Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Alcohol problems in old age: a review of recent epidemiological research

The subject of alcoholism in late life has received relatively little attention in the literature. This is despite the fact that elderly people are particularly vulnerable to the adverse effects of alcohol. Demographic data predicts that in the first half of the next century there will be an increase in the absolute number of elderly people with alcohol problems. The recognition and treatment of alcohol problems are likely therefore to become more important as this population expands. High rates of comorbidity with physical and psychiatric illness mean that elderly alcoholics are liable to be frequent users of health facilities. Concern has been expressed regarding the impact this trend will have upon health services, particularly the high costs of treatment and institutionalization. Previous researchers in this field have been disadvantaged by a lack of standardized diagnostic criteria and the absence of age‐validated screening tools. This paper reviews recent publications relating to the epidemiology of alcohol problems in the elderly and focuses on comparing the prevalence rates of alcohol problems in various clinical settings. Epidemiological research is important as it improves the understanding of the scope and impact of a disease as well as being a vital component during the planning stage for new services. This review highlights some ongoing limitations in recent research. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
The Importance of Servicescapes in Leisure Service Settings

Services marketing research has largely focussed on measuring service quality and satisfaction associated with the primary service itself, with little attention given to the effect of the physical surroundings of the service setting. Leisure services in particular, may be concerned with how consumers perceive the quality of the “servicescape” and what effect the servicescape has on customer satisfaction and repatronage. Investigates these effects, as well as the interactions of perceived crowding, excitement and enduring involvement associated with the leisure service. Results indicate that servicescape quality does play an important role in determining customer affective and behavioural response to the service.
A New Rate Law Describing Microbial Respiration

ABSTRACT The rate of microbial respiration can be described by a rate law that gives the respiration rate as the product of a rate constant, biomass concentration, and three terms: one describing the kinetics of the electron-donating reaction, one for the kinetics of the electron-accepting reaction, and a thermodynamic term accounting for the energy available in the microbe's environment. The rate law, derived on the basis of chemiosmotic theory and nonlinear thermodynamics, is unique in that it accounts for both forward and reverse fluxes through the electron transport chain. Our analysis demonstrates how a microbe's respiration rate depends on the thermodynamic driving force, i.e., the net difference between the energy available from the environment and energy conserved as ATP. The rate laws commonly applied in microbiology, such as the Monod equation, are specific simplifications of the general law presented. The new rate law is significant because it affords the possibility of extrapolating in a rigorous manner from laboratory experiment to a broad range of natural conditions, including microbial growth where only limited energy is available. The rate law also provides a new explanation of threshold phenomena, which may reflect a thermodynamic equilibrium where the energy released by electron transfer balances that conserved by ADP phosphorylation.
How Firm Can Hedge from Currency Risk

Foreign currency hedging provides certainty of cash flow, because it reduces the risk associated with the volatility of currency exchange rate. The hedging has become important element in these last months, given the strong volatility that is undergoing the euro against the dollar, as consequence of the severe financial crisis which is affecting Europe. On this basis, the main objective of the paper is to give an analysis of the principal instruments that firm can use in its strategies of currency hedging, highlighting the most important elements in choosing the hedging policy. Indeed, the managers choose the hedging policies, considering on the characteristics of cash flow exposed to currency risk and given their forecast on the exchange. It is aid that, the paper examines the different effects that the hedging instruments may determine on a given numeral example of firm exposed to foreign exchange risk. In order to demonstrate that, the optimization of the hedging strategies depends on the ability of managers to forecast the future trend of the exchange rate and to adapt the most appropriate hedging instruments to these forecasts.
Association between obstructive sleep apnea and elevated levels of type B natriuretic peptide in a community-based sample of women.

STUDY OBJECTIVES Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease. One contributory factor may be hemodynamic stress due to the negative intrathoracic pressure during each episode of apnea. Type B natriuretic peptide (BNP) is secreted by the cardiac ventricles in response to volume expansion and pressure load and the authors hypothesized that there would be an association between indices of OSA during the night and levels of BNP in the morning. SETTING Community-based in Uppsala, Sweden. PARTICIPANTS There were 349 women who participated. MEASUREMENTS AND RESULTS Participants underwent full-night polysomnography and anthropometric measurements, and answered questionnaires about medical conditions and current medication. The morning after the polysomnography, blood samples were drawn for analysis of plasma BNP, C-reactive protein, creatinine, and hemoglobin. There was an increase in mean BNP as the severity of sleep apnea increased, increasing from a mean value of 8.5 ng/L among women with an apnea-hypopnea index (AHI) < 5 to 18.0 ng/L in women with an AHI ≥ 30. Elevated BNP levels (≥ 20 ng/L) were found in 29.8% of the women, whereas 70.2% had normal levels. The odds ratio was 2.2 for elevated BNP levels for women with an AHI of 5-14.9 in relation to women with an AHI < 5, 3.1 for women with an AHI of 15-29.9, and 4.6 for women with an AHI ≥ 30 after adjustment for age, body mass index, systolic blood pressure, antihypertensive drugs, and creatinine. CONCLUSIONS There is a dose-response relationship in women between the severity of sleep apnea during the night and the levels of BNP in the morning.
Supply chain finance: a literature review

