Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The physiotherapy management of thoracotomy patients: a survey of current practice in Gauteng

Introduction: Physiotherapy treatment is an essential component in the management of patients after open thoracic surgery in order to prevent respiratory complications and improve shoulder and thoracic cage mobility (Reeve, 2008). To date, limited research has been done on patients who have had open thoracotomy surgery. The body of knowledge and evidence on physiotherapy management of thoracotomy patients need to be addressed. The aim of this research report was to establish which physiotherapy treatment modalities are used in the management of thoracotomy patients in Gauteng. Methods: A self-administered questionnaire was used to obtain the data for this descriptive, cross sectional study. A sample of convenience was used and questionnaires were distributed to all physiotherapists registered with the SASP (South African Society of Physiotherapy) in Gauteng. Ethical clearance was obtained from the University of the Witwatersrand Human Research Ethics committee. An expert panel established the content validity of the questionnaire. The provisional questionnaire was piloted electronically via survey monkey. Invitations for participation in the main study were sent out after amendments were made to the questionnaire following the pilot study. Data for the main study was collected over a period of two months. Results: The questionnaire was distributed to 1389 physiotherapists registered with the SASP in Gauteng. Three hundred and twenty three physiotherapists (23.3%) responded. Only 141 of the responders were eligible for inclusion in the study. Ninety-five respondents indicated that they only see thoracotomy patients while still in hospital, 25 said they see these patients only after discharge while 21 respondents treated these patients both during and after hospital stay. The majority of physiotherapists who treat thoracotomy patients were females between the ages of 23 to 69. Results indicated that pre-operative physiotherapy management was most commonly determined by the patients’ risk profiles and consisted of information and respiratory techniques. Prophylactic postoperative management was high and in accordance with studies from Reeve et al (2007) and Agostini et al (2013). The modalities used most commonly were respiratory techniques with deep breathing exercise (97.6%: n=83), coughing (95.3%; n=81) and ACBT (82.4%: n=70), scoring highest. Exercise interventions used were early mobilistation (95.3%; n=81), trunk(85.9; n=73) and upper limb mobility exercises (91.8%; n=78). Limited modalities focused on treating pain with OMT (11.8%; n=10) and
Understanding Characteristics of Biased Sentences in News Articles

Providing balanced and good quality news articles to readers is an important challenge in news recommendation. Often, readers tend to select and read articles which confirm their social environment and their political beliefs. This issue is also known as filter bubble. As a remedy, initial approaches towards automatically detecting bias in news articles have been developed. Obtaining a suitable ground truth for such a task is however difficult. In this paper, we describe ground truth dataset created with the help of crowd-sourcing for fostering research on bias detection and removal from news content. We then analyze the characteristics of the user annotations, in particular concerning bias-inducing words. Our results indicate that determining bias-induced words is subjective to certain degree and that a high agreement on all bias-inducing words of all readers is hard to obtain. We also study the discriminative characteristics of biased content and find that linguistic features, such as negative words, tend to be indicative for bias.
Timing of palliative care referral and symptom burden in phase I cancer patients: A retrospective cohort study.

9062 Background: Phase I (P1) trials offer advanced cancer patients the opportunity to pursue further life-prolonging cancer treatments. In this study, we compared the timing of referral and symptom burden between patients referred to PC by P1 oncologists and those referred by non-Phase I oncologists (NP1). Methods: All 57 patients with advanced solid tumors referred by P1 to our PC outpatient clinic in 2007/2008 were included. The comparison cohort consisted of 114 NP1 patients stratified by age, sex and cancer diagnosis in a 1:2 ratio. We retrieved information regarding patient characteristics, Edmonton Symptom Assessment Scale (ESAS), timing of referral and survival. We compared baseline characteristics with Fisher's exact and median tests, ESAS with t-tests, and time events with log rank tests. Results: Both cohorts had the following matched characteristics: average age 57, female 44% and gastrointestinal cancers 47%. At the time of PC consultation, P1 patients were more likely than NP1 patients to ha.
Screening of Okra Genotypes against Sucking Pests and Yellow vein mosaic virus Disease under Field Conditions

