Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
[Influence of the sex of the physician in the alerting reaction in blood pressure determination in the elderly. EPICARDIAN Working Group].

BACKGROUND Blood pressure measurements by a physician and to a lesser extent by a nurse often lead the patient to experience an alerting reaction associated with an increase in blood pressure. The main factor seems to be the interaction between the patient and the observer physicians, on average, record higher office blood pressure than nurses and non-physicians. There is no information about the influence of the physician's gender on alerting reaction. OBJECTIVE To asses the influence of gender's doctor on alerting reaction in the elderly. METHODOLOGY EPICARDIAN study is a cross-sectional survey of the civilian non-institutionalized elderly population in a health area, including an inhome interview (phase I, n = 1,200) and a clinical examination (phase II, a random sample n = 333). Three different blood pressure measurements were performed: conventional blood pressure was measured by trained nurses at the participant's home, and at the hospital by two physicians: a man (group A, n = 131, 46% men) and a women (group B, n = 152, 45% men). All subjects were informed by a nurse that they were going to be interviewed by a doctor. Twenty-four hour ambulatory blood pressure was recorded at 15 minute intervals, awake and sleep periods were defined based on daily activities. Alerting reaction was defined as the difference between means at home, office and awake period. RESULTS Office blood pressures were distinctively higher than the awake average (15 mmHg for systolic blood pressure and 7 mmHg for diastolic respectively) in 83% of subjects. Differences between clinical and awake average blood pressure were significantly higher in females than in males (17 +/- 16 and 12 +/- 16 respectively, p < 0.0001) and increased, in both sexes with increasing age (p = 0.001) and clinic blood pressure values (p < 0.001). There were no sex, age, body mass index, casual home blood pressure and awake blood pressure period differences between groups A and B. Group A, interviewed by a man, showed an average of 10 mmHg more than group B, interviewed by a woman, on office alerting reaction (22 +/- 18/11 +/- 11 mmHg versus 12 +/- 16/3.6 +/- 10 mmHg systolic blood pressure/diastolic blood pressure alerting reaction, respectively p < 0.001 in both cases). Differences were similar when analizying men and women independently. CONCLUSION Alerting reaction during blood pressure measurement in the elderly is higher when the observer is a male physician than when the physician is a female, independent of the patient's gender.
The Introduction of Mandatory Environmental Reporting Guidelines: Australian Evidence

: Disclosure ; Environment ; Regulation ; Reporting. Geoff rey R. Frost ( g.frost@econ.usyd.edu.au ) is an Associate Professor in the Discipline of Accounting at The University of Sydney. Copyright (c) 2007 The Authors Journal compilation (c) 2007 Accounting Foundation, The University of Sydney.
Historical varieties of space, scale and speculation in South Africa: the uneven and combined geographical development of financialised capitalism

The central problem of Varieties of Capitalism analysis is its failure to assess dynamics of capital accumulation associated with finance and uneven and combined development. This is an especially critical shortcoming in what is probably the capitalist world's most extreme example of these phenomena, dating back at least two centuries. In reviewing the stylised history of financialised South African capitalism, a great many insights are provided about the ebb and flow of capital across space, scale and speculative outlets. These insights should lead policy makers into a much different understanding of the costs/benefits of financial liberalisation in the contemporary world. Yet central to this article's thesis is that with financialised economic activity comes banker power, and hence it is unrealistic to assume the a neoliberal Treasury and Reserve Bank will make the changes required to lessen the adverse effects of South Africa's extreme uneven and combined development.
Timeliness of Annual Report Releases and Market Reaction to Earnings Announcements in an Emerging Capital Market: The Case of China

This paper examines the relation between firm performance and the timing of annual report releases in an emerging capital market. Based on the population of listed Chinese firms with A-shares for 1994-1997, we find that good news firms release their annual reports earlier than bad news firms, and loss firms release their annual reports the latest. Moreover, consistent with Chambers and Penman (1984) and Begley and Fischer (1998), these firms unexpectedly accelerate the release of good news and delay the disclosure of bad news relative to their previous reporting pattern. We also observe a significant price reaction to the annual earnings announcements for both early (good news) and late (bad news) reporting firms. Similar results are found for those A-share firms which have also issued B- or H-shares to foreign investors. Our study documents a systematic timing pattern of annual report disclosures, which is useful for investors to predict future earnings, especially in anticipating bad news in China's emerging market where information about future earnings is very limited.
Cytochromes P450

