Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Vietnam in 2007: A Profile in Economic and Socio-Political Dynamism

The year 2007 witnessed a continuation of a five-year dynamic momentum evident on several fronts, notably a fast-growing economy and a vivid sociopolitical landscape, coupled with an active diplomacy. People's standard of living has improved and a sense of confidence and hope in a better future has permeated the populace. Viet Nam's scorecard on the diplomatic front continued to show impressive gains. Yet, momentum can be sustained only if limitations in institutions, education, and infrastructure can be addressed effectively.
Social innovation in living labs: the micro-level process model of public-private partnerships

Social innovation can be studied within living labs, where learning between organisations and users is supported through the use of technology. Living labs are considered innovation intermediaries in enabling the co-creation of solutions to cope with the user's needs. The fields of organisational innovation and user innovation can build an understanding about living labs and the process of introducing social innovation. The empirical field of this research is based on five living labs that are managed by public-private partnerships in the Trentino territory in Italy. This research proposes a micro-level process model for the development of social innovation within living labs. The model suggests that the interaction between organisations and users can be guaranteed through ambidexterity, learning, collaboration and empowerment. This research defines that social innovation in living labs (SILL) is an organisational form which is managed by public-private partnerships in order to conceive solutions that would address specific needs of citizens.
A Classical Macroeconometric Model for the United States

A statistical definition of the natural unemployment rate hypothesis is advanced and tested. A particular illustrative structural macroeconomic model satisfying the definition is set forth and estimated. The model has "classical" policy implications, implying a number of neutrality propositions asserting the invariance of the conditional means of real variables with respect to the feedback rule for the money supply. The aim is to test how emphatically the data reject a model incorporating rather severe classical hypotheses.
Quantifying Non-Tariff Trade Barriers: What Difference Did 9/11 Make to Canadian Cross-Border Shopping?

Dans cet article, je quantifie l’effet du resserrement des mesures de sécurité mises en place après le 11 septembre 2001 sur le volume de magasinage outre-frontière fait par les Canadiens aux États-Unis. Les résultats, obtenus grâce à une version étendue du modèle de magasinage outre-frontière de Ferris (2000), suggèrent que, après le 11 septembre 2001, le nombre de Canadiens se rendant aux États-Unis pour une journée a diminué, et que cette baisse, chaque mois, est de 300 000 à 600 000 visiteurs, ce qui représente environ le quart du nombre observé avant le resserrement des mesures de sécurité.
Soluble p-selectin and the risk of primary graft dysfunction after lung transplantation.

BACKGROUND Platelet activation with subsequent neutrophilic adherence to the vasculature initiates ischemia-reperfusion injury. We hypothesized that higher plasma P-selectin levels reflecting platelet activation would therefore be associated with primary graft dysfunction (PGD) after lung transplantation. METHODS In a prospective, multicenter cohort study of 376 patients who had undergone lung transplantation between 2002 and 2007, we measured soluble P-selectin levels before lung transplantation and at 6 and 24 h after lung reperfusion in 20 patients with grade III PGD (Pao(2)/fraction of inspired oxygen, < 200 mm Hg [with alveolar infiltrates seen on chest radiographs]) at 72 h after transplantation and 61 control subjects without PGD. RESULTS Higher postoperative soluble P-selectin levels were associated with an increased risk of PGD at 72 h after transplantation (odds ratio [OR] per 1 natural log increase in soluble P-selectin at 6 h after lung allograft reperfusion, 3.5; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.01 to 11.8; p = 0.048) and at 24 h after lung allograft reperfusion (OR, 4.8; 95% CI, 1.4 to 16.1; p = 0.01). Higher preoperative mean pulmonary artery pressure and the use of cardiopulmonary bypass were also associated with an increased risk of PGD. CONCLUSION Higher postoperative soluble P-selectin levels were associated with an increased risk of PGD at 72 h following lung transplantation.
Design of stepped impedance resonator bandpass hairpin filter

