Beyond prospective accountancy : reassessing the case for British membership of the single European currency comparatively

The fact that Britain will, at most, be a late signatory to the single European currency means that the strategic deliberations it faces in deciding whether to enter EMU are rather different to those of earlier entrants. However, this crucial point is lost in almost all discussion of the subject. To date, the academic debate has been dominated by what we term 'prospective accountancy', in which a series of abstract counterfactuals ostensibly inform a stylised cost–benefit analysis. This article moves beyond such an approach by combining conjectures about the specificities of the British case with a concrete analysis of the experiences of the Eurozone member whose economy appears most closely to resemble Britain's: namely, Ireland. The comparative dimension of our work facilitates more empirically-based analysis of the merits and demerits of British entry into EMU. Yet, it is important not to lose sight of the limits of an exclusively comparative approach, for the British growth model is qualitatively different to that of other European Union economies. British growth since the early 1990s has been consumption led, and this in turn has been fuelled to a considerable degree by the release of equity from the housing market. The likely impact of EMU on the British economy will be determined to a significant extent, then, by its effect upon this key catalyst of British growth. Sadly, no retrospective comparison can inform such an assessment

Integrating influenza antigenic dynamics with molecular evolution.

Influenza viruses undergo continual antigenic evolution allowing mutant viruses to evade host immunity acquired to previous virus strains. Antigenic phenotype is often assessed through pairwise measurement of cross-reactivity between influenza strains using the hemagglutination inhibition (HI) assay. Here, we extend previous approaches to antigenic cartography, and simultaneously characterize antigenic and genetic evolution by modeling the diffusion of antigenic phenotype over a shared virus phylogeny. Using HI data from influenza lineages A/H3N2, A/H1N1, B/Victoria and B/Yamagata, we determine patterns of antigenic drift across viral lineages, showing that A/H3N2 evolves faster and in a more punctuated fashion than other influenza lineages. We also show that year-to-year antigenic drift appears to drive incidence patterns within each influenza lineage. This work makes possible substantial future advances in investigating the dynamics of influenza and other antigenically-variable pathogens by providing a model that intimately combines molecular and antigenic evolution. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.01914.001

Developmental changes in the germinability, desiccation tolerance, hardseededness, and longevity of individual seeds of Trifolium ambiguum

Background and Aims: Using two parental clones of outcrossing Trifolium ambiguum as a potential model system, we examined how during seed development the maternal parent, number of seeds per pod, seed position within the pod, and pod position within the inflorescence influenced individual seed fresh weight, dry weight, water content, germinability, desiccation tolerance, hardseededness, and subsequent longevity of individual seeds. Methods: Near simultaneous, manual reciprocal crosses were carried out between clonal lines for two experiments. Infructescences were harvested at intervals during seed development. Each individual seed was weighed and then used to determine dry weight or one of the physiological behaviour traits. Key Results: Whilst population mass maturity was reached at 33–36 days after pollination (DAP), seed-to-seed variation in maximum seed dry weight, when it was achieved, and when maturation drying commenced, was considerable. Individual seeds acquired germinability between 14 and 44 DAP, desiccation tolerance between 30 and 40 DAP, and the capability to become hardseeded between 30 and 47 DAP. The time for viability to fall to 50 % (p50) at 60 % relative humidity and 45 °C increased between 36 and 56 DAP, when the seed coats of most individuals had become dark orange, but declined thereafter. Individual seed f. wt at harvest did not correlate with air-dry storage survival period. Analysing survival data for cohorts of seeds reduced the standard deviation of the normal distribution of seed deaths in time, but no sub-population showed complete uniformity of survival period. Conclusions: Variation in individual seed behaviours within a developing population is inherent and inevitable. In this outbreeder, there is significant variation in seed longevity which appears dependent on embryo genotype with little effect of maternal genotype or architectural factors

Why Can\u27t a Woman Be More Like a Man? American and Australian Approaches to Exclusionary Conduct

