Hepatitis B is a serious global health problem with over 2 billion people infected worldwide and 350 million suffering from chronic hepatitis B (CHB) infection. Infection can lead to chronic hepatitis, cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) accounting for 320,000 deaths per year. Numerous treatments are available, but with a growing number of therapies each with considerable trade-offs, the optimal treatment strategy is not transparent. This dissertation investigates the relative efficacy of treatments for CHB and estimates the health related quality of life (HRQOL) and health utilities of mild to advanced CHB patients. A systematic review of published randomized controlled trials comparing surrogate outcomes for the first year of treatment was performed. Bayesian mixed treatment comparison meta-analysis was used to synthesize odds ratios, including 95% credible intervals and predicted probabilities of each outcome comparing all currently available treatments in HBeAg-positive and/or HBeAg-negative CHB patients. Among HBeAg-positive patients, tenofovir and entecavir were most effective, while in HBeAg-negative patients, tenofovir was the treatment of choice. Health state utilities and HRQOL for patients with CHB stratified by disease stage were elicited from patients attending tertiary care clinics at the University Health Network in Toronto. Respondents completed the standard gamble, EQ5D, Health Utilities Index Mark 3 (HUI3), Short-Form 36 version-2 and a demographics survey in their preferred language of English, Cantonese or Mandarin. Patient charts were accessed to determine disease stage and co-morbidities. The study included 433 patients of which: 294 had no cirrhosis, 79 had compensated cirrhosis, 7 had decompensated cirrhosis, 23 had HCC and 30 had received liver transplants. Mean standard gamble utilities were 0.89, 0.87, 0.82, 0.84 and 0.86 for the respective disease stages. HRQOL in CHB patients was only impaired at later stages of disease. Neither chronic infection nor antiviral treatment lowered HRQOL. Patients with CHB do not experience lower HRQOL as seen in patients with hepatitis C. The next step in this area of research is to incorporate the estimates synthesized by the current studies into a decision model evaluating the cost-effectiveness of treatment to provide guidance on the optimal therapy for patients with HBeAg-positive and HBeAg-negative CHB.

Hepatitis B is a serious global health problem with over 2 billion people infected worldwide and 350 million suffering from chronic hepatitis B (CHB) infection. Infection can lead to chronic hepatitis, cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) accounting for 320,000 deaths per year. Numerous treatments are available, but with a growing number of therapies each with considerable trade-offs, the optimal treatment strategy is not transparent. This dissertation investigates the relative efficacy of treatments for CHB and estimates the health related quality of life (HRQOL) and health utilities of mild to advanced CHB patients. A systematic review of published randomized controlled trials comparing surrogate outcomes for the first year of treatment was performed. Bayesian mixed treatment comparison meta-analysis was used to synthesize odds ratios, including 95% credible intervals and predicted probabilities of each outcome comparing all currently available treatments in HBeAg-positive and/or HBeAg-negative CHB patients. Among HBeAg-positive patients, tenofovir and entecavir were most effective, while in HBeAg-negative patients, tenofovir was the treatment of choice. Health state utilities and HRQOL for patients with CHB stratified by disease stage were elicited from patients attending tertiary care clinics at the University Health Network in Toronto. Respondents completed the standard gamble, EQ5D, Health Utilities Index Mark 3 (HUI3), Short-Form 36 version-2 and a demographics survey in their preferred language of English, Cantonese or Mandarin. Patient charts were accessed to determine disease stage and co-morbidities. The study included 433 patients of which: 294 had no cirrhosis, 79 had compensated cirrhosis, 7 had decompensated cirrhosis, 23 had HCC and 30 had received liver transplants. Mean standard gamble utilities were 0.89, 0.87, 0.82, 0.84 and 0.86 for the respective disease stages. HRQOL in CHB patients was only impaired at later stages of disease. Neither chronic infection nor antiviral treatment lowered HRQOL. Patients with CHB do not experience lower HRQOL as seen in patients with hepatitis C. The next step in this area of research is to incorporate the estimates synthesized by the current studies into a decision model evaluating the cost-effectiveness of treatment to provide guidance on the optimal therapy for patients with HBeAg-positive and HBeAg-negative CHB.

50 procent av alla polisanmälda våldsbrott alkoholpåverkan. Orsaker till detta samband kan vara att när ungdomar är påverkade av alkohol förändras deras förstående och missförstånd uppkommer ofta. Detta kan leda till våldsituationer. Forskning visar på att ungefär hälften av alla våldsbrott sker av ungdomar mellan 15 och 20 år och att flertalet av brotten är under alkoholpåverkan. I vår studie undersöks samband mellan alkoholpåverkan och våld eller våldsbrott hos ungdomar mellan 15 och 20 år. Det undersöks om det finns något samband eller om det finns andra orsaker till att våld förekommer i samhället. Undersökningen genomförs genom en meta-analys, vilket, där databaserna Academic Search Elite samt Eric (via CSA) genomsöks. 15 artiklar valdes slutligen ut och det är dessa som resultatet i studien grundar sig på. Resultatet i denna studie visar att det finns ett samband mellan alkoholpåverkan och våld. Forskarna är oense om hur starkt detta samband är. Flera av forskarna visar att det är ett starkt samband mellan alkoholpåverkan och våld och visar att ju mer ungdomarna dricker, ju mer våldsamma blir de. I motsats till det finns det forskning som inte finner något speciellt samband mellan alkohol och våld. Det är fler orsaker till våld än just alkohol och till exempel rökning och svag kontakt med föräldrar har lika stor anknytning till våld som alkohol.

