Pillar 3 and Modelling of Stakeholders’ Behaviour at the Commercial Bank Website during the Recent Financial Crisis

AbstractThe paper analyses domestic and foreign market participants’ interests in mandatory Basel 2, Pillar 3 information disclosure of a commercial bank during the recent financial crisis. The authors try to ascertain whether the purposes of Basel 2 regulations under the Pillar 3 - Market discipline, publishing the financial and risk related information, have been fulfilled. Therefore, the paper focuses on modelling of visitors’ behaviour at the commercial bank website where information according to Basel 2 is available. The authors present a detailed analysis of the user log data stored by web servers. The analysis can help better understand the rate of use of the mandatory and optional Pillar 3 information disclosure web pages at the commercial bank website in the recent financial crisis in Slovakia. The authors used association rule analysis to identify the association among content categories of the website. The results show that there is in general a small interest of stakeholders in mandating the commercial bank's disclosure of financial information. Foreign website visitors were more concerned about information disclosure according to Pillar 3, Basel 2 regulation, and they have less interest in general information about the bank than domestic ones

What Is the Role of HSCT in Philadelphia-Chromosome-Positive and Philadelphia-Chromosome-Like ALL in the Tyrosine Kinase Inhibitor Era?

Previously, the outcome of paediatric Philadelphia-chromosome-positive (Ph+) ALL treated with conventional chemotherapy alone was poor, necessitating the use of haematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) for the best outcomes. The recent addition of tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) alongside the chemotherapy regimens for Ph+ ALL has markedly improved outcomes, replacing the need for HSCT for lower risk patients. An additional poor prognosis group of Philadelphia-chromosome-like (Ph-like) ALL has also been identified. This group also can be targeted by TKIs in combination with chemotherapy, but the role of HSCT in this population is not clear. The impact of novel targeted immunotherapies (chimeric antigen receptor T cells and bispecific or drug-conjugated antibodies) has improved the outcome of patients, in combination with chemotherapy, and made the role of HSCT as the optimal curative therapy for Ph+ ALL and Ph-like ALL less clear. The prognosis of patients with Ph+ ALL and persistent minimal residual disease (MRD) at the end of consolidation despite TKI therapy or with additional genetic risk factors remains inferior when HSCT is not used. For such high-risk patients, HSCT using total-body-irradiation-containing conditioning is currently recommended. This review aims to provide an update on the current and future role of HSCT for Ph+ ALL and addresses key questions related to the management of these patients, including the role of HSCT in first complete remission, MRD evaluation and related actions post HSCT, TKI usage post HSCT, and the putative role of HSCT in Ph-like ALL.Peer reviewe

IT tools in a university - E-learning environment : students' opinion survey

Publikacja jest wydana w ramach projektu unijnego IRNet (www.irnet.us.edu.pl)This article presents a diagnostic instrument and data analysis results within the European IRNet Project, Work Package 3. One of the aims of the survey was to analyze the benefits of a modern university e-learning environment, students’ opinion about an e-learning environment and its IT tools. The data cannot only be the basis of determining the degree of students’ activity in a university e-learning environment, but can also help to identify ways to improve a university electronic environment. The paper includes results of the research carried out at several partner universities - Herzen State Pedagogical University of Russia, St. Petersburg (HSPU), The University of Silesia in Katowice (US), Poland, Borys Grinchenko Kyiv University (BGKU) and Constantine the Philosopher University in Nitra (UKF), Slovakia.University of Silesia, E

Immune phenotype in children with therapy-naïve remitted and relapsed Crohn’s disease

AIM To characterize the prevalence of subpopulations of CD4+ cells along with that of major inhibitor or stimulator cell types in therapy naive childhood Crohn s disease (CD) and to test whether abnormalities of immune phenotype are normalized with the improvement of clinical signs and symptoms of disease METHODS We enrolled 26 pediatric patients with CD 14 therapy naive CD children, of those, 10 children remitted on conventional therapy and formed the re mission group We also tested another group of 12 children who relapsed with conventional therapy and were given infliximab, and 15 healthy children who served as controls The prevalence of Th1 and Th2, naive and memory, activated and regulatory T cells, along with the members of innate immunity such as natural killer (NK), NK T, myeloid and plasmocytoid dendritic cells (DCs), monocytes and Toll like receptor (TLR) 2 and TLR 4 expression were determined in peripheral blood samples RESULTS Children with therapy naive CD and those in relapse showed a decrease in Th1 cell prevalence Simultaneously, an increased prevalence of memory and activated lymphocytes along with that of DCs and monocytes was observed In addition, the ratio of myeloid/plasmocytoid DCs and the prevalence of TLR2 or TLR4 positive DCs and monocytes were also higher in therapy naive CD than in controls The majority of alterations diminished in remitted CD irrespective of whether remission was obtained by conventional or biological therapy CONCLUSION The finding that immune phenotype is normalized in remission suggests a link between immune phenotype and disease activity in childhood CD Our observations support the involvement of members of the adaptive and innate immune systems in childhood CD (C) 2010 Baishideng All rights reserve