There are 244 cytochrome P450 genes (and 28 pseudogenes) in the Arabidopsis genome. P450s thus form one of the largest gene families in plants. Contrary to what was initially thought, this family diversification results in very limited functional redundancy and seems to mirror the complexity of plant metabolism. P450s sometimes share less than 20% identity and catalyze extremely diverse reactions leading to the precursors of structural macromolecules such as lignin, cutin, suberin and sporopollenin, or are involved in biosynthesis or catabolism of all hormone and signaling molecules, of pigments, odorants, flavors, antioxidants, allelochemicals and defense compounds, and in the metabolism of xenobiotics. The mechanisms of gene duplication and diversification are getting better understood and together with co-expression data provide leads to functional characterization.
How Well Does the Beige Book Reflect Economic Activity? Evaluating Qualitative Information Quantitatively

Eight times a year, approximately two weeks before every FOMC meeting, the Federal Reserve releases a description of economic conditions in the twelve Federal Reserve districts. Called the Beige Book, this description relies primarily on surveys and anecdotal evidence gathered by the twelve district banks. For this paper, we read and numerically scored past Beige Books in order to determine the extent to which the descriptions in these books accurately reflect current economic activity as measured by quarterly real GDP growth. We find that both in-sample and out-of-sample, the quantitative Beige Book indices do have significant predictive content for current and next quarter real GDP growth. Furthermore, the Beige Book has information about current quarter real GDP growth not present in other indicators such as the Blue Chip Consensus Forecast or time series models that use real-time data.
The Private Export Credit Insurance Effect on Trade

type="main" xml:lang="en"> International trade relies on trade finance (credit or insurance) by financial institutions. Evidence on the link between trade finance and trade is scarce, however, because trade finance data are hard to come by. This article uses a unique bilateral data set on worldwide exports insured by a world's leading private trade credit insurer in the period from 1992 to 2006. Applying various trade models, I consistently find a positive and statistically significant effect of private export credit insurance on exports. The results suggest that the private export credit insurance effect on trade is larger than the value of exports insured.
Pharmacokinetics and tissue distribution of minocycline hydrochloride in horses.

OBJECTIVE To determine the pharmacokinetics and tissue distribution of minocycline in horses. ANIMALS 5 healthy Thoroughbred mares for the pharmacokinetic experiment and 6 healthy Thoroughbred mares for the tissue distribution experiment. PROCEDURES Each mare was given 2.2 mg of minocycline hydrochloride/kg, IV. Blood samples were collected once before minocycline administration (0 hours) and 10 times within 48 hours after administration in the pharmacokinetics study, and 24 tissue samples were obtained at 0.5 and 3 hours in the distribution study. RESULTS No adverse effects were observed in any of the mares after minocycline administration. The mean+/-SD elimination half-life was 7.70+/-1.91 hours. The total body clearance was 0.16+/-0.04 L/h/kg, and the volume of distribution at steady state was 1.53+/-0.09 L/kg. The percentage of plasma protein binding was 68.1+/-2.6%. Plasma concentration of free minocycline was 0.12 microg/mL at 12 hours. Minocycline was not detected in brain tissue, CSF or aqueous humor at 0.5 hours; however, it was found in all tissues, except in the aqueous humor, at 3 hours. CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE Clearance of minocycline in healthy mares was greater than that reported for humans. For effective treatment of infections with common equine pathogens, it will be necessary to administer minocycline at a dosage of 2.2 mg/kg, IV, every 12 hours. This drug could be useful for infections in many tissues, including the CNS. The pharmacokinetic and tissue distribution data should aid in the appropriate use of minocycline in horses.
International human mission to Mars: Analyzing a conceptual launch and assembly campaign

In July of 2013, U.S. Congressman Kennedy (D-Mass.) successfully offered an amendment to H.R. 2687, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration Authorization Act of 2013. “International Participation-The President should invite the United States partners in the International Space Station program and other nations, as appropriate, to participate in an international initiative under the leadership of the United States to achieve the goal of successfully conducting a crewed mission to the surface of Mars. ” This paper presents a concept for an international campaign to launch and assemble a crewed Mars Transfer Vehicle. NASA's “Human Exploration of Mars: Design Reference Architecture 5.0” (DRA 5.0) was used as the point of departure for this concept. DRA 5.0 assumed that the launch and assembly campaign would be conducted using NASA launch vehicles. The concept presented utilizes a mixed fleet of NASA Space Launch System (SLS), U.S. commercial and international launch vehicles to accomplish the launch and assembly campaign. This concept has the benefit of potentially reducing the campaign duration. However, the additional complexity of the campaign must also be considered. The reliability of the launch and assembly campaign utilizing SLS launches augmented with commercial and international launch vehicles is analyzed and compared using discrete event simulation.
Concise Review: Developing Best‐Practice Models for the Therapeutic Use of Extracellular Vesicles

