Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A review essay on child well-being measurement: uncovering the paths for future research

The research on indicators on the state of child well-being is a growing field and one that has experienced several changes through time. Due to the growing supply of data on children, and in order to facilitate conclusions and tracking trends, researchers have been led to develop child well-being summary indexes. Several proposals have already been presented. In the present work, we critically review the most prominent summary child well-being indexes recently constructed, the Index of Child and Youth Well-Being in the United States, the Child Well-being Index for the European Union, the Microdata Child Well-Being Index, and the Deprivation Index. The examination is carried out according to the contributions and innovations the indexes have brought to the field. A critical assessment of the methods used in the construction of the indexes is made and their main limitations identified. Accordingly, some future lines of research to improve child well-being measurement through summary indexes are put forward.
Decision Making on Integrated Nutrient Management through the Eyes of the Scientist, the Land-user and the Policy Maker

Nutrients are transported all over the world through fertilizer imports, exports of agricultural commodities, massive erosion in some places and gross volatilization and leaching in high-input/high-output agricultural systems. In other words, more or less balanced natural ecosystems have turned into highly unbalanced agricultural systems. Figure 20.1 shows the inputs and outputs that make up the nutrient balance of a farming system. In many managed ecosystems, the sum of inputs minus the sum of outputs is far from zero, putting the sustainability of such systems at risk. The figure at the same time shows that only IN 1 and 2, and OUT 1 and 2 are normally valued in economic terms. The other INs and OUTs certainly have an economic value, but this is less apparent to mainstream economists. In general terms, one can say that large parts of the ‘developed’ world have a large surplus of inputs (Oenema et al., 1998; Goh and Williams, 1999). Availability of cheap fertilizers (IN 1) stimulated their liberal use, and contributed to substantial crop yield increases. Moreover, import of cheap animal feeds from developing countries (IN
Lumbar Scoliosis in Patients With Breast Cancer: Prevalence and Relationship With Breast Cancer Treatment, Age, Bone Mineral Density, and Body Mass Index

Objective To identify the prevalence of lumbar scoliosis in breast cancer patients and to investigate the potential risk factors of lumbar scoliosis. Methods A retrospective chart review was performed in breast cancer patients aged more than 40 years who underwent dual energy X-ray absorptiometry (DEXA) scanning between January 2014 and December 2014. We divided the patients into control and experimental groups in order to investigate the influence of breast cancer treatment. The curvature of the lumbar spine was measured by using the Cobb method on a DEXA scan. Scoliosis was defined by the presence of a curvature 10° or larger. The variables, including age, bone mineral density (BMD), body mass index (BMI), and breast cancer treatments, were also obtained from the medical chart. Prevalence of lumbar scoliosis was evaluated, and it was compared between the two groups. The relationships between lumbar scoliosis and these variables were also investigated. Results Lumbar scoliosis was present in 16 out of our 652 breast cancer patients. There was no difference in the prevalence of lumbar scoliosis between the control group (7/316) and the experimental group (9/336) (p=0.70). According to the logistic regression analysis, lumbar scoliosis had no significant association with operation, chemotherapy, hormone therapy, BMI, and BMD (p>0.05). However, age showed a significant relationship with prevalence of lumbar scoliosis (p<0.001; odds ratio, 1.11; 95% confidence interval, 1.054–1.170). Conclusion Prevalence of lumbar scoliosis in patients with breast cancer was 2.45%. Lumbar scoliosis had no association with breast cancer treatments, BMD, and BMI. Age was the only factor related to the prevalence of lumbar scoliosis.
Plasma Exchange in Five Patients with Acute Guillain Barré syndrome

During the last 3 years plasma exchanges were undertaken in 5 patients with acute Guillain Barré syndrome (G.B.S.). All the patients were admitted in the intensive respiratory care unit and had received six plasma exchange procedures over two weeks (each procedure consists of 2–3 L exchange). The first patient improved dramatically after the second exchange. Moderate success was obtained in two patients. One patient did not show any effect. The fifth patient received plasma exchange one day after her recovery phase had begun but the course of recovery remained uneffected. The effect of plasma exchange was analysed as the patients’ response to motor activity, and compaired with a historical control group consisting of 50 acute G.B.S. patients admitted in the intensive respiratory care area over the last 25 years. Plasma exchange does not seem to have excerted any significant effect although at any given time the plasma exchange group had higher motor activity than that of the control group. A controlled clinical trial especially in the early phase of the disease is emphasized.
Precursors of alpha-inhibin modulate follicle-stimulating hormone receptor binding and biological activity

