in the Curriculum Area of Agricultural Mechanics: Fully Qualified and Highly Motivated or Status Quo?.

According to the National Research Agenda for Agricultural Education and Communication, preservice agriculture teacher education programs should “prepare and provide an abundance of fully qualified and highly motivated agricultural educators at all levels” (Osborne, 2007, 8). The lack of preparation of entry career agricultural educators is no more apparent than in the curriculum area of agricultural mechanics. Saucier and McKim (2010) stated that all school–based agriculture educators who instruct agricultural mechanics must be technically competent and be able to safely manage the school laboratory for effective student instruction. The model for teacher preparation in agricultural education (Whittington, 2005) served as the conceptual framework. The study sought to determine the essential agricultural mechanics skill areas that Missouri agriculture educators must possess prior to beginning a career in agricultural education. Results of this study identified essential agricultural mechanics skill areas that range from laboratory management to soldering. Teacher educators and state supervisory staff should review these skill areas and plan professional development education for current Missouri agricultural educators who have in–service needs in these skill areas. In conclusion, preservice programs in Missouri should be evaluated to determine if they are indeed effectively preparing teachers in the curriculum area of agricultural mechanics.
The Emergence of Lowest‐Low Fertility in Europe During the 1990s

Lowest‐low fertility, defined as a period total fertility rate at or below 1.3, has rapidly spread in Europe during the 1990s. This article traces the emergence of this new phenomenon to the interaction of five factors. First, tempo and compositional distortions reduce the total fertility rate below the associated level of cohort fertility. Second, socioeconomic changes—including increased returns to human capital and high economic uncertainty in early adulthood—have made late childbearing a rational response for individuals and couples. Third, social interaction effects reinforce this behavioral adjustment and contribute to large and persistent postponement in the mean age at birth. Fourth, institutional settings favor an overall low quantum of fertility. Fifth, postponement–quantum interactions amplify the consequences of this institutional setting when combined with ongoing delays of child‐bearing. The article concludes with speculations about future trends in current and prospective lowest‐low‐fertility countries.
Diabetes mellitus update.

Patients with diabetes are at high risk for CVD and should be considered for evidence-based forms of intervention proven to reduce CVD risk and to decrease mortality. All patients over age 55 years with one additional risk factor should be prescribed an ACE inhibitor. All patients with diabetes over age 40 should be prescribed a statin and should be treated with 81 mg daily aspirin unless contraindicated. Proper glucose control, blood pressure control, treatment with a beta-blocker (if appropriate), and smoking cessation counseling will prevent or reduce progression of macrovascular and microvascular complications.
Stones on the Road: The Politics of Participation and the Generation of Crisis in Bolivia

This paper demonstrates that recent protests in Bolivia must be linked to the failure of efforts to improve democratic participation in the country. It argues that such failures can be traced to a history of prejudices in national development and society and persistent biases and contradictions within international development policy and institutions. Despite these obstacles, the paper concludes that ideas for appropriate development and realistic alternatives for change to government and democracy are visible in recent critical development thinking and amongst the different social and cultural groupings involved in the demonstrations.
Monetary policy implementation and the Euro area money market

This article studies the effects of monetary policy implementation on the Euro area money market. In particular, volatility of interest rates with various maturities and volatility transmission along the yield curve are analysed. It is found that the way how monetary policy is implemented affects volatility of most money market rates, except the 12-month rate. These effects are strongest at the short end of the yield curve. Notwithstanding, firms’ investment and households’ consumption decisions depend mostly on longer-term rates indicating that the operating procedures in place implement monetary policy decisions very efficiently, without inducing real costs on the economy. Furthermore, some calendar day effects, a U-shaped volatility curve and strong evidence in favour of the expectation hypothesis are documented.
Communication in repeated games with imperfect private monitoring

This paper examines repeated games in which each player observes a private and imperfect signal on the actions played and in which players are allowed to communicate using public messages. Providing incentives for players to reveal their observations generate revelation constraints which, combined with signal imperfections, may be a source of inefficiencies. However, the author shows that, by delaying the revelation of their observations, players may reduce the cost of deterring deviations. With at least three players, he obtains a Nash threat version of the folk theorem. With two players, the author shows that an efficient outcome can (almost) always be approximated.
A Study of Health Care Coverage Among Children in Immigrant Families in the Post Welfare-Reform Era

