Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
HACCP and Food Hygiene in Hospitals Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices of Food-Services Staff in Calabria, Italy

Abstract Objectives: To determine adherence to Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) methods and to evaluate knowledge, attitudes, and practices of food-services staff with regard to food hygiene in hospitals. Design: A survey. Participants: Hospital medical directors and food-services staff of 36 hospitals in Calabria, Italy. Methods: A questionnaire about hospital characteristics, food-services organization, and measures and procedures for the control and prevention of foodborne diseases was sent to medical directors; a questionnaire about demographic and practice characteristics, knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors about control and prevention of foodborne diseases was sent to food-services staff. Multiple logistic regression analysis was performed. Results: Only 54% of the 27 responding hospitals were using the HACCP system and, of those using HACCP, 79% adopted a food-hygiene–practice manual; more than one half already had developed written procedures for food storage, personal hygiene, cleaning and disinfection; one half or less performed microbiological assessment of foods and surfaces. Of the 290 food-services staff who responded, 78.8% were aware of the five leading food-borne pathogens; this knowledge was significantly higher among those with a higher educational level and those who worked in hospitals that had implemented the HACCP system. Younger staff and those who had attended continuing educational courses about food hygiene and hospital foodborne diseases had a significantly higher knowledge of safe temperatures for food storage. A positive attitude toward foodborne-diseases prevention was reported by the great majority, and it was significantly higher in older respondents and in those working in hospitals with a lower number of beds. Only 54.9% of those involved in touching or serving unwrapped raw or cooked foods routinely used gloves during this activity; this practice was significantly greater among younger respondents and in those working in hospitals using HACCP. Conclusion: Full implementation of the HACCP system and infection control policies in hospital food services is needed.
Financial Constraints, Institutions, and Firm Productivity: Evidence from China

ABSTRACT This paper investigates whether Chinese firms utilize trade credit as an alternative financial intermediation to alleviate financial constraints, and whether trade credit matters for firm productivity. The results show that trade credit significantly affects firm productivity in private and foreign-owned firms but not state-owned enterprises, indicating that trade credit is an efficient financial intermediation for non-state firms. Second, trade credit better helps firms that have severe financial constraints grow. Third, the mechanism of trade credit and TFP is by the substitution effect of cash flow, the smoothing effect of working capital and the drive of innovation. Finally, the impact of trade credit on productivity is driven by the regions under a more institutionally developed environment.
An assessment of RNA content in Prymnesium parvum, Prymnesium polylepis, cf. Chattonella sp. and Karlodinium veneficum under varying environmental conditions for calibrating an RNA microarray for species detection.

Traditional methods of identification and enumeration can be somewhat ambiguous when identifying phytoplankton that requires electron microscopic examination to verify specific morphological features. Members of the genus Prymnesium (division Haptophyta), members of the Raphidophyceae and naked dinoflagellates are examples of such phytoplankton whose identification can be difficult. One alternative to traditional microscopy-based methods of identification is to use molecular protocols to detect target species. Methods that measure cellular DNA and RNA content can be used to estimate the number of cells present in a sample. This study investigated the variation of RNA yields in Prymnesium parvum, P. polylepis, cf. Chattonella sp. and Karlodinium veneficum cells grown under different light, temperature, salinity and inorganic nutrient conditions. This information was used to calibrate the signal intensity of a variety of oligonucleotide probes spotted onto the microarrays for the detection of toxic algae (MIDTAL), which is being developed to aid national monitoring agencies and to provide a faster means of identifying and quantifying harmful phytoplankton in water column samples.
Effect of UVA and UVB Irradiation on the Metabolic Profile of Rabbit Cornea and Lens Analysed by HR-MAS 1H NMR Spectroscopy

