Publisher review of the collective scientific publication Within the sphere of inclusions issues. Polish and Ukrainian scientific experience exchange. Collective work scientific edited by: Alicja Antas-Jaszczuk, Sergiusz Nikitin, Agnieszka Roguska

Zawiera recenzję książki / Includes book review: Within the sphere of inclusions issues. Polish and Ukrainian scientific experience exchange : collective work = W kręgu problematyki inkluzji. Wymiana doświadczeń naukowych polsko-ukraińskaich : praca zbiorowa / scientific edited by Alicja Antas-Jaszczuk, Sergiusz Nikitin, Agnieszka Roguska. Siedlce : Pracownia Wydawnicza WH UPH, 2015. ISBN 978-83-64415-23-

Guidance for the application of a dynamic purchasing portfolio model for defence procurement – A Swedish perspective

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to develop guidance, including tactical levers, for the application of a dynamic purchasing portfolio model (PPM) for defence procurement. Design/methodology/approach: The study uses a workshop and a literature review to identify suitable tactical levers for the application of a dynamic PPM for defence procurement. Based on application rules proposed in previous research (Ekström et al., 2021), the study then formulates guidance for application and validates the methodology in two desktop exercises. Findings: The study identifies tactical levers and proposes guidance for the application of a dynamic PPM for defence procurement. Research limitations/implications: The proposed guidance includes tactical levers, which will enable defence authorities to dynamically reposition in the segmentation model proposed by Ekström et al. (2021) and find an enhanced position to optimise. The presented results build on a study in the Swedish defence context. To determine generalisability, additional studies are required. Originality/value: The paper develops guidance, including tactical levers, for the application of a dynamic PPM for defence procurement, which is original in several aspects. The guidance addresses public procurement, which is a novelty. In contrast to most extant PPMs, the model is dynamic, which enables practitioners to reposition in the model. Keywords: Purchasing portfolio model, tactical levers, guidance for application, defence procurement, military logistics. Paper type: Research paper

Pulse pressure as a predictive marker for cardiovascular events : relation to biomarkers and antihypertensive treatment

Blood pressure (BP), in particularly ambulatory blood pressure (ABP), is a strong predictor for cardiovascular (CV) disease (CVD). Pulse pressure (PP) is related to vascular disease and ambulatory PP (APP) may have a specific value in certain populations. It is unknown whether ABP is a better predictor for CV events compared to office BP in patients with peripheral arterial disease (PAD). NT-proBNP, hs-CRP and cystatin C are biomarkers that are increasingly used for risk prediction but prospective studies on the predictive value of these biomarkers adjusted for ABP are scarce. Although PP may have a clinical value, the relation to outcomes in interventional antihypertensive studies has not been sufficiently studied. The overall aim of this thesis was to study the predictive value of ABP with special reference to PP in relation to the biomarkers NT-proBNP, hs-CRP, and cystatin C and to evaluate whether ABP and these biomarkers improved risk prediction when added to traditional risk factor models. We further aimed to study whether the antihypertensive treatment effect on CV events was dependent on baseline PP. Material and methods. This thesis was based on studies in patients with PAD, elderly men and high-risk hypertensives. We investigated the relations of ABP with special reference to APP and the biomarkers NT-proBNP, hs-CRP, and cystatin C to CV events during long-term follow-up. We used Cox regression models and C-statistics, net reclassification improvement and integrated discrimination improvement. We studied whether the difference in CV events between two different antihypertensive treatments was dependent on baseline PP. Results. APP was a better predictor of CV events compared to office BP in PAD patients and a combination of APP, NT-proBNP, and hs-CRP improved discrimination and net reclassification. In elderly male subjects, the substitution of office BP with ABP in a model with traditional risk factors improved discrimination and reclassification. The addition of NTproBNP to the ABP model improved reclassification but not discrimination. However, the addition of ABP to a traditional model that included any of the biomarkers did not improve discrimination or reclassification. In high-risk hypertensive patients, we observed a positive relationship between baseline PP and incident CVD. However, the superior treatment effect of amlodipine as compared to hydrochlorothiazide when combined with benazepril was independent of baseline PP. The absolute treatment effect was higher in the higher tertiles of PP. Conclusion. Pulse pressure is a predictor for CV events and seems to be most useful in patients with established CVD. NT-proBNP has additive value for risk prediction in patients with CVD as well as in the elderly. Combinations of pulse pressure and NT-proBNP may help to tailor treatment in subjects to prevent incident CVD. The difference in reduction of CV events between two different antihypertensive treatments was not dependent on baseline pulse pressure. That is, there is presently no evidence to support that a subject’s pulse pressure per se should direct the choice of antihypertensive drugs for treatment

