Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
“Being with” while retaining and asserting professional midwifery power and authority in home birth

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to describe what it is like to be a midwife in the professionally isolated and marginalised arena of home birth in Ireland and to explore whether the organisation of home birth services and professional discourse might be undermining the autonomy of home birth midwives. Design/methodology/approach – This paper is drawn from auto-ethnographic field work, with 18 of the 21 self-employed community midwives (SECMs) offering home birth support to women in Ireland from 2006 to 2009. The data presented are derived from field notes of participant observations and from interviews digitally recorded in the field. Findings – Home birth midwives must navigate isolated professional practice and negotiate when and how to interface with mainstream hospital services. The midwives talk of the dilemma of competing discourses about birth. Decisions to transfer to hospital in labour is fraught with concerns about the woman's and the midwife's autonomy. Hospital transfers crystallise mid.
The impacts of core self-evaluations on customer-related social stressors and emotional exhaustion

Based on data collected from frontline bank employees in Northern Cyprus as the study setting, the authors developed and tested a model, which investigated the effects of core self-evaluations on customer-related social stressors and emotional exhaustion. The researchers' model also tested the impacts of these customer-related social stressors on emotional exhaustion. The results indicated that employees with positive core self-evaluations experienced low levels of disproportionate customer expectations, customer verbal aggression, and ambiguous customer expectations. Such employees were also confronted with less-disliked customers. In this study, it was found that employees who were susceptible to ambiguous customer expectations were emotionally exhausted. In contrast, the findings did not lend any empirical support to the effects of disproportionate customer expectations, customer verbal aggression, and disliked customers on emotional exhaustion.
Effects of Cohort Size on Earnings: The Baby Boom Babies' Financial Bust

The arrival of the post--World War II baby boom cohorts in the job market raises many questions of effects associated with a rapidly declining average age of the labor force. This paper first summarizes 1967-75 wage behavior, showing that relative wages between schooling groups have not changed for prime-aged workers, but there is some evidence, for new job-market entrants, that wages of more educated workers have fallen relative to wages of less educated workers. However, changes among schooling groups are small in comparison to those between new entrants and peak earners within schooling group. The evidence is very direct: as work-experience distributions shifted toward increased proportions of young workers, their relative wages fell. After examining a career-phase model in which workers at different phases are imperfect substitutes, estimates of empirical relationships between cohort size and wages are presented. The main result is that income-depressant effects of (own) cohort size decline over the career but do not vanish altogether. Initial effects include reductions in wage rates and in hours and weeks worked, while persistent effects extend only to wages.
The Shielding of CEO Compensation from the Effects of Strategic Expenditures

This study investigates whether and why compensation committees shield CEO compensation from income-decreasing effects of strategic expenditures. We document that firms do shield recurring expenditures such as research and development and advertising expenditures. We also find that firms shield research and development expenditures more than advertising expenditures. Our results are consistent with prior findings that suggest that compensation committees shield CEOs from non-routine transactions such as restructuring charges and extraordinary losses. Using a two-task principal-agent framework, we show that such shielding improves the efficiency of the contract by making the shielded income measure more congruent with the principal's objectives.
An empirical analysis of corporate governance structures and voluntary corporate disclosure in volatile capital markets: the Egyptian experience

This paper examines the level and determinants (i.e. ownership structure, board composition and audit committee presence) of voluntary corporate disclosure in the annual reports of the largest 100 companies listed on the Egyptian stock exchange (EGX). Our results indicate that overall voluntary disclosure was low at just 13.43% with a large variation range. This score places Egypt at a lower level than other emerging capital markets (e.g. Singapore, Hong Kong and Malaysia). The variances of these results support the need for individual country level studies and comparative analysis. Multivariate results show audit committee presence as the most significant variable influencing voluntary disclosure. Also, companies with a higher ratio of independent non-executive directors have a higher extent of voluntary disclosure. It was also evidenced that voluntary disclosure increases with decreases in block-holder ownership. Results show that two other ownership aspects – managerial and government – are not related to voluntary disclosure. Finally, the analysis shows profitability and internationality significantly impact voluntary disclosure. On the other side, that number of shareholders, type of auditor, size, liquidity, leverage and industry type of the firm do not affect the extent of voluntary disclosure.
Influence of CYP2C19*2 and *3 loss‐of‐function alleles on the pharmacodynamic effects of standard‐ and high‐dose clopidogrel in East Asians undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention: the results of the ACCEL‐DOUBLE‐2N3 study

