Design of a high-gain laser diode-array pumped Nd:YAG Alternating Precessive Slab Amplifier (APS-Amplifier)

In the design of space qualifiable laser systems for ranging and altimetry, such as NASA's Geodynamic Laser Ranging System (GLRS), the transmitter must be kept small, powerful yet efficient, and must consist of as few components as possible. A novel preamplifier design is examined which requires no external beam steering optics, yielding a compact component with simple alignment procedures. The gains achieved are comparable to multipass zigzag amplifiers using two or more sets of external optics for extra passes through the amplifying medium

Analyzing differences in the costs of treatment across centers within economic evaluations

Objectives: Assessments of health technologies increasingly include economic evaluations conducted alongside clinical trials. One particular concern with economic evaluations conducted alongside clinical trials is the generalizability of results from one setting to another. Much of the focus relating to this topic has been on the generalizability of results between countries, However, the characteristics of clinical trial design require further consideration of the generalizability of cost data between centers within a single country, which could be important in decisions about adoption of the new technology. Methods: We used data from a multicenter clinical trial conducted in the United Kingdom to assess the degree of variation in costs between patients and between treatment centers and the determinants of the degree of such variation. Results: The variation between patients was statistically significant for both the experimental and conventional treatments. However, the degree of variation between centers was only statistically significant for the experimental treatment. Such variation appeared to be a result of hospital practice, such as pay ment mechanisms for staff and provision of hostel accommodation, rather than variations in physical resource use or substantive differences in cost structure. Conclusions: Multicenter economic evaluations are necessary for determining the variations in hospital practice and characteristics that can in turn determine the generalizability of study results to other settings. Such analyses can identify issues that may be important in adopting a new health technology. Analysis is required of similar large multicenter trials to confirm these conclusions

Designing economic evaluations to facilitate optimal decisions: The need to avoid bias

Editorial Lette

Diagnosing the UK Productivity Slowdown: Which Sectors Matter and Why?

This paper explores the slowdown in labour productivity growth in the UK and other advanced economies by decomposing its growth into contributions from different sectors of the economy, looking at both within-industry productivity growth and labour reallocation between sectors. We find that the within-industry contribution is the main source of the slowdown. Comparing trends pre- and post-2008, the aggregate productivity slowdown can be attributed largely to the manufacturing sector and the information and communication (ICT) sector. Disaggregating further, the UK productivity growth slowdown can be attributed mainly to transport equipment and pharmaceuticals within manufacturing, and computer software and telecommunications within ICT. Strikingly, these are advanced, high value-added sectors considered to be strengths of the UK economy. Looking across other advanced economies, our results confirm that manufacturing and ICT sectors are the main drivers of the slowdown, to differing degrees. Part of the explanation for the slowdown in in these sectors may relate to the underlying question of how to construct deflators for a modern economy when technological and structural changes are leading to large relative price shifts. The structure and supply chains of the key slowdown sectors also merit further investigation

Pupal and Adult Parameters as Potential Indicators of Cottonwood Leaf Beetle (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae) Fecundity and Longevity

Cottonwood leaf beetle, Chrysomela scripta, pupae from a laboratory colony were weighed and monitored through adult emergence, oviposition, and mortality to determine if correlations existed between various pupal or adult parameters and fecundity or longevity. Forty-three female cottonwood leaf beetles were monitored. Pupal weight was not a good indicator of fecundity, total oviposition events, number of eggs/beetle/day, or adult longevity. In addition, adult weight showed very low correlation with fecundity, adult longevity, total oviposition events, or number of eggs/beetle/day. However, adult weight was a marginal indicator of the number of eggs/beetle/day, and correlated well with adult body length. Adult longevity could be used to predict fecundity

No plant, no problem? Factoryless manufacturing, economic measurement and national manufacturing policies

