Canine model for investigating the impact of oral enrofloxacin on commensal coliforms and colonization with multidrug-resistant Escherichia coli

A model was developed in dogs to determine the impact of oral enrofloxacin administration on the indigenous coliform population in the gastrointestinal tract and subsequent disposition to colonization by a strain of multidrug-resistant Escherichia coli (MDREC). Dogs given a daily oral dose of 5 mg enrofloxacin kg(-1) for 21 consecutive days showed a significant decline in faecal coliforms to levels below detectable limits by 72 In of administration. Subsequently, faecal coliforms remained suppressed throughout the period of enrofloxacin dosing. Upon termination of antibiotic administration, the number of excreted faecal coliforms slowly returned over an 8-day period, to levels comparable to those seen prior to antibiotic treatment. Enrofloxacin-treated dogs were more effectively colonized by MDREC, evidenced by a significantly increased count of MDREC in the faeces (7.1 +/- 1.5 log(10) g(-1)) compared with non-antibiotic-treated dogs (5.2 +/- 1.2; P = 0.003). Furthermore, antibiotic treatment also sustained a significantly longer period of MDREC excretion in the faeces (26.8 +/- 10.5 days) compared with animals not treated with enrofloxacin (8.5 +/- 5.4 days; P = 0.0215). These results confirm the importance of sustained delivery of an antimicrobial agent to maintain and expand the colonization potential of drug-resistant bacteria in vivo, achieved in part by reducing the competing commensal coliforms in the gastrointestinal tract to below detectable levels in the faeces. Without in vivo antimicrobial selection pressure, commensal coliforms dominated the gastrointestinal tract at the expense of the MDREC population. Conceivably, the model developed could be used to test the efficacy of novel non-antibiotic strategies aimed at monitoring and controlling gastrointestinal colonization by multidrug-resistant members of the Enterobacteriaceae that cause nosocomial infections.

The impact of residential respite care on the behavior of older people

Background: The aim of this study was to examine the impact of residential respite care on disruptive behavior displayed by older people, particularly those with dementia. Methods: A quasi-experimental, repeated-measures, single-group design was used. The participants were a consecutive series of 100 older people with a mean age of 81.8 years (range 66-96 years) who had been booked for a respite admission to one of several residential aged care facilities in a provincial Australian city. A diagnosis of dementia was reported for 29% of the sample. Disruptive behaviors were rated before and after the period of respite by home caregivers (N = 100) and during the period of respite by nurses (N= 25) using the Dementia Behavior Disturbance Scale (DBDS). Results: Age, male gender and the presence of dementia were all significantly related to the frequency of reported disruptive behaviors. Residential respite care was associated with a significant reduction in the frequency of reported disruptive behaviors in older people (Wald chi(2) = 28.28, P < 0.0001). However, this improvement in behavior did not persist into the post-respite period. The deteriorating behavioral trajectory that was evident prior to respite care continued following the period of respite care. Conclusions: Residential respite care was associated with a temporary diminution in the frequency of reported disruptive behaviors in older people. This finding should be reassuring both for family carets considering placing a relative in residential respite care and for health workers considering whether to recommend such a course of action.

The impact of Foreign Direct Investment and trade openness on ICT expansion: A comparative analysis of Asia-Pacific and Middle Eastern countries

This study investigates the impact of foreign direct investment (FDI) inflow and trade openness on the expansion of information and communication technologies (ICTs) for the period of 1996 to 2005, in the Asia-Pacific and Middle East regions. The results of regression analyses conducted indicate that while dissimilarities exist among the countries included in this study in terms of their level of socio-economic and political development, factors such as trade openness, education and the growth of GDP had a positive impact on their ICT development. While FDI inflow had positive impact on the expansion of ICTs on Asia-Pacific countries its impact on Middle Eastern countries was not statistically significant. The study results also show that governmental intervention in economic activities has a negative impact on ICT expansion in both regions. In the Middle East, regional conflict imposes additional negative impact on FDI inflow and trade openness and consequently, ICT expansion. The regression results show that those countries that implemented liberalization of their ICT sector were able to not only reduce the digital divide with other developed countries, but also increase their operations in both local and global markets.

