Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Childhood asthma surveillance using administrative data: consistency between medical billing and hospital discharge diagnoses.

BACKGROUND The absence of ongoing surveillance for childhood asthma in Montreal, Quebec, prompted the present investigation to assess the validity and practicality of administrative databases as a foundation for surveillance. OBJECTIVE To explore the consistency between cases of asthma identified through physician billings compared with hospital discharge summaries. METHODS Rates of service use for asthma in 1998 among Montreal children aged one, four and eight years were estimated. Correspondence between the two databases (physician billing claims versus medical billing claims) were explored during three different time periods: the first day of hospitalization, during the entire hospital stay, and during the hospital stay plus a one-day margin before admission and after discharge ('hospital stay +/- 1 day'). RESULTS During 1998, 7.6% of Montreal children consulted a physician for asthma at least once and 0.6% were hospitalized with a principal diagnosis of asthma. There were no contemporaneous physician billings for asthma 'in hospital' during hospital stay +/- 1 day for 22% of hospitalizations in which asthma was the primary diagnosis recorded at discharge. Conversely, among children with a physician billing for asthma 'in hospital', 66% were found to have a contemporaneous in-hospital record of a stay for 'asthma'. CONCLUSIONS Both databases of hospital and medical billing claims are useful for estimating rates of hospitalization for asthma in children. The potential for diagnostic imprecision is of concern, especially if capturing the exact number of uses is more important than establishing patterns of use.
Performance and convergence analysis of joint source-channel turbo schemes with variable length codes

Recently, we proposed a joint source-channel (JSC) turbo (de)coder combining a variable length code (VLC) and a turbo code, and applied it to image transfer (Jaspar, X. and Vandendorpe, L., SCC Conf., p.279-86, 2004; ICC Conf., p.2606-10, 2004). Simulation results showed that this scheme gave better performance and lower decoding complexity than previous ones. The paper assesses the performance of such a scheme at all signal-to-noise ratios on the channel. Analytical tools are provided for the understanding and optimization of a wide variety of similar schemes currently explored in the literature. More precisely, the bit, symbol and frame distance spectra are developed for VLCs and for VLCs turbo-concatenated with an error correcting code (ECC), in order to get bounds on the corresponding error rates. Also EXIT charts are extended to three dimensions in order to analyze the turbo-convergence of the scheme.
Study of the Role of Prostaglandin E2 in Urine Flow Regulation in Chronic Renal Failure

OBJECTIVE This study was carried out to investigate the role of prostaglandin E2 in the regulation of urine flow and ion excretion in patients with chronic renal failure. MATERIAL AND METHODS Twenty patients with chronic renal failure (CRF) and 13 healthy people were studied. CRF develops as a terminal stage of glomerulonephritis, pyelonephritis or polycystic renal disease. Osmolality and sodium, potassium, magnesium, calcium and creatinine concentrations were measured in urine and blood serum. Urine prostaglandin E2 was determined using kits for imminoenzyme analysis. RESULTS The average creatinine clearance was 19.9 +/- 6.3 ml/min, but it varied from 30 to 10 ml/min in different patients. In patients with CRF a correlation was revealed between diuresis and Na excretion (r = 0.78, p < 0.001) and between Na excretion and PGE2 excretion (r = 0.65, p < 0.001), a correlation that lacking in the healthy subject. A correlation was also found between diuresis and Mg excretion (r = 0.68, p < 0.001) and between Mg excretion and Na excretion (r = 0.83, p < 0.001) in patients with CRF but not in healthy subject. CONCLUSION It is suggested that in patients with CRF who experience a decrease in the glomerular filtration rate (to 75-90% of the normal value) the increase in urine flow is due to prostaglandin-dependent inhibition of ion reabsorption in the thick ascending limb of the loop of Henle.
Real-time language processing in school-age children with specific language impairment.

BACKGROUND School-age children with specific language impairment (SLI) exhibit slower real-time (i.e. immediate) language processing relative to same-age peers and younger, language-matched peers. Results of the few studies that have been done seem to indicate that the slower language processing of children with SLI is due to inefficient higher-order linguistic processing and not to difficulties with more basic acoustic-phonetic processing. However, this claim requires further experimental verification. AIMS It was investigated whether the real-time language processing deficit of children with SLI arises from inferior acoustic-phonetic processing, inefficient linguistic processing, or both poor sensory processing and linguistic processing. If these children's impaired online language processing is due to inferior acoustic-phonetic processing, then their reaction time (RT) for recognizing words presented in list fashion should be significantly longer relative to control children's RT. If, however, their impaired language processing relates to inefficient linguistic processing, then, relative to control children, their RT for word-list-presented words should be comparable and their sentence-embedded word-recognition RT should be significantly longer. METHODS & PROCEDURES Sixteen school-age children with SLI, 16 age-matched (CA) typically developing children, and 16 receptive-syntax matched (RS) children completed two word-recognition RT tasks. In one task, children monitored word lists for the occurrence of a target word (isolated lexical processing task). In the second task, children monitored simple sentences for a target word (sentence-embedded lexical processing task). In both tasks, children made a timed response immediately upon recognizing the target. OUTCOMES & RESULTS Children with SLI and CA children showed comparable RT in the isolated lexical processing task and both were faster than RS children. In the sentence-processing task, children with SLI were slower at lexical processing than CA and RS children, with CA children demonstrating the fastest processing. CONCLUSIONS The real-time language processing of children with SLI appears to be attributable to inefficient higher-order linguistic processing operations and not to inferior acoustic-phonetic processing. The slower language processing of children with SLI relative to younger, language-matched children suggests that the language mechanism of children with SLI operates more slowly than what might otherwise be predicted by their linguistic competence.
Price Dispersion in a Model of Identical Agents with Perfect Information

