Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Criteria for medical intervention in obese children: A new definition of ‘Obesity disease’ in Japanese children

The Committee of the Japan Society for the Study of Obesity reported the new criteria for ‘obesity disease’ for Japanese adults in 2000. We defined the criteria for the diagnosis of obesity in children with medical problems, corresponding to the ‘obesity disease’ criteria in adults. Obesity in childhood was defined as follows: percentage of overweight (POW) and body fat exceeded the criteria. ‘Obesity disease in childhood’ was defined as obesity associated with health or medical problems, and with indications for medical intervention. Medical problems with indications for immediate intervention were grouped as A problems, which consisted of (i) hypertension; (ii) sleep apnea or hypoventilation; (iii) Type 2 diabetes mellitus or impaired glucose tolerance; and (iv) increased waist circumference or accumulation of visceral adipose tissue. Metabolic derangements or equivalent associated with obesity were grouped as B problems: (i) liver dysfunction; (ii) hyperinsulinemia; (iii) hypercholesterolemia; (iv) hypertriglyceridemia; (v) low serum high‐density lipoprotein cholesterol; (vi) acanthosis nigricans, and (vii) hyperuricemia. Obese children over 5 years of age with following conditions were diagnosed as ‘obesity disease in childhood’: (i) any ‘A problem’, (ii) POW ≥ 50% and any ‘B problem’, or (3) POW < 50% and more than one ‘B problem’ or equivalent. We decided to take physicosocial problems related to obesity into consideration as the criteria. The resultant criteria are proposed by the Committee for Research of Appropriate Body Build in Children * .
Why and how (still) study the Open Method of Co-ordination (OMC)?

The European Employment Strategy (EES) and Open Method of Co-ordination (OMC) in social policy (social inclusion, pensions, healthcare and care for the elderly) were developed to support welfare reform through multi-lateral exchange among Member State bureaucrats and stakeholders, facilitated by the EU level. These social OMCs1 were seen as a promising alternative – or step towards legislation – in areas where Community competences were weak, but where policy challenges were comparable in the wake of the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) that constrains manoeuvre in fiscal policy. For each area where the OMC is applied, the policy cycle is iterative, though its frequency varies. First, policy objectives (in some cases accompanied by quantitative benchmarks) are proposed by the European Commission. Then, Member State representatives, first in Council formations and then at the yearly meetings of the Spring European Council, decide upon which objectives the Member States will pursue. Next, efforts to meet the objectives agreed for any given OMC process are reported by Member States, after which they are reviewed by peer Member States and by the EU level (Commission-Council) with assessments of performance, but no hard recommendations in the case of non-compliance. From its inception, there has been much ado about the OMC. It has attracted the interest of academics, in particular political scientists and sociologists, who have analysed policy learning in the OMC, and lawyers, who have characterised the OMC as a new form of soft law. Most economists, meanwhile, have been very critical, judging the OMC tools too soft to address structural changes in labour markets and welfare state systems. What can we learn from the multitude of publications written on this topic? This article takes stock of the intellectual progress that has been made in the study of the social OMCs but does not aspire to be exhaustive. It analyses the literature from three theoretical perspectives: European integration, new modes of governance and Europeanisation. The first highlights the process of decision-making and institutional change of the OMC, while the second analyses the features of the OMC, comparing it with other forms of regulation and governance in the EU. The third perspective on Europeanisation focuses on 433629 ESP22310.1177/0958928711433629Porte and PochetJournal of European Social Policy 2012
Re-examining the relationship between PIN and timely loss recognition

We re-examine the positive relationship between the probability of information-based trading (PIN) measure and timely loss recognition, documented by LaFond and Watts (2008). This relationship has been interpreted as evidence that timely loss recognition plays an information role for equity investors in addition to the debt-contracting role widely suggested by the accounting literature. However, we show that this relationship diminishes after we control for lender–shareholder conflict, for which we use as a proxy the price-change asymmetry (PCA) measure suggested by Easton et al. (2011). This finding implies that timely loss recognition still caters mainly to the demands of lenders rather than equity investors. Our study contributes new evidence to the ongoing debate on the underlying cause of timely loss recognition, which is a fundamental issue in accounting literature.
Low adiponectin blood concentration predicts left ventricular remodeling after ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction treated with primary percutaneous coronary intervention.

