How a Stressed Local Public System Copes With People in Psychiatric Crisis

PubMed Central

Wells, Rebecca; La, Elizabeth Holdsworth; Morrissey, Joseph; Hall, Marissa; Lich, Kristen Hassmiller; Blouin, Rachel

2012-01-01

In order to bolster the public mental health safety net, we must first understand how these systems function on a day-to-day basis. This study explored how individual attributes and organizational interdependencies within one predominantly urban US county affected responses to individuals’ needs during psychiatric crises. We interviewed clinicians and managers within the crisis response network about people at immediate risk of psychiatric hospitalization, what had happened to them during their crises, and factors affecting services provided (N = 94 individuals and 9 agencies). Social network diagrams depicted patterns of referrals between agencies. Iterative coding of interview transcripts was used to contextualize the social network findings. Often, agencies saw crises through to resolution. However, providers also limited the types of people they served, leaving many people in crisis in limbo. This study illustrates how attributes of individuals with mental illness, service providers and their interactions, and state and federal policies intersect to shape the trajectories of individuals during psychiatric crises. Understanding both the structures of current local systems and their contexts may support continued evolution toward a more humane and robust safety net for some of our society’s most vulnerable members. PMID:23065371

“Hitting the wall”: Lived experiences of mental health crises

PubMed Central

Karlsson, Bengt; Lofthus, Ann-Mari; Davidson, Larry

2011-01-01

Background As Norway moves toward the provision of home-based crisis response, knowledge is needed about understandings of mental health crisis and effective ways of addressing crises within the home. Objective To elicit and learn from service users’ experiences about the subjective meanings of crisis and what kind of help will be most effective in resolving mental health crises. Theoretical A phenomenological-hermeneutic cooperative inquiry method was used to elicit and analyse focus group responses from mental health service users who had experienced crises. Results Findings clustered into three themes: (1) Crisis as multifaceted and varied experiences; (2) losing the skills and structure of everyday life; and (3) complexities involved in family support. Conclusion Several aspects of crises require an expansion of the biomedical model of acute intervention to include consideration of the personal and familial meaning of the crisis, attention to the home context, and activities of daily living that are disrupted by the crisis, and ways for the person and the family to share in and learn from resolution of the crisis. PMID:22140400

The Unfinished Revolution: Einstein's revenge

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Beichler, James

2007-04-01

Thomas Kuhn defined the characteristics of scientific revolutions based upon his knowledge of the first and second Scientific Revolutions. He concluded that such revolutions are the result of crises in science. However, he missed some important clues of how revolutions develop. Instead of looking at crises, we should look at the major trends in scientific and human thought prior to the revolutions and then we could gain a better understanding of how scientific revolutions emerge from the normal course of scientific evolution. Instead of defining revolutions by the crises that precede them, revolutions actually emerge from the successes of previous science while each revolution contains the seeds for the next revolution that follows. These seeds eventually grow into the crises that trigger revolutions. Under these circumstances, it can be shown that the space-time revolution of relativity theory was never completed, thus laying the foundations for the next revolution in science. Knowing this, we can determine if we have we already entered the pre-revolutionary period of the Third Scientific Revolution.

Cross-cultural customs and beliefs related to health crises, death, and organ donation/transplantation: a guide to assist health care professionals understand different responses and provide cross-cultural assistance.

PubMed

McQuay, J E

1995-09-01

All individuals can expect to encounter some form of crisis and loss. Responses to these experiences are not universal and will be influenced by a person's cultural background and religious beliefs. This appendix provides information about the different responses to health crises, death, and organ donation and transplantation as practiced by various religious and cultural groups.

Primary care in an unstable security, humanitarian, economic and political context: the Kurdistan Region of Iraq.

PubMed

Shukor, Ali R; Klazinga, Niek S; Kringos, Dionne S

2017-08-23

This study presents a descriptive synthesis of Kurdistan Region of Iraq's (KRI) primary care system, which is undergoing comprehensive primary care reforms within the context of a cross-cutting structural economic adjustment program and protracted security, humanitarian, economic and political crises. The descriptive analysis used a framework operationalizing Starfield's classic primary care model for health services research. A scoping review was performed using relevant sources, and expert consultations were conducted for completing and validating data. The descriptive analysis presents a complex narrative of a primary care system undergoing classical developmental processes of transitioning middle-income countries. The system is simultaneously under tremendous pressure to adapt to the continuously changing, complex and resource-intensive needs of sub-populations exhibiting varying morbidity patterns, within the context of protracted security, humanitarian, economic, and political crises. Despite exhibiting significant resilience in the face of the ongoing crises, the continued influx of IDPs and Syrian refugees, coupled with extremely limited resources and weak governance at policy, organizational and clinical levels threaten the sustainability of KRI's public primary care system. Diverse trajectories to the strengthening and development of primary care are underway by local and international actors, notably the World Bank, RAND Corporation, UN organizations and USAID, focusing on varying imperatives related to the protracted humanitarian and economic crises. The convergence, interaction and outcomes of the diverse initiatives and policy approaches in relation to the development of KRI's primary care system are complex and highly uncertain. A common vision of primary care is required to align resources, initiatives and policies, and to enable synergy between all local and international actors involved in the developmental and humanitarian response. Further research that integrates the knowledge synthesized in this article, and enables actors in KRI to learn from their own experiences and efforts, along with those of other jurisdictions, would be invaluable towards the ongoing development of primary care.

A systematic literature review of the quality of evidence for injury and rehabilitation interventions in humanitarian crises.

PubMed

Smith, James; Roberts, Bayard; Knight, Abigail; Gosselin, Richard; Blanchet, Karl

2015-11-01

Humanitarian crises continue to pose a significant threat to health; the United Nations estimates that 144 million people are directly affected by conflict or environmental disasters. During most humanitarian crises, surgical and rehabilitative interventions remain a priority. This review assessed the quality of evidence that informs injury and physical rehabilitation interventions in humanitarian crises. Peer-reviewed and grey literature sources were assessed in a systematic manner. Selected papers were evaluated using quality criteria based on a modified version of the STROBE protocol. 46 papers met the inclusion criteria. 63 % of the papers referred to situations of armed conflict, of which the Yugoslav Wars were the most studied crisis context. 59 % of the studies were published since the year 2000. However, only two studies were considered of a high quality. While there is now a greater emphasis on research in this sector, the volume of evidence remains inadequate given the growing number of humanitarian programmes worldwide. Further research is needed to ensure a greater breadth and depth of understanding of the most appropriate interventions in different settings.

The synergy of the refugee crisis and the financial crisis in Greece: Impact on mental health.

PubMed

Anagnostopoulos, Dimitris C; Giannakopoulos, George; Christodoulou, Nikos G

2017-06-01

The current global financial crisis that started in 2008 resulted in a significant decline in global trade, slowing/reversing economic growth worldwide, and a dramatic increase in public sector debt. At the same time, the global migrant/refugee crisis has reached extreme rates, with millions of people being forced to abandon their homes and communities because of war, political violence or related threats. There is a broad consensus about the deleterious consequences of these crises on psychological well-being, depression, anxiety disorders, insomnia, alcohol abuse and suicidal behavior. Although the separate consequences of economic recession and immigration are extensively discussed in previous research, we know very little about the processes through which the intersection of economic crisis and migrant crisis contributes to the vulnerabilities of natives and migrants during these crises. Of particular concern is the status of children, adolescents and their families, who constitute one of the most vulnerable groups in society. To discuss the contexts that economic and migrant crises shape and suggest possible effects of this intersection on mental health risks, especially among children, adolescents and their families, through reflecting on the recent experience in Greece. Review of the literature and critical analysis of the effects of the confluent crises. The interactive effects of these two crises need further exploration. Novel and diverse models of psychological understanding need to be developed in order to manage the effects of the confluent crises. The role of mental health professionals is crucial in this respect, offering culturally flexible, accommodating and empathetic approaches, allowing healing and acceptance in the face of adversity.

For people and planet

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

2017-07-01

The emerging field of geohealth links human well-being and ecosystem health. A deeper understanding of these linkages can help society mitigate the health costs of economic growth before they become crises.

How economic crises affect alcohol consumption and alcohol-related health problems: a realist systematic review.

PubMed

de Goeij, Moniek C M; Suhrcke, Marc; Toffolutti, Veronica; van de Mheen, Dike; Schoenmakers, Tim M; Kunst, Anton E

2015-04-01

Economic crises are complex events that affect behavioral patterns (including alcohol consumption) via opposing mechanisms. With this realist systematic review, we aimed to investigate evidence from studies of previous or ongoing crises on which mechanisms (How?) play a role among which individuals (Whom?). Such evidence would help understand and predict the potential impact of economic crises on alcohol consumption. Medical, psychological, social, and economic databases were used to search for peer-reviewed qualitative or quantitative empirical evidence (published January 1, 1990-May 1, 2014) linking economic crises or stressors with alcohol consumption and alcohol-related health problems. We included 35 papers, based on defined selection criteria. From these papers, we extracted evidence on mechanism(s), determinant, outcome, country-level context, and individual context. We found 16 studies that reported evidence completely covering two behavioral mechanisms by which economic crises can influence alcohol consumption and alcohol-related health problems. The first mechanism suggests that psychological distress triggered by unemployment and income reductions can increase drinking problems. The second mechanism suggests that due to tighter budget constraints, less money is spent on alcoholic beverages. Across many countries, the psychological distress mechanism was observed mainly in men. The tighter budget constraints mechanism seems to play a role in all population subgroups across all countries. For the other three mechanisms (i.e., deterioration in the social situation, fear of losing one's job, and increased non-working time), empirical evidence was scarce or absent, or had small to moderate coverage. This was also the case for important influential contextual factors described in our initial theoretical framework. This realist systematic review suggests that among men (but not among women), the net impact of economic crises will be an increase in harmful drinking. Such a different net impact between men and women could potentially contribute to growing gender-related health inequalities during a crisis. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Marital crises in oncology patients. An approach to initial intervention by primary clinicians.

PubMed

Peteet, J; Greenberg, B

1995-05-01

Life-threatening illnesses such as cancer may precipitate marital crises in vulnerable relationships, and oncology clinicians often feel uncertain about how to approach them. This paper presents a framework for initial intervention based on the nature of the principal threat to the relationship. Immature relationships need distance and support for their identity as a couple; hostile dependent couples need to find consensus in order to structure communication; physically abusive relationships require monitoring in order to promote safety; and estranged couples need help in understanding their disappointment and identifying available support. Clinicians working in oncology can help couples in crisis by promoting a realistic balance of independence and dependence, clarifying the complexity of factors contributing to the crisis, considering referral for couples treatment, communicating with the team while respecting patients' confidences, and by choosing clear and compatible clinical roles. Primary clinicians can stabilize and treat marital crises, but need access to medically knowledgeable couples' therapists.

Vulnerability of countries to food-production crises propagating in the virtual water trade network

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tamea, S.; Laio, F.; Ridolfi, L.

2015-12-01

In recent years, the international trade of food and agricultural commodities has undergone a marked increase of exchanged volumes and an expansion of the trade network. This globalization of trade has both positive and negative effects, but the interconnectedness and external dependency of countries generate complex dynamics which are often difficult to understand and model. In this study we consider the volume of water used for the production of agricultural commodities, virtually exchanged among countries through commodity trade, i.e. the virtual water trade. Then, we set up a parsimonious mechanistic model describing the propagation, into the global trade network, of food-production crises generated locally by a social, economic or environmental event (such as war, economic crisis, drought, pest). The model, accounting for the network structure and the virtual water balance of all countries, bases on rules derived from observed virtual water flows and on data-based and statistically verified assumption. It is also tested on real case studies that prove its capability to capture the main features of crises propagation. The model is then employed as the basis for the development of an index of country vulnerability, measuring the exposure of countries to crises propagating in the virtual water trade network. Results of the analysis are discussed within the context of socio-economic and environmental conditions of countries, showing that not only water-scarce, but also wealthy and globalized countries, are among the most vulnerable to external crises. The temporal analysis for the period 1986-2011 reveals that the global average vulnerability has strongly increased over time, confirming the increased exposure of countries to external crises which may occur in the virtual water trade network.

Cascades in multiplex financial networks with debts of different seniority

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Brummitt, Charles D.; Kobayashi, Teruyoshi

2015-06-01

The seniority of debt, which determines the order in which a bankrupt institution repays its debts, is an important and sometimes contentious feature of financial crises, yet its impact on systemwide stability is not well understood. We capture seniority of debt in a multiplex network, a graph of nodes connected by multiple types of edges. Here an edge between banks denotes a debt contract of a certain level of seniority. Next we study cascading default. There exist multiple kinds of bankruptcy, indexed by the highest level of seniority at which a bank cannot repay all its debts. Self-interested banks would prefer that all their loans be made at the most senior level. However, mixing debts of different seniority levels makes the system more stable in that it shrinks the set of network densities for which bankruptcies spread widely. We compute the optimal ratio of senior to junior debts, which we call the optimal seniority ratio, for two uncorrelated Erdős-Rényi networks. If institutions erode their buffer against insolvency, then this optimal seniority ratio rises; in other words, if default thresholds fall, then more loans should be senior. We generalize the analytical results to arbitrarily many levels of seniority and to heavy-tailed degree distributions.

Cascades in multiplex financial networks with debts of different seniority.

PubMed

Brummitt, Charles D; Kobayashi, Teruyoshi

2015-06-01

The seniority of debt, which determines the order in which a bankrupt institution repays its debts, is an important and sometimes contentious feature of financial crises, yet its impact on systemwide stability is not well understood. We capture seniority of debt in a multiplex network, a graph of nodes connected by multiple types of edges. Here an edge between banks denotes a debt contract of a certain level of seniority. Next we study cascading default. There exist multiple kinds of bankruptcy, indexed by the highest level of seniority at which a bank cannot repay all its debts. Self-interested banks would prefer that all their loans be made at the most senior level. However, mixing debts of different seniority levels makes the system more stable in that it shrinks the set of network densities for which bankruptcies spread widely. We compute the optimal ratio of senior to junior debts, which we call the optimal seniority ratio, for two uncorrelated Erdős-Rényi networks. If institutions erode their buffer against insolvency, then this optimal seniority ratio rises; in other words, if default thresholds fall, then more loans should be senior. We generalize the analytical results to arbitrarily many levels of seniority and to heavy-tailed degree distributions.

Exploring Crisis Management in U.S. Small Businesses

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Williams, Jon

As a critical infrastructure, the US electricity grid supplies electricity to 340 million people within eight separate regions. The power infrastructure is vulnerable to many types of disasters capable of severing supplies of electricity. The impact on the employees and communities when small- and medium-size enterprises are shut down due to disasters can be severe. The purpose of the quantitative comparative study was to explore small- and medium-size enterprises crisis management strategies in the case of power infrastructure vulnerabilities. Perceptions of small business leaders were probed about crisis management planning relevant to three secondary factors: prior experience of crises, threat perceptions, and planning self-efficacy. Participants completed an adapted questionnaire instrument based on a five-point Likert scale for six sub-factors including resilience through planning, financial impact, operational crisis management, the perfect storm, the aftermath of survival, and atrophy. The instrument also measured three additional factors to include, prior experience of crises, threat perceptions, and planning self-efficacy, across seven types of crises. The results of this study indicated that of the 276 respondents, 104 had no crisis plans, but 172 did have crisis plans. Of those who had implemented crisis plans, 19% had specific provisions to address power outages or attacks on the electrical grid. Of the respondents who had not planned for power outages nor experienced significant losses of power, a statistically significant number acknowledged an external threat to their business. The majority of respondents indicated that long-term planning was related to resilience; however, the migration of crisis understanding into the planning process or implementation was not implemented. This heightened awareness of potential crises without the corresponding development and implementation of mitigation crisis plans requires additional research to understand drivers effecting the decision making process with crisis managers.

Is more always better? The nonlinear relationship between energy consumption and wellbeing

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Vaughan Winfrey, Elise Marie

Policymakers today face rapidly expanding world populations, increasing evidence of environmental degradation and climate change, and mounting economic crises. In this context, they are grappling with the challenge of balancing environmental concerns, economic viability, and the wellbeing of their citizens. Because energy consumption has both positive and negative wellbeing implications, it is unclear whether societal goals to raise standards of living through energy-intensive lifestyles conflict with the social, economic, environmental, and health dimensions of broader wellbeing aspirations. Though there has been a significant amount of research on the long-run environmental consequences of increasing aggregate world energy demand, there is a lack of direct evidence on the relationship between energy consumption and wellbeing. This paper attempts to improve our understanding of the net wellbeing consequences of energy consumption. Specifically, it examines whether there is a nonlinear relationship between per capita energy consumption, as measured alternatively by CO2 emissions (metric tons per capita), electricity consumption (kWh per capita), and total energy consumption (kg of oil equivalent per capita), and wellbeing, as measured by individual life satisfaction aggregated at the country level. Panel and cross-sectional regression analyses are conducted using data from the Gallup World Poll (GWP), integrated European and World Values Surveys (WVS-EVS), and the World Bank DataBank (WBDB). Despite the classic economic assumption that more is always better, this analysis indicates that increasing energy consumption is not always associated with wellbeing improvements. The empirical results provide some suggestive evidence that life satisfaction gains associated with energy consumption may eventually be counterbalanced by the related human and environmental costs. This is valuable information for policymakers trying to balance environmental, energy-security, and citizen-wellbeing concerns.

Quantifying Trading Behavior in Financial Markets Using Google Trends

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Preis, Tobias; Moat, Helen Susannah; Stanley, H. Eugene

2013-04-01

Crises in financial markets affect humans worldwide. Detailed market data on trading decisions reflect some of the complex human behavior that has led to these crises. We suggest that massive new data sources resulting from human interaction with the Internet may offer a new perspective on the behavior of market participants in periods of large market movements. By analyzing changes in Google query volumes for search terms related to finance, we find patterns that may be interpreted as ``early warning signs'' of stock market moves. Our results illustrate the potential that combining extensive behavioral data sets offers for a better understanding of collective human behavior.

A complex systems approach to constructing better models for managing financial markets and the economy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Farmer, J. Doyne; Gallegati, M.; Hommes, C.; Kirman, A.; Ormerod, P.; Cincotti, S.; Sanchez, A.; Helbing, D.

2012-11-01

We outline a vision for an ambitious program to understand the economy and financial markets as a complex evolving system of coupled networks of interacting agents. This is a completely different vision from that currently used in most economic models. This view implies new challenges and opportunities for policy and managing economic crises. The dynamics of such models inherently involve sudden and sometimes dramatic changes of state. Further, the tools and approaches we use emphasize the analysis of crises rather than of calm periods. In this they respond directly to the calls of Governors Bernanke and Trichet for new approaches to macroeconomic modelling.

Quantifying Trading Behavior in Financial Markets Using Google Trends

PubMed Central

Preis, Tobias; Moat, Helen Susannah; Stanley, H. Eugene

2013-01-01

Crises in financial markets affect humans worldwide. Detailed market data on trading decisions reflect some of the complex human behavior that has led to these crises. We suggest that massive new data sources resulting from human interaction with the Internet may offer a new perspective on the behavior of market participants in periods of large market movements. By analyzing changes in Google query volumes for search terms related to finance, we find patterns that may be interpreted as “early warning signs” of stock market moves. Our results illustrate the potential that combining extensive behavioral data sets offers for a better understanding of collective human behavior. PMID:23619126

Managing Community Resilience to Climate Extremes, Rapid Unsustainable Urbanization, Emergencies of Scarcity, and Biodiversity Crises by Use of a Disaster Risk Reduction Bank.

PubMed

Canyon, Deon V; Burkle, Frederick M; Speare, Rick

2015-12-01

Earth's climate is changing and national and international decision-makers are recognizing that global health security requires urgent attention and a significant investment to protect the future. In most locations, current data are inadequate to conduct a full assessment of the direct and indirect health impacts of climate change. All states require this information to evaluate community-level resilience to climate extremes and climate change. A model that is being used successfully in the United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand is recommended to generate rapid information to assist decision-makers in the event of a disaster. The model overcomes barriers to success inherent in the traditional ''top-down'' approach to managing crises and recognizes the capacity of capable citizens and community organizers to facilitate response and recovery if provided the opportunity and resources. Local information is a prerequisite for strategic and tactical statewide planning. Time and resources are required to analyze risks within each community and what is required to prevent (mitigate), prepare, respond, recover (rehabilitate), anticipate, and assess any threatening events. Specific requirements at all levels from state to community must emphasize community roles by focusing on how best to maintain, respond, and recover public health protections and the infrastructure necessary for health security.

Dynamic changes of striatal and extrastriatal abnormalities in glutaric aciduria type I.

PubMed

Harting, Inga; Neumaier-Probst, Eva; Seitz, Angelika; Maier, Esther M; Assmann, Birgit; Baric, Ivo; Troncoso, Monica; Mühlhausen, Chris; Zschocke, Johannes; Boy, Nikolas P S; Hoffmann, Georg F; Garbade, Sven F; Kölker, Stefan

2009-07-01

In glutaric aciduria type I, an autosomal recessive disease of mitochondrial lysine, hydroxylysine and tryptophan catabolism, striatal lesions are characteristically induced by acute encephalopathic crises during a finite period of brain development (age 3-36 months). The frequency of striatal injury is significantly less in patients diagnosed as asymptomatic newborns by newborn screening. Most previous studies have focused on the onset and mechanism of striatal injury, whereas little is known about neuroradiological abnormalities in pre-symptomatically diagnosed patients and about dynamic changes of extrastriatal abnormalities. Thus, the major aim of the present retrospective study was to improve our understanding of striatal and extrastriatal abnormalities in affected individuals including those diagnosed by newborn screening. To this end, we systematically analysed magnetic resonance imagings (MRIs) in 38 patients with glutaric aciduria type I diagnosed before or after the manifestation of neurological symptoms. To identify brain regions that are susceptible to cerebral injury during acute encephalopathic crises, we compared the frequency of magnetic resonance abnormalities in patients with and without such crises. Major specific changes after encephalopathic crises were found in the putamen (P < 0.001), nucleus caudatus (P < 0.001), globus pallidus (P = 0.012) and ventricles (P = 0.001). Analysis of empirical cumulative distribution frequencies, however, demonstrated that isolated pallidal abnormalities did not significantly differ over time in both groups (P = 0.544) suggesting that isolated pallidal abnormalities are not induced by acute crises--in contrast to striatal abnormalities. The manifestation of motor disability was associated with signal abnormalities in putamen, caudate, pallidum and ventricles. In addition, we found a large number of extrastriatal abnormalities in patients with and without preceding encephalophatic crises. These abnormalities include widening of anterior temporal and sylvian CSF spaces, pseudocysts, signal changes of substantia nigra, nucleus dentatus, thalamus, tractus tegmentalis centralis and supratentorial white matter as well as signs of delayed maturation (myelination and gyral pattern). In contrast to the striatum, extrastriatal abnormalities were variable and could regress or even normalize with time. This includes widening of sylvian fissures, delayed maturation, pallidal signal changes and pseudocysts. Based on these results, we hypothesize that neuroradiological abnormalities and neurological symptoms in glutaric aciduria type I can be explained by overlaying episodes of cerebral alterations including maturational delay of the brain in utero, acute striatal injury during a vulnerable period in infancy and chronic progressive changes that may continue lifelong. This may have widespread consequences for the pathophysiological understanding of this disease, long-term outcomes and therapeutic considerations.

Blood bank issues associated with red cell exchanges in sickle cell disease.

PubMed

Sarode, Ravindra; Altuntas, Fevzi

2006-12-01

Sickle cell disease (SCD) patients are prone to develop complications that include stroke, acute chest syndrome, and other crises. Some of these complications require chronic transfusion therapy or red cell exchange (RCE), either for therapeutic or prophylactic reasons. Due to a discrepancy of red cell antigens between African Americans and Caucasians (majority blood donors), the incidence of alloantibody formation is very high, which makes it difficult to find compatible red cell units, especially for urgent RCE. Some of the above conditions require immediate oxygen delivery to the tissues. Thus, SCD patients undergoing RCE should receive red blood cells with special attributes that include matching for Rh and Kell blood group antigens; RBCs should be fresh in order to provide (1) immediate oxygen delivery and (2) longer surviving cells to reduce the interval between RCE. Also, these units should be pre-storage leukoreduced to prevent febrile non-hemolytic reactions and screened for sickle cell traits to avoid transfusing red cells containing HbS. This requires a concerted effort between the apheresis unit, the local blood bank, and the central blood supplier.

The dynamics of financial stability in complex networks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

da Cruz, J. P.; Lind, P. G.

2012-08-01

We address the problem of banking system resilience by applying off-equilibrium statistical physics to a system of particles, representing the economic agents, modelled according to the theoretical foundation of the current banking regulation, the so called Merton-Vasicek model. Economic agents are attracted to each other to exchange `economic energy', forming a network of trades. When the capital level of one economic agent drops below a minimum, the economic agent becomes insolvent. The insolvency of one single economic agent affects the economic energy of all its neighbours which thus become susceptible to insolvency, being able to trigger a chain of insolvencies (avalanche). We show that the distribution of avalanche sizes follows a power-law whose exponent depends on the minimum capital level. Furthermore, we present evidence that under an increase in the minimum capital level, large crashes will be avoided only if one assumes that agents will accept a drop in business levels, while keeping their trading attitudes and policies unchanged. The alternative assumption, that agents will try to restore their business levels, may lead to the unexpected consequence that large crises occur with higher probability.

When the Unthinkable Happens.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sabo, Sandra R.

1995-01-01

College and university public relations professionals offer advice on coping with campus crises. Suggestions include responding quickly, telling the truth to the media early, trading on relationships within the campus community, capitalizing on institutional credibility with the media, remembering internal audiences, understanding legal…

Use of verbal autopsy and social autopsy in humanitarian crises.

PubMed

Thomas, Lisa-Marie; D'Ambruoso, Lucia; Balabanova, Dina

2018-01-01

Two billion people live in countries affected by conflict, violence and fragility. These are exceptional situations in which mortality shifts dramatically and in which civil registration and vital statistics systems are often weakened or cease to function. Verbal autopsy and social autopsy (VA and SA) are methods used to assign causes of death and understand the contexts in which these occur, in settings where information is otherwise unavailable. This review sought to explore the use of VA and SA in humanitarian crises, with a focus on how these approaches are used to inform policy and programme responses. A rapid scoping review was conducted on the use of VA and SA in humanitarian crises in low and middle-income countries since 1991. Drawing on a maximum variation approach, two settings of application ('application contexts') were selected and investigated via nine semi-structured expert interviews. VA can determine causes of death in crisis-affected populations where no other registration system is in place. Combined with SA and active community involvement, these methods can deliver a holistic view of obstacles to seeking and receiving essential healthcare, yielding context-specific information to inform appropriate responses. The contexts in which VA and SA are used require adaptations to standard tools, and new mobile developments in VA raise specific ethical considerations. Furthermore, collecting and sythesising data in a timely, continuous manner, and ensuring coordination and communication between agencies, is important to realise the potential of these approaches. VA and SA are valuable research methods to foster evidence-informed responses for populations affected by humanitarian crises. When coordinated and communicated effectively, data generated through these methods can help to identify levels, causes and circumstances of deaths among vulnerable groups, and can enable planning and allocating resources effectively, potentially improving health system resilience to future crises.

Is There a Statistical Relationship between Economic Crises and Changes in Government Health Expenditure Growth? An Analysis of Twenty-Four European Countries

PubMed Central

Cylus, Jonathan; Mladovsky, Philipa; McKee, Martin

2012-01-01

Objective To identify whether, by what means, and the extent to which historically, government health care expenditure growth in Europe has changed following economic crises. Data Sources Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development Health Data 2011. Study Design Cross-country fixed effects multiple regression analysis is used to determine whether statutory health care expenditure growth in the year after economic crises differs from that which would otherwise be predicted by general economic trends. Better understanding of the mechanisms involved is achieved by distinguishing between policy responses which lead to cost-shifting and all others. Findings In the year after an economic downturn, public health care expenditure grows more slowly than would have been expected given the longer term economic climate. Cost-shifting and other policy responses are both associated with these slowdowns. However, while changes in tax-derived expenditure are associated with both cost-shifting and other policy responses following a crisis, changes in expenditure derived from social insurance have been associated only with changes in cost-shifting. Conclusions Disproportionate cuts to the health sector, as well as reliance on cost-shifting to slow growth in health care expenditure, serve as a warning in terms of potentially negative effects on equity, efficiency, and quality of health services and, potentially, health outcomes following economic crises. PMID:22670771

Is there a statistical relationship between economic crises and changes in government health expenditure growth? an analysis of twenty-four European countries.

PubMed

Cylus, Jonathan; Mladovsky, Philipa; McKee, Martin

2012-12-01

To identify whether, by what means, and the extent to which historically, government health care expenditure growth in Europe has changed following economic crises. Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development Health Data 2011. Cross-country fixed effects multiple regression analysis is used to determine whether statutory health care expenditure growth in the year after economic crises differs from that which would otherwise be predicted by general economic trends. Better understanding of the mechanisms involved is achieved by distinguishing between policy responses which lead to cost-shifting and all others. In the year after an economic downturn, public health care expenditure grows more slowly than would have been expected given the longer term economic climate. Cost-shifting and other policy responses are both associated with these slowdowns. However, while changes in tax-derived expenditure are associated with both cost-shifting and other policy responses following a crisis, changes in expenditure derived from social insurance have been associated only with changes in cost-shifting. Disproportionate cuts to the health sector, as well as reliance on cost-shifting to slow growth in health care expenditure, serve as a warning in terms of potentially negative effects on equity, efficiency, and quality of health services and, potentially, health outcomes following economic crises. © Health Research and Educational Trust.

Re-evaluation of bone pain in patients with type 1 Gaucher disease suggests that bone crises occur in small bones as well as long bones.

PubMed

Baris, Hagit N; Weisz Hubshman, Monika; Bar-Sever, Zvi; Kornreich, Liora; Shkalim Zemer, Vered; Cohen, Ian J

2016-09-01

Bone crises in type 1 Gaucher disease are reported in long bones and occasionally in weight bearing bones and other bones, but rarely in small bones of the hands and feet. We retrospectively examined the incidence of bone pain in patients followed at the Rabin Medical Center, Israel, before and following the initiation of enzyme replacement therapy (ERT) and evaluated them for bone crises. Of 100 type I Gaucher disease patients, 30 (30%) experienced one or more bone crises. Small bone crises represented 31.5% of all bone crises and were always preceded by crises in other bones. While the incidence of long bone crises reduced after the initiation of ERT, small bone crises increased. Almost 60% of patients with bone crises were of the N370S/84GG genotype suggesting a greater susceptibility of N370S/84GG patients to severe bone complications. These patients also underwent the greatest number of splenectomies (70.6% of splenectomised patients). Splenectomised patients showed a trend towards increased long and small bone crises after surgery. Active investigation of acute pain in the hands and feet in patients in our cohort has revealed a high incidence of small bone crises. Physicians should consider imaging studies to investigate unexplained pain in these areas. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Vulnerability of network of networks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Havlin, S.; Kenett, D. Y.; Bashan, A.; Gao, J.; Stanley, H. E.

2014-10-01

Our dependence on networks - be they infrastructure, economic, social or others - leaves us prone to crises caused by the vulnerabilities of these networks. There is a great need to develop new methods to protect infrastructure networks and prevent cascade of failures (especially in cases of coupled networks). Terrorist attacks on transportation networks have traumatized modern societies. With a single blast, it has become possible to paralyze airline traffic, electric power supply, ground transportation or Internet communication. How, and at which cost can one restructure the network such that it will become more robust against malicious attacks? The gradual increase in attacks on the networks society depends on - Internet, mobile phone, transportation, air travel, banking, etc. - emphasize the need to develop new strategies to protect and defend these crucial networks of communication and infrastructure networks. One example is the threat of liquid explosives a few years ago, which completely shut down air travel for days, and has created extreme changes in regulations. Such threats and dangers warrant the need for new tools and strategies to defend critical infrastructure. In this paper we review recent advances in the theoretical understanding of the vulnerabilities of interdependent networks with and without spatial embedding, attack strategies and their affect on such networks of networks as well as recently developed strategies to optimize and repair failures caused by such attacks.

Preparing for a Crisis.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Perea, Rosalie D.; Morrison, Shirley

1997-01-01

To handle unforeseen crises, Albuquerque Public Schools established a critical-incident response team with a simple, understandable chain of command. The group aims to ensure maximum safety and people' well-being, develop a districtwide crisis-response-management plan, coordinate necessary training, and collaborate with community agencies…

Utilizing Social Networks in Times of Crisis: Understanding, Exploring and Analyzing Critical Incident Management at Institutions of Higher Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Asselin, Martha Jo

2012-01-01

With the rising number of major crises on college campuses today (Security on Campus Inc., 2009), institutions of higher education can benefit from understanding of how social networks may be used in times of emergency. What is currently known about the usage of social networks is not integral to the current practices of crisis management that are…

Emotional First Aid: Crisis Development and Systems of Intervention.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rosenbluh, Edward S.; And Others

This instructional manual takes a developmental approach toward understanding the psychological, social and behavioral dynamics of human crisis. The manual describes the behavior patterns characterizing various psychological and physical crises, and provides background information and methods of crisis intervention with which to manage each. In…

Image Repair Discourse and Crisis Communication.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Benoit, William L.

