bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Contribution of PNPLA3 gene polymorphisms to hepatocellular carcinoma susceptibility in the Chinese Han population
Authors: Gong Dongwei , Li Shizong , Yu Zhiwei , Wang Kaiqiong , Qiao Xin , Wu Changxiong
Published: November 2022

Objectives

The purpose of this study was to investigate the association of PNPLA3 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) (rs738409 C > G, rs3747207 G > A, rs4823173 G > A, and rs2896019 T > G) with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) susceptibility.

Methods

This case–control study included 484 HCC patients and 487 controls. Logistic regression analysis was performed to study the associations of PNPLA3 gene polymorphisms with HCC susceptibility, and odds ratios with their corresponding 95% confidence intervals were calculated to evaluate these correlations.

Results

In the overall analysis, we found that the G allele (OR = 1.25, 95% CI = 1.04–1.50, p = 0.018, false discovery rate (FDR)-p = 0.035) and GG genotype (OR = 1.59, 95% CI = 1.06–2.39, p = 0.024, FDR-p = 0.048) of rs2896019 were significantly associated with increased HCC susceptibility. In stratified analysis, we found that all four SNPs were related to increased HCC susceptibility in subjects aged > 55 years. In haplotype analysis, the GAAG haplotype was significantly associated with increased HCC susceptibility (OR = 1.25, 95% CI = 1.03–1.53, p = 0.023, FDR-p = 0.046). Besides, we noticed that rs738409 was significantly correlated with alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) (p = 0.007), and HCC patients with the GG genotype had a higher level of AFP.

Conclusions

Our study suggested that PNPLA3-rs2896019 was significantly associated with an increased susceptibility to HCC.
Remotely sensed measures of Hurricane Michael damage and adverse perinatal outcomes and access to prenatal care services in the Florida panhandle
Authors: Pan Ke , Gonsoroski Elaina , Uejio Christopher K. , Beitsch Leslie , Sherchan Samendra P. , Lichtveld Maureen Y. , Harville Emily W.
Published: November 2022

Background

Studies of effects of hurricanes on perinatal outcomes often rely on approximate measures of exposure. This study aims to use observed damage from aerial imagery to refine residential building damage estimates, evaluate the population changes post landfall, and assess the associations between the extent of residential building damage and adverse perinatal outcomes and access to prenatal care (PNC) services. 

Methods

Vital statistics data from the Florida Department of Health’s Office of Vital Statistics were used to align maternal geocoded address data to high-resolution imagery (0.5-foot resolution, true color with red, blue, and green bands) aerial photographs. Machine learning (support vector machines) classified residential roof damage across the study area. Perinatal outcomes were compared with the presence or absence of damage to the mother’s home. Log-binomial regression models were used to compare the populations living in and outside of high-risk/damage areas, to assess the population changes after Hurricane Michael, and to estimate the associations between damage after Hurricane Michael and adverse perinatal outcomes/access to PNC services. A semi-parametric linear model was used to model time of first PNC visit and increase in damage.

Results

We included 8,965 women in analysis. Women with lower education and/or of Black or other non-White race/ethnicity were more likely to live in areas that would see high damage than other groups. Moreover, there was a greater proportion of births delivered by women living in the high-risk/damage area (> 25% damaged parcels after Michael) in the year before Michael than the year after Michael. Lastly, living in the area with relatively high damage increased the risk of having intermediate or inadequate PNC (adjusted Risk Ratio = 1.21, 95% CI: 1.03, 1.43), but not other adverse perinatal outcomes.

Conclusions

Aerially observed damage data enable us to evaluate the impact of natural disasters on perinatal outcomes and access to PNC services based on residential building damage immediately surrounding a household. The association between the extent of damage and adverse perinatal outcomes should be further investigated in future studies.
Household financial burden associated with healthcare for older people in Viet Nam: a cross-sectional survey
Authors: Giang Nguyen Hoang , Vinh Nguyen The , Phuong Hoang Thi , Thang Nguyen Thi , Oanh Tran Thi Mai
Published: November 2022

Background

Population ageing and the associated increase in the healthcare needs of older people are putting pressure on the healthcare system in Viet Nam. The country prioritizes healthcare for older people and has developed financial protection policies to mitigate financial hardship due to out-of-pocket health expenditures (OOPHEs) borne by their households. This study examines the level and determinants of the financial burden of OOPHE among households with people aged ≥ 60 years in Viet Nam.

Methods

A cross-sectional household survey was conducted among a sample of 1536 older people living in 1477 households in three provinces representing the North, Central and South regions of Viet Nam during 2019–2020. The financial outcomes were catastrophic health expenditure (CHE), using WHO's definition, and financial distress due to OOPHE. Multivariate binary logistic regression analysis was employed to determine the factors associated with these outcomes.

