Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Changes in family-building patterns in Egypt and Morocco: a comparative analysis.

Although both Egypt and Morocco experienced important declines in fertility over the past few decades the pace of that decline was much faster in Morocco than in Egypt. Relatively little is known about the extent to which patterns of family building in both countries explain differentials in the pace of fertility decline. The data for analysis come from the 1980 and 1979-80 World Fertility Surveys conducted in Egypt and Morocco respectively and from each countrys 1995 Demographic and Health Survey. These data are used to calculate life-table estimates of the cumulative proportions of women who progressed to each successive parity within 5 years of the previous one. The data are also used to calculate singulate mean age at marriage and the median length of birth intervals. From the late 1970s to the mid-1990s fertility declined by 44% in Morocco and by 28% in Egypt reflecting a drop in both the level and pace of childbearing. The cumulative proportions of women progressing to each successive parity fell by at least 25% at each parity transition after the transition between a third and fourth birth in Egypt; the pattern was more mixed in Morocco with declines fluctuating between 11% and 27% starting at the transition between a second and third birth. Moreover the median length of time between births increased over the period especially in the intervals between births at parities 2-4 in Morocco (increases of 4.2-4.7 months) and at parities 1-3 in Egypt (increases of 3.0-3.6 months). Among the factors contributing to these fertility declines was a rise over the period in the singulate mean age at marriage (by 5 years in Morocco and by 1 year in Egypt). The adoption of effective family planning programs by both countries which are increasingly enabling women to meet their desire for smaller families may be responsible for the significant changes in the reproductive behavior of married women in Egypt and Morocco. (authors)
Strictly Batch Imitation Learning by Energy-based Distribution Matching

Consider learning a policy purely on the basis of demonstrated behavior---that is, with no access to reinforcement signals, no knowledge of transition dynamics, and no further interaction with the environment. This *strictly batch imitation learning* problem arises wherever live experimentation is costly, such as in healthcare. One solution is simply to retrofit existing algorithms for apprenticeship learning to work in the offline setting. But such an approach bargains heavily on model estimation or off-policy evaluation, and can be indirect and inefficient. We argue that a good solution should be able to explicitly parameterize a policy (i.e. respecting action conditionals), implicitly account for rollout dynamics (i.e. respecting state marginals), and---crucially---operate in an entirely offline fashion. To meet this challenge, we propose a novel technique by *energy-based distribution matching* (EDM): By identifying parameterizations of the (discriminative) model of a policy with the (generative) energy function for state distributions, EDM provides a simple and effective solution that equivalently minimizes a divergence between the occupancy measures of the demonstrator and the imitator. Through experiments with application to control tasks and healthcare settings, we illustrate consistent performance gains over existing algorithms for strictly batch imitation learning.
Practical trade‐offs for the prefix‐sum problem

Given an integer array A, the prefix‐sum problem is to answer sum(i) queries that return the sum of the elements in A[0.i], knowing that the integers in A can be changed. It is a classic problem in data structure design with a wide range of applications in computing from coding to databases. In this work, we propose and compare practical solutions to this problem, showing that new trade‐offs between the performance of queries and updates can be achieved on modern hardware.
Is R&D risky?

Research summary: Many studies use research and development (R&D) intensity or R&D spending as a proxy for risk taking, but we have little evidence that either associates positively with firm risk. We analyze the relations between R&D intensity (R&D spending to sales) and R&D spending on the one hand and 11 different indicators of firm risk on the other, using data from 1,907 to 3,908 firms in various industries over 13 years. The analysis finds a general lack of consistent positive association between R&D and firm risk, making the use of R&D as an indicator of risk taking questionable. Furthermore, R&D intensity and spending do not correlate positively, suggesting they measure different constructs. We discuss potential reasons for these nonsignificant results. Our study demonstrates that researchers should avoid casual use of R&D as a proxy for risk taking without explicitly providing a clear definition and measurement model for risk. Managerial summary: Risk is a key construct in strategic management research. Many studies in this area measure risk taking by research and development (R&D) intensity (the ratio of R&D spending to sales) or R&D spending. However, since R&D intensity and spending have also been used to measure various other things such as information processing demands, this raises the question of whether R&D intensity and spending are valid indicators of firm risk. We examine this issue by considering the associations of R&D intensity and R&D spending with conventional measures of firm risk. We find a general lack of consistent positive association between R&D and firm risk, making the use of R&D as an indicator of risk taking questionable. Furthermore, R&D intensity and spending do not correlate positively, suggesting they measure different things. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Strategic alliances: A synthesis of conceptual foundations

