Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
‘Oh sorry, I’ve muted you!’: Issues of connection and connectivity in qualitative (longitudinal) research with young fathers and family support professionals

ABSTRACT The COVID-19 crisis has placed unique restrictions on social researchers in terms of how they conduct their research. It has also created opportunities for adaptation and critical reflection on methodological practice. This article considers how the unanticipated use of remote qualitative methods impacted processes of research connection and connectivity in qualitative (longitudinal) research. The reflections are based on fieldwork conducted for a qualitative longitudinal study about the parenting journeys and support needs of young fathers. We elaborate our key strategies and provide worked examples of how the research team modified their methods and responded in the crisis context. First, we consider questions of connection when seeking to (re)establish and retain connections with project stakeholders and marginalised participants through the pivot to remote methods. Second, we reflect on how processes of maintaining participation and interaction were impacted by practical and technological issues associated with the digitally mediated forms of connectivity available.
Challenging and Enforcing Safety Management in Developing Countries: A Strategy

Abstract To eliminate fatalities and injuries, this work aims to present empirical research based on the examination of safety management practices currently operational in the construction industries of Pakistan, China and Hong Kong with a view to enhancing safety in developing countries. The current safety situation in the construction industries of Pakistan and China (and specifically Hong Kong) vis-à-vis safety schemes, challenges and opportunities, and enforcement is presented. Emerging themes from qualitative analysis substantiate the significance of ten factors highlighting the importance of implementing safety management systems on construction sites. The identified factors are safety as a value, safety system, safety organization, safety training, research and development, personal protection program, toolbox talks and a site safety cycle, plant department, safety and productivity, and development of construction business. Research demonstrates that constructors in the developing countries need to implement safety, health and environmental (SH&E) management systems within their companies. To deliver projects without injuries, a strategy for implementing a safety system is given to help reduce job site risks.
First results on low-mass WIMPs from the CDEX-1 experiment at the China Jinping underground laboratory

The China Dark matter Experiment collaboration reports the first experimental limit on WIMP dark matter from 14.6 kg-day of data taken with a 994 g p-type point-contact germanium detector at the China Jinping underground Laboratory where the rock overburden is more than 2400 m. The energy threshold achieved was 400 eVee. According to the 14.6 kg-day live data, we placed the limit of N= 1.75 * 10^{-40} cm^{2} at 90% confidence level on the spin-independent cross-section at WIMP mass of 7 GeV before differentiating bulk signals from the surface backgrounds.
A New Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome Virus with N-Linked Glycosylation Site Deletion in GP5 44th Amino Acid from JXA1, NADC30-Like, and JM Triparental Recombination

Porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV) is a significant pathogen causing substantial financial losses in the global swine industry. The prevention of PRRSV is hampered due to frequent gene recombination among different strains of PRRSV. In this study, a new PRRSV strain, PRRSV-HQ-2020, was identified from nursery piglets in Yunnan Province, China, in 2020. The complete genome analysis revealed that PRRSV-HQ-2020 is highly similar to JXA1-like (lineage 8.7 PRRSV, isolated from China in 2008) in the 5′UTR, nsp1–9, and nsp11 coding regions. Additionally, it has a resemblance to JM (lineage 3 PRRSV, isolated from Taiwan, China, in 2010) in the nsp12-M coding region and NADC30 (lineage 1.8 PRRSV, isolated from North American in 2008) in the nsp10, N, and 3′UTR, suggesting a natural recombination event. Furthermore, recombination analyses showed three interlineage recombination events among lineages 8.7, 1.8, and 3. Notably, the GP5 protein of PRRSV-HQ-2020 exhibited a crucial mutation at position 44, leading to the deletion of a key glycosylation site. These findings provide direct evidence for the natural occurrence of recombination events among three lineages of PRRSV-2 in Chinese swine herds, leading to the emergence of unique genetic properties of PRRSV variants, and providing a theoretical basis for developing better PRRSV prevention strategies.
Association between motor skills and executive function of children with autism spectrum disorder in Taiwan and the United States