1997-01-01

Describes the theory of image restoration discourse as an approach for understanding corporate crisis situations. States this theory can be used by practitioners to help design messages during crises and by critics or educators to critically evaluate such messages. Describes and illustrates the theory's basic concepts. Offers suggestions for…

Human resource crises in German hospitals--an explorative study.

PubMed

Schermuly, Carsten C; Draheim, Michael; Glasberg, Ronald; Stantchev, Vladimir; Tamm, Gerrit; Hartmann, Michael; Hessel, Franz

2015-05-28

The complexity of providing medical care in a high-tech environment with a highly specialized, limited labour force makes hospitals more crisis-prone than other industries. An effective defence against crises is only possible if the organizational resilience and the capacity to handle crises become part of the hospitals' organizational culture. To become more resilient to crises, a raised awareness--especially in the area of human resource (HR)--is necessary. The aim of this paper is to contribute to the process robustness against crises through the identification and evaluation of relevant HR crises and their causations in hospitals. Qualitative and quantitative methods were combined to identify and evaluate crises in hospitals in the HR sector. A structured workshop with experts was conducted to identify HR crises and their descriptions, as well as causes and consequences for patients and hospitals. To evaluate the findings, an online survey was carried out to rate the occurrence (past, future) and dangerousness of each crisis. Six HR crises were identified in this study: staff shortages, acute loss of personnel following a pandemic, damage to reputation, insufficient communication during restructuring, bullying, and misuse of drugs. The highest occurrence probability in the future was seen in staff shortages, followed by acute loss of personnel following a pandemic. Staff shortages, damage to reputation, and acute loss of personnel following a pandemic were seen as the most dangerous crises. The study concludes that coping with HR crises in hospitals is existential for hospitals and requires increased awareness. The six HR crises identified occurred regularly in German hospitals in the past, and their occurrence probability for the future was rated as high.

Detection method of financial crisis in Indonesia using MSGARCH models based on banking condition indicators

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sugiyanto; Zukhronah, E.; Sari, S. P.

2018-05-01

Financial crisis has hit Indonesia for several times resulting the needs for an early detection system to minimize the impact. One of many methods that can be used to detect the crisis is to model the crisis indicators using combination of volatility and Markov switching models [5]. There are some indicators that can be used to detect financial crisis. Three of them are the difference between interest rate on deposit and lending, the real interest rate on deposit, and the difference between real BI rate and real Fed rate which can be referred as banking condition indicators. Volatility model used to overcome the conditional variance that change over time. Combination of volatility and Markov switching models used to detect condition change on the data. The smoothed probability from the combined models can be used to detect the crisis. This research resulted that the best combined volatility and Markov switching models for the three indicators are MS-GARCH(3,1,1) models with three states assumption. Crises in mid of 1997 until 1998 has successfully detected with a certain range of smoothed probability value for the three indicators.

Great Decisions '86.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hoepli, Nancy L., Ed.

Designed to initiate discussion of foreign policy decisions, this book contains an analysis of eight foreign policy issues confronting the United States in 1986. Each unit provides the background and guidelines to provide perspective to assist in understanding foreign policy crises. The units included in this issue are: (1) "How Foreign Policy Is…

Coaching Techniques and Play Therapy Responses: A New Communication Pattern

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Muro, Joel H.; Stulmaker, Hayley; Rose, Katherine Kensinger

2012-01-01

Understanding the developmental stages of children is crucial for coaches. Equally important is the way adults communicate with children. In his seminal work describing the influence of society and social interactions on the psychosocial development of children, Erikson (1950, 1963) described the developmental crises faced by children at each…

Increasing Understanding of Routine/Everyday Interaction in Relationships

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Schmidt, Jacqueline; Uecker, Deborrah

2007-01-01

Most communication texts analyze relationships by focusing on the big moments such as conflicts, crises, break-ups, major transitions, or initial meetings. Perhaps because everyday communication is so common, it often has been ignored for study and analysis. Yet because these seemingly undramatic interactions form the basis for relationships,…

Use of verbal autopsy and social autopsy in humanitarian crises

PubMed Central

Balabanova, Dina

2018-01-01

Introduction Two billion people live in countries affected by conflict, violence and fragility. These are exceptional situations in which mortality shifts dramatically and in which civil registration and vital statistics systems are often weakened or cease to function. Verbal autopsy and social autopsy (VA and SA) are methods used to assign causes of death and understand the contexts in which these occur, in settings where information is otherwise unavailable. This review sought to explore the use of VA and SA in humanitarian crises, with a focus on how these approaches are used to inform policy and programme responses. Methods A rapid scoping review was conducted on the use of VA and SA in humanitarian crises in low and middle-income countries since 1991. Drawing on a maximum variation approach, two settings of application (‘application contexts’) were selected and investigated via nine semi-structured expert interviews. Results VA can determine causes of death in crisis-affected populations where no other registration system is in place. Combined with SA and active community involvement, these methods can deliver a holistic view of obstacles to seeking and receiving essential healthcare, yielding context-specific information to inform appropriate responses. The contexts in which VA and SA are used require adaptations to standard tools, and new mobile developments in VA raise specific ethical considerations. Furthermore, collecting and sythesising data in a timely, continuous manner, and ensuring coordination and communication between agencies, is important to realise the potential of these approaches. Conclusion VA and SA are valuable research methods to foster evidence-informed responses for populations affected by humanitarian crises. When coordinated and communicated effectively, data generated through these methods can help to identify levels, causes and circumstances of deaths among vulnerable groups, and can enable planning and allocating resources effectively, potentially improving health system resilience to future crises. PMID:29736275

How do people with long-term mental health problems negotiate relationships with network members at times of crisis?

PubMed

Walker, Sandra; Kennedy, Anne; Vassilev, Ivaylo; Rogers, Anne

2018-02-01

Social network processes impact on the genesis and management of mental health problems. There is currently less understanding of the way people negotiate networked relationships in times of crisis compared to how they manage at other times. This paper explores the patterns and nature of personal network involvement at times of crises and how these may differ from day-to-day networks of recovery and maintenance. Semi-structured interviews with 25 participants with a diagnosis of long-term mental health (MH) problems drawn from recovery settings in the south of England. Interviews centred on personal network mapping of members and resources providing support. The mapping interviews explored the work of network members and changes in times of crisis. Interviews were recorded, transcribed and analysed using a framework analysis. Three key themes were identified: the fluidity of network relationality between crisis and recovery; isolation as a means of crises management; leaning towards peer support. Personal network input retreated at times of crisis often as result of "ejection" from the network by participants who used self-isolation as a personal management strategy in an attempt to deal with crises. Peer support is considered useful during a crisis, whilst the role of services was viewed with some ambiguity. Social networks membership, and type and depth of involvement, is subject to change between times of crisis and everyday support. This has implications for managing mental health in terms of engaging with network support differently in times of crises versus recovery and everyday living. © 2017 The Authors Health Expectations Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

The Story of a Salt Lake City Gay-Straight Alliance: Identity Work and LGBT Youth

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mayberry, Maralee

2006-01-01

This paper draws from a larger analysis of literature on lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered (LGBT) youth to illustrate how the dominant rhetorical frameworks construct an individual-LGBT student-in identity crises and "at risk." Taylor and Whittier's (1992) framework for understanding "identity construction" in social…

34 CFR 426.5 - What activities does the Secretary fund under the Program for Model Consumer and Homemaking...

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-07-01

... responses to individual and family crises, including family violence and child abuse; (e) Strengthening... limited resources; (i) Improving individual, child, and family nutrition and wellness; (j) Understanding the impact of new technology on life and work; (k) Applying consumer and homemaking education skills...

34 CFR 426.5 - What activities does the Secretary fund under the Program for Model Consumer and Homemaking...

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-07-01

... responses to individual and family crises, including family violence and child abuse; (e) Strengthening... limited resources; (i) Improving individual, child, and family nutrition and wellness; (j) Understanding the impact of new technology on life and work; (k) Applying consumer and homemaking education skills...

34 CFR 426.5 - What activities does the Secretary fund under the Program for Model Consumer and Homemaking...

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-07-01

... responses to individual and family crises, including family violence and child abuse; (e) Strengthening... limited resources; (i) Improving individual, child, and family nutrition and wellness; (j) Understanding the impact of new technology on life and work; (k) Applying consumer and homemaking education skills...

34 CFR 426.5 - What activities does the Secretary fund under the Program for Model Consumer and Homemaking...

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-07-01

... responses to individual and family crises, including family violence and child abuse; (e) Strengthening... limited resources; (i) Improving individual, child, and family nutrition and wellness; (j) Understanding the impact of new technology on life and work; (k) Applying consumer and homemaking education skills...

34 CFR 426.5 - What activities does the Secretary fund under the Program for Model Consumer and Homemaking...

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... responses to individual and family crises, including family violence and child abuse; (e) Strengthening... limited resources; (i) Improving individual, child, and family nutrition and wellness; (j) Understanding the impact of new technology on life and work; (k) Applying consumer and homemaking education skills...

Learning: Meeting the Challenges of Older Adulthood.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wolf, Mary Alice

Erik Erikson's model (1963, 1982) is most useful to an understanding of development and aging. He describes lifelong growth as related to tasks that must be performed. At each stage of life, times of stability are followed by developmental crises. Upon resolving the crisis, the individual can enjoy the particular beauty and security of that…

Topological Characteristics of the Hong Kong Stock Market: A Test-based P-threshold Approach to Understanding Network Complexity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Xu, Ronghua; Wong, Wing-Keung; Chen, Guanrong; Huang, Shuo

2017-02-01

In this paper, we analyze the relationship among stock networks by focusing on the statistically reliable connectivity between financial time series, which accurately reflects the underlying pure stock structure. To do so, we firstly filter out the effect of market index on the correlations between paired stocks, and then take a t-test based P-threshold approach to lessening the complexity of the stock network based on the P values. We demonstrate the superiority of its performance in understanding network complexity by examining the Hong Kong stock market. By comparing with other filtering methods, we find that the P-threshold approach extracts purely and significantly correlated stock pairs, which reflect the well-defined hierarchical structure of the market. In analyzing the dynamic stock networks with fixed-size moving windows, our results show that three global financial crises, covered by the long-range time series, can be distinguishingly indicated from the network topological and evolutionary perspectives. In addition, we find that the assortativity coefficient can manifest the financial crises and therefore can serve as a good indicator of the financial market development.

Review of book vestibular crises

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Blagoveshchenskaya, N. S.

1980-01-01

The etiology, pathogenesis, clinical practice, treatment and rehabilitation of patients with vestibular crises is discussed. Classifications for vestibular disorders are given. Information on the frequency of vestibular crises is given.

Understanding the pathophysiology of schizophrenia: Contributions from the Melbourne Psychiatric Brain Bank.

PubMed

Dean, Brian; Copolov, David; Scarr, Elizabeth

2016-11-01

The Melbourne Psychiatric Brain Bank came into existence 25years ago. This review focusses on lines of research that have used tissue from the Brain Bank over periods of time. Hence there is a discussion on the significance of changes in levels of serotonin 2A receptors in the cortex of patients with schizophrenia and the relevance of such changes with regards to the pathophysiology of the disorder. The extensive contribution made by studies using tissue from the Melbourne Psychiatric Brain Bank to understanding the role of muscarinic receptors in the pathophysiology and treatment of schizophrenia is summarised. Finally, findings using brain bank tissue and "omics" technologies are reviewed. In each case, findings using tissue from the Melbourne Psychiatric Brain Bank is placed in context with research carried out on human postmortem CNS in schizophrenia and with findings in other lines of research that can help explain the causes or consequences of changes in CNS molecular cytoarchitecture. This timely review of data from the Melbourne Psychiatric Brain Bank reinforces the challenges faced in trying to increase our understanding of the molecular pathophysiology of schizophrenia. Continuing to increase our understanding of the disorder is important as a precursor to identifying new drug targets that can be exploited to improve the treatment of a disorder where treatment resistance remains a significant problem (Millan et al., 2016). Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Organizational collaborative capacity in fighting pandemic crises: a literature review from the public management perspective.

PubMed

Lai, Allen Y

2012-01-01

Collaborative capacity serves for organizations as the capacity to collaborate with other network players. Organizational capacity matters as collaboration outcomes usually go beyond single-shot implementation efforts or a single-minded focus on either the vertical dimension of program or the horizontal component. This review article explores organizational collaborative capacities from the perspective of public management, in particular, network theory. By applying the 5 attributes of network theory-interdependence, membership, resources, information, and learning-to the explanation of collaborative capacity in fighting pandemic crises, I argue in some ways organizational collaborative capacity is very much like an organization in its own right. Studying collaborative capacity in the battle against pandemics facilitate our understanding of multisectoral collaboration in technical, political, and institutional dimensions, and greatly advances the richness of capacity vocabulary in pandemic response and preparedness.

[Medication-related oculogyric crises: a description of four cases and a review of the literature].

PubMed

Darling, A; Poo, P; Perez-Duenas, B; Campistol, J

2013-02-01

Oculogyric crises are considered to be a form of focal dystonia and can be observed as reactions to pharmaceuticals. The signs and symptoms may be confused with epileptic crises. To describe the clinical features and progress of patients with pharmaceutical-related oculogyric crises and to carry out a review of the topic. We conducted a retrospective, descriptive study of four patients evaluated in the neurology service due to oculogyric crises. The patients had been diagnosed with an associated conduct disorder requiring treatment with antipsychotic drugs. The episodes of oculogyric crises did not correlate with the findings in the electroencephalogram. They responded well to the reduction in dosage or to withdrawal of the apparent causing agent. The clinical picture does not present only in patients treated with antipsychotics but is also linked with other pharmaceuticals that are frequently used in daily paediatric practice. When oculogyric crises are the reason for visiting, differential diagnoses must be taken into account in order to avoid unnecessary studies and to carry out an appropriate therapeutic management.

12 CFR 214.4 - Agreements with foreign banks, bankers, or States, and participation in foreign accounts.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-01-01

... foreign accounts. (a) No Federal Reserve Bank shall enter into any agreement, contract, or understanding... foreign State, or has entered into any agreement, contract, or understanding with reference to opening or... may participate in such account, or in such agreement, contract, or understanding, and in operations...

A 2-1-1 Research Collaboration

PubMed Central

Eddens, Katherine S.; Alcaraz, Kassandra I.; Kreuter, Matthew W.; Rath, Suchitra; Greer, Regina

2012-01-01

Background 2-1-1 serves as a lifeline in times of crises. These crises often cause a spike in call volume that can challenge 2-1-1’s ability to meet their service quality standards. For researchers gathering data through 2-1-1s, a sudden increase in call volume might reduce accrual as 2-1-1 has less time to administer study protocols. Research activities imbedded in 2-1-1 systems may directly affect 2-1-1 service quality indicators. Purpose Using data from a 2-1-1 research collaboration, this paper examines the impact of crises on call volume to 2-1-1, how call volume affects research participant accrual through 2-1-1, and how research recruitment efforts affect 2-1-1 service quality indicators. Methods t-tests were used to examine the effect of call volume on research participant accrual. Linear and logistic regressions were used to examine the effect of research participant accrual on 2-1-1 service quality indicators. Data were collected June 2010–December 2011; data were analyzed in 2012. Results Findings from this collaboration suggest that crises causing spikes in call volume adversely affect 2-1-1 service quality indicators as well as accrual of research participants. Administering a brief (2–3 minute) health risk assessment did not negatively affect service quality, but administering a longer (15–18 minute) survey had a modest adverse effect on these indicators. Conclusions In 2-1-1 research collaborations, both partners need to understand the dynamic relationship between call volume, research accrual, and service quality, and adjust expectations accordingly. If research goals include administering a longer survey, increased staffing of 2-1-1 call centers may be needed to avoid compromising service quality. PMID:23157769

When Crisis Strikes.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Caudle, Melissa

1994-01-01

School crises may be categorized as emergency situations, human-made crises, natural events, medical emergencies, and mechanical crises. Central to any successful crisis-management plan are onsite and district-level crisis response teams. Plans should specify staff responsibilities; provide for communication codes, devices, and procedures;…

Investigation on financial crises with the negative-information-propagation-induced model

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fan, Feng-Hua; Deng, Yanbin; Huang, Yong-Chang

2017-03-01

We first argue about the similarity between the propagation phenomenon of negative information about potential deterioration of economic situation in group of investors and the propagation phenomenon of infectious disease in crowd Applying the negative-information-propagation-induced model built based on above argument, we investigate the relationship between the generation of financial crises and propagation effects of negative information We introduce the discrimination parameter to distinguish whether or not negative information will be propagated extensively in group of investors. We also introduce the target critical value of financial crises. By comparing the theoretically predicted ratio of the long term projected number of total investors to the total number of investors at some time as initial time with target critical value of financial crises, the model can provide real-time monitoring of whether the curve of total number of investors is progressing toward the direction of generating financial crises or running on track of financial markets safety. If at some time this ratio is computed to be less than the target critical value of financial crises, governments can take relevant measures to prevent the generation of financial crises in advance Governments' interference helps to recover the confidence of investors so that they never will again believe in negative information to continue their investment. Results from theoretical and numerical analysis show that the number of investors who hold the belief of potential deterioration of economic situation, and the number of investors who withdraw capital and depart from financial markets for avoiding business loss when governments make appropriate interference are lowered compared to that without appropriate governments' interference. The results show the effectiveness of governments in preventing financial crises from the viewpoint of the negative information-propagation-induced model, namely governments' prevention against financial crises can reduce the possibility of the generation of financial crises.

Managing Crises.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Eggen, Jerald D.; Mackenzie, R. Alec

1987-01-01

To avoid emergency-driven work environments, crises should be anticipated to the extent possible; steps should be taken to prevent them or limit their consequences. Crises have both internal (personal) and external causes based on poor performance, unreasonable demands, or shifting priorities. Administrators need to cushion deadlines, clarify…

The United Nations and One Health: the International Health Regulations (2005) and global health security.

PubMed

Nuttall, I; Miyagishima, K; Roth, C; de La Rocque, S

2014-08-01

The One Health approach encompasses multiple themes and can be understood from many different perspectives. This paper expresses the viewpoint of those in charge of responding to public health events of international concern and, in particular, to outbreaks of zoonotic disease. Several international organisations are involved in responding to such outbreaks, including the United Nations (UN) and its technical agencies; principally, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO) and the World Health Organization (WHO); UN funds and programmes, such as the United Nations Development Programme, the World Food Programme, the United Nations Environment Programme, the United Nations Children's Fund; the UN-linked multilateral banking system (the World Bank and regional development banks); and partner organisations, such as the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE). All of these organisations have benefited from the experiences gained during zoonotic disease outbreaks over the last decade, developing common approaches and mechanisms to foster good governance, promote policies that cut across different sectors, target investment more effectively and strengthen global and national capacities for dealing with emerging crises. Coordination among the various UN agencies and creating partnerships with related organisations have helped to improve disease surveillance in all countries, enabling more efficient detection of disease outbreaks and a faster response, greater transparency and stakeholder engagement and improved public health. The need to build more robust national public human and animal health systems, which are based on good governance and comply with the International Health Regulations (2005) and the international standards set by the OIE, prompted FAO, WHO and the OIE to join forces with the World Bank, to provide practical tools to help countries manage their zoonotic disease risks and develop adequate resources to prevent and control disease outbreaks, particularly at the animal source. All these efforts contribute to the One Health agenda.

The impact of economic crises on social inequalities in health: what do we know so far?

PubMed

Bacigalupe, Amaia; Escolar-Pujolar, Antonio

2014-07-25

Since 2008, Western countries are going through a deep economic crisis whose health impacts seem to be fundamentally counter-cyclical: when economic conditions worsen, so does health, and mortality tends to rise. While a growing number of studies have presented evidence on the effect of crises on the average population health, a largely neglected aspect of research is the impact of crises and the related political responses on social inequalities in health, even if the negative consequences of the crises are primarily borne by the most disadvantaged populations. This commentary will reflect on the results of the studies that have analyzed the effect of economic crises on social inequalities in health up to 2013. With some exceptions, the studies show an increase in health inequalities during crises, especially during the Southeast Asian and Japanese crises and the Soviet Union crisis, although it is not always evident for both sexes or all health or socioeconomic variables. In the Nordic countries during the nineties, a clear worsening of health equity did not occur. Results about the impacts of the current economic recession on health equity are still inconsistent. Some of the factors that could explain this variability in results are the role of welfare state policies, the diversity of time periods used in the analyses, the heterogeneity of socioeconomic and health variables considered, the changes in the socioeconomic profile of the groups under comparison in times of crises, and the type of measures used to analyze the magnitude of social inequalities in health. Social epidemiology should further collaborate with other disciplines to help produce more accurate and useful evidence about the relationship between crises and health equity.

What's the Point of Me? James Hillman's Acorn Theory and the Role of Teachers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Roberts, Susan C.

2015-01-01

On the subject of identity crises which we all face from time to time, The late James Hillman, a maverick Jungian psychologist, summed up the problem this way: "Today's main paradigm for understanding a human life, the interplay of genetics and environment, omits something essential the particularity you feel to be you." In his 1996…

Being professional in the social media world.

PubMed

Chan, Steven D

2012-01-01

What is at stake for dentists in the world of social media? Because it is unrealistic to completely avoid the new network, dentists should master some of these skills: risk management, crises management, and reputation management, as well as understanding that the playing field is not even. Guidelines for professional use of media are presented, along with some suggestions for effective participation.

An Examination of Cultural Influences on Team Cognition and Information Sharing in Emergency Crisis Management Domains: A Mixed Methodological Approach

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Endsley, Tristan Caroline

2016-01-01

The consequence for better understanding and facilitating teamwork during crisis and disaster response in the coming years is significant. It becomes clear that environmental and situational complexity requires a reliance on teams to carry out response efforts. Crises, regardless of the type of event, require complex decision-making and planning…

Placing Engineering and Other Professions under Public Oversight: A First Step toward Dealing with Our Economic, Social, and Environmental Crises

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Vanderburg, Willem H.

2012-01-01

The strengths and weaknesses of the discipline-based organization of our professions can help us understand both the enormous successes of our civilization and its equally spectacular failures. Placing engineering and other professions under greater public scrutiny is recommended as a first step toward addressing our deep structural economic,…

Topological Characteristics of the Hong Kong Stock Market: A Test-based P-threshold Approach to Understanding Network Complexity

PubMed Central

Xu, Ronghua; Wong, Wing-Keung; Chen, Guanrong; Huang, Shuo

2017-01-01

In this paper, we analyze the relationship among stock networks by focusing on the statistically reliable connectivity between financial time series, which accurately reflects the underlying pure stock structure. To do so, we firstly filter out the effect of market index on the correlations between paired stocks, and then take a t-test based P-threshold approach to lessening the complexity of the stock network based on the P values. We demonstrate the superiority of its performance in understanding network complexity by examining the Hong Kong stock market. By comparing with other filtering methods, we find that the P-threshold approach extracts purely and significantly correlated stock pairs, which reflect the well-defined hierarchical structure of the market. In analyzing the dynamic stock networks with fixed-size moving windows, our results show that three global financial crises, covered by the long-range time series, can be distinguishingly indicated from the network topological and evolutionary perspectives. In addition, we find that the assortativity coefficient can manifest the financial crises and therefore can serve as a good indicator of the financial market development. PMID:28145494

Managing Mental Health Crises of Foreign College Students.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Oropeza, Barbara A. Clark; And Others

1991-01-01

Notes that student services professionals manage a number of mental health crises as part of their job responsibilities. Examines some issues that arise from assisting foreign college students experiencing such crises, with special focus on psychiatric committal, withdrawal from school, and return to the home country. (Author)

Methodological bias in the seed bank flora holds significant implications for understanding seed bank community functions.

PubMed

Plue, J; Colas, F; Auffret, A G; Cousins, S A O

2017-03-01

Persistent seed banks are a key plant regeneration strategy, buffering environmental variation to allow population and species persistence. Understanding seed bank functioning within herb layer dynamics is therefore important. However, rather than assessing emergence from the seed bank in herb layer gaps, most studies evaluate the seed bank functioning via a greenhouse census. We hypothesise that greenhouse data may not reflect seed bank-driven emergence in disturbance gaps due to methodological differences. Failure in detecting (specialist) species may then introduce methodological bias into the ecological interpretation of seed bank functions using greenhouse data. The persistent seed bank was surveyed in 40 semi-natural grassland plots across a fragmented landscape, quantifying seedling emergence in both the greenhouse and in disturbance gaps. Given the suspected interpretational bias, we tested whether each census uncovers similar seed bank responses to fragmentation. Seed bank characteristics were similar between censuses. Census type affected seed bank composition, with >25% of species retrieved better by either census type, dependent on functional traits including seed longevity, production and size. Habitat specialists emerged more in disturbance gaps than in the greenhouse, while the opposite was true for ruderal species. Both censuses uncovered fragmentation-induced seed bank patterns. Low surface area sampling, larger depth of sampling and germination conditions cause underrepresentation of the habitat-specialised part of the persistent seed bank flora during greenhouse censuses. Methodological bias introduced in the recorded seed bank data may consequently have significant implications for the ecological interpretation of seed bank community functions based on greenhouse data. © 2016 German Botanical Society and The Royal Botanical Society of the Netherlands.

Soil seed banks in four 22-year-old plantations in South China: implications for restoration

Treesearch

Jun Wang; Hai Ren; Long Yang; Danyan Li; Qinfeng Guo

2009-01-01

To better understand the potentials of the soil seed banks in facilitating succession towards a morenatural forest of native tree species, we quantified the size and composition of the soil seed banks inestablished plantations in South China. The seed banks were from four typical 22-year-old plantations, i.e., legume, mixed-...

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Kovoor-Misra, S.

Technical organizations are not only vulnerable to crises, but have the potential to create catastrophic crises. This has been devastatingly illustrated by recent crises, such as the gas leak in Bhopal, India, the Exxon Valdez oil spill, and the Challenger explosion. Thus, crises preparation for these organizations. This paper describes a Multidimensional Approach to crisis preparation for technical organizations. As part of this approach, come critical factors for crisis preparation are also described. The Multidimensional Approach is derived from the literature and a study of the crisis preparation of nine technical organizations. 28 refs., 3 figs., 4 tab.

[Public health crises in a developed society. Successes and limitations in Spain. SESPAS report 2010].

PubMed

Gérvas, Juan; Meneu, Ricard

2010-12-01

The perception, acceptability and management of risks are social construction. Consequently, in managing public health crises, the gap between facts, beliefs and feelings tests the responsiveness of official institutions to health alarms that can be objective, potential, or imaginary. On balance, a strong point of the Spanish experience of health crises is the presence of clinicians and public health officers working in an organization capable of responding adequately, although the quasi-federal Spanish political structure has both advantages and disadvantages. Weaknesses include the low profile given to public health and a management structure that relies too heavily on partitocracy. The management of these crises could be improved by transferring greater scope to health professionals in decisions about crisis identification and management (with transparency) and limiting bureaucratic inertia. For some, health crises involve visibility or business opportunities (not always legitimate). Therefore, the perception of crisis will increasingly rest less in the hands of experts and more in those of groups interested in spreading these crises or in providing solutions. While progress is needed to develop participation in strategies to respond to emerging crises, even more essential is the involvement of all healthcare levels in their preparation and dissemination. Copyright © 2010 SESPAS. Published by Elsevier Espana. All rights reserved.

Crises and Collective Socio-Economic Phenomena: Simple Models and Challenges

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bouchaud, Jean-Philippe

2013-05-01

Financial and economic history is strewn with bubbles and crashes, booms and busts, crises and upheavals of all sorts. Understanding the origin of these events is arguably one of the most important problems in economic theory. In this paper, we review recent efforts to include heterogeneities and interactions in models of decision. We argue that the so-called Random Field Ising model ( rfim) provides a unifying framework to account for many collective socio-economic phenomena that lead to sudden ruptures and crises. We discuss different models that can capture potentially destabilizing self-referential feedback loops, induced either by herding, i.e. reference to peers, or trending, i.e. reference to the past, and that account for some of the phenomenology missing in the standard models. We discuss some empirically testable predictions of these models, for example robust signatures of rfim-like herding effects, or the logarithmic decay of spatial correlations of voting patterns. One of the most striking result, inspired by statistical physics methods, is that Adam Smith's invisible hand can fail badly at solving simple coordination problems. We also insist on the issue of time-scales, that can be extremely long in some cases, and prevent socially optimal equilibria from being reached. As a theoretical challenge, the study of so-called "detailed-balance" violating decision rules is needed to decide whether conclusions based on current models (that all assume detailed-balance) are indeed robust and generic.

When Crises Call

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kisch, Marian

2012-01-01

Natural disasters, as well as crises of the man-made variety, call on leaders of school districts to manage scenarios impossible to predict and for which no amount of training can adequately prepare. One thing all major crises hold in common is their far-reaching effects, which can run the gamut from personal safety and mental well-being to the…

Helping Students Cope with Fears and Crises.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Walz, Garry R., Ed.; Bleuer, Jeanne C., Ed.

This document consists of two modules extracted from a six-module larger work. Module 1 presents six articles on the topic of "helping students to cope with fears and crises." Module 2 contains 17 articles on "programs and practices for helping students cope with fears and crises." Article titles and authors are as follows: (1)…

Caring and Coping. Contemporary Issues: Facing Family Crises.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mosatche, Harriet S.

This booklet focuses on three particularly prevalent family crises: divorce, the death of a parent, and poverty. These crises profoundly affect millions of children in their personal, academic, and social development. The information and activities in this booklet are provided to enable Girl Scout leaders to increase their efforts both in helping…

Composition of soil seed banks in southern California coastal sage scrub and adjacent exotic grassland

Treesearch

Robert D. Cox; Edith B. Allen

2008-01-01

Soil seed banks are important to many plant communities and are recognized as an important component of management plans. Understanding seed bank composition and density is especially important when communities have been invaded by exotic species and must be managed to promote desirable species. We examined germinable soil seed banks in southern California coastal sage...

The Impact of Perception of Performance Appraisal and Distributive Justice Fairness on Employees' Ethical Decision Making in Paternalist Organizational Culture

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Goksoy, Asli; Alayoglu, Nihat

2013-01-01

Ethics in decision making has been an issue for academics, practitioners, and governmental regulators for decades. In the last decade, numerous scandals and consequently many corporate crises in the global business world have added credence to the criticisms of business ethics. Therefore, it is vital to understand the factors affecting employees'…

Bankruptcy cascades in interbank markets.

PubMed

Tedeschi, Gabriele; Mazloumian, Amin; Gallegati, Mauro; Helbing, Dirk

2012-01-01

We study a credit network and, in particular, an interbank system with an agent-based model. To understand the relationship between business cycles and cascades of bankruptcies, we model a three-sector economy with goods, credit and interbank market. In the interbank market, the participating banks share the risk of bad debits, which may potentially spread a bank's liquidity problems through the network of banks. Our agent-based model sheds light on the correlation between bankruptcy cascades and the endogenous economic cycle of booms and recessions. It also demonstrates the serious trade-off between, on the one hand, reducing risks of individual banks by sharing them and, on the other hand, creating systemic risks through credit-related interlinkages of banks. As a result of our study, the dynamics underlying the meltdown of financial markets in 2008 becomes much better understandable.

THE IMPACT OF CRISIS UPON THE BEHAVIOR OF NATIONS IN THE 1960's.

PubMed

Phillips, W R; Lorimor, T

1974-10-01

This study examines international crises in the 1960's, specifically those crises that occurred between June, 1962 and July, 1968. The conflictual aspects of interacting dyads involved in crises during that period were examined t o discern the conflictual dimensions of national behavior in crises. In addition, conflict behavior was examined for those periods immediately prior to and immediately following crisis situations. This resulted in dimensions of conflict behavior for pre-crisis, during-crisis, and post-crisis periods. The periods were contrasted with one another to gain a better conception of the behavior exhibited in international crises. It was found that the dimensions of behavior change in predictable ways in the shift from one period to another. The behavior of individual dyads does shift in ways which are not predictable by simple linear technique.

Causes, Consequences and Control of Students' Crises in Public and Private Universities in Nigeria

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Adeyemi, T. O.

