'Join Us On Our Journey': developing a new model of care for children and young people with type 1 diabetes Final report for NHS Diabetes

The aims of this research were to develop a model of care that will deliver the aspirations of the policy document, ‘Making Every Young Person with Diabetes Matter’ and improve the care provision for children and young people with Type 1 diabetes in England. Children and young people with Type 1 diabetes, their families and professionals, in nine acute trusts throughout the Yorkshire and the Humber region, participated in talking group discussions and individual interviews to find out about their experiences of diabetes care provision. Findings show that there are certain aspects of the care pathway that need to be addressed. In particular, diabetes care, resources, education, psychological support, school/college and transition were found to be the main areas of concern. Recommendations have been made indicating how current practice needs to change if the care of children and young people with Type 1 diabetes is to improve

Competition and Enterprise Performance in Transition Economies: Evidence from a Cross-country Survey

This paper uses a survey of 3,300 firms in 25 transition countries to shed light on the factors that influence restructuring by firms and their subsequent performance as measured by growth in sales and in sales per employee over a three-year period. We begin by surveying what a decade of transition has taught us about the factors that determine how firms respond to the new market environment. We go on to analyse the impact on performance of ownership, soft budget constraints, the general business environment and a range of measures of the intensity of competition as perceived by a firm. We find that competition has an important and non-monotonic effect on the growth of sales and of labour productivity: some degree of perceived market power is associated with higher sales growth, but competitive pressure is also important. Similar competition effects are found upon firms' decisions to develop and improve their products, but market power has an unambiguously negative impact on purely defensive (cost-reducing) restructuring activity. New firms have grown relatively fast, but among old firms ownership per se has no significant relationship to performance (though state-owned firms have engaged in significantly less development of new products). Soft budget constraints have a broadly negative and the business environment a broadly positive impact on restructuring and performance.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/39760/3/wp376.pd

Variable-speed Generators with Flux Weakening

A cost-competitive, permanent-magnet 20 kW generator is designed such that the following criteria are satisfied: an (over) load capability of at least 30 kW over the entire speed range of 60-120 rpm, generator weight of about 550 lbs with a maximum radial stator flux density of 0.82 T at low speed, unity power factor operation, acceptably small synchronous reactances and operation without a gear box. To justify this final design four different generator designs are investigated: the first two designs are studied to obtain a speed range from 20 to 200 rpm employing rotor field weakening, and the latter two are investigated to obtain a maximum speed range of 40 to 160 rpm based on field weakening via the stator excitation. The generator reactances and induced voltages are computed using finite element/difference solutions. Generator losses and efficiencies are presented for all four designs at rated temperature of Tr=120C

Elecciones y partidos en América Latina en el cambio del ciclo

[EN] Between 2013 and the first quarter of 2017 every Latin American electoral democracy held legislative and, with the exception of Mexico, presidential elections. On the heels of a region-wide swing to the political left, many observers wondered what next might be in store. But it was almost a given that elections remained the only legitimate pathway power in the region during this period. Elections had become institutionalized in Latin America. Hence, the 2013-2017 election cycle granted as good an opportunity as any to take stock of party-system dynamics and representation in the region. This opportunity was not lost on Manuel Alcántara, Daniel Buquet, and María Laura Tagina, editors of Elecciones y partidos en América Latina en el cambio del ciclo (2018, 7).These accomplished scholars compiled twenty chapters spanning all eighteen electoral democracies in Latin America from 2013 to 2017. As stated in their introductory chapter, the book’s goal is to focus on “las transformaciones acaecidas en los respectivos sistemas de partidos a lo largo de las últimas décadas” and the extent to which, “marcaron un punto de inflexión… respecto de su desarrollo previo, o bien confirmaron tendencias preexistentes” (7). To undertake such a massive endeavor, the editors enlisted country experts from the ranks of doctoral students up to some of the most renowned political scientists in the region. The result is an extremely rich collection of essays that helps students of the region appreciate patterns of change within and between countries in the 2013-2017 cycle. My review analyzes three central aspects of the volume: (a) comparative approach; (b) theoretical puzzle; and (c) theoretical-conceptual innovation. Let us consider each in turn

Pathway-Based Genomics Prediction using Generalized Elastic Net.

We present a novel regularization scheme called The Generalized Elastic Net (GELnet) that incorporates gene pathway information into feature selection. The proposed formulation is applicable to a wide variety of problems in which the interpretation of predictive features using known molecular interactions is desired. The method naturally steers solutions toward sets of mechanistically interlinked genes. Using experiments on synthetic data, we demonstrate that pathway-guided results maintain, and often improve, the accuracy of predictors even in cases where the full gene network is unknown. We apply the method to predict the drug response of breast cancer cell lines. GELnet is able to reveal genetic determinants of sensitivity and resistance for several compounds. In particular, for an EGFR/HER2 inhibitor, it finds a possible trans-differentiation resistance mechanism missed by the corresponding pathway agnostic approach

Mind the partisan trust gap: why the 2016 elections are making some Americans worse off

How do we determine whether or not we should trust someone we don’t know? Often we use shortcuts, and party affiliation is one of them. People are less likely to trust someone who is part of a political party they oppose than they are to trust someone who is part of a political party they support – something known as the “partisan trust gap”. Using a multi-country study of partisan trust, Ryan Carlin and Gregory Love find that the more polarized people think their country’s politics are, the wider their partisan trust gap. Such trust gaps are important, as they reduce the ability of elites to reach a compromise and to tackle policy challenges