ABSTRACT The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) has targeted lawful immigrants by imposing a broad range of restrictions on access to federally funded benefit programs. Within the federal restrictions, however, states have been granted considerable latitude concerning immigrants. In Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) and Medicaid, the major benefit programs for low-income children, states are authorized to determine whether these programs are to be provided to immigrant families. First, this study examines variations in immigrant provisions across states in Medicaid, TANF, and state health care programs. Second, the study estimates the impact of state immigrant provisions in those programs on the uninsured among children of immigrants. Using the 1999 Current Population Survey (CPS), the study finds that state-funded Medicaid and state health care programs made available to ineligible immigrants (under PRWORA) significantly decrease the risk of being uninsured for children of immigrants, while controlling all other socio-economic-geographical variables. A child's citizenship is also found to be a significant and strong predictor for being uninsured among children of immigrants.
Perceived auditor independence and audit firm fees

Regulations requiring the disclosure of fees paid to an auditor for audit and non-audit services (NAS) respond to concerns that such payments are potentially detrimental to auditors' actual or perceived independence. Although empirical studies have failed to produce unequivocal evidence of detrimental effects on auditor independence, the actions of regulators, audit firms and companies are consistent with the belief that economic bonding generated by fees can impair perceived levels of auditor independence. Using a sample of UK companies over a six year period to March 2006, we study perceived impairment of auditor independence by examining the relationship between levels of total relative fees (combined audit and NAS fees payable by a company to its auditor as a proportion of the audit firm's UK income) and market value. This paper's methodological innovation is its use of a valuation framework in this setting. A further contribution lies in dropping the assumption of linearity found in most prior empirical studies. We provide evidence that shareholders perceive a threat to auditor independence only at high total relative fee levels. At lower levels, total relative fees are positively related to company value. These results suggest that disclosure of NAS and audit fees are of relevance to investors, as is information about auditor income. Our results support the view that regulation by reference to the threshold at which total relative fees are perceived negatively is more consistent with investor preferences than prohibition of the supply of NAS by auditors to their audit clients.
Does Unemployment Affect Migration?-Evidence from Micro Data

Migration is a means of improving the allocation of human resources. People living in places where they are not fully employed or most highly valued are expected to move to destinations having brighter prospects but both policymakers and migration analysts seem to have mixed opinions as to whether private market forces alone are sufficient to induce them to do so. On the one hand there has been considerable discussion of policies (e.g. relocation assistance programs) designed to affect migration directly by enabling or inducing the unemployed to move to more promising labor markets the implication being that the unemployed are not themselves sufficiently responsive to economic conditions. On the other hand policies of investment in depressed areas are based largely on the premise that expanded local economic opportunities will reduce economically forced outmigration. Available evidence has provided little guidance to policymakers and others concerned with the influence of personal and area unemployment on outmigration. Several studies using survey data (e.g. Saben 1964; Lansing and Mueller 1967) have confirmed that certain unemployed workers are more likely to migrate than employed workers; but because these studies do not use adequate controls for other characteristics that may affect migration the direct contribution of unemployment to migration cannot be determined. Studies using aggregate data to assess the relationship between unemployment and migration (e.g. Lowry 1966) have obtained mixed results but unemployment is often measured at the end of the migration period an hence may have been affected by the intervening migration. (excerpt)
Lifestyles and Mortality in Taiwan: An 11-Year Follow-up Study

The associations of modifiable lifestyle-related factors with cardiovascular and all-cause mortality were examined in a population-based sample of older Taiwanese people. A total of 4176 individuals aged 50 years and older, with 11 years of follow-up, were analyzed. Current and former smokers had a higher risk of all-cause mortality compared with never smokers ([HR = 1.33; 95% CI = 1.12, 1.58], [HR = 1.39; 95% CI = 1.16, 1.68]). Low intake of vegetables and fruits was associated with a significantly higher risk of 1.43 (95% CI = 1.13, 1.81) for cardiovascular mortality and 1.22 (95% CI = 1.09, 1.38) for all-cause mortality. The low physical activity group at baseline who became part of the low, moderate, and high physical activity groups during follow-up had the following risks of cardiovascular mortality: ([HR = 2.89; 95% CI = 1.91, 4.36], [HR = 2.17; 95% CI = 1.29, 3.63], [HR = 1.59; 95% CI = 0.90, 2.82]). Similarly, the moderate physical activity group at baseline who became part of the low, moderate, and high physical activity groups during follow-up had the following risks of cardiovascular mortality: ([HR = 3.52; 95% CI = 2.14, 5.80], [HR = 2.25; 95% CI = 1.34, 3.80], [HR = 1.44; 95% CI = 0.78, 2.66]). The same tendencies were found in all-cause mortality. Smoking, diet, and physical activity were significantly modifiable lifestyle-related factors for mortality.Besides, individuals who decreased their physical activity had a significantly higher risk, whereas those who increased their physical activity had a significantly lower risk.
Synergies between quality management and information systems: a literature review and map for further research

