Giant cell arteritis complicated by aortic aneurysmal disease

The mortality rate in patients with giant cell arteritis (GCA) is similar to the standard populations of similar age and sex. Where there is excess mortality, it may be due to aortic aneurysms, especially thoracic aortic dissection as complications of GCA disease. Aneurysms may develop years after cessation of treatment. The treating physician should be vigilant in assessing the patient with giant cell arteritis for thoracic and abdominal aortic aneurysms. However, the physician's medical records that are sent to the insurer's underwriting department may omit key information such as recommended studies. The underwriting department should have a strategy to quickly resolve this problem.     

Marfan syndrome: literature review of mortality studies

Marfan syndrome is an autosomal dominant heritable disorder of fibrous connective tissue due to mutation in the fibrillin-1 gene, located on chromosome 15. Early mortality from Marfan syndrome results from aortic dilatation. The medical literature contains long-term follow-up series of patients with Marfan syndrome accrued at major medical centers that address overall survival following surgical intervention, and prognosis in relation to certain risk factors such as family history and aortic root diameter. Mortality analyses based on these data are presented in this paper. Advances in surgical and medical therapy have improved mortality of affected individuals over the past 2-3 decades. However, significant mortality occurs, peaking in the third and fourth decades of life. Although surgery is successful treatment of aortic dissection, one cannot conclude that surgical repair confers a mortality advantage. Emergency surgery and history of aortic complications in first-degree relatives are associated with a higher mortality. Chronic beta-blocker therapy may slow the rate of aortic dilatation and may be associated with more favorable prognosis. Clinical research evaluating beta-blockade, echo assessment of the aortic root diameter progression, and gene mutation analysis may provide tools useful for future morality assessments.     

信用修复国际比较研究

在社会信用体系中,信用修复机制是适用失信主体改正自新、为其重塑信用的新方式,是信用惩戒的有机组成.通过梳理信用修复的定义、原则、对象及作用,从信用修复立法、不良信息保存、异议及投诉处理机制、信用修复机构设立等方面比较分析美国、英国、韩国和中国的信用修复机制,同时分析英美在信用修复监管、美韩及中国在诚信教育、韩国及中国在...     

Algorithms for handling soft constraints and their applications to staff scheduling problems

This paper presents a new model for dynamically deciding when, how, and to what extent soft constraints should be relaxed. The first part of the model is a depth-first search algorithm and a best-first repair algorithm which can generate partial schedules quickly. The second part is an iterative relaxation algorithm which can augment the generated partial schedules by slightly relaxing potentially relaxable constraints (i.e. soft constraints). The model guarantees that (1) a soft constraint will be relaxed only when no backtrack (repair) can be made within a time limit, (2) the relaxation of soft constraints can always deepen the search tree, and (3) the relaxation will only be made at dead nodes, and when the search algorithm can be continued the relaxed soft constraints will return to their initial states. The model has been successfully applied to two staff scheduling problems, dispatcher scheduling problem and crew scheduling problem. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Mortality outcome of surgically treated atrial septal defects

Comparative mortality in this abstract shows that surgical repair of an atrial septal defect (ASD) confers a survival advantage beyond that expected for the study population. Determinates of expected mortality and mean q' include the table selected, zero-time age and annual age, and sex distribution of the cohort. Each has an independent effect on mortality ratios and excess death rates. Confounding variables such as participant selection within the study cohort affect the outcome. Despite the multiple, methodologic variables in this abstract, individuals having surgical repair of an ASD appear to have low mortality.     

Outcome of early surgery compared to surveillance in the management of small aortic aneurysms--a comparative mortality analysis

When underwriting individuals with aortic aneurysms, the following factors are used in risk selection: location, initial size, stability or velocity of change in size and co-morbid impairments. Treatment options based on clinical and ultrasonic findings are either surveillance or surgical resection. A recent study examined the 8-year outcome of early-surgery vs surveillance in small (4.6 cm) aortic aneurysms. Over the duration, the early-surgery group had a mortality ratio of 170% and excess death rate of 28; the surveillance group had a mortality ratio of 215% and excess death rate of 45. First-year mortality was expectedly high in the early-surgery group. Excluding first-year experience, the early-surgery group had an improved mortality ratio of 160% and excess death rate of 22. After 6 months, the death rate in the early-surgery group was about three fourths that of the surveillance group. However, due to high initial mortality cumulative survival curves did not cross in favor of early-surgery until about 3 years.     

