Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The different faces of care work: understanding the experiences of the multi-cultural care workforce

MARTHA DOYLE and VIRPI TIMONEN (2009). Featured in Ageing and Society, 29 , pp 337-350 doi:10.1017/S0144686X08007708 Key Words: long-term care; migrant carers; domiciliary care; institutional care; care workforce; discriminationAbstractAn increased demand for long-term care services coupled with the decreased availability of informal (family) carers in many industrialised countries has led to the employment of growing numbers of ‘migrant care workers’. Little is known about this heterogeneous group or of their experience of employment in long-term care. Providing an important insight into a hitherto little researched and poorly understood topic, this article presents the findings of a qualitative study in Ireland that sought greater understanding of migrant carers' experience of care work and of the intra-group differences among them. The findings suggest that some members of the long-term care workforce are more likely to confront obstacles and discrimination than others. The data indicate that the experiences of European, South Asian and African carers are significantly different and that relationships may exist between carers' region of origin and their experience of care work, employment mobility and long-term plans for remaining in the sector. The findings underscore the significance of acknowledging the unique barriers and obstacles faced by particular populations of care workers. A better understanding of the changing demographic profile and needs of both care recipients and their paid (migrant) care-givers is required to ensure that appropriate policy and practical interventions are developed to support both groups.
Employees' Outsourcing Perceptions and Satisfaction: The Case of Libya Oil Company

Purpose: The aim of this study is to explore the perceptions of employees working for the Oil Transportation Department of Libya Oil Company regarding their future outsourcing and their current payment satisfaction. Design/Methodology/Approach : In fact, employees' power has increased dramatically and it cannot be ignored or neglected after the Libyan revolution in February 2011. Despite the fact that outsourcing improves performance, quality, and reduces costs, workers are usually significantly affected within the strategies considered by outsourcing. The literature shows that the employees affected in such outsourcing processes suffer from many problems. The effect of an aggressive culture, such as the Libyan context, on outsourcing employees requires more investigation. One hundred eighty-four workers, from two different operational sites, out of 300, participated in filling in the questionnaire regarding their perceptions of being outsourced to contractors. Findings: The results show that employees perceive outsourcing negatively, and the results indicate that there is a significant relation between the perceived outsourcing impact on individuals and on profession with their payment satisfaction. Practical Implications: Management should consider their employees' perceptions as well before outsourcing. Originality/Value: Executing the strategy of outsourcing employees to contractors seems to be difficult, if not impossible, in an aggressive working environment.
Treatment options for anthracycline-resistant, advanced soft-tissue sarcoma: the role of eribulin

ABSTRACT Introduction: Soft-tissue sarcomas (STS) are a diverse group of rare mesenchymal malignancies. Treatment options for advanced STS following failure of first-line chemotherapy remain limited. Areas covered: Summary of established second- or later-line regimens for advanced STS and a discussion of clinical evidence in support of eribulin use, focused on the treatment of liposarcomas and leiomyosarcomas (L-sarcomas). Expert opinion: Current evidence supporting a role for specific second-line agents in different histologic subtypes of STS is limited, but a more defined treatment landscape is emerging. Strong scientific evidence from phase 3 trials has been shown for eribulin, trabectedin, dacarbazine, and pazopanib after failure of anthracyclines. In particular, eribulin is the first systemic monotherapy to show a significant improvement in overall survival against an active comparator in a phase 3 trial in patients with advanced L-sarcomas. Eribulin is approved for the treatment of unresectable or metastatic liposarcoma in patients who have received a prior anthracycline-containing regimen. Eribulin has also demonstrated clinical activity in patients with leiomyosarcoma in phase 2 and phase 3 trials. Further studies are needed to determine optimal treatment and sequence of agents after failure of anthracyclines. Future trials should aim to be subtype specific as treatment outcomes are dependent on tumor histology and genetic profile.
The diagnosis of white spot lesions in orthodontic patients.

