bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Burden of serious fungal infections in the Czech Republic
Authors: Chrdle Aleš , Mallátová Nad'a , Vašáková Martina , Haber Jan , Denning David W. 
Published: October 2015

SummaryWe have estimated the number of serious fungal infections in the Czech Republic. All published epidemiology papers reporting Czech fungal infection rates were identified. Where no data existed, we used specific populations at risk and fungal infection frequencies in those populations. Population statistics were obtained from the 2011 Census data, prevalence and incidence data for at‐risk conditions were obtained from publicly accessible healthcare statistics and relevant surveys. We estimate that 152 840 Czech women suffer with recurrent vaginal thrush. Allergic bronchopulmonary aspergillosis is likely in 4739 adults and 6581 more have severe asthma with fungal sensitisation. Hypersensitivity pneumonitits secondary to fungi is estimated in 1050 cases and 365 people may have chronic pulmonary aspergillosis. Oesophageal candidiasis is estimated in 210 HIV‐positive people. There are 12 cases of Pneumocystis pneumonia in HIV population and 60 more cases in non‐HIV population. There are an estimated 526 cases of candidaemia, 79 cases of Candida peritonitis and 297 cases of invasive aspergillosis a year. About 176 000 (1.67%) Czech people suffer from severe fungal infections each year, predominantly from recurrent vaginitis and allergic respiratory conditions. Substantial uncertainty surrounds these estimates except for invasive aspergillosis in haematology and candidaemia in critical care.
Burden of fungal infections in Qatar
Authors: Taj‐Aldeen Saad J. , Chandra Prem , Denning David W. 
Published: October 2015

SummaryFew estimates of fungal disease frequency have been attempted in the Middle East. We have estimated the burden of fungal infections in Qatar. The aim of the study was to compute and determine the burden of serious fungal infections, in an attempt to estimate fungal disease frequency, which has not previously been attempted in this country. Disease statistics were collected from the Microbiology laboratory database and from 2011 WHO statistics. The data are expressed per 100 000 populations. The reported cases of candidaemia rose to 288 with an estimated rate of 15.4/100 000. A real increase in the burden of candidaemia was found over that previously reported (12.9/100 000) for the years 2004–2009. Candida peritonitis was estimated in 8.02 cases/100 000 population. Recurrent (≥4 year−1) vaginal infections affect at least 32 782 women with a rate of 3506/100 000 inhabitants. Severe asthma with fungal sensitisation affected 1486 people, allergic bronchopulmonary aspergillosis 1126 people and chronic pulmonary aspergillosis 176 people. Rhinosinusitis, mucormycosis and Fusarium infection occurred at rates of 2.31, 1.23, 1.86 cases/100 000 respectively. The estimated rate of invasive aspergillosis was very low (0.6/100 000). Low rates of Cryptococcus meningitis and Pneumocystis pneumonia are attributable to low HIV infection rates. In conclusion, fungal infections are increasingly reported, especially candidaemia. Surveillance and guidelines are needed to optimise care and management of common fungal infections. In addition, a fungal registry system needs development for surveillance.
The burden of serious fungal diseases in Russia
Authors: Klimko N. , Kozlova Y. , Khostelidi S. , Shadrivova O. , Borzova Y. , Burygina E. , Vasilieva N. , Denning D. W. 
Published: October 2015

SummaryThe incidence and prevalence of fungal infections in Russia is unknown. We estimated the burden of fungal infections in Russia according to the methodology of the LIFE program (www.LIFE‐worldwide.org). The total number of patients with serious and chronic mycoses in Russia in 2011 was three million. Most of these patients (2607 494) had superficial fungal infections (recurrent vulvovaginal candidiasis, oral and oesophageal candidiasis with HIV infection and tinea capitis). Invasive and chronic fungal infections (invasive candidiasis, invasive and chronic aspergillosis, cryptococcal meningitis, mucormycosis and Pneumocystis pneumonia) affected 69 331 patients. The total number of adults with allergic bronchopulmonary aspergillosis and severe asthma with fungal sensitisation was 406 082.
Burden of serious fungal infections in Belgium
Authors: Lagrou Katrien , Maertens Johan , Van Even Ellen , Denning David W. 
Published: October 2015