Although several forms of monomeric α-inhibin have been isolated from follicular fluid, no biological function has yet been ascribed to these posttranslationally processed forms of the α-subunit precursor protein. Moreover, previous studies of a FSH receptor binding competitor (FRBC) isolated and characterized from porcine follicular fluid (pFF) suggested certain biochemical similarities between this protein and ainhibin precursors. We, therefore, investigated the hypothesis that α-inhibin and/or its precursors might represent autocrine and/or paracrine modulators of FSH action in the ovary, accounting for some of this FRBC activity and thereby exerting some degree of regulation over follicular maturation, Three separate sources of α-inhibin proteins were investigated for FRBC activity, including pFF, human FF (hFF), and a 293 cell line into which the full-length human α-inhibin cDNA had been stably transfected. Conditioned medium from these transfected cells contained several forms of α-inhibtn precursor.
Epidemiology of Traumatic Spinal Cord Injury in Canada

Study Design. Retrospective review. Objective. To describe the incidence, clinical features, and treatment of traumatic spinal cord injury (SCI) treated at a Canadian tertiary care center. Summary of Background Data. Understanding the current epidemiology of acute traumatic SCI is essential for public resource allocation and primary prevention. Recent reports suggest that the mean age of patients with SCI may be increasing. Methods. We retrospectively reviewed hospital records on all patients with traumatic SCI between January 1997 and June 2001 (n = 151). Variables assessed included age, gender, length of hospitalization, type and mechanism of injury, associated spinal fractures, neurologic deficit, and treatment. Results. Annual age-adjusted incidence rates were 42.4 per million for adults aged 15–64 years, and 51.4 per million for those 65 years and older. Motor vehicle accidents accounted for 35% of SCI. Falls were responsible for 63% of SCI among patients older than 65 years and for 31% of injuries overall. Cervical SCI was most common, particularly in the elderly, and was associated with fracture in only 56% of cases. Thoracic and lumbar SCI were associated with spinal fractures in 100% and 85% of cases, respectively. In-hospital mortality was 8%. Mortality was significantly higher among the elderly. Treatment of thoracic and lumbar fractures associated with SCI was predominantly surgical, whereas cervical fractures were equally likely to be treated with external immobilization alone or with surgery. Conclusion. A large proportion of injuries was seen among older adults, predominantly as a result of falls. Prevention programs should expand their focus to include home safety and avoidance of falls in the elderly.
The Value Premium on the Danish Stock Market

A number of influential studies have documented a strong value premium for US stocks over the period 1963 to 1990 (Fama and French (1992), Lakonishok et al. (1994)). Stocks with low price-earnings multiples, price-book values and other measures of value are reported to have given a higher mean return than the high multiple growth firms. Work by Basu (1997) and others have shown that the value dominance is also a feature of the earlier market history of the United States. The value premium is reported also to exist in a number of other countries over the period 1975 to 1995 (Fama and French (1998)). The results for these markets are based on Morgan Stanley (MSCI) data. Since these data are softer due to a relatively short time horizon and due to a small number of stocks in some cases down at 10 stocks, the conclusions are likely to be less robust. There is therefore a need for more research on this issue. The purpose of this paper is to report evidence for the Danish stock market and to test whether the value premium is a genuine long-term feature of the market or just a phenomenon that pops up now and then. To research this issue we have collected accounting and stock market data for more than half a century. We report in particular on the insights obtained when portfolios are formed on the basis of the price-earnings multiple. The paper shows that there is a value premium. The paper also analyzes whether the premium is likely to be due to risk (Fama and French (1992,98)) or mispricing as emphasized by the Behavioral Finance School (Chan et al. (2000), Lakonishok et al. (1994) and La Porta et al. (1997)).
The Impact of the Asian Financial Crisis on Human Resource Management in Malaysia

The 1997–98 Asian Financial Crisis had a major impact on human resource management (HRM) in Malaysia. It provided a context for much needed reform and stimulated the process of change already taking place. Malaysia is a constitutional democracy with a population of 25.5 million, of which 70 per cent are below the age of 35 and 58 per cent are urban residents. The rapid growth of an urban-based working class and professional middle class was hastened by the export-oriented industrialization policy intrinsic to the New Economic Policy (NEP) of 1971–1990, which sought to eradicate poverty and overcome the identification of occupation with ethnicity. A former British colony, Malaysia is distinguished by its multi-ethnic social structure consisting of approximately 60 per cent Malay Muslims, formerly associated with rural peasant agriculture, 30 per cent Malaysian Chinese, associated with urban commerce and ten per cent Malaysian Indians and others, the Indians being formerly associated with rural plantation labour. Since the NEP era, Malaysia has been highly dependent on foreign direct investment (FDI), and hence foreign management software (Smith, 2000, 2003) and did achieve rapid economic growth in the three decades before the crisis. Hence the intercultural and cross-cultural dynamics of Malaysia’s socio-economy are a backdrop to any discussion of Malaysian HRM (Asma, 2001). The Crisis threw into prominence two of these three main contexts for HRM practice in Malaysia. Firstly, the dependence of the Malaysian economy on FDI and hence global pressures on foreign firms which translate into their staffing policies in the Malaysian ventures. Secondly, the pervasive influence of pre-NEP social networks and hierarchical patron–client relationships which manifest at the informal level as a ‘culture’ within which the formal practices of a modern HRM system operate. The third context, the multi-ethnic nature of Malaysian society does not appear to have been a significant element in the outcome the crisis produced. The dramatic impact of the Crisis on Malaysia is demonstrated by the plunge in the growth rate from over 9 per cent per annum, a level it had held for four years from 1993–96, to 7.3 in 1997, then to 2 7.4 per cent in 1998, although it bounced back to 5.8 in 1999 and 7.5 in 2000. (Ragayah, 2002). By August 1998, the ringgit had depreciated by 40 per cent against the dollar and the stock market declined by 72 per cent. (Ragayah, 2002: 4) Nevertheless, Malaysia coped with the crisis better than her Southeast Asian neighbours. On top of the former Prime Minister Mahathir’s successful independent stance vis-à-vis the IMF, by instituting early capital controls and containing the Crisis successfully at
Social Cohesion and Multilevel Urban Governance

