Message of Robert K. Scott, Governor of South Carolina to the General Assembly, November 24, 1869

This speech was addressed to the people of the Senate and House of Representatives. It was delivered to inform them of the progress over the past year made to place the finances of the state on a firm and healthy basis. He gives a report on all departments and projects funded by the government in the past year.

Winston Churchill and the General Strike

Exploring the myths and legends which surround Churchill's role in the 1926 General Strike this places his involvement in the events of that year within the context of his views of sympathy strikes from before the Great War. The continuing importance of these views is shown to explain the marked contrasts between Churchill's approach to the General Strike in May 1926 and his efforts to find a way to resolve the coal dispute which dragged on throughout the year.

A general framework for Business Process Modelling (BPM) based on Formal Temporal Theory with an application to Hospital Patient flows

Existing Workflow Management Systems (WFMSs) follow a pragmatic approach. They often use a proprietary modelling language with an intuitive graphical layout. However the underlying semantics lack a formal foundation. As a consequence, analysis issues, such as proving correctness i.e. soundness and completeness, and reliable execution are not supported at design level. This project will be using an applied ontology approach by formally defining key terms such as process, sub-process, action/task based on formal temporal theory. Current business process modelling (BPM) standards such as Business Process Modelling Notation (BPMN) and Unified Modelling Language (UML) Activity Diagram (AD) model their constructs with no logical basis. This investigation will contribute to the research and industry by providing a framework that will provide grounding for BPM to reason and represent a correct business process (BP). This is missing in the current BPM domain, and may result in reduction of the design costs and avert the burden of redundant terms used by the current standards. A graphical tool will be introduced which will implement the formal ontology defined in the framework. This new tool can be used both as a modelling tool and at the same time will serve the purpose of validating the model. This research will also fill the existing gap by providing a unified graphical representation to represent a BP in a logically consistent manner for the mainstream modelling standards in the fields of business and IT. A case study will be conducted to analyse a catalogue of existing ‘patient pathways’ i.e. processes, of King’s College Hospital NHS Trust including current performance statistics. Following the application of the framework, a mapping will be conducted, and new performance statistics will be collected. A cost/benefits analysis report will be produced comparing the results of the two approaches.

Argonauta Video Database: General simulated scenes. Scene 1 (Right camera)

General simulated scenes These scenes followed a pre-defined script (see the Thesis for details), with common movements corresponding to general experiments. People go to or stand still in front of "J9", and/or go to the side of Argonauta reactor and come back again. The first type of movement is common during Irradiation experiments, where a material sample is put within the "J9" channel; and also during neutrongraphy or gammagraphy experiments, where a sample is placed in front of "J9". Here, the detailed movements of putting samples on these places were not reproduced in details, but only the whole bodies' movements were simulated (as crouching or being still in front of "J9"). The second type of movement may occur when operators go to the side of Argonauta to verify some operational condition. - Scene 1 (Obs.: Scene 1 of the "General simulated scenes" class): Comprises one of the scenes with two persons. Both of them use clothes of light colors. Both persons remain still in front of "J9"; one goes to the computer and then come back, and both go out. Video file labels: "20140326145315_IPCAM": recorded by the right camera,

Argonauta Video Database: General Simulated. Scene 1 (Left Camera)

General simulated scenes These scenes followed a pre-defined script (see the Thesis for details), with common movements corresponding to general experiments. People go to or stand still in front of "J9", and/or go to the side of Argonauta reactor and come back again. The first type of movement is common during Irradiation experiments, where a material sample is put within the "J9" channel; and also during neutrongraphy or gammagraphy experiments, where a sample is placed in front of "J9". Here, the detailed movements of putting samples on these places were not reproduced in details, but only the whole bodies' movements were simulated (as crouching or being still in front of "J9"). The second type of movement may occur when operators go to the side of Argonauta to verify some operational condition. - Scene 1 (Obs.: Scene 1 of the "General simulated scenes" class): Comprises one of the scenes with two persons. Both of them use clothes of light colors. Both persons remain still in front of "J9"; one goes to the computer and then come back, and both go out. Video file labels: "20140326145316_IPCAM": recorded by the left camera.

