Extraordinary Benefits Research Articles

The Benefits of Teaching a Course on Hospitality and Tourism Sales and Service via Active Learning

In 1997 the decision was made to teach an undergraduate course on hospitality and tourism sales and service via active learning. The detailed procedures that have been used to prepare the students to complete a semester long sales project, which is the principal active learning assignment in the course, are first presented. The extraordinary benefits that have been derived by the students who have taken the course, student organizations that have sponsored it, the department, and the community are next presented which validates the efficacy of the pedagogy.

Induction of tolerance for islet transplantation for type 1 diabetes.

Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disorder characterized by selective destruction of pancreatic b cells and absolute insulin deficiency. Even when treated well, control is imperfect and complications inevitable. Advances in immunosuppressive drugs and preparation of donor islets have recently made curative islet transplantation a reality for type 1 diabetes. Unfortunately, short-term side effects and long-term health risks of lifelong systemic immunosuppression compromise the otherwise extraordinary benefits that accrue from a successful graft. Our current goal is to obviate the need for immunosuppression and achieve islet graft tolerance. New protocols based on costimulation blockade have brought us close to that goal, inducing states of both peripheral and central transplantation tolerance. These have overcome both allograft rejection and recurrent autoimmunity, but potentially detrimental effects of environmental agents on tolerance are not yet fully understood. Studies of the underlying mechanisms have provided new insights into the nature of both tolerance and autoimmunity.

Control of disease attributable to Haemophilus influenzae type b and the national immunization program.

H aemophilus influenzae type b was the most important cause of invasive bacterial disease in young children before introduction of a polysaccharide vaccine in 1985.1 After the availability of conjugated polysaccharide vaccines in 1987, disease caused by H influenzae type b declined by >95% (Fig 1).2 In fact, the reduction in H influenzae type b disease has turned out to be even greater than what many persons predicted, attributable in part to the ability of the vaccine to reduce pharyngeal colonization among vaccinees. This unexpected benefit, which was not fully anticipated from prelicensure clinical trials, stands in contrast to the rare unanticipated adverse event (intussusception) that was not detected in prevaccine trials but occurred after widespread use of the rhesus rotavirus tetravalent vaccine,3 demonstrating that beneficial as well as undesirable consequences may result when new vaccines are used widely. In addition to the remarkable reduction in morbidity and mortality, significant economic benefit has resulted from control of H influenzae type b disease. In this issue of Pediatrics , Zhou et al4 offer an elegant economic analysis of the conjugate vaccine demonstrating that the national H influenzae type b vaccination program offers substantial cost savings from both the direct cost and societal perspectives. Although many current pediatric residents may never treat a child with H influenzae meningitis or epiglottitis because of the rarity of these diseases, more experienced pediatricians readily acknowledge the extraordinary benefits from the significant reduction of invasive disease attributable to H influenzae type b. At a time when immunization programs are being challenged from many nonscientific perspectives, the study by Zhou et al offers important documentation of the cost-effectiveness of one vaccination program.4,5 Fig 1. Estimated incidence of invasive Hib disease, 1987–2000. The bacterium H influenzae was first isolated from respiratory tract …

