Herrmann-Pillath, Carsten, Libman, Alexander, and Yu, Xiaofan—Economic integration in China: Politics and culture The aim of the paper is to explicitly disentangle the role of political and cultural boundaries as factors of fragmentation of economies within large countries. On the one hand, local protectionism plays a substantial role in many federations and decentralized states. On the other h...

The comment addresses the subtle differences that exist between economics and political science in terms of how the standards for the empirical quantitative research are set. It shows that the common methodology is applied by the disciplines in a different fashion. These differences could become obstacles for communication, but could also provide fruitful background for discussion of discipline...

The blood lipids of eight patients with previously untreated essential hypertension have been studied before and after treatment with methyldopa and bendrofluazide. No significant change was found in any of the measurements over a mean treatment period of 5.25 months. These results are believed to provide evidence that hypotensive therapy does not predispose to the development of ischaemic hear...

Mahajan K, et al. BMJ Case Rep 2017. doi:10.1136/bcr-2017-219217 Description A 30 year-old woman presented with an episode of transient ischaemic attack (TIA). She had a history of four consecutive first trimester abortions over the past 5 years and had no live issues. A physical examination revealed livedo reticularis on her palms and feet (figure 1). On cardiac auscultation, a pansystolic mur...

Systemic Lupus Erythematosus(SLE) is a multisystem autoimmune disease with variable presentations. A proposed mechanism for the etiology of SLE involves development autoantibodies that result from defect in apoptosis. The specific “find-me” (adenosine triphosphate [ATP]/uridine [UTP]) or “eat-me” (phosphatidylserine) signals activated upon release red cell nuclei. In absence apoptosis, nuclei b...

SLE is an inflammatory disease of unknown etiology with the potential of affecting virtually all organ systems. Cardiovascular involvement occurs frequently, although it is often mild enough not to cause clinical concern. Pericarditis is most commonly subclinical, noted only on echocardiogram. Pericardial fluid, which can accumulate rapidly enough to cause tamponade, is inflammatory in nature a...