Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Working time reduction in the Netherlands: past developments and future prospects

The authors illustrate how, in the case of the Netherlands, different periods have been characterised by different forms of working time reduction. Whereas, during the periods between 1970 and 1975 and between 1980 and 1985, collectively agreed working time fell by over 8 per cent and by almost 6 per cent respectively, the emphasis since the mid-eighties has been on the spread of part-time employment. Without the strong reduction in working time, the "employment miracle" of the Netherlands could not be explained. In parallel with working time reduction, there has been a lengthening of plant operation times and the introduction of variable working time patterns. Now that unemployment levels have fallen considerably, the pressure for a further reduction of working time has let off.
Immigrant Anxieties: 1990s Immigration Reform and The Neoliberal Consensus

Dr. Robert Buffington, Advisor Immigrant Anxieties: 1990s Immigration Reform and the Neoliberal Consensus concentrates on the discursive intersections between immigration, anti-terrorism, and welfare reform that developed in the mid-1990s debates over immigration reform in the United States. Drawing on Michel Foucault’s work, this project analyzes the discursive strategies that created, shaped, and upheld a race-specific image of a “desirable” immigrant. I argue that government debates, media discourse, and public perception were part of a larger regime of knowledge/power that continually produced and reinforced the neoliberal ideal of a responsible, self-sufficient subject. This underlying neoliberal logic with its reductionist insistence on cost-benefit analysis foreclosed any attempt to engage in a serious moral/ethical debate about the merits and effects of the U.S. immigration system. At the same time, my research demonstrates that despite this foreclosure of the terms of debate, the mid-1990s discourse on immigration was characterized by a productive tension between its underlying neoliberal assumptions and other often contradictory values and objectives. In addition, I interrogate how long-standing and deep-seated anxieties about immigrants’ race, class, gender, and sexuality intersected with neoliberal logic in both the public discourse and the legislative process. My dissertation examines congressional debates and mainstream newspapers to illustrate how immigration discourse circulates and how these distinct discursive sites work intertextually within the larger discourse to reinforce, supplement, and even contradict each other. Chapter 3 examines the neoliberal logic behind the restructuring of the family preference category to show how Congress used an explicit pro-family rhetoric to justify measures intended to activate legal immigrants’ capacity for self-sufficient citizenship. Chapter 4 interrogates the discursive construction of “illegal aliens” as “anticitizens. ” Chapter 5 explores the linkages between media and legislative discourse. Chapter 6 focuses on the mainstream media’s use of human interest stories, demonstrating how these stories served as an important tool to negotiate widespread anxieties about immigrants’ race, class, and sexuality.
Review article: Ethnic variations on the small firm labour process

Consistent with a growing recognition that all entrepreneurs irrespective of ethnicity are grounded in social capital, we argue that the deployment of labour in UK Asian firms is best understood by reference to the mainstream literature on small firm industrial relations. Conventionally, Asian firm owners are seen as enjoying exceptional advantages through uniquely privileged access to an unusually cost-effective co-ethnic labour force. Yet reference to the general discourse shows that one of the defining features of the small firm labour process is its great diversity, with workers subject to a varying mix of control strategies. Ethnicity of ownership is only one of a range of factors here, with influences such as sectoral location, market position and managerial role requiring greater attention. Drawing both from the mainstream small business and ethnic minority business literatures and from our own Asian firm case histories in the clothing and catering industries, we demonstrate that, while ethnic ties certainly do help to shape employer-worker relations, they do not operate independently of universal forces that are ethnic-non-specific. As Kloosterman et al. (1999)’s concept of mixed embeddedness suggests, ethnic minority firms must be seen as grounded in an external structural context as well as in their own community networks.
Patterns in the Relative Price for Different Sizes of Farmed Fish

