bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Policy Watch: U.S. Economic Policy Toward the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe
Authors: Collins Susan M
Published: August 2012

As the Soviet Union and the countries in Eastern Europe take steps towards market economies and democratic political systems, the U.S. and other western countries have been confronted by a range of difficult and important questions about the appropriate economic policy response. What role should government policies play? How much assistance should be given? In what form? What actual policies have been undertaken? Are they a lot or a little? At one extreme, some argue that the United States and other developed countries should finance the rebuilding of the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe—even though it may cost tens of billions of dollars per year, for at least a decade. At the other end of the spectrum are those who argue that Eastern Europe does not warrant official U.S. assistance, other than for humanitarian purposes, because the situation is just too precarious, because there are worthier uses of scarce government resources, or because any restructuring should be undertaken by the private sector. This paper suggests a framework for answering these questions that considers both the nations of Eastern Europe and recent proposals for direct assistance to the Soviet Union. It draws upon the valuable lessons to be learned from assistance to the developing countries and from historical experience.
Retrospectives: Lange and von Mises, Large-Scale Enterprises, and the Economic Case for Socialism
Authors: Persky Joseph
Published: August 2012

In the debates over “economic calculation” launched by Ludwig von Mises in 1920 and extending well into the 1940s, the central issue concerned the ability of a socialist economy to achieve allocative efficiency. Von Mises emphasized that a collectivist state would have great difficulty in gathering and acting on relevant information; therefore, under socialism, even well-intentioned bureaucrats would lack a meaningful system of values on which to calculate. Defenders of socialism, such as Oskar Lange, countered that a market socialism could match demand to supply just as well as capitalism and meet the range of static conditions required for Pareto optimality. That debate is a rich and interesting story that has been told many times before. But in all that has been written, an important aspect of the original debate has been lost. Somewhat oddly, both the socialists like Oskar Lange and the advocates of private ownership like von Mises and Friedrich Hayek maintained that they were defending the progressive tendencies of competitive capitalism against the deadening hand of monopoly power. This historic paradox deserves consideration, if only because it serves to focus attention on our still incomplete theories of large-scale enterprises under socialism and capitalism.
The Lessons of Limited Market-Oriented Reform
Authors: Wolf Thomas A
Published: August 2012

The waves of reform and restructuring now engulfing most of Eastern Europe did not begin from the same starting point in each country. While they all share a common economic legacy—the traditional Soviet-type centrally planned economy—some countries had been experimenting with limited forms of market-oriented reform for one or two decades. In particular, Hungary (since 1968) and Poland (since 1981–82) had been flirting with a market-oriented system for years, with programs aimed at achieving an efficient coexistence of plan and market. This paper will first examine the thinking behind the early attempts to combine plan and market. It will then outline some of the key elements of the limited market-oriented reforms undertaken in Hungary and Poland in the 1980s. Finally, it will suggest some of the important lessons from this experience.
Legality and Market Reform in Soviet-Type Economies
Authors: Litwack John M
Published: August 2012

The classical Soviet-type system operates in the virtual absence of economic legality, which is a prerequisite to a successful transition to a market economy in the Soviet Union and the nations of Eastern Europe. In the absence of economic legality, the leadership of these countries will not be able to implement a credible commitment to private property rights or any other effective market incentive mechanism. In addition, they will be unable to promote the growth of multilateral impersonal trade. Without legality, a shift away from central planning toward market allocation may very likely lead to economic decline, inflationary pressures, and a polarization in income distribution, which, in turn, could unleash political reaction against the reform process in general.
Real Interest Rates and the Savings and Loan Crisis: The Moral Hazard Premium
Authors: Shoven John B , Smart Scott B , Waldfogel Joel
Published: August 2012

Real interest rates shifted upwards by four or five percentage points in approximately 1980. The question is why. In this paper we review some of the more popular explanations and point out that they are somewhat inconsistent with the facts. We then present a new explanation which may partially account for the dramatic increase. We suggest that the upward shift in rates may be directly connected with the decade-long crisis in the savings and loan industry and the federal government's handling of that crisis. Owners and managers of troubled thrifts responded to the incentives provided by underpriced deposit insurance by offering higher and higher rates in an attempt to attract new funds. Depositors, anticipating that the government would protect their investments, actively sought out higher yields in local and national markets. The end result was that the rates offered by Treasury securities rose to compete with these quasi-risk-free substitutes sold by savings and loans. This added (and, indeed, continues to add) significantly to the federal government's borrowing costs. We calculate this increased cost under various assumptions about the effect of the S&L crisis on real interest rates.
The Young Economist's Guide to Professional Etiquette
Authors: Hamermesh Daniel S
Published: August 2012