SummaryWe aimed to estimate the total number of serious fungal infections occurring yearly in Belgium. The number of cryptococcal infections was retrieved from the National Reference Center for Mycosis. Populations at risk and fungal infections frequencies in these populations were used to estimate incidence or prevalence of other fungal infections. The Belgian population consists of 11.10 million people. Cryptococcal meningitis is rare. In all, 15 of the 1227 newly diagnosed HIV/AIDS cases presented with Pneumocystis jirovecii pneumonia. This accounts for ±14% of total PCP cases (n = 120). The incidence of candidaemia is estimated as 5/100 000 resulting in 555 cases and 213 deaths. A total number of 675 invasive aspergillosis cases and ≥169 deaths attributed to this infection were calculated. Chronic pulmonary aspergillosis is estimated to be prevalent in 662 cases. Allergic bronchopulmonary aspergillosis cases were estimated to be 23 119 applying a 2.5% and 15% rate in adult asthma and cystic fibrosis patients respectively. Severe asthma with fungal sensitisation cases was estimated to be 30 402. There were 174 760 women with recurrent Candida vaginitis assuming a 6% rate in women aged between 15 and 50. Approximately 233 000 people of the Belgian population (2.1%) are estimated to suffer from a fungal infection on a yearly basis.
Variants of Porphyromonas gingivalis lipopolysaccharide alter lipidation of autophagic protein, microtubule‐associated protein 1 light chain 3, LC3
Authors: Blasi I. , Korostoff J. , Dhingra A. , Reyes‐Reveles J. , Shenker B.J. , Shahabuddin N. , Alexander D. , Lally E.T. , Bragin A. , Boesze‐Battaglia K. 
Published: October 2015

SummaryPorphyromonas gingivalis often subverts host cell autophagic processes for its own survival. Our previous studies document the association of the cargo sorting protein, melanoregulin (MREG), with its binding partner, the autophagic protein, microtubule‐associated protein 1 light chain 3 (LC3) in macrophages incubated with P. gingivalis (strain 33277). Differences in the lipid A moiety of lipopolysaccharide (LPS) affect the virulence of P. gingivalis; penta‐acylated LPS1690 is a weak Toll‐like receptor 4 agonist compared with Escherichia coli LPS, whereas tetra‐acylated LPS1435/1449 acts as an LPS1690 antagonist. To determine how P. gingivalis LPS1690 affects autophagy we assessed LC3‐dependent and MREG‐dependent processes in green fluorescent protein (GFP)‐LC3‐expressing Saos‐2 cells. LPS1690 stimulated the formation of very large LC3‐positive vacuoles and MREG puncta. This LPS1690‐mediated LC3 lipidation decreased in the presence of LPS1435/1449. When Saos‐2 cells were incubated with P. gingivalis the bacteria internalized but did not traffic to GFP‐LC3‐positive structures. Nevertheless, increases in LC3 lipidation and MREG puncta were observed. Collectively, these results suggest that P. gingivalis internalization is not necessary for LC3 lipidation. Primary human gingival epithelial cells isolated from patients with periodontitis showed both LC3II and MREG puncta whereas cells from disease‐free individuals exhibited little co‐localization of these two proteins. These results suggest that the prevalence of a particular LPS moiety may modulate the degradative capacity of host cells, so influencing bacterial survival.
Factors associated with depression among elderly Koreans: the role of chronic illness, subjective health status, and cognitive impairment
Authors: Park Jong‐Il , Park Tae Won , Yang Jong‐Chul , Chung Sang‐Keun 
Published: October 2015

