Potential gains from reducing trade barriers in manufacturing, services and agriculture; commentary

Trade barriers

National Product Preferences and International Trade

We show that when two countries are the same size then the country with stronger preferences in favour of domestic varieties of differentiated goods produced under increasing returns (IRS) will be the net exporter of that good. It is also shown that strong preferences for domestic varieties reduce welfare in the other country and that unilateral trade barriers will necessarily improve welfare there. Moreover, the country with the weaker preferences for domestic varieties may benefit from trade restrictions even when this leads to a trade war. We also show that such preferences may explain low import penetration in IRS-goods. Finally, we discuss the policy implications of such preferences. It is argued that this model can be used to for example capture aspects of US-Japan trade in high-tech goods.national preferences; trade war; Japan

A Coincidence Null Test for Poisson-Distributed Events

When transient events are observed with multiple sensors, it is often necessary to establish the significance of coincident events. We derive a universal null test for an arbitrary number of sensors motivated by the archetypal detection problem for independent Poisson-distributed events in gravitational-wave detectors such as LIGO and Virgo. In these detectors, transient events may be witnessed by myriad channels that record interferometric signals and the surrounding physical environment. We apply our null test to a broad set of simulated gravitational-wave events as well as to a real gravitational-wave detection to determine which auxiliary channels do and do not witness real gravitational waves, and therefore which are safe to use when constructing vetoes. We also describe how our approach can be used to study detector artifacts and their origin, as well as to quantify the statistical independence of candidate GW signals from noise artifacts observed in auxiliary channels.Comment: 14 pages, 7 Figure

TransNets: Learning to Transform for Recommendation

Recently, deep learning methods have been shown to improve the performance of recommender systems over traditional methods, especially when review text is available. For example, a recent model, DeepCoNN, uses neural nets to learn one latent representation for the text of all reviews written by a target user, and a second latent representation for the text of all reviews for a target item, and then combines these latent representations to obtain state-of-the-art performance on recommendation tasks. We show that (unsurprisingly) much of the predictive value of review text comes from reviews of the target user for the target item. We then introduce a way in which this information can be used in recommendation, even when the target user's review for the target item is not available. Our model, called TransNets, extends the DeepCoNN model by introducing an additional latent layer representing the target user-target item pair. We then regularize this layer, at training time, to be similar to another latent representation of the target user's review of the target item. We show that TransNets and extensions of it improve substantially over the previous state-of-the-art.Comment: Accepted for publication in the 11th ACM Conference on Recommender Systems (RecSys 2017

Protocol for a qualitative study exploring perspectives on the INternational CLassification of Diseases (11th revision); Using lived experience to improve mental health Diagnosis in NHS England: INCLUDE study

Introduction: Developed in dialogue with WHO, this research aims to incorporate lived experience and views in the refinement of the International Classification of Diseases Mental and Behavioural Disorders 11th Revision (ICD-11). The validity and clinical utility of psychiatric diagnostic systems has been questioned by both service users and clinicians, as not all aspects reflect their lived experience or are user friendly. This is critical as evidence suggests that diagnosis can impact service user experience, identity, service use and outcomes. Feedback and recommendations from service users and clinicians should help minimise the potential for unintended negative consequences and improve the accuracy, validity and clinical utility of the ICD-11. Methods and analysis: The name INCLUDE reflects the value of expertise by experience as all aspects of the proposed study are co-produced. Feedback on the planned criteria for the ICD-11 will be sought through focus groups with service users and clinicians. The data from these groups will be coded and inductively analysed using a thematic analysis approach. Findings from this will be used to form the basis of co-produced recommendations for the ICD-11. Two service user focus groups will be conducted for each of these diagnoses: Personality Disorder, Bipolar I Disorder, Schizophrenia, Depressive Disorder and Generalised Anxiety Disorder. There will be four focus groups with clinicians (psychiatrists, general practitioners and clinical psychologists). Ethics and dissemination: This study has received ethical approval from the Coventry and Warwickshire HRA Research Ethics Committee (16/WM/0479). The output for the project will be recommendations that reflect the views and experiences of experts by experience (service users and clinicians). The findings will be disseminated via conferences and peer-reviewed publications. As the ICD is an international tool, the aim is for the methodology to be internationally disseminated for replication by other groups

National HPCC Software Exchange

This report describes an effort to construct a National HPCC Software Exchange (NHSE). This system shows how the evolving National Information Infrastructure (NII) can be used to facilitate sharing of software and information among members of the High Performance Computing and Communications (HPCC) community. To access the system use the URL: http://www.netlib.org/nse/

Establishing the origin of aromatic products from vascular and non-vascular vegetation inputs in surficial peats using 13C-labelled tetramethylammonium hydroxide (TMAH) thermochemolysis