Results

OOPHE for older household members accounted for 86.3% of total household health expenditure. Of households with older people, 8.6% (127) faced CHE, and 12.2% (181) experienced financial distress due to OOPHE. Households were at a higher risk of incurring financial burdens related to health expenditures if they had fewer household members; included only older people; were in rural or remote, mountainous areas; and had older members with noncommunicable diseases. There was no significant association between health insurance coverage and financial burden. However, when older people sought tertiary care or private care, the possibility of a household facing CHE increased. Regardless of the type and level of care, health service utilization by older people results in a higher likelihood of a household encountering financial distress.

Conclusions

This study reveals that OOPHE for older people can impose substantial financial burdens on households, leading them to face CHE and financial distress. This study provides evidence to justify reforming financial protection policies and introducing policy interventions targeted at better protecting older people and their households from the financial consequences of OOPHE. There is also the need to strengthen the grassroots health facilities to provide primary care closer to home at lower costs, particularly for the management of noncommunicable diseases.
Ethics of participation and social inclusion of older persons in research: lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic in Singapore
Authors: Maulod Ad , Rouse Sasha , Lee Atiqah , Ravindran Malcolm , Mohamad Hazirah , Goh Veronica , Azman Diyana , Low Lian Leng , Malhotra Rahul , Chan Angelique
Published: November 2022

The COVID-19 pandemic brought about safe distancing measures that are unprecedented. This article details the impact of the pandemic across research studies involving older persons in Singapore, and assesses the different strategies used to adapt to their needs in the context of evolving public health measures. The pandemic exposed diverse experiences of vulnerability among older persons, pushing for critical reflections on ethics of participation and social inclusion as the new research normal. We emphasize the importance of practicing flexibility: consideration for differentiated approaches to recruitment and data collection that should be proactively embedded in research designs for older persons during the pandemic and beyond.
Mental health in children with living donor liver transplantation: a propensity score-matched analysis
Authors: Huang Mingzhu , Hou Yuchen , Li Wen , Wang Guanghai , Gu Guangxiang , Xia Qiang
Published: November 2022

Background

This study explored mental health of pediatric patients with living donor liver transplantation.

Methods

A total of 741 children who successfully underwent living donor liver transplantation from 2009 to 2019 enrolled in this study. Participants were aged between 3 and 12 years (mean age = 5.28; SD = 2.01). The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire was used to evaluate emotional and behavioral problems. Parents completed the 5-item World Health Organization Well-Being Index and reported their child’s height, weight, sleep duration, parent-child interactions, home environment, physical activities, and time spent on screen exposure. Propensity score matching method was used to generate a control group from 20,934 healthy children. Univariate analysis and multiple logistic regression analyses were used to identify the correlational factors in children’s mental health following a liver transplantation.

Results

Compared to healthy children, patients after liver transplantation were prone to emotional problems, hyperactivity, and peer problems. Moreover, parental mental health, physical activity, and family environment were identified as factors associated with mental health of pediatric liver transplant patients.

Conclusion

The findings highlight the need to focus on mental health of pediatric transplant patients, increase support for parents, and strengthen positive parent-child interactions.
Long-read assembly of major histocompatibility complex and killer cell immunoglobulin-like receptor genome regions in cynomolgus macaque
Authors: Hu Qingxiu , Huang Xiaoqi , Jin Yabin , Zhang Rui , Zhao Aimin , Wang Yiping , Zhou Chenyun , Liu Weixin , Liu Xunwei , Li Chunhua , Fan Guangyi , Zhuo Min , Wang Xiaoning , Ling Fei , Luo Wei
Published: November 2022

Background

The major histocompatibility complex (MHC) and the killer cell immunoglobulin-like receptors (KIR) are key regulators of immune responses. The cynomolgus macaque, an Old World monkey species, can be applied as an important preclinical model for studying human diseases, including coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Several MHC-KIR combinations have been associated with either a poor or good prognosis. Therefore, macaques with a well-characterized immunogenetic profile may improve drug evaluation and speed up vaccine development. At present, a complete overview of the MHC and KIR haplotype organizations in cynomolgus macaques is lacking, and characterization by conventional techniques is hampered by the extensive expansion of the macaque MHC-B region that complicates the discrimination between genes and alleles.

Methods

We assembled complete MHC and KIR genomic regions of cynomolgus macaque using third-generation long-read sequencing approach. We identified functionalMafa-Bloci at the transcriptome level using locus-specific amplification in a cohort of 33 Vietnamese cynomolgus macaques.

Results

This is the first physical mapping of completeMHCandKIRgene regions in a Vietnamese cynomolgus macaque. Furthermore, we identified four functionalMafa-Bloci (B2,B3,B5, andB6) and showed that alleles of theMafa-I*01,-B*056,-B*034, and-B*001functional lineages, respectively, are highly frequent in the Vietnamese cynomolgus macaque population.

