Employment subsidies - A fast lane from unemployment to work?

The treatment effect of a Swedish employment subsidy is estimated using exact covariate-matching and instrumental variables methods. Our estimates suggest that the programme had a positive treatment effect for the participants. We also show how non-parametric methods can be used to estimate the time profile of treatment effects as well as how to estimate the effect of entering the programme at different points in time in the unemployment spell. Our main results are derived using matching methods. However, as a sensitivity test, we apply instrumental variables difference-in-difference methods. These estimates indicate that our matching results are robustEvaluation; employment subsidies; exact covariate-matching

Experimental Evaluation of Predictive Combustion Phasing Control in an HCCI Engine using Fast Thermal Management and VVA

This paper presents experimental results on model predictive control of the combustion phasing in a Homogeneous Charge Compression Ignition (HCCI) engine. The controllers were based on linearizations of a previously presented physical model of HCCI including cylinder wall temperature dynamics. The control signals were the inlet air temperature and the inlet valve closing. A system for fast thermal management was installed and controlled using mid-ranging control. The resulting control performance was experimentally evaluated in terms of response time and steady-state output variance. For a given operating point, a comparable decrease in steady-state output variance was obtained either by introducing a disturban ce model or by changing linearization point. The robustness towards disturbances was investigated as well as the effects of varying the prediction and control horizons

Startup Methodology for Production Flow Simulation Projects Assessing Environmental Sustainability

Environmental impact assessments for companies and products are important to increase sales and reduce environmental impact. To support improvements and detailed analyses, researchers have extended the use of simulation of production flows to include sustainability performance indicators. The research cases performed until recently lack standardized methodology and thus have comparability issues and an increase number of common faults. By using a common methodology and gathering best practice, future cases can gain a lot. Especially noted by the authors is that the project startup phase is critical for success. This paper proposes a methodology to support the startup phases of simulation projects with sustainability aspects in production flows. The methodology is developed and applied in an automotive industry study presented in this paper. Using a rigid project startup, such as the proposed methodology, reduces iterations during modeling and data collection and decreases time spent on modeling

Postural Control Adaptation during Galvanic Vestibular and Vibratory Proprioceptive stimulation

he objective for this study was to investigate whether the adaptation of postural control was similar during galvanic vestibular stimulation and during vibratory proprioceptivestimulation of the calf muscles. Healthy subjects were tested during erect stance with eyes open or closed. An analysis method designed to consider the adaptive adjustments was used to evaluate the motion dynamics and the evoked changes of posture and stimulation response.Galvanic vestibular stimulation induced primarily lateral body movements and vibratory proprioceptive stimulation induced anteroposterior movements. The lateral body sway generated by the galvanic stimulation was proportionally smaller and contained more high-frequency movements (0.1 Hz) than the anteroposterior body sway induced by the vibratory stimulation. The adaptive adjustments of the body sway to the stimulation had similar time course and magnitude during galvanic and vibratory stimulation. The perturbations induced by stimulation were gradually reduced within the same time range (15–20 s) and both kinds of stimulation induced a body leaning whose direction was dependent on stimulus. The similarities in the adjustmentpatterns suggest that postural control operates in the same way independent of the receptor systems affected by the disturbance and irrespective of whether the motion responses were induced in a lateral or anteroposterior direction

Acoustic pharyngometry - A new method to facilitate oral appliance therapy

Background There is lack of reliable and accurate methods to predict treatment outcomes of oral appliance (OA) treatment. Acoustic pharyngometry (AP) is a non-invasive technique to evaluate the volume and minimal cross-sectional area of the upper airway, which may prove useful to locate the optimal position of OAs. Objective This retrospective study aimed to evaluate the effect of applying AP to OA treatment of patients with obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA). Methods All patients (n = 244) treated with OAs following an AP protocol at two dental clinics between 2013 and 2018 were invited to participate. A total of 129 patients accepted the invitation, and 120 patients (75 men, 45 women) were included in the analyses. Mean baseline age, BMI and apnoea hypopnea index (AHI) were 59.1 ± 0.9 years, 27.8 ± 0.4 and 21.9 ± 1.1, respectively. Mean follow-up time was 318 ± 24 days. Results AHI at follow-up was 6.4 ± 0.7, resulting in a treatment success rate of 86.7% (≥50% reduction of baseline AHI). The number of failures ( 5 hours usage per night, when worn. Conclusion The AP protocol applied seems to contribute to the excellent effect of OA treatment in this study. Further research on the application of AP in OA treatment is necessary in order to clarify its possible beneficial contribution to improving OA therapy.publishedVersio

Discriminatory Analysis of Biochip-Derived Protein Patterns in CSF and Plasma in Neurodegenerative Diseases

The role of biomarkers in neurodegenerative diseases has been emphasized by recent research. Future clinical demands for identifying diseases at an early stage may render them essential. The aim of this pilot study was to test the analytical performance of two multiplex assays of cerebral markers on a well-defined clinical material consisting of patients with various neurodegenerative diseases. We measured 10 analytes in plasma and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) from 60 patients suffering from Alzheimer's disease (AD), vascular dementia, frontotemporal dementia, dementia with Lewy bodies, or mild cognitive impairment, as well as 20 cognitively healthy controls. We used the Randox biochip-based Evidence Investigator™ system to measure the analytes. We found it possible to measure most analytes in both plasma and CSF, and there were some interesting differences between the diagnostic groups, although with large overlaps. CSF heart-type fatty acid-binding protein was increased in AD. Glial fibrillary acidic protein and neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin in CSF and D-dimer in plasma were elevated in patients with cerebrovascular disease. A multivariate statistical analysis revealed that the pattern of analytes could help to differentiate the conditions, although more studies are required to verify this