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Mitogenome diversity in Sardinians: a genetic window onto an island's past
No full textSardinians are “outliers” in the European genetic landscape and, according to paleogenomic nuclear data, the closest to early European Neolithic farmers. To learn more about their genetic ancestry, we analyzed 3,491 modern and 21 ancient mitogenomes from Sardinia. We observed that 78.4% of modern mitogenomes cluster into 89 haplogroups that most likely arose in situ. For each Sardinian-specific haplogroup (SSH), we also identified the upstream node in the phylogeny, from which non-Sardinian mitogenomes radiate. This provided minimum and maximum time estimates for the presence of each SSH on the island. In agreement with demographic evidence, almost all SSHs coalesce in the post-Nuragic, Nuragic and Neolithic-Copper Age periods. For some rare SSHs, however, we could not dismiss the possibility that they might have been on the island prior to the Neolithic, a scenario that would be in agreement with archeological evidence of a Mesolithic occupation of Sardinia
Exploring the impact of music concerts in promoting well-being in dementia care
No full textABSTRACT
Objectives: This study explores the specific effects of live music concerts on the clients with dementia,their families and nursing staff/caregivers.
Methods: Researchers attended 22 concerts in care facilities in England and Japan. Interviews were
carried out with clients with dementia, nursing staff and family members. Observations were also
carried out before, during and after the concerts. All observations were recorded in field notes.
Results: The effect of the concerts in both countries was seen to be beneficial to all clients and nursing staff, whether or not they attended the concert. Interviews with clients with mild to mid-stage dementia noted increased levels of cooperation, interaction and conversation. Those with more advanced forms of dementia exhibited decreased levels of agitation and anti-social behaviour. Staff members reported increased levels of care, cooperation and opportunities for assessment. Family members noted an increase in the levels of well-being in their partner/parent as well as in themselves.
The study also suggested that the knowledge of musical components, an awareness of the rules of
music and specific musical preferences appear to remain well beyond the time when other cognitive
skills and abilities have disappeared.
Conclusions: This initial study provided some further indication in terms of the uses of music as a nonpharmacological intervention for those living with all stages of dementia. These included
opportunities for assessment of physical abilities as well as facilitating an increasing level of care
Book Review: This is Lean – Resolving the Efficiency Paradox by Niklas Modig and Pär Åhlström
No full textThis is Lean – Resolving the Efficiency Paradox is an ambitious contribution to the genre of easy reader introductions to lean. It is ambitious because the authors Niklas Modig and Pär Åhlström have a dual ambition. Their aim is to combine an easy reader explaining the concept of lean in an understandable way for an uninitiated audience with a theoretical and conceptual ambition,
namely to provide the definitive answer to the
question What is Lean? It is this combined ambition of simplifying and making a substantial
theoretical contribution that has prompted us to write this review
On the combination of argumentation solvers into parallel portfolios
No full textIn the light of the increasing interest in efficient algorithms for solving abstract argumentation problems and the pervasive availability of multicore machines, a natural research issue is to combine existing argumentation solvers into parallel portfolios. In this work, we introduce six methodologies for the automatic configuration of parallel portfolios of argumentation solvers for enumerating the preferred extensions of a given framework. In particular, four methodologies aim at combining solvers in static portfolios, while two methodologies are designed for the dynamic configuration of parallel portfolios. Our empirical results demonstrate that the configuration of parallel portfolios is a fruitful way for exploiting multicore machines, and that the presented approaches outperform the state of the art of parallel argumentation solver
Silverfish: if they're not fish, they're not really silver, and they look like aliens, what on earth are they?
No full textAs part of a series of studies exploring the complex relationship between buildings and ecology, this piece considers the place of silverfish within part of a wider ecosystem. The artlcle presents some of the issues involved with having silverfish and what methods can be used to reduce numbers to avoid infestation
Economic evaluation of hospital and community pharmacy services
No full textObjective: To review the international body of literature from 2010 to 2015 concerning methods of economic evaluations used in hospital- and community-based studies of pharmacy services in publicly funded health systems worldwide, their clinical outcomes, and economic effectiveness.
