Promoting privatization in Commonwealth courthouses

Thesis (M.S.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 1991.Includes bibliographical references (leaf 72).by Andrew M. Aiken.M.S

Metrology Computer Redesign

We are M[EE]2 and our project is to redesign Micro-Vu’s metrology computer (the Q16) with modern components and updated firmware. Metrology machines take high precision and high accuracy measurements, and a computer attached to each machine reads out the measurements. We will be redesigning the logic and display circuit boards on the Q16. The ports and communication methods with the machine will stay the same as it must be a drop-in replacement. The motivation behind the redesign stems from the age of the current design. The current design was created in 1986, and has not had significant modifications since. As technology has improved in the last 30 years, the current design is now expensive, obsolete, and time consuming to fabricate. The stakeholders include Natalie Lizama (our primary contact with the sponsor), Melinda Ong, Mitchell Aiken, Micro-Vu, Micro-Vu’s consumers, and Karla Carichner. The Micro-Vu sponsor is Zack Reinman. Our faculty advisor is Karla Carichner. Our goal is to successfully deliver a functional design in which its assembly can be further automated and streamlined

State, community and the negotiated construction of energy markets: Community energy policy in England

This article provides fresh insight on the political construction of markets through empirical analysis of community energy in the UK. It considers the diverse actors, understandings, processes and technologies enrolled in market creation, stabilisation and correction, while emphasising how negotiation, mediation and translation are pervasive throughout. Our starting point is an exploration of the role of the state in managing processes of socially embedding and disembedding markets, and how tensions between ideological commitments to deregulation and the social necessity of intervention are addressed by governing at a distance, in this example through the conveniently malleable notion of ‘community’. We draw attention in particular to the variegated manifestations of these processes and the plurality of actors and logics operating within the ‘black box’ of the state, as well as within and between markets and civil society. We reveal how negotiation between competing logics – the impulse to marketise and its diverse others – can be observed across different forms of organisation and action. We argue that such deliberations can be seen as fractal patterns throughout contemporary socioeconomic arrangements, emphasising how the Polanyian concept of the ‘double movement’ can be deepened through analysis of the heterogeneous associations and logics at work in ‘actually existing’ instituted action, understanding political processes as ontologically performative. Empirical material is drawn from across four research projects, each focusing on different aspects of the UK government's Community Energy Strategy, exploring the varying ways marketisation plays out through different governmental programmes

The relation between personal relative deprivation and the urge to gamble among gamblers is moderated by problem gambling severity: A meta-analysis

One psychosocial factor that has been identified to motivate gambling is personal relative deprivation (PRD), which refers to resentment stemming from the belief that one is deprived of a desired and deserved outcome compared to some referent. Although several lines of evidence point to a positive association between PRD and the urge to gamble, the factors that might moderate this relation have yet to be investigated. Through a quantitative research synthesis, we sought to test (a) the overall relation between PRD and gambling urges among people reporting recent gambling experience, and (b) whether this relation is moderated by problem gambling severity. Meta-analysis revealed that, overall, higher self-reported PRD was associated with stronger urges to gamble (r= .26). A meta-regression revealed that, across studies, the strength of this relation depended on problem gambling severity, such that the relation between PRD and gambling urges was stronger among samples higher in average problem gambling severity. This pattern was corroborated by an analysis of the aggregated individual participant data (N= 857), such that PRD predicted gambling urges only among participants higher in problem gambling severity. The potential practical implications and limitations of these results are discussed

Verification of high-level transformations with inductive refinement types

International audienceHigh-level transformation languages like Rascal include expressive features for manipulating large abstract syntax trees: first-class traversals, expressive pattern matching, backtrack-ing and generalized iterators. We present the design and implementation of an abstract interpretation tool, Rabit, for verifying inductive type and shape properties for transformations written in such languages. We describe how to perform abstract interpretation based on operational semantics, specifically focusing on the challenges arising when analyzing the expressive traversals and pattern matching. Finally, we evaluate Rabit on a series of transformations (normaliza-tion, desugaring, refactoring, code generators, type inference, etc.) showing that we can effectively verify stated properties. CCS Concepts • Software and its engineering → General programming languages; • Social and professional topics → History of programming languages

Unmet psychosocial supportive care needs and psychological distress in haematological cancer survivors: The moderating role of psychological flexibility.

