A Comparison of Estimates of Relative Frequency vs. Subjective Probability

The purpose of this study is to extend the investigation of the general area of subjective probability by exploring three methods of asking for estimates. Inasmuch as this area has not been a major focus of interest for experimental studies, a brief review of the kinds of studies emanating from subjective probability notions will be given

A Study in the Theology of Dietrich Bonhoeffer With Particular Reference to Christian Spirituality

This thesis is a study in the theology of Dietrich Bonhoeffer with particular reference to Christian spirituality. There is a whole list of terms applicable to this notion. There is the 'spiritual life', 'spiritual outlook', and 'spiritual understanding. ' All of them suggest the notion of something esoteric, private, exclusive, separated from the generality of men, associated with a select few. This is an utter falsification of the position of Bonhoeffer. For him spirit is the ultimate reality. Spirituality implies engagement of the world in all its structures. The thesis examines this in the context of the whole theology of Bonhoeffer with particular reference to the Letters and Papers from Prison. The method employed stresses the element of synthesis found in Bonhoeffer's theology. Throughout the thesis reference is made to the synthesis of faith and worldliness, ultimate and penultimate. resistance and submission, and prayer and righteous action. The synthetic approach of Bonhoeffer to theological concepts is stressed in opposition to the dialectical theology of Karl Barth. Having examined and discussed the major areas in Bonhoeffer's theology the thesis concludes by drawing all these areas together into a structure of Christian Spirituality. Particular reference is made to the concept of the responsible deputy and the Church in an irreligious world. The fundamental structure of Christian Spirituality is defined in terms of being-there-for and with-others

Microgenetic development in preschoolers\u27 private speech

Vygotsky’s theory of the development of children’s private (or egocentric) speech is discussed, and related empirical research is reviewed. A pilot study demonstrates the visibility of a microgenetic experimental approach to the problem of private speech. The research detailed herein consists of a three-session repeated-measures microgenetic experiment involving 40 five-year-old children, investigating questions which arise both from Vygotsky’s original work on private speech and from contemporary research. Participants in this study were videotaped while working on both paper-folding and story-sequencing tasks. Results showed greater quantities of private speech while participants worked on paper-folding tasks compared with story-sequencing tasks, on difficult task items compared with easy items, and on novel items compared with familiar items. A decline across sessions in private speech production was observed when participants worked repeatedly on the same items, but not on novel items during the second and third sessions. Three systems for classification of private utterances according to various characteristics were applied. Private speech preceding action (planning speech) increased across sessions. Descriptive speech (which usually accompanies or follows action) declined from the second to the third session. An attempt to track microgenetic changes in the degree psychological predication evident in participants’ private speech was hindered by the high percentage of private utterances considered unclassifiable with regard to this characteristic. Correlational analyses, including examination of between-session as well as within-session associations between private speech and task performance, detected little evidence of predicted relationships. The advantages of a microgenetic experimental approach to the study of preschoolers’ private speech are discussed

Role of gender, smoking profile, hypertension, and diabetes on saphenous vein and internal mammary artery endothelial relaxation in patients with coronary artery bypass grafting

The aim of this study was to investigate if there was a link between the relaxant responses in saphenous vein (SV) and internal mammary artery (IMA) segments obtained from patients undergoing coronary artery bypass grafting and the patients' cardiovascular risk factors. Endothelium-(in)dependent relaxations were assessed by isometric tension studies. Endothelium-dependent relaxant responses were greater in IMA than SV and gender, smoking profile and history of hypertension but not diabetes appeared to have an influence on these responses. Endothelium-dependent relaxant responses in both IMA and SV were greater in males than females and relaxant responses in IMA segments were attenuated in smokers, whereas the opposite effect was noted in SV segments. Endothelium-dependent relaxant responses in SV were lower in patients with hypertension. Endothelium-independent relaxant responses were greater in IMA than SV. Endothelium-independent responses were greater in male patients' SV segments, but gender played no role in IMA segments. Diabetes had no effect on endothelium-independent responses in IMA, but SV segments from diabetic patients had greater responses. Neither conduit's endothelium-independent response was affected by hypertensive status. The relationship between risk factor status and endothelial responses is multifactorial, with gender, hypertension, diabetes and smoking status all contributing

Strategic trastuzumab mediated crosslinking driving concomitant HER2 and HER3 endocytosis and degradation in breast cancer

