Health economics education in undergraduate medical training : introducing the health economics education (HEe) website

In the UK, the General Medical Council clearly stipulates that upon completion of training, medical students should be able to discuss the principles underlying the development of health and health service policy, including issues relating to health economics. In response, researchers from the UK and other countries have called for a need to incorporate health economics training into the undergraduate medical curricula. The Health Economics education website was developed to encourage and support teaching and learning in health economics for medical students. It was designed to function both as a forum for teachers of health economics to communicate and to share resources and also to provide instantaneous access to supporting literature and teaching materials on health economics. The website provides a range of free online material that can be used by both health economists and non-health economists to teach the basic principles of the discipline. The Health Economics education website is the only online education resource that exists for teaching health economics to medical undergraduate students and it provides teachers of health economics with a range of comprehensive basic and advanced teaching materials that are freely available. This article presents the website as a tool to encourage the incorporation of health economics training into the undergraduate medical curricula

Simulation of anyonic statistics and its topological path independence using a 7-qubit quantum simulator

Anyons, quasiparticles living in two-dimensional spaces with exotic exchange statistics, can serve as the fundamental units for fault-tolerant quantum computation. However, experimentally demonstrating anyonic statistics is a challenge due to the technical limitations of current experimental platforms. Here, we take a state perpetration approach to mimic anyons in the Kitaev lattice model using a 7-qubit nuclear magnetic resonance quantum simulator. Anyons are created by dynamically preparing the ground and excited states of the 7-qubit Kitaev lattice model, and are subsequently braided along two distinct, but topologically equivalent, paths. We observe that the phase acquired by the anyons is independent of the path, and coincides with the ideal theoretical predictions when decoherence and implementation errors are taken into account. As the first demonstration of the topological path independence of anyons, our experiment helps to study and exploit the anyonic properties towards the goal of building a topological quantum computer.Comment: 12 pages and 9 figures. All comments are welcome

The Mystic Bells Waltz

https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/mmb-ps/1218/thumbnail.jp

Building a Better HAL 9000: Algorithms, the Market, and the Need to Prevent the Engraining of Bias

As sci-fi fans will recall, the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey is focused on the interaction between humans and artificial intelligence. In the movie, HAL (Heuristically programmed Algorithmic Computer) 9000 computer is an artificial intelligence and the onboard computer on the spaceship Discovery 1. HAL 9000, more commonly called “Hal,” is capable of many functions, such as speech, facial recognition, lip reading, interpreting emotions, and expressing emotions. HAL is built into the Discovery 1 spacecraft, and is in charge of maintaining all mechanical and life support systems on board. As the movie progresses, the astronauts become concerned about HAL’s behavior and agree to disconnect him, in essence killing HAL. HAL becomes aware of the plan and seeks to stop his death as the movie plot climaxes in a conflict between intelligent machine and his human controllers. Interestingly, 2001: A Space Odyssey author Arthur C. Clark could not have been more accurate about one of the emerging conflicts to face humanity: what role does society want machines to play in coordinating and governing human activity? The debate resonates from the shared economy to the ethics of artificial intelligence. This article seeks to advance the debate about the need for data regulation that focuses on the impact of the use of the data. First, it provides a brief explanation of data analytics, algorithms, and machine learning. Second, the article explores some of the common mistakes associated with data modeling within algorithmic processes. Third, the paper explores the impact of the use of data, specifically data that is used to create a digital personhood, to inform algorithms that perform basic services. Fourth and finally, the article seeks to define an ethical decision-making model and regulatory structure for data focusing on the impact of the use of the data upon the individual and society

Non-target by-catch in the Maltese bluefin tuna (Thunnus thynnus) longline fishery (Central Mediterranean)

