bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
TESPI (Thrombolysis in Elderly Stroke Patients in Italy): A Randomized Controlled Trial of Alteplase (Rt-PA) versus Standard Treatment in Acute Ischaemic Stroke in Patients Aged more than 80 Years Where Thrombolysis is Initiated within Three Hours after Stroke Onset
Authors: Lorenzano Svetlana , Toni Danilo ,   for the TESPI trial Investigators
Published: October 2015

Rationale

Intravenous (i.v.) thrombolysis with recombinant tissue-Plasminogen Activator (rt-PA) (alteplase) within three hours from symptom onset is the only approved treatment of pharmacological revascularization in acute ischaemic stroke. However, the current license limits the use of rt-PA to patients aged ≤80 years due to the lack of evidence of safety and efficacy of this treatment in the elderly from randomized clinical trials. This article describes the design of the Thrombolysis in Elderly Stroke Patients in Italy (TESPI) trial planned to fill the lack of controlled data on i.v. thrombolysis in this age category of stroke patients.

Aims

To collect efficacy and safety data on i.v. alteplase (rt-PA) in patients aged more than 80 years, to demonstrate that the treatment of these patients within three hours of symptoms onset of an acute ischaemic stroke with i.v. rt-PA, compared to patients receiving standard treatment (according to the national guidelines), will result in an improved clinical outcome with a favourable benefit/risk ratio.

Design

TESPI is a prospective, multicenter, national, open-label, controlled (non-treated group as control), randomized, parallel group trial with blinded evaluation of outcome in patients older than 80 years treated with i.v. rt-PA within three hours after ischaemic stroke onset. The randomization procedure assigns patients to the treatment group with IV alteplase (0.9 mg/kg of body weight) or to standard treatment group with a 1 : 1 basis. A three-month follow-up, when applicable, is performed by a blind assessor. Six hundred patients will be enrolled (300 patients per arm) The study period has been planned to be of three years.

Study Outcomes

The primary efficacy end-point is the disability at day 90, dichotomized as a favourable outcome (modified Rankin Scale 0–2) or unfavourable outcome (modified Rankin Scale 3–6). The main primary safety end-point is symptomatic intracerebral haemorrhage defined as any hemorrhage at the 22–36 h post-treatment scan combined with neurological deterioration leading to an increase of one or more points at the National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale. The TESPI trial, with the protocol number FARM65KNKY, is registered in the European Union Drug Regulating Authorities Clinical Trials database with the number 2007-006177-88 and in the Stroke Trials Registry of the Washington University Internet Stroke Center.
Clinical efficacy and safety of a water‐soluble micellar paclitaxel (Paccal Vet) in canine mastocytomas
Authors: Rivera P. , Åkerlund‐Denneberg N. , Bergvall K. , Kessler M. , Rowe A. , Willmann M. , Persson G. , Kastengren Fröberg G. , Westberg S. , von Euler H.
Published: October 2015

Objective

To determine the clinical efficacy and safety of a cremophor‐free formulation of paclitaxel (Paccal Vet, Oasmia Pharmaceuticals) in dogs with mast cell tumours.

Methods

Paccal Vet was administered at a median dose of 145 (range, 135 to 150) mg/m2intravenously once every 21 days for three cycles to 29 dogs with macroscopic grade 2 or 3 mast cell tumour. Efficacy was assessed by tumour response (Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumours version 1.0) and performance status score. Progression‐free survival, quality of life and safety/adverse events were also evaluated. Clinical safety was assessed by clinicopathological analyses and recording of adverse events.

Results

Complete or partial response was observed in 59% of dogs. Performance status score remained constant or improved for 20 dogs and decreased by one grade for 9 dogs. Median time to progression was 247 (range, 42 to 268) days. Expected, transient frequently subclinical adverse events (primarily grade 3/4 neutropenia and grade 1/2 leukopenia) were observed in the majority of dogs. Nine dogs were euthanased and one dog died due to disease progression.

Clinical Significance

Paccal Vet appears to be a clinically safe and effective treatment for canine mast cell tumours. Further controlled confirmatory investigation is warranted.
The Individual Mandate: Implications for Public Health Law
Authors: Parmet Wendy E.
Published: October 2015

No provision of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) has proven to be more contentious than the so-called “individual mandate.” Starting in 2014, the mandate will impose a penalty on non-exempt individuals who lack health insurance. According to Congress, the mandate is essential to ensuring near universal coverage. Without it, PPACA’s insurance reforms will lead healthy individuals to delay purchasing health insurance until they require medical care, resulting in risk pools with a disproportionate share of high-risk people. The price of insurance will then climb, causing more and more not-so-sick people to forego health insurance. The resulting “death spiral” will make insurance unaffordable to many more Americans.
Inclusion of Racial and Ethnic Minorities in Genetic Research: Advance the Spirit by Changing the Rules?
Authors: Knerr Sarah , Wayman Dawn , Bonham Vence L.
Published: October 2015

As genetic and genomic research has progressed since the sequencing of the human genome, scientists have continued to struggle to understand the role of genetic and socio-cultural factors in racial and ethnic health disparities. Recognition that race and ethnicity correlate imperfectly with differences in allele frequency, environmental exposures, and significant health outcomes has made framing the relationship between genetic variation, race, ethnicity, and disease one of the most heated debates of the genome era. Because racial and ethnic identities reflect a complicated mix of social and genetic factors, critics have argued that use of racial and ethnic categories as analytical variables in biomedical research lacks rigor, leads to potentially dangerous stereotyping in medical practice, and sends harmful messages of innate racial difference to the broader public.

