The Public to Private Continuum Measure and the Role of Stakeholder Boards as a Proxy for Markets in the Governance of Air Navigation Services: A Comparative Analysis

This article studies institutional arrangements for governance of air navigation services employing a comparative analysis of six nations: Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States. In each of these countries other than the  United States, a board of  directors composed of stakeholder representatives manages  an  independent  air  navigation  services  organization  that  is  not  a  traditional government bureau.In this article we assess how boards of public organizations can act as a proxy for market feedback  in  the  provision  of  public  services. We use this concept to develop a more sensitive measure of the degree of publicness and privateness in organizations. We test our Public-Private Continuum Measure using a  comparative analysis of  air navigation services  in six  countries. Our Public-Private Continuum Measure advances  the measurement of the public to private continuum from the use of an ordinal measure to a continuous measure. Further research is needed to test this measure in studies that place organizations  on  the  continuum  and  determine  how  the  degree  of  public-privateness correlates with organizational performance measures. Armed with this tool, governments can make more accurate decisions about the degree of public-privateness desired for the provision of public goods

Medium Modification of Jet Fragmentation in Au + Au Collisions at √sNN=200 GeV Measured in Direct Photon-Hadron Correlations

The jet fragmentation function is measured with direct photon-hadron correlations in p+p and Au+Au collisions at √sNN=200  GeV. The pT of the photon is an excellent approximation to the initial pT of the jet and the ratio zT=phT/pγT is used as a proxy for the jet fragmentation function. A statistical subtraction is used to extract the direct photon-hadron yields in Au+Au collisions while a photon isolation cut is applied in p+p. IAA, the ratio of hadron yield opposite the photon in Au+Au to that in p+p, indicates modification of the jet fragmentation function. Suppression, most likely due to energy loss in the medium, is seen at high zT. The associated hadron yield at low zT is enhanced at large angles. Such a trend is expected from redistribution of the lost energy into increased production of low-momentum particles

Lung transplantation and mortality in patients with cystic fibrosis under oxygen therapy

Objectives: There are few studies about survival in patients with Cystic Fibrosis (CF) under oxygen therapy (OT). Considering its clinical meaning and impact on patients\u2019 lifestyle, we aimed to determine how OT is associated with known prognostic factors and with lung transplantation (LTx) and death (D). Methods:We considered patients 6450 years registered in the ECFSPR from 2008 to 2017. An illness-death multi-state model was fitted, denoting LTx as intermediate state. Cox\u2019s proportional hazard models were fitted using age as time scale and left truncation corresponding to age at entry into ECFSPR. Models were used to estimate transition intensities and OT hazard ratio (HR), adjusted for known prognostic factors (age, sex, insulin, Pseudomonas aeruginosa (Pa), Burkholderia cepacia (BC), BMI and FEV1% predicted). Results: 58576 patients were included in the analysis and 7627 (13%) had OT during the follow-up. 27587 (47.6%) were females, 35784 (61.1%) were <18 yrs old, 5228 (10.6%) had FEV1 <40%predicted, 5185 (9.5%) were underweight (BMI z score < 122), 6386 (10.9%) used insulin, 14037 (26.9%) had Pa, 1236 (2.4%) had BC. During the follow-up, 2509 patients had LTx and 3091 patients died: 2338 before and 753 after LTx. From the multi-state model, patients in OT have higher probability of having LTx (HR = 12.9, 95% CI: 11.6\u201314.4). The HRof death for patients in OT is 7.8 (95% CI: 6.9\u20138.7) before LTX, while it is 1.4 (95% CI: 1.2\u20131.7) after LTx. Conclusions: The need for oxygen therapy represents a turning point in patients\u2019 life, decreasing their chances of survival, with implications in the post LTX period yet. UndoubtedlyOT should be considered as a marker of CF disease severity, and patients with a supplemental oxygen requirement should have prompt and fully clinical reassessment. Preventing respiratory failure with oxygen requirement remains one of the main goals of CF care

Introducing the harmonic mean solving a tourist’s problem

This exercise can be given to a group of students with basic knowledge of mathematics and physics at the beginning of a lesson. We can imagine that there will be some students that will solve the exercise using the \u201ccommon sense\u201d solution recalling basic notions of physics and some students that will solve the exercise recalling basic notion of physics and computing a mean velocity using the arithmetic mean, the most common mean. At the end of the exercise, the teacher will compare the two solutions and will present the harmonic mean as the fastest solution for the students that solved the problem using the \u201ccommon sense\u201d solution and as the correct mean to be used for the students that solved the exercise computing a mean velocity

Distribution of cystic fibrosis patients not eligible to studied CFTR modulators in Europe

