Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Adolescent smoking in Wales : The role of school smoking policies and the wider school environment

Acknowledging adolescent smoking as a current public health priority both in Wales and elsewhere, this thesis investigated the potential role of school smoking policies in moderating adolescent smoking behaviour. The study builds on a literature which suggests that certain characteristics of school smoking policies may be associated with lower adolescent smoking prevalence in schools, but which call for further research into policy contexts. Particularly, this builds on the work of Moore et al (2001) whose Wales-based study recommended the further investigation of policy contexts, particularly referring to policy content and enforcement. This study adopted a mixed-method approach in order to collect more rigorous data on school smoking policies than in many other studies to date. A teacher survey concerning school smoking policies was conducted in schools taking part in the 2001/2 Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) study in Wales. Analysis of these data was used to inform interviews conducted with a local 'expert' on smoking policy in the same schools. Interview data were used to investigate key characteristics of smoking policies in schools. Indicator variables were then devised to discriminate between schools on the basis of these characteristics. These were analysed in association with pupil smoking prevalence data collected by HBSC. The multi- level analysis contradicted much of the existing smoking policy literature, discovering no significant association between any policy-level characteristics and pupil smoking. The study concludes that, by using more in- depth data than many other investigations, it has potentially highlighted that the effectiveness of smoking policies in moderating adolescent smoking may be over-stated in the literature or may have changed in recent years. Interview data revealed between-school variation in the prioritisation of smoking policy and the resulting extent to which policy and its enforcement promoted consistent no-smoking messages and suggested potential areas for future investigation and intervention
PERSONALITY CHANGES AND SOCIAL ADJUSTMENT DURING THE FIRST THREE YEARS OF DIABETES IN CHILDREN

ABSTRACT. Ahnsjö, S. , Humble, K. , Larsson, Y. , Settergren‐Carlsson, G. (†) and Sterky, G. (Departments of Paediatrics and Child and Youth Psychiatry, the Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, the Department of Paediatrics, University Hospital, Linköpin, and the Department of Psychology, University of Stockholm, Sweden). Personality changes and social adjustment during the first three years of diabetes in children. Acta Paediatr Scand, 70:321, 1981. –Two groups of 64 diabetic and 30 carefully selected and matched non‐diabetic control children 4–17 years old were studied with regard to psychological and social adaptation. Four sets of psycho‐social methods were used: (a) psychiatric assessment of the mental state, (b) evaluation of the social situation, (c) measurement of the intellectual capacity, and (d) a Rorschach test. A base‐line study was done within 5 months after the onset of diabetes and a follow‐up 3 years later with the same methods. The mental state was assessed with regard to 18 variables, and the Rorschach test utilized 12 variables. There were no significance differences as to mental state between diabetics and non‐diabetics neither at base‐line nor at follow‐up. Within each group, however, the diabetics showed an increase with regard to symptoms of aggression while the non‐diabetics showed a decrease in such symptoms. Diabetics with high or low glucosuria levels did not differ in this respect. When summarizing mental deviations from average in the two groups the diabetics showed more deviations both at base‐line and at follow‐up, and a tendency towards higher degrees of mental activity, emotional ability and social contact. In the Rorschach test the diabetics showed a higher level of anxiety concerning their own health than the non‐diabetics, but there was a decrease in this variable over the 3‐year period. However, in an attempt to summarize the degree of mental disturbance, as estimated in the Rorschach test, no significant differences were found between diabetics and non‐diabetics. Nor were any significant differences found between the groups with regard to social problems or intellectual capacity. It is concluded that the few abnormal patterns of raction that were observed may well be explained by the traumatic experience of the onset of a serious chronic disorder such as diabetes, and that a relatively strict care given to diabetic children does not seem to disturb their own or their parents' coping ability or psycho‐social adjustment. The strictness might even have a supportive effect.
Productivity and Spillover effect of merger and acquisitions in Malaysia

Purpose - – This paper aims to examine the productivity and spillover effect of Malaysian horizontal merger and acquisition (M&A) activities in the long run. Design/methodology/approach - – In terms of analytical tools, economic value added (EVA) and data envelopment analysis (DEA) are used. Findings - – The results of this study reveal that M&As in the absence of antitrust laws could be driven by managerial self-interest to create market power instead of realizing synergistic gains. Also, in Malaysia, the non-merging rival firms have significantly higher productivity improvement than the control bidder firms, and therefore, this study has identified the spillover effect as a behavior of M&A reaction. Originality/value - – This paper differs from previous studies in that it attempts not only to examine the real long-term gains of horizontal M&A activities in Malaysia but also the spillover effects of M&A activities on similar but non-merging firms.
Financial literacy and education: An environmental scan

