There is a dearth of literature on the experiences of people with physical health conditions who make disability benefit claims and live as a benefit claimant, particularly since the recent and ongoing changes to the benefits system in the UK. This research aimed to explore the social processes that impact on people with a physical health condition who have experienced a loss of or change in disability benefits, particularly in relation to their identity and their relationships with society. In-depth interviews were conducted with fifteen people with physical health conditions or disabilities. Data was analysed using Grounded Theory methods and a theoretical model was co-constructed. Participants experienced the benefits system as dehumanising, and felt that they lived in a judgemental society, where they were perceived as 'scroungers' and faced discrimination from others. These experiences negatively affected their mental and physical health and wellbeing. Participants often internalised the stigma surrounding disability benefit claimants and they attempted to resist this in order to maintain a preferred sense of self. The findings demonstrate the significant impact of benefit changes on wellbeing and identity. The research highlights important implications for Psychologists, as well as staff in healthcare, the benefits system, and government.

The Third Chapter: The aim of this research is to study individual choices of precau- tionary saving and long-term care spending when an individual faces the uncertainty of after-retirement health shocks. To do this, an improved two-period life-cycle model is employed. This paper also explores how individual choice affects economic development and capital accumulation in an overlapping generation economy. The study shows that the rise in the possibility of getting after-retirement health shocks will result to an increase in long-term care expenditure and the level of precautionary saving. The steady state will also increase in this case. The Fourth Chapter: The increasing and intensifying long-term care (LTC) demand brings great financial pressures for both governments and individuals. From the public perspective, the underlying economic question is how adequate real resources can be re- distributed to support long-term care need and how efficient the policies targeting is. As many LTC policies are accessed through means tests, individuals saving behaviour can be affected. This paper examines and compares the welfare effects that different means- tested policies have on individuals. We did this by embedding life-cycle models with after-retirement health shocks. Means-tested policies of long-term care, one with a top- up choice, and one without, were then simulated. The results show that the means test regime with a top-up option can bring a higher social welfare. Under this scheme, a higher means test threshold can decrease societys dependency on a social benefit system and increase social welfare. The Fifth Chapter: Attendance Allowance and Disability Living Allowance are the dis- ability cash benefits provided for people who are over 65 in the U.K. As the government plans to divert more public resource from these benefits to means-tested local care ser- vices, it is important to understand the effects and targeting of these cash benefits first. Using the survey data from English Longitudinal Study of Ageing, this study examines the relationship between the receipt of disability cash benefits and recipients’ character- istics among those who are over 65 in England. Although income is not a key factor to decide on the receipt of the benefits in the criteria, the results show that it still has a self- selection process where the benefits are given to those who are both most in need and on low incomes.

Cílem práce je analýza socioekonomických nákladů a přínosů multifunkčního centra v Karlových Varech a jejich zhodnocení. Hodnocení vychází z metod hodnocení investic ve veřejném sektoru. Pro multifunkční centrum je zvolena cost benefit analýza - analýza nákladů a přínosů. Analýza popisuje dopady stavby na subjekty a společnost a provádí jejich finanční ohodnocení. Hodnocení vychází z vypočtených kriteriálních ukazatelů. Součástí analýzy je charakteristika Karlovarského kraje a jeho sportovní vybavenost.

CoordenaÃÃo de AperfeÃoamento de Pessoal de NÃvel Superior / A matemÃtica financeira à um ramo da matemÃtica que muito cresceu nas Ãltimas dÃcadas devido ao aumento de consumo do povo, e que muito pouco se sabe, pois, ainda nÃo à estudada de forma correta nos nÃveis do ensino fundamental, mÃdio, tÃcnico e tecnolÃgico. Os conteÃdos de MatemÃtica Comercial e Financeira sÃo um significativo vetor de promoÃÃo da cidadania e de entendimento do mundo econÃmico e financeiro. Esses conhecimentos podem ser trabalhados no contexto das salas de aula levando-se em conta a evoluÃÃo histÃrica dessa Ãrea da matemÃtica, visando o posicionamento pessoal nas questÃes de finanÃas e um referencial no tempo das operaÃÃes matemÃticas. O objetivo dessa dissertaÃÃo à mostrar como à feito o financiamento de veÃculos e objetos de forma geral, tentando alertar as pessoas na hora de financiar um bem, sobre as taxas cobradas de forma ilegal e abusiva. Faremos uma introduÃÃo sobre a histÃria da matemÃtica financeira, depois faremos um comentÃrio sobre juros compostos para que possamos entender melhor como se calcular o valor das prestaÃÃes em vÃrios tipos de financiamentos. Por fim mostrarei o absurdo que à cobrado das pessoas na hora de financiar um bem e assim poder exigir melhores prestaÃÃes. / Financial mathematics is the branch of mathematics that have grown in recent decades due to increased consumption of the people, and that very little is known,it is still not properly studied the levels of primary, secondary, technical and technological. The contents of commercial and financial mathematics are a significant factor of promotion of citizenship and understanding of the economic and financial world. This knowledge can be worked out in the context of the classroom taking into account the historical evolution of this area of mathematics, targeting the personal position on issues of finance and a reference time of mathematical operations. The objective of this dissertation is to show how is the funding vehicle and objects in general, trying to âopen the eyesâ of peopleâs time to fund a well, on charges of unlawful and abusive manner. We will make an introduction on the history of financial mathematics, then we will make a comment about compound interest so that we can better understand how to calculate the value of benefits in various types of financing . Finally show how absurd it is charged at the time of the people to fund a well and thus be able to âfightâ for better benefits.