The Bluefin Tuna longline fishery is one of the most important pelagic fisheries in the Mediterranean but recently there has been increasing concern about the catches of non-target species. This study presents an assessment of the non-target by-catch from the Maltese Bluefin Tuna longline fleet and examines the effect of various environmental and spatiotemporal factors on non-target species catch rates. Field observations were made during 85 fishing days. In terms of number, Bluefin Tuna comprised a relatively small portion of the total catch while the Loggerhead Turtle (Caretta caretta) was the predominant by-catch species. Catch Per Unit Effort (CPUE) was calculated in terms of weight (kg/1000hooks/hr) and number (no/1000hooks/hr) for all the species caught. General Linear Mixed Models (GLMMs) were applied to examine the effect of environmental and spatiotemporal variables on non-target bycatch CPUE. The model for CPUE (number) was not found to be significant. Date, lunar cycle, species and longitude were found to be significantly correlated with CPUE (weight). The results of this study suggests the need for the continual implementation of mitigation measures to minimise the impacts of fishing activities on threatened non-target species in the Mediterranean.peer-reviewe

Mine waste and acute warming induce energetic stress in the deep-sea sponge Geodia atlantica and coral Primnoa resedeaformis; results from a mesocosm study

There is the potential for climate change to interact with pollution in all of the Earth's oceans. In the fjords of Norway, mine tailings are released into fjords generating suspended sediment plumes that impact deep-sea ecosystems. These same deep-sea ecosystems are expected to undergo periodic warming as climate change increases the frequency of down-welling events in fjords. It remains unknown how a polluted deep-sea ecosystem would respond to down-welling because multiple stressors will often interact in unpredictable ways. Here, we exposed two deep-sea foundation species; the gorgonian coral Primnoa resedaeformis and the demosponge Geodia atlantica to suspended sediment (10 mg L−1) and acute warming (+5°C) in a factorial mesocosm experiment for 40 days. Physiology (respiration, nutrient flux) and cellular responses (lysosomal cell stability) were measured for both the coral and sponge. Exposure to elevated suspended sediment reduced metabolism, supressed silicate uptake and induced cellular instability of the sponge G. atlantica. However, combining sediment with warming caused G. atlantica to respire and excrete nitrogen at a greater rate. For the coral P. resedaeformis, suspended sediments reduced O:N ratios after 40 days, however, warming had a greater effect on P. resedaeformis physiology compared to sediment. Warming increased respiration, nitrogen excretion, and cellular instability which resulted in lower O:N ratios. We argue that suspended sediment and warming can act alone and also interact to cause significant harm to deep-sea biota, however responses are likely to be species-specific. Warming and pollution could interact in the deep-sea to cause mortality to the coral P. resedaeformis and to a lesser extent, the sponge G. atlantica. As foundation species, reducing the abundance of deep sea corals and sponges would likely impact the ecosystems they support.publishedVersio

APC-targeted proinsulin expression inactivates insulin-specific memory CD8+ T cells in NOD mice

Type 1 diabetes (T1D) results from T-cell-mediated autoimmune destruction of pancreatic β cells. Effector T-cell responses emerge early in disease development and expand as disease progresses. Following β-cell destruction, a long-lived T-cell memory is generated that represents a barrier to islet transplantation and other cellular insulin-replacement therapies. Development of effective immunotherapies that control or ablate β-cell destructive effector and memory T-cell responses has the potential to prevent disease progression and recurrence. Targeting antigen expression to antigen-presenting cells inactivates cognate CD8+ effector and memory T-cell responses and has therapeutic potential. Here we investigated this in the context of insulin-specific responses in the non-obese diabetic mouse where genetic immune tolerance defects could impact on therapeutic tolerance induction. Insulin-specific CD8+ memory T cells transferred to mice expressing proinsulin in antigen-presenting cells proliferated in response to transgenically expressed proinsulin and the majority were rapidly deleted. A small proportion of transferred insulin-specific Tmem remained undeleted and these were antigen-unresponsive, exhibited reduced T cell receptor (TCR) expression and H-2Kd/insB15-23 tetramer binding and expressed co-inhibitory molecules. Expression of proinsulin in antigen-presenting cells also abolished the diabetogenic capacity of CD8+ effector T cells. Therefore, destructive insulin-specific CD8+ T cells are effectively inactivated by enforced proinsulin expression despite tolerance defects that exist in diabetes-prone NOD mice. These findings have important implications in developing immunotherapeutic approaches to T1D and other T-cell-mediated autoimmune diseases