Trans-national approaches to locally situated concerns: exploring the meanings of post-socialist space

The need to examine critially existing understandings of processes of societal change in Russia and Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) has formed a key area of debate in recent years. Suggested means for furthering this debate include an examination of the meaning and usefulness of the post-socialist category, a critique of the conceptual and practical divides between East and West, attention to the various impacts of change at the local level, and an active engagement with a wide range of actors (academics, policymakers and practitioners) working both in the UK and in the regions in question

The Place of Risk Management in Financial Institutions

The purpose of this paper is to address two issues. It defines the appropriate role played by institutions in the financial sector and focuses on the role of risk management in firms that use their own balance sheets to provide financial products. A key objective is to explain when risks are better transferred to the purchaser of the assets issued or created by the financial institution and when the risks of these financial products are best absorbed by the firm itself. However, once these risks are absorbed, they must be efficiently managed. So, a second part of the current analysis develops a framework for efficient and effective risk management for those risks which the firm chooses to manage within its balance sheet. The goal of this activity is to achieve the highest value added from the risk management undertaken.

The SES health gradient on both sides of the Atlantic

In this paper we investigate the size of health differences that exist among men in England and the United States and how those differences vary by Socio-Economic Status (SES) in both countries. Three SES measures are emphasized - education, household income, and household wealth - and the health outcomes investigated span multiple dimensions as well. International comparisons have played a central part of the recent debate involving the 'SES health gradient' with some authors citing cross-country differences in levels of income equality and mortality as among the most compelling evidence that unequal societies have negative impacts on individual health outcomes. In spite of the analytical advantages of making such international comparisons, until recently good micro data measuring both SES and health in comparable ways have not been available for both countries. Fortunately, that problem has been remedied with the fielding of two surveys - the Health and Retirement Survey (HRS) and the English Longitudinal Survey of Aging (ELSA). In order to facilitate the type of research represented in this paper, both the health and SES measures in ELSA and HRS were purposely constructed to be as directly comparable as possible. Our analysis presents data on some of the most salient issues regarding the social health gradient in health and the manner in which this health gradient differs for men across the two countries in question. There are a several key findings. First, looking across a wide variety of diagnosed diseases, average health status among mature men is much worse in America compared to England, confirming non-gender specific findings we reported in earlier research. Second, there exists a steep negative health gradient for men in both countries where men at the bottom of the economic hierarchy are in much worse health than those at the top. This social health gradient exists whether education, income, or financial wealth is used as the marker of SES. While the negative social gradient in male health characterizes men in both countries, it appears to be steeper in the United States. These central conclusions are maintained even after controlling for a standard set of behavioral risk factors such as smoking, drinking, and obesity and are equally true using either biological measures of disease or individual self-reports. In contrast to these disease based measures of health, the health of American men appears to be superior to the health of English men when self-reported subjective general health status is used as the measure of health status. This apparent contradiction does not result from differences in co-morbidity, emotional health, or ability to function all of which still point to mature American men being less healthy than their English counterparts. The contradiction most likely stems instead from different thresholds used by Americans and English when evaluation their health status on subjective scales. For the same 'objective' health status, Americans are much more likely to say that their health is good than are the English. Finally, we present preliminary data that indicates that feedbacks from new health events to household income are also one of the reasons that underlie the strength of the income gradient with health in England. Previous research has demonstrated its importance as one of the underlying causes in the United States and these results suggest that that conclusion should most likely be extended to England as well although further research is required on this topic

Sensitivity analysis modelling for microscale multiphysics robust engineering design

Sensitivity Analysis (SA) plays an important role in the development of any practical engineering model. It can help to reveal the sources and mechanisms of variability that provide the key to understanding system uncertainty. SA can also be used to calibrate simulation models for closer agreement with experimental results. Robust Engineering Design (RED) seeks to exploit such knowledge in the search for design solutions that are optimal in terms of performance in the face of variability. Microscale and multiphysics problems present challenges to modelling due to their complexity, which puts increased demands on computational methods. For example, in developing a model of a piezoelectric actuator, the process of calibration is prolonged by the number of parameters that are difficult to verify with the physical device. In the approach presented in this paper, normalised sensitivity coefficients are determined directly and accurately using the governing finite element model formulation, offering an efficient means of identifying parameters that affect the output of the model, leading to increased accuracy and knowledge of system performance in the face of variability

Modelling tidal energy extraction in a depth-averaged coastal domain

An extension of actuator disc theory is used to describe the properties of a tidal energy device, or row of tidal energy devices, within a depth-averaged numerical model. This approach allows a direct link to be made between an actual tidal device and its equivalent momentum sink in a depth-averaged domain. Extended actuator disc theory also leads to a measure of efficiency for an energy device in a tidal stream of finite Froude number, where efficiency is defined as the ratio of power extracted by one or more tidal devices to the total power removed from the tidal stream. To demonstrate the use of actuator disc theory in a depth-averaged model, tidal flow in a simple channel is approximated using the shallow water equations and the results are compared with the published analytical solutions. © 2010 © The Institution of Engineering and Technology

Examining the impact of chest tube-related factors on the risk of nosocomial infections in a community based hospital.