Objectives:To investigate possible associations between patient-related risk factors and the presence, severity and number of white spot lesions (WSLs) experienced during orthodontic treatment. A secondary aim was to evaluate the use of the DIAGNOdent Pen (KaVo, Biberach, Germany) as an aid in the identification of WSLs in orthodontic patients. Materials and Methods: Following ethics approval, 91 orthodontic patientswere recruited to this study. De-identified parameters were recorded and included: date of birth, sex, postcode (to obtain a SEIFA score to indicate socio-economic status), age at banding, failure to attend appointments (FTA) rate, type of bracket used, reported oral hygiene regimen and the number of filled molars. All participants were examined for WSLs on their upper and lower anterior teeth using a visual index outlined by the International Caries Detection and Assessment System (ICDAS II) and the DIAGNOdent pen (KaVo, Biberach, Germany). Patient variable data were assessed by univariate logistic, ordinal logistic and binomial regression models using odds ratios, ratio of means and 95% confidence limits with a significance set at p<0.05. Comparison between ICDAS II and DIAGNOdent pen was performed utilising a linear mixed effects model.
Nursing Research Using Case Studies: Qualitative Designs and Methods in Nursing

Once considered to be a lesser pedagogical method, the case study is now recognized as a powerful, in-depth tool for examining evidence-based practice as it relates to patient care, family dynamics, professional roles, and organizational systems. Focusing on current leading methodologies, the text describes the philosophical basis and state of the art for using this qualitative method. The peer-reviewed designs (including interviews, physiological measurements, psychological tests, and analyses of patients' diaries and journals) are accompanied by an in-depth research plan, a discussion of appropriate methods, and ethical considerations. The text provides clear directives bolstered by nursing examples on how to solve practical problems a researcher may encounter.
The blood donation function inventory: Adaptation of the voluntary function inventory for a psychological approach to blood donors

ABSTRACT The study presents the adaptation of the Voluntary Function Inventory of Clary et al. ([1998]. Understanding and assessing the motivations of volunteers: A functional approach. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 74, 1516–1530.) on blood donors called Blood Donation Function Inventory. The Voluntary Function Inventory was originally created and validated in English on volunteers in different organizations but never on blood donors. Recently, Voluntary Function Inventory was validated on an Italian sample of social health volunteers. A questionnaire evaluating socio-demographic variables, the Blood Donation Function Inventory and a scale that investigates the facilitators of blood donation was administered to 2,615 blood donors. The results of the Exploratory Factorial Analysis showed a good factorial saturation of all except three items, which were eliminated. The Confirmatory Factorial Analysis confirmed the results, showing good fit indexes. The scale showed strong correlation with measures investigating the facilitators of volunteerism. This instrument can be important for blood donors’ organization in order to recruit and retain blood donors.
Foreigners as gentrifiers and tourists in a Mexican historic district

Transnational gentrification has become a key element of urban and sociocultural transformations in several Latin American countries. New urban policies and transnational real estate markets adapt the city in order to respond to the expectations of transnational middle classes. This paper explores the case of San Miguel de Allende in Mexico. Methodologically, it adopts a qualitative approach and analyses two of the most important manifestations of transnational gentrification: lifestyle migration and luxury tourism. Historical files on protected buildings in San Miguel de Allende’s historic centre were used to observe functional alterations. This is supplemented with other statistical data (including the spatial pattern of Airbnb rentals) and direct observations of public spaces. I propose that transnational gentrification leads to a heritage-led transnationalisation of real estate, evidenced by luxury housing, boutique hotels, art galleries and other high culture spaces that cater to higher-income lifestyle migrants and tourists. As a result, the new class of owners and users changes the place’s identity, which has implications for lower-income groups’ right to the city. The process in San Miguel de Allende is analogous to processes in cities such as London, New York or Paris, where notions of heritage urbanism have also helped transnationalise local real estate markets. However, it also evinces other processes that are more difficult to appreciate in the Global North (growing rent gaps, real estate companies’ aggressive pursuit of gentrification and deep historical inequalities that are exacerbated by heritage-led gentrification).
Capital Controls: Theory and Evidence

This paper synthesizes recent advances in the theoretical and empirical literature on capital controls. We start by observing that international capital flows have both benefits and costs, but some of these are not internalized by individual actors and thus constitute externalities. The theoretical literature has identified pecuniary externalities and aggregate demand externalities that respectively contribute to financial instability and recessions. These externalities provide a natural rationale for countercyclical capital controls that lean against boom and bust cycles in international capital flows. The empirical literature has developed several measures of capital controls to capture different aspects of capital account openness. We evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of different measures and provide an overview of the empirical findings on the effectiveness of capital controls in addressing the externalities identified by the theory literature, that is, in reducing financial fragility and enhancing macroeconomic stability. We also discuss strategies to deal with the endogeneity of capital controls in such statistical exercises. We conclude by providing an overview of the historical and current debates on the role of capital controls in macroeconomic management and their relationship to the academic literature. (JEL D62, F32, F33, F38, F44)
Early Adoption of Aliskiren in Ontario: Prescribers’ Characteristics and Patients’ Outcomes

