Measuring Perceived Effects of Drinking an Extract of Basidiomycetes Agaricus Blazei Murill: A Survey of Japanese Consumers with Cancer

BACKGROUND. To survey cancer patients who consume an extract of the Basidiomycetes Agaricus blazei Murill mushroom (Sen-Sei-Ro) to measure their self-assessment of its effects and to develop an instrument for use in future randomized trials. METHODS. We designed, translated and mailed a survey to 2,346 Japanese consumers of Sen-Sei-Ro self-designated as cancer patients. The survey assessed consumer demographics, cancer history, Sen-Sei-Ro consumption, and its perceived effects. We performed exploratory psychometric analyses to identify distinct, multi-item scales that could summarize perceptions of effects. RESULTS. We received completed questionnaires from 782 (33%) of the sampled Sen-Sei-Ro consumers with a cancer history. Respondents represented a broad range of cancer patients familiar with Sen-Sei-Ro. Nearly all had begun consumption after their cancer diagnosis. These consumers expressed consistently positive views, though not extremely so, with more benefit reported for more abstract benefits such as emotional and physical well-being than relief of specific symptoms. We identified two conceptually and empirically distinct and internally consistent summary scales measuring Sen-Sei-Ro consumers' perceptions of its effects, Relief of Symptoms and Functional Well-being (Cronbach's alpha: Relief of Symptoms, α = .74; Functional Well-Being, α = .91). CONCLUSION. Respondents to our survey of Sen-Sei-Ro consumers with cancer reported favorable perceived effects from its use. Our instrument, when further validated, may be a useful outcome in trials assessing this and other complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) substances in cancer patients.Kyowa-S.S.I., Tokyo, Japa

The End of Financial Repression? A Cross-Country Analysis of Investment

We estimate a model of investment under financial restrains due to Demetriades and Devereux (2000), using total and private aggregate investment data from 38 high income and low income countries during 1972-2002. Our main findings for the overall sample are that (i) the US real interest rate is a robust determinant of total investment, suggesting that US monetary policy may have unintended global consequences; (ii) a term proxying domestic financial restraints is found to have an insignificant impact both on total and private investment. These findings are, however, somewhat less conclusive when we examine low income countries on their own, where financial restraints are found to have a negative and marginally significant effect on total investment.Financial restraints; investment; dynamic panel data

Sustainable Growth with Environmental Spillovers: A Ramsey-Koopmans Approach

In this paper, we apply the canonical approach of Ramsey, Koopmans, and Diamond to the problem of optimal and intertemporally-equitable growth with a non-renewable resource constraint and show that the solution is sustainable. The model is extended to cases involving environmental amenities and disamenities and renewable resources. The solutions equivalently solve the problem of maximizing net national product adjusted for depreciation in natural capital and environmental effects, which turns out to be both sustainable and constant even without technical change.

BILLS AND NOTES - HOLDER IN DUE COURSE - BURDEN OF PROOF WHERE THERE IS A WANT OF CONSIDERATION BETWEEN IMMEDIATE PARTIES

Plaintiff, transferee of a promissory note and a conditional sale contract, brought suit on the negotiable promissory note, and alleged that he was a holder in due course. Defendant answered that there was no consideration for the note. Held, that the burden of proof was on the plaintiff to show that he was a holder in due course by section 59 of the Negotiable Instruments Law which provides: Every holder is deemed prima facie to be a holder in due course; but when it is shown that the title of any person who has negotiated the instrument was defective, the burden is on the holder to prove that he or some person under whom he claims acquired the title as a holder in due course. Industrial Loan & Trust Co. v. Bell, 300 Ill. App. 502, 21 N. E. (2d) 638 (1939)

LANDLORD AND TENANT - NECESSITY FOR CONSIDERATION FOR LEASE

In an action to cancel a five-year lease, it appeared that the lessee had agreed to pay as rent an amount equal to one cent a gallon on each gallon of gasoline delivered, by it, on the leased premises. Held, that the lease was valid, as it created a bilateral contract supported by consideration on both sides, since according to the court\u27s construction of the lease the lessee had impliedly promised to use the premises as an automobile filling and service station for the stipulated period and so would necessarily be required to deliver gasoline there. Jackson v. Pepper Gasoline Co., 280 Ky. 226, 133 S. W. (2d) 91 (1939)

TAXATION - CORPORATIONS -TREATMENT OF TREASURY STOCK UNDER THE MICHIGAN PRIVILEGE TAX STATUTE

The recent Louisiana case of State v. Stewart Brothers Cotton Co., lnc. raises the question of the treatment of treasury stock 2 for franchise or privilege tax purposes. In that case the state statute provided that the base for the franchise tax was the corporation\u27s issued and outstanding capital stock, surplus and undivided profits. Stewart Bros. Cotton Co., Inc., had an authorized capital stock of 10,000 shares; in 1930 it purchased 3,333 1/3 shares of this stock, and did not cancel the shares until 1935. The surplus, which was more than sufficient to allow the corporation to purchase the stock in 1930, dwindled, and in the years 1933 and 1934 the corporation had a deficit, if its capital stock was carried on the basis of 10,000 shares. In regard to the latter two years, the Supreme Court of Louisiana held that the corporation must consider the treasury stock as issued and outstanding for tax purposes, and pay the franchise tax on the basis of 10,000 shares, rather than allowing the treasury stock to be deducted from the authorized issue and paying the tax on a base of 6,666 2/3 shares

INSURANCE - RIGHT OF INSURER AGAINST AN INSURED WHO HAS RELEASED THE TORTFEASOR AFTER RECEIVING PAYMENT FROM THE INSURER

Plaintiff insured the defendant against loss on his car due to collision, paid its liability when the defendant\u27s car was damaged by a third party, and took an assignment of plaintiff\u27s claim against the third party to that extent. Defendant then released the third party from liability and plaintiff brought this action to recover the amount paid to the defendant. Held, plaintiff could recover from defendant only for the loss it had sustained by the release, and since plaintiff had failed to prove it could have recovered anything from defendant, it had shown no cause of action. Century Ins. Co. v. Joachim, 17 N. J. Misc. 229, 8 A. (2d) 191 (1939)

Robust-to-loss entanglement generation using a quantum plasmonic nanoparticle array

We introduce a scheme for generating entanglement between two quantum dots using a plasmonic waveguide made from an array of metal nanoparticles. We show that the scheme is robust to loss, enabling it to work over long distance plasmonic nanoparticle arrays, as well as in the presence of other imperfections such as the detuning of the energy levels of the quantum dots. The scheme represents an alternative strategy to the previously introduced dissipative driven schemes for generating entanglement in plasmonic systems. Here, the entanglement is generated by using dipole-induced interference effects and detection-based postselection. Thus, contrary to the widely held view that loss is major problem for quantum plasmonic systems, we provide a robust-to-loss entanglement generation scheme that could be used as a versatile building block for quantum state engineering and control at the nanoscale.Comment: 32 pages, 11 figure

Excited ionic and neutral fragments produced by dissociation of the N2(+)* H band

N I and N II fluorescent radiation was observed when N2 was irradiated by undispersed synchrotron radiation with an upper energy limit of approximately 200 eV. The excited fragments originate from dissociation of a band of excited ionic states of N2 lying between 34.7 and 44 eV