Continuity and Pragmatism: How Chinese State-Owned Banks adapted to Hong Kong’s Free Market (1949-1978)

One of the puzzling features of China’s post-1978 economic reforms is how quickly its enterprises adapted to the new business environment. An insight into this puzzle is provided by Chinese state-owned banks in Hong Kong. From 1949-78 these banks, led by the Bank of China, represented China’s primary financial interface with the outside world. What distinguished the management of these banks from their peers was their loyalty to communist values. Yet, despite Mao Zedong’s anti-imperialist anti-capitalist ideology, the Bank of China demonstrated extraordinary business pragmatism in its engagement with the international financial system. It also exemplified a high level of management continuity which enabled it to see beyond a volatile and often hostile political environment. The paper shows that the post-1978 retreat from ideology and its replacement with commercial incentives proved costly in terms of professional standards. A homogenisation of bank management also made it more difficult to recruit senior management whose loyalty to the Communist Party could be assumed. These findings highlight the importance of rule variation in explaining international differences in management behaviour. More generally the paper shows the long term importance of Hong Kong’s role as an internationalising force for China’s business and financial sectors

Controversy and consensus on the management of elevated sperm DNA fragmentation in male infertility: A global survey, current guidelines, and expert recommendations

Purpose Sperm DNA fragmentation (SDF) has been associated with male infertility and poor outcomes of assisted reproductive technology (ART). The purpose of this study was to investigate global practices related to the management of elevated SDF in infertile men, summarize the relevant professional society recommendations, and provide expert recommendations for managing this condition. Materials and Methods An online global survey on clinical practices related to SDF was disseminated to reproductive clinicians, according to the CHERRIES checklist criteria. Management protocols for various conditions associated with SDF were captured and compared to the relevant recommendations in professional society guidelines and the appropriate available evidence. Expert recommendations and consensus on the management of infertile men with elevated SDF were then formulated and adapted using the Delphi method. Results A total of 436 experts from 55 different countries submitted responses. As an initial approach, 79.1% of reproductive experts recommend lifestyle modifications for infertile men with elevated SDF, and 76.9% prescribe empiric antioxidants. Regarding antioxidant duration, 39.3% recommend 4–6 months and 38.1% recommend 3 months. For men with unexplained or idiopathic infertility, and couples experiencing recurrent miscarriages associated with elevated SDF, most respondents refer to ART 6 months after failure of conservative and empiric medical management. Infertile men with clinical varicocele, normal conventional semen parameters, and elevated SDF are offered varicocele repair immediately after diagnosis by 31.4%, and after failure of antioxidants and conservative measures by 40.9%. Sperm selection techniques and testicular sperm extraction are also management options for couples undergoing ART. For most questions, heterogenous practices were demonstrated. Conclusions This paper presents the results of a large global survey on the management of infertile men with elevated SDF and reveals a lack of consensus among clinicians. Furthermore, it demonstrates the scarcity of professional society guidelines in this regard and attempts to highlight the relevant evidence. Expert recommendations are proposed to help guide clinicians

heterophylla

Euphorbia heterophylla L.Mexican fireplantPointsettia heterophyllaFort Lauderdale SW.Collection of Lewis S. Ros

Nutritional problems in the surgical patients with head and neck tumours. Literature review and personal experience

During the last years the importance of the correct nutritional assessment as a part of the therapeutic process of the human pathologies has a greatly increased relevance. Still more in oncology, such relationship among nutritional assessment and good result of the therapeutic treatment have a fundamental importance. Among the neoplastic diseases those of the head and the neck result to be particularly aggressive, both for their nature and for the particular anatomical organization of such body areas, and the affected patients also need a precise evaluation of the nutritional assessment to obtain an optimal therapeutic result. On the basis of such premises and to their own clinical experience, the authors describe the main nutritional problems of the patients with tumours of the head and the neck and the possible therapeutic solutions

Searches for supersymmetry based on events with b jets and four W bosons in pp collisions at 8 TeV

Five mutually exclusive searches for supersymmetry are presented based on events in which b jets and four W bosons are produced in proton-proton collisions at root s = 8TeV. The data, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 19.5 fb(-1), were collected with the CMS experiment at the CERN LHC in 2012. The five studies differ in the leptonic signature from the W boson decays, and correspond to all-hadronic, single-lepton, opposite-sign dilepton, same-sign dilepton, and >= 3 lepton final states. The results of the five studies are combined to yield 95% confidence level limits for the gluino and bottom-squark masses in the context of gluino and bottom-squark pair production, respectively. In the limit when the lightest supersymmetric particle is light, gluino and bottom squark masses are excluded below 1280 and 570 GeV, respectively