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Reasonable Estimates (reasonable + estimate)
Selected AbstractsTIME TO THE MOST RECENT COMMON ANCESTOR AND DIVERGENCE TIMES OF POPULATIONS OF COMMON CHAFFINCHES (FRINGILLA COELEBS) IN EUROPE AND NORTH AFRICA: INSIGHTS INTO PLEISTOCENE REFUGIA AND CURRENT LEVELS OF MIGRATIONEVOLUTION, Issue 1 2002Cortland K. Griswold Abstract We analyzed sequences from a 275-bp hypervariable region in the 5, end of the mitochondrial DNA control region in 190 common chaffinches (Fringilla coelebs) from 19 populations in Europe and North Africa, including new samples from Greece and Morocco. Coalescent techniques were applied to estimate the time to the most recent common ancestor (TMRCA) and divergence times of these populations. The first objective of this study was to infer the locations of refugia where chaffinches survived the last glacial episode, and this was achieved by estimating the TMRCA of populations in regions surrounding the Mediterranean that were unglaciated in the late Pleistocene. Although extant populations in Iberia, Corsica, Greece, and North Africa harbor haplotypes that are basal in a phylogenetic tree, this information alone cannot be used to infer that these localities served as refugia, because it is impossible to infer the ages of populations and their divergence times without also considering the population genetic processes of mutation, migration, and drift. Provided we assume the TMRCAs of populations are a reasonable estimate of a population's age, coalescent-based methods place resident populations in Iberia, Corsica, Greece, and North Africa during the time of the last glacial maximum, suggesting these regions served as refugia for the common chaffinch. The second objective was to determine when populations began diverging from each other and to use this as a baseline to estimate current levels of gene flow. Divergence time estimates suggest that European populations began diverging about 60,000 years before present. The relatively recent divergence of populations in North Africa, Italy, and Iberia may explain why classic migration estimates based on equilibrium assumptions are high for these populations. We compare these estimates with nonequilibrium-based estimates and show that the nonequilibrium estimates are consistently lower than the equilibrium estimates. [source] The role of thermochemical sulfate reduction in the origin of Mississippi Valley-type deposits.GEOFLUIDS (ELECTRONIC), Issue 1 2008Abstract The kinetics of thermochemical sulfate reduction (TSR) were studied in experiments at 205,250°C, with determination of both sulfate and sulfide at intervals during the runs of up to 430 h. Analysis of the data indicates the reaction to have first-order kinetics, and extrapolating these data, plus data from the literature, to 150°C gives a range of possible rate constants from 100 to 10,4 year,1. Although the rate law has not been well established, a reasonable estimate allows calculation of the amount of sulfide ore formed as a function of flow conditions and time. It is here concluded that TSR could happen during the formation of Mississippi Valley-type ore deposits, subject to several caveats. [source] A test of two methods of radiographically deriving long bone cross-sectional properties compared to direct sectioning of the diaphysisINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF OSTEOARCHAEOLOGY, Issue 5 2002Jay T. Stock Abstract Numerous studies have made use of cross-sectional geometry to describe the distribution of cortical bone in long bone diaphyses. Several methods can be used to measure or estimate cross-sectional contours. Direct sectioning (DSM) of the diaphysis is not appropriate in most curatorial contexts, and is commonly substituted with methods based upon bi-planar radiography: a latex cast method (LCM) or an eccentric elliptical method (EEM). Previous studies have demonstrated that the EEM provides accurate estimates of area measurements, while providing less accurate estimates of second moments of area (Biknevicius & Ruff, 1992; Runestad et al., 1993; Lazenby, 1997). The LCM has been commonly employed, as a way to estimate section contours more accurately, yet the validity of this method has not been adequately documented. This study measures the agreement of these methods against DSM of long bone diaphyses using 21 sections of canine tibiae derived from a study of total hip arthroplasty. The accuracy and agreement of these methods is evaluated using reduced major axis regression, paired sample t-tests and tests for agreement (Bland & Altman, 1986). The results illustrate that the LCM provides a reasonable estimate of cross-sectional dimensions, producing cross-sectional properties that are on average within 5% of properties derived from the DSM. The EEM is found to provide adequate estimates of true cross-sectional areas, but poor estimates of second moments of area. The use of the LCM is supported for all cross-sectional properties, but the EEM is only accurate in total area, cortical area and percent cortical area estimates. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Characteristics of egg and larval production in captive bluespotted gobiesJOURNAL OF FISH BIOLOGY, Issue 5 2001L. A. Privitera Spawning of the Hawaiian coral-reef goby Asterropteryx semipunctata was diurnal, occurring at various times throughout the day. Mean length of eggs deposited in nests was 0·76 mm (range 0·67,0·84); mean egg width was 0·47 mm (range 0·41,0·52). Clutch size varied from 296 to 1552 eggs (mean=886±309), and was independent of standard length, total body weight, and body condition. Mean relative clutch size was 1·59 eggs mg -1 total body weight (range 0·84,2·43). Clutches hatched 4,5 nights after being deposited in a nest. Mean notochord length of newly-hatched larvae was 1·88 mm (range 1·60,2·04). The minimum period of time that elapsed between egg deposition and subsequent growth of a new batch of oocytes to spawning size was 5,6 days, providing a reasonable estimate of minimum spawning interval. Compared with other gobiids, tropical species tend to have shorter incubation periods, smaller eggs and smaller larvae at hatching. [source] Sea-surface temperature and salinity changes in the northwest Pacific since the Last Glacial MaximumJOURNAL OF QUATERNARY SCIENCE, Issue 4 2004Tadamichi Oba Abstract The oxygen isotope records of both benthic and planktonic Foraminifera in five piston cores, collected from the region between the Oyashio and Kuroshio Currents near Japan, clearly show the marked latitudinal shifts of these two currents during the past 25,kyr. Under the present hydrographic condition, a clear relationship between the sea-surface temperature (SST) and oxygen isotope differences from benthic to planktonic Foraminifera is observed in this region. Using this relationship, we find decreased SSTs of 12,13°C (maximum 15°C) in the southernmost core site at the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), indicating the Oyashio Current shifted southward. The SSTs at the southern two core sites abruptly increased more than 10°C at 10,11,ka, suggesting the Kuroshio Current shifted northward over these sites at 10,11,ka. In contrast, the northern two core sites have remained under the influence of the cold Oyashio Current for the past 25,kyr. With the reasonable estimate of bottom-water temperature decrease of 2.5°C at the LGM, the SSTs estimated by this new method give exactly the same SST values calculated from Mg/Ca ratio of planktonic Foraminifera, allowing palaeosea-surface salinities to be reconstructed. The result suggests that the ice volume effect was 1.0,±,0.1, at the LGM. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Inversion of the Williams syndrome region is a common polymorphism found more frequently in parents of children with Williams syndrome,AMERICAN JOURNAL OF MEDICAL GENETICS, Issue 2 2010Holly H. Hobart Abstract Williams syndrome (WS) is a multisystem disorder caused by deletion of about 1.55,Mb of DNA (including 26 genes) on chromosome 7q11.23, a region predisposed to recombination due to its genomic structure. Deletion of the Williams syndrome chromosome region (WSCR) occurs sporadically. To better define chance for familial recurrence and to investigate the prevalence of genomic rearrangements of the region, 257 children with WS and their parents were studied. We determined deletion size in probands by metaphase FISH, parent-of-origin of the deleted chromosome by molecular genetic methods, and inversion status of the WSCR in both parents by interphase FISH. The frequency of WSCR inversion in the transmitting parent group was 24.9%. In contrast, the rate of inversion in the non-transmitting parent group (a reasonable estimate of the rate in the general population) was 5.8%. There were no significant gender differences with respect to parent-of-origin for the deleted chromosome or the incidence of the inversion