Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Treatment Profile and 1-Year Mortality Among Nontraumatic Intensive Care Unit Patients With Alcohol-Related Health Problems

Background: Long-term excessive use of alcohol leads to severe complications, which often require treatment in an intensive care unit (ICU). The aim of this study was to report on the associations between alcohol-related health problems and treatment profile, as well as 1-year mortality among patients with nontrauma-related ICU admissions. Methods: Information on the history of alcohol-related health problems or excessive alcohol use and ICU treatment was collected retrospectively from electronic medical records and ICU patient data management systems at Oulu University Hospital, Finland. Information on 1-year mortality was obtained from the Finnish Population Register Center. Results: According to the medical records, in a total of 899 admissions, 32.9% (n = 296) of patients had a history of alcohol-related problems. In the alcohol group, intoxications were more frequent and respiratory and cardiovascular causes were less frequent, compared to those without alcohol-related problems. Patients without alcohol-related problems had a higher rate of previous comorbidities compared with the alcohol group. There were no differences concerning age, severity of illness scores, length of stay, or intensive care outcome. Mortality during the 1-year follow-up was 32.8% in total: 35.1% among those without alcohol-related history and 28.0% in the alcohol group (P = .041). The difference in mortality appeared during the first month following admission and remained throughout the follow-up period. The highest 1-year mortality (59.3%) was observed among patients with alcohol-related liver disease. Conclusion: Every third patient admitted to ICU used alcohol excessively or had alcohol-related diseases, and those patients with alcohol-related liver disease had the poorest 1-year survival rate. We found higher long-term mortality in nonalcohol-related admissions, which can be explained by the case mix, including a lower rate of chronic diseases, such as malignancies and coronary artery disease, and a higher rate of low-risk admission diagnoses in the alcohol group.
The association of hyperlipidemia with retinopathy in diabetic patients aged 15-50 years in the county of Umeå.

PURPOSE To study possible associations between serum lipid levels and degree of retinopathy in a population-based study on a specific age-group of patients with diabetes mellitus in the county of Umeå, Sweden. METHODS All patients with diabetes mellitus aged 15-50 years living in the county of Umeå were invited to the study. The participating subjects had a standard clinical examination and an eye examination performed. Seven-field stereoscopic photographs were taken of each eye, and the photos were sent to Grading Center, Hammersmith Hospital, London, U.K. for grading of the retinopathy. Blood samples were drawn for analysis of lipoprotein(a), high density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol, cholesterol and triglycerides. Univariate and multivariate statistical analyses were performed. RESULTS In the present study only patients with type 1 diabetes mellitus were included, and 285 of the invited 308 diabetic subjects (93%) took part. When univariate analysis was applied we found statistically significant associations between higher lipoprotein(a) levels, higher triglyceride levels, higher cholesterol levels, lower HDL cholesterol/total cholesterol ratios and increasing severeness of retinopathy. However, in the multivariate analysis triglyceride levels lost their importance while all other significant associations were still present. CONCLUSION Associations were found between higher levels of serum total cholesterol, declining ratios of high density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol/total cholesterol, higher levels of serum lipoprotein(a) and more severe retinopathy in diabetes mellitus type 1. No such association was found between serum triglycerides and degree of retinopathy.
An Integrated Model of Québec‐Ontario‐U.S. Northeast Softwood Lumber Markets

We analyze an interregional softwood lumber trade model for the three main species (spruce, pine, and fir [SPF]) which are indigenous to Quebec, Ontario, and the U.S. Northeast. Demand for SPF softwood lumber is price elastic in Ontario and the U.S. Northeast, but not in Quebec. It is inelastic with respect to residential construction. Supply price elasticities are less than one. Policy instruments such as exchange rate, export taxes, Canadian federal sales tax, and cost of logs change exports and imports but with minor effects on prices. Export (import) duties are more effective in redirecting trade than is a stumpage fee applied by the provinces. Copyright 1997, Oxford University Press.
Supralingual temperatures compared to tympanic and rectal temperatures.

