Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
[Feeding of dogs and cats in Germany].

OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to determine epidemiological data on the feeding of dogs and cats in Germany. MATERIAL AND METHODS A total of 865 dog owners and 243 cat owners were interviewed using standardised questionnaires about their animals (age, sex, weight, body condition, health) and feeding, including treats, additional supplements and reasons for food changes, together with data on the pet owners (age, sex, education, profession). The interviews took place in the waiting rooms of veterinarians, in dog schools, animal shelters and public parks as well as via the internet. Body condition scoring (BCS, scale 1-9) was performed separately by the pet owners and the interviewer. RESULTS The mean age of dogs was 4.8 years and of cats 6.8 years. The dogs' body weight ranged from 2.2kg (Pomeranian dog) to 95kg (Saint Bernard). The cats had a body weight from 2 to 11kg. Approximately 52% of dogs and cats were overweight (BCS6-9). Differences existed between the assessment by the owner and the interviewer. Many owners underestimated the body condition, in particular, moderate overweight was not recognised (BCS6-7). Commercial food was exclusively used by 58% of dog and 90% of cat owners, while 35% and 10%, respectively, combined these with additional feed. Nearly 8% of dog and <1% of cat owners fed their pets with home-made diets. Elderly (>7 years) and sick dogs received home-made diets more often. Older pet owners (≥ 46 years) fed their pets home-made diets more frequently. The education and profession of owners did not affect the percentage of home-made diets. There was no effect of the type of diet on BCS. Owners with a lower education as well as housewives and pensioners more often had overweight pets. Older owners and working owners gave treats less frequently. However, 95% of dogs and 65% of cats received treats. CONCLUSION Being overweight is the biggest dietary problem. In comparison to previous studies, the number of overweight pets has increased. CLINICAL RELEVANCE Pet owners should be advised early on excess weight, because the onset of being overweight is often not recognised. The majority of pet owners gives treats. Diets for the treatment of disease need to take this into account and offer solutions for treats.
Impact of Trade on Productivity of Skilled and Unskilled Intensive Industries: A Cross-Country Investigation

This paper examines the effect of trade openness on the productivity of skilled labor intensive and unskilled labor intensive industries in the group of 20 OECD countries. Using panel data and fixed effects approach, we find that skilled workers’ relative gains in productivity exceed those of their unskilled counterpart. Given this differential impact of trade openness on the relative productivity of the skilled and unskilled intensive industries, our findings lend support to the conclusions of past studies that skilled labor is likely to be more pro trade than unskilled labor.
Macroeconomic Conditions, Volatility Components, and Term Structure of Implied Volatility: An Empirical Investigation

Using a Nelson-Siegel approach this article conducts an empirical study of the volatility components directly extracted from the observed implied volatility term structure. We show that (1) the long term volatility component can be explained by macroeconomic and financial variables; (2) a bivariate volatility-component option valuation model is sufficient for pricing options with different maturities; (3) the out-of-sample performance of the Nelson-Siegel model is better than Heston stochastic volatility model, GARCH (1,1) and ad hoc term structure models. The results provide empirical support for the emerging literature of component volatility models.
Caspofungin in the treatment of symptomatic candiduria.

BACKGROUND Because the urine concentrations achieved by echinocandin antifungal agents are low, drugs from this class are excluded from consideration when candiduria treatment is selected. METHODS We performed a retrospective view (sponsored by Merck Research Laboratories) of case records of patients participating in phase II-III clinical studies of caspofungin to identify patients with candiduria. RESULTS Of 12 case records collected by Merck Research Laboratories, 6 met the criteria for significant candiduria, allowing the evaluation of caspofungin therapy as judged by J.D. S. Three reported cases of candiduria secondary to hematogenous renal candidiasis were promptly eradicated. Of greater significance are 3 cases of complicated, ascending Candida glabrata infection (i.e., C. glabrata infection plus renal insufficiency), which were successfully treated with caspofungin. CONCLUSIONS Caspofungin may have a role in treating complicated Candida urinary tract infections, especially when the infection is caused by non-albicans species of Candida.
The effects of macroeconomic announcements on equity returns and their connections to Fama–French factors

By employing daily data we investigated the relationship between the role of macroeconomic announcements and equity returns via their connection to Fama–French (FF) factors. Macroeconomic announcements had a profound effect on equity returns, the FF factors and momentum. We find that the information in macroeconomic announcements are not totally captured by FF factors and momentum. This casts some doubt on the risk-based explanation of FF factors as reflections of macroeconomic risks.
Analogue orthogonal precoding using reduced-complexity transceivers

