Interest rate restrictions in a natural experiment: loan allocation and the change in the usury laws in 1714

This article studies the effects of interest rate restrictions on loan allocation. The British governmenttightened the usury laws in 1714, reducing the maximum permissible interest rate from 6% to5%. A sample of individual loan transactions reveals that average loan size and minimum loan sizeincreased strongly, while access to credit worsened for those with little social capital. Collateralisedcredits, which had accounted for a declining share of total lending, returned to their former role ofprominence. Our results suggest that the usury laws distorted credit markets significantly; we findno evidence that they offered a form of Pareto-improving social insurance.

Vertical Clearance Restrictions on Primary Roads and Primary Road Extensions: Standard U.S. Measurements [Vertical Clearance Log], May 1, 2015

The Vertical Clearance Log is prepared for the purpose of providing vertical clearance restrictions by route on the primary road system. This report is used by the Iowa Department of Transportation’s Motor Carrier Services to route oversize vehicles around structures with vertical restrictions too low for the cargo height. The source of the data is the Geographic Information Management System (GIMS) that is managed by the Office of Research & Analytics in the Performance & Technology Division. The data is collected by inspection crews and through the use of LiDAR technology to reflect changes to structures on the primary road system. This log is produced annually.

Delayed primary versus late secondary wound closure in the treatment of postsurgical sternum osteomyelitis.

Sternal osteomyelitis and poststernotomy mediastinitis is a severe and life-threatening complication after the cardiac surgery. The incidence ranges up to 3% with a mortality rate up to 29%. In addition, postoperative infections after sternotomy are associated with prolonged hospital stay, increased healthcare costs and impaired quality of patient life, representing an economic and social burden. The emergence of increasing antimicrobial resistant bacteria augments the importance of postsurgical infections since the antimicrobial choices are becoming limited. Furthermore, the incidence of infection is an indicator for the quality of patient care in the international benchmark studies. Although several therapy strategies are nowadays present in clinical practice, there is a lack of evidence-based surgical consensus for treatment of this surgical complication. In most cases the poststernotomy mediastinitis involves surgical revision with debridement, open dressing and/or vacuum-assisted therapy. After the granulation tissue on open chest wound is achieved, secondary closure and/or reconstruction with vascularized soft tissue flaps, such as omentum or pectoral muscle is performed. It seems there is a need for more effective surgical treatment of poststernotomy wound infections, which may address the prolonged hospitalization and reduce the number of surgical interventions and with this also the perioperative morbidity. In light of this we propose a randomized study comparing new delayed primary closure of the sternum to the secondary vacuum-assisted closure.

Mobile Phones, Restrictions and Discontinuities

By means of a qualitative approach I bring insights on the relationship older people (60+) have with mobile communication in a low income district of Lima (Peru). The case study I conducted in September 2013 included interviews and one focus group with 20 inhabitants of San Juan de Miraflores district. The user/non-user dichotomous classification turned out to be too narrow in this context. While some participants reported a common, bidirectional use of the device, restrictions and discontinuities played a role. Some described an asymmetric use of the mobile phone, as they used it exclusively for receiving calls, while never making outgoing calls. Others described discontinuities in ownership, which was the case when their mobile was stolen and they could not replace it immediately. My initial hypothesis is that such restrictions are related to income, skills and age.

A note on the degree sequences of graphs with restrictions

Degree sequences of some types of graphs will be studied and characterizedin this paper.

Ristikkotorniprojektin jälkiseuranta sekä valmistus-, kuljetus- ja asennusnäkökohdat massiivisen tornin suunnittelussa

