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AbstractInformation disclosure has become a ubiquitous component of contemporary governance. This study examines how disclosure of information about the performance of regulated entities, which also implicates the performance of relevant government agencies, affects bureaucratic behaviors. In the context of the Clean Air Act (CAA)—the primary law that regulates air pollution in the United States—this study shows that regulators significantly increased CAA regulatory inspections on facilities that started to disclose relevant performance information to the public following the requirements of the Toxics Release Inventory (TRI), which is a major environmental information disclosure program in the United States. Additional analyses suggest the increase was because of the disclosure providing new information to regulators instead of mobilizing citizen actions. The findings suggest that performance information about regulated entities can alleviate information asymmetry between bureaucrats and regulated entities and increase the accountability of regulated entities as well as relevant government agencies.

AbstractIndividuals' risk perceptions shape their attitudes and behaviors, and to the extent that governments respond to public demands, they also influence public policy priorities. Conversely, risk misperceptions—that is, when risk perceptions do not align with realities—may lead to suboptimal behaviors and inefficient public policy. This study investigates the phenomena of environmental risk misperceptions. Specifically, with an original survey that enables a direct comparison of perceived and actual environmental risks at the local level, it examines the relationships between personal attributes and risk misperceptions. The findings show that individuals exhibit optimism bias in assessing local environmental risk. On average, people rank their communities as experiencing less risk from toxic air pollution than objective measures suggest. Moreover, Whites, males, conservatives, and older people tend to have larger optimism bias and have lower chances of possessing correct risk perceptions than their counterparts, respectively, while respondents who are married, poor, who go to church regularly, and have strong pro‐environmental orientation, tend to have smaller optimism bias and have higher chances of possessing correct risk perceptions than their respective counterparts. The systematic misperception of local environmental risk underscores the importance of information provision and risk communication, and the sociopolitical correlates of misperception suggest that targeted and more nuanced strategies are required to correct misperceptions.

AbstractGovernment‐nonprofit partnerships outside the contracting relationship have become an increasingly important mechanism in financing and supporting public service provision. However, the relationship between these partnerships and public funding allocation remains unclear. We articulate two competing mechanisms—the substitution mechanism and the exchange mechanism—and empirically test them with a unique geocoded dataset of public park capital projects allocation in New York City. Our findings indicate that parks units supported by government‐nonprofit partnerships are likely to receive more public capital project funding, which supports the exchange mechanism. In addition, larger parks with a more populous community surrounding them get more public capital funding allocation. As governments at all levels are seeking new ways to finance and manage public service provision, many more empirical studies in other service subsectors, time periods, and geographical contexts are required to draw more general conclusions about how government‐nonprofit partnerships may influence public funding allocation and how such dynamics may compromise or promote equitable public service provision.

Gang Wang,1,* Qian Wang,1,* Zhengyan Li,2,* Chaoxu Liu,3 Xianli He1 1Department of General Surgery, Tangdu Hospital, Fourth Military Medical University, Xi'an, China; 2Department of Surgery, Xijing Hospital of Digestive Diseases, Fourth Military Medical University, Xi'an, China; 3Department of General Surgery, Huashan Hospital, Fudan University, Shanghai, China *These authors contributed equally to this work Abstract: Xenopus kinesin-like protein 2 (TPX2) is a microtubule-associated protein that plays an important role in spindle assembly and dynamics. However, the clinical and prognostic value of TPX2 in the digestive system cancers remains unclear. The objective of this review was to evaluate the association of TPX2 expression with disease-free survival (DFS), overall survival (OS), and clinicopathological features of digestive system cancers. The software Stata 12.0 was used to analyze the outcomes, including OS, disease-free survival (DFS), and clinicopathological characteristics. A total of 10 eligible studies with 906 patients were included. Elevated TPX2 expression was significantly associated with poor DFS (pooled hazard ratio [HR] =2.48, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.96–3.13) and OS (pooled HR =2.66, 95% CI: 2.04–3.48) of digestive system malignancies. Subgroup analyses showed that cancer type, sample size, study quality, and laboratory detection methods did not alter the significant prognostic value of TPX2. Additionally, TPX2 expression was found to be an independent predictive factor for DFS (HR =2.31, 95% CI: 1.78–3.01). TPX2 expression might be associated with TNM stage and pathological grade in digestive system cancer. In conclusion, TPX2 is an independent prognostic factor for survival of patients with digestive system cancer. Furthermore, its overexpression is associated with TNM stage and pathological grade in digestive system cancer. Keywords: digestive system neoplasm, TPX2, meta-analysis, prognosis