Little is known about the patterns of adoption of new antihypertensive drugs. The objectives of this study are: 1) examining trends of aliskiren prescribing in Ontario, 2) determining physicians’ characteristics associated with aliskiren prescribing, and 3) comparing morbidity and mortality outcomes, and prescription drug costs, among patients treated by early versus late and nonadopters of aliskiren. We hypothesize that early adopters are largely represent by primary care providers, and patients treated by those physicians will have worse outcomes and higher prescription costs than patients treated by late or non-adopters. We examined a population-based cohort using linked administrative databases. Results showed primary care providers were earlier and heavier prescribers of aliskiren. Patients treated by early adopters incurred higher prescription costs. However, no difference in mortality and morbidity outcomes was observed between patients treated by early vs. late or non-adopters, suggesting that early adopters provided quality of care similar to other physicians.
AMPK Activation by Metformin Promotes Survival of Dormant ER+ Breast Cancer Cells

Purpose: Despite adjuvant endocrine therapy for patients with estrogen receptor alpha (ER)-positive breast cancer, dormant residual disease can persist for years and eventually cause tumor recurrence. We sought to deduce mechanisms underlying the persistence of dormant cancer cells to identify therapeutic strategies. Experimental Design: Mimicking the aromatase inhibitor–induced depletion of estrogen levels used to treat patients, we developed preclinical models of dormancy in ER+ breast cancer induced by estrogen withdrawal in mice. We analyzed tumor xenografts and cultured cancer cells for molecular and cellular responses to estrogen withdrawal and drug treatments. Publicly available clinical breast tumor gene expression datasets were analyzed for responses to neoadjuvant endocrine therapy. Results: Dormant breast cancer cells exhibited upregulated 5′ adenosine monophosphate-activated protein kinase (AMPK) levels and activity, and upregulated fatty acid oxidation. While the antidiabetes AMPK-activating drug metformin slowed the estrogen-driven growth of cells and tumors, metformin promoted the persistence of estrogen-deprived cells and tumors through increased mitochondrial respiration driven by fatty acid oxidation. Pharmacologic or genetic inhibition of AMPK or fatty acid oxidation promoted clearance of dormant residual disease, while dietary fat increased tumor cell survival. Conclusions: AMPK has context-dependent effects in cancer, cautioning against the widespread use of an AMPK activator across disease settings. The development of therapeutics targeting fat metabolism is warranted in ER+ breast cancer.
Histological and Histochemical Studies on the Lingual Tonsil of the Buffalo (Bubalus bubalis)

: The study was conducted on lingual tonsil of six adult buffaloes (5-6 years of age) of the local mixed breed to explore histomorphological characteristics with functional significance. The mucosal surface of the lingual tonsil lined by stratified squamous keratinized epithelium was comprised of strata basale, spinosum, granulosum and corneum whereas towards the deeper folds the epithelium was stratified squamous non-keratinized. The latter epithelium modified into reticular epithelium especially toward the deeper portion and was characterized by a reduced number of epithelial cells, loss of distinct strata and heavy infiltration of lymphoid cells. The propria submucosa had loose irregular connective tissue along with glandular and lymphoid tissue. The lymphoid tissue was mainly distributed in the form of lymphoid follicles and diffused arrangement. The follicles of varying shapes and size showed darkly stained corona and lightly stained germinal centre were surrounded by parafollicular areas. The parafollicular areas possessed high endothelial venules (HEVs) with large sized endothelial cells having round to oval nuclei with distinctly visible centric or eccentric nucleoli. These HEVs are involved in trafficking of lymphocytes by transendothelial and interendothelial migration. The mucous glandular acini presented strong reactions for glycogen, acidic mucopolysaccharides, weakly sulfated mucosubstances, hyaluronic acid, sialomucins and mucins as demonstrated by different histochemical techniques. The secretions of acini also showed the presence of more than 4% content of cysteine. The presence of modified reticular epithelium and associated lymphoid tissue suggested that the lingual tonsil may be involved in sampling of oral antigens and transporting them to the underlying mucosal lymphoid tissue for processing and initiation of immune responses. The future microbiological studies may exploit the tonsil as a targeted organ for improved delivery of existing mucosal vaccines and development of new strategies for oral vaccines.
The Double Role of Financial Covenants in Bond Issues in Brazil