2009-01-01

This paper investigated the causes, consequences and control of students' crises in public and private universities in Nigeria. Students' crises involve making protest by students' in pressing their demand on various issues with university authorities. In this regard, the study population comprised all the 81 universities in the country from which…

Multiple crises and global health: New and necessary frontiers of health politics

PubMed Central

Schrecker, Ted

2012-01-01

The world economy is entering an era of multiple crises, involving finance, food security and global environmental change. This article assesses the implications for global public health, describes the contours of post-2007 crises in food security and finance, and then briefly indicates the probable health impacts. There follows a discussion of the crisis of climate change, one that will unfold over a longer time frame but with manifestations that may already be upon us. The article then discusses the political economy of responses to these crises, noting the formidable obstacles that exist to equitable resolution. The article concludes by noting the threat that such crises present to recent progress in global health, arguing that global health researchers and practitioners must become more familiar with the relevant social processes, and that proposed solutions that neglect the continuing importance of the nation-state are misdirected. PMID:22657093

Multiple crises and global health: new and necessary frontiers of health politics.

PubMed

Schrecker, Ted

2012-01-01

The world economy is entering an era of multiple crises, involving finance, food security and global environmental change. This article assesses the implications for global public health, describes the contours of post-2007 crises in food security and finance, and then briefly indicates the probable health impacts. There follows a discussion of the crisis of climate change, one that will unfold over a longer time frame but with manifestations that may already be upon us. The article then discusses the political economy of responses to these crises, noting the formidable obstacles that exist to equitable resolution. The article concludes by noting the threat that such crises present to recent progress in global health, arguing that global health researchers and practitioners must become more familiar with the relevant social processes, and that proposed solutions that neglect the continuing importance of the nation-state are misdirected.

The dialog between health and foreign policy in Brazilian cooperation in human milk banks.

PubMed

Pittas, Tiago Mocellin; Dri, Clarissa Franzoi

2017-07-01

Mother's milk is the primary source of nourishment in early infancy. When this source is unavailable, secondary sources may be used, such as human milk banks. The first milk bank in Brazil was created in 1943, and they have been used ever since. A national model was developed through a number of phases, culminating in the Brazilian Network of Human Milk Banks. This gave rise to a number of international cooperation projects, with the Brazilian model particularly relevant for developing nations. The main objective of this analysis is to understand what drives Brazil to promote milk banks internationally. To do this we tried to understand the relationship between health and foreign policy, expressed here as soft power, as here the two areas dialog with one another. The results include gains in both areas and the affirmation of health as a central goal of the national interest cluster of the case.

Crises in EFL Proficiency and Teacher Development in the Context of International Donation and Transformation Discourses

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Birbirso, Dereje Tadesse

2014-01-01

Since 2000, Ethiopia has been working to come out of social crises, modernise itself and achieve the Millennium Development Goals. Although provided with billions of dollars by the West and their international agents, little has been changed and the crises seem never to abate, especially in the educational system. This study, thus, critically…

Drug therapy in pregnancy: the lessons of diethylstilbestrol, thalidomide, and bendectin.

PubMed

Saunders, E J; Saunders, J A

1990-01-01

A pregnant woman and the fetus she carries face health risks from many sources. One risk that requires ongoing vigilance is the use of prescription drugs during pregnancy. The international health care community has been sensitized to the risks of drug use during pregnancy because of three pharmaceuticals that have caused widespread crises for mothers and their offspring. The crises that diethylstilbestrol, thalidomide, and, to a lesser extent, Bendectin have created in the past four decades are reviewed in this article. The lessons these drug crises can teach us are articulated in the belief that similar crises may be averted in the future.

A 2-1-1 research collaboration: participant accrual and service quality indicators.

PubMed

Eddens, Katherine S; Alcaraz, Kassandra I; Kreuter, Matthew W; Rath, Suchitra; Greer, Regina

2012-12-01

In times of crises, 2-1-1 serves as a lifeline in many ways. These crises often cause a spike in call volume that can challenge 2-1-1's ability to meet its service quality standards. For researchers gathering data through 2-1-1s, a sudden increase in call volume might reduce accrual as 2-1-1 has less time to administer study protocols. Research activities imbedded in 2-1-1 systems may affect directly 2-1-1 service quality indicators. Using data from a 2-1-1 research collaboration, this paper examines the impact of crises on call volume to 2-1-1, how call volume affects research participant accrual through 2-1-1, and how research recruitment efforts affect 2-1-1 service quality indicators. t-tests were used to examine the effect of call volume on research participant accrual. Linear and logistic regressions were used to examine the effect of research participant accrual on 2-1-1 service quality indicators. Data were collected June 2010-December 2011; data were analyzed in 2012. Findings from this collaboration suggest that crises causing spikes in call volume adversely affect 2-1-1 service quality indicators as well as accrual of research participants. Administering a brief (2-3 minute) health risk assessment did not affect service quality negatively, but administering a longer (15-18 minute) survey had a modest adverse effect on these indicators. In 2-1-1 research collaborations, both partners need to understand the dynamic relationship among call volume, research accrual, and service quality and adjust expectations accordingly. If research goals include administering a longer survey, increased staffing of 2-1-1 call centers may be needed to avoid compromising service quality. Copyright © 2012 American Journal of Preventive Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Addressing the Challenges of Collective Security in West Africa: In View of Recent Conflicts

DTIC Science & Technology

2017-06-09

Distribution is Unlimited 13. SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES 14. ABSTRACT Understanding that achieving peace and security is a primary condition for an economic ...condition for an economic integration, ECOWAS has developped various approachs in resolving crises and overcoming threats within West Africa. Using...System CS Collective Security CSO Civil Society Organizations CSS Center for Security Studies EAC East Africa Community ECCAS Economic Community of

NASA Gulf of Mexico Initiative Hypoxia Research

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Armstrong, Curtis D.

2012-01-01

The Applied Science & Technology Project Office at Stennis Space Center (SSC) manages NASA's Gulf of Mexico Initiative (GOMI). Addressing short-term crises and long-term issues, GOMI participants seek to understand the environment using remote sensing, in-situ observations, laboratory analyses, field observations and computational models. New capabilities are transferred to end-users to help them make informed decisions. Some GOMI activities of interest to the hypoxia research community are highlighted.

[Suffering and mental health during social crises].

PubMed

Stagnaro, Juan Carlos

In this paper the author analyzes the epidemiological data of the effects of the social crisis on the mental health against the background of the political and social events in Argentine in the last years. These effects are found both in the general population and in the health care professionals. The article reviews the clinical and psychopathological approaches to understand the disorders of the patients during a social crisis.

Donor milk banking in China: the ultimate step in becoming baby friendly.

PubMed

Arnold, L D

1996-12-01

Milk banking is alive and well in China in small in-house milk banks in Baby Friendly Hospitals, especially those where staff has had little contact with western medical training. Donor milk banking is a logical extension of Step 6 of the Baby Friendly Hospital Initiative and is a good indicator of a hospital's respect for breastfeeding and its understanding of the unique components of human milk.

Process mining is an underutilized clinical research tool in transfusion medicine.

PubMed

Quinn, Jason G; Conrad, David M; Cheng, Calvino K

2017-03-01

To understand inventory performance, transfusion services commonly use key performance indicators (KPIs) as summary descriptors of inventory efficiency that are graphed, trended, and used to benchmark institutions. Here, we summarize current limitations in KPI-based evaluation of blood bank inventory efficiency and propose process mining as an ideal methodology for application to inventory management research to improve inventory flows and performance. The transit of a blood product from inventory receipt to final disposition is complex and relates to many internal and external influences, and KPIs may be inadequate to fully understand the complexity of the blood supply chain and how units interact with its processes. Process mining lends itself well to analysis of blood bank inventories, and modern laboratory information systems can track nearly all of the complex processes that occur in the blood bank. Process mining is an analytical tool already used in other industries and can be applied to blood bank inventory management and research through laboratory information systems data using commercial applications. Although the current understanding of real blood bank inventories is value-centric through KPIs, it potentially can be understood from a process-centric lens using process mining. © 2017 AABB.

Immediate causality network of stock markets

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhou, Li; Qiu, Lu; Gu, Changgui; Yang, Huijie

2018-02-01

Extensive works show that a network of stocks within a single stock market stores rich information on evolutionary behaviors of the system, such as collapses and/or crises. But a financial event covers usually several markets or even the global financial system. This mismatch of scale leads to lack of concise information to coordinate the event. In this work by using the transfer entropy we reconstruct the influential network between ten typical stock markets distributed in the world. Interesting findings include, before a financial crisis the connection strength reaches a maximum, which can act as an early warning signal of financial crises. The markets in America are monodirectionally and strongly influenced by that in Europe and act as the center. Some strongly linked pairs have also close correlations. The findings are helpful in understanding the evolution and modelling the dynamical process of the global financial system. This method can be extended straightly to find early warning signals for physiological and ecological systems, etc.

Scientific Revolutions to the nth power: n = 0, 1, 2, 3.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Beichler, James

2008-04-01

Thomas Kuhn's description and characterization of scientific revolutions set the standard for interpreting and understanding these events, but his characterization introduced an anomaly. Newtonian science was at the pinnacle of its success immediately prior to the Second Scientific Revolution. From an evolutionary point-of-view, there were no crises to be solved just problems within the Newtonian paradigm, whereas the specific crises that initiated the revolution are evident from everyone's point-of-view after the revolution. This paradox is well recognized, but it seems not to be a problem and is just ignored as if it were not important or significant. Yet this discrepancy strikes at the very heart of physics and the overall progress of science. Historical conditions currently parallel the period immediately prior to the Second Scientific Revolution indicating that a new scientific revolution is approaching. When a comparison of the two periods is made, new characteristics of scientific revolutions are identified, the paradox is solved and evidence of a Zeroth Scientific Revolution emerges from the historical record.

A Review of the Literature of the Process of Giving Warning with Discussion of Implications for Futurists.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Koster, Francis

The paper presents a review of literature on warnings of social crises and applies the literature to selected crises predicted in America's future. It is intended for use by futurists and policy makers as they devise ways to help society cope with crises. Warnings are interpreted as combining statement of a problem with proposal of a course of…

A Numeric Scorecard Assessing the Mental Health Preparedness for Large-Scale Crises at College and University Campuses: A Delphi Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Burgin, Rick A.

2012-01-01

Large-scale crises continue to surprise, overwhelm, and shatter college and university campuses. While the devastation to physical plants and persons is often evident and is addressed with crisis management plans, the number of emotional casualties left in the wake of these large-scale crises may not be apparent and are often not addressed with…

Neoliberalism and the World Bank: Economic Discourse and the (Re)Production of Gendered Identity(ies)

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Griffin, Penny

2007-01-01

This article examines the World Bank's discourse of neoliberalism with a view to understanding how this informs and sustains the Bank's policies and practices in particularly gendered ways. "Neoliberalism" is, here, a discursive structure that constitutes a powerful and pervasive contemporary model of economic development, resting on assumptions…

Money and Banking. Social Studies: 6448.15.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Henderson, William E.

This Quinmester course on money and banking, part of the political and economic studies cluster for grades 10, 11, and 12, aims at examining the nature, role and scope of money in a capitalistic economy. Emphasis is placed upon understanding the operation of government policies affecting banking, with its subsequent influences on our national…

Stochastic and deterministic processes regulate spatio-temporal variation in seed bank diversity

Treesearch

Alejandro A. Royo; Todd E. Ristau

2013-01-01

Seed banks often serve as reservoirs of taxonomic and genetic diversity that buffer plant populations and influence post-disturbance vegetation trajectories; yet evaluating their importance requires understanding how their composition varies within and across spatial and temporal scales (α- and β-diversity). Shifts in seed bank diversity are strongly...

Faculty perceptions of accommodations, strategies, and psychiatric advance directives for university students with mental illnesses.

PubMed

Brockelman, Karin F; Scheyett, Anna M

2015-12-01

Universities across the country struggle with the legal and ethical dilemmas of how to respond when a student shows symptoms of serious mental illness. This mixed-method study provides information on faculty knowledge of mental health problems in students, their use of available accommodations and strategies, and their willingness to accept psychiatric advance directives (PADs) as helpful interventions for managing student crises. Participants were 168 faculty members at a large, public, Southern university. A web-based survey was used to collect quantitative self-report data as well as qualitative data in the form of open-ended questions. Quantitative data are presented with descriptive statistics. Qualitative data were analyzed using thematic analysis. The majority of faculty surveyed have an overall supportive stance and are willing to provide accommodations to students with a mental illness. The most common advantage faculty see in a PAD is support of student autonomy and choice, and the primary concern voiced about PADs is that students with mental illness will have poor judgment regarding the contents of the PADs they create. PADs may be effective recovery tools to help university students with mental illnesses manage crises and attain stability and academic success. For PADs to be effective, university faculty and administration will need to understand mental illnesses, the strategies students need to manage mental health crises, and how PADs can play a role in supporting students. (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved).

Foreign exchange rate entropy evolution during financial crises

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Stosic, Darko; Stosic, Dusan; Ludermir, Teresa; de Oliveira, Wilson; Stosic, Tatijana

2016-05-01

This paper examines the effects of financial crises on foreign exchange (FX) markets, where entropy evolution is measured for different exchange rates, using the time-dependent block entropy method. Empirical results suggest that financial crises are associated with significant increase of exchange rate entropy, reflecting instability in FX market dynamics. In accordance with phenomenological expectations, it is found that FX markets with large liquidity and large trading volume are more inert - they recover quicker from a crisis than markets with small liquidity and small trading volume. Moreover, our numerical analysis shows that periods of economic uncertainty are preceded by periods of low entropy values, which may serve as a tool for anticipating the onset of financial crises.

Crisis Reliability Indicators Supporting Emergency Services (CRISES): A Framework for Developing Performance Measures for Behavioral Health Crisis and Psychiatric Emergency Programs.

PubMed

Balfour, Margaret E; Tanner, Kathleen; Jurica, Paul J; Rhoads, Richard; Carson, Chris A

2016-01-01

Crisis and emergency psychiatric services are an integral part of the healthcare system, yet there are no standardized measures for programs providing these services. We developed the Crisis Reliability Indicators Supporting Emergency Services (CRISES) framework to create measures that inform internal performance improvement initiatives and allow comparison across programs. The framework consists of two components-the CRISES domains (timely, safe, accessible, least-restrictive, effective, consumer/family centered, and partnership) and the measures supporting each domain. The CRISES framework provides a foundation for development of standardized measures for the crisis field. This will become increasingly important as pay-for-performance initiatives expand with healthcare reform.

Learning to Play, Playing to Learn: The Bank Street Developmental-Interaction Approach in Liliana's Kindergarten Classroom. Teaching for a Changing World: The Graduates of Bank Street College of Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Park, Soyoung; Lit, Ira

2015-01-01

This case study is one of five publications from the larger study, "Teaching for a Changing World: The Graduates of Bank Street College of Education." The Bank Street College of Education's developmental-interaction approach to teaching and learning centers on understanding, valuing, and meeting the needs of the "whole child."…

Skin Effect Simulation for Area 11 Dense Plasma Focus Hot Plate

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Meehan, B. Timothy

Two arc flashover events occurred at the DPF Area 11 facility. These flashover events happened in the same location on the bank current delivery plates. The damage from one of these events can be seen on the left-hand side of Figure 1. Since the flashovers occurred in the same area of the bank, and the reliability of the bank is important for future DPF experiments, a failure analysis effort was initiated. Part of this failure analysis effort was an effort to understand the physical reasons behind why the flashover happened, and why it happened in the same place twice. Thismore » paper summarizes an effort to simulate the current flow in the bank in order to understand the reasons for the flashover.« less

Greek-Turkish Crises since 1955. Implications for Greek-Turkish Conflict Management

DTIC Science & Technology

1997-03-01

NAVAL POSTGRADUATE SCHOOL MONTEREY, CALIFORNIA THESIS GREEK-TURKISH CRISES SINCE 1955. IMPLICATIONS FOR GREEK-TURKISH CONFLICT MANAGEMENT by...EU, WEU) have only to gain from a Greek-Turkish rapprochement. 14. SUBJECT TERMS GrEek-Turkish RElATiONS, CRiSiS MANAgEMENT, CONfLICT management 15...crises, because the intended outcome of mediation attempts has been regional stability instead of Greek-Turkish conflict management . Power mediation

Global effects of local food-production crises: a virtual water perspective

PubMed Central

Tamea, Stefania; Laio, Francesco; Ridolfi, Luca

2016-01-01

By importing food and agricultural goods, countries cope with the heterogeneous global water distribution and often rely on water resources available abroad. The virtual displacement of the water used to produce such goods (known as virtual water) connects together, in a global water system, all countries participating to the international trade network. Local food-production crises, having social, economic or environmental origin, propagate in this network, modifying the virtual water trade and perturbing local and global food availability, quantified in terms of virtual water. We analyze here the possible effects of local crises by developing a new propagation model, parsimonious but grounded on data-based and statistically-verified assumptions, whose effectiveness is proved on the Argentinean crisis in 2008–09. The model serves as the basis to propose indicators of crisis impact and country vulnerability to external food-production crises, which highlight that countries with largest water resources have the highest impact on the international trade, and that not only water-scarce but also wealthy and globalized countries are among the most vulnerable to external crises. The temporal analysis reveals that global average vulnerability has increased over time and that stronger effects of crises are now found in countries with low food (and water) availability. PMID:26804492

Global effects of local food-production crises: a virtual water perspective.

PubMed

Tamea, Stefania; Laio, Francesco; Ridolfi, Luca

2016-01-25

By importing food and agricultural goods, countries cope with the heterogeneous global water distribution and often rely on water resources available abroad. The virtual displacement of the water used to produce such goods (known as virtual water) connects together, in a global water system, all countries participating to the international trade network. Local food-production crises, having social, economic or environmental origin, propagate in this network, modifying the virtual water trade and perturbing local and global food availability, quantified in terms of virtual water. We analyze here the possible effects of local crises by developing a new propagation model, parsimonious but grounded on data-based and statistically-verified assumptions, whose effectiveness is proved on the Argentinean crisis in 2008-09. The model serves as the basis to propose indicators of crisis impact and country vulnerability to external food-production crises, which highlight that countries with largest water resources have the highest impact on the international trade, and that not only water-scarce but also wealthy and globalized countries are among the most vulnerable to external crises. The temporal analysis reveals that global average vulnerability has increased over time and that stronger effects of crises are now found in countries with low food (and water) availability.

Global effects of local food-production crises: a virtual water perspective

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tamea, Stefania; Laio, Francesco; Ridolfi, Luca

2016-01-01

By importing food and agricultural goods, countries cope with the heterogeneous global water distribution and often rely on water resources available abroad. The virtual displacement of the water used to produce such goods (known as virtual water) connects together, in a global water system, all countries participating to the international trade network. Local food-production crises, having social, economic or environmental origin, propagate in this network, modifying the virtual water trade and perturbing local and global food availability, quantified in terms of virtual water. We analyze here the possible effects of local crises by developing a new propagation model, parsimonious but grounded on data-based and statistically-verified assumptions, whose effectiveness is proved on the Argentinean crisis in 2008-09. The model serves as the basis to propose indicators of crisis impact and country vulnerability to external food-production crises, which highlight that countries with largest water resources have the highest impact on the international trade, and that not only water-scarce but also wealthy and globalized countries are among the most vulnerable to external crises. The temporal analysis reveals that global average vulnerability has increased over time and that stronger effects of crises are now found in countries with low food (and water) availability.

Science during crisis: the application of social science during major environmental crises

USGS Publications Warehouse

Machlis, Gary; Ludwig, Kris; Manfredo, Michael J.; Vaske, Jerry J.; Rechkemmer, Andreas; Duke, Esther

2014-01-01

Historical and contemporary experience suggests that science plays an increasingly critical role in governmental and institutional responses to major environmental crises. Recent examples include major western wildfires (2009), the Deepwater Horizon oil spill (2010), the Fukushima nuclear accident (2011), and Hurricane Sandy (2012). The application of science during such crises has several distinctive characteristics, as well as essential requirements if it is to be useful to decision makers. these include scope conditions that include coupled natural/human systems, clear statement of uncertainties and limitations, description of cascading consequences, accurate sense of place, estimates of magnitude of impacts, identification of beneficiaries and those adversely affected, clarity and conciseness, compelling visualization and presentation, capacity to speak "truth to power", and direct access to decision makers. In this chapter, we explore the role and significance of science – including all relevant disciplines and focusing attention on the social sciences – in responding to major environmental crises. We explore several important questions: How is science during crisis distinctive? What social science is most useful during crises? What distinctive characteristics are necessary for social science to make meaningful contributions to emergency response and recovery? How might the social sciences be integrated into the strategic science needed to respond to future crises? The authors, both members of the Department of the Interior's innovative Strategic Sciences Group, describe broad principles of engagement as well as specific examples drawn from history, contemporary efforts (such as during the Deepwater Horizon oil spill), and predictions of environmental crises still to be confronted.

Software engineering and the role of Ada: Executive seminar

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Freedman, Glenn B.

1987-01-01

The objective was to introduce the basic terminology and concepts of software engineering and Ada. The life cycle model is reviewed. The application of the goals and principles of software engineering is applied. An introductory understanding of the features of the Ada language is gained. Topics addressed include: the software crises; the mandate of the Space Station Program; software life cycle model; software engineering; and Ada under the software engineering umbrella.

A Classroom Experiment with Bank Equity, Deposit Insurance, and Bailouts

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hazlett, Denise

2016-01-01

In this classroom experiment, students see how low bank equity requirements can interact with deposit insurance to encourage excessive risk-taking. The experiment fills a niche Admati and Hellwig (2013) have noted: citizens in a democracy must understand why bank owners argue for low equity requirements and why society as a whole is better off…

Economy Over Security: Why Crises Fail to Impact Economic Behavior in East Asia

DTIC Science & Technology

2017-12-01

SECURITY: WHY CRISES FAIL TO IMPACT ECONOMIC BEHAVIOR IN EAST ASIA by Aaron R. Sipos December 2017 Thesis Advisor: Michael Glosny Second...REPORT TYPE AND DATES COVERED Master’s thesis 4. TITLE AND SUBTITLE ECONOMY OVER SECURITY: WHY CRISES FAIL TO IMPACT ECONOMIC BEHAVIOR IN EAST...release. Distribution is unlimited. 12b. DISTRIBUTION CODE 13. ABSTRACT (maximum 200 words) This study examines changes in economic behavior in

A half-baked solution: drivers of water crises in Mexico

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Godinez Madrigal, Jonatan; van der Zaag, Pieter; van Cauwenbergh, Nora

2018-02-01

Mexico is considered a regional economic and political powerhouse because of the size of its economy, and a large population in constant growth. However, this same growth accompanied by management and governance failures are causing several water crises across the country. The paper aims at identifying and analyzing the drivers of water crises. Water authorities seem to focus solely on large infrastructural schemes to counter the looming water crises, but fail to structure a set of policies for the improvement of management and governance institutions. The paper concludes with the implications of a business-as-usual policy based on infrastructure for solving water problems, which include a non-compliance to the human right to water and sanitation, ecosystem collapses and water conflicts.

Time series analysis of S&P 500 index: A horizontal visibility graph approach

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Vamvakaris, Michail D.; Pantelous, Athanasios A.; Zuev, Konstantin M.

2018-05-01

The behavior of stock prices has been thoroughly studied throughout the last century, and contradictory results have been reported in the corresponding literature. In this paper, a network theoretical approach is provided to investigate how crises affected the behavior of US stock prices. We analyze high frequency data from S&P500 via the Horizontal Visibility Graph method, and find that all major crises that took place worldwide in the last twenty years, affected significantly the behavior of the price-index. Nevertheless, we observe that each of those crises impacted the index in a different way and magnitude. Interestingly, our results suggest that the predictability of the price-index series increases during the periods of crises.

Strengthening the evidence base for health programming in humanitarian crises.

PubMed

Ager, A; Burnham, G; Checchi, F; Gayer, M; Grais, R F; Henkens, M; Massaquoi, M B F; Nandy, R; Navarro-Colorado, C; Spiegel, P

2014-09-12

Given the growing scale and complexity of responses to humanitarian crises, it is important to develop a stronger evidence base for health interventions in such contexts. Humanitarian crises present unique challenges to rigorous and effective research, but there are substantial opportunities for scientific advance. Studies need to focus where the translation of evidence from noncrisis scenarios is not viable and on ethical ways of determining what happens in the absence of an intervention. Robust methodologies suited to crisis settings have to be developed and used to assess interventions with potential for delivery at scale. Strengthening research capacity in the low- to middle-income countries that are vulnerable to crises is also crucial. Copyright © 2014, American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Case Study of Online Banking in India: User Behaviors and Design Guidelines

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Iyengar, Jhumkee; Belvalkar, Manisha

This paper documents online banking trends, behaviors and expectations of Indian consumers and banks. It is based on excerpts of a large industry case study of users from 4 leading banks. While banks view online banking essentially as a technology solution, it is a relatively new area for Indian consumers and not yet self-supporting. Being a savings based culture still, Indian consumers are cautious about their financial assets. They are also relatively recent entrants to internet based services. Design of these systems must therefore be based on an understanding of these users' outlook and priorities through task centric, security assured and service oriented solutions minus the technological challenges. Design lessons suggest viewing online banking not just as a convenience alone anymore but beyond it, to provide service, simplicity and security. This will create satisfied online banking customers and therefore profitability for the bank.

Reviews.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Science Teacher, 1989

1989-01-01

Reviews seven software programs: (1) "Science Baseball: Biology" (testing a variety of topics); (2) "Wildways: Understanding Wildlife Conservation"; (3) "Earth Science Computer Test Bank"; (4) "Biology Computer Test Bank"; (5) "Computer Play & Learn Series" (a series of drill and test…

Bankruptcy Cascades in Interbank Markets

PubMed Central

Tedeschi, Gabriele; Mazloumian, Amin; Gallegati, Mauro; Helbing, Dirk

2012-01-01

We study a credit network and, in particular, an interbank system with an agent-based model. To understand the relationship between business cycles and cascades of bankruptcies, we model a three-sector economy with goods, credit and interbank market. In the interbank market, the participating banks share the risk of bad debits, which may potentially spread a bank’s liquidity problems through the network of banks. Our agent-based model sheds light on the correlation between bankruptcy cascades and the endogenous economic cycle of booms and recessions. It also demonstrates the serious trade-off between, on the one hand, reducing risks of individual banks by sharing them and, on the other hand, creating systemic risks through credit-related interlinkages of banks. As a result of our study, the dynamics underlying the meltdown of financial markets in 2008 becomes much better understandable. PMID:23300760

How do economic crises affect migrants' risk of infectious disease? A systematic-narrative review.

PubMed

Kentikelenis, Alexander; Karanikolos, Marina; Williams, Gemma; Mladovsky, Philipa; King, Lawrence; Pharris, Anastasia; Suk, Jonathan E; Hatzakis, Angelos; McKee, Martin; Noori, Teymur; Stuckler, David

2015-12-01

It is not well understood how economic crises affect infectious disease incidence and prevalence, particularly among vulnerable groups. Using a susceptible-infected-recovered framework, we systematically reviewed literature on the impact of the economic crises on infectious disease risks in migrants in Europe, focusing principally on HIV, TB, hepatitis and other STIs. We conducted two searches in PubMed/Medline, Web of Science, Cochrane Library, Google Scholar, websites of key organizations and grey literature to identify how economic changes affect migrant populations and infectious disease. We perform a narrative synthesis in order to map critical pathways and identify hypotheses for subsequent research. The systematic review on links between economic crises and migrant health identified 653 studies through database searching; only seven met the inclusion criteria. Fourteen items were identified through further searches. The systematic review on links between economic crises and infectious disease identified 480 studies through database searching; 19 met the inclusion criteria. Eight items were identified through further searches. The reviews show that migrant populations in Europe appear disproportionately at risk of specific infectious diseases, and that economic crises and subsequent responses have tended to exacerbate such risks. Recessions lead to unemployment, impoverishment and other risk factors that can be linked to the transmissibility of disease among migrants. Austerity measures that lead to cuts in prevention and treatment programmes further exacerbate infectious disease risks among migrants. Non-governmental health service providers occasionally stepped in to cater to specific populations that include migrants. There is evidence that migrants are especially vulnerable to infectious disease during economic crises. Ring-fenced funding of prevention programs, including screening and treatment, is important for addressing this vulnerability. © The Author 2015. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the European Public Health Association.

How do economic crises affect migrants’ risk of infectious disease? A systematic-narrative review

PubMed Central

Karanikolos, Marina; Williams, Gemma; Mladovsky, Philipa; King, Lawrence; Pharris, Anastasia; Suk, Jonathan E.; Hatzakis, Angelos; McKee, Martin; Noori, Teymur; Stuckler, David

2015-01-01

Background: It is not well understood how economic crises affect infectious disease incidence and prevalence, particularly among vulnerable groups. Using a susceptible-infected-recovered framework, we systematically reviewed literature on the impact of the economic crises on infectious disease risks in migrants in Europe, focusing principally on HIV, TB, hepatitis and other STIs. Methods: We conducted two searches in PubMed/Medline, Web of Science, Cochrane Library, Google Scholar, websites of key organizations and grey literature to identify how economic changes affect migrant populations and infectious disease. We perform a narrative synthesis in order to map critical pathways and identify hypotheses for subsequent research. Results: The systematic review on links between economic crises and migrant health identified 653 studies through database searching; only seven met the inclusion criteria. Fourteen items were identified through further searches. The systematic review on links between economic crises and infectious disease identified 480 studies through database searching; 19 met the inclusion criteria. Eight items were identified through further searches. The reviews show that migrant populations in Europe appear disproportionately at risk of specific infectious diseases, and that economic crises and subsequent responses have tended to exacerbate such risks. Recessions lead to unemployment, impoverishment and other risk factors that can be linked to the transmissibility of disease among migrants. Austerity measures that lead to cuts in prevention and treatment programmes further exacerbate infectious disease risks among migrants. Non-governmental health service providers occasionally stepped in to cater to specific populations that include migrants. Conclusions: There is evidence that migrants are especially vulnerable to infectious disease during economic crises. Ring-fenced funding of prevention programs, including screening and treatment, is important for addressing this vulnerability. PMID:26318852

The role of banks in the Brazilian interbank market: Does bank type matter?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cajueiro, Daniel O.; Tabak, Benjamin M.

2008-12-01

This paper analyzes the Brazilian interbank network structure using a complex network-based approach. Results suggest a weak evidence of community structure, high heterogeneity of the network and that this market is characterized by money centers having exposures to many banks. Furthermore, we go beyond the structure of the network using information about the characteristics of the nodes and a non-parametric test in order to understand the role of the banks in the interbanking market.

Crises Management in the Oil and Gas Industry: The Niger Delta Experience

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Odemene, Glory C.

The Niger Delta crises escalated beyond the borders of the Nigerian nation to become an issue that affected individuals and corporations around the world. This study led to the discovery of how the local crises escalated with international implications. This discovery was accomplished by addressing how the Niger Delta crises escalated from villages to international scenes, with notable impacts on the environment, health, safety, security, and financial segments of local, international, private, and corporate entities. Using Sweeny's crisis decision theory and Lazarus and Folkman's coping theory, the study considered the coping strategies of community members, the decisions, and actions they took in response to the management approaches of the government and the oil and gas companies (OGCs). This qualitative study utilized historical narrative to collect data by interviewing 4 participants who lived and worked in the region during the crises. NVivo was used for manual and automatic coding of data, as well as for categorization and connection of codes. Content analysis of identified codes and categories revealed the themes and trends in the experiences narrated by participants. Findings include the root causes, trend of escalation, and management strategies of the government and the OGCs that influenced the crises. These findings will help to influence policies and practices in the region and enhance effective management of current and emerging conflicts, with possibilities of restoring stability and security in the areas and in the nation at large.

Data and Primary Source Documents for Social Studies Classrooms from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Suiter, Mary C.; Stierholz, Katrina L.

2011-01-01

Data and primary source documents are important for understanding past and current events. The Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis has committed itself to the collection and illumination of economic data and historical information for classroom teachers and researchers. The Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis provides a number of services--including…

Contributions of seed bank and vegetative propagules to vegetation composition on prairie dog colonies in western South Dakota

Treesearch

Emily R. Helms; Lan Xu; Jack L. Butler

2012-01-01

Characterizing the contributions of the seed bank and vegetative propagules will enhance our understanding of community resiliency associated with prairie dog disturbances. Our objective was to determine the effects of ecological condition (EC) and distance from burrows on the soil seed bank and vegetative propagules. Based on species composition of the extant...

Government management of two media-facilitated crises involving dioxin contamination of food.

