bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Brain region binding of the D2/3 agonist [11C]‐(+)‐PHNO and the D2/3 antagonist [11C]raclopride in healthy humans
Authors: Graff‐Guerrero Ariel , Willeit Matthaeus , Ginovart Nathalie , Mamo David , Mizrahi Romina , Rusjan Pablo , Vitcu Irina , Seeman Philip , Wilson Alan A. , Kapur Shitij 
Published: May 2007

AbstractThe D2 receptors exist in either the high‐ or low‐affinity state with respect to agonists, and while agonists bind preferentially to the high‐affinity state, antagonists do not distinguish between the two states. [11C]‐(+)‐PHNO is a PET D2 agonist radioligand and therefore provides a preferential measure of the D2high receptors. In contrast, [11C]raclopride is an antagonist radioligand and thus binds with equal affinity to the D2 high‐ and low‐affinity states. The aim was to compare the brain uptake, distribution and binding characteristics between [11C]‐(+)‐PHNO and [11C]raclopride in volunteers using a within‐subject design. Both radioligands accumulated in brain areas rich in D2/D3‐receptors. However, [11C]‐(+)‐PHNO showed preferential uptake in the ventral striatum and globus pallidus, while [11C]raclopride showed preferential uptake in the dorsal striatum. Mean binding potentials were higher in the putamen (4.3 vs. 2.8) and caudate (3.4 vs 2.1) for [11C]raclopride, equal in the ventral‐striatum (3.4 vs. 3.3), and higher in the globus pallidus for [11C]‐(+)‐PHNO (1.8 vs. 3.3). Moreover [11C]‐(+)‐PHNO kinetics in the globus pallidus showed a slower washout than other regions. One explanation for the preferential binding of [11C]‐(+)‐PHNO in the globus pallidus and ventral‐striatum could be the presence of a greater proportion of high‐ vs. low‐affinity receptors in these areas. Alternatively, the observed distribution could also be explained by a preferential binding of D3‐over‐D2 with [11C]‐(+)‐PHNO. This differential binding of agonist vs. antagonist radioligand, especially in the critically important region of the limbic striatum/pallidum, offers new avenues to investigate the role of the dopamine system in health and disease. Hum Brain Mapp 2008. © 2007 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Functional connectivity mapping using the ferromagnetic Potts spin model
Authors: Stanberry Larissa , Murua Alejandro , Cordes Dietmar 
Published: May 2007

AbstractAn unsupervised stochastic clustering method based on the ferromagnetic Potts spin model is introduced as a powerful tool to determine functionally connected regions. The method provides an intuitively simple approach to clustering and makes no assumptions of the number of clusters in the data or their underlying distribution. The performance of the method and its dependence on the intrinsic parameters (size of the neighborhood, form of the interaction term, etc.) is investigated on the simulated data and real fMRI data acquired during a conventional periodic finger tapping task. The merits of incorporating Euclidean information into the connectivity analysis are discussed. The ability of the Potts model clustering to uncover the hidden structure in the complex data is demonstrated through its application to the resting‐state data to determine functional connectivity networks of the anterior and posterior cingulate cortices for the group of nine healthy male subjects. Hum Brain Mapp 2008. © 2007 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Brain potentials distinguish new and studied objects during working memory
Authors: Guo Chunyan , Lawson Adam L. , Zhang Qin , Jiang Yang 
Published: May 2007

AbstractWe investigated brain responses to matching versus nonmatching objects in working memory (WM) with a modified delayed match‐to‐sample task using event‐related potentials (ERPs). In addition, ERP correlates of new items (new matches/new nonmatches) and previously studied items (studied matches/studied nonmatches) were examined in the WM task. Half of the common visual objects were initially studied until 95% accuracy was attained and half were new. Each memory trial began with the presentation of a sample object followed by nine test objects. Participants indicated whether each test item was the same as the object held in mind (i.e., match) or a nonmatch. Compared to studied matches, new matches evoked activity that was 50 ms earlier and largest at frontal sites. In contrast, P3 activity associated with studied nonmatches was larger than for new nonmatches at mostly posterior sites, which parallels previously reported old–new ERP effects. The ERP source analysis further confirms that the cortical mechanisms underlying matching objects and rejecting irrelevant objects during the task are both temporally and spatially distinct. Moreover, our current findings suggest that prior learning affects brain responses to matching visual items during a WM task. Hum Brain Mapp 2008. © 2007 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
The qaly—a measure of social value rather than individual utility?
Authors: Nord Erik 
Published: May 2007

