The subject developed in my thesis relates to the "Exclusions from prohibition of quantitative restrictions". The origin of these exclusions can be found in the internal market law and more precisely in the free movement of goods. The free movement of goods is one of the four fundamental freedoms on which is based the internal market of the European Union. The free movement of goods is ensured by removing fiscal and non-fiscal barriers that hinder trade between Member States and which are prohibited between Member States. The fiscal barriers involve the prohibition between Member States of customs duties, all charges having equivalent effect and other fiscal barriers such as internal taxations. The non fiscal barriers involve direct quantitative restrictions which are quotas and bans, as well as measures having equivalent effect to quantitative restrictions (MEE). These non fiscal barriers are prohibited but they can be justified in some cases. Direct quantitative restrictions almost disappeared while measures having equivalent effect to quantitative restrictions may exist in various forms and variations. Measures having equivalent effect on imports are prohibited by the article 34 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU. Moreover, measures having equivalent effect on exports are prohibited by...

Background: Improving coordination of care is a major challenge for health systems internationally. Tools are required to evaluate alternative approaches to improve coordination from the patient perspective. This study aimed to develop and validate a new measure of coordination for use in a primary care setting. Methods: Four methods were used. Firstly, a concept analysis was undertaken to identify the essential attributes of coordination drawing upon literature from health and organisational studies and to establish its boundaries with related concepts such as continuity of care, integration and patient centred care. Secondly, existing measures of coordination were reviewed to assess the extent to which item content reflected the definition arising from the concept analysis and to appraise psychometric properties. Thirdly, a new instrument, the Care Coordination Questionnaire (CCQ), was developed utilising items from existing questionnaires and others developed following focus groups with 30 patients. Ten cognitive interviews were used to evaluate the items generated. Finally, the CCQ was administered in a cross sectional survey to 980 patients. Item and model analyses were performed. Test-retest reliability was evaluated through a second administration of the CCQ after two weeks. Concurrent validity was evaluated through correlation with the Client Perceptions of Coordination Questionnaire (CPCQ). Construct validity was evaluated through correlation with responses to a global coordination item and a satisfaction scale and the testing of two a prior hypotheses: i) coordination scores would decrease with increasing numbers of providers and ii) coordination scores would decrease with increasing numbers of long-term conditions. Results: The concept analysis suggested that coordination should be considered as a process for the organisation of patient care characterised by: purposeful activity, information exchange, knowledge of roles and responsibilities, and responsiveness to change. The systematic review identified 5 existing measures of coordination and a further 10 measures which incorporated a coordination subscale. Only one demonstrated conceptual coverage but had poor psychometric properties. A new instrument was therefore developed and tested as described above. 299 completed surveys were returned. Respondents were predominantly elderly and of white ethnicity; approximately half were female. Five items were deleted following item analyses. Model analysis suggested a four factor two-level model of coordination comprising of 18 items. This correlated well with the CPCQ, the global coordination item and satisfaction scale. The a priori hypotheses were upheld. Retest reliability was acceptable at the patient group level. Conclusions: The CCQ has demonstrated good psychometric characteristics in terms of item responses, reliability and construct validity. Further exploration of these properties is required in a larger, more diverse sample before it can be recommended for widespread use, but it shows potential utility in the evaluation of different approaches to coordinating care.

Consider a multidimensional shift space with a countably infinite alphabet, which serves in mathematical physics as a classical lattice gas or lattice spin system. A new definition of a Gibbs measure is introduced for suitable real-valued functions of the configuration space, which play the physical role of specific internal energy. The variational principle is proved for a large class of functions, and then a more restrictive modulus of continuity condition is provided that guarantees a function's Gibbs measures to be a nonempty, weakly compact, convex set of measures that coincides with the set of measures obeying a form of the DLR equations (which has been adapted so as to be stated entirely in terms of specific internal energy instead of the Hamiltonians for an interaction potential). The variational equilibrium measures for a such a function are then characterized as the shift invariant Gibbs measures of finite entropy, and a condition is provided to determine if a function's Gibbs measures have infinite entropy or not. Moreover the spatially averaged limiting Gibbs measures, i.e. constructive equilibria, are shown to exist and their weakly closed convex hull is shown to coincide with the set of true variational equilibrium measures. It follows that the "pure thermodynamic phases", which correspond to the extreme points in the convex set of equilibrium measures, must be constructive equilibria. Finally, for an even smoother class of functions a method is presented to construct a compatible interaction potential and it is checked that the two different structures generate the same sets of Gibbs and equilibrium measures, respectively.