This thesis explores the relationship between fixation location and the locus of attention during reading. Early theories of eye movement control during reading suggested that a very tight coupling exists between the two (Just & Carpenter, 1980); however, it has since been shown that dissociations do exist. Whether these dissociations necessarily implicate parallel lexical processing, or whether they can be accommodated for within a serial-sequential framework is explored in a series of experiments. Experiment 1 tested whether parallel lexical processing is, at the very least, psychologically plausible. Two horizontally aligned letter strings were presented simultaneously on a screen, the task being to decide whether they were physically identical or not. Even when presentation duration should have been short enough to prohibit the strictly serial processing of each word in turn, the results show clear lexical effects: high frequency words were responded to faster and with fewer errors than low frequency words. Effects of lexicality and orthography were also found. These results suggest that the two words had been processed at a lexical level in an overlapping fashion. Experiments 2 and 3 investigated the nature and range of word n+2 preview effects. In Experiment 2, word n+1 was either a determiner or 3-letter alternative higher frequency word; in Experiment 3, word n+1 was either a 4- or a 6-letter high frequency word. A gaze contingent display change technique was employed, where prior to passing an invisible boundary located immediately after word n, one, the other, neither or both of words n+1 and n+2 received a nonword preview. In addition to showing orthographic parafoveal-on-foveal effects stemming from word n+1, there was also evidence that word n+2 preview influenced targeting decisions on words n and n+1. Word n+2 preview effects are also found on word n+2 and in the spillover region. These effects were most wide ranging when word n+1 length was an average of 5- compared to 3-letters. Higher-level plausibility preview effects were explored in Experiments 4-6, again using a gaze contingent display change technique. In Experiment 4 word n+1 received either an identical preview, a different but plausible one, or an anomalous, or nonword preview. Critically, an effect of plausibility arose on word n+1, with anomalous previews receiving longer inspection times than alternative plausible previews. Experiments 5 and 6 investigated the range over which these effects might occur, testing for a plausibility preview effect on word n+2. Results showed numerical, but not statistical evidence for a plausibility-related preview effect on word n+2. There were, however, clear orthographic word n+2 preview effects. Finally, Experiment 7 experimentally tested the immediate oculomotor response to a mislocated fixation, using a text shift paradigm to simulate saccadic error and measuring the effect on lexical processing. Critically, this experiment showed that a quick error correction strategy appears to be engaged following a simulated saccadic undershoot, rather than a stay and process response. This suggests that a mislocated fixation account coupled with a stay and process response is unlikely to provide a viable explanation for lexical parafoveal-on-foveal effects. Overall, it is suggested that current instantiations of both serial (e.g., Reichle, Warren & McConnell, 2009) and parallel (e.g., Schad & Engbert, 2012) models of eye movement control during reading appear to fail to capture major aspects of these patterns of results. The results do, however, appear to fit most parsimoniously with a perspective on eye movement control that allows for multiple words to be processed in an overlapping fashion.