Tässä työssä tutkittiin jälkiseurantana putkipalkkirakenteisen ristikkotornin rakennusprojektia. Tutkimuksen kohteena oli suomalaiselle öljynjalostamolle vuonna 1992 rakennettu vapaastiseisova 105 m korkea soihtutorni. Työn tarkoituksena oli tutkia teräsrakennekokonaisuutta toisaalta suunnittelun ja lujuuslaskennan, toisaalta valmistuksen, kuljetuksen ja asennuksen kannalta. Lisäksi työssä etsittiin soihtutornin vaihtoehtoisia rakenneratkaisuja. Esisuunnittelun tuloksena syntyneitä rakenteita verrattiin vuonna 1992 toteutettuun rakenteeseen. Toteutetun ristikkomaston lujuusominaisuuksia arvioitiin käymällä läpi tehdyt lujuuslaskelmat ja selvittämällä mm. rakenteen eri kohdista mitoituksen tasaisuus. Havaittiin, että rakenteen lujuuden käyttöaste vaihteli 0,7:n ja 0,9:n välillä 72 m:n korkeuteen asti. Tästä ylöspäin käyttöasteet olivat pienempiä. Konepajavalmistuksen, kuljetusten ja asennustöiden onnistumista tutkittiin haastattelemalla sekä konepajan että tilaajan edustajia. Ylöspäin kapeneva rakenne osoittautui lujuusopillisesti järkeväksi, mutta valmistusteknisesti vanhanaikaiseksi. Massiivisten ristikkotornien kuljetus- ja nostomahdollisuuksia tutkittiin selvittämällä lainsäädännön asettamat rajoitukset ja käsikirjojen antamat ohjeet. Lisäksi haastateltiin erikoiskuljetuksia ja -nostoja suorittavan yrityksen edustajaa. Uusien rakenneratkaisujen suunnittelussa korostettiin pitkälle vietyä osavalmistusta sekä kuljetus- ja nostomahdollisuuksia. Uusista tornivaihtoehdoista tutkittiin tarkemmin massiivisista pyöreistä putkipalkeista tehty torni, joka on rakenteeltaan Vierendeel-kehän sovellutus. Rakenne on 62 % painavampi kuin vuonna 1992 toteutettu soihtutorni, mutta silti 9 % halvempi. Uuden rakenteen valmistusystävällisyys on merkittävästi parempi kuin vanhan.

Postsurgical Prophylaxis in Crohn's Disease: Which Patients, Which Agents?

NlmCategory="UNASSIGNED">Crohn's disease (CD) evolution is characterized by increasing proportions of patients developing complications such as strictures, abscesses and fistulas that require surgical management. After resection of a diseased intestinal segment, CD recurrence concerns up to 60% of patients within a year post surgery. The mucosa just above the site of the intestinal anastomosis is at particularly high risk of relapse. Prophylactic medical therapy to prevent recurrence has been shown to be effective with a variety of medications, but the recurrence rate remains high, demanding that a better risk stratification of patients be achieved. Recognized risk factors for postsurgical CD recurrence include young age at diagnosis and at surgery, smoking, need for repeated surgeries and penetrating disease. These patients require full dose immunosuppressive or anti-tumor necrosis factor (anti-TNF) therapy, which should be initiated in the immediate postoperative period, to prevent the onset of an inflammatory activity in the bowel. Systematic follow-up by endoscopy to monitor treatment benefit should also be part of the management, as endoscopic recurrence heralds clinical relapse in these patients. The role of noninvasive markers of mucosal inflammation, such as stool calprotectin levels, show promise to complete this monitoring. Although the efficacy of mesalazine and imidazole antibiotics has been long recognized, more aggressive approaches, such as thiopurines and anti-TNF antibodies, have shown higher efficacies in direct comparison trials. The potential place of anti-homing agents is not yet defined, but these agents should in principle be of interest for this prophylactic indication due to their mode of action and interesting side-effect profile. The current recommendations are based on a step-up approach that includes immunosuppressors and/or imidazole antibiotics, followed by an anti-TNF agent, such as infliximab and adalimumab, both already tested in randomized trials in this indication. When endoscopic recurrence is identified during follow-up, upscaling to anti-TNF or dose escalation is advocated.

Chronic postsurgical pain in Europe: An observational study.

BACKGROUND: Chronic postsurgical pain (CPSP) is an important clinical problem. Prospective studies of the incidence, characteristics and risk factors of CPSP are needed. OBJECTIVES: The objective of this study is to evaluate the incidence and risk factors of CPSP. DESIGN: A multicentre, prospective, observational trial. SETTING: Twenty-one hospitals in 11 European countries. PATIENTS: Three thousand one hundred and twenty patients undergoing surgery and enrolled in the European registry PAIN OUT. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Pain-related outcome was evaluated on the first postoperative day (D1) using a standardised pain outcome questionnaire. Review at 6 and 12 months via e-mail or telephonic interview used the Brief Pain Inventory (BPI) and the DN4 (Douleur Neuropathique four questions). Primary endpoint was the incidence of moderate to severe CPSP (numeric rating scale, NRS ≥3/10) at 12 months. RESULTS: For 1044 and 889 patients, complete data were available at 6 and 12 months. At 12 months, the incidence of moderate to severe CPSP was 11.8% (95% CI 9.7 to 13.9) and of severe pain (NRS ≥6) 2.2% (95% CI 1.2 to 3.3). Signs of neuropathic pain were recorded in 35.4% (95% CI 23.9 to 48.3) and 57.1% (95% CI 30.7 to 83.4) of patients with moderate and severe CPSP, respectively. Functional impairment (BPI) at 6 and 12 months increased with the severity of CPSP (P < 0.01) and presence of neuropathic characteristics (P < 0.001). Multivariate analysis identified orthopaedic surgery, preoperative chronic pain and percentage of time in severe pain on D1 as risk factors. A 10% increase in percentage of time in severe pain was associated with a 30% increase of CPSP incidence at 12 months. CONCLUSION: The collection of data on CPSP was feasible within the European registry PAIN OUT. The incidence of moderate to severe CPSP at 12 months was 11.8%. Functional impairment was associated with CPSP severity and neuropathic characteristics. Risk factors for CPSP in the present study were chronic preoperative pain, orthopaedic surgery and percentage of time in severe pain on D1. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Clinicaltrials.gov identifier: NCT01467102.

