The Role of Laparoscopy and Ultrasonography in Pancreatic Head Carcinoma

Objective: The authors performed a prospective evaluation of staging laparoscopy with laparoscopic ultrasonography in predicting surgical resectability in patients with carcinomas of the pancreatic head and periampullary region

Determinants of Cross-Border M&As and Shareholder Wealth Effects in a Globalized World

We analyze theoretical insights and empirical regularities related to factors determining the cross-border mergers and acquisitions (M&As) and impact of M&As on shareholder value of acquires and targets. The analysis of cross-border M&As is a relatively new subject and only recently received rigorous attention in academic research. Within this nascent literature, the survey pays particular attention to the emerging markets, which, in line with their growing role of in the global economy, became an increasingly important arena for cross-border M&As. The existing evidence point out to prevailing challenges in studying cross-border M&As by emerging markets firms. The results are often contradictory and tend to focus on a single country falling short of formally testing existing theories or developing comprehensive theories for emerging economies. We show that the type of factors increasing the value enhancing effects of M&As tends to be similar to the factors affecting the likelihood of M&As transactions. The remaining methodological challenges for the existing studies are related to strong evidence with respect to nonrandom selection of acquisition targets, which, among other “selection issues,” has important implications for choosing counterfactual evidence in order to appropriately compare pre- and postacquisition performance of firms

The validation of a three-stage screening methodology for detecting active convulsive epilepsy in population-based studies in health and demographic surveillance systems.

UNLABELLED: BACKGROUND: There are few studies on the epidemiology of epilepsy in large populations in Low and Middle Income Countries (LMIC). Most studies in these regions use two-stage population-based screening surveys, which are time-consuming and costly to implement in large populations required to generate accurate estimates. We examined the sensitivity and specificity of a three-stage cross-sectional screening methodology in detecting active convulsive epilepsy (ACE), which can be embedded within on-going census of demographic surveillance systems.We validated a three-stage cross-sectional screening methodology on a randomly selected sample of participants of a three-stage prevalence survey of epilepsy. Diagnosis of ACE by an experienced clinician was used as 'gold standard'. We further compared the expenditure of this method with the standard two-stage methodology. RESULTS: We screened 4442 subjects in the validation and identified 35 cases of ACE. Of these, 18 were identified as false negatives, most of whom (15/18) were missed in the first stage and a few (3/18) in the second stage of the three-stage screening. Overall, this methodology had a sensitivity of 48.6% and a specificity of 100%. It was 37% cheaper than a two-stage survey. CONCLUSION: This was the first study to evaluate the performance of a multi-stage screening methodology used to detect epilepsy in demographic surveillance sites. This method had poor sensitivity attributed mainly to stigma-related non-response in the first stage. This method needs to take into consideration the poor sensitivity and the savings in expenditure and time as well as validation in target populations. Our findings suggest the need for continued efforts to develop and improve case-ascertainment methods in population-based epidemiological studies of epilepsy in LMIC

MR-Bildgebung der NierenNeue Ansätze in der Diagnostik*

Fragestellung: Darstellung neuer diagnostischer Möglichkeiten im Bereich der Niere mittels schneller Magnetresonanz (MR)- Bildgebung. Methodik: Vorgestellt wird ein kombiniertes morphologisches und funktionelles Untersuchungskonzept bestehend aus schneller morphologischer Bildgebung, multiphasischer 3D-Gadolinium-MR-Angiographie, MR-Urographie und MR-Flußmessung. In einer einzigen MR-Untersuchung sollen vaskuläre Erkrankungen erfaßt, eingestuft und auf ihre hämodynamische und funktionelle Signifikanz überprüft werden, renale Läsionen detektiert und differenziert sowie die Harnabflußwege beurteilt werden. Ergebnisse: Durch Integration der gewonnenen morphologischen und funktionellen Daten lassen sich Nierenarterienstenosen, benigne und maligne renale Tumoren, Harnabflußstörungen und kongenitale Fehlbildungen mit ähnlicher Genauigkeit wie in den konventionellen radiologischen Verfahren erfassen. Der Nachteil der geringeren räumlichen Auflösung kann dabei weitgehend durch den besseren Gewebekontrast und die zusätzliche, funktionelle Information kompensiert werden. Schlußfolgerung: Ein kombiniertes MR-Untersuchungskonzept stellt ein zuverlässiges, nicht-invasives und kosteneffektives Verfahren zur umfassenden diagnostischen Abklärung der Niere dar. Aim: New diagnostic strategies for evaluation of the kidney by fast MR imaging techniques.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/41883/1/117-39-5-373_90390373.pd

Ice fog in arctic during fram-ice fog project aviation and nowcasting applications

Increased understanding of ice fog microphysics can improve frost and ice fog prediction using forecast models and remote-sensing retrievals, thereby reducing potential hazards to aviationValiderad; 2014; 20140502 (andbra