Nearly all advanced graduate students and new assistant professors demonstrate naivety in their nonsubstantive professional dealings. Graduate programs in economics offer courses that lead to written drafts of important research; they teach little about how to refine those drafts and, more generally, about the personal interactions that cut and polish intellectual diamonds in the rough. I provide here a short course aimed at removing that naivety and helping young economists to avoid faux pas that might reduce their success in the profession.
Effects of Tax Reform on Labor Supply, Investment, and Saving
Authors: Bosworth Barry , Burtless Gary
Published: August 2012

The U.S. tax system received two major overhauls during the 1980s: the tax cuts of 1981 and the Tax Reform Act of 1986. Supporters of both reforms argued that major changes in tax policy could boost saving, investment, labor supply, and entrepreneurship. Eventually, it was argued, such changes could reverse the slowdown in economic growth that began in the early 1970s and spur improvements in American living standards. The aim of this paper is to assess whether the goals of increased labor supply and capital formation were achieved.
The Structure of the Tax System Versus the Level of Taxation: An Evaluation of the 1986 Act
Authors: Ballentine J. Gregory
Published: August 2012

In this paper, I assess the 1986 Tax Reform Act relative to the tax system that might have evolved over the several years following 1986 had that particular tax reform not been enacted. Had tax reform not been enacted, I believe that the pattern of steady tax increases, particularly corporate tax increases and tax increases on high-income individuals such as occurred in the 1982 and 1984 tax acts would have continued. I also believe that the 1986 Tax Reform Act introduced an income tax system that will be quite stable; broad changes, in particular changes that raise a large amount of income tax revenues, are unlikely for many years. So I am comparing the tax structure of the 1986 Tax Reform Act to a system that, in part, has an inferior structure, but that provides more revenues. Since I believe that the most important tax policy goal in 1986 and later should have been to raise revenues, not to revise the structure of the tax system, I believe that the 1986 Tax Reform Act was harmful. Tax reform not only did not raise revenues, it has made it more difficult to raise revenues in the future, without providing significant offsetting benefits.
Whom or What Does the Representative Individual Represent?
Authors: Kirman Alan P
Published: August 2012

Macroeconomic models often assume that the choices of all the diverse agents in one sector— consumers for example—can be considered as the choices of one “representative” standard utility maximizing individual whose choices coincide with the aggregate choices of the heterogeneous individuals. My basic point is that the reduction of the behavior of a group of heterogeneous agents even if they are all themselves utility maximizers, is not simply an analytical convenience as often explained, but is both unjustified and leads to conclusions which are usually misleading and often wrong. First, such models are particularly ill-suited to studying macroeconomic problems like unemployment, which should be viewed as coordination failures. Furthermore these models, instead of being a hive of activity and exchange, are frequently, ones in which no trade at all takes place. And this is just the beginning of a list of problems with this approach. Finally I will consider more positive alternatives to the representative individual approach—approaches that focus on heterogeneity of agents may and interaction between individuals. It is clear that the “representative” agent deserves a decent burial, as an approach to economic analysis that is not only primitive, but fundamentally erroneous.
Policy Watch: Corporate Average Fuel Economy Standards
Authors: Crandall Robert W
Published: August 2012

Initially, the minimum corporate average fuel economy (CAFE) program was promoted as a policy to reduce U.S. vulnerability to oil shocks. In the past two years, however, concern about global warming has resulted in new political pressures to raise CAFE once again to reduce the growth in U.S. emissions of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas. In this paper, I do not attempt to provide a detailed critique of these two objectives. I simply take the goals as given and draw upon estimates from the empirical literature to show that CAFE is a very costly instrument for achieving them. In addition, I compare the costs of meeting the same objectives through a fuel or carbon tax.
Retrospectives: Pareto's Law
Authors: Persky Joseph
Published: August 2012

Vilfredo Pareto, using data for England, a number of Italian cities, several German states, Paris, and Peru, plotted cumulative distributions of income for these countries on double logarithmic paper. He claimed that in each case the result was a straight line with about the same slope. Thus, he asserted a law of income distribution. I discuss Pareto's discovery of this relationship; his theory of income distribution; Pareto's Law and Pareto optimality; the attack on Pareto's Law; the counterattack; and the more recent literature. For all the excesses of the Paretian camp followers, there remains the significant insight that the history of all hitherto existing society is a history of social hierarchies. There is the feel of structure behind income distributions. Something is going on here.
The Evolution of U.S. Airline Competition
Authors: Borenstein Severin
Published: August 2012

The next section reviews the evolution of the domestic airline industry since the late 1970s, when it was abruptly freed from most regulatory constraints on pricing, entry, and exit. (International air travel is considered here only as it relates to competition in the domestic industry.) The following sections will examine structure issues and strategic developments in airline competition and discuss public policy options in dealing with the airline industry.
Fear of Flying? Economic Analyses of Airline Safety
Authors: Rose Nancy L
Published: August 2012

