JURNAL AGROTEKNOLOGI
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Measuring 3D growth plate shape: Methodology and application to cam morphology
No full textPhyseal changes corresponding to cam morphology are currently measured using two-dimensional (2D) methods. These methods are limited by definitions of the femoral neck axis and head center that are dependent on the radiographic plane of view. To address these limitations, we developed three-dimensional (3D) methods for analyzing continuous growth plate shape using magnetic resonance imaging scans. These new methods rely on a single definition of the femoral neck axis and head center that are both nondependent on the radiographic plane of view and allow for analysis of growth plate shape across the growth plate surface (performed using statistical parametric mapping). Using our 3D method, we analyzed the position of the growth plate in the femoral head (relative to a plane tangent to the femoral head) and the curvature of the growth plate (relative to a plane through the center of the growth plate) in 9–16-year-old males at risk for cam morphology and their recreationally active peers (n = 17/cohort). These two measurements provide an avenue to separately analyze the effects of these variables in the overall growth plate shape. We detected differences in growth plate shape with age in recreationally active adolescents but did not detect differences between at risk and recreationally adolescents
How do healthcare providers respond to multiple funding flows? A conceptual framework and options to align them
No full textProvider payment methods are a key health policy lever because they influence healthcare provider behaviour and affect health system objectives, such as efficiency, equity, financial protection and quality. Previous research focused on analysing individual provider payment methods in isolation, or on the actions of individual purchasers. However, purchasers typically use a mix of provider payment methods to pay healthcare providers and most health systems are fragmented with multiple purchasers. From a health provider perspective, these different payments are experienced as multiple funding flows which together send a complex set of signals about where they should focus their effort. In this article, we argue that there is a need to expand the analysis of provider payment methods to include an analysis of the interactions of multiple funding flows and the combined effect of their incentives on the provision of healthcare services. The purpose of the article is to highlight the importance of multiple funding flows to health facilities and present a conceptual framework to guide their analysis. The framework hypothesizes that when healthcare providers receive multiple funding flows, they may find certain funding flows more favourable than others based on how these funding flows compare to each other on a range of attributes. This creates a set of incentives, and consequently, healthcare providers may alter their behaviour in three ways: resource shifting, service shifting and cost shifting. We describe these behaviours and how they may affect health system objectives. Our analysis underlines the need to align the incentives generated by multiple funding flows. To achieve this, we propose three policy strategies that relate to the governance of healthcare purchasing: reducing the fragmentation of health financing arrangements to decrease the number of multiple purchaser arrangements and funding flows; harmonizing signals from multiple funding flows; and constraining providers from responding to undesirable incentives
Anemia prevalence in women of reproductive age in low- and middle-income countries between 2000 and 2018
No full textAnemia is a globally widespread condition in women and is associated with reduced economic productivity and increased mortality worldwide. Here we map annual 2000–2018 geospatial estimates of anemia prevalence in women of reproductive age (15–49 years) across 82 low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), stratify anemia by severity and aggregate results to policy-relevant administrative and national levels. Additionally, we provide subnational disparity analyses to provide a comprehensive overview of anemia prevalence inequalities within these countries and predict progress toward the World Health Organization’s Global Nutrition Target (WHO GNT) to reduce anemia by half by 2030. Our results demonstrate widespread moderate improvements in overall anemia prevalence but identify only three LMICs with a high probability of achieving the WHO GNT by 2030 at a national scale, and no LMIC is expected to achieve the target in all their subnational administrative units. Our maps show where large within-country disparities occur, as well as areas likely to fall short of the WHO GNT, offering precision public health tools so that adequate resource allocation and subsequent interventions can be targeted to the most vulnerable populations
Compositional semantics for probabilistic programs with exact conditioning
No full textWe define a probabilistic programming language for Gaussian random variables with a first-class exact conditioning construct. We give operational, denotational and equational semantics for this language, establishing convenient properties like exchangeability of conditions. Conditioning on equality of continuous random variables is nontrivial, as the exact observation may have probability zero; this is Borel's paradox. Using categorical formulations of conditional probability, we show that the good properties of our language are not particular to Gaussians, but can be derived from universal properties, thus generalizing to wider settings. We define the Cond construction, which internalizes conditioning as a morphism, providing general compositional semantics for probabilistic programming with exact conditioning
Interference without ownership: the theft of incorporeal money in the South African law of unjustified enrichment
No full textFirst National Bank of Southern Africa v Perry, Nissan South Africa v Marnitz NO and Absa Bank v Lombard Insurance, as well as Trustees, Estate Whitehead v Dumas and Absa Bank v Moore, together amount to a concerted attempt on the part of South African courts to provide victims of the theft of incorporeal money with adequate redress. However, it has proved difficult to find a satisfactory juristic explanation for this series of decisions. This chapter shows that a model organised around the extension of the vindicatio to incorporeal money is unworkable. Instead, having considered briefly a second possibility, namely, the English constructive trust, this chapter advances an analysis of the plaintiff 's claim to the stolen money solely in terms of the non-consensual enrichment (that is, enrichment other than by deliberate conferral) of the defendant at their expense. Apart from its superior explanatory power, such an approach offers a blueprint for future development, insofar as it opens the way to the recognition of a secured claim where the proceeds of stolen money have been used to discharge the thief 's pre-existing secured debts: the doctrine of subrogation to extinguished rights. This chapter closes by considering the implications of these conclusions for wider debates about the proper size and shape of the law of unjust enrichment
Voluntary markets for carbon offsets: evolution and lessons for the LNG market
No full textNational commitments to cut greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions currently fall far short of what is needed to meet the goal of the 2015 Paris Agreement to limit global warming to 1.50 C and no more than 20 C. Meeting this goal will require an estimated 45% reduction in global emissions by 2030, reaching net-zero emissions by 2050 with a continuing decline beyond that date. In response to this imperative, companies in every economic sector, along with national and regional governments, cities, universities, and investors are making their own commitments to reach net-zero emissions.