Strategic alliances, a manifestation of interorganizational cooperative strategies, entails the pooling of specific resources and skills by the cooperating organizations in order to achieve common goals, as well as goals specific to the individual partners. Gaining access to new markets; accelerating the pace of entry into new markets; sharing of research and development, manufacturing, and/or marketing costs; broadening the product line/filling product line gaps; and learning new skills are among the motives underlying the entry of firms into strategic alliances. During the last decade, an increasing number of firms have entered into alliances with other firms within the same industry, as well as within other industries. Some firms have progressed well beyond forming isolated alliances to establishing a web of intra- and interindustry, and intra-and international strategic alliances. Against this backdrop, we provide a synthesis of the conceptual foundations of strategic alliances and explore the role of marketing in strategic alliances.
Ten reasons to be happy about hormone replacement therapy: a guide for patients

In spite of the negative press reports following the 2002 Women's Health Initiative (WHI) publication, women can be reassured that in the correct circumstances, hormone replacement therapy (HRT) is beneficial and safe, particularly if treatment is started below the age of 60. Transdermal estradiol is probably safer than oral estrogens as coagulation factors are not induced in the liver and HRT is safer if a minimal duration and dose of progestogen is used. HRT is effective for the treatment of estrogen-deficiency symptoms of flushes, sweats and vaginal dryness. Estrogens prevent osteoporotic fractures and should be first-choice therapy, rather than bisphosphonates. Similarly, HRT protects the intervertebral discs in a way that non-hormonal preparations do not. Estrogens perhaps with the addition of testosterone help certain sorts of reproductive depression, as well as improving energy and libido. There is new evidence to support the previous observational studies that HRT reduces the incidence of heart attacks. Estrogen therapy has a beneficial effect upon collagen, thus improving the texture of the skin, the nails, the intervertebral discs and bone matrix. Discussion of side-effects should not be avoided, particularly the 1% extra lifetime risk of breast cancer. This should be balanced against the fewer heart attacks, fewer deaths and less osteoporotic fractures in those who start HRT below the age of 60.
Brain Gym in the Pool

Brain gym is both a concept and a trademark commercial program. Exercising the body can provide numerous benefits to the brain, and exercising the brain can easily be incorporated into aquatics. This article identifies key concepts of brain gym in both contexts. More importantly, this article provides practical information on why and how brain gym activities can be integrated into aquatic programming. For individuals with disabilities, as well as for individuals in regular aquatic instruction and/or exercise programs, brain gym activities have the potential to enrich aquatic experiences. Resources are provided for additional detailed information.
Human humoral responses to antigens of Mycobacterium tuberculosis: immunodominance of high-molecular-mass antigens

The selection of antigens of Mycobacterium tuberculosis for most studies of humoral responses in tuberculosis patients has been restricted to molecules that were either immunodominant in immunized animals or amenable to biochemical purification rather than those that were reactive with the human immune system. Delineation of antigens that elicit humoral responses during the natural course of disease progression in humans has been hindered by the presence of cross-reactive antibodies to conserved regions on ubiquitous prokaryotic antigens in sera from healthy individuals and tuberculosis patients. The levels of cross-reactive antibodies in the sera were reduced by preadsorption with Escherichia coli lysates, prior to studying their reactivity against a large panel of M. tuberculosis antigens to which the human immune system may be exposed during natural infection and disease. Thus, reactivity against pools of secreted, cellular, and cell wall-associated antigens of M. tuberculosis was assessed by an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Initial results suggested that the secreted protein preparation contained antigens most frequently recognized by the humoral responses of pulmonary tuberculosis patients. The culture filtrate proteins were subsequently size fractionated by preparative polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, characterized by reaction with murine monoclonal antibodies to known antigens of M. tuberculosis by an ELISA, and assessed for reactivity with tuberculous and nontuberculous sera. Results show that a secreted antigen of 88 kDa elicits a strong antibody response in a high percentage of patients with pulmonary tuberculosis. This and other antigens identified on the basis of their reactivity with patient sera may prove useful for developing serodiagnosis for tuberculosis.
Gene transfer: A review of methods and applications

