bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Chronic daily tadalafil prevents the corporal fibrosis and veno‐occlusive dysfunction that occurs after cavernosal nerve resection
Authors: Kovanecz Istvan , Rambhatla Amarnath , Ferrini Monica G. , Vernet Dolores , Sanchez Sandra , Rajfer Jacob , Gonzalez‐Cadavid Nestor 
Published: September 2007

Associate EditorMichael G. WyllieEditorial BoardIan Eardley, UKJean Fourcroy, USASidney Glina, BrazilJulia Heiman, USAChris McMahon, AustraliaBob Millar, UKAlvaro Morales, CanadaMichael Perelman, USAMarcel Waldinger, NetherlandsOBJECTIVESTo determine whether a long‐term single daily oral dose of a longer half‐life phosphodiesterase‐5 (PDE5) inhibitor, tadalafil, has a similar effect to that of the shorter half‐life PDE5 inhibitors sildenafil and vardenafil, and can prevent the fibrosis and resultant corporal veno‐occlusive dysfunction (CVOD) occurring after cavernosal nerve (CN) injury.MATERIALS AND METHODSMale rats (10 per group) had either a sham operation, unilateral CN resection (CNR) or bilateral CNR, and were left untreated or given retrolingually 5 mg/kg per day of tadalafil. After 45 days, CVOD was assessed via cavernosometry, and the underlying corporal tissue changes were examined by immunohistochemistry and histochemistry (followed by quantitative image analysis), Western blots, and ad hoc methods.RESULTSTadalafil treatment normalized the low response to papaverine and high drop rate in the intracavernosal pressure measured by cavernosometry after CNR compared with sham‐operated rats. Tadalafil also normalized the increase in penile shaft collagen content, and the reduction in corporal smooth muscle cell (SMC) content, SMC/collagen, and replication index, and improved the lower collagen III/I ratio and the increase in apoptotic index, caused by CNR, compared with sham operation. There were no effects of tadalafil on increased transforming growth factor β1, inducible nitric oxide synthase and xanthine oxidoreductase levels.CONCLUSIONSA long‐term single daily dose of tadalafil prevented CVOD and the underlying corporal fibrosis in the rat caused by CN damage, as effectively as the previously reported continuous treatment with vardenafil or sildenafil, through a cGMP‐related mechanism that appears to be independent of inducible nitric oxide synthase induction.
Patients’ perceived burden of cystoscopic and urinary surveillance of bladder cancer: a randomized comparison
Authors: Van Der Aa Madelon N.M. , Steyerberg Ewout W. , Sen E. Fatma , Zwarthoff Ellen C. , Kirkels Wim J. , Van Der Kwast Theo H. , Essink‐Bot Marie‐Louise 
Published: September 2007

OBJECTIVETo compare, in patients with non‐muscle‐invasive low‐grade (pTa/pT1, G1/G2) urothelial cell carcinoma of the urinary bladder, the perceived burden of flexible cystoscopy or surveillance by microsatellite analysis (MA) in voided urine, as such patients are normally recommended to adhere to regular cysto‐urethroscopic surveillance (CUS).PATIENTS AND METHODSIn all, 220 participants of a randomized trial comparing CUS and surveillance by MA were asked to complete questionnaires 1 week after cystoscopy or urine sample collection. We assessed the discomfort and pain reported during CUS, experiences with MA, and physical symptoms, medical consumption and general functioning in the week after CUS/urine sampling.RESULTSWe analysed data from 732 questionnaires (197 patients) completed after CUS and 184 (67 patients) after collecting urine. The introduction of the cystoscope was reported to cause discomfort in 39% and pain in 35% of the responses to the questionnaires; the waiting time for the results of MA was reported as burdensome in 19%. Painful micturition was significantly more frequent in the week after CUS than after MA (30% and 12%, respectively). The frequency of fever (1% and 2%) and haematuria (7% and 6%) was similar in both groups. Older patients reported significantly less pain and discomfort from cystoscopy, and this was not related to having more previous cystoscopies.CONCLUSIONCUS caused pain and discomfort in about a third of patients. The burden of MA appeared fully attributable to the waiting time for the test result. The present results are a further motivation in the search for less invasive surveillance tests.
Teaching Creation: A Modular Approach
Authors: Bosworth David A. 
Published: September 2007

