Estimation of Glomerular Filtration Rate in Obese Patients: Utility of a New Equation.

There is no consensus on the best equation to estimate glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) in obese patients (OP). Objective: to evaluate the performance of the current equations and the new Argentinian Equation ("AE") to estimate GFR in OP. Two validation samples were used: internal (IVS, using 10-fold cross-validation) and temporary (TVS). OP whose GFR was measured (mGFR) with clearance of iothalamate between 2007/2017 (IVS, n = 189) and 2018/2019 (TVS, n = 26) were included. To evaluate the performance of the equations we used: bias (difference between eGFR and mGFR), P30 (percentage of estimates within ±30% of mGFR), Pearson's correlation (r) and percentage of correct classification (%CC) according to the stages of CKD. The median age was 50 years. Sixty percent had grade I obesity (G1-Ob), 25.1% G2-Ob and 14.9% G3-Ob, with a wide range in mGFR (5.6-173.1 mL/min/1.73 m2). In the IVS, AE obtained a higher P30 (85.2%), r (0.86) and %CC (74.4%), with lower bias (-0.4 mL/min/1.73 m2). In the TVS, AE obtained a higher P30 (88.5%), r (0.89) and %CC (84.6%). The performance of all equations was reduced in G3-Ob, but AE was the only one that obtained a P30 > 80% in all degrees. AE obtained better overall performance to estimate GFR in OP and could be useful in this population. Conclusions from this study may not be generalizable to all populations of obese patients since they were derived from a study in a single center with a very specific ethnic mixed population.

Stomatology - Organizational Codification of Science and Clinical Practice in the Late 1800s.

Reflections on the formation of a newly formed dental society in the historic seat of dental academia and research are highlighted, from an all-encompassing perspective.

Determinants of bank's efficiency in an emerging economy: A data envelopment analysis approach.

This study aims to assess the influence of internal and external factors on the Efficiency of banks in Pakistan using the Data Envelopment Analysis Approach (DEA). Bank's Efficiency is measured through DEA Model using input and output variables. The input variable includes the number of employees, number of branches, administration expenses, non-interest expenses, and loan loss provisions. In contrast, the output variable consists of net interest income, net commissions, and total other income. This study considers the internal determinants of the bank's Efficiency as corporate governance, enterprise risk management, ownership structure (state, foreign, and domestic ultimate owned banks), return on equity, financial leverage, and the size of the bank. The external determinants of the bank's Efficiency include banking structure and macroeconomic conditions. The study has used data from seventeen commercial banks over the period of 2011 to 2020. The study used the Data Envelopment Analysis Approach (DEA) and Logit and Probit Regression Model to evaluate research hypotheses. The Logit model results show that corporate governance, ultimate global ownership, and return on equity have a statistically significant and positive impact on the bank's Efficiency. Enterprise risk management and financial leverage adversely affect the bank's Efficiency. Better corporate governance can help banks to control the risk and cost of capital and enhancement the effectiveness of capital. Similarly, better risk management of banks can lead to better operational and strategic decisions in the competitive banking environment.

Using 10-K text to gauge COVID-related corporate disclosure.

During the pandemic era, COVID-related disclosure has become quite critical for shareholders and other market participants to understand the uncertainties and challenges associated with a firm's operation. However, there is no well-grounded and systematic measure to gauge the intensity of COVID-related disclosure and its plausible impact. Therefore, this study develops and validates various COVID-related disclosure measures. More specifically, using a sample of publicly listed U.S. firms and applying natural language processing (NLP) on 10-K reports, we have developed two types of COVID dictionaries (or COVID-related disclosure measurement tools): (a) overall COVID dictionary (count of all COVID-related words/phrases) and (b) contextual COVID-dictionary (count of COVID related words/phrases preceded or followed by positive, negative tones, or financial constraints words). Subsequently, we have validated both types of COVID dictionaries by investigating their association with corporate liquidity events (e.g., dividend payment, dividend change). We confirm that the overall COVID dictionary effectively predicts a firm's liquidity event. We find similar results for contextual COVID dictionaries with a negative spin (i.e., COVID disclosures with a negative tone or an indication of financial constraints). Our results further show that better-governed firms (e.g., greater board independence, and more female directors) tend to have more COVID-related disclosures, despite the fact that more COVID-related disclosures suppress a firm's market-based stock performance (e.g. Tobin's Q). Our results suggest that better-governed firms prefer greater transparency, even if it may hurt their market performance in the short run.

