807 research outputs found
"Europeanization: A Governance Approach"
No full textEuropeanization studies reveal considerable variation in the impact of the EU on member states. In this context, this paper argues for an approach to Europeanization that is sensitive to the national context. As such, the governance approach offered here incorporates the insights of the Differentiated Polity (DP) model developed by Rhodes as an organising perspective for understanding contemporary British politics and government. The paper has seven sections. Section two considers a number of first generation Europeanization studies, which focus on institutional adaptation to EU pressures; section three considers second generation concerns of ideas, values and identity; section four addresses the definitional issues that abound in the literature and suggests a definition that embraces first and second generation concerns; section five develops a governance approach to the study of Europeanization; section six utilises this approach in relation to EU regional policy; section seven concludes by reflecting on the utility of the governance approach to Europeanization
Britain in Europe and Europe in Britain: The Euopeanisation of British Politics? Introduction
No full text[Preface}. This short paper provides guidance notes and an analytical framework for contributors to the forthcoming volume on ‘Britain in Europe and Europe in Britain: The Europeanisation of British Politics?
General chart of the coast. No. IV, from Cape May to Cape Henry. From a trigonometrical survey under the direction of F. R. Hassler and A. D. Bache, Superintendents of the survey of the coast of the United States.
No full textScale 1:400,000.LC Civil War Maps (2nd ed.), 33.7From its Report of the Superintendent of the Coast Survey, showing the progress of the survey during the year 1862 (Washington, Government Printing Office., 1864). Map 14."No. 14" in the upper left corner."The triangulation was executed by E. Blunt, J. E. Johnstone, J. Farley & J. E. Hilgard, Assistants between 1841 & 1853. The topography was executed by F. H. Gerdes, J. C. Neilson, J. J. S. Hassler, G. D. Wise, J. Seib, Assists., N. S. Finney, J. Mechan & C. Ferguson, Sub-Assists., between 1842 & 1859. The hydrography was executed by Lieuts. Comdg. T. R. Gedney, G. S. Blake, G. M. Bache, S. P. Lee, R. Bache, B. E. Sands & J. J. Almy, U.S.N. Assists., between 1841 & 1855."Description derived from published bibliography
Analysis of Thermal and Visible Light Video Data from Birth Episodes Using Artificial Intelligence
No full textPhD thesis in Information technologyGlobally, 10% of newborns experience insufficient breathing at birth and require immediate assistance to achieve cardiopulmonary stability. Newborn resuscitation is time-critical, and providing ventilation within the “golden minute”–the first minute after birth–significantly lowers the risk of death and long-term complications. Analyzing newborn resuscitation videos has proven valuable for evaluation, debriefing, and training. However, accurately assessing guideline effectiveness and optimizing the timing of Newborn Resuscitation Algorithm Activities (NRAA) requires a large dataset of precisely annotated episodes. Manual annotation is time-consuming, inefficient, and raises privacy concerns. Additionally, videos recorded from resuscitation episodes lack crucial information on the Time of Birth (ToB) and transfer duration to the resuscitation station. To properly evaluate the treatment given, NRAA timelines must be relative to an accurate ToB, recorded with second precision. Currently, clinical ToB recording methods often rely on manual processes with minute precision, making them prone to inaccuracies.
This thesis investigates deep learning algorithms for automating the generation of detailed NRAA timelines, including ToB and newborn resuscitation activities. The conducted work focuses on three key areas. First, we explore video-based methods to automatically recognize overlapping resuscitative interventions and generate event timelines from newborn resuscitation episodes. Second, we delve into the combination of deep learning methods and thermal imaging to detect the ToB, addressing the challenges of using infrared technology and refining ToB estimations through signal processing techniques. Finally, we introduce explainability methods in our application to shed light on the decision-making process, enhancing trust and transparency.
