A commentary on “how to interpret expert judgment assessments of twenty-first century sea-level rise” by Hylke de Vries and Roderik SW van de Wal

We clarify key aspects of the evaluation, by de Vries and van de Wal (2015), of our expert elicitation paper on the contributions of ice sheet melting to sea level rise due to future global temperature rise scenarios (Bamber and Aspinall 2013), and extend the conversation with further analysis of their proposed approach for combining expert uncertainty judgments.Applied Probabilit

Narrative review of primary care point-of-care testing (POCT) and antibacterial use in respiratory tract infection (RTI)

Antimicrobial resistance is a global problem and is being addressed through national strategies to improve diagnostics, develop new antimicrobials and promote antimicrobial stewardship. A narrative review of the literature was undertaken to ascertain the value of C reactive protein (CRP) and procalcitonin, measurements to guide antibacterial prescribing in adult patients presenting to GP practices with symptoms of respiratory tract infection (RTI). Studies that were included were randomised controlled trials,controlled before and after studies, cohort studies and economic evaluations. Many studies demonstrated that the use of CRP tests in patients presenting with RTI symptoms reduces antibiotic prescribing by 23.3% to36.16%. Procalcitonin is not currently available as a point-of-care testing (POCT), but has shown value for patients with RTI admitted to hospital. GPs and patients report a good acceptability for a CRP POCT and economic evaluations show cost-effectiveness of CRP POCT over existing RTI management in primary care. POCTs increase diagnostic precision for GPs in the better management of patients with RTI. CRP POCT can better target antibacterial prescribing by GPs and contribute to national antimicrobial resistance strategies. Health services need to develop ways to ensure funding is transferred in order for POCT to be implemented

Impact of unemployment on the living standards of families

Social security for the unemployed was not designed to cope either with large-scale or long-term unemployment and recent developments in the structure of unemployment and in social security policy give rise to concern for the living standards of the unemployed, especially the long-term unemployed. This article draws on data from the Family Finances Survey to assess the living standards of the unemployed after various durations of unemployment and compare these with the living standards of families with low incomes from work. The measures of living standards used are income, expenditure and the availability of consumer durables. The implications of the findings for social security policy are discussed

Impact of unemployment on the living standards of families

Social security for the unemployed was not designed to cope either with large-scale or long-term unemployment and recent developments in the structure of unemployment and in social security policy give rise to concern for the living standards of the unemployed, especially the long-term unemployed. This article draws on data from the Family Finances Survey to assess the living standards of the unemployed after various durations of unemployment and compare these with the living standards of families with low incomes from work. The measures of living standards used are income, expenditure and the availability of consumer durables. The implications of the findings for social security policy are discussed

Phage display selected magnetite interacting Adhirons for shape controlled nanoparticle synthesis

Adhirons are robust, well expressing, peptide display scaffold proteins, developed as an effective alternative to traditional antibody binding proteins for highly specific molecular recognition applications. This paper reports for the first time the use of these versatile proteins for material binding, and as tools for controlling material synthesis on the nanoscale. A phage library of Adhirons, each displaying two variable binding loops, was screened to identify specific proteins able to interact with [100] faces of cubic magnetite nanoparticles. The selected variable regions display a strong preference for basic residues such as lysine. Molecular dynamics simulations of amino acid adsorption onto a [100] magnetite surface provides a rationale for these interactions, with the lowest adsorption energy observed with lysine. These proteins direct the shape of the forming nanoparticles towards a cubic morphology in room temperature magnetite precipitation reactions, in stark contrast to the high temperature, harsh reaction conditions currently used to produce cubic nanoparticles. These effects demonstrate the utility of the selected Adhirons as novel magnetite mineralization control agents using ambient aqueous conditions. The approach we outline with artificial protein scaffolds has the potential to develop into a toolkit of novel additives for wider nanomaterial fabrication

Measurement of the CKM angle γ using the B^± → D*h^± channels

A measurement of the CP-violating observables from B±→D∗K± and B±→D∗π± decays is presented, where D∗(D) is an admixture of D∗0 and D¯∗0 (D0 and D¯0) states and is reconstructed through the decay chains D∗→Dπ0/γ and D→K0Sπ+π−/K0SK+K−. The measurement is performed by analysing the signal yield variation across the D decay phase space and is independent of any amplitude model. The data sample used was collected by the LHCb experiment in proton-proton collisions and corresponds to a total integrated luminosity of 9 fb−1 at centre-of-mass energies of 7, 8 and 13 TeV. The CKM angle γ is determined to be (69+13−14)∘ using the measured CP-violating observables. The hadronic parameters rD∗K±B,rD∗π±B,δD∗K±B,δD∗π±B, which are the ratios and strong phase differences between favoured and suppressed B± decays, are also reported

Factors affecting employees' knowledge-sharing behaviour in the virtual organisation from the perspectives of well-being and organisational behaviour

© 2016 Elsevier Ltd. Drawing on the concept of organisational behaviour, this research augments the concepts of social capital theory and organisational culture with one pioneering precursor and mediator, the sense of well-being, to develop an integrative understanding of the factors affecting individuals' knowledge-sharing behaviour within the more complex context of the virtual organisation of Taiwanese Non-governmental Organisations (NGOs). A field survey of 131 employees from the selected virtual organisation was analysed using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) to examine the outcomes empirically. Our research offers a persuasive body of evidence supporting the notion that increasing employees' sense of well-being can successfully form a bridge that can connect social capital tendency, organisational culture and employees' knowledge-sharing behaviour. Surprisingly, and contrary to common belief, the integrated model shows that social capital tendency seems to play a more important role than organisational culture in affecting employees' sense of well-being within the virtual organisation in a Chinese cultural context. Consequently, this research reveals the subtle interplay of employees' sense of well-being, social capital tendency, organisational culture and knowledge-sharing behaviour, while the in-depth analysis provides strong support for knowledge management research and practice