Fish farming is a biological production process dependent upon biological and environmental conditions. These constraints imply that different fish farmers are likely to have a similar distribution of different sizes of fish over time. If there are no perfect substitutes for the different sizes offish in the shortrun, this production cycle can cause different relative prices between the different sizes over the year. By studying prices for different sizes of salmon for the period 1992-98, we show that such patterns exist. This can have important implications when studying aquaculture industries and markets. We look closer at two issues — optimal harvesting decisions and aggregation.
Embryo quality in controlled ovarian stimulation for in vitro fertilization in young poor responders

Abstract This retrospective matched case control study was conducted to evaluate the effects of poor ovarian response in a group of young women (20–30 years) on embryos quality in controlled ovarian hyperstimulation (COH) for in vitro fertilization. Thirty-nine young patients with poor ovarian response (≤5 oocytes on retrieval) were enrolled and compared to age- and date-matched controls. Maximal Estradiol levels, number of oocytes aspirated, number of M2 oocytes and number of fertilized oocytes were significantly lower in the study group compared to controls. Implantation rate and rate of good quality embryos transferred of the study group and control were comparable (15.3 versus 16.3% and 62 versus 67.2%, respectively). Additionally, clinical pregnancy rate per transfer and delivery rate per transfer were also comparable (26.6 versus 35.8% and 23.3 versus 30.7%, respectively). The rate of cycles with no transfer, however, was 23.07% in the study group compared to zero cycles with no transfer in the control group. We conclude that young poor responders may still have reasonable proportion of good quality embryos when compared to controls. This results in comparable implantation rate and clinical pregnancy rate. Cycle transfer cancelation, however, represents a true barrier for achieving pregnancy. Chinese abstract 这项回顾性配对对照研究试验是评估一组年轻女性（20-30岁）的卵巢低反应对体外受精控制性超促排卵的胚胎质量的影响。 卵巢低反应（获得≦5个卵母细胞）的39名年轻患者与年龄和 日期匹配的进行对照。 试验组雌二醇的最高值，抽吸获得卵母细胞的数量，M2 期卵母细胞的数量和受精卵的数量都显著低于对照组。 试验组和对照组种植率及转移优质胚胎率相比（分别是15.3比16.3％和62比67.2％）。 此外，每个移植周期临床妊娠率和分娩率是可比较的（分别为26.6比35.8％和23.3比30.7％）。 然而，试验组未移植周期率是23.07％，对照组未移植周期率是0％。 我们的结论是相比于对照组，低反应的年轻女性仍可能有合理的优质胚胎比例。 这导致相似的种植率和临床妊娠率。 然而，移植周期的取消，是实现妊娠的真正障碍。
Diasporas and Dollars: Transnational Ties and the Transformation of Cuba

2 ABSTRACT DIASPORAS AND DOLLARS: TRANSNATIONAL TIES AND THE TRANSFORMATION OF CUBA For many Third World countries, remittances are becoming a more important source of funds than foreign aid, bank loans, and foreign investment, as families find their own transnational solutions to limited homeland economic opportunities. This is true in socialist Cuba as well as in poor market economies. The impact of remittances, however, is contingent on the social relations and social structures in which the foreign currency becomes embedded. What may be good for recipients may be a " mixed bag " for states with their own institutional concerns. Although as a Communist regime Cuba appears to be a strong state with a weak society, remittance dynamics are transforming and undermining as well as bolstering the state. Concomitantly, remittances are strengthening society, but within a transnationalized context, and differentially. Conditions conducive to remittance-sending and the results of the informal dollarization are described and analyzed below, with comparisons made to trends in Central American countries with similar " open " economies but different regime types.
Conservation agriculture, organic marketing, and collective action in the Honduran hillsides