Cette thèse se focalise sur quatre aspects de la dynamique des réformes financières, qu'elle catégorise en deux parties. La première partie analyse d'une part, l'effet de la cohérence financière sur l'afflux de capitaux étrangers et d'autre part, la relation entre le sentier de croissance et la trajectoire de réformes financières adoptée par les pays. La seconde partie utilise un cadre coût-bénéfice pour évaluer si le comportement des décideurs politiques en matière de réformes est inspirée de la dynamique d'une frontière spécifique de libéralisation; elle analyse aussi dans quelle mesure les phénomènes d'apprentissage ainsi que l'évolution des croyances des décideurs politiques à propos de l'effet de la libéralisation après l'effondrement du système de Bretton Woods contribuent à l'explication de la dynamique des réformes financières dans les pays. Le premier chapitre évalue l'analyse de la complémentarité des réformes financières sur l'afflux de capitaux étrangers. Dans ce chapitre, nous analysons la relation entre la cohérence du système de réformes financières et l'afflux de capitaux étrangers (investissements directs étrangers et investissements portefeuille). Nos résultats suggèrent que la manière dont les réformes financières ont été mises en oeuvre affecte significativement les afflux de capitaux étrangers. Le chapitre 2 de cette thèse analyse comment le sentier ou la trajectoire complète de réformes financières poursuivies par les pays pourrait influencer leur sentier de croissance. Il est basé sur l'idée pertinente de séquençage des réformes avancé par Dewatripont et Roland (1994). Le troisième chapitre de cette partie examine si les pays apprennent à partir d'une norme spécifique de la libéralisation financière et évalue comment le gain de croissance de la libéralisation est affectée dans ce contexte. Les principaux résultats sont que lorsque les pays atteignent la frontière (mondiale ou régionale) de libéralisation, ils obtiennent de meilleurs résultats en terme de croissance du PIB ainsi que la stabilité financière. Le quatrième chapitre explore comment la dynamique des politiques à l'égard des marchés financiers est expliquée par l'apprentissage et par l'évolution des croyances des décideurs à propos des effets de la libéralisation du compte de capital. Nous trouvons que les croyances des décideurs quant aux effets sur la croissance des politiques à l'égard des marchés financiers ont évolué de façon non linéaire. / This thesis focuses on four aspects of financial reforms dynamics which could be categorized into two parts. The first part analyzes the effect of the coherence of financial reforms of international capital inflows and the relation between the path of economic growth and the trajectory of financial reforms followed by countries. The second part uses a cost-benefit framework to analyze whether countries learn from a normative financial liberalization frontier; and shows how learning and the evolution of beliefs have contributed to explained financial markets'policy choices after the collapse of Bretton Woods' system. The first chapter evaluates how financial reforms' complementarity affects international capital inflows. The empirical results suggest that the manner in which financial reforms are implemented matters. Particularly, complementarity increases FDI inflows by 0.10 %. The second chapter analyzes how the full trajectory or sequence of financial reforms followed by countries affects their growth path. It is based on a very relevant argument for sequencing reforms puts--forward by Dewatripont and Roland (1994). We find that the trajectory of financial reforms followed by countries affects the level of GDP per capita growth. The third chapter of this part investigates whether countries learn from a specific norm. The main results are that when countries reach the time specific world (or regional) frontier of liberalization, they perform better in terms of GDP per capita growth as well as financial stability •of financial liberalization and evaluates how the growth payoff of liberalization is affected. The fourth chapter explores how the dynamics of policies towards capital (financial) markets are explained by learning and by the evolution of policymakers beliefs about the effects of capital control or capital account liberalization strategies. We find that policymakers' beliefs about the growth effects of policies towards financial markets evolve non-linearly and that radical changes policymakers' beliefs about the superiority of capital account liberalization policies take time.

The Utah Department of Transportation developed life-cycle benefit-cost analysis spreadsheets that allow engineers and analysts to evaluate multiple safety countermeasures. The spreadsheets have included the functionality to evaluate a roadway based on the 11 facility types from the Highway Safety Manual (HSM) with the use of crash severity distributions. The HSM suggests that local agencies develop crash severity distributions based on their local crash data. The Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Brigham Young University worked with the Statistics Department to develop crash severity distributions for the facility types from the HSM.The primary objective of this research was to utilize available roadway characteristic and crash data to develop crash severity distributions for the 11 facility types in the HSM. These objectives were accomplished by segmenting the roadway data based on homogeneity and developing statistical models to determine the distributions. Due to insufficient data, the facility types of freeway speed change lanes and freeway ramps were excluded from the scope of this research. In order to accommodate more roadways within the research, the facility type definitions were expanded to include more through lanes.The statistical models that were developed for this research include multivariate regression, frequentist binomial regression, frequentist multinomial, and Bayesian multinomial regression models. A cross-validation study was conducted to determine the models that best described the data. Bayesian Information Criterion, Deviance Information Criterion, and Root-Mean-Square Error values were compared to conduct the comparison. Based on the cross-validation study, it was determined that the Bayesian multinomial regression model is the most effective model to describe the crash severity distributions for the nine facility types evaluated.