The purpose of this paper is twofold: to classify the research to-date on Supply Chain Finance (SCF) according to the main themes and methods, and to propose directions for future research. ,The review is based on 119 papers mainly published from 2000 to 2014 in international peer-reviewed journals and in the proceedings of international conferences. ,The articles that provide a definition of SCF reflect two major perspectives: the ‘finance oriented’ perspective - focused on short-term solutions provided by financial institutions, addressing accounts payable and receivable - and the ‘supply chain oriented’ perspective - which might not involve a financial institution, and is focused on working capital optimisation in terms of accounts payable, receivable, inventories, and sometimes even on fixed asset financing. ,While efforts were made to be all-inclusive, significant research efforts may have been inadvertently omitted. However, the authors believe that this review is an accurate representation of the body of research on SCF published during the specified timeframe, and feel that confidence may be placed on the resulting assessments. ,The paper presents a comprehensive summary of previous research on this topic and identifies the most important issues that need to be addressed in future research. On the basis of the identified gaps in the literature, four key issues have been highlighted which should be addressed in future research.
Occupational health and safety problems among workers in the wood processing industries in Mutare, Zimbabwe

The aim of this study was to assess the exposures and perceived risks (occupational, lifestyle and psychological factors) of workers in the wood processing industries in Mutare, Zimbabwe. This project is important in that it will reveal why health, safety and hygiene should be perceived as a priority in the wood processing industries of the Eastern Highlands of Zimbabwe. Usually industry owners and managers do not provide sufficient maintenance and funds to buy protective equipment. Not much attention is thus given to the safety of processing machines, equipment and tools as well as their link to health requirements in such enterprises. A detailed descriptive study was undertaken in the timber working industries of Mutare with a focus between August and October 2011. Random sampling was employed targeting the workers and management of the wood processing enterprises. The samples were drawn from the total employees in each of the two companies under survey. The first company with 1200 full-time workers and 800 contract workers had a sample size of 200 (10% of the total) and the second with 1400 workers had sample size of 140. The wood sector in Zimbabwe needs to be guided by a comprehensive national policy dealing with safety and health issues in the wood processing sector. Wood workers seem not to be covered by appropriate national safety and health standard. Managers are not taking keen account of the risks linked with wood processing. There is need to have precise knowledge on the subject and the various exposure levels need to be measured and monitored.
Theoretical Applicability vs. Environmental Straitjacket

This article is concerned with the application of the marketing audit, a commercially derived marketing tool, to a public sector non-profit organization. The paper reviews the literature extensively before turning to research findings derived from interviews with internal and external publics in the organizational environment. While findings indicate that a marketing audit would indeed be useful in underpinning marketing orientation, possibly as a prelude to marketing planning, they also show that organizational constraints may militate against adoption of marketing orientation. The article concludes by suggesting that marketing itself, as a generic paradigm, may not be an appropriate mechanism for organizations like ERS (Employment Rehabilitation Service). Rather ERS, and its private sector counterparts, may require the development of an entirely new discipline which may be more applicable than marketing.
A practical low-density coding scheme for binary dirty paper channel

Recently, dirty-paper coding has been attracting a lot of attentions due to its connection with various problems such as data hiding, precoding for ISI channels and MIMO Gaussian broadcasting. One of the main challenges is to design codes with practical encoding and decoding algorithms. In this paper we propose a simple coding scheme for the binary dirty-paper channel -with the interference known non-causally to the encoder- by compounding low-density graphical structures. In our construction, the codewords of a channel code are both the bin indexes and parity-syndromes for a quantizer code. This novelty allows us to use reinforced belief propagation algorithm as a quantization algorithm for a LDPC code. Our construction has a natural nested and coset structure and achieves the capacity of dirty paper channel using random linear component codes and maximum- likelihood encoding/decoding algorithms. By selecting the constituent codes from the ensemble of LDPC codes, this scheme allows for efficient iterative (suboptimal) algorithms at both encoder and decoder.
Efficiency enhanced class-E power amplifier using the second harmonic injection at the feedback loop

In this paper, the class-E power amplifier with feedback loop driven by the second harmonic injection is studied. The feedback loop is composed of auxiliary class-E amplifier to drive the second harmonic injection, filter to pass second harmonic, and delay line. This power amplifier presents improved PAE (power added efficiency) compared to that without the second harmonic feedback loop because second harmonic feedback loop assists the main amplifier working with conditions for ideal class-E operation. When second harmonic with proper magnitude and phase for ideal class-E conditions is injected to gate of the main amplifier, PAE is improved by 16% compared to that of the class-E amplifier without the second harmonic feedback. The measured maximum output power at the fundamental frequency shows 19.3 dBm, whereas the PAE shows 79 % with 3 dBm input power. The operating frequency of the proposed class-E PA is chosen as 1.95GHz.
Pharmacological effects of paniculatin--a glycoside isolated from Ipomoea digitata Linn.

