Modeling healthcare quality: life expectancy SURS in the G7 countries and Korea

In this study I have made efforts towards investigating healthcare in two arenas. First, can a model with life expectancy as a proxy for healthcare quality be used to objectify the study of efficiency in the G7 countries and Korea? Table 1 and the results section have illuminated many factor variables which vary between countries and characterize the environments in which different healthcare systems have developed. The analysis also illuminates an inherent structural difference in the mechanism of delivering healthcare throughout the developed world. Secondly, can these aggregate data be used to show us anything new about the studies performed by Peter Zweifel and Friedrich Breyer? Did the SISYPHUS Syndrome disappear in the early 1990s as Zweifel suggested in 2002? No, in Table 2 I have demonstrated through SURS that over the time period 1990-2009 there are clear statistically significant SISYPH variables in at least Canada, Germany, Korea, and Britain. Lastly, can I confirm Breyer’s model of HCE in Germany and can it be useful in other countries? Yes to extent possible the methodologies were replicated in a SURS fashion in an effort to simultaneously test and examine different variables in different countries. I was unable to confirm the results of Breyer in his 2011 examination of the sickness fund members for Germany. However, I was able to offer primitive characterizations of the other G7 countries and Korea and how their HCE move.healthcare expenditures ; healthcare factor variables ; sisyphus syndrome

Development of a third-order closure turbulence model with subgrid-scale condensation

Department Head: Richard Harlan Johnson.2009 Fall.Includes bibliographical references (pages 218-224).Boundary layer clouds play an important role in the Earth's climate system due to their local effect on the radiation budget and their expansive geographic extent. Their poor representation within many general circulation models provides motivation for the development of a turbulence parameterization capable of better simulating these clouds and their effect on the turbulent structure of the boundary layer. With this goal in mind, this study presents the development and testing of such a model. Since most boundary layer clouds result from convective processes, it is important that the new turbulence model be able to accurately predict the growth of the boundary layer in a convective regime. Previous studies have shown that third-order closure models provide sufficient detail for realistic boundary layer growth in such a regime. For this reason, the development of the new turbulence model is based on this level of detail. The current model predicts the evolution of 10 second-order moments and diagnoses the values of 28 third-order moments. Further, a subgrid-scale condensation scheme is utilized to diagnose the cloud fraction and liquid water content. This scheme also allows the diagnosed cloud cover to interact with the turbulence variables by modifying the buoyancy production terms in their predictive equations. Finally, the diagnosed cloud cover participates in warm rain processes and a novel procedure is used to account for rain falling through partial cloudiness on the subgrid-scale. The new turbulence model is tested as both a single column model and as a turbulence parameterization within a host three-dimensional mesoscale model. For the single column model, five cases are simulated in order to test the model's ability in different boundary layer regimes: a clear convective case, a stratocumulus-like smoke cloud case, a nocturnal drizzling stratocumulus case, a non-precipitating trade-wind cumulus case with low cloud fraction, and a precipitating trade-wind cumulus case. It is demonstrated that the new model simulates all regimes satisfactorily as the mean and turbulent states of the simulated boundary layer are compared with results from large-eddy simulation intercomparison studies. Finally, the new turbulence model is used as a parameterization within a three-dimensional model and two of the previous cases are run. The results are compared to those from both large-eddy simulation intercomparison studies and the host model run with its standard parameterizations. It is shown that the modified version of the three-dimensional model improves upon the results from the same model with its standard parameterization suite

Characterization of shifts of koala (Phascolarctos cinereus) intestinal microbial communities associated with antibiotic treatment.