Purpose:The aim of the study was to investigate the metabolic profiles of intact rabbit corneas and lenses exposed to UVA and UVB radiation by using high-resolution (HR) magic angle spinning (MAS) 1H nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy and pattern recognition methods. Methods:Adult albino rabbits were exposed to UVA (366 nm, 0.589 J/cm2) or UVB (312 nm, 1.667 J/cm2) radiation for 8 min, once a day for 5 days. Three days after the last irradiation day, samples of corneas and lenses were dissected. HR-MAS 1H NMR spectroscopy combined with pattern recognition methods (principal component analysis and soft independent modelling of class analogy) and one-way ANOVA were applied to obtain metabolic information from intact corneal and lens tissue. Results: UVB irradiation caused statistically significant metabolic changes in the rabbit corneas. A decrease in metabolites as ascorbate (84%), myo-inositol (59%), hypotaurine (91%) and choline (76%) was observed. Exposure to UVA radiation caused no significant metabolic alteration in this tissue. The metabolic profile of the rabbit lenses showed no detectable changes after UVA or UVB exposure. Conclusions:The combination of HR-MAS 1H NMR spectroscopy and multivariate methods proved effective to analyse intact corneal and lens tissue after exposure to UV radiation of different wavelengths. By avoiding extraction methods and obtaining complete metabolic profiles from one sample, HR-MAS 1H NMR spectroscopy provided important information about metabolic alteration occurring in rabbit corneal and lens tissue after UV exposure.
IMPLEMENTASI MARKET DAY DALAM MENGEMBANGKAN ENTREPRENEURSHIP ANAK USIA DINI DI TKIT AN-NAJAH KABUPATEN ACEH TENGAH

This research discussed the market day activities to improve children entrepreneurship of TKIT Sunnah An-Najah of Central Aceh and to find out entrepreneurial value of the students. This is descriptive field research. It used three data collection methods, including observation, interview, and documentation. To make the market day activities easier to understand, the researcher divided them into three processes: planning, application, and assessment. Furthermore, the application of having those students get into entrepreneurial value also involves fostering the values of entrepreneurship before and after the market day activity. The values desired are bravery, self-confidence, independence, good behavior, honesty, sense of appreciation, work commitment, discipline, cooperative and being communicative and oriented towards results. Through this observation, it is found that the conduction of the market day activities can help stimulate children's cognitive and socio-emotional growth, language skills, and physical-motor development. Keyword: market day, entrepreneurship Penelitian ini membahas kegiatan market day dalam mengembangkan entrepreneurship pada anak di TKIT Sunnah An-Najah Kabupaten Aceh Tengah dan untuk mengetahui nilai-nilai entrepreneurship yang ditanamkan pada anak dengan kegiatan market day di TKIT Sunnah An-Najah Kecamatan Bebesen Kabupaten Aceh Tengah. Jenis penelitian ini adalah deskriptif dengan menggunakan pendekatan field research yang dilaksanakan di TKIT Sunnah An-Najah Kabupaten Aceh Tengah. Teknik pengumpulan data yang digunakan adalah observasi, wawancara, dokumentasi. Implementasi kegiatan market day dalam mengembangkan entrepreneurship dilakukan dengan perencanaan, pelaksanaan serta penilaian. Pelaksanaan Kegiatan market day dalam mengembangkan entrepreneurship meliputi pra market day, saat market day serta pasca market day. Pelaksanaan entrepreneurship dapat mengembangkan aspek perkembangan kognitif, sosio-emosional, bahasa, dan fisik motorik anak dapat bertambah. Nilai-nilai entrepreneurship yang ditanamkan pada anak dengan kegiatan market day yaitu berani, pecaya diri, mandiri, santun, menghargai, jujur, berorientasi pasar, berorientasi tugas, berorientasi hasil, disiplin, kooperatif, komunikatif. Kata kunci: market day, kewirausahaan
Nursing needs of acutely ill older people.