Conservation agriculture (CA) is often perceived to provide "win-win" outcomes for farmers leading to reduced erosion and off-site sedimentation, as well as improved soil fertility and productivity. However, adoption rates for CA in many regions of the world remain below expected levels. This article looks at the effects of participation in organic markets and farmers' organizations on the adoption of soil conservation practices. Based on original survey data from 241 small-scale farm households in Honduras, we find that both participation in organic markets and farmer-based groups have positive effects on the number of soil conservation practices adopted. The results indicate that besides supply-oriented policy measures, such as the provision of technical assistance and extension, demand-related factors are likely to play an important role in sustainable soil management. Demand-oriented policy measures include support for labeling initiatives and consumer education to facilitate value-added product differentiation and market segmentation. Copyright (c) 2010 International Association of Agricultural Economists.
Probiotics, prebiotics and competitive exclusion for prophylaxis against bacterial disease

Abstract The microbial population of the intestinal tract is a complex natural resource that can be utilized in an effort to reduce the impact of pathogenic bacteria that affect animal production and efficiency, as well as the safety of food products. Strategies have been devised to reduce the populations of food-borne pathogenic bacteria in animals at the on-farm stage. Many of these techniques rely on harnessing the natural competitive nature of bacteria to eliminate pathogens that negatively impact animal production or food safety. Thus feed products that are classified as probiotics, prebiotics and competitive exclusion cultures have been utilized as pathogen reduction strategies in food animals with varying degrees of success. The efficacy of these products is often due to specific microbial ecological factors that alter the competitive pressures experienced by the microbial population of the gut. A few products have been shown to be effective under field conditions and many have shown indications of effectiveness under experimental conditions and as a result probiotic products are widely used in all animal species and nearly all production systems. This review explores the ecology behind the efficacy of these products against pathogens found in food animals, including those that enter the food chain and impact human consumers.
Consuming private security: Consumer citizenship and defensive urbanism in Singapore

Recent scholarship in criminology has suggested that we are witnessing the emergence of an uneven patchwork of urban policing and security provision, increasingly determined by the ability and willingness of consumers to pay for private security goods and services. In particular, it has been argued that the commodification of urban policing and private security has given rise to new forms of ‘consumer citizenship’ and identity and alongside these, the creation of new secured spaces of consumption. This article seeks to examine one specific manifestation of such a security product—the gated community. While the proliferation of gated communities and the frantic construction of such ‘architecture of fear’ (Ellin, 1997) have often been associated with an American-style ‘defensive urbanism’, the emergence of such security-enhanced urban landscapes is invariably time and place specific. Using the context of Singapore, a city-state with strong state control and relatively low crime rate, the article traces the development of such enclosed residential enclaves to show how the rise of private policing and security are bound up in the creation of fortified residential spaces in which an exclusive social-spatial order comes to be defined and enforced.
Credit, Vacancies and Unemployment Fluctuations

Propagation in equilibrium models of search unemployment is altered when vacancy costs require some external financing on frictional credit markets. The easing of financing constraints during an expansion as firms accumulate net worth reduces the opportunity cost for resources allocated to job creation. The dynamics of market tightness are affected by (i) a cost channel, increasing the incentive to recruit for a given benefit from a new hire, and (ii) a wage channel, whereby firms' improved bargaining position limits the upward pressure of market tightness on wages. Agency related credit frictions endogenously generate persistence in the dynamics of labor-market tightness, and have a moderate endogenous effect on amplification.
In Defense of Intercountry Adoption

A dramatic increase in foreign adoptions in this country over the past ten years and an ever-growing demand have raised complex new policy issues on both national and local fronts. While adoptive applicants seem motivated by concern for the plight of orphaned or abandoned children in developing countries, child-welfare spokesmen have publicly warned of the risks involved and have challenged the advisability of removing children from their native lands. At the same time, local public and private agencies, confronted with a surge of home-study requests from applicants for foreign children, have been uncertain whether or how to respond. The customary focus on the child in adoption planning becomes inappropriate when this responsibility falls completely beyond the jurisdiction of U.S. agencies. In an effort to bring some order to a subject replete with philosophical and practical dilemmas, the author examines the most common criticisms of intercountry adoption, attempts to provide a broader factual basis of understanding, and offers some suggestions for a constructive approach by the social work profession.
Sex Chromosomes and Male Functions: Where Do New Genes Go?

