Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Stressful Life Events as a Risk Factor for Inflammatory Bowel Disease Onset: A Population-Based Case–Control Study

BACKGROUND AND AIMS:Stress is often perceived by patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) as the leading cause of their disease. The aim of this study was to assess whether stress, evaluated through life event (LE) occurrence, is associated with IBD onset.METHODS:Incident cases of IBD, including 167 patients with Crohn's disease (CD) and 74 with ulcerative colitis (UC), were compared with two control groups, one of 69 patients with acute self-limited colitis (ASLC) and another of 255 blood donors (BDs). Stress was assessed using Paykel's self-questionnaire of LEs. Only LEs occurring within 6 months before the onset of symptoms in IBD cases and ASLC controls and before blood donation in BD controls were registered. Anxiety and depression were assessed using Bate's and Beck's questionnaires, respectively.RESULTS:In univariate analysis, occurrence of LEs was more frequent in the 6-month period prior to diagnosis in CD cases than in UC cases or either control group. After adjustment for depression and anxiety scores as well as other characteristics such as smoking status and sociodemographic features, this association appeared no longer significant. No associations were noted between occurrence of LEs and onset of UC relative to controls.CONCLUSIONS:Despite its separate association with CD, LE occurrence does not appear to be an independent risk factor for IBD onset.
The Legacy and Influence of Catherine D. Ennis’s Value Orientations Research

In this article, the authors examine work conducted on 6 value orientations in physical education pioneered by Dr. Catherine D. Ennis and her colleagues. After providing an overview they focus on areas and methods of VOI research, specifically descriptions and comparisons (gender, teachers’ experience, school level, nationality, location, level of training, race, and physical activity background), the influence of value orientations on pedagogy (content and instructional models), and interventions (curricula and physical education teacher education). They conclude with suggestions for further research.
Women’s professional activity as an element of human capital management in the aspect of non-formal employment

The aim of the article is an attempt to assess the impact of women’s occupational activity on the tendency to take up informal employment as an element of human capital management. The paper attempts to assess the relationship between the unemployment rate and the employment rate and the share of informal work in GDP. Methodology: The implementation of the objective required the use of statistical methods, in particular, linear regression methods. Results: The publication describes the nature of informal employment, the level of professional activity of women in the selected European Union countries in 2017. Based on statistical data, an attempt was made to assess the impact of professional activity among women on non-formal work based on the linear regression method.
Exploring vet policy making: the policy borrowing and learning nexus in relation to plurinational states—the Basque case

ABSTRACT The contrasting conceptions of policy borrowing and policy learning processes in relation to education and skills have been widely debated. Nevertheless, most analyses have focused on nation states and, subsequently, cases of sub-sections of a state have been insufficiently considered. This article examines the process of modernisation of the Vocational Education and Training (VET) system in the Basque region of Spain since the 1980s. This article concludes that, although a National Qualifications Frameworks-like conception was introduced in the region, the prevailing neoliberal thinking of policy borrowing of reforms was not applied. Rather, the relatively high level of autonomy from the state provided the opportunity for policy innovation in VET. It will be argued that the particular policy borrowing/learning balance helped develop a collective capacity for policy learning and change that still remains and that explains the region’s advancement in raising the overall quality and status of VET. The following process from which this differentiated VET model emerged within the state merits an interest in plurinational systems of governance seeking to better adapt general policies to particular circumstances and socio-political environments.
The Impact of Football Attendance on Tourist Expenditures for the United Kingdom

We employ unconditional quantile regression with region of origin fixed effects, whereby we find that attending live football matches significantly increases expenditures by inbound tourist in the UK, and surprisingly we find that such effects are strongest for those who overall spend the least. Higher spending individuals spend significantly more than those who do not attend football matches, even when such individuals are otherwise similar. We analyse the impact of football attendance across the tourism expenditure distribution which is a relatively neglected aspect within previous research.
Settling in or moving out? Exploring the effect of mobility intentions on public housing exits

Abstract This paper seeks to understand how public housing residents’ mobility intentions affect their actual exits. The results suggest that mobility intentions do have a significant effect on public housing exits. However, the rate of exit among those who intend to move out of public housing was similar to those who did not intend to leave. In addition, tenure had a significant effect on the odds of exiting alluding to issues of duration dependence. However, neighbourhood conditions did not fully explain public housing exits. Our proxy for policy reform had a large effect on the odds of exiting of public housing. This result suggests that changes in housing assistance programmes and urban housing policy could largely account for public housing exits. Overall, the results imply that while public housing residents may have positive and negative mobility intentions, their exits may primarily be due to shifts in housing policy and social welfare programmes versus individual characteristics and neighbourhood conditions.
CEO Incentives and the Trade-off Among Earnings Game Strategies

