Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
China's Western Horizon

This book explains how China’s new foreign policies like the vaunted “Belt and Road” Initiative are being shaped by local and regional politics outside China and assesses the political implications of these developments for Eurasia and the United States. It depicts the ways that President Xi Jinping’s China is zealously transforming its national wealth and economic power into tools of global political influence and details these developments in South Asia, Central Asia, and the Middle East. Drawing from extensive interviews, travels, and historical research, it describes how perceptions of China vary widely within states like Pakistan, Kazakhstan, and Iran. Eurasia’s powerful and privileged groups often expect to profit from their connections to China, while others fear commercial and political losses. Similarly, statesmen across Eurasia are scrambling to harness China’s energy purchases, arms sales, and infrastructure investments as a means to outdo their strategic competitors, like India and Saudi Arabia, while negotiating relations with Russia and America. The book finds that, on balance, China’s deepening involvement will play to the advantage of regional strongmen and exacerbate the political tensions within and among Eurasian states. To make the most of America’s limited influence along China’s western horizon (and elsewhere), it argues that US policymakers should pursue a selective and localized strategy to serve America’s aims in Eurasia and to better compete with China over the long run.
Taxonomic and nomenclatural novelties in the Pteris fauriei group (Pteridaceae)

The Pteris fauriei group (Pteridaceae) includes Pteris with bipinnatisect laminae and entire pinnules. The taxonomic debate is led by morphological similarity and aggravated by the wide geographic distribution and a large number of involved taxa. We collected more than 500 plants and examined related herbarium specimens. Based on the evidence of morphology, molecular phylogeny, ecology, and reproductive biology, we propose the following taxonomic and nomenclatural novelties. 1) Two new species, Pteris austrotaiwanensis Y.S. Chao from Taiwan and Pteris pseudowulaiensis Y.S. Chao from China and Taiwan, are described. 2) The occurrence of Pteris wulaiensis in Japan is confirmed. 3) Pteris fauriei var. chinensis was treated as a synonym of Pteris latipinna Y.S. Chao & W.L. Chiou. 4) Pteris fauriei var. minor Hieron. is raised as species, Pteris minor (Hieron.) Y.S. Chao stat. nov. In this study, we clarify morphology of all known taxa in the P. fauriei group and provide a key.
The Worldwide Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative: ADNI‐3 updates and global perspectives

The Worldwide Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (WW‐ADNI) is a collaborative effort to investigate imaging and biofluid markers that can inform Alzheimer's disease treatment trials. It is a public‐private partnership that spans North America, Argentina, Australia, Canada, China, Japan, Korea, Mexico, and Taiwan. In 2004, ADNI researchers began a naturalistic, longitudinal study that continues today around the globe. Through several successive phases (ADNI‐1, ADNI‐GO, ADNI‐2, and ADNI‐3), the study has fueled amyloid and tau phenotyping and refined neuroimaging methodologies. WW‐ADNI researchers have successfully standardized analyses and openly share data without embargo, providing a rich data set for other investigators. On August 26, 2020, the Alzheimer's Association convened WW‐ADNI researchers who shared updates from ADNI‐3 and their vision for ADNI‐4.
Political Discontent in China Is Associated with Isolating Personality Traits

Our personalities affect how we understand the political world, but research to date has focused almost exclusively on democratic contexts. How is personality related to political attitudes and behavior in authoritarian systems? Three original surveys of Chinese citizens (Nstudy1=2,024, Nstudy2=3,573, Nstudy3=1,986) show that discontented citizens in contemporary China are more fearful, disagreeable, and introverted, lacking close emotional attachments to others. Conversely, Chinese Communist Party members show high levels of extraversion and other traits associated with personal and professional success. These findings suggest a social element to regime support. China’s most dissatisfied citizens operate at the fringes of society, which may contribute to the durability of authoritarian rule in the country.
Analysis of taxi dataset to categorize city rankings

The city administration values the district attraction rating since it can aid in extracting the desirability of the location and hence support the officials in making smart city development decisions. Traditional urban planning tactics mostly rely on Gross Domestic Product, rate of employment, number of people per unit area, and district statistics gleaned through surveys and questionnaires, among other factors. As a point of reference, such knowledge becomes less and less helpful over time. The volume of urban data is growing at an exponential rate. Furthermore, these tactics suffer from a fatal flaw: they are unsuccessful. Independent representations of a district's appeal, as well as inter-district interactions, are not taken into account. It is now feasible to use urban data efficiently for urban planning thanks to advances in urban computing. To that end, this paper proposes PageRank, a district attractiveness rating algorithm based on taxi big data, which is the first to do so. A working software is constructed for visualization motives. To begin, the total area is split into numerous parts using the k-means algorithm.
Russian gas in Europe: pipeline and hubs price convergence analysis

