We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
To save content items to your account,
please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies.
If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account.
Find out more about saving content to .
To save content items to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org
is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings
on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part
of your Kindle email address below.
Find out more about saving to your Kindle.
Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations.
‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi.
‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.
Translational research needs to show value through impact on measures that matter to the public, including health and societal benefits. To this end, the Translational Science Benefits Model (TSBM) identified four categories of impact: Clinical, Community, Economic, and Policy. However, TSBM offers limited guidance on how these areas of impact relate to equity. Central to the structure of our Center for American Indian and Alaska Native Diabetes Translation Research are seven regional, independent Satellite Centers dedicated to community-engaged research. Drawing on our collective experience, we provide empirical evidence about how TSBM applies to equity-focused research that centers community partnerships and recognizes Indigenous knowledge. For this special issue – “Advancing Understanding and Use of Impact Measures in Implementation Science” – our objective is to describe and critically evaluate gaps in the fit of TSBM as an evaluation approach with sensitivity to health equity issues. Accordingly, we suggest refinements to the original TSBM Logic model to add: 1) community representation as an indicator of providing community partners “a seat at the table” across the research life cycle to generate solutions (innovations) that influence equity and to prioritize what to evaluate, and 2) assessments of the representativeness of the measured outcomes and benefits.
Delay discounting—the extent to which individuals show a preference for smaller immediate rewards over larger delayed rewards—has been proposed as a transdiagnostic neurocognitive process across mental health conditions, but its examination in relation to posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is comparatively recent. To assess the aggregated evidence for elevated delay discounting in relation to posttraumatic stress, we conducted a meta-analysis on existing empirical literature. Bibliographic searches identified 209 candidate articles, of which 13 articles with 14 independent effect sizes were eligible for meta-analysis, reflecting a combined sample size of N = 6897. Individual study designs included case-control (e.g. examination of differences in delay discounting between individuals with and without PTSD) and continuous association studies (e.g. relationship between posttraumatic stress symptom severity and delay discounting). In a combined analysis of all studies, the overall relationship was a small but statistically significant positive association between posttraumatic stress and delay discounting (r = .135, p < .0001). The same relationship was statistically significant for continuous association studies (r = .092, p = .027) and case-control designs (r = .179, p < .001). Evidence of publication bias was minimal. The included studies were limited in that many did not concurrently incorporate other psychiatric conditions in the analyses, leaving the specificity of the relationship to posttraumatic stress less clear. Nonetheless, these findings are broadly consistent with previous meta-analyses of delayed reward discounting in relation to other mental health conditions and provide further evidence for the transdiagnostic utility of this construct.
We use a threshold-based design to study ex post discretion in lenders’ contractual enforcement of covenant violations. At preset thresholds, lenders enforce contractual breaches only infrequently, but this enforcement is associated with material consequences (e.g., fees and renegotiations). Enforcement varies significantly over time and peaks when credit conditions are tightest, indicating that enforcement is procyclical. Costly coordination reduces enforcement: Syndicates with ex ante restrictive voting requirements enforce at lower rates. Consistent with theories of lender competition and implicit contracting, enforcement rates are lower for borrowers with access to alternative sources of financing and well-reputed lead arrangers.
Effective management of uncertainty can lead to better, more informed decisions. However, many decision makers and their advisers do not always face up to uncertainty, in part because there is little constructive guidance or tools available to help. This paper outlines six Uncertainty Principles to manage uncertainty.
Face up to uncertainty
Deconstruct the problem
Don’t be fooled (un/intentional biases)
Models can be helpful, but also dangerous
Think about adaptability and resilience
Bring people with you
These were arrived at following extensive discussions and literature reviews over a 5-year period. While this is an important topic for actuaries, the intended audience is any decision maker or advisor in any sector (public or private).
Policy learning, where experiences from other jurisdictions and time periods inform decision-making, has been suggested as a way to improve policy outcomes – or at the very least, to improve a government's ability to predict the outcomes of its own policy decisions (Mossberger and Wolman, 2003, 430). Policy failures might therefore seem to have an especially prominent place in the learning process, as examples of instruments and ideas to avoid.