Journal Staff

A myelopoiesis gene signature in circulating leucocytes, exemplified by increased myeloperoxidase (MPO) and proteinase 3 (PR3) mRNA levels, has been reported in patients with active anti-neutrophil cytoplasm antibody associated vasculitis (AAV) and to a lesser extent during remission. We hypothesized that this signature could predict disease relapse. mRNA levels of PR3, MPO, selected myelopoiesis transcription factors (CEBPA, CEBPB, SPIB, SPI1) and microRNAs (miRNAs) from patient and control peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) and polymorphonuclear cells (PMNs) were analyzed and associated with clinical data. Patients in stable remission had higher mRNA levels for PR3 (PBMCs, PMNs) and MPO (PBMCs). PR3 and SPIB mRNA correlated positively in control but negatively in patient PBMCs. Statistically significant correlations existed between PR3 mRNA and several miRNAs in controls, but not in patients. PR3/MPO mRNA levels were not associated with previous or future relapses but correlated to steroid treatment. Prednisolone doses were negatively linked to SPIB and miR-155-5p, miR-339-5p (PBMCs) and to miR-221, miR-361, miR-505 (PMNs). PR3 mRNA in PBMCs correlated with time since last flare, blood leucocyte count and estimated glomerular filtration rate. Our results show that elevated leucocyte PR3 mRNA levels in AAV patients in remission do not predict relapse. The origin seems multifactorial, but to an important part explainable by prednisolone action. Gene signatures in patients with AAV undergoing steroid treatment should therefore be interpreted accordingly

A systematic review on regression test selection techniques

Regression testing is verifying that previously functioning software remains after a change. With the goal of finding a basis for further research in a joint industry-academia research project, we conducted a systematic review of empirical evaluations of regression test selection techniques. We identified 27 papers reporting 36 empirical studies, 21 experiments and 15 case studies. In total 28 techniques for regression test selection are evaluated. We present a qualitative analysis of the findings, an overview of techniques for regression test selection and related empirical evidence. No technique was found clearly superior since the results depend on many varying factors. We identified a need for empirical studies where concepts are evaluated rather than small variations in technical implementations

Performance Based Logistics – A Norwegian-Swedish Perspective

Performance Based Logistics (PBL) as a support strategy for defence systems has been coined as a paradigmatic change within defence acquisition and maintenance. Originating from the defence industry, the concept has been adopted in many defence organisations. Although studies of its applicability has identified both enablers and barriers for implementation, these studies predominantly are performed in a few large nations. How the concept corresponds with a small state perspective needs to be addressed. Further on, perceived outputs of PBL practices would differ between the acquisition organisation, the supplier of PBL services, and the users of the services. Understanding these differences in perceptions would give valuable knowledge about how to design PBL contracts. Thirdly; assuming that PBL contracts indeed result in improved effectiveness, adapting the involved organisations to a new way of managing logistics should be accompanied by related organisational change processes. The purpose with this study is to contextualise the concept and define barriers and enablers for PBL in a small state perspective (represented by Norway and Sweden), identify different stakeholders’ expectations for output, and explore whether implementing such a concept is perceived as a significantly new way of organising defence supply chains with an accompanying organisational change strategy

Performance bounds for LPC spectrum quantization

This paper presents a method for obtaining numerical estimates of high rate vector quantization (VQ) performance suitable for sources for which the pdf is not analytically available. In the pro-posed method, the VQ point density is described from a Gaussian mixture model optimized for the data. Employing this method for LPC spectrum quantization, we obtain high rate expressions for both the average spectral distortion (SD) and the distribution func-tion of the SD. We estimate the minimum bits required for a quan-tizer to obtain an average SD of 1 dB and the outlier statistics for that quantizer. We find that approximately 3 bits can be saved as compared to a 2-split LSF-based vector quantizer. 1

Interference Alignment — Practical Challenges and Test-bed Implementation

Data traffic over wireless communication networks has experienced a tremendous growth in the last decade, and it is predicted to exponentially increase in the next decades. Enabling future wireless networks to fulfill this expectation is a challenging task both due to the scarcity of radio resources (e.g. spectrum and energy), and also the inherent characteristics of the wireless transmission medium. Wireless transmission is in general subject to two phenomena: fading and interference. The elegant interference alignment concept reveals that with proper transmission signalling design, different interference signals can in fact be aligned together, such that more radio resources can be assigned to the desired transmission. Although interference alignment can achieve a larger data rate compared to orthogonal transmission strategies, several challenges should be addressed to enable the deployment of this technique in future wireless networks For instance, to perform interference alignment, normally, global channel state information (CSI) is required to be perfectly known at all terminals. Clearly, acquiring such channel knowledge is a challenging problem in practice and proper channel training and channel state feedback techniques need to be deployed. In addition, since the channels are time-varying proper adaptive transmission is needed. This chapter review recent advances in practical aspects of interference alignment. It also presents recent test-bed implementations of signal processing algorithms for the realization of interference alignment.Comment: Book Chapter accepted for publication in the book entitled: Contemporary Issues in Wireless Communications, ISBN: 978-953-51-4101-3, Khatib, M. (Ed.), to be published by INTECH Publishers. Expected month of publication: November 201

Knowledge partnerships between schools and universities: modelling the process of connection and relations

The purpose of this paper is to throw light on sustained research–practice collaborations (called ‘schemes’ here) aimed at improving educational outcomes. The empirical work combines a survey of thirteen school–university knowledge-exchange schemes in six European countries, with four case studies drawn from these. Three theoretical models of knowledge use are employed to aid analysis of these cases. It is suggested that a judicious mix of the three perspectives helps in understanding what makes such collaborations successful. Stages in the cyclical process of improving practice through use of research are described, beginning with frank analysis of pre-existing ways of thinking and culminating in the challenge of altering established practice.The authors were brought together through the EIPPEE network (Evidence Informed Policy and Practice in Education in Europe) supported by the European Commission.Peer Reviewe

Amlodipine+Benazepril is Superior to Hydrochlorothiazide+Benazepril Irrespective of Baseline Pulse Pressure: Subanalysis of the ACCOMPLISH Trial

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/110751/1/jch12460.pd