Using a sample of quarterly observations from US firms over the period 2003-2010, we analyze the impact of CEOs’ equity incentives, risk-based incentives, and career concerns on decisions related to the earnings game. The results show that CEOs trade off the various earnings game strategies according to their personal incentives. Specifically, we find that CEOs with high equity incentives and high career concerns engage less in real activity manipulations than do executives with low incentives, and they substitute real earnings management with accrual-based earnings management and/or guiding analysts’ expectations. We also analyze the economic impact of using real earnings management, rather than accrual-based earnings management or guiding analysts’ expectations, to meet/beat targets and show that real activity manipulation is associated with lower future market performance. CEOs appear to understand and anticipate this effect, and when equity incentives and career concerns align their interests with those of shareholders, they avoid resorting to real earnings management. Our results are robust to CEOs’ incentives being endogenous with respect to reporting strategies.
What Drives Financial Hedging? A Meta-Regression Analysis of Corporate Hedging Determinants

Abstract We examine the drivers of heterogeneity for the determinants of corporate hedging by applying meta-regression analysis on a sample of 175 primary studies. Taken all previous findings together, hedgers are large, profitable and geographically diversified firms with high capital expenditures and dividend payouts, large debt ratios, and low interest coverage. When breaking the effects down across different world regions, it becomes apparent that the importance of the hedging determinants varies and not all determinants have the same relevance in all geographical areas. Moreover, we find that the type of risk exposure, the source of the hedging data, the inclusion of relevant control variables, and the journal ranking of the publication outlet explain the variation in previous results. There is also evidence that accounting for endogeneity and operational hedging methods are responsible for differences in the reported findings. Researchers should be aware of these drivers of heterogeneity when comparing and interpreting empirical estimates for the hedging determinants obtained from different data and method selections.
Two Years' Follow-up of Rivastigmine Treatment in Huntington Disease

Objectives: In a previous short-term study, rivastigmine has shown a mild effect in ameliorating cognitive impairment and slowing motor deterioration in patients affected by Huntington disease (HD). The aim of the present study was to assess the long-term efficacy of rivastigmine on motor and cognitive impairment in HD patients. Methods: This was an open-label, controlled study with blinded rates: 11 HD patients were evaluated after 2 years under 6 mg rivastigmine treatment versus 6 patients sorted as controls. In basal conditions and after 2 years' follow-up, patients were submitted to the Mini-Mental State Examination, Marsden and Quinn Chorea Severity Scale, Total Functional Capacity score, Abnormal Involuntary Movement Scale, and the motor and functional section of the Unified Huntington Disease Rating Scale. Results: Patients treated with rivastigmine showed a significant improvement of global motor performances and chorea in comparison with the control group, with a trend toward a reduction of functional disability and cognitive impairment. Conclusions: On the basis of the long-term follow-up of HD patients, rivastigmine exerted a significant improvement of motor performances with a positive trend on cognitive and functional scales. The results of this study suggest long-term efficacy of rivastigmine in HD, which needs to be confirmed in larger series.
A Novel 2.5-Dimensional Ultraminiaturized-Element Frequency Selective Surface

This paper proposes fabricating a new 2.5-dimensional ultraminiaturized element on a cost-effective printed circuit board to build a frequency selective surface (FSS). The proposed element consists of two main parts: a planar tapered meandering line (PTML) and a vertical via-based meandering line (VVML). Compared with previous published two-dimensional miniaturized elements, the proposed element is smaller (only 3.3% of the free space wavelength at the resonant frequency) and exhibits high resonant stability at various polarizations and incidence angles (only 0.4% deviation at the resonant frequency when the incident angle is as great as 75°). In particular, the introduction of VVML in the element substantially improves the FSS performance. A third-order equivalent circuit model was established to model the FSS performance precisely. This model can be reduced to a simpler first-order model, thus enabling the resonant frequency of the FSS to be predicted quickly. A prototype of the ultraminiaturized-element FSS was created and examined. The results of the proposed models, full-wave simulation, and measurement exhibited satisfactory consistency.
Genomic basis of aromatase excess syndrome: recombination- and replication-mediated rearrangements leading to CYP19A1 overexpression.

