1,153 research outputs found
Use of programme budgeting and marginal analysis to set priorities for local NHS dental services: learning from the north east of England
Background - Priority setting is necessary where competing demands exceed the finite resources available. The aim of the study was to develop and test a prioritization framework based upon programme budgeting and marginal analysis (PBMA) as a tool to assist National Health Service (NHS) commissioners in their management of resources for local NHS dental services.
Methods - Twenty-seven stakeholders (5 dentists, 8 commissioners and 14 patients) participated in a case-study based in a former NHS commissioning organization in the north of England. Stakeholders modified local decision-making criteria and applied them to a number of different scenarios.
Results - The majority of financial resources for NHS dental services in the commissioning organization studied were allocated to primary care dental practitioners’ contracts in perpetuity, potentially constraining commissioners’ abilities to shift resources. Compiling the programme budget was successful, but organizational flux and difficulties engaging local NHS commissioners significantly impacted upon the marginal analysis phase.
Conclusions - NHS dental practitioners’ contracts resemble budget-silos which do not facilitate local resource reallocation. ‘Context-specific’ factors significantly challenged the successful implementation and impact of PBMA. A local PBMA champion embedded within commissioning organizations should be considered. Participants found visual depiction of the cost-value ratio helpful during their initial priority setting deliberations
Classification using distance nearest neighbours
This paper proposes a new probabilistic classification algorithm using a
Markov random field approach. The joint distribution of class labels is
explicitly modelled using the distances between feature vectors. Intuitively, a
class label should depend more on class labels which are closer in the feature
space, than those which are further away. Our approach builds on previous work
by Holmes and Adams (2002, 2003) and Cucala et al. (2008). Our work shares many
of the advantages of these approaches in providing a probabilistic basis for
the statistical inference. In comparison to previous work, we present a more
efficient computational algorithm to overcome the intractability of the Markov
random field model. The results of our algorithm are encouraging in comparison
to the k-nearest neighbour algorithm.Comment: 12 pages, 2 figures. To appear in Statistics and Computin
Restenosis, reocclusion and adverse cardiovascular events after successful balloon angioplasty of occluded versus nonoccluded coronary arteries: Results from the multicenter american research trial with cilazapril after angioplasty to prevent transluminal coronary obstruction and restenosis (MARCATOR)
OBJECTIVES: This study sought to compare the frequency of restenosis, reocclusion and adverse cardiovascular events after angioplasty of occluded versus nonoccluded coronary arteries.
BACKGROUND: Angioplasty of chronically occluded coronary arteries is believed to be associated with a higher frequency of restenosis and reocclusion than angioplasty of subtotal stenoses. Whether this leads to adverse cardiovascular events is unknown.
METHODS: The Multicenter American Research Trial With Cilazapril After Angioplasty to Prevent Restenosis (MARCATOR) was a placebo-controlled trial with angiographic follow-up to determine the effect of the angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor cilazapril on the frequency of restenosis. In this trial, restenosis was defined as 1) angiographic reduction of minimal lumen diameter > or = 0.72 mm between angioplasty and the follow-up visit; and 2) > 50% diameter stenosis on the follow-up angiogram. We identified
Palaeontology, the biogeohistory of Victoria
The broad-scale distribution of fossils within Victoria is controlled by general global patterns in the biological evolution of life on Earth, the local development and environmental evolution of habitats, and the occurrence of geological processes conducive to the preservation of fossil floras and faunas. Early Palaeozoic fossils are mostly marine in origin because of the predominance of marine sedimentary rocks in Victoria and because life on land was not significant during most of this time interval. Middle Palaeozoic sequences have both terrestrial and marine fossil records. Within Victoria, marine rocks are only very minor components of strata deposited during the late Palaeozoic, so that few marine fossils are known from this time period. A similar situation existed during most of the Mesozoic except towards the end of this era when marine conditions began to prevail in the Bass Strait region. During long intervals in the Cainozoic, large areas of Victoria were flooded by shallow-marine seas, particularly in the southern basins of Bass Strait, as well as in the northwest of the State (Murray Basin). Cainozoic sediments contain an extraordinary range of animal and plant fossils. During the Quaternary, the landscape of Victoria became, and continues to be, dominated by continental environments including, at times, extensive freshwater lake systems. Fossil floras and faunas from sediments deposited in these lake systems and from other continental sediments, as well as from Quaternary sediments deposited in marginal marine environments, collectively record a history of rapid fluctuations in climate and sea level.<br /
Quantitative comparison of single- and two-particle properties in the cuprates
We explore the strong variations of the electronic properties of
copper-oxygen compounds across the doping phase diagram in a quantitative way.
