271 research outputs found
Beyond convenience: practical considerations with using routine health data for evaluations
As digital routine health information systems (RHIS) become more prevalent, there is a growing interest in using them for evaluations. Rakha et al. used data from an integrated management of childhood illness (IMCI) database to evaluate under-5 mortality and the timing of IMCI implementation in 213 districts in Egypt. Bennett et al. used data from Zambiaâs RHIS to evaluate an insecticide-treated net program and confirmed outpatient malaria incidence. Lalla-Edward et al. used data collected from nine roadside wellness centers in South Africa to evaluate the services accessed by long-distance truck drivers and the driversâ sociodemographic characteristics. Brennan et al. used data from the National Health Service (NHS) in Leicester to assess hospital cost efficiency
Can processes make relationships work? The Triple Helix between structure and action
This contribution seeks to explore how complex adaptive theory can be applied at the conceptual level to unpack Triple Helix models. We use two cases to examine this issue â the Finnish Strategic Centres for Science, Technology & Innovation (SHOKs) and the Canadian Business-led Networks of Centres of Excellence (BL-NCE). Both types of centres are organisational structures that aspire to be business-led, with a considerable portion of their activities driven by (industrial) usersâ interests and requirements. Reflecting on the centresâ activities along three dimensions â knowledge generation, consensus building and innovation â we contend that conceptualising the Triple Helix from a process perspective will improve the dialogue between stakeholders and shareholders
Bubbling Orientifolds
We investigate a class of 1/2-BPS bubbling geometries associated to
orientifolds of type IIB string theory and thereby to excited states of the
SO(N)/Sp(N) N=4 supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory. The geometries are in
correspondence with free fermions moving in a harmonic oscillator potential on
the half-line. Branes wrapped on torsion cycles of these geometries are
identified in the fermi fluid description. Besides being of intrinsic interest,
these solutions may also occur as local geometries in flux compactifications
where orientifold planes are present to ensure global charge cancellation. We
comment on the extension of this procedure to M-theory orientifolds.Comment: 25 pages, 11 figures. v2: few references adde
Three-dimensional lattice-Boltzmann simulations of critical spinodal decomposition in binary immiscible fluids
We use a modified Shan-Chen, noiseless lattice-BGK model for binary
immiscible, incompressible, athermal fluids in three dimensions to simulate the
coarsening of domains following a deep quench below the spinodal point from a
symmetric and homogeneous mixture into a two-phase configuration. We find the
average domain size growing with time as , where increases
in the range , consistent with a crossover between
diffusive and hydrodynamic viscous, , behaviour. We find
good collapse onto a single scaling function, yet the domain growth exponents
differ from others' works' for similar values of the unique characteristic
length and time that can be constructed out of the fluid's parameters. This
rebuts claims of universality for the dynamical scaling hypothesis. At early
times, we also find a crossover from to in the scaled structure
function, which disappears when the dynamical scaling reasonably improves at
later times. This excludes noise as the cause for a behaviour, as
proposed by others. We also observe exponential temporal growth of the
structure function during the initial stages of the dynamics and for
wavenumbers less than a threshold value.Comment: 45 pages, 18 figures. Accepted for publication in Physical Review
Synthesis, structure and magnetic properties ofÎČ-MnO2nanorods
We present synthesis, structure and magnetic properties of structurally well-ordered single-crystalline ÎČ-MnO2nanorods of 50â100 nm diameter and several ”m length. Thorough structural characterization shows that the basic ÎČ-MnO2material is covered by a thin surface layer (âŒ2.5 nm) of α-Mn2O3phase with a reduced Mn valence that adds its own magnetic signal to the total magnetization of the ÎČ-MnO2nanorods. The relatively complicated temperature-dependent magnetism of the nanorods can be explained in terms of a superposition of bulk magnetic properties of spatially segregated ÎČ-MnO2and α-Mn2O3constituent phases and the soft ferromagnetism of the thin interface layer between these two phases