PubMed

Jacob, Casey J; Lok, Corie; Morley, Katija; Powell, Douglas A

2011-03-01

Incidents become crises through a constant and intense public scrutiny facilitated by the media. Two incidents involving dioxin contamination of food led to crises in Belgium and the Republic of Ireland in 1999 and 2008, respectively. Thought to cause cancer in humans, dioxins reached the food supply in both incidents through the contamination of fat used for animal feed. The food and agricultural industries connected to each incident relied on crisis management activities of federal governments to limit adverse public reaction. Analysis of the management of the two crises by their respective federal governments, and a subsequent review of crisis management literature, led to the development of an effective crisis management model. Such a model, appropriately employed, may insulate industries associated with a crisis against damaged reputations and financial loss.

Understanding Adulthood. A Review and Analysis of the Works of Three Leading Authorities on the Stages and Crises in Adult Development. California Personnel and Guidance Association Monograph Number 15.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gerstein, Martin; Papen-Daniel, Michele

Adult development theorists believe that the changes that occur during the adult years are predictable and age linked. Their theories explain how change is resolved by the majority of the adult population. Three persons whose research has been influential in the field of adult development during the 1970s are Erik Erikson, Daniel Levinson, and…

Commentary on Becoming a Daughter: Trauma is a powerful teacher.

PubMed

Veach, Patricia McCarthy

2006-06-01

Personal life crises profoundly impact genetic counselor practice. In this commentary, themes from Matloff's (in press) article, Becoming a Daughter are highlighted and expanded upon. These themes include: personal impact of a life crisis, and professional impact vis a vis empathy countertransference, self-disclosure, nondirectiveness, and self-confidence. Strategies that help genetic counselors manage personal life crises within their clinical practice and also promote their professional development are emphasized, including normalization of life crises, self-reflection, boundary-setting, and use of peer supervision and consultation.

[Clinico-statistical analysis of arterial hypertension complicated with hypertensive crisis in Moscow in 2005-2009].

PubMed

Gaponova, N I; Plavunov, N F; Tereshchenko, S N; Baratashvili, V L; Abdurakhmanov, V R; Komissarenko, I A; Filippov, D V; Podkopaev, D V

2011-01-01

Clinicostatistical analysis of arterial hypertension complicated with hypertensive crisis using data of Moscow A.S.Puchkov Station of Urgent and Emergent Medical Aid revealed 14% rise in number of hypertensive crises during the period from 2005 to 2009. Number of hypertensive crises increased among persons of young age (18-35 years). Frequency of cerebrovascular complications of hypertensive crises was age dependent with maximal values among men aged 36-74 years and women older than 75 years.

Probabilistic approach to decision making under uncertainty during volcanic crises. Retrospective analysis of the 2011 eruption of El Hierro, in the Canary Islands

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sobradelo, Rosa; Martí, Joan; Kilburn, Christopher; López, Carmen

2014-05-01

Understanding the potential evolution of a volcanic crisis is crucial to improving the design of effective mitigation strategies. This is especially the case for volcanoes close to densely-populated regions, where inappropriate decisions may trigger widespread loss of life, economic disruption and public distress. An outstanding goal for improving the management of volcanic crises, therefore, is to develop objective, real-time methodologies for evaluating how an emergency will develop and how scientists communicate with decision makers. Here we present a new model BADEMO (Bayesian Decision Model) that applies a general and flexible, probabilistic approach to managing volcanic crises. The model combines the hazard and risk factors that decision makers need for a holistic analysis of a volcanic crisis. These factors include eruption scenarios and their probabilities of occurrence, the vulnerability of populations and their activities, and the costs of false alarms and failed forecasts. The model can be implemented before an emergency, to identify actions for reducing the vulnerability of a district; during an emergency, to identify the optimum mitigating actions and how these may change as new information is obtained; and after an emergency, to assess the effectiveness of a mitigating response and, from the results, to improve strategies before another crisis occurs. As illustrated by a retrospective analysis of the 2011 eruption of El Hierro, in the Canary Islands, BADEMO provides the basis for quantifying the uncertainty associated with each recommended action as an emergency evolves, and serves as a mechanism for improving communications between scientists and decision makers.

Managing tissue bank access to the OR for tissue recovery.

PubMed

Trim, Robert S

2011-08-01

Hospitals often have tissue recovery service agreements with regional tissue banks to facilitate the donation process. The agreements that outline the tissue bank-hospital relationship frequently allow tissue bank personnel to perform tissue recovery procedures in the referring hospital's OR and may or may not specify any preparatory orientation or any written protocols for tissue bank staff members to follow. This creates the potential for unintentional breaches of protocol that can affect operation of equipment or result in contamination that may put surgical patients and staff members at risk. The OR manager is responsible for establishing appropriate orientation plans for tissue bank employees to ensure they understand and adhere to the hospital's protocols. Copyright © 2011 AORN, Inc. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Health workforce and governance: the crisis in Nigeria.

PubMed

Adeloye, Davies; David, Rotimi Adedeji; Olaogun, Adenike Ayobola; Auta, Asa; Adesokan, Adedapo; Gadanya, Muktar; Opele, Jacob Kehinde; Owagbemi, Oluwafemi; Iseolorunkanmi, Alexander

2017-05-12

In Nigeria, several challenges have been reported within the health sector, especially in training, funding, employment, and deployment of the health workforce. We aimed to review recent health workforce crises in the Nigerian health sector to identify key underlying causes and provide recommendations toward preventing and/or managing potential future crises in Nigeria. We conducted a scoping literature search of PubMed to identify studies on health workforce and health governance in Nigeria. A critical analysis, with extended commentary, on recent health workforce crises (2010-2016) and the health system in Nigeria was conducted. The Nigerian health system is relatively weak, and there is yet a coordinated response across the country. A number of health workforce crises have been reported in recent times due to several months' salaries owed, poor welfare, lack of appropriate health facilities and emerging factions among health workers. Poor administration and response across different levels of government have played contributory roles to further internal crises among health workers, with different factions engaged in protracted supremacy challenge. These crises have consequently prevented optimal healthcare delivery to the Nigerian population. An encompassing stakeholders' forum in the Nigerian health sector remain essential. The national health system needs a solid administrative policy foundation that allows coordination of priorities and partnerships in the health workforce and among various stakeholders. It is hoped that this paper may prompt relevant reforms in health workforce and governance in Nigeria toward better health service delivery in the country.

Collaboration in crisis and emergency management: Identifying the gaps in the case of storm 'Alexa'.

PubMed

Sawalha, Ihab Hanna Salman

2014-01-01

Failing to collaborate in crisis and emergency situations will increase the vulnerability of organisations and societies towards potential disasters. This paper highlights the significance of effective collaboration at different levels in times of crises. The case of snow storm 'Alexa', which hit Jordan in December 2013, was considered for the purpose of this research. The impact of Alexa raised many questions regarding the country's preparedness and the capacity of its infrastructure to maintain critical business functions across various industry sectors. First, should people individually take all the responsibility to manage crises and emergencies in order to protect themselves and their belongings? Secondly, should organisations join efforts with other organisations within the same or different sectors? Thirdly, should governments seek external collaboration for the ultimate goal of securing their economies? These issues are significant as they underline the element of collaboration. This paper contributes to the understanding of the role of collaboration in times of intense difficulty and loss of control. The proposition made by this research is that an effective collaborative process is positively associated with perceptions of improved disaster risk reduction practices.

The financial crisis, health and health inequities in Europe: the need for regulations, redistribution and social protection.

PubMed

De Vogli, Roberto

2014-07-25

In 2009, Europe was hit by one of the worst debt crises in history. Although the Eurozone crisis is often depicted as an effect of government mismanagement and corruption, it was a consequence of the 2008 U.S. banking crisis which was caused by more than three decades of neoliberal policies, financial deregulation and widening economic inequities.Evidence indicates that the Eurozone crisis disproportionately affected vulnerable populations in society and caused sharp increases of suicides and deaths due to mental and behavioral disorders especially among those who lost their jobs, houses and economic activities because of the crisis. Although little research has, so far, studied the effects of the crisis on health inequities, evidence showed that the 2009 economic downturn increased the number of people living in poverty and widened income inequality especially in European countries severely hit by the debt crisis. Data, however, also suggest favorable health trends and a reduction of traffic deaths fatalities in the general population during the economic recession. Moreover, egalitarian policies protecting the most disadvantaged populations with strong social protections proved to be effective in decoupling the link between job losses and suicides.Unfortunately, policy responses after the crisis in most European countries have mainly consisted in bank bailouts and austerity programs. These reforms have not only exacerbated the debt crisis and widened inequities in wealth but also failed to address the root causes of the crisis. In order to prevent a future financial downturn and promote a more equitable and sustainable society, European governments and international institutions need to adopt new regulations of banking and finance as well as policies of economic redistribution and investment in social protection. These policy changes, however, require the abandonment of the neoliberal ideology to craft a new global political economy where markets and gross domestic product (GDP) are no longer the main national policy goals, but just means to human and health improvements.

The financial crisis, health and health inequities in Europe: the need for regulations, redistribution and social protection

PubMed Central

2014-01-01

In 2009, Europe was hit by one of the worst debt crises in history. Although the Eurozone crisis is often depicted as an effect of government mismanagement and corruption, it was a consequence of the 2008 U.S. banking crisis which was caused by more than three decades of neoliberal policies, financial deregulation and widening economic inequities. Evidence indicates that the Eurozone crisis disproportionately affected vulnerable populations in society and caused sharp increases of suicides and deaths due to mental and behavioral disorders especially among those who lost their jobs, houses and economic activities because of the crisis. Although little research has, so far, studied the effects of the crisis on health inequities, evidence showed that the 2009 economic downturn increased the number of people living in poverty and widened income inequality especially in European countries severely hit by the debt crisis. Data, however, also suggest favorable health trends and a reduction of traffic deaths fatalities in the general population during the economic recession. Moreover, egalitarian policies protecting the most disadvantaged populations with strong social protections proved to be effective in decoupling the link between job losses and suicides. Unfortunately, policy responses after the crisis in most European countries have mainly consisted in bank bailouts and austerity programs. These reforms have not only exacerbated the debt crisis and widened inequities in wealth but also failed to address the root causes of the crisis. In order to prevent a future financial downturn and promote a more equitable and sustainable society, European governments and international institutions need to adopt new regulations of banking and finance as well as policies of economic redistribution and investment in social protection. These policy changes, however, require the abandonment of the neoliberal ideology to craft a new global political economy where markets and gross domestic product (GDP) are no longer the main national policy goals, but just means to human and health improvements. PMID:25059702

Organizational preparedness for and management of volcanic crises at Kīlauea and Mauna Loa volcanoes, Hawaii

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gregg, C. E.; Reeves, A.; Lindell, M. K.; Prater, C.; Joyner, T. A.; Eggert, S.

2016-12-01

The eruption of Kīlauea volcano since 1983 has produced a series of crises, the latest one occurring in 2014 and 2015 when a new vent sent lava flows northeastward toward developed areas in the lower Puna District of Kīlauea. The June 27 lava flow took about 2 months to advance to the edge of developed areas in Puna, prompting widespread reaction. Volcanic eruptions often have large economic consequences out of proportion with their magnitudes, and uncertainties about the physical and organizational communication of risk information amplify these losses. This study aims to improve tools to communicate uncertainty of volcanic activity and organizational and individual response, offering clearer and more reliable information to guide civic leaders in issuing appropriate warnings. One significant impediment to risk communication is limited knowledge about the most effective ways to communicate scientific uncertainty through verbal, numeric and graphic methods. The public's demand for near-real time information updates during the June 27 lava crisis, including both written messages and graphics, required some agencies to provide information at a faster rate than in any previous eruption. In order to understand how these and other stakeholders involved with the crisis can better plan for and manage future crises, including implementing evacuation decisions, we conducted a series of interviews and a mental model exercise with stakeholders. We explored their knowledge of local risk communication messages and hazard mitigation efforts and their experiences during the June 27 lava flow crisis. Stakeholders represented county, state and federal agencies and included elected officials, emergency managers, scientists, and other professionals involved with the crisis (traffic engineers, land use planners, police officers, fire fighters). We also assessed factors that influence individual and household preparedness to implement officials' protective action recommendations, such as evacuation, and their attitudes toward hazard mitigation efforts. Collectively, these two studies provide a detailed evaluation of important risk communication and risk management issues at both individual and organizational levels and insight about uncertainties that influence the outcome of volcanic crises.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Kumasaka, Y.

The author analyzed the slowdown in productivity growth since the first oil crisis for about ten industrial sectors in both Japan and the USA and also compared the similarities and differences of their economic performances from the two oil crises. It is assumed that the increase in energy prices was the main cause of the slowdown in productivity growth. The productivity experiences from the two oil crises through the shift of factor price frontier, which was obtained from the cost function, was analyzed. The two oil crises had much responsibility for the slowdown in productivity growth since 1973. However, themore » effects of the oil crises on production were quite different not only among industrial sectors but also between Japan and the USA. The mining sector suffered from the two oil crises most severely in both countries. The Japanese transportation and communication sector and the US communication sector suffered from them least severely. Also studied was the learning effect from the first oil crisis for the Japanese manufacturing and the US commercial sectors. The reason why most of Japanese industrial sectors managed the second oil crisis relatively well was due to the downward flexibility of their real wages during the second oil crisis.« less

Lack of awareness--not only the failure of media.

PubMed

Bjerström, Erika

2002-01-01

Water issues are some of the most fundamental and important facing the world yet the world's growing water crises rarely make headline news. To give water its proper prominence at the top of the news agenda, the scientific community needs to work to communicate more directly with the media and not wait for academic publications to be discovered, to provide the media with better background understanding of the issues, and to highlight the link from global stresses to specific local impacts.

[Crises of trust].

PubMed

Chen, Thai-Form; Tseng, Hsing-Chau

2006-02-01

Extensive media coverage is warning of a crisis of trust that has emerged as a serious issue in our society. This article explores the meaning of "crisis," concepts of crisis management, mechanisms for building trust, and the underlying significance of trust and distrust. Evidence is adduced to testify to the erosion of trust and factors in our society that reflect the potential for crises of trust. Organizational decision makers, including hospital managers, are urged to identify and reflect upon weaknesses in their organizations in order that remedial action can be taken to preempt such crises.

The Defense Science Board 1999 Summer Study Task Force on 21st Century Defense Technology Strategies. Volume 1

DTIC Science & Technology

1999-11-01

C17 C130 + $2B upgrade SSTOL VTOL Advanced VTOL 6060120150 Vehicle wt. (tons) Ktons 2015 26 U.S. military dominance in future crises . It is also a...improvement between crises . A “pick-up” approach to C4ISR systems is not effective for today’s complex contingencies, yet it has become the norm. Instead...demands during crises and to stress imposed on the system by adversaries. The infrastructure must allow information to be distributed to and from any

Crisis and Change: The Making of a French FDA.

PubMed

Nathanson, Constance A; Bergeron, Henri

2017-09-01

Policy Points: Introducing a recent special issue of The Lancet on the health system in France, Horton and Ceschia observe that "the dominance of English as the language of science and, increasingly, global health too often closes the door on the history and experiences of others." 1 In that spirit, this manuscript presents a detailed case study of public health policy transformation in France in the early 1990s. It casts light on processes of policy change in a political and cultural environment very different from that of the United States, showing how the public health policy process is shaped by multiple contingencies of history, ideology, and politics. More specifically, we describe the transformation of a disease catastrophe into a political crisis and the deployment of that crisis to precipitate reform of the French public health system. Until the last decade of the 20th century, France had no equivalent to the US Food and Drug Administration. In this paper we describe and interpret the complex series of events that led to the passage by the French Parliament in December 1992 of a law incorporating such an agency, the Agence du Médicament (literally, "medicines agency"). The broad aim of this project was to learn how public health policy change comes about by detailed analysis of a specific instance. More specifically, we aimed to better understand the circumstances under which public health crisis leads to significant public health policy reform. This paper is based on detailed analysis of primary documents (eg, archived French health ministry papers, recorded parliamentary debates, government reports, newspaper articles) and oral history interviews covering a period from 1988 to 1993. Thematic analysis of these materials was initially grounded in theories of organizational change, moving to constructs that emerged from the data themselves. Policy entrepreneurs positioned to frame adverse events and seize opportunities are key to public health policy reform. However, whether these entrepreneurs will have the requisite institutional power is contingent both on political structure and on the power of competing institutional actors. Health crises may catalyze institutional reform, but our analysis suggests that whether reform occurs, or even whether adverse episodes are labeled as crises, is highly contingent on circumstances of history, political structure, and political ideology and is extremely difficult to predict or control. Actors positioned to shape public health policy need to have a detailed understanding of the circumstances that facilitate or impede policy reform. Health crises are now more often global than not. Comparative, theoretically grounded, cross-national research that looks in detail at how different countries respond to similar health crises would be extremely valuable in informing both policymakers and researchers. © 2017 Milbank Memorial Fund.

Deferred School Maintenance Creates National Crises.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Geiger, Philip E.

2002-01-01

Describes the cost and causes of the school maintenance "crises"; lists seven questions to determine if a school district has a quality maintenance program; describes consequences of deferred school maintenance in Yuma (Arizona) Union High School District. (PKP)

The benefits of flexible team interaction during crises.

PubMed

Stachowski, Alicia A; Kaplan, Seth A; Waller, Mary J

2009-11-01

Organizations increasingly rely on teams to respond to crises. While research on team effectiveness during nonroutine events is growing, naturalistic studies examining team behaviors during crises are relatively scarce. Furthermore, the relevant literature offers competing theoretical rationales concerning effective team response to crises. In this article, the authors investigate whether high- versus average-performing teams can be distinguished on the basis of the number and complexity of their interaction patterns. Using behavioral observation methodology, the authors coded the discrete verbal and nonverbal behaviors of 14 nuclear power plant control room crews as they responded to a simulated crisis. Pattern detection software revealed systematic differences among crews in their patterns of interaction. Mean comparisons and discriminant function analysis indicated that higher performing crews exhibited fewer, shorter, and less complex interaction patterns. These results illustrate the limitations of standardized response patterns and highlight the importance of team adaptability. Implications for future research and for team training are included.

Assessing Chaos in Sickle Cell Anemia Crises

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Harris, Wesley; Le Floch, Francois

2006-11-01

Recent developments in sickle cell research and blood flow modeling allow for new interpretations of the sickle cell crises. With an appropriate set of theoretical and empirical equations describing the dynamics of the red cells in their environment, and the response of the capillaries to major changes in the rheology, a complete mathematical system has been derived. This system of equations is believed to be of major importance to provide new and significant insight into the causes of the disease and related crises. With simulations, it has been proven that the system transition from a periodic solution to a chaotic one, which illustrates the onset of crises from a regular blood flow synchronized with the heart beat. Moreover, the analysis of the effects of various physiological parameters exposes the potential to control chaotic solutions, which, in turn, could lead to the creation of new and more effective treatments for sickle cell anemia. .

Improving Soil Seed Bank Management.

PubMed

Haring, Steven C; Flessner, Michael L

2018-05-08

Problems associated with simplified weed management motivate efforts for diversification. Integrated weed management uses fundamentals of weed biology and applied ecology to provide a framework for diversified weed management programs; the soil seed bank comprises a necessary part of this framework. By targeting seeds, growers can inhibit the propagule pressure on which annual weeds depend for agricultural invasion. Some current management practices affect weed seed banks, such as crop rotation and tillage, but these tools are often used without specific intention to manage weed seeds. Difficulties quantifying the weed seed bank, understanding seed bank phenology, and linking seed banks to emerged weed communities challenge existing soil seed bank management practices. Improved seed bank quantification methods could include DNA profiling of the soil seed bank, mark and recapture, or 3D LIDAR mapping. Successful and sustainable soil seed bank management must constrain functionally diverse and changing weed communities. Harvest weed seed controls represent a step forward, but over-reliance on this singular technique could make it short-lived. Researchers must explore tools inspired by other pest management disciplines, such as gene drives or habitat modification for predatory organisms. Future weed seed bank management will combine multiple complementary practices that enhance diverse agroecosystems. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

77 FR 19417 - Proposed Guidance on Leveraged Lending

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-03-30

... engaged in leveraged lending activities. The number of community banking organizations with substantial exposure to leveraged lending is very small; therefore the Agencies generally expect that community banking... that they understand their risks and the potential impact of stressful events and circumstances on...

Acute renal proximal tubule alterations during induced metabolic crises in a mouse model of glutaric aciduria type 1.

PubMed

Thies, Bastian; Meyer-Schwesinger, Catherine; Lamp, Jessica; Schweizer, Michaela; Koeller, David M; Ullrich, Kurt; Braulke, Thomas; Mühlhausen, Chris

2013-10-01

The metabolic disorder glutaric aciduria type 1 (GA1) is caused by deficiency of the mitochondrial glutaryl-CoA dehydrogenase (GCDH), leading to accumulation of the pathologic metabolites glutaric acid (GA) and 3-hydroxyglutaric acid (3OHGA) in blood, urine and tissues. Affected patients are prone to metabolic crises developing during catabolic conditions, with an irreversible destruction of striatal neurons and a subsequent dystonic-dyskinetic movement disorder. The pathogenetic mechanisms mediated by GA and 3OHGA have not been fully characterized. Recently, we have shown that GA and 3OHGA are translocated through membranes via sodium-dependent dicarboxylate cotransporter (NaC) 3, and organic anion transporters (OATs) 1 and 4. Here, we show that induced metabolic crises in Gcdh(-/-) mice lead to an altered renal expression pattern of NaC3 and OATs, and the subsequent intracellular GA and 3OHGA accumulation. Furthermore, OAT1 transporters are mislocalized to the apical membrane during metabolic crises accompanied by a pronounced thinning of proximal tubule brush border membranes. Moreover, mitochondrial swelling and increased excretion of low molecular weight proteins indicate functional tubulopathy. As the data clearly demonstrate renal proximal tubule alterations in this GA1 mouse model during induced metabolic crises, we propose careful evaluation of renal function in GA1 patients, particularly during acute crises. Further studies are needed to investigate if these findings can be confirmed in humans, especially in the long-term outcome of affected patients. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

State network approach to characteristics of financial crises

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Qiu, Lu; Gu, Changgui; Xiao, Qin; Yang, Huijie; Wu, Guolin

2018-02-01

Extensive works have reported that a financial crisis can induce significant changes to topological structure of a stock network constructed with cross-correlations between stocks. But there are still some problems to be answered, such as what is the relationship between different crises in history and how to classify them? In the present work, we propose a new network-based solution to extract and display the relationships between the crises. The Dow Jones stock market is investigated as a typical example. The cross-correlation matrix between stocks is used to measure the state of stock market, called state matrix. All the states cluster into six sub-categories. A state network is constructed further to display the relationships between all the states, which contains a total of nine communities. It is found that three crises C , D and E (refer to the Lehman's bankruptcy in 2008, the Euro-zone and International Monetary Fund decide the first bailout for Greece in 2010, and the European sovereign debt crisis in 2011, respectively) belong to a specific sub-category and cluster in a single community. The mid-stage of C is closely linked with E, while the other stages with D. The other two crises A and B (refer to the financial crisis in Asia in 1997, and the burst of "dot-com bubble" in 2002, respectively) belong to another sub-category and gather in a corner of another single community. A and B are linked directly with C and D by two edges. By this way, we give a clear picture of the relationships between the crises.

Palestinian nurses' lived experiences working in the occupied West Bank.

PubMed

Taha, A A; Westlake, C

2017-03-01

Since the construction of the separation wall between Israel and the West Bank, Palestinians living in occupied West Bank have endured intense conflict, and severe restrictions on people's movement, trade and healthcare access, all of which resulted in spiralling poverty. These issues have created challenges for nurses that, to date, have not been explored. To explore the lived experience of Palestinian nurses working in the occupied West Bank. Qualitative phenomenological study using interviews with Palestinian nurses working in public hospitals in the West Bank. Seventeen nurses were interviewed. Despite ongoing experiences of trauma and humiliation, personal/professional role conflicts, political workplace bias and blurred role boundaries, these nurses persevered because of their commitment to caring and sense of moral duty to 'the people of this land'. Nurses in conflict areas are subject to layers of trauma. Palestinian nurses in the West Bank not only experience ongoing personal trauma, loss and humiliation of living in a conflict zone but they also experience additional professional trauma. The findings provide first-person reports of the unique challenges of nurses working in the occupied West Bank. Understanding the experiences of nurses working in occupied territories provides authentic information for local authorities and the global healthcare community. Practice improvements must be addressed and implemented. Local and global organizations that mobilize support, invest in human capital, and protect human rights in areas of conflict may benefit from understanding the experiences of nurses in this study. © 2016 International Council of Nurses.

Climate Change, Nutrition and Food Security in Sub-Saharan Africa

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Brown, Molly E.

2010-01-01

Food security and nutrition in sub-Saharan Africa have long been affected by variations in the weather. Vulnerability to these hazards, along with economic shocks and an adverse political environment, is often uneven in a community. Some individuals and households are more susceptible to emergencies or crises than others, and thus determining who is most vulnerable are and how they are responding to a shock or crises is essential to understand the impact on food security. Daily, quantitative and global observations derived from satellite remote sensing instruments can contribute to understanding how food production has declined due to drought, flood or other weather-related hazard, but it can say nothing about the likelihood that the people living in that area are suffering food insecurity as a result. As Amartya Sen argued, a famine can occur even when there is an absolute surplus of food in a region. Thus organizations like the US Agency for International Development's Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET) work to integrate biophysical and socio-economic indicators together with on-the ground assessments to estimate the food security consequences of a variety of events. Climate change is likely to restructure local, regional and global agricultural systems and commodity markets. Although remote sensing information has been used to identify seasonal production declines for the past two decades, new ways of using the data will need to be developed in order to understand, document and respond to the impact of climate change on food security as it is manifested in shorter term shocks. In this article, the contribution of remote sensing is explained, along with the other factors that affect food security

High-Risk Palliative Care Patients' Knowledge and Attitudes about Hereditary Cancer Testing and DNA Banking.

PubMed

Quillin, John M; Emidio, Oluwabunmi; Ma, Brittany; Bailey, Lauryn; Smith, Thomas J; Kang, In Guk; Yu, Brandon J; Owodunni, Oluwafemi Patrick; Abusamaan, Mohammed; Razzak, Rab; Bodurtha, Joann N

2017-12-04

Even at the end of life, testing cancer patients for inherited susceptibility may provide life-saving information to their relatives. Prior research suggests palliative care inpatients have suboptimal understanding of genetic importance, and testing may be underutilized in this clinical setting. These conclusions are based on limited research. This study aimed to estimate genetic testing prevalence among high-risk palliative care patients in a National Cancer Institute-designated comprehensive cancer center. We also aimed to understand these patients' understanding of, and attitudes toward, hereditary cancer testing and DNA banking. Palliative care in-patients with cancer completed structured interviews, and their medical records were reviewed. Among patients at high risk for hereditary cancer, we assessed history of genetic testing/DNA banking; and related knowledge and attitudes. Among 24 high-risk patients, 14 (58.3%) said they/their relatives had genetic testing or they had been referred for a genetics consultation. Of the remaining 10 patients, seven (70%) said they would "probably" or "definitely" get tested. Patients who had not had testing were least concerned about the impact of future testing on their family relationships; two (20%) said they were "extremely concerned" about privacy related to genetic testing. Of patients without prior testing, five (50%) said they had heard or read "a fair amount" about genetic testing. No high-risk patients had banked DNA. Overall, 23 (95.8%) said they had heard or read "almost nothing" or "relatively little" about DNA banking. Written materials and clinician discussion were most preferred ways to learn about genetic testing and DNA banking. Overall, this study demonstrates underutilization of genetics services at the end of life continues to be problematic, despite high patient interest.

Understanding the importance of an energy crisis

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mechtenberg, Abigail Reid

Human development and energy, in general, and electrical energy, specifically, co-exist seamlessly in high HDI countries where reliability and availability is greater than 99%. In numerous low HDI countries, there is 2-50% electric grid availability with reliability at or below 50% due to load shedding and faults. In Africa, solar, wind, biomass and hydroelectric energy production are cited to meet growing demand and increase reliability and availability; however, the capital costs are greater than the ability-to-pay for wide scale implementation. Since the 1970s, the United States has continued to argue over the new sustainable energy infrastructure solution(s); thus resulting in no new infrastructure being built for wide scale implementation. Together the world is facing the daunting task of averting an energy crisis in developed countries and facing energy crises in developing countries. This thesis explores the importance of energy crises: from the past, current, and future. The first part entails arguing that the United States is not on a pathway to prevent an energy crisis based on an analysis of 1986 and 2004 niche and status-quo manufacturing of light-duty vehicles. The second part answers the question of what an energy crisis looks like by exploring and investigating current electrical energy crises in Fort Portal, Uganda. This part used both anthropological and physics education empowerment research to co-design and build for various energy crisis situations in hospitals, schools, and businesses all from locally available materials and expertise. Finally, looking into the US light-duty vehicle's future, I design a new hybrid vehicle powertrain (called transition mode hybrid). This third part describes my new patent as a way to avert an energy crisis in the light-duty transportation sector.

Everyday resilience in district health systems: emerging insights from the front lines in Kenya and South Africa

PubMed Central

Gilson, Lucy; Barasa, Edwine; Nxumalo, Nonhlanhla; Cleary, Susan; Goudge, Jane; Molyneux, Sassy; Tsofa, Benjamin; Lehmann, Uta

2017-01-01

Recent global crises have brought into sharp relief the absolute necessity of resilient health systems that can recognise and react to societal crises. While such crises focus the global mind, the real work lies, however, in being resilient in the face of routine, multiple challenges. But what are these challenges and what is the work of nurturing everyday resilience in health systems? This paper considers these questions, drawing on long-term, primarily qualitative research conducted in three different district health system settings in Kenya and South Africa, and adopting principles from case study research methodology and meta-synthesis in its analytic approach. The paper presents evidence of the instability and daily disruptions managed at the front lines of the district health system. These include patient complaints, unpredictable staff, compliance demands, organisational instability linked to decentralisation processes and frequently changing, and sometimes unclear, policy imperatives. The paper also identifies managerial responses to these challenges and assesses whether or not they indicate everyday resilience, using two conceptual lenses. From this analysis, we suggest that such resilience seems to arise from the leadership offered by multiple managers, through a combination of strategies that become embedded in relationships and managerial routines, drawing on wider organisational capacities and resources. While stable governance structures and adequate resources do influence everyday resilience, they are not enough to sustain it. Instead, it appears important to nurture the power of leaders across every system to reframe challenges, strengthen their routine practices in ways that encourage mindful staff engagement, and develop social networks within and outside organisations. Further research can build on these insights to deepen understanding. PMID:29081995

Everyday resilience in district health systems: emerging insights from the front lines in Kenya and South Africa.

PubMed

Gilson, Lucy; Barasa, Edwine; Nxumalo, Nonhlanhla; Cleary, Susan; Goudge, Jane; Molyneux, Sassy; Tsofa, Benjamin; Lehmann, Uta

2017-01-01

Recent global crises have brought into sharp relief the absolute necessity of resilient health systems that can recognise and react to societal crises. While such crises focus the global mind, the real work lies, however, in being resilient in the face of routine, multiple challenges. But what are these challenges and what is the work of nurturing everyday resilience in health systems? This paper considers these questions, drawing on long-term, primarily qualitative research conducted in three different district health system settings in Kenya and South Africa, and adopting principles from case study research methodology and meta-synthesis in its analytic approach. The paper presents evidence of the instability and daily disruptions managed at the front lines of the district health system. These include patient complaints, unpredictable staff, compliance demands, organisational instability linked to decentralisation processes and frequently changing, and sometimes unclear, policy imperatives. The paper also identifies managerial responses to these challenges and assesses whether or not they indicate everyday resilience, using two conceptual lenses. From this analysis, we suggest that such resilience seems to arise from the leadership offered by multiple managers, through a combination of strategies that become embedded in relationships and managerial routines, drawing on wider organisational capacities and resources. While stable governance structures and adequate resources do influence everyday resilience, they are not enough to sustain it. Instead, it appears important to nurture the power of leaders across every system to reframe challenges, strengthen their routine practices in ways that encourage mindful staff engagement, and develop social networks within and outside organisations. Further research can build on these insights to deepen understanding.

Performance comparison of Islamic and commercial banks in Malaysia

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Azizud-din, Azimah; Hussin, Siti Aida Sheikh; Zahid, Zalina

2016-10-01

The steady growth in the size and increase in the number of Islamic banks show that the Islamic banking system is considered as an alternative to the conventional banking system. Due to this, comparisons in term of performance measurements and evaluation of the financial health for both type of banks are essential. The main purpose of this study is to analyse the differences between Islamic and commercial banks performance. Five years secondary data were collected from the annual report for each bank. Return on Asset ratio is chosen as the dependent variable, while capital adequacy, asset quality, management quality, earning, liquidity and sensitivity to market risk (CAMELS) are the independent variables. Descriptive analyses were done to understand the data. The independent t-test and Mann Whitney test show the differences of Islamic and commercial banks based on the financial variables. The stepwise and hierarchical multiple regressions were used to determine the factor that affects profitability performance of banks. Results show that Islamic banks are better in term of profitability performance, earning power performance, liquidity performance and sensitive to market risk. The factors that affect profitability performance are capital adequacy, earning power and liquidity variable.