Growing interest in extracellular vesicles (EVs, including exosomes and microvesicles) as therapeutic entities, particularly in stem cell‐related approaches, has underlined the need for standardization and coordination of development efforts. Members of the International Society for Extracellular Vesicles and the Society for Clinical Research and Translation of Extracellular Vesicles Singapore convened a Workshop on this topic to discuss the opportunities and challenges associated with development of EV‐based therapeutics at the preclinical and clinical levels. This review outlines topic‐specific action items that, if addressed, will enhance the development of best‐practice models for EV therapies. Stem Cells Translational Medicine 2017;6:1730–1739
Is the Community College a Less Expensive Path Toward a Bachelor’s Degree?: Public 2- and 4-year Colleges’ Impact on Loan Debt

Policy makers and state representatives have claimed that, compared to the traditional path to a four-year degree, a course of study that begins in the 2-year sector provides a more affordable option. If this is true, then all else equal, 2-year students who obtained a 4-year degree would be expected to have acquired less student loan debt. To test these claims, this study examines the effect of initial enrollment in public 2- and 4-year institutions on education loan debt conditional upon bachelor’s degree completion. Two quasiexperimental techniques (Propensity Score Matching and Heckman Control Function) applied to official longitudinal loan data consistently revealed that similar 2- and 4-year students who obtained a bachelor’s degree had similar levels of debt and repayment. Among non-degree-completers, initial 4-year entrants had higher loan debt than 2-year students. These findings suggest that the 2-year path culminating in a 4-year degree is not less expensive in terms of loan debt. As such, initiatives that lead traditional 4-year students to the “cheaper” 2-year sector may crowd-out students who truly need to begin in these schools. In light of these results, studies analyzing the impact of the private and for-profit sectors should be conducted following the approach presented in this study.
Information Technology, Work Patterns and Intra-metropolitan Location: A Case Study

Continued advances in information and communications technology are fundamentally changing the structure of the workplace and the organisation of work. Temporary work and self-employment are increasing, while job tenure is declining. This paper examines how these changes may affect both commuting patterns and metropolitan form. The growing number of workers who do not have a long-term attachment to a specific employer are termed 'contingent workers'. Using 1990 Public Use Micro Sample data for the Los Angeles region, the paper compares the commuting and location patterns of contingent and non-contingent workers. Results are quite mixed: residential location patterns do not differ significantly across worker categories, but commute length varies by category, with the self-employed having the shortest commutes.
Is There a “Torpedo Effect” in Earnings Announcement Returns? The Role of Short-Sales Constraints and Investor Disagreement

We predict and find that short-selling constraints combined with investor disagreement cause prices to respond more strongly to bad earnings news than to good earnings news, an asymmetry characterized by Skinner and Sloan as the “torpedo effect. ” However, in the absence of short-sales constraints, the price reaction to good and bad news is entirely symmetric, regardless of the level of investor disagreement. Our findings contribute to the ongoing debate about the existence and causes of the torpedo effect. In particular, we extend Skinner and Sloan’s explanation of this effect by showing that short-selling constraints are essential for such an effect to occur; in their absence, there is no torpedo effect, even if investors are overoptimistic. Moreover, this asymmetric effect is not intrinsic to growth stocks; even value stocks are torpedoed in the presence of short-selling constraints and disagreement.
Stealth Democracy: Americans' Beliefs About How Government Should Work

Part I. The Benefits of Studying the Processes People Want: 1. Policy space and American politics 2. Process space: an introduction 3. Using process space to explain features of American politics Part II. The Processes People Want: 4. Attitudes toward specific processes 5. Public assessments of people and politicians 6. Americans' desire for stealth democracy Part III. Should People Be Given the Processes They Want? : 7. Popular deliberation and group involvement in theory 8. The realities of popular deliberation and group involvement 9. Improving government and people's attitudes toward it.
Emerging competency methods for the future

Competency-based applications have gained a foothold in HR practice worldwide; however, changes in the business environment and the structure of work itself are challenging the value of traditional competency methods in achieving strategic organizational benefits. The key question facing HR executives and practitioners today is how to leverage existing competency practices to greatly increase the impact of competency development on business results. The authors identify five emerging trends in the evolution of competency methods, identify the implications for HR practice, and propose several new directions for the application of competency methods to improve organizational learning and business performance. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Interpretation of negative sample selection effects in wage offer equations

The finding of negative sample selection effects in estimated wage offer equations is often viewed as being 'problematic', resulting from misspecification of the wage and selection processes. This note shows that negative sample selection effects are plausible in the context of Heckman's reservation wage model of labour supply. Therefore, such findings need not necessarily be cause for concern.
Genetic testing offered directly after the diagnosis of colorectal cancer: a pilot study on the reactions of patients.