Of the 1,500 companies that have made net-zero commitments, it can be assumed that a substantial number are considering purchase of carbon offsets for at least some portion of their emission reduction targets. This is consistent with the surge in demand for voluntary carbon offsets. Since the first carbon offset project in 1989, global markets for carbon offsets have become valued at more than $5 billion annually, doubling each year since 2018, and are projected to increase by as much as a factor of 15 or more by 2030 as companies and countries set ambitious goals for net-zero CO2 emissions.
In parallel, carbon offsets are attracting elevated scrutiny for their role in meeting climate goals. While there has been considerable progress in establishing standards for rigorous monitoring, verification and reporting protocols, there has also been a legitimate debate regarding the role and efficacy of offsets in meeting science-based targets. For example, offsets have been criticized as not consistently delivering climate and other environmental benefits, or as providing a relatively cheap way for companies to meet “net-zero” goals, substituting for, and possibly disincentivizing core investments in operational efficiencies, renewable energy, technology innovations, or procurement of low-carbon inputs into supply chains.
This paper provides an overview of key trends in carbon offset markets along with recommendations for buyers and sellers on how to participate effectively in an evolving market landscape. The focus here is on the development of exchanges and spot and futures contracts tradable on these marketplaces to generate reliable price signals and liquidity, drawing on examples from the LNG industry. While ‘bundling’ LNG cargoes or other commodity transactions with carbon offsets can be relatively straightforward via exchanges and spot and futures contracts, the use of carbon offsets in these types of commodity transactions are attracting elevated scrutiny regarding their contribution to meeting climate change targets
Diffusion-weighted MRI-guided needle biopsies permit quantitative tumor heterogeneity assessment and cell load estimation
No full textQuantitative information on tumor heterogeneity and cell load could assist in designing effective and refined personalized treatment strategies. It was recently shown by us that such information can be inferred from the diffusion parameter D derived from the diffusion-weighted MRI (DWI) if a relation between D and cell density can be established. However, such relation cannot a priori be assumed to be constant for all patients and tumor types. Hence to assist in clinical decisions in palliative settings, the relation needs to be established without tumor resection. It is here demonstrated that biopsies may contain sufficient information for this purpose if the localization of biopsies is chosen as systematically elaborated in this paper. A superpixel-based method for automated optimal localization of biopsies from the DWI D-map is proposed. The performance of the DWI-guided procedure is evaluated by extensive simulations of biopsies. Needle biopsies yield sufficient histological information to establish a quantitative relationship between D-value and cell density, provided they are taken from regions with high, intermediate, and low D-value in DWI. The automated localization of the biopsy regions is demonstrated from a NSCLC patient tumor. In this case, even two or three biopsies give a reasonable estimate. Simulations of needle biopsies under different conditions indicate that the DWI-guidance highly improves the estimation results. Tumor cellularity and heterogeneity in solid tumors may be reliably investigated from DWI and a few needle biopsies that are sampled in regions of well-separated D-values, excluding adipose tissue. This procedure could provide a way of embedding in the clinical workflow assistance in cancer diagnosis and treatment based on personalized information
Simultaneous scene reconstruction and whole-body motion planning for safe operation in dynamic environments
No full textRecent work has demonstrated real-time mapping and reconstruction from dense perception, while motion planning based on distance fields has been shown to achieve fast, collision-free motion synthesis with good convergence properties. However, demonstration of a fully integrated system that can safely re-plan in unknown environments, in the presence of static and dynamic obstacles, has remained an open challenge. In this work, we first study the impact that signed and unsigned distance fields have on optimisation convergence, and the resultant error cost in trajectory optimisation problems in 2D path planning, arm manipulator motion planning, and whole-body loco-manipulation planning. We further analyse the performance of three state-of-the-art approaches to generating distance fields (Voxblox, Fiesta, and GPU-Voxels) for use in realtime environment reconstruction. Finally, we use our findings to construct a practical hybrid mapping and motion planning system which uses GPU-Voxels and GPMP2 to perform receding- horizon whole-body motion planning that can smoothly avoid moving obstacles in 3D space using live sensor data. Our results are validated in simulation and on a real-world Toyota Human Support Robot (HSR)
Commentary on “the new Italian Residential Forensic Psychiatric System (REMS). A one-year population study”
No full textCatanesi and colleagues are to be commended on their publication of a substantial survey of patients in the Italian ‘Residences for the Execution of Security Measures’ (REMS). The REMS system consists of a regional system of around 30 secure units, focussing on mental health recovery and rehabilitation rather than the high security and more penitentiary-like large hospitals they replaced (the six Ospedali Psichiatrici Giudiziari, OPGs). These smaller units, however, with approximately 20 beds each, only provide approximately a third of the capacity of the OPGs (604 beds versus 1639), raising the important issue of the characteristics of the patients who are admitted to this new, reorganized forensic mental healthcare system. This is the question Catanesi and colleagues answer. Between June 2017 – June 2018, they detailed the socio-demographic, criminological and mental health characteristics of over 95% of those residing in the REMS