polymorphism. There was no difference in the rate of spontaneous abortion for mothers heterozygous for the WSCR inversion relative to mothers without the inversion. We calculate that for a parent heterozygous for a WSCR inversion, the chance to have a child with WS is about 1 in 1,750, in contrast to the 1 in 9,500 chance for a parent without an inversion. © 2010 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source] Estimation of Ultrafilter Performance Based on Characterization DataCHEMICAL ENGINEERING & TECHNOLOGY (CET), Issue 8 2007Reid A. Peterson Abstract Because of limited availability of test data with actual Hanford tank waste samples, a method was developed to estimate expected filtration performance based on physical characterization data for the Hanford Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant in Richland, Washington. A test with simulated waste was analyzed to demonstrate that filtration of this class of waste is consistent with a concentration polarization model. Subsequently, filtration data from actual waste samples were analyzed to demonstrate that centrifuged solids concentrations provide a reasonable estimate of the limiting concentration for filtration. [source] Consumption Over the Life CycleECONOMETRICA, Issue 1 2002Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas This paper estimates a structural model of optimal life-cycle consumption expenditures in the presence of realistic labor income uncertainty. We employ synthetic cohort techniques and Consumer Expenditure Survey data to construct average age-profiles of consumption and income over the working lives of typical households across different education and occupation groups. The model fits the profiles quite well. In addition to providing reasonable estimates of the discount rate and risk aversion, we find that consumer behavior changes strikingly over the life cycle. Young consumers behave as buffer-stock agents. Around age 40, the typical household starts accumulating liquid assets for retirement and its behavior mimics more closely that of a certainty equivalent consumer. Our methodology provides a natural decomposition of saving and wealth into its precautionary and life-cycle components. [source] Bootstrap simulations for evaluating the uncertainty associated with peaks-over-threshold estimates of extreme wind velocityENVIRONMETRICS, Issue 1 2003M. D. Pandey Abstract In the peaks-over-threshold (POT) method of extreme quantile estimation, the selection of a suitable threshold is critical to estimation accuracy. In practical applications, however, the threshold selection is not so obvious due to erratic variation of quantile estimates with minor changes in threshold. To address this issue, the article investigates the variation of quantile uncertainty (bias and variance) as a function of threshold using a semi-parametric bootstrap algorithm. Furthermore, the article compares the performance of L-moment and de Haan methods that are used for fitting the Pareto distribution to peak data. The analysis of simulated and actual U.S. wind speed data illustrates that the L-moment method can lead to almost unbiased quantile estimates for certain thresholds. A threshold corresponding to minimum standard error appears to provide reasonable estimates of wind speed extremes. It is concluded that the quantification of uncertainty associated with a quantile estimate is necessary for selecting a suitable threshold and estimating the design wind speed. For this purpose, semi-parametric bootstrap method has proved to be a simple, practical and effective tool. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] FIXATION OF NEW ALLELES AND THE EXTINCTION OF SMALL POPULATIONS: DRIFT LOAD, BENEFICIAL ALLELES, AND SEXUAL SELECTIONEVOLUTION, Issue 6 2000Michael C. Whitlock Abstract With a small effective population size, random genetic drift is more important than selection in determining the fate of new alleles. Small populations therefore accumulate deleterious mutations. Left unchecked, the effect of these fixed alleles is to reduce the reproductive capacity of a species, eventually to the point of extinction. New beneficial mutations, if fixed by selection, can restore some of this lost fitness. This paper derives the overall change in fitness due to fixation of new deleterious and beneficial alleles, as a function of the distribution of effects of new mutations and the effective population size. There is a critical effective size below