Exercise training in thermo-mineral spring water has beneficial effects on hemodynamic and health-related factors in young-older hypertensive women: A randomized control trial

ABSTRACT

The aim of the study was to evaluate the effects of an 8-week aerobic training in mineral geothermal water on hemodynamic variables, VO_2max, and body composition in sedentary hypertensive women. Twenty postmenopausal women (58.55 ± 3.28 years) were divided into an exercise group (2 days/week, 30–40 minutes, 60%–75% of HR_max) and control group. Compared to the control group, a signi?cant reduction in systolic blood pressure, heart rate, rate pressure product, body fat percent, and a signi?cant improvement in VO_2max values was found. Aerobic training in thermo-mineral spring water is a safe and effective training modality in the young-older hypertensive population.     

Tâches,professions et salaires dans les pays de l'OCDE

Les auteurs examinent la relation entre les gains, le capital humain et les tâches. Ils reprennent le modèle théorique d'Autor et Handel (2013), tout en élargissant l'analyse empirique à 21 pays, grâce aux données de l'enquête de l'OCDE sur les compétences des adultes (PIAAC). Celles‐ci permettent en outre de caractériser plus précisément le capital humain des travailleurs, en fournissant une mesure directe des compétences cognitives. L'analyse empirique confirme l'influence du contenu en tâches de l'emploi sur les écarts de salaire, à la fois entre les catégories professionnelles et en leur sein. Les prédictions du modèle se vérifient dans la grande majorité des pays.     

The use of non-surgical glue to repair perineal first-degree lacerations in normal birth: A non-inferiority randomised trial

Background and problemSurgical glue has been indicated for uncomplicated operatory wounds; however, it has a considerable cost. Non-surgical glue, a commercially available and cheaper product, has not been studied for repairing postpartum lacerations.AimTo compare non-surgical glue to traditional sutures on perineal first-degree lacerations after normal birth.MethodsIn a prospective, open-label, non-inferiority, randomised controlled trial, we selected childbearing women who were admitted for normal term births and in whom skin lacerations occurred. They were assigned to laceration repair using either non-surgical glue (ethyl 2-cyanoacrylate; Glue group) or catgut sutures (Suture group). The primary endpoint was the occurrence of dehiscence >3 mm. Secondary endpoints were procedure runtime, pain score, satisfaction level, and aspects of perineal repair by the REEDA score (hyperaemia, oedema, ecchymosis, exudation, and coaptation) immediately (T0), 24−48 h (T1), and 7–10 days (T2) after childbirth.FindingsWe included 126 women, 63 in each group, and found a non-inferiority dehiscence rate in the Glue Group compared to the Control group (T1 = 1.6% vs. 1.6%, P = 0.999 and P < 0.001 for non-inferiority; and T2 = 2.2% vs. 4.3%, P = 0.557). In the Glue Group, the procedure runtime was shorter, pain score was lower, and women’s satisfaction was greater. No women had any allergic reaction in the study.ConclusionsNon-surgical glue was not inferior to traditional sutures to repair postpartum first-degree lacerations. In addition, non-surgical glue was associated with less pain and greater satisfaction.Brazilian Clinical Trials Registry (www.ensaiosclinicos.gov.br/rg/RBR-5Z8MKC).     

How (not) to make women work?

Women in developed economies have experienced an unparalleled increase in employment rates, to the point that the gap with respect to men was cut in half. This positive trend has often been attributed to changes in the opportunity costs of working (e.g. access to caring facilities) and the opportunity costs of not-working (notably, relative growth in wages in positions more frequently occupied by women, improved educational attainment). Meanwhile, the gender employment gaps were stagnant in transition economies. Admittedly, employment equality among genders was initially much higher in transition countries.We exploit this unique evidence from transition and advanced countries, to analyze the relationship between the institutional environment and the (adjusted) gender employment gaps. We estimate comparable gender employment gaps on nearly 1500 micro databases from over 40 countries. Changes in both types of the opportunity costs exhibited strong correlation with gender employment equality where the gap was larger, i.e. advanced economies. We provide some evidence that these results are not explained away by transition-related phenomena. We argue that the observed divergence in time trends reflects a level effect: the lower the gender employment gap, the lower the strength of the relationship between gender employment equality and the opportunity costs of working. An implication from our study is that the existing instruments might be insufficient to further reduce the gender employment gap.     