A field experiment was conducted during Rabi, 2009–10 to evaluate 21 different okra genotypes/cultivars for their relative preference to whitefly, Bemisia tabaci (Gennadius); aphids, Aphis gossypii (Glover) and leafhopper, Amrasca biguttula biguttula (Ishida) as well as Yellow vein mosaic virus (YVMV) disease. The genotypes viz., IC331217, IC332453 and IC342075 and cultivars viz., Manisha-211 and Arka Anamika were negligibly preferred over other genotypes/cultivars by whiteflies, aphids, and leafhoppers; showed tolerant reaction to YVMV disease and also recorded higher fruit yields.
Developing Teacher Leadership in Kazakhstan.

This article discusses a series of initiatives to develop non-positional teacher leadership in Kazakhstan. The authors adopt a narrative style in the presentation of an analysis of the process of creating the necessary conditions, and providing appropriate support for teacher leadership. At the centre of the account is a doctoral study undertaken by one of the authors, Gulmira Qanay, using a participatory action research approach. The account is further enriched by reflections from the other authors on their experience of collaboration with Gulmira as school-based practitioners in Kazakhstan and representatives of the HertsCam Network. Key challenges to sustaining teacher leadership in the forthcoming extension of this work are considered.
THE INFLUENCE OF INERTIA ON REPURCHASE INTENTION OF HYPERMARKET CUSTOMERS

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to explore the impact of inertia on consumer repurchase intention and to explore the key factors that influence inertia. This study combined satisfaction, switching barriers, competitor attraction and inertia in order to establish a repurchase intention regression model. Design/methodology/approach: Data were collected using self-administered questionnaires, which were designed by the researchers who referred to the relevant literature. The questionnaires focused on consumers from the top three hypermarkets in north Taiwan; namely, Carrefour, RT-mart and Amart. A total of 1,080 questionnaires were distributed and there were 848 valid returns, with a return rate of 77%. This study applied t test, ANOVA analysis and linear regression analysis in order to explore the relationships among satisfaction, repurchase intention and inertia. Findings: The results showed that inertia has a direct effect on the relationships between switching barriers, competitor attraction, satisfaction and repurchase intention. Moreover, inertia does not have significant moderating effect on satisfaction and repurchase intention. The study also identified that convenience, reasonable price and consumption frequency influence inertia both significantly and directly. Originality/value: Inertia does not reduce the effect of satisfaction on repurchase intention for hypermarket services; however, inertia can improve the effect of switching barriers to repurchase intention in hypermarket services, as well as act as a barrier to competitor attraction to repurchase intention in the moderating relationship model. In addition, hypermarket operators ought to identify the important factors that affect inertia.
Profiling Children with Neural Tube Defects at the University Teaching Hospital, Lusaka, Zambia

Background: Neural tube defects (NTDs) are the world’s second most common birth defects after cardiovascular defects. In developing countries like Zambia, these defects are unrecognized and under reported. Therefore, the aim of this study was to determine the profile of children with NTDs at the University Teaching Hospital (UTH) in Lusaka. Methodology: A retrospective review of medical records of children with NTDs who were admitted at the UTH between January and December, 2010 was done. Data was collected using a data extraction sheet and descriptive analysis was done using Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) version 20. Results: A total of 101 patients with NTDs were identified from the 2010 patients’ register and out of these, only 50 medical records were located, which constituted the study sample. The sample had more boys (58%) than girls (42%). The majority of the children were from Lusaka province with 28%, while the minority were from North-Western and Copperbelt provinces with 2% each. The profile showed that many children (78%) presented with Spina Bifida (SB), with encephalocele (20%) and lastly one with both SB and encephalocele (2%). Myelomeningocele was the most common type of SB (44%) while the lumbar region was the commonest site (52%). Occipital encephalocele (12%) was the commonest cranial NTD compared with the nasal (6%) and frontal (2%). Conclusion: The majority of the children with NTDs admitted at the UTH were from Lusaka province and SB was the most common type of NTDs. Myelomeningocele was the most common presentation while the lumbar region was the most common site. Occipital encephalocele was the commonest compared with other encephaloceles.
EFFECT OF NITRIC OXIDE AND ABSCISIC ACID ON GROWTH DETERMINANTS IN BRASSICA JUNCEA CULTIVARS SUBJECTED TO PEG-INDUCED WATER STRESS