CONTEXT Genomic rearrangements at 15q21 have been shown to cause overexpression of CYP19A1 and resultant aromatase excess syndrome (AEXS). However, mutation spectrum, clinical consequences, and underlying mechanisms of these rearrangements remain to be elucidated. OBJECTIVE The aim of the study was to clarify such unsolved matters. DESIGN, SETTING, AND METHODS We characterized six new rearrangements and investigated clinical outcome and local genomic environments of these rearrangements and of three previously reported duplications/deletions. RESULTS Novel rearrangements included simple duplication involving exons 1-10 of CYP19A1 and simple and complex rearrangements that presumably generated chimeric genes consisting of the coding region of CYP19A1 and promoter-associated exons of neighboring genes. Clinical severities were primarily determined by the copy number of CYP19A1 and the property of the fused promoters. Sequences at the fusion junctions suggested nonallelic homologous recombination, nonhomologous end-joining, and replication-based errors as the underlying mechanisms. The breakpoint-flanking regions were not enriched with GC content, palindromes, noncanonical DNA structures, or known rearrangement-associated motifs. The rearrangements resided in early-replicating segments. CONCLUSIONS These results indicate that AEXS is caused by duplications involving CYP19A1 and simple and complex rearrangements that presumably lead to the usage of cryptic promoters of several neighboring genes. Our data support the notion that phenotypes depend on the dosage of CYP19A1 and the characteristics of the fused promoters. Furthermore, we show that the rearrangements in AEXS are generated by both recombination- and replication-mediated mechanisms, independent of the known rearrangement-inducing DNA features or late-replication timing. Thus, AEXS represents a unique model for human genomic disorders.
Efficacy of different Helicobacter pylori eradication regimens in patients affected by insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus.

BACKGROUND Patients with insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM) are often affected by chronic infections; antibiotic absorption, however, may be influenced by the disease. H. pylori eradication appears to be reduced in IDDM patients. The aim of the study was to evaluate the efficacy of the most common H. pylori eradication regimens in a population of IDDM-infected patients. METHODS One hundred and seventy-two IDDM patients were evaluated. H. pylori infection was assessed through the 13C-urea breath test. Infected patients were randomly assigned to three different standard 7-day eradication regimens: 1) amoxicillin, clarithromycin, pantoprazole; 2) tinidazole, clarithromycin, ranitidine bismuth citrate; or 3) tinidazole, clarithromycin, pantoprazole. Patients in whom eradication was not successful in the first cycle were subsequently submitted to a 7-day therapy with tinidazole, tetracycline, bismuth, and pantoprazole. RESULTS Thirty-seven per cent of IDDM patients were infected. None of the triple therapies used provided an eradication higher than 62%. Conversely, the quadruple regimen was successful in 88% of the patients. Ten per cent of the subjects undergoing the triple therapies showed minor side effects, without significant differences among groups, whereas side effects occurred in 25% of the patients treated with the quadruple therapy (P < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS IDDM patients show a low H. pylori eradication rate with a standard triple therapy regardless of the regimen utilized, the dosage and/or the duration of the therapy used appearing not to be sufficient to eradicate the infection efficiently. The use of a quadruple regimen leads to the cure of a large percentage of the infected patients in whom the eradication was unsuccessful in the first therapy, although it is accompanied by a greater incidence of minor side effects.
A quality improvement intervention to increase palliative care in nursing homes.

CONTEXT Death is common in nursing homes, but access to palliative care is limited. OBJECTIVE To test whether a quality improvement (QI) intervention in nursing homes increases hospice, pain management, and advance care planning. DESIGN AND SETTING The QI intervention was tested in seven nursing homes using a prepoststudy design. Two additional nursing homes served as control sites. PARTICIPANTS Nine nursing homes serving 1169 residents. INTERVENTION The intervention included recruitment and training of Palliative Care Leadership Teams in each facility, followed by six technical assistance meetings for team members. Hospice providers delivered six educational sessions for all nursing home staff using a structured curriculum. Teams received feedback of performance data on hospice enrollment, pain management, and advance care planning at 0, 3, and 6 months. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Percentage of residents receiving hospice or palliative services, pain assessment, pain treatment among residents in pain, and documented advance care planning discussions. RESULTS Intervention facilities increased hospice enrollment from 4.0% of residents at baseline to 6.8% postintervention (p = .01) and increased pain assessments from 18% to 60% (p < .001). Among resident in pain, orders for nonpharmacologic pain treatments increased from 15% to 35% (p < .001), but pain medication use did not change. Residents with in-depth discussions about end-of-life care increased from 4% to 17% (p < .001). There were no significant changes in control sites. CONCLUSIONS A quality improvement intervention was effective in increasing hospice enrollment, pain assessment, nonpharmacologic pain treatment, and advance care planning discussions.
Right Atrial Thrombi Complicating use of Central venous Catheters in Hemodialysis

