Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Central venous catheter-related bloodstream infections in the intensive care unit

Context: Central venous catheter-related bloodstream infection (CRBSI) is associated with high rates of morbidity and mortality in critically ill patients. Aims: This study was conducted to determine the incidence of central venous catheter-related infections (CRIs) and to identify the factors influencing it. So far, there are very few studies that have been conducted on CRBSI in the intensive care unit in India. Settings and Design: This was a prospective, observational study carried out in the medical intensive care unit (MICU) over a period of 1 year from January to December 2004. Materials and Methods: A total of 54 patients with indwelling central venous catheters of age group between 20 and 75 years were included. The catheters were cultured using the standard semiquantitative culture (SQC) method. Statistical analysis used SPSS-10 version statistical software. Results: A total of 54 CVC catheters with 319 catheter days were included in this study. Of 54 patients with CVCs studied for bacteriology, 39 (72.22%) catheters showed negative SQCs and also negative blood cultures. A total of 15 (27.77%) catheters were positive on SQC, of which 10 (18.52%) were with catheter-associated infection and four (7.41%) were with catheter-associated bacteremia; the remaining one was a probable catheter-associated bacteremia. CRIs were high among catheters that were kept in situ for more than 3 days and emergency procedures where two or more attempts were required for catheterization (P < 0.05). In multivariate analysis of covariance duration of catheter in situ for >3 days, inexperienced venupucturist, more number of attempts and emergency CVC were associated with more incidence of CVCBSIs, with P <0.02. The duration of catheter in situ was negatively correlated (-0.53) and number of attempts required to put CVC was positively correlated (+0.39) with incidence of CVCBSIs. Sixty-five percent of the isolates belonged to the CONS group (13/20). Staphylococcus epidermidis showed maximum susceptibility to amikacin, doxycycline and amoxycillin with clavulanic acid and was susceptible to vancomycin (100%). Klebsiella pneumoniae was 100% susceptible to amikacin and ciprofloxacin. Escherichia coli was susceptible to amikacin and cefotaxime. Conclusions: The overall incidence of CRI was 27.77% (15/54). Catheter-associated BSIs were 47.31 per 1000 catheter-days. CRI was low in the catheters inserted by the experienced venipuncturists, elective procedure and CVC kept in situ for ≤3 days. S. epidermidis was the most common isolate.
Monetary Policy Shocks and Heterogeneous Finance Decisions: A Model of Hidden Effort Choice and Financial Intermediation

Abstract The paper investigates how monetary policy shocks influence the composition of firms’ external finance given that firms are heterogeneous. Heterogeneity stems from differences in the availability of internal funds and in the monitoring costs associated with bank finance. These costs are determined by the intensity of the lending relationship. By using a delegated monitoring approach it is found that bank loans serve as a substitute for internal funds if the lending relationship is sufficiently close. Moreover, banks with strong credit ties to their customers are not only able to protect borrowers from liquidity constraints following a monetary tightening but are even able to extend their business lending.
Understanding E-Government Benefits

Past research on the topic of e-government activities is heavily rooted in describing technological innovation in terms of a maturational model. Apparently, technological innovation has occurred incrementally—and the benefits, if realized, are slow to accrue. This research examines the utility of maturational models in understanding the achievement of e-government benefits. The findings are predicated on a retrospective panel analysis of how public organizations realize the benefits of technological innovations. This study revealed that although a maturational model may be helpful for describing aggregate efforts, it is less useful in understanding the potential for individual gains. Based on the results of this sample, rapid advances, nonlinear activities, and permeable boundaries are important determinants of achieving the benefits of technological innovation and, thus, worthy of ongoing research.
Impact of sustainable management policies on tourism companies' performance: the case of the metropolitan region of Madrid

The adoption of sustainable management practices is booming among service companies, whether due to pressure exerted by external agents or the internal perception that not being aligned with sustainability distances companies from clients and puts companies' long-term prospects at risk. However, few studies have examined the combined effect of implementing environmental management practices and corporate social responsibility practices in the tourism sector. By analysing two surveys conducted with the managers of 370 hotels and 176 restaurants and using structural equations, this study concludes that sustainability practices have a direct and significant impact on the company's competitiveness and on the companies' financial results. However, a separate study of the two surveys shows significant differences between the two analysed groups. This article suggests that despite operating in the same sector, hotels and restaurants behave differently regarding sustainability practices, and they achieve significantly different results in their implementation. In addition, by focusing on the tourism industry, a highly competitive sector, this analysis sheds light on whether investing in sustainability is a good strategy for companies to differentiate themselves and survive in complex sectors.
Comparison between manufacturing companies that are ISO certified and those that are not certified using performance measurement model