Abstract.  The present article describes a modular approach to teaching Genesis 1–3 that values depth over breadth even in an introductory class. The module allows students to learn about the text and its original context by orienting discussion around contemporary issues of practical concern. Specifically, the creation‐evolution debates provide an opportunity for students to learn about contemporary political, social, and legal implications of interpreting Genesis 1–3. The conflict of traditional and modern values emerges also in issues surrounding gender and autonomy in Genesis 2–3. This pedagogical approach challenges various student worldviews to promote discussion and greater intellectual sophistication. The correlation of the text with ongoing contemporary issues engages student interest and motivates learning. It also allows the class to explore both the ancient text and its interpretation in diverse communities. Finally, the module allows considerable flexibility for student and teacher interest and the needs of a given class.Several additional resources related to this article appear online at: http://www.wabashcenter.wabash.edu/journal/article.aspx?id=11063. These include (1) a schedule of possible readings, assignments, and lesson plans, (2) selections from ancient commentary on Genesis 2–3 from scattered sources, and (3) a bibliographic essay noting the usefulness of selected resources related to the module.
Hierarchical Related Regression for Combining Aggregate and Individual Data in Studies of Socio-Economic Disease Risk Factors
Authors: Jackson Christopher , Best And Nicky , Richardson Sylvia 
Published: September 2007

SummaryTo obtain information about the contribution of individual and area level factors to population health, it is desirable to use both data collected on areas, such as censuses, and on individuals, e.g. survey and cohort data. Recently developed models allow us to carry out simultaneous regressions on related data at the individual and aggregate levels. These can reduce ‘ecological bias’ that is caused by confounding, model misspecification or lack of information and increase power compared with analysing the data sets singly. We use these methods in an application investigating individual and area level sociodemographic predictors of the risk of hospital admissions for heart and circulatory disease in London. We discuss the practical issues that are encountered in this kind of data synthesis and demonstrate that this modelling framework is sufficiently flexible to incorporate a wide range of sources of data and to answer substantive questions. Our analysis shows that the variations that are observed are mainly attributable to individual level factors rather than the contextual effect of deprivation.
THE END OF GOD'S TRANSCENDENCE? ON INCARNATION IN THE WORK OF SLAVOJ ŽIŽEK
Authors: DEPOORTERE FREDERIEK 
Published: September 2007

AbstractThis essay evaluates Slavoj Žižek's claim that God's transcendence ends with the Incarnation. The first part offers a description of transcendence and a discussion of its fate in modern philosophy. The second and major part presents the theme of the Incarnation as it appears in Žižek's recent work. His critique of the sacrificial interpretation of Christ's death on the cross, his alternative reading of this event, his view on the difference between the Jewish and the Christian understanding of God, his concept of ‘the Divine’, and his interpretation of both the Incarnation and the Crucifixion are discussed. The second part concludes with a concise comparison between Žižek and René Girard. In the third and final part, Žižek's claim that God's transcendence ends with the Incarnation is then re‐evaluated.
CONTESTING THE WORLD AND THE DIVINE: BALTHASAR'S TRINITARIAN “RESPONSE” TO GIANNI VATTIMO'S SECULAR CHRISTIANITY
Authors: SCIGLITANO, JR. ANTHONY C. 
Published: September 2007

AbstractThis essay joins the contemporary debate over the proper theological and philosophical hermeneutic for interpreting the phenomenon of secularism. The first part offers a sustained Balthasar‐influenced critique of Gianni Vattimo's secular translation of Christianity. I argue that Vattimo's Heideggerian‐Hegelian influenced reading of secularism as Christianity's proper telos is both philosophically and theologically problematic. Part Two of this article reads Balthasar's work as a response to the philosophical and theological underpinnings of Vattimo's thought. Balthasar would argue that it is in a more traditional, yet remarkably daring account of the Trinitarian relations that the “secular” finds both its ground and dignity.
BLONDEL, MODERN CATHOLIC THEOLOGY AND THE LEIBNIZIAN EUCHARISTIC BOND
Authors: GRUMETT DAVID 
Published: September 2007