Argonauta Video Database: General simulated. Scene 2 (Right camera)

General simulated scenes These scenes followed a pre-defined script (see the Thesis for details), with common movements corresponding to general experiments. People go to or stand still in front of "J9", and/or go to the side of Argonauta reactor and come back again. The first type of movement is common during Irradiation experiments, where a material sample is put within the "J9" channel; and also during neutrongraphy or gammagraphy experiments, where a sample is placed in front of "J9". Here, the detailed movements of putting samples on these places were not reproduced in details, but only the whole bodies' movements were simulated (as crouching or being still in front of "J9"). The second type of movement may occur when operators go to the side of Argonauta to verify some operational condition. - Scene 2: Comprises one of the scenes with two persons. Both of them use clothes of dark colors. Both persons go to the side of Argonauta reactor and then come back and go out. Video file labels: "20140326154754_IPCAM": recorded by the right camera.

Argonauta Video Database: General simulated. Scene 2 (Left camera)

General simulated scenes These scenes followed a pre-defined script (see the Thesis for details), with common movements corresponding to general experiments. People go to or stand still in front of "J9", and/or go to the side of Argonauta reactor and come back again. The first type of movement is common during Irradiation experiments, where a material sample is put within the "J9" channel; and also during neutrongraphy or gammagraphy experiments, where a sample is placed in front of "J9". Here, the detailed movements of putting samples on these places were not reproduced in details, but only the whole bodies' movements were simulated (as crouching or being still in front of "J9"). The second type of movement may occur when operators go to the side of Argonauta to verify some operational condition. - Scene 2: Comprises one of the scenes with two persons. Both of them use clothes of dark colors. Both persons go to the side of Argonauta reactor and then come back and go out. Video file labels: "20140326154755_IPCAM": recorded by the left camera.

Nonlinear dynamics of the patient’s response to drug effect during general anesthesia

In today’s healthcare paradigm, optimal sedation during anesthesia plays an important role both in patient welfare and in the socio-economic context. For the closed-loop control of general anesthesia, two drugs have proven to have stable, rapid onset times: propofol and remifentanil. These drugs are related to their effect in the bispectral index, a measure of EEG signal. In this paper wavelet time–frequency analysis is used to extract useful information from the clinical signals, since they are time-varying and mark important changes in patient’s response to drug dose. Model based predictive control algorithms are employed to regulate the depth of sedation by manipulating these two drugs. The results of identification from real data and the simulation of the closed loop control performance suggest that the proposed approach can bring an improvement of 9% in overall robustness and may be suitable for clinical practice.

Nonlinear dynamics of the patient’s response to drug effect during general anesthesia

In today’s healthcare paradigm, optimal sedation during anesthesia plays an important role both in patient welfare and in the socio-economic context. For the closed-loop control of general anesthesia, two drugs have proven to have stable, rapid onset times: propofol and remifentanil. These drugs are related to their effect in the bispectral index, a measure of EEG signal. In this paper wavelet time–frequency analysis is used to extract useful information from the clinical signals, since they are time-varying and mark important changes in patient’s response to drug dose. Model based predictive control algorithms are employed to regulate the depth of sedation by manipulating these two drugs. The results of identification from real data and the simulation of the closed loop control performance suggest that the proposed approach can bring an improvement of 9% in overall robustness and may be suitable for clinical practice.