A glycoside (paniculatin), m.p. 134°, C 30 H 54 O 13 has been isolated from the tubers of Ipomoea digitata Linn. It elevated the blood pressure, showed a stimulant effect on myocardium and respiration, a vasoconstrictor and bronchoconstrictor effect, a spasmogenic effect on smooth muscles of gut, and also an oxytocic activity. The LD 50 (48 hr.), with 95% fiducial limits, was found to be 867.4 (755.3–985.1) mg. /kg. ( SE ± 1.03) intraperitoneally in mice.
What Have We Learned from the Enterprise Surveys Regarding Access to Credit by Smes?

Using a unique firm level data set -- the Enterprise Surveys -- this paper develops a new measure of credit-constrained status for firms using hard data instead of perceptions data. The paper classifies firms into four ordinal categories: Not Credit Constrained, Maybe Credit Constrained, Partially Credit Constrained, and Fully Credit Constrained to understand the characteristics of the firms that fall into each group. Comparable data from the Enterprise Surveys for 116 countries are used to look at the relationship between firm size and credit-constrained status. First, the analysis finds that small and medium enterprises are more likely to be credit constrained (either partially or fully) than large firms. Furthermore, small and medium enterprises finance their working capital and investments mainly through trade credit and informal sources of finance. These two results hold to a large extent in all the regions of the developing world. Second, although size is a significant predictor of the probability of being credit constrained, firm age is not. Third, high-performing firms, as measured by labor productivity, are less likely to be credit constrained. This result applies to all firms but is not as strong for small firms as it is for large and medium firms. Finally, in countries with high private credit-to-gross domestic product ratios, firms are less likely to be credit constrained. Given the importance of access to credit for firm growth and efficiency, this paper confirms that throughout the developing world access to credit is inversely related to firm size but positively related to productivity and financial deepening in the country.
Is your healthcare environment therapeutic?

There is mounting evidence that physical environments correlate with patient outcomes. For instance, we now know that natural light, paintings or pictures, music, colorful fabrics, family space, a non-institutional feel, and other such environmental items have a strong effect on a patient’s well-being and are associated with health improvement. As patients enter the healthcare setting, there is an element of uncertainty regarding their health status, what to expect, safety concerns, and a sense of isolation from familiar support systems. In recent years, more attention is being given to the value of a “therapeutic environment. ” Its importance emerges from the basic premise that physical environment has an overall positive effect upon patient outcomes. This idea is not based purely on theory, but on wellrespected empirical studies. Healthcare architects, interior designers, and researchers have collectively identified evidenced-based factors that, if applied to diverse healthcare environments, improve patient outcomes by reducing or eliminating undesirable stressors, providing positive distractions, permitting social support, and giving patients a greater sense of control.
Use of Non-Financial Performance Measures in Managers’ Compensation Contracts as Earnings Management Constraints

Earnings management literature argues that managers’ compensation contracts are based on Financial Performance Measures (FPM). Indeed, the accounting earnings have been the subject of several studies. A few of them have attempted to check whether to introduce the Non-Financial Performance Measures (NFPM) as a constraint on earnings management. The aim of this paper is to empirically test the impact of NFPM on earnings management behavior. Our sample consists of 89 Canadian listed firms pertaining to three sectors for the period, 1997-2006. The results are conclusive and showed that there is a negative relationship between Discretionary Accruals (DA) as a proxy for earning management and the relative importance of NFPM in managers’ compensation contracts, suggesting that NFPM acts as an additional earnings management constraint.
The effect of sleep on reflex genioglossus muscle activation by stimuli of negative airway pressure in humans.

