Some conceptual difficulties regarding "net" multipliers

Multipliers are routinely used for impact evaluation of private projects and public policies at the national and subnational levels. Oosterhaven and Stelder (2002) correctly pointed out the misuse of standard 'gross' multipliers and proposed the concept of 'net' multiplier as a solution to this bad practice. We prove their proposal is not well founded. We do so by showing that supporting theorems are faulty in enunciation and demonstration. The proofs are flawed due to an analytical error but the theorems themselves cannot be salvaged as generic, non-curiosum counterexamples demonstrate. We also provide a general analytical framework for multipliers and, using it, we show that standard 'gross' multipliers are all that is needed within the interindustry model since they follow the causal logic of the economic model, are well defined and independent of exogenous shocks, and are interpretable as predictors for change

Ethnic parity in labour market outcomes for benefit claimants

A significant gap exists in the UK between the employment rate for Ethnic Minorities and that for Whites. From a policy perspective, it is important to know whether this gap is due to differences in the characteristics of White and Ethnic Minority groups (which reduce the employability of Ethnic Minority groups relative to Whites) or whether it results from some form of discriminatory behaviour in the labour market. In this paper, we use administrative data to estimate ethnic differences in employment and benefit receipt amongst individuals who began claiming a Jobcentre Plus benefit in 2003. In contrast to much of the previous UK literature, we use a number of different quantitative techniques to estimate this gap, and show that in a lot of cases the estimates obtained are very sensitive to the techniques used. We argue that for the questions we are interested in and the data we have, propensity score matching methods are the most robust approach to estimating ethnic parity. We compare this preferred approach with estimates derived using alternative approaches commonly used in the literature (generally regression-based techniques) to determine the extent to which more straightforward methods are able to replicate those produced by matching. In many cases, it turns out not to be possible to calculate satisfactory quantitative estimates even with matching techniques: the characteristics of Whites and Ethnic Minorities are simply too different before the Jobcentre Plus intervention to reliably estimate the parameters of interest. Moreover, for a number of the groups, results seem to be very sensitive to the methodology used. This calls into question previous results based on simple regression techniques, which are likely to hide the fact that observationally different ethnic groups are de facto being compared on the basis of parametric extrapolations. Two groups for which it was possible to calculate reasonably reliable results are incapacity benefit (IB) and income support (IS). For these groups we find that large and significant raw penalties almost always disappear once we appropriately control for pre-inflow background and labour market characteristics. There is also a good degree of consistency across methodologies

An SMT-Based Concolic Testing Tool for Logic Programs

[EN] Concolic testing combines symbolic and concrete execution to generate test cases that achieve a good program coverage. Its benefits have been demonstrated for more than 15 years in the case of imperative programs. In this work, we present a concolic-based test generation tool for logic programs which exploits SMT-solving for constraint resolutionThird author is a research associate at FNRS that also supports this work (O05518FRG03). The last author is partially supported by the EU (FEDER) and the Spanish MCI/AEI under grants TIN2016-76843-C4-1-R/PID2019-104735RB-C41 and by the Generalitat Valenciana under grant Prometeo/2019/098 (DeepTrust)Fortz, S.; Mesnard, F.; Payet, E.; Perrouin, G.; Vanhoof, W.; Vidal, G. (2020). An SMT-Based Concolic Testing Tool for Logic Programs. Springer Nature. 215-219. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-59025-3_13S215219de Moura, L., Bjørner, N.: Z3: an efficient SMT solver. In: Ramakrishnan, C.R., Rehof, J. (eds.) TACAS 2008. LNCS, vol. 4963, pp. 337–340. Springer, Heidelberg (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-78800-3_24Giantsios, A., Papaspyrou, N., Sagonas, K.: Concolic testing for functional languages. Sci. Comput. Program. 147, 109–134 (2017)Godefroid, P., Klarlund, N., Sen, K.: DART: directed automated random testing. In: Proceedings of PLDI 2005, pp. 213–223. ACM (2005)Mesnard, F., Payet, É., Vidal, G.: Concolic testing in logic programming. TPLP 15(4–5), 711–725 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1017/S1471068415000332Mesnard, F., Payet, É., Vidal, G.: On the completeness of selective unification in concolic testing of logic programs. In: Hermenegildo, M.V., Lopez-Garcia, P. (eds.) LOPSTR 2016. LNCS, vol. 10184, pp. 205–221. Springer, Cham (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-63139-4_12Mesnard, F., Payet, É., Vidal, G.: Selective unification in constraint logic programming. In: Vanhoof, W., Pientka, B. (eds.) PPDP, pp. 115–126. ACM (2017)Mesnard, F., Payet, É., Vidal, G.: Concolic Testing in CLP. CoRR abs/2008.00421 (2020). https://arxiv.org/abs/2008.00421Sen, K., Marinov, D., Agha, G.: CUTE: a concolic unit testing engine for C. In: ESEC/ FSE, pp. 263–272. ACM (2005)Ströder, T., Emmes, F., Schneider-Kamp, P., Giesl, J., Fuhs, C.: A linear operational semantics for termination and complexity analysis of ISO Prolog. In: Vidal, G. (ed.) LOPSTR 2011. LNCS, vol. 7225, pp. 237–252. Springer, Heidelberg (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-32211-2_16Tikovsky, J.R.: Concolic testing of functional logic programs. In: Seipel, D., Hanus, M., Abreu, S. (eds.) WFLP/WLP/INAP -2017. LNCS (LNAI), vol. 10997, pp. 169–186. Springer, Cham (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-00801-7_11Vidal, G.: Concolic execution and test case generation in prolog. In: Proietti, M., Seki, H. (eds.) LOPSTR 2014. LNCS, vol. 8981, pp. 167–181. Springer, Cham (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-17822-6_10Wielemaker, J., Schrijvers, T., Triska, M., Lager, T.: SWI-prolog. TPLP 12(1–2), 67–96 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1017/S147106841100049

