Including information about co-morbidity in estimates of disease burden: results from the World Health Organization World Mental Health Surveys

Background The methodology commonly used to estimate disease burden, featuring ratings of severity of individual conditions, has been criticized for ignoring co-morbidity. A methodology that addresses this problem is proposed and illustrated here with data from the World Health Organization World Mental Health Surveys. Although the analysis is based on self-reports about one's own conditions in a community survey, the logic applies equally well to analysis of hypothetical vignettes describing co-morbid condition profiles. Method Face-to-face interviews in 13 countries (six developing, nine developed; n=31 067; response rate=69.6%) assessed 10 classes of chronic physical and nine of mental conditions. A visual analog scale (VAS) was used to assess overall perceived health. Multiple regression analysis with interactions for co-morbidity was used to estimate associations of conditions with VAS. Simulation was used to estimate condition-specific effects. Results The best-fitting model included condition main effects and interactions of types by numbers of conditions. Neurological conditions, insomnia and major depression were rated most severe. Adjustment for co-morbidity reduced condition-specific estimates with substantial between-condition variation (0.24-0.70 ratios of condition-specific estimates with and without adjustment for co-morbidity). The societal-level burden rankings were quite different from the individual-level rankings, with the highest societal-level rankings associated with conditions having high prevalence rather than high individual-level severity. Conclusions Plausible estimates of disorder-specific effects on VAS can be obtained using methods that adjust for co-morbidity. These adjustments substantially influence condition-specific rating

Alejados de la NIC 41: ¿Es correcta la valoración del patrimonio neto de las empresas agrarias?

Este trabajo pretende detallar la prescripción de la NIC 41 Agricultura y su seguimiento a nivel español. Inicialmente existía una voluntad de asumir la NIC 41 pero la realidad muestra que la normativa contable española no aplica el valor razonable para los activos biológicos y productos agrarios, incluso cuando existen mercados activos que garantizan la formación de precios; es decir, la utilización del coste histórico se impone en las empresas españolas agrarias, a pesar de la existencia de importantes debates sobre la bondad del valor razonable, lo que supone una valoración patrimonial diferente

Performance evaluation of optical packet switches on high performance applications

This paper analyzes the performance impact of Optical Packet Switches (OPS) on parallel HPC applications. Because these devices cannot store light, in case of a collision for accessing the same output port in the switch only one packet can proceed and the others are dropped. The analysis focuses on the negative impact of packet collisions in the OPS and subsequent re-transmissions of dropped packets. To carry out this analysis we have developed a system simulator that mimics the behavior of real HPC application traffic and optical network devices such as the OPS. By using real application traces we have analyzed how message re-transmissions could affect parallel executions. In addition, we have also developed a methodology that allows to process applications traces and determine packet concurrency. The concurrency evaluates the amount of simultaneous packets that applications could transmit in the network. Results have shown that there are applications that can benefit from the advantages of OPS technology. Taking into account the applications analyzed, these applications are the ones that show less than 1% of packet concurrency; whereas there are other applications where their performance could be impacted by up to 65%. This impact is mostly dependent on application traffic behavior that is successfully characterized by our proposed methodology

Performance evaluation of optical packet switches on high performance applications

\u3cp\u3eThis paper analyzes the performance impact of Optical Packet Switches (OPS) on parallel HPC applications. Because these devices cannot store light, in case of a collision for accessing the same output port in the switch only one packet can proceed and the others are dropped. The analysis focuses on the negative impact of packet collisions in the OPS and subsequent re-transmissions of dropped packets. To carry out this analysis we have developed a system simulator that mimics the behavior of real HPC application traffic and optical network devices such as the OPS. By using real application traces we have analyzed how message re-transmissions could affect parallel executions. In addition, we have also developed a methodology that allows to process applications traces and determine packet concurrency. The concurrency evaluates the amount of simultaneous packets that applications could transmit in the network. Results have shown that there are applications that can benefit from the advantages of OPS technology. Taking into account the applications analyzed, these applications are the ones that show less than 1% of packet concurrency; whereas there are other applications where their performance could be impacted by up to 65%. This impact is mostly dependent on application traffic behavior that is successfully characterized by our proposed methodology.\u3c/p\u3

A novel SDN enabled hybrid oiptical packet/circuit switched data centre network - The LIGHTNESS approach

Current over-provisioned and multi-tier data centre networks (DCN) deploy rigid control and management platforms, which are not able to accommodate the ever-growing workload driven by the increasing demand of high-performance data centre (DC) and cloud applications. In response to this, the EC FP7 project LIGHTNESS (Low Latency and High Throughput Dynamic Network Infrastructures for High Performance Datacentre Interconnects) is proposing a new flattened optical DCN architecture capable of providing dynamic, programmable, and highly available DCN connectivity services while meeting the requirements of new and emerging DC and cloud applications. LIGHTNESS DCN comprises all-optical switching technologies (Optical Packet Switching (OPS) and Optical Circuit Switching (OCS)) and hybrid Top-of-the-Rack (ToR) switches, controlled and operated by a Software Defined Networking (SDN) based control plane for enhanced programmability of heterogeneous network functions and protocols. Harnessing the power of optics enables DCs to effectively cope with the high-performance applications' demands. The programmability and flexibility provided by the SDN based control plane allow to fully exploit the benefits of the LIGHTNESS multi-technology optical DCN, while provisioning on-demand, dynamic, flexible and highly resilient network services inside DCs

A novel SDN enabled hybrid oiptical packet/circuit switched data centre network - The LIGHTNESS approach

Current over-provisioned and multi-tier data centre networks (DCN) deploy rigid control and management platforms, which are not able to accommodate the ever-growing workload driven by the increasing demand of high-performance data centre (DC) and cloud applications. In response to this, the EC FP7 project LIGHTNESS (Low Latency and High Throughput Dynamic Network Infrastructures for High Performance Datacentre Interconnects) is proposing a new flattened optical DCN architecture capable of providing dynamic, programmable, and highly available DCN connectivity services while meeting the requirements of new and emerging DC and cloud applications. LIGHTNESS DCN comprises all-optical switching technologies (Optical Packet Switching (OPS) and Optical Circuit Switching (OCS)) and hybrid Top-of-the-Rack (ToR) switches, controlled and operated by a Software Defined Networking (SDN) based control plane for enhanced programmability of heterogeneous network functions and protocols. Harnessing the power of optics enables DCs to effectively cope with the high-performance applications' demands. The programmability and flexibility provided by the SDN based control plane allow to fully exploit the benefits of the LIGHTNESS multi-technology optical DCN, while provisioning on-demand, dynamic, flexible and highly resilient network services inside DCs