Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Prevalence and clinical significance of nonorgan specific antibodies in patients with autoimmune thyroiditis as predictor markers for rheumatic diseases

AbstractAutoimmune diseases are considered the 3rd leading cause of morbidity and mortality in the industrialized countries. Autoimmune thyroid diseases (ATDs) are associated with high prevalence of nonorgan-specific autoantibodies, such as antinuclear antibodies (ANA), antidouble-stranded deoxyribonucleic acid (anti-dsDNA), antiextractable-nuclear antigens (anti-ENAs), rheumatoid factor (RF), and anticyclic-citrullinated peptides (anti-CCP) whose clinical significance is unknown.We aimed to assess the prevalence of various nonorgan-specific autoantibodies in patients with ATD, and to investigate the possible association between these autoantibodies and occurrence of rheumatic diseases and, if these autoantibodies could be considered as predictor markers for autoimmune rheumatic diseases in the future.This study had 2 phases: phase 1; in which 61 ATD patients free from rheumatic manifestations were assessed for the presence of these nonorgan-specific autoantibodies against healthy 61 control group, followed by 2nd phase longitudinal clinical follow-up in which cases are monitored systematically to establish occurrence and progression of any rheumatic disease in association to these autoantibodies with its influences and prognosis.Regarding ATD patients, ANA, anti-dsDNA, Anti-ENA, and RF were present in a percentage of (50.8%), (18%), (21.3%), and (34.4%), respectively, with statistically significance difference (P < 0.5) rather than controls. Nearly one third of the studied group (32.8%) developed the rheumatic diseases, over 2 years follow-up. It was obvious that those with positive anti-dsDNA had higher risk (2.45 times) to develop rheumatic diseases than those without. There was a statistically significant positive linear relationship between occurrence of disease in months and (age, anti-dsDNA, anti-CCP, RF, and duration of thyroiditis). Anti-dsDNA and RF are the most significant predictors (P < 0.0001). ATD is more associated with rheumatic diseases than previously thought. Anti-dsDNA, RF, and anti-CCP antibodies may be used as predictive screening markers of systemic lupus erythematosus and RA, with early referral to rheumatologists for close follow-up and early diagnoses for appropriate disease management of the disease, as early disease control will allow better quality of life.
Affective Diffusion Between Migrants and Inhabitants. Art Based on Migrant Movement

Abstract The main objective of this essay is to consider Polish perception of the 21st-century European movement of migration and analyse the literary and artistic representations of this experience through the examples of Jarosław Mikołajewski’s A Great Surge, Krzysztof Wodiczko’s Guests, Anna Konik’s In the Same City, Under the Same Sky and Margot Sputo’s Who Where? I relate these works to the latest international art, including projects by Ai Weiwei, E. B. Itso, Giacomo Sferlazzo, and look for common denominators. I claim that the common feature of many artistic projects is the creation of a substitute for contact between the viewer and refugees, appealing to other senses than sight, especially to the sense of touch. These works do not attempt to represent the experience of migrants as individuals, but point to the experience of migration in its elemental aspect-matter and physical contact, exposure to destruction, dependence, intimacy, confrontation with others. What’s more, art based on migrant movement-referring to the imagined experience of direct contact with migrants or their belongings-bypasses the process of identification and empathy. Instead, it relies on affective transmission. I propose a category of affective diffusion as a process that can occur not only between sentient individuals but also as a result of the material aspect of art and the contact with the viewer. The inspiration to create the concept of affective diffusion is the relationship between migrants and inhabitants described by Jarosław Mikołajewski in his essay Wielki Przypływ [A Great Surge] which shows aspects of migration through Lampedusa Island. Many inhabitants who are asked about migrants show intensive emotions like anger, fear and xenophobia. But the testimonies of people who see the living and the dead day after day suggest that these emotions get weaker under the influence of physical contact. It seems that the moment of two bodies getting in touch undermines the frozen system of ideas and emotions, stimulates feelings, opens up a new, ambiguous potential for understanding. This is because expressive emotions lose their importance with the activation of affective transmission. This physical contact gives rise to changes in the economy of feeling, thinking and judging.
Confucian traditions in East Asian modernity : moral education and economic culture in Japan and the four mini-dragons