Objective The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between parent ratings of motor skills and executive function (EF) in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in the United States and Taiwan. Materials and method One hundred and seventy-two parents/legal guardians of children (4–6 years and 11 months old) with ASD were recruited from two countries, Taiwan (n = 100) and the United States (n = 72). The parents or guardians of the child with ASD completed a questionnaire including demographic information, child’s motor skills (using Children Activity Scale – Parents, ChAS-P), and child’s EF (using Childhood Executive Functioning Inventory, CHEXI). A series of hierarchical multiple regressions were conducted to determine whether ChAS-P (total motor score, fine motor skills, and gross motor skill) was associated with CHEXI (total EF score, working memory, and inhibition), after controlling for covariates (i.e., age, gender, race, body mass index, whether children received physical activity or cognitive training, parental education level). Results Total motor skills, fine motor skills, and gross motor skills were significantly associated with EF in both working memory and inhibition as rated by parents in both countries (β = 0.21–0.57, p < 0.01), with the exception of a non-significant association between parent-rated total motor skills, fine motor skills, and gross motor skills, and inhibition among Taiwanese children with ASD. In addition, the associations between parent ratings of motor skills (i.e., fine motor and gross motor skills) and EF (i.e., working memory and inhibition) were similar between the two countries. Conclusion Positive associations with specific aspects of parent ratings of fine motor and gross motor skills and working memory and inhibition were found in children with ASD from both countries. These findings have implications for future interventions and programs focused on improving early motor skills and EF development for young children with ASD from Taiwan and the United States.
The Expansion of Education in China: 1949-1995.

This paper presents a case study on the expansion of education in China (excluding Taiwan) since the foundation of the People's Republic of China in 1949 to 1995. The study uses an estimation of the national primary school enrollment rates from 1949-1951 and that in the period of "the Cultural Revolution," and uses the available official statistics of China in other years. The paper argues that currently available theories about expansion of education, mainly based on the observation of western countries, cannot be well applied to this general pattern. Factors influencing China's unique educational development include economics, politics, and public policy. The paper offers an exploratory view of the general pattern of educational development and its implications for the future.
Projected Economic Growth in China and India: The Role of Demographic Change

Within the next decade, China’s labour force will begin to contract, while that of India will expand faster than its population. Relative labour abundance will bring higher capital returns and an increasing share of global FDI to India. Yet China may relax its One Child Policy further and India’s fertility could follow the pattern elsewhere in Asia and decline faster than expected. These linkages are explored using a global demographic sub-model that is integrated with an adaptation of the GTAP-Dynamic global economic model in which regional households are disaggregated by age and gender. Even with a two-child-policy, China’s growth is projected to slow in future with India becoming the fastest growing economy in the world on the strength of its continued population expansion. While GDP depends positively on fertility and per capita income negatively in both countries, the price of more GDP growth in terms of lost per capita income is lower in China than in India, a result that depends critically on India’s initially higher fertility, its higher youth dependency and the age-gender pattern of its participation rates. India therefore has considerably more to gain, at least in per capita terms, from further reducing its fertility
Misoprostol Heals Small Bowel Ulcers in Aspirin Users With Small Bowel Bleeding.