The Financial Burden of Non-Communicable Chronic Diseases in Rural Nigeria: Wealth and Gender Heterogeneity in Health Care Utilization and Health Expenditures

Objectives Better insights into health care utilization and out-of-pocket expenditures for non-communicable chronic diseases (NCCD) are needed to develop accessible health care and limit the increasing financial burden of NCCDs in Sub-Saharan Africa. Methods A household survey was conducted in rural Kwara State, Nigeria, among 5,761 individuals. Data were obtained using biomedical and socio-economic questionnaires. Health care utilization, NCCD-related health expenditures and distances to health care providers were compared by sex and by wealth quintile, and a Heckman regression model was used to estimate health expenditures taking selection bias in health care utilization into account. Results The prevalence of NCCDs in our sample was 6.2%. NCCD-affected individuals from the wealthiest quintile utilized formal health care nearly twice as often as those from the lowest quintile (87.8% vs 46.2%, p = 0.002). Women reported foregone formal care more often than men (43.5% vs. 27.0%, p = 0.058). Health expenditures relative to annual consumption of the poorest quintile exceeded those of the highest quintile 2.2-fold, and the poorest quintile exhibited a higher rate of catastrophic health spending (10.8% among NCCD-affected households) than the three upper quintiles (4.2% to 6.7%). Long travel distances to the nearest provider, highest for the poorest quintile, were a significant deterrent to seeking care. Using distance to the nearest facility as instrument to account for selection into health care utilization, we estimated out-of-pocket health care expenditures for NCCDs to be significantly higher in the lowest wealth quintile compared to the three upper quintiles. Conclusions Facing potentially high health care costs and poor accessibility of health care facilities, many individuals suffering from NCCDs—particularly women and the poor—forego formal care, thereby increasing the risk of more severe illness in the future. When seeking care, the poor spend less on treatment than the rich, suggestive of lower quality care, while their expenditures represent a higher share of their annual household consumption. This calls for targeted interventions that enhance health care accessibility and provide financial protection from the consequences of NCCDs, especially for vulnerable populations

Synaptotagmin-9 in mouse retina

Synaptotagmin-9 (Syt9) is a Ca2+ sensor mediating fast synaptic release expressed in various parts of the brain. The presence and role of Syt9 in retina is unknown. We found evidence for Syt9 expression throughout the retina and created mice to conditionally eliminate Syt9 in a cre-dependent manner. We crossed Syt9fl/fl mice with Rho-iCre, HRGP-Cre, and CMV-Cre mice to generate mice in which Syt9 was eliminated from rods (rodSyt9CKO), cones (coneSyt9CKO), or whole animals (CMVSyt9). CMVSyt9 mice showed an increase in scotopic electroretinogram (ERG) b-waves evoked by bright flashes with no change in a-waves. Cone-driven photopic ERG b-waves were not significantly different in CMVSyt9 knockout mice and selective elimination of Syt9 from cones had no effect on ERGs. However, selective elimination from rods decreased scotopic and photopic b-waves as well as oscillatory potentials. These changes occurred only with bright flashes where cone responses contribute. Synaptic release was measured in individual rods by recording anion currents activated by glutamate binding to presynaptic glutamate transporters. Loss of Syt9 from rods had no effect on spontaneous or depolarization-evoked release. Our data show that Syt9 acts at multiple sites in the retina and suggest that it may play a role in regulating transmission of cone signals by rods