* Preface * Introduction I. Intellectual and Institutional Resources * Confucian Education in Premodern East Asia W.M. Theodore De Bary * Reflections on Civil Society and Civility in the Chinese Intellectual Tradition Edward Shils * The Intellectual Heritage of the Confucian Ideal of Ching-shih Chang Had * Confucian Ideals and the Real World: A Critical Review of Contemporary Neo-Confucian Thought Liu Shu-Hsien II. Japan *"They Are Almost the Same as the Ancient Three Dynasties": The West as Seen through Confucian Eyes in Nineteenth-Century Japan Watanabe Hiroshi * Confucianism and the Japanese State, 1904-1945 Samuel Hideo Yamashita * The Japanese (Confucian) Family: The Tradition from the Bottom Up Robert J. Smith * Some Observations on the Transformation of Confucianism (and Buddhism) in Japan S. N. Eisenstadt III. South Korea and Taiwan * Confucianism in Contemporary Korea Koh Byong-ik * The Reproduction of Confucian Culture in Contemporary Korea: An Anthropological Study Kim Kwang-ok * State Confucianism and Its Transformation: The Restructuring of the State-Society Relation in Taiwan Ambrose Y. C. King * Civil Society in Taiwan: The Confucian Dimension Thomas B. Gold IV. Hong Kong, Singapore, and Overseas Chinese Communities * The Transformation of Confucianism in the Post-Confucian Era: The Emergence of Rationalistic Traditionalism in Hong Kong Ambrose Y. C. King * Promoting Confucianism for Socioeconomic Development: The Singapore Experience John Wong * Confucianism as Political Discourse in Singapore: The Case of an Incomplete Revitalization Movement Eddie C. Y. Kuo * Societal Transformation and the Contribution of Authority Relations and Cooperation Norms in Overseas Chinese Business S. Gordon Redding * Overseas Chinese Capitalism Gary G. Hamilton * Epilogue * Notes * Glossary * Contributors * Index
The Response of Dynamic Herd Behavior to Domestic and U.S. Market Factors: Evidence from the Greater China Stock Markets

ABSTRACT We investigate the dynamic reaction of stock market herding in China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan to unexpected shocks from domestic and U.S. market factors. In China and Taiwan, herding is more pronounced, and the investors tend to herd with the rising stock market returns. Overconfident investors will herd on the subsequent trading days under market stress. Compared with the response to the domestic market factors, the responses of herding in the Greater China stock market to the U.S. market factors are weaker. After the 2007–8 financial crisis, the U.S. market factors highly explain the forecast error variance of herding in the Shanghai A-share and Taiwan markets.
A cross-cultural study of on-site film-tourism experiences among Chinese, Japanese, Taiwanese and Thai visitors to the Daejanggeum Theme Park, South Korea

There has been a growing research interest in the film-tourism phenomenon and its associated film tourist motivations, expectations and experiences at filmed locations of popular media programmes, in particular, in film and television series. However, with some exceptions, research into non-Anglophone linguistic and cultural settings remains relatively unexplored. There is also a lack of cross-cultural studies of film tourists’ experience in this research area. This current study addresses this gap and contributes to the existing film-tourism literature by examining the impact of nationality on film tourists’ actual experiences. The study looks at those experiences at filmed locations associated with Daejanggeum, a Korean historical television drama in the inter-Asian context. Adopting a structured survey questionnaire, the primary research data were collected at the Daejanggeum Theme Park (the main filming location of Daejanggeum in South Korea) among international visitors mainly from China, Japan, Taiwan and Thailand. Exploratory factor analysis identifies three salient dimensions to the film-tourism experiences, namely, ‘novelty and prestige’, ‘beyond screen experiences and re-enactment’, and ‘intimacy and memory’. In addition, it is empirically suggested that nationality does affect film tourist's on-site experiences. These findings provide important implications for destination marketers in relation to film-tourism destination development and experience design and management.
Executive Insights: Exploring the Practical Effects of Country of Origin, Animosity, and Price–Quality Issues: Two Case Studies of Taiwan and Acer in China

The authors review relevant literature and present two new case studies—one of Taiwan's country image campaign and the other of Acer's entry into global markets—to gain a further understanding of two related constructs, country of origin (from the field of international marketing) and animosity (from the field of consumer behavior). The authors formulate four research propositions and discuss them in reference to the two case studies. They show how the Taiwanese government has used various marketing and advertising strategies to create a positive country image and how Acer has mitigated negative country-of-origin effects and animosity in world markets, especially in China.
Does one culture all think the same? An investigation of destination image perceptions from several origins.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is primarily to examine the impact of cultural background on image formation by looking at Macao's regional tourism destination image perceptions by its main tourist markets of China (PRC), Hong Kong and Taiwan. Other image formation components are explored within this context, such as the impact of travel behaviors, travel motives and sources of information on Macao's image.Design/methodology/approach – A face‐to‐face survey (random sampling) was conducted in the departure areas of the international airports in Hong Kong, Beijing, Shanghai and Taiwan (Kaohsiung). This uncovered perceptions of actual visitors and potential visitors to Macao, and allowed for only those with the ability to travel to be interviewed.Findings – Multivariate analysis conducted on the data revealed significant differences between the Chinese travelers from the various cities on leading image perception attributes, travel behaviors, travel motives and influences of sources of information.Resear.
The Evolution of Central Banking and Monetary Policy in the Asia-Pacific

