bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Pediatric Sleep Difficulties after Moderate–Severe Traumatic Brain Injury
Authors: Sumpter Ruth E. , Dorris Liam , Kelly Thomas , McMillan Thomas M.
Published: April 2013

The objective of this study is to systematically investigate sleep following moderate–severe pediatric traumatic brain injury (TBI). School-aged children with moderate–severe TBI identified via hospital records were invited to participate, along with a school-age sibling. Subjective reports and objective actigraphy correlates of sleep were recorded: Children's Sleep Habits Questionnaire (CSHQ), Sleep Self-Report questionnaire (SSR), and 5-night actigraphy. TBI participants (n= 15) and their siblings (n= 15) participated. Significantly more sleep problems were parent-reported (CSHQ:p= 0.003;d= 1.57), self-reported (SSR:p= 0.003;d= 1.40), and actigraph-recorded in the TBI group (sleep efficiency:p= 0.003;d= 1.23; sleep latency:p= 0.018;d= 0.94). There was no evidence of circadian rhythm disorders, and daytime napping was not prevalent. Moderate–severe pediatric TBI was associated with sleep inefficiency in the form of sleep onset and maintenance problems. This preliminary study indicates that clinicians should be aware of sleep difficulties following pediatric TBI, and their potential associations with cognitive and behavioral problems in a group already at educational and psychosocial risk. (JINS, 2013,19, 1–6)
Covert observation to find if patient hospital clothing saves radiotherapy treatment room time, and the issue of a questionnaire to find if this is detrimental to patients’ experience of radiotherapy
Authors: Farnan M. , Blyth C.
Published: April 2013

Background

Radiotherapy departments are having to work more efficiently to cope with increasing demand for radiotherapy resources. Radiotherapy treatment room efficiency may be increased by the introduction of hospital clothing as this negates the need for patient changing in the treatment room. However, studies have shown that hospital clothing can have a negative effect on patient dignity. It is therefore important to balance potential time saving with any detriment to patients.

Purpose

This study examined the effect that hospital clothing had on the time patients spend in the treatment room and aimed to identify patients’ opinions of the clothing.

Materials and methods

Potential time saving was determined by covertly timing patients currently undergoing radiotherapy treatment as they entered and exited the treatment room. A total of 348 patients were timed in their own clothing and 341 were timed when they wore hospital clothing. The timings of these two groups were compared to determine whether hospital clothing saved treatment unit time. Patient opinions of the clothing were examined by issuing a short questionnaire, designed to gather ordinal data, at the end of their course of treatment. Questionnaires were issued only to patients who had worn hospital clothing in the radiotherapy department.

Results

Introducing hospital clothing saved a significant amount of treatment room time and patients were generally positive about wearing the clothing.

Conclusion

It is suggested that hospital clothing is a welcome addition to the radiotherapy department to increase efficiency without detriment to patients.
Quality assurance in radiotherapy on a national level; experience from Norway: the KVIST initiative
Authors: Hellebust Taran Paulsen , Heikkilä Ingrid Espe , Frykholm Gunilla , Levernes Sverre , Johannessen Dag Clement , Bjerke Hans , Olerud Hilde
Published: April 2013

Background and purpose

In radiotherapy (RT), there are high requirements for quality assurance (QA) in all the steps of the process. Development of QA systems are demanding in terms of financial and human resources. A national QA programme (KVIST) has been established in Norway to facilitate implementation of QA activity on hospital level.

Method

The KVIST organisation comprises the KVIST team, the reference group (RG) and the working groups (WGs). The KVIST team is multidisciplinary and are employed in permanent positions. The RG acts as an advisory body for the KVIST team in defining and ranking the priority of projects. Relevant national QA projects are identified in collaboration with the RG, and WGs are established to carry out the various projects.

Result

Several national consensus documents have been prepared by the various WGs. Systems for incident handling and activity reporting have been established and clinical audits have been implemented in Norwegian RT. Guidelines for RT of various diagnoses have also been prepared in collaboration with National Cancer groups.

Conclusion

The KVIST programme has been very well acknowledged in the Norwegian RT community. It has succeeded in creating a positive attitude towards QA and improved the communication between centres and the various professions.
Comparative historical political economy
Authors: BOETTKE PETER J. , COYNE CHRISTOPHER J. , LEESON PETER T.
Published: April 2013

Investigations of a society's competitiveness aim to trace the causal mechanisms behind patterns in wealth and poverty across societies. This paper argues that to be productive such investigations must be comparative, historical, and political economic in nature. Comparative historical political economy is how social scientists generate useful knowledge about the wealth and poverty of nations. Our contribution is a methodology – or rather a collection of methodologies – for understanding national competitiveness and attempts to improve it: one focuses on political-economic analysis, another on historical analysis, and a third on comparative analysis.
Climate change, sustainability and the need for a new industrial revolution in Scotland
Authors: Sugden David , Webb Janette , Kerr Andrew
Published: April 2013