Much has been written about cities in the information age, most of it either positively visionary or, conversely, apocalyptic in nature. In an echo of concerns raised by early sociologists about the effects of rapid urbanisation a century ago, urban theorists have been pessimistic of late. New pressures of the informational age, the global economy and a new competitively oriented social policy and welfare state are said to be bearing down on cities and neighbourhoods to produce a new crisis of social cohesion. Reich (1991) argues that in the past there was a greater correspondence between the interests of economic élites and the masses at the local level, when loyalty to one’s city and public investment in it corresponded with selfinterest and was expected to bring eventual rewards to all. Now, however, he goes on to ask whether the
Impact of wind-blown snow redistribution on melt ponds in a coupled ocean – sea ice model

In order to study the large-scale influence of snow depth changes due to windredistribution on melt pond formation, an explicit melt pond scheme is introduced into a coupled ocean–sea ice model. For the first time, such a model includes new snow thermophysics and a wind-blown snow redistribution parameterization. The comparison of long-term mean statistics of melt pond fractions against observations demonstrates realistic melt pond cover on average over Arctic sea ice, but a clear underestimation of the pond coverage on the multiyear ice (MYI) of the western Arctic Ocean. The latter shortcoming originates from the concealing effect of persistent snow on forming ponds, impeding their growth. Analyzing a second simulation with intensified snow drift enables the identification of two distinct modes of sensitivity in the melt pond formation process. First, the larger proportion of wind-transported snow that is lost in leads directly curtails the late spring snow volume on sea ice and facilitates the early development of melt ponds on MYI. In contrast, a combination of higher air temperatures and thinner snow prior to the onset of melting sometimes make the snow cover switch to a regime where it melts entirely and rapidly. In the latter situation, seemingly more frequent on first-year ice (FYI), a smaller snow volume directly relates to a reduced melt pond cover. Notwithstanding, changes in snow and water accumulation on seasonal sea ice is naturally limited, which lessens the impacts of wind-blown snow redistribution on FYI, as compared to those on MYI. At the basin scale, the overall increased melt pond cover results in decreased ice volume via the ice-albedo feedback in summer, which is experienced almost exclusively by MYI.
Creating a sense of auditory space

Determining the location of a sound source requires the use of binaural hearing – information about a sound at the two ears converges onto neurones in the auditory brainstem to create a binaural representation. The main binaural cue used by many mammals to locate a sound source is the interaural time difference, or ITD. For over 50 years a single model has dominated thinking on how ITDs are processed. The Jeffress model consists of an array of coincidence detectors – binaural neurones that respond maximally to simultaneous input from each ear – innervated by a series of delay lines – axons of varying length from the two ears. The purpose of this arrangement is to create a topographic map of ITD, and hence spatial position in the horizontal plane, from the relative timing of a sound at the two ears. This model appears to be realized in the brain of the barn owl, an auditory specialist, and has been assumed to hold for mammals also. Recent investigations, however, indicate that both the means by which neural tuning for preferred ITD, and the coding strategy used by mammals to determine the location of a sound source, may be very different to barn owls and to the model proposed by Jeffress.
When Ethics Travel: The Promise and Peril of Global Business Ethics

The central challenge in managing business ethics in a global economy is to navigate cross-national cultural differences. This article proposes an approach called Integrative Social Contract Theory (ISCT) in order to assist managers in avoiding the perils of both ethical relativism and global ethical uniformity. ISCT allows for tolerance without amoralism. It can be applied to help managers distinguish between those business practices that reflect legitimate differences in local customs—which must be respected —and those which violate "hypemorms" held by all cultures and organizations. Bribery generally falls into the latter category.
Factors Affecting Health Information Technology Expenditure in California Hospitals