Quantas infâncias? um estudo exploratório sobre discursos institucionais em defesa da primeira infância / How many childhoods? an exploratory study on institutional discourses in defense of early childhood

A defesa da Primeira Infância tem despontado no Brasil nos últimos anos com importante mobi-lização e militância dentro de um conjunto de lutas por direitos da infância e juventude mais amplo e que têm como matriz os Direitos Humanos e as conquistas de movimentos sociais que permitiram o advento do Estatuto da Criança e do Adolescente (ECA). Neste artigo, com o ob-jetivo de analisar especificidades do movimento pela Primeira Infância, apresentamos uma pesquisa documental exploratória sobre discursos de instituições e organizaçõesligadas a essa frente por meio de materiais veiculados em seus sítios eletrônicos. O material selecionado foi submetido à análise de conteúdo, meio pelo qual sistematizamos três categorias temáticas. Os resultados sugerem que parte das reivindicações dos grupos pela Primeira Infância concorrem com a Proteção Integral quanto à concepção do sujeito criança e adolescente e de seu desen-volvimento. Os achados foram discutidos criticamente e pela perspectiva da Psicologia Jurídica. (AU)

Early childhood has emerged in Brazil in recent years with important mobilization and mili-tancy within a set of struggles for the rights of the child embedded on Human Rights and the social movements that allowed the Brazil’s Child and Adolescent Statute to surge. In this arti-cle, and aiming to analyze Early Childhood movement specificities, we present an exploratory research on institutional and organizational discourses from Brazil’s Early Childhood move-ment on websites on the Internet. The collected data were submitted to content analysis, in a way that three analytical categories were created. The results suggest that some of those groups demands conflict with Full Protection advocacy regarding the very idea about children and adolescents and their development. The findings were discussed critically and from the perspective of Forensic Psychology. (AU)

A comprehensive and healthcare equity promoting response by a civil society-public partnership to COVID-19 in Chiapas, Mexico.

Following the first COVID-19 case in Chiapas, Mexico in March 2020, the non-governmental organisation Compañeros En Salud (CES) and the state's Ministry of Health (MOH) decided to join forces to respond to the global pandemic. The collaboration was built over 8 years of partnership to bring healthcare to underserved populations in the Sierra Madre region. The response consisted of a comprehensive SARS-CoV-2 infection prevention and control programme, which included prevention through communication campaigns to combat misinformation and stigma related to COVID-19, contact tracing of suspected and confirmed COVID-19 cases and their contacts, outpatient and inpatient care for patients with respiratory symptoms, and CES-MOH collaboration on anti-COVID-19 immunisation campaigns. In this article, we describe these interventions and their principal outcomes, as well as reflect on notable pitfalls identified during the collaboration, and we suggest a series of recommendations to prevent and mitigate their occurrence. As with many cities and towns across the globe, the poor preparedness of the local health system for a pandemic and pandemic response led to the collapse of the medical supply chain, the saturation of public medical facilities and the exhaustion of healthcare personnel, which had to be overcome through adaptation, collaboration and innovation. For our programme in particular, the lack of a formal definition of roles and clear lines of communication between CES and the MOH; thoughtful planning, monitoring and evaluation and active engagement of the communities served in the design and implementation of health interventions affected the outcomes of our efforts.

China's changing expectations of the SCO between 2001 and 2019.

After the cold war, some countries gradually seek to regional cooperation when they could not handle various transnational challenges alone. Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) is a good example. It brought Central Asian countries together. This paper applies the text-mining method, using co-word analysis, co-occurrence matrix, cluster analysis, and strategic diagram to analyze the selected articles from newspapers quantitatively and visually. In order to investigate the Chinese government's attitude toward the SCO, this study collected data from the China Core Newspaper Full-text Database, which contains high-impact government newspapers revealing the Chinese government's perception of the SCO. This study characterizes the changing role of SCO as perceived by the Chinese government from 2001 to 2019. Beijing's changing expectations in each of the three identified subperiods are described.