BACKGROUND & AIMS There is no effective treatment for aspirin-induced small bowel ulcer bleeding. We performed a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trial to determine whether misoprostol can heal small bowel ulcers in patients with small bowel bleeding who require continuous aspirin therapy. METHODS We performed a prospective study of 84 aspirin users with small bowel bleeding who required continued aspirin therapy in Hong Kong and Japan. Patients with small bowel ulcers or multiple erosions, detected by capsule endoscopy, were randomly assigned to groups that received either misoprostol (200 μg, 4 times daily; n = 42) or placebo (n = 42) for 8 weeks. All patients continued taking aspirin (100 mg, once daily). The primary end point was complete ulcer healing at follow-up capsule endoscopy. Secondary end points included changes in hemoglobin level and number of ulcer/erosions from baseline. RESULTS Complete healing of small bowel ulcers was observed in 12 patients in the misoprostol group (28.6%; 95% CI, 14.9%-42.2%) and 4 patients in the placebo group (9.5%; 95% CI, 0.6%-18.4%), for a difference in proportion of 19.0% (95% CI, 2.8%-35.3%; P = .026). The misoprostol group had a significantly greater mean increase in hemoglobin than the placebo group (mean difference, 0.70 mg/dL; 95% CI, 0.05-1.36; P = .035). The reduction in medium number of ulcers or erosions was significantly greater in the misoprostol group (from 6.5 [range, 1-85] to 2 [range, 0-25]) than in the placebo group (from 7 [range, 1-29] to 4 [range, 0-19] (P = .005). CONCLUSIONS In a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trial, we found misoprostol to be superior to placebo in promoting healing of small bowel ulcers among aspirin users complicated by small bowel ulcer bleeding who require continuous aspirin therapy. However, use of misoprostol alone would provide only limited protection against aspirin on the small bowel. ClinicalTrials.gov ID NCT01998776.
Long-acting recombinant coagulation factor IX albumin fusion protein (rIX-FP) in hemophilia B: results of a phase 3 trial.

A global phase 3 study evaluated the pharmacokinetics, efficacy, and safety of recombinant fusion protein linking coagulation factor IX with albumin (rIX-FP) in 63 previously treated male patients (12-61 years) with severe hemophilia B (factor IX [FIX] activity ≤2%). The study included 2 groups: group 1 patients received routine prophylaxis once every 7 days for 26 weeks, followed by either 7-, 10-, or 14-day prophylaxis regimen for a mean of 50, 38, or 51 weeks, respectively; group 2 patients received on-demand treatment of bleeding episodes for 26 weeks and then switched to a 7-day prophylaxis regimen for a mean of 45 weeks. The mean terminal half-life of rIX-FP was 102 hours, 4.3-fold longer than previous FIX treatment. Patients maintained a mean trough of 20 and 12 IU/dL FIX activity on prophylaxis with rIX-FP 40 IU/kg weekly and 75 IU/kg every 2 weeks, respectively. There was 100% reduction in median annualized spontaneous bleeding rate (AsBR) and 100% resolution of target joints when subjects switched from on-demand to prophylaxis treatment with rIX-FP (P< .0001). The median AsBR was 0.00 for all prophylaxis regimens. Overall, 98.6% of bleeding episodes were treated successfully, including 93.6% that were treated with a single injection. No patient developed an inhibitor, and no safety concerns were identified. These results indicate rIX-FP is safe and effective for preventing and treating bleeding episodes in patients with hemophilia B at dosing regimens of 40 IU/kg weekly and 75 IU/kg every 2 weeks. This trial was registered at www.clinicaltrials. gov as #NCT0101496274.
AB0089 Prevalence of metabolic syndrome in the moroccan population with rheumatoid arthritis: results from the quest-ra study.