This paper investigates the factors affecting health information technology IT investment. Different from previous studies, health IT was measured as the dollar amount of hardware, software and labor related health IT. This study employed Hospital and Patient level data of the Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development OSHPD from 2000 to 2006. The generalized linear model GLM was employed with log link and normal distribution and controlled for clustering error. This study found that not-for-profit and government hospital, teaching hospitals, competition, health IT expenditure of neighborhood hospitals were positively associated with health IT expenditure. However, rural hospitals were negatively associated with health IT expenditure. Moreover, this study found a significant increase in health IT investment over seven years resulted from increased clinical IT adoption.
Reimagining the microscope in the 21st century using the scalable adaptive graphics environment

Background: Whole-slide imaging (WSI), while technologically mature, remains in the early adopter phase of the technology adoption lifecycle. One reason for this current situation is that current methods of visualizing and using WSI closely follow long-existing workflows for glass slides. We set out to "reimagine" the digital microscope in the era of cloud computing by combining WSI with the rich collaborative environment of the Scalable Adaptive Graphics Environment (SAGE). SAGE is a cross-platform, open-source visualization and collaboration tool that enables users to access, display and share a variety of data-intensive information, in a variety of resolutions and formats, from multiple sources, on display walls of arbitrary size. Methods: A prototype of a WSI viewer app in the SAGE environment was created. While not full featured, it enabled the testing of our hypothesis that these technologies could be blended together to change the essential nature of how microscopic images are utilized for patient care, medical education, and research. Results: Using the newly created WSI viewer app, demonstration scenarios were created in the patient care and medical education scenarios. This included a live demonstration of a pathology consultation at the International Academy of Digital Pathology meeting in Boston in November 2014. Conclusions: SAGE is well suited to display, manipulate and collaborate using WSIs, along with other images and data, for a variety of purposes. It goes beyond how glass slides and current WSI viewers are being used today, changing the nature of digital pathology in the process. A fully developed WSI viewer app within SAGE has the potential to encourage the wider adoption of WSI throughout pathology.
Working Paper 18-10 - Comparaison des composantes de la croissance de la productivité : Belgique, Allemagne, France et Pays-Bas 1996-2007

‐ Afin de mieux comprendre la faible croissance de la productivité du travail en Belgique, sur la période 1996‐2007, ce working paper fournit pour ce pays et ses trois voisins, d’abord une analyse des niveaux de productivité et, ensuite, une décomposition de la croissance de la productivité selon la méthode de la comptabilité de la croissance pour les principales branches d’activité de l’économie marchande. Cette décomposition permet de souligner la contribution relativement importante de l’intensification en capital de la production dans la plupart des branches d’activité tant de l’industrie manufacturière que des services marchands. Cette augmentation du capital par heure prestée est principalement une augmentation en quantité dans l’industrie manufacturière et en qualité (effet de composition des investissements) dans les services marchands. Parallèlement, la décomposition de la croissance de la productivité du travail permet aussi de souligner la faiblesse relative de la croissance de la productivité totale des facteurs, c’est‐à‐dire de l’efficacité dans la combinaison des facteurs de production, dans la majorité des branches d’activité de l’économie marchande belge. Jel Classification – C82, D24, E22, E32, F43.
Influence of large-scale installation of energy saving lamps on the line Voltage distortion of a weak network supplied by photovoltaic station

The aim of this research is to calculate and analyze the harmonic distortion extent caused in weak low-voltage networks due to a possible large-scale installation of the widely spread compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs). The research uses data from laboratory measurements of the produced harmonic currents by CFLs, as well as field measurements of the harmonic content and other characteristic measurements of the electric network of a small Greek island, which is supplied by an autonomous photovoltaic (PV) station. The PV station is also a harmonic generator by itself. This fact combined with other highly nonlinear loads-such as CFLs-causes serious problems at the network power quality as undesirable harmonic components are induced. The whole network is simulated and three scenarios of CFL installation extent are considered, so that the harmonic flow analysis reveals the influence in the power quality. It is examined whether this weak low-voltage electric network is able to keep the total harmonic distortion factor at all nodes under 8%, as more and more CFLs are installed. The conclusions drawn from this analysis are important and must be taken into account in every electric network design.
Analytical Option Pricing for Time Dependent Quadratic Local Volatility Models

In this note we develop accurate analytical pricing formulas for time dependent quadratic local volatility models. We derive a set of exact simple analytical expressions for option prices when parameters are constant and provide novel and simpler proofs to already exisiting results. We then build a general framework for deriving analytical expansions for time dependent local volatility models and use these to deduce averaging formulas which enable us to transform any time-dependent quadratic volatility model onto an equivalent constant parameter one. We show the accuracy of these methods through numerical examples.