Automation and management control in dynamic environments: Managing organisational flexibility and energy efficiency in service sectors

Automation has been conceptually explained in management accounting research as an antecedent to control problem avoidance (Emmanuel, Merchant, & Otley, 1990). However, the question of how automation is implicated in more dynamic service-based environments remains unanswered. We apply the Adler and Borys' (1996) bureaucracy framework to explain how enabling controls allow organisations to simultaneously pursue organisational flexibility and energy efficiency (Ahrens & Chapman, 2004; Jorgensen & Messner, 2009). Subsequently, we examine how automation and its related management control are designed and used in a dynamic service-based organisation, where goal attainment and the energy efficiency of its buildings are critical. In doing so, we explain how automation-related standardisation is adjusted by enabling control attributes (repair, flexibility, internal transparency) to advance user flexibility. Additionally, standardisation minimises the loss in energy efficiency when less optimal repair control behaviour manifests. Our study adds more depth to the work by Merchant and Van der Stede (2017) by exploring how automation complements labour in dynamic environments. Our findings offer greater understanding of how automation and management control systems are designed and used to enhance organisations' energy efficiency in dynamic service-based environments. In doing so, we advance extant environmental management accounting studies (Virtanen, Tuomaala, & Pentti, 2013).     

φ18’×28’球磨机小齿轮轴总成维修

德兴铜矿大山厂共有9台φ18＇×28＇特大型球磨机,其传动部分中的小齿轮轴的维修是整个φ18＇×28＇球磨机维修中的重点和难点。     

Bicuspid aortic valve

Bicuspid aortic valve is the most common congenital cardiac malformation and may be responsible for more mortality and morbidity than the combined effects of all the other congenital heart defects.     

Reputation repair and corporate donations: An investigation of responses to regulatory penalties

According to the risk management and reputation insurance theory of corporate social responsibility, corporate donations can help a company to repair its reputation after a crisis. This study uses a propensity score matching–difference in difference (PSM + DID) methodology to investigate the charitable donation activities of companies that have been subject to regulatory penalties. The analysis of a sample of A-share listed companies in the 2004–2016 period shows that companies significantly increase their charitable donations after regulatory penalties, but this effect weakens over time. Further analysis reveals that non-state-owned companies, companies with higher ownership concentrations, and companies receiving severer penalties are more motivated to make donations after regulatory penalties. By studying the reputation repair behavior of companies that have been subject to regulatory penalties, this study offers further support for the risk management and reputation insurance theory of corporate social responsibility. It also enriches our understanding of companies’ active responses to regulatory penalties and provides insights into companies’ motives for making charitable donations.     

Automobile Insurance Vehicle Repair Practices: Politics,Economics, and Consumer Interests

There is a continuing debate related to insurers’ use of direct repair programs, in which they contract with particular body shops to perform insured auto repairs according to terms agreed to by the insurers and repair shop owners. A similar debate exists related to insurers specifying the use of aftermarket crash parts instead of original equipment manufacturer parts to replace damaged vehicle components, such as door panels, fenders, and hoods. This study examines these issues from a variety of perspectives providing initial evidence that if properly used, these cost containment tools can be beneficial to consumers and insurers.     

The Performance Effect of Feedback Frequency and Detail: Evidence from a Field Experiment in Customer Satisfaction

This paper presents the results from a field experiment that examines the effects of nonfinancial performance feedback on the behavior of professionals working for an insurance repair company. We vary the frequency (weekly and monthly) and the level of detail of the feedback that the 800 professionals receive. Contrary to what we would expect if these professionals conformed to the model of the Bayesian decision maker, more (and more frequent) information does not always help improve performance. In fact, we find that professionals achieve the best outcomes when they receive detailed but infrequent (monthly) feedback. The treatment groups with frequent feedback, regardless of how detailed it is, perform no better than the control group (with monthly and aggregate information). The results are consistent with the information in the latest feedback report being most salient and professionals in the weekly treatments overweighting their most recent performance, hampering their ability to learn.     

Abdominal aortic aneurysm repair--life insurance implications

Aortic aneurysms can be managed surgically using an open graft replacement approach, or the less invasive approach, endovascular repair. The endovascular devices and patient selection methodology have evolved over the past decade. Intuitively, it would appear that the open approach affords a better long-term survival in low operative-risk individuals, but some current studies suggest otherwise. Until there are more long-term (20+ year) mortality studies that compare the open approach with the endovascular repair approach, we will not know with certainty how their survival outcomes compare.     

An econometric analysis of the demand surge effect

Devastating natural catastrophes lead to severe damages to buildings and infrastructure which have to be eliminated in the aftermath of the event. Thus, the demand for skilled labor and materials increase sharply which in turn leads to significant price increases that should be taken into account in the forecast of catastrophe losses. This interdependency is referred to as the “Demand Surge” effect. The paper at hand presents an extensive econometric analysis and modeling of the Demand Surge effect based on data about 176 natural catastrophes in the US provided by EM-DAT. We find that Demand Surge is positively influenced by the total amount of repair work, by alternative catastrophes in the same region in close temporal proximity, and by a higher amount of insurance claims per event. Furthermore, the Demand Surge effect is more pronounced if the construction sector is in a growth stage. The contribution is a short summary of a working paper presented at the annual meeting of the German Insurance Science Association (DVfVW) in Berlin in March 2013.     