Conclusion

The insights into the MHC and KIR haplotype organizations and the level of diversity may refine the selection of animals with specific genetic markers for future medical research.
The effect of combined Action Observation Therapy with eccentric exercises in the treatment of mid-portion Achilles-tendinopathy: a feasibility pilot randomised controlled trial
Authors: Ryan Deirdre , O’Donoghue Gráinne , Rio Ebonie , Segurado Ricardo , O’Sullivan Cliona
Published: November 2022

Background

Mid-portion Achilles Tendinopathy (AT) is a common musculoskeletal condition with varying rehabilitation success rates. Despite the prevalence of this condition, a considerable proportion of individuals experience persisting pain and functional deficits. Current treatment approaches bias the biomedical model which emphasises physically treating and loading the tendon. Overall, there is a lack of consideration for the central nervous system that is commonly implicated in chronic injuries. The aim of this pilot study was to explore the feasibility of combining Action Observation Therapy (AOT), a treatment technique which targets central changes and influences motor learning, with eccentric exercises in the treatment of mid-portion AT. AOT involves the observation of movements and is commonly followed by the physical performance of these same movements.

Methodology

This was a double-blinded randomised controlled pilot feasibility study. All participants underwent the 12-week Alfredson eccentric training protocol. The intervention group watched videos of the exercises prior to performing these exercises, whilst the control group watched nature videos before performing the same exercises. Study feasibility was the primary outcome measure, with the Victorian Institute of Sports Assessment- Achilles (VISA-A) selected as the primary clinical outcome measure.

Results

Thirty participants were recruited, reflecting a 75% eligibility rate and 100% of eligible participants enrolled in the study. The retention rate at week 12 was 80%. At week six the mean VISA-A score improved by 18.1 (95% CI 10.2–26.0) in the intervention group and 7.7 (95% CI 0.3–14.9) in the control group, and 75% and 33% of participants in the intervention and control group respectively exceeded the minimal clinically important difference (MCID). At week 12 the mean VISA-A score from baseline improved by 22.25 (95% CI 12.52–31.98) in the intervention group and 16.5-(95% CI 8.47–24.53) in the control group, equating to 75% and 58% in each group respectively exceeding the MCID.

Conclusion

The positive feasibility outcomes and exploratory data from the clinical outcome measures suggest that a larger scaled RCT is warranted to further investigate the impact of AOT in the rehabilitation of mid-portion AT.

Trial registration ISRCTN58161116, first registered on the 23/12/2020.
Aryloxypropanolamine targets amyloid aggregates and reverses Alzheimer-like phenotypes in Alzheimer mouse models
Authors: Lee Hee Yang , Yoon Soljee , Lee Jeong Hwa , Park Keunwan , Jung Youngeun , Cho Illhwan , Lee Donghee , Shin Jisu , Kim Kyeonghwan , Kim Sunmi , Kim Jimin , Kim Koeun , Han Seung Hoon , Kim Seong Muk , Kim Hye Ju , Kim Hye Yun , Kim Ikyon , Kim Young Soo
Published: November 2022

Background

Aggregated amyloid-β (Aβ) is considered a pathogenic initiator of Alzheimer’s disease (AD), in strong association with tau hyperphosphorylation, neuroinflammation, synaptic dysfunction, and cognitive decline. As the removal of amyloid burden from AD patient brains by antibodies has shown therapeutic potential, the development of small molecule drugs inducing chemical dissociation and clearance of Aβ is compelling as a therapeutic strategy. In this study, we synthesized and screened aryloxypropanolamine derivatives and identified 1-(3-(2,4-di-tert-pentylphenoxy)-2-hydroxypropyl)pyrrolidin-1-ium chloride, YIAD002, as a strong dissociator of Aβ aggregates.

Methods

The dissociative activity of aryloxypropanolamine derivatives against Aβ aggregates were evaluated through in vitro assays. Immunohistochemical staining, immunoblot assays, and the Morris water maze were used to assess the anti-Alzheimer potential in YIAD002-treated 5XFAD and transgenic APP/PS1 mice. Target-ligand interaction mechanism was characterized via a combination of peptide mapping, fluorescence dissociation assays, and constrained docking simulations.

Results

Among 11 aryloxypropanolamine derivatives, YIAD002 exerted strongest dissociative activity against β-sheet-rich Aβ aggregates. Upon oral administration, YIAD002 substantially reduced amyloid burden and accordingly, improved cognitive performance in the Morris water maze and attenuated major pathological hallmarks of AD including tauopathy, neuroinflammation, and synaptic protein loss. Mechanism studies suggest that YIAD002 interferes with intermolecular β-sheet fibrillation by directly interacting with KLVFFA and IGLMVG domains of Aβ. In addition, YIAD002 was found to possess dissociative activity against aggregates of pyroglutamate-modified Aβ and tau.

