Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Quantifying the potential for sexual dimorphism using upper limits on Bateman gradients

Summary Sex differences in the correlation between number of offspring and number of mates likely drive much of the evolution of morphological and behavioral sexual differences. These correlations have traditionally been represented by slopes from regressions of number of offspring on number of mates (Bateman gradients). Typically the Bateman gradient is assumed to be large for males and zero for females. However, five of nine examples where male and female gradients have been measured show appreciable gradients for females. Difference in these 'actual' gradients reflect sex differences in the force driving sexual selection. In the lab it is simple to estimate the 'upper limits' on these Bateman gradients. Differences between male and female upper limits can be used to quantify the potential for sexual dimorphism. We demonstrate how to estimate these upper limits in a katydid (Conocephalus nigropleurum) where males provide females with a large food gift (nuptial gift) during mating. By mating males and females to either one or two virgin mates, we estimated the way maximum fecundity increased with additional mates for each sex, giving an estimate of the upper limit of sexual selection on each sex. We compared these estimates to predictions based on the relative value of the nuptial gift and female pre-mating fecundity. Contrary to expectation, the male upper limit did not exceed the female upper limit. Both the fact that a male's second nuptial gift was smaller than his first and that many matings failed to transfer appreciable numbers of sperm seem to have contributed to the unexpected result.
Liquidity and Crises in Asian Equity Markets

This article presents a discussion of stock market liquidity and its relation to financial crises. It begins by defining liquidity and explaining possible measures of liquidity and then explores factors influencing liquidity. It also analyzes the liquidity among 11 Asian countries. The empirical findings based on the time-series analysis show a sharp decline in stock liquidity during both the 1997-1998 Asian and the recent 2007-2008 global financial crisis. The multivariate regression results show that both stock liquidity and trading activity decrease after large market declines. Stock liquidity responds significantly to large market declines in South Korea and Taiwan whereas it is least sensitive in Singapore. The findings indicate that stock trading, measured by turnover, slows down after a large market decline, which affects trading activity in all markets examined especially those of South Korea and China, but have the least effect in Singapore and Japan.
Rasch analysis for psychometric improvement of science attitude rating scales

ABSTRACT Students’ attitude towards science (SAS) is often a subject of investigation in science education research. Survey of rating scale is commonly used in the study of SAS. The present study illustrates how Rasch analysis can be used to provide psychometric information of SAS rating scales. The analyses were conducted on a 20-item SAS scale used in an existing dataset of The Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) (2011). Data of all the eight-grade participants from Hong Kong and Singapore (N = 9942) were retrieved for analyses. Additional insights from Rasch analysis that are not commonly available from conventional test and item analyses were discussed, such as invariance measurement of SAS, unidimensionality of SAS construct, optimum utilization of SAS rating categories, and item difficulty hierarchy in the SAS scale. Recommendations on how TIMSS items on the measurement of SAS can be better designed were discussed. The study also highlights the importance of using Rasch estimates for statistical parametric tests (e.g. ANOVA, t-test) that are common in science education research for group comparisons.
Comparing China Mainland and China Hong Kong contractors' productive efficiency

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to present and compare the productive efficiency of China Mainland and China Hong Kong contractors, and to identify and investigate the components and sources of their efficiency under different economic and institutional environments.Design/methodology/approach – Data envelopment analysis (DEA) is a non‐parametric approach to examine the relative efficiency among different firms. This study employs DEA based Malmquist Productivity Index (MPI) to compile the efficiency scores of 20 construction companies listed in the Hong Kong Exchange and Clearing Limited (HKEx) from 2004 to 2010.Findings – A decomposition of MPI suggests that catch‐up effect has contributed more to contractor's efficiency than frontier‐shift effect. Compared to their Mainland counterparts, Hong Kong contractors have higher MPI mainly due to higher efficiency scores in catch‐up effect.Practical implications – Hong Kong contractors have advantage over Mainland contractors in their managerial and str.
Holding China Together: The Cadre Evaluation System at the Grass Roots: The Paradox of Party Rule

The Chinese party-state shares with other large, hierarchical organizations significant agency problems; local agents of the state tend to behave opportunistically, contrary to the interests of their principals.1 Such agency problems stem from conflicts of interest between principals and agents and from information asymmetries that typically characterize principal-agent relations.2 State officials in China employ a formal evaluation system (kaohe zhidu) to control the behavior of their subordinates. Drawing on principal-agent theory, this paper contends that the nature of the evaluation system helps to explain dysfunctional aspects of policy implementation at the grass roots and that problems with policy implementation, in turn, help to explain subsequent changes in the evaluation system itself. This characterization is consistent with adaptive learning on the part of principals. In the final section, the chapter argues that, paradoxically, even as the evaluation system has exacerbated problems in policy implementation, it has simultaneously contributed to the durability of rule by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Indeed, the relative stability of CCP rule, in contrast to the loss of power by communist parties in other former socialist states and contrary to claims of pervasive political decay in China,3 demands explanation. The chapter begins by providing some background on the development of the cadre evaluation system since the initiation of reform in 1978, arguing that changes in cadre evaluation represent an early and important element
Do International Diversification Benefits Continue Beyond the Portfolio Formation Period in a Small Market? Evidence for New Zealand Before and During the Asian Crisis