Concerns over the current lack of diversity in human genetic and genomic studies have developed in parallel to discussions of the appropriate use of racial and ethnic categories during the research process.
Minimal Risk in Research Involving Pregnant Women and Fetuses
Authors: Strong Carson
Published: October 2015

How should the definition of “minimal risk” in the federal research regulations be interpreted in regard to pregnant women and fetuses? Surprisingly, there has been little discussion of this question. There is, after all, a substantial amount of published work addressing the question of how “minimal risk” should be interpreted. Similarly, there is a large body of literature on the ethics of research involving pregnant women and fetuses, particularly maternal-fetal surgery. However, in neither of these bodies of work can one find an analysis of minimal risk in regard to fetuses or pregnant women.

The concept of minimal risk is defined in the regulations as follows:

Minimal risk means that the probability and magnitude of harm or discomfort anticipated in the research are not greater in and of themselves than those ordinarily encountered in daily life or during the performance of routine physical or psychological examinations or tests.
Health as a Basic Human Need: Would This Be Enough?
Authors: de Campos Thana Cristina
Published: October 2015

Our society is obsessed with health. At every second, everywhere, we are surrounded and overwhelmed by distressing calls on how vital it is to adopt a healthy lifestyle. While incorporating a healthy diet and physical exercise into our routines are the foremost commandments, everything from tobacco to refined sugars, trans fat, excessive alcohol, caffeine, and even eggs are declared public evils. Yet there is hope: medicines will save us! And indeed medicines exist available for all kinds of human afflictions. There are pills to help you relax and forget about stress, while some others, on the contrary, can keep you miraculously alert. There are pills that heal your most unbearable pains, physical or emotional, wherever their location — the head, back, quadriceps, heart, or soul. Though they may cause your stomach to burn, that is easily remedied by taking a complementary pill that will neutralize your stomach acidity with only some minor and negligible side effects elsewhere. There are also magic pills that promise you happiness, by giving you the power to thrive and the endurance to conquer the world. They ignite your hunger for achievement, but also for extra sugar and saturated fat.
A Right to Health Care
Authors: Eleftheriadis Pavlos
Published: October 2015

Do we have a legal and moral right to health care against others? There are international conventions and institutions that say emphatically yes, and they summarize this in the expression of “the right to health,” which is an established part of the international human rights canon. The International Covenant on Social and Economic Rights outlines this as “the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health,” but declarations such as this remain tragically unfulfilled. According to recent figures, roughly two billion people lack access to essential drugs or to primary health care. Millions are afflicted by infections and illnesses that are easily avoidable or treatable. In the developing world many children die or grow stunted and damaged for lack of available treatments. Tropical diseases receive little or no attention by the major pharmaceutical companies’ research departments. Is this a massive violation of the right to health? And if so, why does it attract so little attention? Is it because our supposed commitment to human rights and the rule of law is hypocritical and hollow? Or is it because the right to health is a special case of a right, so that these tragedies are no violation at all? Jennifer Prah Ruger summarized this puzzle when she wrote: “one would be hard pressed to find a more controversial or nebulous human right than the right to health.” In this essay I discuss three different theories of a right to health care. I conclude by offering my own reconstruction of one such theory.
Combating Counterfeit Medicines and Illicit Trade in Tobacco Products: Minefields in Global Health Governance
Authors: Liberman Jonathan
Published: October 2015

In her opening address to the 2011 session of the World Health Organization's (WHO) governing body, the World Health Assembly, WHO's Director-General, Dr. Margaret Chan, noted that WHO's job was much more straightforward when it was dealing mainly with germs, hygiene, medicines, vaccines and sister sectors, like water supply and sanitation. Today, international public health governance is much more complex. It is not only about forging agreement around shared health problems, but also being concerned with health as an outcome of global policies in areas such as trade, intellectual property, and human rights and, nationally, as an outcome of work in other sectors such as education, agriculture and the environment. Global health governance is increasingly fragmented, and WHO is not the only health game in town.
Bias in the Evaluation of Conflict of Interest Policies
Authors: Sharek Zachariah , Schoen Robert E. , Loewenstein George
Published: October 2015

A wide range of medical institutions have developed and implemented policies to mitigate the adverse consequences of conflicts of interest. These newly implemented policies, which include regulation of industry contact with physicians and hospitals, controls on gifts from industry, and greater transparency in industry sponsored activities, have generated considerable controversy.

