Subjective Perspectives (f)or Objective Truths?:Quantifying the Impact of Health Changes on Individuals and Families using Survey Data

This dissertation explores the complex relationship between declining health and its implications for those who experience it directly, their families, and society more broadly. Through the lens of large-scale observational survey data and subjective outcome measures such as life satisfaction or self-perceived health, it aims to quantify the multi-dimensional impact of declining health. The dissertation is structured around three topics: The first topic, “Valuing Health Changes using Survey Data”, investigates how subjective well-being measures, like life satisfaction, can inform health economic evaluations and health policy through empirically estimated monetary equivalent values of health changes. The second topic, “The Impact of Health Changes on Perceptions and Behaviours”, focuses on the stability and comparability of self-reported outcomes over time, particularly in the context of long-term disability and the onset of health shocks. It explores how individuals adapt to disability and examines the causal relationship between health shocks and subsequent changes in health perceptions and behaviours. The third topic, “Spillover Effects of Declining Health”, considers the implications of health changes on immediate family members who do not experience these changes themselves. It investigates the impact of health events on the health perceptions and behaviours of spouses and the potential health consequences of informal caregiving for the mental and physical health of caregivers themselves. The chapters of this dissertation emphasize the value of using survey-based subjective outcome measures as a tool for quantifying the multi-dimensional impacts of declining health over the life-course but also highlight the distinct methodological challenges such measures can pose. Survey-based subjective outcome measures contribute to estimating the monetary value of health changes, revealing adaptive processes over time, shedding light on individual-level decision-making in response to health events, and highlighting the often-overlooked spillover effects on the physical and mental well-being of family caregivers. The findings offer valuable insights for health policymakers and researchers striving to better understand the consequences of deteriorating health through the lens of observational survey data

Elections and the Stock Market: Analysis

The questions our research aims to address are: Do events associated with the presidential election cycle produce predictable and consistent results in each election year on the three major stock indices values? Is there an increase in volatility as the election approaches? Was there an increase in trading volume as the election cycle progressed? Does this increase in volume throughout the election cycle result in an increase in the value of the indices? Dates of specific interest to our research are the primary debates, Super Tuesday, the vice-president nomination, the Democratic and Republican National Convention, final nominee debates, the day of the election, and the announcement of the president-elect. Our financial data is gathered from the three major American indices (NASDAQ, Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJI), Standard and Poor 500 Index (S&P 500)), and a variation on The Chicago Board Options Exchange\u27s Volatility Index (VIX). While finding market returns and standard deviations and using them in further analysis, we will be able to draw a correlation between major events and in volatility with comparison to a non-election year, thus creating an avenue to develop a relationship between stock market volatility and presidential elections

Scrape-off layer width of parallel heat flux on tokamak COMPASS

Edge plasmas in the divertor configuration were studied on the COMPASS tokamak. The dependence of the decay length of the parallel heat flux q|| was measured at different values of plasma current and line-averaged density. We have found that q|| decreases with both the plasma current and the line-averaged density, which is in agreement with previous results achieved on the JET tokamak

Formation of convective cells in the scrape-off layer of the CASTOR tokamak

Understanding of the scrape-off layer (SOL) physics in tokamaks requires diagnostics with sufficient temporal and spatial resolution. This contribution describes results of experiments performed in the SOL of the CASTOR tokamak (R=40 cm, a = 6 cm) by means of a ring of 124 Langmuir probes surrounding the whole poloidal cross section. The individual probes measure either the ion saturation current of the floating potential with the spatial resolution up to 3 mm. Experiments are performed in a particular magnetic configuration, characterized by a long parallel connection length in the SOL, L_par ~q2piR. We report on measurements in discharges, where the edge electric field is modified by inserting a biased electrode into the edge plasma. In particular, a complex picture is observed, if the biased electrode is located inside the SOL. The poloidal distribution of the floating potential appears to be strongly non-uniform at biasing. The peaks of potential are observed at particular poloidal angles. This is interpreted as formation of a biased flux tube, which emanates from the electrode along the magnetic field lines and snakes q times around the torus. The resulting electric field in the SOL is 2-dimensional, having the radial as well as the poloidal component. It is demonstrated that the poloidal electric field E_pol convects the edge plasma radially due to the E_pol x B_T drift either inward or outward depending on its sign. The convective particle flux is by two orders of magnitude larger than the fluctuation-induced one and consequently dominates.Comment: 12th International Congress on Plasma Physics, 25-29 October 2004, Nice (France

The purification and characterisation of novel dipeptidyl peptidase IV-like activity from bovine serum

The discovery of a potentially novel proline-specific peptidase from bovine serum is presented which is capable of cleaving the dipeptidyl peptidase IV (DPIV) substrate Gly-Pro-MCA. The enzyme was isolated and purified with the use of Phenyl Sepharose Hydrophobic Interaction, Sephacryl S300 Gel Filtration, and Q-Sephacryl Anion Exchange, producing an overall purification factor of 257. SDS PAGE resulted in a monomeric molecular mass of 158 kDa while Size Exclusion Chromatography generated a native molecular mass of 328 kDa. The enzyme remained active over a broad pH range with a distinct preference for a neutral pH range of 7-8.5. Chromatofocusing and Isoelectric Focusing revealed the enzyme’s isoelectric point to be 4.74. DPIV-like activity was not inhibited by serine protease inhibitors but was by the metallo-protease inhibitors, the phenanthrolines. The enzyme was also partially inhibited by Bestatin. Substrate Specificity studies proved that the enzyme is capable of sequential cleavage of bovine β- Casomorphin and Substance P. The peptidase cleaved the standard DPIV substrate, Gly-Pro-MCA with a KM of 38.4 μM, while Lys-Pro-MCA was hydrolysed with a KM of 103 μM. The DPIV- like activity was specifically inhibited by both Diprotin A and B, non-competitively, generating a Ki of 1.4x10-4 M for both inhibitors. Ile-Thiazolidide and Ile-Pyrrolidide both inhibited competitively with an inhibition constant of 3.7x10-7 M and 7.5x10-7 M respectively. It is concluded that bovine serum DPIV-like activity share many biochemical properties with DPIV and DPIV-like enzymes but not exclusively, suggesting that the purified peptidase may play an important novel role in bioactive oligopeptide degradation