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the validity, reliability, sensitivity, and specificity of the PaciTemp supralingual digital pacifier thermometer as compared to the Thermoscan Instant tympanic and glass-mercury rectal thermometers. METHOD Eighty-one children under the age of 2 years had temperatures taken sequentially at three body sites: supralingual, tympanic, and rectal. Corrections were calculated between the readings of the three types of thermometers. Percentage of agreement was done to examine sensitivity and specificity. RESULTS Using the glass-mercury measurement as the standard, both the supralingual and tympanic measurements showed an overall specificity of 62.8% and sensitivity of 63.3%. Correlation between rectal and supralingual was 0.62, and correlation between rectal and tympanic was 0.71. CONCLUSIONS The Paci-Temp provides temperature readings that are similar to the tympanic method as compared to the rectal method. Further research on at-home thermometers is needed.
How value is created, captured and destroyed

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to address value and the value‐creation process. It argues that the firm operating in line with investor interests, acts as both a customer and a supplier of value and considers the internal activities that reflect these motivations.Design/methodology/approach – A series of propositions are developed regarding the creation, capture and destruction of value.Findings – It is argued that two types of value‐creating activities can be identified. In addition there are activities directed at the maintenance of the firm, and the maintenance of its capital stock, and there are activities that destroy value. Value capture is determined by bargaining relationships between stakeholders and their representatives. The paper concludes with some comments regarding value appropriation.Originality/value – The paper addresses the critical issue of “value” in the resource‐based view (RBV) and specifically begins to develop the RBV away from its neo‐classical roots.
Children and parents' participation: socio-ecological perspectives on health promotion in schools

Schools are a key setting for health promotion. The development of Health Promoting Schools (HPS) draws on the settings-based approach to health promotion and includes child participation as one of its basic values. The psycho-social environment of the school is an important dimension for promoting the health and wellbeing of children but has rarely been directly investigated empirically. Parental participation is important for strengthening and sustaining the concept of school health promotion but little is written on the processes involved. This study explored the participation of children and their parents in school life and investigated the relevance of pupil participation for school environment and health and wellbeing of pupils. The study was conducted in two phases: a qualitative study was carried out in the first phase to document children (n=248) and parents? (n=39) views about participation in school life. Results from phase 1 indicated that the most common categories of what made pupils feel a part of their school were school uniforms, sports, friends, teachers and their school/classroom environment. Increase in the number of school activities, encouraging friendship and equal participation were key indicators of how pupils would ensure that everybody felt a part of the school. Parents also highlighted participation in school activities, feeling a part of school and encouraging parents to talk about how they feel as their most common categories on school participation. The findings from pupils and parents' conceptualisations of participation in school life, in the first phase, were used to develop pupil and parent questionnaires for the second phase (the quantitative study) thus linking the first phase to the second phase. A survey was carried out in the second phase to assess children (n=231) and parents' (n=218) current participation in Irish primary schools, and associations between school participation, school socio-ecological environment and health and wellbeing outcomes for pupils. Logistic regression analyses indicated positive associations between school participation and health and wellbeing outcomes, and school socio-ecological environment. Findings from the four journal articles that comprise this PhD research are discussed and references are made to the extant literature, general implications and recommendations for research, policy and practice, and implications of the findings for theory.
Multivariate analysis for prognostic significance of histologic subtype, GST‐pi, MDR‐1, and p53 in stages II‐IV ovarian cancer

It has been suggested that histologic subtype of ovarian cancer is a factor that determines the chemoresponsiveness of tumor. In this study, we wanted to clarify the prognostic significance of histologic subtype and its correlation to expression of chemoresistance-related proteins (CRPs) in ovarian cancer. A total of 93 stage II-IV ovarian cancers, where the proportion of serous, endometrioid, mucinous, and clear cell subtype was 61.3%, 14.0%, 7.5%, and 17.2%, respectively, were investigated for glutathione S-transferase-pi (GST-pi), MDR (multidrug resistance)-1, and p53 expression using immunohistochemistry. GST-pi expression was detected in 62.4% of the tumors and was not related to histologic subtype of tumor. MDR-1 expression was observed in 12.9% of the tumors tested and was more frequently detected in clear cell adenocarcinomas than other histologic subtypes of tumor (10/ 16 vs. 2 / 77, P < 0.001). P53 expression was found in 49.1% of serous, 53.8% of endometrioid, and 50% of mucinous adenocarcinomas. In contrast, none of 16 clear cell adenocarcinomas showed positive p53 staining. In univariate analysis, no direct correlations were found between CRPs and overall survival. Histology of mucinous/clear cell tumors (P = 0.0063), as well as FIGO stage III/IV (P = 0.0091) and residual tumor ≥ 2 cm (P = 0.0045), was found to have independent prognostic value in multivariate analysis. In conclusion, histologic subtype proved to be the significant independent prognostic factor in addition to FIGO stage and residual tumor in stage II-IV ovarian cancer. GST-pi, MDR-1, and p53 expression pattern is closely related to histologic subtype of ovarian cancer, although they are not significant predictors of survival.
Working Paper Alfred P. Sloan School of Management the Environmental Determinants of Foreign Direct Investment: an Ex Post Empirical Analysis