Purpose. The study was conducted to investigate the impact of chest tube-related factors on the risk for development of nosocomial infections (NI) and to examine the independent predictors of NI in a community based ICU. Methods. A retrospective, case-control review of 120 medical records of ICU patients was conducted. Two groups were compared using t-test and chi square comparisons on each of the study variables. Hierarchical logistic regression was used to determine which chest tube-related factors were independent predictors of NI, while adjusting for other known risk factors. Results. Of the 40 cases, 92.5% (n = 37) had pneumonia, while 7.5% (n = 3) had NBSI. Chest tube-related factors accounted for 7.4% to 10.2% of the explained variance. The variable chest tube days was the only chest tube-related factor to be an independent predictor of NI (OR 5.79, 95% CI, 1.459-23.015). Mechanical ventilation (MV) (OR, 4.88; 95%CI, 1.8-13.1) and outcome length of stay (LOS) (OR, .724; 95%CI, .624-.839) were also found to be independent predictors of NI. (Abstract shortened by UMI.) Paper copy at Leddy Library: Theses & Major Papers - Basement, West Bldg. / Call Number: Thesis2005 .O43. Source: Masters Abstracts International, Volume: 44-03, page: 1336. Thesis (M.Sc.)--University of Windsor (Canada), 2005

Bryophytes and their distribution in the Blue Mountains region of New South Wales

The bryophytes (mosses, liverworts and hornworts) that occur in the Blue Mountains region of New South Wales (latitude 33˚–34˚ S, longitude 151˚–151˚40’ E) are listed and information is provided on their distribution in the region. Species lists are based on herbarium specimens and field collections. 348 bryophyte taxa have been recorded from 70 families, including 225 moss taxa (in 108 genera from 45 families), 120 liverwort taxa (in 51 genera from 24 families) and 3 hornwort taxa (in 3 genera from one family). The moss families with most taxa are the Pottiaceae (with 23 taxa in 13 genera), Bryaceae (with 15 taxa in 3 genera) and Fissidentaceae (with 13 taxa). The largest genera are Fissidens (13 taxa), Campylopus (9) and Macromitrium (8). The liverwort family with the most taxa is Lepidoziaceae, with 29 taxa in 10 genera. The largest liverwort genera are Frullania (11 taxa) and Riccardia (8). The species lists include collections from both bushland and urban areas. Natural features of the Blue Mountains, including topography, altitude, climate and vegetation appear to be important factors influencing the number of bryophyte species recorded from each location. The number of collections from particular locations has been considerably influenced by ease of access, particularly proximity to roads, public transport and railway stations. The species lists include many records from areas that were not accessible to the early collectors of the late 19th and early 20th centuries such as Wollemi National Park, Gardens of Stone National Park, Newnes Plateau and Kanangra-Boyd National Park

Integrating Resource Defence Theory with a Neural Nonapeptide Pathway to Explain Territory-Based Mating Systems

1 Texas Research Institute for Environmental Studies, Sam Houston State University, Huntsville, TX 77341 USA; Department of Biology, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH 44106 USA. 2 Department of Integrative Biology, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712 USA. 3 Institute for Cellular and Molecular Biology, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712 USA. 4 Institute for Neuroscience, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712 USA.The ultimate-level factors that drive the evolution of mating systems have been well studied, but an evolutionarily conserved neural mechanism involved in shaping behaviour and social organization across species has remained elusive. Here, we review studies that have investigated the role of neural arginine vasopressin (AVP), vasotocin (AVT), and their receptor V1a in mediating variation in territorial behaviour. First, we discuss how aggression and territoriality are a function of population density in an inverted-U relationship according to resource defence theory, and how territoriality influences some mating systems. Next, we find that neural AVP, AVT, and V1a expression, especially in one particular neural circuit involving the lateral septum of the forebrain, are associated with territorial behaviour in males of diverse species, most likely due to their role in enhancing social cognition. Then we review studies that examined multiple species and find that neural AVP, AVT, and V1a expression is associated with territory size in mammals and fishes. Because territoriality plays an important role in shaping mating systems in many species, we present the idea that neural AVP, AVT, and V1a expression that is selected to mediate territory size may also influence the evolution of different mating systems. Future research that interprets proximate-level neuro-molecular mechanisms in the context of ultimate-level ecological theory may provide deep insight into the brain-behaviour relationships that underlie the diversity of social organization and mating systems seen across the animal kingdom.This work was supported by an Engineering Plus NSF-ADVANCE Opportunity grant to R.G. O., and NSF Grants IOS-0843712 and IOS-1354942, an Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Fellowship, the Dwight W. and Blanche Faye Reeder Centennial Fellowship in Systematic and Evolutionary Biology, and an Institute for Cellular and Molecular Biology Fellowship to H.A.H.Integrative Biolog

A finite element based formulation for sensitivity studies of piezoelectric systems

Sensitivity Analysis is a branch of numerical analysis which aims to quantify the affects that variability in the parameters of a numerical model have on the model output. A finite element based sensitivity analysis formulation for piezoelectric media is developed here and implemented to simulate the operational and sensitivity characteristics of a piezoelectric based distributed mode actuator (DMA). The work acts as a starting point for robustness analysis in the DMA technology