Much of antitrust law (in the U.S.) or trade practices law (in Australia) is about “exclusionary conduct,” things that large firms do to acquire an even larger share of the market or to preserve their large market share from being eroded by smaller rivals or new entrants. In the U.S., the main vehicle for policing inappropriate exclusionary conduct by large firms against smaller competitors is Section 2 of the Sherman Act, which prohibits monopolization or attempted monopolization. In Australia, the main vehicle is Section 46 which, generally speaking, prohibits the misuse of market power. The main purpose of this paper is to discuss, in broad terms, how Section 2 deals with exclusionary conduct and to compare that with the Section 46 approach. Those who are dissatisfied with the outcome of certain individual cases in Australia, or those interested in reform generally, are occasionally heard to muse about whether Section 46 should be “fixed” in some way, and one possible way that is sometimes discussed is to make it resemble Section 2 more closely. One of the issues that this paper will explore is whether there are deficiencies in the Section 46 approach that can (and should) be “cured” by making it more closely resemble Section 2

Why Can\u27t a Woman Be More Like a Man? American and Australian Approaches to Exclusionary Conduct

Much of antitrust law (in the U.S.) or trade practices law (in Australia) is about “exclusionary conduct,” things that large firms do to acquire an even larger share of the market or to preserve their large market share from being eroded by smaller rivals or new entrants. In the U.S., the main vehicle for policing inappropriate exclusionary conduct by large firms against smaller competitors is Section 2 of the Sherman Act, which prohibits monopolization or attempted monopolization. In Australia, the main vehicle is Section 46 which, generally speaking, prohibits the misuse of market power. The main purpose of this paper is to discuss, in broad terms, how Section 2 deals with exclusionary conduct and to compare that with the Section 46 approach. Those who are dissatisfied with the outcome of certain individual cases in Australia, or those interested in reform generally, are occasionally heard to muse about whether Section 46 should be “fixed” in some way, and one possible way that is sometimes discussed is to make it resemble Section 2 more closely. One of the issues that this paper will explore is whether there are deficiencies in the Section 46 approach that can (and should) be “cured” by making it more closely resemble Section 2

Tracing Hyperobjects: Digital Deep Mapping in the Anthropocene

Agency in the Anthropocene is premised on knowledge of a situation which challenges human comprehension through its complexity and exceeds the spatio-temporal limits of individual, human-scale experience. It hints at a scale and entanglement of factors that likewise defy conventional mapping and spatial methods. Timothy Morton offers the hyperobject as a description of such objects, and proposed new speculative and phenomenological strategies for their exploration. This raises a complex and daunting question: how can challenges of perceiving–and mapping–the forces at work at more-than-human scale be effectively addressed? In this paper, we propose a digitally-expanded notion of ‘Deep Mapping’ as a potential methodology for sensing the contours of the hyperobject: a tracing or palpation of objects of knowledge which exceed the individual. In previous cultural moments, strategies such as Fredric Jameson’s ‘cognitive mapping’ have offered pathways for agency through spatial exploration and ordering of complex situations, though often at the expense of temporality. Deep mapping, conversely, temporalises the act of mapping through narrativisation, but is typically localised and deliberately limited in scale. We argue that the use of digital strategies to augment the deep map can transcend individual and local experience, and provides access to an understanding of the object by opening cognition to its many hidden dimensions, at spatial and temporal scales both above and below those available to human perception. If narrative can be used to reveal the psychological and cultural depths hidden in geographical space, then digital methods such as GIS and data visualisation can be used to demonstrate the way these depths are themselves part of higher-order temporal and spatial patterns. By combining the two, it is possible to ameliorate the deficiencies of other approaches to mapping the multiplicity of agencies at play in environmental perception while simultaneously accepting the finitude of knowledge possible of a hyperobject

Redistribution with Sloth—Britain's problem?

