From bedside to bench: Comroe and dripps revisited

Twenty-five years ago a paper published in Science by Julius Comroe and Robert Dripps purported to demonstrate that 41 per cent of all articles judged to be essential for later clinical advances were not clinically oriented at the time of the study and 62 per cent of key articles were the result of basic research. Since that analysis, support for basic research has increased in the G7 countries. In the UK, Research Council expenditure on basic research has increased from a low of £444 million (or 42 per cent of total civil R&D) in 1991/92 to £769 million (or 61 per cent of total civil R&D) in 1998/99. Although it would be difficult to argue that Comroe and Dripps were directly responsible for a strategic shift (or drift) in the type of science supported by research funders, their arguments are often cited (albeit at times implicitly) in support of the increased funding for basic biomedical research. In 1987 Richard Smith wrote a critical paper reassessing Comroe and Dripps. His main argument was that the original study was in itself ‘unscientific’ and that it should be “followed by bigger and better studies”. This study is, in part, an answer to that challenge. Given the increased support for basic research, and the apparent importance based on the work of Comroe and Dripps, we felt it was important to investigate Smith’s comments by replicating Comroe and Dripps’s study and at the same time try to improve upon the methodology. The current project had two objectives: 1. To see if the original Comroe and Dripps’s methodology was ‘replicable’. 2. To validate the key findings of Comroe and Dripps. By looking at neonatal intensive care (NIC), we concluded that Comroe and Dripps’ study – as reported – is not repeatable, reliable or valid, and thus is an insufficient evidence base for increased expenditure on basic biomedical research. We did, however, develop an alternative methodology which used bibliographic databases and bibliometric techniques to describe the research underpinning five of the most important clinical advances in NIC, as identified through a Delphi survey. Using the revised bibliometric protocol, we demonstrated that after a time-lag of about 17 years, between 2 and 21 per cent of research underpinning the clinical advances could be described as basic. This observation is at odds with Comroe and Dripps’s finding that 62 per cent of key research articles judged to be essential for latter clinical advance were the result of basic research. In reaching this conclusion we are acutely aware of the significant limitations to the revised methodology and, therefore, we caution against the over-interpretation of our results. However, we would argue that there needs to be a greater understanding of how basic research supports healthcare and hope this report will inform part of this wider debate.R&D Directorate of the NHS Executive London; Wellcome Trus

A manipulator arm for zero-g simulations

A 12-ft counterbalanced Slave Manipulator Arm (SMA) was designed and fabricated to be used for resolving the questions of operational applications, capabilities, and limitations for such remote manned systems as the Payload Deployment and Retrieval Mechanism (PDRM) for the shuttle, the Free-Flying Teleoperator System, the Advanced Space Tug, and Planetary Rovers. As a developmental tool for the shuttle manipulator system (or PDRM), the SMA represents an approximate one-quarter scale working model for simulating and demonstrating payload handling, docking assistance, and satellite servicing. For the Free-Flying Teleoperator System and the Advanced Tug, the SMA provides a near full-scale developmental tool for satellite servicing, docking, and deployment/retrieval procedures, techniques, and support equipment requirements. For the Planetary Rovers, it provides an oversize developmental tool for sample handling and soil mechanics investigations. The design of the SMA was based on concepts developed for a 40-ft NASA technology arm to be used for zero-g shuttle manipulator simulations

The supervisory implications of financial globalization: three views

At the 1989 Lake Bluff conference on globalization, three authorities presented their personal—and conflicting—views on international financial regulation in general, and the 1988 BIS-sponsored Basle agreement, in particular.International finance ; Bank capital

Multiple agents, blame games and public policy-making: the case of local government reform in New South Wales

© 2016 Australian Political Studies Association. Politicians often use ‘independent experts’ to avoid blame for contentious public policy. The use of multiple agents, however, has attracted relatively little attention. We extend the blame-avoidance literature to identify additional opportunities and risks that arise when multiple agents are used to support/oppose particular public policies. We then test our propositions using evidence from recent local government reforms in New South Wales. The picture which emerges is largely one of confusion whereby independent agents provide contradictory opinions, attempt to shift blame to one another, and dispute interpretations of earlier advice. We conclude our analysis with a discussion of the salient factors for successful pursuit of the multiple-agent variant of the blame games

Model Independent Primordial Power Spectrum from Maxima, Boomerang, and DASI Data

A model-independent determination of the primordial power spectrum of matter density fluctuations could uniquely probe physics of the very early universe, and provide powerful constraints on inflationary models. We parametrize the primordial power spectrum $A_s^2(k)$ as an arbitrary function, and deduce its binned amplitude from the cosmic microwave background radiation anisotropy (CMB) measurements of Maxima, Boomerang, and DASI. We find that for a flat universe with $A_s^2(k)=1$ (scale-invariant) for scales $k<0.001$h/Mpc, the primordial power spectrum is marginally consistent with a scale-invariant Harrison-Zeldovich spectrum. However, we deduce a rise in power compared to a scale-invariant power spectrum for 0.001 h/{Mpc} \la k \la 0.01 h/{Mpc}. Our results are consistent with large-scale structure data, and seem to suggest that the current observational data allow for the possibility of unusual physics in the very early universe.Comment: substantially revised and final version, accepted by Ap

Subsidiarity: More than a principle of decentralization-A view from local government

© The Author 2017. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of CSF Associates: Publius, Inc. A common interpretation of the principle of subsidiarity in the federalism literature is that decentralized government, which is closer to the people, is better able to respond to the preferences of its citizens. However, when the principle is denuded of its moral foundations in this fashion it not only fails to provide the grounding for achieving human dignity and the common good, but may also become the harbinger of fiscal crises and social dysfunction. We provide a more comprehensive account of the principle of subsidiarity and contrast this with various conceptions prominently presented in the federalism literature.We then explore how this more comprehensive view of subsidiarity would look in practice. In short, we argue that mere decentralization of government fails to capture the ontology and desirable outcomes of the principle of subsidiarity

Investigation of critical slowing down in a bistable S-SEED

A simulation of S-SEED switching based upon experimental data is developed that includes the effect of critical slowing down. The simulation's accuracy is demonstrated by close agreement with the results from experimental S-SEED switching. The simulation is subsequently used to understand how the phenomenon of critical slowing down applies to switching of an S-SEED and how the effect on photonic analog-to-digital (A/D) converter performance may be minimized.B. A. Clare, K. A. Corbett, K. J. Grant, P. B. Atanackovic, W. Marwood and J. Munc