Nonetheless, episodes in which failure did not lead to lessons learned or to improved public policy are abundant. The implication of this non-learning from failure is that there are situations in which the consequences of failure may not be a strong enough deterrent to prevent failure from re-occurring. In this chapter, we explore one such situation, in which the incentives of partisanship can encourage a government to actively seek to exacerbate an existing policy failure rather than to repair it. Under these circumstances, the certain benefits of shaming the political opposition outweigh any potential rewards of improving specific policy outcomes. Using the cases of British Columbia's fast ferries and the Sydney Airport Rail Link, we develop a scenario in which policy failure leads not to policy learning but rather to deliberately increased failure. While democratic governments have long been thought to endeavour to improve social outcomes, at least for particular groups or individuals (Downs, 1962), in some cases incentives can exist for governments to do more harm than good.
To this end, we will examine two cases of policy failure in the late 1990s in the transportation sector. The first case explores an effort by the British Columbia Ferry Corporation (BC Ferries), a public provider of marine transportation on Canada's west coast, to introduce a fleet of high-speed aluminium catamaran ferries (the ‘fast ferries’), and the second investigates a public– private partnership scheme to build and operate an urban rail link between the central business district and the airport in Sydney, Australia (the Sydney Airport Link).
Despite increased focus on ascertaining the status of elasmobranch fish, the stock units for many species are uncertain. Data from mark-recapture tagging studies undertaken from 1959–2017 were analysed for 13 batoid species. Data were most comprehensive for skates (Rajidae), with 22,374 released and 3342 (14.9%) returned. Most data related to thornback ray Raja clavata, blonde ray R. brachyura and spotted ray R. montagui. Tags were generally returned from areas less than 50 km from their release, and usually from the ICES Division in which they were released. However, straight-line distances travelled of up to 910 km (R. brachyura) and 772 km (R. clavata) were recorded, highlighting that individual skates are capable of longer-distance movements. The maximum time at liberty was 16.6 years (R. clavata). Whilst mark-recapture data indicated that the current stock units used by ICES are broadly appropriate, southward movements of several skate species tagged off Northern Ireland (Division 6.a) to the Irish Sea (Division 7.a) were observed. In contrast, skates tagged in the Irish Sea and Bristol Channel (Division 7.f) generally remained in that area, with only occasional recaptures from Division 6.a.
In the past few years, there has been an unprecedented increase in the number of forcibly displaced migrants worldwide, of which a substantial proportion is refugees and asylum seekers. Refugees and asylum seekers may experience high levels of psychological distress, and show high rates of mental health conditions. It is therefore timely and particularly relevant to assess whether current evidence supports the provision of psychosocial interventions for this population. We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials (RCTs) assessing the efficacy and acceptability of psychosocial interventions compared with control conditions (treatment as usual/no treatment, waiting list, psychological placebo) aimed at reducing mental health problems in distressed refugees and asylum seekers.
Methods
We used Cochrane procedures for conducting a systematic review and meta-analysis of RCTs. We searched for published and unpublished RCTs assessing the efficacy and acceptability of psychosocial interventions in adults and children asylum seekers and refugees with psychological distress. Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depressive and anxiety symptoms at post-intervention were the primary outcomes. Secondary outcomes include: PTSD, depressive and anxiety symptoms at follow-up, functioning, quality of life and dropouts due to any reason.
Results
We included 26 studies with 1959 participants. Meta-analysis of RCTs revealed that psychosocial interventions have a clinically significant beneficial effect on PTSD (standardised mean difference [SMD] = −0.71; 95% confidence interval [CI] −1.01 to −0.41; I2 = 83%; 95% CI 78–88; 20 studies, 1370 participants; moderate quality evidence), depression (SMD = −1.02; 95% CI −1.52 to −0.51; I2 = 89%; 95% CI 82–93; 12 studies, 844 participants; moderate quality evidence) and anxiety outcomes (SMD = −1.05; 95% CI −1.55 to −0.56; I2 = 87%; 95% CI 79–92; 11 studies, 815 participants; moderate quality evidence). This beneficial effect was maintained at 1 month or longer follow-up, which is extremely important for populations exposed to ongoing post-migration stressors. For the other secondary outcomes, we identified a non-significant trend in favour of psychosocial interventions. Most evidence supported interventions based on cognitive behavioural therapies with a trauma-focused component. Limitations of this review include the limited number of studies collected, with a relatively low total number of participants, and the limited available data for positive outcomes like functioning and quality of life.