AbstractThe paper examines different interpretations of the QALY concept. It is suggested that the QALY interpreted as a measure of amounts of well‐life does not carry sufficient empirical meaning. As a measure of individuals' personal appreciation of outcomes in their own lives the QALY does not seem to work in comparisons of life saving interventions with interventions that improve health or increase life expectancy. For the QALY to be a generally empirically meaningful concept, it looks as though it needs to be interpreted as a measure of social value. This conclusion has direct implications for how values for health states should be elicited.
Uncertainty in the economic evaluation of health care technologies: The role of sensitivity analysis
Authors: Briggs Andrew , Sculpher Mark , Buxton Martin 
Published: May 2007

AbstractGiven the increased use of economic evaluation to inform decision making in the health service, it is particularly important that the research methods used are critically assessed and, where possible, improved. The systematic handling of uncertainty in economic evaluation is an important area that remains methodologically underdeveloped. With the increased use of the clinical trial as a vehicle for economic evaluation, there has been recent interest in how the statistical methods routinely employed to handle uncertainty in clinical research might be applied to economic evaluation. This paper reviews the types of uncertainty that exist in economic evaluation and argues that some forms of uncertainty are not amenable to statistical methods. Sensitivity analysis is not a single approach but can take a number of different forms. The different types of sensitivity analysis are reviewed, with an indication of their strengths and weaknesses in relation to the different types of uncertainty in economic evaluation.
The uptake of childhood immunization and financial incentives to general practitioners
Authors: Lynch Mauricea Lima 
Published: May 2007

AbstractAmong the target‐linked services introduced by the 1990 general practitioners' contract, childhood immunization in Scotland is the best suited for GPs to achieve the high target, given a centralized call and recall system and public confidence in the service. Yet over 25% of the practices in the area of the Greater Glasgow Health Board did not qualify for the high target payments in the last quarter of the 1991/92 financial year. Examining indicators of the socioeconomic characteristics of the patient population, practice profiles and the effect of financial incentives, we discuss the reasons for cross‐practice variation in the uptake of this service and estimate the probability of practices which missed the high target achieving it in the future.
Informal care and economic appraisal: A discussion of possible methodological approaches
Authors: Smith Kirsteen , Wright Ken 
Published: May 2007

AbstractThe role played by informal carers in the care of people with chronic disabilities is well known. Given its importance, it is essential to consider the evaluation methodology applied in economic appraisals of different care options. Few studies attempt any evaluation and those that do use varied, inconsistent and controversial methodologies. This paper aims to elicit the major issues and methodological problems related to economic appraisal of informal care.The main concern over the present methods utilized is the lack of explicit exploration of the benefits, as perceived by carers. Carers, through their decision to care it is argued, will consider both costs and benefits. Although concepts encompassed by benefits tend to be less tangible they may considerably outweigh any financial burdens.Various methods have been utilized in the past. Financial outlays are fairly straightforwardly costed, personal effort on the part of carers causes more problems. Methods applied include: the cost of substitute services; state benefits; and travel time values. The most useful is probably the latter, although it is not problem‐free.Assessing benefits relating to concepts of direct and indirect utility and welfare is more complex and difficult to measure. Despite considerable literature on carers' attitudes, often these concepts are not applied (especially to residential care options) or if they are, negative aspects are emphasized (with domiciliary care).A useful application of economic appraisal would elicit optimal solutions to care dilemmas. Producing economic burden information about informal care may not be particularly constructive.Brief assessment of eight scenarios of care, considering cost differences for the public sector and the preferences of patient and carer gives insight to the problem. It emphasizes the complexity of the issue and the essential role likely to be placed on care managers in helping carers to maximize the net benefit of their efforts.
Private versus social opportunity cost of time: Valuing time in the demand for health care
Authors: Torgerson D. J. , Donaldson C. , Reid D. M. 
Published: May 2007

AbstractIn this paper we examine whether the current method of valuing time within economic appraisals is appropriate. The cost to society of time taken to use health care may differ from the private opportunity cost of such time. However, demand for health care may be affected by the private opportunity time cost and not by the value of time to society. In this paper we show that the private opportunity cost of time is a better predictor of demand for a screening service than the societal approach. It is important, therefore, to use the private opportunity cost of time when assessing the demand for, and impact of, a health care intervention.
Valuing future benefits
Authors: Cairns John A. 
Published: May 2007

AbstractThis paper reports the results of a study of time preference amongst the general public in the Grampian region of Scotland. The subjects, who were selected randomly from the electoral roll, were offered a series of inter‐temporal choices. Their responses were used to calculate private financial time preference rates, social non‐monetary time preference rates and social financial time preference rates. The paper investigates the relationship between these three measures of time preference in both the short and the long run. It also explores the effects of individual characteristics, including age, and health, on the implicit discount rates.
Is it possible to reduce tobacco consumption via alcohol taxation?
Authors: Jimenez Sergio , Labeaga José M. 
Published: May 2007