ABSTRACT The analysis in this paper was performed before the disastrous and unsolicited invasion of Russia to Ukraine. The paper aims to identify if the biggest Russian gas exporter Gazprom used market power to decouple its gas prices from European gas hub benchmarks. The empirical analysis is based on pairwise price convergence between the Russian pipeline and European gas hubs. The main finding shows that Gazprom takes advantage of its market position. The proposed model does not support the company’s claims of pipeline price tightness to liquid European gas hubs, and rather proves fluctuating and unstable price convergence between pipelines and hubs from 2016 to March 2020, right before the COVID-19 pandemic. Notably, a robust and trendy-stable price convergence is observed between the Russian pipeline gas and Brent benchmark. Methodologically, the paper contributes with a modified convergence model compliant with gas market fundamentals and suggests a time-expanding concept missed in previous studies. Ongoing political and European gas market developments of 2022 (during the paper review) support the conclusions.
Estimating the Cost of Internet Censorship in China: Evidence from a Gamified Remote Platform

We exploit internet censorship intensity changes due to political events to study the impact of internet censorship on online laboor work in China. With a unique dataset from the Ingress (video game) community platform, a difference-in-differences design shows that an increase in China’s internet censorship intensity during politically sensitive dates, while not affecting the amount of volunteer working time, reduces online labour work efficiency by eight percent for volunteers from mainland China relative to those elsewhere. This efficiency loss due to internet censorship can be a proxy for the labour productivity loss for Chinese oversea e-commercers, freelancers and other related online workers.
Stock Trading Decision Method Based on Stop Loss Double Threshold

Artificial intelligence technology is widely used in stock market stock forecasting, which can help investors achieve “buy at a low price and sell at a high price”. Many scholars are focusing on how to increase investors' returns and reduce their risks. This study takes stocks in the United States and Taiwan as the research objects, and historical data, futures, and options as the data set, in an attempt to find a less risky and more rewarding method of stock trading decisions. Long short-term memory neural networks (LSTM) are used to study stock price fluctuations. The Kelly criterion for fund management is used to calculate the optimal investment ratio, and a stop loss strategy based on double thresholds is added so that investors can sell within a certain period when the stock price falls to a certain range, thereby reducing investors' risks. The particle swarm optimization algorithm (PSO) is used to optimize the critical values of trading threshold and stop loss range. The experimental results show that the stop loss strategy based on double thresholds can effectively reduce investors' risk. The addition of leading indicators such as futures and options can increase the accuracy of stock prediction and increase the return of investors.
The Structure of the International Air Network through the Social Network Analysis

This study aimed at examining the structure of the international air network through the analysis of inter-city spatial interactions. For this purpose, this study applied a modified social network analysis model to examine spatial interactions between cities. The international networkability of cities and the connectivity of the international air routes were measured in the international air network in 1992 and 2004. The connection system between cities was analyzed, using air routes that show the maximum connectivity of each city. The connection system, composed of cities with high networkability in the global network, and the changes were also examined. As a result, the analysis of the nearest-neighbor distance between the cities revealed that in both 1992 and 2004, the center of the global network was formed around London through connections to Paris, New York, Amsterdam, and Frankfurt, and most of the cities in Europe and America were connected to London. The Asian cities, however, formed a different connection system around such cities as Tokyo, Singapore, and Hong Kong. In the connection system of the global network, the Asian cities showed dynamic changes in their connection patterns.
Family Size and Intergenerational Financial Transfers : Evidence from China ’ s One-Child Policy ( Very Preliminary Version )

This paper examines the relationship between family size and intra-family financial transfers from adults to their aging parents. The identification of the relationship relies on China’s one-child policy, which has exogenously affected the number of children in Chinese families since around 1980. I show that the number of children is positively correlated with whether aging parents receives monetary supports from their adult children. However, I find no evidence that the number of children affects the amount of support the parents receive, which is consistent with my further finding that on average, the amount of monetary support (to aging parents) per child is greater in families with fewer children.
New use for old drugs: The protective effect of atypical antipsychotics on hepatocellular carcinoma