Formulating and evaluating policies in a neutral, unbiased fashion can be difficult for those personally affected. When people have a stake in an issue, they tend to process information in a selective fashion that supports their personal interests, a phenomenon known as “motivated reasoning.” When decision makers with preexisting opinions are exposed to information, they are inclined to selectively use the information to arrive at conclusions that justify their prior beliefs. When confronted with information that contradicts existing views, people evaluate it with greater skepticism. Additionally, once decision makers have reached a decision, they are likely to evaluate subsequent evidence in a biased manner that supports their decision.
The Future of Conflicts of Interest: A Call for Professional Standards
Authors: Lo Bernard
Published: October 2015

Financial relationships between physicians and industry are widespread. Highly publicized financial relationships between physicians and industry raised disturbing questions about the trustworthiness of clinical research, practice guidelines, and clinical care decisions. Recent incidents spurred calls for stricter conflict of interest policies and led to new federal laws and NIH regulations. These stricter policies have evoked praise, concerns, and objections. Because these new federal requirements need to be interpreted and implemented, spirited discussions of conflicts of interest in medicine will continue.
Cost-Sharing under Consumer-Driven Health Care Will Not Reform U.S. Health Care
Authors: Geyman John P.
Published: October 2015

Various kinds of consumer-driven reforms have been attempted over the last 20 years in an effort to rein in soaring costs of health care in the United States. Most are based on a theory of moral hazard, which holds that patients will over-utilize health care services unless they pay enough for them. Although this theory is a basic premise of conventional health insurance, it has been discredited by actual experience over the years. While ineffective in containing costs, increased cost-sharing as a key element of consumer-driven health care (CDHC) leads to restricted access to care, underuse of necessary care, lower quality and worse outcomes of care. This paper summarizes the three major problems of U.S. health care urgently requiring reform and shows how cost-sharing fails to meet that goal.
Justice and Fairness: A Critical Element in U.S. Health System Reform
Authors: Menzel Paul T.
Published: October 2015

There are many reasons for dissatisfaction with current U.S. health care. One-sixth of the population is uninsured, costs are 150-200% of those in other economically advanced nations, and the quality of care, as measured by disease specific mortality and morbidity data, is rarely better and often worse than in others nations’ less costly systems. A case for reform can mirror any or all of these concerns: cover more of the population with insurance, control costs, improve the effectiveness of prevention and treatment. I argue that two of these goals — greater population coverage and more disciplined costs — gain a significant part of their justification from moral beliefs about justice and fairness.
Currents in Contemporary Bioethics
Authors: Rothstein Mark A.
Published: October 2015

From the earliest days of the Human Genome Project, the holy grail of genomics was the ability to perform whole-genome sequencing quickly, accurately, and relatively inexpensively so that the benefits of genomics would be widely available in clinical settings. Although the mythical $1,000 genome sequence seemed elusive for many years, next-generation sequencing technologies and other recent advances clearly indicate that inexpensive whole-genome sequencing is at hand.

Whole-genome sequencing has demonstrable value in elucidating the genetic etiology of rare disorders, in identifying atypical variants in common diseases, in determining pharmacogenomically appropriate drugs and dosages, in performing tumor genome sequencing, and in aiding other clinical applications for the diagnosis and treatment of individuals who are symptomatic or whose family health history places them at substantial risk. Undoubtedly, the clinical applications of wholegenome sequencing will increase in the future.
Recent Developments in Health Law
Authors: Chilton Adam , Gorlach Igor
Published: October 2015

In the last several years, Brazil has gained international attention as an emerging BRIC economy, was awarded the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympics, and elected its first female president. This has led many to declare that Brazil is emerging as a potential world power for the 21st century. In addition to improving its international stature, in the last several decades Brazil has also significantly improved the availability and quality of health care within the country. Despite these gains, however, Brazil still suffers from poor maternal health. In fact, Brazil's Maternal Mortality Ratio is five to ten times higher than the rates in high-income countries. Last year, these conditions lead the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women to issue a decision declaring that Brazil was violating its international obligations to provide pregnant women with adequate health care, and to call for a reduction in preventable maternal deaths. It is against this backdrop that Brazil enacted a new law last December, Provisional Measure 557 (MP 557), to require pregnant women to register with the state.
Recommendations for Nanomedicine Human Subjects Research Oversight: An Evolutionary Approach for an Emerging Field
Authors: Fatehi Leili , Wolf Susan M. , McCullough Jeffrey , Hall Ralph , Lawrenz Frances , Kahn Jeffrey P. , Jones Cortney , Campbell Stephen A. , Dresser Rebecca S. , Erdman Arthur G. , Haynes Christy L. , Hoerr Robert A. , Hogle Linda F. , Keane Moira A. , Khushf George , King Nancy M. P. , Kokkoli Efrosini , Marchant Gary , Maynard Andrew D. , Philbert Martin , Ramachandran Gurumurthy , Siegel Ronald A. , Wickline Samuel
Published: October 2015

