Coffee intake,health-related quality of life,and associated factors of overactive bladder in older Korean women living in rural South Korea

ABSTRACT

Overactive bladder (OAB) is a common health problem in older women. The aim of the study was to investigate coffee consumption, health-related quality of life (HRQOL), and associated factors of OAB in older Korean women living in rural South Korea. A total of 248 women aged 65 years and older participated in this study. Chi-square tests, t-tests, and multivariable logistic regressions were performed. The means of coffee consumption between OAB and non-OAB groups were not significantly different. Women with OAB showed significantly lower HRQOL than women with stress urinary incontinence only. OAB was associated with high body mass index and poor health status.     

Factors Constraining Building Effective and Fair Geographical Indications for Coffee: Insights from a Dominican Case Study

The commodity nature of green coffee is the main cause of the ‘coffee paradox’ (falling producer prices and rising consumer prices). Geographical Indications (GIs) may be an effective ‘decommodifier’ of the coffee market, but many constraints have to be overcome. Based on an analysis of how the characteristics of the coffee production system shape the positions of local stakeholders and, thus, the GI building process, this article identifies some constraining factors that can seriously undermine the capacity the GI has to decommodify the market and attain a fairer distribution of the benefits for local producers.     

Money, real output, and deficit effects of coffee booms in Colombia

This paper develops a Vector Error Correction (VEC) model and uses the recently developed technique of ‘generalized’ impulse response analysis to test the empirical relationships in the Colombian economy between coffee revenues and a set of macro variables. We find that coffee price (revenue) shocks have exerted an important influence on money growth, inflation, and real exchange rates, and the direction of these effects are in line with some of the predictions of traditional Dutch Disease type models. The major difference between our results and the results of Dutch Disease type models arise in the effects of coffee booms on real output. We find that in the time horizon of 5 years after the boom, real output has increased in response to the effects of the coffee boom. The finding that coffee booms can result in positive long-run output effects is an important finding since it contradicts the traditional conclusion of Dutch Disease type models which envision an adverse long-run effect on output. We also find that the long-run effect of coffee booms is to reduce both current account and government deficits. These results illustrate strikingly that the term “Dutch Disease” is an unfortunately pejorative term that obscures the fact that coffee booms need not be viewed as a “disease” but as an extraordinary opportunity to strengthen internal and external balances.     

Using Scanner Data to Construct CP1 Basic Component Indexes

This article considers how scanner data could be used in constructing component indexes for the U.S. Consumer Price Index. One product, coffee, in two cities generates over 1.8 million observations in just over two years, so coping with the sheer volume of data would be a challenge. Some other findings are (1) some aggregation of prices into “unit-value” averages is necessary for practical reasons and to avoid bias, (2) chained Laspeyres indexes are very high, (3) “modified” Laspeyres indexes have some upward bias but much less than a true Laspeyres index, (4) Fisher ideal or modified Edgeworth indexes perform well, and (5) aggregating prices across outlets to form city-level unit values reduces the discrepancies between index-number formulas.     

“母体”与“现代”的双重寻找——论台湾寻根文学

台湾寻根文学分别于1940年代、1950-60年代、1960-70年代三度勃兴,因历史激发力的不同在文化心灵诉求上各有侧重。从文化心理层面整体审视,上述台湾寻根文学的三度勃兴与台湾人内在主体的二元分裂密切相关:首度勃兴源自台湾人与日本人之间的主体分裂,再度勃兴源自台湾人与大陆人之间的主体分裂,三度勃兴源自台湾人与西方人之间的主体分裂。三度勃兴的二元分裂虽各有不同但皆导致台湾人无根的失落,这正是寻根的前提。三度勃兴显示出台湾人对于母体文化身份认同的强烈渴求,对于走向现代而不自我迷失的精神寻寄。     

中西文化比较之英美咖啡文化与茶文化

随着全球化的进一步发展,越来越多的人养成了喝咖啡和喝茶的习惯。可是很多人并不了解咖啡和茶中蕴藏的文化——西方文化和中国文化。主要介绍了西方的咖啡文化中具有代表性的英美咖啡文化和中国的茶文化及其影响,同时将这两种文化进行比较,向人们更好地介绍了中国和西方的文化差别,从而有利于中西方的相互理解和文化交流。