Validation of the Hingmed DBP-01P clinical automatic blood pressure monitor provided with wide-range cuff, evaluated in a general population according to the ISO 81060-2:2018 protocol.

To determine the accuracy of the Hingmed DBP-01P monitor for clinical automatic blood pressure (BP) measurement according to the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 81060-2 2018 protocol. The DBP-01P was tested in 85 subjects from the general population (mean age, 69.9 years; 43 men) using a wide-range cuff for arm circumferences from 17 to 42 cm. The mean device-observer difference was 1.32 ± 3.18 mmHg for SBP and 0.78 ± 3.15 mmHg for DBP. These data were in agreement with criterion 1 of the protocol standard requirements (≤5 ± 8 mmHg). Also, criterion 2 was satisfied with the SDs of the 85 participants being well below the maximum values required by the protocol (6.80 and 6.89 mmHg for SBP and DBP pressure, respectively). These data show that the Hingmed BP monitor DBP-01P satisfied the ISO 81060-2:2018 standard requirements for a general population across a wide range of arm sizes using a single wide-range cuff.

Inventory and analysis of literature on the organisation of eight European academic medical centres-A scoping review.

Academic Medical Centres (AMCs) are important organisations for shaping healthcare. The purpose of this scoping review is to understand the scope and type of evidence related to the organisation of European AMCs. We selected the study population intending to obtain a demographic cross-section of European countries: Czech Republic, Germany, Latvia, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain, Sweden and the UK. We focused our search strategy on the relationship between medical schools and AMCs, the organisation of governing bodies, and legal ownership. We searched the bibliographic databases of PubMed and Web of Science (most recent search date 17-06-2022). To enrich the search result, we used Google search engines to conduct targeted searches for relevant websites. Our search strategy yielded 4,672 records for consideration. After screening and reviewing full-text papers, 108 sources were included. Our scoping review provided insight into the scope and type of evidence related to the organisation of European AMCs. Limited literature is available on the organisation of these AMCs. Information from national-level websites complemented the literature and provided a more complete picture of the organisation of European AMCs. We found some meta-level similarities regarding the relationship between universities and AMCs, the role of the dean and the public ownership of the medical school and the AMC. In addition, we found several reasons why a particular organisational and ownership structure was chosen. There is no uniform model for AMC organisations (apart from some meta-level similarities). Based on this study, we cannot explain the diversity in these models. Therefore, further research is needed to explain these variations. For example, by generating a set of hypotheses through in-depth case studies that also focus on the context of AMCs. These hypotheses can then be tested in a larger number of countries.

Can Environmental Information Disclosure Enhance Firm Value?-An Analysis Based on Textual Characteristics of Annual Reports.

This study examines the impact of environmental information disclosure quality on firm value for Chinese listed companies in heavily polluting industries from 2010 to 2021. By controlling for the level of leverage, growth, and corporate governance, a fixed effects model is constructed to test this relationship. Furthermore, this study analyzes the moderating effects of annual report text features, such as length, similarity, and readability, on the relationship between environmental information disclosure and firm value and the heterogeneous impact of firm ownership on this relationship. The main findings of this study are as follows: There is a positive correlation between the level of environmental information disclosure and firm value for Chinese listed companies in heavily polluting industries. Annual report text length and readability positively moderate the relationship between environmental information disclosure and firm value. Annual report text similarity negatively moderates the relationship between environmental information disclosure and firm value performance. Compared with state-owned enterprises, the impact of environmental information disclosure quality on the firm value of no-state-owned enterprises is more significant.

Study on the Global Sustainability of the Korean Construction Industry Based on the GRI Standards.

