61 research outputs found

    Greening India: an ambiguous transition

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    Eight LSE students are currently in India undertaking community, environment and corporate social responsibility based internships with various Tata companies as part of the Tata International Social Entrepreneurship Scheme (ISES). The students’ projects include carbon mapping, water harvesting, HIV/Aids awareness building and impact assessment of education and healthcare initiatives. Programme manager and LSE Careers Consultant Maddie Smith recently visited the interns in India and was impressed both with the projects students were working on and the level of support interns were receiving

    Education Policy is Health Policy

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    Capstone presentation for the University of Richmond SSIR (Sophomore Scholars in Residence) Program.https://scholarship.richmond.edu/ssir-presentations-2017/1000/thumbnail.jp

    Dynamic Forecast Combination and Problems in Multivariate Nonstationary Time Series

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    It is often the case that decision makers are presented with multiple forecasts for the same variable, produced perhaps from different forecasting models or experts. While attempting to identify a single ‘best forecast’ does offer a valid approach, favourable performance is often achieved through combining the N available forecasts in some way. As such, forecast combination presents a ubiquitous problem for decision makers in a wide array of fields, and provides the first focus of this thesis. Although perhaps a seemingly simple problem, the combination of forecasts can prove difficult due to issues such as correlation between forecasts, and changing statistical properties of forecasters throughout time. In order to account for such nonstationary behaviour, it is necessary to combine the forecasts dynamically. In this thesis, we propose a dynamic linear model based procedure for combining point forecasts. This combination procedure works by creating a linearly weighted combination of forecasts, where the weights are allowed to evolve temporally in response to observed data. Following this, we consider the problem when one or more of the N forecasters fails to provide a prediction at time t. We discuss how this can also be interpreted as a sudden change in forecaster quality, and provide adaptive methods for dealing with this. As the second focus of this thesis, we examine another problem in nonstationary time series, pertaining to the autoregressive process of order 1 (AR(1)). From two bivariate AR(1) processes, we construct a nonstationary oscillating stochastic process, for which we derive key theoretical properties

    Injury Patterns and Demographics in Child and Adolescent Assault Victims Presenting to US Emergency Departments

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    Objective: To correlate injury patterns with patient demographics in child and adolescent assault victims. Methods: The National Electronic Injury Surveillance System-All Injury Program data for the years 2005 through 2015 was used. Injuries due to assault were identified and analyzed with SUDAAN 11.0.01ℱ software to account for the weighted, stratified nature of the data. Results: There were an estimated 4,407,009 ED visits for assault in patients ≀ 19 years of age. With increasing age, the percentage of females decreased. Sexual assaults were more common in females (87.4%), and robbery/burglary was more common in males (79.8%). When the perpetrator was a spouse/partner, the assault victim was most commonly female (88.8%), and when a stranger, the assault victim was most commonly male (71.5%). With increasing age, the percentage of sexual assaults decreased while the reason for the assault being unknown increased. The assault occurred in the home in 59.6% of those ≀ 4 years of age, decreasing to 18.7% in those 15 to 19 years of age. The anatomic location was the head/neck in 32.8% of those ≀ 4 years of age, increasing to 60.6% in those 15-19 years old. Those ≀ 4 years old had the highest hospital admission rate (8.3%). The main diagnoses were concussion (3.0%), contusion/abrasion (33.3%), fracture (11.5%), laceration (11.5%), internal organ injury (11.5%), puncture (2.8%), and strain/sprain (20.7%). The number of assaults from 2005 to 2015 decreased for all age groups except for those ≀ 4 years old. Conclusions: These data provide a comprehensive overview of child and adolescent assault victims presenting to the ED in the USA and can be used as background data for further study. The decreasing numbers of assaults over the 11 years of the study are encouraging, and challenges still exist in decreasing the number for those ≀ 4 years old

    From a Shorter Winter Season to More Storm Damage: New Hampshire Outdoor Recreation Providers Feel Climate Impacts Far More than Visitors

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    In this brief, the authors examine to what extent outdoor recreation providers and visitors in New Hampshire are impacted by annual climatic conditions representative of long-term trends, specifically, through the 2024–2028 New Hampshire Statewide Comprehensive Outdoor Recreation Plan (SCORP). For the first time, the New Hampshire SCORP included an investigation of climate-related impacts on outdoor recreation from the perspective of both visitors and providers. The findings of the study uncovered notable disparities in how New Hampshire’s outdoor recreation providers and visitors perceive climate conditions’ impact on outdoor recreation, particularly in the categories of “winter” and “extreme weather.” Understanding the perspectives of both providers and visitors is critical to outdoor recreation planning because of outdoor recreation’s contributions to the state economy and the role it plays in incentivizing people to live in New Hampshire

