Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Inpatient care in a community hospital: comparing length of stay and costs among teaching, hospitalist, and community services.

INTRODUCTION Specific patient care measures and cost of hospitalization are being studied as health care providers and payers are seeking methods to improve the hospital care of patients. This study's purpose was to examine the length of stay and cost of inpatient care by a family medicine teaching service in comparison with the hospitalists' and community physicians' services in the same community hospital. METHODS We analyzed inpatient admissions to either a family medicine teaching service (FMTS), hospitalist physician group, or the patient's own primary care community physician in a 290-bed, for-profit, community hospital over a 12-month period. Outcome variables investigated included length of stay, fixed costs, variable costs, and readmission rate. RESULTS A total of 5,453 hospital admissions were analyzed. Patients admitted to the FMTS experienced a significantly shorter length of stay and had significantly lower fixed, variable, and total costs per admission. No significant differences in readmission rates were noted. CONCLUSIONS The care provided by a teaching service as indicated by length of stay, costs, and readmission rates compared favorably with the care provided by other physicians.
Six‐year retrospective surveillance of gastroenteritis viruses identified at ten electron microscopy centers in the United States and Canada

To identify the prevalence, seasonality and demographic characteristics of patients with viral gastroenteritis, we reviewed 6 years of retrospective data on viral agents of gastroenteritis screened by electron microscopy at 10 centers in the United States and Canada. From 52 691 individual electron microscopic observations, a virus was detected in 16% of specimens, and the yearly positive detection rate among centers ranged from 8 to 34%. Rotavirus was the agent most commonly observed (26 to 83%), followed by adenoviruses (8 to 27%, respiratory and enteric combined), and small round viruses (SRVs) (0 to 40%) which were second most common at two of the centers. Rotavirus and astrovirus detections occurred more often in the winter but seasonal trends in detection were not apparent for the other viruses. Of all astroviruses detected 64% were found in infants (< 1 year); unlike the other agents studied SRVs were detected in a large percentage of infants (48%) and older children and adults (20%). Among hospitalized patients a majority of all astroviruses, caliciviruses and SRVs were detected 7 days or more after admission in contrast to both rotaviruses and adenoviruses which
Subnational Authorities and the Open Method of Coordination: A New Opportunity or the Same Old Community

The Open Method of Coordination (OMC) is currently under intense academic scrutiny, with attempts to assess its nature as a mode of governance (De la Porte et al 2001; Dehousse 2002; Scott and Trubek 2002) and the extent to which it can be seen as a ‘new’ mode of governance (Laffan and Shaw 2005, Smismans 2006). The OMC does exhibit some clearly different characteristics from what is termed the classic ‘Community Method’; however, with the recent re-launch of the Lisbon Strategy emphasising the need for streamlining and greater coordination of EU policies, the distinctions between ‘old’ and ‘new’ governance are becoming ever more blurred.
Heart Histopathology and Oxidative Features in Diabetic Rats and Protective Effects of Oleuropein

Diabetes induced cardiac dysfunction and lesions are nowadays confirmed. In fact, Diabetes is a chronic metabolic disease, which is associated with oxidative stress and hyperglycaemia which have direct toxic effects on cardio-myocytes. Olive leaves extract compounds, such as Oleuropein, have been used in many therapeutic and preventive cases. The present study is designed to evaluate the effect of Oleuropein as antioxidant on the heart histological and oxidative features in diabetic rats. Diabetes was induced by alloxan at 180 mg/kg b.w by intra-peritoneal method once. Four weeks Oleuropein rich olive leaves administration restore significantly the heart histological alteration established by diabetes and enhanced the cardiac antioxidant potential.
Employee fairness perceptions of performance appraisal: a Saint Lucian case study

This research identifies the essential factors which influence employees' fairness perceptions of their performance appraisals, and determines the applicability of these factors to the experiences of employees in a Saint Lucian public service organization. Fairness perceptions are of three main types. First, distributive justice refers to the perceived fairness of an actual appraisal rating. Second, procedural justice refers to the perceived fairness of procedures used to determine the appraisal rating. Third, interactional justice refers to the perceived fairness of the rater's interpersonal treatment of the ratee during the appraisal process. A qualitative case study method was used to gain a rich understanding of employee perceptions of the fairness of their performance appraisals. Data were obtained from both completed appraisal forms and interviews with 20 knowledgeable employees. All interviews were transcribed and assessed using a thematic analysis. Overall, results show that distributive, procedural, and interactional justice factors identified in the existing literature influence employee perceptions of fairness in their appraisals. Results suggest that employees also consider four additional justice factors, as yet not formally recognized in the justice literature, one distributive – the consistency in reward distribution – and three procedural – appraisal frequency, job relevant criteria, and rater and ratee training.
Learning Culture as a Mediator of the Influence of an Individual's Knowledge on Market Orientation