Y . -H . J EONG,*† 1 K . A . ABADILLA ,†‡ 1 U . S . TANTRY ,† Y . PARK ,* J . S . KOH,* C . H . KWAK,* J . -Y . HWANG* and P . A . GURBEL† *Department of Internal Medicine, Gyeongsang National University Hospital and Gyeongsang National University School of Medicine, Jinju, Korea; †Sinai Center for Thrombosis Research; and ‡Department of Internal Medicine, Sinai Hospital of Baltimore, Baltimore, MD, USA
Stakeholder perceptions of a professional sport organisation's community initiatives: an exploratory case study

The contemporary literature on corporate social responsibility (CSR), corporate philanthropy, and similar areas related to organisations’ involvement with social causes has emphasised the importance of this phenomenon from an organisational perspective. To date, however, knowledge from the ‘demand side’ or perspective of fans and other stakeholders remains under-researched. The present case study addresses this dimension, examining the case of an Australian professional sport organisation. The findings demonstrate strong agreement among respondents, particularly concerning the organisation’s engagement with the community and community orientated causes, and in promoting the sport and the club. Many comments also highlight the need for the club to instil a culture that nurtures future generations of fans. While today the notion of ‘giving back to the community’ has gained in momentum in different environments, practical and symbolic ways to connect with the community appear to be equally valued as financial or other material contributions.
Will More Purchasing Options Benefit Customers?

This paper considers the sale of a seasonal product in the face of strategic customers. At the beginning of the selling season, the retailer announces both the price p h at which the product will be sold during the selling season and the post‐season clearance price p<p h for unsold items. We analyze two operating regimes: The “no reservation regime” allows a buyer either to purchase the product at price p h when he arrives or to enter a lottery to purchase at price p if the product remains unsold. The “reservation regime” offers each buyer one extra option than the no reservation regime: reserve the product for purchase at the clearance price p. If the buyer reserves the product under the reservation regime and if it remains unsold at the end of the selling season, then he is obligated to purchase it at price p. We consider a situation in which heterogeneous customers with probabilistic valuation arrive in accord with a Poisson process. We characterize the rational purchasing behavior wherein each arriving customer is strategic; each customer takes other customers' purchasing behavior into consideration. By considering the Nash equilibrium of this game, we show that strategic customer behavior can render the customer to be worse off and the retailer to be better off under the reservation regime, despite the fact that this regime offers one extra option (reservation) to a customer. Hence, more purchasing options do not necessarily benefit customers.
Programme Integrity or Programme Integration? The need for a co-ordinated approach to work with domestic violence offenders.

Summary Current practice in criminal justice social work tends to emphasise the value of cognitive behavioural interventions, preferably delivered in structured group work programmes, as being the standard for increasingly effective interventions with offenders. This article acknowledges the value of programmes, but urges caution and the need to pay attention to the integration of such programme work with other interventions, including probation case management and interagency communication and co-operation. Specifically, the author reports on the findings of a study of a domestic violence offenders’ programme in Scotland, and points to a range of programme integration and case management issues arising. The article concludes by drawing lessons for practice, including implications for maximising probation effectiveness, particularly in terms of more integrated working.
Computed tomographic fluoroscopy-guided transthoracic needle biopsy for diagnosis of pulmonary nodules.