Studied Cystic Fibrosis (CF) modulators have been announced to cover 90% of all CF patients. A genotype-agnostic novel therapy for CF is under development, which will focus on people with CFwho have mutations that are not eligible for the approved small molecule modulators and triple combination therapies. The data in the European Cystic Fibrosis Society Patient Registry (ECFSPR) are used to provide a quantitative overview of eligible patients. Patients who are alive and seen during the 2017, or alive and not seenwere considered (excluding France who delivered the data directly to the sponsor). Not considered were patients F508del homozygotes eligible for elexacaftor/tezacaftor/ivacaftor, tezacaftor/ivacaftor, lumacaftor/ivacaftor, or heterozygotes eligible for elexacaftor/tezacaftor/ivacaftor. Neither were patients with at least one of the following mutations: E56 K, P67L, R74W, D110E, D110H, R117C, E193 K, L206W, R347H, R352Q, A455E, D579G, 711 +3A->G, E831X, S945L, S977F, F1052 V, K1060 T, A1067 T, R1070W, F1074L, D1152H, D1270N, 2789+5G->A, 3272-26A->G, 3849+10kbC->T (eligible for tezacaftor/ivacaftor, ivacaftor) and R117H, G178R, S549N, S549R, G551D, G551S, G1069R, R1070Q, G1244E, S1251N, S1255P, G1349D (eligible for ivacaftor). From the 41,264 patients registered in the ECFSPR for the 2017, 4,798 patients (12%) carry a genotype that is not eligible to the currentlyapproved modulators or the triple combo. The percentage of non-eligible patients varies from 2,3% in Ireland to 71,9% in Armenia. 2,954 of these patients are 11 years or older, 1,561 have a FEV1% of predicted value between 40% and 90%. In Europe approximately 88% of the patients will be eligible for the currently approved modulators or triple combo, in some countries this percentage is below 50%. With the ECFSPR data, a realistic and useful overviewcould be created to support the design of a study for patients that are not eligible to the currently available modulator and triple combination therapies

Evaluating clustering methods on topographic and hidrological features on lidar data at forest environment.

The acquisition of high resolution geographic data through laser technology has recently being expanded due to the development of LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) system. This technology?s growth is relying on its great ability to acquire information in large quantity and short time. The geographic data provided from laser scanning is capable of raising information for coast planning, assess flooding risk, power transmission network and telecommunication, forests, agriculture, oil, transportation, urban planning, mining, among others (GIONGO et al., 2010). LiDAR technology follows the same principles as the RADAR system, with the difference of using laser pulses to locate features, instead of radio waves. Not only for its ability to deal with large amounts of information in such a short period of time, LiDAR has the advantage upon the classic passive sensors (aerial photographs and satellite images) of not depending on a source of light, and so its data will never present shadows from clouds or neighboring features (GIONGO et al., 2010). Data from LiDAR sensor is distributed in a point cloud where each point has at least three-dimensional spatial coordinates (latitude, longitude and height) that correspond to a particular point on the Earth?s surface from which the laser pulse was reflected. Once LiDAR data is acquired the next step is use algorithms that separate points (also referred to as returns) on the point cloud that represents the ground and the ones above the ground level, those algorithms can then process series of interpolation that allows the operator to generate Digital Elevation Models (DEMs). In order to add information for the points within the DEM, labeling those returns following a pattern and then grouping them on clusters is useful as one of the steps in exploratory data analysis. Several methodologies were developed to organize a pattern of points in a multidimensional space into clusters based on similarity. Points belonging to the same cluster are given the same label and present a pattern where they are more similar to each other than they are to a pattern belonging to a different cluster (JAIN et al., 1999). One example to apply this technology on forestry activities is the application of silvicultural treatment to improve the forest?s productivity, where the decision is taken considering characteristics from the site and sites with similar characteristics may have the same silvicultural system. The variety of techniques for grouping data elements has produced a rich and often confusing assortment of clustering methods. Furthermore, there is a lack of studies grouping topologic and hydrologic variables at forested environments. The goal of this survey is to evaluate k-means and CLARA clustering techniques on a LiDAR-derived DEM from southern Amazonia, in the municipality of Cotriguaçu, Mato Grosso, Brazil

The European Cystic Fibrosis Society Patient Registry (ECFSPR) data validation programme: accuracy and consistency of data

Background: The ECFSPR database for 2016 contains data of 44,719 patients from 31 countries. Data of high quality is essential for use in annual reports and epidemiological research. Methods: A validation programme was introduced to quantify consistency and accuracy of data-input at source level, with on-site visits to countries entering data directly in the ECFSTracker software. Data fields to verify: demographic, diagnostic and transplantation, anthropometric and best lung function measurement, bacterial infections, medications and complications. Accuracy was defined as the proportion of values entered in ECFSTracker matching the medical record, and definitions used by the ECFSPR (consistency) for randomly selected cases. Results: Ten out of 41 centres (24%) in 4 countries (Austria, Portugal, Slovakia, Switzerland), reporting 6550% of all patients in their countries, were selected. Demographic, diagnostic and transplant data were checked for 489 patients (21%*), clinical data for 463 patients (20%*) (2016 data). Data on birth, gender, and transplantation exceeded 98.8% accuracy. Anomalies on reported mutations was 0.9%; reliable source data based on genetic reports, were available in 3 out of 4 countries in 95,9%- 91,9% of all patients, 55,5% in one country. Antropometry (92,2%), lung function (86,4%), inhaled antibiotics (96.1%), DNase (89.1%), pancreatic enzyme use (97.6%) were accurate and consistent with the ECFSPR definitions, so were chronic Pseudomonas (95.0%), Burkholderia infection (97.0%), and hemoptysis (94.6%). Liver disease was reported inconsistently due to different interpretation of the definition and resulted in an accuracy of 86.8%. Conclusions: The ECFSPR dataset is highly accurate for most data verified at source level. To further optimize we recommend centres to use a reliable source for genetic information, adhere to the definition of best lung function, and the ECFSPR to redefine liver disease. *of the total patients in these countries