SUMMARY Many if not most analyses of Britain's economic difficulties suggest that slow growth is at the heart of the problem—and an acceleration of growth the obvious cure. Past experience in Britain and in the Third World casts doubts on this. The eradication of unemployment poverty and other social problems depends as much on structural change as on growth. Economic policy, therefore, needs to be directed much more explicitly towards what is needed to restructure the British economy in the short and over the longer run. It is not even clear that aggregate growth has more than a minor part to play in the process. RESUME La redistribution paresseuse—le problème britannique? Plusieurs, sinon la plupart, des analyses des difficultés économiques britanniques placent la lenteur du développement au coeur du problème—et proposent l'accélération du développement comme remède évident. Cette théorie est mise en question par l'expérience vécue en Grande?Bretagne ainsi que dans le Tiers Monde. L'élimination du chômage, de la pauvreté et d'autres problèmes sociaux dépend autant de l'évolution structurale que de la croissance. La politique économique devrait, par conséquent, s'orienter beaucoup plus explicitement vers ce qui est nécessaire à la restructuration de l'économie britannique à courte et à longue échéance. Il n'est même pas évident que la croissance globale ait autre qu'un rôle mineur dans le processus. RESUMEN La lentitud en la redistribución, uno de los problemas principales de la Gran Bretaña de hoy Muchos, si no la mayoría de los análisis de las dificultades económicas de la Gran Bretaña, sugieren que el problema fundamental es su desarrollo demasiado lento y que la solución se halla en una aceleración del crecimiento. Esta afirmación parece ser ociosa a la vista de la experiencia pasada de la Gran Bretaña y del Tercer Mundo. La supresión del paro, la pobreza y otros problemas sociales depende tanto de los cambios estructurales como del crecimiento. La política económica, así pues, debería orientarse hacia una reestructuración de la economía británica, tanto a corto como a largo plazo. El crecimiento de conjunto no parece tener más que escasa importancia en este proceso

Measuring outcomes of importance to women with stress urinary incontinence

The definitive version is available at www.interscience.wiley.comPeer reviewedPostprin

Incontinence-specific quality of life measures used in trials of treatments for female urinary incontinence: a systematic review.

This systematic review examined the use of incontinence-specific QOL measures in clinical trials of female incontinence treatments, and systematically evaluated their quality using a standard checklist. Of 61 trials included in the review, 58 (95.1%) used an incontinence-specific QOL measure. The most commonly used were IIQ (19 papers), I-QoL (12 papers) and UDI (9 papers). Eleven papers (18.0%) used measures which were not referenced or were developed specifically for the study. The eight QOL measures identified had good clinical face validity and measurement properties. We advise researchers to evaluate carefully the needs of their specific study, and select the QOL measure that is most appropriate in terms of validity, utility and relevance, and discourage the development of new measures. Until better evidence is available on the validity and comparability of measures, we recommend that researchers consider using IIQ or I-QOL with or without UDI in trials of incontinence treatments

Genome wide association studies in presence of misclassified binary responses

BACKGROUND: Misclassification has been shown to have a high prevalence in binary responses in both livestock and human populations. Leaving these errors uncorrected before analyses will have a negative impact on the overall goal of genome-wide association studies (GWAS) including reducing predictive power. A liability threshold model that contemplates misclassification was developed to assess the effects of mis-diagnostic errors on GWAS. Four simulated scenarios of case–control datasets were generated. Each dataset consisted of 2000 individuals and was analyzed with varying odds ratios of the influential SNPs and misclassification rates of 5% and 10%. RESULTS: Analyses of binary responses subject to misclassification resulted in underestimation of influential SNPs and failed to estimate the true magnitude and direction of the effects. Once the misclassification algorithm was applied there was a 12% to 29% increase in accuracy, and a substantial reduction in bias. The proposed method was able to capture the majority of the most significant SNPs that were not identified in the analysis of the misclassified data. In fact, in one of the simulation scenarios, 33% of the influential SNPs were not identified using the misclassified data, compared with the analysis using the data without misclassification. However, using the proposed method, only 13% were not identified. Furthermore, the proposed method was able to identify with high probability a large portion of the truly misclassified observations. CONCLUSIONS: The proposed model provides a statistical tool to correct or at least attenuate the negative effects of misclassified binary responses in GWAS. Across different levels of misclassification probability as well as odds ratios of significant SNPs, the model proved to be robust. In fact, SNP effects, and misclassification probability were accurately estimated and the truly misclassified observations were identified with high probabilities compared to non-misclassified responses. This study was limited to situations where the misclassification probability was assumed to be the same in cases and controls which is not always the case based on real human disease data. Thus, it is of interest to evaluate the performance of the proposed model in that situation which is the current focus of our research