which a population will on average decline in fitness, but above which beneficial mutations allow the population to persist. With reasonable estimates of the relevant parameters, this critical effective size is likely to be a few hundred. Furthermore, sexual selection can act to reduce the fixation probability of deleterious new mutations and increase the probability of fixing new beneficial mutations. Sexual selection can therefore reduce the risk of extinction of small populations. [source] Inducing safer oblique trees without costsEXPERT SYSTEMS, Issue 4 2005Sunil Vadera Abstract: Decision tree induction has been widely studied and applied. In safety applications, such as determining whether a chemical process is safe or whether a person has a medical condition, the cost of misclassification in one of the classes is significantly higher than in the other class. Several authors have tackled this problem by developing cost-sensitive decision tree learning algorithms or have suggested ways of changing the distribution of training examples to bias the decision tree learning process so as to take account of costs. A prerequisite for applying such algorithms is the availability of costs of misclassification. Although this may be possible for some applications, obtaining reasonable estimates of costs of misclassification is not easy in the area of safety. This paper presents a new algorithm for applications where the cost of misclassifications cannot be quantified, although the cost of misclassification in one class is known to be significantly higher than in another class. The algorithm utilizes linear discriminant analysis to identify oblique relationships between continuous attributes and then carries out an appropriate modification to ensure that the resulting tree errs on the side of safety. The algorithm is evaluated with respect to one of the best known cost-sensitive algorithms (ICET), a well-known oblique decision tree algorithm (OC1) and an algorithm that utilizes robust linear programming. [source] Do dams and levees impact nitrogen cycling?GLOBAL CHANGE BIOLOGY, Issue 8 2005Simulating the effects of flood alterations on floodplain denitrification Abstract A fundamental challenge in understanding the global nitrogen cycle is the quantification of denitrification on large heterogeneous landscapes. Because floodplains are important sites for denitrification and nitrogen retention, we developed a generalized floodplain biogeochemical model to determine whether dams and flood-control levees affect floodplain denitrification by altering floodplain inundation. We combined a statistical model of floodplain topography with a model of hydrology and nitrogen biogeochemistry to simulate floods of different magnitude. The model predicted substantial decreases in NO3 -N processing on floodplains whose overbank floods have been altered by levees and upstream dams. Our simulations suggest that dams may reduce nitrate processing more than setback levees. Levees increased areal floodplain denitrification rates, but this effect was offset by a reduction in the area inundated. Scenarios that involved a levee also resulted in more variability in N processing among replicate floodplains. Nitrate loss occurred rapidly and completely in our model floodplains. As a consequence, total flood volume and the initial mass of nitrate reaching a floodplain may provide reasonable estimates of total N processing on floodplains during floods. This finding suggests that quantifying the impact of dams and levees on floodplain denitrification may be possible using recent advances in remote sensing of floodplain topography and flood stage. Furthermore, when considering flooding over the long-term, the cumulative N processed by frequent smaller floods was estimated to be quite large relative to that processed by larger, less frequent floods. Our results suggest that floodplain denitrification may be greatly influenced by the pervasive anthropogenic flood-control measures that currently exist on most majors river floodplains throughout the world, and may have the potential to be impacted by future changes in flood probabilities that will likely occur as a result of climate shifts. [source] Modelling night-time ecosystem respiration by a constrained source optimization methodGLOBAL CHANGE BIOLOGY, Issue 2 2002Chun-Ta Lai Abstract One of the main challenges to quantifying ecosystem carbon budgets is properly quantifying the magnitude of night-time ecosystem