The safety of the commercial airline industry has attracted considerable attention in the wake of airline deregulation, amid growing concerns that the historical superiority of U.S. jet carriers' safety records may have been linked to economic regulation of the industry by the Civil Aeronautics Board. These worries have energized economic research on a broad range of questions relating to airline safety. I describe our progress in answering four questions: First, has airline safety declined since deregulation? Second, how has airline deregulation affected the safety of travelers overall, (taking into account indirect channels through which airline deregulation may have changed travel risks, including the substitution of commuter airlines for jet service and the replacement of highway driving by air travel)? Third, what accounts for differences in safety performance across carriers? Fourth, what are the market penalties for airline accidents? (If consumers and insurance companies penalize airlines with worse safety records, carriers may be disinclined to reduce safety investment, even if regulatory changes would permit them to do so.)
Controlling Automobile Insurance Costs
Authors: Cummins J. David , Tennyson Sharon
Published: August 2012

We begin by providing an overview of the auto insurance system and the structure of the auto insurance market. We then turn to an analysis of the factors underlying the auto insurance price increases experienced in recent years. We find that the auto insurance inflation of the 1980s was caused primarily by increases in cost factors, especially inflation in the severity of personal injury claims. There is no persuasive evidence that increasing profit rates or expense loadings contributed to inflation in premiums. The paper concludes with recommendations for bringing costs under control.
Distinguished Fellow: In Honor of Victor Fuchs
Authors: Newhouse Joseph P
Published: August 2012

Victor Fuchs is a towering figure. His contributions to economics have spanned nearly 35 years. As his career has progressed, he has increasingly come to write on subjects of broad interest in a style that is accessible to noneconomists, thereby magnifying his influence. His gift is an ability to ask questions that are usually based on simple theory, but which nonetheless in his hands seem novel, and then proceed to answer those questions with simple, straightforward data analysis that is all the more powerful for its simplicity. Victor's work is usually “low tech,” to use his term, but almost always persuasive in ways that high-tech methods would not necessarily be. In this essay, I focus principally on Victor's contributions to the economics of health and medical care, but I have a bit to say about his other contributions as well.
Economists and the Media
Authors: Weinstein Michael
Published: August 2012

When my colleagues at The New York Times use the word “academic,” they intend no compliment; they mean irrelevant. And when my former colleagues in the academy describe someone's work as “journalistic,” they invariably mean shallow. One way to frame discussion for this symposium is to ask how well economists who deal with the media bridge the gap between thoughtful irrelevance and engrossing superficiality. From my vantage point, the answer is remarkably well…. As a journalist, I could stop here, having rendered a clear editorial opinion, … . but academics, even retired ones, yearn to criticize. So here goes.
Rationality in Extensive-Form Games
Authors: Reny Philip J
Published: August 2012

Let us adopt the classical point of view that a theory of games is a description of “rational” behavior. Consequently, equipped with a book entitled “Theory of Games,” any individual in any strategic situation need only consult the book to make a “rational” decision. One of the questions to address in this context is indeed whether or not strategies other than those provided by backward induction can ever appear in such a book. In offering an answer, we shall also explore the logical limits within which any “Theory of Games” must operate.
Converting Resources from Military to Non-Military Uses
Authors: Brauer Jurgen , Marlin John Tepper
Published: August 2012

As a proportion of gross national product, U.S. military spending has declined steadily since the mid-1980s. The end of the Cold War has given rise to calls for even more cuts in military spending. In early 1992, President George Bush proposed to reduce military spending by 3 percent per year, in real dollars, for the next five years. The Democratic leadership in the House of Representatives countered with a plan calling for substantially deeper cuts. Any substantial changes in military expenditures imply a “conversion” of physical and human resources from military to nonmilitary uses. This article will focus on some distinctive characteristics of the U.S. military sector and on some adjustment costs that reduced military spending are likely to impose on military industries, occupations, regions, and communities.
Econometric Software: A User's View
Authors: MacKie-Mason Jeffrey K
Published: August 2012

For the social scientist, software is a tool, not an end in itself. My objective in this review is to help practicing economists decide which tool will best get the task done. To do this, I report on how seven programs performed on each of six different econometric projects. I focus on Limdep, RATS, SAS, Stata, SST, and TSP and I more briefly review Gauss, which is a rather different product. Comments on other aspects of the programs are sprinkled throughout.
A Note from the President-Elect
Authors: Griliches Zvi
Published: August 2012

A few months ago, Congress overruled the peer review process of the National Science Foundation. A congressional aide looked over the list of NSF grants, decided that 31 of them had titles unworthy of funding, and a conference committee voted on May 21 to cut off those grants. The cuts were made without hearings, without due process, and without public discussion. This note is to let the economics profession know what happened.
Post Walrasian and Post Marxian Economics
Authors: Stiglitz Joseph
Published: August 2012

