Advancing the Empirical Research on Lobbying

This essay identifies the empirical facts about lobbying which are generally agreed upon in the literature. It then discusses challenges to empirical research in lobbying and provides examples of empirical methods that can be employed to overcome these challenges—with an emphasis on statistical measurement, identification, and casual inference. The essay then discusses the advantages, disadvantages, and effective use of the main types of data available for research in lobbying. It closes by discussing a number of open questions for researchers in the field and avenues for future work to advance the empirical research in lobbying

Investigation of Oleic Acid As A Dispersant For Hydroxyapatite Powders For Use In Ceramic Filled Photo-Curable Resins For Stereolithography

Stereolithography allows production of porous hydroxyapatite scaffolds for bone regeneration but is limited by the challenging rheology of ceramic filled resins. Oleic acid, a natural fatty acid, was applied in concentrations of 0.0–0.3 wt% to improve the rheological properties of HAp resins for the fabrication of solid cylinders and scaffolds by digital light processing (DLP) printing in a wiperless system. Bonding by chemisorption was confirmed by FTIR analysis. The powders were then incorporated into a photo-curable resin of 1–6 hexanediol diacrylate at 18–30 vol%. The shear viscosity and sedimentation rates of photocurable resins containing HAp powder decreased with increasing concentration of oleic acid. The curing depth and width of resins containing the HAp were unchanged as a result of the presence of oleic acid. Oleic acid improved the printing behaviour of the resins allowing the fabrication of scaffolds with continuous macro-porosity on a wiperless DLP system

Characterization of the second- and third-order nonlinear optical susceptibilities of monolayer MoS2_2 using multiphoton microscopy

We report second- and third-harmonic generation in monolayer MoS$_\mathrm{2}$ as a tool for imaging and accurately characterizing the material's nonlinear optical properties under 1560 nm excitation. Using a surface nonlinear optics treatment, we derive expressions relating experimental measurements to second- and third-order nonlinear sheet susceptibility magnitudes, obtaining values of $|\chi_s^{(2)}|=2.0\times10^{-20}$ m$^2$ V$^{-1}$ and for the first time for monolayer MoS$_\mathrm{2}$, $|\chi_s^{(3)}|=1.7\times10^{-28}$ m$^3$ V$^{-2}$. These sheet susceptibilities correspond to effective bulk nonlinear susceptibility values of $|\chi_{b}^{(2)}|=2.9\times10^{-11}$ m V$^{-1}$ and $|\chi_{b}^{(3)}|=2.4\times10^{-19}$ m$^2$ V$^{-2}$, accounting for the sheet thickness. Experimental comparisons between MoS$_\mathrm{2}$ and graphene are also performed, demonstrating $\sim$3.4 times stronger third-order sheet nonlinearity in monolayer MoS$_\mathrm{2}$, highlighting the material's potential for nonlinear photonics in the telecommunications C band.Comment: Accepted by 2D Materials, 28th Oct 201

Anthelmintic resistance among gastrointestinal nematodes of cattle on dairy calf to beef farms in Ireland

peer-reviewedBackground The control of gastrointestinal nematodes (GIN) of cattle in pasture-based production systems such as Ireland is highly dependent on the availability of efficacious anthelmintics. There is very little information available on the efficacy of the broad-spectrum anthelmintics against GIN of cattle in Ireland and the aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of anthelmintic resistance on dairy calf to beef farms. Results GIN burden was monitored on thirty-six recruited farms by performing herd level faecal egg counts (FEC) every 2 weeks. Of these, nine farms were lost from the study as calves were treated with an anthelmintic for Dictyocaulus viviparus, two were lost as they treated for GIN, one dropped out of the study and on one the herd FEC did not reach the threshold for carrying out the Faecal Egg Count Reduction Test (FECRT). On the remaining 23 farms, once the herd FEC reached 100 eggs per gram, a FECRT was carried out. Pre and post-treatment larval cultures were also performed to identify the GIN to genus level. The efficacy of fenbendazole, levamisole, ivermectin and moxidectin was evaluated on 15, 11, 16 and 11 farms respectively. Resistance to fenbendazole was identified on 9 farms (60%) with resistance suspected on a further farm. Resistance to levamisole, ivermectin and moxidectin was detected on 2 (18%), 16 (100%) and 8 (73%) farms respectively. The predominant genera detected pre and post-treatment were Cooperia and Ostertagia with both genera detected post-treatment with fenbendazole and ivermectin. Due to the low proportion of Ostertagia spp. pre-treatment, the efficacy of levamisole or moxidectin against this genus could not be reliably established. Conclusions Anthelmintic resistance was widespread on the sampled dairy calf to beef farms in Ireland with resistance to benzimidazole, levamisole, ivermectin and moxidectin detected

Long-term outcomes for transobturator tension-free vaginal tapes in women with urodynamic mixed urinary incontinence

We thank Dr D. Kramakar (DK) (Research Fellow—University of Aberdeen) for sending out the questionnaires and collating the responses. We thank Lindsey Grant (LG) for performing the independent data entry cross-check. A special gratitude is to all the women whose excellent cooperation made this study successful. The initial phase of this study (up to 3-year follow-up) was funded by the Henry Smith Charity. Dr Karmakar was funded by IUGA Clinical Fellowship Grant 2014.Peer reviewedPostprin

Understanding and Predicting Cognitive Improvement of Young Adults in Ischemic Stroke Rehabilitation Therapy