The UK Stem Cell Bank: a UK government-funded, international resource center for stem cell research.

PubMed

Stacey, Glyn; Hunt, Charles J

2006-01-01

The UK Stem Cell Bank is a UK Research Council-funded initiative that aims to provide ethically sourced and quality controlled stocks of cells for researchers and also establish seed stocks of cell lines for clinical trials. Whilst the Bank is prohibited from carrying out basic stem cell research (to avoid conflicts of interest) it is working to improve stem cell banking procedures including cryopreservation, characterization and quality control. The Bank also supports training activities and has provided the hub for the International Stem Cell Initiative, which includes 17 expert stem cell centers aiming to characterize a large number of human embryonic stem cell lines in a standardized way to improve our understanding of the characteristics of these cells.

Measuring and Understanding the Energy Use Signatures of a Bank Building

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Xie, YuLong; Liu, Bing; Athalye, Rahul A.

The Pacific Northwest National Laboratory measured and analyzed the energy end-use patterns in a bank building located in the north-eastern United States. This work was performed in collaboration with PNC Financial Service Group under the US DOE’s Commercial Building Partnerships Program. This paper presents the metering study and the results of the metered data analysis. It provides a benchmark for the energy use of different bank-related equipments. The paper also reveals the importance of metering in fully understanding building loads and indentifying opportunities for energy efficiency improvements that will have impacts across PNC’s portfolio of buildings and were crucial tomore » reducing receptacle loads in the design of a net-zero bank branches. PNNL worked with PNC to meter a 4,000 ft2 bank branch in the state of Pennsylvania. 71 electrical circuits were monitored and 25 stand-alone watt-hour meters were installed at the bank. These meters monitored the consumption of all interior and exterior lighting, receptacle loads, service water heating, and the HVAC rooftop unit at a 5-minute sampling interval from November 2009 to November 2010. A total of over 8 million data records were generated, which were then analyzed to produce the end-use patterns, daily usage profiles, rooftop unit usage cycles, and inputs for calibrating the energy model of the building.« less

The Uses of Crisis: Taking the Tide at the Flood.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kerchner, Charles T.; Schuster, Jack H.

1982-01-01

Crises can, under certain conditions, be transformed into instruments of organizational good. Undergoing crisis in an organization--calling attention to problems and labeling them as crises--may be a preferable management strategy to coping with prolonged periods of shrinking resources. (MLW)

An Information-Processing Model of Crisis Management.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Egelhoff, William G.; Sen, Falguni

1992-01-01

Develops a contingency model for managing a variety of corporate crises. Views crisis management as an information-processing situation and organizations that must cope with crisis as information-processing systems. Attempts to fit appropriate information-processing mechanisms to different categories of crises. (PRA)

An analysis of river bank slope and unsaturated flow effects on bank storage.

PubMed

Doble, Rebecca; Brunner, Philip; McCallum, James; Cook, Peter G

2012-01-01

Recognizing the underlying mechanisms of bank storage and return flow is important for understanding streamflow hydrographs. Analytical models have been widely used to estimate the impacts of bank storage, but are often based on assumptions of conditions that are rarely found in the field, such as vertical river banks and saturated flow. Numerical simulations of bank storage and return flow in river-aquifer cross sections with vertical and sloping banks were undertaken using a fully-coupled, surface-subsurface flow model. Sloping river banks were found to increase the bank infiltration rates by 98% and storage volume by 40% for a bank slope of 3.4° from horizontal, and for a slope of 8.5°, delay bank return flow by more than four times compared with vertical river banks and saturated flow. The results suggested that conventional analytical approximations cannot adequately be used to quantify bank storage when bank slope is less than 60° from horizontal. Additionally, in the unconfined aquifers modeled, the analytical solutions did not accurately model bank storage and return flow even in rivers with vertical banks due to a violation of the dupuit assumption. Bank storage and return flow were also modeled for more realistic cross sections and river hydrograph from the Fitzroy River, Western Australia, to indicate the importance of accurately modeling sloping river banks at a field scale. Following a single wet season flood event of 12 m, results showed that it may take over 3.5 years for 50% of the bank storage volume to return to the river. © 2011, The Author(s). Ground Water © 2011, National Ground Water Association.

Understanding and Responding to Persistently High Unemployment

DTIC Science & Technology

2012-02-01

Reserve Bank of San Francisco, September 2011), www.frbsf.org/ publications/economics/papers/2011/wp11-05bk.pdf. 21. See Rob Valletta and Katherine Kuang...is 30. See Robert Valletta and Katherine Kuang, Extended Unemployment and UI Benefits, Economic Letter 2010-12 (Federal Reserve Bank of San

Predicting Intracranial Pressure and Brain Tissue Oxygen Crises in Patients With Severe Traumatic Brain Injury.

PubMed

Myers, Risa B; Lazaridis, Christos; Jermaine, Christopher M; Robertson, Claudia S; Rusin, Craig G

2016-09-01

To develop computer algorithms that can recognize physiologic patterns in traumatic brain injury patients that occur in advance of intracranial pressure and partial brain tissue oxygenation crises. The automated early detection of crisis precursors can provide clinicians with time to intervene in order to prevent or mitigate secondary brain injury. A retrospective study was conducted from prospectively collected physiologic data. intracranial pressure, and partial brain tissue oxygenation crisis events were defined as intracranial pressure of greater than or equal to 20 mm Hg lasting at least 15 minutes and partial brain tissue oxygenation value of less than 10 mm Hg for at least 10 minutes, respectively. The physiologic data preceding each crisis event were used to identify precursors associated with crisis onset. Multivariate classification models were applied to recorded data in 30-minute epochs of time to predict crises between 15 and 360 minutes in the future. The neurosurgical unit of Ben Taub Hospital (Houston, TX). Our cohort consisted of 817 subjects with severe traumatic brain injury. Our algorithm can predict the onset of intracranial pressure crises with 30-minute advance warning with an area under the receiver operating characteristic curve of 0.86 using only intracranial pressure measurements and time since last crisis. An analogous algorithm can predict the start of partial brain tissue oxygenation crises with 30-minute advanced warning with an area under the receiver operating characteristic curve of 0.91. Our algorithms provide accurate and timely predictions of intracranial hypertension and tissue hypoxia crises in patients with severe traumatic brain injury. Almost all of the information needed to predict the onset of these events is contained within the signal of interest and the time since last crisis.

LRPPRC mutations cause a phenotypically distinct form of Leigh syndrome with cytochrome c oxidase deficiency.

PubMed

Debray, François-Guillaume; Morin, Charles; Janvier, Annie; Villeneuve, Josée; Maranda, Bruno; Laframboise, Rachel; Lacroix, Jacques; Decarie, Jean-Claude; Robitaille, Yves; Lambert, Marie; Robinson, Brian H; Mitchell, Grant A

2011-03-01

The natural history of all known patients with French-Canadian Leigh disease (Saguenay-Lac-St-Jean cytochrome c oxidase deficiency, MIM220111, SLSJ-COX), the largest known cohort of patients with a genetically homogeneous, nuclear encoded congenital lactic acidosis, was studied. 55 of 56 patients were homozygous for the A354V mutation in LRPPRC. One was a genetic compound (A354V/C1277Xdel8). Clinical features included developmental delay, failure to thrive, characteristic facial appearance and, in 90% of patients, acute crises that have not previously been detailed, either metabolic (fulminant lactic acidosis) and/or neurological (Leigh syndrome and/or stroke-like episodes). Survival ranged from 5 days to >30 years. 46/56 patients (82%) died, at a median age of 1.6 years. Of 73 crises, 38 (52%) were fatal. The immediate causes of death were multiple organ failure and/or Leigh disease. Major predictors of mortality during crises (p<0.005) were hyperglycaemia, hepatic cytolysis, and altered consciousness at admission. Compared to a group of SURF1-deficient Leigh syndrome patients assembled from the literature, SLSJ-COX is distinct by the occurrence of metabolic crises, leading to earlier and higher mortality (p=0.001). SLSJ-COX is clinically distinct, with acute fatal acidotic crises on a backdrop of chronic moderate developmental delay and hyperlactataemia. Leigh syndrome is common. Stroke-like episodes can occur. The Leigh syndrome of SLSJ-COX differs from that of SURF1-related COX deficiency. SLSJ-COX has a different spectrum of associated abnormalities, acidotic crises being particularly suggestive of LRPPRC related Leigh syndrome. Even among A354V homozygotes, pronounced differences in survival and severity occur, showing that other genetic and/or environmental factors can influence outcome.

Employee Communication during Crises: The Effects of Stress on Information Processing.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pincus, J. David; Acharya, Lalit

Based on multidisciplinary research findings, this report proposes an information processing model of employees' response to highly stressful information environments arising during organizational crises. The introduction stresses the importance of management's handling crisis communication with employees skillfully. The second section points out…

Gender and Communication.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Schultz, Beatrice, Ed.

1986-01-01

Topics discussed include: how men and women conceive and manage crises in romantic relationships; differences in how men and women handle crises in an organizational setting; the common talk men make about their relationships; the forces that shape women's relationships with men; and the priorities for future studies. (RM)

Episodic processes, invasion and faunal mosaics in evolutionary and ecological time

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Episodes of ecological perturbation and faunal turnover represent crises for global biodiversity and have occurred periodically across Earth history on a continuum linking deep evolutionary and shallow ecological time. Major extinction events and biodiversity crises across the 540 milion years of th...

Mental Health Aspects of Responding to Campus Crises

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Flynn, Christopher; Sharma, Micky M.

2016-01-01

Tragedy can strike a college campus in unpredictable and often horrific ways that may lead to traumatic responses for individuals and the entire campus community. Crises on campus demand an appropriate response to support the community, provide assistance to affected individuals and guide healing efforts.

Strategies for Crises Prevention/Intervention.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Webber, Glen R.

Crises intervention and prevention techniques developed by the Echo Glen Children's Center school in Washington are listed here, along with a description of climate improvement and problem-solving methods developed by the school's staff. The students in this special residential school are emotionally disturbed or socially maladjusted delinquent…

The role of motivation, responsibility, and integrative complexity in crisis escalation: comparative studies of war and peace crises.

PubMed

Winter, David G

2007-05-01

Drawing on D. G. Winter's (1993) comparison of 1914 and the Cuban Missile Crisis, the author identified 8 paired crises (1 escalating to war, 1 peacefully resolved). Documents (diplomatic messages, speeches, official media commentary) from each crisis were scored for power, affiliation, and achievement motivation; text measures of responsibility and activity inhibition; and integrative complexity. Aggregated effect-size results show that war crises had significantly higher levels of power motivation and responsibility, whereas peace crises showed trends toward higher integrative complexity and achievement motivation. Follow-up analyses suggested that these results are robust with respect to both sides in a crisis, type of material scored, and historical time. The power motive results extend previous findings, but the responsibility results suggest that responsibility plays a paradoxical role in war. Future research directions are sketched, and the role of psychological content analysis in monitoring the danger of war is discussed. ((c) 2007 APA, all rights reserved).

Assessment of economic vulnerability to infectious disease crises.

PubMed

Sands, Peter; El Turabi, Anas; Saynisch, Philip A; Dzau, Victor J

2016-11-12

Infectious disease crises have substantial economic impact. Yet mainstream macroeconomic forecasting rarely takes account of the risk of potential pandemics. This oversight contributes to persistent underestimation of infectious disease risk and consequent underinvestment in preparedness and response to infectious disease crises. One reason why economists fail to include economic vulnerability to infectious disease threats in their assessments is the absence of readily available and digestible input data to inform such analysis. In this Viewpoint we suggest an approach by which the global health community can help to generate such inputs, and a framework to use these inputs to assess the economic vulnerability to infectious disease crises of individual countries and regions. We argue that incorporation of these risks in influential macroeconomic analyses such as the reports from the International Monetary Fund's Article IV consultations, rating agencies and risk consultancies would simultaneously improve the quality of economic risk forecasting and reinforce individual government and donor incentives to mitigate infectious disease risks. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Families in the context of macroeconomic crises: A systematic review.

PubMed

Fonseca, Gabriela; Cunha, Diana; Crespo, Carla; Relvas, Ana Paula

2016-09-01

The present study is a systematic review of empirical literature from the last 35 years on families' responses to economic distress in the context of macroeconomic crises. Thirty-nine studies published between 1983 and 2015 in 12 countries were identified, resulting in 3 main findings. First, economic distress was associated with negative changes in family dynamics, specifically couple relationships and parenting. Second, protective factors were found to buffer the adverse effects of economic distress on family and individual outcomes. Third, the results suggest that individual responses to macroeconomic crises may be moderated by sex. Implications for future research encompass using validated assessment instruments, including participants beyond 2-parent families with adolescent children and conducting both longitudinal and qualitative studies that focus on the processes and meanings of adaptation within this risk context. Conclusions highlighted the need to assist families dealing with macroeconomic crises' demands, encouraging the development and validation of macrosystemic intervention programs. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

Understanding Market Concentration: Internet-Based Applications from the Banking Industry

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hays, Fred H.; Ward, Sidne Gail

2011-01-01

Market structure is an essential topic in economics and finance courses, including bank management as well as many other business school courses, for example marketing, human resources and strategic management. Instructors explain the virtues of perfect competition and the evils of monopoly along with alternative market models. Often conversations…

Cultural Memory Banking in Preservice Science Teacher Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Handa, Vicente C.; Tippins, Deborah J.

2012-01-01

This study focused on the exemplification of cultural memory banking as an ethnographic tool to understand cultural practices relevant to science teaching and learning in a rural coastal village in a central island of the Philippine archipelago. Using the collaborative action ethnography as a research methodology, 10 prospective science teachers…

Phenological bud bank development of Bouteloua gracilis, Hesperostipa comata, and Pascopyrum smithii during drought in the Northern Great Plains

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Vegetative reproduction in rangelands relies on tiller recruitment from belowground bud banks. Improved understanding of species-specific bud production and phenology would facilitate timing of aboveground management strategies. Twelve individual plants of the warm season grass (Bouteloua gracilis...

I Bet You Thought...

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Friedman, David H.

The booklet lists and dispels 14 economic myths through a discussion of money, economic concepts, and the Federal Reserve System. The objective is to help secondary students or adults understand the economic system as related to money and banking. Topics focus on money, banking, gold and silver, credit, government role, financial concepts, and…

A Goldsmith Exercise for Learning Money Creation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pearlman, Sarah; Rebelein, Robert P.

2013-01-01

In this article, the authors outline a classroom exercise involving goldsmiths designed to improve undergraduate students' understanding of how banks create money. This concept is important to macroeconomics and money and banking courses, yet students frequently struggle with it, largely due to the nonphysical nature of deposits and reserves.…

A model of international financial crises

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kaizoji, Taisei

2001-10-01

This paper proposes a model of international financial crises that is based on the statistical mechanics. In our model the international stock market is composed of two groups of traders mutually influencing each other with respect to their decision behavior, and financial contagion between markets occurs as a result of attempts by traders in the domestic market to imitate the behavior of traders who participate into exchange in a foreign market. This provides a channel through which a crisis in one market such as contemporaneous stock market crashes can be transmitted to other markets. We show that the model can explain the stylized facts characterizing periods of recent international financial crises.

Exploring the meaning of health security for disaster resilience through people's perspectives in Bangladesh.

PubMed

Ray-Bennett, Nibedita S; Collins, Andrew; Bhuiya, Abbas; Edgeworth, Ross; Nahar, Papreen; Alamgir, Fariba

2010-05-01

There has been significant interest in the rhetoric of health security in recent years from both global and local perspectives. Understanding health in the context of disaster vulnerability presents an opportunity to examine how improved health might reduce the effects of environmental disasters and other crises. To this end, a project was implemented in Bangladesh to establish the potential of a health security approach for disaster resilience amongst people living in high risk environments. This paper explores what we might mean by health security through engaging community level perspectives in the southeast coastal belt of Bangladesh, an area prone to cyclone and flood. This has been examined with respect to variation in gender and wealth of households. Household surveys, interviews and focus group discussions were some of the methods used to collect data. The findings show that health related coping strategies and agentive capabilities in the context of impending crises vary from one micro-context to the next. This suggests a dynamic and integrative resilience that could be built on further, but one which remains remote from wider discourses on health security. Copyright 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The Evolution of Empathy and Women's Precarious Leadership Appointments.

PubMed

Vongas, John G; Al Hajj, Raghid

2015-01-01

Glass cliffs describe situations in which women are promoted to executive roles in declining organizations. To explain them, some authors suggest that people tend to "think crisis-think female." However, the root cause of this association remains elusive. Using several subfields of evolutionary theory, we argue that biology and culture have shaped the perception of women as being more empathic than men and, consequently, as capable of quelling certain crises. Some crises are more intense than others and, whereas some brew within organizations, others originate from the external environment. We therefore propose that women will be selected to lead whenever a crisis is minimal to moderate and stems primarily from within the organization. Men, on the other hand, will be chosen as leaders whenever the crisis threatens the very existence of the firm and its source is an external threat. Leadership is a highly stressful experience, and even more so when leaders must scale glass cliffs. It is imperative that we understand what gives rise to them not only because they place women and potentially other minorities in positions where the likelihood of failure is high, but also because they help propagate stereotypes that undermine their true leadership ability.

The Evolution of Empathy and Women’s Precarious Leadership Appointments

PubMed Central

Vongas, John G.; Al Hajj, Raghid

2015-01-01

Glass cliffs describe situations in which women are promoted to executive roles in declining organizations. To explain them, some authors suggest that people tend to “think crisis-think female.” However, the root cause of this association remains elusive. Using several subfields of evolutionary theory, we argue that biology and culture have shaped the perception of women as being more empathic than men and, consequently, as capable of quelling certain crises. Some crises are more intense than others and, whereas some brew within organizations, others originate from the external environment. We therefore propose that women will be selected to lead whenever a crisis is minimal to moderate and stems primarily from within the organization. Men, on the other hand, will be chosen as leaders whenever the crisis threatens the very existence of the firm and its source is an external threat. Leadership is a highly stressful experience, and even more so when leaders must scale glass cliffs. It is imperative that we understand what gives rise to them not only because they place women and potentially other minorities in positions where the likelihood of failure is high, but also because they help propagate stereotypes that undermine their true leadership ability. PMID:26617564

Community Crisis Intervention; A Training Manual.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Batson, Ruth; Peters, Lyda

This manual is designed to help community mental health workers to intervene effectively in community crises, particularly school desegregation. The rationale for involving mental health personnel in community crises is explained. The need for expertise among such workers is emphasized, and strategies for gaining this expertise are outlined. Also…

Intercultural Competence in Education, Counselling and Psychotherapy

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Portera, Agostino

2014-01-01

The present era of globalization, interdependence and multicultural societies has brought about both opportunities and crises in educational institutions. Especially schools and families seem to be unable to cope with such revolutionary changes. The crises also concern all fields involved in maintaining social welfare, including counselling and…

Estimating Groundwater Development area in Jianan Plain using Standardized Groundwater Index

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yu, Chang Hsiang; Haw, Lee Cheng

2017-04-01

Taiwan has been facing severe water crises in recent years owing to the effects of extreme weather conditions. Changes in precipitation patterns have also made the drought phenomenon increasingly prominent, which has indirectly affected groundwater recharge. Hence, in the present study, long-term monitoring data were collected from the study area of the Jianan plain. The standardized groundwater index (SGI) and was then used to analyse the region's drought characteristics. To analyse the groundwater level by using SGI, making SGI180 groundwater level be the medium water crises, and SGI360 groundwater level be the extreme water crises. Through the different water crises signal in SGI180 and SGI360, we divide groundwater in Jianan plain into two sections. Thereby the water crises indicators establishing groundwater level standard line in Jianan Plain, then using the groundwater level standard line to find the study area where could be groundwater development area in Jianan plain. Taking into account relatively more water scarcity in dry season, so the study screen out another emergency backup groundwater development area, but the long-term groundwater development area is still as a priority development area. After finding suitable locations, groundwater modeling systems(GMS) software is used to simulate our sites to evaluate development volume. Finally, the result of study will help the government to grasp the water shortage situation immediately and solve the problem of water resources deployment.

Identifying the causes, prevention and management of crises in dementia. An online survey of stakeholders.

PubMed

Ledgerd, Ritchard; Hoe, Juanita; Hoare, Zoë; Devine, Mike; Toot, Sandeep; Challis, David; Orrell, Martin

2016-06-01

Crisis situations in dementia can lead to hospital admission or institutionalisation. Offering immediate interventions may help avoid admission, whilst stabilising measures can help prevent future crises. Our objective was to identify the main causes of crisis and interventions to treat or prevent crisis in persons with dementia based on different stakeholder perspectives. An online questionnaire was developed to identify the causes of crisis and appropriate interventions in a crisis. Participants included people with dementia, family carers and staff working in health and social care, including emergency and voluntary sectors, and academia. The results ranked the main causes of crisis, interventions that can prevent a crisis and interventions that can be useful in a crisis. Wandering, falls and infection were highly rated as risk factors for crises across all stakeholder groups. Consumers rated aggression as less important but severity of memory impairment as much more important than the other groups did. Education and support for family carers and home care staff were highly valued for preventing crises. Well-trained home care staff, communication equipment, emergency contacts and access to respite were highly valued for managing crises. We identified triggers and interventions that different stakeholders see as important for crisis in dementia. Recognition of these may be critical to planning effective and accepted support and care for people with dementia. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Economics and Markets

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Graham, Alan K.

Economic matters are often entangled with interventions. Aid agencies need to understand where they can have the highest leverage, and where aid may cause harmful economic distortions. Humanitarian interventions in crises will be more effective if the economic and social root causes of the crisis are addressed as well. The root causes of insurgencies often include economic issues, particularly economic discrimination. Planners for military operations in a country need to know the economic side effects of military activities, including the effects of withdrawal. Government agencies trying to bring developed-nation investors into a developing country must understand, along with the potential investors, what the economic prospects of the economy are, and how safe an investment is (or is not). Economic modeling and analysis can assist in each of these cases.

Invasive Australian Acacia seed banks: Size and relationship with stem diameter in the presence of gall-forming biological control agents.

PubMed

Strydom, Matthys; Veldtman, Ruan; Ngwenya, Mzabalazo Z; Esler, Karen J

2017-01-01

Australian Acacia are invasive in many parts of the world. Despite significant mechanical and biological efforts to control their invasion and spread, soil-stored seed banks prevent their effective and sustained removal. In response South Africa has had a strong focus on employing seed reducing biological control agents to deal with Australian Acacia invasion, a programme that is considered as being successful. To provide a predictive understanding for their management, seed banks of four invasive Australian acacia species (Acacia longifolia, A. mearnsii, A. pycnantha and A. saligna) were studied in the Western Cape of South Africa. Across six to seven sites for each species, seed bank sizes were estimated from dense, monospecific stands by collecting 30 litter and soil samples. Average estimated seed bank size was large (1017 to 17261 seed m-2) as was annual input into the seed bank, suggesting that these seed banks are not residual but are replenished in size annually. A clear relationship between seed bank size and stem diameter was established indicating that mechanical clearing should be conducted shortly after fire-stimulated recruitment events or within old populations when seed banks are small. In dense, monospecific stands seed-feeding biological control agents are not effective in reducing seed bank size.

Three Campus Crises: Lessons for Administrators.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rothman, Michael

1992-01-01

In October 1989-October 1991, Mills College (California) faced three crises: an earthquake; a strike over plans to convert to a coeducational institution; and a devastating fire in the area. The college has learned to focus its structural, human, political, and symbolic frames of reference; communicate; plan; consider the public; and develop…

Campus Communications in the Age of Crises

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McGuire, Patricia

2007-01-01

Recent catastrophes have brought about numerous critiques and changes to campus communications. In this article, the author shares the lessons she has learned from the crises she experienced during her 18 years of being the president of Trinity (Washington) University. Furthermore, Joan Hinde Stewart, president of Hamilton College, adds her…

Five Potential Crises.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Futurist, 1984

1984-01-01

Five areas that have great potential for becoming crises in the future are described: a warming of the earth's climate, changing weather patterns and growing seasons; water shortage; the decay of the physical infrastructure, e.g., decay of roads, bridges; breakdown of the international monetary and trading system; and nuclear warfare. (Author/RM)

Preparing for School Crises: Administrator Perceptions on Supports for Teachers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brophy, Chelsey M.; Maras, Melissa A.; Wang, Ze

2015-01-01

Traumatic events and crises involving schools and children often become high-profile occurrences; however, little attention is given to teachers and how they cope with crisis. The purpose of this study was to investigate administrators' perceptions of including additional support for teachers in school crisis policies. Specifically, the study…

Learning through Crisis: The Educator's Role

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Patton, Lori D.

2008-01-01

One of the most pressing challenges when facilitating a conversation on human crises is the normalizing push to move forward and avoid living in the past. Unfortunately, when conversations about human crises are ignored or rushed through, the learning process is stunted. Students lose a valuable opportunity to develop empathy and cultural…

The Suppression of Ethical Dispositions through Managerial Governmentality: A Habitus Crisis in Australian Higher Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zipin, Lew; Brennan, Marie

2003-01-01

"Fiscal" and other so-called "crises" in Australian universities are more fundamentally, it is argued in this article, crises of government decision and "governmentality". Using an illustrative "morality tale" drawn from their working knowledge of the Australian university sector, the authors take a…

Transdisciplinary Collaborations for Sustainability Education: Institutional and Intragroup Challenges and Opportunities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Evans, Tina Lynn

2015-01-01

This article takes as its point of departure the many converging crises of sustainability and the responsibility of higher education institutions and faculty members to participate in mitigating these crises to any extent possible. The author characterizes sustainability education as transdisciplinary praxis, explores the institutional and…

Understanding the health and wellbeing challenges of the food banking system: A qualitative study of food bank users, providers and referrers in London.

PubMed

Thompson, C; Smith, D; Cummins, S

2018-05-16

In the UK, food poverty has been associated with conditions such as obesity, malnutrition, hypertension, iron deficiency, and impaired liver function. Food banks, the primary response to food poverty on the ground, typically rely on community referral and distribution systems that involve health and social care professionals and local authority public health teams. The perspectives of these key stakeholders remain underexplored. This paper reports on a qualitative study of the health and wellbeing challenges of food poverty and food banking in London. An ethnographic investigation of food bank staff and users was carried out alongside a series of healthcare stakeholder interviews. A total of 42 participants were interviewed. A Critical Grounded Theory (CGT) analysis revealed that contemporary lived experiences of food poverty are embedded within and symptomatic of extreme marginalisation, which in turn impacts upon health. Specifically, food poverty was conceptualised by participants to: firstly, be a barrier to providing adequate care and nutrition for young children; secondly, be exacerbated by lack of access to adequate fresh food, food storage and cooking facilities; and thirdly, amplify existing health and social problems. Further investigation of the local government structures and professional roles that both rely upon and serve to further embed the food banking system is necessary in order to understand the politics of changing welfare landscapes. Copyright © 2018 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

Vegetative regeneration of invasive Ludwigia cytotypes from clonal bud banks across resource gradients: colonizing diploid outperforms polyploid

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Understanding functional traits that underlie the colonization of invasive plants is key to developing sustainable management strategies to curtail invasions at the establishment phase. Although common, recruitment of clonal plant species from bud banks is often overlooked but may be a key transiti...

Idea Bank: Ten Steps to Recruiting Singers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Luethi, Dean

2015-01-01

This issue of "Idea Bank" asks: "Wouldn't it be wonderful if word of mouth were sufficient to sell music education--if students lined up outside the rehearsal spaces to enroll in the ensembles?" The reality is that people don't show up in music classrooms without motivation. Music educators need to understand what motivates…

Panel 2.17: private commercial sector partnerships for health action in crises.

PubMed

Sundnes, Knut Ole; Sannerkvist, Milan; Hedger, Philip; Woodworth, Brent; Hyre, Anne; Cuddyre, Terrence; Waldman, Ronald

2005-01-01

This is a summary of the presentations and discussion of Panel 2.17, Private Commercial Sector Partnerships for Health Action in Crises of the Conference, Health Aspects of the Tsunami Disaster in Asia, convened by the World Health Organization (WHO) in Phuket, Thailand, 04-06 May 2005. The topics discussed included issues related to private sector partnerships for health action in crises as pertain to the responses to the damage created by the Tsunami. It is presented in the following sections: (1) key questions; (2) issues and challenges; (3) lessons learned; (4) what was done well?; (5) what could have been done better?; and (6) conclusions and recommendations.

The Nigerian State and Global Economic Crises: Socio-Political Implications and Policy Challenges

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Olaopa, O. R.; Ogundari, I. O.; Akindele, S. T.; Hassan, O. M.

2012-01-01

This article discusses how economic reforms, as a reaction to the effects of the global financial crises, have intensified popular unrests and redefined the composition, interests, and socio-economic and political attitudes of Nigeria's increasingly complex social strata. We relied basically on secondary data to analyze some of the fundamental…

Risks and crises for healthcare providers: the impact of cloud computing.

PubMed

Glasberg, Ronald; Hartmann, Michael; Draheim, Michael; Tamm, Gerrit; Hessel, Franz

2014-01-01

We analyze risks and crises for healthcare providers and discuss the impact of cloud computing in such scenarios. The analysis is conducted in a holistic way, taking into account organizational and human aspects, clinical, IT-related, and utilities-related risks as well as incorporating the view of the overall risk management.

Before Crisis Hits: Building a Strategic Crisis Plan.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Smith, Larry L.; Millar, Dan P.

This guide offers suggestions to college administrators for dealing with a variety of emergency or crisis situations that could affect a community college's effectiveness. The authors used the Institute for Crisis Management's (ICM) four types of crises in higher education as the framework for the guide. The four types of crises are: (1) sudden;…

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Jeffries, C.; Perez, J.

For a driven nonlinear oscillator we report direct evidence for three cases of an interior crisis of the attractor, as conjectured by Grebogi, Ott, and Yorke. These crises are sudden and discontinuous changes in the attractor, observed directly from bifurcation diagrams and attractor diagrams (Poincare sections) in real time. The crises arise from intersection of an unstable orbit with the chaotic attractor.

American Naval Policy, Strategy, Plans and Operations in the Second Decade of the Twenty first Century

DTIC Science & Technology

2017-01-01

13 Maritime safety ...deterrence, ballistic missile defense, deterrence of conventional crises and war (through naval readiness and engagement), maritime safety operations...confidence-building measure and to avoid unwanted crises.55 Maritime safety This an area that is primarily the domain of the world’s Coast Guards

Prevention of Targeted School Violence by Responding to Students' Psychosocial Crises: The NETWASS Program

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Leuschner, Vincenz; Fiedler, Nora; Schultze, Martin; Ahlig, Nadine; Göbel, Kristin; Sommer, Friederike; Scholl, Johanna; Cornell, Dewey; Scheithauer, Herbert

2017-01-01

The standardized, indicated school-based prevention program "Networks Against School Shootings" combines a threat assessment approach with a general model of prevention of emergency situations in schools through early intervention in student psychosocial crises and training teachers to recognize warning signs of targeted school violence.…

Marketing Crises in Tourism: Communication Strategies in the United States and Spain.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gonzalez-Herrero, Alfonso; Pratt, Cornelius B.