The role of the greens in the local politics of West Germany.

The study examines the contribution of the Greens to the changing nature of West Germany's local politics in the 1980s. The changes correspond broadly to the politicisation and parliamentarisation of a sphere of government traditionally perceived as being "unpolitical". Building upon theories of the New Politics, it is suggested that the varying pace of socio-economic change across the Federal Republic underlies the nonuniform development of its local party systems. The party systems of localities which have witnessed rapid social and economic change are found to be more susceptible to the emergence of a New Politics dimension than those of communities in which change has occurred less rapidly. The thesis continues by addressing aspects of the Greens' role in the development of local party systems across the Federal Republic. Despite the fact that marked differences in the Greens' approach to local political participation are registered in communities of varying socio-economic types, it is argued that the Greens are largely responsible for the introduction of a "New Local Politics" dimension into West Germany's local party systems. In a comprehensive study of the Greens' role in the Mainz party system, the conflicting styles and practices of the Greens and the established political parties in the city are depicted. The failure of the Green Party to form an alliance with the SPD in the city council is attributed to the cleavage between the Greens' New Politics and the SPD's Old Politics approaches. A detailed analysis of the parliamentary initiatives introduced by the four parties represented in the Mainz council between 1984 and 1987 also supports the contention that a New Politics dimension exists in the city's party system. This dimension is identified as representing a significant source of conflict during the period of analysis.

Multinational Performance and the Geography of FDI:evidence from 46 countries

The literature on multinationality and firm performance has generally disregarded the role of geography. However, the location of FDI assumes particular importance in terms of the link between multinationality at the firm level. The purpose of this paper is to consider the multinationality-performance relationship within the context of greater emphasis on the importance of location, but also emphasising the importance of the location decision. This paper draws on firm-level data covering over 16,000 multinationals from 46 countries over the period of 1997-2007 and allows for different effects upon the performance of the multinational firm depending on the level of development of the host economy. In our results, we find a clear positive relation between multinationality and firm performance. However, investment in developing countries is associated with larger effects on performance than in the case of investment in developed countries. We also find that the return to investing in developing countries is U-shaped. This indicates that multinationals are likely to face losses in the early stage of their investment in developing countries before the positive returns are realized. Overall, our results suggest that the net gains for multinationals from greater geographical diversification have not yet been fully explored. Geographical diversification into developing countries may be an important source of competitive advantages that deserves more serious consideration from business leaders and academics alike. © 2013 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.

Blastocyst environment and its influence on offspring cardiovascular health:the heart of the matter

The development of adult-onset diseases such as type II diabetes, obesity and cardiovascular disease is traditionally attributed to adult lifestyle characteristics such as a lack of physical exercise, poor diet and smoking. However, evidence from both human and animal model studies has demonstrated that environmental factors such as an imbalance or reduction in maternal nutrition during gestation can have adverse effects on offspring metabolism and cardiovascular health. The severity and nature of the phenotypic changes induced in offspring is influenced by the period of gestation manipulated. In particular, the mammalian preimplantation embryo in different animal models displays particular sensitivity to environmental factors, either in vivo (maternal diet) or in vitro (embryo culture) that is associated with the onset of cardiovascular dysfunction in adult life. The detailed mechanisms by which environmental conditions can alter postnatal cardiovascular physiology are poorly understood. However, various factors including endothelial function, vascular responsiveness, the renin-angiotensin system, kidney structure and early postnatal growth dynamics have all been recognize as potential contributors. Here, we review the relationship between preimplantation embryo environment and postnatal cardiovascular disease risk, and consider biochemical, molecular, genetic and physiological pathways implicated in this association. © 2009 The Authors Journal compilation © 2009 Anatomical Society of Great Britain and Ireland.

