The plasma and tissue disposition of two novel dextran prodrugs of methylprednisolone (MP) containing one (DMP-1) or five (DMP-5) amino acids as linkers were studied in rats. Single 5-mg/kg doses (MP equivalent) of each prodrug or MP were administered intravenously, and blood and tissue samples were collected. Prodrug and drug concentrations were quantitated using HPLC, and noncompartmental pha...

OBJECTIVE To compare the mortality rate of patients with type 2 diabetes who were enrolled in the German diabetes disease management program (DMP) with the mortality rate of those who were not enrolled. STUDY DESIGN This observational study was part of the ELSID study (Evaluation of a Large Scale Implementation of disease management programs) in Germany. METHODS Participants had type 2 diab...

This article investigates the relationship between daily crude oil prices and exchange rates. Functional data analysis is used to show the clustering pattern of exchange rates and oil prices over the time period through high dimensional visualizations. We select exchange rates for important currencies related to crude oil prices by using the objective Bayesian variable selection method. The sel...

In this paper we compare two mechanisms to regulate a monopoly: fixing a price for the good or service, or fixing the quantity to be produced. We consider an environment of asymmetric information in which the regulated firm has private information about the demand it faces or its costs. We completely characterize the optimal mechanism in both case and compare their performance. The problem is s...

Industrial sectors account for around 70% of the total energy-related CO2 emissions in China. It is of great importance to measure the potential for CO2 emissions reduction and calculate the carbon price in industrial sectors covered in the Emissions Trading Scheme and carbon tax. This paper employs the directional distance function to calculate the marginal abatement costs of CO2 emissions dur...

A Bacillus sp. which is capable of degrading dimethylphthalate (DMP) was immobilized in calcium alginate and polyurethane foam for efficient and long term degradation of DMP. Freely suspended cells (10(12) cfu ml-1) degraded a maximum of 20 mM DMP. Whereas, alginate-(10(12)cfu g-1 beads) and polyurethane foam-entrapped (0.34 x 10(6-9) cfu g-1 foam cubes) cells degraded a maximum of 40 mM DMP wi...

This study investigates the capacity of hospitals to vary the intensity of their services based on patients' expected sources of payment. While the concept of price discrimination by hospitals based on payer generosity ("cost-shifting") has been discussed extensively, the notion that hospitals can adjust payer-specific marginal costs to reflect differences in reimbursement policies has not been...

A dynamic model of investment process for a technology innovator in a market environment is designed. The model is focused on three interrelated decision making problems for an innovator: (1) identification of the econometric trends and calibration of the model parameters; (2) optimization of the commercialization time; (3) optimal control design of the investment policy. A stochastic model bas...