Nanomedicine is yielding new and improved treatments and diagnostics for a range of diseases and disorders. Nanomedicine applications incorporate materials and components with nanoscale dimensions (often defined as 1-100 nm, but sometimes defined to include dimensions up to 1000 nm, as discussed further below) where novel physiochemical properties emerge as a result of size-dependent phenomena and high surface-to-mass ratio. Nanotherapeutics and in vivo nanodiagnostics are a subset of nanomedicine products that enter the human body. These include drugs, biological products (biologics), implantable medical devices, and combination products that are designed to function in the body in ways unachievable at larger scales. Nanotherapeutics andin vivonanodiagnostics incorporate materials that are engineered at the nanoscale to express novel properties that are medicinally useful. These nanomedicine applications can also contain nanomaterials that are biologically active, producing interactions that depend on biological triggers. Examples include nanoscale formulations of insoluble drugs to improve bioavailability and pharmacokinetics, drugs encapsulated in hollow nanoparticles with the ability to target and cross cellular and tissue membranes (including the bloodbrain barrier) and to release their payload at a specific time or location, imaging agents that demonstrate novel optical properties to aid in locating micrometastases, and antimicrobial and drug-eluting components or coatings of implantable medical devices such as stents.
A Portrait of Nanomedicine and its Bioethical Implications
Authors: Hall Rebecca M. , Sun Tong , Ferrari Mauro
Published: October 2015

While the definitions employed by different governmental agencies and scientific societies differ somewhat, the term “nanotechnology” is generally understood to refer to the manufacturing, characterization, and use of man-made devices with dimensions on the order of 1-100 nanometers (1 nanometer [nm] = 1 billionth of a meter). Devices that comprise a fundamental functional element that is nanotechnological are also frequently comprised within nanotechnology, as are manufactured objects with dimensions less than one micrometer. The differences in definition lead to occasional paradoxes, such as the fact that the most widely used nanodrug (albumin nanoparticles of dimensions up to 300 nm, comprising the anticancer drug paclitaxel) is labeled a “nanopharmaceutical” by governments of European countries, Canada, and Australia, but it is not a nanotechnology for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). It is also common in scientific domains to restrict the term “nanotechnology” to objects that possess special, “emerging” properties that only arise because of their nanoscale dimension.
Concepts of Risk in Nanomedicine Research
Authors: Hogle Linda F.
Published: October 2015

Risk is the most often cited reason for ethical concern about any medical science or technology, particularly those new technologies that are not yet well understood, or create unfamiliar conditions. In fact, while risk and risk-benefit analyses are but one aspect of ethical oversight, ethical review and risk assessment are sometimes taken to mean the same thing. This is not surprising, since both the Common Rule and Food and Drug Administration (FDA) foreground procedures for minimizing risk for human subjects and require local IRBs to engage in some sort of risk-benefit analysis in decisions to approve or deny proposed research. Existing ethical review and oversight practices are based on the presumption that risk can be clearly identified within the planned activities of the protocol, that metrics can reasonably accurately predict potential hazards, and that mitigation measures can be taken to deal with unintended, harmful, or catastrophic events.
Alive and Well: The Research Imperative
Authors: Dresser Rebecca
Published: October 2015

The government-sponsored Tuskegee syphilis study had a huge impact on U.S. research ethics and policy. Study investigators regarded subjects as “mere means” to their research ends, which led to a variety of ethical violations. Investigators used deception so that subjects would see participation as therapeutic — researchers promoted the therapeutic misconception because this advanced study objectives. The research would produce important information, and this justified lying to research subjects.

Today we see this sort of intentional deception as unjustified no matter how important a study might be. But what do we make of the claim that the syphilis study had value? As James Jones reported, its objectives were to test the prevailing views that syphilis affected blacks and whites differently, and that the disease was less harmful to blacks than whites. U.S. Public Health Service researchers and officials assumed the study had sufficient value to justify not only deceiving subjects, but also depriving them of safe and effective treatment.
In Plain Sight: A Solution to a Fundamental Challenge in Human Research
Authors: Shepherd Lois , Riley Margaret Foster
Published: October 2015

The physician-researcher conflict of interest, a long-standing and widely recognized ethical challenge of clinical research, has thus far eluded satisfactory solution. The conflict is fairly straightforward. Medical research and medical therapy are distinct pursuits; the former is aimed at producing generalizable knowledge for the benefit of future patients, whereas the latter is aimed at addressing the individualized medical needs of a particular patient. When the physician-researcher combines these pursuits, he or she serves two masters and cannot — no matter how well-intentioned — avoid the risk of compromising the duties owed in one of the professional roles assumed. Because of the necessary rigidity of a research protocol, the more demanding of the two masters is frequently the research.