Methane and carbon dioxide fluxes and their regional scalability for the European Arctic wetlands during the MAMM project in summer 2012
Airborne and ground-based measurements of methane (CH4), carbon dioxide (CO2) and boundary layer thermodynamics were recorded over the Fennoscandian landscape (67â69.5° N, 20â28° E) in July 2012 as part of the MAMM (Methane and other greenhouse gases in the Arctic: Measurements, process studies and Modelling) field campaign. Employing these airborne measurements and a simple boundary layer box model, net regional-scale (~ 100 km) fluxes were calculated to be 1.2 ± 0.5 mg CH4 hâ1 mâ2 and â350 ± 143 mg CO2 hâ1 mâ2. These airborne fluxes were found to be relatively consistent with seasonally averaged surface chamber (1.3 ± 1.0 mg CH4 hâ1 mâ2) and eddy covariance (1.3 ± 0.3 mg CH4 hâ1 mâ2 and â309 ± 306 mg CO2 hâ1 mâ2) flux measurements in the local area. The internal consistency of the aircraft-derived fluxes across a wide swath of Fennoscandia coupled with an excellent statistical comparison with local seasonally averaged ground-based measurements demonstrates the potential scalability of such localised measurements to regional-scale representativeness. Comparisons were also made to longer-term regional CH4 climatologies from the JULES (Joint UK Land Environment Simulator) and HYBRID8 land surface models within the area of the MAMM campaign. The average hourly emission flux output for the summer period (JulyâAugust) for the year 2012 was 0.084 mg CH4 hâ1 mâ2 (minimum 0.0 and maximum 0.21 mg CH4 hâ1 mâ2) for the JULES model and 0.088 mg CH4 hâ1 mâ2 (minimum 0.0008 and maximum 1.53 mg CH4 hâ1 mâ2) for HYBRID8. Based on these observations both models were found to significantly underestimate the CH4 emission flux in this region, which was linked to the under-prediction of the wetland extents generated by the models
Early carboniferous brachiopod faunas from the Baoshan block, west Yunnan, southwest China
38 brachiopod species in 27 genera and subgenera are described from the Yudong Formation in the Shidian-Baoshan area, west Yunnan, southwest China. New taxa include two new subgenera: Unispirifer (Septimispirifer) and Brachythyrina (Longathyrina), and seven new species: Eomarginifera yunnanensis, Marginatia cylindrica, Unispirifer (Unispirifer) xiangshanensis, Unispirifer (Septimispirifer) wafangjieensis, Brachythyrina (Brachythyrina) transversa, Brachythyrina (Longathyrina) baoshanensis, and Girtyella wafangjieensis. Based on the described material and constraints from associated coral and conodont faunas, the age of the brachiopod fauna from the Yudon Formation is considered late Tournaisian (Early Carboniferous), with a possibility extending into earlyViseacutean.<br /
Cross-ancestry genome-wide association analysis of corneal thickness strengthens link between complex and Mendelian eye diseases
Central corneal thickness (CCT) is a highly heritable trait associated with complex eye diseases such as keratoconus and glaucoma. We perform a genome-wide association meta-analysis of CCT and identify 19 novel regions. In addition to adding support for known connective tissue-related pathways, pathway analyses uncover previously unreported gene sets. Remarkably, >20% of the CCT-loci are near or within Mendelian disorder genes. These included FBN1, ADAMTS2 and TGFB2 which associate with connective tissue disorders (Marfan, Ehlers-Danlos and Loeys-Dietz syndromes), and the LUM-DCN-KERA gene complex involved in myopia, corneal dystrophies and cornea plana. Using index CCT-increasing variants, we find a significant inverse correlation in effect sizes between CCT and keratoconus (r =-0.62, P = 5.30 Ă 10-5) but not between CCT and primary open-angle glaucoma (r =-0.17, P = 0.2). Our findings provide evidence for shared genetic influences between CCT and keratoconus, and implicate candidate genes acting in collagen and extracellular matrix regulation
- âŠ