BACKGROUND Investigating older acutely ill hospitalized patients' nursing needs and quality of care is paramount, given the growing pressure on nurses to provide increasingly intensive levels of care to a growing older population while at the same time working with reduced staffing levels. AIMS The aims of this study were to determine: (1) important aspects of nursing care as perceived by older patients, their family member/carer who observed care during hospitalization, and nurses; (2) satisfaction levels of patients, family/carers and nurses on nursing care received; and (3) mismatches between nursing care priorities and satisfaction with nursing care. METHODS Two hundred and thirty-two acutely ill patients aged over 65 years, 99 carers/family members and 90 nurses completed the Caregiving Activities Survey, which measures importance of and satisfaction with various aspects of nursing care. Qualitative data, which qualified responses to survey items, were also obtained from participants. RESULTS Patients, carers and nurses perceived that carrying out doctors' orders was the most important aspect of nursing care, followed by physical care, psychosocial care and discharge planning. Nurses and carers rated physical care, psychosocial care and discharge planning more highly than patients. Physical care was rated highly by patients in terms of importance, but rated moderately in terms of satisfaction. Carers' and patients' ratings of satisfaction with physical care were lower than nurses' ratings of opportunities to provide it. The importance of discharge planning was rated highly by nurses but all groups were only moderately satisfied with this aspect of care. STUDY LIMITATIONS The findings do not apply to acutely ill older patients with confusion, mental illness or more than early stage dementia. CONCLUSIONS Patients, nurses and family/carers were generally in agreement about the relative importance of particular aspects of nursing care. Nurses may need to communicate more effectively with older patients and their family carers about the particular roles they will play during the patient's hospital episode, the expectations they have of patients in the process of healing and recovery, and the reasons for the actions they take in aiding this process. The findings are useful in making nurses more aware of the expectations and needs of older hospital patients and their carers. They provide evidence for developing both new models of nursing care for this patient group, and nursing education programmes.
RELIGIOUS AFFILIATION AND UNDER-FIVE MORTALITY IN MOZAMBIQUE

Summary The influence of religion on health remains a subject of considerable debate both in developed and developing settings. This study examines the connection between the religious affiliation of the mother and under-five mortality in Mozambique. It uses unique retrospective survey data collected in a predominantly Christian area in Mozambique to compare under-five mortality between children of women affiliated to organized religion and children of non-affiliated women. It finds that mother's affiliation to any religious organization, as compared with non-affiliation, has a significant positive effect on child survival net of education and other socio-demographic factors. When the effects of affiliation to specific denominational groups are examined, only affiliation to the Catholic or mainstream Protestant churches and affiliation to Apostolic churches are significantly associated with improved child survival. It is argued that the advantages of these groups may be achieved through different mechanisms: the favourable effect on child survival of having mothers affiliated to the Catholic or mainstream Protestant churches is probably due to these churches' stronger connections to the health sector, while the beneficial effect of having an Apostolic mother is probably related to strong social ties and mutual support in Apostolic congregations. The findings thus shed light on multiple pathways through which organized religion can affect child health and survival in sub-Saharan Africa and similar developing settings.
Chapter 8 Mentoring Institutional Change: Intergenerational Construction of Meso-structure and the Emergence of New Logics in American Healthcare

Author(s): Dokko, G; Nigam, A; Chung, D | Abstract: © 2019 by Emerald Publishing Limited All rights of reproduction in any form reserved. The emergence of an evidence-based medicine logic represents a major change in the large and complex field of American healthcare. In this analytical case study, the authors show that the intellectual school of evidence-based medicine became an important meso-structure that facilitated the growth of the new logic in American healthcare. The new intellectual school was a community of scholars who generated shared rules and resources through intergenerational mentoring. The school engaged in advocacy to advance new intellectual paradigms for conceptualizing healthcare quality that, when connected with material practices in the field of American healthcare, came to form a new institutional logic.
Predicting internet usage in two emerging economies using an extended technology acceptance model (TAM)