BACKGROUND Left ventricular remodeling (LVR), an increase in left ventricular end-diastolic volume index > or = 20%, is an adverse consequence of myocardial infarction. The aim of this study was to assess the association between LVR and adiponectin, which has been shown to protect against myocardial ischemia-reperfusion injury. METHODS In 75 patients echocardiographic examination was performed one year after ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction, successfully treated with primary percutaneous coronary intervention (pPCI). Two groups of patients were analyzed: those with LVR (n = 15) and those without LVR (n = 60). RESULTS The predictors of LVR were: anterior myocardial infarction, glucose at admission, baseline C-reactive protein, adiponectin, and echocardiographic parameters: left ventricular end-diastolic and end-systolic volume indices, ejection fraction < 40% and left ventricular wall motion score index (WMSI) at discharge. On multivariable regression analysis, lower adiponectin level (OR = 0.67, 95% CI 0.49-0.91, p < 0.05) and higher WMSI (OR = 20.14, 95% CI 2.62-154.82, p < 0.01) were the only independent negative predictors of LVR. The optimal cut-off for adiponectin for predicting LVR was < or = 4.7 mg/mL (sensitivity: 73%, specificity: 85%) and this level increased the risk of LVR 15-fold (95% CI 4.05-59.87, p = 0.0001). CONCLUSIONS Baseline low blood adiponectin concentration, along with WMSI, can be considered as a predictor of the LVR in male patients one year after myocardial infarction and pPCI.
Fetal and maternal lipoprotein metabolism in human pregnancy.

1. Lipid, apolipoprotein concentration and composition were determined in maternal venous and umbilical arterial and venous blood at delivery by elective Caesarean section in 13 full-term pregnancies and in 25 healthy non-pregnant females. The indications of Caesarean section were a previous Caesarean section or breech presentation. None of the women was in labour and there were no other complications of pregnancy or fetal distress. 2. The objectives of the study were to establish whether the placenta has a role in feto-maternal cholesterol metabolism through either synthesis or transplacental cholesterol flux. The potential for free cholesterol diffusion between mother and fetus and rates of cholesterol esterification and transfer between lipoproteins were determined and related to the differences in composition between fetal and maternal lipoproteins. 3. Pregnant women had raised levels of all lipid and lipoprotein fractions compared with control subjects. The greatest increases were in free cholesterol and triacylglycerol (P < 0.0001). Lipoprotein (a) levels were significantly greater in the pregnant women [112 (12.2) mg/l] than in the control women [50 (10.0) mg/l]. 4. The only significant correlation between maternal and fetal lipoprotein concentrations was in lipoprotein (a) levels (r = 0.791, P = 0.002). In both umbilical venous and arterial blood, concentrations of very-low- and low-density lipoproteins, particularly apolipoprotein B, cholesteryl ester and triacylglycerol, were lower than in maternal blood (P < 0.0001), but high-density lipoprotein levels were similar. 5. There was no umbilical arteriovenous differences in lipoprotein concentration or composition. This suggests that cholesterol synthesis or free cholesterol diffusion does not occur in the placenta. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
The Impact of the AIDS Epidemic on the Schooling of Orphans and Other Directly Affected Children in Sub-Saharan Africa

This is the second of two articles that assess the available evidence concerning the impact of the AIDS epidemic on teachers and the schooling of orphans and other directly affected children in sub-Saharan Africa. The two main conclusions of this article are, firstly, that current and future projections of orphan country populations are likely to be serious overestimates. And secondly, while the impact of losing one or both parents on educational attainment is often much less than has been suggested, Ministries of Education need to act decisively in order to mitigate the impact of the epidemic on the schooling of these children.
Of Yeast and Mushrooms: Patterns of Industry-Level Productivity Growth

Abstract In this paper we analyse labour productivity growth in the United States, four European countries (France, Germany, the Netherlands and United Kingdom), Australia and Canada between 1987 and 2003 from an industry perspective. Rather than analysing broad industry groups, we compare the pattern of growth in all industries through Harberger diagrams. We introduce new summary measures, which indicate the pervasiveness of growth patterns. These indicators show that investment in both information and communication technology (ICT) and non-ICT capital is fairly balanced or ‘yeasty’, driven by overall macro-economic conditions. However, growth of total factor productivity (TFP) is much more localized or ‘mushroom-like’. In particular we find a clear distinction between countries in continental Europe, in which TFP is decelerating after 1995 and becoming more localized, and Anglo-Saxon countries in which TFP growth is accelerating and becoming more broad-based, especially after 2000. The increased breadth of Anglo-Saxon TFP growth is consistent with delayed effects of intangible investments that are complementary to ICT investments.
Comparison of tertiary-center aneurysm location frequencies in 400 consecutive cases: Decreasing incidence of posterior communicating artery region aneurysms

