The gender and access to health services study: final report

Men and women frequently think and behave differently. To observe this is not to suggest anything so absurdly simple as that there are only male and female ways of being; behaviours and thought processes vary according to numerous other factors besides gender. That this is very generally the case however, does mean that there are broad - and often broadly predictable - differences in the way men and women engage with the world. Most commercial organisations understand this very well and plan accordingly. Many public authorities recognise it too and take these differences into account when developing and providing services. For historical reasons however the NHS has rarely done so. It is widely known that there are differences between men and women in the incidence and prevalence of most health conditions. Sometimes there are clear biological reasons for these differences but often there are not. Where biology offers little or no enlightenment, other questions need to be asked: · Do men and women behave in ways that predispose them to particular health conditions to different degrees? · Do men and women use health services with different degrees of effectiveness? · Do men and women receive differerent kinds of service from the NHS? The answer is – yes, these things happen frequently. This is sometimes to the disadvantage of one sex and sometimes to the disadvantage of the other. Sometimes it is to the disadvantage of both. And when these things happen, health outcomes are often affected. This report looks at the reasons why gender is such an important and fundamental determinant of health status and considers the ways in which gender inequalities can be tackled within the present legislative and policy framework. It also brings together the knowledge and evidence in relation to six specific areas of health concerns

Observation of large-scale multi-agent based simulations

The computational cost of large-scale multi-agent based simulations (MABS) can be extremely important, especially if simulations have to be monitored for validation purposes. In this paper, two methods, based on self-observation and statistical survey theory, are introduced in order to optimize the computation of observations in MABS. An empirical comparison of the computational cost of these methods is performed on a toy problem

The Hunting of the SNaRC: A Snarky Solution to the Species Problem

We argue that the logical outcome of the cladistics revolution in biological systematics, and the move towards rankless phylogenetic classification of nested monophyletic groups as formalized in the PhyloCode, is to eliminate the species rank along with all the others and simply name clades. We propose that the lowest level of formally named clade be the SNaRC, the Smallest Named and Registered Clade. The SNaRC is an epistemic level in the classification, not an ontic one. Naming stops at that level because there is no currently acceptable evidence for clades within it, not because no smaller clades exist. Later, included clades may be named. They would then become the SNaRCs, while the original SNaRC would keep its original name. We argue that all theoretical tasks of biology, in evolution and ecology, as well as practical tasks such as conservation assessment, are better approached using this rankless phylogenetic approach

Choosing legumes and perennial grasses

Many letters are received annually by the Iowa Agricultural Experiment Station requesting information on the different legumes and grasses. This publication has been prepared to answer the more important questions pertaining to the choice of legumes and grasses for different uses and conditions.2 Legumes of greatest value for different uses or soil conditions in Iowa are (1) alfalfa, (2) medium red clover, (3) mammoth red clover, (4) alsike clover, (5) white clover, (6) the biennial white and yellow sweet clovers, (7) hubam clover, (the annual white sweet clover) (8) Korean lespedeza, (9) dalea and (10) soybeans. A discussion of soybeans is largely omitted in this publication since the growing of this crop is entirely different from that of the others.

Background questions for the "enter"/"exit" research

How do languages encode different kinds of movement, and what features do people pay attention to when describing motion events? This document outlines topics concerning the investigation of “enter” and “exit” events. It helps contextualise research tasks that examine this domain (see 'Motion Elicitation' and 'Enter/Exit animation') and gives some pointers about what other questions can be explored

Sudan grass

Sudan grass is one of the most satisfactory non-leguminous emergency hay and pasture crops available for use in Iowa. It has been under observation at the Iowa Agricultural Experiment Station during the past 14 years. Three hundred ninety-eight experimental seedings have been made with it in the past 11 years. It surpasses oat hay from the standpoint of yield and has about the same feeding value as either oat hay or timothy. Since it is not a legume, it cannot utilize the nitrogen from the air and does not have the feed value of such crops as the clovers, alfalfa or soybeans. Being an annual, it does not compete with clover, alfalfa or timothy, which live for more than one year. It is not recommended as a regular crop in the rotation, but possesses merit as an emergency or catch crop which can be used to advantage for hay, pasture or soiling

Soybeans for Iowa

Soybeans have been under continuous observation and test at the Iowa station since 1910. As the value of soybeans for Iowa farmers became apparent, more attention was given to the crop until the investigational work has become quite comprehensive. Interest in the crop was not evident thruout the state until about 1916, but has since been keen, and the acreage in many counties has increased remarkably. While the soybean acreage in Iowa is not large as compared with some of the other Iowa crops, the fact that it has more than doubled annually thru a series of years is significant

Resonant X-Ray Scattering on the M-Edge Spectra from Triple-k Structure Phase in U_{0.75}Np_{0.25}O_{2} and UO_{2}

We derive an expression for the scattering amplitude of resonant x-ray scattering under the assumption that the Hamiltonian describing the intermediate state preserves spherical symmetry. On the basis of this expression, we demonstrate that the energy profile of the RXS spectra expected near U and Np M_4 edges from the triple-k antiferromagnetic ordering phase in UO_{2} and U_{0.75}Np_{0.25}O_{2} agree well with those from the experiments. We demonstrate that the spectra in the \sigma-\sigma' and \sigma-\pi' channels exhibit quadrupole and dipole natures, respectively.Comment: 3 pages, 3 figures, to be published in J. Phys. Soc. Jpn. Supp