‘Factoryless manufacturing’ describes the strategic decision by businesses to contract out part or all of their production, sometimes overseas. Although it has become widespread in some sectors of manufacturing, the phenomenon is not captured by existing economic statistics. This implies that the decline of manufacturing, often a focus of policy, may be overstated, while trade statistics fail to reflect globalized production. We present web-scraped evidence on the extent of factoryless manufacturing in the UK, finding that firms in sectors such as chemicals and pharmaceuticals are much more likely to use contract manufacturing, whereas in the US it is more prevalent within electronics. We also present case studies highlighting that firms can both use and provide contract manufacturing services. The limitations of the statistics imply that governments may believe their manufacturing sectors to be smaller than is the case and at the same time be unaware of the globalized character of much of that manufacturing production, adversely affecting their economic policies.ONS via Economic Statistics Centre of Excellenc

Getting It Right: Whether to Overturn Qualified Immunity

Qualified immunity, the defense available to police officers and other government officials facing civil rights lawsuits, has increasingly come under attack. In recent opinions, Justice Clarence Thomas has noted his growing concern that the Court\u27s current qualified immunity jurisprudence, which deals with whether a right is clearly established , strays from Congress\u27s intent in enacting the Civil Rights Act of 1871 (the statute giving rise to civil rights claims). Other jurists and legal scholars similarly criticize the doctrine, with many calling for the Court to revisit its qualified immunity jurisprudence and abolish or significantly alter the doctrine. Given that the Court\u27s qualified immunity precedents have been routinely followed for decades, should the Court overturn them, even if they are wrong? After all, as Justice Brandeis recognized, [s]tare decisis is usually the wise policy, because in most matters it is more important that the applicable rule of law be settled than that it be settled right. 1 Moreover, qualified immunity is derived from statutory precedent, and the Court counsels that stare decisis concerns weigh heavily with such judicial doctrines. Assuming the Court erred in its current qualified immunity jurisprudence, this Article considers whether stare decisis concerns should be relaxed to allow qualified immunity to be overturned. This Article first addresses why relaxing stare decisis for statutory precedents is appropriate in the case of qualified immunity. The Article then builds on and applies a stare decisis framework advanced by Professor Randy Kozel2 to the Court\u27s qualified immunity jurisprudence to determine whether stare decisis requires the Court to preserve qualified immunity in its current form. After applying this framework, the Article ultimately concludes that the Court\u27s current clearly established law standard should be overturned, but some form of qualified immunity should remain

PRM93 Assesing parameter importance in health economics models. Can we make it faster?

Pla general del monument en commemoració de la visita del rei Alfons XIII i la reina Victòria Eugènia. Marbre blanc. Parc del Laberint d'Horta. 1908. Inaugurat 197

Same-Sex Sexualities, Gender Variance, Economy and Livelihood in Nepal: Exclusions, Subjectivity and Development

This case study explores the relationship between socioeconomic opportunity and exclusion in relation to minority gender and sexualities in Nepal. The study, a component of a wider programme on Sexuality, Poverty and Law supported by the Department for International Development (DFID) and undertaken at the Institute of Development Studies (IDS), aims to advance empirically grounded insights and recommendations to address the socioeconomic conditions of sexuality and gender minority peoples, in respect of varied aspects of life experience, subjectivity, self-identity and livelihood. Based on fieldwork conducted in Kathmandu, Nepal, between November 2013 and June 2014 the case study recounts experiences of socioeconomic marginalisation and opportunity as encountered and created by people who experience themselves as being different from socially normative conventions of sexuality and gender; in respect of the present research this has specifically entailed focusing on the experiences of transgender people and people who practise same-sex sexualities (and in respect of an understanding that such genders and sexualities are experienced differently by different people and do not represent uniform or singular categorisations). Many of the people who participated in the research evidence a multifaceted array of livelihood strategies as being connected to sexuality and gender difference. Some of these strategies were found to have been taken forward in the context of community-based support projects (for example, associated with non-governmental organisations (NGOs) for sexual and gender minorities) while others were conceived as independent life choices, or experienced as arising out of lack of choice or economic opportunity. In each of these often interconnected circumstances, the relationship between sexuality, gender, economy and livelihood emerges as complex and ambivalent.UK Department for International Developmen