Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The INTERSALT study: results for 24 hour sodium and potassium, by age and sex. INTERSALT Co-operative Research Group.

The relations by age and sex of urinary sodium, potassium and sodium/potassium ratio to blood pressure were examined in the 5,045 men and 5,034 women of the INTERSALT Study. With adjustment for age, and combining (pooling) regression coefficients over the 52 centres of the study, sodium excretion was positively and significantly related to the blood pressure of individuals in both men and women. These positive and significant relationships were also found in seven of eight age-sex specific analyses. In most analyses, z-scores suggested stronger associations in women than in men: the size of regression coefficients in women was as much as twice that of the corresponding coefficients in men. In age-specific analyses for men and women combined, sodium excretion was positively related to blood pressure, significantly so for systolic pressure at all ages and for diastolic pressure at ages 50-59; regression coefficients tended to be larger at older compared to younger ages. Results for sodium/potassium ratio in individuals were similar to those for sodium, being stronger in women than in men, and (at least for systolic pressure) at older compared to younger ages. With adjustment for confounding variables, potassium excretion was negatively and significantly related to the blood pressure of individuals; again these relationships tended to be more marked at older ages. Across the centres, median sodium excretion was positively and significantly related to the slope of systolic and diastolic blood pressure with age in men, in both the 52 and 48 centre analyses, and with and without adjustment for confounding variables. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Survival and outcomes following bioprosthetic vs mechanical mitral valve replacement in patients aged 50 to 69 years.

IMPORTANCE In nonelderly patients with mitral disease requiring valve replacement, deciding between bioprosthetic and mechanical prosthetic valves is challenging because long-term survival and morbidity are not well defined. OBJECTIVE To quantify survival and major morbidity after mitral valve replacement in patients aged 50 to 69 years. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS Retrospective cohort analysis of 3433 patients (aged 50-69 years) who underwent primary, isolated mitral valve replacement in New York State hospitals from 1997-2007. Follow-up ended November 30, 2013; median duration was 8.2 years (range, 0-16.8 years). Propensity score matching for 19 baseline characteristics yielded 664 patient pairs. EXPOSURES Bioprosthetic vs mechanical prosthetic mitral valve replacement. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES All-cause mortality, stroke, reoperation, and major bleeding events. RESULTS No survival difference was observed between use of mechanical prosthetic and bioprosthetic mitral valves in patients aged 50 to 69 years matched by propensity score or in a subgroup analysis of age by decade. Among patients matched by propensity score, the incidences of stroke and bleeding events were both significantly higher in those who received mechanical prosthetic mitral valves compared with those who received bioprosthetic mitral valves; however, the incidence of reoperation was lower in the mechanical prosthesis group compared with the bioprosthesis group. [table: see text] CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE Among patients aged 50 to 69 years undergoing mitral valve replacement in New York State, there was no significant survival difference at 15 years in patients matched by propensity score who underwent mechanical prosthetic vs bioprosthetic mitral valve replacement. Mechanical prosthetic valves were associated with lower risk of reoperation but greater risk of bleeding and stroke. Even though these findings suggest bioprosthetic mitral valve replacement may be a reasonable alternative to mechanical prosthetic valve replacement in patients aged 50 to 69 years, the 15-year follow-up was insufficient to fully assess lifetime risks, particularly of reoperation.
Measuring Price Risk in Rating Revenue Coverage: BS or No BS?

&NA; The Black‐Scholes (BS) option pricing model has been a cornerstone of modern financial theories since its introduction by Black and Scholes (1973) and its subsequent refinement by Merton (1973). The model has realized widespread adoption for a number of purposes. Inherent in the model are a number of assumptions. An important and potentially restrictive assumption is that the underlying asset price is log‐normally distributed. Among the many diverse uses of the BS model, the model and underlying theory are used to derive measurements of the variance of expected (harvest‐time) prices for use in rating revenue coverage in the federal crop insurance program. Revenue coverage currently accounts for about 80% of the total liability insured in the program. This liability frequently exceeds $100 billion and thus the accuracy of revenue premium rates is of vital importance. The use of the BS model by the Risk Management Agency (RMA) of the USDA has been the focus of recent criticisms of the program. Critics have argued in favor of retrospective measures of price variability that are based on historical price movements or have recommended other approaches to measuring price risk. This article reports on a contracted review of revenue insurance rating methodology commissioned by RMA. We evaluate a number of alternative approaches to measuring expected price variability, including several approaches recommended by critics of the federal program. Our results suggest that the BS model is preferred to recommended alternatives on the basis of numerous criteria.
Information Content of Analysts' Report: A Literature Survey