Objectives To evaluatethe prevalence of metabolic syndrome in patients with rheumatoid arthritis and analyze the factors that are associated with its presence. Methods QUEST-RA Moroccan inspired by Finland QUEST-RA (Quantitative monitoring of standard patients with rheumatoid arthritis) is a multinational cross-sectional study, including patients with rheumatoid arthritis, according the criteria for diagnosis of ACR 1987, and collected in several Moroccan centers combining the public and private sector over a period of two years (from January 2008 to December 2010). A questionnaire containing sociodemographic, clinical and paraclinical parameters was completed by all patients. The definition of theWorld Health Organization (WHO 1998) was used to identify the metabolic syndrome. Metabolic syndrome is defined as the presence of at least two of the four following factors (obesity (BMI> 30 kg/m2), diabetes, hypertension, dyslipidemia). Results 1129exploitable files were analyzed. The mean age of patients was 48.8 ± 12.7 years with female predominance 87.3%. The median disease duration was 6 years (3, 12), the mean DAS28 was 4.94 ± 1.68, with a median HAQ of1 (0.37, 1.62). The prevalence of hypertension, diabetes, hyperlipidemia, and obesity was respectively 13.7%, 8.3%, 4.4%, 17.6%. The prevalence of metabolic syndrome according to the WHO definition was 8.1%. In univariate analysis, the presence of metabolic syndrome was associated with a higher age of patients (p <0.0001) and a longer disease duration (p = 0.04) compared to the group without metabolic syndrome. In addition, there was no association between the presence of metabolic syndrome and DAS 28, ESR, CRP, The consumption of alcohol and tobacco, taking the dose of corticosteroids, the presence of bone erosions, anti-CCP and rheumatoid factor. Conclusions This study suggeststhat there is no increased frequency of metabolic syndrome in rheumatoid arthritis in Morocco compared to literature data. The presence of metabolic syndrome was associated with age and disease duration of the disease unrelated to the activity or severity of the disease. Comparison with a control group and larger multiethnic studies are necessary. Disclosure of Interest None Declared
Farewell President! Political Favoritism, Economic Inequality, and Political Polarization

This paper examines the effect of political favoritism on economic inequality in the short run and political polarization in the long run. We exploit the sudden death of an authoritarian leader - President Chiang Ching-Kuo of Taiwan - in 1988 to generate plausibly exogenous variation in partiality. We find that Chiang's nationalist regime conducted political favoritism broadly toward political immigrants via cronyism (allocating public sector positions) and also differentially toward specific subgroups of political immigrants via wage discrimination (offering higher payroll to these subgroups within the public sector). Favoritism led to a 7.2 percent immigrant payroll premium, which accounted for nearly three quarters of the immigrant-native payroll gap at the time. This in turn propelled overall income inequality by 4.5 percent. Moreover, political favoritism breeds political polarization in the long run by pulling apart the political views of immigrants and natives. Compared with natives, immigrants who were exposed to favoritism tend to adopt political positions that are aligned with the nationalist party today: they are more likely to support unification with China, and are more inclined to trust the mainland Chinese government and its citizens. Exposed immigrant (native) swing voters are also more (less) likely to vote for the nationalist party today.
ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE IPA Assamese

The variety described here is representative of colloquial Assamese spoken in the eastern districts of Assam.1 Assam is a North-Eastern state of India, therefore Assamese and creoles of Assamese like Nagamese are spoken in the different North-Eastern states of Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, and also the neighbouring country of Bhutan. Approximately 15 million people speak Assamese in India (see Ethnologue, Gordon 2005, which lists 15,374,000 speakers including those in Bhutan and Bangladesh). In the pre-British era (until 1826), the kingdom of Assam was ruled by Ahom kings and the then capital was based in the Eastern district of Sibsagar and later in Jorhat. American missionaries established the first printing press in Sibsagar and in the year 1846 published a monthly periodical Arunodoi using the variety spoken in and around Sibsagar as the point of departure. This is the immediate reason which led to the acceptance of the formal variety spoken in eastern Assam (which roughly comprises of all the districts of Upper Assam). Having said that, the language spoken in these regions of Assam also show a certain degree of variation from the written form of the ‘standard’ language. As against the relative homogeneity of the variety spoken in eastern Assam, variation is considerable in certain other districts which would constitute the western part of Assam, comprising of the district of Kamrup up to Goalpara and Dhubri (see also Kakati 1962 and Grierson 1968). In contemporary Assam, for the purposes of mass media and communication, a certain neutral blend of eastern Assamese, without too many distinctive eastern features, like /®/ deletion, which is a robust phenomenon in the eastern varieties, is still considered to be the norm. The lexis of Assamese is mainly Indo-Aryan, but it also has a sizeable amount of lexical items related to Bodo among other Tibeto-Burman languages (Kakati 1962), and there are a substantial number of items borrowed from Hindi, English and Bengali in recent times. The speaker of the passage recorded for this illustration is a 27-year-old female teacher in a prestigious middle school. Apart from her teaching activities she also speaks in public gatherings and other social events. She grew up in Jorhat and has lived there all her life.
Potency of Bone Marrow-Derived Mesenchymal Stem Cells and Indomethacin in Complete Freund's Adjuvant-Induced Arthritic Rats: Roles of TNF-α, IL-10, iNOS, MMP-9, and TGF-β1