This study began with the increasing importance of ESG through sustainable management evaluation across all industries, predicting market demand through the ESG management paradigm and financial environment changes in the global industry, and establishing international strategies for the construction industry. Compared to other industries, the construction industry is in the early stages of ESG formation, and it is unclear how to expand its base by establishing evaluation system standards such as innovation of individual services, interaction of social capital, and definition of stakeholders. Currently, some large construction companies in the construction industry are publishing sustainability management reports at the group level, but given the recently strengthened global sustainability of ESG by GRI Standards, efficient analysis of global construction markets and strategic orders are needed. Therefore, this study focuses on assessing the sustainability strategies and directions of the construction industry from an ESG perspective. To this end, sustainability issues and insights, as well as global issues in Korea and the worldwide construction sector, were analyzed. The analysis showed that global construction companies were highly interested in business management approaches, such as safety and health, as critical issues regarding the construction industry's sustainability strategy. In contrast, South Korean construction companies prioritize business values such as value creation, fair trade, and win-win. Both global and South Korean construction companies have been working on greenhouse gas reduction and energy sustainability. Regarding other issues, cultivating construction specialists, enhancing the job training system, and limiting serious accidents and safety mishaps were all significant from a social standpoint among South Korean construction companies. Conversely, global construction companies appeared to focus on issues related to ethical and environmental management from an organizational standpoint.

Subjective Well-Being in Organizations: Effects of Internal Ethical Context and Ethical Leadership.

The literature rarely addresses the possible effects of organizations' internal ethical context on their employees' subjective well-being, that is, people's evaluation of their lives based on positive and negative emotional experiences and perceived life satisfaction. This study explored how internal ethical context's components-specifically ethics codes, ethics programs' scope and perceived relevance, and perceived corporate social responsibility practices-are related to workers' subjective well-being. Ethical leadership's possible leveraging of ethical context variables' effect on subjective well-being was also examined. The data were collected from 222 employees from various organizations in Portugal using an electronic survey. The results from multiple regression analyses indicate that organizations' internal ethical context positively affects employees' subjective well-being. This impact is mediated by ethical leadership, suggesting that leaders play a crucial role in highlighting and embodying their organization's ethical norms and orientation, thereby directly influencing their staff members' subjective well-being.

Corporate Sustainability Development Strategy and Corporate Environmental Governance-The Moderating Role of Corporate Environmental Investments.

Environmental degradation and ecological devastation have become widespread global concerns in recent years as a result of the expansion of the international economy. China's rapid economic development has been accompanied by a sloppy economic growth model that has damaged the local ecological environment. The Chinese government intends to improve the ecological environment by the end of 2020 in an effort to direct and improve these environmental issues. The strictest environmental laws became effective in 2015. In light of this, this research uses panel data analysis to examine the environmental strategy and environmental governance of Chinese corporations. This article analyses 14,512 samples of listed mainland Chinese enterprises from 2015 to 2020. This research investigates the connection between Corporate Sustainability Development Strategy and Corporate Environmental Governance, as well as the moderating effect of Corporate Environmental Investments.

Exploring the association between self-efficacy and future utility beliefs in mathematics: A practical tutorial on correspondence analysis.

It has long been understood that there exists a strong association between a student's belief in the future utility of mathematics and their self-efficacy in mathematics. This study re-examines this association by studying these variables based on data collected from a sample of 21,444 ninth-grade students who participated in the 2009 High School Longitudinal Study (HSLS09). The nature of the association between future utility beliefs of students in mathematics and self-efficacy of students in mathematics is explored visually using the simple correspondence analysis technique. The main feature that will be utilised from this technique is a two-dimensional graphical display, referred to as a correspondence plot. By studying the HSLS09 data, the first two axes of such a plot summarised nearly 99% of the statistically significant association that exists between a student's beliefs in the future utility of mathematics and their mathematics self-efficacy. It is shown visually that students who strongly believe in the future importance of studying mathematics also perform strongly in the subject, while those who do not believe that there is any future utility from studying mathematics do not perform well at it. This study, therefore, suggests that mathematics ability is associated with a student's perception of its future importance.

Operationalizing antiracism in health systems: Strategies state government administrative organizations use towards racial and ethnic mental health equity.