The contributions presented in this thesis represent a significant advancement toward improving neonatal care. Moreover, to the best of our knowledge, no prior work has addressed automated ToB detection. Our findings offer a potential solution for evidence-based research, quality improvement, clinical documentation, debriefing, and real-time decision support in neonatology
Preliminary Analysis of Vital Proteins of the Human Respiratory Syncytial Virus
No full textHuman Respiratory Syncytial Virus infects the vast majority of children under the age of two and reoccurs in adulthood. It is a serious global problem as severe infection and death can result in the very young or very old and in immunocompromised people. The related bovine Respiratory Syncytial Virus is a serious problem for the farming community. To date, there is no effective treatment for Respiratory Syncytial Virus infection, with drugs only available to reduce symptoms in the most severe cases. Human Respiratory Syncytial Virus produces 10 proteins carrying out a diverse array of roles for the infectivity of the virus. Despite this there is still a poor understanding of the three dimensional structure. Only two proteins have been resolved to atomic resolution, the Nucleocapsid protein and the Matrix protein. The objective of this thesis is to initiate work on a further two proteins, with the long term aim of crystallisation studies that may lead to high resolution structures. The Fusion transmembrane glycoprotein is responsible for the fusion of the virion membrane to the host cell membrane for viral entry and for the fusion of an infected cell membrane to membranes of healthy cells, spreading infectivity. Without the Fusion protein there is no infectivity and it is therefore a therapeutic target. Structural information such as a high resolution X-ray crystal structure is required to facilitate the design of inhibitors that could be future therapeutic agents. The second protein studied here is the M2-1 protein, which is a transcriptional elongation factor, involved in replication of the viral genome. Deletion of M2-1 has adverse affects on the replication of the virus. Therefore M2-1 could also make a strong target for drug design. This thesis explores what is currently known about each of these vital proteins, the advantages in inhibiting their respective activities and the possible routes to effective inhibitor design. Procedures for expression and purification of the M2-1 protein are detailed here, as are preliminary experiments into the cloning and expression of the Fusion protein in insect cells. Immunofluorescence experiments into the localisation of the Fusion protein within mammalian cells and the possible interaction of the Fusion protein with the Matrix protein are thoroughly described.
Improving the Methodology of Training Load and Injury Risk Research: An Analysis of Analyses
No full textAvhandling (doktorgrad) - Norges idrettshøgskole, 2023Background: Sport injuries burden professional and recreational athletes. In 2021, Norwegian hospitals operated 1 462 anterior cruciate ligaments, and 62% of these happened during sports activity. To prevent injuries, it may be possible to change the training load. Unfortunately, how training load can be altered to achieve desired outcomes is unknown, because the relationship between training load and injury risk has proven difficult to study. The ability of currently used statistical methods to capture this complex relationship is either limited, or unknown. Consequently, studies have employed a plethora of statistical approaches. Systematic reviews have reported inconsistent and even conflicting findings both within and between studies, and declared the studies too variable to compare in analyses. Experts have questioned the evidence supporting training load as an injury prevention tool, and called for improved statistical methodology. Despite this, few studies have recommended alternatives, and those who have, have not tested the methods’ accuracy or precision. The validity of recommended methods is therefore unknown. To improve research on injury prevention programs, knowledge is needed on how to statistically determine the relationship of training load and injury risk.
Aims: To identify statistical methods suitable for assessing the relationship between training load and injury risk. Specifically, to find methods for dealing with 1) missing data, 2) non-linearity, 3) time-dependent effects, and 4) the effects of relative training load.
Main Methods: We analyzed three football datasets and one handball dataset: Norwegian Premier League men’s football (42 players, 38 injuries), Norwegian U-19 football (81 players, 81 injuries), Norwegian elite youth handball (205 players, 471 injuries), and Qatar Stars League (QSL) football (1 465 players, 1 977 injuries). In all Norwegian cohorts, training load was defined as the number of minutes in training/match activity multiplied by the athlete’s rating of perceived exertion on a scale from 1 to 10 (sRPE). The Norwegian Premier League data additionally had measures of distance and speed registered by Global Positioning Systems (GPS) devices in football. In the QSL cohort, training load was defined as the number of minutes in football training/activity.
The Norwegian Premier League football and Norwegian elite youth football were the basis for three simulation studies (Paper I–III). We simulated a relationship between training load and probability of injury under different scenarios of missing data, non-linearity, and time-dependent effects. With the aid of accuracy and uncertainty measures, we compared the ability of various statistical methods to model the simulated relationships in the respective scenarios.