UNLABELLED Genetic testing offered directly after the diagnosis of colorectal cancer: a pilot study on the reactions of patients: INTRODUCTION When colorectal cancer is diagnosed before the age of 50 years, then consideration should be given to a hereditary cause. Indications of heredity can be found in tumour tissue with the aid of microsatellite instability (MSI) testing. A positive MSI test means an increased risk of hereditary colorectal cancer, the so-called Lynch syndrome. Until recently, the usual approach was to postpone genetic testing for colorectal cancer until the family history had been studied extensively and information had been made available by a clinical geneticist about the possible consequences. However, it is now possible for MSI testing to be performed on the initiative of the pathologist when the newly diagnosed patient with colorectal cancer is younger than 50 years. This speeds up the procedure considerably. The psychological effects of discussing genetic testing and referring patients during treatment for colorectal cancer are currently unknown. This paper describes an exploratory study on the experience of eight colorectal cancer patients with the new Lynch syndrome detection strategy. METHODS The patients were interviewed at home using a semistructured questionnaire based on the multicausal model of problem analysis and adapted with items for colorectal cancer and genetic testing. RESULTS Three coordinating themes were found: (1) 'a changed life after the diagnosis of colorectal cancer', (2) 'warning for the future' and (3) 'communication with family'. It was a considerable challenge for these patients to cope with the physical and psychosocial consequences of colorectal cancer. The majority regarded possible carriership of a hereditary disposition for the Lynch syndrome as useful medico-preventive knowledge for their children. The timing of the confrontation with genetic testing was considered to save time in receiving follow-up advice for their children. However, these patients were apprehensive about having to discuss a hereditary disposition for cancer with their family. CONCLUSION In this early phase, coping with the diagnosis of colorectal cancer and the consequences of treatment mainly determined the reactions of these patients and their physical well-being. This small group of patients was of the opinion that the advantages of genetic testing will weigh-up against the disadvantages.
Budget Rules and Fiscal Policy: Ten Lessons from Theory and Evidence

Abstract There has been considerable research and discussion over the years about the potential role of fiscal rules in supporting better economic outcomes; the design, implementation and enforcement, of such rules; and the prospects for alternative fiscal and political institutions to promote the objectives to which fiscal rules are typically targeted. This paper provides an overview of some of the findings that this research and unfolding events have brought forward, organized in the form of ten lessons that can be learned from accumulating theory and evidence.
A SCALE OF CONSUMER ENGAGEMENT

ABSTRACT The practitioner literature is replete with examples of firm efforts to engage consumers. However, the existing relationship marketing constructs focus primarily on customer retention. This research examines those offerings or activities of firms that aim to engage prospects, potentials, customers and their extended relationships, together addressed as consumers in this research. Contributing to the recent efforts to expand the domain of relationship marketing, this research develops the construct of Consumer Engagement, which is the intensity of the consumer’s participation and connection with the organization’s offerings and/ or its organized activities. Using several qualitative methods, this research develops the construct of Consumer Engagement, differentiating it from existing constructs, such as involvement and customer communities. The qualitative studies in this research show that consumers may be engaged with offerings (e.g. iPod), activities (e.g. Beauty workshops), institutions (Ikea), or brands (e.g. Apple). These offerings/ activities might come from profit-making or non-profit organizations. Engagement might be in the presence or absence of other consumers, and might happen online or offline. Consumers may also be engaged through activities organized by the businesses or by consumers themselves. Using established quantitative scale development procedures, the consumer engagement scale is developed, refined and validated. Consumer Engagement is a three-dimensional, second-order construct, composed of enthusiasm, conscious participation and social interaction.
The Public Salience of Foreign and Security Policy in Britain, Germany and France

The salience of foreign affairs to general publics is an important but often neglected parameter for the role of public opinion in foreign and security policy. This article explores the determinants of foreign affairs' public salience and probes into the respective patterns in Germany, Britain and France. Building on the theory of news values, the article proposes to distinguish between issue-specific and country-specific influences on the public salience of foreign and security policy. The data suggest that broad international crises on the scale of 9/11 or the Iraq war go along with distinct cross-national peaks in the salience of foreign affairs to general publics. At the same time, the effects of constant issue logics are refracted by country-specific factors: most notably, the latter account for the much higher overall salience of foreign affairs to the British public than to the German and French publics since late 2002.
The relevance of owner-manager signals and risk proxies to the pricing of bank loans

This exploratory study, using a sample of 115 new bank loans to small owner-managed firms, demonstrates that a simple categorical pricing model can explain a substantial part of the variation in interest rate premia. It appears that loan term and size interact (in a categorical schema) in their association with interest rate premia. It is suggested that this is more likely a product of co-determination rather than causation. There appear to be significant categorical pricing effects attributable to human capital, industry, and collateral effects. The role of collateral remains ambiguous, although it appears that source matters as much as form. Although further testing of the model is warranted, the results generally indicate that a simple categorical model may be an appropriate representation of loan pricing for small firms and that this can be used to test the value to borrowers of investing in quality signals and information cues.