Modelling of North-West Russian market behavior considering technical restrictions of transmission grid

Nowadays the Finnish-Russian electric energy interaction is carried out through the back-to-back DC Vyborg substation and several power plants working synchronously with Finnish power system. Constant amount of energy flows in one direction — from Russia to Finland. But the process of electricity market development in Russian energy system makes the new possibilities of electrical cooperation available. The goal of master's thesis is to analyze the current state and possible evolution trends of North-West Russian system in relation with future possible change in power flow between Russia and Finland. The research is done by modelling the market of North-West Russia and examination of technical grid restrictions. The operational market models of North-West region of Russia for the years 2008 and 2015 were created during the research process. The description of prepared market models together with modelling results and their analysis are shown in the work. The description of power flow study process and results are also presented.

On the development of object functions and restrictions for shapes made with a turret punch press

This study presents the information required to describe the machine and device resources in the turret punch press environment which are needed for the development of the analysing method for automated production. The description of product and device resources and their interconnectedness is the starting point for method comparison the development of expenses, production planning and the performance of optimisation. The manufacturing method cannot be optimized unless the variables and their interdependence are known. Sheet metal parts in particular may then become remarkably complex, and their automatic manufacture may be difficult or, with some automatic equipment, even impossible if not know manufacturing properties. This thesis consists of three main elements, which constitute the triangulation. In the first phase of triangulation, the manufacture occuring on a turret punch press is examined in order to find the factors that affect the efficiency of production. In the second phase of triangulation, the manufacturability of products on turret punch presses is examined through a set of laboratory tests. The third phase oftriangulation involves an examination of five industry parts. The main key findings of this study are: all possible efficiency in high automation level machining cannot be achieved unless the raw materials used in production and the dependencies of the machine and tools are well known. Machine-specific manufacturability factors for turret punch presses were not taken into account in the industrial case samples. On the grounds of the performed tests and industrial case samples, the designer of a sheet metal product can directly influence the machining time, material loss, energy consumption and the number of tools required on a turret punch press by making decisions in the way presented in the hypothesis of thisstudy. The sheet metal parts to be produced can be optimised to bemanufactured on a turret punch press when the material to be used and the kinds of machine and tool options available are known. This provides in-depth knowledge of the machine and tool properties machine and tool-specifically. None of the optimisation starting points described here is a separate entity; instead, they are all connected to each other.

Spectral analysis of the electromyograph of the erector spinae muscle before and after a dynamic manual load-lifting test

The aim of the present study was to assess the spectral behavior of the erector spinae muscle during isometric contractions performed before and after a dynamic manual load-lifting test carried out by the trunk in order to determine the capacity of muscle to perform this task. Nine healthy female students participated in the experiment. Their average age, height, and body mass (± SD) were 20 ± 1 years, 1.6 ± 0.03 m, and 53 ± 4 kg, respectively. The development of muscle fatigue was assessed by spectral analysis (median frequency) and root mean square with time. The test consisted of repeated bending movements from the trunk, starting from a 45º angle of flexion, with the application of approximately 15, 25 and 50% of maximum individual load, to the stand up position. The protocol used proved to be more reliable with loads exceeding 50% of the maximum for the identification of muscle fatigue by electromyography as a function of time. Most of the volunteers showed an increase in root mean square versus time on both the right (N = 7) and the left (N = 6) side, indicating a tendency to become fatigued. With respect to the changes in median frequency of the electromyographic signal, the loads used in this study had no significant effect on either the right or the left side of the erector spinae muscle at this frequency, suggesting that a higher amount and percentage of loads would produce more substantial results in the study of isotonic contractions.