Effects of long-acting testosterone undecanoate on bone mineral density in middle-aged men with late-onset hypogonadism and metabolic syndrome: results from a 36 months controlled study

We evaluated the effects of long-term testosterone replacement therapy (TRT) on the bone mineral density (BMD) in obese patients with metabolic syndrome (MS) and late-onset hypogonadism (LOH). Sixty men (mean age 57 ± 10) with low serum testosterone (T < 320 ng/dL) and MS regardless the presence of osteoporosis were enrolled. Forty men received intramuscular T-undecanoate (TU) four times/year for 36 months and 20 age-matched hypogonadal men with MS in whom T treatment was contraindicated were used as controls. Hormonal, biochemical markers, vertebral and femoral BMD by dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry were measured. At baseline, overall patients had mild osteopenia (lumbar BMD= 0.891 ± 0.097 g/cm(2); femoral BMD= 0.847 ± 0.117 g/cm(2)). TU induced a significant improvement of bone mass after 36 months (lumbar BMD=1.053 ± 0.145 g/cm(2); p < 0.002; femoral BMD=0.989 ± 0.109; p < 0.003 g/cm(2)) with a 5%/year increase and a significant reduction in hs-CRP without changes in body mass index. A direct relationship between serum T and BMD increments at the lumbar (r(2)?= 0.66, p < 0.0001) and femoral (r(2)?=0.52, p < 0.0001) sites was demonstrated. Study adherence was 50% without serious side effects. Long-term TRT in middle-aged men with LOH and MS determines a significant increase in both vertebral and femoral BMD related to increased serum T levels, probably independently from estradiol modifications.     

Prevalence analysis of urinary incontinence after radical prostatectomy and influential preoperative factors in a single institution

Aims: To assess prevalence of urinary incontinence (UI) after radical prostatectomy (RP) and to analyze which preoperative characteristics of the patients have influence on UI.

Methods: Between 2002 and 2012, 746 consecutive patients underwent RP for clinically localized prostate cancer. We defined UI according to International Continence Society (ICS) definition: “the complaint of any involuntary leakage of urine” after 12?months of recovery, international consultation on incontinence questionnaire (ICIQ-SF) and pads/day was collected too. Clinical features and magnetic resonance imaging measurements were assessed. A multivariable logistic regression model predicting incontinence were built-in after adjust by cofounding factors and bootstrapping.

Results: About 172 (23%) of the patients were classified as incontinent according to the ICS definition. The mean value of the ICIQ-SF was 10.87 (±4). 17.8% of patients use at least one pad/day, 11.9% use more than one pad/day. The preoperative factors independently influential in UI are: age [OR: 1.055; CI 95% (1.006–1.107), p?=?.028], urethral wall thickness [OR: 5.03; CI 95% (1.11–22.8), p?=?.036], history of transurethral resection of the prostate [OR: 6.13; CI 95% (1.86–20.18), p?=?.003] and membranous urethral length [OR: 0.173; CI 95% (0.046–0.64), p?=?.009]. The predictive accuracy of the model is 78.7% and the area under the curve (AUC) value 71.7%.

Conclusions: Urinary incontinence after radical prostatectomy has different prevalence depending on the definition. Age, prior transurethral resection of the prostate (TURP), membranous urethral length (MUL) and urethral wall thickness (UWT) were risk factors.     

PLUG-IN ESTIMATION OF GENERAL LEVEL SETS

Given an unknown function (e.g. a probability density, a regression function, …) f and a constant c, the problem of estimating the level set L(c) ={f≥c} is considered. This problem is tackled in a very general framework, which allows f to be defined on a metric space different from . Such a degree of generality is motivated by practical considerations and, in fact, an example with astronomical data is analyzed where the domain of f is the unit sphere. A plug‐in approach is followed; that is, L(c) is estimated by L_n(c) ={f_n≥c} , where f_n is an estimator of f. Two results are obtained concerning consistency and convergence rates, with respect to the Hausdorff metric, of the boundaries ?L_n(c) towards ?L(c) . Also, the consistency of L_n(c) to L(c) is shown, under mild conditions, with respect to the L₁ distance. Special attention is paid to the particular case of spherical data.     