Regression analyses were used to check whether there were any signs of non-linearity between sRPE and injury risk in the three Norwegian cohorts (Paper II), and also signs of time-dependent effects between training load and injury risk in the handball and QSL cohorts (Paper III–IV). In addition, we applied a novel approach of estimating the effect of recent training load relative to past training load on injury risk (relative training load) on the Norwegian elite U-19 and QSL data (Paper IV).
Main Results: In each of the simulations, the performance of a few methods stood out from the rest. Firstly, for handling missing data, multiple imputation using predicted mean matching had, generally, the lowest percentage bias of all compared methods, and had acceptable bias (< |5%|) up to 50% missing data in sRPE and up to 90% missing data in the total distance GPS measure. Secondly, when we modelled parabolic non-linear relationships, fractional polynomials, quadratic regression and restricted cubic splines had the lowest root-mean-squared error, and highest coverage of 95% prediction intervals. Lastly, in the simulation of time-dependent effects, the distributed lag non-linear model was the only method that accurately modelled more than one scenario. It had the lowest root-mean-squared error and the narrowest 95% confidence intervals, by far, compared with the other methods.
The handball model presented a parabolic J-shaped relationship between sRPE and injury risk (p < 0.001). The QSL model displayed time-dependent effects, where effect estimates of past training load decreased exponentially for each day in the past. The QSL model also showed highest injury risk at low levels of past training load, lowest risk at medium levels, and intermediate risk at high levels of past training load, for each level of recent training load. This demonstrated that relative training load can be modelled with this novel approach.
Conclusion: Missing data in training load should be imputed with multiple imputation using predicted mean matching. Researchers in training load and injury risk should consider the potential for non-linearity and time-dependent effects, and explore such effects by specifying fractional polynomials or restricted cubic splines in distributed lag non-linear models. Modelling recent and past training load separately can be used to study the effects of relative training load on injury risk.publishedVersionInstitutt for idrettsmedisinske fag / Department of Sports Medicin
Decentralization of territorial policy in Italy - the coherence with the model of multi-level governance and the effects on responsibilities of public spending
No full textThe past twenty years have seen the communitarian system of multi level governance (MLG) being established as a model of territorial policies governance. In the MLG, several levels of jurisdiction participate to decision making and Regions assume a relevant role in managing policies of development. This article highlights how such a system, mostly led by Public Institutions, cuts transaction costs being based on principles aimed at increasing the number of decision makers, as well as at making all governing levels and the processes of institutional coordination more effective. The article investigates two issues: a) to what extent the reorganization of the Italian system is compatible with the main characteristics of Communitarian MLG system in the governance of territorial policies; b) to what extent the decentralization in programming policies of development has gone with a transfer of capital expenses from a central (Central Administration) to local (Regional and Local Bodies) jurisdictions. The hypotheses to be tested refer to the decentralization process so far recorded in Italy: the first hypothesis is that such a process would not be fully shareable, neither with regard to the characteristics of the Communitarian MLG model, nor to the general considerations deriving by the theory of fiscal federalism; secondly, the process wouldn’t seem suitably supported by a symmetrical transfer of the expenses from the Central Government’s jurisdiction to local bodies’.Territorial policy, Multi Level Governance, institutional decentralization, OLS panel fixed-effects models
A MboII polymorphism in exon 11 of the human MDM2 gene occuring in normal blood donors and in soft tissue sarcoma patients: an indication for an increased cancer susceptibility?
No full textThe human MDM2 oncogene, well known as the tumor suppressor gene p53's partner, plays an important role in tumorigenesis whether it is dependent on or independent of TP53. In this study, we investigated in a PCR-sequencing analysis the exon 11 of the human MDM2 gene for gene alterations. A MboII polymorphism occurs in 8% of normal blood donors (8 out of 100 probands) and in 13% of the soft tissue sarcoma patients (11 out of 82 patients). Of note was that two STS patients carried the gene alteration only in the tumor specimens heterozygously but not in normal tissue. In a Kaplan-Meier analysis, patients without the polymorphism, indicated a median survival rate of 57 months, whereas, patients with the polymorphism survived on average only 38 months. We suggest that this polymorphism might be associated with an increased cancer susceptibility. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved
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