This study explores the application of paraconsistent annotated evidential logic for analyzing the profitability of companies. We implemented a model that allocated degrees of favorable and contrary evidence to selected profitability ratios, defined using data from sixty-seven food industry companies. The degrees of favorable and contrary evidence assigned to each profitability index were based...

BACKGROUND Heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1) concentrations have been recently reported to be elevated in impaired glucose tolerance and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). However, no study has examined the association between HO-1 concentrations and gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM). METHODS In a case-control study, nested within a prospective cohort of pregnant women (186 GDM cases and 191 women who ...

The important article by Stattin et al. (1) provides further evidence that insulin-like growth factor-I (IGF-I) may play a key role in the development of prostate cancer. Prediagnostic levels of serum IGF-I were, on average, 7% higher in men who subsequently developed prostate cancer compared with healthy individuals, a result similar to that found in the Physicians’ Health Study (2). Circulati...

Albumin excretion in urine is positively correlated with the presence of ischemic heart disease and atherosclerotic risk factors. We studied prospectively whether a slight increase of urinary albumin excretion, ie, microalbuminuria, adds to the increased risk of ischemic heart disease among hypertensive subjects. In 1983 and 1984, blood pressure, urinary albumin/creatinine concentration ratio, ...

The purpose of this study is to investigate the association between anthropometric characteristics and performance in all track and field running events and assess Body Mass Index (BMI) as a relevant performance indicator. Data of mass, height, BMI and speed were collected for the top 100 international men athletes in track events from 100 m to marathon for the 1996-2011 seasons, and analyzed b...

REDUCTION THROUGH POLICY CHANGES This chapter deals with various strategies to improve the asset holdings of the rural poor. In most cases, if the poor get a bigger share of asset control or benefits, efficiency and economic growth also improve. For many types of asset, reducing inequality between rural and urban areas slows down outmigration to the cities, and increases rural farm and non-farm...

BACKGROUND Despite numerous studies of geographic variation in healthcare cost and utilization at the local, regional, and state levels across the U.S., a comprehensive characterization of geographic variation in outcomes has not been published. Our objective was to quantify variation in US health outcomes in an all-payer population before and after risk-adjustment. METHODS AND FINDINGS We us...

BACKGROUND Investigators have examined whether heat mortality risk is increased in neighborhoods subject to the urban heat island (UHI) effect but have not identified degrees of difference in susceptibility to heat and cold between cool and hot areas, which we call acclimatization to the UHI. OBJECTIVES We developed methods to examine and quantify the degree of acclimatization to heat- and co...

Models based on laser height metrics matching different quantiles of the distribution of laser canopy heights should be similar to one another with respect to their predictive capabilities of aboveground biomass providing: 1) the allometric relationships in the trees studied remain consistent; and 2) the vertical distributions of laser canopy heights and needle area/mass are related according t...

IMPORTANCE A small proportion of patients account for the majority of US health care spending, and understanding patterns of spending among this cohort is critical to reducing health care costs. The degree to which preventable acute care services account for spending among these patients is largely unknown. OBJECTIVE To quantify preventable acute care services among high-cost Medicare patient...