Travis Review: interim report

The Travis Review was commissioned by the Minister for Health to conduct an independent statewide census of bed and theatre capacity, and to provide recommendations on how to increase the capacity of Victorian hospitals. Terms of reference The terms of reference for the Travis Review are to: 1. Perform a statewide census of hospital capacity including bed, theatre and emergency department capacity and other services that may be substitutes for traditional inpatient care. 2. Consider issues, opportunities and challenges to measuring existing capacity, drawing on local, national and international policy perspectives. 3. Develop recommendations on how to optimise Victoria’s health system capacity in the short term (specifically through allocating additional recurrent funding and minor capital expenditure as required) that can be actioned in the 2015–16 State Budget. 4. Consider the current progress in implementing process redesign methodologies across the Victorian public hospital system and make recommendations on how this can be strengthened to optimise the capacity of hospitals to treat the Victorian community into the future. 5. Call for public submissions from stakeholders for redesign projects or other innovative models of care that increase hospital capacity and make recommendations on their suitability to optimise the capacity of hospitals to treat the Victorian community into the future. 6. Provide an interim report on the census results by end of March 2015 and a final report by the end of June 2015 to the Minister for Health. The interim report This report completes the first three of the above terms of reference, with the remaining items to be completed in the final report due at the end of June 2015. The report contains a number of recommendations for consideration by the Minister for Health

Energy shedding during nonlinear self-focusing of optical beams

Self-focusing of intense laser beams and pulses of light in real nonlinear media is in general accompanied by material losses that require corrections to the conservative Nonlinear Schrödinger equations describing their propagation. Here we examine loss mechanisms that exist even in lossless media and are caused by shedding of energy away from the self-trapping beam making it to relax to an exact solution of lower energy. Using the conservative NLS equations with absorbing boundary conditions we show that energy shedding not only occurs during the initial reshaping process but also during oscillatory propagation induced by saturation of the nonlinear effect. For pulsed input we also show that, depending on the sign and magnitude of dispersion, pulse splitting, energy shedding, collapse or stable self-focusing may result

Boolean algebras and Lubell functions

Let $2^{[n]}$ denote the power set of $[n]:=\{1,2,..., n\}$. A collection \B\subset 2^{[n]} forms a $d$-dimensional {\em Boolean algebra} if there exist pairwise disjoint sets $X_0, X_1,..., X_d \subseteq [n]$, all non-empty with perhaps the exception of $X_0$, so that \B={X_0\cup \bigcup_{i\in I} X_i\colon I\subseteq [d]}. Let $b(n,d)$ be the maximum cardinality of a family \F\subset 2^X that does not contain a $d$-dimensional Boolean algebra. Gunderson, R\"odl, and Sidorenko proved that $b(n,d) \leq c_d n^{-1/2^d} \cdot 2^n$ where $c_d= 10^d 2^{-2^{1-d}}d^{d-2^{-d}}$. In this paper, we use the Lubell function as a new measurement for large families instead of cardinality. The Lubell value of a family of sets \F with \F\subseteq \tsupn is defined by h_n(\F):=\sum_{F\in \F}1/{{n\choose |F|}}. We prove the following Tur\'an type theorem. If \F\subseteq 2^{[n]} contains no $d$-dimensional Boolean algebra, then h_n(\F)\leq 2(n+1)^{1-2^{1-d}} for sufficiently large $n$. This results implies $b(n,d) \leq C n^{-1/2^d} \cdot 2^n$, where $C$ is an absolute constant independent of $n$ and $d$. As a consequence, we improve several Ramsey-type bounds on Boolean algebras. We also prove a canonical Ramsey theorem for Boolean algebras.Comment: 10 page

Sesame-Style Decomposition of KS-DFT Molecular Dynamics for Direct Interrogation of Nuclear Models