Identification of bZIP interaction partners of viral proteins HBZ, MEQ, BZLF1, and K-bZIP using coiled-coil arrays

Basic-region leucine-zipper transcription factors (bZIPs) contain a segment rich in basic amino acids that can bind DNA, followed by a leucine zipper that can interact with other leucine zippers to form coiled-coil homo- or heterodimers. Several viruses encode proteins containing bZIP domains, including four that encode bZIPs lacking significant homology to any human protein. We investigated the interaction specificity of these four viral bZIPs by using coiled-coil arrays to assess self-associations as well as heterointeractions with 33 representative human bZIPs. The arrays recapitulated reported viral−human interactions and also uncovered new associations. MEQ and HBZ interacted with multiple human partners and had unique interaction profiles compared to any human bZIPs, whereas K-bZIP and BZLF1 displayed homospecificity. New interactions detected included HBZ with MAFB, MAFG, ATF2, CEBPG, and CREBZF and MEQ with NFIL3. These were confirmed in solution using circular dichroism. HBZ can heteroassociate with MAFB and MAFG in the presence of MARE-site DNA, and this interaction is dependent on the basic region of HBZ. NFIL3 and MEQ have different yet overlapping DNA-binding specificities and can form a heterocomplex with DNA. Computational design considering both affinity for MEQ and specificity with respect to other undesired bZIP-type interactions was used to generate a MEQ dimerization inhibitor. This peptide, anti-MEQ, bound MEQ both stably and specifically, as assayed using coiled-coil arrays and circular dichroism in solution. Anti-MEQ also inhibited MEQ binding to DNA. These studies can guide further investigation of the function of viral and human bZIP complexes.National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (NIH Award GM067681)National Science Foundation (U.S.) (NSF Award 0216437

Bordetella bronchiseptica pneumonia in a man with acquired immunodeficiency syndrome: a case report

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Introduction</p> <p><it>Bordetella bronchiseptica </it>can be a cause of virulent pneumonia in humans with impaired immune systems. Few cases have been reported in the medical literature where <it>Bordetella bronchiseptica </it>has been the only pathogen isolated during a course of interstitial pneumonia.</p> <p>Case presentation</p> <p>A 42-year-old African-American man with human immunodeficiency virus presented with pulmonary symptoms that mimicked <it>Pneumocystis jiroveci </it>pneumonia. A sputum culture grew <it>Bordetella brochiseptica</it>, a common respiratory commensal of wild and domestic animals, rarely implicated in human infections.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p><it>Bordetella bronchiseptica </it>should be added to the differential list of pathogens which can affect people with human immunodeficiency virus and pulmonary symptoms. Sputum culture, as well as history of animal exposure, in these patients is advised.</p

Midterm Outcomes and Aneurysm Sac Dynamics Following Fenestrated Endovascular Aneurysm Repair after Previous Endovascular Aneurysm Repair

