Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Industrial development and economic growth Implications for poverty reduction and income inequality

The share of poor people in the global population has declined during recent decades. According to Chen and Ravallion (2004), one-third of the population of the world lived in poverty in 1981, whereas the share was 18 per cent in 2001. The decline is largely due to rapid economic growth in populationrich countries like China and India. There are, however, remarkable differences between countries and between regions in the developing world. Some regions and countries, notably in East Asia, are rapidly catching up to industrialized countries. Others, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa, are lagging far behind and the share of poor people in the population has even increased in some countries. Industrial development has had an important role in the economic growth of countries like China, the Republic of Korea (Korea), Taiwan Province of China (Taiwan), and Indonesia. Along with accelerated growth, poverty rates have declined in many countries. Some countries have managed to achieve growth with equity, whereas in others inequality has remained high. In this chapter, the growth stories of seven countries – China, India, Korea, Taiwan, Indonesia, Mexico and Brazil – are described and discussed. The main emphasis is on describing their growth processes and strategies, the role of industrial development, the contribution of a range of policies to growth performance, and the impact of growth on poverty and income inequality. The study begins with a short theoretical discussion of the impact of industrial development on growth and the impact of growth on poverty and income inequality and then proceeds to the country examples. The final section discusses the lessons learnt.
Département des Sciences Économiques de l'Université catholique de Louvain Endogenous Discounting via Wealth, Twin-Peaks and the Role of Technology

The article gives new answers to the two following questions: One, what can be a potential source of the twin-peaks of economic growth? Two, why were some of the countries that were believed to belong to the group of low steady state countries (like Taiwan, South Korea, Japan, etc.) able to reach a convergence path which led them to a high steady state? We endogenize the time preference rate via a broad measure of wealth and provide empirical evidence that wealth affects the discount rate negatively. We provide sufficient conditions for multiplicity of equilibria and demonstrate how endogenous discounting via wealth leads to the twin-peaks of economic growth. We prove that improvements in technology can help avoid the Twin-Peaks. JEL classification:D90, C61, O41.
Defamilisation of Twenty-Two Countries: Its Implications for the Study of East Asian Welfare Regime

Two analytical tasks have been conducted in this article. The first is to construct a defamilisation typology that covers eighteen OECD members and four tiger economies (namely Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea and Singapore). The second is to demonstrate this typology's contribution to the debate on the existence of two essential preconditions for the development of an all-encompassing East Asian welfare regime: (1) the existence of significant differences in the welfare systems between the East Asian countries and the non-East Asian OECD countries; and (2) the existence of significant similarities in the welfare systems of the East Asian countries.
Anti-cyclic citrullinated peptide antibody, smoking, alcohol consumption, and disease duration as risk factors for extraarticular manifestations in Korean patients with rheumatoid arthritis.

OBJECTIVE We examined the prevalence of extraarticular manifestations (EAM) in Korean patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Risk factors for development of EAM were identified from patients' general characteristics and clinical or laboratory data. METHODS Using a retrospective medical record review, 405 patients, who fulfilled the American College of Rheumatology 1987 criteria for RA, were consecutively enrolled. EAM such as serositis, vasculitis, neuropathy, ocular lesions, sicca symptoms, pulmonary fibrosis, cervical myelopathy, and rheumatoid nodules were assessed. Statistical analysis was performed using a chi-square test, Fisher's exact test, 2-sample t-test, and multivariate logistic regression analysis. RESULTS The overall prevalence of EAM in our patients was estimated to be 21.5% (n = 87). The most common EAM was rheumatoid nodule (8.4%, n = 34). Univariate analysis revealed anti-cyclic citrullinated peptide (anti-CCP) antibody positivity, smoking, alcohol consumption, and disease duration to be the risk factors associated with development of EAM. Multivariate logistic regression analysis also revealed a positive anti-CCP antibody, smoking, alcohol consumption, and disease duration to be closely associated with the development of EAM (p = 0.003, OR 5.006, 95% CI 1.729-14.494; p = 0.002, OR 5.260, 95% CI 1.876-14.753; p = 0.001, OR 0.218, 95% CI 0.086-0.553; p < 0.001, OR 1.061, 95% CI 1.032-1.091, respectively). CONCLUSION The prevalence of EAM in Korean RA patients is lower than in European, North American, and Mediterranean populations. Longer disease duration, smoking history, and positive anti-CCP antibody contributed significantly to the occurrence of EAM. Alcohol consumption in patients with RA had a negative association with EAM.
Stock Market Linkages Before and After the Asian Financial Crisis: Evidence from Three Greater China Economic Area Stock Markets and the US

