In this report, we outline the development of the core optimization technology used within a decision support tool to help providers and caretakers in constructing catchup schedules for childhood immunization. These schedules ensure that a child continues to receive timely coverage against vaccine preventable diseases in the likely event that one or more doses have been delayed. We develop a Dy...

International trade specialisation reflects differences in relative factor productivity and endowments, economies of scale or specific advantages of firms and it can have a significant impact on economic growth. We focus in this paper on trade specialisation dynamics in two Eastern European countries (Romania and Bulgaria – EEC-2) vis-à-vis the EU member states (EU-25). Specifically, we are int...

Standard Bayesian model selection/averaging sometimes learn too slowly: there exist other learning methods that lead to better predictions based on less data. We give a novel analysis of this ”catch-up” phenomenon. Based on this analysis, we propose the switching method, a modification of Bayesian model averaging that never learns slower, but sometimes learns much faster than Bayes. The method ...

BACKGROUND AND AIM Numerous recent studies measure catch-up growth by regressing adult or pre-adolescent height on early childhood height. Using simple statistical theory and data from a healthy and well-nourished population, this paper shows that these tests are uninformative about the extent of catch-up growth. The study also provides new empirical evidence on pubertal catch-up growth using l...

Increases in the technological sophistication of some emerging econo-mies, linked, in part, to shifts in the distribution of innovation activities from developedto emerging economies has attracted a lot of attention. Whether emerging economieswill catch up with developed regions in terms of innovation and technology remains anopen question. Various methods can be used to measure...

Catch-up growth during infancy and childhood is increasingly recognized as a major risk factor for later development of insulin-related complications and chronic diseases, namely abdominal obesity, type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease. As catch-up growth per se is characterized by insulin resistance, hyperinsulinaemia and an accelerated rate of fat storage (i.e., catch-up fat) even in the...

During visual tracking of a moving stimulus, primates orient their visual axis by combining two very different types of eye movements, smooth pursuit and saccades. The purpose of this paper was to investigate quantitatively the catch-up saccades occurring during sustained pursuit. We used a ramp-step-ramp paradigm to evoke catch-up saccades during sustained pursuit. In general, catch-up saccade...

Growth restriction among low-birthweight (LBW) infants occurs prenatally as well as postnatally. Regardless of when and how the growth restriction occurs, growth-restricted infants have the potential for catch-up growth. Catch-up growth has decidedly beneficial effects on later cognition. It also may have adverse effects on cardiovascular and metabolic health. Although the benefits for later co...