The aim of the present study was to evaluate the effect of different concentrations of sodium nitoprusside [SNP (10, 50, 100, 150 and 200 μΜ)], and abscisic acid [ABA (0.1, 1, 10, 50 and 100 μM) in absence (-) and presence (+) of polyethylene glycol 6000 [PEG 6000 (10%)]-induced water stress on growth determinants, in 7 days old hydroponically grown two Brassica juncea cultivars (Pusa Jagannath and Varuna), subjected to 96 hrs exposure. Results revealed that the growth determinants viz., shoot-root length, shoot-root fresh and dry weight and other root development related parameters decreased under PEG, as compared to control. The effect of SNP and ABA with or without PEG was concentration dependent. In particular, SNP100μM and ABA10μM treatments were optimum, and had efficient effect on promoting the maximum growth determinants of both Brassica cultivars in absence (-PEG) as well as in the presence of (+PEG) of water stress. However, the application of SNP150μM, SNP200μM, ABA50μM and ABA100μM had no obvious alleviating effect on PEG toxicity, as well as could not enhance growth in both cultivars when applied even alone.
The Role of Regional Government Expenditures on Regional Economic Growth in Indonesia

This research aims at empirically proving the composition of local government expenditure (education, health, marine and fisheries, agriculture, and general allocation fund) on economic growth in 18 provinces in Indonesia from 2010 to 2015. The model used in this research is panel data regression. The research results indicate: Firstly, the government expenditure component for marine and fisheries has the greatest contribution in driving economic growth in Indonesia, and this just suits the shape of its territory with 2/3 of it consisting of waters. Secondly; the government expenditure component for agriculture give the second greatest contribution after marine and fisheries expenditure, which suits the employment absorption in Indonesia, i.e. 35 percent of them is absorbed in agriculture sector. Thirdly; the Government expenditures for education and foreign investment have no influence on local economic
Chief Financial Officer Compensation in M&A Activities

Using a sample of U.S. firms during the period 2003-2012, we examine whether M&As impact the compensation of the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) in the bidding and integration phases of M&As. Our findings indicate that CFOs total compensation is higher in the year of acquisition relative to all other CFOs. The higher total compensation of CFOs is driven by higher equity incentives. Furthermore, CFOs receive a greater proportion of their compensation in the form of equity during and immediately after the year of acquisition. We also investigate if CFO compensation during M&A years is driven by M&A characteristics. We find that CFO compensation is higher in M&A years when; the deal size is larger, the time to completion is shorter, and when the target firm has a different 2-digit SIC code. CFO compensation is not associated with the short term change in the acquiring firms share price. * Corresponding author: Helen Spiropoulos, Accounting Discipline Group, The University of Technology Sydney, 2007, New South Wales, Australia. Telephone + 61 2 9514 3567. E-mail address: helen.spiropoulos@uts.edu. au. Acknowledgements: The authors acknowledge participants at a seminar at the University of Technology, Sydney 2
Fish diversity of Damak and lower Terai region of Ratuwa River of Jhapa district, Nepal

