A market concept for media problems: A few theses
The author explores the concept of markets and marketplaces and how they apply to media and research on media activities. He argues that media markets cannot be considered to be self‐defining, self‐regulatory systems because of their interdependent relations with other subsystems in society, and that traditional regulatory policies are inadequate for dealing with contemporary media because of changing temporal and social factors.
Adaptation of the QoL-AGHDA scale for adults with growth hormone deficiency in four Slavic languages
PurposeThe Quality of Life in Adult Growth Hormone Deficiency Assessment (QoL-AGHDA) is a disease-specific quality of life measure specific to individuals who are growth hormone deficient. The present study describes the adaptation of the QoL-AGHDA for use in the following four Slavic languages; Czech, Polish, Serbian and Slovakian.MethodsThe study involved three stages in each language; translation, cognitive debriefing and validation. The validation stage assessed internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha), reproducibility (test-retest reliability using Spearman's rank correlations), convergent and divergent validity (Correlations with the NHP) and known group validity.ResultsThe QoL-AGHDA was successfully translated into the target languages with minimal problems. Cognitive debriefing interviewees (n = 15-18) found the measures easy to complete and identified few problems with the content. Internal consistency (Czech Republic = 0.91, Poland = 0.91, Serbia = 0.91 and Slovakia = 0.89) and reproducibility (Czech Republic = 0.91, Poland = 0.91, Serbia = 0.88 and Slovakia = 0.93) were good in all adaptations. Convergent and divergent validity and known group validity data were not available for Slovakia. The QoL-AGHDA correlated as expected with the NHP scales most relevant to GHD. The QoL-AGHDA was able to distinguish between participants based on a range of variables.ConclusionsThe QoL-AGHDA was successfully adapted for use in the Czech Republic, Poland, Serbia and Slovakia. Further validation of the Slovakian version would be beneficial. The addition of these new lanaguage versions will prove valuable to multinational clinical trials and to clinical practice in the respective countries.
Techno-economic analysis of chemical looping combustion with humid air turbine power cycle
Abstract Power generation from fossil fuel-fired power plant is the largest single source of CO2 emission. CO2 emission contributes to climate change. On the other hand, renewable energy is hindered by complex constraints in dealing with large scale application and high price. Power generation from fossil fuels with CO2 capture is therefore necessary to meet the increasing energy demand, and reduce the emission of CO2. This paper presents a process simulation and economic analysis of the chemical looping combustion (CLC) integrated with humid air turbine (HAT) cycle for natural gas-fired power plant with CO2 capture. The study shows that the CLC–HAT including CO2 capture has a thermal efficiency of 57% at oxidizing temperature of 1200 °C and reducer inlet temperature of 530 °C. The economic evaluation shows that the 50 MWth plant with a projected lifetime of 30 years will have a payback period of 7 years and 6 years for conventional HAT and CLC–HAT cycles respectively. The analysis indicates that CLC–HAT process has a high potential to be commercialised.