Data Sources: The literature search was undertaken between May 2, 2015, and September 4, 2015. Keywords included “health economics” and “evaluation” “assessment” or “appraisal,” “methods,” “hospital” or “community” or “residential care,” “pharmacy” or “pharmacy services” and “cost minimisation analysis” or “cost utility analysis” or “cost effectiveness analysis” or “cost benefit analysis.” The databases searched included MEDLINE, PubMed, Google Scholar, Science Direct, Springer Links, and Scopus, and journals searched included PLoS One, PLoS Medicine, Nature, Health Policy, Pharmacoeconomics, The European Journal of Health Economics, Expert Review of Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research, and Journal of Health Economics.
Study Selection and Data Extraction: Studies were selected on the basis of study inclusion criteria. These criteria included full-text original research articles undertaking an economic evaluation of hospital- or community-based pharmacy services in peer-reviewed scientific journals and in English, in countries with a publicly funded health system published between 2010 and 2015.
Data Synthesis: 14 articles were included in this review. Cost-utility analysis (CUA) was the most utilized measure. Cost-minimization analysis (CMA) was not used by any studies. The limited use of cost-benefit analyses (CBAs) is likely a result of technical challenges in quantifying the cost of clinical benefits, risks, and outcomes. Hospital pharmacy services provided clinical benefits including improvements in patient health outcomes and reductions in adverse medication use, and all studies were considered cost-effective due to meeting a cost-utility (per quality-adjusted life year) threshold or were cost saving. Community pharmacy services were considered cost-effective in 8 of 10 studies.
Conclusions: Economic evaluations of hospital and community pharmacy services are becoming increasingly commonplace to enable an understanding of which health care services provide value for money and to inform policy makers as to which services will be cost-effective in light of limited health care resources
'Either put on these glasses or start eating that trashcan!': Psychogeographically walking with John Nada, Beryl Curt and David Bollinger
No full textAccelerators and their ghosts
No full textThe issue of particle accelerator reliability is a problem that currently is not fully defined, understood nor addressed. Conventional approaches to reliability (e.g., RBDs) struggle due to a lack of data about specific component/system reliability and failure.
There is a large body of beam current data retrievable from operating accelerators that contains detailed information about the accelerator behaviour, both before and after a
machine trip has occurred.
Analysing this data could provide insight and help develop a new approach to address accelerator reliability. In this paper, we propose a data-driven approach to detecting emergent behaviour in particle accelerators. Instead of attempting to identify every possible failure of a machine
we propose an alternative approach based around a change in perspective, to knowing the normal default operational behaviour of a machine. Taking action when a “ghost in the machine” emerges that causes accelerator wide aberrant changes to normal machine behaviour
Book Review of: Arbitration of International Mining Disputes: Law and Practice, by Henry G. Burnett and Louis-Alexis Bret, Oxford University Press (2017), 379pp, ISBN: 978-0-19-875764-1
No full textNorms and normalisation: Understanding LGBT youth, suicidality and help-seeking
No full textGlobally, suicide is the second leading cause of death among 15–29-year-olds. Young people who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) have elevated rates of suicide. Despite the increased risk, there is a paucity of research on LGBTQ help-seeking and suicidality. We report on a UK sequential exploratory, two-stage, mixed method study. Stage one involved 29 online and face-to-face semi-structured interviews with LGBTQ youth aged 16-25 years old. Stage two utilised an online LGBTQ youth questionnaire employing a community-based sampling strategy (n=789). Results indicated that participants only asked for help when they reached a crisis point because they were normalising their emotional distress. Those who self-harmed, had attempted or planned suicide, or had experience of abuse related to their sexuality or gender, were most likely to seek help. Results also suggested that the reluctance to seek help was due to three prominent interconnecting factors: negotiating sexuality, gender, mental health and age norms; being unable to talk about emotions; and coping and self-reliance. It is crucial that policies aiming to prevent LGBTQ youth suicide recognise that norms and normalising processes connected to sexual orientation and gender identity are additional difficulties that LGBTQ youth have accessing mental health support
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