According to the analysis of stepped impedance resonator and interdigital capacitance loading loop resonator, a design of the elliptic or quasi-elliptic bandpass filter is proposed in this paper. With the cross-coupling, the performance of filters can be enhanced greatly by introducing transmission zeros near the passband frequencies. Otherwise, the filter can change the frequency of the spurious passband with different impedance ratio of SIR. The simulation and optimization are explained with ANSOFT HFSS. Finally, a filter was designed with a center frequency at 1.4GHz, the minimum passband insertion loss is about 4.2dB, and the passband return loss is greater than 14.2dB.
Red and Green: Air Pollution Levels and Left Party Power in OECD Countries

Recent review articles in environmental policy have called for more rigorous cross-national tests and for better integration with the standard literature on comparative politics and political economy. In this paper we take a first step in that direction, examining the relationship between air pollution and left party strength in seventeen OECD countries. Despite theoretical salience and political relevance, we know of no previous attempt of this sort. Three competing hypotheses exist. First, because of an historic agenda which emphasizes maximum employment and material welfare for the working class, left party strength might be associated with lower than normal environmental quality. Second, given the belief in government intervention to socialize the negative externalities of market capitalism, left party strength might motivate higher than normal environmental quality. Third, despite observed variations in agenda setting, policy formulation, and implementation, skeptics have often replied, “different styles, similar content”, suggesting no party relevance at all. Our analysis, controlling for quantitative energy consumption and qualitative economic structure, reveals a moderate but sustainable inverse relationship between left party strength and per capita levels of air pollution. In the conclusion we speculate how and why this result might occur.
High Gain and Fast Detection of Warfare Agents Using Back-Gated Silicon-Nanowired MOSFETs

The top-down fabrication of doped p-type silicon-nanowired (NW) arrays and their application as gas detectors is presented. After surface functionalization with 3-(4-ethynylbenzyl)-1, 5, 7-trimethyl-3-azabicyclo [3.3. 1] nonane-7-methanol molecules, the wires were subjected to an organophosphorous simulant, and both static and dynamic measurements were performed. A current gain of 4 × 106 is obtained upon the detection of the subpart-per-million concentration of a nerve-agent simulant. This represents a four-decade improvement over previous demonstration based on nanoribbons, proving better sensing capabilities of NWs. Technology-computer-aided-design simulations before and after gas detection have been performed to gain insight into the physical mechanisms involved in the gas detection and to investigate the impact of the surface-to-volume ratio on sensor sensitivity.
The effect of neonatal BCG vaccination on atopy and asthma at age 7 to 14 years: an historical cohort study in a community with a very low prevalence of tuberculosis infection and a high prevalence of atopic disease.

