The paper presents clinical observation of a patient with cholelithiasis and so-called “difficult” choledocholithiasis. Considering the developed complications – mechanical jaundice purulent cholangitis, as well large operative risk, it was decided to refrain from open surgical intervention. Traditionally-performed endoscopic stone extraction did not provide any success. Contact electro-impulse...

In math class, expected value is often used when deciding whether or not a game is worth playing. A common refrain is that games with negative expected value should be avoided. However, nearly all games of chance have a negative expected value, and a simple expected value analysis fails to explain why these games are so popular. In this article, we consider three psychological factors leading t...

We explored patterns and reasons for health and social service use among Chinese immigrant elders. Interviews were conducted with 27 Chinese immigrant elders, 11 adult care giving children, and 12 health and social service providers. Content analysis of these data indicated that participants across groups agreed that Chinese elders under-utilize services because of problems related to language,...

We extend our work that uses atl to reason about social laws. In a system with social laws, every agent is supposed to refrain from performing certain forbidden actions. Rather than assuming that all agents abide to the law, we reason about what happens if certain agents do, i.e., they act socially, while others don’t. In particular, we are interested in the strategic abilities, under such mixe...

Driven by fear of underinvestment in network assets, merchant investment in electricity transmission networks (MTI) is now legally allowed. Given that MTI is a real possibility, regulators face a new set of questions. After classifying different types of MTI, the paper raises and analyses regulatory questions, concentrating on the effect on competition, ownership questions, third-party-access r...

This review highlights major scientific developments over the past 50 years or so in concepts related to stem-cell ecology and to stem cells in motion. Many thorough and eloquent reviews have been presented in the last 5 years updating progress in these issues. Some paradigms have been challenged, others validated, or new ones brought to light. In the present review, we will confine our remarks...

Osteonecrosis of the humeral head in an adolescent without clear pathogenesis has not been reported in the literature. In this case report, we present such a case of humeral head osteonecrosis in a 15-year-old adolescent. The lesion was located at the subchondral area of the medial part of the humeral head with characteristic appearances on MRI. The shoulder was immobilized in a sling until the...

There is a number of places around the world where three unfortunate sets of circumstances coexist: where people do not cooperate when it would be mutually beneficial to do so; where they compete in harmful ways; and, finally, where they refrain from competing in those instances when they could all gain considerably from competition. There are probably not many, though, where such a powerful co...

Using bilateral data on remittance flows to Pakistan for 23 major host countries, in the first study of its kind, the authors examine the effect of transaction costs on foreign remittances. They find that the effect of transaction costs on remittance flows is negative and significant; suggesting that a high cost will either refrain migrant’s from sending money back home or make them remit throu...