1998-01-01

Compares crisis-response strategies of marketing-communication professionals in tourism organizations (TOs) in the United States and Spain. Reports the extent to which they use proven crisis-management strategies. Indicates significant differences between the countries' TOs in both their extant plans for responding to marketing crises and in their…

Crises and Opportunities: The Futures of Scholarly Publishing. ACLS Occasional Paper, No. 57

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Alonso, Carlos J.; Davidson, Cathy N.; Unsworth, John M.; Withey, Lynne

2003-01-01

Presented herein are papers presented at a session entitled "Crises and Opportunities: The Future of Scholarly Publishing," from the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) Annual Meeting, May 10, 2003. Four speakers approached this topic from different standpoints: as leaders of learned societies, as senior university officials, from the…

Summoning Spectres: Crises and Their Construction

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Clarke, John; Newman, Janet

2010-01-01

The construction of crises is a key analytical and political issue. This paper examines what is at stake in the processes and practices of construction, responding to the arguments made in Andrew Gamble's "The spectres at the feast" (2009). We suggest that there are three areas of critical concern: first, that too little attention has…

Supporting Students with Disabilities during School Crises: A Teacher's Guide

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Clarke, Laura S.; Embury, Dusty Columbia; Jones, Ruth E.; Yssel, Nina

2014-01-01

Most schools have crisis plans to support student safety, but few plans address the complex needs of students with disabilities. School supports should include analysis of school plans and student strengths and needs to ensure that students with disabilities have the best opportunity to be safe in school crises. Recommendations include developing…

Recovery from Large-Scale Crises: Guidelines for Crisis Teams and Administrators

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Communique, 2018

2018-01-01

The United States has recently experienced numerous large-scale crises that resulted in high death tolls and extensive property damage. Critical incidents such as suicide contagion, natural disasters, or mass casualty events have the potential to cause traumatic reactions and significantly affect children's sense of safety and security. School…

Using Crises, Feedback, and Fading for Online Task Design

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bokhove, Christian

2014-01-01

A recent discussion involves the elaboration on possible design principles for sequences of tasks. This paper builds on three principles, as described by Bokhove and Drijvers (2012a). A model with ingredients of crises, feedback and fading of sequences with near-similar tasks can be used to address both procedural fluency and conceptual…

The Crises and Freedoms of Researching Your Own Life

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pearce, Caroline

2010-01-01

There has been much work highlighting the benefits of autoethnographic research yet little acknowledgement of the demands researching your own life makes on the emotional and mental wellbeing of the researcher. This paper explores the consequences that can arise as a result of autoethnographic research by detailing the crises involved in…

An International Survey of Brain Banking Operation and Characterization Practices

PubMed Central

Palmer-Aronsten, Beatrix; McCrossin, Toni; Kril, Jillian

2016-01-01

Brain banks continue to make a major contribution to the study of neurological and psychiatric disorders. The current complexity and scope of research heighten the need for well-characterized cases and the demand for larger cohorts and necessitate strategies, such as the establishment of bank networks based in regional areas. While individual brain banks have developed protocols that meet researchers' needs within the confines of resources and funding, to further promote collaboration, standardization and scientific validity and understanding of the current protocols of participating banks are required. A survey was sent to brain banks, identified by an Internet search, to investigate operational protocols, case characterization, cohort management, data collection, standardization, and degree of collaboration between banks. The majority of the 24 banks that returned the survey have been established for more than 20 years, and most are affiliated with a regional network. While prospective donor programs were the primary source of donation, the data collected on donors varied. Longitudinal information assists case characterization and enhances the analysis capabilities of research. However, acquiring this information depended on the availability of qualified staff. Respondents indicated a high level of importance for standardization, but only 8 of 24 considered this occurred between banks. Standard diagnostic criteria were not achieved in the classification of controls, and some banks relied on the researcher to indicate the criteria for classification of controls. Although the capacity to collaborate with other banks was indicated by 16 of 24 banks, this occurred infrequently. Engagement of all brain banks to participate toward a consensus of diagnostic tools, especially for controls, will strengthen collaboration. PMID:27399803

An International Survey of Brain Banking Operation and Characterization Practices.

PubMed

Palmer-Aronsten, Beatrix; Sheedy, Donna; McCrossin, Toni; Kril, Jillian

2016-12-01

Brain banks continue to make a major contribution to the study of neurological and psychiatric disorders. The current complexity and scope of research heighten the need for well-characterized cases and the demand for larger cohorts and necessitate strategies, such as the establishment of bank networks based in regional areas. While individual brain banks have developed protocols that meet researchers' needs within the confines of resources and funding, to further promote collaboration, standardization and scientific validity and understanding of the current protocols of participating banks are required. A survey was sent to brain banks, identified by an Internet search, to investigate operational protocols, case characterization, cohort management, data collection, standardization, and degree of collaboration between banks. The majority of the 24 banks that returned the survey have been established for more than 20 years, and most are affiliated with a regional network. While prospective donor programs were the primary source of donation, the data collected on donors varied. Longitudinal information assists case characterization and enhances the analysis capabilities of research. However, acquiring this information depended on the availability of qualified staff. Respondents indicated a high level of importance for standardization, but only 8 of 24 considered this occurred between banks. Standard diagnostic criteria were not achieved in the classification of controls, and some banks relied on the researcher to indicate the criteria for classification of controls. Although the capacity to collaborate with other banks was indicated by 16 of 24 banks, this occurred infrequently. Engagement of all brain banks to participate toward a consensus of diagnostic tools, especially for controls, will strengthen collaboration.

A Review of Factors Influencing the Banking of Collected Umbilical Cord Blood Units

PubMed Central

Allan, David; Petraszko, Tanya; Elmoazzen, Heidi; Smith, Susan

2013-01-01

Umbilical cord blood banking efforts have increased dramatically in the past two decades in response to increasing demand for alternative sources of blood stem cells to support patients requiring hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. Transplant centres have accumulated increasing expertise in their understanding of umbilical cord blood characteristics that are associated with improved outcome following transplantation. These characteristics and factors can assist transplant centres in selecting cord blood units from the worldwide inventory of banked units. Umbilical cord blood banks, therefore, need to remain agile in adjusting the inventory of the banks to address shifts or changes in the needs of transplant centres. Public umbilical cord blood banks face the challenge of building inventory while managing limited resources and are faced with decisions regarding which units can be stored and which units that have been collected should be discarded or used for other endeavours such as research. To this end, we sought to review parameters influencing the decision to bank a collected cord blood unit. In this paper, we will address parameters associated with graft potency and address other factors that guide the decision to bank collected units. PMID:23533442

Incidence, recurrence and cost of hyperglycaemic crises requiring emergency treatment in Andalusia, Spain.

PubMed

Barranco, R J; Gomez-Peralta, F; Abreu, C; Delgado-Rodriguez, M; Moreno-Carazo, A; Romero, F; de la Cal, M A; Barranco, J M; Pasquel, F J; Umpierrez, G E

2017-07-01

Hyperglycaemic crises (diabetic ketoacidosis and hyperosmolar hyperglycaemic state) are medical emergencies in people with diabetes. We aimed to determine their incidence, recurrence and economic impact. An observational study of hyperglycaemic crises cases using the database maintained by the out-of-hospital emergency service, the Healthcare Emergency Public Service (EPES) during 2012. The EPES provides emergency medical services to the total population of Andalusia, Spain (8.5 million inhabitants) and records data on the incidence, resource utilization and cost of out-of-hospital medical care. Direct costs were estimated using public prices for health services updated to 2012. Among 1 137 738 emergency calls requesting medical assistance, 3157 were diagnosed with hyperglycaemic crises by an emergency coordinator, representing 2.9 cases per 1000 persons with diabetes [95% confidence intervals (CI) 2.8 to 3.0]. The incidence of diabetic ketoacidosis was 2.5 cases per 1000 persons with diabetes (95% CI 2.4 to 2.6) and the incidence of hyperosmolar hyperglycaemic state was 0.4 cases per 1000 persons with diabetes (95% CI 0.4 to 0.5). In total, 17.7% (n = 440) of people had one or more hyperglycaemic crisis. The estimated total direct cost was €4 662 151, with a mean direct cost per episode of €1476.8 ± 217.8. Hyperglycaemic crises require high resource utilization of emergency medical services and have a significant economic impact on the health system. © 2017 Diabetes UK.

Inefficacy of piracetam in the prevention of painful crises in children and adolescents with sickle cell disease.

PubMed

Alvim, R C; Viana, M B; Pires, M A S; Franklin, H M O H; Paula, M J; Brito, A C; Oliveira, T F; Rezende, P V

2005-01-01

Analgesia and hydration remain the only safe treatment for painful crises of sickle cell disease; hydroxyurea is effective, but the toxicity is still a problem. Piracetam is a nootropic drug that has reportedly been effective and non-toxic in sickle cell patients, but most studies were not placebo-controlled and included a small number of patients. The present study evaluated the drug in a double-blind crossed placebo-controlled clinical trial in 73 children and adolescents suffering from moderate to severe painful crises for 13 months. Information regarding frequency and severity of pain was acquired through monthly clinical evaluation, visits and house calls, and 4,300 weekly questionnaires filled out by the patients in their domiciles. A monthly pain score was calculated for each patient. Pain was the most frequent adverse manifestation of the disease stressing its significant bio-psycho-social impact. Although nearly all patients and relatives reported a better clinical course throughout the whole study, the drug was ineffective in the prevention of painful crises. This placebo effect may be ascribed to an unplanned and unsystematic 'cognitive-behavioural' management of the children. The pain score in the second semester of the study - both in the experimental and in the control groups - was significantly smaller than that in the first semester. In conclusion, piracetam was found to be ineffective in the prevention of painful crises; a powerful placebo effect due to adequate patient care was demonstrated. Copyright (c) 2005 S. Karger AG, Basel

Comparing emerging and mature markets during times of crises: A non-extensive statistical approach

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Namaki, A.; Koohi Lai, Z.; Jafari, G. R.; Raei, R.; Tehrani, R.

2013-07-01

One of the important issues in finance and economics for both scholars and practitioners is to describe the behavior of markets, especially during times of crises. In this paper, we analyze the behavior of some mature and emerging markets with a Tsallis entropy framework that is a non-extensive statistical approach based on non-linear dynamics. During the past decade, this technique has been successfully applied to a considerable number of complex systems such as stock markets in order to describe the non-Gaussian behavior of these systems. In this approach, there is a parameter q, which is a measure of deviation from Gaussianity, that has proved to be a good index for detecting crises. We investigate the behavior of this parameter in different time scales for the market indices. It could be seen that the specified pattern for q differs for mature markets with regard to emerging markets. The findings show the robustness of the stated approach in order to follow the market conditions over time. It is obvious that, in times of crises, q is much greater than in other times. In addition, the response of emerging markets to global events is delayed compared to that of mature markets, and tends to a Gaussian profile on increasing the scale. This approach could be very useful in application to risk and portfolio management in order to detect crises by following the parameter q in different time scales.

Evidence on the Effectiveness of Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) Interventions on Health Outcomes in Humanitarian Crises: A Systematic Review.

PubMed

Ramesh, Anita; Blanchet, Karl; Ensink, Jeroen H J; Roberts, Bayard

2015-01-01

Water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) interventions are amongst the most crucial in humanitarian crises, although the impact of the different WASH interventions on health outcomes remains unclear. To examine the quantity and quality of evidence on WASH interventions on health outcomes in humanitarian crises, as well as evaluate current evidence on their effectiveness against health outcomes in these contexts. A systematic literature review was conducted of primary and grey quantitative literature on WASH interventions measured against health outcomes in humanitarian crises occurring from 1980-2014. Populations of interest were those in resident in humanitarian settings, with a focus on acute crisis and early recovery stages of humanitarian crises in low and middle-income countries. Interventions of interest were WASH-related, while outcomes of interest were health-related. Study quality was assessed via STROBE/CONSORT criteria. Results were analyzed descriptively, and PRISMA reporting was followed. Of 3963 studies initially retrieved, only 6 published studies measured a statistically significant change in health outcome as a result of a WASH intervention. All 6 studies employed point-of-use (POU) water quality interventions, with 50% using safe water storage (SWS) and 35% using household water treatment (HWT). All 6 studies used self-reported diarrhea outcomes, 2 studies also reported laboratory confirmed outcomes, and 2 studies reported health treatment outcomes (e.g. clinical admissions). 1 study measured WASH intervention success in relation to both health and water quality outcomes; 1 study recorded uptake (use of soap) as well as health outcomes. 2 studies were unblinded randomized-controlled trials, while 4 were uncontrolled longitudinal studies. 2 studies were graded as providing high quality evidence; 3 studies provided moderate and 1 study low quality evidence. The current evidence base on the impact of WASH interventions on health outcomes in humanitarian crises is extremely limited, and numerous methodological limitations limit the ability to determine associative, let alone causal, relationships.

Evidence on the Effectiveness of Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) Interventions on Health Outcomes in Humanitarian Crises: A Systematic Review

PubMed Central

Ramesh, Anita; Blanchet, Karl; Ensink, Jeroen H. J.; Roberts, Bayard

2015-01-01

Background Water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) interventions are amongst the most crucial in humanitarian crises, although the impact of the different WASH interventions on health outcomes remains unclear. Aim To examine the quantity and quality of evidence on WASH interventions on health outcomes in humanitarian crises, as well as evaluate current evidence on their effectiveness against health outcomes in these contexts. Methods A systematic literature review was conducted of primary and grey quantitative literature on WASH interventions measured against health outcomes in humanitarian crises occurring from 1980–2014. Populations of interest were those in resident in humanitarian settings, with a focus on acute crisis and early recovery stages of humanitarian crises in low and middle-income countries. Interventions of interest were WASH-related, while outcomes of interest were health-related. Study quality was assessed via STROBE/CONSORT criteria. Results were analyzed descriptively, and PRISMA reporting was followed. Results Of 3963 studies initially retrieved, only 6 published studies measured a statistically significant change in health outcome as a result of a WASH intervention. All 6 studies employed point-of-use (POU) water quality interventions, with 50% using safe water storage (SWS) and 35% using household water treatment (HWT). All 6 studies used self-reported diarrhea outcomes, 2 studies also reported laboratory confirmed outcomes, and 2 studies reported health treatment outcomes (e.g. clinical admissions). 1 study measured WASH intervention success in relation to both health and water quality outcomes; 1 study recorded uptake (use of soap) as well as health outcomes. 2 studies were unblinded randomized-controlled trials, while 4 were uncontrolled longitudinal studies. 2 studies were graded as providing high quality evidence; 3 studies provided moderate and 1 study low quality evidence. Conclusion The current evidence base on the impact of WASH interventions on health outcomes in humanitarian crises is extremely limited, and numerous methodological limitations limit the ability to determine associative, let alone causal, relationships. PMID:26398228

Role of river bank erosion in sediment budgets of catchments within the Loire river basin (France)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gay, Aurore; Cerdan, Olivier; Poisvert, Cecile; Landemaine, Valentin

2014-05-01

Quantifying volumes of sediments produced on hillslopes or in channels and transported or stored within river systems is necessary to establish sediment budgets. If research efforts on hillslope erosion processes have led to a relatively good understanding and quantification of local sources, in-channel processes remain poorly understood and quasi inexistent in global budgets. However, profound landuse changes and agricultural practices have altered river functioning, caused river bank instability and stream incision. During the past decades in France, river channelization has been perfomed extensively to allow for new agricultural practices to take place. Starting from a recent study on the quantification of sediment fluxes for catchments within the Loire river basin (Gay et al. 2013), our aim is to complete sediment budgets by taking into account various sources and sinks both on hillslope and within channel. The emphasis of this study is on river bank erosion and how bank erosion contributes to global budgets. A model of bank retreat is developed for the entire Loire river basin. In general, our results show that bank retreat is on average quite low with approximately 1 cm.yr-1. However, a strong variability exists within the study area with channels displaying values of bank retreat up to ~10 cm.yr-1. Our results corroborate those found by Landemaine et al. in 2013 on a small agricultural catchment. From this first step, quantification of volumes of sediment eroded from banks and available for transport should be calculated and integrated in sediment budgets to allow for a better understanding of basin functioning. Gay A., Cerdan O., Delmas M., Desmet M., Variability of sediment yields in the Loire river basin (France): the role of small scale catchments (under review). Landemaine V., Gay A., Cerdan O., Salvador-Blanes S., Rodriguez S. Recent morphological evolution of a headwater stream in agricultural context after channelization in the Ligoire river (France) (in prep)

Piracetam for reducing the incidence of painful sickle cell disease crises.

PubMed

Al Hajeri, A A; Fedorowicz, Z; Omran, A; Tadmouri, G O

2007-04-18

Sickle cell disease is one of the most common genetic disorders. Sickle cell crises in which irregular and dehydrated cells contribute to blocking of blood vessels are characterised by episodes of pain. Treatment is mainly supportive and symptomatic. In vitro studies with piracetam indicate that it has the potential for inhibition and a reversal of the process of sickling of erythrocytes. To assess the effectiveness of piracetam for reducing the incidence of painful sickle cell disease crises. We searched the Cochrane Cystic Fibrosis and Genetic Disorders Group Haemoglobinopathies Trials Register which comprises of references identified from comprehensive electronic database searches and handsearches of relevant journals and abstract books of conference proceedings. Date of the last search of the Group's Haemoglobinopathies Trials Register: February 2007. Randomised controlled trials comparing orally administered piracetam to placebo or standard care in people, of all ages and both sexes, with sickle cell disease. Two authors independently assessed trial quality and extracted data. Trial authors were contacted for additional information. Adverse effects data were collected from the trials. Three trials involving 169 participants were included in the review. A limited amount of data addressing some of the primary and some of the secondary outcomes were provided, but data were incomplete and based on unvalidated assumptions used in the evaluation of outcomes. One trial reported a reduction in the number of pain crises and their severity with active intervention than placebo but presented no data to confirm these results. A second trial presented a monthly global pain score based on the number of sickle cell crises and severity of pain but included no separate data for these primary outcomes. Although there was no significant difference between the piracetam and placebo periods for the number of days of hospitalisation (P = 0.87) in one trial, inconsistencies in the criteria necessary for hospitalisation during sickle crises did not permit accurate conclusions to be drawn. Two of the trials reported participant satisfaction with piracetam but provided no details as to how this satisfaction had been assessed. There were no reports of toxicity or adverse effects with piracetam other than one participant who experienced dizziness. The small number of included trials and their poor methodological quality provided insufficient reliable evidence to support the routine use of this medication for preventing the incidence of painful sickle cell disease crises.

Computer Security Issues in Online Banking: An Assessment from the Context of Usable Security

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mahmadi, FN; Zaaba, ZF; Osman, A.

2016-11-01

Today's online banking is a convenient mode of finance management. Despite the ease of doing online banking, there are people that still sceptical in utilizing it due to perception and its security. This paper highlights the subject of online banking security in Malaysia, especially from the perspective of the end-users. The study is done by assessing human computer interaction, usability and security. An online survey utilising 137 participants was previously conducted to gain preliminary insights on security issues of online banking in Malaysia. Following from those results, 37 participants were interviewed to gauge deeper understanding about end-users perception on online banking within the context of usable security. The results suggested that most of the end-users are continuingly experiencing significant difficulties especially in relation to the technical terminologies, security features and other technical issues. Although the security features are provided to provide a shield or protection, users are still incapable to cope with the technical aspects of such implementation.

Poverty in Albania: A Qualitative Assessment. World Bank Technical Paper.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

De Soto, Hermine; Gordon, Peter; Gedeshi, Ilir; Sinoimeri, Zamira

This World Bank qualitative assessment of poverty in Albania outlines five objectives: (1) it seeks to develop the understanding of poverty in the country by involving poor Albanians in a process of exploring the causes, nature, extent of poverty and its effects; (2) it is intended to support the Growth and Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (GPRS),…

Space weather effects on communications

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lanzerotti, Louis J.

In the 150 years since the advent of the first electrical communication system - the electrical telegraph - the diversity of communications technologies that are embedded within space-affected environments have vastly increased. The increasing sophistication of these communications technologies, and how their installation and operations may relate to the environments in which they are embedded, requires ever more sophisticated understanding of natural physical phenomena. At the same time, the business environment for most present-day communications technologies that are affected by space phenomena is very dynamic. The commercial and national security deployment and use of these technologies do not wait for optimum knowledge of possible environmental effects to be acquired before new technological embodiments are created, implemented, and marketed. Indeed, those companies that might foolishly seek perfectionist understanding of natural effects can be left behind by the marketplace. A well-considered balance is needed between seeking ever deeper understanding of physical phenomena and implementing `engineering' solutions to current crises. The research community must try to understand, and operate in, this dynamic environment.

The Crisis Manual for Early Childhood Teachers: How To Handle the Really Difficult Problems.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Miller, Karen

More and more teachers report the increasing incidence of crises in children's lives, crises that interfere with the child's ability to learn. Noting that developmentally appropriate curricula must respond to the issues of immediate concern and interest to children, this source book assists teachers in facing difficult issues in the classroom and…

Responding To School Walkout Demonstrations. Lessons Learned From School Crises and Emergencies, Volume 3, Issue 1, 2008

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

US Department of Education, 2008

2008-01-01

"Lessons Learned" is a series of publications that are a brief recounting of actual school emergencies and crises. This "Lessons Learned" issue examines the incidence of student walkout demonstrations and the various ways in which administrators, school staff, law enforcement, and the community at large can help keep youths…

Chaos Theory as a Model for Managing Issues and Crises.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Murphy, Priscilla

1996-01-01

Uses chaos theory to model public relations situations in which the salient feature is volatility of public perceptions. Discusses the premises of chaos theory and applies them to issues management, the evolution of interest groups, crises, and rumors. Concludes that chaos theory is useful as an analogy to structure image problems and to raise…

Random Acts of Senseless Video: An Organizational Psychology Perspective on the "Identity Crises" of Corporate Television.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gutenko, Gregory

Corporate television suffers from at least two "identity crises": departmental isolation, and the lack of a legitimate identity for the corporate video product itself. Video departments are not usually viewed and accepted by the organizational whole as natural evolutions of a historically defined and behaviorally integrated system. The…

Possible Solutions for Financial Crises of the Private Sector of Higher Education.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bolling, Landrum R.

Our society is at a point where a number of interlocking crises-inflation, ever rising expectations, war, urban problems, youth's discontent-are coming together. Money is needed at every point and the private college cannot rely on the federal government or private sources to save them from financial disaster. The private college can tackle its…

American Naval Policy, Strategy, Plans and Operations in the Second Decade of the Twenty-first Century

DTIC Science & Technology

2017-01-01

13 Maritime safety ...defense, deterrence of conventional crises and war (through naval readiness and engagement), maritime safety operations, maritime security...measure and to avoid unwanted crises.55 Maritime safety This an area that is primarily the domain of the world’s Coast Guards, but here too the U.S

Lessons Learned from School Crises and Emergencies, Vol. 1, Issue 2, Fall 2006

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

US Department of Education, 2006

2006-01-01

"Lessons Learned" is a series of publications that are a brief recounting of actual school emergencies and crises. School and student names have been changed to protect identities. Information for this publication was gathered through a series of interviews with school stakeholders involved in the actual incident. This "Lessons Learned" issue…

Past Adolescence, into and across Adulthood: Career Crises and Major Decisions

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bakshi, Anuradha J.

2011-01-01

Career-related crises and major decisions, support for these, and job satisfaction were surveyed in 124 varied individuals from Mumbai, India. All participants were in the post-career-entry stage and engaged in paid work; they differed with regard to age (range 18-75 years), sex, marital status, religion, education, occupation, income, and…

Improving Responses to Individual and Family Crises. Learning Guide 10. Project Connect. Linking Self-Family-Work.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Emily Hall Tremaine Foundation, Inc., Hartford, CT.

This learning guide on improving responses to individual and family crises is part of a series of learning guides developed for competency-based adult consumer and homemaking education programs in community colleges, adult education centers, community centers, and the workplace. Focus is on the connections among personal, family, and job…

School District Policies for Response to Death-Related Crises: Fact or Fiction?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Christenberry, Nola J.; Burns, John L.

Findings of a literature review of school policies and procedures for school-based responses to death-related crises are presented in this paper. A rationale and guidelines for policy development and examples of practices for dealing with death-related incidents--such as suicide, homicide, drug overdose, and accidents--are described. Following an…

Bibliography of Selected Literature in the 1970s Related to Crises, Family Stress, Coping and Adaptation.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chesser, Barbara

This bibliography of literature from the 1970s related to crises, family stress, coping, and adaptation contains references of particular interest to professionals in the areas of counseling, education, and family social, psychological and health services. The bibliography is divided into 26 categories; references are classified according to major…

Risks and Crises for Healthcare Providers: The Impact of Cloud Computing

PubMed Central

Glasberg, Ronald; Hartmann, Michael; Tamm, Gerrit

2014-01-01

We analyze risks and crises for healthcare providers and discuss the impact of cloud computing in such scenarios. The analysis is conducted in a holistic way, taking into account organizational and human aspects, clinical, IT-related, and utilities-related risks as well as incorporating the view of the overall risk management. PMID:24707207

Gender Inequality and Disabled Inclusivity in Accounting Higher Education and the Accounting Profession during Financial Crises

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lodh, Suman; Nandy, Monomita

2017-01-01

In this article, the authors find that, during financial crises, the wage gap between female and male accounting professionals declines and gender inequality in higher education is affected. In addition, less support and lower wages for disabled accounting professionals demotivate disabled students in accounting higher education. Because of budget…

Reacting to Crises: The Risk-Averse Nature of Contemporary American Public Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Moran, Peter

2015-01-01

Over the past several decades, numerous arguments have been made advancing the notion that the failings of the public education system in the United States have placed the nation's national security or economic prosperity at risk. This article will examine some of these "crises" and explore how arguments claiming that the shortcomings of…

Identity Crises in Love and at Work: Dispositional Optimism as a Durable Personal Resource

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Andersson, Matthew A.

2012-01-01

Using the 2004 General Social Survey (N = 453), the identity stress process is investigated in terms of crises in intimate relationships and at the workplace. I discuss dispositional optimism as a psychological resource that is relatively independent of the situation and the self, making it ideal for structurally disadvantaged actors and for…

Resilience of natural gas networks during conflicts, crises and disruptions.

PubMed

Carvalho, Rui; Buzna, Lubos; Bono, Flavio; Masera, Marcelo; Arrowsmith, David K; Helbing, Dirk

2014-01-01

Human conflict, geopolitical crises, terrorist attacks, and natural disasters can turn large parts of energy distribution networks offline. Europe's current gas supply network is largely dependent on deliveries from Russia and North Africa, creating vulnerabilities to social and political instabilities. During crises, less delivery may mean greater congestion, as the pipeline network is used in ways it has not been designed for. Given the importance of the security of natural gas supply, we develop a model to handle network congestion on various geographical scales. We offer a resilient response strategy to energy shortages and quantify its effectiveness for a variety of relevant scenarios. In essence, Europe's gas supply can be made robust even to major supply disruptions, if a fair distribution strategy is applied.

Dynamic Modeling of Systemic Risk in Financial Networks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Avakian, Adam

Modern financial networks are complicated structures that can contain multiple types of nodes and connections between those nodes. Banks, governments and even individual people weave into an intricate network of debt, risk correlations and many other forms of interconnectedness. We explore multiple types of financial network models with a focus on understanding the dynamics and causes of cascading failures in such systems. In particular, we apply real-world data from multiple sources to these models to better understand real-world financial networks. We use the results of the Federal Reserve "Banking Organization Systemic Risk Report" (FR Y-15), which surveys the largest US banks on their level of interconnectedness, to find relationships between various measures of network connectivity and systemic risk in the US financial sector. This network model is then stress-tested under a number of scenarios to determine systemic risks inherent in the various network structures. We also use detailed historical balance sheet data from the Venezuelan banking system to build a bipartite network model and find relationships between the changing network structure over time and the response of the system to various shocks. We find that the relationship between interconnectedness and systemic risk is highly dependent on the system and model but that it is always a significant one. These models are useful tools that add value to regulators in creating new measurements of systemic risk in financial networks. These models could be used as macroprudential tools for monitoring the health of the entire banking system as a whole rather than only of individual banks.

Proposal Guidelines for Standardized Operating Procedures of Brain Autopsy: Brain Bank in South Korea.

PubMed

Lee, Kyung Hwa; Seo, Sang Won; Lim, Tae Sung; Kim, Eun Joo; Kim, Byeong Chae; Kim, Yeshin; Lee, Ho Won; Jeon, Jae Pil; Shim, Sung Mi; Na, Duk L; Huh, Gi Yeong; Lee, Min Cheol; Suh, Yeon Lim

2017-09-01

To obtain an in-depth understanding of brain diseases, including neurodegenerative diseases, psychiatric illnesses, and neoplasms, scientific approach and verification using postmortem human brain tissue with or without disease are essential. Compared to other countries that have run brain banks for decades, South Korea has limited experience with brain banking; nationwide brain banks started only recently. The goal of this study is to provide provisional guidelines for brain autopsy for hospitals and institutes that have not accumulated sufficient expertise. We hope that these provisional guidelines will serve as a useful reference for pathologists and clinicians who are involved and interested in the brain bank system. Also, we anticipate updating the provisional guidelines in the future based on collected data and further experience with the practice of brain autopsy in South Korea. © Copyright: Yonsei University College of Medicine 2017.

Understanding the external pressure and behavior of commercial banks' environmental risk management: an empirical study undertaken in the Yangtze River delta of China.

PubMed

Liu, Yong; Lin, Zhongguo

2014-04-01

The present study employed a quantitative survey to ascertain whether the external pressure of environmental risk management (ERM) on commercial banks was a contributing factor to their ERM behavior. Data was obtained using questionnaires from 204 branches of commercial banks located in the Yangtze River Delta of China. The relationship between external pressure and behavior was tested using a linear structural relations model through path analysis. The results revealed that external pressure of ERM was significantly and positively related to the behavior and that pressure from governmental regulations was the most important contributing factor in the passive feedback behavior and preventive behavior of commercial banks. The pressure from markets was the most important contributing factor in banks' active participation behavior; the pressure from community and NGOs was the most important contributing factor in their enthusiastic behavior.

A New Paradigm for Biospecimen Banking in the Personalized Medicine Era

PubMed Central

McDonald, Sandra A.; Watson, Mark A.; Rossi, Joan; Becker, Colleen M.; Jaques, David P.; Pfeifer, John D.

2012-01-01

Banking of high-quality, appropriately consented human tissue is crucial for the understanding of disease pathogenesis and translation of such knowledge into improvements in patient care. Traditionally, tissue banking has been thought of as primarily an academic research activity, but tissue and biospecimen banking is increasingly assuming clinical importance, especially with the advent of genetic and proteomic testing approaches that rely on fresh or fresh frozen tissue. These approaches are part of the revolution in personalized medicine. This revolution’s impact on biorepositories—their mission and day-to-day function—will be profound. Direct patient care will require structuring tissue procurement to become a routine part of patient care. Accordingly tissue banking will expand from its traditional research role in large academic medical centers into the everyday practice of surgical pathology. Successful implementation of this model will require consideration of several financial, medicolegal, and administrative issues. PMID:22031304

A psychology of religious plurality: from intra-religious dialogue to intra-psychic reality.

PubMed

Kramp, Joseph M

2012-09-01

Panikkar's (The intra-religious dialogue, 1978) classic, re-issued by Paulist Press in 1999, grapples with the theological challenges in the disciplines of comparative theology and the theology of religions through what he terms, "intra-religious dialogue." In this psychology of religious plurality, I use works from a variety of disciplines to highlight the achievements of Panikkar's intra-religious dialogue, as well as to critique his work in the hope of finding categories of understanding that can be profitably used to face the inter-personal crises of the contemporary world, namely religious terrorism.

Biomechanics and biorheology of red blood cells in sickle cell anemia

PubMed Central

Li, Xuejin; Dao, Ming; Lykotrafitis, George; Karniadakis, George Em

2017-01-01

Sickle cell anemia (SCA) is an inherited blood disorder that causes painful crises due to vaso-occlusion of small blood vessels. The primary cause of the clinical phenotype of SCA is the intracellular polymerization of sickle hemoglobin resulting in sickling of red blood cells (RBCs) in deoxygenated conditions. In this review, we discuss the biomechanical and biorheological characteristics of sickle RBCs and sickle blood as well as their implications toward a better understanding of the pathophysiology and pathogenesis of SCA. Additionally, we highlight the adhesive heterogeneity of RBCs in SCA and their specific contribution to vaso-occlusive crisis. PMID:27876368

UNDERSTANDING THE IMPACT OF ENVIRONMENTAL VARIABLES ON THE LEACHING OF MERCURY-CONTAMINATED MINE WASTES FROM THE SULFUR BANK MERCURY MINE, CLEAR LAKE, CA

EPA Science Inventory

For nearly a century, Clear Lake in northern California has received inputs of mercury (Hg) mining wastes trom the Sulfur Bank Mercury Mine (SBMM). About 1.2 million tons of Hg-contaminated overburden and mine tailings were distributed over a 50-ha surface area due to mining oper...

Measuring beyond Content: A Rubric Bank for Assessing Skills in Authentic Research Assignments in the Sciences

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kishbaugh, Tara L. S.; Cessna, Stephen; Horst, S. Jeanne; Leaman, Lori; Flanagan, Toni; Neufeld, Doug Graber; Siderhurst, Matthew

2012-01-01

Herein we report the development of an analytic rubric bank to assess non-content learning, namely higher order cognitive skills, the understanding of the nature of science, and effective scientific communication skills in student research projects. Preliminary findings indicate that use of this tool enhances our students' learning in these areas,…

An interprofessional training course in crises and human factors for perioperative teams.