Background There has been an increase in the use of central venous catheters for temporary hemodialysis access. In this report, we describe a case series of 12 patients on hemodialysis who developed intracardiac clots associated with the use of central venous catheters, their outcomes and review the literature on this syndrome. Methods Retrospective, single-center case series of 12 patients with right atrial thrombi associated with central venous catheter use for dialysis vascular access. These patients were treated between June 1, 2001 and June 30th 2002 at the three University of Rochester affiliated dialysis clinics. The medical records of these patients were reviewed to obtain information concerning demographics, dialysis history, dates of catheter insertion, catheter complications, identification and dimensions of intracardiac thrombi, echocardiographic data, and outcome of anticoagulant therapy. Results Right heart thrombi were identified in 12 patients in our hemodialysis population over the study interval. Anticoagulation for 6 months led to clot resolution in more than 50% of our patients. Bacteremia recurred in 6 patients (50%), in spite of catheter replacement. There was zero mortality related to presence of clots in the short term. One patient with non-bacteremic right atrial thrombus suffered sudden cardiac arrest, but was successfully resuscitated. Conclusion Right atrial thrombi may occur in hemodialysis patients who use central venous catheters for dialysis access. These clots are frequently found in the right atrium or right atrial-superior vena caval junction. Ten of 12 patients (83%), had catheter-associated bacteremia, but the precise relationship between bacteremia and intracardiac clots is unclear. Chronic anticoagulation for 6 months lead to resolution of these clots in more than 50% of patients in our series.
Systematic Intervention and Currency Risk Premia

Using data for the trades of 19 central banks intervening in currency markets, we show that stabilization policies by individual central banks lead to "systematic intervention" patterns. This systematic intervention is driven by and impacts on the same factors that drive currency excess returns: carry, momentum, value, and a dollar factor. The sensitivity of an individual central bank's intervention to these factors differs markedly across countries, with developed countries making a profit from intervention and emerging markets incurring large losses.
The 14-item Paediatric Throat Disorders Outcome Test: a valid, sensitive, reliable, parent-reported outcome measure for paediatric throat disorders

Abstract Objectives: We modified and abbreviated a pre-existing research questionnaire, the Tonsil and Adenoid Health Status Instrument, to make it suitable for rapid completion as a disease-specific, health-related quality of life research tool for children with tonsil and adenoid disease in the UK. We determined the main psychometric properties of the resulting 14-item Paediatric Throat Disorders Outcome Test. Design, setting and participants: Pre- and post-operative questionnaires were completed by the parents of children with throat disorders referred to two large hospitals. We included children with recurrent tonsillitis and with obstructive sleep apnoea. A separate cohort of healthy children of comparable age range was also studied. Main outcome measures: The test's internal consistency and responsiveness were analysed and its construct validity documented via known-group differences. Results: A total of 126 completed questionnaires were received from the hospital referral group. The children's mean age was 6.5 years (range one to 16). The 40 unaffected children were well matched in age to the study population (mean 6.1 years, range two to 15). Cronbach's α coefficient for the pre-operative assessment total score was 0.84. The test–retest reliability coefficient for the total score was 0.98, indicating very high reproducibility. The 14-item Paediatric Throat Disorders Outcome Test discriminated well between children known to suffer with throat problems and a group of healthy controls (p < 0.0001; t = 24.016). Six months after surgical intervention, parentally reported questionnaire scores had improved (i.e. were lower) (p < 0.0001; t = 7.01). The standard effect size (i.e. change in mean divided by baseline standard deviation) for children for whom post-operative questionnaires were completed was 1.53; this is very large. Conclusions: The 14-item Paediatric Throat Disorders Outcome Test is an appropriate, disease-specific, parent-reported outcome measure for children with throat disorders, for which we have demonstrated internal consistency, reliability, responsiveness to change and two forms of construct validity.
Factors affecting tender price in the Ghanaian construction industry

Purpose Tender price remains an imperative parameter for clients in deciding whether to invest in a construction project, and it serves as a basis for tender price index (TPI) manipulations. This paper aims to examine the factors affecting tender price in the construction industry. Design/methodology/approach Based on the literature review, nine independent constructs and one dependent construct relating to tender pricing were identified. A structured questionnaire survey was conducted among quantity surveyors in Ghana. Partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) examined the influences of various constructs on tender price development (TPD) and the relationships among TPD and TPI. Findings Results showed that cultural attributes, client attributes, contractor attributes; contract procedures and procurement methods; consultant and design team; external factors and market conditions; project attributes; sustainable and technological attributes; and TPI have a positive influence on tender price, whereas fraudulent attributes exert a negative influence. Practical implications The findings offer construction professionals broader understanding of factors that affect tender pricing. The results may be used in professional decision-making in the pricing of construction projects, as they offer clearer causal relations between how each construct will influence pricing. Originality/value This study adds to the body of construction pricing knowledge by establishing the relationships and degree of influences of various factors on tender price. These findings provide a valuable reference for practitioners.