Efficacious anticancer therapies for targeting plasma membrane receptors with antibody based therapeutics are often contingent on sufficient endocytic delivery of receptor and conjugate to lysosomes. This results in downregulation of receptor activity and, in the case of antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs), intracellular release of a drug payload. The oncogenic receptor HER2 is a priority therapeutic target in breast cancer. Known as an “endocytosis resistant” receptor, HER2 thwarts the receptor downregulating efficiency of the frontline treatment trastuzumab and reduces the potential of trastuzumab-based therapies such as trastuzumab-emtansine. We previously demonstrated that strategically inducing trastuzumab and HER2 crosslinking in breast cancer cells promoted endocytosis and lysosomal delivery of the HER2-trastuzumab complex, stimulating downregulation of the receptor. Here we reveal that HER3, but not EGFR, is also concomitantly downregulated with HER2 after crosslinking. This is accompanied by strong activation of MEK/ERK pathway that we show does not directly contribute to HER2/trastuzumab endocytosis. We show that crosslinking induced trastuzumab endocytosis occurs via clathrin-dependent and independent pathways and is an actin-dependent process. Detailed ultrastructural studies of the plasma membrane highlight crosslinking-specific remodelling of microvilli and induction of extensive ruffling. Investigations in a cell model of acquired trastuzumab resistance demonstrate, for the first time, that they are refractory to crosslinking induced HER2 endocytosis and downregulation. This implicates further arrest of HER2 internalisation in developing trastuzumab resistance. Overall our findings highlight the potential of receptor crosslinking as a therapeutic strategy for cancer while exposing the ability of cancer cells to develop resistance via endocytic mechanisms

Long term improvements in activities of daily living in patients with hemispatial neglect

No abstract available

Atmospheric carbon capture performance of legacy iron and steel waste

Legacy iron (Fe) and steel wastes have been identified as a significant source of silicate minerals, which can undergo carbonation reactions and thus sequester carbon dioxide (CO2). In reactor experiments, i.e., at elevated temperatures, pressures, or CO2 concentrations, these wastes have high silicate to carbonate conversion rates. However, what is less understood is whether a more “passive” approach to carbonation can work, i.e., whether a traditional slag emplacement method (heaped and then buried) promotes or hinders CO2 sequestration. In this paper, the results of characterization of material retrieved from a first of its kind drilling program on a historical blast furnace slag heap at Consett, U.K., are reported. The mineralogy of the slag material was near uniform, consisting mainly of melilite group minerals with only minor amounts of carbonate minerals detected. Further analysis established that total carbon levels were on average only 0.4% while average calcium (Ca) levels exceeded 30%. It was calculated that only ∼3% of the CO2 sequestration potential of the >30 Mt slag heap has been utilized. It is suggested that limited water and gas interaction and the mineralogy and particle size of the slag are the main factors that have hindered carbonation reactions in the slag heap

Giant magmatic water reservoirs at mid-crustal depth inferred from electrical conductivity and the growth of the continental crust

International audienceThe formation of the continental crust at subduction zones involves the differentiation of hydrous mantle-derived magmas through a combination of crystallization and crustal melting. However, understanding the mechanisms by which differentiation occurs at depth is hampered by the inaccessibility of the deep crust in active continental arcs. Here we report new high-pressure electrical conductivity and petrological experiments on hydrated andesitic melt from Uturuncu volcano on the Bolivian Altiplano. By applying our results to regional magnetotelluric data, we show that giant conductive anomalies at mid-crustal levels in several arcs are characterized by relatively low amounts of intergranular andesitic partial melts with unusually high dissolved water contents (≥8 wt.% H2O). Below Uturuncu, the Altiplano-Puna Magma Body (APMB) displays an electrical conductivity that requires high water content (up to 10 wt.%) dissolved in the melt based on crystal-liquid equilibria and melt H2O solubility experiments. Such a super-hydrous andesitic melt must constitute about 10% of the APMB, the remaining 90% being a combination of magmatic cumulates and older crustal rocks. The crustal ponding level of these andesites at around 6 kbar pressure implies that on ascent through the crust hydrous magmas reach their water saturation pressure in the mid-crust, resulting in decompression-induced crystallization that increases magma viscosity and in turn leads to preferential stalling and differentiation. Similar high conductivity features are observed beneath the Cascades volcanic arc and Taupo Volcanic Zone. This suggests that large amounts of water in super-hydrous andesitic magmas could be a common feature of active continental arcs and may illustrate a key step in the structure and growth of the continental crust.One Sentence Summary: Geophysical, laboratory conductivity and petrological experiments reveal that deep electrical conductivity anomalies beneath the Central Andes, Cascades and Taupo Volcanic Zone image the ponding of super-hydrous andesitic melts which contributes to the growth of continental crust

Visualising value for money in public health interventions

Background: The Socio-Technical Allocation of Resources (STAR) has been developed for value for money analysis of health services through stakeholder workshops. This paper reports on its application for prioritisation of interventions within public health programmes. Methods: The STAR tool was used by identifying costs and service activity for interventions within commissioned public health programmes, with benefits estimated from the literature on economic evaluations in terms of costs per Quality-Adjusted Life Years (QALYs); consensus on how these QALY values applied to local services was obtained with local commissioners. Results: Local cost-effectiveness estimates could be made for some interventions. Methodological issues arose from gaps in the evidence base for other interventions, inability to closely match some performance monitoring data with interventions, and disparate time horizons of published QALY data. Practical adjustment for these issues included using population prevalences and utility states where intervention specific evidence was lacking, and subdivision of large contracts into specific intervention costs using staffing ratios. The STAR approach proved useful in informing commissioning decisions and understanding the relative value of local public health interventions Conclusions:. Further work is needed to improve robustness of the process and develop a visualisation tool for use by public health department