AbstractObjectivesThe objective of this cross‐sectional study was to investigate the relationship between depression in elderly individuals and chronic illness, subjective health status, and cognitive impairment.MethodThis study used the dataset of the Survey of Living Conditions and Welfare Needs of Korean Older Persons, which was conducted by the Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs in 2011. Participants (n = 10 674) were randomly selected from a pool of individuals aged 65 years and older. Elderly depression was evaluated by the short version of the Geriatric Depression Scale. Multivariate logistic regression was used to investigate factors associated with depression in terms of their sociodemographic and health‐related characteristics.ResultsOur results revealed that chronic illness, subjective health status, and cognitive impairment were significant factors associated with depression. In particular, subjective health status showed the highest odds ratio (OR) (OR for bad subjective health status = 4.290, P < 0.001), followed by chronic illness (OR for three or more chronic illnesses = 1.403, P < 0.01) and cognitive impairment (OR = 1.347, P < 0.001) in the final model. Interestingly, the significant association between chronic illness and depression was attenuated (OR for three or more chronic illnesses = 1.403, P = 0.01) or even disappeared (OR for two chronic illnesses = 1.138, P = 0.274; OR for one chronic illnesses = 0.999, P = 0.996) after adjustment for subjective health status in the final model; this may be attributable to the close relationship among the variables studied: chronic illness, subjective health status, and depression.ConclusionsDevelopment and implementation of prevention strategies, including management of chronic illness, individual's perception of health status, and cognitive impairment, could possibly reduce the impact of depression.
Distinguishing Different Types of Coproduction: A Conceptual Analysis Based on the Classical Definitions
Authors: Brandsen Taco , Honingh Marlies 
Published: October 2015

AbstractCoproduction of public services means that services are not only delivered by professional and managerial staff in public agencies but also coproduced by citizens and communities. Although recent research on this topic has advanced the debate considerably, there is still no consensus on precisely what coproduction means. This article argues that rather than trying to determine one encompassing definition of the concept, several different types of coproduction can be distinguished. Starting from the classical definitions of Elinor Ostrom and Roger Parks, the article draws on the literature on professionalism, volunteering, and public management to identify the distinctive nature of coproduction and identify basic dimensions on which a typology of coproduction can be constructed. Recognizing different types of coproduction more systematically is a critical step in making research on this phenomenon more comparable and more cumulative.
The Political Economy of Clientelism*
Authors: Robinson James A. , Verdier Thierry 
Published: October 2015

AbstractIn this paper, we argue that the political‐commitment problem provides an explanation for why much income redistribution takes an inefficient form, particularly employment in the public sector. A job is a credible way of redistributing when it provides rents (such as in situations with moral hazard), and employment is optimal ex post. Moreover, a job is selective and reversible, and thus ties the continuation utility of a voter to the political success of a particular politician. We show that the need to make offers of employment incentive‐compatible leads to inefficiencies in the supply of public goods. We also show that such inefficient redistribution becomes relatively attractive in situations with high inequality and low productivity. Inefficiency is increased when the stakes from politics are high, when inequality is high, and when money matters less than ideology in politics.
Macroeconomic Effects of Asset‐Price Shocks in a Globalized Financial Market
Authors: Quadrini Vincenzo 
Published: October 2015

AbstractIn this paper, I study a model in which shocks to asset prices affect the real sector of the economy through a credit channel. As financial markets become internationally integrated, the economy becomes less vulnerable to domestic asset‐price shocks, but more vulnerable to foreign asset‐price shocks. To the extent that monetary policy stabilization is feasible and desirable, the globalization of financial markets shifts the focus of monetary policy from domestic asset prices to worldwide asset prices.
“Large” versus “Small” Players: A Closer Look at the Dynamics of Speculative Attacks
Authors: Bjønnes Geir H. , Holden Steinar , Rime Dagfinn , Solheim Haakon O. Aa. 
Published: October 2015

