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The extant literature reveals that audit committee (AC) members with industry expertise can enhance the AC's effectiveness in monitoring the financial reporting process. In this study, we focus on AC banking and accounting expertise and examine their effects on bank loan contracting, respectively. We find that banks offer more favorable price term (i.e., interest rate) and non‐price terms (i.e., lower likelihood of providing collateral, more financial covenants, and longer maturity) to borrowers whose AC members have banking or accounting expertise. Second, we find that the association between AC expertise and loan terms is driven more by banking expertise, either alone or in conjunction with accounting expertise, than by accounting expertise alone. The results are robust to a battery of robustness tests. Overall, our results suggest that banks value borrowers' AC banking experts as well as accounting expertise when designing loan terms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigated the effect of sex hormones on mustard oil (MO)induced visceral hypersensitivity in female rats and analyzed possible involved signaling pathways. Female rats, either intact or ovariectomized (OVX), were prepared for abdominal muscle electromyography in response to colorectal distension after intracolonic instillation of MO. The effect of MO intracolonic sensitization was evaluated in intact rats, OVX rats, and OVX rats pretreated with a single injection of 17[beta]-estradiol (E), progesterone (P), E+P, or vehicle, cAMPresponsive element-binding protein (CREB) and phosphorylated CREB (pCREB) were detected in the superficial dorsal horn of L6 and [S.sub.1] in MO or mineral oil-treated OVX rats with/without colorectal distension and estrogen replacement. The distal colorectum was removed for histological evaluation of inflammatory severity in MOtreated intact or OVX rats. The MO-treated rats had significantly higher visceromotor reflex than controls (enhanced visceral hypersensitivity), whereas OVX eliminated this hypersensitivity. After a single injection of E or E+P, the rats rapidly restored MO-induced viscera/ hypersensitivity within 2 h. Estrogen also rapidly induced a dosedependent increase in pCREB expression in the superficial dorsal horn neurons in MO-treated, but not mineral oil-treated, OVX rats. The present study suggests that estrogen can rapidly modulate visceral hypersensitivity induced by MO intracolonic instillation in conscious female rats, which may involve spinal activation of the cAMP response element-mediated gene induction pathway. irritable bowel syndrome; spinal cord; cAMP-response element binding protein; gender

Background: Depressive disorder is a major psychiatric illness, and a disturbed brain‐gut‐microbiome axis may contribute to its pathophysiology. Chronic Helicobacterpylori (H. pylori) infections are common in the general population and using multiple antibiotics is required for its eradication, which is associated with gut dysbiosis and may lead to depression. We aimed to evaluate the risk of psychiatrist‐diagnosed depression in patients with peptic ulcer diseases (PUD) receiving anti‐H. pylori therapy. Materials and methods: We collected data from the National Health Insurance Research Database (NHIRD) in Taiwan on PUD patients undergoing antibiotic treatment for H. pylori infection; patients and controls were matched for age, sex, income, level of urbanization, and comorbidities. Results: Of the 1 million beneficiaries in the NHIRD, we identified 7087 patients for inclusion in the eradication cohort and 7087 matched non‐eradication controls with PUD. Antibiotic therapy is associated with a short‐term (<30 days) increase in the incidence of psychiatrist‐diagnosed depressive disorder (p = 0.009, after multiple comparisons with Bonferroni correction) in the eradication cohort compared with the controls. Female (OR: 4.55, 95% CI: 1.53–13.48) PUD patients were more likely to display an increased risk of depression within 30 days after eradication therapy. Clarithromycin use was related to an elevated likelihood (OR: 3.14, 95% CI: 1.45–6.80) of subsequent depressive disorder within 30 days after eradication therapy. Conclusions: Antibiotic eradication treatment for H. pylori infection is associated with a significant short‐term (less than 30 days) increase in the incidence of psychiatrist‐diagnosed depressive disorder, which can be overlooked by gastroenterologists and general practitioners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]