The article provides an environmental scan of financial literacy activities and information resources. The complex intermingling of economic policies with perceived need for improved financial literacy are touched on. Organizations providing financial literacy and education are identified with their corresponding agendas and available information resources. Reviews of effectiveness of sample financial education programs for adults and K-12 are described. The community is seen as the locus for increasing the availability of financial education for both adults and children, and gaps in best practices are identified.
Peritoneal seeding in intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasm of the pancreas patients who underwent endoscopic ultrasound-guided fine-needle aspiration: The PIPE Study

Background and study aims: There have been concerns about peritoneal seeding after endoscopic ultrasound-guided fine-needle aspiration (EUS-FNA) of mucinous pancreatic cystic lesions. The aims of this study were to determine the frequency of postoperative peritoneal seeding in patients with intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasm (IPMN) who had undergone pre-operative EUS-FNA and to compare it with that of patients with IPMN who had surgery with no pre-operative tissue sampling. Patients and methods: A total of 175 patients who had undergone resection of IPMNs with pre-operative EUS-FNA (EUS-FNA group) were analyzed and compared with 68 patients who had undergone resection with no pre-operative tissue sampling (No Sampling group). Patient characteristics, pathology, and frequency of peritoneal seeding after surgery were analyzed and compared. Peritoneal seeding was diagnosed based on pathology or image findings. Results: The two groups were comparable with respect to sex, age, follow-up duration, involvement of the pancreatic head, involvement of the main duct, grade of dysplasia, and size of histologically proven branch-duct IPMNs. Four patients (2.3 %) with invasive IPMN developed peritoneal seeding in the EUS-FNA group, whereas three (4.4 %, two with invasive IPMN and one with high-grade dysplasia) developed peritoneal seeding in the No Sampling group (P = 0.403). No peritoneal seeding was noted during surgery in these cases. Except for one patient in the EUS-FNA group, no spillage occurred during resection in these patients. Conclusions: In this cohort of patients undergoing resection of IPMN, the difference in the frequency of peritoneal seeding in the EUS-FNA group and the No Sampling group was not significant.
Disorganized attachment in infancy: a review of the phenomenon and its implications for clinicians and policy-makers

ABSTRACT Disorganized/Disoriented (D) attachment has seen widespread interest from policy makers, practitioners, and clinicians in recent years. However, some of this interest seems to have been based on some false assumptions that (1) attachment measures can be used as definitive assessments of the individual in forensic/child protection settings and that disorganized attachment (2) reliably indicates child maltreatment, (3) is a strong predictor of pathology, and (4) represents a fixed or static “trait” of the child, impervious to development or help. This paper summarizes the evidence showing that these four assumptions are false and misleading. The paper reviews what is known about disorganized infant attachment and clarifies the implications of the classification for clinical and welfare practice with children. In particular, the difference between disorganized attachment and attachment disorder is examined, and a strong case is made for the value of attachment theory for supportive work with families and for the development and evaluation of evidence-based caregiving interventions.
Premium Private Labels, Supply Contracts, Market Segmentation, and Spot Prices

In recent years, European retailers have modified the market segmentation in the meat and the fresh produce sectors by implementing new private labels which aim to guarantee higher quality and food safety. As a result, retailers impose more demanding production requirements and rely on contractual relationships with upstream producers. Meat and vegetables shelve spaces are now composed of generic products supplied from competitive spot markets, and premium private labels based on long term supply contracts. In this paper we propose a model of vertical relationships between producers and retailers in order to analyze the consequences of such strategies. In particular, we analyze the interest of producers to commit to these new private labels, their effects on spot market prices, and the resulting market segmentation between the spot market and supply contracts.
Remittances, Monetary Policy, and Partial Sterilization