AbstractThe category of substance is fundamental in Leibniz's philosophy, and conceived in specifically theological terms in his late correspondence with Bartholomaeus des Bosses. The exchange develops as a discussion of the bond of substance (vinculum substantiale) in the transubstantiated eucharistic host, but the bond also provides the basis for a general theory of universal substance. This eucharistic vision of the substance of the world is appropriated by Maurice Blondel as the basis of his philosophy of action, in which divine transforming activity is necessarily implied, and which he describes as a form of transubstantiation of both the subject of action and its material object. This Leibnizian‐Blondelian theology of the divine transformation of the substance of the world provides eucharistic foundations for modern Catholic social teaching.
DIETRICH BONHOEFFER—AN ETHICS OF GOD'S APOCALYPSE?
Authors: ZIEGLER PHILIP G. 
Published: September 2007

AbstractBonhoeffer's theology generally and his Ethics in particular have not commonly been thought to be ‘apocalyptic’. Indeed, many have adjudged him to be “almost immunized” against such eschatology. Yet, a close reading of Bonhoeffer's Ethics shows unmistakable resonances between the themes, tasks and argumentative forms of his theological ethics and the contours of pauline apocalyptic as set forth recently in the work of J. Louis Martyn and others. In this text, Bonhoeffer confronts the question ‘What has paraenesis to do with apocalypsis?’ and experiments with answers which acknowledge that ‘the incursion of a new world’ in Christ ‘renders ancient good uncouth.’ Seeing this illumines several aspects of Bonhoeffer's theological ethics, clarifies the importance of the doctrine of justification therein, and emphasises its dynamic, dialectical and pauline character.
THE QUESTION OF NATURE AND GRACE IN KARL BARTH: HUMANITY AS CREATURE AND AS COVENANT‐PARTNER1
Authors: OAKES KENNETH 
Published: September 2007

AbstractThis article describes and responds to criticisms of Karl Barth recently offered by John R. Betz and John Milbank concerning this set of issues in Barth's theology: nature and grace, analogy, and a natural desire for the supernatural. It attempts to defuse these complaints by giving attention to Barth's twofold determination of humanity as both creature and covenant‐partner. Within this material, it is argued, Barth employs doctrines such as election, Christology and analogy in order to orient nature towards grace in such a way that something like a natural desire for the supernatural is present in his theology.
Tied Migration and Subsequent Employment: Evidence from Couples in Britain*
Authors: Taylor Mark P. 
Published: September 2007

AbstractWe use unique information on migration behaviour and reasons for migration to study the impact of tied migration on labour market outcomes among husbands and wives. Fewer than 2% of couples migrate for job‐related reasons and the majority of these move for reasons associated with the husband's job. Estimates from dynamic random‐effects models indicate that husbands and wives in couples that migrated for job‐related reasons suffer lower job retention rates than non‐migrants. Tied migration reduces the probability of subsequent employment for both husbands and wives and in particular has a large negative impact on job retention rates among wives.
Education, Occupation and Career Expectations: Determinants of the Gender Pay Gap for UK Graduates*
Authors: Chevalier Arnaud 
Published: September 2007

AbstractDespite anti‐discrimination policies, women are paid 20% less then men in the UK. A large proportion of this wage gap is usually left unexplained. In this paper, I investigate whether the unexplained component is due to mis‐specification. Using a sample of recent UK graduates, I examine the role of choice variables (subject of study and occupation) as well as career expectations and aspirations. The evidence indicates that women are more altruistic and less career‐oriented than men. Career break expectations, for example, explain 10% of the gender wage gap in the favoured model. By omitting attitudinal variables, most studies are likely to overestimate the unexplained component of the gender wage gap. Women with a more traditional view concerning childrearing are also found to have less intensive search behaviour. Since aspirations may reflect perceived discrimination or social pressure, current legislations are unlikely to reduce the gender wage gap.
Land Sales and Rental Markets in Transition: Evidence from Rural Vietnam*
Authors: Deininger Klaus , Jin Songqing 
Published: September 2007