Leveraged Buyouts In Poland

The dynamic transformation of the Polish economy from a centrally planned to market economy is by now well advanced. The transformation has also contributed to a rapid development of the capital market. However, the leveraged buyout market has hardly been developed yet. The leveraged buyout technique allows investors to take companies over with little of their own capital. Most of the total value of a transaction is financed with debt, which is secured by assets and cash flow of a company being taken over rather than a buyer. Companies bought through leveraged buyouts (LBOs) substantially increase their return on equity (ROE) thanks to an increase in operating efficiency, higher debt leverage and better allocation of assets. In consequence of the substantial improvements in companies'performance, LBO transactions can yield extraordinary benefits to both existing shareholders and LBO investors. A case study of a hypothetical leveraged buyout of a Polish public company listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange highlights the extraordinary returns available to existing shareholders as well as buyout investors. The case study also analyzes the whole process of a leveraged transaction in order to prove its feasibility in the Polish market. Finally, it speculates on the improvements to the company's performance in the wake of the leveraged buyout. Microeconomic improvements at the leveraged firm level translate into large benefits to the whole economy. On a macroeconomic level, leveraged buyouts contribute to better allocation of capital and higher efficiency of the economy. Leveraged buyouts through replacement of equity capital in post-LBO companies with debt, contribute to freeing scarce equity capital away from declining, low-value added industries into high-risk, high-value added emerging industries, which could not be otherwise financed with debt. Leveraged buyouts can be successfully used in post-socialist countries as a potent tool for acceleration of their economic restructuring. Since efficiency of companies in post-socialist countries as measured by ROE is much lower than in the developed countries, LBOs offer higher benefits to post-socialist countries than to developed countries.

Workers' Compensation and Catastrophic Injuries

Work-related accidents, which result in spinal cord injuries, are almost always considered in nature under a state's workers' compensation laws. In many states, individuals with a catastrophic injury qualify for benefits that are generally not available to those workers with less devastating injuries. Once compensability has been established, the injured worker may still have many battles to fight to gain access to all benefits available. These benefits naturally include rehabilitation and case management but also include extraordinary benefits designed to restore the independence to the injured worker that was taken by the accident. The likelihood of obtaining the extraordinary benefits varies greatly from state to state.

What Type of Internet Development Programme in Cameroon?

Everyone is trying to reap the extraordinary benefits of international networks, but without bothering to find out whether it is safe to do so. This paper echoes some questions being raised by the Cameroonian, and indeed the African, community. What will become of countries or social groups which do not get on to the Internet in time? Would the majority of the world population thus be cut off from a small group? What is the position regarding equality of conditions of access, freedom to communicate and interactivity facilities, understood as a network of exchanges? The programme for the development of the Internet in Cameroon is intended as a pilot experiment in a developing country, that could be taken up in other countries of the region.

What Type of Internet Development Programme in Cameroon?

Everyone is trying to reap the extraordinary benefits of international networks, but without bothering to find out whether it is safe to do so. This paper echoes some questions being raised by the Cameroonian, and indeed the African, community. What will become of countries or social groups which do not get on to the Internet in time? Would the majority of the world population thus be cut off from a small group? What is the position regarding equality of conditions of access, freedom to communicate and interactivity facilities, understood as a network of exchanges? The programme for the development of the Internet in Cameroon is intended as a pilot experiment in a developing country, that could be taken up in other countries of the region.

Chile: the great transformation

Chile is frequently cited as a remarkable of neoliberal economic restructuring. In fact, countries around world are encouraged to follow Chilean model so that they can reap extraordinary benefits of rapid growth and expanding export markets associated with drastic economic reform in Chile. But Chilean experience is extremely complicated and contradictory.The international discussion on economic restructuring in Latin America often runs on two tracks: one dominated by consultants and scholars from English-speaking world and another in which Latin Americans talk to each other. This book attempts to bridge gap.Two outstanding Chilean scholars and activists present an original interpretation of Chilean experience. They cut through rhetoric surrounding the Chilean miracle and provide an integrated analysis of process of socioeconomic and political change that transformed their country between 1970 and 1990. In so doing, they discover not only a neoliberal revolution, but a capitalist revolution with roots far deeper than Pinochet reforms.The book provides a valuable resource for people around world who hope to understand principal success story of Latin American adjustment. Copublished with United Nations Research Institute for Social Development.