Fish samples were collected from twenty five sampling stations of Damak and lower Terai region of Ratuwa River from August, 2018 to October, 2018 by using Cast net, Hapa net, and mosquito nets. We collected 27 fish species of Cypriniformes in two families: Cyprinidae with 12 species and Cobitidae with three species. While order Anguilliformes (Angullidae), Clupeiformes (Clupeidae), and Synbranchiformes (Synbranchidae) got the single family with single fish species. Siluriformes with three families: Schelbeidae with single species, Pangasidae with single species and Claridae with two species. Similarly, Order Perciformes with two families: Belontidae with three species and Channidae with two species were recorded. Some fish of Damak, and Ratuwa River has been plummeting. It is due to over population, over fishing practices, illegal electro-fishing, use of stupefied poison herbs, and use of fry nets. There might be some other reasons for plummeting fish species. This is due to the lack of Knowledge of harmful effects of throwing non degradable things in the water. The common species of Damak and Ratuwa River were Barilius barila, Barilius bendelesis, Guducia chapra Puntius chola, Puntius phutunio, Puntius sophore, Channa punctatus, Channa barca, Esomos danricus, Lepidocephalus guntae, Brachidanio deria, and colisa fasciatus.
The Performance of Swedish Socially Responsible Mutual Funds

This paper evaluates the performance of Swedish socially responsible funds compared to that of conventional funds. When considering all conventional funds in the sample, the evidence shows underperformance of socially responsible funds relative to conventional funds. However, when controlling for the investment universe, size and fund age through matchedpairs analysis we find no statistical differences between the performance of socially responsible investment funds and their conventional counterparts. The results are consistent with those of previous studies as there is evidence of a greater exposure of socially responsible funds to conventional benchmarks relative to social benchmarks. Furthermore, there is evidence that conventional funds are more exposed to small cap stocks than socially responsible funds. Additionally, we assess the persistence of performance, through contingency tables and performance-ranked portfolios. Using risk-adjusted performance measures, we observe no evidence of performance persistence for SR funds and for conventional funds. a School of Economics and Management, University of Minho, Gualtar, 4710-057 Braga, Portugal Tel: +351 253 604550 Fax: +351 253 601380 b NIPE School of Economics and Management, University of Minho, Gualtar, 4710-057 Braga, Portugal Tel: +351 253 604550 Fax: +351 253 601380
Mechanism for Emissions Control at Work

We experimentally test the truth-telling mechanism proposed by Montero (2008) for eliciting firms’ abatement costs. We compare this mechanism with two well-known alternative allocation mechanisms, grandfathering and pure auctioning. We conducted 27 treatments with a total of 623 participants, controlling for the allocation mechanism, the number of firms, and the true maximal emission levels. We find that, in line with the theoretical predictions, firms over-report their maximal emissions under grandfathering and under-report them under pure auctioning, while under Montero’s mechanism firms almost always report their maximal emissions truthfully. However, in terms of efficiency, the difference between Montero’s mechanism and pure auctioning disappears when there is more than one firm in the market. JEL Classification: C92; D44; L51; Q28
Heavy Metal Accumulation in Muscle Tissue of Microtus guentheri (Danford and Alston 1880) from Korkuteli-Antalya, Turkey

Different sources, including mining activities are polluting the environment by heavy metal release. The objective of this study was to determine the concentrations of seventeen heavy metals (Fe, Al, Zn, Cu, Cr, Mn, Sr, Ni, Ba, Se, V, Sn, Pb, As, Co, Mo and Cd) in muscle from wild rodent Microtus guentheri from a natural region which is near mine and stone quarry activities in Korkuteli-Antalya. Prior to this study there was no information available on the heavy metal accumulation in muscle tissue for this species in this region. It’s important to determine the heavy metal accumulation levels of muscle in Microtus guentheri as biomonitor. The order of mean concentration of the heavy metals in samples was Fe>Al>Zn>Cu>Cr>Mn>Sr>Ni>Ba>Se>V>Sn>Pb>As>Co>Mo>Cd. The toxic heavy metal pollution began in the vicinity of Korkuteli. Case, is thought to be due to mine sources, like marble and stone quarries and maybe agricultural activities.
Determinants of Bank Performance in Jamaica