This research examines whether international diversification benefits achieved in an initial portfolio formation period continue to be realised in subsequent evaluation periods and in the face of a major market disturbance. A NZ-only efficient frontier is used as a base investment from which "off-shore" unit trusts are added. Off-shore unit trusts considered are from Australia, Hong Kong, Japan and Great Britain. The analysis is conducted over a six-year period which includes the recent "Asian crisis". It is found that diversification reduced the impacts of the crisis, and that the traditional, full covariance portfolio formation model performed better than three simpler models.
Accounting and Finance: Authorship and Citation Trends

type="main" xml:id="acfi12061-abs-0001"> Accounting and Finance (A&F ) has experienced a surge in published research in the last decade. The analysis here reveals a marked increase in the number of published articles in A&F since 2003, a distinct trend for published papers to have a larger number of authors, a significant and stable contribution by the top 5 Australian accounting/finance departments, as well as a notable increase in contribution from non-US foreign universities, particularly those located in the UK, Canada, Hong Kong, Singapore and Spain. An analysis of citations indicates the increasing impact of A&F in recent years.
A Great Leap Forward: EFL curriculum

I have used the name, The Great Leap Forward in relation to my study of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) curriculum reform as I have linked economic, political and social developments of the late 20th and early 21st centuries in China with education developments that have occurred at the same time as the reform has been implemented. The EFL curriculum reform that I have researched is based on a program of considerable investigation and preparation designed on the basis of a balance between English language teaching and learning, curriculum, economic development and globalization. I have argued that implementing the current EFL curriculum reform is both a necessary process and a challenge for this country in the context of globalization, evidenced by China’s becoming a member of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) in 2001 and hosting the 2008 Olympic Games. Such phenomena have posed challenges for English language education as it has shifted its focus from traditional to modern EFL curriculum design to improve English competence in the current cohort of Chinese secondary school students.
FACTORS INFLUENCING CHANGES IN MEAN AGE AT FIRST MARRIAGE AND PROPORTIONS NEVER MARRYING IN THE LOW-FERTILITY COUNTRIES OF EAST AND SOUTHEAST ASIA

The long-term trend towards later and less marriage in the low-fertility countries of East and Southeast Asia has continued into the early years of the twenty-first century, and indeed accelerated in Japan, South Korea and Taiwan. This paper examines the extent to which this is a general trend cutting across all educational attainment groups, and the extent to which it can be explained by increasing proportions in the educational categories characterized by higher levels of singlehood (in the case of females, the higher levels of education). In the countries where the rise in singlehood has been the steepest, changing educational composition has played a relatively minor role in the case of women. For men, in all countries examined, it has played only a minor role, or actually worked against rising singlehood. The paper examines likely reasons for these trends.
Learning Approaches and Outcome‐Based Teaching and Learning: A Case Study in Hong Kong, China

Outcome‐based education is a pedagogical process which focuses on the achievement of certain specified results. Outcome‐based teaching and learning (OBTL), therefore, is concerned with curriculum design and ensuring that the contents, delivery, activities, and assessments are all aligned to help facilitate students to attain specific intended learning outcomes. This study explores whether and how outcome‐based teaching impacts on the learning approaches of one cohort of undergraduate business students at a university in Hong Kong, China to undergo outcome‐based teaching, newly introduced as part of a university‐wide policy to adopt OBTL. The learning approaches of these business students were measured using John Biggs's (1987) Study Process Questionnaire (SPQ) to determine whether these students tended to favor surface learning approaches, deep learning approaches, or achieving learning approaches upon initial entry into the university. Changes in learning approaches were tracked, after a semester's exposure to OBTL, through survey and focus group interview methods. Findings indicated a significant amount of transference between learning approaches deployed by these students, demonstrating a high level of adaptability.
Association of USP26 haplotypes in men in Taiwan, China with severe spermatogenic defect.