It is widely believed that the failure of the socialist experiment should have had a devastating effect on radical economics. Yet radical economics is not only alive and well, but flourishing. Years before the official demise of Marxist-socialism, they had broadened their critique of standard economics well beyond the received Marxist literature. Indeed, their arguments offered striking parallels with the mainstream critiques of Walrasian economics provided by the newly developing strand of thought I shall refer to as “information economics.” In Walrasian economics, information is free. Moreover, there are no costs associated either with making or enforcing contracts. But with imperfect and costly information and incomplete risk markets, the field of information economics has established that: 1) in general, markets are not (constrained) Pareto efficient; 2) markets may not clear; 3) markets may not exist, or when they exist, may be thin; 4) rents are pervasive, and indeed, reputation rents are necessary to ensure that high-quality products get produced, that workers do not shirk, and so on; 5) even when there are many participants in a market, competition may be highly imperfect; and 6) the distribution of income matters for economic efficiency.
The Salaries of Ph.D.'s in Academe and Elsewhere
Authors: Rees Albert
Published: August 2012

It has long been known that Ph.D.'s working for academic institutions earn less than Ph.D.'s in the same disciplines working for other kinds of employers, especially government and industry. It has not been possible to tell, however, whether this difference in earnings represents a difference in average quality of the employees in the two sectors or whether it represents a compensating differential reflecting the greater autonomy and freedom from control of superiors in the academic sector and the greater job security of tenured professors. It is now possible to answer this question through the use of special tabulations of data from the Survey of Doctoral Recipients of the National Research Council (1989).
Retrospectives: Consumer Sovereignty
Authors: Persky Joseph
Published: August 2012

The term “consumer sovereignty” is usually traced to William Harold Hutt and his 1936 book Economists and the Public: A Study of Competition and Opinion. Hutt paid only passing attention to the maximization of consumer welfare or the achievement of market efficiency. He was stalking different game. For him, the basic issues revolved around the exercise of power in a free society and those issues concerned sovereignty. Why should consumers be given such great power in determining the allocation of resources and the course of production? Hutt's major argument for consumer sovereignty centered on its role in promoting political and social stability. It is unlikely that Hutt's defense of consumer sovereignty will be embraced by the economics profession in the near future. It received only passing attention when first propounded and has largely disappeared from active discussion. Yet I would argue that his approach has a most interesting message.
Will the New Keynesian Macroeconomics Resurrect the IS-LM Model?
Authors: King Robert G
Published: August 2012

The IS-LM model has no greater prospect of being a viable analytical vehicle for macroeconomics in the 1990s than the Ford Pinto has of being a sporty, reliable car for the 1990s. Because of its treatment of expectations, the IS-LM model, as traditionally constructed and currently used, is a hazardous base on which to build positive theories of business fluctuations and to undertake policy analysis. To simplify economic reality sufficiently to use the IS-LM model as an analytical tool, economists must essentially ignore expectations; we now know that this simplification eliminates key determinants of aggregate demand. The last two decades of research have taught economists that the assumption of rational expectations is a powerful part of economic explanations of individual and market behavior, ranging from consumption and investment dynamics to pricing of stocks and bonds. The emphasis on expectations in the macro-model is the end result of a process of building microeconomic underpinnings that was initiated in the 1950s and 1960s, when the goal was to develop dynamic theoretical foundations for the IS and LM schedules; inevitably, consideration of dynamic choice pushed the question of expectations to the forefront. As a result, most of the equations of the ISLM model are now viewed as summarizing purposeful economic behavior in which choices over time play a central role. However, as we will see, this finding means there is no way to maintain traditional uses of the IS-LM model.
The Revenge of Homo Economicus: Contested Exchange and the Revival of Political Economy
Authors: Bowles Samuel , Gintis Herbert
Published: August 2012

Recent developments in microeconomic theory have shown that the self-interested behavior underlying neoclassical theory is artificially truncated: it depicts a charmingly Victorian but Utopian world in which conflicts abound but a handshake is a handshake. But a handshake is not always a handshake. Studies of principal-agent analysis, the economics of information, radical political economy, mechanism design, and transactions cost economics have all focused on the difficulties involved in policing and enforcing the actual process of market exchange. Abandoning the Victorian world of neoclassical theory will redirect economists to an older conception of their profession: what once was called political economy. By taking optimizing more seriously, post-Walrasian economics has inspired a revolution in economic thought fostering both new theoretical departures and alternative conceptions of the capitalist economy. We will offer our own interpretation of this literature, focusing on the widely recognized fact that the terms arising from exchange are not generally enforceable at zero cost to the exchanging parties. Where some aspect of the good or service supplied is both valuable to the buyer and costly to provide, the absence of third-party enforcement of claims gives rise to endogenous enforcement strategies. We refer to this relationship as a “contested exchange” because, unlike the transactions of Walrasian economics, the benefit the parties derive from the transaction depends on their own capacities to enforce competing claims.
Israel's Stabilization Program of 1985, Or Some Simple Truths of Monetary Theory
Authors: Patinkin Don
Published: August 2012