RECEIVED The development of international management as a distinct field is based upon an assumption that the problems of conducting simultaneous operations in a large number of varied environments are different in kind rather than degree from those encountered in a single society and/or polity. However, while the host country environment is generally acknowledged to be a crucial factor in the management of international operations, its treatment in the literature is uneven and far from cbherent. In particular, the extent to which the environment affects the foreign direct investment (FDI) decision has proven difficult to investigate empirically. FDI decisions tend to be discrete and sequential, are rarely independent of the firm's past activities or industry interactions, and are often taken in response to a specific exogenous stimulus. A systematic worldwide screening of Investment opportunities may well be the exception rather than the rule. As a consequence, it is often difficult if not impossible, to identify the separate effects of political, social, cultural, legal and economic variables on the investment decision. This research represents an attempt to circumvent the problem by examining the relationship between FDI and the investment environment on an ex post basis. The specific objective is to explain the variation of EDI in terms of economic, political, social and cultural variables. The methodology is quantitative and cross-national, examining statistical relationships between variables across a large number of national units. This allows utilization of both data and analytical techniques which provide for a more thorough and rigorous examination of the topic than has been possible in the past.
Is Support for Traditionally Designed Communities Growing? Evidence From Two National Surveys

Problem: Many voices within the planning community have called for replacement of the dominant model of suburban development with a more traditional style of development. Traditionally designed communities, featuring a mix of residential and commercial land uses and pedestrian connections between these uses, offer many potential environmental, social, and health benefits. Adoption of policies that encourage traditionally designed communities depends in part on public support, but evidence on the extent and nature of such support is largely anecdotal. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to assess trends in public support for traditionally designed communities and to provide insights into factors associated with that support. Methods: The study uses data from comparable surveys of nationally representative samples of American households in 2003 and 2005. The surveys described a traditionally designed community and asked respondents, “How much would you support the development of communities like this in your area? ” The survey also included questions on respondents' sociodemographic characteristics, attitudes on a variety of issues, expectations about the likelihood traditionally designed communities would have certain characteristics, and how important these characteristics were to them. Results and conclusions: In 2003, 44% of respondents expressed support for developing traditionally designed communities in the areas where they lived. This support increased significantly to 59% in 2005. Support was strong among all groups except rural residents, and increased among all groups between 2003 and 2005. This support was positively related to expectations that such communities would be child-friendly and negatively related to expectations that they would have space limitations. Respondents perceived such communities as likely to allow older people to live independently, and they also rated this characteristic as highly important. Takeaway for practice: Public support for developing traditionally designed communities is strong, widespread, and growing. Although such communities find less support in rural areas and raise concerns over limited space, they have appeal as child- and elderly-friendly places. Though there is evidence that supply of traditionally designed communities does not meet demand, this evidence of growing support may foster policy changes that will help to close the gap. Research support: This research was funded by the Active Living Research Program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
Trade openness, income levels, and economic growth: The case of developing countries, 1970–2009

This paper attempts to investigate the extent to which trade openness has had an impact on the levels of income and rates of growth in a sample of 115 developing countries for the period 1970–2009. Additionally, to assess whether there is an income level threshold for a country to benefit from international trade, the sample is broken down into three mutually exclusive groups of countries: low-income, lower middle-income, and upper middle-income countries. The main novelty of the paper lies on the use, on the one hand, of a new and better trade openness measure and, on the other hand, of non-stationary heterogeneous panel cointegration techniques to cope with the problem of cross-sectional dependence. The results show a positive bi-directional relationship between trade openness and income level in the long run, thus suggesting that trade openness is both a cause and a consequence of the level of income. The results for the short run, that is, the link between openness growth and economic growth, go in the same direction.
The Politics of Growth Revisited

The purpose of this article is to examine the impact of labor market institutions and partisan politics on macroeconomic performance in advanced industrial societies since the mid-1970s. I do this by reevaluating some of the main claims of an influential comparative political economy literature of growth in light of some recent lessons from conceptual and empirical work associated with new growth theory. I also update the earlier "left-labor" models in light of several competing institutional explanations for different macroeconomic performance in advanced democracies. My findings are mixed. The evidence does suggest that congruent labor and political regimes have higher rates of growth than incongruent regimes (i.e., strong, organized unions with mostly conservative government or weak unions with mostly social democratic government). This appears to be true even in recent years and even after accounting for both cross-national income convergence and variations in political institutions and in firm-level coordinating capacity. Moreover, there is evidence that as proponents of social democratic corporatism suggest, countries with dominant left (right) governments and encompassing (weak) labor movements deliver higher investment and employment than do mixed regimes. However, in contrast to earlier work, I find that the more market-oriented version of contemporary capitalism is associated with higher absolute per capita growth rates. This discrepancy in relative performance has increased considerably since the mid-1980s.
'Inspired by business': a case of mentoring among low socio-economic students