AbstractRecent studies with Spanish data suggest that indirect taxation is a potential instrument to reduce tobacco consumption but the magnitude of the estimated price elasticity limits the effectiveness of the taxes. However, if the separability restriction does not hold between tobacco and other goods, the results obtained could be misleading. This shortcoming of previous analyses leads us to formulate a demand system with alcohol, tobacco and other goods so as to estimate and test complementary effects and to assess the possibility for reducing consumption by indirect taxation of complementary commodities. We use the Spanish Family Expenditure Survey to carry out a cross‐section study which allows us to estimate demand models under different assumptions about the nature of zero expenditures and to test the effectiveness of indirect taxation. The findings tend to support our initial suspicions about the inadequacy of imposing separability and point out the importance of alcohol taxation to reduce tobacco consumption. However, given the structure of the data used, these results should be viewed with caution and must be confirmed by additional evidence.
Shared ‘features’ in prices: Income and price elasticities for health care expenditures
Authors: Saez Marc , Murillo Carles 
Published: May 2007

AbstractThe evidence found in most studies suggests a strong positive relationship between health care expenditure and gross domestic product. However, this evidence weakens with respect to the actual value of the income elasticity. There are two possible sources of these discrepancies, the use of arbitrary deflators and specification errors. We find that health PPP cannot be taken as a ‘universal’ price index. The problem is that its components do not move together. Nevertheless, we derive a ‘universal’ health price index from a dynamic system in which its components share both short and long run co‐movements. The omission of relevant explanatory variables seems to be the main cause of the discrepancies. We confirm that there exists a strong positive relationship between per capita health care expenditure and per capita GDP. However we estimate a long run income elasticity at or around unity, although it is greater than unity for the countries with lower per capita income (Spain and Ireland). The results for income elasticity are the same regardless of whether health care expenditure is converted using the GDP PPP or the ‘universal’ health price index. The importance of non‐income variables is also confirmed, in particular the relative price of health care. We find that relative price has a strong rationing effect on the quantity of health demanded and has no effect on the expenditures.
Some moral problems in medicine
Authors: Warnock Baroness 
Published: May 2007

AbstractAn earlier version of the following paper was presented at the Bicentennial Conference of the Plymouth Medical Society, April 15th, 1994.Mary Warnock is a member of the House of Lords and a distinguished philosopher who, until her retirement, was Mistress of Girton College Cambridge. She chaired the Committee of Inquiry into Human Fertilization and Embryology from 1982 to 1984, as a result of which The Warnock Report, entitled ‘A Question of Life’, was published in 1985.
An internal rate of return approach to investigate pharmacist supply in the united states
Authors: Mott David A. , Kreling David H. 
Published: May 2007

AbstractInternal rates of return were used to examine the status of pharmacist supply in the United States between the years 1987‐1991. Age‐earnings profiles were estimated for pharmacists, college graduates and high school graduates. Rates of return to pharmacists and college graduates were compared and a ratio of the pharmacist rate to the college graduate rate was computed for each year. Results suggest a shortage of pharmacists in the United States. Enrollments in pharmacy schools and adopted changes in the training of pharmacists are discussed in relation to their effects on the pharmacist labour market.
Should you eat breakfast? Estimates from health production functions
Authors: Kenkel Donald S. 
Published: May 2007

AbstractThis paper uses an econometric specification based on the health production function approach to examine the importance of lifestyles for adult health. The approach treats health practices such as eating breakfast, smoking, and exercise as inputs into the production of good health; several output measures are explored. The econometric models estimated with data from the 1985 Health Interview Survey show broad agreement with conventional wisdom about the importance of healthy lifestyles. This paper also investigates the role schooling plays in the production of good health. Schooling is found to be related to good health even after controlling for differences in observable health inputs. However, lack of support for a plausible specification of the productive efficiency hypothesis casts some doubt on the interpretation that schooling increases the efficiency of the household production of health.
An economic model of the market for hospital treatment for non‐urgent conditions
Authors: Goddard J. A. , Malek M. , Tavakoli M. 
Published: May 2007

AbstractThis paper develops an economic model of the market for treatment of waiting list conditions, in which complainants choose between private treatment, NHS treatment and no hospital treatment. This choice depends on a number of clinical and non‐clinical factors, which enter the demand functions for private and NHS treatment. Among the key influences are the price of private treatment and the expected duration of wait for NHS treatment, both of which are endogenous variables in the model. Given a pair of private sector and NHS supply functions, expressions are obtained for the price and expected wait at which demand and supply are simultaneously equated in both the private sector and the NHS. The paper concludes by exploring the responsiveness of the equilibrium to various demand side and supply side shocks.
Solo versus group practice in the medical profession: The influence of malpractice risk
Authors: Bradford W. David 
Published: May 2007

