Italian Health Care Reform: Jefferson Researchers Participate in Evaluation Efforts

No abstract available

Health Care Financing Reforms in Italy: Projects of Jefferson\u27s Center for Research in Medical Education and Health Care

No abstract available

StarFlow: A Script-Centric Data Analysis Environment

We introduce StarFlow, a script-centric environment for data analysis. StarFlow has four main features: (1) extraction of control and data-flow dependencies through a novel combination of static analysis, dynamic runtime analysis, and user annotations, (2) command-line tools for exploring and propagating changes through the resulting dependency network, (3) support for workflow abstractions enabling robust parallel executions of complex analysis pipelines, and (4) a seamless interface with the Python scripting language. We describe a range of real applications of StarFlow, including automatic parallelization of complex workflows in the cloud.Engineering and Applied Science

Signature of ocean warming at the mixed layer base

The warming climate influences the ocean by changing its wind‐driven dynamics and by inputting extra heat. This study analyzes the warming where temperature anomalies penetrate the ocean interior, i.e. by focusing on the winter mixed layer (WML) base. This allows to distinguish regions where ocean circulation contribute to warm anomalies from locations where density‐compensated temperature anomalies locally enter the ocean along isopycnals. Multidecadal (1980‐2018) local temperature trends from a hydrographic dataset are examined at the WML base, and partitioned into components relating to isopycnal movement (heave) and change along isopycnals (spice). Subtropical gyres and western boundary currents show warming larger than the global average that mostly projects onto heave. This is the result of the strengthening of the circulation in the Southern Hemisphere subtropical gyres, and is related to both wind‐driven changes and Southern Ocean warming. Subtropical regions of surface salinity maxima are influenced by warm anomalies along isopycnals

Assessing Chronic Disease Rates Through Automated Pharmacy Data

No abstract available

A Population-based Longitudinal Healthcare Database in the Emilia-Romagna Region, Italy: A Resource for Planning and Research

No abstract available

Focal adhesion kinase modulates tension signaling to control actin and focal adhesion dynamics

In response to αβ1 integrin signaling, transducers such as focal adhesion kinase (FAK) become activated, relaying to specific machineries and triggering distinct cellular responses. By conditionally ablating Fak in skin epidermis and culturing Fak-null keratinocytes, we show that FAK is dispensable for epidermal adhesion and basement membrane assembly, both of which require αβ1 integrins. FAK is also dispensible for proliferation/survival in enriched medium. In contrast, FAK functions downstream of αβ1 integrin in regulating cytoskeletal dynamics and orchestrating polarized keratinocyte migration out of epidermal explants. Fak-null keratinocytes display an aberrant actin cytoskeleton, which is tightly associated with robust, peripheral focal adhesions and microtubules. We find that without FAK, Src, p190RhoGAP, and PKL–PIX–PAK, localization and/or activation at focal adhesions are impaired, leading to elevated Rho activity, phosphorylation of myosin light chain kinase, and enhanced tensile stress fibers. We show that, together, these FAK-dependent activities are critical to control the turnover of focal adhesions, which is perturbed in the absence of FAK

Confluence via strong normalisation in an algebraic \lambda-calculus with rewriting

The linear-algebraic lambda-calculus and the algebraic lambda-calculus are untyped lambda-calculi extended with arbitrary linear combinations of terms. The former presents the axioms of linear algebra in the form of a rewrite system, while the latter uses equalities. When given by rewrites, algebraic lambda-calculi are not confluent unless further restrictions are added. We provide a type system for the linear-algebraic lambda-calculus enforcing strong normalisation, which gives back confluence. The type system allows an abstract interpretation in System F.Comment: In Proceedings LSFA 2011, arXiv:1203.542

Recent water mass changes reveal mechanisms of ocean warming

Over 90% of the build up of additional heat in the earth system over recent decades is contained in the ocean. Since 2006 new observational programs have revealed heterogeneous patterns of ocean heat content change. It is unclear how much of this heterogeneity is due to heat being added to and mixed within the ocean leading to material changes in water mass properties or due to changes in circulation which redistribute existing water masses. Here we present a novel diagnosis of the ‘material’ and ‘redistributed’ contributions to regional heat content change between 2006 and 2017 based on a new Minimum Transformation Method informed by both water mass transformation and optimal transportation theory. We show that material warming has large spatial coherence. The material change tends to be smaller than the redistributed change at any geographical location, however it sums globally to the net warming of the ocean, while the redistributed component sums, by design, to zero. Material warming is robust over the time period of this analysis, whereas the redistributed signal only emerges from the variability in a few regions. In the North Atlantic, water mass changes indicate substantial material warming while redistribution cools the subpolar region due to a slowdown in the Meridional Overturning Circulation. Warming in the Southern Ocean is explained by material warming and by anomalous southward heat transport of 118 ± 50 TWdue to redistribution. Our results suggest near termprojections of ocean heat content change and therefore sea level change will hinge on understanding and predicting changes in ocean redistribution