The problem of the physician-researcher conflict has been evident since the first attempts to regulate human research in the United States. Otto E. Guttentag, a physician at the University of California School of Medicine in San Francisco, addressed the conflict in a 1953Sciencemagazine article.
More Than Cheating: Deception, IRB Shopping, and the Normative Legitimacy of IRBs
Authors: Spellecy Ryan , May Thomas
Published: October 2015

Deception, cheating, and loopholes within the IRB approval process have received significant attention in the past several years. Surveys of clinical researchers indicate common deception ranging from omitting information to outright lying, and controversy surrounding the FDA's decision not to ban “IRB shopping” (the practice of submitting protocols to multiple IRBs until one is found that will approve the protocol) has raised legitimate concerns about the integrity of the IRB process. One author has described a multicenter trial as being withdrawn from consideration at one institution when rejection was imminent, in order to avoid informing other IRBs reviewing the protocol of the study's rejection (a requirement under the federal regulations for emergency research with an exception from informed consent). This practice and IRB shopping seem at odds with the spirit, if not the “letter,” of the regulations. While at first blush these practices seem to cast aspersions on the integrity of clinical researchers, the moral issues raised go deeper than the ethics of cheating.
China's Urban Employment and Urbanization Rate: A Re‐estimation
Authors: Wang Xiaolu , Wan Guanghua
Published: October 2015

The present paper argues that China's existing population and employment statistics are misleading, and have failed to include many of the migrant and labor force flows between urban and rural areas. The paper reconciles the differences between official census data and other survey statistics and attempts to recalculate China's urban population and employment figures. Our analyses indicate that official statistics of 2012 underestimate China's urban employment by approximately 47 million while overestimating rural employment by 31 million. The adjusted urbanization rate exceeded 55 percent in 2012, almost 3 percentage points higher than the official statistics. Nevertheless, there remains much potential for rural‐to‐urban migration. More specifically, if the current bottlenecks in household registration, social security and public welfare systems can be removed or relaxed, China's urbanization rate could rise by another 10 percentage points or even more over the next decade.
Neighborhood Effects and Regional Poverty Traps in Rural China
Authors: Fang Yingfeng , Zou Wei
Published: October 2015

The present paper investigates how neighborhood effects are connected to chronic poverty. We examine a large sample of groups of households and find that neighborhood effects are significant in a majority of groups, especially in the poorest groups. People living in poor communities tend to suffer from poverty over time. It is of theoretical and empirical importance to explore how neighborhood effects are interrelated with chronic poverty and the channels through which this occurs. Unlike other econometric analyses, we establish a multilevel econometric model to show that: (i) it is difficult for an individual living in a neighborhood with a high proportion of agricultural labor, low education levels, and poor transport and telecommunication infrastructure to escape from poverty traps; (ii) neighborhood effects dominate in poor communities; and (iii) although poverty is affected by group‐level factors, individual factors still play a dominant role in regards to escaping poverty when income surpasses a threshold level. Therefore, policy priority should be given to providing social protection and public services, especially in poor rural areas.
Age at first start and racing career of a cohort of Australian Standardbred horses
Authors: Knight PK , Thomson PC
Published: October 2015

Objective Compare the career profiles of a cohort of Standardbred horses that first raced as 2‐year‐olds with those that started their racing careers at a later age.

Method Retrospective analysis of the racing records of all foals born in New South Wales in the 2000 foaling season.

Results The career records of 999 horses were analysed. Almost half (43.9%) first raced as 2‐year‐olds and one‐third (33.9%) as 3‐year‐olds. The median career duration for horses that first raced as 2‐year‐olds was 2.93 years (interquartile range (IQR) 2.70–3.16), which was significantly greater than the median for horses that first raced at 3, 4 or ≥5 years old (P < 0.001). Males, and horses that first raced as 2‐year‐olds, earned significantly more prize money than females or horses that started racing aged ≥3 years (P < 0.001). The population median number of career starts was 28.0 (IQR 8‐64). Males, and horses that first raced as 2‐year‐olds, had significantly more career starts than females or horses that started racing aged ≥3 years (P < 0.001).

Conclusion This study found no evidence suggesting that racing as a 2‐year‐old had a deleterious effect on a horse's racing career.
Handaxes, Concepts, and Teaching
Authors: Chazan Michael
Published: October 2015

This paper argues that teaching of concepts is deeply rooted in human phylogeny. The basis of this argument is a consideration of the type of knowledge used to make handaxes, a tool that is found in the archaeological record beginning around 1.8 million years ago. A distinction is made between the human capacity for teaching concepts, which has a deep evolutionary history, and the types of learning that take place in classrooms that can be related to the social context of early state societies.
Does Perceiving Entail Knowing?
Authors: TURRI JOHN
Published: October 2015

This article accomplishes two closely connected things. First, it refutes an influential view about the relationship between perception and knowledge. In particular, it demonstrates that perceiving does not entail knowing. Second, it leverages that refutation to demonstrate that knowledge is not the most general factive propositional attitude.
Moore's Paradox, Defective Interpretation, Justified Belief and Conscious Belief
Authors: WILLIAMS JOHN N.
Published: October 2015