Conclusions

Collectively, our results evince the potential of chemical-driven dissociation of Aβ aggregates by aryloxypropanolamines as a therapeutic modality of the amyloid clearance approach.
Co-creation of new knowledge: Good fortune or good management?
Authors: Pearce Tania , Maple Myfanwy , McKay Kathy , Shakeshaft Anthony , Wayland Sarah
Published: November 2022

Background

Potential solutions to bridging the research practice gap include collaborative frameworks and models. Yet there is little evidence demonstrating their application in practice. In addressing this knowledge gap, this in-depth case study explored how the co-creation of new knowledge framework and its four collaborative processes (co-ideation, co-design, co-implementation, and co-evaluation) are utilised to support people who had attempted suicide through an Australian psychoeducational program known as Eclipse.

Methods

Using a case study design and a thematic analysis methodology, multiple sources of qualitative data (collaborative group discussion, personal communications) were analysed inductively and deductively to examine the implementation of co-creation and explore the perspectives of researchers and stakeholders about co-creation and collaborative relationships.

Results

Three broad themes were identified: (1) understanding the language and practice of co-creation, (2) perception of trust formation, and (3) the value of co-creation opportunities. Ultimately, implementing co-creation with or between researchers, industry and people with lived experience requires trust, reciprocity, good fortune, and good management. While implementing co-creation, the co-creation framework was revised to include additional elements identified as missing from the initially proposed framework.

Conclusion

Co-creation of new knowledge poses many challenges to researchers and stakeholders, particularly regarding its “messiness” and non-linear approach to implementation and evaluation. However, as this case study demonstrates, it has the potential to become an alternative framework of best practice for public health interventions in third sector organisations, most notably as it eliminates the often-lengthy gap reported between research evidence and translation into practice. The research highlights the need for co-creation to further study its effectiveness in integrating research and service delivery to generate new knowledge. This may lead to a cultural and behavioural change in the service provider’s approach to research, offering better outcomes for providers, clients, policymakers, universities, and funders.
Rheumatic disease patient decision-making about COVID-19 vaccination: a qualitative analysis
Authors: Shaw Yomei P. , Hustek Sara , Nguyen Nina , Starlin Makenzie , Wipfler Kristin , Wallace Beth I. , Michaud Kaleb
Published: November 2022

Background

Although patients with rheumatic and musculoskeletal diseases (RMDs) are at increased risk for adverse outcomes of COVID-19 illness compared to healthy controls, they also have lower rates of willingness to be vaccinated. Previous research has identified reasons for vaccine hesitancy among patients with RMDs (such as concerns about side effects and flares), but little is known about what these reasons mean in the context of patients’ lives, or how vaccine decision making is experienced from a patient perspective. Our objective was to describe decision-making about COVID-19 vaccination among RMD patients.

Methods

Participants in a RMD registry were invited to complete monthly online surveys regarding COVID-19 vaccination from March-June 2021. We qualitatively analyzed comments from two open-ended survey questions reporting general experiences with vaccination and side effects. Comments were coded for attitudes towards COVID-19 vaccination, vaccine access, rheumatologic medication management around vaccination, and vaccine side effects. Themes were identified for the process and context of COVID-19 vaccine decisions, patient motivations for receiving or avoiding vaccination, and consistency of peri-vaccine medication management with current ACR guidelines.

Results

We analyzed 710 comments from 537 respondents. Commenting respondents had a mean age of 64 years, were 87% female, 94% white, and 93% received/intended to receive ≥ 1 dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. Desire for protection and a return to normal routines motivated some commenters to get vaccinated, while concerns about vaccine side effects motivated others to delay or avoid vaccination. Several commenters reported disease flares following vaccination. Some commenters did not consult their providers about vaccination and failed to withhold immunomodulatory medications during vaccination, while others withheld medications more conservatively than recommended by current ACR guidelines, either on their own or directed by their provider.

Conclusions

While most commenters were vaccine-accepting, challenges to COVID-19 vaccine uptake in the RMD population may include fears of side effects, including worsened RMD symptoms, and perceptions that vaccination is unnecessary. Addressing these concerns and beliefs may be critical for promoting vaccination in this population.
Probabilistic picture for particle number densities in stretched tips of the branching Brownian motion
Authors: Le A. D. , Mueller A. H. , Munier S.
Published: November 2022

In the framework of a stochastic picture for the one-dimensional branching Brownian motion, we compute the probability density of the number of particles near the rightmost one at a time T, that we take very large, when this extreme particle is conditioned to arrive at a predefined position x

T
chosen far ahead of its expected position m

T
. We recover the previously conjectured fact that the typical number density of particles at a distance Δ to the left of the lead particle, when both Δ and

are large, is smaller than the mean number density by a factor proportional to

, where ζ is a constant that was so far undetermined. Our picture leads to an expression for the probability density of the particle number, from which a value for ζ may be inferred.
Thinking with Wolves
Authors: Roy Parama
Published: November 2022