The impact of donor type on the outcome of pediatric patients with very high risk acute lymphoblastic leukemia. A study of the ALL SCT 2003 BFM-SG and 2007-BFM-International SG

Allogeneic HSCT represents the only potentially curative treatment for very high risk (VHR) ALL. Two consecutive international prospective studies, ALL-SCT-(I)BFM 2003 and 2007 were conducted in 1150 pediatric patients. 569 presented with VHR disease leading to any kind of HSCT. All patients >2 year old were transplanted after TBI-based MAC. The median follow-up was 5 years. 463 patients were transplanted from matched donor (MD) and 106 from mismatched donor (MMD). 214 were in CR1. Stem cell source was unmanipulated BM for 330 patients, unmanipulated PBSC for 135, ex vivo T-cell depleted PBSC for 62 and cord-blood for 26. There were more advanced disease, more ex vivo T-cell depletion, and more chemotherapy based conditioning regimen for patients transplanted from MMD as compared to those transplanted from MSD or MD. Median follow up (reversed Kaplan Meier estimator) was 4.99 years, median follow up of survivals was 4.88, range (0.01–11.72) years. The 4-year CI of extensive cGvHD was 13 ± 2% and 17 ± 4% (p = NS) for the patients transplanted from MD and MMD, respectively. 4-year EFS was statistically better for patients transplanted from MD (60 ± 2% vs. 42 ± 5%, p < 0.001) for the whole cohort. This difference does not exist if considering separately patients treated in the most recent study. There was no difference in 4-year CI of relapse. The 4-year NRM was lower for patients transplanted from MD (9 ± 1% vs. 23 ± 4%, p < 0.001). In multivariate analysis, donor-type appears as a negative risk-factor for OS, EFS, and NRM. This paper demonstrates the impact of donor type on overall results of allogeneic stem cell transplantation for very-high risk pediatric acute lymphoblastic leukemia with worse results when using MMD stem cell source

Enterococcus devriesei sp. nov., associated with animal sources

http://ijs.sgmjournals.org/The taxonomic position of two bovine strains, LMG 13603 and LMG 14595, assigned to the species Enterococcus raffinosus on the basis of biochemical features, was reinvestigated. Both reference strains and two other isolates, 6/1 (=LMG 22829) originating from a charcoal-broiled river lamprey and IE38.4 (=LMG 22830) from the air of a poultry slaughter by-product processing plant, occupied a clearly separate position, on the basis of sequence analysis of the housekeeping gene pheS (encoding the phenylalanyl-tRNA synthase a-subunit), relative to the type strain of E. raffinosus and all other enterococcal species with validly published names. 16S rRNA gene sequencing of strains LMG 13603, LMG 14595, 6/1 and IE38.4 confirmed their phylogenetic position in the Enterococcus avium species group, there being more than 99% 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity to most members of the group, including E. raffinosus, and revealed Enterococcus pseudoavium as the closest phylogenetic relative (99,8–99,9 %). Further phenotypic and genotypic analyses using whole-cell-protein electrophoresis, (GTG)5-PCR fingerprinting, ribotyping and DNA–DNA hybridization experiments demonstrated that all four strains represent a novel enterococcal species, for which the name Enterococcus devriesei sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is LMG 14595T (=CCM 7299T)

Conceptual framework for programming skilss development based on microlearning and automated source code evaluation in virtual learning environment

Understanding how software works and writing a program are currently frequent requirements when hiring employees. The complexity of learning programming often results in educational failures, student frustration and lack of motivation, because different students prefer different learning paths. Although e-learning courses have led to many improvements in the methodology and the supporting technology for more effective programming learning, misunderstanding of programming principles is one of the main reasons for students leaving school early. Universities face a challenging task: how to harmonise students’ education, focusing on advanced knowledge in the development of software applications, with students’ education in cases where writing code is a new skill. The article proposes a conceptual framework focused on the comprehensive training of future programmers using microlearning and automatic evaluation of source codes to achieve immediate feedback for students. This framework is designed to involve students in the software development of virtual learning environment software that will provide their education, thus ensuring the sustainability of the environment in line with modern development trends. The paper’s final part is devoted to verifying the contribution of the presented elements through quantitative research on the introductory parts of the framework. It turned out that although the application of interactive features did not lead to significant measurable progress during the first semester of study, it significantly improved the results of students in subsequent courses focused on advanced programming