Orthogonal transmission toward N undesired receivers via conventional digital beamforming techniques requires at minimum (N + 1) active transmit antennas. As the radio frequency (RF) complexity increases linearly with the number of active antennas, orthogonal transmit precoding becomes impractical for simple user terminals. The paper proposes an alternative solution utilizing a single-radio reactance-assisted antenna system, featuring low-power consumption, low cost and ease of fabrication. The orthogonal precoding technique to be proposed emulates classical digital orthogonal precoding for suppressing the interference toward a number of users, but at highly reduced RF complexity.
Crossing the Chasm - Understanding China's Rural Digital Divide

Abstract The digital divide is a mounting concern for economic growth and social development of developing countries. As the largest developing country, China has a severe digital divide in rural areas. As part of the endeavor to build a harmonious society, China has devoted tremendous resources to bridging the rural digital divide; however, the results are thus far inconclusive. To better understand and tackle China's rural digital divide, theoretically grounded empirical research is needed. Drawing upon the theory of planned behavior (TPB), this study aims to understand the critical reasons that essentially caused China's rural digital divide. The model is empirically tested using the survey data collected from 924 Chinese Internet users. The results reveal distinct behavioral models between rural and urban users. Implications for research and practice are discussed.
Did the health card program ensure access to medical care for the poor during Indonesia's economic crisis

This brief summarizes about did the health card program ensure access to medical care for the poor during Indonesia's economic crisis for the 1998 period. The Indonesian social safety net health card program was implemented in response to the economic crisis that hit Indonesia in 1997, to preserve access to health care services for the poor. Health cards were allocated to poor households, entitling them to subsidized care from public health care providers. The providers received budgetary support to compensate for the extra demand. This article focuses on the effect of the program on primary outpatient health care use, disentangling the direct effect of allocating health cards from the indirect effect of government transfers to health care facilities. For poor health card owners the program resulted in a net increase in use of outpatient care, while for nonpoor health card owners the program resulted mainly in a substitution from private to public health care. The largest effect of the program seems to have come from a general increase in the supply of public services resulting from the budgetary support to public providers. These benefits seem to have been captured mainly by the nonpoor. As a result, most of the benefits of the health card program went to the nonpoor, even though distribution of the health cards was propoor. The results suggest that had the program, in addition to targeting the poor, established a closer link between provision of services to the target groups and funding, the overall results would have been more propoor.
Aberrant Salience Is Related to Dysfunctional Self-Referential Processing in Psychosis.

BACKGROUND A dysfunctional differentiation between self-relevant and irrelevant information may affect the perception of environmental stimuli as abnormally salient. The aberrant salience hypothesis assumes that positive symptoms arise from an attribution of salience to irrelevant stimuli accompanied by the feeling of self-relevance. Self-referential processing relies on the activation of cortical midline structures which was demonstrated to be impaired in psychosis. We investigated the neural correlates of self-referential processing, aberrant salience attribution, and the relationship between these 2 measures across the psychosis continuum. METHODS Twenty-nine schizophrenia patients, 24 healthy individuals with subclinical delusional ideation, and 50 healthy individuals participated in this study. Aberrant salience was assessed behaviorally in terms of reaction times to task irrelevant cues. Participants performed a self-reference task during fMRI in which they had to apply neutral trait words to them or to a public figure. The correlation between self-referential processing and aberrant salience attribution was tested. RESULTS Schizophrenia patients displayed increased aberrant salience attribution compared with healthy controls and individuals with subclinical delusional ideation, while the latter exhibited intermediate aberrant salience scores. In the self-reference task, schizophrenia patients showed reduced activation in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC), but individuals with subclinical delusional ideation did not differ from healthy controls. In schizophrenia patients, vmPFC activation correlated negatively with implicit aberrant salience attribution. CONCLUSIONS Higher aberrant salience attribution in schizophrenia patients is related to reduced vmPFC activation during self-referential judgments suggesting that aberrant relevance coding is reflected in decreased neural self-referential processing as well as in aberrant salience attribution.
Measuring European Financial Integration

In this paper, we present a set of specific measures to quantify the state and evolution of financial integration in the euro area. Five key markets are considered, namely the money, corporate-bond, government-bond, credit, and equity markets. Building upon the law of one price, we have developed two types of indicators that can be broadly categorized as price-based and news-based measures. We have complemented these measures by a number of quantity-based indicators, mainly related to the evolution of the home bias. Results indicate that the unsecured money market is fully integrated, while integration is reasonably high in the government- and corporate-bond markets, as well as in the equity markets. The credit market is among the least integrated, especially in the short-term segment.
Pembiayaan Musyarakah dari Sisi Penawaran pada Perbankan Syariah di Indonesia

