The culture variable vis-à-vis anti-bribery law: a grey area in transnational corporate criminal liability

Cross-border transactions are generating corresponding globalisation of law enforcement efforts. Culture has significantly influenced the legal analysis of anti-bribery law. With the increase of transnational bribery, benefits from globalisation will be undermined unless an effective legal regime can mitigate the harm of bribery. It is perceived that corruption in China is more prevalent than in the West given its embedded place in Chinese culture. It is further alleged that Chinese multinational companies (MNCs) are taking advantage of an unlevel playing field, as they are not subject to stringently-enforced anti-bribery laws. This hypothesis creates a myriad of anti-bribery problems in terms of legislation and enforcement, which particularly manifest in China’s perceived cultural toleration of bribery. Cultural assumptions undermine the global anti-bribery regime and compromise potential collaborative anti-bribery efforts across jurisdictions in a rapidly globalizing world. The Chinese culture does not necessarily impede China’s criminalisation of paying bribes to foreign officials. It is argued that the cultural role should not be overestimated, otherwise the hazard of the ethnocentric engagement with the Chinese culture would affect the ability of foreign MNCs to integrate their global compliance programmes. Multinationals can only mitigate their exposure to criminal liability globally, provided that they comply robustly with anti-bribery laws of both home and host jurisdictions

Cancer Biomarker Discovery: The Entropic Hallmark

Background: It is a commonly accepted belief that cancer cells modify their transcriptional state during the progression of the disease. We propose that the progression of cancer cells towards malignant phenotypes can be efficiently tracked using high-throughput technologies that follow the gradual changes observed in the gene expression profiles by employing Shannon's mathematical theory of communication. Methods based on Information Theory can then quantify the divergence of cancer cells' transcriptional profiles from those of normally appearing cells of the originating tissues. The relevance of the proposed methods can be evaluated using microarray datasets available in the public domain but the method is in principle applicable to other high-throughput methods. Methodology/Principal Findings: Using melanoma and prostate cancer datasets we illustrate how it is possible to employ Shannon Entropy and the Jensen-Shannon divergence to trace the transcriptional changes progression of the disease. We establish how the variations of these two measures correlate with established biomarkers of cancer progression. The Information Theory measures allow us to identify novel biomarkers for both progressive and relatively more sudden transcriptional changes leading to malignant phenotypes. At the same time, the methodology was able to validate a large number of genes and processes that seem to be implicated in the progression of melanoma and prostate cancer. Conclusions/Significance: We thus present a quantitative guiding rule, a new unifying hallmark of cancer: the cancer cell's transcriptome changes lead to measurable observed transitions of Normalized Shannon Entropy values (as measured by high-throughput technologies). At the same time, tumor cells increment their divergence from the normal tissue profile increasing their disorder via creation of states that we might not directly measure. This unifying hallmark allows, via the the Jensen-Shannon divergence, to identify the arrow of time of the processes from the gene expression profiles, and helps to map the phenotypical and molecular hallmarks of specific cancer subtypes. The deep mathematical basis of the approach allows us to suggest that this principle is, hopefully, of general applicability for other diseases

Rituximab (MabThera) in bilateral ischaemic optic neuropathy due to Churg-Strauss syndrome

Free paper presentations: FP-NEO-11

Sequential therapy with ranibizumab and dexamethasone intravitreal implant is better than dexamethasone monotherapy for macular oedema due to retinal vein occlusion

PURPOSE: To evaluate the efficacy and safety of sequential therapy with ranibizumab followed by dexamethasone intravitreal implant compared with dexamethasone monotherapy for macular oedema (MO) secondary to retinal vein occlusion (RVO). METHODS: In this retrospective interventional study, the medical records of subjects with MO due to RVO who received either ranibizumab followed by dexamethasone intravitreal implant (Group 1) or dexamethasone-implant monotherapy (Group 2) were included. Primary outcome was the proportion of subjects who exhibited best-corrected visual acuity (VA) gain and resolution of MO within 6 months. RESULTS: Thirty-three eyes were included (17 in Group 1, 16 in Group 2). More subjects in Group 1 exhibited a VA gain of at least 0.5 (LogMAR units hereafter) than Group 2 (29% vs 0%, p=0.044). The speed of VA gain was greater in Group 1 (1.4+/-0.8 months vs 2.7+/-1.4 months, p=0.020). MO was controlled in more subjects in Group 1 at all measured time intervals, and this difference was statistically significant at 3 months and 4 months. Subjects with branch RVO experienced VA gain more rapidly if they were from Group 1 (p=0.023). CONCLUSIONS: Sequential therapy was found to be more effective than dexamethasone monotherapy in treating MO due to RVO

Sequential therapy with ranibizumab and dexamethasone intravitreal implant is better than dexamethasone monotherapy for macular oedema due to retinal vein occlusion

Purpose To evaluate the efficacy and safety of sequential therapy with ranibizumab followed by dexamethasone intravitreal implant compared with dexamethasone monotherapy for macular oedema (MO) secondary to retinal vein occlusion (RVO). Methods In this retrospective interventional study, the medical records of subjects with MO due to RVO who received either ranibizumab followed by dexamethasone intravitreal implant (Group 1) or dexamethasone-implant monotherapy (Group 2) were included. Primary outcome was the proportion of subjects who exhibited best-corrected visual acuity (VA) gain and resolution of MO within 6 months. Results Thirty-three eyes were included (17 in Group 1, 16 in Group 2). More subjects in Group 1 exhibited a VA gain of at least 0.5 (LogMAR units hereafter) than Group 2 (29% vs 0%, p=0.044). The speed of VA gain was greater in Group 1 (1.4±0.8 months vs 2.7±1.4 months, p=0.020). MO was controlled in more subjects in Group 1 at all measured time intervals, and this difference was statistically significant at 3 months and 4 months. Subjects with branch RVO experienced VA gain more rapidly if they were from Group 1 (p=0.023). Conclusions Sequential therapy was found to be more effective than dexamethasone monotherapy in treating MO due to RVO. © 2014 by the BMJ Publishing Group Ltd