Background The period immediately after the end of cancer treatment is a time when supportive care for the cancer patient decreases; this is known to increase risk of psychological distress and poor wellbeing. While there is broad recognition that unmet psychological and supportive care needs correlate with psychological wellbeing, little is understood about the factors that influence this relationship. This study explores the role of psychological flexibility, with a particular focus on its potential moderating role between unmet needs and psychological distress in haematological cancer survivors. Materials and Method Haematological cancer survivors were recruited for this cross-sectional study through two major UK blood cancer charities. Participants (n=91) were all over the age of 16 and had been diagnosed with any sub-type of haematological cancer more than 18 months previously. Participants completed self-report questionnaires assessing unmet psychological and supportive care needs (SCNS SF34), anxiety and depression (HADS), quality of life (EORTC QLQ-C30) and psychological flexibility (AAQ II). Results High levels of both unmet need and distress were present in the sample, indicating on-going care needs for these cancer survivors. Statistically significant correlations between unmet needs, psychological flexibility and all outcome variables (anxiety, depression, quality of life) were found. Using regression analysis based on Hayes’ methodology (Hayes, 2013), psychological flexibility was found to act as a moderator between unmet need and distress in four out of 15 models; specifically, the statistical relationship between need and distress emerged only when levels of psychological flexibility were at average level or above. Discussion Haematological cancer survivors have on-going supportive care needs that persist well beyond the end of active treatment. Unmet needs can, in turn, increase levels of anxiety and depression, and reduce quality of life in this patient group. The understanding offered by our data that psychological flexibility plays a moderating relationship between need and psychological distress creates opportunities for the development of theoretically-informed interventions to reduce both unmet need and distress in cancer patients. As such, these findings support the growing emphasis on Acceptance and Commitment based interventions for cancer patients

The emergence of goal pursuit: Mental contrasting connects future and reality

Mental contrasting of a desired future with the present reality strengthens the link between expectations and goal pursuit: The higher expectations of success, the more people engage in goal pursuit; the lower expectations of success, the more people let go or disengage from goal pursuit. In three studies, we tested if mental contrasting increases the link between expectations and goal pursuit by affecting the strength of mental associations between future and reality. We used lexical decision tasks to measure the strength of associations between future and reality for different domains of goal pursuit (i.e., interpersonal relations, achievement), and compared results in the mental contrasting condition to relevant control conditions (i.e., reverse contrasting and content control). In the mental contrasting condition but not in the control conditions emerged a strong link between expectations of success and the strength of associations between future and reality (Study 1, 2). The strength of associations between future and reality in turn mediated the link between expectations and self-reported as well as other-rated goal pursuit in the mental contrasting condition (Study 1, 2). Finally, the link between expectations and the strength of associations between future and reality in the mental contrasting condition vanished when the goal was attained (Study 3). Taken together, these results suggest that strength of future–reality associations are a mechanism specific to mental contrasting effects on goal pursui

Managerial and disciplinary responses to abandoned acquisitions in bidding firms: a new perspective

Manuscript Type: Empirical Research Question/Issue: Existing research suggests that internal and external corporate governance mechanisms substitute for one another to mitigate agency problems in bidding firms. This paper tests whether the interaction between these mechanisms is more complementary. Research Findings/Insights: While there is evidence for disciplinary responses to bids for unrelated targets involving strategic retrenchment and significant asset divestment, the influence of the information conveyed by this characteristic on the likelihood of post-abandonment discipline is not amplified when boards are less independent. Theoretical/Academic Implications: The results suggest that certain characteristics are used to distinguish between abandoned bidders which require discipline and those that do not. However, our findings do not suggest that interaction between internal and external governance mechanisms is contingent on board independence. Instead, these interactions between shareholders and boards seem to be contingent on a range of company, industry, and situation-specific factors. Practitioner/Policy Implications: While policy in the UK has focused on board independence as a means of effective corporate governance, our results suggest that this is not a panacea. Effective governance involves active owners, communicating their interests to boards, and boards responding accordingly. Further encouragement of such communication before, during, and after acquisitions will improve signals tomanagers that shareholders can target the necessary discipline of those whomthey perceive to need it most