Six cambic stagnohumic gley soil profiles located on marginal peatland between a gymnosperm plantation (Sitka spruce (Picea sitchensis (Bong.) Carr.)) and heather grassland in Wark Forest (northeast England), were analysed using 13C labelled tetramethylammonium hydroxide (TMAH) thermochemolysis to yield methylated phenolic and oxygenated aromatic products. The identification of aromatic compounds derived from the thermally assisted hydrolysis and methylation (THM) of vascular plant, Sphagnum and non-Sphagnum spp. allowed changes in vegetation both within the top 50 cm of peat (surficial peat) and across the site to be explored. Four sphagnum acid pyrolysis products reflected the presence of Sphagnum spp.; lignin phenols reflected the presence of vascular inputs; whilst 3,4-dimethoxybenzenepropanoic acid methyl ester reflected the presence of the non-Sphagnum moss Polytrichum commune. 210Pb dating of the surficial peat suggests that a historic change in vegetation identified by the changes in aromatic compound distribution with depth, coincide with the adjacent plantation of coniferous woodland. The peat closest to the plantation has seen a shift from grass dominated vegetation, to a species diverse vegetation cover, including Sphagnum spp. and vascular vegetation. These results suggest that Sphagnum spp. are able to survive not only perturbing environmental conditions, but are also able to establish themselves amongst non-Sphagnum species. This study demonstrates the ability of 13C-TMAH THM to be utilised as a screening method for the rapid characterisation of aromatic biomacromolecules in peat to identify key historic and current vegetation inputs. This technique in combination with peat dating helps identify the degradation patterns of these inputs and associated carbon dynamics, providing information on the resilience of current peat deposits to climate change and changing peat conditions

Mental, behavioral and neurodevelopmental disorders in the ICD-11 : An international perspective on key changes and controversies

The Author(s). 2020Open AccessThis article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, andreproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link tothe Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver(http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.An update of the chapter on Mental, Behavioral and Neurodevelopmental Disorders in the International Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (ICD) is of great interest around the world. The recent approval of the 11th Revision of the ICD (ICD-11) by the World Health Organization (WHO) raises broad questions about the status of nosology of mental disorders as a whole as well as more focused questions regarding changes to the diagnostic guidelines for specific conditions and the implications of these changes for practice and research. This Forum brings together a broad range of experts to reflect on key changes and controversies in the ICD-11 classification of mental disorders. Taken together, there is consensus that the WHO's focus on global applicability and clinical utility in developing the diagnostic guidelines for this chapter will maximize the likelihood that it will be adopted by mental health professionals and administrators. This focus is also expected to enhance the application of the guidelines in non-specialist settings and their usefulness for scaling up evidence-based interventions. The new mental disorders classification in ICD-11 and its accompanying diagnostic guidelines therefore represent an important, albeit iterative, advance for the field.Peer reviewedFinal Published versio

Developing Core Sets for Persons With Traumatic Brain Injury Based on the International Classification of Functioning, Disability, and Health

The authors outline the process for developing the International Classification of Functioning, Disability, and Health (ICF) Core Sets for traumatic brain injury (TBI). ICF Core Sets are selections of categories of the ICF that identify relevant categories of patients affected by specific diseases. Comprehensive and brief ICF Core Sets for TBI should become useful for clinical practice and for research. The final definition of the ICF Core Sets for TBI will be determined at an ICF Core Sets Consensus Conference, which will integrate evidence from preliminary studies. The development of ICF Core Sets is an inclusive and open process and rehabilitation professionals are invited to participate

Problematic, absent and stigmatizing diagnoses in current mental disorders classifications: Results from the WHO-WPA and WHO-IUPsyS Global Surveys

This study examined English- and Spanish-speaking psychologists' and psychiatrists' opinions regarding problematic, absent and stigmatizing diagnoses in current mental disorders classifications (ICD-10 and DSM-IV), and their perceived need for a national classification of mental disorders. Answers to open-ended questions included in WHO-WPA and WHO-IUPsyS surveys were examined using an inductive content-analysis method. A total of 3,222 participants from 35 countries were included. The most problematic diagnostic group was personality disorders, especially among psychiatrists, because of poor validity and lack of specificity. Complex posttraumatic stress disorder was the most frequent diagnosis suggested for inclusion, mainly by psychologists, to better account for the distinct processes and consequences of complex trauma. Schizophrenia was the diagnosis most frequently identified as stigmatizing, particularly by psychiatrists, due to lack of public understanding or knowledge about the diagnosis. Of the 14.4% of participants who perceived a need for a national classification system, two-thirds were from Africa or Latin America. The rationales provided were that mental disorders classifications should consider cultural and socio-historical diversity in the expression of psychopathology, differences in the perception of what is and is not pathological in different nations, and the existence of culture-bound syndromes. Implications for ICD-11 development and dissemination are discussed. © 2014 Asociación Española de Psicología Conductual