AbstractWhat is the role of “large players” (e.g., hedge funds) in speculative attacks? Recent work suggests that large players move early to induce smaller agents to attack. However, many observers argue that large players move late in order to benefit from interest‐rate differentials. We propose a model in which large players can do both. Using data on currency trading by foreign (large) and local (small) players, we find that foreign players moved last in three attacks on the Norwegian krone during the 1990s. During the attack on the Swedish krona after the Russian moratorium in 1998, foreign players moved early. Gains by delaying attack were small, however, because interest rates did not increase.
The Financial Resource Curse*
Authors: Benigno Gianluca , Fornaro Luca 
Published: October 2015

AbstractIn this paper, we present a model of the financial resource curse (i.e., episodes of abundant access to foreign capital coupled with weak productivity growth). We study a two‐sector (i.e., tradable and non‐tradable) small open economy. The tradable sector is the engine of growth, and productivity growth is increasing with the amount of labor employed by firms in the tradable sector. A period of large capital inflows, triggered by a fall in the interest rate, is associated with a consumption boom. While the increase in tradable consumption is financed through foreign borrowing, the increase in non‐tradable consumption requires a shift of productive resources toward the non‐tradable sector at the expenses of the tradable sector. The result is stagnant productivity growth. We show that capital controls can be welfare‐enhancing and can be used as a second‐best policy tool to mitigate the misallocation of resources during an episode of financial resource curse.
Heterogeneity in Consumer Demands and the Income Effect: Evidence from Panel Data
Authors: Christensen Mette 
Published: October 2015

AbstractThis paper uses unique Spanish panel data on household expenditures to test whether unobservable heterogeneity in household demands (taste, etc.) is correlated with total expenditures (income). The main finding is that tastes are indeed correlated with income for about half of the goods considered, implying that cross‐sectional estimates of income elasticities for these goods are biased. The goods are the following: food eaten outside home, alcohol and tobacco, transportation, and energy. The elasticity of alcohol and tobacco is more than halved when taking unobserved heterogeneity into account. For transportation, the bias is sufficiently large to misclassify the good as a luxury.
The Costs of Financial Crises: Resource Misallocation, Productivity, and Welfare in the 2001 Argentine Crisis
Authors: Sandleris Guido , Wright Mark L. J. 
Published: October 2015

AbstractFinancial crises in emerging market countries appear to be very costly: both output and a host of partial welfare indicators decline dramatically. The magnitude of these costs is puzzling both from an accounting perspective – factor usage does not decline as much as output, resulting in large falls in measured productivity – and from a theoretical perspective. With the aim of resolving this puzzle, we present a framework that allows us to do the following. First, we account for changes in a country's measured productivity during a financial crisis as the result of changes in the underlying technology of the economy, the efficiency with which resources are allocated across sectors, and the efficiency of the resource allocation within sectors, driven both by reallocation amongst existing plants and by entry and exit. Second, we measure the change in the country's welfare resulting from changes in productivity, government spending, the terms of trade, and a country's international investment position. We apply this framework to the Argentine crisis of 2001 using a unique establishment level dataset and we find that more than half of the, roughly, 10 percent decline in measured total factor productivity can be accounted for by deteriorations in the allocation of resources both across and within sectors. We measure the decline in welfare to be of the order of one‐quarter of one year's gross domestic product.
Optimal Retirement with Increasing Longevity
Authors: Bloom David E. , Canning David , Moore Michael 
Published: October 2015

AbstractWe develop an optimizing life‐cycle model of retirement with perfect capital markets. We show that longer healthy life expectancy usually leads to later retirement, but with an elasticity less than unity. We calibrate our model using data from the US and find that, over the last century, the effect of rising incomes, which promote early retirement, has dominated the effect of rising lifespans. Our model predicts continuing declines in the optimal retirement age, despite rising life expectancy, provided the rate of real wage growth remains as high as in the last century.
Tracking Can Be More Equitable Than Mixing
Authors: Hidalgo‐Hidalgo Marisa 
Published: October 2015