A common paradigm used in the construction of equations of state is to decompose the thermodynamics into a superposition of three terms: a static-lattice cold curve, a contribution from the thermal motion of the nuclei, and a contribution from the thermal excitation of the electrons. While statistical mechanical models for crystals provide tractable framework for the nuclear contribution in the solid phase, much less is understood about the nuclear contribution above the melt temperature ($C_v^{(\text{nuc})}\approx 3R$) and how it should transition to the high-temperature limit ($C_v^{(\text{nuc})} \sim \frac{3}{2}R$). In this work, we describe an algorithm for extracting both the thermal nuclear and thermal electronic contributions from quantum molecular dynamics (QMD). We then use the VASP QMD package to probe thermal nuclear behavior of liquid aluminum at normal density to compare the results to semi-empirical models -- the Johnson generic model, the Chisolm high-temperature liquid model, and the CRIS model.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures, APS Shock Compression of Condensed Matter Conference Proceedings 201

Monetary aggregation theory and statistical index numbers

This paper is the first of two from the Monetary Services Indices (MSI) Project at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. The second paper, Working Paper 96-008B, summarizes the methodology, construction and data sources for the an extensive new database of monetary services indices, often referred to as Divisia monetary aggregates, for the United States. This paper surveys the microeconomic theory of the aggregation of monetary assets, bringing together results that are not otherwise readily available in a single source. In addition to indices of the flow of monetary services, the Project's database contains dual user cost indices, measures of potential aggregation error in the monetary services indices, and measures of the stock of monetary wealth. An overview of the Project and the concept of monetary aggregation is included here as a preface. ; Earlier title: An introduction to monetary aggregation theory and statistical theory and statistical index numbersMonetary theory

No evidence for oncogenic mutations in guanine nucleotide-binding proteins of human adrenocortical neoplasms

G-Proteins are membrane-bound heterotrimeric polypeptides that couple receptor signals to second messenger systems such as cAMP. Recently, point mutations at 2 codons of the highly preserved alpha-chain of Gs, the adenyl cyclase-stimulating G-protein, were found in GH-secreting pituitary tumors. These mutations resulted in constitutively activated Gs alpha and high intracellular cAMP levels. In addition, point mutations at similar codons of a different G-protein, G(i) alpha 2, were reported in adrenocortical neoplasms, suggesting a potential role of this isoform in the genesis of these tumors. We reevaluated the frequency of constitutively activating point mutations in the alpha- chain of the stimulatory (Gs alpha) and inhibitory (G(i) alpha 2) G- proteins in human adrenocortical tumors. Seven adrenocortical carcinomas, 2 human adrenocortical tumor cell lines, and 11 adrenocortical adenomas were studied. Genomic DNA was purified from either frozen tumor tissue or paraffin-embedded sections. Using specific primers and the polymerase chain reaction, DNA fragments surrounding codons 201 and 227 (Gs alpha) and 179 and 205 (G(i) alpha 2) were amplified and visualized on a 2% agarose gel. In a second asymmetric polymerase chain reaction, using nested primers, single stranded DNA was generated using 1-10 microL of the initial amplification mixture and directly sequenced using the dideoxy chain termination method of Sanger. We found no mutations at codons 201, 227 and 179, 205 of Gs alpha and G(i) alpha 2, respectively, in the tumors studied. We conclude that previously identified oncogenic point mutations in the stimulatory and inhibitory alpha-chain of G-proteins do not appear to be present at high frequency in adrenal neoplasms. Thus, the mechanism(s) of tumorigenesis in these tumors is different from that in GH-secreting adenomas and may involve oncogenic mutations of other cell constituents

Building new monetary services indices: methodology and source data

This paper is second of two from the Monetary Services Indices (MSI) Project at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. The first paper, Working Paper 96-007B, surveys the microeconomic theory of the aggregation of monetary assets. This paper describe a new database of monetary services indices (MSI) for the United States. The MSI measure the flow of monetary services received each period by households from their holdings of monetary assets; the levels of the indices are often also referred to as Divisia monetary aggregates. In addition to indices of the flow of monetary services, the database contains dual user cost indices, measures of potential aggregation error in the monetary services indices, and measures of the stock of monetary wealth. An overview of the Project and the concept of monetary aggregation is included here as a preface.Monetary theory