Conclusions
Considering the epidemiological relevance of psychological distress and mental health conditions in refugees and asylum seekers, and in view of the existing data on the effectiveness of psychosocial interventions, these interventions should be routinely made available as part of the health care of distressed refugees and asylum seekers. Evidence-based guidelines and implementation packages should be developed accordingly.
With their sizes larger than 0.7 Mpc, Giant Radio Galaxies (GRGs) are the largest individual objects in the Universe. To date, the reason why they reach such enormous extensions is still unclear. One of the proposed scenarios suggests that they are the result of multiple episodes of jet activity. Cross-correlating the INTEGRAL+Swift AGN population with radio catalogues (NVSS, FIRST, SUMSS), we found that 22% of the sources are GRG (a factor four higher than those selected from radio catalogues). Remarkably, all of the sources in the sample show signs of restarting radio activity. The X-ray properties are consistent with this scenario, the sources being in a high-accretion, high-luminosity state with respect to the previous activity responsible for the radio lobes.
New dating confirms that people occupied the Australian continent before the earliest time inferred from conventional radiocarbon analysis. Many of the new ages were obtained by accelerator mass spectrometry 14C dating after an acid–base–acid pretreatment with bulk combustion (ABA-BC) or after a newly developed acid–base–wet oxidation pretreatment with stepped combustion (ABOX-SC). The samples (charcoal) came from the earliest occupation levels of the Devil's Lair site in southwestern Western Australia. Initial occupation of this site was previously dated 35,000 14C yr B.P. Whereas the ABA-BC ages are indistinguishable from background beyond 42,000 14C yr B.P., the ABOX-SC ages are in stratigraphic order to ∼55,000 14C yr B.P. The ABOX-SC chronology suggests that people were in the area by 48,000 cal yr B.P. Optically stimulated luminescence (OSL), electron spin resonance (ESR) ages, U-series dating of flowstones, and 14C dating of emu eggshell carbonate are in agreement with the ABOX-SC 14C chronology. These results, based on four independent techniques, reinforce arguments for early colonization of the Australian continent.
The following Paper comprises some of the results of an investigation originally undertaken by the writer to determine the effects of the humidity of the atmosphere and other secondary factors upon the static lift of airships. It is almost invariably found on completion of such a craft that a considerable deficiency is revealed between the designed lift and the apparent value deduced, for example, from a “ lift and trim ” trial. Clearly, it is of considerable importance that the reason for this discrepancy should, if possible, be determined; for whilst the loss may be only a small percentage of the total displacement of the ship, and hence difficult to trace, yet considered in terms of disposable lift, it frequently is very serious.
A search has been made using the Buckland Park air shower array for evidence of any excess of events from the direction of the recent supernova in the Large Magellanic Cloud. Upper limits resulting from this search and their significance are discussed in this paper.
The extreme isotropy of cosmic ray events allows one to put upper limits on any possible non-isotropic contribution to the flux. In particular, one can investigate any excess of events which may be confined to the galactic plane. Such extra events would be expected from galactic ultra-high-energy (UHE) gamma-ray sources. Under the assumption of an isotropic cosmic ray flux, recent Buckland Park data place a 95% confidence level limit on the total southern hemisphere (declination −15° to −55°) flux of UHE gamma-rays at between 0.6 and 6 equivalent Cygnus X-3 sources, depending on assumptions concerning the gamma-ray spectrum.
Observations of metal absorption lines in the spectra of QSOs out to z > 6 are providing an important probe into the enrichment and ionization state of the intergalactic medium (IGM) at the tail end of reionization. Using simulations with four different feedback models, including the Illustris and Sherwood simulations, we investigate how the overall incidence rate and equivalent width distribution of metal-line absorbers varies with the galactic wind scheme. The low-ionization absorbers are reasonably insensitive to the feedback implementation, with all models reasonably close to the observed incidence rate of O i absorbers. However, all of our models struggle to reproduce the observations of C iv, which is probing overdensities close to the mean at z ~ 6, suggesting that the metals are not being transported out into the IGM efficiently enough in these simulations.
This study used a prospective design and the technique of structural modelling to examine the complex interrelations between psychological factors, immune status and complications after major surgery.