Development and validation of a risk model for prediction of hazardous alcohol consumption in general practice attendees : the PredictAL study

Background: Little is known about the risk of progression to hazardous alcohol use in people currently drinking at safe limits. We aimed to develop a prediction model (predictAL) for the development of hazardous drinking in safe drinkers. Methods: A prospective cohort study of adult general practice attendees in six European countries and Chile followed up over 6 months. We recruited 10,045 attendees between April 2003 to February 2005. 6193 European and 2462 Chilean attendees recorded AUDIT scores below 8 in men and 5 in women at recruitment and were used in modelling risk. 38 risk factors were measured to construct a risk model for the development of hazardous drinking using stepwise logistic regression. The model was corrected for over fitting and tested in an external population. The main outcome was hazardous drinking defined by an AUDIT score >= 8 in men and >= 5 in women. Results: 69.0% of attendees were recruited, of whom 89.5% participated again after six months. The risk factors in the final predictAL model were sex, age, country, baseline AUDIT score, panic syndrome and lifetime alcohol problem. The predictAL model's average c-index across all six European countries was 0.839 (95% CI 0.805, 0.873). The Hedge's g effect size for the difference in log odds of predicted probability between safe drinkers in Europe who subsequently developed hazardous alcohol use and those who did not was 1.38 (95% CI 1.25, 1.51). External validation of the algorithm in Chilean safe drinkers resulted in a c-index of 0.781 (95% CI 0.717, 0.846) and Hedge's g of 0.68 (95% CI 0.57, 0.78). Conclusions: The predictAL risk model for development of hazardous consumption in safe drinkers compares favourably with risk algorithms for disorders in other medical settings and can be a useful first step in prevention of alcohol misuse.

Corporate finance in general equilibrium models with incomplete markets: A survey

A Masters Thesis, presented as part of the requirements for the award of a Research Masters Degree in Economics from NOVA – School of Business and Economics

Effects of motive-oriented therapeutic relationship in a ten-session general psychiatric treatment of borderline personality disorder: a randomized controlled trial.

Background: Motive-oriented therapeutic relationship (MOTR) was postulated to be a particularly helpful therapeutic ingredient in the early treatment phase of patients with personality disorders, in particular with borderline personality disorder (BPD). The present randomized controlled study using an add-on design is the first study to test this assumption in a 10-session general psychiatric treatment with patients presenting with BPD on symptom reduction and therapeutic alliance. Methods: A total of 85 patients were randomized. They were either allocated to a manual-based short variant of the general psychiatric management (GPM) treatment (in 10 sessions) or to the same treatment where MOTR was deliberately added to the treatment. Treatment attrition and integrity analyses yielded satisfactory results. Results: The results of the intent-to-treat analyses suggested a global efficacy of MOTR, in the sense of an additional reduction of general problems, i.e. symptoms, interpersonal and social problems (F1, 73 = 7.25, p < 0.05). However, they also showed that MOTR did not yield an additional reduction of specific borderline symptoms. It was also shown that a stronger therapeutic alliance, as assessed by the therapist, developed in MOTR treatments compared to GPM (Z55 = 0.99, p < 0.04). Conclusions: These results suggest that adding MOTR to psychiatric and psychotherapeutic treatments of BPD is promising. Moreover, the findings shed additional light on the perspective of shortening treatments for patients presenting with BPD. © 2014 S. Karger AG, Basel.

Major depressive disorders in the general hospital: how to implement guidelines.

OBJECTIVE: An implementation study that evaluated the impact of previously adopted guidelines on the clinical practice of medical residents was conducted to improve the recognition and treatment of major depressive disorders (MDDs) in hospitalized patients with somatic diseases. METHODS: Guidelines were implemented in two wards (ENT and oncology) using intranet diffusion, interactive sessions with medical residents, and support material. Discharge letters of 337 and 325 patients, before and after the intervention, respectively, were checked for statement of diagnosis or treatment of MDDs and, in a post hoc analysis, for any mention about psychiatric management. RESULTS: No difference was found in the number of diagnosed or treated MDDs before and after the intervention. However, significantly more statements about psychological status (29/309 vs. 13/327) and its management (36/309 vs. 19/327) were observed after the intervention (P<.01). CONCLUSION: The intervention was not successful in improving the management of MDDs. However, a possible effect on general psychological aspects of medical diseases was observed.