Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Antibodies against cyclic citrullinated peptide are associated with the DRB1 shared epitope and predict joint erosion in rheumatoid arthritis.

OBJECTIVE To evaluate antibodies against cyclic citrullinated peptide (anti-CCP antibodies) for their predictive value for severe joint destruction in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and to examine their relationship to shared epitope (SE)-positive DRB1 alleles. METHODS Concentrations of anti-CCP antibodies were determined in sera from 126 patients with recent onset RA who had been followed prospectively for 6 yr. Progression of joint destruction was evaluated according to Larsen by scoring radiographs from the hand and feet taken at baseline and after 1, 2, 4 and 6 yr of observation. In addition to clinical parameters, the presence of SE-positive DRB1 alleles and of rheumatoid factor IgM and IgA was determined. RESULTS Anti-CCP antibodies were found more frequently and in higher concentrations in both DRB1*01-positive and in DRB1*04-positive SE-positive patients compared with SE-negative patients. Severe joint destruction as defined by a Larsen score in the upper third of the study population was predicted by positivity for anti-CCP antibodies, by the presence of SE-positive DRB1*04 alleles and by the presence of erosive disease at initial presentation. Multiple logistic regression analysis revealed that SE-positive DRB1*04 alleles and anti-CCP antibodies exerted a significant influence on the progression of joint destruction. CONCLUSION The association of anti-CCP antibodies with DRB1*01 and with SE-positive DRB1*04 alleles implies a functional role for the SE sequence motif. The determination of SE-positive DRB1*04 alleles and of anti-CCP antibody positivity facilitates the prediction of disease course and prognosis at the time of initial presentation.
Male Prostitution in Larkana City: An Unrevealed Truth

Like other professions, prostitution is a profession for providing sexual pleasure to their clients for the sake of money. This profession is increasing all over the world. Male prostitution is an unrevealed truth of traditional Muslim & Sindhi society. For ongoing research in depth interviews were conducted to study the process of entry in male prostitution. 37 male prostitutes were selected through snow ball & purposive sampling from Larkana city of Sindh province. The existence of these prostitutes is hidden indicator of abnormal change in society. The result of study is showing that 51% respondents belong to age group 19-21years, 78% respondents are uneducated, prostitution is main source of 100% respondents, 35% respondents use marijuana, 30% use alcohol, 19% use both (Alcohol & Marijuana), 62% respondents involve in oral sexual stimulation, 54% respondents are unmarried, 35% married and 11% are divorced/separated, 46% respondents indulge in sex, 95% respondents try to find job before entry in prostitution, 84% respondents were sexually abused, 89% physically and 78% psychologically abused, 51% respondents involve in sexual activity 04 – 05 time per day.
Stereotypes as Anglo-American exam ritual? Comparisons of students’ exam anxiety in East Asia, America, Australia, and the United Kingdom

Abstract East Asian dominance in international large-scale assessments is widely known. This is often explained as an outcome of highly competitive, exam-oriented education systems in East Asia, wherein students partake in a fierce competition for limited college entrance. Although achievement scores may be comparatively higher, the argument goes, the relative success comes at a steep price, with the emphasis on high-stakes tests heightening student stress and anxiety. In this paper we refute this persistent and out-dated stereotype by focusing on changes in Japanese education over the past several decades. The two original studies we report herein show that not only do Japanese students feel less school-related anxiety and stress than they once did, but these levels are now comparable to students in America, Australia, and the United Kingdom. In showing that stereotypes do not match empirical realities, we seek to open a richer discussion around East Asian student achievement. We conclude by extending the discussion to recent changes in China, Taiwan, and South Korea. We then raise the possibility that fundamentally different outlooks on the learning process explain both differences in achievement and the persistence of the West’s distorted images of Japanese and East Asian education.
Please Scroll down for Article the Journal of Positive Psychology Reconsidering Happiness: the Costs of Distinguishing between Hedonics and Eudaimonia Reconsidering Happiness: the Costs of Distinguishing between Hedonics and Eudaimonia