Within a period of two months, and with minimal adverse effects on employment and the real functioning of the economy, Israel's 1985 stabilization program reduced the annual rate of inflation from close to 500 percent to less than 20 percent (corresponding, respectively, to average compounded monthly rates of 16.1 and 1.5 percent) and has maintained that situation until now (1992). The major purpose of this paper is to use this inflationary experience as an illustration of some of the simple truths of traditional monetary theory. At the same time, this experience also illustrates the advantages of a heterodox policy (that is, one that, in addition to restrictive monetary and fiscal measures, makes temporary use of wage and price controls, often within the context of a "social contract") in bringing an inflationary process to an end. A second purpose is to explain the unique political circumstances that—despite the aforementioned earlier failures—created the credibility that enabled the 1985 program to succeed.
Is College Financial Aid Equitable and Efficient?
Authors: Edlin Aaron S
Published: August 2012

Two families with identical earnings paths pay dramatically different amounts for college if one saves more than the other. Because saving leads to receiving less financial aid, a family's return to saving is substantially below the social return. This may lead to families making inefficient intertemporal choices and correspondingly to an inefficient loss of capital formation. This paper first explores the size of the implicit tax on savings, pointing out its potential effects, and its accompanying problems of inefficiency and unfairness. To cure these ills, I will argue that financial aid for dependent students should be based upon the best available measure of parents' permanent income from long streams of wage data. This would require Congress to change the Congressional Methodology, the federal formula for determining a family's financial need.
Does Studying Economics Inhibit Cooperation?
Authors: Frank Robert H , Gilovich Thomas , Regan Dennis T
Published: August 2012

In this paper we investigate whether exposure to the self-interest model commonly used in economics alters the extent to which people behave in self-interested ways. First, we report the results of several empirical studies—some our own, some by others—that suggest economists behave in more self-interested ways. By itself, this evidence does not demonstrate that exposure to the self-interest model causes more self-interested behavior, since it may be that economists were simply more self-interested to begin with, and this difference was one reason they chose to study economics. Second, we present preliminary evidence that exposure to the self-interest model does in fact encourage self-interested behavior.
Employment and Unemployment in the 1930s
Authors: Margo Robert A
Published: August 2012

Recent research on labor markets in the 1930s has shifted attention from aggregate to disaggregate time series and towards microeconomic evidence. The paper begins by reviewing the conventional statistics of the United States labor market during the Great Depression and the paradigms to explain them. It then turns to recent studies of employment and unemployment using disaggregated data of various types. The paper concludes with discussions of research on other aspects of labor markets in the 1930s and on a promising source of microdata for future work.
Irving B. Kravis: Memoir of a Distinguished Fellow
Authors: Klein Lawrence R
Published: August 2012

The nomination of Irving Kravis as a Distinguished Fellow of the American Economic Association in 1991 crowned a long and distinguished career. He would go on to no further accomplishments, for it was on the trip to the ASSA meetings in New Orleans to receive the award that he passed away at Philadelphia Airport on January 2, 1992. In spite of a debilitating illness, he had continued working until the end on problems and issues that were his main concerns for more than 50 years; with fuller physical powers, he would undoubtedly have made additional contributions to our profession. This paper first discusses his administrative and pedagogical contributions at the University of Pennsylvania and then his notable research contributions.
Pricing, Profits, and Technological Progress in the Pharmaceutical Industry
Authors: Scherer F. M
Published: August 2012

The decades-old debate over pharmaceutical industry prices, profits, and innovation has again intensified. A number of events coalesced to refocus public interest on pharmaceuticals. Contributing to public concern were Bureau of Labor Statistics price index increases for pharmaceuticals far outpacing those for the products of other industries. Another prominent characteristic of the pharmaceutical industry has been its extraordinarily high reported profitability. This article examines the phenomena that precipitated the current pharmaceuticals debate, their historical antecedents, and the principal questions at issue. In the author's considered judgment, a pell-mell march toward regulation of pharmaceutical industry pricing could seriously impair the industry's incentives for investment in new products.
Reflections on the Economics of Climate Change
Authors: Nordhaus William D
Published: August 2012

My purpose here is to provide a non-technical introduction to the economics of climate change. I will sketch the scientific background and uncertainties, survey the results of existing studies of the impacts of climate change, present a summary of a study of efficient policies to slow global warming, and end with the uncertainties that haunt the entire field.
Nobel Laureate: Ronald Coase and Methodology
Authors: Posner Richard A
Published: August 2012

Ronald Coase wrote two great theoretical articles that earned him the Nobel Prize: “The Nature of the Firm” in 1937 and “The Problem of Social Cost” in 1960. He also wrote many articles dealing with the methodology of economics, often in the setting of a discussion of a particular economist, such as Adam Smith or Alfred Marshall. The methodological articles will be my particular focus here.
Costs of Reducing Global Carbon Emissions
Authors: Weyant John P
Published: August 2012