State advances and private retreats? Evidence from the decomposition of the Chinese manufacturing aggregate productivity decomposition in China

This paper is motivated by the recent debate on the existence and scale of China's 'Guo Jin Min Tui' phenomenon, which is often translated as 'the state sector advances and the private sector retreats'. We argue that the profound implication of an advancing state sector is not the size expansion of the state ownership in the economy per se, but the likely retardation of the development of the already financially constrained private sector and the issues around the sustainability of the already weakening Chinese economy growth. Drawing on recent methodological advances, we provide a critical analysis of the contributions of the state and non-state sectors in the aggregate Total Factor Productivity and its growth over the period of 1998-2007 to verify the existence of GJMT and its possible impacts on Chinese economic growth. Overall, we find strong and consistent evidence of a systematic and worsening resource misallocation within the state sector and/or between the state sectors and private sectors over time. This suggests that non-market forces allow resources to be driven away from their competitive market allocation and towards the inefficient state sector. Crown Copyright © 2014.

A jelzálogpiaci válság és a Közép-Kelet-Európában aktív nagybankok részvényárfolyama (The impact of the subprime crisis on the banks being active in Central and Eastern Europe)

Tanulmányunkban azt vizsgáljuk, hogy a jelzálogpiaci válsághoz köthető hírek milyen hatással vannak a Közép-Kelet-Európában aktív nagybankokra. A vizsgálathoz tíz Közép-Kelet-Európában aktív, tőzsdei nagybankot választottunk ki, amelyek közül hat nyugat-európai, míg négy közép-kelet-európai székhelyű bank volt. A tíz pénzintézettel kapcsolatosan 128 hírt gyűjtöttünk össze a 2007. június 1. és 2009. december 31. közötti időszakból. A híreket öt kategóriába csoportosítottuk, és az egyes kategóriáknak a részvényárfolyamokra gyakorolt, rövid távú hatását külön vizsgáltuk. Számításaink alapján a jelzálogpiaci válság során a befektetők pozitívan fogadták az állami feltőkésítéssel kapcsolatos bejelentéseket és a kielégítő védelmet nyújtó, átfogó kormányzati bankmentő csomagokat. A veszteségekkel, a leminősítéssel és az ECB intézkedéseivel kapcsolatos hírek esetén rövid távon nem tudtunk szignifikáns hatást kimutatni. A kutatás során a hírek számosságában igen, de a hírek által kiváltott hatás nagyságrendjében nem észleltünk jelentős különbséget a nyugat-európai és a középkelet- európai bankok között. ______ The research measures the impact of the subprime crisis on the shareholders of the banks being active in Central and Eastern Europe. The analysis focuses on the ten largest banks of the region measured by the asset size. The authors address the question whether the crisis affected more signifi cantly the large banks headquartered in Western Europe or the banks domiciled in Central and Eastern Europe. With the aim of capturing the short-term impact of various news on the shareholders of the banks, the popular event-study methodology with a one-day event window is employed. Within the period of 1 June 2007 and 31 December 2009, altogether 128 news were collected and grouped into fi ve categories (downgrades, loss, capital strengthening, governmental rescue packages, interventions of the ECB). Among others, the authors found empirical evidence that the shareholders appreciated the interventions of the governments: their capital injections resulted in signifi cant positive abnormal returns. Governmental rescue packages also resulted in signifi cant abnormal returns in the share price, however, the sign of the returns was unambiguous. No empirical evidence was found that in the short run the news in connection with loss announcements, downgrades and ECB interventions resulted in signifi cant abnormal returns. We concluded that although Western European banks and banks domiciled in Central and Eastern Europe differed in the number of news announced, the crisis affected the banks in both regions in a similar manner.