This paper sets the wider global and Scottish context for this Special Issue of EESTRSE. Climate change is inextricably linked to wellbeing, security and sustainability. It poses a fundamental challenge to the way we organise society and our relationship to the exploitation of the Earth's resources. Rising levels of CO2 in the atmosphere, linked to burning fossil fuels and land use, present a major risk of climate change, with serious but uncertain impacts emerging at a regional scale. A new industrial revolution is needed to achieve energy security and to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, with energy efficiency and energy production emitting low or no CO2 at its heart. At present, on a global scale, there is a mismatch between the emphasis on economic growth and the need to reduce emissions and achieve a sustainable use of resources. A more sustainable blueprint for the future is emerging in Europe and Scotland has much to gain economically and socially from this change. Scotland's ambitious emission reduction targets (42% cut by 2020 and 80% by 2050) are achievable, but require major commitment and investment. Despite success in cutting emissions from activities within Scotland, Scotland's consumption-based emissions rose by 11% in 1996–2004.
Land use and a low-carbon society
Authors: Campbell Colin D. , Lilly Allan , Towers Willie , Chapman Stephen J. , Werritty Alan , Hanley Nick
Published: April 2013

Land use and the management of our natural resources such as soils and water offer great opportunities to sequester carbon and mitigate the effects of climate change. Actions on forestry, soil carbon and damaged peatlands each have the potential to reduce Scottish emissions in 2020 by hundreds of thousands of tonnes. Most actions to reduce emissions from land use have beneficial effects on other ecosystem services, so if we can cut emissions we can in many circumstances improve the environment. The cost of reducing emissions through land use change can be low in relation to other means of cutting emissions. The Scottish Land Use Strategy and the Ecosystem Approach it calls for, employing the concept of ecosystem services, offers a way of balancing environmental, social and economic demands on the land. Scotland's land, soils, forests and waters are all likely to be significantly altered by future climate change. Each of these components of the land-based environment offers opportunities for mitigation and adaptation to climate change. The emerging new imperatives for securing food, water and energy at a global level are equally important for Scotland, and interact with the need for environmental security and for dealing with climate change.
The Fifth and Sixth Schedules of the Life Assurance Companies Act, 1870
Authors: Deuchar David
Published: April 2013

Gentlemen,—Permit me, in the first place, to offer you my most sincere thanks for the honour you have conferred upon me in electing me President of your Society for this Session. It is an honour which I highly value, although I am fully sensible of my inability to discharge, as I should wish to do, the duties which it involves.

When considering as to a subject on which to address you, I was led to think that an examination of those portions of the Life Assurance Companies Act which relate to valuations might probably prove interesting to you, and I accordingly selected that as the basis of my paper for to-night.

It is to be noted that the aim of the Act is limited mainly to securing publication by the Companies of their accounts and valuation statements in a clear and intelligible manner and on a uniform system, and that there is an important difference between its principles and those embodied in the legislation of the United States of America, under which a test-valuation is prescribed, and practically a Government certificate of solvency is provided.
The Rationale of Life Assurance Premiums
Authors: Meikle James
Published: April 2013

I Have endeavoured to draw together one or two of the popular arguments for ascertaining the sum which ought to be given now, in consideration of another sum, say of £1 or £100, to be paid at death; or, in the language which is peculiar to the Actuarial profession, to determine the Single Premium for the Assurance of £1.

The systems of Life Assurance calculation which were in practice when Price, Baily, and Milne brought forward their most valuable volumes, have in a great measure been superseded by a different but a more powerful arrangement, thanks to the labours of Barrett, Davies, and Jones; and here permit me to follow these illustrious names with that of David Chisholm. But while by this system a saving of time and mental exertion is afforded to the Actuaries of the present generation, I very much fear that a knowledge of first principles is less likely to be attained by the student under that cabalistic system, than if trained under the simpler system of Milne. The columnar or commutative system of calculation facilitates the expertness of the calculator at the expense, if I may use the expression, of his understanding; while the other system is much more apt to bring under his notice the exact nature of the problem, and the reasons involved in his formula for determining its solution.
The Duties of an Actuary in his Professional Relationships
Authors: M'Candlish John M.
Published: April 2013