The objective of this paper is to survey the literature on the information content of analyst report from three essential dimensions, namely, target price, earnings forecast and trading volume. The method employed is following the qualitative approach by reviewing and examining the past literature from the view of theoretical and empirical researchers. The initial result from existing literature, reveals that the research in analyst report mainly focused on empirical research rather than theoretical perspective. Secondly, there no clear consensus on the consistency of results regarding how well the information contents involving target price, earnings forecast and trading volume influencing the stock return. Thus, the views whether analyst report transmitting information to the investors still remain unambiguous when making an investment decision. This study is expected to enrich the existing literature in the area of analyst report and propose several areas for future researchers related to this topic. DOI: 10.15408/etk.v17i1. 6669
Urinary acidification in the prevention and treatment of feline struvite urolithiasis.

Two groups of 12 cats were fed ad libitum an experimental dry expanded ration high in magnesium (0.37%, dry matter basis) and similar to most commercial dry cat foods in all other nutrients. The diet of one of the groups contained 1.5% ammonium chloride, which was added to the diet before processing. Urethral obstruction developed twice in 7 of the 12 cats fed the ration without ammonium chloride. Of the 5 remaining cats in that group, 2 had calculi in the urinary bladder and urethra at necropsy. In contrast, only 2 of the 12 cats fed the ration containing ammonium chloride had urethral blockage once; neither cat had another blockage. Both cats had been catheterized twice as paired controls before urethral obstruction. One of these 2 cats died from a urinary tract infection apparently introduced through the indwelling catheter, and at necropsy there were 2 small calculi in the urethra. At the end of the study, only 1 other cat fed the ammonium chloride diet had a calculus in the urinary bladder at necropsy; this cat had not had a urethral obstruction throughout the study. After each cat had 2 urethral blockages, its diet was changed. Four cats were fed the ration containing ammonium chloride and 3, a dry, commercial ration. Of the 4 cats fed the diet containing ammonium chloride, none developed another urethral obstruction within 6 months, and at necropsy, no calculi were in the urinary bladder or urethra. Two of the 3 cats fed the commercial ration experienced urethral blockage within 3 months. These 2 cats were then fed the diet containing ammonium chloride. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Being Blind to Agenda-Setting: A Reporter's Journey

Various studies have shown that the news media can set the agenda for what issues the public thinks about, along with how they should think about them, which could lead to significant consequences in both positive and negative ways. To help shed more light on this issue, I used an autoenthographical and grounded theory approach to look at whether I participated in the process in a negative way when I covered the Lake Superior School District as a reporter at the Lake County News-Chronicle in Two Harbors, Minnesota. While doing this research, I found I did partake in the negative style of agenda-setting. This has led me to develop a plan of action, through the use of autoethnography, for how other journalists can avoid it to an extent in the future by being more conscious of their own biases. Through this process, I also advance a strategy teachers can use to educate journalism students about how to cope with negative agendasetting: by using more self-reflections when writing journalistic articles. Problems related to the application of agenda-setting theory are also brought forth.
Time Preferences between Individuals and Groups in the Transition from Hunter-Gatherer to Industrial Societies

Three societies, namely the hunter-gatherer, the agrarian and the industrial, represent the course of human history of cultural and economic development. In this course, each society exhibits distinct cultures and daily life practices that shape human behaviors and preferences, characterizing temporal actions and consequences at the individual and group levels. We examine individual and group time preferences and their relation across the three societies. To this end, we conduct a field experiment to elicit individual and group discount factors in three societies of Indonesia—(i) the fisheries, (ii) the farming and (iii) the urban societies—as proxies of the hunter-gatherer, agrarian and industrial societies, respectively. We find that both individual and group discount factors are the lowest (highest) in the fisheries (agrarian) society, while those in the urban society are in the middle. We also observe that the determinants of group discount factors differ across societies: members of the lowest and middle discount factors in a group play an important role in determining the group discount factor in the fisheries society, while only the members with the middle discount factor are key in agrarian and urban societies. Overall, our results suggest that individual and group discount factors non-monotonically change as societies transition from fisheries to agrarian and from agrarian to urban and that comparatively shortsighted people (the lowest and middle) are more influential than farsighted people in determining group time preferences.
Does Fair Value Accounting Reduce Prices and Create Illiquidity

Concerns about the use of fair value accounting commonly focus on the sensitivity of market prices to exogenous liquidity shocks. In this paper, we show that the use of fair value accounting for assets without an active market endogenously creates illiquidity. The underlying mechanism is the discretion in fair value reports when prices are unavailable. Firms use this discretion to report aggressively, leading to two market e ects. On the plus side, by revealing an upper bound on an asset's value, fair value reporting leads to lower prices than would occur in a conservative regime. This is an indication that prices are more e cient than under conservatism, as the reports protect investors from paying information rents. The downside is that fair value reports cannot credibly convey a lower bound on an asset's value, causing illiquidity. We con rm these e ects in a laboratory experiment.
Purchasing in service triads: the influence of contracting on contract management

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate purchasing practices in service triads by exploring the link between ex ante contracting and ex post contract management and how these practices influence the satisfaction of buyers and suppliers (in concessionary arrangements) with their relationship in terms of meeting the needs of the buyer’s customers. Design/methodology/approach An in-depth exploratory multiple case study was carried out in a shop-in-shop context. Multi-method and multi-source data collection included interviews, documents and the contracts between buyer and supplier, providing evidence of the formal and relational structures in both the contracting and contract management stages. Findings The case findings provide evidence that behavioural standards established in a social contract are important prerequisites for the establishment and subsequent management of a formal contract. Second, this study shows that, when outsourcing core services in a service triad, a combination of performance-oriented and behavioural-oriented contract terms, covering a mix of topics related to both the customer-experience and to buyer-supplier-oriented aspects, contribute to aligning the buyer’s, suppliers’ and customers’ interests. The main findings are presented in a causal model and formulated as propositions. Originality/value This paper is one of the first studies to explore how core services are outsourced in a service triad. It provides evidence that the social contract between buyer and supplier influences the establishment of the formal contract as well as contract management, and a mix of contract topics, some related to the customers’ experience and others purely buyer-supplier oriented, contribute to the alignment of buyer’s, suppliers’ and customers’ interests.
Toll-like receptor pathway evolution in deuterostomes

Significance Innate immunity provides critical defense against pathogen invasion, and mutations in its cellular mechanisms have been implicated in autoimmunity, immune suppression, and other disease-producing conditions. However, knowledge of innate immunity pathways is largely biased toward model species. Thus, evolutionary interpretations suffer from large taxonomic gaps that ultimately weaken the strength of evolutionary inference. Our phylogenetic approach shows that the molecular machinery of the canonical TLR pathway was present in the last deuterostome ancestor before the rise of chordate lineages. Thus, TLR pathways with multiple gene–gene interactions have been conserved for more than 500 million years within vertebrates. Moreover, we provide evidence suggesting TLR3 may represent an ancient, evolutionarily conserved molecular interface for viral immune stimulation present across Deuterostomia. Animals have evolved an array of pattern-recognition receptor families essential for recognizing conserved molecular motifs characteristic of pathogenic microbes. One such family is the Toll-like receptors (TLRs). On pathogen binding, TLRs initiate specialized cytokine signaling catered to the class of invading pathogen. This signaling is pivotal for activating adaptive immunity in vertebrates, suggesting a close evolutionary relationship between innate and adaptive immune systems. Despite significant advances toward understanding TLR-facilitated immunity in vertebrates, knowledge of TLR pathway evolution in other deuterostomes is limited. By analyzing genomes and transcriptomes across 37 deuterostome taxa, we shed light on the evolution and diversity of TLR pathway signaling elements. Here, we show that the deuterostome ancestor possessed a molecular toolkit homologous to that which drives canonical MYD88-dependent TLR signaling in contemporary mammalian lineages. We also provide evidence that TLR3-facilitated antiviral signaling predates the origin of its TCAM1 dependence recognized in the vertebrates. SARM1, a negative regulator of TCAM1-dependent pathways in vertebrates, was also found to be present across all major deuterostome lineages despite the apparent absence of TCAM1 in invertebrate deuterostomes. Whether the presence of SARM1 is the result of its role in immunity regulation, neuron physiology, or a function of both is unclear. Additionally, Bayesian phylogenetic analyses corroborate several lineage-specific TLR gene expansions in urchins and cephalochordates. Importantly, our results underscore the need to sample across taxonomic groups to understand evolutionary patterns of the innate immunity foundation on which complex immunological novelties arose.
Internal audit organisational status, competencies, activities and fraud management in the financial services sector

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to study the relationship between internal audit organisational status, competencies, activities and fraud management. As a corollary, this paper examines the contribution made by the internal audit organisational status, the internal audit competence and the internal audit activities on fraud management in financial services firms. Design/methodology/approach This study is cross-sectional and correlational, and it uses firm-level data that were collected by means of a questionnaire survey from a sample of 54 financial services firms in Kampala – Uganda. Findings Results suggest that the internal audit organisational status and the internal audit competence are significant predictors of fraud management. Contrary to previous thinking, internal audit activities do not significantly predict fraud management. Therefore, once internal auditors have appropriate status and are competent in an organisation, they are likely to perform activities that enhance fraud management. Research limitations/implications This study focuses on financial services firms in Uganda, and it is possible that these results are only applicable to the financial services sector. More research is therefore needed to further understand the contribution of the internal audit constructs on fraud management in other sectors such as the public sector. Practical implications The results are important for internal audit policy development, for example, in terms of prescribing the competences and reporting lines for the internal auditors to enhance fraud management in the financial services sector. Originality/value As far as the authors are aware, no research has hitherto been undertaken that investigates the individual contribution of internal audit organisation status, competence and its activities as internal audit constructs on fraud management.
Population Variability of Nonacosan‐10‐ol and n‐Alkanes in Needle Cuticular Waxes of Macedonian Pine (Pinus peuce Griseb.)

This is the first report on population variability of nonacosan‐10‐ol and n‐alkanes in needle epicuticular waxes of Macedonian pine (Pinus peuce Griseb.) Hexane extracts of needle samples, originating from two natural populations in Montenegro (Zeletin and Sjekirica) and from one population in Serbia (Mokra Gora) were analyzed by gas chromatography (GC) and gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS). The amount of nonacosan‐10‐ol varied individually from 41.3 to 72.31% (average 55.9%), with the Sjekirica population being statistically divergent (64.4% on average). The results showed n‐alkanes in epicuticular waxes ranging from C18 to C33. The most abundant alkanes were C29, C25, C27, and C23 (15.5, 11.1, 10.6, and 10.5% on average, resp.). The carbon preference index of Pinus peuce ranged from 1.0 to 4.3 (1.9 on average). Average chain length ranged from 18.4 to 27.7 (average 25.7). A high level of inidividual quantitative variation in all of these hydrocarbon parameters was also detected. These results were compared with published data on other species from the Pinus genus.
Analyzing Length-Biased Data With Semiparametric Transformation and Accelerated Failure Time Models

Right-censored time-to-event data are often observed from a cohort of prevalent cases that are subject to length-biased sampling. Informative right censoring of data from the prevalent cohort within the population often makes it difficult to model risk factors on the unbiased failure times for the general population, because the observed failure times are length biased. In this paper, we consider two classes of flexible semiparametric models: the transformation models and the accelerated failure time models, to assess covariate effects on the population failure times by modeling the length-biased times. We develop unbiased estimating equation approaches to obtain the consistent estimators of the regression coefficients. Large sample properties for the estimators are derived. The methods are confirmed through simulations and illustrated by application to data from a study of a prevalent cohort of dementia patients.
The Memory of Stock Return Volatility: Asset Pricing Implications

We examine long memory volatility in the cross-section of stock returns. We show that long memory volatility is widespread in the United States and that the degree of memory can be related to firm characteristics, such as market capitalization, book-to-market ratio, prior performance, and price jumps. Long memory volatility is negatively priced in the cross-section. Buying stocks with shorter memory and selling stocks with longer memory in volatility generates significant excess returns of 1.71% per annum. Consistent with theory, we find that the volatility of stocks with longer memory is more predictable than stocks with shorter memory. This makes the latter more uncertain, which is compensated for with higher average returns.
Intratympanic Steroid Injections as a Salvage Treatment for Sudden Sensorineural Hearing Loss: A Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Study

Objective: The purpose of this study was to determine, through a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial, whether intratympanic steroid injections (ITSIs) could improve hearing recovery in patients with sudden sensorineural hearing loss (SSHL) who did not respond to initial systemic steroid therapy. Study Design: This was a prospective, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study. Setting: The study was conducted in 2 tertiary referral centers. Patients: A total of 60 patients with idiopathic SSHL who did not respond to an initial round of systemic steroid therapy were included in this study. The subjects were randomized into an ITSI group and an intratympanic normal saline injection (ITNI) group, which were matched by age and sex. A total of 55 subjects completed the study. Intervention: Participants received either ITSIs or ITNIs. Both groups received 4 injections within a 2-week period. Main Outcome Measures: Pure-tone thresholds were compared between the 2 groups 1 month after injection therapy. Results: In the ITNI group, the pure-tone threshold was 69.9 ± 18.5 dB before intratympanic injection therapy. After therapy, the hearing threshold improved by an average of 4.5 ± 6.5 dB, and 10.7% of subjects improved by 10 dB or more. In the ITSI group, the pure-tone threshold was 64.6 ± 17.7 dB before intratympanic injection therapy. After the therapy, the hearing threshold improved by an average of 9.8 ± 8.5 dB, and 44.4% of subjects improved by 10 dB or more. Both the response rate and the level of hearing improvement were significantly greater in the ITSI group than in the ITNI group. Conclusion: These results demonstrate that ITSIs are beneficial as a salvage therapy for the treatment of patients with idiopathic SSHL who fail to respond to initial systemic steroid therapy.