Although the benefits of reusing services have been widely acknowledged, composing existing services to realize different user requirements is still a difficult and time consuming task. There have been research works on workflow templates and service design patterns that offer a higher level of reuse and assist in the composition process. Yet existing workflow templates are too specific and service design patterns may be too abstract and their effectiveness in assisting the composition process may be limited. In this dissertation, we propose a comprehensive service pattern model that is more flexible than existing workflow/service templates while allowing systematic instantiation into some concrete workflows. The service pattern supports flow control, abstract services, and prospect services (similar to a node in a design pattern). Also, we develop a set of reasoning rules to automatically verify and determine the assignment of instantiation parameters in service pattern. In addition, recent research into automated Web service composition focuses on control flow specification and enforcement. Traditionally, message mismatch between Web services appears as an orthogonal problem that can be solved using XML-based query languages. This study instead considers Web service composition and message manipulation holistically to support greater optimization of Web service composition. A proposed model, the WS-data model, focuses on data exchanges in composing Web services. Several operators with varying properties can be used to compose Web services and manipulate their input and output data. Experiments conducted on the Amazon Cloud platform show that these operators¡¦ properties can be used to develop a more efficient way for realizing a complex task, expressed according to the proposed WS-data model. It is hoped that the proposed models and automated reasoning of instantiation parameters assignment will realize the benefits of SOA in the real business settings.

Using meta-analysis, the current paper reveals a modest difference between Black and White employees in terms of job satisfaction (d = -0.13; k = 65; N = 29,560). Several potential moderators of this relationship were investigated, but only two were supported: the proportion of Black employees in the organization and historical time period (i.e., year of publication and year of data collection). Specifically, Black employees tend to be relatively more satisfied when their proportional representation is larger and White employees have tended to be relatively more satisfied than Black employees over the years, with maximal White advantage occurring at the present day. This study further attempts to investigate race effects on job satisfaction through mediational analysis, with job complexity as the mediator. This analysis at the individual level does not support job complexity as a mediator. Further analyses involving race and job complexity at the job level of analysis show promise but are not fleshed out in detail. Results are discussed in light of both the job characteristics model and frame-of-reference (Cornell model) explanations for the origin of job satisfaction.

The purpose of this study was to review the empirical research evidence on the effect of teacher certification on student achievement. An exploratory meta-analysis was conducted on studies that examined the effect of fully certified and less-than-fully certified teachers on student achievement. The meta-analysis focused on the areas of mathematics, science and reading and explored trends across areas of achievement, school level and research design. The study was directed towards (a) a synthesis of findings, and (b) recommendations for future research and policy decisions.The meta-analysis population consisted of five individual studies that generated twenty-seven effect size estimates. Three studies utilized either an individual level or class level of analysis and yielded twelve mean difference effect size estimates. Two studies utilized either a school or state level of analysis and yielded fifteen correlational effect size estimates. The majority of findings in mathematics favor the positive effect of fully certified teachers. In science, the findings pointed towards equivalent levels of student achievement for fully certified and less-than fully certified teachers. All the findings associated with reading favored the positive effect of fully certified teachers. It appears that certification may be more crucial to student achievement in reading and mathematics than in science. Across school levels, the overall trend suggests that full certification may be more crucial to student achievement in elementary school than middle or high school. Across levels of analysis and research design, studies that utilize an aggregate level of analysis yield a greater number of positive study outcomes than designs conducted at the individual or class level. A key finding is that given the specifications of the meta-analysis, direct evidence of the relationship between certification and student achievement is limited to five peer-reviewed, published studies. Additional findings illuminated several issues that are vital to improving the quantity and quality of research on teacher certification. Eight specific recommendations were directed towards academic researchers who plan to study the topic. Four recommendations are directed towards policy-makers at the state and federal level who are involved in setting standards and planning legislation for educator preparation.

El problema de corte y empaquetado en dos dimensiones, es un problema NP- difícil perteneciente a la familia de problemas de la optimización combinatoria. El problema combinatorio estriba en la gran cantidad de patrones de corte que puede construirse a partir de un número determinado de requerimientos y un conjunto de objetos los cuales deben ser cortados para satisfacer estos. Este problema es muy importante debido a la gran cantidad de aplicaciones que tiene en la industria. En este trabajo presentamos un estudio de los diferentes métodos que resuelven el problema, clasificándolos por métodos exactos, heurísticas y meta heurísticas. También presentamos conceptos, modelos del problema y las relaciones con otros problemas combinatorios. / Two dimensional cutting and packing problems is NP-hard, it belong to the family of problems of the optimization combinatory. This problem is based in the great amount of cut patterns that can be constructed from a determined number of requirements and a set of objects which must be cut to satisfy these. This problem is very important because it presents enormous applicability in the industry. In this work we presented a study of the different methods that solve the problem, classifying them by exact methods, heuristic and meta heuristic. Also we presented concepts, models and the relations with other combinatory problems.

Thesis (M.S.)--Florida State University, 2003. / Advisor: Dr. Thomas E. Joiner, Florida State University, College of Arts and Sciences, Dept. of Psychology. Title and description from dissertation home page (viewed Mar. 02, 2003). Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2003. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references. Available also from UMI Company.

It is widely agreed that ontological reduction is possible, that the ontology of one theory can be shown to be nothing over and above the ontology of a distinct theory. However, it is also widely agreed that one assesses a theory’s ontology by determining what it says there is. I show that there is a tension between these orthodox positions. To resolve this tension, I propose and defend the view that the ontological commitments of a statement are sensitive to the theory in which it is embedded. / text