respiration. Inverse Lagrangian dispersion analysis provides a promising approach to addressing such a problem when measured mean CO2 concentration profiles and nocturnal velocity statistics are available. An inverse method, termed ,Constrained Source Optimization' or CSO, which couples a localized near-field theory (LNF) of turbulent dispersion to respiratory sources, is developed to estimate seasonal and annual components of ecosystem respiration. A key advantage to the proposed method is that the effects of variable leaf area density on flow statistics are explicitly resolved via higher-order closure principles. In CSO, the source distribution was computed after optimizing key physiological parameters to recover the measured mean concentration profile in a least-square fashion. The proposed method was field-tested using 1 year of 30-min mean CO2 concentration and CO2 flux measurements collected within a 17-year-old (in 1999) even-aged loblolly pine (Pinus taeda L.) stand in central North Carolina. Eddy-covariance flux measurements conditioned on large friction velocity, leaf-level porometry and forest-floor respiration chamber measurements were used to assess the performance of the CSO model. The CSO approach produced reasonable estimates of ecosystem respiration, which permits estimation of ecosystem gross primary production when combined with daytime net ecosystem exchange (NEE) measurements. We employed the CSO approach in modelling annual respiration of above-ground plant components (c. 214 g C m,2 year,1) and forest floor (c. 989 g C m,2 year,1) for estimating gross primary production (c. 1800 g C m,2 year,1) with a NEE of c. 605 g C m,2 year,1 for this pine forest ecosystem. We conclude that the CSO approach can utilise routine CO2 concentration profile measurements to corroborate forest carbon balance estimates from eddy-covariance NEE and chamber-based component flux measurements. [source] Soft Mechanical Sensors Through Reverse Actuation in Polypyrrole,ADVANCED FUNCTIONAL MATERIALS, Issue 16 2007Y. Wu Abstract The phenomenon of voltage generated from a soft sensor using polypyrrole in response to mechanical deformation is described and investigated. The sensor consists of two polypyrrole layers in contact with an electrolyte and operates in bending mode in air. The magnitude and sign of the induced voltage was found to depend on the type of dopant counter-ions and the nature of the surrounding electrolyte. The mechanical sensor response is shown to be a "reverse actuation", generating millivolt signals for millimeter sized deflections or ,,1000,C,m,3 charge for 1,% strain in the polypyrrole layer. A model based on ,Deformation Induced Ion Flux' has been proposed whereby the strain induced volume change in the polymer produces a shift in the Donnan equilibrium between mobile dopant ions inside the polymer and in the external electrolyte. A simple thermodynamic model provides reasonable estimates of the size of the voltage and charge produced. [source] Effect of sampling interval and temperature on the accuracy of food consumption estimates from stomach contentsJOURNAL OF FISH BIOLOGY, Issue 1 2005A. G. Finstad The effect of temperature and sampling interval on the accuracy of food consumption estimates based on stomach contents was studied using simulation. Three temporal patterns of feeding were considered (scattered throughout the day, one 5 h period or two 5 h periods) and gastric evacuation was modelled according to published values. Sampling intervals of 3 h gave reasonable food consumption estimates (2 to 19% error) at all temperatures. Comparably, sampling intervals as large as 12 h gave reasonable estimates of food consumption (1 to 20% error) when temperature was set to ,10° C. At temperatures <5° C, even 24 h intervals (equivalent to one daily sampling) provided reasonable estimates of daily food consumption (2 to 19% error) for all but the highest gastric evacuation rate combined with one daily feeding period (47% error). The temperature effect on estimation error resulted from diminishing temporal fluctuations in stomach contents with slower gastric evacuation rates. It follows that sampling effort may be considerably minimized when estimating food consumption from stomach contents during periods with low temperatures such as the winter time experienced by temperate fishes. [source] Prediction of human pharmacokinetics , improving microsome-based predictions of hepatic metabolic clearanceJOURNAL OF