The present study was designed to determine the effect of sleep on reflex pharyngeal dilator muscle activation by stimuli of negative airway pressure in human subjects. Intra‐oral bipolar surface electrodes were used to record genioglossus electromyogram (EMG) responses to 500 ms duration pressure stimuli of 0 and ‐25 cmH2O applied, via a face‐mask, in four normal subjects. Stimuli were applied during early inspiration in wakefulness and in periods of non‐rapid‐eye‐movement (non‐REM) sleep, defined by electroencephalographic (EEG) criteria. The rectified and integrated EMG responses to repeated interventions were bin averaged for the 0 and ‐25 cmH2O stimuli applied in wakefulness and sleep. Response latency was defined as the time when the EMG activity significantly increased above prestimulus levels. Response magnitude was quantified as the in ratio of the EMG activity for an 80 ms post‐stimulus period to an 80 ms prestimulus period; data from after the subject's voluntary reaction time for tongue protrusion (range, 150‐230 ms) were not analysed. Application of the ‐25 cmH2O stimuli caused genioglossus muscle activation in wakefulness and sleep, but in all subjects response magnitude was reduced in sleep (mean decrease, 61%; range, 52‐82%; P = 0.011, Student's paired t test). In addition, response latency was increased in sleep in each subject (mean latency awake, 38 ms; range, 30‐50 ms; mean latency asleep, 75 ms; range, 40‐110 ms; P = 0.072, Student's paired t test). Application of the ‐25 cmH2O stimuli caused arousal from sleep on 90% occasions, but in all cases the reflex genioglossus muscle responses (maximum latency, 110 ms) always proceeded any sign of EEG arousal (mean time to arousal, 643 ms; range, 424‐760 ms). These results show that non‐REM sleep attenuates reflex genioglossus muscle activation by stimuli of negative airway pressure. Attenuation of this reflex by sleep may impair the ability of the upper airway to defend itself from suction collapse by negative pressures generated during inspiration; this may have implications for the pathogenesis of obstructive sleep apnoea.
Registration Method of Sparse Representation Classification Method

SUMMARY Sparse representation based classiﬁcation (SRC) has emerged as a new paradigm for solving face recognition problems. Further research found that the main limitation of SRC is the assumption of pixel-accurate alignment between the test image and the training set. A. Wagner used a series of linear programs that iteratively minimize the sparsity of the registration error. In this paper, we propose another face registration method called three-point positioning method. Experiments show that our proposed method achieves better performance.
Mathematics Achievement in the Netherlands and Appropriateness of the TIMSS Mathematics Test

Dutch students performed relatively well on the TIMSS mathematics test for population 2, although influential mathematics educators heavily criticised the appropriateness and fairness of the test in terms of the new, application- and inquiry-oriented mathematics curriculum which was implemented beginning in August 1993. This new intended curriculum differs drastically from the previous more formal and curriculum from before 1993. For both policy makers and mathematics and science educators in the Netherlands important questions are the following: how should this discrepancy between students’ performance and curricular appropriateness of the test be interpreted, and is there a discrepancy? Via expert appraisal, data have been gathered about the extent to which the TIMSS mathematics items are appropriate for this new intended mathematics curriculum. In addition, teachers were asked to judge the appropriateness of a selection of mathematics items in terms of the implemented curriculum. In this article the outcomes of the analyses with regard to the overlap between, on the one hand, the test and, on the other hand, both the intended curriculum and the implemented curriculum are described. In addition, as far as the intended curriculum is concerned, test-curriculum overlap outcomes are related to students’ performances on the test.
Smoking as a risk factor for developing Multiple Sclerosis: A meta-analysis of observational studies.

OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to improve and update the pool of available studies included in the previous meta-analyses, and to provide further evidence about smoking as a risk factor for MS. MATERIAL AND METHODS PubMed and Scopus searches were undertaken to identify studies investigating the association between cigarette smoking and MS. Odds ratio (OR), relative risk (RR) together with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated for case-control and cohort studies and prevalence rate for cross sectional. RESULTS 33 studies were suitable for the meta-analysis. The summary OR for case control studies (ever versus never) was 1.40 (95% CI, 1.29 to 1.52) and 1.42 (1.26-1.60) for current vs. no-smokers. CONCLUSIONS Smoking is associated with MS risk. Research using animal models can help to fully understand the mechanisms behind the association.
Cumulative Encounter Satisfaction in the Hotel Conference Process

Prior studies of how service quality evolves during the service delivery process either have used aggregate case data or have not obtained objective measurements of the actual dimensions of the service encounter on an individual basis. Reports on a study of a service delivery process in a hotel. Its conference day guests rated the delivery process based on four distinct service encounters: arrival, coffee break, lunch and conference room. The aim was to investigate how quality factors were related to their respective encounters and how cumulative satisfaction levels impact on each other and over time. Average satisfaction levels for each of the four encounters were found to be significantly different. Moreover, there was a clear trend in the cumulative satisfaction results. Arrival resulted in high satisfaction, the coffee break was not as satisfying and lunch rated the worst. Satisfaction rose again after the conference room experience. A factor analysis of all the questions, for a hypothesized four‐fact.