Conjoint effects of interacting strategy-making processes and lines of defense practices in strategic Risk Management: An empirical study

The ability to contain adverse effects of major risks under turbulent conditions and exploit the opportunities they present are fundamental concerns in strategic management and various institutions promote enterprise risk management (ERM) to deal with these challenges. Yet, our knowledge about how ERM affects performance and interacts with corporate strategy-making processes is limited. The ERM frameworks impose first and second lines of defense practices to integrate business operations and corporate risk oversight. Emergent strategies generate responsive initiatives and strategic planning coordinates updated actions. Hence, this study analyzes the conjoint effects of these ERM practices and strategy-making processes based on a large corporate sample and finds that ERM practices depend on strategy-making to attain effective risk outcomes. The application of ERM frameworks can, therefore, not be assessed in isolation, but must consider corporate strategy-making. This has implications for the way we conduct research on strategic risk management, how executives approach risk oversight and policy-makers impose formal risk governance requirements.     

The exact unconditional z-pooled test for equality of two binomial probabilities: optimal choice of the Berger and Boos confidence coefficient

Exact unconditional tests for comparing two binomial probabilities are generally more powerful than conditional tests like Fisher's exact test. Their power can be further increased by the Berger and Boos confidence interval method, where a p-value is found by restricting the common binomial probability under H ₀ to a 1?γ confidence interval. We studied the average test power for the exact unconditional z-pooled test for a wide range of cases with balanced and unbalanced sample sizes, and significance levels 0.05 and 0.01. The detailed results are available online on the web. Among the values 10^?3, 10^?4, …, 10^?10, the value γ=10^?4 gave the highest power, or close to the highest power, in all the cases we looked at, and can be given as a general recommendation as an optimal γ.     

A new look at the difference between the GEE and the GLMM when modeling longitudinal count responses

Poisson log-linear regression is a popular model for count responses. We examine two popular extensions of this model – the generalized estimating equations (GEE) and the generalized linear mixed-effects model (GLMM) – to longitudinal data analysis and complement the existing literature on characterizing the relationship between the two dueling paradigms in this setting. Unlike linear regression, the GEE and the GLMM carry significant conceptual and practical implications when applied to modeling count data. Our findings shed additional light on the differences between the two classes of models when used for count data. Our considerations are demonstrated by both real study and simulated data.     

The Influence of Service Orientation on B2B e‐Service Capabilities: An Empirical Investigation

E‐Services, or the company's portfolio of service offerings available to its customers through the Internet, are an emerging area of interest to operations management. Yet little is known about the operations and capabilities needed for provision of business‐to‐business (B2B) e‐services. This paper aims to make a contribution toward closing this gap. First, we develop a new construct of B2B e‐service capability, a term that captures a generic set of five interrelated and complementary dimensions: (1) e‐service recovery, (2) e‐customization, (3) ease of navigation, (4) service portfolio comprehensiveness, and (5) information richness. These combined operational abilities are associated with B2B service delivery, including its portal design, technology architecture, and mix of product and service offerings. They are posited to be necessary for delivering effective B2B e‐services. We also argue that, both service orientation (SO) and customer receptivity to technology, influence B2B e‐service capability. We empirically test a path model using structural equation modeling on a sample of 181 businesses that have deployed B2B e‐services. We find that the influence of SO on performance is not direct but rather mediated by the e‐service capability, a finding that holds for both goods producers and service providers. We suggest that a firm's SO may mitigate industrial customers' resistance toward conducting business online.     

A POLITICAL ECONOMY THEORY OF PARTIAL DECENTRALIZATION

We revisit the classic problem of tax competition in the context of federal nations, and derive a positive theory of partial decentralization. A capital poor median voter chooses to use redistributive capital taxes to provide public goods. The expectation of high capital taxes, however, results in a small capital stock which lowers returns to redistribution. The median voter therefore wants to commit to a lower level of capital taxes. She does so by setting a partial degree of decentralization in the Constitution. The equilibrium degree of decentralization balances the positive effect of tax competition on capital taxes with the loss in redistribution that results. We show that the degree of decentralization is nonmonotonic in inequality, increasing in the redistributive efficiency of public good provision, and decreasing in capital productivity. When public goods are heterogeneous in their capacity to transfer funds, all voters agree that goods with high redistributive capacity should be decentralized.     

Dependence structure of generalized order statistics

In this article, simple expressions for marginal density functions of multiply censored generalized order statistics based on continuous distribution functions are obtained. Moreover, it is shown that generalized order statistics are multivariate totally positive and, thus, associated. This property is applied to show that regressions of generalized order statistics are nondecreasing under weak conditions.