Accurate early predictions of a patient's likely cognitive improvement as a result of a stroke rehabilitation programme can assist clinicians in assembling more effective therapeutic programs. In addition, sufficient levels of explainability, which can justify these predictions, are a crucial requirement, as reported by clinicians. This article presents a machine learning (ML) prediction model targeting cognitive improvement after therapy for stroke surviving patients. The prediction model relies on electronic health records from 201 ischemic stroke surviving patients containing demographic information, cognitive assessments at admission from 24 different standardized neuropsychology tests (e.g., TMT, WAIS-III, Stroop, RAVLT, etc.), and therapy information collected during rehabilitation (72,002 entries collected between March 2007 and September 2019). The study population covered young-adult patients with a mean age of 49.51 years and only 4.47% above 65 years of age at the stroke event (no age filter applied). Twenty different classification algorithms (from Python's Scikit-learn library) are trained and evaluated, varying their hyper-parameters and the number of features received as input. Best-performing models reported Recall scores around 0.7 and F1 scores of 0.6, showing the model's ability to identify patients with poor cognitive improvement. The study includes a detailed feature importance report that helps interpret the model's inner decision workings and exposes the most influential factors in the cognitive improvement prediction. The study showed that certain therapy variables (e.g., the proportion of memory and orientation executed tasks) had an important influence on the final prediction of the cognitive improvement of patients at individual and population levels. This type of evidence can serve clinicians in adjusting the therapeutic settings (e.g., type and load of therapy activities) and selecting the one that maximizes cognitive improvement

From phenomenology to a neurophysiological understanding of hallucinations in children and adolescents

Typically reported as vivid, multisensory experiences which may spontaneously resolve, hallucinations are present at high rates during childhood. The risk of associated psychopathology is a major cause of concern. On the one hand, the risk of developing further delusional ideation has been shown to be reduced by better theory of mind skills. On the other hand, ideas of reference, passivity phenomena, and misidentification syndrome have been shown to increase the risk of self-injury or heteroaggressive behaviors. Cognitive psychology and brain-imaging studies have advanced our knowledge of the mechanisms underlying these early-onset hallucinations. Notably, specific functional impairments have been associated with certain phenomenological characteristics of hallucinations in youths, including intrusiveness and the sense of reality. In this review, we provide an update of associated epidemiological and phenomenological factors (including sociocultural context, social adversity, and genetics, considered in relation to the psychosis continuum hypothesis), cognitive models, and neurophysiological findings concerning hallucinations in children and adolescents. Key issues that have interfered with progress are considered and recommendations for future studies are provided

Time-dependent excitation and ionization modelling of absorption-line variability due to GRB 080310

We model the time-variable absorption of FeII, FeIII, SiII, CII and CrII detected in UVES spectra of GRB 080310, with the afterglow radiation exciting and ionizing the interstellar medium in the host galaxy at a redshift of z=2.42743. To estimate the rest-frame afterglow brightness as a function of time, we use a combination of the optical VRI photometry obtained by the RAPTOR-T telescope array -- which are presented in this paper -- and Swift's X-Ray Telescope observations. Excitation alone, which has been successfully applied for a handful of other GRBs, fails to describe the observed column-density evolution in the case of GRB 080310. Inclusion of ionization is required to explain the column-density decrease of all observed FeII levels (including the ground state 6D9/2) and increase of the FeIII 7S3 level. The large population of ions in this latter level (up to 10% of all FeIII) can only be explained through ionization of FeII, whereby a large fraction of the ionized FeII ions -- we calculate 31% using the Flexible Atomic (FAC) and Cowan codes -- initially populate the 7S3 level of FeIII rather than the ground state. This channel for producing a significant FeIII 7S3 level population may be relevant for other objects in which absorption lines from this level -- the UV34 triplet -- are observed, such as BAL quasars and Eta Carinae. This provides conclusive evidence for time-variable ionization in the circumburst medium, which to date has not been convincingly detected. However, the best-fit distance of the neutral absorbing cloud to the GRB is 200--400 pc, i.e. similar to GRB-absorber distance estimates for GRBs without any evidence for ionization. We find that the presence of time-varying ionization in GRB 080310 is likely due to a combination of the super-solar iron abundance ([Fe/H]=+0.2) and the low HI column density (log N(HI)=18.7). [abridged]Comment: 14 pages, 6 figures; accepted for publication in A&A (on August 8, 2012

Clinician-rated and self-reported psychotic-like experiences in individuals accessing a specialist Youth Mental Health Service

Aim: The prevalence of psychotic-like experiences (PLEs) was explored in a sample of 14- to 25-year-olds with non-psychotic mental health difficulties. Associations between PLEs, psychopathology, functioning, trauma history, and pathways to care were examined. Methods: Data were collected for 202 young people. Clinicians rated PLEs using the Primary Care Checklist (PCC) and functioning using Global Assessment Scales. Eighty-three young people completed self-report assessments of PLEs using the Prodromal Questionnaire (PQ-16) and measures of social anxiety, depression, trauma history, and pathways to care. Results: There was a high prevalence of PLEs in the sample. The prevalence of PLEs was higher when young people self-rated their experiences. Endorsement frequencies for PLEs ranged from 3.5 to 24% on the PCC and 22 to 70% on the PQ-16. Higher scores on the PQ-16 were associated with more pathways into care and greater exposure to traumatic life events. Conclusions: PLEs are common in young people with non-psychotic mental health difficulties and may reflect increased severity and complexity of mental health difficulties. Routine screening and further assessment of PLEs are important in understanding and responding to such experiences. Screening should include self-rating of PLEs as well as clinician-rated scales