The position of a gene in the genome may have important consequences for its function. Therefore, when a new duplicate gene arises, its location may be critical in determining its fate. Our recent work in humans, mouse, and Drosophila provided a test by studying the patterns of duplication in sex chromosome evolution. We revealed a bias in the generation and recruitment of new gene copies involving the X chromosome that has been shaped largely by selection for male germline functions. The gene movement patterns we observed reflect an ongoing process as some of the new genes are very young while others were present before the divergence of humans and mouse. This suggests a continuing redistribution of male-related genes to achieve a more efficient allocation of male functions. This notion should be further tested in organisms employing other sex determination systems or in organisms differing in germline X chromosome inactivation. It is likely that the selective forces that were detected in these studies are also acting on other types of duplicate genes. As a result, future work elucidating sex chromosome differentiation by other mutational mechanisms will shed light on this important process.
Job Openings, Hirings, and Unmet Demand: A New Approach to the Matching Function and the Beveridge Curve

Firms create ‘vacancies’ in one sense (recruitment processes) in order to avoid ‘vacancies’ in another sense (unmet demand). The paper clarifies the different roles of these two concepts in labour market analysis, not only when interpreting Beveridge curves and matching functions, but also when analysing the effect of recruitment problems on employment at the firm level.
A multidimensional study of the key determinants of effective SME marketing activity: Part 1

This monograph is the consequence of a variety of experiences. It reflects an interest in SMEs and entrepreneurship stretching back almost 17 years from the author’s days in the fresh food industry. It reflects knowledge from a series of studies and projects in which the author has been engaged since commencement of an academic career in 1990. In particular, it reflects the findings of a five‐year piece of doctoral research that the author conducted with 57 firms in Ireland and the UK between 1995‐1999. The study seeks to identify the key determinants of SME marketing activity. The research objectives focused on determining a framework of marketing competencies for SMEs, the extent of formal marketing processes practised, and how SME marketing decisions are made. Further research objectives emerged (these were inductive in nature) that focused on determining the extent of the sales orientation in SMEs and on gaining insights into the use and character of the contact networks of the individuals who manage .
Applicability of existing anonymization methods to large location history data in urban travel

Service providers want to know user attributes and recorded information in order to improve more satisfaction of the people, or the efficiency of their services by offering services specialized to the users' preferences. However, since they choose wrong way to collect, classify, analysis, use or disclose to others, of personal information, it may exceed the explicit or implicit of the user regarding the provision of personal information. So far, many anonymization methods for those data have been proposed to solve this problem. As one of anonymous method, we focus on k-anonymization technique to realize a `forest from the trees' as described above. In papers in which these methods are proposed, only qualitative analyze or examples are shown that demonstrate the usefulness of anonymized data, which are the outputs of those methods. Since it is generally said that, if the size of data gets bigger, the anonymization of data becomes easier, those methods have not been applied to real huge data. In this paper, we transform the travel records of 722,000 people traveling by train in the Tokyo area with our proposed anonymization methods, analyze the degree to which each of the results is useful, and conclude that the results are useless even when anonymity level is set to low.
Modification of cation permeability of rabbit descending colon by sulphydryl reagents.

