Towards a transparent, credible, evidence-based decision-making process of new drug listing on the Hong Kong Hospital Authority Drug Formulary: challenges and suggestions

The aim of this article is to describe the process, evaluation criteria, and possible outcomes of decision-making for new drugs listed in the Hong Kong Hospital Authority Drug Formulary in comparison to the health technology assessment (HTA) policy overseas. Details of decision-making processes including the new drug listing submission, Drug Advisory Committee (DAC) meeting, and procedures prior to and following the meeting, were extracted from the official Hong Kong Hospital Authority drug formulary management website and manual. Publicly-available information related to the new drug decision-making process for five HTA agencies [the National Institute of Health and Care Excellence (NICE), the Scottish Medicines Consortium (SMC), the Australia Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee (PBAC), the Canadian Agency for Drugs and Technologies in Health (CADTH), and the New Zealand Pharmaceutical Management Agency (PHARMAC)] were reviewed and retrieved from official documents from public domains. The DAC is in charge of systemically and critically appraising new drugs before they are listed on the formulary, reviewing submitted applications, and making the decision to list the drug based on scientific evidence to which safety, efficacy, and cost-effectiveness are the primary considerations. When compared with other HTA agencies, transparency of the decision-making process of the DAC, the relevance of clinical and health economic evidence, and the lack of health economic and methodological input of submissions are the major challenges to the new-drug listing policy in Hong Kong. Despite these challenges, this review provides suggestions for the establishment of a more transparent, credible, and evidence-based decision-making process in the Hong Kong Hospital Authority Drug Formulary. Proposals for improvement in the listing of new drugs in the formulary should be a priority of healthcare reforms

Exploring Replica-Exchange Wang-Landau sampling in higher-dimensional parameter space

We considered a higher-dimensional extension for the replica-exchange Wang-Landau algorithm to perform a random walk in the energy and magnetization space of the two-dimensional Ising model. This hybrid scheme combines the advantages of Wang-Landau and Replica-Exchange algorithms, and the one-dimensional version of this approach has been shown to be very efficient and to scale well, up to several thousands of computing cores. This approach allows us to split the parameter space of the system to be simulated into several pieces and still perform a random walk over the entire parameter range, ensuring the ergodicity of the simulation. Previous work, in which a similar scheme of parallel simulation was implemented without using replica exchange and with a different way to combine the result from the pieces, led to discontinuities in the final density of states over the entire range of parameters. From our simulations, it appears that the replica-exchange Wang-Landau algorithm is able to overcome this difficulty, allowing exploration of higher parameter phase space by keeping track of the joint density of states.Comment: Proceedings of CCP2014 will appear in Journal of Physics: Conference Series (JPCS), published by the IO