The distinction which this Society has conferred on me by electing me its Honorary President for the year is one that is much enhanced by repetition; and I have to acknowledge with peculiar gratitude that this is the sixth occasion on which I have had the privilege of addressing you in that character. Twenty-one years ago, in the infancy of the Society, I selected for a topic “The Profession of an Actuary.” On looking back, I find that since then I have brought under your notice the subjects of “Fire Insurance,” of “The Future Interest of Money in connection with Life Assurance Institutions,” and of “Some of the Principles to be observed in Life Office Valuations;” and I ventured on the last occasion, a few years ago, to select a wider and less technical theme, and to invite attention to a general view of the Philosophy and Ethics of Business. I propose now to recur to the topic of our Profession, and to try whether an acquaintance with it of now forty years may not offer a few suggestions, that may possibly be of service to some of you who are engaged in fitting yourselves for its highest duties.
The Progress of Life Assurance Business in the United Kingdom during the last Fifty Years
Authors: Deuchar David
Published: April 2013

At so striking an epoch in the history of our times as the Jubilee of our Most Gracious Queen, it seems natural that those who are engaged in any special branch of trade, or commerce, or science, should look back with interest at the records of the progress of that branch during the period then completed; and I therefore venture to hope that the particulars which I have collected regarding the progress of Life Assurance Business in the United Kingdom during the last half-century, and which I propose to lay before you this evening, may prove in some degree interesting to you.

Before submitting to you these particulars, I think it may be useful if I refer for a few minutes to the condition of the United Kingdom in 1837, and to the changes which have occurred since then in matters which have had an important, though indirect, bearing on Life Assurance Business.
On some Fundamental Principles in the Theory of Probability
Authors: Chrystal George
Published: April 2013

In the Introduction to his famous Théorie Analytique des Probabilités, Laplace, after an eloquent summary of the progress of Astronomy from the days when every rare celestial phenomenon was regarded as a portent of human misery, to the verification in April 1759 of the perihelion passage of Halley's Comet, proceeds to say :—

“The regularity which Astronomy shows us in the movement of Comets exists, beyond doubt, in every phenomenon of nature. The curve described by a simple molecule of air or of vapour is regulated in a manner as certain as the planetary orbits: there is no difference between the two cases save our ignorance.
On the Interests of Heirs of Entail, and the Calculation of the Pecuniary Values
Authors: Cockburn Henry R. , Murrie Robert
Published: April 2013

On account of the facility afforded by recent Acts of Parliament to the proprietors of Entailed Estates for disentailing, we trust that a paper dealing with the provisions of the Entail Acts which require actuarial calculations for giving effect to them, forms a suitable subject to be brought under the notice of this Society, any of whose members may be called upon to estimate the value of the pecuniary interests of the various heirs of entail. In treating the subject we beg leave to draw your attention briefly to the most important Statutes relating to Disentail, and to one or two decisions of the Courts on points affecting the actuarial calculations of the pecuniary interests of the heirs of entail. Before doing so,.however, we might shortly refer to the origin of entails in this country. An entail is a deed by which the succession to heritable property is settled on a series of individuals or heirs of entail, who may be different from the ordinary legal heirs. More generally speaking, an entail or tailzie comprehends every deed by which the legal course of succession is altered and an arbitrary one substituted. Deeds of this nature have been known in most civilised nations, and their origin is doubtless due to the desire natural to man, to perpetuate his name and family in connection with his possessions, fostered by the State, for political ends which were specially suited to a bygone age. In Greece, Rome, and also in France, deeds of entail, restricting the line of succession to a special series of heirs, have existed from a very remote period, and in Great Britain they date from the time, at least, of Alfred the Great, in whose reign the first Statute relating thereto was passed.
Administration: Notes by an Old Hand
Authors: M'Candlish John M.
Published: April 2013

Any difficulty which may be experienced by an Honorary President of this Society in selecting materials for his opening address does not arise from there being a dearth of subjects likely to interest you. It has occurred to me, however, that for one who has retired from active business and who is almost certainly addressing you for the last time, an appropriate object might be to try whether his own professional experience could suggest any ideas or hints that might possibly be even a little helpful to his younger brethren. The chief occupation of my life has been to administer the affairs of a Joint Stock Company, and I propose now to speak of the work of administration generally, and more particularly of the management of such associations as Insurance Offices. In doing so, I need scarcely say that if a man near the close of life can think of any lessons he has learnt or any he can possibly impart, they must be chiefly drawn from his own mistakes and failures. Experience and reflection which have often come too late for his own use may be not altogether unserviceable to others.
Misrepresentation and Concealment as affecting Policies of Insurance
Authors: Harvey William
Published: April 2013

It will probably conduce to clearness if I explain at the outset the order in which I propose to deal with the subject of this paper.

In the first part of the paper I propose to discuss, in relation to policies of insurance, (1) the general rules of law in regard to fraud or misrepresentation in the preliminary negotiations, as invalidating contracts; and (2) the rules of law as to concealment in relation to contracts, such as contracts of insurance, in regard to which the law requires the utmost good faith on both sides. I shall also consider the effect of misrepresentation or concealment by a third party, not a party to the contract.