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is an autoimmune syndrome affecting joint spaces, leading to the disabled state. Currently, there is no optimal therapy for RA except for systemic immunosuppressants that have variable undesirable effects after long-term use. Hence, the need for other treatment modalities has emerged in an attempt to develop a treating agent that is effective but without bad effects. Bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (BM-MSCs) may be an alternative medicine since they may differentiate into a variety of mesenchymal tissues including bone and cartilage. Indomethacin (IMC) could be suggested as an analgesic, anti-inflammatory, and antirheumatic potential agent against the course of RA since it possesses significant palliative effects and antipyretic properties. Therefore, our target of this study was to explore and compare the effect of BM-MSCs (1 × 106 cells/rat at the 1st, 6th, 12th, and 18th days) and IMC (2 mg/kg b.w./day for 3 weeks) either alone or in combination on arthritic rats. The model of rheumatoid arthritis in rats was induced by subcutaneous injection of 0.1 mL/rat CFA into the footpad of the right hind paw. The BM-MSC intravenous injection and IMC oral administration significantly reduced the elevated right hind leg paw diameter and circumference, serum anti-CCP, and ankle joint articular tissue expressions of TNF-α, iNOS, MMP-9, and TGF-β1 while they significantly increased the lowered articular IL-10 expression in CFA-induced arthritic rats. The combinatory effect of the two treatments was the most potent. In conclusion, the treatment of RA with BM-MSCs and IMC together is more effective than the treatment with either BM-MSCs or IMC. The Th1 cytokine (TNF-α), Th2 cytokine (IL-10), iNOS, MMP-9, and TGF-β1 are important targets for mediating the antiarthritic effects of BM-MSCs and IMC in CFA-induced arthritis in rats.
The Determinants of Tourism Demand by Mainland China in Taiwan

Mainland China is the most important source of tourism for Taiwan in recent years. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the changes in the long-run demand for tourism in Taiwan by Mainland China. Monthly data from these two countries for the period between January 2001 and June 2014 are employed. Johansen maximum likelihood procedure is used in the cointegration analysis and error correction model to test the Mainland China tourism demand for Taiwan. The result indicates that the income in the origin country (that is, Mainland China), transportation costs in Taiwan, cross-strait trade and exchanges rates between these two countries are key determinants of tourism demand by Mainland China.
A Principal Component Approach to Measuring Investor Sentiment in Hong Kong

In light of the increasing integration between China and Hong Kong, this paper develops a new market sentiment index for the Hong Kong stock market, one of the largest stock market in the world. The components of the sentiment measure includes the turnover ratio, short-selling volume, money flow, HIBOR and return of the U.S. and Japanese markets. We also include the Shanghai and Shenzhen Composite index in our measure to capture the influence of Chinese markets on the Hong Kong market. A threshold regression model using the sentiment index as a threshold variable is estimated to capture the state of the Hong Kong stock market. The result of \citeA{hansen2000sample} likelihood ratio test divides Hong Kong's stock market into three regimes. It is shown that when our sentiment index is above (below) the upper (lower) threshold, the HSI generally moves upward (downward). We also show that the trading rule which shorts (longs) the HSI or S\&P/HKEx LargeCapIndex when the sentiment index is above (below) the upper threshold value can beat the buy-and-hold strategy.