AbstractWhile Partnerships are a significant form of business organization in many sectors of the economy, relatively little is known about the incentives which lead to their formation. This paper explores the formation of partnerships among office based physicians when facing some risk of malpractice litigation. Theoretical results indicate that malpractice exposure can increase the incentives to shirk within a partnership, and so exert a significant influence on the decision to form a partnership. Empirical results find that malpractice risk has the expected negative effect on some partnership formation.
The political economy of health system reform in Israel
Authors: Chernichovsky Dov , Chinitz David 
Published: May 2007

AbstractOn June 15, 1994, the Israeli Parliament voted to enact the National Health Insurance bill (NHI). The bill marks the end of a process that lasted for virtually as long as Israel's almost 50 year history. Israel's attempts at health reform began long before the current spate of reforms in many Western countries. Faced with many of the same problems of access, equity and cost control common to many of its counterparts, Israel initiated a reform process based on the recommendations of a prominent State Commission of Inquiry into the Israeli Health System (the Netanyahu Commission) which reported to the Government in 1990.2 The Commission's proposals were based on a diagnosis indicating that the major problems of the system stem from the lack of clarity regarding the rights of citizens to health care, the lack of a clear allocation of responsibility and accountability among government, insurance or sick funds, and providers in the system, and undue centralization of system operations. This diagnosis led to three major planks for reform: (1) enactment of national health insurance legislation granting a basic package of care to each citizen and hence bringing most of the system's finance under public auspices; (2) divesting the Government from the organization, management and provision of care; hence integrating the management of preventive and psychiatric services provided by the government with the primary and other services provided by sick funds, and granting financial and operational independence to at least government hospitals; and (3) restructuring the Ministry of Health.As is often the case in public policy, more consensus surrounds the diagnosis than the solutions. As a result, nearly four years of implementation efforts have only recently resulted in a major breakthrough. In this paper we make an effort to outline the inherent weaknesses of the Israeli health care system that have led to the crisis in the mid 1980s, summarize the recommendations of the State Commission for structural change in the system, and review the politics of implementing the recommended reforms.
Health, health care, and the environment. Econometric evidence from German micro data
Authors: Erbsland Manfred , Ried Walter , Ulrich Volker 
Published: May 2007

AbstractThe paper develops and applies a Grossman‐style health production model set up in discrete time to explain the impact of environmental pollution on the demand for both health and health care. In order to introduce the environment, our analysis takes changes in environmental conditions to influence the rate at which an individual's stock of health depreciates. While the theoretical part of our paper also contains a discussion of the full model, we restrict our empirical analysis to a submodel which is known as the pure investment model. This is because the other submodel, the pure consumption model, implies a rather implausible case of satiation with respect to the individual's preferences.Our empirical findings are based on data taken from the German Socio‐economic Panel. The stock of health capital and environmental pollution are treated as latent variables and estimated using a Linear Covariance Structures model. The quality of the environment turns out to be an important determinant of health capital. From the point of view of health economics, improvements in environmental conditions can be interpreted as preventive measures. In terms of prevention, public policies designed to protect the environment also yield significant health effects. As regards health care demand the influence is not clearcut, i.e., one cannot necessarily expect a reduction in resource use.
Workstation redesign for a repetitive drill press operation: A combined work design and ergonomics approach
Authors: Das Biman , Shikdar Ashraf A. , Winters Troy 
Published: May 2007

AbstractA typical or conventional workstation for a repetitive drill press operation was evaluated and subsequently redesigned by incorporating the concepts and principles of work design and ergonomics. The production task comprised of drilling four holes on a prepared steel plate. A methods–time measurement (MTM) analysis was conducted to eliminate unnecessary motions and improve the necessary (work) motions involved in task performance. The specific features of the redesigned workstation were specially designed equipment (jig, fixture, etc.), a suitable adjustable chair, proper work height, a placement of tools/equipment within reach envelope, and a comprehensive operator training method. An experimental investigation was conducted to evaluate and test the redesigned workstation in terms of operator productivity (production quantity and quality output) and satisfaction. The increases in quantity (number of holes drilled) and quality (number of good holes drilled) output were 22 and 50%, respectively, for the redesigned workstation compared to the typical or conventional workstation. The high improvement in quality output (50%) could be attributed to the improved design of the jig and fixture and the comprehensive operator training method, which emphasizes the quality aspect of production output. The improvement in operator satisfaction (scores) were highly significant. This investigation has demonstrated the beneficial effect of a combined work design and ergonomics approach, especially for the redesign of a workstation for a repetitive drill press operation. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Hum Factors Man 17: 395–410, 2007.