Indocyanine green elimination test in orthotopic liver recipients.

OBJECTIVE: To determine its predictive capability on graft quality and resultant clinical outcome, the indocyanine green (ICG) elimination test was performed by a spectrophotometric method and a noninvasive finger-piece method with 50 orthotopic liver transplantations. BACKGROUND: Early detection of poor-functioning hepatic grafts is one of the most important issues in liver transplantation, but no reliable methods exist. METHODS: The ICG test was performed after 50 orthotopic liver transplantations on postoperative days 1, 3, and 7. Indocyanine green elimination constants (K(ICG)) were measured by both a standard spectrophotometric analysis (K(ICG)-B) and by a finger-piece method (K(ICG)-F). The patients were followed for a minimum of 3 months after transplantation. Results of ICG tests were correlated with various clinical determinations. RESULTS: Twelve of the 50 grafts were lost within three months, of which 7 were related to graft failure. Multivariate analysis using the Cox proportional hazard model revealed that K(ICG) on postoperative day 1 was a better predictor of liver-related graft outcome than any of the conventional liver function tests. Furthermore, K(ICG) values showed significant correlation with the severity of preservation injury, longer intensive care unit (ICU) and hospital stay, prolonged liver dysfunction, and septic complications. Correlation of K(ICG) values by the spectrophotometric method with those by the finger-piece method was highly satisfactory in the grafts that had K(ICG)-B <0.15 min-1 (y = 0.868x -0.011, r = .955). CONCLUSION: The ICG elimination test, conducted spectrophotometrically or optically on the day after liver transplantation, is a reliable indicator of graft quality and subsequent graft outcome early after liver transplantation

A Generalization Of Lattice Specifications For Currency Options

This article revisits the topic of two-state pricing of currency options.&nbsp; It examines the models developed by Cox, Ross, and Rubinstein, Rendleman and Bartter, and Trigeorgis, and presents two alternative binomial models based on the continuous and discrete time Geometric Brownian Motion processes respectively.&nbsp; This work generalizes the standard binomial approach incorporating the main existing models as particular cases.&nbsp; The proposed models are straightforward, flexible, accommodate any drift condition and afford additional insights into binomial trees and lattice models in general.&nbsp; Further, the alternative parameterizations are free of the negative aspects associated with the Cox, Ross, and Rubinstein model

Foreign vs Domestic Acquisitions on Financial Risk Reduction

This paper examines the role of foreign versus domestic ownership in improving the financial health of acquired firms. In particular, it explores the impact of foreign and domestic acquisitions on financial risk reduction of acquired firms in Italy and Spain over the period 2002-2010. To estimate causal relationships, we control for selection bias by applying propensity score matching techniques. Our results indicate that foreign acquisition leads to a significant and steady reduction in financial risk. In contrast, the relationship between domestic acquisition and financial risk appears to be smaller and statistically less robust

Responding to Climate Change: The Economy and Economics - Part of the Problem and Solution

The Climate Change Starter’s Guide provides an introduction and overview for education planners and practitioners on the wide range of issues relating to climate change and climate change education, including causes, impacts, mitigation and adaptation strategies, as well as some broad political and economic principles. The aim of this guide is to serve as a starting point for mainstreaming climate change education into school curricula. It has been created to enable education planners and practitioners to understand the issues at hand, to review and analyse their relevance to particular national and local contexts, and to facilitate the development of education policies, curricula, programmes and lesson plans. The guide covers four major thematic areas: 1. the science of climate change, which explains the causes and observed changes; 2. the social and human aspects of climate change including gender, health, migration, poverty and ethics; 3. policy responses to climate change including measures for mitigation and adaptation; and 4. education approaches including education for sustainable development, disaster reduction and sustainable lifestyles. A selection of key resources in the form of publication titles or websites for further reading is provided after each of the thematic sections

Do Multinational enterprises push up wages of domestic firms in the Italian Manufacturing sector?

This paper analyzes the effects of foreign direct investment on wages paid by domestic firms in the Italian manufacturing sector over the period 2002–2007. In particular, the authors investigate the im-pact of multinational enterprises on wages paid by local firms which operate in the same industry, known and horizontal wage spillovers, or have linkages with multinational enterprises in both downstream and upstream industries, known as vertical wage spillovers. By using a large panel dataset, consisting of 551,000 observations, the authors find evidence of wage spillovers only at inter-industry level and, more specifically, for those firms who supply their goods to multinational enterprises, described as backward wage spillovers. Moreover, findings suggest that the wage spillover effect is strongly affected by the technological gap between local and foreign firms: only workers employed in domestic firms with a low-medium technological absorptive capacity seem to benefit from the presence of multinational enterprises in terms of higher wages