The conjoint quest for a liberal positive program: "Old Chicago", Freiburg and Hayek

James M. Buchanan's latest contribution to the post-crisis debate in political economy underpins the necessity to reexamine the legacy of the Old Chicago School of thought, being urged by Buchanan's recently stressed plea at the 2009 Regional Meeting of the Mont Pèlerin Society and at the Summer Institute for the Preservation of the History of Economic Thought in 2010. The focus of the current paper is to follow his plea by exploring the central topoi of the 1930's debate of the Chicago School as seen from the work of Henry Simons and discuss its impact on the academic arena on both sides of the Atlantic thereafter. With respect to this impact, we highlight Friedrich A. von Hayek as the focal scholar who possibly transmits these topoi that later influenced the rise of Freiburgean ordoliberalism in Germany from the mid-1930's onwards as youngest archival findings suggest. By revisiting the MPS 1947 first meeting's minutes and papers, we stress the proximity in mind of Old Chicago, Hayek and the Freiburg School ordo-liberals by contributing an explanation for the surprisingly homogenous direction of these yet unconnected schools of thought. n a next, enhanced version of this project, we will subsequently re-discuss the intellectual origins of Constitutional Political Economy's research program. Following Viktor Vanberg, we argue that CPE can be interpreted as a modernized perspective on economics that carries forward three strands of transatlantic liberal programs, being precisely Old Chicago, Freiburg and Hayek. --

Interdisciplinary complication management of dislodged lumbar interbody spacer in pulmonary artery

We report the case of an intraoperatively dislodged transforaminal lumbar interbody fusion spacer with creation of a traumatic arteriovenous fistula and device migration to the pulmonary artery. Successful minimally invasive angiographic retrieval of the spacer is discussed with special reference to angiographic and surgical treatment strategies and pitfalls

Postpartum quality of life in Indian women after vaginal birth and cesarean section: a pilot study using the EQ-5D-5L descriptive system

There has been little evaluation of the postpartum quality of life (QOL) of women in India and its association with the mode of birth. This study piloted the use of the generic EQ-5D-5L questionnaire to assess postpartum QOL experienced by rural Indian women

First Description of Reduced Pyruvate Dehydrogenase Enzyme Activity Following Subarachnoid Hemorrhage (SAH)

Object: Several previous studies reported metabolic derangements and an accumulation of metabolic products in the early phase of experimental subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH), which may contribute to secondary brain damage. This may be a result of deranged oxygen utilization due to enzymatic dysfunction in aerobic glucose metabolism. This study was performed to investigate, if pyruvate dehydrogenase enzyme (PDH) is affected in its activity giving further hints for a derangement of oxidative metabolism. Methods: Eighteen male Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly assigned to one of two experimental groups (n = 9): (1) SAH induced by the endovascular filament model and (2) sham-operated controls. Mean arterial blood pressure (MABP), intracranial pressure (ICP), and local cerebral blood flow (LCBF; laser-Doppler flowmetry) were continuously monitored from 30 min before until 3 h after SAH. Thereafter, the animals were sacrificed and PDH activity was measured by ELISA. Results: PDH activity was significantly reduced in animals subjected to SAH compared to controls. Conclusion: The results of this study demonstrate for the first time a reduction of PDH activity following SAH, independent of supply of substrates and may be an independent factor contributing to a derangement of oxidative metabolism, failure of oxygen utilization, and secondary brain damage

Measuring universal health coverage based on an index of effective coverage of health services in 204 countries and territories, 1990-2019: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019

Achieving universal health coverage (UHC) involves all people receiving the health services they need, of high quality, without experiencing financial hardship. Making progress towards UHC is a policy priority for both countries and global institutions, as highlighted by the agenda of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and WHO’s Thirteenth General Programme of Work (GPW13). Measuring effective coverage at the health-system level is important for understanding whether health services are aligned with countries’ health profiles and are of sufficient quality to produce health gains for populations of all ages

Methane Exchange in a Coastal Fen in the First Year after Flooding--A Systems Shift

Peatland restoration can have several objectives, for example re-establishing the natural habitat, supporting unique biodiversity attributes or re-initiating key biogeochemical processes, which can ultimately lead to a reduction in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Every restoration measure, however, is itself a disturbance to the ecosystem

Health system support and health system strengthening: two key facilitators to the implementation of ambulatory tuberculosis treatment in Uzbekistan