The objective of this paper is to demonstrate that price dispersion is possible even in a world of perfect information and identical consumers and firms. The driving force in the model is service capacity and congestion cost. Each firm chooses a service capacity. Customers of a firm bear a congestion cost which, for a fixed service capacity, is an increasing function of the number of customers served by this firm. We demonstrate that under certain conditions the combined profit of two firms and the total surplus are higher in a price-dispersion equilibrium than in a single-price equilibrium. Copyright 2004 Blackwell Publishing Ltd
Measuring Recreation Values with Multiple Destination Trips

Traditional travel cost analysis has either ignored multiple destination trips or arbitrarily allocated trip costs across visited sites. In this paper, combinations of multiple destinations are treated as unique sites and incorporated into a demand system. Empirical demand functions for multiple destination trips that include Bryce National Park are estimated. Consumer surplus calculations for single destination and multiple destination trips are compared.
Exploring and Comparing HR Shared Services in Subsidiaries of Multinational Corporations and Indigenous Organisations in The Netherlands: A Strategic Response Analysis

Human resource shared service centres (HR SSCs) are said to make optimal use of information technologies. Especially for MNCs, utilising HR SSCs supported by information technology increases the pressure to standardise or localise the HR SSC operations within their subsidiaries. In this paper, we explore whether what we call the content of HR SSCs (i.e. their HR activities and governance structures) is different in MNC subsidiaries to that of indigenous organisations. In so doing, we build on neo-institutional theory and the strategic response concept for uncovering how HR SSCs respond to local institutional pressures to become different or similar. As such, we contribute to the standardisation-localisation debate by responding to the call for more research into the response mechanisms that explain why MNC subsidiaries and indigenous organisations are similar or different. Further, by exploring eighteen Dutch HR SSCs in terms of their activities and governance structures, we contribute to the HR shared services literature by empirically illuminating the key characteristics of shared services: the centralisation of activities and the decentralisation of control
Value-at-risk and Extreme Returns in Asian Stock Markets

The purpose of this paper is to use the extreme value theory to analyze ten Asian stock markets, identifying which type of extreme value asymptotic distribution better fits historical extreme market events. Understanding the influence of extreme market events is of great importance for risk managers. Our empirical tests indicate that the return distributions are not characterized by normality and that the minima and the maxima of the return series may be satisfactorily modeled within an extreme value framework. The average waiting time for an index to present a daily return below/above a specific threshold is generally larger for Asian major markets than for Asian emerging markets. We also compute VaR estimates using extreme value theory and compare the results with the empirical and normal VaR estimates. The results suggest that the extreme value method of estimating VaR is a more conservative approach to determining capital requirements than traditional methods. JEL: G15, G18
Ex Ante Moral Hazard and Anticipatory Behaviour: Some Evidence

Controversy exists over whether health insurance reduces the individual incentives to invest in prevention activities; there is no consensus on the existence of ex ante moral hazard (EAMH). Past evidence shows that insurance seems to reduce investment in secondary prevention (e.g. check-ups), but have not supported the hypothesis of EAMH in the case of primary prevention (e.g. healthy lifestyles). In this paper, we first review the theoretical predictions in the case of primary and secondary preventions, and their main empirical evidence in the past literature. Then, we extend the general EAMH framework by assuming that healthy lifestyles reduce the probability of illness only in future periods. Assuming that there exists a payoff period before observing the lifestyle consequences, current preventive behaviour will be affected by anticipation of future insurance coverage. We call the effect “anticipatory behaviour” (AB). Therefore, it seems reasonable to test for the existence of EAMH some times before effectively receiving a health insurance. In the United States, Medicare is offered to almost all the population at age of 65. This exogenous variation in health insurance coverage is a natural experiment that allows us to test for EAMH and anticipatory changes in preventive activities. We use the nine waves of the US Health and Retirement Study (HRS) and test whether uninsured individuals change their lifestyle as they approach 65. Our estimates are based on double-robust approach that combine propensity score and regression methods and estimated for three different definitions of the uninsured group. Differences between the insured and uninsured in terms of physical activity and smoking behaviour are similar to the ones predicted by our model of AB. The effect on alcohol drinking behaviour is less clear but DR approach suggests rather the presence of pure EAMH.
Effect of feeding system on unsaturated fatty acid level in milk of dairy cows

