Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
‘I have to save this language, it’s on the edge like an endangered animal’: perceptions of language threat and linguistic mainlandisation in Hong Kong

ABSTRACT This study examines perceptions of language threat in Hong Kong against a background of increasing political tensions between Hong Kong and the People’s Republic of China (PRC). These tensions gained international attention in 2014 during the 79-day protests known as the Umbrella Movement and more recently in 2019 due to the proposed introduction of an extradition treatybetween Hong Kong and mainland China. It is against this politically divisive landscape that the article examines perceptions around Hong Kong’s three spoken official languages: English, Cantonese, and Putonghua. Quantitative and qualitative survey data were collected in 2017 from 568 students across 15 tertiary institutions in Hong Kong, with questions probing whether the respondents perceived that Cantonese was under threat, and if so, from which language – Putonghua or English or both. Respondents were also asked whether the current political tensions in Hong Kong were impacting their attitudes towards Cantonese, English, or Putonghua. A series of open-ended questions sought to find out why the respondents held particular perceptions towards these three languages. Gender as well as cultural identification were also examined as previous research has found that they significantly impact language attitudes in Hong Kong.
Labor migration from Southeast Asia to Taiwan: issues, public responses and future development

PurposeThis paper is mainly focused on labor migration from Southeast Asia to Taiwan, showing a route of south–south mobility and discussing the causes of migrant workers in Taiwan, the issues faced by migrant workers as well as public response to migrant workers.Design/methodology/approachBesides a literate review on the topic of migrant worker researches in Taiwan, the data for this research was also based on qualitative interviews and observations conducted both in the fieldwork in Taiwan and in Indonesia between June and August during the summer of 2018.FindingsThe transnational mobility let many migrants from Southeast Asian countries to Taiwan end up losing their cultural capital and “make money” instead. For these migrants, they have experienced a downward social mobility of class through transnational mobility.Research limitations/implicationsBecause of the chosen research approach, the research results may lack generalizability. More migrant laborers from various origin countries were encouraged to include for further research.Practical implicationsLabor migration cases from Southeast Asia to Taiwan could very well serve as good examples in the carrying out of a reflection on the limit of focusing on social science only inside nation-states in order to push a forward thinking on the transnationalization of social inequality.Originality/valueThis paper calls attention to the close linkage between transnational mobility and social inequality. It showed how the transnationalization of social inequality could get new faces through the new waves of labor migration.
From Global Value Chains (GVC) to Innovation Systems for Local Value Chains

This paper has forwarded the N-shaped curve hypothesis that while at the initial stage of growth more GVC is desirable for learning from outside, functional upgrading requires some effort or stage of seeking separation and independence from the existing foreign-dominated GVC, and that the latecomer firms and economies might have to seek again for an opening to integrate back into the GVC after building up their own local value chains. This paper has tried to verify this ‘N-shaped, InOut-In again’ hypothesis first by looking into cases of ‘upgrading and independence’ in Korea and Brazil, and second by checking the national level data of the share of foreign value-added (FVA). It is shown that the trends of FVA in successful catching-up economies, like Korea, Taiwan, and recently China, is consistent with this N-shaped or In-Out-In again pattern. The paper has also presented some regression results that confirms some correlations between the degree of local creation and diffusion of knowledge and the values of FVA. This can be regarded as an important contribution because it illustrates the linkage between the innovation system variables (knowledge localization) to the GVC variable of the FVA. This finding implies that building local innovation systems is the key to make upgrading and local value creation possible while being integrated in the GVC.
Evaluation of Korean-Language COVID-19–Related Medical Information on YouTube: Cross-Sectional Infodemiology Study