Summary Gene transfer is a potentially powerful tool for the treatment of a wide variety of diseases. The transfer of these genes is achleved by utilizing a variety of vectors, including retroviral, adenoviral, adeno‐associated virus (AAV) and a number of non‐viral mechanisms. Numerous studies have successfully demonstrated transduction of genes into target cells with a variety of vectors, and have provided ‘proof‐in‐principle’ that gene transfer can result in prolonged in vivo expression of transduced genes, albeit at low quantities. Furthermore, gene marking studies in acute myelobastic leukemia (AML), chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) and neuroblastoma have elegantly demonstrated that gene‐marked tumor cells contribute to relapse following autologous transplantation. However none of the studies examining the therapeutic benefit of gene therapy has definitively demonstrated a clinically meaningful benefit. Nonetheless, the results of studies involving gene transfer for severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID), chronic granulomatous disease (CGD), melanoma and lung cancer highlight the potential benefit of this strategy. This review will discuss mechanisms of achieving gene transfer into target cells. It will examine some of the pre‐clinical and clinical results to date and will discuss some of the potential uses of gene transfer for therapeutic purposes.Abbreviations: AAV, adeno‐associated viruses; Ad, adenovirus; ADA, adenosine deaminase; AML, acute myeloblastic leukemia; APC, andgenpresenting cell; CGD, chronic granulomatous disease; CML, chronic myeloid leukemia; CTL, cytotoxic‐T‐lymphocyte; DNM, dominant negative mutation; GALV, gibbon ape leukemia virus; HSC, hemopoietic stem cell; ITR, inverted terminal repeat; LTR, long terminal repeat; MDR, multi‐drug resistance; MHC, major histocompatibility complex; MMLV, Moloney murine leukemia virus; RCA, replication‐competent adenovirus; RCR, replication‐competent retrovirus; RRE, rev response element; SCID, severe combined immunodeficiency; TAR, trans‐activating response; TIL, tumor infiltrating lymphocytes; wt, wild‐type.
Cyclophilin A incorporation is not required for human immunodeficiency virus type 1 particle maturation and does not destabilize the mature capsid.

The cellular protein cyclophilin A (CypA) is packaged into human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) virions through a specific interaction with the capsid (CA) domain of the Gag polyprotein. CypA is important for infectivity, but its role in viral replication is currently unknown. Previous reports suggested that CypA promotes uncoating or enhances maturation. We analyzed the morphology and capsid stability of HIV-1 variants defective in CypA binding and of virus grown in the presence of cyclosporin. Both cyclosporin treatment and alteration of Gly89 or Pro90 in the CypA-binding site of CA caused a 5- to 20-fold decrease in CypA incorporation. Virus produced from cyclosporin-treated cells and variants G89V and G89A were 10- to 100-fold less infectious but exhibited normal virion morphologies with regular cone-shaped capsids. Irregular capsid morphologies and lower infectivities were observed for some other variants in the CypA-binding region. Decreased CypA incorporation did not reduce the kinetics of intracellular polyprotein processing or of virus release. No increase in immature particles was observed. These results suggest that CypA does not promote virion maturation. Furthermore, detergent stripping of virus particles with various CypA contents revealed no difference in capsid stability. Based on these results and those reported in the accompanying paper, it appears likely that CypA also is not an uncoating factor. Alternative models for CypA function are discussed.
Policy Relevance and Theory Development in Innovation Studies

This paper presents a brief review of the evolution of ideas of the Economics of Technological Change in the broad area of industrial structure, innovation dynamics and economic performance. Our emphasis is on contributions which might have policy relevance when it comes to the design and implementation of innovation-related policy. This review provides the general context for the discussion of some of the research findings of the European Commission Targeted Socio-Economic Research (TSER) Programme in the area of national systems of innovation. Finally, the paper explores a number of directions for further work in the area of innovation-related policy oriented research. As a result of recent empirical and analytical work, the institutional and economic aspects that theory and empirical research ought to address are much more clearly defined
Do Migrant Remittances Affect Household Purchases of Physical Investments and Durable Goods? Evidence for Kenya

This paper investigates the impact of remittances on household decisions to purchase physical investments and durable goods in Kenya using household survey data. Remittances are found to be endogenous in the durable goods case and their effects are estimated using bivariate and IV probit models. In the physical investments case, remittances are found to be exogenous and remittance effects are estimated using univariate probit models. The evidence obtained is supportive of remittances having a positive and significant effect on the decisions by households to purchase physical investments and durable goods.
Cost Management in IT Outsourcing Contracts: The Path to Standardization

