Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Impact of intellectual capital on organisational performance: An empirical study of companies in the Hang Seng Index (Part 1)

Purpose – The purpose of this paper, which is written in two parts, is to investigate empirically if intellectual capital (IC) has an impact on the financial aspects of organisational performance as well as attempting to identify the IC components that may be the drivers for the leading financial indicators of listed companies. The study sought evidence from the companies of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Design/methodology/approach – Using data of all the constituent companies of the Hang Seng Index of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange from 2001 to 2005 and the VAIC™ methodology used in the measurement of IC by Pulic, regression models were constructed to examine the relationships between IC and the selected financial performance measures of these companies. The research hypotheses and research method are detailed in Part 1 of the paper. In this paper – Part 2, the results and findings of the investigation are analysed and discussed. Findings – The results of the analysis revealed no conclusive evidence to support a definitive association between IC, as measured by VAIC™, and the four measures of financial performance in the sample companies surveyed in Hong Kong. At best, only a moderate association was recorded between IC and the profitability measures. The study further revealed that physical capital is highly regarded by the companies surveyed for enhancing market valuation, productivity and profitability. Research limitations/implications – Evidence from Hong Kong shows that there is an overall lack of association between IC and financial performance, which contradicts some prior studies conducted overseas. This may suggest that Hong Kong may be lagging behind, for example, some Asian competitors such as Taiwan and Singapore in IC development. In addition, the empirical results suggest that physical capital continues to play a prominent role in the territory, which may be an indication of Hong Kong's ongoing reliance on “tangibles” as the strategic asset to generate corporate performance. These findings may, however, illustrate that the association between IC and financial indicators such as market valuation may not be a universal and uniform one. Rather, the association may vary from market to market, probably depending on the level of IC awareness in the investors. Originality/value – It is believed that this is the first study conducted in Hong Kong involving the use of VAIC™ for the measurement of IC. It not only contributes to the knowledge of IC research, but adds to the existing literature of the progress of IC development in relation to financial performance in companies internationally.
Fetal Testosterone Predicts Sexually Differentiated Childhood Behavior in Girls and in Boys

Mammals, including humans, show sex differences in juvenile play behavior. In rodents and nonhuman primates, these behavioral sex differences result, in part, from sex differences in androgens during early development. Girls exposed to high levels of androgen prenatally, because of the genetic disorder congenital adrenal hyperplasia, show increased male-typical play, suggesting similar hormonal influences on human development, at least in females. Here, we report that fetal testosterone measured from amniotic fluid relates positively to male-typical scores on a standardized questionnaire measure of sex-typical play in both boys and girls. These results show, for the first time, a link between fetal testosterone and the development of sex-typical play in children from the general population, and are the first data linking high levels of prenatal testosterone to increased male-typical play behavior in boys.
Organizational Performance and Measurement in the Public Sector: Toward Service, Effort and Accomplishment Reporting

Foreword by Harry Hatry Introduction Performance Appraisal and Rubik's Cube The Challenge by Arie Halachmi and Geert Bouckaert Positioning Performance Measurement for the Twenty-First Century by John Greiner Redeeming the Promise of Performance Measurement: Issues and obstacles for governments in the USA by Paul D. Epstein Promises and Possible Pitfalls on the Way to SEA Reporting by Arie Halachmi Service Efforts and Accomplishment Reporting Implementing Service Efforts and Accomplishments Reporting: The Portland Experience by Daniel E. O'Tool and Brian Stipak Institutionalizing SEA Reporting Across the Budget by Mary Timney Bailey Integrating Performance Measurement and Budgeting by Gerasimos A. Gianakis Performance Measurement in Context The Political Economy of Performance Measurement by Tony Bovaird Annual Performance Accounting and Auditing: Is it Possible? by Bo Sandberg Productivity in Professional Services: To Measure or not to Measure by Jean Harvey Local Government Standards Via Professional Associations: How Useful Are They for Gauging Performance? by David N. Ammons Performance Measurement: International Perspectives Measurement of Public Sector Performance: Some European Perspectives by Geert Bouckaert Performance Indicators: The British Experience by Tony Bovaird and David Gregory The Authority's Performance - A Practical Assessment by Magnus Medelberg Experiences With Performance Measurement in the Central Government The Case of the Netherlands by A. Sorber Performance Monitoring System in the Republic of China on Taiwan by Shih-Hsien Chang
Structural transformation and economic development : can development traps be avoided?

