National and Regional Estimates of the Prevalence of Opiate and/or Crack Cocaine use 2008-09: A summary of key findings

<p>This report summarises the results of a follow-up study to a three year project to estimate the prevalence of ‘problem drug use’ (defined as use of opiates and/or crack cocaine) nationally (England only), regionally and locally. The follow-up was carried out two years after the final sweep of the original project, so could therefore be considered as ‘sweep 5’. An overview of the national and regional estimates are presented in this report, as are comparisons with the estimates produced by the third (2006-07) sweep of the study. Estimates for 2007-08 are not available as a study was not commissioned for that year.</p> <p>Information about the number of people who use illicit drugs such as heroin, other opiates or crack cocaine is key to formulating effective policies for tackling drug-related harm as these drugs are associated with the highest levels of harm. It also helps inform service provision at the local level and provides a context in which to understand the population impact of interventions to reduce drug-related harm.</p> <p>Direct enumeration of those engaged in a largely covert activity such as the use of class A drugs is difficult and standard household survey techniques tend to underestimate the extent of such activity. Indirect techniques making use of various data sources offer a more reliable way of calculating prevalence estimates for the use of opiates and/or crack cocaine. The estimates presented in this report are derived using two indirect measurement techniques: the capture-recapture method (CRC ); and the multiple indicator (MIM ) method. These methods are described in detail in Hay et al., 2006 and Hay et al., 2007a. Methodological developments throughout the course of the previous three sweeps are discussed elsewhere (Hay et al., 2007b, Hay et al., 2008). The individuals covered by this study were people aged 15 to 64 and resident in each DAT area, and known to be using heroin, methadone, other opiate drugs or crack cocaine.</p&gt

Political risk in light rail transit PPP projects

Since 2003 public-private partnerships (PPPs) have represented between 10 and 13.5% of the total investment in public services in the UK. The macro-economic and political benefits of PPPs were among the key drivers for central government's decision to promote this form of procurement to improve UK public services. Political support for a PPP project is critical and is frequently cited as the most important critical success factor. This paper investigates the significance of political support and reviews the treatment of political risk in a business case by the public sector project sponsor for major UK-based light rail transit PPP projects during their development stage. The investigation demonstrates that in the early project stages it is not traditional quantitative Monte Carlo risk analysis that is important; rather it is the identification and representation of political support within a business case together with an understanding of how this information is then used to inform critical project decisions

On the Classification of Diagonal Coset Modular Invariants

We relate in a novel way the modular matrices of GKO diagonal cosets without fixed points to those of WZNW tensor products. Using this we classify all modular invariant partition functions of $su(3)_k\oplus su(3)_1/su(3)_{k+1}$ for all positive integer level $k$, and $su(2)_k\oplus su(2)_\ell/su(2)_{k+\ell}$ for all $k$ and infinitely many $\ell$ (in fact, for each $k$ a positive density of $\ell$). Of all these classifications, only that for $su(2)_k\oplus su(2)_1/su(2)_{k+1}$ had been known. Our lists include many new invariants.Comment: 24 pp (plain tex

Health care utilisation amongst older adults with sensory and cognitive impairments in Europe.

Worldwide, the high prevalence of multiple chronic conditions amongst older population has led to increased utilisation of health care and rising associated costs, becoming a major public health concern. Hearing, vision and cognitive disorders are common chronic conditions amongst older Europeans and recent studies have documented its high co-occurrence. While it has been shown separately that suffering either mental disorders or sensory (hearing and vision) impairments is associated with higher health care utilisation, the association between health care utilisation and the interaction of these conditions has received little attention in the literature. Therefore, using four waves of the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE), this study applies the correlated random effects method to the negative binomial and finite mixture models to analyse the extent to which the interaction of cognitive and sensory impairments is associated with health care use. We found that individuals with cognitive impairment tend to have more hospitalisations. The finite mixture approach indicates a positive association between sensory impairment and the number of hospitalisations amongst low users of health care. Additionally, our findings suggest a positive association between suffering both impairments at the same time and the number of doctor and GP visits