AbstractImpact and desirability of land transfers in post‐socialist‐transition economies have been subject of considerable debate. We use data from Vietnam to identify factors conducive to the development of land markets and to assess potentially differential impacts of rental and sales. Results show that both rental and sales transfer land to more productive producers but that rental is more important for the poor to access land that becomes available as the non‐farm economy develops. The fact that secure land rights significantly increase supply of land to the rental market suggests that government has a key role in facilitating emergence and functioning of efficiency‐enhancing land markets.
Unobserved Heterogeneity or Measurement Errors? Testing for Correlated Effects with Measurement Errors *
Authors: Patacchini Eleonora 
Published: September 2007

AbstractThis paper addresses the problem of endogenous regressors due to the presence of unobserved heterogeneity, when this is correlated with the regressors, and caused by regressors’ measurement errors. A simple two‐stage testing procedure is proposed for the identification of the underlying cause of correlation between regressors and the error term. The statistical performance of the resulting sequential test is assessed using simulated data.
Testing Exogeneity in the Bivariate Probit Model: A Monte Carlo Study*
Authors: Monfardini Chiara , Radice Rosalba 
Published: September 2007

AbstractWe conduct an extensive Monte Carlo experiment to examine the finite sample properties of maximum‐likelihood‐based inference in the bivariate probit model with an endogenous dummy. We analyse the relative performance of alternative exogeneity tests, the impact of distributional misspecification and the role of exclusion restrictions to achieve parameter identification in practice. The results allow us to infer important guidelines for applied econometric practice.
Meta‐Regression Methods for Detecting and Estimating Empirical Effects in the Presence of Publication Selection*
Authors: Stanley T. D. 
Published: September 2007

AbstractThis study investigates the small‐sample performance of meta‐regression methods for detecting and estimating genuine empirical effects in research literatures tainted by publication selection. Publication selection exists when editors, reviewers or researchers have a preference for statistically significant results. Meta‐regression methods are found to be robust against publication selection. Even if a literature is dominated by large and unknown misspecification biases, precision‐effect testing and joint precision‐effect and meta‐significance testing can provide viable strategies for detecting genuine empirical effects. Publication biases are greatly reduced by combining two biased estimates, the estimated meta‐regression coefficient on precision (1/Se) and the unadjusted‐average effect.
Estimation Bias and Inference in Overlapping Autoregressions: Implications for the Target‐Zone Literature*
Authors: Darvas Zsolt 
Published: September 2007

AbstractSamples with overlapping observations are used for the study of uncovered interest rate parity, the predictability of long‐run stock returns and the credibility of exchange rate target zones. This paper quantifies the biases in parameter estimation and size distortions of hypothesis tests of overlapping linear and polynomial autoregressions, which have been used in target‐zone applications. We show that both estimation bias and size distortions of hypothesis tests are generally larger, if the amount of overlap is larger, the sample size is smaller, and autoregressive root of the data‐generating process is closer to unity. In particular, the estimates are biased in a way that makes it more likely that the predictions of the Bertola–Svensson model will be supported. Size distortions of various tests also turn out to be substantial even when using a heteroskedasticity and autocorrelation‐consistent covariance matrix.
Measuring Synchronization and Convergence of Business Cycles for the Euro area, UK and US*
Authors: Koopman Siem Jan , Azevedo João Valle E 
Published: September 2007

AbstractThis paper investigates business cycle relations among different economies in the Euro area. Cyclical dynamics are explicitly modelled as part of a time series model. We introduce mechanisms that allow for increasing or diminishing phase shifts and for time‐varying association patterns in different cycles. Standard Kalman filter techniques are used to estimate the parameters simultaneously by maximum likelihood. The empirical illustrations are based on gross domestic product (GDP) series of seven European countries that are compared with the GDP series of the Euro area and that of the US. The original integrated time series are band‐pass filtered. We find that there is an increasing resemblance between the business cycle fluctuations of the European countries analysed and those of the Euro area, although with varying patterns.
Testing the New Keynesian Phillips Curve Through Vector Autoregressive Models: Results from the Euro Area*
Authors: Fanelli Luca 
Published: September 2007