Certification from the International Organization of Standardization (ISO) has recently become the fundamental requirement of businesses seeking to ensure continuous quality improvement. However, further evaluation is needed to ascertain whether those ISO certified enterprises could enhance their overall performance. This research compares between the manufacturing companies that are ISO certified and those that are uncertified using the performance measurement model. The valid questionnaires include 282 and 125 responses from companies that are ISO certified and uncertified, respectively. The comparison results show that the ISO-certified manufacturing companies demonstrate significantly higher performance than companies without ISO certification in all perspectives of performance. Moreover, the ISO-certified companies show greater strength in all relationship paths as compared to the uncertified firms. These results indicate that ISO certification has a significant effect on the performance of manufacturing companies.
Temporal Cortex Reflects Effects of Sentence Context on Phonetic Processing

Listeners' perception of acoustically presented speech is constrained by many different sources of information that arise from other sensory modalities and from more abstract higher-level language context. An open question is how perceptual processes are influenced by and interact with these other sources of information. In this study, we use fMRI to examine the effect of a prior sentence fragment meaning on the categorization of two possible target words that differ in an acoustic phonetic feature of the initial consonant, VOT. Specifically, we manipulate the bias of the sentence context (biased, neutral) and the target type (ambiguous, unambiguous). Our results show that an interaction between these two factors emerged in a cluster in temporal cortex encompassing the left middle temporal gyrus and the superior temporal gyrus. The locus and pattern of these interactions support an interactive view of speech processing and suggest that both the quality of the input and the potential bias of the context together interact and modulate neural activation patterns.
Educational Policy and Performance: evaluating the impact of targeted education programs in Ecuador

Evaluations of conditional cash transfer programs in several Latin American countries indicate that such programs have substantial positive effects on school enrolment. It is unclear, however, whether it is the cash transfer itself, or the conditionality that matters most. This chapter presents fresh evidence from a cash transfer program in Ecuador. Unlike programs in other countries, the transfers are unconditional. Using a regression discontinuity design, we find a precisely estimated zero effect of eligibility on school enrolment. This suggests that the success of other programs should be attributed to the requirement that children attend school. In this regard, this chapter contributes to the current debate by highlighting the importance of conditionality to improve school enrolment through this type of program. ∗ This chapter is based on a paper co-written with Hessel Oosterbeek from the Amsterdam School of Economics and the Tinbergen Institute.
Primary colorectal cancer: use of kinetic modeling of dynamic contrast-enhanced CT data to predict clinical outcome.

PURPOSE To compare four different tracer kinetic models for the analysis of dynamic contrast material-enhanced computed tomographic (CT) data with respect to the prediction of 5-year overall survival in primary colorectal cancer. MATERIALS AND METHODS This study was approved by the ethical review board. Archival dynamic contrast-enhanced CT data from 46 patients with colorectal cancer, obtained as part of a research study, were analyzed retrospectively by using the distributed parameter, conventional compartmental, adiabatic tissue homogeneity, and generalized kinetic models. Blood flow, blood volume, mean transit time (MTT), permeability-surface area product, extraction fraction, extravascular extracellular volume (v(e)), and volume transfer constant (K(trans)) were compared by using the Friedman test, with statistical significance at 5%. Following receiver operating characteristic analysis, parameters of the different kinetic models and tumor stage were compared with respect to overall survival discrimination, with use of Kaplan Meier analysis and a univariate Cox proportional hazard model, with additional cross-validation and permutation testing. RESULTS Blood flow was lower with the distributed parameter model than with the conventional compartmental and adiabatic tissue homogeneity models (P < .0001), and blood flow values determined with the conventional compartmental and adiabatic tissue homogeneity models were similar. Conversely, MTT was longer with the distributed parameter model than with the conventional compartmental and adiabatic tissue homogeneity models (P < .0001). Blood volume, permeability-surface area product, and v(e) were higher with the conventional compartmental model than with the adiabatic tissue homogeneity, distributed parameter, or generalized kinetic models (P < .0001). The extraction fraction was higher with the distributed parameter model than with the adiabatic tissue homogeneity model. With respect to 5-year overall survival, only the distributed parameter model-derived v(e) was predictive of 5-year overall survival with a threshold value of 15.48 mL/100 mL after cross-validation and permutation testing. CONCLUSION Parameter values differ significantly between models. Of the models investigated, the distributed parameter model was the best predictor of 5-year overall survival. SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIAL http://radiology.rsna. org/lookup/suppl/doi:10.1148/radiol.12120186/-/DC1.
Sectoral cointegration, structural break and agriculture's role in the Chinese economy in 1952-92: a VAR approach