Objective: Fenestrated endovascular aneurysm repair (FEVAR) is a feasible option for aortic repair after endovascular aneurysm repair (EVAR), due to improved peri-operative outcomes compared with open conversion. However, little is known regarding the durability of FEVAR as a treatment for failed EVAR. Since aneurysm sac evolution is an important marker for success after aneurysm repair, the aim of the study was to examine midterm outcomes and aneurysm sac dynamics of FEVAR after prior EVAR. Methods:Patients undergoing FEVAR for complex abdominal aortic aneurysms from 2008 to 2021 at two hospitals in The Netherlands were included. Patients were categorised into primary FEVAR and FEVAR after EVAR. Outcomes included five year mortality rate, one year aneurysm sac dynamics (regression, stable, expansion), sac dynamics over time, and five year aortic related procedures. Analyses were done using Kaplan–Meier methods, multivariable Cox regression analysis, chi square tests, and linear mixed effect models. Results: One hundred and ninety-six patients with FEVAR were identified, of whom 27% (n = 53) had had a prior EVAR. Patients with prior EVAR were significantly older (78 ± 6.7 years vs. 73 ± 5.9 years, p &lt; .001). There were no significant differences in mortality rate. FEVAR after EVAR was associated with a higher risk of aortic related procedures within five years (hazard ratio [HR] 2.6; 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.1 – 6.5, p = .037). Sac dynamics were assessed in 154 patients with available imaging. Patients with a prior EVAR showed lower rates of sac regression and higher rates of sac expansion at one year compared with primary FEVAR (sac expansion 48%, n = 21/44, vs. 8%, n = 9/110, p &lt; .001). Sac dynamics over time showed similar results, sac growth for FEVAR after EVAR, and sac shrinkage for primary FEVAR (p &lt; .001). Conclusion: There were high rates of sac expansion and a need for more secondary procedures in FEVAR after EVAR than primary FEVAR patients, although this did not affect midterm survival. Future studies will have to assess whether FEVAR after EVAR is a valid intervention, and the underlying process that drives aneurysm sac growth following successful FEVAR after EVAR.</p

Midterm Outcomes and Aneurysm Sac Dynamics Following Fenestrated Endovascular Aneurysm Repair after Previous Endovascular Aneurysm Repair

Objective: Fenestrated endovascular aneurysm repair (FEVAR) is a feasible option for aortic repair after endovascular aneurysm repair (EVAR), due to improved peri-operative outcomes compared with open conversion. However, little is known regarding the durability of FEVAR as a treatment for failed EVAR. Since aneurysm sac evolution is an important marker for success after aneurysm repair, the aim of the study was to examine midterm outcomes and aneurysm sac dynamics of FEVAR after prior EVAR. Methods:Patients undergoing FEVAR for complex abdominal aortic aneurysms from 2008 to 2021 at two hospitals in The Netherlands were included. Patients were categorised into primary FEVAR and FEVAR after EVAR. Outcomes included five year mortality rate, one year aneurysm sac dynamics (regression, stable, expansion), sac dynamics over time, and five year aortic related procedures. Analyses were done using Kaplan–Meier methods, multivariable Cox regression analysis, chi square tests, and linear mixed effect models. Results: One hundred and ninety-six patients with FEVAR were identified, of whom 27% (n = 53) had had a prior EVAR. Patients with prior EVAR were significantly older (78 ± 6.7 years vs. 73 ± 5.9 years, p &lt; .001). There were no significant differences in mortality rate. FEVAR after EVAR was associated with a higher risk of aortic related procedures within five years (hazard ratio [HR] 2.6; 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.1 – 6.5, p = .037). Sac dynamics were assessed in 154 patients with available imaging. Patients with a prior EVAR showed lower rates of sac regression and higher rates of sac expansion at one year compared with primary FEVAR (sac expansion 48%, n = 21/44, vs. 8%, n = 9/110, p &lt; .001). Sac dynamics over time showed similar results, sac growth for FEVAR after EVAR, and sac shrinkage for primary FEVAR (p &lt; .001). Conclusion: There were high rates of sac expansion and a need for more secondary procedures in FEVAR after EVAR than primary FEVAR patients, although this did not affect midterm survival. Future studies will have to assess whether FEVAR after EVAR is a valid intervention, and the underlying process that drives aneurysm sac growth following successful FEVAR after EVAR.</p

Technical Pitfalls and Proposed Modifications of Instructions for Use for Endovascular Aortic Aneurysm Repair Using the Gore Excluder Conformable Device in Angulated and Short Landing Zones

We describe a case of an abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) and angulated proximal neck treated with a Gore Excluder conformable endoprosthesis and show relevant technical pitfalls in the deployment of the graft main body. An 82-year-old man presented with a 71-mm asymptomatic AAA with an angulated infrarenal proximal neck (75°) and was referred to our unit. The patient was treated with a 26-mm Gore Excluder conformable device, which was deployed slightly above the renal arteries after precatheterization of the lowest renal artery. The graft was then repositioned with support of the introducer sheath and a stiff guide wire. The proximal sealing zone was ballooned before the endograft delivery system was retrieved to avoid distal migration. Technical success was achieved. The patient was discharged with no complications. No type Ia endoleak was present on the 6-month computed tomography scan. Endovascular treatment of an AAA with a severe angulated proximal neck can be effective with a conformable stent graft if technical measures are used during deployment of the main body to optimize the seal