What do hip-huggers, HEMI engines, and behind-the-ear (BTE) hearing aids have in common? Not a whole lot except that all three were trendy in the 1960s and 1970s, then fell into decline, and now, in the new millennium, are selling like those proverbial hotcakes! They have also all come back in somewhat different forms. Chrysler's new HEMI engine, introduced in 2002, is a little smaller than that of yesteryear. The old hip-huggers have been reincarnated as “low-rise jeans.” And the BTE's return to dominance of the hearing aid market has been fueled by the appearance of smaller instruments with open-canal (OC) fittings, beginning in 2003 with the GN ReSound Air®. Today, every manufacturer offers smaller BTEs, mostly fitted with an open canal, and often categorized under new names, such as post-auricular-canal, over-the-ear, and mini- and micro-BTEs. This new breed of products is also showing up in an amazing range of shapes and colors, as that old industry dream of stylish hearing aids is finally coming true. The Hearing Industries Association (HIA), the main source of U.S. market sales data, recently reported that 51.45% of all hearing aids sold in 2007 were of some BTE style. However, it remains uncertain how much of the boom in BTE sales has resulted from smaller open-fit BTE hearing aids, herein referred to as OC mini-BTEs. To find out the extent of the OC mini-BTE boom—and also what dispensers and their patients think of this product type—the 2008 Hearing Journal/AudiologyOnline (HJ/AO) survey included a special section of 10 questions for audiologists, hearing instrument specialists, and other hearing professionals about their experiences with and opinions on these devices. The survey also included questions on many other topics, which will be reported on next month. But this Cover Story focuses on what our survey learned about OC mini-BTEs—their popularity and their perceived benefits and drawbacks. First though, here's a quick look at how the survey was conducted and who took part.

Motor vehicle inspection and maintenance (I/M) programs are designed to identify high-emitting vehicles and mitigate their impacts on air quality and climate. I/M programs have been traditionally ranked superior among various vehicle emission control measures by the results of cost-benefit analysis, based on the assumption that these programs will achieve the targeted emission reduction outcomes. However, the actual effects of I/M programs may be greatly uncertain and when this uncertainty is taken into account, these programs may become suboptimal. This study develops a new a cost-benefit analysis framework that links various program design consideration, such as program participation rate, identification rate and effective repair rate, to the public health benefits as well as costs of the programs. This framework helps decision makers to investigate minimum implementation requirements that at least ensure the benefits are greater than the costs of implementing the programs in order to improve the overall effectiveness of the I/M programs. To illustrate the applications of the framework, it was applied to a particulate matter oriented I/M program targeting all diesel-fueled vehicles in the city of Bangkok, Thailand, a large metropolitan area that has been suffering from severe ambient PM pollution mainly attributable to its wide use of diesel-fueled vehicles and motorcycles. It was found that the health benefits achieved from the program are sensitive to several key program design elements, including participation rate and problem vehicle identification rate, fraction of effective repairs and illegal operation rate. Other variables, such as the testing cut-points and vehicle population growth rate, only have modest effects on the overall emission reduction and consequent health benefits. Overall, the performance of multiple variables associated with I/M program design needs to be improved simultaneous in order to achieve the targeted benefits of the program.