The objective of this study is to know about musyarakah financing in offer side in syariah bank in Indonesia byusing equity rasio variable, liability and profit sharing. The analyze used SPSS program. T-test and hierarchicalregression analysis were used to test the hypotheses. The result indicated that equity rasio and profit sharinghave positive and significant relationship with musyarakah financing. Liability variable had no positiverelationship and significant with musyarakah financing. Beside, there was no diferentiation significanly betweenmusyarakah financing in syariah bank and syariah business unit. Keywords:Jobmusyarakah financing, equity, liability and profit sharing.
Whole school reform and preschool education: The role of preschool education in policy decisions regarding the improvement of disadvantaged school systems

In 1998, the New Jersey Supreme Court ordered the state to implement an ambitious agenda for reforming preschool education in the state's 30 poorest school districts. This reform formed part of a larger attempt to overhaul educational programming in these school districts. The preschool reform attempted to meld, both programmatically and fiscally, community and public school preschool programs. According to the Court's ruling, all 3- and 4-year-olds residing in these school districts must be provided with high-quality preschool educational experiences. This paper offers insights into the challenges that the State of New Jersey is experiencing as it seeks to comply with the Court's mandate. The paper highlights issues related to determining program content, establishing teacher certification requirements, securing adequate funding and ensuring adequate enrollment. These issues are implicated within the larger discourse of what constitutes effective and high-quality preschool programs.
Mortality pattern in an urban birth cohort.

This study assessed the perinatal neonatal and infant mortality patterns by various birth characteristics and socioeconomic factors in a prospectively studied birth cohort in an urban India community. The birth cohort population was about 100000. Of a total of 5732 single births there were 140 stillbirths and the rest were live. The perinatal mortality rate was 38.8 stillbirth rate was 24.4 and the early neonatal death rate was 14.7. Neonatal death rate was 21.18 with an overall infant mortality rate of 46.5. The 2 most important factors influencing outcome were gestation length and birth weight. However if the birth weight was less than 1500 gm outcome was poor regardlesss of gestation. Females had the highest postneonatal mortality rate. Baby survival was influenced most by socioeconomic status and education. Maternal age and parity had relatively less impact. Outocme improved with availability of health services and use there of by the population. Tables present breakdowns of mortality rates: by 1) birth weight; 2) gestation; 3) sex; 4) per capita income; and 5) maternal literacy.
Phylogenetic Identification of Korean Gymnopus spp. and the First Report of 3 Species: G. iocephalus, G. polygrammus, and G. subnudus

Abstract Gymnopus is a cosmopolitan genus of agaric fungi and consists of ~300 species. In Korea, Gymnopus represents common saprobic mushrooms, and 12 species have been reported in Korea. Several Gymnopus specimens were collected in Korea between 2008 and 2015. To identify them exactly, phylogenetic analysis was performed by means of the internal transcribed spacer region of ribosomal-DNA sequences from the collected Gymnopus specimens. Among them, G. iocephalus, G. polygrammus, and G. subnudus have not been reported in Korea. A phylogenetic tree and images are provided.
Gender Differences in the Distribution of Total Work-Time of Latin-American Families: The Importance of Social Norms

We analyze differences by gender in the time dedicated to total work (paid and unpaid) by families in Latin America, with particular attention to the effect of social norms. To this end, we use survey data on time use in Mexico (2009), Peru (2010), Ecuador (2012) and Colombia (2012), to estimate differential equations through OLS. Our results reveal differences between countries in terms of the gender distribution of total work (paid work plus unpaid work), with Colombia and Peru being more equitable. These two countries could be approaching a situation of "iso-work", or equality of work, in the sense that men and women spend similar amounts of time in total work. When considering the social norms that explain gender differences in the time spent in total work, we use data from the last wave (2010-2014) of the World Values Survey (WVS). Our results indicate that the more egalitarian countries exhibit the highest levels of equality in the distribution of work. It is important to know how men and women from these four countries distribute their time in total work, in order to understand why there are clear differences by gender.
Performance Parameters Interrelations from a Balanced Scorecard Perspective: An Analysis of Greek Companies