The real power of organisational culture is manifested through its normative impact on the behaviour of individual members (e.g. salespeople). Organisational culture's influence on relationship development increases through the customer-oriented behaviour of salespeople. But, considering those future behaviours of salespeople implies internal processes such as reflection, intuition, or interpretation, something that makes the ‘individual's knowledge’ indispensable. This paper examines the relative importance and significance of these behaviours (i.e., automatic and conscious knowledge) on ‘learning culture’, and their effects on market orientation, through an empirical investigation of 269 Small Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in two sectors (the Spanish optometry sector and the Spanish telecommunications sector) using structural equation modelling validated by factor analysis. The conclusions indicate that these behaviours nourish the company's capacity (learning culture) to move from a given situation to the desired situation of market orientation.
Ecological citizenship and climate change: perceptions and practice

Ecological citizenship presents a normative account of how citizens should conduct their lives, reducing their environmental impact. Little research has characterised ecological citizenship in practice or in the context of climate change. Q methodology is applied to a case study in Canada to scrutinise how individuals respond to climate change. The results identify four factors – the communitarian, the systemist, the sceptic and the economist – three of which suggest strongly that participants act on perceived individual responsibility for climate change. Practising ecological citizenship motivates individuals' responses to climate change. The actions taken suggest that behavioural change is the result of a complex negotiation between living standards, knowledge of causes of and contributions to climate change, and perceived intensity of greenhouse gas emission. The practice of ecological citizenship involves individuals' actions as voters and consumers, and concerns the power and justice implications of a resource intensive Western lifestyle.
The Influence of Auditor State-Level Legal Liability on Conservative Financial Reporting in the Property-Casualty Insurance Industry

This paper provides the first evidence that state-level liability standards affect auditor behavior. We hypothesize that auditors demand more conservative reporting when their insurance clients are domiciled in states with more stringent standards for third party claims against the auditor for negligence. To test this hypothesis, we analyze a sample of 3,107 loss reserve observations from 1993 through 2004. Our sample is restricted to private insurers that operate in a single state to control for auditor liability under statutory law and to reduce the possibility of forum shopping by plaintiffs. Consistent with Petroni (1992), we find that financially struggling insurers tend to under-reserve. This behavior is attenuated when the insurer is domiciled in a state that uses either the Restatement of Torts or the reasonable foreseeability standard to determine the auditor’s liability to third parties. Compared to the case where the auditor’s liability is defined by the legal concept of privity, these standards impose greater legal costs on auditors for ordinary negligence.
The existence and independence of audit committees in France

Abstract This paper uses an agency theory framework to investigate the determinants of audit committees in France. Empirical tests address a cross-sectional sample of 285 listed companies for the fiscal year 1997, which is two years after the first Viénot report recommending the creation of audit committees among listed companies. Multivariate analyses show that the existence of an audit committee, and the committee's independence, are both negatively correlated with insider ownership, consistent with the owner-manager agency theory that considers audit committees as devices aimed at strengthening the monitoring system, the quality of financial reporting and the whole corporate governance environment. The existence of an audit committee that complies with corporate governance recommendations (i.e., a minimum of three directors, all of whom are non-executive directors) also positively depends on leverage if the firm has a high-IOS (Investment Opportunity Set). The quality of accounting numbers thus seems important in shareholder-debtholder relationships if lenders are potentially more exposed to default risk and expropriation mechanisms. However, this result might be sensitive to the IOS measurement and classification of high- and low-IOS companies. Finally, the presence of an audit committee is found to be positively correlated with board size, firm size, auditor reputation, and with the diversity of the company's operations.
Genetic analysis of Shigella sonnei form I antigen: identification of a novel IS630 as an essential element for the form I antigen expression.

The form I coding region of Shigella sonnei was cloned and shown to have an operon-like rfb organization. It was found that the 11.0 kb HindIII-XbaI fragment of pHH201 encoding the form I antigen contains 10 contiguous open reading frames (ORF), ORF1 to ORF10. Deletions from either end of pHH201, within ORF1 or ORF10, eliminated form I expression. ORF1 and ORF2 share significant nucleic and amino acids homologies to two ORF's of the Salmonella typhi Vi antigen genes. ORF5 in pHH201 is identical to IS630. pHH2064, derived from pHH201, lacks the IS630 element and can stably express the form I antigen inE. coli HB101. However, pHH2064 is structurally unstable in a S. sonnei form II host. This indicates that the presence of the IS630 gene within the S. sonnei rfb operon may be necessary for the stability of form I expression in S. sonnei. This finding is substantiated by the observation that all virulent S. sonnei isolates examined in this study retained the IS630 element within their rfb operon.
Exports' quality-adjusted productivity and economic growth

