A comparison of five multi attribute utility instruments

Abstract This paper presents the results of the validation study carried out to evaluate the Assessment of Quality of Life (AQoL) Instrument for the measurement of health related quality of life and utility. It involves, inter alia, the largest comparison of utility instruments that has been carried out to date. The five instruments included in the study are the AQoL, the Canadian HUI III, the Finnish 15D, the EuroQoL (EQ5D) and the SF36 with UK utility weights as quantified by Brazier (1998). The paper compares: (i) the absolute utility score obtained by different sub-populations; (ii) instrument sensitivity; (iii) the incremental differences in utility between different health states; (iv) the structural properties of descriptive systems; and (v) a limited comparison with a Time Trade-Off (TTO) assessment of own health by individuals. Using these criteria the AQoL performs very well. Its predicted utilities are very similar to those obtained from the HUI. There is evidence that the AQoL has greater sensitivity to health states than other instruments and its psychometric properties, as usually judged, are excellent. Despite this, it is concluded that, at present, no single MAU system can claim to be the gold standard and that researchers should select an instrument that is sensitive to the health states which they are investigating and that caution should be exercised in treating any of the instrument results as representing a utility score which truly represents a trade-off between life and health related quality of life

Learning technology in Scottish higher education ‐ a survey of the views of senior managers, academic staff and ‘experts’

As part of an evaluation of the Scottish Learning Technology Dissemination Initiative (LTDI), a survey was conducted of the views of academic staff, members of computer‐assisted learning and staff development units, and senior managers in all Scottish higher education institutions (HEIs). Most respondents across all subject areas and types of institutions (including those who rated themselves as less experienced with use of C&IT in teaching than their colleagues) believed that learning technology (LT) had moderate to very high potential for improving the way in which students learn. Awareness of the various agencies which have been established to promote its use in HEIs was very high, with few staff being unaware of any of them. Senior staff largely agreed that the value of these approaches lay in the improvement or maintenance of quality rather than in creating efficiency gains. Whilst there was a mostly positive view of the value of learning technology there are still significant barriers to its uptake by staff, the most important being lack of time, infrastructure, software and training, plus a failure (perceived or actual) of institutions to value teaching. The rather pessimistic view of ‘experts’ of the willingness of their less committed colleagues to make use of learning technology contrasted with the generally positive responses obtained from a broad group of 1,000 academic staff on their awareness of and attitudes to it. An analysis of the SHEFC's Teaching Quality Assessment reports during 1992–6 revealed substantial variability between and within subject assessments as to whether specific comments were made about IT provision and its use in learning and teaching

Compressor Controls

Discussion Grou

Compressor Controls

Discussion GroupSurge Detection Logic - Trip or not on Surge Detection? Compressor Control Redundancy Requirements Is the primary purpose of an anti-surge valve a control or protection? Check valve locations and their impact on controllability Fallback Strategies of surge control flow transmitter failure Suction throttling experience - Inside or outside of the recycle loop Cost vs Benefit of implementing load sharing Controls Obsolescenc

Life and Death: Theoretical and Practical Issues in Using Utility Instruments

No abstract supplie

Psychological Abuse, Mental Health, and Acceptance of Dating Violence Among Adolescents

Purpose Existing literature indicates that acceptance of dating violence is a significant and robust risk factor for psychological dating abuse perpetration. Past work also indicates a significant relationship between psychological dating abuse perpetration and poor mental health. However, no known research has examined the relationship between acceptance of dating violence, perpetration of dating abuse, and mental health. In addition to exploring this complex relationship, the present study examines whether psychological abuse perpetration mediates the relationship between acceptance of dating violence and mental health (i.e., internalizing symptoms of depression, anxiety, and hostility). Methods Three waves of longitudinal data were obtained from 1,042 ethnically diverse high school students in Texas. Participants completed assessments of psychological dating abuse perpetration, acceptance of dating violence, and internalizing symptoms (hostility and symptoms of anxiety and depression). Results As predicted, results indicated that perpetration of psychological abuse was significantly associated with acceptance of dating violence and all internalizing symptoms. Furthermore, psychological abuse mediated the relationship between acceptance of dating violence and internalizing symptoms. Conclusions Findings from the present study suggest that acceptance of dating violence is an important target for the prevention of dating violence and related emotional distress

Australian scallops do not recognise the introduced predatory seastar Asterias amurensis