In this journal, Hamid Vahid argues against three families of explanation of Moore‐paradoxicality. The first is theWittgensteinian approach; I assert thatpjust in case I assert that I believe thatp.So making a Moore‐paradoxical assertion involves contradictory assertions. The second is theepistemic approach, one committed to: if I am justified in believing thatpthen I am justified in believing that I believe thatp. So it is impossible to have a justified omissive Moore‐paradoxical belief. The third is theconscious belief approach, being committed to: if I consciously believe thatpthen I believe that I believe thatp. So if I have a conscious omissive Moore‐paradoxical belief, then I have contradictory second‐order beliefs. In their place, Vahid argues for thedefective‐interpretation approach, broadly that charity requires us to discount the utterer of a Moore‐paradoxical sentence as a speaker. I agree that the Wittgensteinian approach is unsatisfactory. But so is the defective‐interpretation approach. However, there is a satisfactory version of each of the epistemic and conscious‐belief approaches.
Socioeconomic Status and Cumulative Disadvantage Processes across the Life Course: Implications for Health Outcomes
Authors: Seabrook Jamie A. , Avison William R.
Published: October 2015

Étant donné la complexité qui entoure les différentes interactions entre les déterminants de la santé et le défi que présente la description adéquate des processus dynamiques par lesquels les déterminants de la santé ont leurs effets, l'objectif de cet article est de fournir un aperçu conceptuel qui démontrera les effets de la condition socio‐économique et du désavantage cumulatif pour produire des disparités de santé à travers le parcours de vie. L'idée sous‐jacente à la notion de désavantage cumulatif est que les inégalités de santé d'origine socio‐économique augmenteront à travers le parcours de vie principalement en raison d'une exposition différentielle aux facteurs de risque et un accès différentiel aux ressources de protection. L'avantage d'une sociologie parcours de vie est sa considération des premières expériences de la vie dans leur contexte social et historique comme des contingences importantes qui produisent ces différences systématiques de nature socio‐économique dans les gradients de la santé.
Der panoramatische Blick auf das Andere in Ida von Hahn‐Hahns ReiseberichtOrientalische Briefe(1844)
Authors: Maurer Kathrin
Published: October 2015

Dieser Artikel verbindet die Wahrnehmungsweisen des Fremden in den Texten der Reise‐schriftstellerin Ida von Hahn‐Hahn (1805–1880) mit denen im optischen Medium des Panoramas im neunzehnten Jahrhundert. Panoramabilder von nicht‐europäischen Kulturen können einerseits eurozentrische Erhabenheitsmomente suggerieren und andererseits diese durch die Simulation von Schwindelgefühlen auch wieder in Frage stellen. Diese widersprüchliche Perspektive auf das Andere ist auch in der panoramatisch‐pittoresken Ästhetik in Hahn‐Hahns ReiseberichtOrientalische Briefe(1843) zu finden. Hahn‐Hahns paradoxe Bilder des Orients werden in diesem Beitrag jedoch weder durch historisch‐biographische Kontextualisierungen noch durch postkolonialistische Ansätze aufgelöst. Vielmehr zeigt die Optik des Panoramas, dass Hahn‐Hahn ein Modell der Fremdwahrnehmung entwirft, das mit den Oppositionen des Eigenen und des Fremden, des Okzidents und des Orients experimentieren kann, ohne sich dabei auf die eine oder andere Seite festzulegen. Darauf aufbauend entwickeln Hahn‐Hahns Texte eine geschichtsphilosophische Perspektive, die kulturelle Identität und Individualität in einer perspektivisch gebrochenen Einheit zu konstruieren versucht.
Rear‐Guard Actions against an “Impoverishing Delusion”: Anmerkungen zur Situation der Auslandsgermanistik in den Americas
Authors: McCarthy John A.
Published: October 2015

This contribution responds to the previous three articles by highlighting common concerns across the Americas. It also offers suggestions for how the field of German might want to move forward in an inclusive fashion. Key principles of orientation are EU language policy and transcultural education as a transformative experience in shaping productive citizens.
Opera in the Foreign Language Classroom: Learning German with Mozart, Wagner, Weber, and Johann Strauss
Authors: Heinz Solveig M.
Published: October 2015

Content‐based instruction (CBI) has been part of the foreign language curriculum for many years at US colleges, leading to courses that combine language instruction with specific content domains, such as film, literature, politics, sports and many others. This article presents a rather unusual choice of content domain for a second‐year language course: German Opera. Based on current research on CBI, personal teaching experiences, and student evaluations, this article outlines the structure, didactics and practical components of this pioneer course.
The Student‐Centered Classroom Made Real: Transforming Student Presentations in an Advanced Course on Technical German
Authors: Rarick Damon O.
Published: October 2015