According to recent studies, countries specialised in products associated with higher productivity levels are likely to grow faster than countries specialised in other goods. A limitation of these studies is that they do not control for quality differences within a product category when measuring goods' productivity level. In this paper we show that if products are distinguished by quality level there is no longer a robust relationship between specialising in products associated with higher productivity levels and faster growth. On the contrary, we find it is the specialisation in products that allow a larger room for quality improvement that leads to higher economic growth.
Demand Reactions in the Aftermath of Catastrophes and the Need for Behavioral Approaches

Catastrophic events lead to a temporary increase in insurance demand. Since the informational value of an event usually cannot be observed, inferences about the “rationality” of individuals’ decisions are difficult. The purpose of this research is to investigate whether and to what degree demand reactions of less sophisticated homeowners differ from the reactions of more sophisticated businesses in the aftermath of catastrophes. Identifying differences or similarities in demand reactions might help to clarify whether behavioral approaches are needed to explain the observations in the homeowners insurance market. We use NAIC data from 1984-2007 to analyze the impact of catastrophes on insurance demand. While the commercial market does not seem to react to catastrophic events, premium volume in the homeowners insurance market increases by about 2.9 % after catastrophes. This finding strengthens the need for behavioral approaches to explain the demand reactions in the aftermath of catastrophes. Vijay Aseervatham Munich Risk and Insurance Center Munich School of Management Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitat Munich Schackstrase 4/III 80539 Munich Germany aseervatham@bwl.lmu. de Patricia Born Payne H. and Charlotte Hodges Midyette Eminent Scholar in Risk Management and Insurance Director, Center for Insurance Research Dept. of Risk Management/Insurance, Real Estate and Legal Studies Florida State University College of Business 821 Academic Way Tallahassee, FL 32306-1110 USA pborn@cob.fsu. edu Andreas Richter Chair, Institute for Risk Management and Insurance Director, Munich Risk and Insurance Center Munich School of Management Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitat Munich Schackstrase 4/III 80539 Munich Germany richter@bwl.lmu. de
Roles, Authority and Involvement of the Management Accounting Function: A Multiple Case-study Perspective

Recent techniques and shifts in the environment are often viewed as leading management accountants to adopt a business orientation. However, empirical evidence pointing to clear shifts in the role played by management accountants remains relatively scarce. From in-depth qualitative research based on 73 interviews in ten multinational companies, we identify four distinct styles of management accounting function: discrete, safeguarding, partner, and omnipotent. We show that each style can be associated with one main role: discrete control of managerial behaviour, socialisation of managers, facilitation of decision-making, and centralisation of power. From this in-depth analysis of management accountants' styles and roles we move on to discuss the authority they hold and the independence/involvement dilemma they face.
Cat carotid body oxygen metabolism and chemoreception described by a two-cytochrome model.

We have analyzed O2 disappearance curves (DCs) in cat carotid bodies (CBs) measured with our O2 microelectrode, after stopping flow of either blood (108 DCs in 12 cats) or a hemoglobin-free (Locke) perfusion solution (35 DCs in 6 cats). Prior to occlusion, the mean tissue PO2 levels were 74.5 +/- 2.8 (SE) Torr in blood-perfused CBs and 103.4 +/- 2.6 in Locke-perfused CBs. The O2 consumption rates (VO2) determined from the initial 3 s of the DCs were 1.46 +/- 0.08 and 1.50 +/- 0.10 (SE) ml O2 . 100 g-1 . min-1, respectively, for the blood-perfused and Locke-perfused CBs. The change in total sinus nerve activity from the CB was also measured following stopped flow. The nerve activity began to increase immediately, providing further evidence that classic hypoxia is not the mechanism of chemoreceptor discharge. However, about two-thirds of the increased activity in blood-perfused CBs occurred after tissue PO2 levels fell below 20 Torr. As the CB tissue PO2 decreased, the O2 disappearance rate (-dPO2/dt) also decreased for both experimental conditions, indicating that the CB VO2 varies with O2 concentration. The increase in nerve discharge and O2 disappearance rate can be interpreted by a two-cytochrome model for O2 metabolism, with both high and low affinities.
The Effect of Methylphenidate and Placebo on Eye–Hand Coordination Functioning and Handwriting of Children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder

Israeli children who were diagnosed as having attention deficit hyperactivity disorder participated in the study. The children were assessed three times in a specially constructed battery of tests. The battery of tests included variables assessing eye–hand coordination skills, writing, and behavioral assessment of the teacher. The design was in the format of a double blind, randomized, crossover, placebo-control procedure. The results showed that methylphenidate (MPH) improved some cognitive functions of eye–hand coordination slightly better than placebo. In addition, behavior variables assessed by the teachers improved only under the influence of MPH.
Does the Global Trade of Virtual Water Reduce Inequality in Freshwater Resource Allocation?