Copyright © 2005 Inter-Research.Escape responses of Australian scallops (Pecten fumatus and Chlamys asperrima) to native and introduced predatory seastars were compared in laboratory and field trials. The native seastar Coscinasterias muricata elicited an almost immediate escape response by scallops in all trials. In contrast, there was a low frequency of escape response exhibited by scallops when held in contact with the introduced seastar Asterias amurensis. These results are consistent with the hypothesis that escape response in invertebrates has evolved relative to predation risk. The absence of predator recognition in marine invertebrates may have serious implications for wild and farmed populations in southern Australia where introduced predators are prevalent.Kate S. Hutson, D. Jeff Ross, Rob W. Day, John J. Aher

Compressor Controls

Discussion Grou

Vulnerability Disclosure: Best Practice Guidelines

It is vital to the commercial interests of providers of Internet of Things (IoT) products and solutions and to the security of their customers, that vulnerabilities are discovered and remediated as soon as possible. Third party security researchers are a valuable adjunct to a provider’s internal resources in addressing this goal. To ensure effective co-operation and maintain good relations with external security researchers, it is important for providers to define and communicate vulnerability disclosure processes that not only describe how they would like vulnerabilities to be reported confidentially to them, but also set expectations as to how they will process and act upon such reports. This process should include provision of feedback to the discovering researcher, and the public announcement of the security vulnerability, usually after the release of a software patch, hardware fix, or other remediation. The ETSI 303 645 standard [4], which lays down baseline security requirements for the consumer IoT, includes requirement 5.2, to “Implement a means to manage reports of vulnerabilities”. This states that “The manufacturer shall make a vulnerability disclosure policy publicly available.”, adding that “A vulnerability disclosure policy clearly specifies the process through which security researchers and others are able to report issues.” This document provides manufacturers, integrators, distributors, and retailers of IoT products and services with a set of guidelines for handling the disclosure of security vulnerabilities, based on best practice and international standards

Book Reviews

Book reviews of: Song of My Life: A Biography of Margaret Walker. By Carolyn J. Brown Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2014. Author’s note, afterword, acknowledgements, illustrations, appendices, notes, bibliography, index. Pp. xi, 147. $20.00 cloth. ISBN: 9781628461473. Searching for Freedom after the Civil War: Klansman, Carpetbagger, Scalawag, and Freedman. By G. Ward Hubbs. (Tuscaloosa: The University of Alabama Press, 2015. List of illustrations, preface, prologue, appendices, notes, bibliography, index. Pp. ix, 223.$34.95 cloth, $34.95 ebook. ISBN: 978-0-8173-1860-4.) Choctaw Resurgence in Mississippi: Race, Class, and Nation Building in the Jim Crow South, 1830-1977. By Katherine M. B. Osburn. (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2014. Acknowledgements, illustrations, maps, notes, index. Pp. 342.$65 Cloth, $25 Paper. ISBN: 0803240445.) Stennis: Plowing a Straight Furrow. By Don H. Thompson (Oxford: Triton Press, 2015. Acknowledgments, illustrations, notes. Pp. 176.$35 cloth. $14.95 paper. ISBN: 1936946467.) Corazón de Dixie: Mexicanos in the U. S. South since 1910. By Julie M. Weise. (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2015. Acknowledgments, appendix, notes, bibliography, index. Pp. 358.$32.50 paper, $29.99 e-book. ISBN: 9781469624969.) The Great Melding: War, the Dixiecrat Rebellion, and the Southern Model for America’s New Conservatism. By Glenn Feldman. (Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 2015. Acknowledgements, notes, index. Pp. x, 388.$59.95 cloth, $59.95 ebook. ISBN 978-0-8173-1866-6.) Baptists in America: A History. By Thomas S. Kidd and Barry Hankins. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2015. Preface, acknowledgements, notes, index. pp. xii, 329.$29.95 cloth. ISBN: 9780199977536.) One Nation Under God: How Corporate America Invented Christian America. By Kevin M. Kruse. (New York: Basic Books, 2015. Acknowledgements, notes, index. Pp. xvi, 352. $29.99. ISBN: 9780465049493.) Confederate Generals in the Trans-Mississippi: Essays on America’s Civil War, Vol. 1, Edited by Lawrence Lee Hewitt with Arthur W. Bergeron, Jr., and Thomas E. Schott. (Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 2013. Acknowledgments, illustrations, maps, notes, index. Pp. xxiii, 302.$54.95 cloth. ISBN: 9781572338661.) Agriculture and the Confederacy: Policy, Productivity, and Power in the Civil War South. By R. Douglas Hurt. (Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2015. Acknowledgements, maps, tables, notes, index. Pp. xi, 349. $45 paper. ISBN: 1469620006.) Womanpower Unlimited and the Black Freedom Struggle in Mississippi. By Tiyi M. Morris. (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2015. Acknowledgements, illustrations, notes index. Pp. xvi, 237.$69.95 cloth, $24.95 paper. ISBN: 0820347302.