In the second part I shall refer to the usual forms of provision in policies of life assurance, relating to the answers by the assured to the questions in the proposal, and consider their effect in modifying the rules of the common law. In this connection I shall endeavour to classify policies on well-marked lines of distinction, and will also deal with the question of the interpretation of the usual inquiries in the proposal, and the rules of construction of ambiguous or contradictory provisions in the policy or declaration.
Notes on Widows' Funds
Authors: Deuchar David
Published: April 2013

Gentlemen,—I have to express my most sincere and cordial thanks to you for the honour which you have conferred upon me, by having for the third time elected me as President of the Actuarial Society.

I have been a member of the Society almost from its commencement; and before the date of my becoming a member, I was permitted, as a young student, to attend some of the meetings. Thus it happened that I was present at the first meeting, and had the privilege of hearing the first inaugural address, delivered by the first President, the late Mr. William Thomas Thomson, a gentleman who was practically the Founder of this Society and also of the Faculty of Actuaries, and to whom both Societies are under very great obligations.

When recalling what took place in the first session of the Society, I may be permitted to refer to three notable papers by Mr. James Meikle, which I also had the privilege of hearing read, on the Nature, Calculation, and Sufficiency of the Premium required for Assurance of a Sum at Death, afterwards published under the title of “The Rationale of Life Assurance Premiums.” The author of these early papers has frequently filled the Presidential Chair, and has been extremely helpful to this Society throughout its whole existence; but if (instead of being the most extensive contributor to the Transactions of the Society) he had done nothing beyond giving us these papers, he would nevertheless have placed the Society deeply in his debt.
Lecture II. Policies of Insurance as Securities and in Trust
Authors: Harvey William
Published: April 2013

There are various ways in which life policies may be made available as securities. An existing policy upon the debtor's life and in the debtor's name may be assigned to the creditor, or a policy may be taken out in the creditor's name, in which case no assignment is necessary. Unless, however, the policy has already acquired a value, the security is defective if there is no additional security for the payment of the premiums by the debtor. Consequently, policies are. most frequently used as supplementary to other securities. For example, an annuity upon the debtor's life, or on some other life, is assigned to the creditor, of sufficient amount to cover the interest on the loan and the premiums upon a policy upon the annuitant's life. The policy secures the repayment of the principal sum when the annuity lapses. In the same way, a reversionary interest may be assigned along with a policy upon the life on whose survivance the reversion depends. In the latter case it is not unusual to burden the reversion not only with the principal, but with the whole or a part of the interest and premiums upon the policy. If this is done, there seems no reason, as I stated in my last lecture, why the policies should not cover the interest and premiums for which credit is given as well as the principal.
A Commentary upon the Married Women's Policies of Assurance (Scotland) Act, 1880
Authors: Constable A. H. B.
Published: April 2013

In the present lecture I propose, in deference to a suggestion emanating from your Society, to discuss the Married Women's Policies of Assurance (Scotland) Act, 1880 (43 and 44 Vict. c. 26). The Act, as you are no doubt aware, is quite a short one, consisting of two clauses: one of which empowers a married woman to effect a policy of assurance on her own life or that of her husband for her separate use, while the other empowers a married man to effect, by means of a policy of assurance over his own life, a trust for behoof of his wife, or family, or both. In both cases the object is similar—to protect the sum assured against the husband and his creditors. Now it is impossible to appreciate the necessity of attaining this object, and the changes wrought in the law by the effort of the statute to secure it, without some knowledge of the previously existing rights of husband and wife respecting property and contracts, and of the rights of the wife and children under postnuptial contracts and declarations of trust by the husband. Such knowledge, in a non-legal assembly, I am scarcely entitled to assume. And before I deal with the text of the Act, I accordingly propose to give a brief sketch of the general common law rights above referred to, and to note the results of the cases decided on the special rights of the spouses and children with respect to policies of assurance effected on the life of either spouse. So stated, my task is not a particularly easy one. The rights and disabilities of the wife were never very clearly defined, and of their somewhat vague and unsatisfactory nature the cases on policies are typical illustrations, while the Act itself, though it involves many points of difficulty, has been subjected to very little judicial interpretation since it passed. Its provisions are, indeed, very similar to those of Section 10 of the English Married Women's Property Act, 1870 (33 and 34 Vict. c. 95), which was replaced by Section 11 of the Married Women's Property Act, 1882 (45 and 46 Vict. c. 75); and upon both of these sections there have been a considerable number of decisions, which I shall refer to, if not as direct authorities, at any rate as important illustrations and analogies in discussing the Scots Statute. But even when allowance is made for this, any detailed commentary on the Act must necessarily be of a somewhat speculative character.
Note on the Rate of Mortality in Sierra Leone
Authors: Sprague A. E.
Published: April 2013

Having recently had occasion to deal with some statistics relating to lives resident in Africa—principally missionaries and traders—and being much struck with the exceedingly heavy mortality experienced by them, I thought a few notes on the subject might interest the members of this Society.