PHARMACY AND PHARMACOLOGY: AN INTERNATI ONAL JOURNAL OF PHARMACEUTICAL SCIENCE, Issue 10 2007Urban Fagerholm Physiologically based methods generally perform poorly in predicting in-vivo hepatic CL (CLH) from intrinsic clearance (CLint) in microsomes in-vitro and unbound fraction in blood (fu,bl). Various strategies to improve the predictability have been developed, and inclusion of an empirical scaling factor (SF) seems to give the best results. This investigation was undertaken to evaluate this methodology and to find ways to improve it further. The work was based on a diverse data set taken from Ito and Houston (2005). Another objective was to evaluate whether rationalization of CLH predictions can be made by replacing blood/plasma-concentration ratio (Cbl/Cpl) measurements with SFs. There were apparently no or weak correlations between prediction errors and lipophilicity, permeability (compounds with low permeability missing in the data set) and main metabolizing CYP450s. The use of CLint class (high/low) and drug class (acid/base/neutral) SFs (the CD-SF method) gives improved and reasonable predictions: 1.3-fold median error (an accurate prediction has a 1-fold error), 76% within 2-fold-error, and a median absolute rank ordering error of 2 for CLH (n = 29). This approach is better than the method with a single SF. Mean (P < 0.05) and median errors, fraction within certain error ranges, higher percentage with most accurate predictions, and ranking were all better, and 76% of predictions were more accurate with this new method. Results are particularly good for bases, which generally have higher CLH and the potential to be incorrectly selected/rejected as candidate drugs. Reasonable predictions of fu,bl can be made from plasma fu (fu,pl) and empirical blood cell binding SFs (B-SFs; 1 for low fu,pl acids; 0.62 for other substances). Mean and median fu,bl prediction errors are negligible. The use of the CD-SF method with predicted fu,bl (the BCD-SF method) also gives improved and reasonable results (1.4-fold median error; 66% within 2-fold-error; median absolute rank ordering error = 1). This new empirical approach seems sufficiently good for use during the early screening; it gives reasonable estimates of CLH and good ranking, which allows replacement of Cbl/Cpl measurements by a simple equation. [source] Inverse Problem for Composites with Imperfect Interface: Determination of Interfacial Thermal Resistance, Thermal Conductivity of Constituents, and Microstructural ParametersJOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN CERAMIC SOCIETY, Issue 4 2000Ce-Wen Nan An explicit method is introduced to solve inverse problems for composites with imperfect interfaces. We apply the method to determine the thermal conductivity of constituents and the interfacial thermal resistance in SiC-particulate-reinforced aluminum-matrix composites and to estimate the whisker thermal conductivity, the interfacial thermal resistance, and the whisker alignment distribution in two types of SiC-whisker-reinforced lithium aluminosilicate glass-ceramic composites from their measured effective thermal conductivity reported in the literature. Certain bounds for these three properties of both SiC-whisker-reinforced glass-ceramic composites are obtained, and reasonable estimates for their exact values from room temperature to 500°C are made. The inverse problem is quite sensitive to noise in the measurements. We also comment on existing estimates. [source] WATERSHED WEIGHTING OF EXPORT COEFFICIENTS TO MAP CRITICAL PHOSPHOROUS LOADING AREAS,JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN WATER RESOURCES ASSOCIATION, Issue 1 2003Theodore A. Endreny ABSTRACT: The Export Coefficient model (ECM) is capable of generating reasonable estimates of annual phosphorous loading simply from a watershed's land cover data and export coefficient values (ECVs). In its current form, the ECM assumes that ECVs are homogeneous within each land cover type, yet basic nutrient runoff and hydrological theory suggests that runoff rates have spatial patterns controlled by loading and filtering along the flow paths from the upslope contributing area and downslope dispersal area. Using a geographic information system (GIS) raster, or pixel, modeling format, these contributing area and dispersal area (CADA) controls were derived from the perspective of each individual watershed pixel to weight the otherwise homogeneous ECVs for phosphorous. Although the CADA-ECM predicts