The Governance of Contemporary Sovereign Wealth Funds

Recent contemporary sovereign wealth funds developments, viewed against the historical backdrop of international law and practice, particularly foreign investment law and practice, underscore the inter-action between economics, law and politics. This article first introduces the issues that have emerged as a result of sovereign wealth funds contemporary investments and observes how sovereign wealth funds and recipient countries have reacted to these developments. It proposes a model of sovereign wealth fund governance based on consultation, cooperation and coordination. This model draws on the experience of current deliberative fora such as the G20 summits and the International Working Group of Sovereign Wealth Funds, International Monetary Funl\u27s forum, the bilateral arrangements between countries and the laws and practices of some sovereign wealth fund countries, particularly Singapore. This article further examines the oversight regimes to which Singapore sovereign wealth funds are subject, and recommends the approach of the Singapore sovereign wealth funds as a starting point for achieving an optimal balance between nationalism and global financial stability based on free capital and investment flows

An adjustment inventory for primary grades

Thesis (M.A.)--Boston Universit

Geographic and temporal validity of prediction models: different approaches were useful to examine model performance

AbstractObjectiveValidation of clinical prediction models traditionally refers to the assessment of model performance in new patients. We studied different approaches to geographic and temporal validation in the setting of multicenter data from two time periods.Study Design and SettingWe illustrated different analytic methods for validation using a sample of 14,857 patients hospitalized with heart failure at 90 hospitals in two distinct time periods. Bootstrap resampling was used to assess internal validity. Meta-analytic methods were used to assess geographic transportability. Each hospital was used once as a validation sample, with the remaining hospitals used for model derivation. Hospital-specific estimates of discrimination (c-statistic) and calibration (calibration intercepts and slopes) were pooled using random-effects meta-analysis methods. I2 statistics and prediction interval width quantified geographic transportability. Temporal transportability was assessed using patients from the earlier period for model derivation and patients from the later period for model validation.ResultsEstimates of reproducibility, pooled hospital-specific performance, and temporal transportability were on average very similar, with c-statistics of 0.75. Between-hospital variation was moderate according to I2 statistics and prediction intervals for c-statistics.ConclusionThis study illustrates how performance of prediction models can be assessed in settings with multicenter data at different time periods

Cytoplasmic Forkhead Box M1 (FoxM1) in Esophageal Squamous Cell Carcinoma Significantly Correlates with Pathological Disease Stage

Abstract: Esophageal cancer is a deadly cancer with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) as the major type. Until now there has been a lack of reliable prognostic markers for this malignancy. This study aims to investigate the clinical correlation between Forkhead box M1 (FoxM1) and patients' parameters in ESCC. Methods: Immunohistochemistry was performed to investigate the expression and localization of FoxM1 in 64 ESCC tissues and 10 nontumor esophageal tissues randomly selected from 64 patients before these data were used for clinical correlations. Results: Cytoplasmic and nuclear expressions of FoxM1 were found in 63 and 16 of the 64 ESCC tissues, respectively. Low cytoplasmic expression of FoxM1 was correlated with early pathological stage in ESCC (P = 0.018), while patients with nuclear FoxM1 were younger in age than those without nuclear expression (P < 0.001). Upregulation of FoxM1 mRNA was found in five ESCC cell lines (HKESC-1, HKESC-2, HKESC-3, HKESC-4, and SLMT-1) when compared to non-neoplastic esophageal squamous cell line NE-1 using quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR). Except for HKESC-3, all studied ESCC cell lines demonstrated a high expression of FoxM1 protein using immunoblot. A high mRNA level of FoxM1 was observed in all of the ESCC tissues examined when compared to their adjacent nontumor tissues using qPCR. Conclusion: Cytoplasmic FoxM1 was correlated with pathological stage and might be a biomarker for advanced ESCC. © 2011 The Author(s).published_or_final_versionSpringer Open Choice, 21 Feb 201

Association of Pain Centralization and Patient‐Reported Pain in Active Rheumatoid Arthritis

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/156205/2/acr23994_am.pdfhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/156205/1/acr23994.pd

Impact of genomic testing and patient-reported outcomes on receipt of adjuvant chemotherapy

Practice guidelines incorporate genomic tumor profiling, using results such as the Oncotype DX Recurrence Score (RS), to refine recurrence risk estimates for the large proportion of breast cancer patients with early-stage, estrogen receptor-positive disease. We sought to understand the impact of receiving genomic recurrence risk estimates on breast cancer patients’ well-being and the impact of these patient-reported outcomes on receipt of adjuvant chemotherapy. Participants were 193 women (mean age 57) newly diagnosed with early-stage breast cancer. Women were interviewed before and 2–3 weeks after receiving the RS result between 2011 and 2015. We assessed subsequent receipt of chemotherapy from chart review. After receiving their RS, perceived pros (t = 4.27, P < .001) and cons (t = 8.54, P <.001) of chemotherapy increased from pre-test to post-test, while perceived risk of breast cancer recurrence decreased (t = 2.90, P = .004). Women with high RS tumors were more likely to receive chemotherapy than women with low RS tumors (88 vs. 5 %, OR 0.01, 0.00–0.02, P < .001). Higher distress (OR 2.19, 95 % CI 1.05–4.57, P < .05) and lower perceived cons of chemotherapy (OR 0.50, 95 % CI 0.26–0.97, P < .05) also predicted receipt of chemotherapy. Distressed patients who saw few downsides of chemotherapy received this treatment. Clinicians should consider these factors when discussing chemotherapy with breast cancer patients