Respiratory disability: what is it, how can we measure it, what causes it and is it important?

Macroeconomic uncertainty : what is it , how can we measure it and why does it matter ?

Since mid-2008, the UK economy has faced an unprecedented series of large adverse shocks that have led companies and households to become more uncertain about future economic prospects. These shocks include one of the United Kingdom’s largest ever financial crises, continuing headwinds from the euro-area debt crisis and the implementation of the Government’s fiscal consolidation programme. The ...

Adaptive developmental plasticity: what is it, how can we recognize it and when can it evolve?

Developmental plasticity describes situations where a specific input during an individual's development produces a lasting alteration in phenotype. Some instances of developmental plasticity may be adaptive, meaning that the tendency to produce the phenotype conditional on having experienced the developmental input has been under positive selection. We discuss the necessary assumptions and pred...

Subclinical atherosclerosis: what it is, what it means and what we can do about it

Atherosclerosis is a chronic, progressive, inflammatory disease with a long asymptomatic phase. Disease progression can lead eventually to the occurrence of acute cardiovascular events such as myocardial infarction, unstable angina pectoris and sudden cardiac death. While the disease is still in a subclinical stage, however, the presence of atherosclerosis can be identified by several methods, ...

Bladder compliance what does it represent: can we measure it, and is it clinically relevant?

AIMS To report the conclusion of the Think Thank 8 on Compliance Discussions during the second ICI-RS meeting in 2010. METHODS During a 3-day meeting a group of specialists discussed bladder compliance, what it represents, how it can be measured and if it is clinically relevant. RESULTS Bladder compliance is the result of a mathematical calculation of the volume required for a unit rise of ...

Evolvability: What Is It and How Do We Get It?