Methods:
Twenty-nine women scheduled for elective cholecystectomy were studied prospectively. Information regarding medical history, health practices, life stressors, and coping strategies was obtained two weeks prior to admission. At this initial meeting, as well as three days after surgery, and at one month follow-up immunological tests were performed and the level of psychological distress was assessed. The study additionally included measures of post-operative complications, and infections and negative effect during follow-up.
Results:
Pre-operative immune status emerged as a key variable exerting strong effects on subsequent immune function and, thereby producing significant, indirect effects on every recovery variable. Pre-operative distress was directly linked to increased mood disturbance at follow-up. Moreover, distress significantly influenced immune function both before and after surgery, which mediated a significant impact on most recovery variables. Active coping behaviour directly increased the risk of a complicated recovery.
Conclusions:
The study demonstrated that distress-induced changes in immune functioning have clinical relevance. Overall, the present findings suggest that recovery from surgery is facilitated in patients with a well-functioning immune system, a low-level of pre-operative distress and a passive coping disposition.
Plant-parasitic nematodes cause considerable damage to global agriculture. The ability to parasitize plants is a derived character that appears to have independently emerged several times in the phylum Nematoda. Morphological convergence to feeding style has been observed, but whether this is emergent from molecular convergence is less obvious. To address this, we assess whether genomic signatures can be associated with plant parasitism by nematodes. In this review, we report genomic features and characteristics that appear to be common in plant-parasitic nematodes while absent or rare in animal parasites, predators or free-living species. Candidate horizontal acquisitions of parasitism genes have systematically been found in all plant-parasitic species investigated at the sequence level. Presence of peptides that mimic plant hormones also appears to be a trait of plant-parasitic species. Annotations of the few genomes of plant-parasitic nematodes available to date have revealed a set of apparently species-specific genes on every occasion. Effector genes, important for parasitism are frequently found among those species-specific genes, indicating poor overlap. Overall, nematodes appear to have developed convergent genomic solutions to adapt to plant parasitism.
The “Critically Endangered” Beck’s Petrel Pseudobulweria becki has been recorded regularly in the Bismarck Sea during the past five years, but its nesting grounds are yet to be located. Previously, over 70 years elapsed between the collection of the original specimens in 1928 and 1929, and the next confirmed observations in 2007. We evaluate over 40 documented records of the species as well as recorded survey effort within the Bismarck Archipelago and Solomon Islands and we assess potential breeding areas as well as land and sea priority search areas. On current evidence, southern New Ireland, within the Bismarck Archipelago, remains the highest priority area to search for nesting colonies but other parts of the region also warrant further investigation. The species’s distribution, population size and trends, ecology and threats are all poorly known, so prescribing conservation actions is difficult. As a starting point we identify the most important research actions to advance current knowledge, recognising that locating the nesting grounds of the Beck’s Petrel remains the prime conservation priority for this species.
YouTube is an internet-based repository of user-generated content. This study aimed to determine whether YouTube represented a valid and reliable patient information resource for the lay person on the topic of rhinosinusitis.
Methods:
The study included the first 100 YouTube videos found using the search term ‘sinusitis’. Videos were graded on their ability to inform the lay person on the subject of rhinosinusitis.
Results:
Forty-five per cent of the videos were deemed to provide some useful information. Fifty-five per cent of the videos contained little or no useful facts, 27 per cent of which contained potentially misleading or even dangerous information. Videos uploaded by medical professionals or those from health information websites contained more useful information than those uploaded by independent users.
Conclusion:
YouTube appears to be an unreliable resource for accurate and up to date medical information relating to rhinosinusitis. However, it may provide some useful information if mechanisms existed to direct lay people to verifiable and credible sources.
The spruce budworm, Choristoneura fumiferana (Clemens), is susceptible to a nuclear polyhedrosis virus and to a granulosis virus which may occur as single infections (Bergold 1950, 1951) or as double infections (Bird, 1959). Laboratory studies have shown that relatively heavy concentrations of either virus musr be injected or fed to hudworm larvae to cause infection and death. In one quantitative study Bergold (1951) estimated that the intralymphal LD50 of the polyhedrosis virus for the budworm is about 5000 times that for the silkworm, Bombyx mori L., when each is administered to its natural host. Field tests of the viruses were made in 1959 and 1960 to determine whether infection and mortality would result from spraying suspensions in infested forests.