This book of case studies is a contribution to monetary macroeconomics in which country-specific experience and issues in inflation and monetary policy are reviewed and analysed in an historical context. In doing so, the key ideas and views on the sources and dynamics of inflation and monetary-policy behaviour are investigated after taking into account institutional arrangements for the conduct of fiscal and monetary policies. This book selects for study twelve diverse countries from the Asia-Pacific region including the US, China, Australia, India, Japan, Hong Kong SAR (China), South Korea, the Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand and New Zealand.
Labile sex differences in long calling in cotton‐top tamarins

Sex differences in behavior are quite common among nonhuman primates. In sexually monomorphic species, sex differences might be expected to be less evident than in polygynous and highly dimorphic species. Callitrichid primates (marmosets and tamarins) are cooperative breeders that exhibit little sexual size dimorphism. However, several sex differences in the structure and usage of vocalizations have been reported. In one such study, McConnell and Snowdon [Behaviour 97:273–296, 1986] reported that female cotton‐top tamarins (Saguinus oedipus) emitted significantly more normal long calls than males during simulated intergroup encounters. In the course of collecting a library of normal long calls, we replicated a portion of that study 20 years later with the same colony and similar methods. To our surprise we found a reversal of sex differences. In the same experimental situation, males gave significantly more normal long calls than females. In a further replication 2 years later, males still called more but the effect was less pronounced. The dramatic change in sex differences within the same species and colony over a 22‐year period suggests that behavioral sex differences in callitrichids may be quite labile, and that repeated sampling over several years may be necessary to establish true sex differences. Am. J. Primatol. 68:153–160, 2006. © 2006 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
An Analysis of Lesson Topics within Senior High School English Textbooks in Taiwan

Some segments of the Japanese education system believe that other Asian countries, including Taiwan,have demonstrated recent advances― from elementary school-level to college-level― in English language education.Some of these educators think this may help to explain the perceived improvement in practical English skills in these countries.In this study, English language education in Taiwan *1 was examined in order to redress the relative scarcity of information about the use of high school English textbooks in Taiwan. The primary focus was on lesson topics outlined in the Taiwanese senior high school English textbooks.212 lesson topics were analyzed.These topics appeared in 18 textbooks used in Taiwanese high schools that were published before the 2008 revision of Ministry of Education (MOE) guidelines. Although the Taiwanese government has already begun incorporating their latest(2008)MOE guidelines,it is simply too early to examine how these new textbooks will impact the Taiwanese English education situation.Consequently,this study focuses mainly on the earlier guidelines.The lesson topics were classified according to the Nippon Decimal Classification. The findings suggest that,in Taiwan,practical English functions,including common writing skills,are emphasized.However,these Taiwanese texts also increase the breadth of students’intellectual exposure to English by focusing on literature classics, particularly poetry. English language educators in Japan may find some elements of the current findings, particularly with respect to differential emphasis on literature in Japanese and Taiwanese textbooks,helpful in informing and driving the discussions currently underway on the future direction of English education in Japan.
Anticyclic citrullinated peptide antibody in rheumatoid arthritis:a cross-sectional study in Iran.

BACKGROUND/AIM Studies have shown that anticyclic citrullinated peptide antibody (anti-CCP) titers can be useful in the diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). We evaluate the association between anti-CCP antibody titers and the demographic, clinical, and laboratory characteristics of RA patients. Moreover, we explore whether there is any relation between joint destruction and demographic and clinical characteristics of RA patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS One hundred and four RA patients with positive anti-CCP titers were compared to 104 RA patients with negative anti-CCP titers. The activity of RA was evaluated using the Disease Activity Score 28 (DAS28). Joint destruction was assessed in the subjects by X-rays of the wrists. Blood samples were collected for assessment of anti-CCP, rheumatoid factor (RF), and erythrocyte sedimentation rate. RESULTS Forty-eight (23.0%) males and 160 (76.9%) females were included in this study. RF, DAS28, and joint destruction were significantly different between patients with and without anti-CCP (P < 0.0001). DAS28, duration of disease, hospitalizations, and occupation differed significantly between patients with and without joint destruction (P < 0.0001). CONCLUSION This study indicates that anti-CCP is correlated with a high disease activity index and more joint destruction in RA patients and it may be used as a prognostic factor for RA.
The diagnostic properties of rheumatoid arthritis antibodies recognizing a cyclic citrullinated peptide.