This study employed an extended technology acceptance model (TAM) to predict Internet usage in two developing countries (Chile and United Arab Emirates (UAE)). In addition to investigating the impacts of perceived ease of use (PEOU), perceived usefulness (PU), and perceived Internet content (PIC) on studentspsila usage of the Internet, it analyzed the direct impacts of external variables such as gender, educational background, income level, self-reported measure of computer knowledge, Internet cost, and Internet availability on Internet usage and their moderating role in the relationship between PEOU, PU, and PIC and Internet usage. To test the hypothesized relationships, we extended the research model that was developed by [1] was extended by adding more factors to it. To validate the research model, data was collected from 169 students from Chile and 194 students from United Arab Emirates (UAE). The results showed that only PU was a significant predictor of Internet usage for both Emirates and Chilean samples. Additionally, while gender significantly impacted Emirates studentspsila usage of Internet, self-reported knowledge about computers significantly impacted Chilean studentspsila usage of the Internet. Income level was the only significant moderator for both countries. PU affected usage of the Internet more positively for students with high income level than it did for those students with low income. Discussion of the practical implications of these results is included was addressed.
Linkage disequilibrium analysis of the dopamine beta-hydroxylase gene in persistent attention deficit hyperactivity disorder

Numerous family, twin and adoption studies have reported a strong genetic component for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). In addition, an extensive amount of literature has implicated abnormalities of the dopaminergic system. In view of this evidence, genes that influence dopaminergic transmission have become prime candidates for molecular genetic investigations of ADHD. There are currently three studies (Daly et al., 1999; Roman et al., 2002; Wigg et al., 2002) that have found an association between the dopamine beta-hydroxylase gene (DBH) TaqI 2 allele and childhood ADHD. As such, we tested for association of the DBH TaqI 2 allele in two independent samples of patients with the persistent variant of ADHD. These consisted of 97 nuclear families, and 112 adult cases with controls carefully matched according to gender, age and ethnicity. Transmission Disequilibrium Test analysis revealed weak over-transmission of the 2 allele (35 transmissions versus 27 non-transmissions; χ2 = 1.03, 1 degree of freedom, P=0.31). The case–control sample did not support previous findings since the 2 allele was more frequent in our control sample (137 versus 116; χ2=3.63, 1 degree of freedom, P=0.057). Taken together, these results do not provide support for a role of the DBH TaqI marker in our persistent ADHD samples.
Early Childhood Development and Social Mobility

Steven Barnett and Clive Belfield examine the effects of preschool education on social mobility in the United States. They note that under current policy three- and four-year-old children from economically and educationally disadvantaged families have higher preschool attendance rates than other children. But current programs fail to enroll even half of poor three- and four-year-olds. Hispanics and children of mothers who drop out of school also participate at relatively low rates. The programs also do little to improve learning and development. The most effective programs, they explain, are intensive interventions such as the model Abecedarian and Perry Preschool programs, which feature highly qualified teachers and small group sizes. State preschool programs with the highest standards rank next, followed by Head Start and the average state program, which produce effects ranging from one-tenth to one-quarter of those of the best programs. Typical child care and family support programs rank last. Barnett and Belfield point out that preschool programs raise academic skills on average, but do not appear to have notably different effects for different groups of children, and so do not strongly enhance social mobility. In such areas as crime, welfare, and teen parenting, however, preschool seems more able to break links between parental behaviors and child outcomes. Increased investment in preschool, conclude Barnett and Belfield, could raise social mobility. Program expansions targeted to disadvantaged children would help them move up the ladder, as would a more universal set of policies from which disadvantaged children gained disproportionately. Increasing the educational effectiveness of early childhood programs would provide for greater gains in social mobility than increasing participation rates alone. The authors observe that if future expansions of preschool programs end up serving all children, not just the poorest, society as a whole would gain. Benefits would exceed costs and there would be more economic growth, but relative gains for disadvantaged children would be smaller than absolute gains because there would be some (smaller) benefits to other children.
BRIDGES AND BARRIERS TO TEACHING ONLINE COLLEGE COURSES: A STUDY OF EXPERIENCED ONLINE FACULTY IN THIRTY- SIX COLLEGES