BACKGROUND There are conflicting reports on the effect of BCG vaccination on the subsequent development of atopy and asthma. There are no data on the effects of neonatal BCG vaccination on cytokine responses of lymphocytes that are exposed in vitro to allergens. OBJECTIVES We sought to test the hypothesis that neonatal BCG vaccination or, alternatively, evidence of an immunologic memory of this vaccination is associated with a reduced prevalence of allergic sensitization, asthma, eczema, and hay fever during childhood. METHODS An historical cohort study was conducted among 7- to 14-year-old children who were born in 2 districts in Sydney, Australia, and whose mothers were born in southeast Asia. One district had routinely administered BCG vaccination to infants born to overseas-born mothers and the other had not. Eligible subjects were identified from birth registers. Consenting subjects completed questionnaires, performed spirometric and airway hyperresponsiveness testing, and had allergen skin prick testing and tuberculin skin testing. Blood was collected to measure total serum IgE levels and for in vitro lymphocyte culture in the presence of an extract of house dust mite, the dominant allergen in this region, and purified protein derivative of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (tuberculin). IL-4, IL-5, IL-10, and IFN-gamma were measured in the culture supernatant. RESULTS The cohort included 309 BCG-vaccinated subjects and 442 non-BCG-vaccinated subjects. BCG-vaccinated subjects did not have a lower rate of allergic sensitization than nonvaccinated subjects. However, among the subgroup of subjects with a family history of rhinitis or eczema, BCG vaccination was associated with a lower prevalence of current asthma (defined as recent wheezing plus airway hyperresponsiveness; relative risk, 0.46; 95% CI, 0.22-0.95). BCG vaccination was also associated with lower levels of allergen-stimulated IL-10 production in vitro. Among the BCG-vaccinated subjects, the 44 (14.3%) who had tuberculin skin test reaction sizes of 5 mm or greater and the 31 (18.3%) who demonstrated an in vitro IFN-gamma response to purified protein derivative of M tuberculosis did not have lower rates of allergic sensitization and, overall, did not have a lower prevalence of allergic disease than tuberculin skin test or IFN-gamma nonreactors. CONCLUSION We conclude that neonatal BCG vaccination has an effect on T-cell allergen responsiveness 7 to 14 years after vaccination and that among a subgroup of subjects with an inherited predisposition to allergic disease, this is associated with clinically relevant beneficial effects. The findings of this study encourage the view that external influences on the immune system in the neonatal period have consequences that extend into later childhood and influence the expression of asthma. Genetic factors are likely to modify the effect of those external factors.
Party Politics, National Interests and Government—Opposition Dynamics

This article analyses the cleavages that structured the debates within the Convention on the Future of Europe. Taking the positions on the institutional rules governing EU social policy as an empirical example, it addresses the question of whether these positions were determined by party politics or by national interests. The article also examines how the delegates’ different institutional backgrounds affected their positions. A statistical analysis of a new data set on the positions of conventionists towards EU social policy expansion shows that, overall, delegates’ positions were determined by a mixture of party politics and national interests. At the same time, there are institutional effects separating representatives of government parties, who tended to stress national interests, from actors representing opposition parties, who acted more according to a party political logic.
Urban wildscapes and green spaces in Mombasa and their potential contribution to climate change adaptation and mitigation

Well-planned urban green landscapes, including wildscapes and green spaces, have the potential to contribute to climate change adaptation and mitigation. Yet for cities in low-income countries, the value of these urban landscapes in climate change response strategies is often disregarded and remains largely unexploited and unaccounted for. This paper discusses the potential role of urban green landscapes as a “soft engineering” climate change response strategy, and calls for the pursuance of management practices that preserve and promote the use of these urban spaces. It does so by combining theoretical arguments with an empirical example based on an innovative and novel approach to landscape rehabilitation, the Lafarge Ecosystems Programme, in the coastal city of Mombasa, Kenya. The paper finds that a well-managed system of green landscapes in resource-poor urban areas can generate net social benefits under a range of future scenarios. It further finds that climate change adaptation and mitigation responses can be initiated by a range of stakeholders operating at all scales.
Hedging Feedlot Cattle: A Canadian Perspective

Empirical testing of alternative hedging strategies raises doubts about the usefulness of U.S. live cattle futures markets for cattle fed in Canada. Actual data from almost 100,000 head of custom fed cattle over a nine-year period were analyzed to test profitability and risk reduction associated with fourteen specific hedging routines. Full cost and revenue data from cattle custom fed in the three prairie provinces were used in this paper. The strategies tested were typical of those a custom feeder could use to attempt to reduce output price risk. The results indicate that hedging cattle in Canada is more complex than previous literature suggests.
Accession to the World Trade Organization: challenges for China's travel service industry

China's travel agent industry started becoming a service industry after China opened its doors to the outside world in 1978. During the process of economic reform and marketization, the industry has become much more mature than 25 years ago. With China's accession to World Tourism Organization, the travel service industry will open its market for competition between foreign travel agents and the ones in China. Through studying and investigating the developing history and the current operating condition of the travel agents, this paper analyzes opportunities and challenges facing China's travel agents upon China's accession to the World Trade Organization.
Gender, Feminism, and Attitudes toward International Conflict: Exploring Relationships with Survey Data from the Middle East