High frequencies of elevated alkaline phosphatase activity and rickets exist in extremely low birth weight infants despite current nutritional support

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Osteopenia and rickets are common among extremely low birth weight infants (ELBW, <1000 g birth weight) despite current practices of vitamin and mineral supplementation. Few data are available evaluating the usual course of markers of mineral status in this population. Our objectives in this study were to determine the relationship between birth weight (BW) and peak serum alkaline phosphatase activity (P-APA) in ELBW infants and evaluate our experience with the diagnosis of rickets in these infants.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We evaluated all ELBW infants admitted to Texas Children's Hospital NICU in 2006 and 2007. Of 211 admissions, we excluded 98 patients who were admitted at >30 days of age or did not survive/stay for >6 weeks. Bone radiographs obtained in 32 infants were reviewed by a radiologist masked to laboratory values.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>In this cohort of 113 infants, P-APA was found to have a significant inverse relationship with BW, gestational age and serum phosphorus. In paired comparisons, P-APA of infants <600 g (957 ± 346 IU/L, n = 20) and infants 600–800 g (808 ± 323 IU/L, n = 43) were both significantly higher than P-APA of infants 800–1000 g (615 ± 252 IU/L, n = 50), p < 0.01. Thirty-two patients had radiographic evaluation for evidence of rickets, based on P-APA greater than 800 IU/L, parenteral nutrition greater than 3 to 4 weeks, or clinical suspicion. Of these, 18 showed radiologic rickets and 14 showed osteopenia without rickets. Infants with BW <600 g were more likely to have radiologic rickets (10/20 infants) compared to those with BW 600–800 g (6/43 infants) and BW 800–1000 g (2/50 infants), p < 0.01 for each. P-APA was not significantly higher in infants with radiologic rickets (1078 ± 356 IU/L) compared to those without radiologic evidence of rickets (943 ± 346, p = 0.18).</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Elevation of P-APA >600 IU/L was very common in ELBW infants. BW was significantly inversely related to both P-APA and radiologic rickets. No single value of P-APA was related to radiological findings of rickets. Given the very high risk of osteopenia and rickets among ELBW infants, we recommend consideration of early screening and early mineral supplementation, especially among infants <600 g BW.</p

Global fee prohibits postpartum provision of the most effective reversible contraceptives

Early postpartum access to highly effective reversible contraceptives (intrauterine contraceptives (IUCs) and the implant) and sterilization is key to helping women prevent unintended pregnancy.[1] Yet most current hospital reimbursement policies deny postpartum women access to IUCs and implants prior to hospital discharge. For women whose deliveries are covered by private insurance or Medicaid, hospitals receive a global fee based on the diagnosis-related group (DRG) for all delivery-related care. Postpartum sterilization is carved out by insurance companies and Medicaid as a procedure that may be billed separately from the global fee, which in turn means that hospitals are not financially driven to deny such procedures. In contrast, in most states, postpartum IUCs and implants are not carved out for separate reimbursement and the costs of the devices must be deducted from the DRG payment. Since the wholesale acquisition costs for IUCs and implants range from $600 to$775, covering those costs would be fiscally rash. Consequently, most hospitals do not permit postpartum placement of the most effective reversible methods, a policy that not only hinders women’s ability to space their pregnancies but also prohibits an important option for those who have completed childbearing but do not wish to be sterilized. Equally, for women who are covered by Medicaid and desire postpartum sterilization, the twin requirements of a minimum 30-day waiting period after signing the consent form and having that form present in the delivery room still inhibit access.[2] For these women, postpartum placement of IUCs and implants would be a valuable alternative. Although the Affordable Care Act (ACA) may go a long way towards expanding outpatient access to the most effective methods of contraception, it does not specifically facilitate inpatient access to IUC or the implant for new mothers prior to hospital discharge