Multi-physics energy approach and demonstration facility

A methodology to investigate the generation, transport and storage of energy based on a multi-physics approach, tied to the end use application, is presented. Often little or no consideration is given to the end use or desired product of the energy used. Current energy generation, transport and storage are dominated heavily by a few large sectors, notably electricity and hydrocarbons. These are very effective and practical systems that facilitate the delivery of vast amounts of energy. It is then not surprising that most strategies for renewable energy generation and storage revolve around this centralized model in some way. In larger scale generation, power is usually fed onto the electrical grid with a current challenge being grid stabilization with increasing penetration of intermittent renewable resources. In small grid-independent system a mix of battery and hydrocarbon storage are often used to keep a micro- grid available for various end use applications. A paradigm shift in the thinking and design of energy systems based on the required end use or product is needed. The philosophy and motivation that lead to the consideration of this new approach are outlined in this article. Following this a summary of a methodical approach to developing the most energy and cost-effective solution to general processes by considering their end-use physics is presented. Examples of innovative energy generation, storage, and transport solutions based on the multi-physics approach are then outlined. Finally, a brief description of the Multi-physics Renewable Energy Lab (MPREL), a demonstration facility based on the approach and currently under construction at the Naval Postgraduate School, is given

On parity functions in conformal field theories

We examine general aspects of parity functions arising in rational conformal field theories, as a result of Galois theoretic properties of modular transformations. We focus more specifically on parity functions associated with affine Lie algebras, for which we give two efficient formulas. We investigate the consequences of these for the modular invariance problem.Comment: 18 pages, no figure, LaTeX2

Lie group weight multiplicities from conformal field theory

Dominant weight multiplicities of simple Lie groups are expressed in terms of the modular matrices of Wess-Zumino-Witten conformal field theories, and related objects. Symmetries of the modular matrices give rise to new relations among multiplicities. At least for some Lie groups, these new relations are strong enough to completely fix all multiplicities.Comment: 12 pages, Plain TeX, no figure

Control of blood glucose in type 2 diabetes without weight loss by modification of diet composition

BACKGROUND: Over the past several years our research group has taken a systematic, comprehensive approach to determining the effects on body function (hormonal and non-hormonal) of varying the amounts and types of proteins, carbohydrates and fats in the diet. We have been particularly interested in the dietary management of type 2 diabetes. Our objective has been to develop a diet for people with type 2 diabetes that does not require weight loss, oral agents, or insulin, but that still controls the blood glucose concentration. Our overall goal is to enable the person with type 2 diabetes to control their blood glucose by adjustment in the composition rather than the amount of food in their diet. METHODS: This paper is a brief summary and review of our recent diet-related research, and the rationale used in the development of diets that potentially are useful in the treatment of diabetes. RESULTS: We determined that, of the carbohydrates present in the diet, absorbed glucose is largely responsible for the food-induced increase in blood glucose concentration. We also determined that dietary protein increases insulin secretion and lowers blood glucose. Fat does not significantly affect blood glucose, but can affect insulin secretion and modify the absorption of carbohydrates. Based on these data, we tested the efficacy of diets with various protein:carbohydrate:fat ratios for 5 weeks on blood glucose control in people with untreated type 2 diabetes. The results were compared to those obtained in the same subjects after 5 weeks on a control diet with a protein:carbohydrate:fat ratio of 15:55:30. A 30:40:30 ratio diet resulted in a moderate but significant decrease in 24-hour integrated glucose area and % total glycohemoglobin (%tGHb). A 30:20:50 ratio diet resulted in a 38% decrease in 24-hour glucose area, a reduction in fasting glucose to near normal and a decrease in %tGHb from 9.8% to 7.6%. The response to a 30:30:40 ratio diet was similar. CONCLUSION: Altering the diet composition could be a patient-empowering method of improving the hyperglycemia of type 2 diabetes without weight loss or pharmacologic intervention