Boilerplate Radin, Margaret Jane
2012., 20121207, 2012, 2013-01-01
eBook
Boilerplate--the fine-print terms and conditions that we become subject to when we click "I agree" online, rent an apartment, enter an employment contract, sign up for a cellphone carrier, or buy ...travel tickets--pervades all aspects of our modern lives. On a daily basis, most of us accept boilerplate provisions without realizing that should a dispute arise about a purchased good or service, the nonnegotiable boilerplate terms can deprive us of our right to jury trial and relieve providers of responsibility for harm.Boilerplateis the first comprehensive treatment of the problems posed by the increasing use of these terms, demonstrating how their use has degraded traditional notions of consent, agreement, and contract, and sacrificed core rights whose loss threatens the democratic order.
Margaret Jane Radin examines attempts to justify the use of boilerplate provisions by claiming either that recipients freely consent to them or that economic efficiency demands them, and she finds these justifications wanting. She argues, moreover, that our courts, legislatures, and regulatory agencies have fallen short in their evaluation and oversight of the use of boilerplate clauses. To improve legal evaluation of boilerplate, Radin offers a new analytical framework, one that takes into account the nature of the rights affected, the quality of the recipient's consent, and the extent of the use of these terms. Radin goes on to offer possibilities for new methods of boilerplate evaluation and control, among them the bold suggestion that tort law rather than contract law provides a preferable analysis for some boilerplate schemes. She concludes by discussing positive steps that NGOs, legislators, regulators, courts, and scholars could take to bring about better practices.
Research summary: In multivariate regression analyses of correlated variables, we sometimes observe pairs of estimated beta coefficients large in absolute magnitude and opposite in sign. T-statistics ...are also large, suggesting meaningful findings. I found 64 recently published Strategic Management Journal articles with results exhibiting these characteristics. In this article, I demonstrate that such results may be Type 1 errors (false positives): If regressors are correlated via an unobservable common factor, estimated beta coefficients will misleadingly tend toward infinite magnitudes in opposite directions, even if the variables' real effects are small and of the same sign. Diagnostics such as Variance Inflation Factors (VIF) will misleadingly validate Type 1 errors as legitimate results. After establishing general results via mathematical analysis and simulation, I provide guidelines for detection and mitigation. Managerial summary: This article demonstrates mathematically how regression analyses with correlated independent variables may generate beta coefficients of opposite sign to the variables' true effects. To assess the likelihood of this possibility, I propose that: if (a) absolute correlation of two independent variables is about ±0.3 or more (smaller correlations may be problematic for large data sets), (b) the two variables have beta coefficients of opposite sign, if correlated positively, and of the same sign, if correlated negatively, and (c) the bivariate correlation of one independent variable with the dependent variable is of the opposite sign from the beta coefficient, then the beta might be a false positive. To facilitate such analysis, authors should provide complete correlation tables, including dependent variables, interaction terms, and quadratic terms.
A neural-network model of fractional order with impulsive perturbations, time-varying delays, and reaction-diffusion terms is investigated in this article. The focus is on investigating qualitative ...properties of the states and developing new almost periodicity and stability criteria. The uncertain case is also considered. Examples are established and the effectiveness of the obtained criteria is demonstrated.
Conventional Evaluativity Zakkou, Julia
Australasian journal of philosophy,
04/2023, Volume:
101, Issue:
2
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
Some expressions, such as 'generous' and 'stingy', are used not only to describe the world around us. They are also used to evaluate the things to which they are applied. In this paper, I suggest a ...novel account of how this evaluation is conveyed-the conventional triggering view. It partly agrees and partly disagrees with both the standard semantic view and its popular pragmatic contender. Like the former and unlike the latter, my view has it that the evaluation is conveyed due to the conventional meaning of the sentences in question. Unlike the former and much like the latter, my view suggests that the evaluation is a secondary rather than a primary content.
We study pricing and non-pricing features of loan contracts to gauge how the credit market evaluates a firm’s customer-base profile and supply-chain relations. Higher customer concentration increases ...interest rate spreads and the number of restrictive covenants featured in newly initiated as well as renegotiated bank loans. Customer concentration also abbreviates the maturity of those loans as well as the relationship between firms and their banks. These effects are intensified by customers’ financial distress, the level of relationship-specific investments, and the use of trade credit in customer–supplier relations. Our evidence shows that a deeper exposure to a small set of large customers bears negative consequences for a firm’s relations with its creditors, revealing limits to integration along the supply chain.