It has been encouraged to use large existing data like insurance claims data to investigate the new indications of old drugs. New strategies of research are warranted to identify feasible drugs. We conducted a dual research model with a population‐based case–control study using Taiwan's National Health Insurance Research Database and an in vitro study to investigate the association between atypical antipsychotic and Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) risk. The study herein consists of two components. The first is a population‐based case–control study using existing data from the Taiwan National Health Insurance Research Database. The second component was an in vitro study in which HCC cell lines (Huh7 and Hep G2) were treated with risperidone, quetiapine and clozapine. after treatment of the foregoing antipsychotics, the HCC cell lines were assessed for cell proliferation, invasion and apoptosis. Multivariate conditional logistic regression analysis revealed that antipsychotic use was independently and inversely associated with HCC risk (adjusted odds‐ratio [aOR]:0.85, 95% CI: 0.81–0.89). The protective effect was dose‐dependent: compared to the low cumulative defined daily dose (cDDD) group (0–29 cDDD), the 30–89 cDDD and ≥90 cDDD groups were associated with significantly reduced risk for HCC (aOR: 0.56, 95% CI: 0.41–0.76; aOR: 0.37, 95% CI: 0.27–0.50, respectively). In vitro study results indicated that risperidone, quetiapine and clozapine significantly inhibited cell proliferation, invasion and induced apoptosis in human HCC cell lines. Our results herein suggested that antipsychotic use might reduce the risk of HCC and may provide evidence for new uses of old drugs.
Early Inflammatory Polyarthritis: Case Study

To determine which patients with early inflammatory polyarthritis (EIP) with less than a year of evolution of the disease without a definitive diagnosis, progressed to rheumatoid arthritis according to ACR1987 criteria, we developed a predictive model for classification of early rheumatoid arthritis, based on clinical characteristics by observation of the onset of the disease and to relate with certain laboratory variables. A total of 54 patients with arthritis of less than one year of evolution were evaluated. We conducted a physical examination and the following parameters were determined: DAS 28, HAQ, rheumatoid factor (RF), citrullinated peptide (anti-CCP) and c-telopeptide (CTx-II); radiology of hands and feet was also carried out, and was assessed by the Sharp method modified by van der Heijde. The patient follow-up was performed every3 months for 12 months, classifying them according to the development of self-limiting, persistent non-erosive, and persistent erosive arthritis, and according to definite diagnosis. We estimated the relative risk and 95% confidence intervals for the predictor variables considered. Overall, 80.4% of patients with EIP evolved to persistent arthritis. Most persistent arthritis was diagnosed as rheumatoid arthritis (67.4%). A positive serology in patients with rheumatoid arthritis was 70% for RF, 61.5% for anti-CCP and 61% for CTx-II. The basal nodes and RF were able to predict the persistence of activity and symmetry; rheumatoid nodules predict the development of erosions. An initial erosive disease increases the risk of radiological progression.
New Silk Route or Classic Developmental Cul-de-Sac? The Prospects and Challenges of China’s OBOR Initiative

In September 2013, at a speech at Nazarbayev University in Astana, Chinese Premier Xi Jinping announced plans to promote a “Silk Road Economic Belt” across neighboring Eurasian states. Over the next months, Chinese policymakers and analysts further outlined ambitious plans to promote regional cooperation, economic integration, and connectivity by funding large-scale infrastructure and development projects throughout the region. These include a series of land routes and high-speed rail links intended to connect East Asia with Europe (via Eurasia), South Asia, and the Middle East, as well as an accompanying maritime belt, supported by upgrades to ports and logistics hubs. Collectively, these two belts have been described as One Belt, One Route (OBOR) and, according to the South China Morning Post, the initiative represents the “most significant and far-reaching project the nation has ever put forward. ”
Guidelines for the Management of Lower Respiratory Tract Infections in Asia

A recent drive to improve the treatment of lower respiratory tract infections (LRTIs) in Asia has seen the publication of several guidelines in Southeast Asia, Taiwan, and Japan, based on regional etiologic and antibiotic susceptibility data. With regard to etiology, studies in Japan and Taiwan have revealed a pattern similar to that reported in Western countries. Resistance to many commonly used antibiotic agents is a major problem in Asia, with Streptococcus pneumoniae showing high resistance to β-lactams, macrolides, and trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole, Haemophilus influenzae to β-lactams and macrolides, and Moraxella catarrhalis to β-lactams. Resistance to β-lactams has also been observed in key nosocomial pathogens such as Staphylococcus aureus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Acinetobacter baumannii. With regard to therapy options, the guidelines for pathogen-directed therapy generally prefer the use of penicillins and third/fourth-generation cephalosporins. Fluoroquinolones are recommended as alternative options for penicillin-allergic patients or penicillinresistant infections. Macrolides are proposed as an alternative therapy in penicillin-allergic patients by the Japanese guidelines, but do not feature in the Taiwanese guidelines. For empiric therapy, all three guidelines support the use of a β-lactam in combination with a macrolide for community-acquired LRTIs, with antipseudomonal cephalosporins, β-lactam/β-lactamase inhibitor combinations, and carbapenems all featuring among the treatment options for hospital-acquired LRTIs. Further development of the Asian guidelines will require continuing surveillance studies to provide detailed etiologic and susceptibility data as well as the effective evaluation of clinical trials.
Human Papillomavirus and Cancer in Men

