Influence of bacterial lectins on some reactions of nonspecific immunity in sarcoma 37 transplanted mice

The aim of this paper is to study preventive effect of cytotoxic lectin from Bacillus subtilis B-7025 on the tumor growth and nonspecific immunity in sarcoma 37 transplanted mice

Test, Evaluation, and Demonstration of Practical Devices/Systems to Reduce Aerodynamic Drag of Tractor/Semitrailer Combination Unit Trucks

Class 8 heavy-duty trucks account for over three-quarters of the total diesel fuel used by commercial trucks (trucks with GVWRs more than 10,000 pounds) in the United States each year. At the highway speeds at which these trucks travel (i.e., 60 mph or greater), aerodynamic drag is a major part of total horsepower needed to move the truck down the highway, Reductions in aerodynamic drag can yield measurable benefits in fuel economy through the use of relatively inexpensive and simple devices. The goal of this project was to examine a number of aerodynamic drag reduction devices and systems and determine their effectiveness in reducing aerodynamic drag of Class 8 tractor/semitrailer combination-units, thus contributing to DOE's goal of reducing transportation petroleum use. The project team included major heavy truck manufacturers in the United States, along with the management and industry expertise of the Truck Manufacturers Association as the lead investigative organization. The Truck Manufacturers Association (TMA) is the national trade association representing the major North American manufacturers of Class 6-8 trucks (GVWRs over 19,500 lbs). Four major truck manufacturers participated in this project with TMA: Freightliner LLC; International Truck and Engine Corporation; Mack Trucks Inc.; and Volvo Trucks North America, Inc. Together, these manufacturers represent over three-quarters of total Class 8 truck sales in the United States. These four manufacturers pursued complementary research efforts as part of this project. The project work was separated into two phases conducted over a two-year period. In Phase I, candidate aerodynamic devices and systems were screened to focus research and development attention on devices that offered the most potential. This was accomplished using full-size vehicle tests, scale model tests, and computational fluid dynamics analyses. In Phase II, the most promising devices were installed on full-size trucks and their effect on fuel economy was determined, either through on-road testing or full-size wind tunnel testing. All of the manufacturers worked with devices and systems that offer practical solutions to reduce aerodynamic drag, accounting for functionality, durability, cost effectiveness, reliability, and maintainability. The project team members and their roles and responsibilities are shown in Figure 2-1. Figure 2-2 shows the Phase I and II project schedules for all four projects and associated management activities

TacklingPovertyNZ: the nature of poverty in NZ and how to address it

Poverty in New Zealand is one of the foremost challenges we face as a country. Child poverty rates remain persistently above rates in many other developed countries and well above the rates prevalent in New Zealand during the 1980s. Poverty is of particular concern in a number of parts of provincial New Zealand, where it coincides with high rates of drug dependency, poor health outcomes – reaching Third World standards in some areas – high crime and victimisation levels and multi-generational cycles of disadvantage (Ministry of Social Development, 2010; New Zealand Treasury, 2017a)

Experienced wellbeing, income, and measurement of the value of non-market outcomes.

Public policy inevitably involves choices about which goals to prioritise. The standard economic framework for the ex-ante evaluation of public policy decisions is social cost-benefit analysis. Within this framework, identifying values for key public policy outcomes with no market price is of high importance if resources are to be directed to areas with the highest public benefit. Cost-wellbeing analysis involves using measures of subjective wellbeing – typically an evaluative measure such as life satisfaction – to estimate values for non-market outcomes. While traditional cost-wellbeing analysis is useful in many situations, there are some outcomes where evaluative measures are unable to provide useful information. This thesis focuses instead on the use of experienced wellbeing measures in cost-wellbeing analysis to obtain estimates for non-market outcomes where evaluative measures are not suitable or available.Three key topics are considered. First, the thesis explores the conceptual and practical issues involved in using experienced wellbeing measures in cost-wellbeing analysis. A methodology is developed that addresses a key challenge in the use of experienced wellbeing measures in this context –the relatively weak relationship between income and experienced wellbeing and the key assumptions required for the validity of the proposed method are identified. A core part of this proposed methodology is to treat experienced wellbeing as a determinant of life satisfaction, which then allows the use of the income coefficient on life satisfaction in cost-wellbeing analysis.The second part of the thesis focuses on the impact of income measurement on the relationship between income and life satisfaction. A unique New Zealand dataset containing both self-reported income measures and an employer-reported income measure is used to explore whether differences in how income is measured impacts the estimated relationship between income and life satisfaction. This relationship is fundamental to cost-wellbeing analysis, as it is used to transform the estimated impact of a non-market outcome on life satisfaction into a meaningful dollar value.The final part of the thesis applies the methodology developed earlier to value three different aspects of urban green space: forest cover, semi-natural grassy areas, and proximity to the nearest park. Values for the first and last of these outcomes are available from the existing social cost-benefit analysis literature based on traditional valuation techniques and are used to test the validity of the experienced wellbeing valuation approach. The proposed approach to using experienced wellbeing measures to value non-market outcomes is found to produce plausible values and replicates patterns of relative prices found in the existing literature.The main contributions of the thesis is developing a method for using experienced wellbeing measures to value non-market outcomes for cost-benefit analysis and validating this empirically, as well as testing the sensitivity of non-market valuations based on subjective wellbeing data to income measurement issues. Building on these findings, the thesis also sets out a research agenda for cost-wellbeing analysis relating both to the use of experienced wellbeing measures in this context and to the measurement of income.</p