This article is an examination of the career of the “wolf child”—a human child lost or sacrificed by human parents but nurtured by wolf mothers—in imperial South Asia. Notably, wolf children become a particular concern of evangelical Protestant missionaries in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries; for the latter, these children featured as subjects in a miracle narrative, in which they were preserved from harm against all odds by their divinely animated lupine foster mothers. This history limns the curious trajectory that begins with an anthropology of the cultures that sacrifice children to wolves and ends in a missionary theology that claims wolf children as evidence of Christian grace and redemption. It underlines how unexpectedly significant a reckoning with the nonhuman was for evangelical theology and narrative in the colony, and how the narrative depended on trans-species alliance for imagining the operations of grace in imperial zones.
An interview with Eugenia del Pino
Authors: Zenner Helen L.
Published: November 2022

Eugenia del Pino was a Professor at the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador (PUCE) in Quito, Ecuador, where her research focussed on understanding the unique development of marsupial frogs. During her career, Eugenia was elected to the US National Academy of Science in 2006 and was awarded the L'Oréal-UNESCO prize for women in science (2000), The Latin American Society for Developmental Biology prize (2019) and the Eugenio Espejo National Prize from the Government of Ecuador in 2012. This year, Eugenia was awarded the Society for Developmental Biology (SDB) Lifetime Achievement award. We talked to Eugenia about the impact of receiving this award, her work at PUCE and the importance of mentorship in her career.
Comparison of ultrasound-guided serratus anterior plane block and thoracic paravertebral block in postoperative analgesia and inflammation control in patients undergoing upper abdominal surgery
Authors: Cai Zhiming , Xie Ruiqun , Xu Ting , Huang Changlu
Published: November 2022

Objective: To compare the effects of ultrasound-guided serratus anterior plane block (SAPB) and thoracic paravertebral block (TPVB) on postoperative analgesia and inflammation control in patients undergoing upper abdominal surgery.

Methods: This is a retrospective observational study. The records of patients who underwent upper abdominal surgery in our hospital from June 2019 to January 2021 were selected and retrospectively divided into two groups based on the analgesia method. Fifty-nine patients received ultrasound-guided SAPB analgesia (SAPB-group) and 55 patients received ultrasound-guided TPVB analgesia (TPVB-Group). Patients were matched for age, gender and body-mass index (BMI). The visual analogue scale (VAS) scores of pain at two hours(T1), six hours (T2), 12 hours (T3), 24 hours (T4) and 48 hours (T5) after the operation were compared between the two groups. The levels of interleukin-6 (IL-6), interleukin-10(IL-10) and tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) at the completion of surgery (T0) and T4 were compared between the two groups.

Results: The duration of block in SAPB-group was higher than that in TPVB-group (P<0.05). VAS scores of SAPB-groups were significantly lower than those of TPVB-group at all-time points (P<0.05) except at rest 48 hour after the procedure. The levels of IL-6, IL-10 and TNF-α at 24 hours after the operation in both groups were significantly higher than immediately at the end of the operation (P<0.05). Levels of IL-6 and TNF-α 24 hours after the operation were significantly lower in the SAPB-group than in the TPVB-group (P<0.05), while the levels of IL-10 24 hours after the operation were significantly higher in the SAPB-group (P<0.05).

Conclusions: SAPB block under ultrasound guidance for patients undergoing upper abdominal surgery has good anesthetic and analgesic effect and can significantly improve the level of postoperative inflammation.

doi: https://doi.org/10.12669/pjms.39.1.6849

How to cite this: Cai Z, Xie R, Xu T, Huang C. Comparison of ultrasound-guided serratus anterior plane block and thoracic paravertebral block in postoperative analgesia and inflammation control in patients undergoing upper abdominal surgery. Pak J Med Sci. 2023;39(1):---------.  doi: https://doi.org/10.12669/pjms.39.1.6849

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Validation of the typifications of Pertusaria atropallida and P. uralensis
Authors: Oset Magdalena
Published: November 2022

The issue of valid publication and typification of Pertusaria atropallida and P. uralensis is discussed. According to Art. F.5.4 ICN the names were published in 2021 invalidly because the author did not provide a registration number in MycoBank.
Local Migration Regimes in Rural Areas: The Example of Refugee Reception in Saxony, Germany
Authors: Schneider Hanne
Published: November 2022

The reception of asylum seekers has challenged municipalities and their populations across Europe in recent years: Many rural villages and small and mid-sized towns had little prior experience with large numbers of asylum seekers. The housing of refugees constitutes one of the most controversial arenas and challenges for local communities within the reception process.

This paper sheds light on rural case studies using the perspective of migration regimes. Local Migration Regimes constitute arenas of migration-related processes including actors, practices, and negotiations at different scales. The analysis covers four rural municipalities (two villages, two towns) from two Saxonian counties in Germany. All cases have different strategies for accommodating migrants but all can be seen as post-socialist immigration societies. The findings show that the issue of reception and housing is seen as a recurrent and contested local field of conflict and cooperation in the rural case sites. The regime lens highlights the strong dependencies but also fragmentation between different levels (national, regional, and supra-local). Housing practices and strategies for refugees reflect local discourses and contribute to the social and spatial production of migration. I argue, that the regime lens contributes to an interdisciplinary understanding of local settings, acknowledges spatial and social structures but challenges empirical field work and data sets. This empirical research is based on qualitative interviews, media articles, and documents from rural counties in Germany and was conducted within the joint research project “Future for Refugees in Rural Regions of Germany”.

