Health status,function, productivity,and costs among individuals with idiopathic painful peripheral neuropathy with small fiber involvement in the United States: results from a retrospective chart review and cross-sectional survey

Objective:

To characterize the burden of idiopathic painful peripheral neuropathy with small fiber involvement (idiopathic SFN) by pain severity in the US.

Methods:

One hundred previously diagnosed idiopathic SFN subjects were enrolled during routine office visits. Subjects completed a one-time questionnaire, and investigators reported clinical characteristics and healthcare resource use, based on 6 month retrospective chart review. Annualized direct and indirect costs were estimated. Results were stratified across pain severity groups.

Results:

Mean age was 63.5 years; 53.0% were female; 76.0% had moderate or severe pain. Most common comorbidities were sleep disturbance/insomnia (37.0%), anxiety (34.0%), and depressive symptoms (33.0%). Overall mean health status (0.59; ?0.11–1.00 scale), physical and mental health (31.7 and 45.6, respectively, 0–100 scale), sleep index (45.1; 0–100 scale), and pain interference with function (5.0; 0–10 scale) differed by pain severity, with worse outcomes among those with greater pain (all p?Conclusions:

Idiopathic SFN subjects with pain experience moderate or severe pain, which negatively impacts health status, function, and productivity, and leads to substantial direct and indirect costs.     

Wolves' contribution to structural change in grazing systems among swiss alpine summer farms: The evidence from causal random forest

The return of wolves to Swiss mountains and the damage they cause to sheep and goat herds in the region have raised concerns about a consequent wave of farm closures. In this paper, we examine the relationship between wolf attacks and the decline of Alpine summer farms, a specific high-altitude farm type. We collected farm structure data and monitoring data on wolf attacks between 2004 and 2021 and analysed them using a causal random forest method, enabling a detailed analysis of the relation between wolf attacks and the number of different types of Alpine summer farms at a regional level. The results show that the farming systems are unaffected by incidental and infrequent wolf attacks, but that a high number of wolf attacks in a region is related to faster decrease in number of grazing systems where sheep are most vulnerable to such attacks. In contrast, systems that allow for better herd protection tend to show an increase in areas with frequent wolf attacks.     

The Contingent Effects of Social Network Sparseness and Centrality on Managerial Innovativeness

Prior research has highlighted that network sparseness and network centrality enhance innovativeness through access to information and influence, respectively. We advance this perspective by exploring the extent to which individual actions are needed to mobilize information and influence accessed through social networks, and whether such information and influence would mutually reinforce to enhance managerial innovativeness. Our findings found partial support for the idea that actions are needed to actualize potential resources embedded in social networks, as centrally positioned managers enjoy higher innovativeness when they engage in ambassador activities. We also found that advice network sparseness and advice network centrality had independent, not interactive relationships with managerial innovativeness, suggesting that they offer distinct routes to achieving managerial innovativeness. Overall, our research clarifies the relationships of two important social network attributes on managerial innovativeness, and also sheds new light on how managerial action matters in realizing social network advantages for innovative ends.     

Loan loss reporting,early disclosure,and investor reactions

Several prior studies present evidence that bank loan-loss announcements have a significant impact on shareholder wealth. There is no satisfactory explanation, however, as to why these announcements should change share prices. This paper examines loan-loss announcements in the context of the early disclosure literature. We find banks that publicly announce losses before releasing their quarterly earnings report have a significant increase in shareholder wealth following the loan-loss announcement. Banks that choose to publicly announce loan-loss increases with the release of quarterly-earnings report experience a significant decrease in shareholder wealth prior to the loan-loss announcement. Our results support the notion that the timing of the loan-loss announcement provides information to investors.     