PubMed

Stephens, Tim; Hunningher, Annie; Mills, Helen; Freeth, Della

2016-09-01

Improving patient safety and the culture of care are health service priorities that coexist with financial pressures on organisations. Research suggests team training and better team processes can improve team culture, safety, performance, and clinical outcomes, yet opportunities for interprofessional learning remain scarce. Perioperative practitioners work in a high pressure, high-risk environment without the benefits of stable team membership: this limits opportunities and momentum for team-initiated collaborative improvements. This article describes an interprofessional course focused on crises and human factors which comprised a 1-day event and a multifaceted sustainment programme for perioperative practitioners, grouped by surgical specialty. Participants reported increased understanding and confidence to enact processes and behaviours that support patient safety, including: team behaviours (communication, coordination, cooperation and back-up, leadership, situational awareness); recognising different perspectives and expectations within the team; briefing and debriefing; after action review; and using specialty-specific incident reports to generate specialty-specific interprofessional improvement plans. Participants valued working with specialty colleagues away from normal work pressures. In the high-pressure arena of front-line healthcare delivery, improving patient safety and theatre efficiency can often be erroneously considered conflicting agendas. Interprofessional collaboration amongst staff participating in this initiative enabled general and specialty-specific interprofessional learning that transcended this conflict.

Collapse, environment, and society

PubMed Central

2012-01-01

Historical collapse of ancient states poses intriguing social-ecological questions, as well as potential applications to global change and contemporary strategies for sustainability. Five Old World case studies are developed to identify interactive inputs, triggers, and feedbacks in devolution. Collapse is multicausal and rarely abrupt. Political simplification undermines traditional structures of authority to favor militarization, whereas disintegration is preconditioned or triggered by acute stress (insecurity, environmental or economic crises, famine), with breakdown accompanied or followed by demographic decline. Undue attention to stressors risks underestimating the intricate interplay of environmental, political, and sociocultural resilience in limiting the damages of collapse or in facilitating reconstruction. The conceptual model emphasizes resilience, as well as the historical roles of leaders, elites, and ideology. However, a historical model cannot simply be applied to contemporary problems of sustainability without adjustment for cumulative information and increasing possibilities for popular participation. Between the 14th and 18th centuries, Western Europe responded to environmental crises by innovation and intensification; such modernization was decentralized, protracted, flexible, and broadly based. Much of the current alarmist literature that claims to draw from historical experience is poorly focused, simplistic, and unhelpful. It fails to appreciate that resilience and readaptation depend on identified options, improved understanding, cultural solidarity, enlightened leadership, and opportunities for participation and fresh ideas. PMID:22371579

Science Partnerships Enabling Rapid Response: Designing a Strategy for Improving Scientific Collaboration during Crisis Response

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mease, L.; Gibbs, T.; Adiseshan, T.

2014-12-01

The 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster required unprecedented engagement and collaboration with scientists from multiple disciplines across government, academia, and industry. Although this spurred the rapid advancement of valuable new scientific knowledge and tools, it also exposed weaknesses in the system of information dissemination and exchange among the scientists from those three sectors. Limited government communication with the broader scientific community complicated the rapid mobilization of the scientific community to assist with spill response, evaluation of impact, and public perceptions of the crisis. The lessons and new laws produced from prior spills such as Exxon Valdez were helpful, but ultimately did not lead to the actions necessary to prepare a suitable infrastructure that would support collaboration with non-governmental scientists. As oil demand pushes drilling into increasingly extreme environments, addressing the challenge of effective, science-based disaster response is an imperative. Our study employs a user-centered design process to 1) understand the obstacles to and opportunity spaces for effective scientific collaboration during environmental crises such as large oil spills, 2) identify possible tools and strategies to enable rapid information exchange between government responders and non-governmental scientists from multiple relevant disciplines, and 3) build a network of key influencers to secure sufficient buy-in for scaled implementation of appropriate tools and strategies. Our methods include user ethnography, complex system mapping, individual and system behavioral analysis, and large-scale system design to identify and prototype a solution to this crisis collaboration challenge. In this talk, we will present out insights gleaned from existing analogs of successful scientific collaboration during crises and our initial findings from the 60 targeted interviews we conducted that highlight key collaboration challenges that government agencies, academic research institutions, and industry scientists face during oil spill crises. We will also present a synthesis of leverage points in the system that may amplify the impact of an improved collaboration strategy among scientific stakeholders.

What evidence exists for initiatives to reduce risk and incidence of sexual violence in armed conflict and other humanitarian crises? A systematic review.

PubMed

Spangaro, Jo; Adogu, Chinelo; Ranmuthugala, Geetha; Powell Davies, Gawaine; Steinacker, Léa; Zwi, Anthony

2013-01-01

Sexual violence is highly prevalent in armed conflict and other humanitarian crises and attracting increasing policy and practice attention. This systematic review aimed to canvas the extent and impact of initiatives to reduce incidence, risk and harm from sexual violence in conflict, post-conflict and other humanitarian crises, in low and middle income countries. Twenty three bibliographic databases and 26 websites were searched, covering publications from 1990 to September 2011 using database-specific keywords for sexual violence and conflict or humanitarian crisis. The 40 included studies reported on seven strategy types: i) survivor care; ii) livelihood initiatives; iii) community mobilisation; iv) personnel initiatives; v) systems and security responses; vi) legal interventions and vii) multiple component interventions. Conducted in 26 countries, the majority of interventions were offered in African countries. Despite the extensive literature on sexual violence by combatants, most interventions addressed opportunistic forms of sexual violence committed in post-conflict settings. Only one study specifically addressed the disaster setting. Actual implementation of initiatives appeared to be limited as was the quality of outcome studies. No studies prospectively measured incidence of sexual violence, although three studies provided some evidence of reductions in association with firewood distribution to reduce women's exposure, as did one program to prevent sexual exploitation and abuse by peacekeeping forces. Apparent increases to risk resulted from lack of protection, stigma and retaliation associated with interventions. Multiple-component interventions and sensitive community engagement appeared to contribute to positive outcomes. Significant obstacles prevent women seeking help following sexual violence, pointing to the need to protect anonymity and preventive strategies. This review contributes a conceptual framework for understanding the forms, settings, and interventions for conflict and crisis-related sexual violence. It points to the need for thorough implementation of initiatives that build on local capacity, while avoiding increased risk and re-traumatisation to survivors of sexual violence.

What Evidence Exists for Initiatives to Reduce Risk and Incidence of Sexual Violence in Armed Conflict and Other Humanitarian Crises? A Systematic Review

PubMed Central

Spangaro, Jo; Adogu, Chinelo; Ranmuthugala, Geetha; Powell Davies, Gawaine; Steinacker, Léa; Zwi, Anthony

2013-01-01

Sexual violence is highly prevalent in armed conflict and other humanitarian crises and attracting increasing policy and practice attention. This systematic review aimed to canvas the extent and impact of initiatives to reduce incidence, risk and harm from sexual violence in conflict, post-conflict and other humanitarian crises, in low and middle income countries. Twenty three bibliographic databases and 26 websites were searched, covering publications from 1990 to September 2011 using database-specific keywords for sexual violence and conflict or humanitarian crisis. The 40 included studies reported on seven strategy types: i) survivor care; ii) livelihood initiatives; iii) community mobilisation; iv) personnel initiatives; v) systems and security responses; vi) legal interventions and vii) multiple component interventions. Conducted in 26 countries, the majority of interventions were offered in African countries. Despite the extensive literature on sexual violence by combatants, most interventions addressed opportunistic forms of sexual violence committed in post-conflict settings. Only one study specifically addressed the disaster setting. Actual implementation of initiatives appeared to be limited as was the quality of outcome studies. No studies prospectively measured incidence of sexual violence, although three studies provided some evidence of reductions in association with firewood distribution to reduce women's exposure, as did one program to prevent sexual exploitation and abuse by peacekeeping forces. Apparent increases to risk resulted from lack of protection, stigma and retaliation associated with interventions. Multiple-component interventions and sensitive community engagement appeared to contribute to positive outcomes. Significant obstacles prevent women seeking help following sexual violence, pointing to the need to protect anonymity and preventive strategies. This review contributes a conceptual framework for understanding the forms, settings, and interventions for conflict and crisis-related sexual violence. It points to the need for thorough implementation of initiatives that build on local capacity, while avoiding increased risk and re-traumatisation to survivors of sexual violence. PMID:23690945

Improving Responses to Individual and Family Crises. Secondary Learning Guide 10. Project Connect. Linking Self-Family-Work.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Emily Hall Tremaine Foundation, Inc., Hartford, CT.

This competency-based secondary learning guide on improving responses to crises is part of a series that are adaptations of guides developed for adult consumer and homemaking education programs. The guides provide students with experiences that help them learn to do the following: make decisions; use creative approaches to solve problems;…

THE "FREE SPEECH" CRISES AT BERKELEY, 1964-1965--SOME ISSUES FOR SOCIAL AND LEGAL RESEARCH.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

LUNSFORD, TERRY F.

AN EXAMINATION WAS MADE OF THE ISSUES AND EVENTS OF THE "FREE SPEECH" CRISES ON THE BERKELEY CAMPUS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA IN AN ATTEMPT TO PROVIDE THE BASIS FOR MORE SYSTEMATIC AND DISPASSIONATE STUDY OF CERTAIN ISSUES BEHIND THE STUDENT PROTESTS, AND TO STIMULATE SOCIAL AND LEGAL RESEARCH ON THESE ISSUES. FOLLOWING AN…

Educating Children in the Midst of Health Crises: A Phenomenological Study of Teachers in Children's Hospital Schools

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Burns, Johnna N.

2013-01-01

Purpose, Scope, and Method of Study: Hospital school teachers are a unique population of educators highly qualified and experienced in teaching students who are facing health crises. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to describe the lived experience of teaching seriously ill students in the hospital school setting. The study was…

The Continuing Challenge of Racial Conflicts and Crises: Focusing on Education as a Solution

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brown, Lionel H.; Larsen, Judith; Britt, Ruth S.; Yao, Yao; Brown, Jean P.; Beck, Ryan

2006-01-01

In this first-person paper, educator Dr. Lionel Brown takes a sweeping look at the racial crises that have erupted in his home city of Cincinnati during his lifetime, and proposes that education is the only real, long-term way of addressing and disrupting the repeating pattern of violence. He highlights a selection of current and proposed…

Crisis Management Plans in Higher Education: Commonalities, Attributes, and Perceived Effectiveness

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lott, Mary Keane

2012-01-01

Crisis has remained as prevalent in our lives today as it ever has been, especially in this post-9/11 era. People handle all types of crises, whether personally, professionally or socially. Arguably, people's worldviews after the tragedies of September 11, 2001 have never been the same, including the way they manage and respond to crises. This…

How Prepared Are America's Colleges and Universities for Major Crises? Assessing the State of Crisis Management

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mitroff, Ian I.; Diamond, Michael A.; Alpaslan, Murat C.

2006-01-01

This article outlines a set of recommendations to college and university leaders and governing bodies on how to develop crisis-management systems to ensure that their institutions are as well prepared as possible for a wide range of crises. These recommendations are based, in part, on crisis-management programs developed for various business…

Effectiveness of bank credit activity evaluation with application of economic and mathematic modeling

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Galeeva, G. M.; Zagladina, E. N.; Kadeeva, E. N.

2018-05-01

The paper presents data on the influence of the most significant factors having impact on the credit portfolio volume, as well as conducts correlation and regression analysis with the subsequent construction of the trend for a short period. Credit activity is understood as the bank activity in the formation of a credit portfolio. Considering the structure of the bank credit portfolio, it can be observed that it consists of credits granted by the bank particularly for legal entities, individuals and other banks. Herewith, it is necessary to understand that any decrease in the credit portfolio will adversely affect the financial stability and effectiveness of any commercial bank. Moreover, during crisis periods, the policy and practice of banks have been determined as quite aggressive and conducted as such with regard to interest rates. The dynamics of credit portfolio volume has been selected as an independent factor due to the reason that it can fully explain the current development situation and the effectiveness of the bank credit policy. Considering the dependent factors, their influence will be assessed by the credit portfolio volume indicator. The authors have distinguished the following ones among them: the volume of credits granted to individuals; the volume of credits granted to legal entities; the amount of overdue credits in the credit portfolio; bank investments in the securities; inflation; key rate.

Effect of Dietary Supplements in Reducing Probability of Death for Uremic Crises in Dogs Affected by Chronic Kidney Disease (Masked RCCT)

PubMed Central

Zatelli, Andrea; Pierantozzi, Marco; D'Ippolito, Paola; Bigliati, Mauro; Zini, Eric

2012-01-01

Chitosan and alkalinizing agents can decrease morbidity and mortality in humans with chronic kidney disease (CKD). Whether this holds true in dog is not known. Objective of the study was to determine whether a commercial dietary supplement containing chitosan, phosphate binders, and alkalinizing agents (Renal), compared to placebo, reduces mortality rate due to uremic crises in dogs with spontaneous CKD, fed a renal diet (RD). A masked RCCT was performed including 31 azotemic dogs with spontaneous CKD. Dogs enrolled in the study were randomly allocated to receive RD plus placebo (group A; 15 dogs) or RD plus Renal (group B; 16 dogs). During a first 4-week period, all dogs were fed an RD and then randomized and clinically evaluated up to 44 weeks. The effects of dietary supplements on mortality rate due to uremic crises were assessed. At 44 weeks, compared to group A, dogs in group B had approximately 50% lower mortality rate due to uremic crises (P = 0.015). Dietary supplementation with chitosan, phosphate binders, and alkalinizing agents, along with an RD, is beneficial in reducing mortality rate in dogs with spontaneous CKD. PMID:22593665

Finding out about sperm banking: what information is available online for men diagnosed with cancer?

PubMed

Merrick, H; Wright, E; Pacey, A A; Eiser, C

2012-09-01

Sperm banking is routinely offered to men where there is a risk of infertility following cancer treatment but uptake is lower than expected. Since these men may turn to the internet for information, we used the search engine www.google.com to identify the material available about sperm banking and fertility preservation options. Sixty-six resources (NHS/Private Clinic, Charity, Press Releases, General and Forums/Blogs) fulfilled the criteria for inclusion and were examined for quality including readability, layout and content. The most frequently reported information related to: (1) effects of cancer treatment on fertility (77.3%); (2) reasons to bank sperm (69.7%); and (3) fertility recovery after treatment (57.6%). Information about maintaining contact with the sperm bank (18.2%) and disposal of banked samples (10.6%) was less often included. The quality of information available on the Internet about sperm banking was variable. The readability of all resources was assessed as 'fairly difficult', i.e. reading skills required were too complex for the average member of the public to understand. Furthermore, visual presentation of material (e.g. lay out) did not facilitate easy reading. More attention should be given to information about longer-term issues, such as fertility recovery and the use or disposal of banked sperm.

Connectionist agent-based learning in bank-run decision making

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Huang, Weihong; Huang, Qiao

2018-05-01

It is of utter importance for the policy makers, bankers, and investors to thoroughly understand the probability of bank-run (PBR) which was often neglected in the classical models. Bank-run is not merely due to miscoordination (Diamond and Dybvig, 1983) or deterioration of bank assets (Allen and Gale, 1998) but various factors. This paper presents the simulation results of the nonlinear dynamic probabilities of bank runs based on the global games approach, with the distinct assumption that heterogenous agents hold highly correlated but unidentical beliefs about the true payoffs. The specific technique used in the simulation is to let agents have an integrated cognitive-affective network. It is observed that, even when the economy is good, agents are significantly affected by the cognitive-affective network to react to bad news which might lead to bank-run. Both the rise of the late payoffs, R, and the early payoffs, r, will decrease the effect of the affective process. The increased risk sharing might or might not increase PBR, and the increase in late payoff is beneficial for preventing the bank run. This paper is one of the pioneers that links agent-based computational economics and behavioral economics.

[Psychogenic paroxysmal disorders in children].

PubMed

Mulas, F; Morant, A

Paroxystic psychic disorders which imitate organic disorders of the nervous system may have peripheral effects, present as changes in level of consciousness or appear as paroxystic behaviour changes. The types of crises of psychological origin are: tantrums, panic attacks, crises of psychopathic rage, onanism or masturbation, epileptic pseudocrises or pseudoconvulsions and Munchausen's syndrome. In general psychic crises are not frequent in infancy: tantrums are commoner in small children and the other conditions usually occur after puberty or during adolescence. The anamnesis is the most important factor in the correct diagnosis of psychogenic paroxystic disorders. Complementary studies are done in doubtful cases, to rule out different pathological processes which might be causing the paroxystic disorder. Amongst these investigations, we emphasize the importance of the video-EEG for differential diagnosis of paroxystic disorders in children.

Currency crises and the evolution of foreign exchange market: Evidence from minimum spanning tree

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jang, Wooseok; Lee, Junghoon; Chang, Woojin

2011-02-01

We examined the time series properties of the foreign exchange market for 1990-2008 in relation to the history of the currency crises using the minimum spanning tree (MST) approach and made several meaningful observations about the MST of currencies. First, around currency crises, the mean correlation coefficient between currencies decreased whereas the normalized tree length increased. The mean correlation coefficient dropped dramatically passing through the Asian crisis and remained at the lowered level after that. Second, the Euro and the US dollar showed a strong negative correlation after 1997, implying that the prices of the two currencies moved in opposite directions. Third, we observed that Asian countries and Latin American countries moved away from the cluster center (USA) passing through the Asian crisis and Argentine crisis, respectively.

A new estimate of Ukrainian population losses during the crises of the 1930s and 1940s.

PubMed

Vallin, Jacques; Meslé, France; Adamets, Serguei; Pyrozhkov, Serhii

2002-11-01

Ukraine experienced two very acute demographic crises during the Soviet era: the 1933 famine and the Second World War. While different estimates of total losses have been produced previously, we have tried here to distinguish the specific impact of the crises on mortality from their impact on fertility and migration. Taking into account all existing sources of registered data and estimates, a painstaking reconstruction of annual demographic changes has been produced and complete annual life tables have been computed for the years 1926-59. Life expectancy at birth fell to a level as low as 10 years for females and 7 for males in 1933 and plateaued around 25 for females and 15 for males in the period 1941-44.

Resilience of Natural Gas Networks during Conflicts, Crises and Disruptions

PubMed Central

Carvalho, Rui; Buzna, Lubos; Bono, Flavio; Masera, Marcelo; Arrowsmith, David K.; Helbing, Dirk

2014-01-01

Human conflict, geopolitical crises, terrorist attacks, and natural disasters can turn large parts of energy distribution networks offline. Europe's current gas supply network is largely dependent on deliveries from Russia and North Africa, creating vulnerabilities to social and political instabilities. During crises, less delivery may mean greater congestion, as the pipeline network is used in ways it has not been designed for. Given the importance of the security of natural gas supply, we develop a model to handle network congestion on various geographical scales. We offer a resilient response strategy to energy shortages and quantify its effectiveness for a variety of relevant scenarios. In essence, Europe's gas supply can be made robust even to major supply disruptions, if a fair distribution strategy is applied. PMID:24621655

Genetic and physical interaction of the B-cell systemic lupus erythematosus-associated genes BANK1 and BLK.

PubMed

Castillejo-López, Casimiro; Delgado-Vega, Angélica M; Wojcik, Jerome; Kozyrev, Sergey V; Thavathiru, Elangovan; Wu, Ying-Yu; Sánchez, Elena; Pöllmann, David; López-Egido, Juan R; Fineschi, Serena; Domínguez, Nicolás; Lu, Rufei; James, Judith A; Merrill, Joan T; Kelly, Jennifer A; Kaufman, Kenneth M; Moser, Kathy L; Gilkeson, Gary; Frostegård, Johan; Pons-Estel, Bernardo A; D'Alfonso, Sandra; Witte, Torsten; Callejas, José Luis; Harley, John B; Gaffney, Patrick M; Martin, Javier; Guthridge, Joel M; Alarcón-Riquelme, Marta E

2012-01-01

Altered signalling in B cells is a predominant feature of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). The genes BANK1 and BLK were recently described as associated with SLE. BANK1 codes for a B-cell-specific cytoplasmic protein involved in B-cell receptor signalling and BLK codes for an Src tyrosine kinase with important roles in B-cell development. To characterise the role of BANK1 and BLK in SLE, a genetic interaction analysis was performed hypothesising that genetic interactions could reveal functional pathways relevant to disease pathogenesis. The GPAT16 method was used to analyse the gene-gene interactions of BANK1 and BLK. Confocal microscopy was used to investigate co-localisation, and immunoprecipitation was used to verify the physical interaction of BANK1 and BLK. Epistatic interactions between BANK1 and BLK polymorphisms associated with SLE were observed in a discovery set of 279 patients and 515 controls from northern Europe. A meta-analysis with 4399 European individuals confirmed the genetic interactions between BANK1 and BLK. As BANK1 was identified as a binding partner of the Src tyrosine kinase LYN, the possibility that BANK1 and BLK could also show a protein-protein interaction was tested. The co-immunoprecipitation and co-localisation of BLK and BANK1 were demonstrated. In a Daudi cell line and primary naive B cells endogenous binding was enhanced upon B-cell receptor stimulation using anti-IgM antibodies. This study shows a genetic interaction between BANK1 and BLK, and demonstrates that these molecules interact physically. The results have important consequences for the understanding of SLE and other autoimmune diseases and identify a potential new signalling pathway.

Genetic and Physical Interaction of the B-Cell SLE-Associated Genes BANK1 and BLK

PubMed Central

Castillejo-López, Casimiro; Delgado-Vega, Angélica M.; Wojcik, Jerome; Kozyrev, Sergey V.; Thavathiru, Elangovan; Wu, Ying-Yu; Sánchez, Elena; Pöllmann, David; López-Egido, Juan R.; Fineschi, Serena; Domínguez, Nicolás; Lu, Rufei; James, Judith A.; Merrill, Joan T.; Kelly, Jennifer A.; Kaufman, Kenneth M.; Moser, Kathy; Gilkeson, Gary; Frostegård, Johan; Pons-Estel, Bernardo A.; D’Alfonso, Sandra; Witte, Torsten; Callejas, José Luis; Harley, John B.; Gaffney, Patrick; Martin, Javier; Guthridge, Joel M.; Alarcón-Riquelme, Marta E.

2012-01-01

Objectives Altered signaling in B-cells is a predominant feature of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). The genes BANK1 and BLK were recently described as associated with SLE. BANK1 codes for a B-cell-specific cytoplasmic protein involved in B-cell receptor signaling and BLK codes for an Src tyrosine kinase with important roles in B-cell development. To characterize the role of BANK1 and BLK in SLE, we performed a genetic interaction analysis hypothesizing that genetic interactions could reveal functional pathways relevant to disease pathogenesis. Methods We Used the method GPAT16 to analyze the gene-gene interactions of BANK1 and BLK. Confocal microscopy was used to investigate co-localization, and immunoprecipitation was used to verify the physical interaction of BANK1 and BLK. Results Epistatic interactions between BANK1 and BLK polymorphisms associated with SLE were observed in a discovery set of 279 patients and 515 controls from Northern Europe. A meta-analysis with 4399 European individuals confirmed the genetic interactions between BANK1 and BLK. As BANK1 was identified as a binding partner of the Src tyrosine kinase LYN, we tested the possibility that BANK1 and BLK could also show a protein-protein interaction. We demonstrated co-immunoprecipitation and co-localization of BLK and BANK1. In a Daudi cell line and primary naïve B-cells the endogenous binding was enhanced upon B-cell receptor stimulation using anti-IgM antibodies. Conclusions Here, we show a genetic interaction between BANK1 and BLK, and demonstrate that these molecules interact physically. Our results have important consequences for the understanding of SLE and other autoimmune diseases and identify a potential new signaling pathway. PMID:21978998

Environmental economics reality check: a case study of the Abanico Medicinal Plant and Organic Agriculture Microenterprise Project.

PubMed

Isla, Ana; Thompson, Shirley

2003-01-01

This paper presents a case study of the Abanico Medicinal Plant and Organic Agriculture Microenterprise Project in the Arenal Conservation Area, Costa Rica. Microenterprise is the Sustainable Development and the Women in Development model for gender equity and environment of the World Bank, International Monetary Fund and large non-government organizations, like the World Wildlife Fund-Canada. The authors of this paper argue that debt-for-nature investment in microenterprise and ecological economic models are not distinct from neoclassical economic and development models that created the environmental, social and cultural crises in the first place. This case study shows that the world market accommodates only one model of development: unsustainable export-oriented production based on flexible labour markets, low wages, indebtedness and low cost production. Working standards in those micro-enterprises are eroded due to many factors,including indebtedness. What happened at a national level in non-industrial countries with the international debt crisis is now mirrored in individual indebtedness through microenterprise. Is current development policy creating a new form of indentured servitude? Medicinal plants, prior to commodification, were a source of women's power and upon commodification in international development projects, are the source of their exploitation.

Biofuel: an alternative to fossil fuel for alleviating world energy and economic crises.

PubMed

Bhattarai, Keshav; Stalick, Wayne M; McKay, Scott; Geme, Gija; Bhattarai, Nimisha

2011-01-01

The time has come when it is desirable to look for alternative energy resources to confront the global energy crisis. Consideration of the increasing environmental problems and the possible crisis of fossil fuel availability at record high prices dictate that some changes will need to occur sooner rather than later. The recent oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is just another example of the environmental threats that fossil fuels pose. This paper is an attempt to explore various bio-resources such as corn, barley, oat, rice, wheat, sorghum, sugar, safflower, and coniferous and non-coniferous species for the production of biofuels (ethanol and biodiesel). In order to assess the potential production of biofuel, in this paper, countries are organized into three groups based on: (a) geographic areas; (b) economic development; and(c) lending types, as classified by the World Bank. First, the total fossil fuel energy consumption and supply and possible carbon emission from burning fossil fuel is projected for these three groups of countries. Second, the possibility of production of biofuel from grains and vegetative product is projected. Third, a comparison of fossil fuel and biofuel is done to examine energy sustainability issues.

Piracetam for reducing the incidence of painful sickle cell disease crises.

PubMed

Al Hajeri, Amani; Fedorowicz, Zbys

2016-02-12

Sickle cell disease is one of the most common genetic disorders. Sickle cell crises in which irregular and dehydrated cells contribute to blocking of blood vessels are characterised by episodes of pain. Treatment is mainly supportive and symptomatic. In vitro studies with piracetam indicate that it has the potential for inhibition and a reversal of the process of sickling of erythrocytes. This is an update of a previously published Cochrane review. To assess the effectiveness of piracetam for reducing the incidence of painful sickle cell disease crises. We searched the Cochrane Cystic Fibrosis and Genetic Disorders Group Haemoglobinopathies Trials Register which comprises of references identified from comprehensive electronic database searches and handsearches of relevant journals and abstract books of conference proceedings.Last search of the Group's Haemoglobinopathies Trials Register: 21 September 2015. Randomised controlled trials comparing orally administered piracetam to placebo or standard care in people, of all ages and both sexes, with sickle cell disease. Two authors independently assessed trial quality and extracted data. Trial authors were contacted for additional information. Adverse effects data were collected from the trials. Three trials involving 169 participants were included in the review. A limited amount of data addressing some of the primary and some of the secondary outcomes were provided, but data were incomplete and based on un-validated assumptions used in the evaluation of outcomes. One trial reported a reduction in the number of pain crises and their severity with active intervention than placebo but presented no data to confirm these results. A second trial presented a monthly global pain score based on the number of sickle cell crises and severity of pain but included no separate data for these primary outcomes. Although there was no significant difference between the piracetam and placebo periods for the number of days of hospitalisation (P = 0.87) in one trial, inconsistencies in the criteria necessary for hospitalisation during sickle crises did not permit accurate conclusions to be drawn. Two of the trials reported participant satisfaction with piracetam but provided no details as to how this satisfaction had been assessed. There were no reports of toxicity or adverse effects with piracetam other than one participant who experienced dizziness. The small number of included trials and their poor methodological quality provided insufficient reliable evidence to support the routine use of this medication for preventing the incidence of painful sickle cell disease crises.We will continue to run searches to identify any potentially relevant trials; however, we do not plan to update other sections of the review until new trials are published.

Drugs for preventing red blood cell dehydration in people with sickle cell disease.

PubMed

Nagalla, Srikanth; Ballas, Samir K

2012-07-11

Sickle cell disease is an inherited disorder of hemoglobin, resulting in abnormal red blood cells. These are rigid and may block blood vessels leading to acute painful crises and other complications. Recent research has focused on therapies to rehydrate the sickled cells by reducing the loss of water and ions from them. Little is known about the effectiveness and safety of such drugs. To assess the relative risks and benefits of drugs to rehydrate sickled red blood cells. We searched the Cochrane Cystic Fibrosis and Genetic Disorders Group's Haemoglobinopathies Trials Register.Last search of the Group's Trials Register: 25 October 2011. Randomized or quasi-randomized controlled trials of drugs to rehydrate sickled red blood cells compared to placebo or an alternative treatment. Both authors independently selected studies for inclusion, assessed study quality and extracted data. Of the 51 studies identified, three met the inclusion criteria. The first study tested the effectiveness of zinc sulphate to prevent sickle cell-related crises in a total of 145 participants and showed a significant reduction in painful crises over one and a half years, mean difference -2.83 (95% confidence interval -3.51 to -2.15). However, analysis was restricted due to limited statistical data. Changes to red cell parameters and blood counts were inconsistent. No serious adverse events were noted in the study.The second study was a Phase II dose-finding study of senicapoc (a Gardos channel blocker) compared to placebo. Compared to the placebo group the high dose senicapoc showed significant improvement in change in hemoglobin level, number and proportion of dense red blood cells, red blood cell count and indices and hematocrit. The results with low-dose senicapoc were similar to the high-dose senicapoc group but of lesser magnitude. There was no difference in the frequency of painful crises between the three groups. A subsequent Phase III study of senicapoc was terminated early since there was no difference observed between the treatment and control groups in the primary end point of painful crises. While the results of zinc for reducing sickle-related crises are encouraging, larger and longer-term multicenter studies are needed to evaluate the effectiveness of this therapy for people with sickle cell disease.While the Phase II and the prematurely terminated phase III studies of senicapoc showed that the drug improved red cell survival (depending on dose), this did not lead to fewer painful crises.

The effects of crisis plans for patients with psychotic and bipolar disorders: a randomised controlled trial.

PubMed

Ruchlewska, A; Mulder, C L; Smulders, R; Roosenschoon, B J; Koopmans, G; Wierdsma, A

2009-07-09

Crises and (involuntary) admissions have a strong impact on patients and their caregivers. In some countries, including the Netherlands, the number of crises and (involuntary) admissions have increased in the last years. There is also a lack of effective interventions to prevent their occurrence. Previous research has shown that a form of psychiatric advance statement - joint crisis plan - may prevent involuntary admissions, but another study showed no significant results for another form. The question remains which form of psychiatric advance statement may help to prevent crisis situations. This study examines the effects of two other psychiatric advance statements. The first is created by the patient with help from a patient's advocate (Patient Advocate Crisis Plan: PACP) and the second with the help of a clinician only (Clinician facilitated Crisis Plan: CCP). We investigate whether patients with a PACP or CCP show fewer emergency visits and (involuntary) admissions as compared to patients without a psychiatric advance statement. Furthermore, this study seeks to identify possible mechanisms responsible for the effects of a PACP or a CCP. This study is a randomised controlled trial with two intervention groups and one control condition. Both interventions consist of a crisis plan, facilitated through the patient's advocate or the clinician respectively.Outpatients with psychotic or bipolar disorders, who experienced at least one psychiatric crisis during the previous two years, are randomly allocated to one of the three groups. Primary outcomes are the number of emergency (after hour) visits, (involuntary) admissions and the length of stay in hospital. Secondary outcomes include psychosocial functioning and treatment satisfaction. The possible mediator variables of the effects of the crisis plans are investigated by assessing the patient's involvement in the creation of the crisis plan, working alliance, insight into illness, recovery style, social support, locus of control, service engagement and coping with crises situations. The interviews take place before randomisation, nine month later and finally eighteen months after randomisation. This study examines the effects of two types of crisis plans. In addition, the results offer an understanding of the way these advance statements work and whether it is more effective to include a patients' advocate in the process of creating a psychiatric advance statement. These statements may be an intervention to prevent crises and the use of compulsion in mental health care. The strength and limitations of this study are discussed. Current Controlled Trails NTR1166.

The Impact of New Technology on Skills and Skill Formation in the Banking and Textile Industries. NCEE Brief Number 1.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bailey, Thomas; Noyelle, Thierry

The subject of this report is the impact of microelectronic technology on the process of skill formation with particular reference to two industries: banking and textiles. A recent research effort sought to identify and understand how changes in the structure and nature of skills were affecting the process of skill formation and the balance of…

The Seabed and Shallow Geology Mapping of the Porcupine Bank, West of Ireland

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Thébaudeau, B.; Monteys, X.; McCarron, S. G.