Background In South Korea, the number of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) cases has declined rapidly and much sooner than in other countries. South Korea is one of the most digitalized countries in the world, and YouTube may have served as a rapid delivery mechanism for increasing public awareness of COVID-19. Thus, the platform may have helped the South Korean public fight the spread of the disease. Objective The aim of this study is to compare the reliability, overall quality, title–content consistency, and content coverage of Korean-language YouTube videos on COVID-19, which have been uploaded by different sources. Methods A total of 200 of the most viewed YouTube videos from January 1, 2020, to April 30, 2020, were screened, searching in Korean for the terms “Coronavirus,” “COVID,” “Corona,” “Wuhan virus,” and “Wuhan pneumonia. ” Non-Korean videos and videos that were duplicated, irrelevant, or livestreamed were excluded. Source and video metrics were collected. The videos were scored based on the following criteria: modified DISCERN index, Journal of the American Medical Association Score (JAMAS) benchmark criteria, global quality score (GQS), title–content consistency index (TCCI), and medical information and content index (MICI). Results Of the 105 total videos, 37.14% (39/105) contained misleading information; independent user–generated videos showed the highest proportion of misleading information at 68.09% (32/47), while all of the government-generated videos were useful. Government agency–generated videos achieved the highest median score of DISCERN (5.0, IQR 5.0-5.0), JAMAS (4.0, IQR 4.0-4.0), GQS (4.0, IQR 3.0-4.5), and TCCI (5.0, IQR 5.0-5.0), while independent user–generated videos achieved the lowest median score of DISCERN (2.0, IQR 1.0-3.0), JAMAS (2.0, IQR 1.5-2.0), GQS (2.0, IQR 1.5-2.0), and TCCI (3.0, IQR 3.0-4.0). However, the total MICI was not significantly different among sources. “Transmission and precautionary measures” were the most commonly covered content by government agencies, news agencies, and independent users. In contrast, the most mentioned content by news agencies was “prevalence,” followed by “transmission and precautionary measures. ” Conclusions Misleading videos had more likes, fewer comments, and longer running times than useful videos. Korean-language YouTube videos on COVID-19 uploaded by different sources varied significantly in terms of reliability, overall quality, and title–content consistency, but the content coverage was not significantly different. Government-generated videos had higher reliability, overall quality, and title–content consistency than independent user–generated videos.
Incidence of psoriatic arthritis in Iraqi psoriatic patients according to serological tests

The present study was accomplished on 82 patients 52 with psoriasis and 30 with psoriatic arthritis (PsA). Age of incidence was 48 years, 42 were female with mean age 39 years and 40 were male with mean age 42 years. Anti-CCP antibodies were estimated using ELISA technique while rheumatoid factor (RF) and C- reactive protein (CRP) were tested using latex serological methods. Ten (50%) PsA patients was positive with Anti-CCP while 5 (16.7%) patients were positive with RF, 1 cutaneous psoriatic patient (1.9%) had positive Anti-CCP and no patients with cutaneous psoriasis had positive RF. RF can help in distinguishing between RA and psoriasis. Seven (23.3%) PsA patients were followed-up for Anti-CCP antibodies for 1 year every 3 months. There was an observed increased in levels of Anti-CCP antibodies. It could be concluded that Anti-CCP antibody is a good indicator for the follow up study and progression of PsA.
Surveillance of Chikungunya virus activity in some North-eastern states of India

Objective: To detect the prevalence pattern of Chikungunya virus in three states of Northeast India. Methods: A total of 1 510 samples were collected from different private and government hospitals of Assam, Arunachal Pradesh and Meghalaya. Serum was tested for the presence of IgM antibodies against Chikungunya virus followed by RT-PCR for amplification of Chikungunya E1 gene region using specific primers. Results: Overall, 11.83% (172/1 454) clinical samples were positive by MAC-ELISA and/or RT-PCR assay. Asymptomatic infection was seen in 17.86%. Males were more affected than females and age group 16-30 years was mostly affected. Fever (100.00%) was the primary symptom followed by headache (72.03%) and arthralgia (41.53%). Only 118 Chikungunya positive cases could be traced, of which 25.42% complained about sequelae of infection. In entomological investigation, Aedes aegypti was more predominant (92.10%) than Aedes albopictus (7.90%). No mosquito pools could be incriminated for Chikungunya virus. Conclusions: In this study, Chikungunya was observed to be prevalent in Assam, Arunachal Pradesh and Meghalaya. Though Chikungunya is a self-limiting infection, increasing morbidity by CHIKV infection is affecting social and economic status of individual. Thus, a community empowerment to effectively control mosquito population by employing different mosquito control measures along with personal protection is mandatory to tackle future outbreak of the disease.
Beta-Plane Arrested Topographic Wave as a Linkage of Open Ocean Forcing and Mean Shelf Circulation

Pressure anomaly set by the open ocean affects the dynamic topography and associated circulation over the continental shelf, which is explored here on a linearized β-plane arrested topographic wave framework that considers the variation in Coriolis parameter with latitude. It was found that on a meridional shelf, a nondimensional parameter Peβ, termed the β Péclet number, signifies the characteristics of open ocean–shelf interaction. The Peβ ≡ Dβ/α is determined by the ratio of long-wave-limit planetary to topographic Rossby wave speeds, i.e., the β drift Dβ, and the linear Ekman number α. On the western boundary shelf, due to the westward planetary Rossby wave, open ocean pressure propagates shoreward as Peβ > 1, and shelf circulation peaks where Peβ drops to 1. At this location, the planetary β effect is balanced by the bottom friction. The Peβ = 1 must occur either on the shelf or on the coastal wall when Peβ > 1 is observed at the shelf edge. On the eastern boundary shelf, however, Peβ < 0, the pressure anomaly is removed from the shelf, and hence the inductive circulation decays rapidly from the shelf edge. This β effect is robust on gently sloping meridional shelves. For zonal shelves, the planetary β increases the effective bottom slope on the northern boundary shelf but decreases it on the southern one, in a sense of potential vorticity conservation. However, this effect could be less significant in reality, given the complex dynamics involved. The above mechanism can explain the dynamics driving the Taiwan Warm Current in the East China Sea and its bifurcation around 28°N.
Morphological ontogeny and molecular analyses of geographic strains of two closely related Neoseiulus species (Acari: Phytoseiidae)

The predatory mites, Neoseiulus longispinosus (Evans) and N. womersleyi (Schicha) (Phytoseiidae) are two morphologically close species. Although they can be mainly separated by the length of the dorsal seta S5, misidentifications may occur. The present study investigated various strains of the two closely related species collected from Japan, Taiwan and/or Thailand using a combination of morphological and molecular data. We described and illustrated the adults and immature stages. We also sequenced the 28S region of nuclear ribosomal DNA to determine whether these strains represent different species. The two species could be clearly separated based on the length of seta S5 and the ratio of setae Z5/S5. In a 28S tree, the examined strains also formed separate clades with 100% bootstrap values. We conclude that a combination of different methods is often necessary to precisely distinguish these closely related taxa.
Between two worlds: Exploring esports betting in relation to problem gambling, gaming, and mental health problems

Abstract Background and aims Esports betting is an emerging gambling activity where individuals place bets on an organized video gaming competition. It represents only one of several gambling activities commonly endorsed by adolescents. To date, limited research has explored the relationship between esports betting and mental health among adolescents and its convergence with both problem gambling (PG) and problem video gaming (PVG). The present study examined the relation between esports betting, PG and PVG, and both externalizing and internalizing problems among adolescents while accounting for adolescents' video gaming intensity (i.e., how often they play 2 h or more in a day) and engagement in other gambling activities. Methods Data was collected from 6,810 adolescents in Wood County, Ohio schools. A subset of 1,348 adolescents (M age = 14.67 years, SD = 1.73, 64% male) who had gambled and played video games during the past year were included in the analyses. Results Approximately 20% (n = 263) of the included sample had bet on esports during the past year. Esports betting was positively correlated with other forms of gambling, both PG and PVG, and externalizing behaviors. Mediation analyses revealed esports betting was associated to both internalizing and externalizing problems through PVG and not PG. Conclusions Esports betting may be particularly appealing to adolescents who are enthusiastic video gamers. As such, regulators must be vigilant to ensure codes of best practices are applied to esports betting operators specifically for underaged individuals.
Cultural Differences in the Allocation of Attention to Information Architecture Components

Well-designed web information architecture (IA) supports the findability and usability of web content, with the wider aim of ensuring efficient, positive user experiences. Accordingly, this study investigates cultural differences in how web visitors allocate their attention to the four main IA components: labeling, organization, navigation, and searching. We conducted a user study with 33 student participants from Taiwan and the United States, comprising observation tasks, note-taking sessions, and questionnaires regarding participants’ attention allocation, as well as background questionnaires covering demographic, cultural, and personal factors. Our results indicated that, in general, the less complicated content a website displayed, the more aware the participants were of IA and its components. We also found that the US participants usually paid more attention to text labels on a webpage, whereas their Taiwanese counterparts were more likely to evenly distribute their attention across both text and image objects. These results shed new light on the cultural specificity of how existing IA is interpreted in global web communities and thus have important implications for future IA design.
Knowledge, attitudes and behaviours toward COVID-19: A cross-sectional survey among Nigerian University students

Background The effect of the highly contagious coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) began in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China, from which it spread worldwide. In Nigeria, to curb the spread of the virus, the government elected to close public places, halt the general use of public transportation, enforce isolation and manage infected persons. Aim This study evaluated Nigerian university students’ knowledge, attitudes and behaviour (KAB) towards COVID-19. Setting This was an online survey of Nigerian university students. Method A cross-sectional study was conducted among 1268 respondents aged 16 to 60 who completed the survey questionnaire. The respondents’ demographic data and KAB toward COVID-19 were collected, allocated and scored based on specific stratified divisions. Data were analysed using student’s t-test, analysis of variance and logistic regression analysis. Results The respondents demonstrated good knowledge of COVID-19, with a mean knowledge score of 78.7%; this positively influenced their attitude and behaviour scores (84.1% and 72.3%, respectively). Multiple linear regression analysis showed that 98.9% of the variance associated with poor knowledge is explained by gender (98.9%), age (97.3%), education (97.3%), occupation (97.2%) and marital status (91.4%). Conclusion The respondents had a positive attitude and satisfactory compliance with safety practices required to curb the spread of the virus. Nevertheless, there is a need to intensify health education campaigns targeting all Nigerians, especially the less educated, via community outreach programmes using local languages. Contribution The findings of this study demonstrate the imperative role of the knowledge of COVID-19 in curbing the spread of the infection via improved attitudes and positive behaviours in compliance with safety practices.
Media content, sentiment and emerging market futures returns

ABSTRACT The paper attempts to capture the sentiment derived from routine financial news and outlines the impact of the media content on the main index futures contracts of Hong Kong and Singapore. News factors are generated from routine financial news, but pessimistic market sentiment factors are more prevalent. High pessimistic news factors predict lower returns for the same day, and the returns start to reverse two days after the news for Hong Kong and Singapore markets. The finding is consistent with the sentiment theory. There is a significant reversal in returns, and the reversal in returns offsets the initial changes entirely. The bad news factor does not seem to work as a proxy for trading costs. The sub-sample results are similar to the whole sample. We also find the significant impact of U.S. news sentiment on news factors, futures return, and open interests in both markets. Trading strategies based on bad news factors generate economically significant returns when trading costs are considered.
Adverse impact of a high CD4/CD8 ratio in the allograft may be overcome by methotrexate‐ but not mycophenolate‐ or post‐transplant cyclophosphamide‐based graft versus host disease prophylaxis

A high CD4/CD8 T cell ratio in hematopoietic stem cell transplant (HSCT) allografts was observed to predict graft‐versus‐host disease (GVHD) and nonrelapse mortality (NRM) but has not been comparatively examined in settings of various GVHD‐prophylaxis regimens.
Ideological polarization, policy continuity: back to the majoritarian principle?

ABSTRACT This introduction to the Italian Politics 2023 special issue gives an overview of the main events characterizing Italian politics during a year of large-scale policy reforms, presidential and parliamentary elections, and the unexpected Russian invasion of Ukraine. The authors pose three questions concerning Italian politics during the year gone by. First, from an institutional viewpoint, they ask whether the revival of majoritarianism as a principle of government formation represents the prelude to a return to enduring party-system bipolarity. Second, from an electoral and public policy perspective, they ask whether the formation of a government led by what many perceive as a radical right party betokens the start of a correspondingly radical shift in Italian public policy. Third, from an international relations perspective, they ask about the extent to which the Meloni government’s attitude to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and more generally to Italy’s position on the world stage and in international affairs, is likely to differ from that adopted by Draghi. The chapter elaborates on the three questions by tracing how the events of 2022 generated much more continuity than expected.
Assessing disease risk perceptions of wild meat in savanna borderland settlements in Kenya and Tanzania

Wild meat hunting and trade across African savannas is widespread. We interviewed 299 people in rural settlements along the Kenya-Tanzania border to examine impacts of COVID-19 on wild meat consumption and perceptions about wild meat activities associated with zoonotic disease risks. Education level played a key part in understanding COVID-19 transmission. Information about the pandemic was mostly acquired from the media. Nearly all respondents recognized that COVID-19 originated in China. As many as 70% reported no impact of COVID-19 on wild meat consumption; some believed that there was an increase. Over half of the respondents believed that consumption of wild meat leads to food-borne illnesses. Respondents recognized disease risks such as anthrax and brucellosis and accepted that people slaughtering and handling wild meat with open cuts were at greater risk. Ungulates were the most consumed animals, followed by birds, rodents, and shrews. Respondents perceived that hyenas, monkeys, donkeys, and snakes were riskier to eat. More than 90% of the respondents understood that handwashing with soap reduces risks of disease transmission. Country level (11 answers), education and gender (three answers each) and household economy (158 answers) were significant. Country differences were linked to differences in nature legislation; 50% of Kenyan respondents believed that wild meat should not be sold because of conservation concerns. Men were more worried about getting COVID-19 from live animals and perceived that wildlife should not be sold because of conservation reasons. Overall, there was a very strong inclination to stop buying wild meat if other meats were less expensive. Our results allow us to better understand the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on wild meat-related activities. Differences between countries can frame the attitudes to wild meat since wild meat trade and consumption were found to be country specific.
The transformation and design of EU restrictive measures against Russia

ABSTRACT Sanctions were the European Union’s (EU) immediate response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022. These restrictive measures focus on specific individuals, entities, goods, services, and sectors. Out of a need for nuanced data, we map and analyze the entire set of EU sanctions imposed on Russia since 2014 until today. We show and argue that the sanctions’ design has become increasingly comprehensive over the past months which reflects the EU’s geopolitical considerations in carving out a response to the unparalleled threat imposed by Russia. Our new, author-created dataset covers the complete track record of Council decisions, regulations, and annexes of these restrictive measures, and thereby offers fine-grained information on the transformation and design of EU sanctions against Russia and the Russian-controlled areas in Ukraine.