* This article belongs to a special issue on "Refugee Migration to Europe – Challenges and Potentials for Cities and Regions".
A rite in the light of the Actor-Network Theory – the research perspectives (as exemplified by the feast of Corpus Christi in Spycimierz)
Authors: Smyk Katarzyna
Published: November 2022

The author begins with the research on annual rituals in the current of structural semiotics, on the basis of which it is possible to define a ritual as a text of culture. Then, the author proceeds to demonstrate that the Actor-Network Theory (ANT) can be a natural continuation of the structural-functional research on rituals, because these two approaches meet in four methodological areas: anthropology and ethnology, structuralism, semiotics (of a text) and ethnomethodology, and are inspired by them. In the second part, the authors outlines two basic “methodological benefits” which the research on rituals may derive from the application of ANT: a new look on elements of structure of a ritual culture text and the use of translation as an in spe tool of ritual semiotics. In the conclusions, the author opens new research perspectives, in particular by presenting ANT as a natural bridge between the structural-functional-semiotic description of a ritual and constructivism, and as a chance to interpret the way in which texts of post-traditional culture build a community.
Pricing Decisions with Social Interactions: A Game-Theoretic Model
Authors: Wang Xiaofang , Yang Yaoyao , Zhuang Jun
Published: November 2022

For media or digital products with quality uncertainty like online games, movies, theater plays, software, and smartphone applications, online customers may strategically delay their purchase waiting for online reviews and their peers’ purchase decisions. Thus, a firm needs to consider both social learning and positive network externality to anticipate the customers’ purchasing decisions and set a good pricing strategy over time. This paper investigates how these dual concerns affect the strategic interaction between a firm using preannounced pricing or responsive pricing and strategic customers in a two-period game-theoretic model. Deviating from conventional wisdom suggesting that social learning and externality work in a similar way, our results highlight their differences and provide valuable managerial insights. Although social learning and externality play a similar role in expanding the increasing-price-optimal region, they are different in other aspects: The firm will be worse off with learning if the externality gets stronger, whereas it will be worse off or better off with learning if learning gets stronger. In addition, we characterize the condition under which responsive pricing may outperform preannounced pricing. We further find that the firm’s discount factor has an influence on the firm’s pricing strategy selection.

Funding: X. Wang and Y. Yang acknowledge financial support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China [Grant 72071204].

Supplemental Material: The online appendix is available at https://doi.org/10.1287/deca.2022.0463 .
Value of Information Sharing via Ride-Hailing Apps: An Empirical Analysis
Authors: Rhee Kyung Sun (Melissa) , Zheng Jinyang , Wang Youwei , Tan Yong
Published: November 2022

This study examines the effects of an information sharing restriction policy that restricts taxi drivers’ access to ride requests via ride-hailing apps. We show that the policy significantly decreases the ridership of an affected taxi fleet during times of enforcement but significantly increases the demands at some times of nonenforcement after launch. Furthermore, the traffic on public transportation, including metro, bus, ferry, and park & ride, and the congestion on the surface roads and expressways significantly increase after launching the policy during both enforcement and most nonenforcement times. We also show that the profitability of taxi fleet decreases after the restriction, which supports the notion that information sharing via ride-hailing apps enables them to match not only with more orders but also with those of higher marginal profit. These findings suggest that information sharing via ride-hailing apps can improve the utilization of existing taxi capacity, which further alleviates traffic during alternative times and the burden placed on alternative transportation modes. Policymakers and platform managers should dissect the value of information sharing from that of other aspects (e.g., changes in supply) in on-demand platforms and design policies that more specifically restrict the harmful aspects rather than restricting the use of such apps.
Value Implications of Sourcing Electronic Health Records: The Role of Physician Practice Integration
Authors: Bardhan Indranil R. , Bao Chenzhang , Ayabakan Sezgin
Published: November 2022

Should hospitals source electronic health records (EHR) systems from a single vendor or multiple vendors to deliver high-value care? We study hospitals’ EHR sourcing strategies based on their degree of integration with physician practices and its impact on the value of healthcare delivered. We propose a novel framework to define healthcare value as the extent to which a hospital effectively expends clinical resources to deliver services that improve patient outcomes. Drawing on modular systems and transaction cost economics theories, we propose a moderated-mediation model that explores the pathways through which EHR sourcing strategies can create value in healthcare. We test our research hypotheses on a large, longitudinal sample of U.S. hospitals and observe that hospitals with EHR configurations closer to single sourcing strategies exhibit greater health information sharing compared with hospitals with multisourced EHR systems. Furthermore, we find that hospital-physician practice integration moderates the impact of single sourcing on health information sharing, which in turn, improves value. Specifically, tighter integration between hospitals and physician practices can create greater value if it is aligned with hospitals’ EHR sourcing strategies. As the healthcare industry moves toward value-based payment reform, our findings provide a useful roadmap to practitioners and policy makers to improve the performance of hospitals and healthcare providers.