Some countries require more freshwater resources than they control to maintain their current populations and standards of living. These countries import virtual water in the form of agricultural or industrial products to balance their water needs. Virtual water is the volume of water used to produce, but not necessarily contained within, agricultural and industrial products. It is thought that virtual water trade creates a more equal (narrower) distribution of water resources, a prerequisite to supporting large and growing populations in water scarce nations. I use United Nations data and statistical measures of inequality to quantitatively assess the effect of international trade on equality in global freshwater resource distributions. The distribution of virtual water is considerably more equal than the distribution of renewable freshwater resources between countries. However, this impact is limited when considering that many countries do not fully exploit their total volume of renewable freshwater resources.
INTERNAL ORGANIZATION AND PROFIT: AN EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS OF LARGE U.K. COMPANIES

PREVious empirical studies of firm and industry profitability have examined many causal factors, but almost without exception these have not included organizational form: the type of internal information and control structure employed by the firm.1 In this respect empirical work has generally run parallel with orthodox theory, in which the specification of a single-valued production function pre-empts discussion of organizational arrangements, along with all other concrete details of production technology. In practice the internal organization of firms is very likely to affect their efficiency and hence their profitability. Moreover, the type of internal control apparatus employed and its effectiveness are quite likely to be correlated with variables such as size, growth, and degree of owner- or managercontrol. Hence the neglect of this influence in previous work may not only have reduced the ability of the models to explain observed variations in profitability, but also given rise to serious specification bias in the estimated parameters. The present paper attempts to isolate the effects of internal organization on profitability in a cross-sectional analysis of 82 large U.K. companies in the period I967-7I. Internal organization variables are employed which test for efficiency gains from multidivisional (M-form) organization as identified by Williamson [27], [28]. The classification according to type of organizational form is described in section II. A model incorporating organizational form variables is outlined in section III, and the sample, our data sources and the measurement of variables are all described in section IV. Our empirical results are reported in section V, which is followed by a brief conclusion.
Volumetric accuracy of cone-beam computed tomography

Purpose This study was performed to investigate the influence of object shape and distance from the center of the image on the volumetric accuracy of cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) scans, according to different parameters of tube voltage and current. Materials and Methods Four geometric objects (cylinder, cube, pyramid, and hexagon) with predefined dimensions were fabricated. The objects consisted of Teflon-perfluoroalkoxy embedded in a hydrocolloid matrix (Dupli-Coe-Loid TM; GC America Inc., Alsip, IL, USA), encased in an acrylic resin cylinder assembly. An Alphard Vega Dental CT system (Asahi Roentgen Ind. Co., Ltd, Kyoto, Japan) was used to acquire CBCT images. OnDemand 3D (CyberMed Inc., Seoul, Korea) software was used for object segmentation and image analysis. The accuracy was expressed by the volume error (VE). The VE was calculated under 3 different exposure settings. The measured volumes of the objects were compared to the true volumes for statistical analysis. Results The mean VE ranged from −4.47% to 2.35%. There was no significant relationship between an object's shape and the VE. A significant correlation was found between the distance of the object to the center of the image and the VE. Tube voltage affected the volume measurements and the VE, but tube current did not. Conclusion The evaluated CBCT device provided satisfactory volume measurements. To assess volume measurements, it might be sufficient to use serial scans with a high resolution, but a low dose. This information may provide useful guidance for assessing volume measurements.
Comparison of Ureteroscopic Laser Lithotripsy with Laparoscopic Ureterolithotomy for Large Proximal and Mid-Ureter Stones

Objectives: To compare the effectiveness and complications of ureteroscopic laser lithotripsy with laparoscopic ureter laparoscopic ureterolithotomy in mid- or proximal portion of large ureteral stones. Material and Methods: We reviewed patients with large (>15 mm) ureteral stone and those who underwent ureteroscopic laser lithotripsy (URS group) or laparoscopic ureterolithotomy (LU group). The first attempt was considered successful in patients who had residual fragments smaller than 2 mm and no conversion of the primary procedure to another. Results: Sixty patients (URS group 29, LU group 31) met inclusion criteria. FURS was used as an adjunctive procedure in one patient for URS group and in two patients for LU group in the same season. LU had a higher success rate and the first-day stone-free rate when compared with URS. Number of procedures was also significantly higher in URS group. There was no difference in stone-free rates at the first and third months, and length of hospitalization and operation were higher in the LU group. Only two patients in the LU group and one patient in the URS group had major complications. Conclusions: Laparoscopy is an effective option of large proximal and mid-ureter stone treatment; however, URS provides similar stone-free rates at three months as a minimal invasive procedure.