The Use of Antihypertensive Medication and the Risk of Breast Cancer in a Case-Control Study in a Spanish Population: The MCC-Spain Study

The evidence on the relationship between breast cancer and different types of antihypertensive drugs taken for at least 5 years is limited and inconsistent. Furthermore, the debate has recently been fueled again with new data reporting an increased risk of breast cancer among women with a long history of use of antihypertensive drugs compared with nonusers

Vitamin D exposure and Risk of Breast Cancer: a meta-analysis

The relationship between vitamin D and breast cancer is still controversial. The present meta-analysis examines the effects of the 25(OH)D, 1,25(OH)2D and vitamin D intake on breast cancer risk. For this purpose, a PubMed, Scopus and Web of Science-databases search was conducted including all papers published with the keywords "breast cancer" and "vitamin D" with at least one reported relative risk (RR) or odds ratio (OR). In total sixty eight studies published between 1998 and 2018 were analyzed. Information about type of study, hormonal receptors and menopausal status was retrieved. Pooled OR or RR were estimated by weighting individual OR/RR by the inverse of their variance Our study showed a protective effect between 25 (OH) D and breast cancer in both cohort studies (RR?=?0.85, 95%CI:0.74-0.98) and case-control studies (OR?=?0.65, 95%CI: 0.56-0.76). However, analyzing by menopausal status, the protective vitamin D - breast cancer association persisted only in the premenopausal group (OR?=?0.67, 95%CI: 0.49-0.92) when restricting the analysis to nested case-control studies. No significant association was found for vitamin D intake or 1,25(OH)2D. CONCLUSION: This systematic review suggests a protective relationship between circulating vitamin D (measured as 25(OH) D) and breast cancer development in premenopausal women

Hongkong International Terminals gains elastic capacity using a data-intensive decision-support system

As the flagship of Hutchison Port Holdings (HPH), Hongkong International Terminals (HIT) is the busiest container terminal on the planet. HIT receives over 10,000 trucks and 15 vessels a day, about six million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) a year. HIT makes hundreds of operational decisions a minute. HIT's terminal management system, the productivity plus program (3P), optimizes resources throughout the container yard using operations research/management science (OR/MS) techniques and algorithms. It manages such interrelated decisions as how to route container trucks in the yard, where to store arriving containers, how many quay cranes to use for each vessel, how many trucks to assign to each crane, how many yard cranes to assign to each container storage block, and when to schedule incoming trucks for container pickup. As the number of container terminals in Asia grows, competition has become price driven and service driven. HIT realized its future rests not only with moving boxes but with mastering the associated information. This meant developing a decision-support system (DSS) to provide superior and differentiated services by generating optimal decisions, one that is very robust under uncertain arrival times of trucks and vessels. In its 10 years of operation, the implementation of the DSS through 3P has helped HIT to become the world's most efficient and flexible terminal operator. HIT alone saves US\$100 million per year. By optimizing internal truck use at its sister terminals, the HPH group saves an additional US\$54 million per year

An institution-based view of international business strategy: a focus on emerging economies

Leveraging the recent research interest in emerging economies, this Perspective paper argues that an institution-based view of international business (IB) strategy has emerged. It is positioned as one leg that helps sustain the “strategy tripod” (the other two legs consisting of the industry- and resource-based views). We then review four diverse areas of substantive research: (1) antidumping as entry barriers; (2) competing in and out of India; (3) growing the firm in China; and (4) governing the corporation in emerging economies. Overall, we argue that an institution-based view of IB strategy, in combination with industry- and resource-based views, will not only help sustain a strategy tripod, but also shed significant light on the most fundamental questions confronting IB, such as “What drives firm strategy and performance in IB?”Journal of International Business Studies (2008) 39, 920–936. doi:10.1057/palgrave.jibs.8400377