scholarly journals Mathematical Modelling and Tuberculosis: Advances in Diagnostics and Novel Therapies

2015 ◽  
Vol 2015 ◽  
pp. 1-10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alice Zwerling ◽  
Sourya Shrestha ◽  
David W. Dowdy
Keyword(s):  
Mathematical Modelling ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Current Knowledge ◽  
Scale Up ◽  
Population Level ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
Policy Choices ◽  
Critical Policy ◽  
Transmission Models

As novel diagnostics, therapies, and algorithms are developed to improve case finding, diagnosis, and clinical management of patients with TB, policymakers must make difficult decisions and choose among multiple new technologies while operating under heavy resource constrained settings. Mathematical modelling can provide helpful insight by describing the types of interventions likely to maximize impact on the population level and highlighting those gaps in our current knowledge that are most important for making such assessments. This review discusses the major contributions of TB transmission models in general, namely, the ability to improve our understanding of the epidemiology of TB. We focus particularly on those elements that are important to appropriately understand the role of TB diagnosis and treatment (i.e., what elements of better diagnosis or treatment are likely to have greatest population-level impact) and yet remain poorly understood at present. It is essential for modellers, decision-makers, and epidemiologists alike to recognize these outstanding gaps in knowledge and understand their potential influence on model projections that may guide critical policy choices (e.g., investment and scale-up decisions).

Intervention and Intransitivity: Public Opinion, Social Choice, and the Use of Military Force Abroad

1995 ◽  
Vol 47 (4) ◽  
pp. 534-554 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kurt Taylor Gaubatz
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Public Opinion ◽  
Social Choice ◽  
Public Attitudes ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
Military Force ◽  
Public Preferences ◽  
Policy Choices ◽  
The Impact

This article argues that the problems identified in the literature on public choice should critically affect our research on public opinion and our understanding of the impact of public opinion on foreign policy. While a robust literature has emerged around social choice issues in political science, there has been remarkably little appreciation for these problems in the literature on public opinion in general and on public opinion and foreign policy in particular. The potential importance of social choice problems for understanding the nature and role of public opinion in foreign policy making is demonstrated through an examination of American public attitudes about military intervention abroad. In particular, drawing on several common descriptions of the underlying dimensionality of public attitudes on major foreign policy issues, it is shown that there may be important intransitivities in the ordering of public preferences at the aggregate level on policy choices such as those considered by American decision makers in the period leading up to the Gulf War. Without new approaches to public-opinion polling that take these problems into consideration, it will be difficult to make credible claims about the role of public opinion in theforeignpolicy process.

scholarly journals Current knowledge in hypertension genetics: mosaic theory, candidate genes and genome-wide association studies

2020 ◽  
Vol 26 (5) ◽  
pp. 490-500
Author(s):  
A. O. Konradi
Keyword(s):  
Candidate Genes ◽  
High Performance ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Current Knowledge ◽  
Association Studies ◽  
Genome Wide Association ◽  
Genome Wide Association Studies ◽  
Modern Approach ◽  
Genome Wide

The article reviews monogenic forms of hypertension, data on the role of heredity of essential hypertension and candidate genes, as well as genome-wide association studies. Modern approach for the role of genetics is driven by implementation of new technologies and their productivity. High performance speed of new technologies like genome-wide association studies provide data for better knowledge of genetic markers of hypertension. The major goal nowadays for research is to reveal molecular pathways of blood pressure regulation, which can help to move from populational to individual level of understanding of pathogenesis and treatment targets.

scholarly journals The Role of Emerging ICT in the Ports: Increasing Utilities According to Shared Decisions

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francesco Russo ◽  
Giuseppe Musolino
Keyword(s):  
Theoretical Model ◽  
Decision Maker ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Emerging Technologies ◽  
Focal Point ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
Port Operation ◽  
Port Operations ◽  
Generalized Cost

