The gender and access to health services study: final report

Men and women frequently think and behave differently. To observe this is not to suggest anything so absurdly simple as that there are only male and female ways of being; behaviours and thought processes vary according to numerous other factors besides gender. That this is very generally the case however, does mean that there are broad - and often broadly predictable - differences in the way men and women engage with the world. Most commercial organisations understand this very well and plan accordingly. Many public authorities recognise it too and take these differences into account when developing and providing services. For historical reasons however the NHS has rarely done so. It is widely known that there are differences between men and women in the incidence and prevalence of most health conditions. Sometimes there are clear biological reasons for these differences but often there are not. Where biology offers little or no enlightenment, other questions need to be asked: · Do men and women behave in ways that predispose them to particular health conditions to different degrees? · Do men and women use health services with different degrees of effectiveness? · Do men and women receive differerent kinds of service from the NHS? The answer is – yes, these things happen frequently. This is sometimes to the disadvantage of one sex and sometimes to the disadvantage of the other. Sometimes it is to the disadvantage of both. And when these things happen, health outcomes are often affected. This report looks at the reasons why gender is such an important and fundamental determinant of health status and considers the ways in which gender inequalities can be tackled within the present legislative and policy framework. It also brings together the knowledge and evidence in relation to six specific areas of health concerns

On multiplicative functions which are small on average

Let $f$ be a completely multiplicative function that assumes values inside the unit disc. We show that if \sum_{n2, for some $A>2$, then either $f(p)$ is small on average or $f$ pretends to be $\mu(n)n^{it}$ for some $t$.Comment: 51 pages. Slightly strengthened Theorem 1.2 and simplified its statement. Removed Remark 1.3. Other minor changes and corrections. To appear in Geom. Funct. Ana

Integral Difference Ratio Functions on Integers

number theoryInternational audienceTo Jozef, on his 80th birthday, with our gratitude for sharing with us his prophetic vision of Informatique Abstract. Various problems lead to the same class of functions from integers to integers: functions having integral difference ratio, i.e. verifying f (a) − f (b) ≡ 0 (mod (a − b)) for all a > b. In this paper we characterize this class of functions from Z to Z via their a la Newton series expansions on a suitably chosen basis of polynomials (with rational coefficients). We also exhibit an example of such a function which is not polynomial but Bessel like

Machine-assisted Cyber Threat Analysis using Conceptual Knowledge Discovery

Over the last years, computer networks have evolved into highly dynamic and interconnected environments, involving multiple heterogeneous devices and providing a myriad of services on top of them. This complex landscape has made it extremely difficult for security administrators to keep accurate and be effective in protecting their systems against cyber threats. In this paper, we describe our vision and scientific posture on how artificial intelligence techniques and a smart use of security knowledge may assist system administrators in better defending their networks. To that end, we put forward a research roadmap involving three complimentary axes, namely, (I) the use of FCA-based mechanisms for managing configuration vulnerabilities, (II) the exploitation of knowledge representation techniques for automated security reasoning, and (III) the design of a cyber threat intelligence mechanism as a CKDD process. Then, we describe a machine-assisted process for cyber threat analysis which provides a holistic perspective of how these three research axes are integrated together

Arithmetic properties of blocks of consecutive integers

This paper provides a survey of results on the greatest prime factor, the number of distinct prime factors, the greatest squarefree factor and the greatest m-th powerfree part of a block of consecutive integers, both without any assumption and under assumption of the abc-conjecture. Finally we prove that the explicit abc-conjecture implies the Erd\H{o}s-Woods conjecture for each k>2.Comment: A slightly corrected and extended version of a paper which will appear in January 2017 in the book From Arithmetic to Zeta-functions published by Springe

Forage Monitoring Technology to Improve Risk Management Decision Making by Herders in the Gobi Region of Mongolia

In the period from 1999 to 2002, Mongolia experienced a series of droughts and severe winters that lowered livestock numbers by approximately 30% countrywide. In the Gobi region, livestock mortality reached 50% with many households losing entire herds (Siurua & Swift 2002). In March 2004, a program was initiated by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) through the Global Livestock Collaborative Research and Support Program (GLCRSP). The goal of this program is to develop forage monitoring technologies that provide early warning of drought and winter disaster to improve livestock herder decision making in the Gobi region. The program has two major objectives: (1) to develop a regional forage monitoring system that provides near-real time spatial and temporal assessment of current and forecasted forage conditions, and (2) to develop a communication infrastructure that provides herders with data on forage conditions to assist them in making timely and specific management decisions

Merle G. Chadbourne Correspondence

Entries include a newspaper obituary clipping and letters of correspondence from the Maine State Library