This thesis addresses a classic issue in economic thinking: why some countries remain poor while others manage to reach the living standards of advanced economies, reducing their gaps in terms of technology, income and social welfare. In addressing this question the thesis postulates that success (or failure) in economic development is closely related to the ability of developing countries to transform their economic structure and move towards the production of goods with higher technological levels and larger demand in world markets. An in-deep empirical analysis of the last 60 years over a sample of 100 countries demonstrates that the most successful economies (e.g., China, Korea, Taiwan and Thailand) have been those that managed to achieve simultaneously the two transformations. The less successful ones, instead, have been unable to perform these transformations and ended up in low or middle income traps (e.g., Brazil, Malawi, South Africa and Zambia), in which only a fraction of the society can reap the benefits of the international flows of technological knowledge.
Taiwan Regulation of Biobanks

Taiwan is an island country situated in the northwest Pacific, close to the southeast of China. The land area is about 36,000 square kilometers. The population of Taiwan is about 23 million, and it consists of the majority Han ethnic groups (it can be further divided into Ho-ló, Hakka, and Mainlander) and dozens of minority groups who are collectively called “Formosan,” an appellation for indigenous peoples in Taiwan. Formosans can be divided into Pingpu (plain-land indigenous peoples) and Gaoshan (mountain indigenous peoples) by their living area. In recent years, marriages between Taiwanese, Mainland Chinese, and Southeast Asians have increased significantly. Because of the genetic background of the Taiwanese people, it was thought to be highly beneficial for Taiwan to establish a biobank specifically designed for the Taiwanese population, as it would enable large-scale cohort studies to be carried out for common diseases occurring in Taiwan.
Structural characterization of the dihydropyridine receptor-linked calcium channel from porcine heart.

Ca(2+)-channel was purified 230-fold from digitonin extracts of the porcine cardiac sarcolemmal membranes by means of a four-step procedure. Two antibodies, a site-directed antibody against the sequence 1691-1707 of the rabbit cardiac alpha 1 subunit (anti-CCP5) and a monoclonal antibody directed to rabbit skeletal muscle alpha 2 delta subunit-complex (MCC-1), effectively immunoprecipitated the 125I-labeled cardiac Ca(2+)-channel complex in 0.2% digitonin. SDS-PAGE analysis of the immunoprecipitates under reducing conditions revealed that the cardiac channel is mainly composed of two large polypeptides of 190 and 150 kDa, and five smaller polypeptides of 60, 55, 35, 30, and 25 kDa. An additional polypeptide of either 79 or 55 kDa is crosslinked with the 190 kDa component to form 250-270 kDa (approximately 270 kDa) to the extent of 15-20% through disulfide bond(s). The 190 kDa component (alpha 1) is responsible for photoaffinity labeling with [3H]diazepine, since minor photolabeled approximately 270 kDa was converged to the major labeled 190 kDa component when electrophoresed under reducing conditions. The 150 kDa component (alpha 2) was derived by reduction of disulfide bonds from another 190 kDa component of glycopolypeptide which was separated from the channel complex in 1% Triton X-100 and capable of binding to WGA-Sepharose. The four smaller components of 60, 35, 30, and 25 kDa were not covalently associated with the large components through disulfide bonds, whereas the 55 kDa polypeptide was suggested to be a mixture of two kinds of peptides with respect to the disulfide bond: one was crosslinked with alpha 1 through disulfide linkage and the other was not covalently associated with any other component. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Sucking the ‘De’ Out of Me: How an Esoteric Theory of Persecution and Martyrdom Fuels Falun Gong’s Assault on Intellectual Freedom

In March 2015, a Falun Gong practitioner began an extended email assault on an Australian academician, an academician who had written about the confrontation between this practitioner’s movement and the People’s Republic of China in ways that the practitioner deemed overly critical of Falun Gong. This (in many ways anonymous) person demanded that the academician retract her article, implicitly threatening to defame her, her university, and the journal in which her piece appeared, and, possibly, file a lawsuit if she did not accede to his demands. Though most non-specialists think of Falun Gong as a peaceful spiritual exercise group unjustly persecuted by Chinese authorities, it has a dark, little-known history of forcibly silencing critics. In turn, this pattern of repression is tied in with an esoteric theory of karma which prompts practitioners of Falun Gong to actively seek persecution and martyrdom.
Intercountry prevalences and practices of betel‐quid use in south, southeast and eastern asia regions and associated oral preneoplastic disorders: An international collaborative study by asian betel‐quid consortium of south and east Asia

