C-reactive protein--a screening test for coronary disease?

C-reactive protein (CRP) is one of a number of substances termed "acute phase reactants," biologic substances that appear in the circulation when an active inflammatory process occurs. Although traditionally used to monitor or detect major infectious or inflammatory conditions, elevations of CRP levels within the conventional range of "normals" has been intensively studied as a marker for coronary disease and risk of future coronary events. Sensitive assays that can be performed on a high-volume, commercial basis are now available. CRP appears to be a valuable marker for the prediction of future events in individuals who have known coronary artery disease. CRP has been proposed as a coronary disease-screening test for healthy individuals; however, available data suggest that use of CRP in this context may be premature. This paper reviews published research concerning CRP and the prediction of cardiovascular and total mortality risk, then outlines the current "state of the art" for the application of CRP to the risk assessment process.     

Perron's stability theorem for non-linear mappings

Perron's theorem on positive matrices including its stability statement is extended to non-linear mappings which need neither additive nor homogeneous nor primitive. This generalizes known results and yields in particular a concave version of Perron's theorem. The theorem may be applied to balanced growth in non-linear systems and also to obtain a dynamic non-substitution theorem for general cost functions.     

Marfan syndrome: literature review of mortality studies

Marfan syndrome is an autosomal dominant heritable disorder of fibrous connective tissue due to mutation in the fibrillin-1 gene, located on chromosome 15. Early mortality from Marfan syndrome results from aortic dilatation. The medical literature contains long-term follow-up series of patients with Marfan syndrome accrued at major medical centers that address overall survival following surgical intervention, and prognosis in relation to certain risk factors such as family history and aortic root diameter. Mortality analyses based on these data are presented in this paper. Advances in surgical and medical therapy have improved mortality of affected individuals over the past 2-3 decades. However, significant mortality occurs, peaking in the third and fourth decades of life. Although surgery is successful treatment of aortic dissection, one cannot conclude that surgical repair confers a mortality advantage. Emergency surgery and history of aortic complications in first-degree relatives are associated with a higher mortality. Chronic beta-blocker therapy may slow the rate of aortic dilatation and may be associated with more favorable prognosis. Clinical research evaluating beta-blockade, echo assessment of the aortic root diameter progression, and gene mutation analysis may provide tools useful for future morality assessments.     

Gestiegene Einkommensungleichheit in Deutschland

Seit dem Jahr 2000 ist in Deutschland ein markanter Anstieg der Ungleichheit der Einkommen der privaten Haushalte zu beobachten. Damit verbunden haben sich auch die Armutsrisiken deutlich erh?ht. Welche Ursachen haben zu dem Anstieg der Einkommensungleichheit geführt? Welche Entwicklungen sind bei den individuellen Erwerbseinkommen der Personen im erwerbsf?higen Alter zu verzeichnen und welche Auswirkungen haben diese auf die Verteilung der Haushaltseinkommen in der Bev?lkerung insgesamt? Dr. Jan Goebel, 36, ist wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter am Sozio-oekonomischen Panel, DIW Berlin; Dr. Peter Krause, 51, ist dort wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter und Lehrbeauftragter am Institut für Soziologie der FU Berlin.     

International maritime transport and climate policy

The contribution of international maritime transport to anthropogenic climate change has so far attracted little attention. This may be expected to change in the near future due to both ongoing research and the political processs. The present article looks at the relevant trends in international maritime transport and discusses both the greenhouse gas emissions from shipping and the possible repercussions of climate change on shipping. It concludes with an overview of policies and measures that should be implemented to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions from shipping in a cost-efficient way.     

Sustainability ‘wars’ in a New England town

A research project into large group decision-making in a New England Town Meeting surprised us with the degree to which sustainability came to be the axis around which political debate revolved. We identified two very different yet overlapping conceptions of sustainability: one emphasized fiscal responsibility; the other asserted the merits of environmental stewardship. Each of the two conceptions had proponents, with strong views about what constituted good versus bad governing practices, each with a strong sense of what was good for the town. In this paper, we sort out those meanings. We seek to understand and expose the contours of sustainability, how the discourses around sustainability enter political processes, and to shed light on ongoing debates about the form of governance best suited for a democratically inclined New England town. Methods involved both quantitative and qualitative approaches, including data collection and analysis activities that comprised four levels: (1) participant observation of the Town Meeting; (2) quantitative analysis of voting behaviors; (3) interviews with 30 of the 240 members of the Town Meeting; and (4) thematic analysis, codebook development, and coding. Finally, in the spirit of contributing to the making of a future possible world, the authors ponder the courses forward for democratic processes and the future of a town caught in a ‘pitched battle’ over the terms and stakes of sustainability.     

Replication and preregistration

Quality & Quantity - Replicability of an experiment’s results is necessary for relying on its results but is extremely difficult to achieve. The difficulty is that besides having the same...     

Randomness is problematic for social science research purposes

Quality & Quantity - Mathematically defined random chance requires that every possible alternative sampling or assignment outcome has an equal or known probability of occurring. This is very...