Uzbekistan inherited a hospital-based health system from the Soviet Union. We explore the health system-related challenges faced during the scale-up of ambulatory (outpatient) treatment for drug-susceptible and drug-resistant tuberculosis (TB) in Karakalpakstan in Uzbekistan. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with key informants of the TB services, the ministries of health and finance, and their TB control partners. Structural challenges and resource needs were both discussed as obstacles to the expansion of ambulatory TB treatment. Respondents stated need for revising the financing mechanisms of the TB services to incentivize referral to ambulatory TB treatment. An increased workload and need for transportation in ambulatory TB care were also pointed out by respondents, given the quickly rising outpatient numbers but per capita financing of outpatient care. Policy makers showed strong interest in good practice examples for financing ambulatory-based management of TB in comparable contexts and in guidance for revising the financing of the TB services in a way that strengthens ambulatory TB treatment. To facilitate changing the model of care, TB control strategies emphasizing ambulatory care in hospital-oriented health systems should anticipate health system support and strengthening needs, and provide a plan of action to resolve both. Addressing both types of needs may require not only involving TB control and health financing actors, but also increasing knowledge about viable and tested financing mechanisms that incentivize the adoption of new models of care for TB

No detectable influence of the carbonate ion effect on changes in stable carbon isotope ratios (δ13C) of shallow dwelling planktic foraminifera over the past 160 kyr

Laboratory experiments showed that the isotopic fractionation of δ13C and of δ18O during calcite formation of planktic foraminifera are species-specific functions of ambient CO32- concentration. This effect became known as the carbonate ion effect (CIE), whose role for the interpretation of marine sediment data will be investigated here in an in-depth analysis of the 13C cycle. For this investigation, we constructed new 160 kyr long mono-specific stacks of changes in both δ13C and δ18O from either the planktic foraminifera Globigerinoides ruber (rub) or Trilobatus sacculifer (sac) from 112 and 40 marine records, respectively, from the wider tropics (latitudes below 38°). Both mono-specific time series Δ(δ13Crub) and Δ(δ13Csac) are very similar to each other, and a linear regression through a scatter plot of both data sets has a slope of ∼ 0.99 – although the laboratory-based CIE for both species differs by a factor of nearly 2, implying that they should record distinctly different changes in δ13C, if we accept that the carbonate ion concentration changes on glacial–interglacial timescales. For a deeper understanding of the 13C cycle, we use the Solid Earth version of the Box model of the Isotopic Carbon cYCLE (BICYLE-SE) to calculate how surface-ocean CO32- should have varied over time in order to be able to calculate the potential offsets which would by caused by the CIE quantified in culture experiments. Our simulations are forced with atmospheric reconstructions of CO2 and δ13CO2 derived from ice cores to obtain a carbon cycle which should at least at the surface ocean be as close as possible to expected conditions and which in the deep ocean largely agrees with the carbon isotope ratio of dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC), δ13CDIC, as reconstructed from benthic foraminifera. We find that both Δ(δ13Crub) and Δ(δ13Csac) agree better with changes in simulated δ13CDIC when ignoring the CIE than those time series which were corrected for the CIE. The combination of data- and model-based evidence for the lack of a role for the CIE in Δ(δ13Crub) and Δ(δ13Csac) suggests that the CIE as measured in laboratory experiments is not directly transferable to the interpretation of marine sediment records. The much smaller CIE-to-glacial–interglacial-signal ratio in foraminifera δ18O, when compared to δ13C, prevents us from drawing robust conclusions on the role of the CIE in δ18O as recorded in the hard shells of both species. However, theories propose that the CIE in both δ13C and δ18O depends on the pH in the surrounding water, suggesting that the CIE should be detectable in neither or both of the isotopes. Whether this lack of role of the CIE in the interpretation of planktic paleo-data is a general feature or is restricted to the two species investigated here needs to be checked with further data from other planktic foraminiferal species

Can motivational interviewing in emergency care reduce alcohol consumption in young people? A systematic review and meta-analysis

Aims: We investigate the effect of motivational interviewing (MI), delivered in a brief intervention during an emergency care contact, on the alcohol consumption of young people who screen positively for present or previous risky alcohol consumption. Methods: MEDLINE, CINAHL, EMBASE, PsycARTICLES, PsycINFO, PSYNDEX and Scopus were searched for randomized controlled trials with adolescents or young adults that compared MI in an emergency care setting to control conditions and measured drinking outcomes. Results: Six trials with 1433 participants, aged 13–25 years, were included in the systematic review and meta-analysis. MI was never less efficacious than a control intervention. Two trials found significantly more reduction in one or more measures of alcohol consumption in the MI intervention group. One trial indicated that MI may be used most effectively in young people with highvolume alcohol consumption. Separate random effects meta-analyses were performed based on the highest impact that MI added on reducing the drinking frequency and the drinking quantity at any point in time during the different study periods. Their results were expressed as standardized mean differences (SMDs). The frequency of drinking alcohol decreased significantly more after MI than after control interventions (SMD ≤−0.17, P ≤ 0.03). In addition, MI reduced the drinking quantity further than control interventions in a meta-analysis of the subset of trials that were implemented in the USA (SMD=−0.12, P=0.04). Meta-analyses of the smallest mean differences between MI and control groups detected no differences in alcohol use (SMD ≤ 0.02, P ≥ 0.38). Conclusion: MI appears at least as effective and may possibly be more effective than other brief interventions in emergency care to reduce alcohol consumption in young people