BACKGROUND The purpose of this study was to evaluate the usefulness of computed tomographic (CT) fluoroscopy-guided transthoracic needle biopsy (TTNB) with an 18-gauge automatic biopsy gun for the diagnosis of pulmonary nodules. METHODS Between March 1996 and January 1998, 50 patients in whom pulmonary lesions could not be diagnosed cytopathologically with fiberoptic bronchoscopy or were not clearly visualized with fluoroscopy underwent CT fluoroscopy-guided TTNB. RESULTS Final pathological diagnoses were 23 lung carcinomas, five pulmonary metastases and 22 benign lesions. Sufficient tissue for analysis was obtained from 48 of the 50 lesions (96%). The overall diagnostic yield of CT fluoroscopy-guided TTNB was 90%. The sensitivity, specificity and accuracy for malignancy were 89%, 100% and 94%, respectively. In 20 of the 22 cases (91%) of benign lesions, histological analysis yielded correct and specific diagnoses. Complications occurred in 22 of the 50 cases (44%). The most common complication was pneumothorax, which occurred in 21 of the 50 cases (42%). Chest tube insertion was required in 6 (12%). CONCLUSIONS Although CT fluoroscopy could not decrease the complication rate, CT fluoroscopy-guided TTNB with an automatic biopsy gun appears to be a promising technique for diagnosing pulmonary lesions, particularly benign lesions.
Purification and functional studies of a potent modified quorum‐sensing peptide and a two‐peptide bacteriocin in Streptococcus mutans

Bacteria use quorum‐sensing signals or autoinducers to communicate. The signals in Gram‐positive bacteria are often peptides activated by proteolytic removal of an N‐terminal leader sequence. While investigating stimulation of antimicrobial peptide production by the Streptococcus mutans synthetic competence stimulating peptide signal (21‐CSP), we found a peptide similar to the 21‐CSP, but lacking the three C‐terminal amino acid residues (18‐CSP). The 18‐CSP was more potent in inducing competence, biofilm formation, and antimicrobial activity than the 21‐CSP. Our results indicate that cleavage of the three C‐terminal residues occurred post export, and was not regulated by the CSP‐signalling system. Deletion of comD encoding the CSP receptor abolished the competence and biofilm responses to the 21‐CSP and the 18‐CSP, suggesting that signal transduction via the ComD receptor is involved in the responses to both CSPs. In S. mutans GS5, beside the 18‐CSP we also purified to homogeneity a two‐peptide bacteriocin which production was stimulated by the 18‐CSP and the 21‐CSP. Partial sequence of the two‐peptide bacteriocin revealed the product of the smbAB genes recently described. We found that the peptide SmbB was slightly different from the deduced sequence, and confirmed the prediction that both peptides constituting SmbAB bacteriocin are post‐translationally modified. SmbAB exhibited antimicrobial activity against 11 species of streptococci, Enterococcus faecalis and Staphylocococcus epidermidis. Taken together, the findings support the involvement of the CSP response in bacteriocin production by streptococci and suggest a novel strategy to potentiate autoinducer activity.
Firm-Value Effects of Carbon Emissions and Carbon Disclosures

ABSTRACT: Using hand-collected carbon emissions data for 2006 to 2008 that were voluntarily disclosed to the Carbon Disclosure Project by S&P 500 firms, we examine the effects on firm value of carbon emissions and of the act of voluntarily disclosing carbon emissions. Correcting for self-selection bias from managers' decisions to disclose carbon emissions, we find that, on average, for every additional thousand metric tons of carbon emissions, firm value decreases by $212,000, where the median emissions for the disclosing firms in our sample are 1.07 million metric tons. We also examine the firm-value effects of managers' decisions to disclose carbon emissions. We find that the median value of firms that disclose their carbon emissions is about $2.3 billion higher than that of comparable non-disclosing firms. Our results indicate that the markets penalize all firms for their carbon emissions, but a further penalty is imposed on firms that do not disclose emissions information. The results are consistent w.
Evaluation of a New Single-Parameter Volumetric Flow Cytometer (CyFlowgreen) for Enumeration of Absolute CD4+ T Lymphocytes in Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 1-Infected Thai Patients