La vaccination représente l'un des grands succès des stratégies de santé publique. Cependant, depuis leur introduction, les vaccins ont fait l’objet de controverses. Des polémiques médiatiques ont contribué à ébranler la confiance que les citoyens portent dans la vaccination et les autorités sanitaires. Une communication transparente et fondée sur une démonstration robuste du rapport bénéfice-risque des vaccins est donc nécessaire afin d’éclairer les décisions des autorités de santé et rétablir la confiance du grand public et des professionnels de santé.Les modèles quantitatifs pour l’évaluation du rapport bénéfice-risque (qBRm) sont de plus en plus utilisés par les parties prenantes comme outils d’aide à la décision. Ces modèles fournissent une structure permettant d’incorporer des données provenant de plusieurs sources afin de quantifier et de mettre en perspective les bénéfices et les risques d’une intervention. Cependant, les autorités de santé et les laboratoires pharmaceutiques se préoccupent du manque de cadre explicite et systématique. Des initiatives se développent afin d’optimiser l’évaluation quantitative du rapport bénéfice-risque des produits de santé. Néanmoins, peu d’entre elles sont spécifiques aux vaccins.Au vu de ce contexte, ce travail de recherche avait pour vocation de proposer et de tester de nouveaux outils permettant de structurer l’évaluation quantitative du bénéfice-risque des vaccins afin d’optimiser son utilisation dans l’aide à la décision des différentes parties prenantes.Pour cela, l’objectif de la première partie de ce travail était de synthétiser les données disponibles sur les qBRm appliqués aux vaccins afin de les analyser. L’état de l’art effectué a confirmé que les qBRm étaient de plus en plus utilisés pour aider à l’évaluation du bénéfice-risque des vaccins. Les chiffres montrent une nette augmentation du nombre de publications dans ce domaine depuis le début des années 2000. Un tiers des qBRm identifiés concernait la vaccination contre le rotavirus. Cependant aucune de ces études sur le rotavirus n’avait été développée spécifiquement pour la France. L’analyse des études sélectionnées a mis en évidence des divergences en termes d’approches méthodologiques utilisées et des lacunes concernant la qualité de l’information renseignée dans les études, rendant l’interprétation et la comparaison des modèles complexes.Au cours de la deuxième partie de ce travail nous nous sommes donc attachés à proposer des axes d’amélioration. Tout d’abord nous avons conçu un guide pour améliorer la description des analyses afin d’apporter plus de transparence et de garantir ainsi une meilleure interprétation des résultats sur les qBRm appliqués aux vaccins. Puis, en l’absence d’évaluation quantitative du rapport bénéfice-risque de la vaccination contre le rotavirus en France et compte tenu des interrogations existantes autour de son intérêt, nous avons réalisé un qBRm évaluant la vaccination contre le rotavirus en France. Enfin, nous avons souhaité explorer l’utilisation d’un nouvel outil de modélisation pour le développement de qBRm appliqués aux vaccins : le Discretely Integrated Condition Event (DICE). Le DICE constitue un outil standardisé qui pourrait être utilisé par toutes les parties prenantes. L’application d’une telle interface commune à tous les qBRm pourrait faciliter leur conception, leur analyse et leur comparaison.Cependant, ces axes d’amélioration ne constituent qu’un point de départ des efforts nécessaires à réaliser pour l’évaluation du rapport bénéfice-risque des vaccins. De nouvelles initiatives sont essentielles afin de poursuivre la généralisation des qBRm appliqués aux vaccins, tout en les rendant plus performants et assortis de résultats robustes et transparents. Ces étapes semblent nécessaires pour rétablir la confiance en la vaccination et améliorer les couvertures vaccinales, assurant ainsi une protection optimale des populations face à des maladies infectieuses. / Vaccination is one of the most successful public health achievements in disease prevention. However, since their introduction, vaccines have been relatively contentious. Health controversies have contributed to erode the population’s confidence in vaccination and health authorities. A transparent communication based on a robust demonstration of the benefit-risk assessment (BRA) of vaccines could be therefore necessary to inform decision-makers and restore the public’s confidence.Quantitative benefit-risk models (qBRm) applied on vaccines is an important, and increasingly used, tool to support the BRA from decision-makers. These models provide a structure for incorporating evidence from multiple sources to quantify and put into perspective the benefits and risks of an intervention. However, health authorities and pharmaceutical companies are concerned about the lack of an explicit and systematic framework. While some initiatives that aims at optimising the BRA of health products are emerging, few of them are specific to vaccines. In this context, our research aimed to propose and test new tools to structure qBRm applied on vaccines in order to optimise them use in the decision-making process from different stakeholders. The first part of this work aimed at identifying publications reporting on qBRm for vaccines through a systematic literature review and describing their study characteristics according to specific classification criteria. The analyses confirmed that the number of qBRm of vaccines publications has been increasing since 2000. One-third of the qBRm publications were related to rotavirus vaccination. However, none of these studies on rotavirus vaccination had been performed to specifically address the French context. The analysis of the selected studies revealed divergences in terms of the methodological approaches used and gaps in the granularity of information reported, making complex the interpretation and comparison of the models. In the second part of this research, we therefore endeavoured to propose areas for improvement. To start with, we designed an operational checklist to improve the reporting of qBRm applied on vaccines. Indeed, an adequate reporting is key to ensure a transparent disclosure of the analysis and its reproducibility, thereby facilitating study result interpretation and comparability. Then, to palliate for the absence of qBRm applied on rotavirus vaccination and given the historical context in France, we developed our own qBRm. Finally, we tested a new alternative for designing and structuring qBRm applied on vaccines: the Discretely Integrated Condition Event (DICE) simulation. DICE is a standardised tool that could be used by every stakeholder. The systematic use of such common interface to qBRm could facilitate their design, analysis and comparison. Nevertheless, these areas for improvement are only a starting point, further initiatives are essential to continue the uptake of qBRm applied on vaccines, while making them more efficient, with robust and transparent results. These steps, although not exclusive, seem necessary to enhance public confidence in vaccination and improve vaccine coverage, ensuring as a result an optimal protection of population against infectious diseases.