Purpose
Lung transplant recipients often develop acute kidney injury (AKI) evolving into chronic kidney disease (CKD). The immunosuppressant tacrolimus might be associated with the emergence of AKI. ...We analyzed the development and recovery of kidney injury after lung transplantation and related AKI to whole-blood tacrolimus trough concentrations and other factors causing kidney injury.
Methods
We retrospectively studied kidney injury in 186 lung-transplantation patients at the UMC Utrecht between 2001 and 2011. Kidney function and whole-blood tacrolimus trough concentrations were determined from day 1 to 14 and at 1, 3, 6, and 12 months postoperative. Systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS), septic shock, and nephrotoxic medications were evaluated as covariates for AKI. We analyzed liver injury and drug-drug interactions.
Results
AKI was present in 85 (46%) patients. Tacrolimus concentrations were supra-therapeutic in 135 of 186 patients (73%). AKI in the first week after transplantation was related to supra-therapeutic tacrolimus concentrations (OR 1.55; 95% CI 1.06–2.27), ≥3 other nephrotoxic drugs (OR 1.96; 95% CI 1.02–3.77), infection (OR 2.48; 95% CI 1.31–4.70), and cystic fibrosis (OR 2.17; 95% CI 1.16–4.06). Recovery rate of AKI was lower than expected (19%), and the cumulative incidence of severe CKD at 1 year was 15%.
Conclusions
After lung transplantation, AKI is common and often evolves into severe CKD, which is a known cause of morbidity and mortality. Supra-therapeutic whole-blood tacrolimus trough concentrations are related to the early onset of AKI. Conscientious targeting tacrolimus blood concentrations might be vital in the early phase after lung transplantation.
What is known about this subject?
• Lung transplant recipients often develop acute kidney injury evolving into chronic kidney disease increasing both morbidity and mortality.
• To date, the pathophysiology of kidney injury after lung transplantation has not been fully elucidated.
• The immunosuppressant tacrolimus is difficult to dose, especially in the unstable clinical setting, and is nephrotoxic.
What this study adds:
• For the first time, supra-therapeutic whole-blood tacrolimus trough concentrations are related to the emergence of acute kidney injury in the first days after lung transplantation.
• Supra-therapeutic whole-blood tacrolimus trough concentrations often occur early after lung transplantation.
• AKI after lung transplantation shows low recovery rates.
Purpose
Drug-coated balloons (DCBs) for femoropopliteal peripheral artery disease have been shown to be clinically superior and cost-effective compared to conventional percutaneous transluminal ...angioplasty (PTA). However, few studies enrolled patients with chronic limb-threatening ischemia (CLTI). Our objective was to study the cost-effectiveness of endovascular treatment with versus without DCB in CLTI patient populations in the Netherlands and Germany.
Material and Methods
Target lesion revascularization (TLR) and major amputation rates were obtained from the CLTI subgroup of the IN.PACT Global study. Rates for “status quo” treatment involving PTA with primary or bailout stenting were derived from systematic literature search. Costs and cost-effectiveness were calculated using a decision-analytic Markov model considering, in the base case, a 2-year horizon, and strategy-specific quality-adjusted life year (QALY) gains calculated from survival and health state-specific utilities. A willingness-to-pay threshold of €50,000/QALY was assumed, and extensive sensitivity analyses were performed.
Results
Model-projected 24-month probabilities of TLR were 26.2% and 32.8% for treatment with and without DCB, and probabilities for amputation were 2.8% and 11.9%, respectively. DCB added 0.017 QALYs while saving €1,030 in the Dutch setting and €513 in the German setting, respectively. DCB was found dominant or cost-effective across a wide range of assumptions.
Conclusion
Urea excipient drug-coated balloon therapy for treating CLTI from femoropopliteal artery disease is associated with improved patient outcomes and expected overall cost savings to payers in the Dutch and German healthcare systems, rendering it a cost-effective and likely dominant treatment strategy.
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