Let μ be a Radon probability measure on M, the d-dimensional Real Euclidean space (where d is a positive integer), and f a measurable function. Let P be the space of sequences whose coordinates are elements in M. Then, for any point x in M, define a function ƒn on M and P that looks at the first n terms of an element of P and evaluates f at the first of those n terms that minimizes the distance to x in M. The measures for which such sequences converge in measure to f for almost every sequence are called Mycielski-regular. We show that the self-similar measure generated by a finite family of contracting similitudes and which up to a constant is the Hausdorff measure in its dimension on an invariant set C is Mycielski-regular.

<div> <p>Research and clinical interest in self-compassion has grown due to its positive links with a variety of physical and psychological health outcomes. This burgeoning interest calls for measures of self-compassion that are theoretically supported and empirically validated. The purpose of this project was to (1) develop a new self-compassion measure, the Self-compassion Inventory (SCI), and (2) test its psychometric properties. To obtain feedback on potential SCI items, a cognitive interviewing study was completed with cancer patients (<i>n</i> = 10). Qualitative findings suggested that, in most cases, items were easily understood and participants’ reasoning for their responses aligned with the intention of each item. After altering certain items based on participant feedback, the scale was then tested with a group of adults with breast, gastrointestinal, lung, and prostate cancer (<i>n</i> = 404). Confirmatory factor analyses suggested a unidimensional structure and internal consistency reliability was excellent. Construct validity of the measure was established through correlations with other psychological variables hypothesized to be related to self-compassion. Evidence of the incremental validity of the SCI relative to the Self-Compassion Scale Short-Form (SCS-SF) also was obtained. For example, the SCI showed smaller correlations with negative psychological variables (e.g., depressive symptoms, anxiety) than the SCS-SF. In supplemental analyses, a 5-item version of the measure, the Brief Self-compassion Inventory (BSCI) was tested and found to have a unidimensional structure, excellent internal consistency, and evidence of validity. Furthermore, measurement invariance testing of the BSCI indicated that the measure could be used across populations of varying genders, cancer types, and stages of illness. Through robust testing, the SCI and BSCI were determined to be psychometrically sound and can be used in both clinical and research settings.<b></b></p> </div> <b><br></b>

The aim of this thesis is to design and describe a device for medical measurement of flow of urine.This work is divided in several parts. In the first part the problem is analysed and the first version of the devices is designed. In second part the final solution and build of the prototype is described. In the next part the manufacture and testing of the first series is outlined.

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An historical introduction is made tying authoritarianism with ambiguity tolerance. Ambiguity tolerance is a personality variable in its own right, often associated with authoritarianism yet remaining separate from it. Ambiguity intolerance is defined as the tendency to perceive and interpret information that is marked by vague, fragmented, incomplete, inconsistent, contradictory, or unclear meaning as actual or potential sources of psychological threat. Ambiguity tolerance is defined as the tendency to perceive ambiguous situations as challenging and desirable. Efforts to measure ambiguity tolerance have met with varied success, however, it was not until Norton (197S) developed the Measurement of Ambiguity Tolerance (MAT-50) that accurate measurement became a possibility. The present study presents data that provides some construct validity to the MAT-SO. College students were administered the MAT-SO and divided into two groups: tolerants and intolerants. It was hypothesized that individuals who were in the intolerant group would produce more anxiety (as measured by the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory) when presented with an ambiguous situation (the Rorschach inkblot test) than individuals in the tolerant group. The hypothesis was confirmed, individuals in the intolerant group displayed more state as well as trait anxiety than those in the tolerant group. Recommendations are made suggesting that future research use subjects from a less homogenous group.