Remittances play a large and important role in certain economies, where they became a significant share of GDP. Official government records of these flows have been systematically improved since governments realized their importance, but a significant percentage of remittances remain unrecorded. This, together with the shadow economy, may pose a problem for monetary policy. This article uses a limited participation model to examine the differential effect that higher shares of remittances can have on monetary policy and describes the impact of remittances on a small open economy under partial sterilization. It demonstrates how a typical monetary shock will lead to a more pronounced liquidity effect when remittances become a higher proportion of GDP. It also shows that a positive remittance shock improves consumption and lowers interest rates, but as it also reduces work effort it momentarily lowers output. Such dynamics are exacerbated as the degree of partial sterilization is accentuated.
Adherence to antiretroviral therapy in rural persons living with HIV disease in the United States

The current study delineated patterns and predictors of adherence to antiretroviral therapy in 329 persons living with HIV disease in rural areas of 12 US states. Participants provided self-report data on patterns of HIV medication adherence, reasons for missing medication doses, psychological symptomatology, life-stressor burden, social support, ways of coping, coping self-efficacy, the quality of their relationship with their main physician, and barriers to health care and social services. Based on adherence data collected via retrospective, self-report assessment instruments, only 50% of participants adhered consistently to antiretroviral therapy regimens in the past week. Consistent adherence was more common in White participants, persons who had progressed to AIDS, and ‘native infections’ (i.e. persons who were born, raised, and infected in their current place of residence). Logistic regression analyses indicated that consistent adherence was reported by persons who drank less alcohol, had a good relationship with their main physician, and engaged in more active coping in response to HIV-related life stressors. As the number of rural persons living with HIV disease continues to increase, research that identifies correlates of non-adherence and conceptualizes approaches to optimize adherence in this group is urgently needed.
Equal Opportunity, Unequal Results

This study examined the underlying factors that influence household recycling intensity when program conditions (curbside collection) are standardized. A mail-back survey was used to obtain information on public solid waste diversion behaviors, motivations, policy perceptions, and environmental attitudes of 673 households in four communities within the Greater Toronto Area (GTA). Analysis revealed several salient factors that distinguish active recyclers from those with lower levels of material recovery, including individual motivations for recycling, attitudes toward the solid waste problem and strategies to address it, the range of other waste diversion actions adopted, and certain environmental attitudes. The findings suggest potential social marketing and program changes to stimulate household recycling, improvement integral for progress toward promulgated provincial and state solid waste diversion goals.
Risk Shifts Following Sarbanes-Oxley: Influences of Disclosure and Governance

The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX) aimed to improve financial reporting by enhancing corporate disclosure and governance. We find statistically significant increases, from before to after the passage of SOX, in total return variance, market risk and idiosyncratic risk. The risk increases are consistent with predictions that the legislation would cause firms to disclose more negative information, resulting in increased investment risk. However, in cross-sectional tests, post-SOX improvements in information certainty, board independence and monitoring are associated with smaller increases or greater decreases in risk. If SOX is responsible for these improvements, its effects are consistent with its purpose.
Long-Term Labour Productivity and GDP Projections for the EU25 Member States: A Production Function Framework

This paper presents the results of long run labour productivity and GDP growth rate projections (until 2050) for each of the 25 EU Member States and provides a detailed overview of the forecast methodology used. These projections were undertaken in order to provide an internationally comparable macroeconomic framework against which to assess the potential economic and fiscal effects of ageing populations. The projections presented in this paper, using a common production function methodology for all 25 countries, show the GDP growth rate effects of an assumptions-driven extrapolation of recent trends in employment and labour productivity. These base case projections reflect the working assumption of “no policy change”. Various sensitivity tests are carried out to check the GDP per capita impact of some factors which have been excluded from the baseline scenario for reasons of simplicity or because of a lack of consensus in the academic literature. Some of the interesting conclusions that emerge from these sensitivity tests include : • Firstly, the GDP per capita impact of changes in the participation rate assumption used in the projections is much greater than for assumed changes in the share of part-time employment (i.e. in average hours worked per worker). • Secondly, the negative effect of a change in the age-structure of the population is fairly limited, although it is accepted that the labour productivity of an individual is likely to decline after the age of 55. A very strong fall in the productivity of older workers compared with that of prime-age workers would be required to significantly depress total labour productivity. Such an outcome, on the basis of current evidence, appears rather unlikely. • Thirdly, changing the TFP growth rate targets (e.g. use of the 1990’s average instead of the long-term 1970-2004 average) could strongly affect the projections. • Finally, an assumption of productivity convergence in levels substantially alters the projections for most EU10 countries but leaves the EU15 almost unchanged. JEL classific
Identification of a KCNQ1 Polymorphism Acting as a Protective Modifier Against Arrhythmic Risk in Long-QT Syndrome