OBJECTIVE Since modern treatment of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is shifting toward aggressive antirheumatic therapy in an early phase of the disease, diagnostic tests with high specificity are desirable. A new serologic test (anti-cyclic citrullinated peptide [anti-CCP] enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay [ELISA]) was developed to determine the presence of antibodies directed toward citrullinated peptides, using a synthetic peptide designed for this purpose. METHODS A cyclic peptide variant that contains deiminated arginine (citrulline) was designed and used as antigenic substrate in ELISA. Test parameters and diagnostic characteristics of the test were studied in patients with and without RA, in patients with various infectious diseases, and in a group of patients from an early arthritis clinic (EAC). RESULTS Using prevalent RA and non-RA sera, the anti-CCP ELISA proved to be extremely specific (98%), with a reasonable sensitivity (68%). Also, in the EAC study group, the anti-CCP ELISA appeared to be highly specific for RA (96%). In comparison with the IgM rheumatoid factor (IgM-RF) ELISA, the anti-CCP ELISA had a significantly higher specificity (96% for CCP versus 91% for IgM-RF; P = 0.016) at optimal cut-off values. The sensitivity of both tests for RA was moderate: 48% and 54% for the anti-CCP ELISA and the IgM-RF ELISA, respectively (P = 0.36). Combination of the anti-CCP and the IgM-RF ELISAs resulted in a significantly higher positive predictive value of 91% (P = 0.013) and a slightly lower negative predictive value of 78% (P = 0.35) as compared with the use of the IgM-RF ELISA alone. The ability of the 2 tests performed at the first visit to predict erosive disease at 2 years of followup in RA patients was comparable (positive predictive value 91%). CONCLUSION The anti-CCP ELISA might be very useful for diagnostic and therapeutic strategies in RA of recent onset.
Real Estate Exposure and Asset Intensity

Real estate accounts for a significant proportion of the corporate assets of publicly listed companies. The real estate exposure of publicly traded companies in land scare economies such as Hong Kong and Singapore is particularly high. This study explores the real estate exposure of listed companies in Singapore where non-real estate companies are classified by their real estate asset intensity. A six-factor Arbitrage Pricing Theory (APT) model, capturing changes in real estate prices, industrial production, expected inflation, unanticipated inflation, risk premium and term structure, shows that real estate exposure is priced. In addition, the real estate risk premium is found to vary across companies with different real estate asset intensity. A close linkage is also established between real estate exposure and various industries. Other than the real estate-intensive industries such as real estate, hotel and construction, conglomerates and financial companies also have a high exposure to real estate. Interestingly, our analysis shows that real estate exposure, which is computationally tedious to determine, can be proxied by real estate asset intensity, a simple accounting measure. The implications for portfolio management in a land-scare market are examined.
Greater tactile sensitivity and less use of immature psychological defense mechanisms predict women's penile-vaginal intercourse orgasm.

INTRODUCTION Previous research has suggested that diminished tactile sensitivity might be associated with reduced sexual activity and function. Research has also demonstrated significant physiological and psychological differences between sexual behaviors, including immature psychological defense mechanisms (associated with various psychopathologies) impairing specifically women's orgasm from penile-vaginal intercourse (PVI). AIMS To examine the extent to which orgasm triggered by PVI (distinguished from other sexual activities) is associated with both greater tactile sensitivity and lesser use of immature psychological defenses. METHODS Seventy French-Canadian female university students (aged 18-30) had their finger sensitivity measured with von Frey type microfilaments, completed the Defense Style Questionnaire and a short form of the Marlowe-Crowne social desirability scale, and provided details of the 1 month (and ever) frequencies of engaging in, and having an orgasm from, PVI, masturbation, anal intercourse, partner masturbation, and cunnilingus. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Logistic and linear regression prediction of orgasm triggered by PVI from tactile sensitivity, age, social desirability responding, and immature psychological defenses. RESULTS Having a PVI orgasm in the past month was associated with greater tactile sensitivity (odds ratio=4.0 for each filament point) and less use of immature defense mechanisms (odds ratio=5.1 for each scale point). Lifetime PVI orgasm was associated only with less use of immature defense mechanisms (and lower social desirability responding score). Orgasms triggered by other activities were not associated with either tactile sensitivity or immature defense mechanisms. Tactile sensitivity was also associated with greater past month PVI frequency (inclusion of PVI frequency in a logistic regression model displaced tactile sensitivity), and lesser use of immature defenses was associated with greater past month PVI and PVI orgasm frequencies. CONCLUSIONS Both diminished physical sensitivity and the presence of specific psychological impairments might decrease the likelihood of women's orgasm from specifically PVI, but not other sexual activities.