The Long Road: Rural Youth,Farming and Agroecological Formación in Central America

Across the globe, the countryside faces the “generation problem”: Who will grow food when the current generation of aging small farmers and peasants disappears? A combination of objective and subjective factors effectively discourages young people from assuming the continuity of peasant and family farming, especially in countries that have experienced significant neoliberal dismantling of rural infrastructure and education. Rural social movements are increasingly building educational processes linked with small-scale, ecological farming in the hopes of reinforcing the development of identities and skills for peasant futures and cadre in the struggle for popular land reform, agroecology, and food sovereignty.     

Dealing with omitted answers in a survey on social integration of immigrants in Italy

ABSTRACT

Surveys are used to infer the level of social integration of immigrants. Item response theory helps to describe the relationship among responses to test items and latent traits of interest. However, in the presence of nonignorable missing data, which are omitted responses depending on the latent traits to be measured, estimates of the model parameters are biased. To account for nonignorable missing data, the quantity and quality of contacts between immigrants and natives (so called “social integration”) are taken into account through a linear function of the response propensity. Higher education, no intention to migrate again, young age, Albanian nationality, and declaring a non-Muslim religion or none, comparatively favor social integration.     

Open collaborative innovation and digital platforms

Abstract

This study uses contract theory to analyse the relationship between open collaborative innovation strategies and digital platforms. We argue that a collaborative mechanism and governance of the platform affect how operations are run and impact firm ambidexterity. We also explain how the twofold revealing strategy, both selective and free occurs via the platform and how governance positively impacts the coordination mechanism. A case study analysis on TIM OPEN draws a ground-breaking framework for future investigations. The analysis suggests that the combination of digital platform and collaborative innovation can facilitate the creative process and be a driver of operational synergies. Results confirm that the adoption of digital platforms for collaborative innovations reduces transaction costs.     

Measuring inequality of opportunity through between-group inequality components

Opportunity egalitarians support rich-to-poor redistribution whenever this allows for the compensation of income disparities due to non-responsible choices (circumstances). In this paper we focus on the measurement of opportunity inequality within Roemer’s (Philos Public Aff 22:146–166, 1993) pragmatic theory where a disjoint and exhaustive partition rule is assumed such that individuals within the same population can be grouped depending on the sole circumstances. Given entropy-based, deprivation-based and welfaristic inequality decomposition procedures, we show that the between-group Gini component from Dagum’s decomposition is the only well known between-group inequality index satisfying the Pigou-Dalton principle of transfer as reformulated for opportunity egalitarianism.     

Equitable Selection in Bilateral Matching Markets

This paper presents a procedure to select equitable stable allocations in two-sided matching markets without side payments. The Equitable set is computed using the Equitable algorithm. The algorithm limits the set of options available for each agent throughout the procedure. The stable matchings selected are generally not extreme, form a lattice and satisfy the condition of being “Ralwsian” in each partition of the market. The Equitable algorithm can also be used to select a particular matching from the Equitable Set favoring particular agents independent of the side of the market to which they belong.     

Ownership Structure,Corporate Value and Firm Investment: A Simultaneous Equations Analysis of Spanish Companies

This paper is concerned with the set of mutualrelationships between firm valuation andinvestment, and with the possible endogeneityof ownership structure. In order to deal withthem properly, we aim to test the mutual impactof investment, corporate value and ownership bybroadening the usual framework with asimultaneous equations approach. Using a sampleof 140 Spanish listed companies for the1991–1997 period, we have found that,consistent with previous research, thealignment and entrenchment hypotheses seem tobe confirmed by the estimation of aone-equation model. However, when analyzed bymeans of a system of simultaneous equations inwhich a set of mutual relationships isintroduced, quite different results wereobtained. Although valuation and investment offirms are determined by managerial ownership,we have found that ownership structure may alsobe influenced both by investment and value.Consequently, it is not completely right toinfer that ownership structure determines firmvalue unidirectionally; however the benchmarkshould be broadened so as to take an explicitaccount of the mutual links between firm value,investment and ownership.