Projecting the costs of reducing carbon emissions is extremely important, and exceedingly difficult. Such projections are an integral component of cost-benefit analyses of alternative policies in response to climate change. This paper first discusses the key dimensions of any projection of the cost of reducing carbon emissions. Then it discusses the projections that have been made, including long-, medium- and short-range time horizons. Finally, the conclusion summarizes what we know and don't know about the costs of controlling carbon emissions and recommends an agenda for future research.
Global Environmental Risks
Authors: Chichilnisky Graciela , Heal Geoffrey
Published: August 2012

We consider the economics of global environmental risks. In this area, we are dealing with risks that are poorly understood, endogenous, collective, and irreversible. In policy terms, the nature and extent of uncertainty about global climate change implies that society's position will be dominated by two questions: What cost is worth incurring to reduce the poorly-understood risk of climate change, or to improve our understanding of the risk? How may existing social institutions, such as insurance contracts and securities markets, be used to provide the most efficient allocation of the risks associated with global climate change?
Menopause-specific quality of life of urban women in West Bengal, India
Authors: Som Nivedita , Ray Subha
Published: August 2012

Objective.

To find out the association of menopause-specific quality of life of women with both working status and duration of postmenopausal years.

Study design.

We conducted a cross-sectional study on 250 postmenopausal women belonging to Bengali-speaking Hindu ethnic group, aged 47-62 years in the city of Kolkata, West Bengal, India. The participants were literate, living in wedlock with at least one surviving child, attained natural menopause at least two years ago and have never taken hormone replacement treatment. Menopause-specific quality of life was measured using a self-administered standard questionnaire (Menopause-Specific Quality of Life questionnaire, or MENQOL). MENQOL consisted of 29 menopausal symptoms (items) that are grouped under four domains. Additional information on sociodemographic aspect and reproductive history of the participants were collected using a pretested questionnaire.

Main outcome measures.

Both bivariate and multivariate analyses showed that menopause-specific quality of life decreases with the increase in duration of postmenopausal years. Although bivariate analysis demonstrated that working women had a better menopause-specific quality of life than their non-working counterpart, multivariate linear regression model did not corroborate to this finding.

Conclusion.

Duration of postmenopausal years had a significant association with menopause-specific quality of life of women.
Searching for pelvic floor muscle exercises on YouTube: what individuals may find and where this might fit with health service programmes to promote continence
Authors: Stephen Kate , Cumming Grant P
Published: August 2012

Objective.

This paper describes the investigation, categorization/characterization and viewing of pelvic floor muscle exercises (PFME) on YouTube from the perspective of the ‘wisdom of the crowd’. The aim of the research was to increase awareness of the type of clips that individuals are likely to come across when searching YouTube and to describe trends and popularity. This awareness will be useful for the design of continence promotion services, especially for hard-to-reach individuals.

Study design.

Web-based videos relating to PFE were identified by searching YouTube using the snowball technique.

Main outcome measures.

Number of views; the approach taken (health, fitness, sexual and pregnancy); product promotion; and the use of music, visual cues and elements designed to encourage exercise. The number of views of each video was recorded at three points over a seven-month period.

Results.

Twenty-two videos were identified. Overall these videos had been viewed over 430,000 times during the study period. One video was viewed over 100,000 times and overall the median increase in views was 59.4%.

Conclusions.

YouTube is increasingly used to access information about pelvic floor exercises. Different approaches are used to communicate PFME information but there are no formal structures for quality control. Further research is required to identify which elements of the video clips are effective in communicating information and in motivating exercise and to establish appropriate protocols. Kitemarking is recommended in order that women obtain correct advice.
Sedation/anaesthesia in paediatric radiology
Authors: Arlachov Y , Ganatra R H
Published: August 2012

Objectives

In this article we will give a comprehensive literature review on sedation/general anaesthesia (S/GA) and discuss the international variations in practice and options available for S/GA for imaging children.

Methods

The key articles were obtained primarily from PubMed, MEDLINE, ERIC, NHS Evidence and The Cochrane Library.

Results

Recently, paediatric radiology has seen a surge of diagnostic and therapeutic procedures, some of which require children to be still and compliant for up to 1 h. It is difficult and sometimes even impossible to obtain quick and high-quality images without employing sedating techniques in certain children. As with any medical procedure, S/GA in radiological practice is not without risks and can have potentially disastrous consequences if mismanaged. In order to reduce any complications and practice safety in radiological units, it is imperative to carry out pre-sedation assessments of children, obtain parental/guardian consent, monitor them closely before, during and after the procedure and have adequate equipment, a safe environment and a well-trained personnel.

Conclusion

Although the S/GA techniques, sedative drugs and personnel involved vary from country to country, the ultimate goal of S/GA in radiology remains the same; namely, to provide safety and comfort for the patients.

Advances in knowledge

Imaging children under general anaesthesia is becoming routine and preferred by operators because it ensures patient conformity and provides a more controlled environment.
Diffusion-weighted imaging in uterine artery embolisation: do findings correlate with contrast enhancement and volume reduction?
Authors: Ananthakrishnan G , Macnaught G , Hinksman L , Gilmour H , Forbes K P , Moss J G
Published: August 2012

Objectives

The objective of this study was to determine the role of diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) in uterine artery embolisation (UAE), and to assess the apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) of the dominant fibroid and its relationship to contrast enhancement and fibroid volume reduction.