We investigate the stock market linkages between the United States and three Greater China Economic Area stock markets — China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan, before and after the 1997 Asian financial crisis. Daily stock market indices from January 1995 to December 2000 are used for the analysis. Results from Granger causality test indicate increased feedback relationships between the markets in the post-crisis period. We also find, from the principal component analysis, fewer common factors affecting stock returns after the crisis, suggesting more harmonious market co-movements after the financial crisis. Additionally, results from a variance decomposition analysis suggest that stock markets are more responsive to foreign shocks after the crisis. This further strengthens the evidence that stock markets become more interrelated after the 1997 Asian financial crisis.
Duration of preclinical rheumatoid arthritis-related autoantibody positivity increases in subjects with older age at time of disease diagnosis

Objectives: To investigate factors that may influence the prevalence and timing of appearance of rheumatoid factor (RF) and anti-cyclic citrullinated peptide (anti-CCP) antibodies during the preclinical phase of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) development. Methods: 243 serial prediagnosis serum samples from 83 subjects with RA were examined for the presence of RF and anti-CCP antibodies. Results: Of the 83 cases, 47 (57%) and 51 (61%) subjects had at least one prediagnosis sample positive for RF or anti-CCP, respectively. Gender and race were not significantly associated with the prevalence or timing of preclinical antibody appearance. Preclinical anti-CCP positivity was strongly associated with the development of erosive RA (odds ratio = 4.64; 95% confidence interval 1.71 to 12.63; p<0.01), but RF was not (p = 0.60). Additionally, as age at the time of diagnosis of RA increased the duration of prediagnosis antibody positivity for RF and anti-CCP increased, with the longest duration of preclinical antibody positivity seen in patients diagnosed with RA over the age of 40. In no subjects did symptom onset precede the appearance of RF or anti-CCP antibodies. Conclusions: The period of time that RF and anti-CCP are present before diagnosis lengthens as the age at the time of diagnosis of RA increases. This finding suggests that factors such as genetic risk or environmental exposure influencing the temporal relationship between the development of RA-related autoantibodies and clinically apparent disease onset may differ with age.
Influence of Oral Sex and Oral Cancer Information on Young Adults' Oral Sexual-Risk Cognitions and Likelihood of HPV Vaccination

Public health information and educational interventions regarding human papillomavirus (HPV) have focused on the link between vaginal sex and cervical cancer among women. Many people are unaware that HPV can be transmitted through oral sex or that HPV causes oral cancers. Given that HPV infections and unprotected oral sex are increasing, research on oral sex-related HPV risk is important. This study examined the effect of a brief informational intervention regarding HPV and oral sex on the sexual risk cognitions of young adults. College students (N = 238) read information on HPV, oral sex, and oral cancer or no information. Participants then completed measures of oral sex and HPV knowledge, oral sex willingness, HPV vaccination likelihood, and risk perceptions. Participants who read the information on HPV and oral sex and cancer (compared to those who did not) reported greater knowledge, perceived risk and concern, and lower willingness to engage in oral sex. These effects were only significant among women. However, men reported a higher likelihood of future HPV vaccination compared to women who had not yet received the vaccine. Focusing on oral sex and cancer, this study adds to research investigating ways to reduce HPV infections.
Sexual behaviors, relationships, and perceived health among adult men in the United States: results from a national probability sample.

INTRODUCTION To provide a foundation for those who provide sexual health services and programs to men in the United States, the need for population-based data that describes men's sexual behaviors and their correlates remains. AIMS The purpose of this study was to, in a national probability survey of men ages 18-94 years, assess the occurrence and frequency of sexual behaviors and their associations with relationship status and health status. METHODS A national probability sample of 2,522 men aged 18 to 94 completed a cross-sectional survey about their sexual behaviors, relationship status, and health. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Relationship status; health status; experience of solo masturbation, partnered masturbation, giving oral sex, receiving oral sex, vaginal intercourse and anal intercourse, in the past 90 days; frequency of solo masturbation, vaginal intercourse and anal intercourse in the past year. RESULTS Masturbation, oral intercourse, and vaginal intercourse are prevalent among men throughout most of their adult life, with both occurrence and frequency varying with age and as functions of relationship type and physical health status. Masturbation is prevalent and frequent across various stages of life and for both those with and without a relational partner, with fewer men with fair to poor health reporting recent masturbation. Patterns of giving oral sex to a female partner were similar to those for receiving oral sex. Vaginal intercourse in the past 90 days was more prevalent among men in their late 20s and 30s than in the other age groups, although being reported by approximately 50% of men in the sixth and seventh decades of life. Anal intercourse and sexual interactions with other men were less common than all other sexual behaviors. CONCLUSION Contemporary men in the United States engage in diverse solo and partnered sexual activities; however, sexual behavior is less common and more infrequent among older age cohorts.
The use of educational programmes to support marriage immigrants in Taiwan: a case study of an Information Communication and Technologies (ICTs) course