ABSTRACT Use of the standard dual-platform flow cytometric method for determination of CD4+ T-lymphocyte counts, which needs both a flow cytometer (FCM) and hematological analyzer, would inevitably lead to increased variability. The development of new single-platform (SP) FCMs that provide direct CD4+ T-lymphocyte counts for improved assay precision and accuracy have recently attracted attention. This study evaluated one of those systems, CyFlowgreen (Partec), a single-parameter SP volumetric FCM. The performance of CyFlowgreen was compared with those of two reference standard SP microbead-based technologies of the three-color TruCOUNT tube with the FACScan FCM and a two-color FACSCount system (Becton Dickinson Biosciences). Absolute CD4+ and CD8+ T-lymphocyte counts in 200 human immunodeficiency virus type 1-seropositive blood specimens were determined. Statistical analysis for correlation and agreement were performed. A high correlation of absolute CD4 counts was shown when those obtained with CyFlowgreen were compared with those obtained with the bead-based three-color TruCOUNT system (R2 = 0.96; mean bias, −69.1 cells/μl; 95% confidence interval [CI], −225.7 to +87.5 cells/μl) and the FACSCount system (R2 = 0.97; mean bias, −40.0 cells/μl; 95% CI, −165.1 to +85.1 cells/μl). The correlation of the CD4+ T-lymphocyte counts obtained by the two bead-based systems was high (R2 = 0.98). Interestingly, CyFlowgreen yielded CD4+ T-lymphocyte counts that were 21.8 and 7.2 cells/μl lower than those obtained with the TruCOUNT and the FACSCount systems, respectively, when CD4+ T-lymphocyte counts were <250 CD4+ T-lymphocyte counts/μl range or 17.3 and 5.8 cells/μl less, respectively, when CD4+ T-lymphocyte counts were <200 cells/μl. The single-parameter CyFlowgreen volumetric technology performed well in comparison with the performance of the standard SP bead-based FCM system. However, a multicenter comparative study is needed before this FCM machine is implemented in resource-limited settings.
Identifying manufacturing flexibility best practices in small and medium enterprises

Most of previous research on manufacturing flexibility has been conceptual by nature and finalized to build analytical models and only a small percentage of the studies have focused on empirical observations of actual industrial practice. In this study, we applied a DEA‐based methodology to identify small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) that operate on the frontier of manufacturing flexibility practice. Data were obtained via a questionnaire survey that considered seven basic dimensions of manufacturing flexibility. Subsequently, discriminant analysis was carried out to delineate which contextual factors and managerial aspects characterize the firms that have reached the “best practice” status. Finally, on‐site investigation was carried out with the “excellent” firms to better delineate their organizational and strategic profile.
Markets, Imperfections and the Dangers of Over-Regulating Energy Markets

Government regulation in general has over-expanded. However, in British energy markets, a new form of regulation, concentrating on promoting competition in gas and electricity, has emerged to the benefit of consumers. If the government pursues its policy of targeting favoured energy activities, these gains will disappear, the costs of achieving environmental targets will be unnecessarily heavy and energy markets will be re-politicised.
The Impact of Operating Leases on Firm Financial and Operating Risk

This study uses ex ante cost-of-equity capital measures based on accounting valuation models to assess the risk relevance of off-balance sheet operating leases. We investigate whether off-balance sheet operating leases have the same risk-relevance for explaining ex ante measures of risk as a firm’s on-balance sheet capital leases. We also investigate how investors’ risk perception of operating leases has changed in recent years when off-balance sheet transactions in general and operating leases in particular have been facing increased regulatory and investor scrutiny. This study finds that a firm’s ex ante cost-of-equity capital is positively associated with adjustments in its financial leverage (financial risk) and operating leverage (operating risk) resulting from capitalized off-balance sheet operating leases and that the positive association between the ex ante cost of capital and the impact of operating leases on a firm’s financial leverage is weaker for the operating leases compared with the capital leases. This study also finds that the positive association between the ex ante cost of capital and the impact of operating leases on a firm’s financial leverage has decreased considerably in recent years, since regulators issued interpretation letters clarifying controversial lease accounting issues.
Effect of glucagon on digestive enzyme synthesis, transport and secretion in mouse pancreatic acinar cells.