Geographical location, infrastructures, and services are the main consolidated pillars of a port in terms of its capacity to compete and cooperate with other ports. In the last years, a new pillar was identified: emerging technologies. Ports’ issues were initially solved with individual ICT solutions adopted by each decision-maker, which generated efficiencies in the three main port flows: cargo, information, and financial. However, new benefits and challenges are connected with the introduction of shared emerging ICT among decision-makers inside ports. The crucial issue concerns the fact that several decision-makers could share a decision about a single-port operation. Therefore, the effectiveness and efficiency of ports depend on how the interactions between the decision-makers are solved. Port operations are associated with movements (cargo) and transactions (information and financial) in a synchronic graph, which allows highlighting the role of emerging technologies in the modification of port operation generalized cost, considering the different decision-makers. The focal point concerns the building of a theoretical model using the formal equations of Transport System Models (TSMs) for the estimation of the cost for a Unit of Load (UL), e.g., a container traveling along a path, composed of a sequence of port operations, inside a port with and without emerging technologies. The proposed theoretical model provides the possibility of estimating ex ante the reduction of cost (port time of UL) given by introducing new technologies and a Port Community System (PCS). Different scenarios, considering some cases, ranging from the absence of ICT to the presence of a PCS, are compared, considering the different situations from a non-congested port to a congested one. The main results of the study and its novelty concern, on the one hand, the extension of TSMs to port systems, highlighting the problem of a non-single decision-maker (two or more) in some port operations and, on the other hand, the possibility of reducing the generalized cost (e.g., time) in the same operations in which there are concurrent decision-makers, through the use of an advanced PCS. The reported numerical example confirms the theoretical results. The work can be useful for researchers for port planners (e.g., port authorities) because it permits evaluating the utility for introducing shared emerging technologies using advanced PCS in a unified view.

scholarly journals Why Manufacturing Matters

2013 ◽  
Vol 135 (11) ◽  
pp. 32-35
Author(s):  
Tom Kurfess
Keyword(s):  
Manufacturing Industry ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Wage Gap ◽  
Scale Up ◽  
The United States ◽  
Disruptive Technologies ◽  
Manufacturing Operations ◽  
Manufacturing Innovation ◽  
Energy Independence

This article explores the role of manufacturing industry as a key to innovation, economic health, and national security. As engineers and manufacturers develop new technologies, they build the capabilities to extend and innovate in new fields. Those innovations give manufacturers the performance or cost edge they need to compete in a crowded international marketplace. U.S. manufacturing innovation is lagging behind high-wage nations such as Germany and Japan. The article suggests that what the United States must do now is close the gap between innovation and commercial scale-up and production. It already leads the world in creating disruptive technologies and is rapidly moving towards energy independence. The imposing wage gap that once separated it from other nations is closing. Some American companies have begun reshoring manufacturing operations located in other nations already.

scholarly journals The multifactorial interplay of diet, the microbiome and appetite control: current knowledge and future challenges

2015 ◽  
Vol 74 (3) ◽  
pp. 235-244 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bernard M. Corfe ◽  
Charlotte J. Harden ◽  
Matthew Bull ◽  
Iveta Garaiova
Keyword(s):  
Current Knowledge ◽  
Population Level ◽  
Energy Yield ◽  
Gut Health ◽  
Appetite Control ◽  
Obesity Epidemic ◽  
Sequencing Technologies ◽  
Future Challenges ◽  
Modelling Strategies

The recent availability of high-throughput nucleic acid sequencing technologies has rapidly advanced approaches to analysing the role of the gut microbiome in governance of human health, including gut health, and also metabolic, cardiovascular and mental health,inter alia. Recent scientific studies suggest that energy intake (EI) perturbations at the population level cannot account for the current obesity epidemic, and significant work is investigating the potential role of the microbiome, and in particular its metabolic products, notably SCFA, predominantly acetate, propionate and butyrate, the last of which is an energy source for the epithelium of the large intestine. The energy yield from dietary residues may be a significant factor influencing energy balance. This review posits that the contribution towards EI is governed by EI diet composition (not just fibre), the composition of the microbiome and by the levels of physical activity. Furthermore, we hypothesise that these factors do not exist in a steady state, but rather are dynamic, with both short- and medium-term effects on appetite regulation. We suggest that the existing modelling strategies for bacterial dynamics, specifically for growth in chemostat culture, are of utility in understanding the dynamic interplay of diet, activity and microbiomic organisation. Such approaches may be informative in optimising the application of dietary and microbial therapy to promote health.

The Role of Science in 21st Century EU Policy–Making

2014 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 300-302 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julie Girling
Keyword(s):  
Health And Safety ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
Third Party ◽  
Consumer Health ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Policy Choices ◽  
Elected Representatives ◽  
Start Ups ◽  
Expect Value

Today,more than ever, citizens expect value formoney, not only from their elected representatives, but also from the laws and regulations passed to protect them. As the European economy faces continued challenges and limited economic growth, citizens rely on policy-makers to encourage innovation and stimulate growth and jobs. This requires flexible legislation which fosters start-ups, encourages SMEs during those early days, but which also simultaneously maintains the high levels of consumer health and safety that they have become accustomed to.Public accountability is also increasing – and rightly so. Citizens don't just want legislation that delivers – they alsowant transparency and open dialogue. They want decision-makers to explain why certain policy choices weremade over others, and what benefits they can expect fromsuch choices. This requirement for information must also be seen against a backdrop of increasing demands on consumers’ time and a tendency to deal in “twitterati” style soundbites. This often results in consumers feeling the need for analysis and validation of information via a third party, sometimes a journalist, sometimes anNGOor government agency.