Although a growing body of literature recommends strategies for improving racial equity in organizations and populations, little is known about how racial equity goals are operationalized in actuality, particularly in the context of state health and mental health authorities (SH/MHAs) attempting to promote population wellness while navigating bureaucratic and political constraints. This article seeks to examine the number of states engaging in racial equity work in mental health care, what strategies SH/MHAs use to improve their state's racial equity in mental health care, and how the workforce understands these strategies. A brief survey of 47 states found that all but one state (98%) is enacting racial equity interventions in mental health care. Through qualitative interviews with 58 SH/MHA employees in 31 states, I created a taxonomy of activities within six overarching strategies: 1) running a racial equity group; 2) gathering information and data about racial equity; 3) facilitating training and learning for staff and providers; 4) collaborating with partners and engaging with communities; 5) offering information or services to communities and organizations of color; and 6) promoting workforce diversity. I describe specific tactics within each of the strategies as well as the perceived benefits and challenges of the strategies. I argue that strategies bifurcate into development activities, which are activities creating higher-quality racial equity plans, and equity-advancing activities, which are actions directly impacting racial equity. The results have implications for how government reform efforts can impact mental health equity.

The political economy of infant and young child feeding: confronting corporate power, overcoming structural barriers, and accelerating progress.

Despite increasing evidence about the value and importance of breastfeeding, less than half of the world's infants and young children (aged 0-36 months) are breastfed as recommended. This Series paper examines the social, political, and economic reasons for this problem. First, this paper highlights the power of the commercial milk formula (CMF) industry to commodify the feeding of infants and young children; influence policy at both national and international levels in ways that grow and sustain CMF markets; and externalise the social, environmental, and economic costs of CMF. Second, this paper examines how breastfeeding is undermined by economic policies and systems that ignore the value of care work by women, including breastfeeding, and by the inadequacy of maternity rights protection across the world, especially for poorer women. Third, this paper presents three reasons why health systems often do not provide adequate breastfeeding protection, promotion, and support. These reasons are the gendered and biomedical power systems that deny women-centred and culturally appropriate care; the economic and ideological factors that accept, and even encourage, commercial influence and conflicts of interest; and the fiscal and economic policies that leave governments with insufficient funds to adequately protect, promote, and support breastfeeding. We outline six sets of wide-ranging social, political, and economic reforms required to overcome these deeply embedded commercial and structural barriers to breastfeeding.

ESG Expands the View of Corporate Stewardship in Healthcare.

At Advocate Aurora Health, the board of directors established parameters for effectively executing the governance (G) function related to ESG activities while adopting a comprehensive approach to ESG that includes the corporate commitment to health equity. Establishing a board diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) committee with external experts served to integrate these efforts with the ESG strategy. This approach will continue to guide the board of directors of Advocate Health, formed in December 2022, by the combination of Advocate Aurora Health and Atrium Health. Our experience has demonstrated that empowering individual board committee members of not-for-profit healthcare organizations to embrace their unique responsibility for driving ESG requires collective efforts in the boardroom as well as a commitment to board refreshment and diversity.

Cumulative Ecological Risk and Academic Burnout in Chinese College Students: A Moderated Mediation Model.

This study explored the relationship between cumulative ecological risk exposure and academic burnout among Chinese college students and the mediating and moderating effects of neuroticism and gender, respectively. A total of 580 college students were selected as participants. They completed a battery of questionnaires that measured cumulative ecological risk, neuroticism, and academic burnout. The results showed that: (1) cumulative ecological risk was positively related to neuroticism and academic burnout; (2) cumulative ecological risk positively predicted academic burnout; (3) neuroticism partly mediated the relationship between cumulative ecological risk and academic burnout; and (4) gender moderated the effect of cumulative ecological risk and academic burnout. A high level of cumulative ecological risk had a greater impact on neuroticism among women, compared to men. These findings advance our current knowledge of the specific effects of cumulative ecological risk on academic burnout and the underlying internal mechanisms of this relationship. Furthermore, this study provides a constructive perspective on preventing and reducing academic burnout among college students.