There is an increasing flow of marriage migration around the world in the era of globalisation. As a result of moving to a new country, marriage immigrants typically encounter a range of difficulties due to language, cultural and environmental differences. To try to address some of these challenges a number of countries have begun to provide educational programmes for marriage immigrants. Focusing on the case of Taiwan, which is one of several countries to acknowledge this issue, this study aims to explore what educational needs marriage immigrants have and the extent to which educational programmes can help to support these individuals. Indeed, the Taiwanese government has been making a concerted effort to support marriage immigrants’ educational needs by offering a range of learning programmes. Here, the focus is on developing ICT skills because ICTs form an important part of all aspects of daily life in Taiwan and the skills are believed to facilitate independent and continued learning. Using a qualitative case study approach, this research investigates one ICT programme specifically targeted at 25 marriage immigrants in an urban district in Taipei and studies the value of the programme in assisting their adaptation to their new lives in Taiwan. This study draws on adult learning theories to examine the motivations of the participants, the barriers to learning that they encounter and the ways these can be overcome, as well as longer-term impacts of the programme and the use of ICTs in their lives. The marriage immigrants were found to have strong goal-oriented motivations. These goal-oriented motivations can be further subcategorised into those associated with job, life management and parenting. As for overcoming learning barriers for them, the government’s financial support and childcare services offered proved to be important in supporting learning by decreasing both the institutional and situational barriers. Although ICTs were proved to have the capability of reducing situational barriers, they were not the participants’ main concern. There were a number of longer term impacts of the programme. Increasing confidence is one of the most significant which led to further learning motivations. This research contributes to the understandings of the marriage immigrants’ learning needs and the possible ways ICT programmes are supportive of those needs.
Has the capital accumulation in the Asian miracle economies been fuelled by growth?

ABSTRACT The Asian growth miracle is often attributed to factor accumulation under the implicit assumption that savings, broadly defined, have been high and increasing due to exogenous forces. Using data for India, Indonesia, Korea, Singapore and Taiwan over the period 1870–2011 this article examines the causal relationship between growth and saving. The response of growth to savings is first estimated using instruments to generate exogenous variation in savings rates. The residual variation in growth that is not driven by savings is then used as an instrument to estimate the effect of growth on savings. The estimates show that the spectacular saving rates in the Asian miracle economies have been fuelled by growth, and not the other way around.
Authoritarian Public Opinion and the Democratic Peace

Abstract The “democratic peace”—the regularity that democracies rarely (if ever) fight with other democracies but do fight with nondemocracies—is one of the most famous findings in international relations scholarship. There is little agreement, however, about the mechanism that underpins the democratic peace. Recently, scholars have shown that mass publics in liberal democracies are less supportive of using military force against other democracies. This finding has been taken to support the idea that the content of public opinion may provide one mechanism that underpins the democratic peace. Using a large-scale survey experiment, we show that mass publics in an authoritarian regime—China—show the same reluctance to use force against democracies as is found in western democracies. Our findings expand the empirical scope of the claim that mass publics are reluctant to use force against democracies, but force us to rethink how public opinion operates as a causal mechanism underpinning the democratic peace.
An Asian regional analysis of cost-effectiveness of early irbesartan treatment versus conventional antihypertensive, late amlodipine, and late irbesartan treatments in patients with type 2 diabetes, hypertension, and nephropathy.

OBJECTIVE The prevalence of type 2 diabetes, often leading to diabetic nephropathy, has increased globally, especially in Asia. Irbesartan treatment delays the progression of kidney disease at the early (microalbuminuria) and late (proteinuria) stages of nephropathy in hypertensive type 2 diabetics. This treatment has proven to be cost-effective in Western countries. This study assessed the cost-effectiveness of early irbesartan treatment in Asian settings. METHODS An existing lifetime model was reprogrammed in Microsoft Excel to compare irbesartan started at an early stage to irbesartan or amlodipine started at a late stage, and standard treatments from a health-care perspective in China, Malaysia, Thailand, South Korea, and Taiwan. The main effectiveness parameters were incidences of end-stage renal disease, time in dialysis, and life expectancy. All costs were converted to 2004 US$ using official purchasing power parity. Local data were obtained for costs, transplantation,dialysis, and mortality rates. Probabilities regarding disease progression after treatment with the investigated drugs were extracted from two published clinical trials. A probabilistic sensitivity analysis was performed. RESULTS Early use of irbesartan yielded the largest clinical and economic benefits reducing need for dialysis by 61% to 63% versus the standard treatment, total costs by 9% (Thailand) to 42% (Taiwan), and increasing life expectancy by 0.31 to 0.48 years. Early irbesartan had a 66% (Thailand) to 95% (Taiwan) probability of being dominant over late irbesartan. CONCLUSION Although the absolute results varied in different settings, reflecting differences in epidemiology, management, and costs, early irbesartan treatment was a cost-effective alternative in the Asian settings.
Anti-CCP antibodies measured at disease onset help identify seronegative rheumatoid arthritis and predict radiological and functional outcome.