FOREST FIRE RISK FORECAST FOR THE STATE OF SANTA CATARINA DUE TO CLIMATE CHANGES

Forest plays a fundamental role in the environmental balance, mainly in the regulation of the climate, main variable that interferes in the propagation of fire in a forest fire. Climate change is caused by astronomic, natural and anthropogenic factors, the latter being primarily responsible for the change in the fire regime. There is a projection that there will be climate changes over the next 100 years, which will result in an impact on forest ecosystems. Therefore, this study aimed to was to determine, by decade, the Forest Fire Risk Zone Mapping (FFRZM) for the state of Santa Catarina by considering the average of two scenarios for the increase of the temperature of the Earth until 2100 (1 °C for the best-case scenario and 2.2 ºC for the worst-case scenario) that were foreseen by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in 2013. For this purpose, eight variables classified according to fire risk and integrated in a weighting model were used. The results showed that, for both scenarios, there will be an increase of 11.48% in the best-case scenario and 10.83% in the worst-case scenario in the extreme risk class from 2010 to 2100. For the low risk one, we estimate that there will be an increase of 8.13% in the best-case scenario and 11.62% in the worst-case scenario. The study reveals that if there is an increase in the temperature of the Earth, there may be an increase in the number of forest fire occurrences in the state of Santa Catarina for both scenarios. Thus, it is necessary a greater action on the prevention and combat in the areas defined as extreme risk.Keywords: fuel load, Monte Alegre Formula, topography, population density, road system. ResumoPrevisão do risco de incêndios florestais para o estado de Santa Catarina em função das mudanças climáticas A floresta desenvolve um papel fundamental no equilíbrio ambiental, principalmente, na regulação do clima, variável principal que interfere na propagação do fogo em um incêndio florestal. As mudanças climáticas são causadas por fatores astronômicos, naturais e antropogênicos, sendo este último o principal responsável pela mudança no regime do fogo. Há uma projeção de que haverá alterações climáticas nos próximos 100 anos, o que ocasionará um impacto nos ecossistemas florestais. O objetivo desse trabalho foi determinar, por decênio, o Zoneamento de Risco de Incêndios Florestais (ZRIF) para o estado de Santa Catarina, considerando a média de dois cenários de aumento da temperatura da Terra até 2100 (1 ºC para o melhor cenário e 2,2 ºC para o pior cenário) previstos pelo Painel Intergovernamental de Mudanças Climáticas (IPCC) em 2013. Para isso, foram utilizadas oito variáveis, que foram classificadas em função do risco de incêndios e integradas em um modelo de ponderação. Os resultados mostraram que, para ambos os cenários, haverá um aumento na classe de risco extremo de 11,48% no melhor cenário e de 10,83% no pior cenário no período de 2010 a 2100. Para o risco baixo, estima-se que haverá um aumento de 8,13% no melhor cenário e de 11,62% no pior cenário. Conclui-se que, caso haja   aumento na temperatura da Terra, poderá haver um aumento no número de   ocorrências de incêndios florestais no estado de Santa Catarina para ambos os   cenários,  Sendo necessária uma maior ação de prevenção e combate nas áreas   definidas como risco extremo.Palavras-chave: material   combustível, Fórmula de Monte Alegre, topografia, densidade demográfica,   sistema viário.Forest plays a fundamental role in the environmental balance, mainly in the regulation of the climate, main variable that interferes in the propagation of fire in a forest fire. Climate change is caused by astronomic, natural and anthropogenic factors, the latter being primarily responsible for the change in the fire regime. There is a projection that there will be climate changes over the next 100 years, which will result in an impact on forest ecosystems. Therefore, this study aimed to was to determine, by decade, the Forest Fire Risk Zone Mapping (FFRZM) for the state of Santa Catarina by considering the average of two scenarios for the increase of the temperature of the Earth until 2100 (1 °C for the best-case scenario and 2.2 ºC for the worst-case scenario) that were foreseen by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in 2013. For this purpose, eight variables classified according to fire risk and integrated in a weighting model were used. The results showed that, for both scenarios, there will be an increase of 11.48% in the best-case scenario and 10.83% in the worst-case scenario in the extreme risk class from 2010 to 2100. For the low risk one, we estimate that there will be an increase of 8.13% in the best-case scenario and 11.62% in the worst-case scenario. The study reveals that if there is an increase in the temperature of the Earth, there may be an increase in the number of forest fire occurrences in the state of Santa Catarina for both scenarios. Thus, it is necessary a greater action on the prevention and combat in the areas defined as extreme risk

BIBLIOMETRIC REVIEW OF THE FOREST AS A TOOL FOR ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION

The contact with the forest started in childhood enables the construction of values with nature. Bibliometric studies can help in the search for works on the forest theme. Thus, the objective of this work was to analyze the general panorama of scientific research on environmental education activities related to the forest, through bibliometric characterization in WoS and Scopus databases. The works were filtered from search codes that covered the theme. All articles were checked, and those that carried out environmental education activities and used the forest as a base were considered valid. The filtering resulted in 102 articles, of these, 62 articles it was possible to carry out a methodological analysis. Articles from 37 countries were found, with a greater number for the USA and 274 different authors, but the majority (93.4%) published only one manuscript. In the methodological analysis, most include non-formal teaching in specific environmental education activities. The forest in general is used for works focused on environmental perception and awareness, and the most used environmental interpretation techniques are field practices, in guided and self-guided interpretive trails. More than 50% of the articles do not justify the applied method and several works show methodological flaws that make it difficult to replicate the practices in other studies. It is concluded in the bibliometric analysis that there are a variety of authors talking about the subject, but a reference specialist author was not identified. The methodological flaws found prove the challenges of obtaining scientific advances in environmental education from the forest

Rebuild by Design Phase 1 Evaluation Report

Rebuild by Design (RBD) was formally launched on June 20, 2013, to ensure that the rebuilding after Hurricane Sandy incorporated designs that built in resilience. RBD was launched with strong public leadership, philanthropic support and professional interest within the design community. The early enthusiasm for RBD came as much from curiosity about RBD's vision and ambition as from the substantial size of the implementation awards from the Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) funds that Congress appropriated to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development for Hurricane Sandy Recovery.As part of its ongoing commitment to learn from the work it supports, the Rockefeller Foundation provided funding for the Urban Institute to evaluate the design competition component of Phase 1 of RBD, including its innovative aspects, partnerships and community engagement