In an effort to contribute to the dialogue between gender studies and international studies, this report presents findings from an empirical investigation based on the integrated secondary analysis of survey data from Israel, Egypt, Palestine, and Kuwait. The goal is to assess the utility of both gender and attitudes pertaining to the circumstances of women in accounting for variance in views about war and peace, and thereafter to examine the degree to which political system attributes constitute conditionalities associated with important variable relationships. Major findings include the absence of gender-linked differences in attitudes toward international conflict in all four of the societies studied and a significant relationship in each of these societies between attitudes toward gender equality and attitudes toward international conflict. Based on data from the Arab world and Israel, with attitudes about a peaceful resolution of the Arab-Israeli conflict treated as the dependent variable, the research also aspires to shed light on more practical considerations pertaining to the international relations of the Middle East.
Collaboration on Tourism Policy Making: Environmental and Commercial Sustainability on Bonaire, NA

This paper applies Gray's model of collaboration to deliberations concerning sustainable tourism on The Island Territory of Bonaire in the Caribbean. It examines stakeholder logic and strategy in attempting to coordinate three policy areas during the period 1993-98: those relating to hotel-room inventory, airline capacity and water pollution abatement. Relying on in-depth interviews with key participants, the paper analyses how Bonaire stakeholders attempted to pursue both economic and ecological approaches to sustainability by combining these three. It also examines why this effort has not yet been successful, an examination that emphasises a decline in tourist demand and an approach to collaboration that was unsystematic and lacking in institutionalised structure. Implications for collaboration theory include the findings that there is vulnerability in informal modes of organisation and that progress from one stage of deliberation to the next does not necessarily require closure at the earlier stage. Im.
King of the hill: Dethroning the industry leader

Executive Overview An important goal of many second-or third-ranked firms in an industry is to dethrone the leader and attain the number one position. Other things being equal, industry leadership, because of scale and scope effects and customer-switching costs, is often associated with greater profitability. Industry leaders also enjoy other reputation and brand-identification benefits. This article examines how challengers can successfully overtake industry leaders. The focus is on the specific competitive behaviors or new competitive actions that challengers take to dethrone the leader. The study also examines the competitive actions leaders take to guard against aggressive challengers. Employing Schumpeter's theory of creative destruction, the article describes the dynamic competitive actions and reactions of challengers and industry leaders in what the authors refer to as the battle for king of the hill. Drawing from a sample of nearly five thousand competitive actions in 41 industries over a seven-y.
Discrimination in Professional Sports: A Survey of the Literature

This paper reviews studies of racial and ethnic discrimination in professional sports and briefly examines gender differences in pay among professional tennis players. Many of these studies include far more extensive controls for individual ability and performance than typical studies of discrimination that use labor force data. The cited studies show evidence of salary discrimination and customer discrimination against blacks in basketball, and positional segregation on the basis of race or ethnicity in baseball, football, and hockey. More limited evidence is found for the existence of salary discrimination and fan discrimination against French-Canadian hockey players and fan preferences for white baseball players. Finally, at several Grand Slam tennis tournaments, the money prize for the women's winner is somewhat smaller than that for the men's winner, despite some evidence that the women's matches draw at least as much revenue as the men's matches.
Internationalization patterns in fashion retail distribution: implications for firm results

Fashion retailers have been intensively involved in internationalization processes, leading to an upsurge of some global fashion brands. Notwithstanding, internationalization processes may differ across retailers and also their results in their overseas ventures. This paper aims at shedding additional light on fashion retail internationalization, proposing two objectives: first, it aims at identifying several internationalization patterns in fashion retailing. Second, after identifying several retailer profiles, we test for significant differences in their financial results. With chi-square automatic interaction detection analysis, we identify four groups of retailers whose internationalization patterns, as well as their profits, cash flows and solvency ratios differ significantly. Therefore, internationalization does not always guarantee a good performance for fashion retailers.
Evolutionary aspects of cytochrome c oxidase.

