Emotional Maturity

Hogg Foundation for Mental Healt

Maturity and Fecundity in the Rockfishes, Sebastes spp., a Review

Literature was reviewed for data describing fecundity, maturity, and growth in the ovoviviparous genus Sebastes (rockfishes). Assembled data were examined for patterns associated with geographic location and fish length. Rockfishes display great range in length at maturity (9-52 cm total length) and estimated fecundity at maturity (1,700-417,000 eggs or embryos). Within species, length at maturity usually increases at higher latitudes and tends to be greater for females than males. Among species, length at maturity of females is positively and significantly correlated with maximum length and with the ratio of fecundity at maturity to fecundity at maximum length. Fecundity of rockfishes is not notably lower than oviparous fishes such as snappers (Lutjanidae) andcods (Gadidae)

A Patient-Centered Framework for Evaluating Digital Maturity of Health Services: A Systematic Review

© Kelsey Flott, Ryan Callahan, Ara Darzi, Erik Mayer.Background: Digital maturity is the extent to which digital technologies are used as enablers to deliver a high-quality health service. Extensive literature exists about how to assess the components of digital maturity, but it has not been used to design a comprehensive framework for evaluation. Consequently, the measurement systems that do exist are limited to evaluating digital programs within one service or care setting, meaning that digital maturity evaluation is not accounting for the needs of patients across their care pathways. Objective: The objective of our study was to identify the best methods and metrics for evaluating digital maturity and to create a novel, evidence-based tool for evaluating digital maturity across patient care pathways. Methods: We systematically reviewed the literature to find the best methods and metrics for evaluating digital maturity. We searched the PubMed database for all papers relevant to digital maturity evaluation. Papers were selected if they provided insight into how to appraise digital systems within the health service and if they indicated the factors that constitute or facilitate digital maturity. Papers were analyzed to identify methodology for evaluating digital maturity and indicators of digitally mature systems. We then used the resulting information about methodology to design an evaluation framework. Following that, the indicators of digital maturity were extracted and grouped into increasing levels of maturity and operationalized as metrics within the evaluation framework. Results: We identified 28 papers as relevant to evaluating digital maturity, from which we derived 5 themes. The first theme concerned general evaluation methodology for constructing the framework (7 papers). The following 4 themes were the increasing levels of digital maturity: resources and ability (6 papers), usage (7 papers), interoperability (3 papers), and impact (5 papers). The framework includes metrics for each of these levels at each stage of the typical patient care pathway. Conclusions: The framework uses a patient-centric model that departs from traditional service-specific measurements and allows for novel insights into how digital programs benefit patients across the health system

Life-history variation and age at maturity in Eurasian Perch (Perca fluviatilis L.)

This thesis deals with life-history variation in perch, with special focus on age at maturity. We conducted field studies to uncover the variation within short geographic distances and a literature review to study variation on a large geographic scale in order to reveal some factors affecting life-history. In two studies we discuss the relevance of predation risk and acidification, respectively, on age at maturity. With data from a large scale study (75 perch populations) covering a large range of the distribution area for perch we test life-history theory and optimality models. We found no effect of predation risk on age at maturity for five populations (3.6 – 4.5 years) in Northern Sweden, but predation risk was correlated with minimum size at maturity. There was no strong relationship between age at maturity in female perch and acidification in five lakes from southern Norway. However, age at maturity was lower for female perch from the most acidic lake (c. 2 years) compared with perch in the four other lakes (2.5 – 3.5 years). In the large scale study we found latitudinal effects on all life-history traits, except asymptotic body length. Generally, growth and mortality rates and reproductive investment decrease with latitude, whereas age and size at maturity and life span increased with latitude. There was a large variation in age at maturity with populations mean age at maturity span from 1 year in Lake Trasimeno in Italy southern Europe, to 6 years in Northern Yenisey in Siberia, Russia. Stunted (small-sized) populations had lower age and size at maturity and higher growth rate (K) compared to piscivorous populations. The life-history in southern populations with fast growth, high juvenile and adult mortality selects for early maturity and relatively large investment into reproduction. The opposite pattern was found for the northern populations. Roff’s optimal age at maturity model gave good predictions for age at maturity in perch populations with data on growth and mortality rates. Mortality and age at maturity were negatively correlated, and growth coefficient (K) and age at maturity were also negatively correlated. In addition three other relationships showed invariance and all of them could therefore be termed as constants. Temperature differences, through latitude directly or indirectly, may to a large extent explain the variation found in life-history traits. In addition, different life-history trade-offs limit and constrains different traits. Reproduction constrains growth and survival. Age at maturity is constrained by the trade-off between growth and reproduction and the trade-off between survival and reproduction