2009年国际外汇市场展望——全球经济下滑与经济力量变迁的方向

该文分析指出,由于世界各国的政策制定者都在积极地干预市场,次贷危机有望在2009年得到缓解。展望2009年国际外汇市场,除日元以外的亚洲货币将持续走弱,下半年才会有一定程度回升;市场发展将呈现经济去杠杆化、全球经济继续下滑、经济力量变迁等特征,而去杠杆化将有益于美元升势和日元走强。此外,因中国和印度正处于快速工业化的进程中,劳动生产率与结构性调整均获得了巨大改进,将有利于亚洲国家货币的升值。     

The search for relative value in bonds

Comparing asset swap spreads across bonds is a widely used tool for measuring relative value. This approach leads portfolio managers to increase their risk exposure in ways that are not transparent. Credit default swaps are utilized to demonstrate that viewing wide asset swaps as an indicator of relative value is a mirage. The paper documents the empirical regularities in the term structure of credit spreads and spread volatilities that make this result possible. In addition, we present empirical evidence of the imprint made on corporate bond returns by the widespread use of the asset swaps data.     

Cultural Diversity and Marketing Transactions: Are Market Integration,Large Community Size,and World Religions Necessary for Fairness in Ephemeral Exchanges?

The study here applies qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) in an examination of data from 15 societies varying in their degree of market integration (MI) and participation in world religions (WRs); the data are available in Henrich et al. (2010b). The findings here provide a more nuanced coverage of the influences of cultural causal recipes on fairness and punishment in exchanges with strangers than “net effect” explanations. The coverage here explains how acts of fairness and punishment are contingent on several alternative paths including both low as well as high levels of MI and WR. Contrary to conclusions by Henrich et al. (2010a), depending on additional ingredients in cultural recipes, a society does not need to achieve MI and adoption of a WR to be fair and punish unfairness.     

The Adoption of Marketing by Financial Institutions in the UK

This article presents the results of a recent survey into the adoption of marketing techniques and philosophies among UK financial institutions. The research was prompted by the increasingly competitive nature of the markets for financial services and the subsequent recent interest in the adoption of a more marketing-oriented approach to doing business. It was found that financial institutions have moved some way towards adopting more of a marketing orientation. There is still, however, much scope for further improvement.     

Assessing the Benefits of Trade Facilitation: A Global Perspective

This paper estimates the relationship between trade facilitation and trade flows using a panel of disaggregated manufactured goods for the 2000–2001 period for 75 countries. Four categories of trade facilitation are defined, measured and assessed for their impact on bilateral trade flows using a gravity model. The four measures of trade facilitation are: port infrastructure (air and maritime), customs environment, regulatory environments and e‐business infrastructure. The results suggest that raising global capacity halfway to the world average in the four areas would increase trade by $377 billion. Most regions of the world increase exports more than imports. In large part, this result stems from increased exports to OECD markets that is obtained through a country's own effort to improve ports, customs, regulations and services infrastructures. In addition, the results suggest that reform and capacity building in trade facilitation in areas related to GATT Articles V, VIII and X that are under discussion at the World Trade Organisation could expand trade and exports significantly. Many of the reform measures necessary to achieve this goal need not necessarily require large‐scale investment projects, but rather action in legal and administrative reform to facilitate trade.     

Aid-for-trade facilitation

‘Aid for Trade’ is an ongoing and high-profile discussion associated with the Doha negotiations of the World Trade Organization. It also relates to questions of how best to achieve the Millennium Development Goals. Questions remain, however, about whether foreign aid spent on trade facilitation increases trade flows of developing countries. Does it work differently from aid in general? Using detailed data on aid flows from the OECD, the analysis here estimates the relationship between specific types of aid and trade flows, both globally and of the aid recipients. The findings indicate that aid spent on promoting trade is positively associated with global trade. For most types of such aid-for-trade facilitation, it is relatively more strongly associated with recipient exports than their imports. In contrast ‘other’ types of aid are more strongly associated with recipient imports. Based on elasticities estimated over 16 years of trade and aid data for 40 donor countries and about 170 country trading pairs, our results suggest that a 1% increase in aid-for-trade facilitation (of about US220 million in 2008) correlates to about US 220 million in 2008) correlates to about US 290 million of additional exports from the aid receiving countries.