Was Adherence to the Gold Standard a "Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval" During the Interwar Period?

World War I dramatically altered the world's financial landscape. Most countries left the gold standard, and New York replaced London as the major lender in world capital markets. This paper discusses how the gold exchange standard was reconstructed in the 1920s. We show that the U.S. capital market viewed returning to the gold standard as a signal of financial rectitude, what we have referred to in other work as a 'Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval.' When countries returned to gold, especially when they did so at the prewar parity, they were rewarded with the ability to borrow at substantially lower interest rates. Other signals of financial rectitude, such as small fiscal deficits, apparently carried little weight with lenders.

Preparing Youth for College and Career: A Process Evaluation of Urban Alliance

Urban Alliance, headquartered in Washington, DC, serves at-risk youth through its high school internship program, which provides training, mentoring, and work experience to high school seniors from distressed communities in Washington, DC; Baltimore; Northern Virginia; and Chicago. The program serves youth before they become disconnected, helping them successfully transition to higher education or employment after graduation. Urban Alliance has commissioned the Urban Institute to conduct a six-year, randomized controlled trial impact and process evaluation of its high school internship program. This report provides a process analysis of the program; the analysis is informed by extensive evaluator observation and interviews with staff, stakeholders, and youth. It also presents baseline information about Urban Alliance and the youth participating in its high school internship program in Washington, DC, and Baltimore in the 2011–12 and 2012–13 program years. Subsequent reports as part of the impact study will describe the early-adulthood impacts of the Urban Alliance internship program on the youth it serves. Below is a summary of the findings in this first of three reports

Quasiclassical approach and spin-orbit coupling

We discuss the quasiclassical Green function method for a two-dimensional electron gas in the presence of spin-orbit coupling, with emphasis on the meaning of the $\xi$-integration procedure. As an application of our approach, we demonstrate how the spin-Hall conductivity, in the presence of spin-flip scattering, can be easily obtained from the spin-density continuity equation.Comment: 3 pages, Submitted to Physica

Energy Conservation Framework

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/90459/1/SUS-2E2011-2E9659.pd

A process evaluation of how the routine vaccination programme is implemented at GP practices in England.

BACKGROUND: In recent years, the incidence of several pathogens of public health importance (measles, mumps, pertussis and rubella) has increased in Europe, leading to outbreaks. This has included England, where GP practices implement the vaccination programme based on government guidance. However, there has been no study of how implementation takes place, which makes it difficult to identify organisational variation and thus limits the ability to recommend interventions to improve coverage. The aim of this study is to undertake a comparative process evaluation of the implementation of the routine vaccination programme at GP practices in England. METHODS: We recruited a sample of geographically and demographically diverse GP practices through a national research network and collected quantitative and qualitative data as part of a Time-Driven Activity-Based Costing analysis between May 2017 and February 2018. We conducted semi-structured interviews with practice staff involved in vaccination, who then completed an activity log for 2 weeks. Interviews were transcribed and coded using a framework method. RESULTS: Nine practices completed data collection from diverse geographic and socio-economic contexts, and 52 clinical and non-clinical staff participated in 26 interviews. Information relating to 372 vaccination appointments (233 childhood and 139 adult appointments) was captured using activity logs. We have defined a 14-stage care delivery value chain and detailed process map for vaccination. Areas of greatest variation include the method of reminder and recall activities, structure of vaccination appointments and task allocation between staff groups. For childhood vaccination, mean appointment length was 15.9 min (range 9.0-22.0 min) and 10.9 min for adults (range 6.8-14.1 min). Non-clinical administrative activities comprised 59.7% total activity (range 48.4-67.0%). Appointment length and total time were not related to coverage, whereas capacity in terms of appointments per eligible patient may improve coverage. Administrative tasks had lower fidelity of implementation. CONCLUSIONS: There is variation in how GP practices in England implement the delivery of the routine vaccination programme. Further work is required to evaluate capacity factors in a wider range of practices, alongside other contextual factors, including the working culture within practices

Las crisis sanitarias y la migración

Las respuestas individuales y colectivas a las crisis sanitarias se suman a una respuesta de la sanidad pública ordenada, que la mayoría de las veces se opone a la necesidad de desplazamientos a gran escala. Restringir los movimientos de población es un modo muy ineficaz de detener la propagación de una enfermedad y sin embargo los Gobiernos suelen recurrir a ello en los lugares donde se origina una crisis sanitaria

Identification of a functional genetic variant driving racially dimorphic platelet gene expression of the thrombin receptor regulator, PCTP.

Platelet activation in response to stimulation of the Protease Activated Receptor 4 (PAR4) receptor differs by race. One factor that contributes to this difference is the expression level of Phosphatidylcholine Transfer Protein (PCTP), a regulator of platelet PAR4 function. We have conducted an expression Quantitative Trait Locus (eQTL) analysis that identifies single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) linked to the expression level of platelet genes. This analysis revealed 26 SNPs associated with the expression level of PCTP at genome-wide significance (p \u3c 5×10(-8)). Using annotation from ENCODE and other public data we prioritised one of these SNPs, rs2912553, for functional testing. The allelic frequency of rs2912553 is racially-dimorphic, in concordance with the racially differential expression of PCTP. Reporter gene assays confirmed that the single nucleotide change caused by rs2912553 altered the transcriptional potency of the surrounding genomic locus. Electromobility shift assays, luciferase assays, and overexpression studies indicated a role for the megakaryocytic transcription factor GATA1. In summary, we have integrated multi-omic data to identify and functionalise an eQTL. This, along with the previously described relationship between PCTP and PAR4 function, allows us to characterise a genotype-phenotype relationship through the mechanism of gene expression