History: Rajiv Kohli, Senior Editor; Sunil Wattal, Associate Editor.

Funding: I.R. Bardhan thanks the Foster Parker Centennial Professorship and the Dean’s Research Excellence Grant at the McCombs School of Business at UT Austin for generous financial support. C. Bao thanks the Spears Fellowship at Oklahoma State University for financial support.

Supplemental Material: The online appendix is available at https://doi.org/10.1287/isre.2022.1183 .
Disclosure of Disaggregated Information in the Presence of Reputational Concerns
Authors: Kim Tae Wook , Pae Suil
Published: November 2022

This study examines a reputation-concerned entrepreneur’s incentives to provide disaggregated information about a project’s future performance when the entrepreneur seeks to increase both the market price of the project and the market assessment of the entrepreneur’s ability as a project manager. Two factors determine equilibrium: (i) the informational quality of the signal related to the entrepreneur’s ability and (ii) the magnitude of reputational concerns. If the former is relatively low, the entrepreneur with moderate reputational concerns is more likely to provide disaggregated information when the signal about the project’s overall performance is intermediate than when it is sufficiently good or bad. Also, given any value of the signal about the overall performance, this entrepreneur withholds disaggregated information when the signal about the entrepreneur’s ability is intermediate rather than sufficiently good or bad. The comparative static results provide novel empirical predictions about disclosure of aggregate versus disaggregated information.

This paper was accepted by Eric So, accounting.
How to De-Reserve Reserves: Admissions to Technical Colleges in India
Authors: Aygün Orhan , Turhan Bertan
Published: November 2022

We study the joint implementation of reservation and de-reservation policies in India that has been enforcing comprehensive affirmative action since 1950. The landmark judgment of the Supreme Court of India in 2008 mandated that whenever the OBC category (with 27% reservation) has unfilled positions, they must be reverted to general category applicants in admissions to public schools without specifying how to implement it. We disclose the drawbacks of the recently reformed allocation procedure in admissions to technical colleges and offer a solution through “de-reservation via choice rules.” We propose a novel priority design—Backward Transfers (BT) choice rule—for institutions and the deferred acceptance mechanism under these choice rules (DA-BT) for centralized clearinghouses. We show that DA-BT corrects the shortcomings of existing mechanisms. By formulating India’s legal requirements and policy goals as formal axioms, we show that the DA-BT mechanism is unique for the concurrent implementation of reservation and de-reservation policies.

This paper was accepted by Yan Chen, behavioral economics and decision analysis.
Privacy Regulation and Barriers to Public Health
Authors: Buckman Joseph R. , Adjerid Idris , Tucker Catherine
Published: November 2022

The COVID-19 pandemic has killed millions and gravely disrupted the world’s economy. A safe and effective vaccine was developed remarkably swiftly, but as of yet, uptake of the vaccine has been slow. This paper explores one potential explanation of delayed adoption of the vaccine, which is data privacy concerns. We explore two contrasting regulations that vary across U.S. states that have the potential to affect the perceived privacy risk associated with receiving a COVID-19 vaccine. The first regulation—an “identification requirement”—increases privacy concerns by requiring individuals to verify residency with government approved documentation. The second regulation—“anonymity protection”—reduces privacy concerns by allowing individuals to remove personally identifying information from state-operated immunization registry systems. We investigate the effects of these privacy-reducing and privacy-protecting regulations on U.S. state-level COVID-19 vaccination rates. Using a panel data set, we find that identification requirements decrease vaccine demand but that this negative effect is offset when individuals are able to remove information from an immunization registry. Our results remain consistent when controlling for CDC-defined barriers to vaccination, levels of misinformation, vaccine incentives, and states’ phased distribution of vaccine supply. These findings yield significant theoretical and practical contributions for privacy policy and public health.

This paper was accepted by David Simchi-Levi, information systems.

Supplemental Material: Data and the e-companion are available at https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2022.4580 .
Superstition and Risk Taking: Evidence from “Zodiac Year” Beliefs in China
Authors: Fisman Ray , Huang Wei , Ning Bo , Pan Yue , Qiu Jiaping , Wang Yongxiang
Published: November 2022

We show that superstitions—beliefs without scientific grounding—impact the investment and risk-taking of Chinese firms. We focus on widely held beliefs in bad luck during one’s “zodiac year,” which occurs on a 12-year cycle around a person’s birth year, to study superstitions and risk taking. We first show a direct correspondence between zodiac year and risk taking via survey data: respondents are two percentage points more likely to favor no-risk investments if queried during their zodiac year. Turning to corporate decision making, we find that return volatility declines in the chairman’s zodiac year, suggesting a reduction in risk taking overall. Focusing on specific types of risk taking, investment in R&D and corporate acquisitions both decline during the chairman’s zodiac year; returns around acquisition announcements are also lower, suggesting real allocative consequences of zodiac year beliefs.