Abstract In recent years, consumer attitudes toward fat of animal origin have changed owing to findings that some milk fatty acids (FAs) are positive for human health, especially conjugated linolenic acid and n-3 FAs. Accordingly, the manipulation of the fat content and FA composition of cows’ milk via nutritional strategies has been an important target for the dairy industry in many countries. Twenty commercial Holstein–Friesian dairy herds of Asturias (northern Spain) with 1106 dairy cows were examined in order to evaluate milk FA profiles under different management systems. These herds were divided into three groups according to management: (1) indoor herds: cows feeding indoors, (2) mixed herds: indoor management system but with at least 6 h of grazing outdoors and (3) outdoor herds: cows allowed 6–18 h of grazing per day. Milk from the indoor herds exhibited the highest concentration of fat (3.57%; P⩽0.01), protein (3.14%; P⩽0.001), lactose (4.76%; P⩽0.01) and urea (29.4 mg dl−1; P⩽0.01). The milk of outdoor herds had a lower (P⩽0.05) content of short-chain FAs than that of the indoor and mixed herds (10.89 versus 11.52 and 11.35 g 100 g−1 FA). The milk of the indoor herds had higher concentrations of saturated fatty acids (SFA) (67.56 g 100 g−1 FA; P⩽0.001) and palmitic and palmitoleic acids (30.16 and 1.82 g 100 g−1 FA, respectively), while that of the mixed and outdoors herds had higher concentrations of unsaturated fatty acids (UFA) (34.58 g 100 g−1 FA; P⩽0.001) and long-chain FAs, especially stearic (13.89 g 100 g−1 FA; P⩽0.01), vaccenic (2.77 g 100 g−1 FA; P⩽0.001), conjugated linoleic (0.92 g 100 g−1 FA; P⩽0.001) and linolenic (0.42 g 100 g−1 FA; P⩽0.001) acids. Results from this study suggest that the incorporation of forage and pasture in the diet of dairy cows can improve the FA profile of milk.
Dizziness presentations in U.S. emergency departments, 1995-2004.

OBJECTIVES The objectives were to describe presentation characteristics and health care utilization information pertaining to dizziness presentations in U.S. emergency departments (EDs) from 1995 through 2004. METHODS From the National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey (NHAMCS), patient visits to EDs for "vertigo-dizziness" were identified. Sample data were weighted to produce nationally representative estimates. Patient characteristics, diagnoses, and health care utilization information were obtained. Trends over time were assessed using weighted least squares regression analysis. Multivariable logistic regression analysis was used to control for the influence of age on the probability of a vertigo-dizziness visit during the study time period. RESULTS Vertigo-dizziness presentations accounted for 2.5% (95% confidence interval [CI] = 2.4% to 2.6%) of all ED presentations during this 10-year period. From 1995 to 2004, the rate of visits for vertigo-dizziness increased by 37% and demonstrated a significant linear trend (p < 0.001). Even after adjusting for age (and other covariates), every increase in year was associated with increased odds of a vertigo-dizziness visit. At each visit, a median of 3.6 diagnostic or screening tests (95% CI = 3.2 to 4.1) were performed. Utilization of many tests increased over time (p < 0.01). The utilization of computerized tomography and magnetic resonance imaging (CT/MRI) increased 169% from 1995 to 2004, which was more than any other test. The rate of central nervous system diagnoses (e.g., cerebrovascular disease or brain tumor) did not increase over time. CONCLUSIONS In terms of number of visits and important utilization measures, the impact of dizziness presentations on EDs is substantial and increasing. CT/MRI utilization rates have increased more than any other test.
Another Cause for the Same Old Problem

A number of co-morbid conditions affect individuals with Stage 4 and Stage 5 chronic kidney disease. These include cardiovascular disease, renal osteodystrophy and anemia. Anemia has been at the forefront of this array of comorbidities over the last 20 years with the aggressive use of anemia management therapies to bolster hemoglobin values. Not surprisingly, anemia has been increasingly recognized as a common condition in the setting of kidney transplantation. A transplant may improve kidney function into Stage 2 or 3 chronic kidney disease (1,2). Yet, up to 30% of all individuals will remain or become anemic during the first 5 years after transplantation (3–5).
Approximation Algorithms for the Selection of Robust Tag SNPs