This article may be used for research, teaching and private study purposes. Any substantial or systematic reproduction, redistribution , reselling , loan or sub-licensing, systematic supply or distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden. The publisher does not give any warranty express or implied or make any representation that the contents will be complete or accurate or up to date. The accuracy of any instructions, formulae and drug doses should be independently verified with primary sources. The publisher shall not be liable for any loss, actions, claims, proceedings, demand or costs or damages whatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with or arising out of the use of this material. In recent years, well-being researchers have distinguished between eudaimonic happiness (e.g., meaning and purpose; taking part in activities that allow for the actualization of one's skills, talents, and potential) and hedonic happiness (e.g., high frequencies of positive affect, low frequencies of negative affect, and evaluating life as satisfying). Unfortunately, this distinction (rooted in philosophy) does not necessarily translate well to science. Among the problems of drawing too sharp a line between 'types of happiness' is the fact that eudaimonia is not well-defined and lacks consistent measurement. Moreover, empirical evidence currently suggests that hedonic and eudaimonic well-being overlap conceptually, and may represent psychological mechanisms that operate together. In this article, we outline the problems and costs of distinguishing between two types of happiness, and provide detailed recommendations for a research program on well-being with greater scientific precision. The purpose of life is to be happy. The Dalai Lama You will never be happy if you continue to search for what happiness consists of. Albert Camus And they all lived happily ever after. The Brothers Grimm Introduction The place of happiness in the Good Life has been a central concern for thinkers from Aristotle to the present day. In Nicomachean ethics, Aristotle famously distinguished hedonism (the life occupied by the search for pleasure) and eudaimonia (happiness that arises from good works). Contemporary psychologists have drawn on this Aristotelian distinction to suggest that modern well-being research falls into two conceptual camps: hedonics, which focuses on how the person feels about his or her life, and eudaimonics, which focuses on living a life in full accord with one's potential (Ryan & Deci, 2001). In recent years, this distinction has gained widespread acceptance among researchers, providing scholars with a language …
Time, Place, Space, Technology and Corporate Real Estate Strategy

Few corporations take a strategic approach to managing real estate. This survey finds that corporate real estate managers and service providers in Australia, Hong Kong, the United Kingdom and the United States continue to fulfill a traditional transactional role within their organizations. Real estate is not cooperating with other parts of the organization to provide their companies with flexibility that could increase competitiveness. While the use of technology is growing, real estate managers remain uncertain about its role in their future. Corporate real estate managers believe that to be effective in the future they will need strategic planning skills and business knowledge.
The stability of long‐run relationships

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the stability of the long‐run relationships between emerging (India, China, South Korea, and Taiwan) and developed stock markets (USA and Japan). The study aims at adding to the literature on market integration by investigating the hypothesis that the Asian emerging stock markets are increasingly converging with the US stock market over time.Design/methodology/approach – The authors use time varying cointegration tests (rolling and recursive cointegration) which allow for time variation in the underlying data generating process (possible structural breaks in the long‐run relationships). Ten year index data from mid 1998 to 2008 of the respective stock markets have been used for this study.Findings – Empirical findings support the presence of one long‐run relationship (cointegration vector) between emerging and developed stock markets. Both domestic and external forces affect stock market behavior, leading to long‐run equilibrium but the individual Asia.
Nonlinear Return Dependence in Major Real Estate Markets

Summary The major contribution of this paper is to recognize the possible presence of nonlinear return dependence in six major real estate markets (the US, UK, Japan, Australia, Hong Kong and Singapore) as well the resulting implications on return predictability and market interdependence. We employ the Brock, Derchert & Scheinkman (BDS) test and a nonlinear logistic model to analyse the temporal variation of securitized and hedged market returns in these markets using unconditional and conditional risk‐return specifications. Our results do not imply conclusively the existence of deterministic nonlinear return behaviour in these markets but are consistent with its existence in some cases. Further evidence of varying levels of market co‐movement among the major real estate markets as well as with the Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI) world stock market is documented for these series after accounting for the deterministic nonlinearities in self returns. The analyses also suggest a need to account for nonlinear behaviour in forecasting models in order to obtain potentially more accurate real estate return forecasts. Finally, global investors need to be more cautious in formulating their portfolio diversification strategies since gains from diversification may diminish in the long run if real estate markets are in fact nonlinear in an international environment.
Casual and dynamic linkage of stock markets: An empirical study of Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE) with emerging and developed equity markets

The main purpose and scope of this empirical study is to explore the causal and dynamic linkages of KSE-100 with emerging stock markets of India, China, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Turkey, and Brazil, as well as with the developed stock markets of Japan, USA, UK and France for the period of January, 1998 to December, 2008. 132 monthly stock indices observation are taken. Descriptive analysis, correlation analysis, unit root test, co-integration test, vector error correction model, granger causality test, variance decomposition test and impulse response test is used to identify the existence of short run and long run relationships. Empirical results conclude that KSE-100 is a volatile market and have suitable level of returns. Moreover, JCI and BCI have long run relationships with KSE, and SCI have short run relationships to KSE. The equity markets of BSE, SCI, SET, KLSE, JCI, ISE, BCI and Nikkei-225 granger causes to KSE-100 and KSE-100 granger causes to HSI, SET, KLSE, JCI. Further study explores that the major change in KSE-100 is due to its own innovations and other markets have no significant impact on the KSE. The findings conclude that there is a further need of future study to explore the factors of economic integration among these stock markets. The overall study creates awareness to economic and financial decision makers, international investors, regional investors, investment agencies and banks, about the opportunities of portfolio diversification benefits, funds management and trends of the stock market.
East Asian Welfare Regimes: Testing the Hypothesis of the Developmental Welfare State