This paper was accepted by Gustavo Manso, finance.

Funding: W. Huang thanks the Major Project of National Social Science Foundation of China [Grant 17ZDA090] and the “National Program for Special Support of Eminent Professions” for financial support. Y. Pan thanks the National Natural Science Foundation of China [Grant 71790601] for financial support. Y. Wang thanks the National Natural Science Foundation of China [Grant 72172090] for financial support.

Supplemental Material: The online appendix and data are available at https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2022.4594 .
Multidimensional Targeting and Consumer Response
Authors: Despotakis Stylianos , Yu Jungju
Published: November 2022

Advancements in targeting technology have allowed firms to engage in more precise targeting based on several aspects of consumers’ preferences. Exposed to more targeted ads, consumers are becoming increasingly aware of being targeted and respond accordingly. This paper provides a theoretical analysis of multidimensional targeting under which consumers can draw inferences about multiple components of their utility from the advertised product. We show that the firm can be worse off under multidimensional targeting than under single-dimensional targeting, in which the firm targets consumers based only on a single component of their utility. This is because, with multidimensional targeting, targeted consumers may face greater uncertainty about on which specific dimension(s) they can expect to enjoy the advertised product. Therefore, they may be less willing to exert a costly effort of clicking the ad and making a purchase decision. When this result holds, the firm may want to adopt a single-dimensional targeting strategy. However, we show that the firm cannot credibly commit to such a strategy once given access to multiple dimensions of customer data. Interestingly, a higher unit cost of advertising can mitigate the firm’s commitment problem for using customer data and thus increase the firm’s profit. Moreover, the firm can sometimes lower the price to recover some of, but not entirely offset, the drawbacks of multidimensional targeting. We discuss the implications of our results regarding the current practice of targeted advertising and data privacy protection policies.

This paper was accepted by Dmitri Kuksov, marketing.

Funding: This work was supported by the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology [Grant G04210017].

Supplemental Material: The online appendix is available at https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2022.4604 .
Online Learning and Pricing for Service Systems with Reusable Resources
Authors: Jia Huiwen , Shi Cong , Shen Siqian
Published: November 2022

Revenue Management of Service Systems under Incomplete Information

Revenue management with reusable resources finds many important applications in today's economy, such as cloud computing services, car/bicycle rental services, ride-hailing services, hotel management, project team management, and call center services. The existing literature predominantly assumes that the stochastic demand and service processes are given as an input to the models, and the pricing decisions are made with full knowledge of the distributional information. However, in practice, the decision maker may not know how demand or service rates react to price changes. Thus, the decision maker needs to learn the underlying mapping between prices and rates from past observations, while maximizing the total expected revenue on the fly. In “Online Learning and Pricing for Service Systems with Reusable Resources”, H. Jia, C. Shi, and S. Shen developed a series of online learning algorithms for revenue management problems with reusable resources and showed that they admit an optimal regret bound.
Adaptive Discretization in Online Reinforcement Learning
Authors: Sinclair Sean R. , Banerjee Siddhartha , Yu Christina Lee
Published: November 2022

Adaptive Discretization in Reinforcement Learning

Performance guarantees for RL algorithms are typically for worst case instances, which are pathological by design and not observed in meaningful applications. Moreover, many domains (such as computer systems and networking applications) have large state-action spaces and require algorithms to execute with low latency. This phenomenon highlights a trifecta of goals for practical RL algorithms: low sample, storage, and computational complexity. In this work, we develop an algorithmic framework for nonparametric RL with data-driven adaptive discretization. Our framework has provably better sample, storage, and computational complexity than uniform discretization or kernel regression methods. Moreover, we highlight how the performance guarantees are min-max optimal with respect to a novel instance-specific complexity measure that captures structure in facility location and newsvendor models.
Strategic Release of Information in Platforms: Entry, Competition, and Welfare
Authors: Bimpikis Kostas , Mantegazza Giacomo
Published: November 2022

Information Disclosure in Platforms: Optimizing Volumes and Prices Can Harm Consumers

Two-sided platforms reduce frictions and facilitate trade in many sectors, and, in doing so, they increasingly collect and process data about supply and demand. The paper “Strategic Release of Information in Platforms: Entry, Competition, and Welfare” by Kostas Bimpikis and Giacomo Mantegazza shows that platforms can increase their profits by strategically disclosing (coarse) information that they collected about demand to the supply side. However, this practice may also adversely impact the welfare of consumers. By designing its information disclosure policy, a platform can influence the entry and pricing decisions of its potential suppliers. In general, it is optimal for platforms to disclose their information only partially to either “nudge” entry when it is costly for suppliers to join or discourage it when suppliers do not have valuable outside options. On the other hand, consumers may end up worse off due to higher prices compared with when the platform refrains from sharing any demand information.