On Improper Machine Translations in Press Reports

Machine translation, also known as automatic translation, is the process of converting one natural language (source language) into another natural language (target language) by using networks. There are some language errors in current machine translation in news releases. Having compared human translators’ translation texts and machine translation results, improper machine translation results are found. They are inaccurate use of words, rigid sentence patterns and unclear expression of specific cultural meanings. Accurate machine translation needs the assistance of human translators

THREE ESSAYS IN DEVELOPMENT & APPLIED MICRO

Chapter 1: China’s National Poor Counties (NPCs) program represents one of the largest anti-poverty efforts ever undertaken in a developing country. In spite of this, no causal analysis has been undertaken to examine whether counties which graduate from the program actually achieve sustainable growth after support is removed. This paper provides the first long-term analysis of China’s NPCs program on local development, investigating whether poor regions continue to develop economically after exiting the anti-poverty program. Focusing on the period 1986 to 2010, I construct plausible counterfactuals for counties that participated and graduated from the NPCs registry using the synthetic control method. This exercise reveals several new insights. First, on average, graduates of China’s anti-poverty exhibit roughly the same growth outcomes as those still receiving support from the program. Second, I show that focusing on the average impact masks sizeable heterogeneity when disaggregating to a case by case analysis of counties. Importantly, for the subset of counties which graduated from the first wave of the poverty reduction program in 1993, there is a demonstrably faster expansion post-graduation. For more recent county’s graduating from the program, however, I find significantly negative impacts of NPCs program completion in the long run. Chapter 2: This paper studies the impact of the 1988/1989 educational reform in Jordan which extended mandatory schooling from nine to ten years and restructured secondary schooling. Despite weakness in the Jordanian labor market, our estimates suggest that an additional year of required schooling in the late 1980s was sufficient to improve labor force participation, employment, and wages. These effects were initially largest for women, while males with more education were also slightly more likely to be self-employed, work longer hours, and earn higher wages. We show that the extensive margin labor market gains we observe for men strengthen with age. Chapter 3: This paper studies son preference among households in the United States. I present two analyses using the American Community Survey from 2012 to 2016. First, I estimate son preference in aggregate among parents in the U.S., contrasting immigrant populations to that of native born individuals. I consider evidence of two direct mechanisms – fertility stopping decisions and gender selection behavior. I show that there is no evidence of son preference among families in the U.S in aggregate through either mechanism, but there is indirect evidence of son preference -- mothers of daughters are less likely to be married than mothers of sons. Next, I analyze assimilation of immigrant gender preferences to U.S. norms relying on variation in duration of residence in the U.S., age of migration, and generation of migration. I find significant evidence to support the claim of son preference among first-generation immigrant populations originating from Asia and find that those son preferences were formed early in life, and once established, persist among first-generation immigrants. Higher order generations exhibit weaker gender selection, consistent with assimilation to U.S. norms. Assimilation exhibits a high degree of heterogeneity across populations. Second and higher order generation Chinese immigrants conform to U.S. norms, while surprisingly, Indian immigrants exhibit even stronger son preference among higher-order generations

New evidence on son preference among immigrant households in the United States

This paper provides new evidence on the acquisition and persistence of child gender preference among immigrant populations in the United States using Census and American Community Survey data. We first confirm the existing evidence of son preference among immigrant populations from South East Asia that was documented across multiple studies and samples. We then demonstrate several new empirical findings. First, Japanese immigrants exhibit daughter preference. Second, assortative matching between immigrant parents is associated with stronger gender preferences. Third, comparing male and female migrants who marry natives provides suggestive evidence that paternal preferences could be more to blame for son preference than maternal. Fourth, child gender preferences are strongest for migrants who arrive after childhood but do not appear to diminish with the duration of residence in the United States. Finally, while higher-order generations exhibit weaker son preference, there is a high degree of heterogeneity across groups. Most of the second- and higher-order generation immigrants assimilate more rapidly to US norms except Indian immigrant populations, which exhibit strong son preference among higher-order generations

Prevalence and Associated Factors of Potentially Inappropriate Medication among Elderly Outpatients

Background China's aging adults are increasing, and have increasing prevalence of multimorbidity and polypharmacy, leading to a high risk of drug-drug interactions and adverse drug reactions. There are few studies on potentially inappropriate medication (PIM) in the elderly, and PIM in this group has not yet received sufficient attention clinically. Objective To perform a retrospective analysis of the PIM prevalence and associated factors in elderly outpatients in a hospital using the 2019 Updated AGS Beers Criteria? for Potentially Inappropriate Medication Use in Older Adults (hereinafter referred to as the 2019 Beers Criteria), providing precise medication guidance for clinical rational use of medications in the elderly. Methods Prescriptions of older outpatients written from January to December 2021 were collected from the "Smart Pharmacy Platform" of Changsha Hospital of Hunan Normal University on January 10, 2022. Each prescription was evaluated independently to find whether there was a PIM using the 2019 Beers Criteria. Multivariate Logistic regression was used to analyze the associated factors of PIM. Results The prescriptions of 39 275 outpatients were collected in the analysis, who had an average age of (74.0±6.8) years, an average number of diagnosed illnesses of (1.49±0.81), and an average number of types of drugs used of (2.70±1.75). The overall prevalence of PIM was 31.72% (12 458/39 275), involving 11 134 cases of drug-related PIM, 23 cases of disease- or symptom-related PIM, 2 109 cases of medication should be used with caution-related PIM in elderly patients, 99 cases of drug-drug interactions-related PIM that should be avoided in elderly patients, 2 cases of avoiding drug-related PIM and 8 cases of reducing drug-dose-related PIM in elderly patients with renal insufficiency. The departments with higher incidence of prescribing PIM were neurology〔1 908 (61.17%) 〕, geriatrics〔972 (49.49%) 〕, and general medicine〔1 495 (42.21%) 〕. The major prescribed PIM included benzodiazepines, proton pump inhibitors, oral nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, and glimepiride. Multivariate Logistic regression analysis showed that age, number of diagnosed illnesses and the number of types of medication were independently risk factors of PIM (P<0.05) . Conclusion Advanced age, high number of diagnosed illnesses and high number of types of medication were associated with higher risk of PIM. To promote rational use of drugs, clinicians and pharmaceutists should pay attention to PIM-related risk factors, and do well in screening for potential risks of PIM