To this end we calculate the electronic Raman response on the basis of results
from angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES). In the limits of our
approximations we find agreement on the overdoped side and pronounced
discrepancies at lower doping. In contrast to the successful approach for the
transport properties at low energies, the Raman and the ARPES data cannot be
reconciled by adding angle-dependent momentum scattering. We discuss possible
routes towards an explanation of the suppression of spectral weight close to
the points which sets in abruptly close to 21% doping.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figure
Development of a Keetch and Byram based drought index sensitive to forest management in Mediterranean conditions
[EN] The present work aims to take a closer look at the behavior of two releases of the Keetch Byram droughtindex (KBDI) under different forest management strategies in Mediterranean conditions. Since theseversions of the index were demonstrated to be insensitive to the changes in water balance caused bydifferent thinning treatments, a new KBDI-based index sensitive to silviculture operations was developed.This new approach enabled us to simulate the benefits achieved from a thinning operation in terms offorest fire risk reduction. Abatements of 22.5% and 26.4% in KBDI were obtained for the 2009 and 2010high-risk forest fire periods, respectively, due to thinning. The reductions observed in the short-term didnot disappear in a long term. A plot thinned 10 years ago showed KBDI reductions of 12.5% and 6.7% withrespect to a non-managed plot (control treatment) in the same period. Finally, in order to make possibleapplication of the new index to other stands, coefficients of the index were based on well-known andeasy to get tree-related and physiological variables.This study is part of the research project: "CGL2011-28776-C02-02, Hydrological characterization of forest structures at plot scale for an adaptive management, Hydrosil", funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation and FEDER funds.García Prats, A.; Campo García, ADD.; Tarcisio Fernandes, JG.; Molina Herrera, A. (2015). Development of a Keetch and Byram based drought index sensitive to forest management in Mediterranean conditions. Agricultural and Forest Meteorology. (205):40-50. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agrformet.2015.02.009S405020
Planck intermediate results. VIII. Filaments between interacting clusters
About half of the baryons of the Universe are expected to be in the form of
filaments of hot and low density intergalactic medium. Most of these baryons
remain undetected even by the most advanced X-ray observatories which are
limited in sensitivity to the diffuse low density medium. The Planck satellite
has provided hundreds of detections of the hot gas in clusters of galaxies via
the thermal Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (tSZ) effect and is an ideal instrument for
studying extended low density media through the tSZ effect. In this paper we
use the Planck data to search for signatures of a fraction of these missing
baryons between pairs of galaxy clusters. Cluster pairs are good candidates for
searching for the hotter and denser phase of the intergalactic medium (which is
more easily observed through the SZ effect). Using an X-ray catalogue of
clusters and the Planck data, we select physical pairs of clusters as
candidates. Using the Planck data we construct a local map of the tSZ effect
centered on each pair of galaxy clusters. ROSAT data is used to construct X-ray
maps of these pairs. After having modelled and subtracted the tSZ effect and
X-ray emission for each cluster in the pair we study the residuals on both the
SZ and X-ray maps. For the merging cluster pair A399-A401 we observe a
significant tSZ effect signal in the intercluster region beyond the virial
radii of the clusters. A joint X-ray SZ analysis allows us to constrain the
temperature and density of this intercluster medium. We obtain a temperature of
kT = 7.1 +- 0.9, keV (consistent with previous estimates) and a baryon density
of (3.7 +- 0.2)x10^-4, cm^-3. The Planck satellite mission has provided the
first SZ detection of the hot and diffuse intercluster gas.Comment: Accepted by A&
System Size and Energy Dependence of Jet-Induced Hadron Pair Correlation Shapes in Cu+Cu and Au+Au Collisions at sqrt(s_NN) = 200 and 62.4 GeV
We present azimuthal angle correlations of intermediate transverse momentum
(1-4 GeV/c) hadrons from {dijets} in Cu+Cu and Au+Au collisions at sqrt(s_NN) =
62.4 and 200 GeV. The away-side dijet induced azimuthal correlation is
broadened, non-Gaussian, and peaked away from \Delta\phi=\pi in central and
semi-central collisions in all the systems. The broadening and peak location
are found to depend upon the number of participants in the collision, but not
on the collision energy or beam nuclei. These results are consistent with sound
or shock wave models, but pose challenges to Cherenkov gluon radiation models.Comment: 464 authors from 60 institutions, 6 pages, 3 figures, 2 tables.
Submitted to Physical Review Letters. Plain text data tables for the points
plotted in figures for this and previous PHENIX publications are (or will be)
publicly available at http://www.phenix.bnl.gov/papers.htm
Improved Measurement of Double Helicity Asymmetry in Inclusive Midrapidity pi^0 Production for Polarized p+p Collisions at sqrt(s)=200 GeV
We present an improved measurement of the double helicity asymmetry for pi^0
production in polarized proton-proton scattering at sqrt(s) = 200 GeV employing
the PHENIX detector at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC). The
improvements to our previous measurement come from two main factors: Inclusion
of a new data set from the 2004 RHIC run with higher beam polarizations than
the earlier run and a recalibration of the beam polarization measurements,
which resulted in reduced uncertainties and increased beam polarizations. The
results are compared to a Next to Leading Order (NLO) perturbative Quantum
Chromodynamics (pQCD) calculation with a range of polarized gluon
distributions.Comment: 389 authors, 4 pages, 2 tables, 1 figure. Submitted to Phys. Rev. D,
Rapid Communications. Plain text data tables for the points plotted in
figures for this and previous PHENIX publications are (or will be) publicly
available at http://www.phenix.bnl.gov/papers.htm
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