OBJECTIVE Anti-cyclic citrullinated peptide (anti-CCP) antibodies have been identified as highly specific for rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Studies suggest an association with radiographic outcome. The aims of this study were to assess the diagnostic and prognostic utility of the second-generation anti-CCP(2) test in a large cohort of early RA patients compared with connective tissue disease (CTD) controls. METHODS One hundred and eighty-two patients with RA and 121 patients with CTD were recruited. All RA patients had less than 24 months of symptoms and had CRP, rheumatoid factor (RF), HLA typing (SE) and anti-CCP(2) antibodies measured at baseline. Function was assessed using the Health Assessment Questionnaire (HAQ) and X-rays performed at 0, 12 and 24 months. RESULTS The anti-CCP(2) antibody test demonstrated a specificity of 91% and sensitivity of 81% for RA when compared with controls. In RF-negative patients, specificity was 92% and sensitivity 60%. Baseline demographics of the RA cohort showed mean age 57 yr, mean symptom duration 7 months, 63% RF-positive patients, 72% SE-positive, 81% CCP-positive and 21% erosive. The only predictor of change in Larsen score from 0 to 24 months in the cohort was the presence of the shared epitope (P<0.05) and in the RF-negative subgroup it was CCP(2) antibody titre >100 (P<0.05). Baseline HAQ was the only significant predictor of HAQ at 24 months, but in the RF-negative subgroup CCP(2) antibody titre >100 predicted a poor functional response at 24 months (P<0.05). CONCLUSIONS This study confirms the diagnostic utility of anti-CCP(2) antibodies in early RA, particularly in seronegative patients, in whom anti-CCP(2) positivity also conferred prognostic utility for radiographic and functional outcomes.
Effects of Surgical Caponization on Growth Performance, Fiber Diameter and Some Physical Properties of Muscles in Taiwan Country Chicken Cockerels

An experiment was conducted to determine the effects of caponization on the growth performance, breast and thigh muscles physical properties and fiber diameter of the Pectoralis major and Gastrocnemius pars externa in Taiwan country chicken cockerels. Caponized birds were surgically altered at 10 weeks of age. Birds were fed grower and finisher diets ad libitum during an eighteen-week experimental period. The results indicated that the live weight and feed intake in the capons were significantly (p 0.05) differences in feed conversion and mortality between two treatments at 28 weeks of age. Compared with intact birds, the capons had greater (p 0.05) affected. No treatment differences (p>0.05) were associated with cooking loss, muscle chewiness, and elasticity. The capons had a significantly (p 0.05) different in the fiber diameter of the Gastrocnemius pars externa. It is concluded that castration did not depress growth compared with the intact birds, but did improve muscle tenderness. This difference was most pronounced in the thigh muscles. (Asian-Aust. J. Anim. Sci. 2002. Vol 15, No. 3 : 401-405)
Genetic variation in proteins of the cryopyrin inflammasome influences susceptibility and severity of rheumatoid arthritis (the Swedish TIRA project).

OBJECTIVES The genetic background to RA is incompletely understood. As new cytokine-targeted therapies emerge, early predictors of disease severity are becoming increasingly important. The inflammasomes are essential regulators of cytokine production. We investigated whether two polymorphisms in the genes encoding cryopyrin (CIAS1) and TUCAN (CARD8) influence susceptibility and disease course in RA. METHODS Genotype frequencies were assessed in 174 Swedish patients with early RA and 360 population-based controls without rheumatic disease. Genotypes were categorized according to the presence (+) or absence (-) of two wild-type alleles and compared between patients and controls. In the RA patients, antibodies towards cyclic citrullinated peptides (anti-CCP) and the 'shared epitope' (SE) were assessed, and medication and measures of disease activity were monitored regularly during 3 yrs. RESULTS The combination of CIAS1/TUCAN -/-, as compared with CIAS1/TUCAN +/+, was significantly more common among patients than in controls [odds ratio (OR) 2.2, 95% CI 1.03-4.6]. This association was strengthened when patients were divided into anti-CCP+ [OR 2.8 (1.1-6.7)] or presence of > or = 1 SE copy [OR 2.8 (1.3-6.2)]. At most time-points during the 3-yr follow-up, patients with CIAS1/TUCAN -/- showed significantly higher disease activity. Furthermore, CIAS1/TUCAN -/- patients proved to be much more likely to receive TNF-blocking therapy [relative risk 20 (2.6-149)]. CONCLUSIONS Compound polymorphisms in CIAS1 and TUCAN associate with RA susceptibility and severity. The cryopyrin inflammasome needs further attention regarding a possible aetiopathogenetic connection with RA.