A VAR model is constructed to study the sectoral cointegration relationship in China. As a primary sector of the economy, agriculture is found to be a growth engine throughout the data period 1952-92 although its contribution to GDP declined steadily over time. This evidence is consistently found in both the long-run and the short-run models of a VAR. In contrast, the growth of non-agricultural sectors had little effect on agriculture in 1952-77. However, a structural break is found under the economic reforms (1977-92) when industry and other non-agricultural sectors started to cause agriculture to grow.
Gate-level optimization of polymorphic circuits using Cartesian Genetic Programming

Polymorphic digital circuits contain ordinary and polymorphic gates. In the past, Cartesian Genetic Programming (CGP) has been applied to synthesize polymorphic circuits at the gate level. However, this approach is not scalable. Experimental results presented in this paper indicate that larger and more efficient polymorphic circuits can be designed by a combination of conventional design methods (such as BDD, Espresso or ABC System) and evolutionary optimization (conducted by CGP). Proposed methods are evaluated on two benchmark circuits - Multiplier/Sorter and Parity/Majority circuits of variable input size.
Testing hypotheses for the presence of tRNA genes in mycobacteriophage genomes

ABSTRACT The presence of tRNA genes in bacteriophages has been explained on the basis of codon usage (tRNA genes are retained in the phage genome if they correspond to codons more common in the phage than in its host) or amino acid usage (independent of codon, the amino acid corresponding to the retained tRNA gene is more common in the phage genome than in the bacterial host). The existence of a large database of sequenced mycobacteriophages, isolated on the common host Mycobacterium smegmatis, allows us to test the above hypotheses as well as explore other hypotheses for the presence of tRNA genes. Our analyses suggest that amino acid rather than codon usage better explains the presence of tRNA genes in mycobacteriophages. However, closely related phages that differ in the presence of tRNA genes in their genomes are capable of lysing the common bacterial host and do not differ in codon or amino acid usage. This suggests that the benefits of having tRNA genes may be associated with either growth in the host or the ability to infect more hosts (i.e., host range) rather than simply infecting a particular host.
Head Circumference Charts for Turkish Children Aged Five to Eighteen Years.

INTRODUCTION Most head circumference growth references are useful during the first years of life, but they are also useful for older children when screening for developmental, neurological, and genetic disorders. We aimed to develop head circumference growth reference charts for age, height, and waist circumference for Turkish children aged 5-18 years. METHODS Head circumference, height, and waist circumference measurements were obtained from 5079 students aged 5-18 years from İzmit, Kocaeli Province, Turkey. The LMS method was used to construct reference centile curves. RESULTS Head circumference measurements were strongly correlated with height (r=0.74), weight (r=0.76), and waist circumference (r=0.68). The mean head circumference values for boys were larger than those for girls at all ages. Compared with data from the United States, the World Health Organization, and other studies from Turkey, our data showed a decrease in head circumference at all ages for both sexes. CONCLUSION Local growth charts can be used to evaluate head circumference growth in older Turkish children and adolescents.
Price-to-Earnings Ratios and Option Prices

In May of 1997, in the midst of the Internet bubble, the average month end P/E ratio for the software industry was 44. However, the 5‐year historical average was 31. In this study, we examine the effect of this industry value fluctuation on the effects of option prices. We examine the relationship between the level of relative valuation and option pricing via deviations in put‐call parity and a two‐factor option pricing model incorporating relative valuation. We find support that the increase in relative industry valuation Granger causes put‐call parity deviations, implying investors price options with greater expectation of downward movement. Additionally, we develop a model and find support that the two‐factor option pricing model that incorporates relative industry valuation prices options better than the standard Black–Scholes (1973) model. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Jrl Fut Mark 35:738–752, 2015
Rationing Access to Protected Natural Areas: An Australian Case Study

In Australia, as in many other parts of the world, open access is the default policy setting for most protected natural areas, including World Heritage Sites. This is despite considerable evidence that unrestrained levels of visitation can be unsustainable in terms of the impact on the environment and recreational experience. This paper seeks to answer two questions. First, to what extent are visitors willing to forego access to publicly owned protected natural areas in order to ensure less crowding and/or better environmental outcomes? And second, if access were restricted, how would visitors like remaining access rights to be allocated? The results show that visitors are, in general, willing to trade off some degree of access rights for better environmental outcomes and reduced crowding; particularly the former. It is clear that peak pricing is not supported, whereas visitor caps have broad support.
New contexts, different patterns? A comparative analysis of social spending and government health expenditure in Latin America and the OECD