Health risks stemming from betel‐quid (BQ) chewing are frequently overlooked by people. Updated epidemiological data on the increased BQ use among Asian populations using comparable data collection methods have not been widely available. To investigate the prevalence, patterns of practice and associated types of oral preneoplastic disorders, an intercountry Asian Betel‐quid Consortium study (the ABC study) was conducted for Taiwan, Mainland China, Malaysia, Indonesia, Nepal and Sri Lanka. A random sample of 8,922 subjects was recruited, and the data were analyzed using survey‐data modules adjusted for the complex survey design. Chewing rates among men (10.7–43.6%) were significantly higher than women (1.8–34.9%) in Taiwan, Mainland China, Nepal and Sri Lanka, while women's rates (29.5–46.8%) were higher than that for men (9.8–12.0%) in Malaysia and Indonesia. An emerging, higher proportion of new‐users were identified for Hunan in Mainland China (11.1–24.7%), where Hunan chewers have the unique practice of using the dried husk of areca fruit rather than the solid nut universally used by others. Men in the Eastern and South Asian study communities were deemed likely to combine chewing with smoking and drinking (5.6–13.6%). Indonesian women who chewed BQ exhibited the highest prevalence of oral lichen planus, oral submucous fibrosis and oral leukoplakia (9.1–17.3%). Lower schooling, alcohol drinking and tobacco smoking were identified as being associated with BQ chewing. In conclusion, the ABC study reveals the significant cultural and demographic differences contributing to practice patterns of BQ usage and the great health risks that such practices pose in the Asian region.
THE DYNAMIC RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE FOREIGN EXCHANGE EXPOSURE AND STOCK MARKETS : EVIDENCE DURING THE GLOBAL ECONOMIC

This paper examines the dynamic linkages between the foreign exchange and stock markets for five East Asian countries, including Hong Kong, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, and Thailand. While the literature suggests the existence of significant Interactions between the two markets, our empirical results show that, in general, exchange rates Granger-cause stock prices with less significant causal relations from stock prices to exchange rates. Furthermore, this one-way Granger causality effect from exchange rates to stock prices becomes less significant during the US financial crisis of 2009. Our results also suggest that, there is insignificant long-run outlook (no cointegration) except for Hong Kong, implies that these financial assets share on common trends in their economy system and hence they will move apart in the long-run for countries that have higher trade size exchange rate fluctuations tend to exhibit significant influence on the equity market, regardless of the exchange rate arrangement system and the degree of capital controls during the US financial
Smoking and mortality in a prospective cohort study of elderly Chinese in Hong Kong.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS Large cohort studies on smoking and mortality in elderly people are scarce, and few studies examined smokers aged 85+ years separately. We estimated the risks of all-cause and cause-specific mortality due to smoking in an elderly Chinese cohort in Hong Kong. DESIGN A population-based prospective cohort of 65,510 Chinese enrolled from 1998 to 2001 and followed until May 2012. SETTING All 18 Elderly Health Service centres in Hong Kong, China. PARTICIPANTS Elderly people aged 65+ years. MEASUREMENTS Self-reported smoking status was assessed at baseline interview and categorized as never, former and current smokers. FINDINGS Compared with never smokers, after adjustment for sex, age, education, social security assistance, housing type, monthly expenditure, alcohol use, depressive symptoms and health status, the hazard ratio (HR) for current smokers was 1.89 [95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.81-1.98] for all participants aged 65+ years at baseline, corresponding to an attributable fraction (AF) of about 50%, which is based on AF = (HR-1)/HR. As the effect of smoking varied with age (P for age interaction <0.001), subgroup analysis by age group showed that the adjusted HR for current smokers aged 65-84 years was 1.93 (95% CI = 1.84-2.03), and for 85+ years was 1.29 (95% CI = 1.05-1.58). All the risk estimates did not vary by sex (P for sex interaction ranged 0.74-0.89). CONCLUSIONS In Hong Kong, the risk of death from smoking appears to be the same for Chinese women as it is for men. Half of all deaths in Chinese smokers aged 65 years and older and a quarter of all deaths in Chinese smokers aged 85 years and older are caused by smoking-attributable diseases.
Social Tolerance of Homosexuality: A Quantitative Comparison of Mainland China, Singapore, and Taiwan

Abstract This study compares three Asian societies that are heavily influenced by Chinese culture and Confucianism, mainland China, Singapore, and Taiwan, in their social correlates of public tolerance of homosexuality. Due to different sociopolitical environments and public policies regarding homosexuality, individual-level factors such as education, income, age, and religiosity operate in distinct ways in the three societies. The more progressive environment in Taiwan allows more room for the manifestation of individual-level influences, compared to mainland China and Singapore. With respect to homosexuality, the tolerance-promoting effects of education and income and the tolerance-depressing effects of age and religiosity are significantly more pronounced in Taiwan than in mainland China and Singapore. Broader sociopolitical environments not only affect the overall level of tolerance of homosexuality in a society but also shape what individuals in the society are more tolerant.
Information Spillover Effect Changes of Major Financial Markets: Evidence from the 2015 Chinese Stock Market Crash

This study investigates how the 2015 stock market crash in China affects the characteristics of information spillover among China, Hong Kong, and the United States. The VAR-BEKK-GARCH and DCC-MGARCH models are employed to confirm the changes. Results show that the 2015 crash strengthens both mean and volatility spillover transmitted from the Chinese stock market to others. The dynamic conditional correlations between stock markets rise significantly after the crash. These findings provide reference for financial authorities to well prevent domestic financial markets from being affected by international risk spillovers, and help investors to adopt profitable strategies
Factors Influencing on Consumers’ Online Shopping Behaviors in Vietnam and Taiwan

