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Additional file 2: Supplementary Table 2. American Society of Anesthesiologists Physical Status classification system.

Additional file 1: Supplementary Table 1. The parameters of the Rockall score.

This study investigates the role of formal and informal institutions in the credit ratings of foreign firms cross-listed in the U.S. listing market. The U.S. regulatory environment and national culture are employed to capture formal and informal institutions, respectively. To the extent these institutional influences could affect firms' default risks and agency costs, credit analysts are expected to adjust corporate ratings accordingly. First, I find that the credit ratings of cross-listed firms are significantly lower than those of comparable U.S.-domiciled firms. The evidence reflects that cross-listed firms do not face exactly the same regulatory stringencies as U.S. domestic firms, which may reduce the credibility of cross-listed firms. Credit analysts, therefore, may find the accounting information of cross-listed firms less informative or credible to formulate ratings. Thus, they perceive an increase in default risks and agency costs resulted from the information asymmetry between cross-listed firms and external stakeholders. Next, using Schwartz's two cultural dimensions (embeddedness and mastery) as proxies for culture, I document robust evidence of higher credit ratings of cross-listed firms domiciled in high-embeddedness or strong-mastery countries. This finding reveals that credit analysts recognize the cultural power in moderating the negative impacts induced by the SEC's lax enforcement on cross-listed firms. Specifically, it is consistent with cultural effects that influence managers' behaviours and decisions, and then restrain managers from investing in high default-risk projects. My study contributes to the credit rating and culture literature by showing that credit analysts consider both formal and informal institutional factors in firms' agency costs and default risks. This evidence further implies that cross-listed firms and U.S.-domiciled firms are not regulated on a level playing field in a one-size-fits-all legal environment in the eyes of credit analysts. However, culture helps moderate the different regulatory enforcements between cross-listed firms and U.S. firms.

BACKGROUND: Just as high‐risk populations for cardiac arrest exist in patients with Brugada syndrome or long QT syndrome, high‐risk and low‐risk populations for cardiac arrest also exist in patients with early repolarization pattern (ERP). HYPOTHESIS: Electrocardiographic (ECG) characteristics can aid the risk stratification of patients with ERP. METHODS: Electrocardiographic parameters such as magnitude of J‐point elevation and J/R ratio were measured. The magnitude of J‐point elevation, leads with J points elevated, J/R ratio, morphology of the ST segment, and QT/QTc interval were used in comparative analysis in 2 groups: 57 patients with ERP and cardiac arrest (cardiac arrest group) and 100 patients with ERP but without cardiac arrest (control group). RESULTS: There was no statistical difference in clinical characteristics of the 2 groups. The J/R ratio in the cardiac arrest group was significantly higher than in the control group (26.8% ± 18.1% vs 16.3% ± 10.3%, respectively; P < 0.001) and the proportion of horizontal/descending ST segments (70.2%) was significantly higher than in the control group (29.0%), but the proportion of ascending/upsloping ST segments (29.8%) was significantly lower than in the control group (71.0%; P < 0.001). Multivariate logistic regression revealed that higher J/R ratio and horizontal/descending ST segment were independently associated with increased risk of cardiac arrest in patients with ERP. CONCLUSIONS: In patients with ERP and cardiac arrest, J/R ratios were relatively higher and mostly with horizontal/descending ST segments, suggesting that J/R ratio and ST‐segment morphology may be used as indicators for risk stratification in patients with ERP.