Background: The growing number of community hospitals with neurointerventional services over the past decade has changed the type and complexity of cerebral aneurysms referred to tertiary centers. The authors hypothesized that this would be reflected in changes in the location frequencies of aneurysms treated now compared to before the widespread institution of endovascular coiling. Methods: Using a prospectively collected aneurysm database, aneurysm location frequencies were retrospectively reviewed for the last 200 consecutively treated aneurysms (2009–2010) and 200 consecutive aneurysms treated starting from May 1999 to December 2000. International Subarachnoid Aneurysm Trial (ISAT) aneurysm location nomenclature was utilized. Two-tailed Student's t-tests were used to compare means and Fisher exact tests were used to compare proportions. Results: The location frequencies of all aneurysms (ruptured and unruptured) treated in the 2000 epoch as compared to the modern epoch showed significant changes for middle cerebral aneurysms (12.0% vs. 21.0%, P = 0.014), posterior communicating (21.0% vs. 13.0%, P = 0.0001), and para-ophthalmic aneurysms (10.0% vs. 25.5%, P = 0.0002). For unruptured/elective aneurysms, the change in posterior communicating aneurysms was even more pronounced (27.8% vs 3.6%, P = 0.0001). The rate of aneurysm coiling at the center rose from 26% to 37% (P = 0.02). Conclusions: The significant reduction in the referrals to our tertiary center of less technically complex aneurysms (posterior communicating segment) and increased referrals of aneurysms not as amenable to coil embolization (middle cerebral artery) is likely attributable to the growth of neurointerventional services at community hospitals over the past 10 years.
Popular Attitudes, Globalization, and Risk

Popular opposition to globalization may be interpreted as xenophobia or hostility to market economics and signal country risk, including the degree of security risk - the possibility that local staff of facilities could be subject to discriminatory treatment, harassment, or attack. This paper integrates the Pew Global Attitudes data into a series of economic models on foreign direct investment (FDI), sovereign ratings, and local entrepreneurship and finds that some responses correlate with economic variables of interest, conveying information beyond what can be explained through standard models. More tolerant countries attract more FDI, obtain better ratings, and exhibit more entrepreneurship.
Modeling Browsing Behavior at Multiple Websites

While there is a growing literature on investigating the Internet clickstream data collected for a single site, such datasets are inherently incomplete because they generally do not capture shopping behavior across multiple websites. A customer's visit patterns at one or more other sites may provide relevant information about the timing and frequency of his or her future visit patterns at the site of interest. We develop a stochastic timing model of cross-site visit behavior to understand how to leverage information from one site to help explain customer behavior at another. To this end, we incorporate two sources of association in browsing patterns: one for the observable outcomes i.e., arrival times of two timing processes and the other for the latent visit propensities across a set of competing sites. This proposed multivariate timing mixture model can be viewed as a generalization of the univariate exponential-gamma model. In our empirical analysis, we show that a failure to account for both sources of association not only leads to poor fit and forecasts, but also generates systematically biased parameter estimates. We highlight the model's ability to make accurate statements about the future behavior of the "zero class" i.e., previous nonvisitors to a given site using summary information i.e., recency and frequency from past visit patterns at a competing site.
Family Model of Diabetes Education With a Pacific Islander Community

Purpose The purpose of the study was to use a community-based participatory research approach to pilot-test a family model of diabetes education conducted in participants’ homes with extended family members. Methods The pilot test included 6 families (27 participants) who took part in a family model of diabetes self-management education (DSME) using an intervention-driven pre- and posttest design with the aim of improving glycemic control as measured by A1C. Questionnaires and additional biometric data were also collected. Researchers systematically documented elements of feasibility using participant observations and research field reports. Results More than three-fourths (78%) of participants were retained in the study. Posttest results indicated a 5% reduction in A1C across all participants and a 7% reduction among those with type 2 diabetes. Feasibility of an in-home model with extended family members was documented, along with observations and recommendations for further DSME adaptations related to blood glucose monitoring, physical activity, nutrition, and medication adherence. Conclusions The information gained from this pilot helps to bridge the gap between knowledge of an evidence-based intervention and its actual implementation within a unique minority population with especially high rates of type 2 diabetes and significant health disparities. Building on the emerging literature of family models of DSME, this study shows that the family model delivered in the home had high acceptance and that the intervention was more accessible for this hard-to-reach population.
Subjective Confidence in Forecasts.

Forecasts have little value to decision makers unless it is known how much confidence to place in them. Those expressions of confidence have, in turn, little value unless forecasters are able to assess the limits of their own knowledge accurately Previous research has shown very robust patterns in the judgements of individuals who have not received special training in confidence assessment: Knowledge generally increases as confidence increases. However, it increases too swiftly, with a doubling of confidence being associated with perhaps a 50 per cent increase in knowledge. With all but the easiest of tasks, people tend to be overconfident regarding how much they know These results have typically been derived from studies of judgements of general knowledge. The present study found that they also pertained to confidence in forecasts. Indeed, the confidence-knowledge curves observed here were strikingly similar to those observed previously. The only deviation was the discovery that a substantial minority of judges never expressed complete confidence in any of their forecasts. These individuals also proved to be better assessors of the extent of their own knowledge Apparently confidence in forecasts is determined by processes similar to those that determine confidence in general knowledge. Decision makers can use forecasters assessments in a relative sense, in order to predict when they are more and less likely to be correct. However, they should be hesitant to take confidence assessments literally. Someone is more likely to be right when he or she is ‘certain’than when he or she is ‘fairly confident’; but there is no guarantee that the certain forecast will come true.
Does financial development affect growth?