Although human papillomavirus (HPV) issues have focused primarily on females, it is important to give attention to males because the primary mode of transmission of the virus is through sexual intercourse. There is increasing evidence that HPV is causing serious diseases like penile, anal, head, and neck cancer among males. Studies have also shown that, generally, males have similar rates of HPV infection (0.29 to 0.39 per 1000 person-month) as females. The vaccine against HPV, Gardasil®, has been used in women since 2006. In 2009, the FDA approved Gardasil® for men. Although questions about the efficacy of HPV vaccination in males remain, it is important to understand what males know about HPV and their predisposition towards being vaccinated against the virus.
POV to the people: online discourses about gonzo pornography

ABSTRACTThe term ‘gonzo’ is often misunderstood or misused, becoming a sort of metonymy or lightning rod for more general controversies around pornography. More interesting perhaps, the term has been progressively discarded by the porn 2.0 industry. How then might we understand gonzo? This article investigates the discursive construction of gonzo pornography through a digital ethnography of online spaces where gonzo porn is watched or debated, proceeding through two stages. First, the close reading of three important user-generated content sites hosting the ‘definitional’ or ‘ontological’ efforts of users (Yahoo! Answers, Wikipedia, Urban Dictionary); and second, the sampling and consequent analysis of 378 comments on gonzo videos deposited on the streaming site PornHub.
Assessing the impact of the economic crises in 1997 and 2008 on suicides in Hong Kong, Taiwan and South Korea using a strata-bootstrap algorithm

ABSTRACT The Asian economic crises of 1997 and the 2008 Global Financial Crisis (GFC) had far-reaching impacts on Asian and other global economies. Turmoil in the banking and finance sectors led to downturns in stock markets, resulting in bankruptcies, house repossessions and high unemployment. These crises have been shown to be correlated with a deterioration in mental health and an increase in suicides, and it is important to understand the implication of these impacts and how such recessions affect the health of affected populations. With the benefit of hindsight, did lessons learned from the negative effects of the 1997 Asian economic recession impact the aftermath of the 2008 GFC in Asian countries? Utilising a framework based on a simple strata-bootstrap algorithm using daily data – where available – we investigate the trend in suicide rates over time in three different populations (Hong Kong, Taiwan and South Korea), and examine whether there were any changes in the pattern of suicide rates in each country subsequent to both the 1997 Asian and 2008. We find that each country responded differently to each of the crises and the suicide rates for certain age-gender specific groups in each country were more affected.
Marine Tetrodotoxin as a Risk for Human Health

Abstract Tetrodotoxin (TTX) is a toxin mainly occurring naturally in contaminated puffer fish, which are a culinary delicacy in Japan. It is also detected in various marine organisms like globefish, starfish, sunfish, stars, frogs, crabs, snails, Australian blue-ringed octopuses, and bivalve molluscs. TTX is produced by marine bacteria that are consumed mainly by fish of the Tetraodontidae family and other aquatic animals. TTX poisoning through consuming marine snails has recently begun to occur over a wider geographical extent through Taiwan, China, and Europe. This neurotoxin causes food intoxication and poses an acute risk to public health. The aim of this review is to present the most recent information about TTX and its analogues with particular regard to toxicity, methods of analysis, and risk to humans of exposure.
Cumulative Impact Factor: 45.01 THE IMPACTS OF NATIVE CULTURE ON TOURISM IN TAIWAN: A DYNAMIC PANEL DATA ANALYSES CHENG-WEN, Lee and CHIN-MEI, Chou

The main purpose of this paper is to test the impac t of cultural creative international marketing on inbound tourism in Taiwa n. Data are collected from the databases of the Tourism Bureau, the Minis try of Finance, the Ministry of Culture, the Republic of China statisti c database, the International Monetary Fund, and the World Economic Outlook Datab se. To avoid the possibility of bias and inconsistency in the result s due to endogeneity, we adopt a dynamic panel data framework to modify the gravity model for the estimation. The results suggest that a significant positive relationship exists between previous period tourist flow and current pe riod tourist flow, implying the presence of a persistent effect. In addition, t he bilateral GDP, bilateral CPI, bilateral trade volume, and distance have a signifi cant impact on tourism demand. Finally, enhancing cultural creative intern ational marketing has effectively increased the number of tourists from t hese countries to visit Taiwan.