The paradox of the binomial Ixodes ricinus activity and the observed unimodal Lyme borreliosis season in Hungary

The change of ambient temperature plays a key role in determining the run of the annual Lyme season. Our aim was to explain the apparent contradiction between the annual unimodal Lyme borreliosis incidence and the bimodal Ixodes ricinus tick activity run – both observed in Hungary – by distinguishing the temperaturedependent seasonal human and tick activity, the temperature-independent factors, and the multiplicative effect of human outdoor activity in summer holiday, using data from Hungary in the period of 1998–2012. This separation was verified by modeling the Lyme incidence based on the separated factors, and comparing the run of the observed and modeled incidence. We demonstrated the bimodality of tick season by using the originally unimodal Lyme incidence data. To model the outdoor human activity, the amount of camping guest nights was used, which showed an irregular run from mid-June to September. The human outdoor activity showed a similar exponential correlation with ambient temperature to that what the relative incidence did. It was proved that summer holiday has great influence on Lyme incidence.

The paradox of the binomial Ixodes ricinus activity and the observed unimodal Lyme borreliosis season in Hungary

The change of ambient temperature plays a key role in determining the run of the annual Lyme season. Our aim was to explain the apparent contradiction between the annual unimodal Lyme borreliosis incidence and the bimodal Ixodes ricinus tick activity run – both observed in Hungary – by distinguishing the temperaturedependent seasonal human and tick activity, the temperature-independent factors, and the multiplicative effect of human outdoor activity in summer holiday, using data from Hungary in the period of 1998–2012. This separation was verified by modeling the Lyme incidence based on the separated factors, and comparing the run of the observed and modeled incidence. We demonstrated the bimodality of tick season by using the originally unimodal Lyme incidence data. To model the outdoor human activity, the amount of camping guest nights was used, which showed an irregular run from mid-June to September. The human outdoor activity showed a similar exponential correlation with ambient temperature to that what the relative incidence did. It was proved that summer holiday has great influence on Lyme incidence.

The contribution of higher education to economic *development in a globalized environment

Amidst concerns about achieving high levels of technology to remain competitive in the global market without compromising economic development, national economies are experiencing a high demand for human capital. As higher education is assumed to be the main source of human capital, this analysis focused on a more specific and less explored area of the generally accepted idea that higher education contributes to economic growth. The purpose of this study, therefore, was to find whether higher education also contributes to economic development, and whether that contribution is more substantial in a globalized context. ^ Consequently, a multiple linear regression analysis was conducted to support with statistical significance the answer to the research question: Does higher education contributes to economic development in the context of globalization? The information analyzed was obtained from historical data of 91 selected countries, and the period of time of the study was 10 years (1990–2000). Some variables, however, were lagged back 5, 10 or 15 years along a 15-year timeframe (1975–1990). The resulting comparative static model was based on the Cobb-Douglas production function and the Solow model to specify economic growth as a function of physical capital, labor, technology, and productivity. Then, formal education, economic development, and globalization were added to the equation. ^ The findings of this study supported the assumption that the independent contribution of the changes in higher education completion and globalization to changes in economic growth is more substantial than the contribution of their interaction. The results also suggested that changes in higher and secondary education completion contribute much more to changes in economic growth in less developed countries than in their more developed counterparts. ^ As a conclusion, based on the results of this study, I proposed the implementation of public policy in less developed countries to promote and expand adequate secondary and higher education systems with the purpose of helping in the achievement of economic development. I also recommended further research efforts on this topic to emphasize the contribution of education to the economy, mainly in less developed countries. ^