Protective measures in Czech Civil Procedure Law Abstract This dissertation deals with the protective measures constituting a special type of the Czech civil procedure besides the proceedings on law finding, enforcement and insolvency. The theory refers to this sort of procedure as a set of procedural institutes that have little in common, except for the same basis residing in interim securing of rights or in securing effective exercise of rights. The author deals with the protective legal instruments as perceived by the predominant doctrine, which corresponds to the essence of the matter and to the legal regulation, that is to say, pre-trial reconciliation (also called a Praetorian reconciliation), preliminary measures (injunctions), pre-trial evidence and subject of the evidence securing, judicial (and also executor) lien and disturbed possession action. She emphasizes the general regulation of preliminary measures, but the submitted analysis is in a significant extent applicable as well to the preliminary measures under the Act on Special Court Proceedings. The objective of the dissertation is to present a complex work on the protective measures in Czech civil procedure law, currently absent in the Czech legal literature. The author has divided the dissertation into two parts - general and special. The...

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / STUDY 1: Objective: Stigma resistance is consistently linked with key recovery outcomes, yet theoretical work is limited. This study explored stigma resistance from the perspective of individuals with serious mental illness (SMI). Methods: Twenty-four individuals with SMI who were either peer-service-providers (those with lived experience providing services; n = 14) or consumers of mental health services (n = 10) engaged in semi-structured interviews regarding experiences with stigma, self-stigma, and stigma resistance, including key elements of this process and examples of situations in which they resisted stigma. Results: Stigma resistance is an ongoing, active process that involves using one’s experiences, knowledge, and sets of skills at the 1) personal, 2) peer, and 3) public levels. Stigma resistance at the personal level involves a) not believing stigma or catching and challenging stigmatizing thoughts, b) empowering oneself by learning about mental health and recovery, c) maintaining one’s recovery and proving stigma wrong, and d) developing a meaningful identity beyond mental illness. Stigma resistance at the peer level involves using one’s experiences to help others fight stigma and at the public level, resistance involved a) education, b) challenging stigma, c) disclosing one’s lived experience, and d) advocacy work. Discussion: Findings present a more nuanced conceptualization of resisting stigma, grounded in the experiences of people with SMI. Interventions should consider focusing on personal stigma resistance early on and increasing the incorporation of peers into services. STUDY 2: Background: Despite strong links between stigma resistance and recovery outcomes, limitations of existing measures of stigma resistance have contributed to this construct remaining largely under-studied. This study sought to develop and validate an improved measure of mental illness stigma resistance, grounded in the perspectives of people with lived experience. Method: An item pool was developed from qualitative interviews (Study 1) and items were piloted in an online MTurk sample with people self-reporting a mental illness diagnosis (n=489). Best performing items were selected and preliminary factor structure was examined using exploratory factor analysis in a subset of the sample (30%, n=161). The new measure was then administered to individuals at two state mental health consumer recovery conferences (n=202) and confirmatory factor analyses were conducted to assess factor structure and refine the measure. Validity of the new scale was then examined through correlations with theoretically relevant measures. Results: The EFA suggested possible models of either 1, 3, or 5 factors. CFA demonstrated that the 5-factor model best fit the remaining MTurk data (n=328) and this was replicated in the conference sample; these samples were then combined to refine the measure across a heterogeneous sample (n=530). The final 20-item measure demonstrated good internal consistency for the total score (.93) and each of the 5 subscales (.71 - .88), good test-retest reliability (.74), and strong construct validity. Discussion: This study produced an improved measure of stigma resistance with strong psychometric properties and construct validity. Use of this new measure will allow for a more nuanced assessment of stigma resistance across important domains of recovery.