The source from which I obtained the necessary data is a book by the Right Reverend E. G. Ingham, Bishop of Sierra Leone, entitled Sierra Leone after a Hundred Years, and published this year by Seeley and Co. of London. The greater part of the book is taken up with an account of missionary work, which, however important it may be in its own place, does not at present concern us; but on pp. 200–208 inclusive, there are some figures which are quite a “find” from an actuarial point of view. They consist of a list of 113 European missionaries who went out to Sierra Leone, with dates of the commencement of their residence in Africa, and of the termination of residence there by death, or by the missionary returning home. The majority of them appear to have lived in Sierra Leone itself, which has a notoriously deadly climate, though a few seem to have gone to places in the neighbourhood; and I think that an examination of the figures will convince any one that that town fully deserves its name of “the white man's grave,” besides giving an approximate measure of the risk incurred by Europeans living there. Unfortunately, the particulars given are not quite complete; the dates of termination of residence in Africa being omitted in eight cases, and the dates of death in two cases. Also in one case, although the date of termination of residence in Africa is given, that of its commencement is omitted.
A Description of certain of the Principal Stock Exchange Securities
Authors: Nicoll John
Published: April 2013

Many valuable papers have from time to time appeared among our own Transactions and in the Journal of the Institute of Actuaries bearing upon the Amounts invested by Life Offices in various securities, and the rates of interest yielded by such investments at different epochs. So far as I can discover, however, with the exception of a short, but very instructive, paper on Railway Debenture Stock by Mr. Coles in the 15th vol. of the Journal, nothing has been written in description of the origin and character of the various securities which are usually selected for the investment of Life Offices' and other Funds. Having discovered that many others besides myself have experienced difficulty in obtaining information on this subject, I have ventured to put down in an elementary way the results of my own research in regard to it.

The President of the Institute of Actuaries, in his Inaugural Address, delivered recently, impressed upon his hearers the imperative necessity for the Actuary being now a practical financier also, and I am sure that every one of us knows sufficient about the difficulties that beset the investment of money at the present day to fully indorse his remarks. No one can, however, it seems to me, be a “practical financier” without having an intelligent knowledge of the character of various securities, and it is my desire to-night to try to help in some small measure towards the attainment of that knowledge.
Some Medical Aspects of Life Assurance
Authors: Ogilvie Leslie
Published: April 2013

Mr. President and Gentlemen,—I accepted with some misgiving the invitation with which your President honoured me to read a paper before your Society on some medical subject connected with Life Assurance, because I doubted my ability to deal with it in any way worthy of the audience. When I further reflected that some of those present might be the Managers and Actuaries and even the Chief Medical Officers of Companies for which I have examined in London, I sought a loophole for honourable escape. Now, when the eyes of some of these officials are upon me, I feel inclined to beat a dishonourable retreat.

Many valuable contributions have been made to this subject, and subjects bearing upon it, of late years; and if I gave you an account of the bibliography alone, it would occupy the time at my disposal. The President probably thought that the study of this literature would be of educational advantage to me; and, if so, I can assure him that it has fulfilled the object he had in view.

The title of Some Medical Aspects of Life Assurance seemed to be one which would enable me to escape the dangers of attempting to give you a statistical dissertation on my own experience, while it would admit of some general remarks on the method of Life Assurance examination.
Past and Future With some Thoughts on Heredity
Authors: Thomson Spencer C.
Published: April 2013

Exactly twenty years have elapsed since I first had the honour of addressing the members of the Actuarial Society as their Honorary President, being then but on the threshold of my official life.

Again ten years later I once more occupied this chair.

And now after the lapse of another ten years, as my professional career draws somewhat near its close, and you have again kindly asked me to become your President, there comes on me in meeting you at the beginning of your session for the purpose of offering to you a few words of welcome, a desire, on the one hand, to look back over the past—to get out of the trees, as it were, and see the forest,—and on the other, already throwing loose the trammels of daily routine, to turn in the forward direction with an endeavour to peer some way into the future and see what is in store for us there.