1. Effect of glucagon on amylase secretion and lactic dehydrogenase (LDH) release from functionally intact dissociated pancreatic acinar cells and acini was studied. 2. In dissociated rat pancreatic acinar cells, the rate of amylase secretion was increased by 70% with bethanechol (maximally effective concentration, 10(‐4) M) and 125% with A23187 (10(‐5) M), but the response to cholecystokinin‐pancreozymin (CCK‐PZ) was inconsistent. In dissociated cells from mouse pancreas, the increases amounted to 78% with bethanechol (10(‐4) M), 134% with A23187 (10(‐5) M) and 82% with CCK‐PZ (maximally effective concentration, 0 . 01 u. ml.‐1). Glucagon in concentrations ranging from 10(‐7) to 10(‐4) M increased amylase secretion by 3, 26, 67 and 80%, whereas secretin (10(‐8)‐‐10(‐5) M) increased amylase secretion by 8, 39, 88 and 138%. LDH release was increased with A23187 in concentrations greater than 10(‐6) M. 3. CCK‐PZ, bethanechol and A23187 used in maximal concentrations potentiated the effect of a submaximal dose of glucagon whereas secretin did not have an additive or a potentiating effect. 4. Pancreatic acini were approximately 3 times more responsive to secretagogues than cells. The dose‐‐response curves to bethanechol, glucagon and CCK‐PZ for increase in amylase secretion were similar. LDH release was not increased by these agents. Cytochalasin B (5 microgram ml.‐1) which is known to disrupt the integrity of luminal membrane inhibited the amylase secretion stimulated by glucagon, bethanechol and CCK‐PZ. 5. Glucagon inhibited incorporation of a mixture of fifteen 14C‐labelled amino acids (algal profile, Schwarz Mann) into perchloric acid precipitable proteins in dissociated mouse pancreatic acini within 30 min. 6. In ‘pulse‐chase’ experiments, glucagon decreased the specific activity of zymogen granules isolated by differential centrifugation, from pancreatic lobules (120 min) and increased the specific activity of radiolabelled proteins in the medium (60 and 120 min). 7. It is concluded that glucagon increased digestive enzyme secretion from pancreatic acinar cells by a direct action (in contrast to its reported indirect effect in vivo) and decreased digestive enzyme synthesis. The data on transport and secretion do not support the suggested role of glucagon as an inhibitor in the intact animal.
Capitalizing on the Net: Social Contact, Civic Engagement, and Sense of Community

How does the Internet affect social capital in terms of social contact, civic engagement, and a sense of community? Does online involvement increase, decrease, or supplement the ways in which people engage? Our evidence comes from a 1998 survey of North American visitors to the National Geographic Society website, one of the first large-scale web surveys of the general public. We find that online social contact supplements the frequency of face-to-face and telephone contact. Online activity also supplements participation in voluntary organizations and politics. Frequent email users have a greater sense of online community, although their overall sense of community is similar to that of infrequent email users. The evidence suggests that as the Internet is incorporated into the routine practices of everyday life, social capital is becoming augmented and more geographically dispersed.
Yield Curve Predictors of Foreign Exchange Returns

In a no-arbitrage framework, any variable that affects the pricing of the domestic yield curve has the potential to predict foreign exchange risk premiums. The most widely used interest rate predictor is the difference in short rates across countries, known as carry, but the short rate is only one of many factors affecting domestic yield curves. We ﬁnd that in addition to interest rate levels other yield curve predictors have signiﬁcant ability to forecast the cross section of currency returns. In particular, changes of interest rates and term spreads signiﬁcantly predict excess foreign exchange returns, exhibit low skewness risk, and are lowly correlated with carry returns. Predictability from these yield curve variables persists up to 12 months and is robust to controlling for other predictors of currency returns.