Methods

We carried out a retrospective study of 15 patients who underwent UAE. Calculations were performed at baseline and 6 months post-embolisation. Fibroid ADC (expressed in 10−3 mm2 s−1) was calculated using b=0 and b=1000 DWI values. Fibroid enhancement was compared with background myometrium by measuring signal-difference-to-noise ratio (SDNR). Fibroid volume was calculated using a prolate ellipse formula.

Results

There was a significant reduction (p<0.001) in fibroid ADC at 6 months (0.48; standard deviation, SD=0.26) as compared with baseline (1.01; SD=0.39). No significant change (p=0.07) was identified in 6-month myometrial ADC (1.09; SD=0.28) as compared with baseline (1.24; SD=0.20). Moderately strong and significant positive correlation was identified between baseline ADC and 6-month percentage volume reduction of the fibroid (correlation=0.66, p=0.007). No correlation was identified between SDNR and ADC at baseline or 6 months (r=0.01, p=0.97 and r=−0.13, p=0.64, respectively) or SDNR and percentage volume reduction at 6 months (correlation r=0.18, p=0.51).

Conclusion

Baseline ADC of dominant fibroids shows a moderately strong correlation with subsequent volume reduction at 6 months following UAE. No correlation was identified between ADC values and contrast enhancement on the baseline or 6-month scans. Further prospective evaluation is needed before DWI can be utilised in clinical practice.

Advances in knowledge

DWI imaging may provide additional information about UAE and possibly help to predict uterine volume reduction.
Functional characterization of two paralogs that are novel RNA binding proteins influencing mitochondrial transcripts of Trypanosoma brucei
Authors: Kafková Lucie , Ammerman Michelle L. , Faktorová Drahomíra , Fisk John C. , Zimmer Sara L. , Sobotka Roman , Read Laurie K. , Lukeš Julius , Hashimi Hassan
Published: August 2012

A majority of Trypanosoma brucei proteins have unknown functions, a consequence of its independent evolutionary history within the order Kinetoplastida that allowed for the emergence of several unique biological properties. Among these is RNA editing, needed for expression of mitochondrial-encoded genes. The recently discovered mitochondrial RNA binding complex 1 (MRB1) is composed of proteins with several functions in processing organellar RNA. We characterize two MRB1 subunits, referred to herein as MRB8170 and MRB4160, which are paralogs arisen from a large chromosome duplication occurring only in T. brucei. As with many other MRB1 proteins, both have no recognizable domains, motifs, or orthologs outside the order. We show that they are both novel RNA binding proteins, possibly representing a new class of these proteins. They associate with a similar subset of MRB1 subunits but not directly with each other. We generated cell lines that either individually or simultaneously target the mRNAs encoding both proteins using RNAi. Their dual silencing results in a differential effect on moderately and pan-edited RNAs, suggesting a possible functional separation of the two proteins. Cell growth persists upon RNAi silencing of each protein individually in contrast to the dual knockdown. Yet, their apparent redundancy in terms of cell viability is at odds with the finding that only one of these knockdowns results in the general degradation of pan-edited RNAs. While MRB8170 and MRB4160 share a considerable degree of conservation, our results suggest that their recent sequence divergence has led to them influencing mitochondrial mRNAs to differing degrees.
Mast Cell Proteoglycans
Authors: Rönnberg Elin , Melo Fabio R. , Pejler Gunnar
Published: August 2012

Mast cells are versatile effector cells of the immune system, contributing to both innate and adaptive immunity toward pathogens but also having profound detrimental activities in the context of inflammatory disease. A hallmark morphological feature of mast cells is their large content of cytoplasmic secretory granules, filled with numerous secretory compounds, including highly negatively charged heparin or chondroitin sulfate proteoglycans of serglycin type. These anionic proteoglycans provide the basis for the strong metachromatic staining properties of mast cells seen when applying various cationic dyes. Functionally, the mast cell proteoglycans have been shown to have an essential role in promoting the storage of other granule-contained compounds, including bioactive monoamines and different mast cell-specific proteases. Moreover, granule proteoglycans have been shown to regulate the enzymatic activities of mast cell proteases and to promote apoptosis. Here, the current knowledge of mast cell proteoglycans is reviewed.
High-throughput, Quantitative Analysis of Acrolein-derived DNA Adducts in Human Oral Cells by Immunohistochemistry
Authors: Greenspan Emily J. , Lee Hanjoo , Dyba Marcin , Pan Jishen , Mekambi Kepher , Johnson Tierra , Blancato Jan , Mueller Susette , Berry Deborah L. , Chung Fung-Lung
Published: August 2012