I will accordingly endeavour to ascertain in what way our science and the great practical businesses built upon it—and to promote which actuarial science mainly exists—have been tending during these more recent years, and, by carrying on the lines in the same direction, to make some forecast of the conditions that will prevail when you, who are entering on the actuarial profession, in your turn take the helm of management.
On the Mortality in certain Hazardous or Unhealthy Occupations, as shown by the Official Statistics
Authors: M'Lauchlan James J.
Published: April 2013

The Supplement to the fifty-fifth annual report of the Registrar-General for England, issued early in 1898, contains a mass of statistical material bearing on the mortality among persons engaged in various occupations, much more important and complete than any previously available. The principal object of the following Paper, is to examine the information therein contained bearing on the mortality in certain hazardous or unhealthy occupations, with a view to obtaining some guidance in fixing the extra premiums which should be charged for insurances on the lives of persons engaged in these occupations. In some cases, the information obtained from the Supplement to the fifty-fifth report has been supplemented from other official sources.

For the purpose of comparing the mortality of persons in different occupations, Dr. Tatham, the Superintendent of Statistics at the General Register Office, has, following his predecessor, Dr. Ogle, made use of the method of ‘comparative mortality figures.’
Life Office Investment—1850 to 1900
Authors: Turnbull Aw. H.
Published: April 2013

Gentlemen,—When you did me the honour to appoint me your President, and gave me for the fourth time the privilege of addressing you from this chair, I was within a few weeks of completing the fiftieth year of my business life, and my thoughts dwelt much upon the changes I had seen in that time.

Such being the case, you will not be surprised that I decided to offer you a retrospect of some one important branch of our business. I selected Life Office Investment, of which I think I can claim to have had an unusually long and varied experience.

In the treatment of my subject I shall endeavour to confine myself to a narration of such facts, and to draw such inferences from them, as I can reasonably hope will interest and instruct the younger members of the Society, and which, at the same time, will serve to remind their seniors of the steps by which our present notions of what is safe and advisable in the investment of the funds of a Life Assurance Office have been arrived at.
On the preparation of a Table of Mortality from observations of various magnitudes
Authors: Meikle James
Published: April 2013

In the paper that I had the pleasure of reading before this Society in the course of last Session, I brought forward a problem to which I promised to recur on an early occasion. That problem was a consideration of the present method of dealing with observations of various magnitudes when striking the rates of mortality experienced in each year of life. Our early mortality tables were derived from observations of a very general nature. The gross number of lives passing through each year of age and the number of deaths arising out of that number furnished the whole of the materials for producing the desired rate of mortality. Indeed in some instances these numbers at each age may have been ascertained by some mathematical interpolation from larger groups at younger and older ages. There was no discrimination as to the relative weights that may be allotted to any sections of these numbers. Thus in the tables derived from the numbers of the population there was no distinction between the numbers dying out of the sick and the numbers dying of the healthy. In more recent researches, however, we have improved upon our former methods of tabulation. The exact problem to be solved was not that of finding the general average rate of mortality for each year of life, but rather to ascertain the flow of mortality emanating from each group of healthy lives enrolled at each age and carefully tracing their mortalities year by year during all the subsequent years of their lives.
Self-Efficacy Is Mainly Genetic, Not Learned: A Multiple-Rater Twin Study on the Causal Structure of General Self-Efficacy in Young People
Authors: Waaktaar Trine , Torgersen Svenn
Published: April 2013

Social learning theory postulates that self-efficacy is learned through the person's interaction with his/her physical and social environment. In this genetically informative, population-based, multi-informant study of 1,394 adolescent twin pairs, self-efficacy was modeled as one latent psychometric self-efficacy factor with genetic and environmental effects common to all informants, as well as for effects specific for each informant. The results showed that 75% of variation in self-efficacy was due to genetic factors. Non-shared environmental causes explained the remaining 25% of the variance in the latent factor, with no effect of common environment. Some informant-specific effects were also found. The present study challenges the theoretical assumption of learning as the dominant etiological factor behind self-efficacy in young people.
Assessing Coping With Interpersonal Stress: Development and Validation of the Interpersonal Stress Coping Scale in Japan
Authors: Kato Tsukasa
Published: April 2013

Three studies involving approximately 4,100 Japanese were conducted to estimate the validity and reliability of the Interpersonal Stress Coping Scale (ISCS) in Japan, an instrument designed to measure strategies used to cope with interpersonal stressors. Factor analyses revealed that the ISCS has a stable three-factor structure: distancing, reassessing, and constructive coping. Distancing coping includes strategies that attempt to actively damage, disrupt, and dissolve a stressful relationship. Reassessing coping refers to efforts to patiently wait for an appropriate opportunity to act, such as a change or improvement in the situation. Constructive coping involved efforts that actively seek to improve, maintain, and/or sustain a relationship without aggravating the other individuals involved. The test–retest reliability coefficients of these three factors over a 6-week period were .81, .72, and .76, respectively. Estimates of validity suggested that the ISCS is related to other scales that measure other coping strategies, personality traits, psychological functioning, and relationship satisfaction. Moreover, the ISCS scores were associated with reduced future depression, even after controlling the effects of typical coping strategies and styles of conflict management. Overall, our data indicate that the ISCS scores are a reliable and valid measure.
Nanocrystals self-assembled in superlattices directed by the solvent–organic capping interaction
Authors: Dalmaschio Cleocir José , da Silveira Firmiano Edney Geraldo , Pinheiro Antonio Narcisio , Sobrinho Diego Guedes , Farias de Moura André , Leite Edson Roberto
Published: April 2013