Bo Lian,* Jie Chen,* Zhengyan Li, Gang Ji, Shiqi Wang, Qingchuan Zhao, Mengbin Li Department of Digestive Surgery, National Clinical Research Center for Digestive Diseases, Xijing Hospital of Digestive Diseases, The Fourth Military Medical University, Xi'an, People's Republic of China*These authors contributed equally to this workCorrespondence: Mengbin Li Email limbin@fmmu.edu.cnBackground: Laparoscopy has been increasingly used for the surgery of gastric cancer. However, the postoperative complications are still under-investigated and the short-term results of laparoscopic gastrectomy remain controversial. This study aimed to explore the differences of postoperative complications between laparoscopic and open radical gastrectomies in patients with gastric cancer through the large sample size, retrospective cohort study, and evaluate the safety of laparoscopy in patients who underwent radical gastrectomy.Patients and Methods: A total of 2,966 patients with gastric cancer (TNM I∼III) who underwent laparoscopy or open gastrectomy from February 2009 to March 2016 were enrolled in this study. Complications were categorized according to the Clavien–Dindo classification. The incidence and severity of complications between laparoscopic and open gastrectomy were compared using one-to-three propensity score matching (PSM) analysis. Logistic regression analyses were performed to identify risk factors related to postoperative complications.Results: A total of 2,966 patients were included in the study, including 687 (23.2%) in the LG (Laparoscopy gastrectomies) group and 2,279 (76.8%) in the OG (open gastrectomies) group. After PSM, a well-balanced cohort of 2,373 patients (676 cases in the LG group and 1,697 cases in the OG group) was further analyzed. The results showed that the incidence of overall complications in the LG group was significantly less than the OG group (15.4% vs 20.8%, P=0.003). However, the severe complications of the LG group showed no difference towards the OG group (5.8% vs 5.8%, P=0.952). Multivariate analysis revealed that laparoscopic surgery is a protective factor for the reduction of postoperative complications. Age ≥ 60 years, ASA classification IIIc and estimated blood loss ≥ 200 mL were confirmed as independent risk factors of overall complications.Conclusion: Compared with traditional open gastrectomy, LG is safe and feasible with less trauma and fewer complications for patients with gastric cancer.Keywords: gastric cancer, laparoscopy, gastric resection, postoperative complication, Clavien–Dindo classification

Zhengyan Li, Jipeng Li, Bofei Li, Bin Bai, Yezhou Liu, Bo Lian, Qingchuan Zhao Department of Surgery, Xijing Hospital of Digestive Diseases, The Fourth Military Medical University, Xi'an, China Background: Robotic gastrectomy (RG) is a new surgical method alternative for gastric cancer. However, few studies have evaluated the outcomes of RG for advanced gastric cancer (AGC). Thus, the aim of this study was to compare the short-and long-term outcomes of RG and laparoscopic gastrectomy (LG) with D2 lymph node dissection for AGC. Patients and methods: We retrospectively evaluated 454 patients with AGC who underwent RG or LG with D2 lymph node dissection for AGC between August 2013 and March 2017. The short-and long-term outcomes were compared between the propensity score-matched groups. Results: The RG group was associated with longer operation time, less intraoperative blood loss, and higher hospital cost. Additionally, there was a tendency favoring RG in terms of number of harvested lymph nodes, time to first flatus, time to first start diet, and postoperative hospital stay, although the differences were not statistically significant. The overall postoperative complication rate was 13.4% and 11.6% in the RG and LG groups, respectively, with no significant difference (P=0.686). The 3-year overall survival and recurrence rates of the RG and LG groups were also comparable (78.6% vs 74.1%, P=0.483; 18.8% vs 21.4%, P=0.617; respectively). Conclusion: RG with D2 lymph node dissection is safe and feasible for AGC in terms of both short- and long-term outcomes. High-volume randomized controlled trials with sufficient follow-up are needed to confirm this rationale. Keywords: robotic gastrectomy, laparoscopic gastrectomy, advanced gastric cancer