Not “Financing a Sham”

A "glyconutrient sham".

The discipline of glycobiology contributes to our understanding of human health and disease through research, most of which is published in peer-reviewed scientific journals. Recently, legitimate discoveries in glycobiology have been used as marketing tools to help sell plant extracts termed "glyconutrients." The glyconutrient industry has a worldwide sales force of over half a million people a...

Not-for-profit hospitals underuse short-term financing strategies.

Sham TMS – A New Approach

Discussion: Sham TMS is a tradeoff between competing quality criteria. So far, the applied sham conditions accepted a reduced cortex stimulation effect to imitate the sensations of verum stimulation. We here focused on the development of a sham condition with only minor cortex stimulation. This was achieved by using a mu-metal shield between a double-coil arrangement. With two coils of the same...

Is Skin-Touch Sham Needle Not Placebo? A Double-Blind Crossover Study on Pain Alleviation

It remains an open question whether placebo/sham acupuncture, in which the needle tip presses the skin, can be used as a placebo device for research on pain. We compare the analgesic effect of the skin-touch placebo needle with that of the no-touch placebo needle, in which the needle tip does not touch the skin, in a double-blind crossover manner including no-treatment control in 23 healthy vol...

Financing a Planned Economy

The role of banking and nance in the Golden Age of European growth (1950-1973) is very little known and widely underestimated. This paper studies the French system of economic planning and investment-based strategy that enhanced medium and long term nancing (called 'invest-ment credit'). First, I describe the new institutions that were built after WWII to organize credit allocation and especial...