Following the three welfare regimes constructed by Esping-Andersen, many scholars have addressed the question of whether there may be a further type of regime, differing from the categories of liberal, conservative and social democratic, pertaining to other parts of the world. Discussion has centred largely on East Asia and, in particular, on the notion of the developmental/productivist welfare regime. Yet these discussions have been based more on conceptual classification than empirical analysis. This article attempts to fill in the gap, with reference to the developmental characteristics of Taiwan, South Korea and Japan. A set of 15 indicators is developed for the factor and cluster analysis of 20 countries, based on data from the 1980s and 1990s. The results indicate the existence of a new group, consisting of Taiwan and South Korea, which is distinct from Esping-Andersen's three regimes – unlike Japan, which remains a composite of various regime types. Regime characteristics peculiar to the cases of Taiwan and South Korea include: low/medium social security expenditure, high social investment, more extensive gender discrimination in salary, medium/high welfare stratification, a high non-coverage rate for pensions, high individual welfare loading, and high family welfare responsibility. When compared with Esping-Andersen's three regimes, the East Asian developmental regime shows similarity with his conservative model, in respect of welfare stratification, while the non-coverage of welfare entitlements is similar to his liberal model. There is virtually no evidence of any similarity between the developmental welfare regime and Esping-Andersen's social democratic regime type.
Fiscal Decentralization: guilty of aggravating corruption in China?

The relationship between fiscal decentralization and corruption is highly controversial but insufficiently tested with respect to China. This article empirically tests whether fiscal decentralization aggravates corruption in China's local governments. To acquire more robust results, we employ multiple corruption and fiscal decentralization measures and collect data for 31 provinces from 1998 to 2008. Fixed effects panel models estimate the impact of fiscal decentralization on corruption after controlling for gross regional product per capita, the relative wage in the public sector compared to the private sector, political leadership changes, education levels, law enforcement and the number of NGOs. Our findings suggest that China has experienced a trend towards fiscal recentralization rather than decentralization in the 2000s. We also find the moderating effect of the level of law enforcement on corruption: fiscal decentralization in local governments with strong law enforcement deters corruption but the opposite relationship is found when their law enforcement is weak. The implication of our research is that a sound legal system and political will are prerequisites for successful fiscal decentralization.
Industrial Development in Pre-Communist China: A Quantitative Analysis . By John K. Chang. [Chicago: Aldine Publishing Company, 1969. 143 pp. $6.00.]

from Maoists pressing for commune formation. However, it is still an unresolved question whether economics or politics dominates in Peking. The reviewer believes the latter. Dr. Dutt believes the commune movement to be something of a total loss. In fact, she believes China had by 1963 returned to the 1956 co-operatives situation. She advances three principal reasons for the failure. First, the Chinese Communist Party had become apprehensive that the commune decentralization had weakened Party control of the rural areas. Second, there was "more rational thinking about some of the pet slogans regarding agriculture. " Third, and to this Dr. Dutt attaches a great deal of importance, the peasants were quite opposed to community mess halls. As she says, " A storm broke loose over the issue of mess halls" (p. 85). These three reasons, interestingly enough, are not economic in nature but socio-political. Thus, according to Dr. Dutt, the communes were formed for purely economic reasons, namely, the threatening agricultural crisis. However, they failed for socio-political reasons. This is my major criticism of the book—sufficient weight is not given to political factors for the formation of communes, and too little weight is given to economic factors in the explanation of commune failure.
Occupy Congress in Taiwan: Political Opportunity, Threat, and the Sunflower Movement

In opposition to a free trade pact with China, Taiwan’s Sunflower Move ment erupted in spring 2014 and occupied the national legislature for twenty-four days. Drawing from the recent debates on the relation between social movements and the state, I elaborate a revised polity model that focuses on the effects of elite disunity, threat, and move ment strategy. The Sunflower Movement originated from a tactical mis step by the ruling party that created an immediate sense of threat from proposed closer economic ties with China, thereby facilitating protest mobilization. Student protesters were able to seize the national legis lature because of an internal split within the ruling party and support from the opposition party. However, the failure to further exploit these favorable opportunities exposed the movement to government repres sion. Fortunately for the movement, the disunity among elites helped the activists manage a dignified exit, which they could claim as a suc cess. KEYWORDS : political opportunity, threat, Sunflower Movement, Cross-Strait Service Trade Agreement
Size and Growth of Mobile Phone Firms in Mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan

Focusing on mobile phone firms in Mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan, this study examined whether firm size is independent of firm growth and, specifically, whether Gibrat’s law exists in the contemporary mobile phone industry. This study empirically analyzed whether the growth process of the mobile phone industry, which centers on innovation and high technology, is random or is related to the stationary time-series properties and size of the mobile phone firms. Thus, we used the novel, advanced panel Seemingly Unrelated Regressions Augmented Dickey-Fuller (SURADF) test proposed by Breuer, McNown, and Wallace (2001) to examine the time-series properties and stability of the total assets of 10 mobile phone firms in each quarter of 2004 to 2012. The 10 firms are manufacturers based in Mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan that are primarily involved in producing mobile phones or mobile phone components. This study performed five conventional panel unit root tests, with the results all significantly supporting Gibrat’s law (Gibrat, 1931). In other words, the results of the general unit root tests showed that the growth of the 10 mobile phone firms was independent of firm size, indicating a random growth process. However, using the panel SURADF test, which considers the effect of cross-sectional influence among panel members and the effect of individual members in panel data, yielded significantly different test results. Specifically, one-third of the firms in Mainland China and Hong Kong and four-sevenths of those in Taiwan did not support Gibrat’s law. In addition, when the panel data set included firms from different countries, the effect of horizontal competition on the growth of the firms was more significant.
A prospective study of pharyngeal gonorrhoea and inconsistent condom use for oral sex among female brothel-based sex workers in Singapore

Oral sex among female sex workers in Singapore has risen sharply from 27.1% in 1992 to 81.7% in 1997. A prospective cohort study was carried out on 724 female brothel-based sex workers who practised oral sex, to determine the risk of contracting pharyngeal gonorrhoea through inconsistent condom use. The prevalence of consistent condom use for oral sex was 70.4% compared to 96.8% for vaginal sex. One hundred and twenty-nine (17.8%) were lost to follow up because they quit prostitution. The other 595 sex workers were followed up for a maximum period of 6 months. Thirty-eight (5.2%) sex workers contracted pharyngeal gonorrhoea compared to 2.5% who contracted cervical gonorrhoea. Sex workers with inconsistent condom use for oral sex were 17.1 times (95% CI: 8.0-36.5) more likely than consistent condom users to develop pharyngeal gonorrhoea, after controlling for ethnic group, class and number of clients. STD control programmes for sex workers should place stress on consistent condom use for oral sex.
Challenges of conducting clinical trials in Asia

Unlike North America and European Union (EU), Asian continent appears to be an ideal destination for conducting cost-effective clinical trials utilizing the pool of treatment naïve subjects. With a population approaching 4.5 billion, recruitment of subjects can be done without a fear of limited patient pool across Asia. The burden of infectious and chronic diseases is also higher in Asian countries. The emerging clinical trial markets particularly China, South Korea, and Taiwan offers genetic diversity in population group, thus promoting the quality and generalizability of clinical trial’s data. Nonetheless, several challenges also exist for the Western sponsors in majority of the Asian countries; regulatory, operational and infrastructural challenges are at the forefront. Challenges under the heads regulatory, operational, infrastructural, language and cultural, ethics, and future challenges have been discussed. SWOT analysis of Asian clinical trial’s market exhibits enormous opportunities for study sponsors with manageable threats.
Risk behaviours of Hong Kong male residents travelling to mainland China: A potential bridge population for HIV infection

The objective was to assess levels of high-risk sexual behaviour, condom use, sexually transmitted disease (STD) history and AIDS-related perceptions among Hong Kong men returning from China by land; 1,254 systematically sampled subjects were interviewed. Of respondents, 32.5% had sexual intercourse with a commercial sex worker (CSW) in China in the past six months; 11.2% have done so on this trip. A third of those who reported having sex with CSWs did so without a condom. A fifth had a history of STDs: seventy per cent of respondents who did not use a condom with a CSW would not use a condom with their regular sexual partner. Less educated respondents, 31-40-year-olds and non-business and frequent travellers were more likely to have sex with a CSW. Those who practice high-risk sex fear AIDS more, are aware that their own risk of HIV infection is not negligible, but think that chances of HIV infection from CSWs in China are small. Although Hong Kong's estimated HIV prevalence among adults is low (0.06%), the huge volume of cross-border travel between Hong Kong and China and the common practice of high-risk sex by Hong Kong male travellers provide a bridge for emerging epidemics to spread.