Koalas (Phascolarctos cinereus) are arboreal marsupials native to Australia that eat a specialized diet of almost exclusively eucalyptus leaves. Microbes in koala intestines are known to break down otherwise toxic compounds, such as tannins, in eucalyptus leaves. Infections by Chlamydia, obligate intracellular bacterial pathogens, are highly prevalent in koala populations. If animals with Chlamydia infections are received by wildlife hospitals, a range of antibiotics can be used to treat them. However, previous studies suggested that koalas can suffer adverse side effects during antibiotic treatment. This study aimed to use 16S rRNA gene sequences derived from koala feces to characterize the intestinal microbiome of koalas throughout antibiotic treatment and identify specific taxa associated with koala health after treatment. Although differences in the alpha diversity were observed in the intestinal flora between treated and untreated koalas and between koalas treated with different antibiotics, these differences were not statistically significant. The alpha diversity of microbial communities from koalas that lived through antibiotic treatment versus those who did not was significantly greater, however. Beta diversity analysis largely confirmed the latter observation, revealing that the overall communities were different between koalas on antibiotics that died versus those that survived or never received antibiotics. Using both machine learning and OTU (operational taxonomic unit) co-occurrence network analyses, we found that OTUs that are very closely related to Lonepinella koalarum, a known tannin degrader found by culture-based methods to be present in koala intestines, was correlated with a koala's health status. This is the first study to characterize the time course of effects of antibiotics on koala intestinal microbiomes. Our results suggest it may be useful to pursue alternative treatments for Chlamydia infections without the use of antibiotics or the development of Chlamydia-specific antimicrobial compounds that do not broadly affect microbial communities

Modeling healthcare quality: life expectancy SURS in the G7 countries and Korea

In this study I have made efforts towards investigating healthcare in two arenas. First, can a model with life expectancy as a proxy for healthcare quality be used to objectify the study of efficiency in the G7 countries and Korea? Table 1 and the results section have illuminated many factor variables which vary between countries and characterize the environments in which different healthcare systems have developed. The analysis also illuminates an inherent structural difference in the mechanism of delivering healthcare throughout the developed world. Secondly, can these aggregate data be used to show us anything new about the studies performed by Peter Zweifel and Friedrich Breyer? Did the SISYPHUS Syndrome disappear in the early 1990s as Zweifel suggested in 2002? No, in Table 2 I have demonstrated through SURS that over the time period 1990-2009 there are clear statistically significant SISYPH variables in at least Canada, Germany, Korea, and Britain. Lastly, can I confirm Breyer’s model of HCE in Germany and can it be useful in other countries? Yes to extent possible the methodologies were replicated in a SURS fashion in an effort to simultaneously test and examine different variables in different countries. I was unable to confirm the results of Breyer in his 2011 examination of the sickness fund members for Germany. However, I was able to offer primitive characterizations of the other G7 countries and Korea and how their HCE move

Modeling healthcare quality: life expectancy SURS in the G7 countries and Korea

In this study I have made efforts towards investigating healthcare in two arenas. First, can a model with life expectancy as a proxy for healthcare quality be used to objectify the study of efficiency in the G7 countries and Korea? Table 1 and the results section have illuminated many factor variables which vary between countries and characterize the environments in which different healthcare systems have developed. The analysis also illuminates an inherent structural difference in the mechanism of delivering healthcare throughout the developed world. Secondly, can these aggregate data be used to show us anything new about the studies performed by Peter Zweifel and Friedrich Breyer? Did the SISYPHUS Syndrome disappear in the early 1990s as Zweifel suggested in 2002? No, in Table 2 I have demonstrated through SURS that over the time period 1990-2009 there are clear statistically significant SISYPH variables in at least Canada, Germany, Korea, and Britain. Lastly, can I confirm Breyer’s model of HCE in Germany and can it be useful in other countries? Yes to extent possible the methodologies were replicated in a SURS fashion in an effort to simultaneously test and examine different variables in different countries. I was unable to confirm the results of Breyer in his 2011 examination of the sickness fund members for Germany. However, I was able to offer primitive characterizations of the other G7 countries and Korea and how their HCE move

Complex pattern of interaction between in utero hypoxia-ischemia and intra-amniotic inflammation disrupts brain development and motor function