AIM To complete comprehensive haplotype analysis of USP26 for both fertile and infertile men. METHODS Two hundred infertile men with severe oligospermia or non-obstructive azoospermia were subjected to sequence analysis for the entire coding sequences of the USP26 gene. Two hundred men with proven fertility were genotyped by primer extension methods. Allele/genotype frequencies, linkage disequilibrium (LD) characteristics and haplotypes of fertile men were compared with infertile men. RESULTS The allele frequencies of five single nucleotide polymorphisms (370-371insACA, 494T>C, 576G>A, ss6202791C>T, 1737G>A) were significantly higher in infertile patients than control subjects. The major haplotypes in infertile men were TACCGA (28% of the population), TGCCGA (15%), TACCAA (8%), TGCCAA (6%), TATCAA (5%) and CATCAA (5%). The major haplotypes for the control subjects were TACCGA (58% of the population), CACCGA (7%), CATCGA (6%) and TGCCGA (5%). Haplotypes TGCCGA, TATCAA, CATCAA, CATCGC, TACCAA and TGCCAA were over-transmitted in patients with spermatogenic defect, whereas haplotypes TACCGA, CACCGA, and CATCGA were under-transmitted in these patients. CONCLUSION Some USP26 alleles and haplotypes are associated with spermatogenic defect in the Han nationality in Taiwan, China.
Making a Technological Catch‐up: Barriers and opportunities

Summary This paper has discussed several issues regarding the barriers and opportunities for technological catch‐up by the late‐comer countries and firms. As one of the barriers to technological catch‐up, the paper emphasizes the uncertainty involved with the third stage of learning how to design. The barriers arise because as the forerunner firms refuse to sell or give license to successful catching‐up firms who thus have to design the product by themselves. The paper discusses how to overcome this barrier. It also notes that if the crisis of design technology is a push factor for leapfrogging, arrival of new techno‐economic paradigm can serve as a pull factor for leapfrogging, serving as a winder of opportunity. The, it emphasized the two risks with leapfrogging, namely the risk of choosing right technology or standards and the risk of creating initial markets, and how to overcome these risks. It discusses how to overcome these risks in leapfrogging, and differentiates diverse forms of knowledge accesses. Then, the paper takes up the issue of whether there can be a single common or several models for catch‐up. A common element of catching‐up is to enter new markets segments quickly, to manufacture with high levels of engineering excellence, and to be first‐to‐market by means of the best integrative designs. This observation is supported by the fact that Korea and Taiwan has achieved higher levels of technological capabilities in such sectors as featured by short cycle time of technology. The possibility of two alternative models for catch‐up is also discussed in terms of the key difference between Korean and Taiwan, especially in the position toward the source of foreign knowledge and the paths taken toward the final goal of OBM. Taiwan followed the sequential steps of OEM, ODM and OBN, in collaboration or integration with the MNCs. Korean chaebols jumped from OEM directly to OBM even without consolidating design technology.
The attitudes of urban chinese towards globalization: A survey study of media influence

Since Deng Xiaoping's southern tour in 1992 to reenergize the marketization drive in China, the Chinese government's policy towards "globalization" has been one of active engagement. His successor Jiang Zemin, and current President Hujintao, with their respective proclamations of "Three Represents" and "Harmonious World,"1 have continued the push to embrace global capitalism. Opening the country to global capital is seen by Chinese national leaders as a way to further the country's market reform. At the same time, China has also been eager to participate in the international community in various manners to strengthen its international standing and portray itself as a peaceful rising power. Prompting nationalist sentiments in the global context is a way to restore the Communist regime from the brink of legitimacy crisis caused by the Tiananmen crackdown in 1989.2 Notably, the shift of policy by China since the early 1990s also coincided with Washington's abandonment of the containment policy and shift towards attempting to integrate China into the global community.3 Meanwhile, the most important symbols of China's coming of age are its long-awaited accession to WTO in 2001 and its hosting of the 2008 Olympic Games. The idea of active engagement with globalization also underlies various domestic
A comparison of the demographic, lifestyle, and sexual behaviour characteristics of virgin and non-virgin adolescents.

Demographic, life-style, and sexual behavior characteristics of a random cluster sample of virgin (n = 605) and nonvirgin (n = 321) students recruited from three high schools in Toronto, Ontario (Canada) in 1994 were compared. The mean age at first intercourse among nonvirgins was 13.76 years for males and 14.8 years for females. 19% of virgins reported engaging in noncoital sexual behavior. 74% of virgin males and 89% of virgin females did not expect to have sexual intercourse in the next 12 months. The following sociodemographic variables were significantly associated with being a virgin: being in grades 9-11, female gender, Asian ethnicity, attendance at a religious school, and doing 14 or more hours of homework a week. In terms of life-style factors, nonvirgins were significantly more likely than virgins to have been involved in a serious relationship in the past year, to have engaged in masturbation of or by a partner, to report oral sex, to do 5 hours or less of homework a week, to drink heavily, drink and drive, and smoke daily. There were no significant differences between groups in terms of their levels of happiness and satisfaction with life. Overall, these findings indicate that sexual intercourse while in high school forms part of a life-style characterized by high-risk behaviors.
Sexual practices of people living with HIV in South Eastern Nigeria.