This study aims on analyzing which factors influencing on consumers’ online shopping behaviors in Vietnam and Taiwan. This study will delve into factors influencing consumers’ online shopping behaviors in Vietnam and Taiwan, containing Financial Risk, Product Risk, Convenience Risk, Delivery Risk, Return Policy, Telecommunication Infrastructure, Consumers’ Attitude, and Consumers’ Purchasing Intention. The study surveyed 436 consumers in two countries, Taiwan and Vietnam, with detailed questionnaires in three languages: English, Chinese, and Vietnamese. In addition, statistic software such as STASTISTICA 10 and LISREL8.8were used to support the research to test hypotheses and establish the structural model. The results showed that the negative factors affecting shopping intent were no longer critical and gradually improved by online shopping companies. The great elements have maintained by online shopping website, influence positively on purchasing intention. Based on the data analyzed, this paper showed Telecommunication Infrastructure and Attitude positively influence on consumers’ online shopping behaviors in Vietnam and Taiwan while Financial Risk, Product Risk, Convenience Risk, Non – Delivery Risk and Return Policy have insignificant influence on online shopping behaviors of customers.
Are Foods from the COVID-19 Pandemic Lockdown Low in Nutrients? An Analysis of Chinese Psychological Distress Effects

Background: The city-wide COVID-19 lockdown has resulted in psychological anguish, which may have an impact on dietary consumption. This study’s dual goals are to show how Chinese food consumption was altered before and after the lockdown, and to examine the nutrient density for the psychologically affected group. Methods: A cross-sectional study involving 652 people from Mainland China, Taiwan, and Macao was conducted with the aid of a web-based questionnaire. Sociodemographic characteristics, related environmental factors, nutrient consumption, food recommendations, and psychological distress were all measured. 516 trustworthy data revealed that two nutrient-poor foods were consumed less frequently during the lockdown than they were before to the COVID-19 outbreak (i.e., salty snacks and alcoholic beverages). People who endured high levels of psychological distress in particular tended to consume more. Particularly, those who experienced high levels of psychological distress had a tendency to consume far more alcohol than people who only experienced low levels of stress. Comparing the time before the COVID-19 to the present, there has statistically been an increase in the frequency of family members recommending diets. According to research, by food advice, individuals who experience psychological distress should consume more nutrient-dense foods (78.7%) than nutrient-poor ones (61.9%). Thus, food advice plays a role in mediating the relationship between psychological distress and dietary decisions for nutrient-rich (b = 0.186, p < 0.001) or nutrient-poor (b = 0.187, p < 0.001) food groups. This study provides insights for lowering psychological distress through dietary consumption, where the exact mechanisms underlying these connections have not been thoroughly elucidated. It encourages nutrition research by recommending practical nutrition education from family and environmental activities. Chronic psychological anguish may have a crucial relationship to secure access to food and a balanced diet. Along with nutrition instruction, it is critical to develop skills in interventions such as food procurement and culinary knowledge.
Screening for TNF response prior to initiation of biologic therapy for precise targeted therapy

Objective: A quality improvement project to improve outcomes in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients who are anti-CCP positive by starting targeted biologic/targeted synthetic DMARDs (b/tsDMARDs) therapy after screening for tumor necrosis factor inhibitor (TNFi) response. Using a targeted therapy approach, patient’s disease activity was checked before and after intervention. The goal was to achieve a clinical disease activity index (CDAI) of <10, showing low disease activity. Methods: Quality improvement model used was the Plan-Do-Study-Act cycle to aid in implementing change to improve patient outcomes. Quality improvement project used Lewin’s change theory. The project allowed for change in provider behavior and organization by using a systemic approach and strategies to improve patient outcomes. Lewin’s change theory consists of three parts: unfreezing, changing, and refreezing. The project unfroze the traditional way of prescribing biologic therapy. The screening tool for TNFi response was the change used to find TNF inhibitor non-responders prior to or during biologic therapy. The refreezing part of the theory is to continue screening for TNFi response after the project to ensure the most proper biologic is chosen. Results: A total of 27 patients were screened with TNFi non-response prediction tool during a 6-week period. 10 patients were predicted non-responders to TNFi therapy. 15 patients had no prediction of non-response to TNF inhibitor therapy. Two patients were not resulted due sample quality issues. Test results information, the patient’s clinical picture, and therapies were adjusted accordingly. Conclusion: The use of the TNFi non-response prediction screening tool allowed for the 10 predicted non-responders to avoid TNFi that would be traditionally started on first line treatment. These 10 patients saved time, money, health, disability, and joint deterioration by starting or continuing proper treatment.