Purpose - The proponents of balanced scorecard (BSc) claim that lead factors interrelate and their improvement ultimately leads to increased financial performance. The purpose of this paper is to use the underlying hypotheses of BSc in order to assess whether improvements that relate to learning and growth, internal processes and customers actually contribute to alterations of reported financial performance. Design/methodology/approach - A structured questionnaire was used and data were gathered from 90 leading Greek companies in relation to the progress they have experienced during a three-year period regarding various activities that can be broadly classified as aspects of the three qualitative perspectives of BSc (i.e. the learning and growth perspective, the internal business and production process perspective, and the customer perspective). Published financial data were used in order to calculate several financial ratios for all sample firms for the same time period. Findings - The empirical data verified the underlying theoretical hypothesis of BSc that lead BSc perspectives are positively correlated with one an: other at a statistically significant level in a sequential way. However, within a given perspective not all measures exhibit homogeneous behaviour in terms of statistical significance. Supportive evidence was also found that the companies that have improved their return on equity (ROE) and return on assets (ROA) during the analysis period have increased their efforts towards aspects that characterize the learning and growth perspective more than the companies whose ROE and ROA values decreased. Originality/value - The innovative dimension of this research work relies mainly on the fact that the BSc framework was used as a general structured model in order to assess the relationships between non-financial parameters and financial performance. Thus, conclusions are not restricted only to companies that actually apply BSc.
The Impact of External Indebtednesson Poverty in Low-Income Countries

This paper explores the relationship between external debt and poverty. A number of observers have argued that high external indebtedness is a major cause of poverty, Using the first-differenced general method of moments (GMM) estimator, the paper models the impact of external debt on poverty, measured by life expectancy, infant mortality, and gross primary enrollment rates, while duly taking into account the impact of external debt on income. The paper thus endeavors to bring together the literature that links external debt with income growth and poverty. The main conclusion is that once the effect of income on poverty has been taken into account, external indebtedness indicators have a limited but important impact on poverty.
Relationship between body and leg VO2 during maximal cycle ergometry.

It is not known whether the asymptotic behavior of whole body O2 consumption (VO2) at maximal work rates (WR) is explained by similar behavior of VO2 in the exercising legs. To resolve this question, simultaneous measurements of body and leg VO2 were made at submaximal and maximal levels of effort breathing normoxic and hypoxic gases in seven trained male cyclists (maximal VO2, 64.7 +/- 2.7 ml O2.min-1.kg-1), each of whom demonstrated a reproducible VO2-WR asymptote during fatiguing incremental cycle ergometry. Left leg blood flow was measured by constant-infusion thermodilution, and total leg VO2 was calculated as the product of twice leg flow and radial arterial-femoral venous O2 concentration difference. The VO2-WR relationships determined at submaximal WR's were extrapolated to maximal WR as a basis for assessing the body and leg VO2 responses. The differences between measured and extrapolated maximal VO2 were 235 +/- 45 (body) and 203 +/- 70 (leg) ml O2/min (not significantly different). Plateauing of leg VO2 was associated with, and explained by, plateauing of both leg blood flow and O2 extraction and hence of leg VO2. We conclude that the asymptotic behavior of whole body VO2 at maximal WRs is a direct reflection of the VO2 profile at the exercising legs.
The use, non-use and misuse of indicators in sustainability assessment and communication

Sustainability assessments and indicators aim to produce and communicate information needed for evidence-based policymaking, strategic planning or learning. It has been assumed that in order to induce the desired effects, indicators must be relevant and reliable and they must be communicated to the right audience in the right way at the right moment. However, following the criteria for a good indicator does not guarantee that the indicator will be used, nor does it guarantee that the use will produce the desired effects. Various unintended side effects of indicator communication may emerge, particularly with sustainability issues characterised by various actors and multiple temporal, functional and spatial scales. We propose a comprehensive typology summarising different forms of sustainability indicator usage, namely use, non-use and misuse. This typology helps to identify potential positive or negative side effects of indicator usage. We discuss the implications of indicator-based communication, based on insights gathered in four research projects and a literature review. Attention given to potential unintended effects of indicator usage may be the key to increasing the effectiveness of sustainability communication.
Increasing Web Survey Response Rates in Innovation Research: An Experimental Study of Static and Dynamic Contact Design Features

Web surveys have become increasingly central to innovation research but often suffer from low response rates. Based on a cost–benefits framework and the explicit consideration of heterogeneity across respondents, we consider the effects of key contact design features such as personalization, incentives, and the exact timing of survey contacts on web survey response rates. We also consider the benefits of a “dynamic strategy”, i.e., the approach to change features of survey contacts over the survey life cycle. We explore these effects experimentally using a career survey sent to over 24,000 junior scientists and engineers. The results show that personalization increases the odds of responding by as much as 48%, while lottery incentives with a high payoff and a low chance of winning increase the odds of responding by 30%. Furthermore, changing the wording of reminders over the survey life cycle increases the odds of a response by over 30%, while changes in contact timing (day of the week or hour of the day) did not have significant benefits. Improvements in response rates did not come at the expense of lower data quality. Our results provide novel insights into web survey response behavior and suggest useful tools for innovation researchers seeking to increase survey participation.