Obesity, Diabetes, and Insulin Resistance: Implications From Molecular Biology, Epidemiology, and Experimental Studies in Humans and Animals: Synopsis of the American Diabetes Association's 29th ResearchSymposium and Satellite Conference of the 7th International Congress on Obesity, Boston, Massachusetts

The number of genetic features potentially contributing to the development of obesity and of NIDDM continues to expand, even while evidence from epidemiological studies and prospective longitudinal evaluations of risk factors continue to argue strongly for nongenetic factors in the expression of these disorders. Even as the intensive search goes on for the diabesity gene(s), it is imminently clear that treatment initiatives can and must be oriented to reducing the well-established risk factors, most likely through multiple simultaneous interventions and alterations. Clearly restriction of calories is the most immediately effective of the various tools currently available. The recent results of long-term minimal restriction suggest extraordinary benefits to health can result for those predisposed to the diabesity or insulin resistance syndrome. Changes in diet composition may facilitate maintenance of a lower calorie intake, but in themselves they are not likely to significantly alter the risks of the syndrome, with the exception of lower cholesterol diets for reducing elevated cholesterol levels. Exercise and increased general physical activity must be seen as potentially beneficial; however, because of the magnitude of the physical training activities likely to be effective in lowering insulin resistance on a chronic basis, the expected outcomes from the usual types of relatively limited exercise regimen are less likely to have powerful preventive effects. Nevertheless, the combination of exercise and moderate alterations in caloric intake is likely to have a synergistic beneficial effect. Pharmacological interventions in the insulin resistance syndrome are in their early developmental phases, and we look forward to new developments in this area. Effective anti-obesity agents are greatly needed, and new understanding of the excess risk carried by obesity for many features of the diabesity or insulin resistance syndrome suggest the urgency of greater investment in research toward new modes of therapy. We look forward with great anticipation to the next Obesity, Diabetes, and Insulin Resistance Conference, where new progress in prediction, new understanding of pathogenesis, new genetic markers and modifiers, and new treatment candidates are sure to be forthcoming.

Global Surveillance of Antibiotic Resistance

THE group A β-hemolytic streptococci, of the species Streptococcus pyogenes, can sicken or kill us in many ways. They commonly cause acute pharyngitis. They may initiate rheumatic fever or glomerulonephritis. They also cause scarlet fever, impetigo, erysipelas, pyoderma, puerperal sepsis, wound infection, and a rapidly spreading cellulitis. They can produce a fulminant and fatal septicemia, as was called to public attention recently by the death of Muppets creator Jim Henson. Recent reports, moreover, suggest a resurgence of strains that cause rheumatic fever or fulminant septicemia.1 A cure for group A streptococcal infection was one of the truly extraordinary benefits . . .

The Surgeon as Endoscopist

Because extraordinary benefits accrue to the patient when the surgeon can view the site of disease first-hand, the gastrointestinal surgeon must be a proficient endoscopist, and endoscopy must be part of gastrointestinal surgery. Leaders of surgical organizations and surgeon educators, upon whom rests the responsibility for shaping policy and educating medical students and residents, should remain alert to the need to maintain a substantial surgical presence in gastrointestinal endoscopy.

Dehydroisoandrosterone prevention of autoimmune disease in NZB/W F 1 mice: lack of an effect on associated immunological abnormalities

The effect of dietary dehydroisoandrosterone (DHA) on several immunological abnormalities associated with the development of systemic lupus erythematosus in New Zealand Black/New Zealand White F 1 (NZB/W) female mice was examined. Despite the extraordinary benefits in prolonged survival and decreased synthesis of antibodies to double-stranded DNA obtained by adding DHA (0.4% w/v) to the diet fed to these mice (Lucas et al. (1985) J. Clin. Invest. 75, 2091–2093), remarkably small changes in the chemistry and function of the immune system were detected. DHA prevented the increases in spleen mass and in peritoneal cell number which occur with age in NZB/W female mice, but did not prevent the development of hypergammaglobulinemia. DHA did not affect peritoneal macrophage functions as measured by the phagocytosis of opsonized and non-opsonized sheep erythrocytes, or the zymosan-stimulated release of PGE 2, 6-ketoPGF 1α, TXB 2 and LTC 4. In spleen, DHA delayed the loss of T-cell mitogenic responses until 5.5 months of age, but did not alter the spleen lymphocyte population.