export coefficient spatial variation for a single land use type, the lumped basin load is unaffected by weighting. After CADA weighting, a map of the new ECVs addressed the three fundamental criteria for targeting critical pollutant loading areas: (1) the presence of the pollutant, (2) the likelihood for runoff to carry the pollutant offsite, and (3) the likelihood that buffers will trap nutrients prior to their runoff into the receiving water body. These spatially distributed maps of the most important pollutant management areas were used within New York's West Branch Delaware River watershed to demonstrate how the CADA-ECM could be applied in targeting phosphorous critical loading areas. [source] Integration of [U- 13C]glucose and 2H2O for quantification of hepatic glucose production and gluconeogenesisNMR IN BIOMEDICINE, Issue 4 2003Rui Perdigoto Abstract Glucose metabolism in five healthy subjects fasted for 16,h was measured with a combination of [U- 13C]glucose and 2H2O tracers. Phenylbutyric acid was also provided to sample hepatic glutamine for the presence of 13C-isotopomers derived from the incorporation of [U- 13C]glucose products into the hepatic Krebs cycle. Glucose production (GP) was quantified by 13C NMR analysis of the monoacetone derivative of plasma glucose following a primed infusion of [U- 13C]glucose and provided reasonable estimates (1.90,±,0.19,mg/kg/min with a range of 1.60,2.15,mg/kg/min). The same derivative yielded measurements of plasma glucose 2H-enrichment from 2H2O by 2H NMR from which the contribution of glycogenolytic and gluconeogenic fluxes to GP was obtained (0.87,±,0.14 and 1.03,±,0.10,mg/kg/min, respectively). Hepatic glutamine 13C-isotopomers representing multiply-enriched oxaloacetate and [U- 13C]acetyl-CoA were identified as multiplets in the 13C NMR signals of the glutamine moiety of urinary phenylacetylglutamine, demonstrating entry of the [U- 13C]glucose tracer into both oxidative and anaplerotic pathways of the hepatic Krebs cycle. These isotopomers contributed 0.1,0.2% excess enrichment to carbons 2 and 3 and ,0.05% to carbon 4 of glutamine. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Supply, Factor Shares and Inflation Persistence: Re-examining Euro-area New-Keynesian Phillips Curves,OXFORD BULLETIN OF ECONOMICS & STATISTICS, Issue 2004Peter McAdam Abstract Using euro-area data, we re-examine the empirical success of New-Keynesian Phillips curves (NKPCs). We re-estimate with a suitably specified optimizing supply side (which attempts to treat non-stationarity in factor income shares and mark-ups) that allows us to derive estimates of technology parameters, marginal costs and ,price gaps'. Our resulting estimates of the euro-area NKPCs are robust, provide reasonable estimates for fixed-price durations and discount rates and embody plausible dynamic properties. Our method for identifying the underlying determinants of NKPCs has general applicability to a wide set of countries as well as of use for sectoral studies. [source] Antiepileptic drug utilization: a Danish prescription database analysisACTA NEUROLOGICA SCANDINAVICA, Issue 1 2001P. Rochat Objectives, The purpose of the study was to use prescription data from a Danish database to analyse and evaluate antiepileptic drug (AED) utilization, and compare with other prevalence studies. Methods, A Danish research database covering outpatient prescription data from a population of 471,873 persons was used. Prescription records on all patients prescribed AEDs during 1998 were retrieved. A cohort was extracted from the group of AED users. Results, We identified 5426 AED users. A total of 3756 of the 5426 AED users were included in our cohort. Of the subjects in the cohort 74% were on monotherapy, 19% used two AEDs and only 7% used three or more AEDs. The eight most frequent regimens were all monotherapy: carbamazepine, oxcarbazepine, phenobarbital, valproic acid, lamotrigine, clonazepam, phenytoin and primidon in that order. The estimated crude 1-year prevalence of AED use was 0.77% for women and 0.83% for men (P<0.001), and it increased with age for both genders. Conclusions, The prescription pattern reported here is in accordance with the general guidelines for the treatment of epilepsy in Denmark, except for a surprisingly extensive use of phenobarbital. With specific reservations the figures appear to be reasonable estimates of the prevalence of epilepsy. [source] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||