This paper extends the primarily US based literature on management earnings forecasts to an investigation of the role of prospectus earnings forecasts (Pefs) on the pricing of new issues on the ...Unlisted Securities Market (USM) in the UK. The analysis finds that Pefs are no more biased but are significantly more accurate than time-series forecasts. In addition, traded prices of USM stocks immediately after flotation are found to be positively related to the information content (unexpected component) of the Pefs. There is, however, no evidence of a relationship between the information content of Pefs and the initial offer price of the USM stocks.
Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has caused morbidity and mortality, as well as, widespread disruption to people's lives and livelihoods around the world. Given the health and economic threats posed ...by the pandemic to the global community, there are concerns that rates of suicide and suicidal behaviour may rise during and in its aftermath. Our living systematic review (LSR) focuses on suicide prevention in relation to COVID-19, with this iteration synthesising relevant evidence up to June 7
th 2020.
Method: Automated daily searches feed into a web-based database with screening and data extraction functionalities. Eligibility criteria include incidence/prevalence of suicidal behaviour, exposure-outcome relationships and effects of interventions in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic. Outcomes of interest are suicide, self-harm or attempted suicide and suicidal thoughts. No restrictions are placed on language or study type, except for single-person case reports.
Results: Searches identified 2070 articles, 29 (28 studies) met our inclusion criteria, of which 14 articles were research letters or pre-prints awaiting peer review. All articles reported observational data: 12 cross-sectional; eight case series; five modelling; and three service utilisation studies. No studies reported on changes in rates of suicidal behaviour. Case series were largely drawn from news reporting in low/middle income countries and factors associated with suicide included fear of infection, social isolation and economic concerns.
Conclusions: A marked improvement in the quality of design, methods, and reporting in future studies is needed. There is thus far no clear evidence of an increase in suicide, self-harm, suicidal behaviour, or suicidal thoughts associated with the pandemic. However, suicide data are challenging to collect in real time and economic effects are evolving. Our LSR will provide a regular synthesis of the most up-to-date research evidence to guide public health and clinical policy to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 on suicide.
PROSPERO registration:
CRD42020183326 01/05/2020
We use data from a new international dataset - the European Skills and Jobs Survey - to create a unique measure of skills-displacing technological change (SDT), defined as technological change that ...may render workers' skills obsolete. We find that 16 percent of adult workers in the EU are impacted by SDT, with significant variance across countries, ranging from a high of 28 percent in Estonia, to below seven percent in Bulgaria. Despite claims that technological change contributes to the deskilling of jobs, we present evidence that SDT is associated with dynamic upskilling of workers. The paper also presents the first direct micro-evidence, based on worker survey responses, of the reinstatement effect of automating technology, namely a positive contribution of automation to the task content and skills complexity of the jobs of incumbent workers. Despite the recent focus on the polarising impact of automation and associated reskilling needs of lower-skilled individuals, our evidence also draws attention to the fact that SDT predominantly affects higher-skilled workers, reinforcing inequalities in upskilling opportunities within workplaces. Workers affected by SDT also experience greater job insecurity.
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BFBNIB, NUK, PILJ, SAZU, UL, UM, UPUK
IMPORTANCE: Effective therapy has not been established for patients with agitated delirium receiving mechanical ventilation. OBJECTIVE: To determine the effectiveness of dexmedetomidine when added to ...standard care in patients with agitated delirium receiving mechanical ventilation. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: The Dexmedetomidine to Lessen ICU Agitation (DahLIA) study was a double-blind, placebo-controlled, parallel-group randomized clinical trial involving 74 adult patients in whom extubation was considered inappropriate because of the severity of agitation and delirium. The study was conducted at 15 intensive care units in Australia and New Zealand from May 2011 until December 2013. Patients with advanced dementia or traumatic brain injury were excluded. INTERVENTIONS: Bedside nursing staff administered dexmedetomidine (or placebo) initially at a rate of 0.5 µg/kg/h and then titrated to rates between 0 and 1.5 µg/kg/h to achieve physician-prescribed sedation goals. The study drug or placebo was continued until no longer required or up to 7 days. All other care was at the discretion of the treating physician. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES: Ventilator-free hours in the 7 days following randomization. There were 21 reported secondary outcomes that were defined a priori. RESULTS: Of the 74 randomized patients (median age, 57 years; 18 24% women), 2 withdrew consent later and 1 was found to have been randomized incorrectly, leaving 39 patients in the dexmedetomidine group and 32 patients in the placebo group for analysis. Dexmedetomidine increased ventilator-free hours at 7 days compared with placebo (median, 144.8 hours vs 127.5 hours, respectively; median difference between groups, 17.0 hours 95% CI, 4.0 to 33.2 hours; P = .01). Among the 21 a priori secondary outcomes, none were significantly worse with dexmedetomidine, and several showed statistically significant benefit, including reduced time to extubation (median, 21.9 hours vs 44.3 hours with placebo; median difference between groups, 19.5 hours 95% CI, 5.3 to 31.1 hours; P < .001) and accelerated resolution of delirium (median, 23.3 hours vs 40.0 hours; median difference between groups, 16.0 hours 95% CI, 3.0 to 28.0 hours; P = .01). Using hierarchical Cox modeling to adjust for imbalanced baseline characteristics, allocation to dexmedetomidine was significantly associated with earlier extubation (hazard ratio, 0.47 95% CI, 0.27-0.82; P = .007). CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE: Among patients with agitated delirium receiving mechanical ventilation in the intensive care unit, the addition of dexmedetomidine to standard care compared with standard care alone (placebo) resulted in more ventilator-free hours at 7 days. The findings support the use of dexmedetomidine in patients such as these. TRIAL REGISTRATION: clinicaltrials.gov Identifier: NCT01151865
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