The Maturity Structure of Bank Credit: Determinants and Effects on Economic Growth

We investigate a new data set on the maturity of bank credit to the private sector in 74 countries. We show that credit maturity is longer in countries with strong institutions, low inflation, large financial markets, and where banks share information about borrowers. Furthermore, we extend the finance and growth literature by showing that credit maturity matters for economic growth. Economic growth is enhanced in countries where agents have access to long-term financing. Therefore, weak institutions, high inflation and other variables that reduce credit maturity have an impact on economic growth via their influence on credit maturity. The estimated effects are substantial in size. Working Paper 08-1

Relative pleopod length as an indicator of size at sexual maturity in slipper (Scyllarides squammosus) and spiny Hawaiian (Panulirus marginatus) lobsters

Body size at gonadal maturity is described for females of the slipper lobster (Scyllarides squammosus) (Scyllaridae) and the endemic Hawaiian spiny lobster (Panulirus marginatus) (Palinuridae) based on microscopic examination of histological preparations of ovaries. These data are used to validate several morphological metrics (relative exopodite length, ovigerous condition) of functional sexual maturity. Relative exopodite length (“pleopod length”) produced consistent estimates of size at maturity when evaluated with a newly derived statistical application for estimating size at the morphometric maturation point (MMP) for the population, identified as the midpoint of a sigmoid function spanning the estimated boundaries of overlap between the largest immature and smallest adult animals. Estimates of the MMP were related to matched (same-year) characterizations of sexual maturity based on ovigerous condition — a more conventional measure of functional maturity previously used to characterize maturity for the two lobster species. Both measures of functional maturity were similar for the respective species and were within 5% and 2% of one another for slipper and spiny lobster, respectively. The precision observed for two shipboard collection series of pleopod-length data indicated that the method is reliable and not dependent on specialized expertise. Precision of maturity estimates for S. squammosus with the pleopod-length metric was similar to that for P. marginatus with any of the other measures (including conventional evidence of ovigerous condition) and greatly exceeded the precision of estimates for S. squammosus based on ovigerous condition alone. The two measures of functional maturity averaged within 8% of the estimated size at gonadal maturity for the respective species. Appendage-to-body size proportions, such as the pleopod length metric, hold great promise, particularly for species of slipper lobsters like S. squammosus for which there exist no other reliable conventional morphological measures of sexual maturity. Morphometric proportions also should be included among the factors evaluated when assessing size at sexual maturity in spiny lobster stocks; previously, these proportions have been obtained routinely only for brachyuran crabs within the Crustacea

Career concerns and investment maturity in mutual funds

An important puzzle in financial economics is why fund managers invest in short-maturity assets when they could obtain larger profits in assets with longer maturity. This work provides an explanation to this fact based on labor contracts signed between institutional investors and fund managers. Using a career concern setup, we examine how the optimal contract design, in the presence of both explicit and implicit incentives, affects the fund managers decisions on investment horizons. A numerical analysis characterizes situations in which young (old) managers prefer short-maturity (long-maturity) positions. However, when including multitask analysis, we find that career concerned managers are bolder and also prefer assets with long maturity