This paper reports on initial findings from a research study of factors that enable and constrain faculty participation in online teaching and learning environments. It is noted that demand for higher education continues to grow in the United States. It is argued that the nature of the higher education student population will likely continue to transform towards a non-traditional profile. These two trends drive an increased demand for alternative routes to a college degree and have fueled dramatic growth in online learning recently. The study identifies faculty acceptance of online teaching as a critical component for future growth to meet this demand and ensure quality. Through analysis of data from 386 faculty teaching online in 36 colleges in a large state university system, the most significant factors that support and undermine motivation to teach online are identified. The top motivator is a more flexible work schedule. The top demotivator is inadequate compensation for perceived greater work than for traditionally delivered courses, especially for online course development, revision, and teaching. However, respondents in this study chose to teach online for a wide variety of reasons many of which were associated with demographic and contextual differences. These distinctions are reviewed in light of their implications for future quality of online education. Additionally, through factor analysis, underlyingconstructs for online faculty motivations are identified. Finally, recommendations are made for policy, practice, faculty development and future research.
Environmental and socio-economic sustainability in India: evidence from CO2 emission and economic inequality relationship

ABSTRACT This study demonstrates the evolution of the relationship between anthropogenic CO2 emission from fossil fuels use and inequality in consumption expenditure in India based on state-level panel data for the period 1981–2008. Controlling for the scale and composition of economic activities and population, the estimated elasticity of CO2 emission with respect to economic inequality is found to be equivalent to zero for the overall 28 years period. However, classifying the time frame into pre and post economic liberalization periods (1981–1991 and 1992–2008), reveals that the emission-inequality relationship was insignificant or negative in the pre-liberalization period but turned unambiguously positive and significant in the post-liberalization period. Further classification of the post-liberalization period shows that the positive emission-inequality relationship was statistically insignificant during 1992–1999 and it gained significant strength during 2000–2008. Substantively higher increase in the upper economic strata’s propensity to emit CO2 made feasible by enhanced access to global markets is discussed as a plausible reason for the positive emission-inequality relationship in the post-liberalization period. The reduced form analysis of the emission-inequality relationship provides a vital policy insight that India has a potential opportunity to harness this synergistic relationship and jointly mitigate the environmental and socio-economic sustainability challenges.
Chronic hepatitis C virus infection is associated with more severe asthma.

BACKGROUND Chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection causes intra- and extra-hepatic complications. The elimination of HCV has been reported to be beneficial for asthmatic patients with HCV infection. Therefore, we hypothesized that chronic HCV infection might be associated with the severity of asthma. METHODS Asthmatic patients were prospectively enrolled from 13 outpatient settings. Hepatitis B surface (HBs) antigen and HCV-RNA were measured at the time of enrollment and evaluated along with the clinical characteristics of the patients including the age, sex, duration of asthma, atopic status, smoking history, and treatment step according to the Global Initiative for Asthma guideline. RESULTS Of 1327 asthmatic patients, 1258 patients (94.8%) were treated with inhaled corticosteroids, 18 patients were positive for HBs antigen (1.4%), and 32 patients (2.4%) were positive for HCV-RNA. When compared with HCV-RNA-negative patients, HCV-RNA-positive patients required significantly more drugs for the treatment of asthma. No such relationship was observed in patients with positive HBs antigen. A multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that the male sex, a long duration of asthma, status as a current smoker, and HCV-RNA positivity were independently associated with more severe asthma. CONCLUSIONS These results suggest that chronic HCV infection is an independent factor that predisposes asthmatic patients to more severe asthma. The evaluation of chronic HCV infection may be helpful for the management of severe asthmatic patients without obvious factors associated with severe asthma.