1. Addition of the organic mercurials mersalyl, p‐chloromercuribenzoate, and p‐chloromercuribenzene sulphonate to the Ringer solution (140 mM‐Na) bathing the luminal side of isolated epithelia of rabbit descending colon increases short‐circuit current (Isc) and tissue conductance (Gt) when the spontaneous Isc is below 2‐3 muequiv/cm2 hr. 2. The stimulation of Isc by mersalyl is due to an increase in Na absorption, simultaneously K secretion is induced, whereas Cl absorption is not affected. 3. Mersalyl inhibits Isc at Na concentrations below 50 mM. The Na concentration at which Isc is half‐maximal (KNa) is shifted by mersalyl from 25 to 133 mM. The overshoot in Isc to a peak volume of 5 muequiv/cm2 hr observed when Na‐depleted tissues are suddenly exposed to Na is markedly depressed by mersalyl. 4. Mersalyl inhibits non‐competitively the blocking effect of amiloride on Isc. Both the stimulation of Isc and the inhibition of the amiloride effect by mersalyl have the same time course (half‐time of the effects 30‐40 min) and similar concentration‐response curve (half‐maximal effects with 2.0‐2.6 x 10(‐4) M), indicating a common mechanism. 5. The mersalyl effects on Isc and on the amiloride action are only partially reversed by dimercaptopropanol. p‐Chloromercuribenzoate conjugated with dextran (mol. wt. 10,000) elicited the same effects as mersalyl. 6. The stoichiometry of the mersalyl‐amiloride interaction, estimated by use of the Hill plot, is 1:1; a Hill coefficient of 1 was also obtained for the stimulating effect of mersalyl on Isc. 7. It is concluded that one sulphydryl group per luminal Na entry site controls both its Na conductance and cation selectivity. Titration of these sulphydryl groups by organic mercurials appear to fix the conductance of the luminal Na entry mechanism in a submaximal position and prevent its modulation by amiloride or variations in intra‐ and/or extracellular Na concentrations.
Parliament on the Centre-Right, Government on the Left: Explaining Basque Exceptionalism

The Autonomous Elections of 2009 entailed a large change in Basque politics, given that the PNV, the party that had been governing the Basque institutions continuously since 1980, was removed from power by the PSE–EE. However, the Basques did not vote very differently compared to other elections, the majority voting for nationalist parties, as it has been doing since 1980, and for centre-right parties, as it had done at the beginning of the autonomy and as of 2001. In this article, we aim to explain how, despite this clear tendency towards nationalism and the centre-right, a leftist and non-nationalist party is currently governing in the Basque Country.
Efficiency and Federalism in the European Union - the Optimal Assignment of Policy Tasks to Different Levels of Government

This paper surveys the theoretical and empirical research on the efficient assignment of policy tasks to different levels of government and applies the results on the delimitation of competences within the European Union. The main results are: (i) A precise derivation of an optimal degree of decentralisation is not possible because of mixed theoretical suggestions. the adequate degree of decentralisation has to be detected case-by-case. (ii) Systematic evidence on direct relationships between economic performance and fiscal decentralisation is ambiguous and scarce. (iii) Comparing the de facto delimitation of EU-competences with the normative recommendations, remarkable discrepancies arise in the fields of agriculture and defence. (iv) The establishment of a flexible assignment-scheme by the European Convention is an undeniable necessity in order to guarantee reversibility and to cope efficiently with changing general conditions.
Clinical significance of nested polymerase chain reaction and immunofluorescence for detection of Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia.

OBJECTIVE To study the clinical significance of a nested polymerase chain reaction (PCR) method compared to immunofluorescence (IF) for detection of Pneumocystis carinii. METHODS The medical records of 89 patients with 91 episodes of pneumonia were scrutinised retrospectively. The pneumonia episodes were divided into categories according to the likelihood that the patient had had clinical Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia (PCP). All respiratory tract samples from the 89 patients (34 broncho-alveolar lavage (BAL) and 57 sputa) were tested for Pneumocystis carinii by IF and nested PCR. RESULTS Fifteen episodes, as diagnosed by IF, were classified as true PCP (combination of the groups with definite and probable PCP; sensitivity 60%, specificity 97%). Among the P. carinii DNA-positive episodes, detected with nested PCR, 24 were classified as true PCP (combination of the groups with definite and probable PCP; sensitivity 96%, specificity 59%), since all IF-positive samples were nested PCR positive. Only one pneumonia episode classified as a probable PCP, was negative with both methods, as applied to a BAL sample. CONCLUSIONS IF applied to BAL or sputum seems to be the most specific method for diagnosis of clinical PCP. Additional clinical cases can be found by nested PCR, although this then gives a high risk of detecting subclinical colonisation of P. carinii.