We review existing work on synergies between information systems (IS) and quality management systems (QMS) and propose avenues to advance them further, leading to a whole that is greater than the sum of the two parts, moving away from current practice, where the lifecycles of IS and QMS are handled independently, by different teams, equipped with disconnected tools and methodologies. We start with a literature review that makes sense of a puzzle of 91 articles published since 1979. Three focal categories of papers are identified and discussed, namely (1) IS in support of QMS, (2) QMS in support of IS, and (3) a shared view of IS and QMS. As 80% of the papers address the limited perspective of one type of system being dominant, in the second part of the paper we propose a map for further research.
Option Prices with Stochastic Interest Rates - Black/Scholes and Ho/Lee Unified

The option pricing model by Black and Scholes (1973) and the term structure model by Ho and Lee (1986) are among the most influential models of capital market theory. While Black/Scholes consider stock option prices under the assumption of a constant deterministic interest rate, Ho and Lee were the first to model the term structure of interest rates as a stochastic object where the initial term structure concides with the empirically observed one. Whereas the original Ho/Lee-paper used a binomial setting, Heath/Jarrow/Morton (1990) could describe the limit behaviour of that model which implies normally distributed interest rates. The present paper will show that a properly enriched Black/Scholes-model and an extended Ho/Lee-model are natural companions such that an option pricing model results which is compatible with Ho/Lee term structures. The method we use is stochastic discounting. We assume the economy's asset prices to be governed by a lognormally distributed stochastic discount factor which implies a term structure compatible to the limit case of the Ho/Lee model but is much more general in that it is also compatible with, e.g., the Vasicek-model of the term structure. Assuming that the stock price at maturity is lognormally distributed implies that the stock price must be log-normally distributed at any point in time and, under an additional assunmption, it follows a geometric Brownian motion as it is assumed in the classical Black/Scholes-world but, contrary to their model the volatility is no longer time-invariant. However, shifting from modelling the stock price itself to modelling the forward price of the stock proves to be the natural way to link the Black-Scholes model to stochastic interest rates. Nevertheless, it turns out that the stock price process and the process of the (term structure of) interest rate must not be specified independently of each other.Given the combined model it is an easy task to compute prices for European style derivatives as, e.g., call options on such a stock or on default-free bonds as well. The resulting option pricing formula (for the stock price) is a natural extension of the Black-Scholes-formula.
Terminally differentiated muscle cells are defective in base excision DNA repair and hypersensitive to oxygen injury

The differentiation of skeletal myoblasts is characterized by permanent withdrawal from the cell cycle and fusion into multinucleated myotubes. Muscle cell survival is critically dependent on the ability of cells to respond to oxidative stress. Base excision repair (BER) is the main repair mechanism of oxidative DNA damage. In this study, we compared the levels of endogenous oxidative DNA damage and BER capacity of mouse proliferating myoblasts and their differentiated counterpart, the myotubes. Changes in the expression of oxidative stress marker genes during differentiation, together with an increase in 8-hydroxyguanine DNA levels in terminally differentiated cells, suggested that reactive oxygen species are produced during this process. The repair of 2-deoxyribonolactone, which is exclusively processed by long-patch BER, was impaired in cell extracts from myotubes. The repair of a natural abasic site (a preferred substrate for short-patch BER) also was delayed. The defect in BER of terminally differentiated muscle cells was ascribed to the nearly complete lack of DNA ligase I and to the strong down-regulation of XRCC1 with subsequent destabilization of DNA ligase IIIα. The attenuation of BER in myotubes was associated with significant accumulation of DNA damage as detected by increased DNA single-strand breaks and phosphorylated H2AX nuclear foci upon exposure to hydrogen peroxide. We propose that in skeletal muscle exacerbated by free radical injury, the accumulation of DNA repair intermediates, due to attenuated BER, might contribute to myofiber degeneration as seen in sarcopenia and many muscle disorders.
AIDS, poverty, and hunger: challenges and responses

"In a report written by international experts in agricultural economics, health, anthropology, and nutrition.the authors examine the impacts of HIV and AIDS on labor markets and wages, household income and consumption dynamics, and on the agricultural sector as a whole; analyze the ways in which households respond to prime-age illness, death, and food insecurity; and study the implications of such local responses for the roles of national and international actors in addressing the AIDS-hunger nexus. " From Text