Regulation vs. the Market: The Case of Bicycle Safety (Part II)

In this part, Professor Petty examines bicycle Risk in detail, comparing the accomplishments of the CPSC\u27s bicycle standard with market forces resulting in, e.g., the development and use of hardshell bicycle helmets. Moreover, he briefly discusses the role of tort liability in managing Risk. Ultimately he concludes that, in the case of bicycle safety, regulation has failed to be as effective as other forces tending to reduce bicycle injuries. [Part I appears at 77.

Regulation vs. the Market: The Case of Bicycle Safety (Part I)

This part of the article describes events leading to the creation of the Consumer Product Safety Commission - and the on-going debate between those who believe safety regulation is necessary and those who believe that market forces can achieve acceptable levels of Risk. The author also sets the stage for a detailed examination of bicycle Risk. In the next issue, he compares the accomplishments of the CPSC\u27s bicycle standard with, e.g., the development and use of hard-shell bicycle helmets. Moreover, he discusses the role of tort liability in managing Risk and ultimately concludes that, in the case of bicycle safety, regulation has failed to be as effective as market forces and tort litigation in reducing injuries

Covert Marketing Unmasked: A Legal and Regulatory Guide for Practices that Mask Marketing Messages

Masked marketing—one form of covert marketing—involves marketing communications that appear to be from independent third parties rather than from product marketers. This article presents a typology of masked marketing practices, illustrating whether they may be deceptive to consumers. To accomplish this, the authors apply the Federal Trade Commission’s three-part definition of deception (i.e., misleadingness, reasonable consumer, and materiality) in the evaluation of such practices. The article concludes with policy recommendations including areas for further research

Regulating Target Marketing and Other Race-Based Advertising Practices

Recognizing the significant role that advertising plays in American life, this article examines the phenomenon of race-based targeted marketing as a contributing factor to the racial tension of our media age and evaluates the role of government regulation in preventing the dissemination of racist messages through advertising. In Part I, the article first looks at the evolution of mass marketing into today\u27s standard use of targeted marketing techniques, and especially how those techniques can sometimes have racist effects. In Part II, the article discusses both measurable and esoteric harms of cultural racism. Part III examines existing laws designed to regulate advertising generally and specific laws that reach discriminatory advertising for particular products and services. Part IV specifically analyzes the Federal Trade Commission\u27s existing authority to regulate unfairness in advertising as it might be used to prevent advertising with racist effects. Finally, recognizing the difficulty of governmental intervention in the marketplace, this article suggests guidelines for use by advertisers who affirmatively wish to avoid advertising practices that cause racist harms

Novel biomarkers for risk stratification of Barrett's oesophagus associated neoplastic progression-epithelial HMGB1 expression and stromal lymphocytic phenotype

The preparation of this paper was funded in part by the Pathological Society of Great Britain and Ireland (intercalated degree educational studentship to R.J.P.). All data is published within this paper and within accompanying supporting files (indicated in text) and accessed via weblink on the journal site.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

A functional-cognitive framework for attitude research

In attitude research, behaviours are often used as proxies for attitudes and attitudinal processes. This practice is problematic because it conflates the behaviours that need to be explained (explanandum) with the mental constructs that are used to explain these behaviours (explanans). In the current chapter we propose a meta-theoretical framework that resolves this problem by distinguishing between two levels of analysis. According to the proposed framework, attitude research can be conceptualised as the scientific study of evaluation. Evaluation is defined not in terms of mental constructs but in terms of elements in the environment, more specifically, as the effect of stimuli on evaluative responses. From this perspective, attitude research provides answers to two questions: (1) Which elements in the environment moderate evaluation? (2) What mental processes and representations mediate evaluation? Research on the first question provides explanations of evaluative responses in terms of elements in the environment (functional level of analysis); research on the second question offers explanations of evaluation in terms of mental processes and representations (cognitive level of analysis). These two levels of analysis are mutually supportive, in that better explanations at one level lead to better explanations at the other level. However, their mutually supportive relation requires a clear distinction between the concepts of their explanans and explanandum, which are conflated if behaviours are treated as proxies for mental constructs. The value of this functional-cognitive framework is illustrated by applying it to four central questions of attitude research

An investigation of the clinical impact and therapeutic relevance of a DNA damage immune response (DDIR) signature in patients with advanced gastroesophageal adenocarcinoma

Background: An improved understanding of which gastroesophageal adenocarcinoma (GOA) patients respond to both chemotherapy and immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICI) is needed. We investigated the predictive role and underlying biology of a 44-gene DNA damage immune response (DDIR) signature in patients with advanced GOA. Materials and methods: Transcriptional profiling was carried out on pretreatment tissue from 252 GOA patients treated with platinum-based chemotherapy (three dose levels) within the randomized phase III GO2 trial. Cross-validation was carried out in two independent GOA cohorts with transcriptional profiling, immune cell immunohistochemistry and epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH) (n = 430). Results: In the GO2 trial, DDIR-positive tumours had a greater radiological response (51.7% versus 28.5%, P = 0.022) and improved overall survival in a dose-dependent manner (P = 0.028). DDIR positivity was associated with a pretreatment inflamed tumour microenvironment (TME) and increased expression of biomarkers associated with ICI response such as CD274 (programmed death-ligand 1, PD-L1) and a microsatellite instability RNA signature. Consensus pathway analysis identified EGFR as a potential key determinant of the DDIR signature. EGFR amplification was associated with DDIR negativity and an immune cold TME. Conclusions: Our results indicate the importance of the GOA TME in chemotherapy response, its relationship to DNA damage repair and EGFR as a targetable driver of an immune cold TME. Chemotherapy-sensitive inflamed GOAs could benefit from ICI delivered in combination with standard chemotherapy. Combining EGFR inhibitors and ICIs warrants further investigation in patients with EGFR-amplified tumours

Influence of Nanoparticle Size and Shape on Oligomer Formation of an Amyloidogenic Peptide

Understanding the influence of macromolecular crowding and nanoparticles on the formation of in-register $\beta$-sheets, the primary structural component of amyloid fibrils, is a first step towards describing \emph{in vivo} protein aggregation and interactions between synthetic materials and proteins. Using all atom molecular simulations in implicit solvent we illustrate the effects of nanoparticle size, shape, and volume fraction on oligomer formation of an amyloidogenic peptide from the transthyretin protein. Surprisingly, we find that inert spherical crowding particles destabilize in-register $\beta$-sheets formed by dimers while stabilizing $\beta$-sheets comprised of trimers and tetramers. As the radius of the nanoparticle increases crowding effects decrease, implying smaller crowding particles have the largest influence on the earliest amyloid species. We explain these results using a theory based on the depletion effect. Finally, we show that spherocylindrical crowders destabilize the ordered $\beta$-sheet dimer to a greater extent than spherical crowders, which underscores the influence of nanoparticle shape on protein aggregation