AbstractParents and policy‐makers often wonder whether and how the choice of a tracked or mixed educational system affects the equality of opportunity. I answer this question by analyzing the influence of peers on future educational results. I define an equal opportunity policy as one that maximizes the average lifetime income of the worst‐off type of individuals in society (i.e., students from disadvantaged backgrounds). I find that tracking maximizes average lifetime income if the opportunity cost of college attendance is sufficiently high.
Public Provision, Commodity Demand, and Hours of Work: An Empirical Analysis
Authors: Pirttilä Jukka , Suoniemi Ilpo 
Published: October 2015

AbstractThe theoretical analysis of optimal commodity taxation is advanced, but there is only limited empirical evidence to guide commodity tax policies. With this paper, we contribute to this body of literature by empirically examining, using Finnish consumption data, the relation between working hours, consumption demand, and the use of publicly provided day care. When labour income is controlled for in a non‐parametric way, we find that capital income and housing expenses are negatively associated with working hours, whereas the use of childcare is positively correlated with working hours. These results provide arguments for taxing capital income and housing, and for subsidizing day care.
Does Employee Body Weight Affect Employers' Behavior?
Authors: Kromann Lene 
Published: October 2015

AbstractIn this paper, we study the possible segregation of overweight individuals already established in the labor market when firms make decisions on hiring, firing, and promoting. Most existing studies use wage equations to document wage differences, but little is known about the reason for the differences and the sorting of workers. Using an equilibrium search model, search frictions are taken into account. Additionally, sorting is examined using a logit model. We find that wage differences between workers who have a normal weight and workers who are overweight or obese can be explained by differential firm behavior, with respect to both the job‐offer arrival rate and the probability of being promoted.
Welfare Magnet Hypothesis, Fiscal Burden, and Immigration Skill Selectivity
Authors: Razin Assaf , Wahba Jackline 
Published: October 2015

AbstractIn this paper, we investigate the effect of welfare state generosity on the difference between skilled and unskilled migration rates, and the role of mobility restriction in shaping this effect. We utilize the free labor movement within the European Union plus Norway and Switzerland (EUR) and the restricted movement from outside the EUR in order to compare the free‐migration regime to the restricted‐migration regime. We find strong support for the magnet hypothesis under the free‐migration regime, and the fiscal burden hypothesis under the restricted‐migration regime, even after controlling for differences in educational quality and returns to skills in source and host countries.
Formation of Migrant Networks
Authors: Comola Margherita , Mendola Mariapia 
Published: October 2015

AbstractIn this paper, we provide the first direct evidence on the internal structure of the migrant social network. By using a purposely designed survey on Sri Lankan immigrants living in Milan, we show that the pattern of within‐group link formation is heterogeneous across immigrants, and differentiated according to the network function (i.e., accommodation, credit, job‐finding). We find that migrants tend to interact with co‐nationals who come from nearby localities at origin, while the time of arrival has a U‐shaped effect. Once the link is formed, material support is provided mainly to relatives, while early migrant fellows are helpful for job‐finding.
United States Immigration Policy: The 1965 Act and its Consequences
Authors: Hatton Timothy J. 
Published: October 2015

AbstractThe United States Immigration Act of 1965 was followed by a steep upward trend in total immigration, and by a dramatic shift in the source‐country composition away from Europe and towards Asia and Latin America. In this paper I ask if and how the 1965 Act generated these unanticipated consequences. The result was partly because of the pre‐existing legislation and partly because of the admission of immigrants outside the terms of the Act. However, much of it was a result of the Act itself, and specifically because of family reunification effects that were larger, the poorer the source country.
Causal Effects of Paternity Leave on Children and Parents
Authors: Cools Sara , Fiva Jon H. , Kirkebøen Lars J. 
Published: October 2015

AbstractReserving a share of the parental leave period for fathers is considered necessary in order to induce fathers to take leave, and to increase men's participation in child‐rearing. We investigate how a parental leave reform directed towards fathers affected leave‐taking, and, in turn, children's and parents' long‐term outcomes. A paternal leave quota greatly increases the share of men taking paternity leave. We find evidence that children's school performance improves as a result, particularly in families where the father has higher education than the mother. We find no evidence that paternity leave counters the traditional allocation of parents' labor supply.