scholarly journals Dynamics of Plant Metabolism during Cold Acclimation

2019 ◽  
Vol 20 (21) ◽  
pp. 5411 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lisa Fürtauer ◽  
Jakob Weiszmann ◽  
Wolfram Weckwerth ◽  
Thomas Nägele
Keyword(s):  
Low Temperature ◽  
Mathematical Modelling ◽  
Cold Acclimation ◽  
Current Knowledge ◽  
Freezing Temperature ◽  
Metabolic Reprogramming ◽  
Growth And Yield ◽  
Plant Metabolism ◽  
Subcellular Organelles

Plants have evolved strategies to tightly regulate metabolism during acclimation to a changing environment. Low temperature significantly constrains distribution, growth and yield of many temperate plant species. Exposing plants to low but non-freezing temperature induces a multigenic processes termed cold acclimation, which eventually results in an increased freezing tolerance. Cold acclimation comprises reprogramming of the transcriptome, proteome and metabolome and affects communication and signaling between subcellular organelles. Carbohydrates play a central role in this metabolic reprogramming. This review summarizes current knowledge about the role of carbohydrate metabolism in plant cold acclimation with a focus on subcellular metabolic reprogramming, its thermodynamic constraints under low temperature and mathematical modelling of metabolism.

The dynamic threshold model of bandwagon innovations: Role of organizational attention and legitimacy

2021 ◽  
pp. 204138662110542
Author(s):  
Muhammad Jawad
Keyword(s):  
Current Knowledge ◽  
Threshold Model ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Dynamic Threshold ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Factors Affecting ◽  
Adoption Decision ◽  
Organizational Attention

Innovations are not always adopted due to their expected economic impact but often due to bandwagon pressure. Fueled by economic uncertainty, these “bandwagon innovations” are adopted once the bandwagon pressure reaches a certain threshold. Existing literature, however, has not examined this threshold’s sources nor considered the effect of a bandwagon adoption decision on threshold. Therefore, building on current knowledge about the bandwagon effect, organizational attention, and legitimacy, this paper develops a theoretical model to help understand the factors affecting threshold and making organizations more or less likely to adopt bandwagon innovations. The novel dynamic threshold model proposed here explains how attention to social or economic factors can affect an organization’s threshold. The model shows that the threshold may change such that an organization may be more likely to adopt a bandwagon innovation after prior resistance or resist one after prior adoption. Implications for organizational decision-makers and future research avenues are also discussed.

Mesophyll conductance: the leaf corridors for photosynthesis

2020 ◽  
Vol 48 (2) ◽  
pp. 429-439 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jorge Gago ◽  
Danilo M. Daloso ◽  
Marc Carriquí ◽  
Miquel Nadal ◽  
Melanie Morales ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Molecular Mechanisms ◽  
Current Knowledge ◽  
Main Role ◽  
Mesophyll Conductance ◽  
Future Studies ◽  
Cell Structures ◽  
Leaf Tissues ◽  
Change Framework ◽  
Chloroplast Stroma

Besides stomata, the photosynthetic CO2 pathway also involves the transport of CO2 from the sub-stomatal air spaces inside to the carboxylation sites in the chloroplast stroma, where Rubisco is located. This pathway is far to be a simple and direct way, formed by series of consecutive barriers that the CO2 should cross to be finally assimilated in photosynthesis, known as the mesophyll conductance (gm). Therefore, the gm reflects the pathway through different air, water and biophysical barriers within the leaf tissues and cell structures. Currently, it is known that gm can impose the same level of limitation (or even higher depending of the conditions) to photosynthesis than the wider known stomata or biochemistry. In this mini-review, we are focused on each of the gm determinants to summarize the current knowledge on the mechanisms driving gm from anatomical to metabolic and biochemical perspectives. Special attention deserve the latest studies demonstrating the importance of the molecular mechanisms driving anatomical traits as cell wall and the chloroplast surface exposed to the mesophyll airspaces (Sc/S) that significantly constrain gm. However, even considering these recent discoveries, still is poorly understood the mechanisms about signaling pathways linking the environment a/biotic stressors with gm responses. Thus, considering the main role of gm as a major driver of the CO2 availability at the carboxylation sites, future studies into these aspects will help us to understand photosynthesis responses in a global change framework.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document