The recent global financial crisis has underscored the importance of sound bank liquidity management. This paper analyzes the performance of Jamaica’s banking system by looking at the impact of the banks’ liquid assets holdings on profitability with a bid to improving financial system soundness. To measure performance of the deposit taking institutions (DTIs), the paper used return on assets (ROA) as a proxy for profitability performance. Two econometric approaches were conducted to make inferences, an Ordinary Least Square (OLS) for each bank sub-sector and a 2-step General Method of Moments (GMM) Dynamic Panel for the banking system. The results suggest that there is an inverse relationship between profitability and liquid assets holdings for the sub-sectors. In addition, the result for commercial banks was more robust when an interactive dummy was utilized in the panel. The panel consisted of quarterly data from 2000Q1-2012Q1 for six commercial banks, four building societies and two FIA licensees. Macroeconomic variables were also included to test the profitability performance of banks when the economy deteriorated. It was found that when the country’s debt level continued on its deterministic trend, the impact on profitability was negative. In addition, the relationship between non-performing loans and profitability suggests an indirect link to unemployment.
CEO Characteristics and Earnings Management: Evidence from Mergers and Acquisitions

Previous research suggests that share-financed acquirers inflate their earnings before merger and acquisition announcements. The existing literature also indicates that characteristics of chief executive officers (CEO) could affect earnings management. In this study, we extend prior studies by examining the relationships between CEO characteristics and accrual earnings management in share-financed acquirers before mergers and acquisitions. We find that CEOs with high financial expertise and high reputation are associated with lower abnormal accruals in stock acquirers. The correlations are statistically significant and consistently exist in the first year before deal announcements. The findings are robust as we measure abnormal accruals in different ways and employ different models. The evidence suggests that CEO characteristics have an impact on earnings management in the contexts of mergers and acquisitions and have some implications for practitioners.
Non-Audit Service Fees, Auditor Characteristics and Earnings Restatements

The objective of the study is to provide empirical evidence of the impact of non-audit services (NAS) as well as other auditor characteristics on auditor independence by testing the relationship of NAS fees to the occurrence of financial statement restatements. The authors tested whether firms that restate their financial statements have higher levels of total service fees or higher levels of NAS fees than non-restatement firms. The testing also includes an examination of the relationship between the audit firm size and the audit firm industry specialization to financial statement restatements. The study found only limited evidence to support the concept that firms with higher NAS fees are more likely to restate earnings. The study did find stronger evidence that the level of total fees paid to the audit firm is significant in the predictability of a restatement. Results demonstrate the necessity of regulations concerning NAS and conflict of interest.
How Do Early-Life Shocks Interact with Subsequent Human Capital Investments? Evidence from Administrative Data

We explore how early-life shocks interact with subsequent human capital investments to influence children’s long-term outcomes. Using large-scale administrative data from Colombia, we combine a difference-in-difference framework with a regression discontinuity design to exploit two sources of exogenous variation: i) early-life exposure to adverse weather shocks that affect children’s initial skills and ii), the introduction of conditional cash transfers (CCT) that promote investments in children’s health and education. We show that the timing and type of CCT-induced investments matter for both the effects of CCTs and their interactive effects with weather shocks. When the CCT-induced investments occur in sensitive periods of human capital formation (e.g., early childhood), the effects are large and their interactive effects with weather conditions suggest that the returns of the program are even larger for children exposed to “normal” weather conditions. In contrast, CCT-induced investments that come relatively late in childhood (e.g., adolescence), have a smaller “main” effect and a smaller or zero interactive effect with weather shocks. We also find that initial CCT-induced health investments tend to have larger returns than initial CCT-induced educational investments. These findings shed new light on the developmental production function for human capital and the role of social policies in closing gaps generated by early-life adversities.