Background—Long-QT syndrome (LQTS) is characterized by such striking clinical heterogeneity that, even among family members carrying the same mutation, clinical outcome can range between sudden death and no symptoms. We investigated the role of genetic variants as modifiers of risk for cardiac events in patients with LQTS. Methods and Results—In a matched case–control study including 112 patient duos with LQTS from France, Italy, and Japan, 25 polymorphisms were genotyped based on either their association with QTc duration in healthy populations or on their role in adrenergic responses. The duos were composed of 2 relatives harboring the same heterozygous KCNQ1 or KCNH2 mutation: 1 with cardiac events and 1 asymptomatic and untreated. The findings were then validated in 2 independent founder populations totaling 174 symptomatic and 162 asymptomatic patients with LQTS, and a meta-analysis was performed. The KCNQ1 rs2074238 T-allele was significantly associated with a decreased risk of symptoms 0.34 (0.19–0.61; P<0.0002) and with shorter QTc (P<0.0001) in the combined discovery and replication cohorts. Conclusions—We provide evidence that the KCNQ1 rs2074238 polymorphism is an independent risk modifier with the minor T-allele conferring protection against cardiac events in patients with LQTS. This finding is a step toward a novel approach for risk stratification in patients with LQTS.
Curbing Foreign Distributor Opportunism: An Examination of Trust, Contracts, and the Legal Environment in International Channel Relationships

Many tenets of cross-border governance arrangements are broad-brush projections of domestic findings. To explore such generalizations, this study uses data from a large set of U.S.-based manufacturers to formulate and test propositions about limiting the potential opportunistic behavior of foreign distributors. The findings challenge two generalizations about governance arrangements in the cross-border context. The first is that a manufacturer is often handicapped disproportionately by its level of brand and scale prominence. Formal contracts as prescribed by transaction cost analysis, though negatively related to opportunism, do not have a significant effect on the alleviation of foreign distributor opportunism. The second generalization is that the joint use of trust and formal contracts is not significantly associated with opportunism. Trust and formal contracts serve different purposes. Trust makes the relationship function, and contracts institute and legitimize it. Furthermore, previous studies investigate opportunism in isolation, whereas this study points to the influence of legal hostility on the management of opportunism in the export market.
Changes in Approach to Customer Loyalty

The article discusses an overview of customer loyalty theoretical framework. It presents both, the classic approach to the subject of loyalty as well as the results of its ongoing evolution. This allowed the identification of factors affecting customer loyalty and a statement that the concept of loyalty can be seen in varying degrees, in terms of criteria other than behavioral. Finding of not enough empirical research on customer loyalty in the long types of market and specific customer groups indicates a cognitive gap. Verification of the classic determinants of customer loyalty authorized to conclude that the profitability of the customer portfolio sets new definition of loyalty, which is related to the concepts of marketing value and value based management. This is supported by associations of loyalty to the management parameters.
Overlay Portfolio Management in a Multi-Manager Account

New portfolio structures are changing the rules of the investment game. Multi-Manager Separate Accounts combine the separate skills of a number of managers in a single account, providing benefits to the investor, the plan sponsor, and the manager. An effective multi-manager account requires what the investment industry is beginning to refer to as Overlay Portfolio Management. We describe the role of the overlay portfolio manager and simulate the value he may add through tax management. We show that an overlay manager is often able to add 0.30% to 0.60% or more each year in net after-tax return. The value we identify creates a compelling proposition for the separate account product industry, especially since significant additional non-quantified benefits also accrue.
A continuous improvement process at Severn Trent Water

The paper presents the development of a continuous improvement process for the customer relations department at Severn Trent Water in the UK. In‐company research was carried out to identify the main barriers to continuous improvement in the areas of leadership, training, communication, motivation, teamwork, and change management. The study concluded that the company should develop an organisational culture and management style to support continuous improvement of daily working processes, and that change should be managed against the achievement of appropriate quality targets. A continuous improvement process was developed based on a structured problem‐solving model incorporating the application of established quality tools, to be applied by problem solving teams from the customer relations department. It was recommended that the team members should be trained in the problem solving process, and the related quality tools and techniques. Also, management should lead and support this approach by concentrating on team (rather than individual) performance achievement.