Search results for "value"
showing 10 items of 5321 documents
Prospective validation of a noninvasive index for predicting liver fibrosis in hepatitis C virus-infected liver transplant recipients
2009
We previously developed a mathematical model, the Hospital Universitario La Fe (HULF) index, as an alternative to protocol liver biopsy (PLB) to estimate significant fibrosis (SF) in patients who underwent liver transplantation (LT) for liver damage caused by chronic HCV infection. In the present study, we sought to validate this noninvasive index. The commonly derived clinical and laboratory data for calculating the HULF index were prospectively collected over 2.7 years from patients undergoing LT and PLB. The sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values, and diagnostic capacity were evaluated with receiver operating characteristic curve analysis. Biopsy was performed …
An stated preference analysis of Spanish freight forwarders modal choice on the south-west Europe Motorway of the Sea
2011
Abstract This paper aims to contribute towards the design of effective freight transport policy by means of empirical analysis. In order to do so, a stated preference survey is undertaken to model the modal choice between door-to-door road transport and short sea shipping in the Motorway of the Sea of south-west Europe. The proposed analysis will provide policymakers with the necessary tool to identify the critical areas that should be addressed by future policy action in order to boost short sea shipping on Spain's Mediterranean coast. By applying the proposed method, we will be able to obtain estimates of the subjective values of transport attributes – value of time, value of reliability …
Valuing Freight Transport Time using Transport Demand Modelling: A Bibliographical Review
2011
The value of time for freight transport is of major importance in infrastructure-related cost–benefit analysis and yet its study has been largely neglected when compared with its passenger counterpart. In fact, one of the attributes that could decide the profitability of a project is how much can be saved if freight vehicles use new infrastructure. Despite being the primary benefit of most investments in transport infrastructure, researchers have not yet reached agreement over either the size or the nature of the values of time that should be used when evaluating projects. This article provides a review of the estimation of freight value of time through transport demand modelling and extant…
The value of time and transport policies in a parallel road network
2007
Abstract One of the key questions in the evaluation of transport policies and investment decisions is the valuation of the time savings or losses arising from such decisions. This paper uses the stated preference method to determine the value of time in a given traffic context characterised by a road parallel network. The values obtained are higher than usual in Spanish project evaluation which, among other things, points out the need for specific studies of all transport projects whenever possible. Finally, two cases are described which illustrate the relevance of the value of time. The first evaluates time savings related to the pricing policies of a motorway competing with a trunk road. …
Viability of new road infrastructure with heterogeneous users
2011
This paper explores the importance of heterogeneity in value of time and route choice when assessing the viability of new road infrastructure to alleviate congestion problems. The model incorporates strategic interaction between road operators in a cost-benefit framework and several competitive regimes are considered. It is then employed to establish the financial and socio-economic viability of a congestion pricing demonstration entering Madrid city centre, where road users have to choose between a free but highly congested road and a priced free-flowing road (semi-private regime). A logit estimation is undertaken with information from a questionnaire among road users in the Eastern Madrid…
Experimental studies at JYFLTRAP
2007
JYFLTRAP is a Penning trap system at the accelerator laboratory in Jyvaskyla, Finland that enables high-precision experiments with stored, exotic species that are produced at the IGISOL facility. On one hand, these can be performed within the trap itself, like e.g. mass spectrometry. On the other hand, the trap can be used to provide the highly purified species for further experiments, e.g. for trap-assisted nuclear decay spectroscopy. This contribution focuses on these two possible applications with the presentation of some recent results on superallowed beta decays.
Normal and Abnormal Tissue Classification in Positron Emission Tomography Oncological Studies
2018
Positron Emission Tomography (PET) imaging is increasingly used in radiotherapy environment as well as for staging and assessing treatment response. The ability to classify PET tissues, as normal versus abnormal tissues, is crucial for medical analysis and interpretation. For this reason, a system for classifying PET area is implemented and validated. The proposed classification is carried out using k-nearest neighbor (KNN) method with the stratified K-Fold Cross-Validation strategy to enhance the classifier reliability. A dataset of eighty oncological patients are collected for system training and validation. For every patient, lesion (abnormal tissue) and background (normal tissue around …
What is a tree in the Mediterranean Basin hotspot? A critical analysis
2019
Background: Tree species represent 20% of the vascular plant species worldwide and they play a crucial role in the global functioning of the biosphere. The Mediterranean Basin is one of the 36 world biodiversity hotspots, and it is estimated that forests covered 82% of the landscape before the first human impacts, thousands of years ago. However, the spatial distribution of the Mediterranean biodiversity is still imperfectly known, and a focus on tree species constitutes a key issue for understanding forest functioning and develop conservation strategies. Methods: We provide the first comprehensive checklist of all native tree taxa (species and subspecies) present in the Mediterranean-Europ…
Driving Through Neoliberalism : Finnish Truck Drivers Constructing Respectable Male Worker Subjectivities
2017
This chapter analyses how Finnish male truck drivers (re)produce themselves as respectable male workers in the face of the recent economic, technological and institutional transformations impacting the European haulage sector. The investigation is based on ethnographic data which are produced by riding along on assignments with ten male Finnish truck drivers in the period 2012–2016. The analysis shows how truck drivers’ independence and value in the work process has become challenged and how truckers experience being occupationally stigmatized. The study argues, however, that while economic restructuring undermines some components of traditional forms of working-class masculinity, masculine…