Purpose – This study aims to identify the relationship between the use of financial covenants and the cost of borrowing via bonds issued by firms in Brazil. Design/methodology/approach – The sample comprised 269 bond series issued by 106 publicly - listed companies from 2010 to 2016. Covenants were sampled manually from the indentures and prospectuses of these issues. A distinction was made between covenants that must be fulfilled by the firm issuing the debt and those that create obligations for another firm that has a secondary liability to the issuer’s creditors. A linear regression model was constructed to test the relationships between these covenants and the spreads paid on the bonds. Findings – The results indicate that covenants that must be observed by the issuer are used as a complementary mechanism to the risk premium charged by creditors. In turn, covenants that bind guarantors constitute a mechanism to substitute the risk premium, reducing the spread. These findings show that financial covenants play a double role in bond issues in Brazil and that the role varies depending on the firm that is responsible for complying with the covenant. Originality/value – This paper contributes to the literature by showing that the effect of financial covenants on the cost of debt varies as a function of which firm must fulfill the covenant. It therefore demonstrates that it is essential to control for the responsibility to fulfill covenants when measuring their effect on the cost of debt.
Universal Source-Free Domain Adaptation

There is a strong incentive to develop versatile learning techniques that can transfer the knowledge of class-separability from a labeled source domain to an unlabeled target domain in the presence of a domain-shift. Existing domain adaptation (DA) approaches are not equipped for practical DA scenarios as a result of their reliance on the knowledge of source-target label-set relationship (e.g. Closed-set, Open-set or Partial DA). Furthermore, almost all prior unsupervised DA works require coexistence of source and target samples even during deployment, making them unsuitable for real-time adaptation. Devoid of such impractical assumptions, we propose a novel two-stage learning process. 1) In the Procurement stage, we aim to equip the model for future source-free deployment, assuming no prior knowledge of the upcoming category-gap and domain-shift. To achieve this, we enhance the model’s ability to reject out-of-source distribution samples by leveraging the available source data, in a novel generative classifier framework. 2) In the Deployment stage, the goal is to design a unified adaptation algorithm capable of operating across a wide range of category-gaps, with no access to the previously seen source samples. To this end, in contrast to the usage of complex adversarial training regimes, we define a simple yet effective source-free adaptation objective by utilizing a novel instance-level weighting mechanism, named as Source Similarity Metric (SSM). A thorough evaluation shows the practical usability of the proposed learning framework with superior DA performance even over state-of-the-art source-dependent approaches.
Early screening of autism spectrum disorder using cry features

The increase in the number of children with autism and the importance of early autism intervention has prompted researchers to perform automatic and early autism screening. Consequently, in the present paper, a cry-based screening approach for children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is introduced which would provide both early and automatic screening. During the study, we realized that ASD specific features are not necessarily observable in all children with ASD and in all instances collected from each child. Therefore, we proposed a new classification approach to be able to determine such features and their corresponding instances. To test the proposed approach a set of data relating to children between 18 to 53 months which had been recorded using high-quality voice recording devices and typical smartphones at various locations such as homes and daycares was studied. Then, after preprocessing, the approach was used to train a classifier, using data for 10 boys with ASD and 10 Typically Developed (TD) boys. The trained classifier was tested on the data of 14 boys and 7 girls with ASD and 14 TD boys and 7 TD girls. The sensitivity, specificity, and precision of the proposed approach for boys were 85.71%, 100%, and 92.85%, respectively. These measures were 71.42%, 100%, and 85.71% for girls, respectively. It was shown that the proposed approach outperforms the common classification methods. Furthermore, it demonstrated better results than the studies which used voice features for screening ASD. To pilot the practicality of the proposed approach for early autism screening, the trained classifier was tested on 57 participants between 10 to 18 months. These 57 participants consisted of 28 boys and 29 girls and the results were very encouraging for the use of the approach in early ASD screening.
Aspects of the Particular Genetics of Grapes Prolonged for All Horticulture Crops

The modern level of knowledge development in the field of fundamental sciences makes it possible to reliably investigate the processes of evolution. The purpose of our research was to determine the need to establish the existing evolutionary transformations in resistance to abiotic and biotic stress factors of the biosphere in a grape plant, which may be natural for all horticulture crops, and on the other hand, based on the postulate of natural and experimental evolution, to prove the processes of natural evolution as a result of experimental breeding. The results obtained in the study of particular issues of genetics of grapes, based on the existence of general biological regularities, can be prolonged for interpretation, with reference to other horticulture crops. We studied the genetics of grapes, in particular crossability, the inheritance of signs and characteristics, the establishment of regularities in the display of selection value, and heterosis, allowing us to formulate the principles of modeling a new variety. Investigating the process of creating grape varieties that are resistant to biotic factor, it was suggested to consider it from the point of view of the coevolution of the plant and pathogen.