Autopoiesis and general anti-avoidance rules

Legal autopoiesis is a post-modern, essentially positivist theory that tries to describe the true nature of law. Its principal tenets are the ideas of self-reproductive growth from reasoning that is self-referential and recursive, relative autonomy from, and “operative closure” against, other social systems, together with “cognitive openness” to “irritation” and to “noise” from outside the closed circle of the law.The authors are sceptical about the ability of autopoiesis theory to illuminate the nature of law in general, but see it as shedding useful light on income tax law, particularly the quality that income tax law shows in inventing legal structures that have no reality beyond the world of fiscal affairs.The authors argue that the general anti-avoidance rule punctures the autonomy and closure of income tax law, to allow the substantive norms of the economic and business system free play, or relatively free play, within tax cases. That is, while income tax law is in general a good example of legal autopoiesis, this observation is incorrect when a general anti-avoidance rule is in play.Two implications for accounting are (a) that the operative closure of law results in a disconnection between income tax law and accountancy, and (b) that a general anti-avoidance rule may repair this disconnection in cases where accountancy records are governed by substance rather than form.     

Choice and change of measures in performance measurement models

This paper uses management control, resource-based, systems-based and contingency-based strategy theories to describe a large U.S. manufacturing company's efforts to improve profitability by designing and using a performance measurement model (PMM). This PMM includes multiple performance measures relevant to its distribution channel for products, repair parts and maintenance services. The PMM is intended to reflect the company's understanding of performance relations among strategic resources, operational capabilities, and desired financial outcomes. The PMM also reflects its intended distribution strategy, the types of performance necessary to achieve that strategy by its distributors, and its desired financial outcomes. Furthermore, the company uses the model to evaluate its North American distributors and intends to use these evaluations as a partial basis for annual and long-term rewards. Thus, the PMM embodies the measurable portion of the firm's management control system of its distribution channel.The study addresses four research questions: (1) Are measure attributes important considerations for performance measure choice? (2) Does the importance of attributes differ according to firm strategy? (3) Does the importance of attributes for design and use differ according to firm strategy? (4) Does a company trade-off some individual attributes for others? The questions are investigated using qualitative and quantitative analyses of archival documents and interviews with top managers and distributors. Principal findings are that measure attributes are important considerations for choice and change of performance measures, design attributes are more important than use attributes, the importance of attributes does not appear to differ according to strategy, and some individual attributes are traded-off for other attributes.     

Financial inclusion and gross capital formation: A sectoral analysis approach for the MENA region and EMs

Most Middle East and North Africa (MENA) governments have firmly committed to financial inclusion as part of a progressive agenda. In this, their objective is to improve the allocation of resources across small and medium firms. Indeed, empirical literature has quantitatively shown that financial inclusion improves nations' aggregate measures of economic success such as growth or inequality. But we know very little of its effects on sectoral variates. This paper contributes to the literature by estimating and comparing the effects of financial inclusion on the relative size of gross capital formation of low-tech sectors in the MENA region. We use a panel of 3-digit level sectoral data on approximately 34 manufacturing industries of the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) for eleven MENA countries and twelve emerging markets (EMs) within the period 2005–2016. The paper focuses in four measures of financial inclusion commonly used in the literature of development: size of commercial bank branches, ATMs, borrowers, and depositors. The results suggest that financial inclusion in MENA has a positive, statistically significant effect on the size of gross capital formation in the low R&D-intensity industries. Thus, policy considerations can be directed towards expanding financial services to other low-tech industries including fabricated metal products and to the medium tech division including repair and installation of machinery and equipment industries. This policy will have greater impact on gross capital formation and, thereby, economic growth.     

Why Don't We Know More About Housing Supply?

This paper reviews the main themes in the empirical literature on housing supply and outlines suggestions for future research. Much of the literature has focused on the determinants of new housing supply, particularly the supply of single family detached homes, and the renovation and repair decisions of homeowners. We have learned a great deal from the work that has been done but many important puzzles remain. Much of the literature has focused on aggregate data because there is so little information where the unit of observation is the builder, investor, or landlord. We need to focus on bringing new data to bear on the decision-making processes of these important actors to build our understanding of the micro foundations of housing supply.     

审计师声誉机制：概念、特征及作用机理

当前”大力创建自主知名品牌”已成为注册会计师行业发展的目标之一,研究品牌声誉理论迫在眉睫。本文认为,审计师声誉机制是社会公众及利益相关者对审计师努力建立声誉、利用声誉获取溢价、毁损声誉以获得利润及付出艰辛重获声誉活动的整体认知与反馈。审计师声誉机制包括形成机制、作用机制、毁损机制与修复机制,这四种机制均有各自的特征,并在时间维度的动态过程中体现出长期博弈、价值波动与不规则运动三种作用机理。     

Product Quality and Payment Policy

This paper provides a theoretical explanation for the choice of payment terms under which a company sells its products. In our model, these terms are chosen to permit sellers or buyers to specialize at repairing defects if they are equally well-informed about quality or if one has significantly lower repair costs than the other. Otherwise, the terms are chosen to signal product quality. We also develop the empirical implications of this theory by predicting a seller's choice of payment terms based on the characteristics of its product market.