Recent studies have shown that the chromosomal recombination only takes places at some narrow hotspots. Within the chromosomal region between these hotspots (called haplotype block), little or even no recombination occurs, and a small subset of SNPs (called tag SNPs) is sufficient to capture the haplotype pattern of the block. In reality, the tag SNPs may be genotyped as missing data, and we may fail to distinguish two distinct haplotypes due to the ambiguity caused by missing data. In this paper, we formulate this problem as finding a set of SNPs (called robust tag SNPs) which is able to tolerate missing data. To find robust tag SNPs, we propose two greedy and one LP-relaxation algorithms which give solutions of \((m+1)\ln\frac{K(K-1)}{2}\), \(\ln((m+1)\frac{K(K-1)}{2})\), and O(mln K) approximation respectively, where m is the number of SNPs allowed for missing data and K is the number of patterns in the block.
A randomized trial of brief dialectical behaviour therapy skills training in suicidal patients suffering from borderline disorder

Evidence‐based therapies for borderline personality disorder (BPD) are lengthy and scarce. Data on brief interventions are limited, and their role in the treatment of BPD is unclear. Our aim was therefore to evaluate the clinical effectiveness of brief dialectical behaviour therapy (DBT) skills training as an adjunctive intervention for high suicide risk in patients with BPD.
Repayment Performance in Microcredit Programs: Theory and Evidence

This paper revisits the conventional wisdom on the determinants of the success of microcredit programs. The paper first develops a simple moral hazard model of borrowing in a group lending context, and then tests this model using data from a survey conducted in Bangladesh in 1991-92. One of the predictions of the moral hazard model, regarding the effect of group size on repayment performance, is rejected by the empirical evidence. The paper then develops an alternative approach, which is consistent with the observed effect of group size as well as the other empirical results.
Substance use and related behaviors among suburban late adolescents: The importance of perceived parent containment

Abstract This study builds upon prior findings of elevated substance use among suburban high school students, examining the ramifications of different parenting dimensions on substance use and related behaviors. The sample consisted of 258 11th graders in an affluent suburban community. Parenting predictors considered included those well-studied previously such as monitoring and closeness, as well as two newer dimensions: perceived containment (stringency of anticipated reactions in reaction to negative behaviors) and perceived commitment (e.g., helping the child despite other commitments). Outcomes included self-reported substance use, delinquency, and rule breaking, as well as teacher-rated inattentiveness and school grades. Findings showed elevated substance use among these 17-year-olds compared with national norms, especially among girls. Of the parent predictors, significant unique links with multiple outcomes were found for parents' knowledge of their children's activities and perceived parental containment (stringent repercussions) in reaction to the children's substance use. Notably, students reported that their parents were much more tolerant of their substance use than of other problem behaviors such as rudeness to adults and minor acts of delinquency. Results are discussed along with the implications for practice and research.
Roles of Education in Productivity Growth in Australia, 1860–1939

Despite a significant literature comparing Europe and the USA, and linking education and human capital to growth and development, there is virtually no research in the Australian context which attempts to investigate this link empirically. Australia is an interesting case because it was one of the world's wealthiest nations in the late nineteenth century. The economy was built on agriculture and mining, but there was no obvious evidence of a natural resource curse despite losing ground on the leading nations. This study fills a gap in the literature by examining the effect of education and schooling on productivity growth between 1860 and 1939 using a unique dataset from the colony of Victoria. Using a growth accounting exercise, we examine the role of productivity changes in the overall growth picture of Victoria and Australia as a whole. We find evidence for productivity-led growth for both. Exploring the relationship between productivity and education measures, we find that while primary school enrolments were important to sustain productivity growth throughout the period, tertiary education was more effective in the first half of the twentieth century.
Issues and Research Needs of the Australian Organic Food Products Market

Worldwide, the demand for organic food products has expanded rapidly in the past decade, stimulated by consumer perceptions that organic products are safer, cleaner and more ethical than conventional products. The demand for organic products is estimated to be growing at a rate of 15-20 per cent per annum, with sales reaching $US23 billion in 2002. The biggest growth in consumption has occurred in developed countries such as the United States and Europe, which are major importers of organic foods. Australia, as a major exporter of agricultural products, stands to benefit from this expansion in demand. However, little is known about the organic industry by other agribusinesses and little research on organics has been conducted in Australia, especially compared to the United States and Europe. The objective of this paper is to provide a contemporary overview of the Australian organic food products industry, including production, marketing and certification of organic foods. Major supply issues such as the small production base and the low rate of conversion to organic farming and major demand issues such as availability, prices and product integrity are discussed. Areas identified for further research include data collection and reporting of production, consumption and trade of organic products, consumer and producer attitudes towards, and expectations of, organic farming, product integrity and labelling regulation, competition from other sustainable farming systems, and future industry structure of the organic sector. Outputs from the research will provide market information to the organic industry that helps identify marketing opportunities and develop strategies for meeting market requirements and sustaining industry growth.