IT Outsourcing contracts are a specific and complex set of IT services that require providers to give special attention to manage a long relationship at optimal cost. The challenge is to identify the best cost structure, cost methodology and IT services variance, in order to manage a service with the highest level of standardization. Due to the specificity of this work, the research methodology chosen is case study research applied to seven contracts. This research shows that IT Outsourcing providers suffer from several sources of variance in services and increasing contract costs. However, due to economic downturn and competition, organizations are pursuing cost reductions, and providers should take this opportunity to trade-off customization (a characteristic of IT Outsourcing contracts) for standardization (a quality of cloud offering). The conclusions of the research show that providers need to have a well developed cost management system and mechanisms to control services variance in order to gain useful information about how their performance in a contract might affect a different one, because some contracts are silos, but others can use a common structure.
Momentum‐based approximation of incompressible multiphase fluid flows

We introduce a time stepping technique using the momentum as dependent variable to solve incompressible multiphase problems. The main advantage of this approach is that the mass matrix is time‐independent making this technique suitable for spectral methods. A level set method is applied to reconstruct the fluid properties such as density. We also introduce a stabilization method using an entropy‐viscosity technique and a compression technique to limit the flattening of the level set function. We extend our algorithm to immiscible conducting fluids by coupling the incompressible Navier‐Stokes and the Maxwell equations. We validate the proposed algorithm against analytical and manufactured solutions. Results on test cases such as Newton's bucket problem and a variation thereof are provided. Surface tension effects are tested on benchmark problems involving bubbles. A numerical simulation of a phenomenon related to the industrial production of aluminium is presented at the end of the paper.
Endurance veterinarians detect physiologically compromised horses in a 160 km ride.

REASONS FOR PERFORMING STUDY This study investigated the physiology of endurance horses competing in warm weather over technical terrain, a situation where horses may become metabolically compromised. HYPOTHESES There will be changes in physiological, haematological and biochemical variables as horses progress through the 160 km ride and horses detected clinically at the veterinary inspections as metabolically compromised will have significant differences in measured laboratory variables compared to horses that complete the ride successfully. METHODS Forty-eight horses competing in the Australian Tom Quilty 160 km endurance ride were monitored and weighed, and blood samples collected for analysis of electrolytes, packed cell volume (PCV), plasma protein and acid-base variables, preride, mid-ride, at the end of their ride and the following morning after a period of recovery. Statistical analysis was performed using multinomial logistic regression and repeated measures ANOVA. RESULTS Of the 48 horses participating in the study, only 18 successfully completed the ride (SC), 16 were eliminated for lameness (VOL) and 10 for metabolic reasons (VOM); 4 were voluntarily withdrawn by the riders. A lighter preride bodyweight was predictive for VOM. PCV and total plasma protein increased mid-ride in all groups compared to preride, with significantly greater increases in PCV for VOM compared to the other horses. Changes were detected in blood concentrations of sodium, chloride and calcium over time and between the groups, with lower mid-ride sodium and chloride in VOM compared to SC and VOL. CONCLUSIONS VOM horses weighed less preride and were, on analysis of blood and physiological variables mid-ride, more dehydrated with greater electrolyte depletion than the SC or VOL horses.
The Dead Sea: Deepening of the Mixolimnion Signifies the Overture to Overturn of the Water Column

Throttling of freshwater inputs into the meromictic Dead Sea weakened the long-term stability of the water column. Between 1975 and 1978 successive deepenings of the pycnocline from 70 meters to beyond 200 meters were recorded. Complete overturn finally took place during the winter of 1978-1979. This unique process was accompanied by changes in the geochemistry of several components.
The Prevalence of and Consumer Response to Foreign and Domestic Brand Placement in Bollywood Movies

Within the context of globalization, we explore the country-of-origin of brand or product placements in Bollywood films. Content analysis of films since economic liberalization (1991, 1996, 2001, 2006, 2010) reveals a substantial increase in brands, with foreign brands outnumbering domestic brands and placed in prominent ways. Results of surveys reveal that Indians are positive about the practice yet generally prefer domestic over foreign product placements. Consumer ethnocentrism versus admiration for Western lifestyles emerged as significant predictors of attitudes and perceptions. Theoretical ramifications for globalization, global brand strategy, and brand placement are discussed.
Do Carrots or Sticks create an environment more conducive to R&D Investments? Evidence from UK manufacturing firms

Corporate Governance, defined as the system by which companies are controlled and directed and made accountable to shareholders and other stakeholders (Tylecote & Conesa 1999) has long attracted the attention of the financial economists, specially in the last two decades. This attention resulted in a large production of academic papers. However, there are some topics that remain under-researched. The relationship between Corporate Governance and R&D is still unclear and under-researched. So far, the theoretical and empirical studies did not provide clear evidence on the impact of corporate governance on R&D investments, one type of investment that is crucial for the economy. The objective of my work is to explain how corporate governance R&D