Three essays on the microstructure of exchange traded funds

Exchange traded funds (ETFs) have increased significantly in popularity since they were first introduced in 1993. However, there is still much that is unknown about ETFs in the extant literature. This dissertation attempts to fill gaps in the ETF literature by using three related essays. In these three essays, we compare ETFs to closed ended mutual funds (CEFs) by decomposing the bid-ask spread into its three components; we look at the intraday shape of ETFs and compare it to the intraday shape of equities as well as examine the co-integration factor between ETFs on the London Stock Exchange and the New York Stock Exchange; we also examine the differences between leveraged ETFs and unleveraged ETFs by analyzing the impact of liquidity and volatility. These three essays are presented in Chapters 1, 2, and 3, respectively. ^ Chapter one uses the Huang and Stoll (1997) model to decompose the bid-ask spread in CEFs and ETFs for two distinct periods—a normal and a volatile period. We show a higher adverse selection component for CEFs than for ETFs without regard to volatility. However, both ETFs and CEFs increased in magnitude of the adverse selection component in the period of high volatility. Chapter two uses a mix of the Werner and Kleidon (1993) and the Hupperets and Menkveld (2002) methods to get the intraday shape of ETFs and analyze co-integration between London and New York trading. We find two different shapes for New York and London ETFs. There also appears to be evidence of co-integration in the overlapping two-hour trading period but not over the entire trading day for the two locations. The third chapter discusses the new class of ETFs called leveraged ETFs. We examine the liquidity and depth differences between unleveraged and leveraged ETFs at the aggregate level and when the leveraged ETFs are classified by the leveraged multiples of -3, -2, -1, 2, and 3, both for a normal and a volatile period. We find distinct differences between leveraged and unleveraged ETFs at the aggregate level, with leveraged ETFs having larger spreads than unleveraged ETFs. Furthermore, while both leveraged and unleveraged ETFs have larger spreads in high volatility, for the leveraged ETFs the change in magnitude is significantly larger than for the unleveraged ETFs. Among the multiples, the -2 leveraged ETF is the most pronounced in its liquidity characteristics, more so in volatile times. ^

The Bankruptcy of Liberalism and Social Democracy in the Neoliberal Age

The increasing similarity between the economic policies of center-left and center-right political parties has effectively diminished the legitimacy of governments in relationship to their citizenry in Western Europe and the U.S. Capitalist democracies during the period of managed capitalism gained legitimacy by the appearance of the separation of capitalist ownership rights in the marketplace from the political institutions that govern capitalism. During this period, Social Democratic parties in Western Europe, and to a lesser extent the Democratic Party in the U.S., paid some amount of attention to labor unions and mass constituents in formulating their policy agendas. The era of neoliberalism (late 1970s to the present) has broken any such appearances, with the dominant political parties, regardless of party label, moving rightward to embrace many of the same economic policy agendas.

Intentional Use and Evaluation of iPad Applications in the Instruction of Pre-service Teachers

This study was undertaken to examine how instructor use of emerging technologies can contribute to better quality pre-service teacher education. A group of nine Memorial University Faculty of Education instructors attempted to systematically incorporate mobile tablet (iPad) technologies into their on-campus instruction over the period of one academic year (2013-2014). Participants familiarized themselves with their device; evaluated a range of instructional applications (apps) specific to their discipline and/or teaching focus areas; and attempted to intentionally integrate the device into the classroom-learning environment. The research team utilized several focus groups and semi-structured interviews to elicit the representations of participants with respect to their impressions of the value of tablet technologies and their experiences in implementing tablet technology in their instructional practice.

Hydrological Response of East China to the Variation of East Asian Summer Monsoon

Copyright © 2016 Fuxing Li et al.The sensitivity of hydrologic variables in East China, that is, runoff, precipitation, evapotranspiration, and soil moisture to the fluctuation of East Asian summer monsoon (EASM), is evaluated by the Mann-Kendall correlation analysis on a spatial resolution of 1/4° in the period of 1952-2012. The results indicate remarkable spatial disparities in the correlation between the hydrologic variables and EASM. The regions in East China susceptible to hydrological change due to EASM fluctuation are identified. When the standardized anomaly of intensity index of EASM (EASMI) is above 1.00, the runoff of Haihe basin has increased by 49% on average, especially in the suburb of Beijing and Hebei province where the runoff has increased up to 105%. In contrast, the runoff in the basins of Haihe and Yellow River has decreased by about 27% and 17%, respectively, when the standardized anomaly of EASMI is below -1.00, which has brought severe drought to the areas since mid-1970s. The study can be beneficial for national or watershed agencies developing adaptive water management strategies in the face of global climate change.