To boost enrolment and retention of students from low socio-economic backgrounds in higher education, existing research has proposed a number of ways to support their university experiences. One initiative highlighted in the literature is mentoring, which has been shown to enhance students’ skillsets, networks, and their self-esteem. This study examines the experiences of mentoring for low socio-economic status students accepted into a competitive widening participation programme, ‘Inspired by Business’, at the University of Sydney Business School. The purpose of the research was to evaluate the programme’s perceived benefits for both mentees and mentors. Through interviews conducted with students and mentors, the findings reveal that mentoring was highly beneficial for the students, where the informal networks that developed between the participants developed their social capital and enhanced their sense of belonging. However, we highlight that mentoring processes of matching and preparation are critical aspects of mentor satisfaction.
Serum leptin levels and lipid profiles in patients with allergic rhinitis and mild asthma.

BACKGROUND Despite improved understanding of the pathophysiology of allergic rhinitis and asthma, the effect of serum leptin level is still controversial. Only a few studies have been performed to investigate the serum leptin levels in allergic rhinitis and asthma, and contradictory results have been observed. OBJECTIVE We aimed to investigate the association between leptin, lipid profiles and allergic rhinitis and mild asthma, and to determine whether inhaled and/or intranasal steroids affect the leptin levels. PATIENTS AND METHODS We studied 43 patients with allergic rhinitis (10 of with mild asthma) (mean age 29.81, range 18-45 yr) and 32 volunteers as a control group (mean age 30.53, range 20-45 yr). RESULTS Serum leptin levels in patients were 8.49 +/- 10.76 microg/ml, and did not differ from volunteers 5.42 +/- 6.63 microg/ml. (p > 0.05). We found a direct link between increased body mass index (BMI) and serum leptin levels (p = 0.008). No association was seen between leptin and triglyceride, HDL-cholesterol, VLDL-cholesterol, eosinophil, total IgE (p > 0.05); except for total cholesterol and LDL-cholesterol (p < 0.05). Although, no correlation between allergic rhinitis and mild asthma and serum level of leptin was shown, these parameters and age correlations were stronger in female than in male (p = 0.39 for male and p = 0.011 for female), and also found direct link between increased BMI and sex and patients group (p = 0.008 for male and p = 0.0001 for female). We also determined that there was no effect of inhaled and/or intranasal steroids statistically on serum leptin levels. CONCLUSION Our data demonstrate that the serum levels of leptin and lipid profiles on allergic rhinitis and mild asthma were not different than those in controls.
A Pessimistic Attitude Towards the Future and Low Psychosocial Functioning Predict Psychiatric Diagnosis Among Treatment-Seeking Adolescents

Objective: The objective was to study factors associated with psychiatric diagnosis among adolescents (n = 164) seeking psychiatric care for mental symptoms. Method: Psychiatric diagnosis was confirmed by a structured diagnostic interview. Psychosocial functioning was assessed with the Global Assessment of Functioning Scale, and the Beck Depression Inventory and Offer Self-Image Questionnaire were also used. Background data were gathered. Results: A majority (76%) of the adolescents met DSM-III-R criteria for psychiatric diagnosis. The self-image was more negative and the Beck score was higher among these adolescents than the others. All who had attempted suicide had a psychiatric disorder. Those diagnosed as having a psychiatric disorder consumed alcohol in order to get drunk more often than others. Continual conflicts with parents and smoking were not associated with the existence of a psychiatric disorder. In logistic regression analysis, low psychosocial functioning (OR = 3.9) and an uncertain or pessimistic attitude towards the future (OR = 9.1) proved to be independent risk factors for psychiatric disorders. Conclusions: Health service staff should be aware of factors associated with psychiatric disorders in adolescents so that they can identify those at high risk.
Banks’ Capital, Regulation and the Financial Crisis

This paper investigates whether regulatory capital requirements play an important role in determining banks’ equity capital. We estimate equity capital regressions using panel data of a sample of 560 banks for 2004–2010. Our results suggest that regulatory capital requirements are not first order determinants of banks’ capital structure. We document differences on the effect of most factors on banks’ share of equity according to the type of bank and to the region of the bank. Finally, we show that the determinants of this share are sensitive to the recent international financial crisis and to a set of regulatory country factors.