We start by introducing C*-algebras associated with locally compact groups. Next, the theory of Hilbert modules, C*-correspondences, crossed-product algebras, and Morita equivalence are discussed. This is followed with applications to Mackey’s theory of induction of representations and Howe’s theory of theta correspondence. Next, K-theory and (equivariant) KK-theory are introduced. Connections between isolated points in the unitary dual and generators of the K-theory of C*-algebras of liminal groups are discussed.

Facing the challenges of aging populations, new technologies provide a potential solution to meeting the increasing needs associated with demographic changes by increasing productivity in healthcare production. However, decision-makers require evidence of whether the adoption of new technologies improves the efficiency of healthcare resource use. Cost-effectiveness analysis (CEA) is a methodology for evaluating new technologies by comparing a new intervention with the current intervention (or mix of different interventions) used for treating the same patient group. This chapter explores the theoretical foundations of CEA and the conditions required for CEA to inform decision-makers about the efficiency of implementing the new intervention are identified. The implications of using CEA as a basis for decision-making in the absence of these theoretical conditions are discussed, and solutions to addressing the efficiency problems under real-world conditions are derived. Where practical considerations limit the ability of decision-makers to apply these solutions, an alternate practical approach, focused on efficiency improvements as opposed to efficiency maximization, is presented.

This chapter introduces the essays in the volume, which work through various understandings of “romanticism” and “race,” addressing how these terms acquire meaning via other concepts taking shape in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, such as “blackness,” “whiteness,” “sovereignty,” “property,” and “freedom.”

The goal of this chapter is to sketch out a theoretical frontier model capable of estimating the production of well-being from healthcare interventions. The model is multidimensional in nature and takes a starting point in the utilization of healthcare interventions to produce a change in disease severity. The model allows for many healthcare interventions, such as doctor’s visits and pharmaceuticals, to be used as inputs in the production of improvements in disease severity assessed with different clinical outcome measures. Moreover, the model does not end with the production of clinical improvements but continues with estimating how the change in disease severity affects the individual’s ability to maximize well-being. Data from the Swedish National Register for Systemic Treatment of Psoriasis (PsoReg) are utilized to illustrate the model.

Although Chinese creoles formed the core of The Port’s identity, Mo Tianci came to preside over a tremendously diverse population additionally consisting of Qing sojourners and immigrants, Viet, Khmer, Siamese, Austronesians, and Europeans. They were multiconfessional, practicing Confucianism, Mahayana and Theravada Buddhism, Islam, and Christianity. He preserved the Cambodian noble hierarchy and official positions, while selectively adopting and adapting Sino-Viet institutions. In addition, he utilized religions and ethical systems, and devised some of his own practices for specific situations and depending on his constituency. Ultimately, he aimed to achieve two interrelated objectives: territorial expansion into the resource-rich hinterlands and the recruitment and retention of the population necessary to open up the new acquisitions.

This chapter will guide a candidate in oncology topics that regularly appear in Section 1 of the FRCS(Tr&Orth) exam. The chapter asks questions dealing with Ewings sarcoma, metastatic spinal disease and myeloma. The chapter provides detailed explanations of the SBA questions asked.

After Mo Jiu’s death in 1735, his son Mo Tianci succeeded him as head of The Port. He established the Pavilion for Summoning Worthies to serve as an informal advisory body and literary society. Besides his trusted inner circle, he built upon his father’s earlier connections with Cochinchina and Qing gentry to jointly produce and publish anthologies of poetry and prose. The collaborations largely took place remotely, relying upon the same junks that circulated goods and labor throughout maritime East Asia. Tianci’s main goal was to build consensus among these translocal elites as being part of the same world order, while spreading word of his realm across the Sinosphere. Besides facilitating cultural exchange, anthologies such as “Idle Fishing at Sea Perch Creek” and the “Ten Verses of Hà Tiên” could lower transaction costs and enhance The Port’s importance as a commercial hub. Tianci’s focus on literature also conformed to the Heart-Mind school of Wang Yangming. This variant of neo-Confucanism promoted business and individual initiative.

In sermo modernus-style sermons, the structure was based on what was usually a threefold or fourfold divisio of an opening thema verse. This primary division was usually subject to further sub-divisions. In the Itinerarium, Bonaventure associates the basic threefold structure of the work — seeing “outside,” seeing “inside,” and seeing “above” — with the divisions of the verse from Job 85:11: “Lead me, O Lord, in your way / so that I might enter into your truth. / Let my heart rejoice that it may be in awe of your name.” To be led in the way of the Lord, says Bonaventure, is to “move through the vestiges which are bodily and temporal outside us.” To enter into the truth of God is to “enter into our mind which is the image of God.” And to rejoice in the knowledge of God and stand in awe of His name is to “pass beyond to that which is … above us by raising our eyes to the First Principle.” In Chapter 2, “Recognizing Divisions as the Framework of the Text,” I show how identifying the divisiones within each chapter helps to make the structure, content, and arguments of the Itinerarium clearer.

The aim of this chapter is to discuss the role of applied Conversation Analysis in the overarching area of dementia care for minority ethnic groups in Europe: people who often do not receive the same quality of dementia care as majority populations. Analysis of an episode from a video-recorded, interpreter-mediated dementia assessment and accounts from ethnographic interviews and informal conversations with stakeholders are used as a vehicle for discussing the role of applied CA to intervene in the problem of inequity in care for minority ethnic persons with dementia. Even when CA studies, for example on dementia, get published and researchers present numerous important implications for relevant stakeholders, the road towards actual application is often long and complex. This chapter builds on the international collaboration between CA scholars and different stakeholders conducted over a period extending for ten years, also resulting in an impact at a societal level in terms of recommendations not just within the scientific community but also at an international, political level.

This chapter proposes a framework for estimating the investment in human capital from health improvement or activities that improve life expectancy and reduce morbidity rates. The measurement framework builds on and extends the Jorgenson-Fraumeni income-based approach for estimating human capital to account for the effect of health on human capital. This economic approach to measuring health human capital differs from the welfare-based approach that estimates the economic effect of health improvements on the quality of life and well-being of individuals. The framework is then implemented for Canada, and the investment in health human capital for the period from 1970 to 2020 is estimated. The estimated investment in health human capital based on the income approach was found to be lower than health expenditures in Canada. This suggests that much of the health expenditures should be classified as consumption rather than as an investment that increases earnings.

This last chapter summarizes most of the material in this book in a range of concluding statements. It provides a summary of the lessons learned. These lessons can be viewed as guidelines for research practice.

This is a revision of John Trimmer’s English translation of Schrödinger’s famous ‘cat paper’, originally published in three parts in Naturwissenschaften in 1935.