BACKGROUND Couples could be in serodiscordant or seroconcordant sexual relationship. The seroconcordant could be seroconcrdant positive or negative in a heterosexual or homosexual or bisexual relationship. The various sexual practices include vaginal sex; anal sex fisting; oral sex fellatio, cunnilingus; masturbation mutual or exclusive and a host of others. These sexual practices outside safer sex guidelines will lead to HIV transmission among couples. The study is set to determine the sexual practices of people living with HIV (PLWHA) in Southeast Nigeria. METHOD This is an analytical epidemiological study. A total of 300 subjects were studied using interviewer administered questionnaires. Data is presented in tables and figures. Analysis was done using SPSS 11.0 statistical package. RESULTS Most respondents were in heterosexual relationship (97%). The married couples in serodiscordant relationship were 25.3% while the singles in serodiscordant relationship were 20%. About 56% do not use condom for the adopted sexual practice although 65% believe that condom use would protect against HIV transmission. CONCLUSION Couples in seroconcordant seronegative relationship have it as a challenge to remain so. This study suggests that the PLWHA are very important in the spread of HIV infection as they are still sexually active, in non-cohabiting conjugal unstable relationship, and they do not use the condom consistently. There is an urgent need to target this population with effective behavioural change communications that will translate to safer sexual behaviour. The practice of safer sex should be taught in every health care center, in schools and in village gatherings by qualified health care workers. This will help curb the transmission of HIV.
Tuberculosis in patients receiving anti-TNF agents despite chemoprophylaxis.

SETTING A major concern surrounding the use of tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) inhibitors is their potential to increase the risk of opportunistic infections, particularly tuberculosis (TB). OBJECTIVE To estimate the incidence of active TB in patients with rheumatic diseases receiving anti-TNF drug therapy and to evaluate the effectiveness of an antituberculosis chemoprophylaxis regimen. DESIGN Retrospective study of the files of 613 patients with rheumatic diseases who had received anti-TNF agent (etanercept, infliximab and adalimumab) therapy from July 2000 to June 2004 at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece. All patients had a tuberculin skin test (TST) and a postero-anterior chest radiograph (CXR) prior to anti-TNF therapy. When indicated (TST > or =10 mm and/or fibrotic lesions on CXR), treatment for latent TB was established (6 months isoniazid [INH] or 3 months INH and rifampicin [RMP]). Anti-TNF agent therapy was started again 2 months later. RESULTS Of 45 patients who fulfilled the criteria for chemoprophylaxis, only 36 were treated correctly. Eleven patients developed active TB 2-35 months after the beginning of anti-TNF therapy. Six patients developed pulmonary and five extra-pulmonary TB. Eight of these had received infliximab and three adalimumab. CONCLUSION The incidence of active TB in this study population was estimated at 449 cases per 100,00 population annually. Anti-tuberculosis chemoprophylaxis was only of partial preventive success in these patients.
Women with rheumatoid arthritis negative for anti-cyclic citrullinated peptide and rheumatoid factor are more likely to improve during pregnancy, whereas in autoantibody-positive women autoantibody levels are not influenced by pregnancy

Objectives: To determine whether changes in levels of anti-cyclic citrullinated peptide (anti-CCP) and rheumatoid factor (RF) are associated with the spontaneous improvement of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) during pregnancy and with the subsequent flare post partum. Methods: Disease activity scores from the Pregnancy-induced Amelioration of Rheumatoid Arthritis (PARA) study of 118 patients were available for analysis. Before conception (if applicable), at each trimester and at 6, 12 and 26 weeks post partum, levels of the autoantibodies anti-CCP, IgM-RF, IgG-RF and IgA-RF were determined. Responses in disease activity were classified according to European League Against Rheumatism (EULAR) response criteria during pregnancy and post partum, and associated with the presence or absence of autoantibodies. Results: The median levels of anti-CCP and all subclasses of RF during pregnancy were stable, whereas post partum the levels of anti-CCP, IgM-RF and IgA-RF declined. A significantly higher percentage of women without autoantibodies (negative for anti-CCP and RF) improved compared with women positive for either or both autoantibodies (75% vs 39%, p = 0.01). The occurrence of a flare post partum was comparable between these groups. Conclusions: Improvement of disease activity of RA during pregnancy was not associated with changes in levels of autoantibodies during pregnancy, however, improvement may occur more frequently in the absence of anti-CCP and RF.