The presence of additional subunits in cytochrome oxidase distinguish the multicellular eukaryotic enzyme from that of a simple unicellular bacterial enzyme. The number of these additional subunits increases with increasing evolutionary stage of the organism. Subunits I-III of the eukaryotic enzyme are related to the three bacterial subunits, and they are encoded on mitochondrial DNA. The additional subunits are nuclear encoded. Experimental evidences are presented here to indicate that the lower enzymatic activity of the mammalian enzyme is due to the presence of nuclear-coded subunits. Dissociation of some of the nuclear-coded subunits (e.g. VIa) by laurylmaltoside and anions increased the activity of the rat liver enzyme to a value similar to that of the bacterial enzyme. Further, it is shown that the intraliposomal nucleotides influence the kinetics of ferrocytochrome c oxidation by the reconstituted enzyme from bovine heart but not from P. denitrificans. The regulatory function attributed to the nuclear-coded subunits of mammalian cytochrome c oxidase is also demonstrated by the tissue-specific response of the reconstituted enzyme from bovine heart but not from bovine liver to intraliposomal ADP. These enzymes from bovine heart and liver differ in the amino acid sequences of subunits VIa, VIIa, and VIII. The results presented here are taken to indicate a regulation of cytochrome c oxidase activity by nuclear-coded subunits which act like receptors for allosteric effectors and influence the catalytic activity of the core enzyme via conformational changes.
Pro‐TRH Gene Expression and Precursor Peptides in Rat Brain:

Thyrotropin-releasing hormone (TRH) is one of the principal peptides of the hypothalamic tuberoinfundibular system involved in the regulation of thyroidstimulating hormone (TSH) secretion from the anterior pituitary gland. 1,2 Present in high concentrations in axon terminals throughout the rostral-caudal extent of the median eminence in the external zone (FIG. lB), TRH is in a position to secrete into the portal capillary venous system for conveyance to the pituitary. These axons originate from a group of neurons located in the paraventricular nucleus (PVN) (FIG. lA), a region that closely corresponds to the “thyrotropic area” of the hypothalam~s. ~ As opposed to vasopressin and oxytocin, arising in magnocellular neurons of the paraventricular nucleus: TRH is confined to the parvocellular division, including anterior, medial, and periventricular subdivisions.5 In addition to the hypothalamic tuberoinfundibular system, TRH is also present in many other regions of the hypothalamus and in the extrahypothalamic brain (FIG. 2). The mammalian spinal cord, for example, contains high concentrations of the tripeptide (FIG. IC,D), which may even exceed that present in the It is presumed that in these regions of the brain, TRH acts as a neurotransmitter or neuromodulator and does not contribute to the hypophysiotropic function of tuberoinfundibular TRH. Indeed, TRH has been shown to exert a number of central effects independent of anterior pituitary regulation including therrnoregulation, modulation of autonomic nervous system and may have a neurotropic role on a-motoneurons in the spinal cord.11J2 Although the mechanism of the biosynthesis of TRH had been controversial since the isolation and chemical characterization of TRH in 1969,13J4 it is now clear that TRH arises from the posttranslational cleavage of a larger precursor molecule. The partial characterization of frog skin pro-TRH by Richter et al.” and the recent isolation of a cDNA that encodes the entire sequence of the mammalian prepro-TRH, stemming from collaborative efforts by Dr. Ivor Jackson and Dr. Ping Wu at Rhode Island Hospital, Dr. Richard Goodman and Dr. Gail Mandel at the New England Medical Center, and our laboratory,16 have shown that TRH derives from a large polyprotein that contains multiple copies of a progenitor sequence for TRH.