Much of our knowledge of the development of the welfare state centers on historical contingencies that characterized the industrial, political, and demographic context of Western Europe and North America. However, young welfare states in developing countries are emerging in response to different pressures than those faced by early welfare state; while globalization influences both young and established welfare states. Using newly released data for Latin America, this article provides a systematic comparison of social spending, spending on welfare and social security and government health spending in the OECD and Latin America and the Caribbean in the 1980s and 1990s. Results from cross-section time-series models indicate that the logic of industrialism welfare state approach is useful for examining social spending in Latin America. Namely, unemployment is associated with higher levels of social spending and spending on welfare and social security in both regions while a larger proportion of elderly population is associated with higher spending in Latin America. Globalization in the form of trade openness is associated with lower spending in the OECD across outcomes. In Latin America and the Caribbean the presence of international financial institutions powerfully pattern health and social spending: decreasing spending on welfare and social security and increasing health spending.
CEO Perceptions of Investor Relations As a Public Relations Function: An Exploratory Study

An exploratory study of chief executive officers (CEOs) in Florida nonbanking public companies found that top executives do not perceive investor relations to be part of the public relations function. A mail survey (31% response rate) revealed these CEOs favor financial affairs executives and departments to supervise and conduct investor relations, and they perceive both the investor relations and public relations functions to be more technically than managerially oriented. These findings corroborate concerns of encroachment in public relations by those without public relations training or experience. The study also raises the larger question of whether public relations practitioners could be trained in such a way to garner CEO support for a role in the investor relations function.
Taxation and Pricing of Petroleum Products in Developing Countries: A Framework for Analysis with Application to Nigeria

Using the modern theory of public economics as the point of departure, this paper outlines a basic principle for setting taxes and/or prices of commodities based on two key criteria, efficiency and equity. The paper shows that for petroleum products, the basic principle needs modification in the presence of various externalities and market imperfections in a setting where the instruments to address the externalities and imperfections are limited. Drawing from theoretical and empirical literature, the paper provides an operational framework and then illustrates how, for a country like Nigeria, the relevant taxes/subsidies to correct the externalities and to address equity and revenue considerations can be measured with a view to setting prices of petroleum products. However, the paper refrains from making any specific suggestion for policy reform in Nigeria. The framework outlined in the paper can be applied to the analysis of petroleum product taxes and prices in other developing countries.
Review of Full Truckload Transportation Service Procurement

Abstract This study was conducted to review the literature on full truckload (FTL) transportation service procurement and to identify the gaps from the perspectives of researchers and practitioners. FTL procurement in particular was reviewed because it is encountered more than others forms of procurement in freight movement, and it involves numerous challenges. A framework was developed to provide a systematic review of the literature, the findings of which are discussed in detail. Some key findings include the simplistic assumption of demand patterns, limited focus on non-price variables, a limited number of case studies, less consideration of sustainability aspects, and a lack of detailed studies on emerging economies.
Securitization and Capital Structure in Nonfinancial Firms: An Empirical Investigation

type="main"> Contrary to recent accounts of off-balance-sheet securitization by financial firms, we show that asset securitization by nonfinancial firms provides a valuable form of financing for shareholders without harming debtholders. Using data from firms’ SEC filings, we find that securitization is attractive to firms in the middle of the credit quality distribution, which are the firms with the most to gain. Upon initiation, firms experience positive abnormal stock returns and zero abnormal bond returns, and largely use the securitization proceeds to repay existing debt. Securitization minimizes financing costs by reducing expected bankruptcy costs and providing access to segmented credit markets.
Assessing the Impacts of Pillar 1 and 2 Subsidies on TFP in French Crop Farms

This article analyses the impact of common agricultural policy (CAP) subsidies on total factor productivity using a FADN dataset of French crop farms between 1996 and 2003. We first estimate a production function using a system GMM approach and then recover farm-level total factor productivity (TFP). Further, the impact of Pillar 1 and 2 subsidies on TFP is investigated and results show that several subsidies have a negative impact on productivity during the period covered in the dataset. CAP reforms have also had an impact on the relationship between subsidies and productivity.
Culture and knowledge spillovers in Europe: New perspectives for innovation and convergence policies?

Using European patent citations, we examine the geography of knowledge flows within Europe. We aim at analysing whether technologies flow more rapidly among countries that share similar economic, geographic, technological or cultural characteristics. The specificity of our approach consists in integrating indicators of culture and cultural similarity. The empirical results suggest that cultural distance has only a mitigated and moderate impact in comparison with other proximities. On the contrary, cultural belonging is shown to influence the geography of knowledge flows and innovation. More precisely, if some populations develop thanks to external knowledge exploitation, others rather explore internal new ideas and knowledge. In such a differentiated context (we find three types of culture), the efficiency of innovative policy seems to be culturally dependent.