This article describes how the author has successfully combined polling with more traditional instructional strategies to enhance student presentation skills in an advanced course teaching technical German. By helping students select and prepare topics, anticipate questions and engage the audience, instructors can eliminate some of the root causes of poor L2 speaker performance in oral presentations and bring about meaningful presenter‐audience interaction. Students learn how they can successfully present their interests in their discipline to an audience that may not share their same level of interest or background.
How to Build Your Own Document Camera for Around $100
Authors: Van Orden Stephen
Published: October 2015

Document cameras can have great utility in second language classrooms. However, entry‐level consumer document cameras start at around $350. This article describes how the author built three document cameras and offers suggestions for how teachers can successfully build their own quality document camera using a webcam for around $100.
Appetites and aspirations: Consuming wildlife in Laos
Authors: Singh Sarinda
Published: October 2015

Research on wildlife use is strongly associated with conservation and environmental debates. Yet, popular beliefs about wildlife consumption also offer many opportunities for discussing identity and social change. To demonstrate this, I examine ideas about eating common types of wildlife in Laos in light of the dialectical contrast between civilised settlements (muang) and the wild forest (pa). The exclusion of wildlife from the widely practised baci ritual and the popularity of wildlife consumption indicate the potency of these animals as social objects. In a contemporary context of widespread social and environmental change across Laos, the practice of eating wildlife is being constructed as an assertion of Lao identity that blends an idealised tradition with a status‐conscious modernity. Ambivalent desires for social transformation draw upon ambiguous symbols to find expression in beliefs as well as in popular social practice.
Segment Reporting Practices in Australia: Has IFRS 8 Made a Difference?
Authors: Kang Helen , Gray Sidney J.
Published: October 2015

This study examines changes in segment reporting in Australia following the adoption of the international accounting standard, IFRS 8Operating Segments. We analyse segment disclosures of the top 200 companies listed on the Australian Stock Exchange in their pre‐ and post‐adoption of AASB 8, the equivalent Australian standard to IFRS 8. Our findings indicate that the number of reportable segments and the extent of disclosure have increased post‐adoption of AASB 8. Contrary to expectations, however, there is very little change in the identification of reportable segments. Companies, in general, have managed to retain their segment reporting formats and disclosures from the pre‐AASB 8 period.
Traitorous Physiognomy: Photography and the Racialization of Bolivian Indians by the Créqui‐Montfort Expedition (1903)
Authors: Zamorano Gabriela
Published: October 2015

En 1903, la Expedición francesa Créqui‐Montfort visitó Bolivia y sus fronteras para estudiar a la población local. La expedición transportó cámaras, instrumentos fotográficos y un sistema de fotografía prestado del método Bertillon de identificación criminal con el fin de producir y recolectar retratos pintorescos y métricos de los pueblos indígenas. Con base en este caso, este artículo explora las maneras en que la raza fue normalizada en el emergente estado liberal boliviano. Específicamente, examina cómo las ideas raciales se apoyaron en la fotografía y contribuyeron a validarla como una herramienta científica. Mediante el análisis de cuatro grupos de imágenes, el artículo explora el rol de la fotografía en la autentificación de la ciencia; los contextos políticos en los que las ideas e imágenes raciales circularon en Europa y Latinoamérica; los usos de la puesta en escena fotográfica para apoyar el argumento del potencial de las razas andinas para “salir adelante”; y el rol de los pies de foto, textos, composición y manipulación técnica para atribuir relevancia científica a las imágenes.
Status of Ground Water Banking in Idaho
Authors: Contor Bryce A.
Published: October 2015

In the arid western United States, most water systems are fully allocated. Water for new uses must usually be obtained through reallocation of water that has already been claimed and assigned within prior appropriation. In Idaho, new allocations of ground water were made until approximately 1990. Since then, new uses have nearly always been met by reallocation, via prior appropriation water‐rights transfers or the operation of the Idaho Water Supply Bank. Using number of allocations or reallocations per year as a proxy for the effectiveness of allocation mechanisms, it appears that transfers and the Bank have not adequately served the needs of society. This indicates that Idaho's allocation of ground water resources is inefficient; that is, that total benefit to society could be improved by mechanisms that more readily facilitate reallocation of water. It appears that improvements to ground water banking could be made within the scope of existing Idaho water‐banking statutes, to improve the allocation of resources, reduce conflict and facilitate economic growth.
Cultivating Beyond‐Capitalist Economies
Authors: Wright Sarah
Published: October 2015

