Disentangling spillover effects of antibiotic consumption: a spatial panel approach

Literature on socioeconomic determinants of antibiotic consumption in the community is limited to few countries using cross-sectional data. This paper analyses regional variations in outpatient antibiotics in Italy using a balanced panel dataset covering the period 2000-2008. We specify an econometric model where antibiotic consumption depends upon demographic and socioeconomic characteristics of the population, the supply of health care services in the community, and antibiotic copayments. The model is estimated by means of Ordinary least squares techniques with fixed effects (FE). The implications of consumption externalities across geographical areas are investigated by means of spatial-lag and spatial-error models (SLFE and SEFE). We find significant and positive income elasticity and negative effects of copayments. Antibiotic use is also affected by the age structure of the population and the supply of community health care. Finally, we find evidence of spatial dependency in the use of antibiotics across regions. This suggests that regional policies (e.g. public campaigns) aimed at increasing efficiency in antibiotic consumption and controlling bacterial resistance may be influenced by policy makers in neighbouring regions. There will be scope for a strategic and coordinated view of regional policies towards the use of antibiotics.Antibiotic consumption, Socioeconomic inequalities, Spatial dependency, Regional policies.

Big “G” and Small “G”: The Variable Geometries of Educational Governance in an Era of Big Data

With the advent of the fourth industrial revolution and the intelligent economy, this conceptual chapter explores the evolution of educational governance from one based on governing by numbers and evidence-based governance to one constituted around governance by data or data-based educational governance. With the rise of markets and networks in education, Big Data, machine data, high-dimension data, open data, and dark data have consequences for the governance of national educational systems. In doing so, it draws attention to the rise of the algorithmization and computerization of educational policy-making. The author uses the concept of “blitzscaling”, aided by the conceptual framing of assemblage theory, to suggest that we are witnessing the rise of a fragmented model of educational governance. I call this governance with a “big G” and governance with a “small g.” In short, I suggest that while globalization has led to the deterritorializing of the national state, data educational governance, an assemblage, is bringing about the reterritorialization of things as new material projects are being reconstituted

Winona Daily News

https://openriver.winona.edu/winonadailynews/1001/thumbnail.jp

The electrocardiogram in the elderly : diagnostic and prognostic studies

In most developed countries the proportion of elderly people in the population is expected to increase in the next decades. Cardiovascular disease is a leading cause of death and disability in the elderly and it is predicted that the absolute incidence rates of cardiac disease in older adults will increase significantly in the years to come. Since the invention of electrocardiography in 1902 by Willem Einthoven, the electrocardiogram (ECG) has gained an important position in clinical cardiology. In the last decade, computer programs for ECG interpretation with good pelformance have become available , improving the applicability of ECGs in medical practice and in epidemiologic research. The EeG offers an inexpensive. noninvasive instrument to determine the presence of coronmy hemt disease as well as other cardiae abnormalities, such as ventricular hypertrophy and atrial fibrillation, known to be associated with the risk of future cardiovascular events. Especially in the elderly, in whom medical histories may be troubled by concomitant diseases and are not always as reliable as one would desire, the ECG could serve as a useful diagnostic and prognostic instrument. Since the 1950s, large epidemiologic studies among young and middle-aged men and women have provided important information on the prevalence and prognosis of ECG abnormalities. Relatively few studies have been pelfonned in the elderly. A comparison of individual studies is hampered because of differences in diagnostic criteria applied in the individual studies, although comparability has improved since the introduction in 1960 of the Minnesota Code as a standardized coding system for the ECG. Recently, several studies reported that ECG indicators of autonomic balance, such as heart rate variability and QTc interval duration, may be strong predictors of cardiac and all-cause mortality, both in middle-aged and in older subjects

The effects of high-fat, high-sugar, and high-fat high-sugar diets on hippocampal-dependent spatial and contextual memory