    The Randomised Evaluation of early topical Lidocaine patches In Elderly patients admitted to hospital with rib Fractures (RELIEF): feasibility trial protocol

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    Background: Topical lidocaine patches, applied over rib fractures, have been suggested as a non-invasive method of local anaesthetic delivery to improve respiratory function, reduce opioid consumption and consequently reduce pulmonary complications. Older patients may gain most benefit from improved analgesic regimens yet lidocaine patches are untested as an early intervention in the Emergency Department (ED). The aim of this trial is to investigate uncertainties around trial design and conduct, to establish whether a definitive randomised trial of topical lidocaine patches in older patients with rib fractures is feasible. Methods: RELIEF is an open label, multicentre, parallel group, individually randomised, feasibility randomised controlled trial with economic scoping and nested qualitative study. Patients aged ≄ 65 years presenting to the ED with traumatic rib fracture(s) requiring admission will be randomised 1:1 to lidocaine patches (intervention), in addition to standard clinical management, or standard clinical management alone. Lidocaine patches will be applied immediately after diagnosis in ED and continued daily for 72 hours or until discharge. Feasibility outcomes will focus on recruitment, adherence and follow-up data with a total sample size of 100. Clinical outcomes, such as 30-day pulmonary complications, and resource use will be collected to understand feasibility of data collection. Qualitative interviews will explore details of the trial design, trial acceptability and recruitment processes. An evaluation of the feasibility of measuring health economics outcomes data will be completed. Discussion: Interventions to improve outcomes in elderly patients with rib fractures are urgently required. This feasibility trial will test a novel early intervention which has the potential of fulfilling this unmet need. The Randomised Evaluation of early topical Lidocaine patches In Elderly patients admitted to hospital with rib Fractures (RELIEF) feasibility trial will determine whether a definitive trial is feasible. ISRCTN Registration: ISRCTN14813929 (22/04/2021)

    The most luminous, merger-free AGN show only marginal correlation with bar presence

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    The role of large-scale bars in the fuelling of active galactic nuclei (AGN) is still debated, even as evidence mounts that black hole growth in the absence of galaxy mergers cumulatively dominated and may substantially influence disc (i.e., merger-free) galaxy evolution. We investigate whether large-scale galactic bars are a good candidate for merger-free AGN fuelling. Specifically, we combine slit spectroscopy and Hubble Space Telescope imagery to characterise star formation rates (SFRs) and stellar masses of the unambiguously disc-dominated host galaxies of a sample of luminous, Type-1 AGN with 0.02 < z 0.024. After carefully correcting for AGN signal, we find no clear difference in SFR between AGN hosts and a stellar mass-matched sample of galaxies lacking an AGN (0.013 < z < 0.19), although this could be due to a small sample size (n_AGN = 34). We correct for SFR and stellar mass to minimise selection biases, and compare the bar fraction in the two samples. We find that AGN are marginally (1.7σ\sigma) more likely to host a bar than inactive galaxies, with AGN hosts having a bar fraction, fbar = 0.59^{+0.08}_{-0.09} and inactive galaxies having a bar fraction fbar = 0.44^{+0.08}_{-0.09}. However, we find no further differences between SFR- and mass-matched AGN and inactive samples. While bars could potentially trigger AGN activity, they appear to have no further, unique effect on a galaxy's stellar mass or SFR.Comment: 15 pages (9 figures). Accepted for publication in MNRA

    Galaxy Zoo DESI: large-scale bars as a secular mechanism for triggering AGN

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    Despite the evidence that supermassive black holes (SMBHs) co-evolve with their host galaxy, and that most of the growth of these SMBHs occurs via merger-free processes, the underlying mechanisms which drive this secular co-evolution are poorly understood. We investigate the role that both strong and weak large-scale galactic bars play in mediating this relationship. Using 72,940 disc galaxies in a volume-limited sample from Galaxy Zoo DESI, we analyse the active galactic nucleus (AGN) fraction in strongly barred, weakly barred, and unbarred galaxies up to z = 0.1 over a range of stellar masses and colours. After controlling for stellar mass and colour, we find that the optically selected AGN fraction is 31.6 +/- 0.9 per cent in strongly barred galaxies, 23.3 +/- 0.8 per cent in weakly barred galaxies, and 14.2 +/- 0.6 per cent in unbarred disc galaxies. These are highly statistically robust results, strengthening the tantalising results in earlier works. Strongly barred galaxies have a higher fraction of AGNs than weakly barred galaxies, which in turn have a higher fraction than unbarred galaxies. Thus, while bars are not required in order to grow a SMBH in a disc galaxy, large-scale galactic bars appear to facilitate AGN fuelling, and the presence of a strong bar makes a disc galaxy more than twice as likely to host an AGN than an unbarred galaxy at all galaxy stellar masses and colours.Comment: 11 pages, 8 figures, accepted for publication in MNRA
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