Conceptualizing Subjective Well-Being and its Many Dimensions–Implications for Data Collection in Official Statistics and for Policy Relevance

Subjective well-being encompasses several distinct but interacting aspects of people’s feelings, attitudes, and experiences. This paper assesses the state of the art for measuring these dimensions of people's lives, which typically involves analyzing self-reports of subjective well-being collected in survey instruments; however, other potentially complementary, technology-driven tools are emerging as well. We first answer the question, “what is subjective well-being?” and unpack its multidimensionality. The role of national statistics offices in measuring subjective well-being and deriving official statistics is considered next. We conclude by discussing how different characteristics of well-being constructs shape their applicability to policy. The overarching conclusion is that–while methodological limitations are present and a number of fundamental research challenges remain–understanding of how to collect and interpret data on subjective well-being has made enormous strides in the last two decades, and policies for a wide range of domains are beginning to be usefully informed

CONCEPTUALIZING SUBJECTIVE WELL-BEING AND ITS MANY DIMENSIONS – IMPLICATIONS FOR DATA COLLECTION IN OFFICIAL STATISTICS AND FOR POLICY RELEVANCE

Subjective well-being encompasses several distinct but interacting aspects of people's feelings, attitudes, and experiences. This paper assesses the state of the art for measuring these dimensions of people's lives, which typically involves analyzing self-reports of subjective well-being collected in survey instruments; however, other potentially complementary, technology-driven tools are emerging as well. We first answer the question, "what is subjective well-being?" and unpack its multidimensionality. The role of national statistics offices in measuring subjective well-being and deriving official statistics is considered next. We conclude by discussing how different characteristics of well-being constructs shape their applicability to policy. The overarching conclusion is that–while methodological limitations are present and a number of fundamental research challenges remain–understanding of how to collect and interpret data on subjective well-being has made enormous strides in the last two decades, and policies for a wide range of domains are beginning to be usefully informed

Exploring Determinants of Subjective Wellbeing in OECD Countries: Evidence from the World Value Survey

The paper explores issues with assessing wellbeing in OECD countries based on self-reported life satisfaction surveys in a pooled regression over time and countries, at the country level and the OECD average. The results, which are in line with previous studies of subjective wellbeing, show that, apart from income, the state of health, not being unemployed, and social relationships are particularly important for wellbeing with only some differences across countries. The results also show that cultural differences are not major drivers of differences in life satisfaction. Correlations between the rankings of measures of life satisfaction and other indicators of wellbeing such as the Human Development Index and Better Life Index are also relatively high. Measures of subjective wellbeing can play an important part in informing policy makers of progress with wellbeing in general, or what seems to matter for wellbeing—health, being employed and social contacts-- beyond income. Examen des déterminants subjectifs du bien-être dans les pays de l'OCDE : une caractérisation basée sur le World Values Survey Ce document examine les questions liées à l’évaluation du bien-être dans les pays de l'OCDE à partir d’enquêtes de satisfaction de la vie auto-déclarée dans une régression sur un panel de pays avec une dimension temporelle, au niveau des pays et de la moyenne de l'OCDE. Les résultats, similaires à ceux d’études antérieures sur le bien-être subjectif, montrent que, en dehors de revenu, l'état de santé, ne pas être au chômage, et les relations sociales sont particulièrement importantes pour le bien-être, avec des différences limitées entre les pays. Les résultats montrent également que les différences culturelles ne sont pas les principaux facteurs de différences dans la satisfaction de la vie. Les corrélations entre les classements des mesures de satisfaction de la vie et d'autres indicateurs de bien-être tels que l'Indice de développement humain et l'Indice Vivre mieux sont également relativement élevées. Les mesures du bien-être subjectif peuvent jouer un rôle important en informant les décideurs sur les progrès en termes de bien-être en général, ou sur ce qui semble contribuer au bien-être – la santé, être employé et les contacts sociaux – au-delà des revenus.health, welfare, comparative studies, well-being, etudes comparatives, bien-être, santé

Public Housing in an Urban Setting: an inclusive wellbeing framework

We outline a wellbeing framework to underpin analysis within a major research programme in which a key component is to examine effects of public housing on tenant wellbeing. The wellbeing framework is designed to be inclusive by drawing on multiple international approaches to wellbeing (especially the capabilities and subjective wellbeing approaches) and on te ao Māori and Pacific wellbeing frameworks. Key features of the framework are that it: emphasises both individual and whänau wellbeing; enables wellbeing judgements to be made by the tenants themselves; allows for co-determination of factors affecting wellbeing; and allows for interpersonal factors to affect wellbeing. We describe surveys of public housing tenants being conducted within the research programme and outline how they can be analysed with reference to the inclusive wellbeing framework