AbstractThis paper addresses the issue of testing the ‘hybrid’ New Keynesian Phillips curve (NKPC) through vector autoregressive (VAR) systems and likelihood methods, giving special emphasis to the case where the variables are non‐stationary. The idea is to use a VAR for both the inflation rate and the explanatory variable(s) to approximate the dynamics of the system and derive testable restrictions. Attention is focused on the ‘inexact’ formulation of the NKPC. Empirical results over the period 1971–98 show that the NKPC is far from providing a ‘good first approximation’ of inflation dynamics in the Euro area.
Do good governance provisions shelter investors from contagion? Evidence from the Russian crisis1
Authors: Pajuste Anete 
Published: September 2007

AbstractThis paper studies how the Russian crisis of 1998 affected listed firms in transition economies. The data cover 394 companies that were listed before the Russian crisis, and include financial, industry, ownership and stock market information. Results show that in the short term (within one month of the crisis) good governance did not shelter investors from contagion. On the contrary, stock returns during the crisis period were lower for the largest and most liquid stocks and markets in the region irrespective of their direct exposure to Russia. The paper also documents that in the longer term (one year after the crisis) recovery was faster in firms without direct trade exposure to Russia, as well as in firms with better firm‐level governance as proxied by the presence of a foreign blockholder. The paper presents evidence that both firm‐ and country‐level characteristics are important in overcoming the effects of a crisis. Firm‐specific characteristics, however, play a bigger role for companies operating in countries with weaker corporate governance.
The brain drain, ‘educated unemployment’, human capital formation, and economic betterment1
Authors: Fan C. Simon , Stark Oded 
Published: September 2007

AbstractExtending both the ‘harmful brain drain’ literature and the ‘beneficial brain gain’ literature, this paper analyzes both the negative and the positive impact of migration by skilled individuals in a unified framework. The paper extends the received literature on the ‘harmful brain drain’ by showing that in the short run, international migration can result in ‘educated unemployment’ and overeducation in developing countries, as well as a brain drain from these countries. A simulation suggests that the costs of ‘educated unemployment’ and overeducation can amount to significant losses for the individuals concerned, who may constitute a substantial proportion of the educated individuals. Adopting a dynamic framework, it is then shown that due to the positive externality effect of the prevailing, economy‐wide endowment of human capital on the formation of human capital, a relaxation in migration policy in both the current period and the preceding period can facilitate ‘take‐off’ of a developing country in the current period. Thus, it is suggested that while the migration of some educated individuals may reduce the social welfare of those who stay behind in the short run, it improves it in the long run.
Methods of privatization and economic growth in transition economies1
Authors: Bennett John , Estrin Saul , Urga Giovanni 
Published: September 2007

AbstractWe examine how different methods of privatization might have affected growth in transition economies. Using several econometric specifications, including fixed effects and GMM, we estimate a cross‐country panel growth model for 1990–2003. We find only voucher privatization to have been significantly associated with faster growth. Moreover, neither private sector development per se nor capital market development exercised a significant influence. We speculate that voucher privatization may have been effective because of the speed with which links between firms and the state were severed.
Capital accumulation during the transition from plan to market1
Authors: Dobrinsky Rumen 
Published: September 2007

AbstractThis paper focuses on the process of capital accumulation and the forces that drive it in the countries undergoing the transition from plan to market. The methodological framework for analyzing the determinants of aggregate business investment draws on the neoclassical accelerator model, extending it to reflect some of the specificities of the transition environment. The model is estimated on data for the economies in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). The results highlight the role of some key drivers of capital accumulation in an economy in transition, in particular, the relatively significant accelerator response to output, the importance of adjustment effects and financing constraints and the relatively minor role of the cost of capital.