abstract

Conceptualizations of the economy as diverse and multiple have garnered increased attention in economic geography in recent years. Against the debilitating mantra of TINA (there is no alternative), these conceptualizations use an ontology of proliferation to insist that many viable and vital alternatives to capitalism do, in fact, exist. I aim to contribute to this project with a close reading of the diverse formal and informal economic practices associated with the village of Puno in the Philippines. In doing so, I respond to calls for work that begins in the majority world and that focuses on the broader political project associated with diverse economies. Research in this area has frequently been critiqued for not paying sufficient attention to the unstable yet persistent exclusions that may endure in, and may even be enhanced by, alternative economies. With this article, I aim to investigate the ways that power relations work through the diverse economies of Puno and the ways that residents act to transform these relations. In doing so, I draw on the experiences of three residents of Puno and their involvement in three social movement organizations. I find that the economy is usefully understood as a site of struggle in which residents work to redefine themselves and the economy. The diverse spaces of their economic lives are neither strictly alternative nor mainstream, inherently oppressive nor radical. Rather, the people of Puno are engaged in willfully cultivating spaces‐beyond‐capitalism through which they transform the very meaning of economic practice.
New Venture: A New Model for Clean Energy Innovation
Authors: Clay Tiffany
Published: October 2015

The clean energy sector has been plagued by challenges and setbacks. Yet, some success stories are just beginning to emerge. Using two case studies and a number of other examples, the author identifies four core elements that have underpinned many of the most successful emerging clean energy enterprises: (1) close partnerships with large industrial companies; (2) the ability to integrate (actually or synthetically) across the value chain; (3) global focus; and (4) a drive toward cost‐competitive economics without subsidies. The fact that most of these elements were also critical to the success of the wave of innovation spurred by the biotechnology revolution during the past three decades is cause for optimism about the potential for clean energy to develop similarly successful innovation models.
How Companies Can Use Hedging to Create Shareholder Value
Authors: Stulz René
Published: October 2015

This article provides a framework for designing and evaluating corporate risk management and hedging programs. Corporate risk management has the potential to create substantial shareholder wealth by protecting companies from unexpected events that could force them to put their strategic investment plans on hold or even endanger their existence. However, assessing the performance of risk management, and how it is expected to increase the value of the enterprise, is a difficult undertaking because the costs of risk management tend to be much easier to quantify—indeed, they often appear directly on the firm's bottom line—than the benefits.

The author begins by discussing how to evaluate the benefits and costs of a risk management program in general terms, and then focuses more directly on the assessment of corporate hedging programs, which are generally conducted with derivatives. In practice, there are many obstacles to designing and carrying out a successful hedging program. But one of the most common has been the tendency of top managements to insist that hedging programs be “costless.” The author argues that just as the purchase of fire insurance is not viewed as waste of funds or a bad investment if the insured house does not burn down, the use of derivatives in a well‐designed hedge should not be viewed as a mistake if the derivative position produces losses.

To guard against this mistake, the people who design and implement risk management strategies must ensure that their CEOs and boards understand the possible outcomes of the strategy—including losses on derivatives position—and how the strategy itself increases the (expected) value of the firm. Further, management should attempt to communicate the principles underlying its risk management program and the value created by its hedging strategy to the investment community.
Managing Pension Risks: A Corporate Finance Perspective
Authors: Kimyagarov Gabriel , Shivdasani Anil
Published: October 2015

Defined benefit (DB) pension plans of both U.S. and European companies are significantly underfunded because of the low interest rate environment and prior decisions to invest heavily in equities. Additional contributions and the recovery of stock markets since the end of the crisis have helped a bit but pension underfunding remains significant. Pension underfunding has substantial corporate finance implications. The authors show that companies with large pension deficits have historically delivered weaker share price performance than their peers and also trade at lower valuation multiples. Large deficits also reduce financial flexibility, increase financial risk, particularly in downside economic scenarios, and contribute to greater stock price volatility and a higher cost of capital.

The authors argue that the optimal approach to managing DB pension risks relates to the risk tolerance of specific companies and their short and long‐term strategic and financial priorities. Financial executives should consider the follow pension strategies:

Voluntary Pension Contributions: Funding the pension gap by issuing new debt or equity can provide valuation and capital structure benefits—and in many cases is both NPV‐positive and EPS‐accretive. The authors show that investors have reacted favorably to both debt‐ and equity‐financed contributions.

Plan de‐risking: Shifting the pension plan's assets from equity to fixed income has become an increasingly popular approach. The primary purpose of pension assets is to fund pension liabilities while limiting risk to the operating company. The pension plan should not be viewed or run as a profit center.

Plan Restructuring: Companies should also consider alternatives such as terminating and freezing plans, paying lump sums, and changing accounting reporting.
UK Short Selling Activity and Firm Performance
Authors: Andrikopoulos Panagiotis , Clunie James , Siganos Antonios
Published: October 2015

Abstract:  We use short selling data from Data Explorers from 2004 to 2012 to investigate the extent to which UK short sellers are informed investors, in accordance with Diamond and Verrecchia's (1987) hypothesis. Our results suggest that heavily‐shorted stocks fail to consistently underperform their lightly‐shorted counterparts. Short sellers’ ability to predict firm performance is limited to firms that struggle for survival, such as firms about to enter bankruptcy or financial firms during the financial crisis. These results provide new evidence regarding the source of short‐sellers’ information and should be of interest to academics, financial regulators and market participants.