Solvent–organic capping interactions of nanocrystals are presented as an effective strategy to assemble nanocrystals, compensating for the intrinsic limitations of the faceted structure in crystals.
Sulfur limitation increases nitrate and amino acid pools in tropical forages
Authors: Schmidt Fabiana , De Bona Fabiano D. , Monteiro Francisco A.
Published: April 2013

Increasing the supply of sulfur (S) to forage plants can change their nitrogen (N) metabolism, causing changes in the N : S ratio that can potentially affect forage production and quality. The present study was focussed on revealing how supply (low, intermediate, high) of S affects amino acid composition and concentrations of total S, total N, sulfate-S, nitrate-N, and soluble protein in the leaves of tropical pasture species.
Greenhouse experiments were conducted in ground quartz (inert solid substrate) culture to examine the effect of S supply in two tropical species: Panicum maximum cv. Tanzania (Guinea grass) and Stylosanthes guianensis cv. Mineirão (stylo). Because legumes have greater S requirement than do grass species, application levels of S varied according to the species. Guinea grass was grown with 0.10, 0.55, 1.00, 1.45, and 1.90 mmol L−1 of S, and stylo with 0.10, 0.70, 1.30, 1.90 and 2.50 mmol L−1 of S. Plants of both species were harvested on two occasions.
Low S availability (0.10 mmol L−1) caused a nutritional imbalance with N in Guinea grass and stylo plants, as shown by a high N : S ratio (>60 : 1), and high concentrations of nitrate-N and free amino acids in plant tissues. Increased S supply regulated the N : S ratio at values close to 20 : 1, which provided N and S concentrations more suitable for protein synthesis and optimum forage production for both forage species. Asparagine was the predominant amino acid present in S-limited Guinea grass, whereas arginine was more abundant in S-limited stylo. This result indicates that a limitation of S increases nitrate-N and free amino acids while decreasing plant growth rates and soluble protein concentrations in these forage species.
Developing the sustainable school: thinking the issues through
Authors: Scott William
Published: April 2013

This paper reports on a study that was a response to a call from the UK government%s Department of Children, Schools and Families for research into the link between the work of schools that address sustainability and the UK%s national sustainable development indicators. This was part of the government%s sustainable schools initiative, developed as a contribution to the UN%s Decade of Education for Sustainable Development. The paper uses the four capitals model of Herman Daly and Donella Meadows to critically examine, firstly, how a school might make such a contribution to sustainable development, and, then, how we might come to know how effectively this is progressing. In doing this, the paper builds on Webster%s work about the stages that a sustainable school might go through in its development, and the result is three sets of process descriptors to guide a school%s thinking about what it might do. These are presented in the sense of an embryonic and sketchy map to the terrain, rather than as a set of instructions or a detailed plan to follow.
Effects of neuromuscular function and split step on reaction speed in simulated tennis response
Authors: Nieminen Marko J. J. , Piirainen Jarmo M. , Salmi Jukka A. , Linnamo Vesa
Published: April 2013

The purpose of this study was to examine whether split step (small hop before step) would be more beneficial than no‐split condition in simulated tennis response situation. In addition, it was studied if movement time of the response is related to separately measured force production capabilities and reflex sensitivity of the players. Nine skilled male tennis players participated in this study. Subjects stood on a force plate and reacted to a light signal and moved to appointed direction as fast as possible. With split step the participants were 13.1% faster (P <0.05) than without split step from the start to the distal end of the so called close range movement continuum (2.70 m). This was mainly explained by 43.6% faster time (P <0.05) from the signal to the onset of force production. Greater vertical forces were observed with split step: 15.7% greater F(z) mean force (P <0.05), 60.0% greater F(z) peak force (P<0.01). In split step both mean (r= − 0.813, P <0.01) and peak (r=−0.765, P <0.05) vertical forces (Fz) correlated negatively with the time from the onset of the force production to the photocell. With split step higher EMGs were observed in muscles responsible for ankle joint movement indicating that different strategies were used. Due to the split step the players were able to start the movement faster which mostly explains the advantages over the no‐split step condition. Split step condition may also benefit from stretch shortening type of muscle action.
An Eye-Tracking Investigation into Readers' Sensitivity to Actual versus Expected Utility in the Comprehension of Conditionals
Authors: Haigh Matthew , Ferguson Heather J. , Stewart Andrew J.
Published: April 2013