Acrolein (Acr) is a ubiquitous environmental pollutant as well as an endogenous compound. Acrolein-derived 1,N2-propanodeoxyguanosines (Acr-dG) are exocyclic DNA adducts formed following exposure to cigarette smoke or from lipid peroxidation. Acr-dG is mutagenic and potentially carcinogenic and may represent a useful biomarker for the early detection of cancers related to smoking or other oxidative conditions, such as chronic inflammation. In this study, we have developed a high-throughput, automated method using a HistoRx PM-2000 imaging system combined with MetaMorph software for quantifying Acr-dG adducts in human oral cells by immunohistochemical detection using a monoclonal antibody recently developed by our laboratory. This method was validated in a cell culture system using BEAS-2B human bronchial epithelial cells treated with known concentrations of Acr. The results were further verified by quantitative analysis of Acr-dG in DNA of BEAS-2B cells using a liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry/multiple-reaction monitoring method. The automated method is a quicker, more accurate method than manual evaluation of counting cells expressing Acr-dG and quantifying fluorescence intensity. It may be applied to other antibodies that are used for immunohistochemical detection in tissues as well as cell lines, primary cultures, and other cell types.
Iduronic Acid in Chondroitin/Dermatan Sulfate
Authors: Malmström Anders , Bartolini Barbara , Thelin Martin A. , Pacheco Benny , Maccarana Marco
Published: August 2012

The ability of chondroitin/dermatan sulfate (CS/DS) to convey biological information is enriched by the presence of iduronic acid. DS-epimerases 1 and 2 (DS-epi1 and 2), in conjunction with DS-4-O-sulfotransferase 1, are the enzymes responsible for iduronic acid biosynthesis and will be the major focus of this review. CS/DS proteoglycans (CS/DS-PGs) are ubiquitously found in connective tissues, basement membranes, and cell surfaces or are stored intracellularly. Such wide distribution reflects the variety of biological roles in which they are involved, from extracellular matrix organization to regulation of processes such as proliferation, migration, adhesion, and differentiation. They play roles in inflammation, angiogenesis, coagulation, immunity, and wound healing. Such versatility is achieved thanks to their variable composition, both in terms of protein core and the fine structure of the CS/DS chains. Excellent reviews have been published on the collective and individual functions of each CS/DS-PG. This short review presents the biosynthesis and functions of iduronic acid-containing structures, also as revealed by the analysis of the DS-epi1- and 2-deficient mouse models.
Leukocyte antigen-related inhibition attenuates palmitate-induced insulin resistance in muscle cells
Authors: Gorgani-Firuzjaee Sattar , Bakhtiyari Salar , Golestani Abolfazl , Meshkani Reza
Published: August 2012

Palmitate has been shown to induce insulin resistance in skeletal muscle cells. The aim of this study was to investigate the role of the leukocyte common antigen-related (LAR) gene in palmitate-induced insulin resistance in C2C12 cells. A stable C2C12 cell line was generated using LAR short hairpin RNA. The levels of LAR protein and phosphorylation of insulin receptor substrate-1 (IRS1) and Akt were detected by western blot analysis. 2-Deoxyglucose uptake was measured in LAR knockdown and control cells using d-[2-3H]glucose. LAR protein level was decreased by 65% in the stable cell line compared with the control cells. Palmitate (0.5 mM) significantly induced LAR mRNA (65%) and protein levels (40%) in myotubes compared with untreated cells. Palmitate significantly reduced insulin-stimulated glucose uptake in both the control and LAR knockdown cells by 33 and 51% respectively. However, LAR depletion improved insulin-stimulated glucose uptake in myotubes treated with palmitate. Furthermore, the inhibition of LAR prevented palmitate-induced decreases in phosphorylation of IRS1Tyr632 and AktSer473 in C2C12 cells. In conclusion, these results reveal that palmitate induces LAR expression in C2C12 cells. We also provided evidence that the inhibition of LAR attenuates palmitate-induced insulin resistance in myotubes.
Performance of magnesia cements in porous blocks in acid and magnesium environments
Authors: Liska Martin , Al-Tabbaa Abir
Published: August 2012

The performance of porous blocks containing three different reactive magnesia-based cements – namely magnesia alone, magnesium oxide:Portland cement (PC) in 1:1 ratio, cured in ambient conditions, and magnesia alone, cured at elevated carbon dioxide conditions, in hydrochloric acid and magnesium sulfate solution – was investigated. Different aggressive chemical solution conditions were used, to which the samples were exposed for up to 12 months and then tested for strength and microstructure. The performance was also compared with that of standard PC-based blocks. The results showed the significant resistance to chemical attack offered by magnesia, both alone and with PC blend in the porous blocks when cured under ambient carbon dioxide conditions, and confirmed the much poorer performance of blocks made from PC alone. The blocks of solely magnesia cured in elevated carbon dioxide conditions, at 20% concentration, showed slightly lower resistance to acid attack than PC; however, the resistance to sulfate attack was much higher.