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Unique Setting (unique + setting)

Distribution by Scientific Domains

Medical Sciences	50%
Business, Economics, Finance and Accounting	50%

Selected Abstracts

Hepatitis B virus variants in patients receiving lamivudine treatment with breakthrough hepatitis evaluated by serial viral loads and full-length viral sequences

HEPATOLOGY, Issue 3 2001
Chun-Jen Liu
Both viral loads and genome variations have been implicated in the pathogenesis of acute exacerbation of chronic hepatitis B. Hepatitis B exacerbation in patients receiving lamivudine treatment represented a unique setting to clarify their importance. Three organ recipients with posttransplantation hepatitis B exacerbation and 3 patients with chronic hepatitis B were studied. All received lamivudine treatment and their alanine aminotransferase (ALT) levels and hepatitis B virus (HBV) loads were regularly followed. Full-length genomic sequences before and during lamivudine treatment were determined in patients who had breakthrough of serum HBV DNA or elevation of serum ALT. Breakthrough of serum HBV DNA occurred after 6 to 15 months of lamivudine treatment in all. A rapid increase of viral load accompanying the emergence of tyrosine-methionine-aspartate-aspartate (YMDD) variant was followed by hepatitis B exacerbation in each patient. The mean number of nucleotide and amino acid substitutions per genome pair was equivalent in immunosuppressed or immunocompetent patients (6.3 vs. 6.3 for nucleotide, P > .05; 6.0 vs. 6.7 for amino acid, P > .05). Changes of nucleotide and amino acid beyond the YMDD motif were distributed along the whole HBV genome but none occurred within the known B-cell epitopes and human leukocyte antigen class I, or II,restricted T-cell epitopes. Our results suggest that a resurgence of viral load rather than changes of the known immunogenic viral epitopes is more closely associated with the development of hepatitis B exacerbation after the emergence of YMDD variants in patients receiving lamivudine treatment. (HEPATOLOGY 2001;34:583-589.) [source]

IAS Versus U.S. GAAP: Information Asymmetry,Based Evidence from Germany's New Market

JOURNAL OF ACCOUNTING RESEARCH, Issue 3 2003
CHRISTIAN LEUZ
abstract Motivated by the debate about globally uniform accounting standards, this study investigates whether firms using U.S. generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) vis-à-vis international accounting standards (IAS) exhibit differences in several proxies for information asymmetry. It exploits a unique setting in which the two sets of standards are put on a level playing field. Firms trading in Germany's New Market must choose between IAS and U.S. GAAP for financial reporting, but face the same regulatory environment otherwise. Thus, institutional factors such as listing requirements, market microstructure, and standards enforcement are held constant. In this setting, differences in the bid-ask spread and share turnover between IAS and U.S. GAAP firms are statistically insignificant and economically small. Subsequent analyses of analysts' forecast dispersion, initial public offering underpricing, and firms' standard choices corroborate these findings. Thus, at least for New Market firms, the choice between IAS and U.S. GAAP appears to be of little consequence for information asymmetry and market liquidity. These findings do not support widespread claims that U.S. GAAP produce financial statements of higher informational quality than IAS. [source]

Analyst forecasts and price discovery in futures markets: The case of natural gas storage

THE JOURNAL OF FUTURES MARKETS, Issue 5 2009
Gerald D. Gay
We investigate analyst forecasts in a unique setting, the natural gas storage market, and study the contribution of analysts in facilitating price discovery in futures markets. Using a high-frequency database of analyst storage forecasts, we show that the market appears to condition expectations regarding a weekly storage release on the analyst forecasts and beyond that of various statistical-based models. Further, we find that the market looks through the reported consensus analyst forecast and places differential emphasis on the individual forecasts of analysts according to their prior accuracy. Also, the market appears to place greater emphasis on analysts' long-term accuracy than on their recent accuracy. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Jrl Fut Mark 29:451,477, 2009 [source]

Palliative care in the hinterlands: A description of existing services and doctors' attitudes

AUSTRALIAN JOURNAL OF RURAL HEALTH, Issue 6 2005
Glenn J. Pereira
Abstract Objective:,To describe palliative care services as they exist in the hinterlands (towns away from regional centres) of Midwest New South Wales, including an estimation of the numbers of cases treated by local doctors, and the service they provide to their patients. Generalist doctors' attitudes to palliative care are also explored, as this information is lacking in the literature but is important for service provision. Design:,Descriptive survey. Setting:,Rural primary care and district hospitals. Participants:,Generalist doctors in hinterland areas. Results:,In total, 38% (19/50) of surveys were returned. ,Visiting rights' to the district hospital were held by 78.9% of local doctors, and patients are admitted under the care of their own doctor for symptom control and terminal care, 94.1% and 76.5% of the time, respectively. All doctors surveyed perform home visits for terminally ill patients, and 68.4% make themselves routinely available after hours. Doctors surveyed estimated that they managed a mean of 8.4 deaths due to chronic illness in the past 12 months. Most (78.9%) said that they would continue to manage dying patients even if they had a choice, and they feel between moderately and very satisfied that they provide quality care. However, only 21.1% considered their undergraduate training in palliative medicine to be adequate, and all said that they would refer to a specialist service if it were available. Conclusions:,Generalist rural doctors not only treat many dying patients, but also provide a continuity of care that is rarely seen in other settings. Proposals of models for ,rural' palliative care should, therefore, take this unique setting into account. One such suggestion is given in this article. [source]