Measuring valley polarization in two-dimensional materials with second-harmonic spectroscopy

A population imbalance at different valleys of an electronic system lowers its effective rotational symmetry. We introduce a technique to measure such imbalance - a valley polarization - that exploits the unique fingerprints of this symmetry reduction in the polarization-dependent second-harmonic generation (SHG). We present the principle and detection scheme in the context of hexagonal two-dimensional crystals, which include graphene-based systems and the family of transition metal dichalcogenides, and provide a direct experimental demonstration using a 2H-MoSe$_{2}$ monolayer at room temperature. We deliberately use the simplest possible setup, where a single pulsed laser beam simultaneously controls the valley imbalance and tracks the SHG process. We further developed a model of the transient population dynamics which analytically describes the valley-induced SHG rotation in very good agreement with the experiment. In addition to providing the first experimental demonstration of the effect, this work establishes a conceptually simple, com-pact and transferable way of measuring instantaneous valley polarization, with direct applicability in the nascent field of valleytronics

Electromagnetic Forces in a Hybrid Magnetic-Bearing Switched-Reluctance Motor

Analysis and experimental measurement of the electromagnetic force loads on the hybrid rotor in a novel hybrid magnetic-bearing switched-reluctance motor (MBSRM) have been performed. A MBSRM has the combined characteristics of a switched-reluctance motor and a magnetic bearing. The MBSRM discussed in this report has an eight-pole stator and a six-pole hybrid rotor, which is composed of circular and scalloped lamination segments. The hybrid rotor is levitated using only one set of four stator poles, while a second set of four stator poles imparts torque to the scalloped portion of the rotor, which is driven in a traditional switched reluctance manner by a processor. Static torque and radial force analysis were done for rotor poles that were oriented to achieve maximum and minimum radial force loads on the rotor. The objective is to assess whether simple one-dimensional magnetic circuit analysis is sufficient for preliminary evaluation of this machine, which may exhibit strong three-dimensional electromagnetic field behavior. Two magnetic circuit geometries, approximating the complex topology of the magnetic fields in and around the hybrid rotor, were employed in formulating the electromagnetic radial force equations. Reasonable agreement between the experimental and the theoretical radial force loads predictions was obtained with typical magnetic bearing derating factors applied to the predictions

Investigating fragmentation of gas structures in OB cluster-forming molecular clump G33.92+0.11 with 1000 AU resolution observations of ALMA

We report new, $\sim$1000 AU spatial resolution observations of 225 GHz dust continuum emission towards the OB cluster-forming molecular clump G33.92+0.11. On parsec scales, this molecular clump presents a morphology with several arm-like dense gas structures surrounding the two central massive ($\gtrsim$100 $M_{\odot}$) cores. From the new, higher resolution observations, we identified 28 localized, spatially compact dust continuum emission sources, which may be candidates of young stellar objects. Only one of them is not embedded within known arm-like (or elongated) dense gas structures. The spatial separations of these compact sources can be very well explained by Jeans lengths. We found that G33.92+0.11 may be consistently described by a marginally centrifugally supported, Toomre unstable accretion flow which is approximately in a face-on projection. The arm-like overdensities are natural consequence of the Toomre instability, which can fragment to form young stellar objects in shorter time scales than the timescale of the global clump contraction. On our resolved spatial scales, there is not yet evidence that the fragmentation is halted by turbulence, magnetic field, or stellar feedback.Comment: 24 pages, 18 figures. Accepted to publish on December 04, 2018; updated to arXiv on December 05, 201

Fear Extinction to an Out-Group Face: The Role of Target Gender

Conditioning studies on humans and other primates show that fear responses acquired toward danger-relevant stimuli, such as snakes, resist extinction, whereas responses toward danger-irrelevant stimuli, such as birds, are more readily extinguished. Similar evolved biases may extend to human groups, as recent research demonstrates that a conditioned fear response to faces of persons of a social out-group resists extinction, whereas fear toward a social in-group is more readily extinguished. Here, we provide an important extension to previous work by demonstrating that this fear-extinction bias occurs solely when the exemplars are male. These results underscore the importance of considering how gender of the target stimulus affects psychological and physiological responses to out-group threat.Psycholog