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A data set of 261 lactations from 130 purebred Jersey cows was fitted using six nonlinear lactation curve models viz. Sikka (SIK), Morant and Gnanasakthy (MG), Wilmink (WK), Wood (WD), Guo and Swalve (GS), and Brody (BRD) models. The average weekly test day milk yields (WTDMY) were predicted with high values of adjusted coefficients of determination (R2adj) by all fitted models. The MG model yielded the highest degree of accuracy (R2adj = 94.3%) with the lowest values of root mean square error (0.383), Akaike information criterion (−78.788), corrected Akaike information criterion (−77.735), and Schwartz Bayesian information criterion (−71.743) for the overall study. Among the four parities, the MG model was best fitted for the first three parities; however, for parities greater than or equal to four, the BRD model provided the best fit. All models fitted for overall milk production over four parities showed degrees of accuracy greater than 80. All the estimated peak yields estimated by different models ranged from 86.03 kg to 93.38 kg and the peak period ranged from 5 to 9 weeks. Lactation persistency was measured by the ratio, Weller, and Mahadevan methods. Cows with flatter lactation curves generally exhibited higher lactation persistency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The construction industry is among the most hazardous industries, with a fatality rate in Europe 3.4 times higher than average. While the occupational safety and health (OSH) coordinator has been a key actor in European efforts proposed to improve OSH in the industry since 1992, it is important to study the competences needed for the successful coordination of OSH in the construction industry. Existing literature on OSH coordinator competences are examined, and an expert survey is used to identify the competences characterising the most successful coordinators in Denmark. Finally, observational case studies of the perceived most successful coordinators in the Danish construction industry are used to exemplify the newly identified competences. The most frequently mentioned competences, not covered in previous research, are "innovativeness," "having overview," "persistency," "thoroughness," "sociability," and "being systematic." The results demonstrate the important "practice of knowing," rather than possessing formal knowledge, education, and/or skills. The most important practice of knowing for the coordinators is likely that of the ability to transfer knowledge into practice. Future research, education and legal requirement in this field could benefit from a focus on what practices of knowledge actually work in real-life settings, rather than focussing on idealistic notions of these qualities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: The comparative effectiveness of low-dose budesonide inhalation suspension (BIS) versus oral montelukast (MON) in managing asthma control among children with mild asthma was assessed in Korea. Methods: Claims from Korea's national health insurance database for children (2–17 years) with mild asthma (GINA 1 or 2) who initiated BIS or MON during 2015 were retrospectively analyzed. Pre- and post-index windows were 1 year each. Adherence, persistency, asthma control, asthma-related health-care resource utilization, and costs were evaluated using unadjusted descriptive statistics and propensity score-matched regression analyses. Results: The number of children identified was 26,052 for unmatched (n = 1,221 BIS; n = 24,831 MON) and 2,290 for matched populations (n = 1,145 per cohort). Medication adherence, measured by proportion of days covered, was low for both cohorts but significantly higher for MON versus BIS (13.8% vs. 4.5%; p <.001). Time to loss of persistency was longer for MON versus BIS (82.3 vs. 78.4 days, respectively; p <.001). Mean number of post-index asthma-related office visits was 6.6 for BIS versus 8.3 for MON (p <.001). However, a greater proportion of patients in the BIS cohort had an asthma exacerbation-related office visit than the MON cohort (78.3% vs. 56.1%; p <.001). Asthma-related total health-care costs were higher with MON versus BIS (₩ 190,185 vs. ₩ 167,432, respectively; p <.001), likely driven by higher pharmaceutical costs associated with MON (₩ 69,113 vs. ₩ 49,225; p <.001). Conclusions: Montelukast patients had better adherence, a longer time to loss of persistency, and were less likely to experience an exacerbation-related office visit in the post-index period than BIS patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Through data on the balance of payments, this article examines the performance of the crawling peg system in China’s foreign exchange markets. We are interested in whether the exchange rates are steered by the market fundamentals or manipulation. We investigate the changes in market efficiency for the RMB against 12 major currencies in the past decade. Our findings reveal that even with a small floating band in China’s foreign exchange markets, if the market allows the exchange rate to adjust according to the price mechanism, then market efficiency does improve significantly. When the RMB was pegged to the USD at 6.83 during the global financial crisis, there was a severe market failure. That also occurred in 2014, when the China government began to depreciate the RMB to stimulate exports. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: Many women are reluctant to undergo estrogen replacement therapy (ERT) and discontinue the treatment within 12 months. The aim of this study was to investigate the persistence rates of ERT in hysterectomized women over the past decade, reflecting changes in the post-Women's Health Initiative (WHI) era.Methods: We analyzed 8045 patients receiving ERT from 2004 to 2013 using the Disease Analyzer database.Results: After 12 months of follow-up, only 24.6% of patients receiving 1 mg and 24.5% of patients receiving 2 mg of oral ERT were still on treatment (p < 0.0001). The persistency rate of patients receiving <50 μg of transdermal ERT was 28.6% compared to 33.5% for patients receiving >50 μg within the 12 months of follow-up. ERT that began in 2007-2009 was associated with a higher discontinuation rate (hazard ratio 1.06, p = 0.0660) than ERT that began in 2010-2013 (hazard ratio 0.88, p = 0.0001).Conclusions: Our results indicate low persistency rates in women on ERT irrespective of the dose as well as the route of administration. However, a decrease in discontinuation rates was found when comparing women in the early vs. late post WHI era. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: Many women are reluctant to take menopausal hormone therapy (MHT) and discontinue the treatment within 12 months. The aim of this study was to investigate the persistence rates of combined MHT in the last decade, reflecting changes in the post-Women's Health Initiative era.Methods: We analyzed 17 020 patients receiving combined MHT from 2004 to 2013 using the Disease Analyzer database.Results: After 12 months of follow-up, 44.6% and 33.5% of patients receiving 1 mg and 2 mg, respectively, of oral combined MHT were still on treatment (p < 0.0001). The persistence rate of patients receiving < 50 μg of transdermal MHT was 39.1% after 1 year of treatment and presented no differences compared to patients receiving ≥ 50 μg of transdermal MHT with a persistence rate of 38.2%. MHT start in the years 2007-2009 was associated with higher discontinuation rates (hazard ratio 1.04, p = 0.0709) than MHT start in the years 2010-2013 (hazard ratio 0.90, p = 0.0001).Conclusions: Our results indicate that patients beginning their treatments in the years 2010-2013 were more treatment-persistent than patients beginning with MHT in the early years after publication of the Women's Health Initiative study (2004-2009). Administration of low-dose oral MHT and transdermal MHT is associated with increased persistency compared to higher doses of oral MHT. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study was to determine the lactation curve traits of Anatolian buffaloes raised under different conditions in farms in Tokat Province, Turkey. Wood's gamma curve parameters were employed to identify the lactation curve types, and values for the parameters beginning yield (a), coefficient of rising (b) and coefficient of decreasing (c) were used to determine the shape and type of lactation curve. All parameters in typical lactation curves were positive, and in the event of one parameter being negative, the curve was considered to be an atypical lactation curve. A total of 690 lactation curves were investigated. It was determined that 406 (58.84%) of these curves were typical, while 90 (13.04%) were concave and 194 (28.12%) of a decreasing type. For typical lactation curves, a, b, c, persistency (S), time after parturition until the peak yield occurs (Tmax), maximum daily peak yield (Ymax), and coefficient of determination (R²) were 7.14±0.008, 0.85±2.1, 0.40±0.001, 2.68, 63.6, 6.41 and 76.33, respectively. For concave lactation curves, values for a, b, c, Tmax, Ymax and R² were 4.94±0.42, -0.73±0.016, - 0.23±0.0038, 95.40, 7.41±0.004 and 71.68, respectively. For decreasing typical lactation curves, values for a, b, c, Tmax, and R² were 5.31±0.0041, -0.15±0.007, 0.039±0.0023, 3.89±0.11 and 79.94, respectively. Parameters predicted by the Wood model within the scope of this study have the potential of being useful for breeding programmes. Further breeding/selection activities could be conducted by using the female Anatolian buffaloes with typical lactation curves. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In tropical environments, lactation curves with lower peaks and higher persistency (PS) might be desirable from both an economical and a physiological point of view. The objective of this study was to obtain genetic parameters for test day (TD) yields, and PS for the tropical breed Carora and to compare these with results from a standard 305-d-milk yield animal model. Four random regression models (RRM) were used on a dataset composed of 95,606 TD records collected in Venezuela and tested to find the best fitting the data. Estimated daily heritabilities for milk yields ranged from 0.21 to 0.30, with the lowest values around the peak of lactation. Lactation repeatabilities ranged from 0.50 to 0.56. Correlations between the breeding values obtained with the RRM and the lactation model currently used in Venezuela [single trait Animal Model (stAM)] are quite high and positive (Pearson correlation=0.71 and Spearman correlation=0.72). Correlations between PS and 305-d-milk yield estimated breeding values (EBV) ranged from -0.18 (PS as the deviation of daily productions in the interval 50-279 days in milk from a point at the end of lactation) to 0.52 (PS as EBV difference between the second and the first stage of lactation). The use of PS indexes accounting for milk yield may allow the selection of individuals able to express their potential genetic values in tropical environment, without incurring in excessive heat stress losses [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To describe safety and long-term efficacy of nevirapine (NVP) in a real-life setting.Results: From 1996 to 2008, among the 745 patients who received NVP, 592 were still followed in our center; of these, 231 had stopped NVP because of failure (42%), side effects (28%), other causes (30%). Twenty-seven percent of discontinuations occurred in the first 3 months; 68% were related to adverse events. In June 2008, 361/592 patients (61%) were still on NVP for a median duration of 176 weeks (range, 0.3-600), including 18% of naïve patients, 15% of patients who initiated NVP in the context of virologic failure, and 66% of patients with an undetectable viral load (switch strategy). Median CD4 cell count increased from 377/μL (range, 8-1449) to 549/μL (range, 144-1621). Viral load was below 200 copies/mL at the latest visit in 97%, 96%, and 100% of the patients in the naïve, failure, and switch groups, respectively. Over a 5-year period, the rate of antiretroviral drug persistence was 60.9% for NVP, 41.4% for efavirenz, and 23% for lopinavir/ritonavir (P < .0001).Conclusions: In a real-life setting, NVP demonstrates sustained efficacy and good safety and is very convenient to use as reflected by a high rate of persistency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The activity of residual herbicides employed for weed control varies with adsorption, lixiviation, degradation, and biological transformation of these compounds in the soil. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the activity of the herbicide acetochlor (2-chloro-N-ethoxymethyl-6'-ethylacet-o-toluidine) in Typic Paleodult under no tillage and conventional tillage. Field and laboratory experiments were carried out at the Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul. Weed control with and without straw coverage, and adsorption and lixiviation of acetochlor, in soil with both tillage systems were evaluated. Adsorption and lixiviation processes were determined by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) with UV detector. The coefficients Kd and K ocwere higher in no-tillage soil, indicating a more effective acetochlor adsorption. The maximum concentration of acetochlor was found in a depth of 15-20 cm, indicating a higher lixiviation in this soil. The acetochlor was more effective in weed control using conventional tillage when compared to no tillage. The straw coverage reduced the control efficiency of the herbicide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]