BACKGROUND: It is widely believed that females have longer telomeres than males, although results from studies have been contradictory.METHODS: We carried out a systematic review and meta-analyses to test the hypothesis that in humans, females have longer telomeres than males and that this association becomes stronger with increasing age. Searches were conducted in EMBASE and MEDLINE (by November 2009) and additional datasets were obtained from study investigators. Eligible observational studies measured telomeres for both females and males of any age, had a minimum sample size of 100 and included participants not part of a diseased group. We calculated summary estimates using random-effects meta-analyses. Heterogeneity between studies was investigated using sub-group analysis and meta-regression.RESULTS: Meta-analyses from 36 cohorts (36,230 participants) showed that on average females had longer telomeres than males (standardised difference in telomere length between females and males 0.090, 95% CI 0.015, 0.166; age-adjusted). There was little evidence that these associations varied by age group (p=1.00) or cell type (p=0.29). However, the size of this difference did vary by measurement methods, with only Southern blot but neither real-time PCR nor Flow-FISH showing a significant difference. This difference was not associated with random measurement error.CONCLUSIONS: Telomere length is longer in females than males, although this difference was not universally found in studies that did not use Southern blot methods. Further research on explanations for the methodological differences is required. Background: It is widely believed that females have longer telomeres than males, although results from studies have been contradictory. Methods: We carried out a systematic review and meta-analyses to test the hypothesis that in humans, females have longer telomeres than males and that this association becomes stronger with increasing age. Searches were conducted in EMBASE and MEDLINE (by November 2009) and additional datasets were obtained from study investigators. Eligible observational studies measured telomeres for both females and males of any age, had a minimum sample size of 100 and included participants not part of a diseased group. We calculated summary estimates using random-effects meta-analyses. Heterogeneity between studies was investigated using sub-group analysis and meta-regression. Results: Meta-analyses from 36 cohorts (36,230 participants) showed that on average females had longer telomeres than males (standardised difference in telomere length between females and males 0.090, 95% CI 0.015, 0.166; age-adjusted). There was little evidence that these associations varied by age group (p = 1.00) or cell type (p = 0.29). However, the size of this difference did vary by measurement methods, with only Southern blot but neither real-time PCR nor Flow-FISH showing a significant difference. This difference was not associated with random measurement error. Conclusions: Telomere length is longer in females than males, although this difference was not universally found in studies that did not use Southern blot methods. Further research on explanations for the methodological differences is required.

In order to understand the near-source TEM sounding method, the topic on the time domain electromagnetic exploration of deep targets is addressed using a grounded dipole source. At first, the development of the near source TEM is reviewed in this paper, then a new kind of technique capable of detecting geological targets located at deeper levels in the subsurface is proposed using the short-offset transient electromagnetic method (hereafter referred to as SOTEM). The detection abilities of this system, such as the feasibility of near-source detection for SOTEM, the investigation depth of SOTEM and the sensitivity of SOTEM, have been analyzed. The conclusion has been achieved that the proposed method is more applicable and convenient for exploration and could be used to obtain a greater detection depth with higher detection accuracy.

The attentional capacity limitation of tracking multiple moving objects has been discussed expansively by various theoreticians. The research reported in this thesis assessed the limits of object tracking with a series of systematic psychophysical investigations. Chapter 2 reports evidence that the limits of object tracking are directly due to the resources allocated to each target rather than caused by spatial interference (Franconeri et al., 2008; 2010). With widely-spaced target configurations, the maximum speed observers could track targets declined as the number of targets increased. Chapter 4 provides evidence supporting the claim that tracking resources are flexibly shared among targets, with the fastest-moving target receiving more resources than the slower-moving target. These results provide concrete evidence to support the assumptions of resource theory: continuously allocated resources, limited capacity, and flexible resource allocation. The current research also demonstrated some specific findings regarding resource theory in object tracking. Chapters 3 and 4 confirmed previous findings obtained using different methodologies (Alvarez & Cavanagh, 2005) by showing that tracking resources are largely hemisphere-specific, and effectively demonstrated that performance for a fast-moving target is very sensitive to the amount of resources allocated. Furthermore, Chapter 5 showed that observers lost the tracked target if distractors occupied a location close to the time a target occupied it, suggesting that the mechanism of tracking also has a limited temporal resolution, and that reducing the resource allocated to each target reduces temporal resolution. To conclude, the findings of all the experiments are discussed in the context of various resource theories.