The successful comprehension of a utility conditional (i.e., an “ if p, then q” statement where p and/or q is valued by one or more agents) requires the construction of a mental representation of the situation described by that conditional and integration of this representation with prior context. In an eye-tracking experiment, we examined the time course of integrating conditional utility information into the broader discourse model. Specifically, the experiment determined whether readers were sensitive, during rapid heuristic processing, to the congruency between the utility of the consequent clause of a conditional (positive or negative) and a reader's subjective expectations based on prior context. On a number of eye-tracking measures we found that readers were sensitive to conditional utility—conditionals for which the consequent utility mismatched the utility that would be anticipated on the basis of prior context resulted in processing disruption. Crucially, this sensitivity emerged on measures that are accepted to indicate early processing within the language comprehension system and suggests that the evaluation of a conditional's utility informs the early stages of conditional processing.
Predictors of Hospitals with Endemic Community-Associated Methicillin-ResistantStaphylococcus aureus
Authors: Murphy Courtney R. , Hudson Lyndsey O. , Spratt Brian G. , Elkins Kristen , Terpstra Leah , Gombosev Adrijana , Nguyen Christopher , Hannah Paul , Alexander Richard , Enright Mark C. , Huang Susan S.
Published: April 2013

Objective.

We sought to identify hospital characteristics associated with community-associated methicillin-resistantStaphylococcus aureus(CA-MRSA) carriage among inpatients.

Design.

Prospective cohort study.

Setting.

Orange County, California.

Participants.

Thirty hospitals in a single county.

Methods.

We collected clinical MRSA isolates from inpatients in 30 of 31 hospitals in Orange County, California, from October 2008 through April 2010. We characterized isolates by spa typing to identify CA-MRSA strains. Using California's mandatory hospitalization data set, we identified hospital-level predictors of CA-MRSA isolation.

Results.

CA-MRSA strains represented 1,033 (46%) of 2,246 of MRSA isolates. By hospital, the median percentage of CA-MRSA isolates was 46% (range, 14%–81%). In multivariate models, CA-MRSA isolation was associated with smaller hospitals (odds ratio [OR], 0.97, or 3% decreased odds of CA-MRSA isolation per 1,000 annual admissions;P<.001), hospitals with more Medicaid-insured patients (OR, 1.2;P= .002), and hospitals with more patients with low comorbidity scores (OR, 1.3;P< .001). Results were similar when restricted to isolates from patients with hospital-onset infection.

Conclusions.

Among 30 hospitals, CA-MRSA comprised nearly half of MRSA isolates. There was substantial variability in CA-MRSA penetration across hospitals, with more CA-MRSA in smaller hospitals with healthier but socially disadvantaged patient populations. Additional research is needed to determine whether infection control strategies can be successful in targeting CA-MRSA influx.
A Summary of the Third Global Interferon-γ Release Assay Symposium
Authors: Catanzaro Antonino , Daley Charles
Published: April 2013

Studies over the past several decades have dramatically increased our understanding of the immune response to Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection, and advances in proteomics and genomics have led to a new class of immune-diagnostic tests, termed interferon-γ (IFN-γ) release assays (IGRAs), which appear to obviate many of the problems encountered with the tuberculin skin test (TST). Worldwide, 2 IGRAs are currently commercially available. QuantiFERON-TB Gold In-Tube (Cellestis) is a third-generation product that uses an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay to measure IFN-γ generated in whole blood stimulated with M. tuberculosis–specific antigens. T-Spot-TB (Oxford Immunotec) employs enzyme-linked immunosorbent spot technology to enumerate the number of purified lymphocytes that respond to M. tuberculosis–specific antigens by producing IFN-γ. These in vitro tests measure the host immune response to M. tuberculosis–specific antigens, which virtually eliminates false-positive cross reactions caused by bacillus Calmette-Guérin vaccination and/or exposure to environmental nontuberculous mycobacteria that plague the interpretation and accuracy of the tuberculin skin test (TST). The high specificity of IGRAs, together with sensitivity commensurate with or better than that of the TST, promises an accurate diagnosis and the ability to focus tuberculosis-control activities on those who are actually infected with M. tuberculosis. The Third Global Symposium was held over a 3-day period and was presented by the University of California, San Diego, Continuing Medical Education department; slides and sound recordings of each presentation are available at http://cme.ucsd.edu/igras/syllabus.html. A moderated discussion is also available at http://cme.ucsd.edu/igrasvideo. This document provides a summary of the key findings of the meeting, specifically focusing on the use of IGRAs in screening healthcare worker populations.