Does DTC advertising affect physician prescribing habits?

Direct-to-consumer advertising (DTCA) is associated with both higher fidelity to minimum treatment recommendations for depression and higher prescribing levels of antidepressants for depression and adjustment disorder (strength of recommendation [SOR]: B, small randomized controlled trial [RCT]). DTCA is also associated with higher prescribing rates for osteoarthritis, allergies, and hyperlipidemia (SOR: C, time-series analyses). No changes in prescribing rates have been noted for hypertension and benign prostatic hyperplasia (SOR: C, time-series analyses). Physicians often accommodate requests for DTCA medications (SOR: C, 4 surveys). In some cases, they wouldn't have considered such prescriptions for other similar patients (SOR: C, 3 surveys)

Batrachochytrium salamandrivorans is the predominant chytrid fungus in Vietnamese salamanders

The amphibian chytrid fungi, Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd) and B. salamandrivorans (Bsal), pose a major threat to amphibian biodiversity. Recent evidence suggests Southeast Asia as a potential cradle for both fungi, which likely resulted in widespread host-pathogen co-existence. We sampled 583 salamanders from 8 species across Vietnam in 55 locations for Bsal and Bd, determined scaled mass index as a proxy for fitness and collected environmental data. Bsal was found within 14 of the 55 habitats (2 of which it was detected in 2013), in 5 salamandrid species, with a prevalence of 2.92%. The globalized pandemic lineage of Bd was found within one pond on one species with a prevalence of 0.69%. Combined with a complete lack of correlation between infection and individual body condition and absence of indication of associated disease, this suggests low level pathogen endemism and Bsal and Bd co-existence with Vietnamese salamandrid populations. Bsal was more widespread than Bd, and occurs at temperatures higher than tolerated by the type strain, suggesting a wider thermal niche than currently known. Therefore, this study provides support for the hypothesis that these chytrid fungi may be endemic to Asia and that species within this region may act as a disease reservoir

New Zealand Public Management in Action: A Case Study of Organizational Performance

A case study of performance issues in the child protection services of New Zealand’s Department of Child Youth and Family (CYF) is used to discuss the effects of the New Zealand public management system on the allocation of public resources, accountability for performance and central steering of a decentralised management system. During the last six years, there have been three major reviews of the Department’s performance. Concerns with performance are rooted in growing public concern at the rate of family violence and child homicide in New Zealand. The case study concludes that control of child protection services by either outputs or outcomes is difficult and that CYF is likely to continue to experience ambiguity and political struggle over its objectives, the use of procedural rules for control rather than performance measurement and limited ability to learn from error because of the conflict over objectives. The general conclusion is that implementation of performance management systems works best where goals are clear and results can be observed, there are known effects of management intervention, and the management and staff of the organisation can learn from experience

Krull-gabriel dimension and the ziegler spectrum

We provide an introduction to the the Krull-Gabriel dimension of a ring, as well as many related ideas. In particular, we outline how Krull-Gabriel dimension relates to the Cantor-Bendixson rank of the Ziegler spectrum and with the Jacobson radical of the module category. We also include a list of examples of rings and categories where the Krull-Gabriel dimension has been calculated

The Logistics of Learning: Strategies for Teaching a Part-Time Graduate Program in Public Management

The only Masters degree programme in public management in New Zealand, established in 1998 at Victoria University of Wellington, is part-time and attracts a broad cross-section of mid-career public managers. Participants in the programme have the same needs as other adult learners, to be able to draw on and reflect upon their own workplace experience in their learning. The demands of the workplace also compete heavily for the time they plan for study. The main challenges for the programme are to meet the needs of the students as adult learners and practitioners, to develop a common approach to learning about public management for participants from very diverse working backgrounds and to provide continuity of learning when classroom sessions are in short blocks separated by several weeks of home study