Diets that are high in fat and sugar are associated with cognitive deficits in humans. Rodent models using these diets have shown that they produce deficits on tasks that assess hippocampal-dependent spatial learning and memory. However, less is known about the effect of such diets on other hippocampal-dependent forms of cognition. To examine the nature and specificity of diet-induced impairments in hippocampal function, rats were fed standard chow supplemented with sucrose solution, high-fat chow, or both high-fat chow and sucrose solution. These rats were then assessed on their memory for the location and identity of objects, and their formation and use of hippocampal-dependent representations of context. Chapter 2 showed that relatively short-term dietary intake of fat, sugar, or fat and sugar lasting two-months or less adversely affects performance on a number of hippocampal-dependent spatial memory tasks. This conclusion was based on a meta-analysis of the results from rodent studies using different diets (high in fat, high in sugar, or high in both fat and sugar) and different tasks to assess hippocampal-dependent spatial learning and memory (water maze, place recognition, radial arm maze, and spontaneous alternation). The analysis revealed that the largest effect was produced by exposure to a combined high-fat and high-sugar diet, with medium effects produced by high-fat diet or high-sugar diet. Of the different tasks used to assess spatial learning and memory, the largest effect was observed in the radial arm and radial water maze tasks, with medium effects in the place recognition, the spontaneous alternation, and the Morris water maze tasks. Chapter 3 demonstrated that rats fed chow and a sucrose solution performed just as well as control rats fed chow on a perirhinal-dependent object-recognition task, but demonstrated impaired performance, compared with controls, on a hippocampal-dependent place-recognition task. Rats exposed to high-sugar diet also performed comparably to controls in a context fear conditioning protocol, although there was some evidence that high-sugar rats generalised the context fear memory to a similar context more than control rats. The generalisation effect was only observed when context fear was assessed using a within-subject design and when rats were tested in the similar context before the conditioning context. Chapter 4 established that the selective impairment in place recognition memory observed in high-sugar rats extended to rats exposed to a diet high in fat, or high in both fat and sugar. There was no evidence that any one diet produced a more significant impairment than the other diets. There was also no evidence that the impairment worsened with longer exposure to the diet. Finally, rats exposed to any of these diets performed comparably to chow-fed rats in a context pre-exposure fear conditioning task that is critically dependent on hippocampal function. The findings from this thesis are discussed in relation to the insights gained from observing impairments that appear to be selective to spatial learning and memory, future directions of research for examining the effect of high-fat and/or high-sugar diets on hippocampal-dependent configural processing, the role of the hippocampus in diet-induced deficits, and the translational implications for dietary effects on human cognition and eating behaviours

Patria : diario de la tarde, julio 1928, año I, Nos. 55-79

Patria, fue un periódico documental de valor cultural y un medio informativo usado por destacados intelectuales para expresar la realidad social, cultural y política de El SalvadorBajo la Dirección de Alberto Masferrer.— En la página 73 encontrara el día Lunes 2 de julio de 1928 y en la página 89 encontrara la publicación del día Lunes 24 de septiembre de 1928.— Faltan los números 70 y 73.-- Contenido: Lunes 2 de julio de 1928, No. 54 (pág. 73) – Martes 3 de julio de 1928, No. 55 – Miércoles 4 de julio de 1928, No. 56 – Jueves 5 de julio de 1928, No. 57 – Viernes 6 de julio de 1928, No. 58 – Sábado 7 de julio de 1928, No. 59 – Lunes 9 de julio de 1928, No. 60 – Martes 10 de julio de 1928, No. 61 – Miércoles 11 de julio de 1928, No. 62 – Jueves 12 de julio de 1928, No. 63 – Viernes 13 de julio de 1928, No. 64 – Sábado 14 de julio de 1928, No. 65 – Lunes 16 de julio de 1928, No. 66 – Martes 17 de julio de 1928, No. 67 – Miércoles 18 de julio de 1928, No. 68 – Jueves 19 de julio de 1928, No. 69 – Sábado 21 de julio de 1928, No. 71 – Lunes 23 de julio de 1928, No. 72 – Lunes 24 de septiembre de 1928, No. 121 – Miércoles 25 de julio de 1928, No. 74 – Jueves 26 de julio de 1928, No. 75 – Viernes 27 de julio de 1928, No. 76 – Sábado 28 de julio de 1928, No. 77 – Lunes 30 de julio de 1928, No. 78 – Martes 31 de julio de 1928, No. 7