Background: Infants born preterm commonly suffer from a combination of hypoxia-ischemia (HI) and infectious perinatal inflammatory insults that lead to cerebral palsy, cognitive delay, behavioral issues and epilepsy. Using a novel rat model of combined late gestation HI and lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced inflammation, we tested our hypothesis that inflammation from HI and LPS differentially affects gliosis, white matter development and motor impairment during the first postnatal month. Methods: Pregnant rats underwent laparotomy on embryonic day 18 and transient systemic HI (TSHI) and/or intra-amniotic LPS injection. Shams received laparotomy and anesthesia only. Pups were born at term. Immunohistochemistry with stereological estimates was performed to assess regional glial loads, and western blots were performed for protein expression. Erythropoietin ligand and receptor levels were quantified using quantitative PCR. Digigait analysis detected gait deficits. Statistical analysis was performed with one-way analysis of variance and post-hoc Bonferonni correction. Results: Microglial and astroglial immunolabeling are elevated in TSHI + LPS fimbria at postnatal day 2 compared to sham (both P < 0.03). At postnatal day 15, myelin basic protein expression is reduced by 31% in TSHI + LPS pups compared to shams (P < 0.05). By postnatal day 28, white matter injury shifts from the acute injury pattern to a chronic injury pattern in TSHI pups only. Both myelin basic protein expression (P < 0.01) and the phosphoneurofilament/neurofilament ratio, a marker of axonal dysfunction, are reduced in postnatal day 28 TSHI pups (P < 0.001). Erythropoietin ligand to receptor ratios differ between brains exposed to TSHI and LPS. Gait analyses reveal that all groups (TSHI, LPS and TSHI + LPS) are ataxic with deficits in stride, paw placement, gait consistency and coordination (all P < 0.001). Conclusions: Prenatal TSHI and TSHI + LPS lead to different patterns of injury with respect to myelination, axon integrity and gait deficits. Dual injury leads to acute alterations in glial response and cellular inflammation, while TSHI alone causes more prominent chronic white matter and axonal injury. Both injuries cause significant gait deficits. Further study will contribute to stratification of injury mechanisms in preterm infants, and guide the use of promising therapeutic interventions

The vertical distribution and biological transport of marine microplastics across the epipelagic and mesopelagic water column.

Plastic waste has been documented in nearly all types of marine environments and has been found in species spanning all levels of marine food webs. Within these marine environments, deep pelagic waters encompass the largest ecosystems on Earth. We lack a comprehensive understanding of the concentrations, cycling, and fate of plastic waste in sub-surface waters, constraining our ability to implement effective, large-scale policy and conservation strategies. We used remotely operated vehicles and engineered purpose-built samplers to collect and examine the distribution of microplastics in the Monterey Bay pelagic ecosystem at water column depths ranging from 5 to 1000 m. Laser Raman spectroscopy was used to identify microplastic particles collected from throughout the deep pelagic water column, with the highest concentrations present at depths between 200 and 600 m. Examination of two abundant particle feeders in this ecosystem, pelagic red crabs (Pleuroncodes planipes) and giant larvaceans (Bathochordaeus stygius), showed that microplastic particles readily flow from the environment into coupled water column and seafloor food webs. Our findings suggest that one of the largest and currently underappreciated reservoirs of marine microplastics may be contained within the water column and animal communities of the deep sea

Geometry and Mechanics

IASS-IACM 2008 Session: Geometry and Mechanics -- Session Organizers: Kai-Uwe BLETZINGER (TU Munich), Fehmi CIRAK (University of Cambridge) -- Keynote Lecture: "Modeling and computation of patient-specific vascular fluid-structure interaction using Isogeometric Analysis" by Yuri BAZILEVS , Victor M. CALO, Thomas J. R. HUGHES (University of Texas at Austin), Yongie ZHANG (Carnegie Mellon University) -- Keynote Lecture: "Optimal shapes of mechanically motivated surfaces" by Kai-Uwe BLETZINGER , Matthias FIRL, Johannes LINHARD, Roland WUCHNER (TU Munich) -- "Subdivision shells for nonsmooth and branching geometries" by Quan LONG, Fehmi CIRAK (University of Cambridge) -- "Water landing analyses with explicit finite element method" by John T. WANG (NASA Langley Research Center) -- "On a geometrically exact contact description for shells: From linear approximations for shells to high-order FEM" by Alexander KONYUKHOV, Karl SCHWEIZERHOF (University of Karlsruhe

Author Correction: The vertical distribution and biological transport of marine microplastics across the epipelagic and mesopelagic water column.

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper