Length at maturity in three pelagic sharks (Lamna nasus, Isurus oxyrinchus, and Prionace glauca) from New Zealand

Reproductive data collected from porbeagle, shortfin mako, and blue sharks caught around New Zealand were used to estimate the median length at maturity. Data on clasper development, presence or absence of spermatophores or spermatozeugmata, uterus width, and pregnancy were collected by observers aboard tuna longline vessels. Direct maturity estimates were made for smaller numbers of sharks sampled at recreational fishing competitions. Some data sets were sparse, particularly over the vital maturation length range, but the availability of multiple indicators of maturity made it possible to develop estimates for both sexes of all three species. Porbeagle shark males matured at 140–150 cm fork length and females at about 170–180 cm. New Zealand porbeagles therefore mature at shorter lengths than they do in the North Atlantic Ocean. Shortfin mako males matured at 180–185 cm and females at 275 –285 cm. Blue shark males matured at about 190 –195 cm and females at 170–190 cm; however these estimates were hampered by small sample sizes, difficulty obtaining representative samples from a population segregated by sex and maturity stage, and maturation that occurred over a wide length range. It is not yet clear whether regional differences in median maturity exist for shortfin mako an

A Patient-Centered Framework for Evaluating Digital Maturity of Health Services: A Systematic Review

© Kelsey Flott, Ryan Callahan, Ara Darzi, Erik Mayer.Background: Digital maturity is the extent to which digital technologies are used as enablers to deliver a high-quality health service. Extensive literature exists about how to assess the components of digital maturity, but it has not been used to design a comprehensive framework for evaluation. Consequently, the measurement systems that do exist are limited to evaluating digital programs within one service or care setting, meaning that digital maturity evaluation is not accounting for the needs of patients across their care pathways. Objective: The objective of our study was to identify the best methods and metrics for evaluating digital maturity and to create a novel, evidence-based tool for evaluating digital maturity across patient care pathways. Methods: We systematically reviewed the literature to find the best methods and metrics for evaluating digital maturity. We searched the PubMed database for all papers relevant to digital maturity evaluation. Papers were selected if they provided insight into how to appraise digital systems within the health service and if they indicated the factors that constitute or facilitate digital maturity. Papers were analyzed to identify methodology for evaluating digital maturity and indicators of digitally mature systems. We then used the resulting information about methodology to design an evaluation framework. Following that, the indicators of digital maturity were extracted and grouped into increasing levels of maturity and operationalized as metrics within the evaluation framework. Results: We identified 28 papers as relevant to evaluating digital maturity, from which we derived 5 themes. The first theme concerned general evaluation methodology for constructing the framework (7 papers). The following 4 themes were the increasing levels of digital maturity: resources and ability (6 papers), usage (7 papers), interoperability (3 papers), and impact (5 papers). The framework includes metrics for each of these levels at each stage of the typical patient care pathway. Conclusions: The framework uses a patient-centric model that departs from traditional service-specific measurements and allows for novel insights into how digital programs benefit patients across the health system

Ecoenzymes as Indicators of Compost to Suppress Rhizoctonia solani

Reports of disease suppression by compost are inconsistent likely because there are no established standards for feedstock material, maturity age for application, and application rate. The overall goal of the study was to evaluate a suite of biological indicators for their ability to predict disease suppression. Indicators included both commercial available methods for compost stability (Solvita™, respiration) and metrics of soil ecology not yet adopted by the compost industry (e.g., ecoenzymes, nematode community index). Damping-off by Rhizoctonia solani on radish was chosen as a model system given its global importance, competitiveness affected by carbon quality, and lack of disease management options for organic production. Biological indicators were evaluated for their ability to consistently differentiate among curing process, maturity, and feedstock material as a function of disease severity of a seedling bioassay and a compost extract assay to test competition with R. solani growth. Compost processed as vermicompost and anaerobic digestate were more suppressive against R. solani than windrow or aerated static pile. Mature composts were more suppressive than immature components. Feedstocks containing dairy manure and/or hardwood bark tended to have suppressive qualities. In contrast, poultry manure-based components were conducive to disease. Microbial ecoenzymes active on chitin and cellulose and nematode community indices were better predictors of disease suppressiveness than microbial respiration. These indicators are quicker than plant bioassays and could be adopted as tools to certify commercial products

Stress Testing of Probability of Default of Individuals

This paper introduces a model for stress testing of probability of default of individuals. The model rests on assumption that the individual defaults if his savings fall below zero. The probability of default is then described as a function of several macroeconomic indicators such as wages, unemployment and interest rates. Stress testing is carried out by applying exogenous stress scenarios for development of these indicators. The model implies that sensitivity of probability of default to the stress is mainly driven by Installment to Income Ratio and for mortgages also by loan maturity. Hence Installment to Income ratio is suggested as the appropriate tool to manage credit risk of retail portfolios.banking; credit risk; stress testing; probability of default

The Impact of ECB Monetary Policy Decisions and Communication on the Yield Curve

We use intraday changes in money market rates to construct indicators of news about monetary policy stemming separately from policy decisions and from official communication of the ECB, and study their impact on the yield curve. We show that communication may lead to substantial revisions in expectations of monetary policy and, at the same time, exert a significant impact on interest rates at longer maturities. Thereby, the maturity response pattern to communication is hump-shaped, while that to policy decisions is downward sloping.money market rates; yield curve; ECB; central bank communication

Error Rates for Unvalidated Medical Age Assessment Procedures

During 2014-15 Sweden received asylum applications from more than 240.000 people, of which more than 40.000 were termed unaccompanied minors. In a large number of cases, claims by asylum seekers of being below 18 years were not trusted by Swedish authorities. To handle the situation, the Swedish national board of forensic medicine (R\"attsmedicinalverket, RMV) was assigned by the government to create a centralized system for medical age assessments. RMV introduced a procedure including two biological age indicators; x-ray of the third molars and magnetic resonance imaging of the distal femoral epiphysis. In 2017 a total of 9617 males and 337 females were subjected to this procedure. No validation study for the procedure was however published, and the observed number of cases with different maturity combinations in teeth and femur were unexpected given the claims originally made by RMV. Such unexpected results might be caused by systematic errors and need to be analysed thoroughly. In the present paper we present a general stochastic model enabling us to study which combinations of age indicator model parameters and age population profiles are consistent with the observed 2017 data for males. We find that, contrary to some RMV claims, maturity of the femur, as observed by RMV, appears on average well before maturity of teeth. Although results naturally contain much uncertainty, we find that classification error rates for certain groups who based on the RMV procedure are classified as above 18 years may be around 10-30%, possibly as high as 50%

Using a maturity model to move student engagement practices beyond the generational approach

This paper proposes that the generational approach to conceptualising first year student learning behaviour, while it has made a very useful contribution to understanding that behaviour, can be expanded upon. The generational approach has an explicit focus on student behaviour and it is suggested that a capability maturity model interpretation may provide a complementary extension of that as it allows an assessment of institutional capability to initiate, plan, manage and evaluate institutional student engagement practices. The development of a Student Engagement, Success and Retention Maturity Model (SESR-MM) is discussed along with Australasian FYE generational data and Australian SESR-MM data

Inflation expectations and risk premiums in an arbitrage-free model of nominal and real bond yields

Differences between yields on comparable-maturity U.S. Treasury nominal and real debt, the so-called breakeven inflation (BEI) rates, are widely used indicators of inflation expectations. However, better measures of inflation expectations could be obtained by subtracting inflation risk premiums from the BEI rates. We provide such decompositions using an estimated affine arbitrage-free model of the term structure that captures the pricing of both nominal and real Treasury securities. Our empirical results suggest that long-term inflation expectations have been well anchored over the past few years, and inflation risk premiums, although volatile, have been close to zero on average.Inflation (Finance) ; Treasury bonds

Formation and thermal evolution of insoluble reservoir bitumen in Angolan carbonate reservoirs.

Pyrobitumen resulting from the thermal cracking of crude oil is a frequent occurrence in petroleum reservoirs. Despite the detrimental implications of pyrobitumen for the poroperm qualities of the reservoir; little is known about the evolution of pyrobitumen properties as a function of increasing thermal stress. A suite of pyrobitumen-bearing reservoir cores from the carbonate Jurassic Pinda formation in offshore Angola has been studied using geochemical and petrographic techniques (including elemental analysis, Rock Eval pyrolysis, GC, FTIR, XRD, SEM, TEM) in order to characterise the physical, chemical, and optical properties of the pyrobitumen as fully as possible. The 11 core samples contain pyrobitumen at reflectance values ranging from 0.55-2.24%Ro and display varying degrees of solubility in dichloromethane from 98% insoluble bitumen to 45% insoluble, indicating a substantial spread of maturity. However, these indicators of maturity, and further classical maturity indicators such as the H/C and Tmax show surprisingly poor mutual agreement