This article contributes to the literature on the relationship between financial development and economic growth in three ways: it utilizes recently developed techniques for generalized methods of moments (GMM) one-step estimation with dynamic panel models, it focuses exclusively on a sample of developing countries and it uses as proxies for financial development variables which capture both banking sector and stock market effects. The results provide evidence, based on a panel of annual data for 30 developing countries, that while the stock market variables are positively and significantly related to growth, their presence results in the standard banking sector variables, credit to the private sector and liquid liabilities, having negative effects on growth.
What are we talking about? The state of perceptions and knowledge on REDD+ and adaptation to climate change in Central Africa

Climate change has become a major political issue and has become the subject of discussion and debate at all levels and throughout the world. Central Africa, which harbours the second largest forest in the world, is equally at the centre of debates on the role of forests in the fight against climate change. Consequently, workshops on climate change are very common in this region. This study was carried out by Center for International Forestry Research and aimed to understand how people with professional interest in adaptation and REDD+ in Central Africa comprehend key concepts of climate change. Questionnaires on basic knowledge of key climate change concepts were answered by 138 stakeholders from several Central African countries. These tests were intended to establish a baseline from which a programme of capacity-building could be developed. The results demonstrated that: (1) although workshops on REDD+ and adaptation to climate change are held with increasingly frequency in Central Africa, stakeholders in the region are still struggling to understand the key concepts of climate change, (2) the issues of climate change are evolving so quickly that those who are called upon to defend the interests and positions of the central Africa region are lagging behind the discourses, hence the need for continuous capacity-building, (3) decision-makers in the Congo Basin need frequently updated information and knowledge to be up to the task of supporting the regional position held by Central African Forestry Commission and to defend national interests.
SigNet: Convolutional Siamese Network for Writer Independent Offline Signature Verification

Offline signature verification is one of the most challenging tasks in biometrics and document forensics. Unlike other verification problems, it needs to model minute but critical details between genuine and forged signatures, because a skilled falsification might often resembles the real signature with small deformation. This verification task is even harder in writer independent scenarios which is undeniably fiscal for realistic cases. In this paper, we model an offline writer independent signature verification task with a convolutional Siamese network. Siamese networks are twin networks with shared weights, which can be trained to learn a feature space where similar observations are placed in proximity. This is achieved by exposing the network to a pair of similar and dissimilar observations and minimizing the Euclidean distance between similar pairs while simultaneously maximizing it between dissimilar pairs. Experiments conducted on cross-domain datasets emphasize the capability of our network to model forgery in different languages (scripts) and handwriting styles. Moreover, our designed Siamese network, named SigNet, exceeds the state-of-the-art results on most of the benchmark signature datasets, which paves the way for further research in this direction.
Managerial and Investor Responses to Disclosure Regulation: The Case of Reg Fd and Conference Calls

This paper investigates the effect of regulation that mandates open access to information on managers' disclosure choices and investors' reactions to disclosures. The recently passed Regulation FD (Reg FD) requires firms to make material disclosures broadly available. Using a sample of firms that previously restricted access to conference calls and a sample of firms that voluntarily allowed unlimited access to their calls in the pre‐Reg FD period, we examine the effect of the new rule on managers' decisions regarding the timing, use, and information content of calls, as well as the effect on investors' trading behavior during the call. Our results indicate that Reg FD had a significant negative impact on managers' decisions to continue hosting conference calls and on their decisions regarding the optimal time to hold the call. However, contrary to the concerns of many critics, the magnitudes of these changes are not large. We do not find evidence that Reg FD decreased the amount of information disclosed d.
The Returns to Education and Training: Evidence from the Malaysian Family Life Surveys

The main purpose of this paper is to investigate the private returns to education and training in the 1980s for a random sample of women in Malaysia. I estimate a Mincer type earnings function, augmented by information on the women's training experience. The results indicate that there are positive and economically significant returns to education and training. I also investigate the determinants of training and find that training participation is positively related to educational attainment, while if women are credit-constrained they are significantly less likely to undertake training. Copyright 2004 Blackwell Publishing Ltd
Non‐steroidal anti‐inflammatory drugs have bacteriostatic and bactericidal activity against Helicobacter pylori

Background: Helicobacter pylori infection and non‐steroidal anti‐inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) are each associated with gastrointestinal mucosal damage, but the extent and direction of their interactions remain controversial. Therefore, the purpose of the present paper was to examine whether specific NSAIDs inhibit the growth of Helicobacter pylori in vitro.