2016-02-01

The "Porcupine Bank" is a bathymetric high of over 40,000 km2 linked to the western shelf of Ireland which lies between 51-54° N and 11-15° W approximately 100 km west of Ireland. Water depths are as shallow as 145 m over the "Porcupine Ridge". The Bank's location on the north eastern fringe of the Atlantic Ocean, in a critical position between the shelf edge and the main land and along the line of the Polar Front, means it may contain significant indications of glacial/interglacial changes in northern hemisphere climate and in North Atlantic Ocean circulation. But it also means that it consists of strategically important marine environments with very likely future developmental pressures. Peer-reviewed publications on the geology of the Bank are very limited and this current state of knowledge will hamper any marine ecosystem research and protection. This paper will describe the first results of a research project aiming at filling the gap of our understanding of the region's shallow geology and subseabed resources and characteristics. As a first step, seabed geomorphology mapping using high resolution MBES and sub bottom data have highlighted a wealth of glacially derived features such as iceberg scours and elongated ridges whose formation could be directly influenced by the presence of ice on or nearby the bank. Other features interpreted as sand waves could help understand relict or modern currents. In addition to these surface features, this paper introduces recent geological mapping of the shallow stratigraphy of the bank using 2D seismic and sub bottom profiler data collected at a high density correlated with recently collected vibro-cores. The seismic units and corresponding lithofacies (some with radiocarbon dates) are consistently described and a regional correlation built.

After-Action Reports: Capturing Lessons Learned and Identifying Areas for Improvement. Lessons Learned from School Crises and Emergencies. Volume 2, Issue 1, 2007

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

US Department of Education, 2007

2007-01-01

"Lessons Learned" is a series of publications that are a brief recounting of actual school emergencies and crises. This issue of "Lessons Learned" addresses after-action reports, which are an integral part of the emergency preparedness planning continuum and support effective crisis response. After-action reports have a threefold purpose. They…

The Crisis Crisis in Higher Education: Is That a Wolf or a Pussycat at the Academy's Door? ASHE Annual Meeting Paper.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Birnbaum, Robert; Shushok, Frank

This paper reviews the literature using the word "crisis" in relation to current higher education and analyzes claims of three specific crises of the past 25 years. It considers reasons why educational institutions may be particularly vulnerable to claims of crisis and offers some ideas about the nature of higher education crises and the…

UHF (Ultra High Frequency) Military Satellite Communications Ground Equipment Interoperability.

DTIC Science & Technology

1986-10-06

crisis management requires interoperability between various services. These short-term crises often arise from unforeseen circumstances in which...Scheduler Qualcomm has prepared an interoperability study for the JTC3A (Reference 15) as a TA/CE for USCINCLANT ROC 5-84 requirements. It has defined a...interoperability is fundamental. A number of operational crises have occurred where interoperable communications or the lack of interoperable

Coping with Multiple Suicides among Middle School Students. Lessons Learned from School Crises and Emergencies. Volume 2, Issue 2

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

US Department of Education, 2007

2007-01-01

"Lessons Learned" is a series of publications that are a brief recounting of actual school emergencies and crises. This "Lessons Learned" issue addresses the experience of a school district where three middle school students hung themselves within a three-week timeframe. Although deaths were apparently unconnected, the school district is part of a…

Long-Term Impact of Famine: Enduring Disasters and Opportunities for Progress. Staff Report No. AGES870212.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mabbs-Zeno, Carl C.

Throughout history, famine has been linked to many of the most severe crises of humanity. Even with millenary of collective experience, the reaction of the world community to the an intense food crises fails to address the long-term impacts of famine. As governments and populations strive to cope with famine, many long-term changes take place in…

Managing an Infectious Disease Outbreak in a School. Lessons Learned from School Crises and Emergencies. Volume 2, Issue 3

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

US Department of Education, 2007

2007-01-01

"Lessons Learned" is a series of publications that are a brief recounting of actual school emergencies and crises. This "Lessons Learned" issue focuses on an infectious disease incident, which resulted in the death of a student, closure of area schools and the operation of an on-site school vaccine clinic. The report highlights the critical need…

A Manual-Based Intervention to Address Clinical Crises and Retain Patients in the Treatment of Adolescents with Depression Study (TADS)

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

May, Diane E.; Kratochvil, Christopher J.; Puumala, Susan E.; Silva, Susan G.; Rezac, Amy J.; Hallin, Mary J.; Reinecke, Mark A.; Vitiello, Benedetto; Weller, Elizabeth B.; Pathak, Sanjeev; Simons, Anne D.; March, John S.

2007-01-01

Objective: To describe a manual-based intervention to address clinical crises and retain participants in the Treatment for Adolescents with Depression Study (TADS). Method: The use of adjunct services for attrition prevention (ASAP) is described for adolescents (ages 12-17 years) during the 12-week acute treatment in TADS, from 2000 to 2003.…

Treatment and outcomes of crisis resolution teams: a prospective multicentre study

PubMed Central

2011-01-01

Background Crisis resolution teams (CRTs) aim to help patients in acute mental health crises without admitting them to hospital. The aims of this study were to investigate content of treatment, service practice, and outcomes of crises of CRTs in Norway. Methods The study had a multicentre prospective design, examining routine data for 680 patients and 62 staff members of eight CRTs. The clinical staff collected data on the demographic, clinical, and content of treatment variables. The service practices of the staff were assessed on the Community Program Practice Scale. Information on each CRT was recorded by the team leaders. The outcomes of crises were measured by the changes in Global Assessment of Functioning scale scores and the total scores on the Health of the Nation Outcome Scales between admission and discharge. Regression analysis was used to predict favourable outcomes. Results The mean length of treatment was 19 days for the total sample (N = 680) and 29 days for the 455 patients with more than one consultation; 7.4% of the patients had had more than twice-weekly consultations with any member of the clinical staff of the CRTs. A doctor or psychologist participated in 55.5% of the treatment episodes. The CRTs collaborated with other mental health services in 71.5% of cases and with families/networks in 51.5% of cases. The overall outcomes of the crises were positive, with a small to medium effect size. Patients with depression received the longest treatments and showed most improvement of crisis. Patients with psychotic symptoms and substance abuse problems received the shortest treatments, showed least improvement, and were most often referred to other parts of the mental health services. Length of treatment, being male and single, and a team focus on out-of-office contact were predictors of favourable outcomes of crises in the adjusted model. Conclusions Our study indicates that, compared with the UK, the Norwegian CRTs provided less intensive and less out-of-office care. The Norwegian CRTs worked more with depression and suicidal crises than with psychoses. To be an alternative to hospital admission, the Norwegian CRTs need to intensify their treatment and meet more patients outside the office. PMID:22108030

Crise convulsive chez les abuseurs de Tramadol et caféine: à propos de 8 cas et revue de la littérature

PubMed Central

Maiga, Djibo Douma; Seyni, Houdou; Sidikou, Amadou; Azouma, Alfazazi

2012-01-01

Nous rapportons Huit cas de crises convulsives diagnostiquées comme maladie épileptique après ingestion de Tramadol et d'autres substances psychotropes dont la Caféine dans une région ou maladie épileptique et addiction au café sont fréquentes. L'objectif de ce travail était d'informer les praticiens sur le risque de convulsion lié à la consommation du Tramadol seul ou en association avec d'autres psychotropes en s'appuyant sur les données de la littérature. Il s'agissait d'une étude rétrospective et exhaustive de patients vus en consultation ambulatoire pour crise convulsive et consommation de Tramadol et de caféine de janvier à mai 2012. Les données collectées étaient les caractéristiques sociodémographiques et de la consommation de Tramadol. Le diagnostic de crise convulsive a été posé sur les renseignements obtenus à l'anamnèse. Tous les patients ont été soumis à un examen neurologique et aux critères de dépendance du Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSMIV)-R par rapport à leur consommation de Tramadol. Nous n'avons pas trouvé dans la littérature médicale de cas de consommation concomitante de Tramadol et de Caféine. Les données expérimentales suggèrent une action synergique du Tramadol et de la Caféine sur la douleur et le seuil épileptogène. Nos observations plaident également en faveur d'une synergie d'action de ces deux molécules dans la survenue des crises convulsives. La fréquence des crises convulsives suite à une intoxication par le Tramadol et la caféine est susceptible d'augmenter en Afrique en raison du mésusage croissant de ces substances. Une étude comparative usagers de Tramadol associé à la Caféine et usagers du Tramadol seul devrait permettre d’évaluer le risque. PMID:23308329

Pregnant women's knowledge and attitudes about stem cells and cord blood banking.

PubMed

Dinç, H; Sahin, N H

2009-06-01

This study was to determine pregnant women's knowledge and attitudes towards stem cells and cord blood banking in Istanbul, Turkey. Stem cell research is one of the most important and, at the same time, the most controversial topics of science and technology today. Nurses need to understand stem cell research so they can enter the debate on this issue. They can become important sources of information in order to help parents understand the issues. This exploratory descriptive study was conducted in two antenatal outpatient clinics in Istanbul. The sample consisted of 334 pregnant women during routine prenatal visits. Data were collected in interviews by using an interview form developed by the researchers according to the literature. The form included demographic characteristics of participants and 20 questions about stem cells, storing cord blood and banking and 10 independent attitude statements. The majority of the participants had a lack of knowledge about stem cells and cord blood banking and wanted more information. Before pregnancy, they received some information through the media (newspaper, Internet, television, etc.), but unintentionally. It was determined that they wanted information before becoming pregnant, more from their obstetrician but also from nurses and midwives. The majority also wanted to store their infants' cord blood and stated that they would be more likely to choose a public cord blood bank. Those giving ante- and perinatal care need to offer accurate and scientific counselling services on this subject to parents who need to be informed.

EPA guidance on mental health and economic crises in Europe.

PubMed

Martin-Carrasco, M; Evans-Lacko, S; Dom, G; Christodoulou, N G; Samochowiec, J; González-Fraile, E; Bienkowski, P; Gómez-Beneyto, M; Dos Santos, M J H; Wasserman, D

2016-03-01

This European Psychiatric Association (EPA) guidance paper is a result of the Working Group on Mental Health Consequences of Economic Crises of the EPA Council of National Psychiatric Associations. Its purpose is to identify the impact on mental health in Europe of the economic downturn and the measures that may be taken to respond to it. We performed a review of the existing literature that yields 350 articles on which our conclusions and recommendations are based. Evidence-based tables and recommendations were developed through an expert consensus process. Literature dealing with the consequences of economic turmoil on the health and health behaviours of the population is heterogeneous, and the results are not completely unequivocal. However, there is a broad consensus about the deleterious consequences of economic crises on mental health, particularly on psychological well-being, depression, anxiety disorders, insomnia, alcohol abuse, and suicidal behaviour. Unemployment, indebtedness, precarious working conditions, inequalities, lack of social connectedness, and housing instability emerge as main risk factors. Men at working age could be particularly at risk, together with previous low SES or stigmatized populations. Generalized austerity measures and poor developed welfare systems trend to increase the harmful effects of economic crises on mental health. Although many articles suggest limitations of existing research and provide suggestions for future research, there is relatively little discussion of policy approaches to address the negative impact of economic crises on mental health. The few studies that addressed policy questions suggested that the development of social protection programs such as active labour programs, social support systems, protection for housing instability, and better access to mental health care, particularly at primary care level, is strongly needed.

Addison's disease with polyglandular autoimmunity carries a more than 2·5-fold risk for adrenal crises: German Health insurance data 2010-2013.

PubMed

Meyer, Gesine; Badenhoop, Klaus; Linder, Roland

2016-09-01

Adrenal crises are potentially life-threatening complications in patients with adrenal insufficiency (AI). Our objective was to investigate the frequency of adrenal crises in different forms of AI. The Statutory Health Insurance (SHI) database of the Techniker Krankenkasse - covering more than 12% of the German population - was analysed for diagnostic codes from 1 January 2010 to 31 December 2013. By analysis of routine data from a large healthcare provider. Diagnoses of AI were recorded and classified in primary AI, secondary AI and autoimmune polyglandular syndrome (APS). The ICD-code E27·2 (AC) was retrieved in all cohorts. We found a prevalence of 222/million for secondary and 126/million for primary AI. AC was documented with a frequency of 4·8/100 patient years. Crises were significantly more frequent in patients with primary (7·6/100 patient years) compared to those with secondary AI (3·2/100 patient years; P < 0·0001). Prevalence of crises was higher in individuals with APS (10·9/100 patient years) and highest in patients with primary AI and type 1 diabetes (12·5/100 patient years). Applying a SHI database comprising more than 9 million individuals, we identified robust data about the risk of AC in different groups of patients with AI. Our data confirm and extend the clinical observation that patients with APS are at highest risk for AC. Approximately 1 of 8 patients with primary AI and type 1 diabetes suffers from an AC each year. Specific targeting of efforts aiming at the prevention of AC is necessary. © 2016 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Blood ammonia and glutamine as predictors of hyperammonemic crises in patients with urea cycle disorder.

PubMed

Lee, Brendan; Diaz, George A; Rhead, William; Lichter-Konecki, Uta; Feigenbaum, Annette; Berry, Susan A; Le Mons, Cindy; Bartley, James A; Longo, Nicola; Nagamani, Sandesh C; Berquist, William; Gallagher, Renata; Bartholomew, Dennis; Harding, Cary O; Korson, Mark S; McCandless, Shawn E; Smith, Wendy; Cederbaum, Stephen; Wong, Derek; Merritt, J Lawrence; Schulze, Andreas; Vockley, Jerry; Vockley, Gerard; Kronn, David; Zori, Roberto; Summar, Marshall; Milikien, Douglas A; Marino, Miguel; Coakley, Dion F; Mokhtarani, Masoud; Scharschmidt, Bruce F

2015-07-01

The aim of this study was to examine predictors of ammonia exposure and hyperammonemic crises in patients with urea cycle disorders. The relationships between fasting ammonia, daily ammonia exposure, and hyperammonemic crises were analyzed in >100 patients with urea cycle disorders. Fasting ammonia correlated strongly with daily ammonia exposure (r = 0.764; P < 0.001). For patients with fasting ammonia concentrations <0.5 upper limit of normal (ULN), 0.5 to <1.0 ULN, and ≥1.0 ULN, the probability of a normal average daily ammonia value was 87, 60, and 39%, respectively, and 10.3, 14.1, and 37.0% of these patients, respectively, experienced ≥1 hyperammonemic crisis over 12 months. Time to first hyperammonemic crisis was shorter (P = 0.008) and relative risk (4.5×; P = 0.011) and rate (~5×, P = 0.006) of hyperammonemic crises were higher in patients with fasting ammonia ≥1.0 ULN vs. <0.5ULN; relative risk was even greater (20×; P = 0.009) in patients ≥6 years old. A 10- or 25-µmol/l increase in ammonia exposure increased the relative risk of a hyperammonemic crisis by 50 and >200% (P < 0.0001), respectively. The relationship between ammonia and hyperammonemic crisis risk seemed to be independent of treatment, age, urea cycle disorder subtype, dietary protein intake, or blood urea nitrogen. Fasting glutamine correlated weakly with daily ammonia exposure assessed as 24-hour area under the curve and was not a significant predictor of hyperammonemic crisis. Fasting ammonia correlates strongly and positively with daily ammonia exposure and with the risk and rate of hyperammonemic crises, suggesting that patients with urea cycle disorder may benefit from tight ammonia control.

Digital detectives and virtual volunteers: Integrating emergent online communities into disaster response operations.

PubMed

Griswold, Alisha

2013-01-01

The demonstration of altruistic behaviours by disaster survivors, and even those observing emergencies from afar, is well documented. Over the past few decades, government-sponsored crisis planning has evolved to include affiliated volunteer agencies, with a general acknowledgment of the need to plan for unaffiliated or spontaneous volunteers. Just as the understanding of the need for volunteers has grown, so too have the ways in which volunteers are able to donate their time and skills. The popularity of social media networks and online communities provide new ways for the public to get involved in disaster response. Public service agencies should be proactive in investigating these emerging platforms and understanding their impacts during crises. Established methods of integrating on-scene volunteers into post-disaster response operations can be used as templates for creating virtual volunteer programmes.

Stochastic Modeling of Past Volcanic Crises

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Woo, Gordon

2018-01-01

The statistical foundation of disaster risk analysis is past experience. From a scientific perspective, history is just one realization of what might have happened, given the randomness and chaotic dynamics of Nature. Stochastic analysis of the past is an exploratory exercise in counterfactual history, considering alternative possible scenarios. In particular, the dynamic perturbations that might have transitioned a volcano from an unrest to an eruptive state need to be considered. The stochastic modeling of past volcanic crises leads to estimates of eruption probability that can illuminate historical volcanic crisis decisions. It can also inform future economic risk management decisions in regions where there has been some volcanic unrest, but no actual eruption for at least hundreds of years. Furthermore, the availability of a library of past eruption probabilities would provide benchmark support for estimates of eruption probability in future volcanic crises.

Understanding your capital options.

PubMed

Payne, Christopher T

2012-05-01

When planning capital expenditures, hospitals and health systems should understand the following financing considerations: Traditional fixed-rate tax-exempt bonds; Variable-rate financing alternatives; Basel III Accord requirements; Direct tax-exempt bank loans; Total return swaps Taxable financings; Interest-rate swaps and collateral requirements

Expanding the Supply of Pasteurized Donor Milk: Understanding Why Peer-to-Peer Milk Sharers in the United States Do Not Donate to Milk Banks.

PubMed

Perrin, Maryanne Tigchelaar; Goodell, L Suzanne; Fogleman, April; Pettus, Hannah; Bodenheimer, Amanda L; Palmquist, Aunchalee E L

2016-05-01

Lactating women in the United States have several options for what they do with excess breast milk, including donating to milk banks that serve medically fragile infants, sharing directly with families seeking milk, and selling to individuals or for-profit entities. The World Health Organization and the US Surgeon General have issued calls to increase access to pasteurized donor milk for medically fragile infants. To explore how lactating women with a surplus of breast milk come to the decision to share their milk with a peer rather than donate to a milk bank. A qualitative design using a grounded theory approach was employed. Semistructured telephone interviews were conducted with 27 women who had shared milk with a peer but not with a milk bank. Five dominant themes were identified: a strong belief in the value of breast milk, unexpected versus planned donation, sources of information regarding milk exchange, concerns and knowledge gaps about milk banks, and helping and connecting. This research offers insights into potential strategies for promoting milk bank donation among peer-to-peer milk sharers, including developing donor education campaigns focused on knowledge gaps regarding milk banks and developing health care professional referral programs that can reduce barriers associated with the convenience of milk bank donation. © The Author(s) 2016.

Historic evidence for a link between riparian vegetation and bank erosion in the context of instream habitat restoration

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Salant, N.; Baillie, M. B.; Schmidt, J. C.; Intermountain CenterRiver Rehabilitation; Restoration

2010-12-01

An analysis of historic aerial photographs of the upper Strawberry River, Utah, demonstrates that rates of lateral bank erosion peaked with the loss of riparian cover during periods of willow removal for livestock grazing. Erosion rates have declined over the past two decades, concurrent with the removal of livestock grazing, modest increases in riparian cover, and the return of natural flows. Contrary to perception, present-day erosion rates are actually lower than pre-disturbance rates. Recent restoration activities to stabilize stream banks were based on the assumption that high erosion rates were contributing excess sediment to the streambed and degrading spawning gravels. However, our results show that while the historic loss of riparian vegetation contributed to an increase in bank erosion rates, bank erosion rates were not high prior to restoration. Furthermore, streambed samples show that the percentage of fine sediment in the substrate is insufficient to have a significant biological impact, supporting the finding that present-day bank erosion rates are not excessive relative to pre-disturbance rates. Current bank stabilization efforts were therefore motivated by a limited understanding of system conditions and history, suggesting that these restoration activities are unnecessary and misconceived. Our results demonstrate the large influence of riparian vegetation on bank erosion and instream habitat, as well as the importance of incorporating system history into restoration design.

High-Tech, Low-Tech, No-Tech: Communications Strategies During Blackouts

DTIC Science & Technology

2013-12-01

share radiation measurements; it was created within a week of the Fukushima nuclear disaster . More than 3.5 million data readings have already been...national nuclear crisis, especially as the extent of the disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi plant became known. This is where hyper-local communication...accompany major crises, particularly natural disasters such as severe weather events. Thus, during crises, communications are often severely hampered

Joint and Combined Military Force: A Possible Solution to African Economic Problems.

DTIC Science & Technology

1992-06-01

New York Monthly Review Press, N.Y.: 1966). 4. Enzo Falloto and Frenando Henrique Cardoso, Dependencia (Mexico Siglo XX1: 1969). 5. David Apter and...the most volatile and explosive political destabilizers in Africa today is religion . However, religious differences serving as catalysts to political...crises is not peculiar to African. From the beginning of civilization, religion has caused major political crises within and between nations. Nearly

Can Interest-Free Finance Limit the Frequency of Crises and the Volatility of the Business Cycle?

DTIC Science & Technology

2011-05-14

free economics. Scholars from the International Monetary Fund ( IMF ) researched theoretical interest-free finance a great deal during the 1980s. In...inevitably comes, their assets devalue and their leverage increases. Moreover, a higher proportion of firms become critically leveraged. The interest...to currency crises. Whereas high interest payments might send an otherwise profitable firm to bankruptcy and foreclosure, equity financing may

Communication and Collaboration During Natural Disasters: The Lessons Learned From Past Experience. Lessons Learned From School Crises and Emergencies, Volume 3, Issue 2, 2008

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

US Department of Education, 2008

2008-01-01

"Lessons Learned" is a series of publications that are a brief recounting of actual school emergencies and crises. This "Lessons Learned" issue focuses on the response and recovery efforts to wildfires by the San Diego County Office of Education (SDCOE) and its school and community partners. Natural disasters such as floods,…

Responding To and Recovering From an Active Shooter Incident That Turns Into a Hostage Situation. Lessons Learned From School Crises and Emergencies, Volume 2, Issue 6, 2007

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

US Department of Education, 2007

2007-01-01

"Lessons Learned" is a series of publications that are a brief recounting of actual school emergencies and crises. This "Lessons Learned" issue focuses on an active shooter situation that escalated to a hostage situation that required multiple law enforcement agencies and other first responders and agencies to coordinate response and recovery…

Responding To Infectious Disease: Multiple Cases of Staph Infections in a Rural School District. Lessons Learned From School Crises and Emergencies, Volume 3, Issue 3, 2008

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

US Department of Education, 2008

2008-01-01

"Lessons Learned" is a series of publications that are a brief recounting of actual school emergencies and crises. This "Lessons Learned" issue focuses on an incident involving several cases of Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) at a rural high school. MRSA is a specific strain of Staphylococcus aureus bacteria (often called staph)…

A Role for Science in Responding to Health Crises

PubMed Central

Brothers, Reginald; Murata, Christina E.

2016-01-01

The Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) Science and Technology (S&T) Directorate plays a role in public health that extends beyond biodefense. These responsibilities were exercised as part of the 2014-16 Ebola outbreak, leading to productive and beneficial contributions to the international public health response and improved operations in the United States. However, we and others have identified numerous areas for improvement. Based on our successes and lessons learned, we propose a number of ways that DHS, the interagency, and academia can act now to ensure improved responses to future public health crises. These include pre-developing scientific capabilities to respond agnostically to threats, and disease-specific master question lists to organize and inform initial efforts. We are generating DHS-specific playbooks and tools for anticipating future needs and capturing requests from DHS components and our national and international partners, where efforts will also be used to refine and exercise communication and information-sharing practices. These experiences and improvement efforts have encouraged discussions on the role of science in developing government policy, specifically responding to public health crises. We propose specific considerations for both scientists and government decision makers to ensure that the best available science is incorporated into policy and operational decisions to facilitate highly effective responses to future health crises. PMID:27482881

Interprofessional intensive care unit team interactions and medical crises: a qualitative study.

PubMed

Piquette, Dominique; Reeves, Scott; Leblanc, Vicki R

2009-05-01

Research has suggested that interprofessional collaboration could improve patient outcomes in the intensive care unit (ICU). Maintaining optimal interprofessional interactions in a setting where unpredictable medical crises occur periodically is however challenging. Our study aimed to investigate the perceptions of ICU health care professionals regarding how acute medical crises affect their team interactions. We conducted 25 semi-structured interviews of ICU nurses, staff physicians, and respiratory therapists. All interviews were audio-taped and transcribed, and the analysis was undertaken using an inductive thematic approach. Our data indicated that the nature of interprofessional interactions changed as teams passed through three key temporal periods around medical crises. During the "pre-crisis period", interactions were based on the mutual respect of each other's expertise. During the "crisis period", hierarchical interactions were expected and a certain lack of civility was tolerated. During the "post-crisis period", divergent perceptions emerged amongst health professionals. Post-crisis team dispersion left the nurses with questions and emotions not expressed by other team members. Nurses believed that systematic interprofessional feedback sessions held immediately after a crisis could address some of their needs. Further research is needed to establish the possible benefits of strategies addressing ICU health care professionals' specific needs for interprofessional feedback after a medical crisis.

The nemesis effect.

PubMed

Bright, C

1999-01-01

Environmental pressures are converging in ways that are likely to create a growing number of unanticipated crises. Two representative surprise crises involve the forests of Eastern North America and the coral reefs. These examples reveal 13 of the worst pressures inflicted on the planet and on mankind: climate change, acid rain, increasing ultraviolet light penetration, increasing tropospheric ozone levels, habitat loss, freshwater diversion, bioinvasion, alteration of fire cycles, persistent organic pollutants, nitrogen pollution, overfishing, population growth, and infectious diseases. It is noted that these crises will demand a fix, and each fix will require money, time, and political capital. However, ¿fixing¿ is not enough, since there is no realistic expectation of reducing the potential for additional crises. Hence, the best possible way of controlling such events is to do a better job of managing systems in their entirety. In view of this, several important principles are given; these include the following: 1) monoculture technologies are brittle; 2) direct opposition to a natural force usually invites failure or a form of success that is just as bad; 3) thinking through the likely systemic effects of a plan will help locate the risks, as well as indirect opportunities; 4) institutional pluralism can create a public space that no single institution could have created alone.

Clinical characteristics of hyperglycemic crises in patients without a history of diabetes.

PubMed

Chou, Willy; Chung, Min-Hsien; Wang, Hsien-Yi; Chen, Jiann-Hwa; Chen, Wei-Lung; Guo, How-Ran; Lin, Hung-Jung; Su, Shih-Bin; Huang, Chien-Cheng; Hsu, Chien-Chin

2014-11-01

Hyperglycemic crises without a history of diabetes have not been well studied. We compared the clinical characteristics of patients with and without a history of diabetes, and evaluated the glycated hemoglobin levels. Consecutive adult patients (aged >18 years) visiting the emergency department (ED) between January 2004 and December 2010 were enrolled if they met the criteria for a hyperglycemic crisis. Patients were separated into those without and those with a history of diabetes. The 30-day mortality was the primary end-point. We enrolled 295 patients who made 330 visits to the ED. Patients without a history of diabetes made up 24.5% (81/330) of the hyperglycemic crises. Patients without a history of diabetes were more prone than patients with a history of diabetes to be younger and male, and to have better consciousness and renal function, more significant diabetic signs and symptoms (e.g., thirst, polydipsia, polyuria and bodyweight loss), higher blood sugar, and less opportunity of infection and mortality. Most of the patients (93.8%, 76/81) had glycated hemoglobin of ≥6.5%. The present study delineates the clinical characteristics of patients with hyperglycemic crises, but without a history of diabetes. Most patients had glycated hemoglobin ≥6.5%, which raises the argument of using this biomarker for routine screening of diabetes.

Biomechanics and biorheology of red blood cells in sickle cell anemia.

PubMed

Li, Xuejin; Dao, Ming; Lykotrafitis, George; Karniadakis, George Em

2017-01-04

Sickle cell anemia (SCA) is an inherited blood disorder that causes painful crises due to vaso-occlusion of small blood vessels. The primary cause of the clinical phenotype of SCA is the intracellular polymerization of sickle hemoglobin resulting in sickling of red blood cells (RBCs) in deoxygenated conditions. In this review, we discuss the biomechanical and biorheological characteristics of sickle RBCs and sickle blood as well as their implications toward a better understanding of the pathophysiology and pathogenesis of SCA. Additionally, we highlight the adhesive heterogeneity of RBCs in SCA and their specific contribution to vaso-occlusive crisis. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Shock to the system: How catastrophic events and institutional relationships impact Japanese energy policymaking, resilience, and innovation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sklarew, Jennifer F.

External shocks do not always generate energy system transformation. This dissertation examines how government relationships with electric utilities and the public impact whether shocks catalyze energy system change. The study analyzes Japanese energy policymaking from the oil crises through the Fukushima nuclear disaster. Findings reveal that policymakers' cooperation with and clout over electric utilities and the public can enable shocks to transform energy systems. When electric utilities wield clout, public trust in and influence on the government determine the existing system's resilience and the potential for a new system to emerge. Understanding this effect informs energy policy design and innovation.

Topology of foreign exchange markets using hierarchical structure methods

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Naylor, Michael J.; Rose, Lawrence C.; Moyle, Brendan J.

2007-08-01

This paper uses two physics derived hierarchical techniques, a minimal spanning tree and an ultrametric hierarchical tree, to extract a topological influence map for major currencies from the ultrametric distance matrix for 1995-2001. We find that these two techniques generate a defined and robust scale free network with meaningful taxonomy. The topology is shown to be robust with respect to method, to time horizon and is stable during market crises. This topology, appropriately used, gives a useful guide to determining the underlying economic or regional causal relationships for individual currencies and to understanding the dynamics of exchange rate price determination as part of a complex network.

The Aging Couple

PubMed Central

Christie-Seely, Janet

1984-01-01

Most elderly Canadians are married, and marriage both protects against morbidity and provides the best caretaker when sickness does occur. Changes in marital homeostasis after retirement may lead to illness, which in turn impacts on the marriage. The `worried wife syndrome', whereby an elderly wife worries excessively about her husband's health, and the problems of a partner (usually the wife) who adopts a `caretaker' role, are described. A framework for understanding the lifecycle of systems (i.e., the lifecyle of the individual, marriage, family life, and community) emphasizes the importance of assessment before intervention. The family physician can offer support, facilitate communication, make specific suggestions, intervene in crises, and make referrals. PMID:21279088

CV or Not to Be? Alternatives to U.S. Sea-Based Air Power

DTIC Science & Technology

2008-06-01

decisionmakers’ ability to respond to crises nearly anywhere in the world. Despite this, a fundamental question arises: What does the future hold for...much concentrated striking power to U.S. decisionmakers’ ability to respond to crises nearly anywhere in the world. Despite this, a fundamental ...certainties, a fundamental question arises: What does the future hold for sea-based air power? Aircraft carriers are among the military’s costliest assets

Report to the 58th World Health Assembly: Health Action in Relation to Crises and Disasters.

PubMed

2005-01-01

This Summary Report was prepared for Agenda item 13.3 for the meeting of the World Health Assembly convened at the World Health Organization (WHO) Headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland on 20 May 2005. It was in part, prepared from the Reports generaged by the Conference, Health Actions in Relation to Crises and Disasters, convened by the WHO in Phuket, Thailand, 04-06 May 2005.

The Impact of Economic Crises on Women's Employment: A Comparison of the Great Depression (1930s) and the Current Crisis (1970s-1980s).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sokoloff, Natalie J.

Two areas in which the impact of economic crises on women's employment in the Great Depression of 1930 and during the 1970's and 1980's appear to be similar are examined: (1) the actual changes in female employment; and (2) the ideological campaigns and policies generated and/or reinforced, especially by the federal government, blaming women for…

Early Life Crises of Habitable Planets

ScienceCinema

Pierrehumbert, Raymond

2018-05-11

There are a number of crises that a potentially habitable planet must avoid or surmount if its potential is to be realized. These include the runaway greenhouse, loss of atmosphere by chemical or physical processes, and long-lasting global glaciation. In this lecture I will present research on the climate dynamics governing such processes, with particular emphasis on the lessons to be learned from the cases of Early Mars and the Neoproterozoic Snowball Earth.

Erythropoietin in sickle cell disease: relation of erythropoietin levels to crisis and other complications.

PubMed

Haddy, T B

1982-01-01

Erythropoietin responsible for the hormonal regulation of red blood cell production. Its formation is largely controlled by the kidneys. A number of assay methods for erythropoietin are available. Asymptomatic patients with sickle cell disease have elevated erythropoietin levels, as expected with chronic hemolysis. When complicated by chronic renal failure, erythropoietin levels do not rise appropriately. Chronic infection has not been studied, but the erythropoietin response in acute infection does not seem to conform to a pattern. Aplastic crises are characterized by very high levels of erythropoietin, suggesting bone marrow suppression, but events that trigger the crises remain obscure. In vaso-occlusive crises, there is also some suggestion of mild and transient lack of bone marrow response. Patients with sickle cell disease, with their chronic high erythropoietin anemia and susceptibility to altered states, are uniquely suited for investigating the physiology of erythropoietin, especially under the constraints of present assay methods.

Intranasal dexmedetomidine for adrenergic crisis in familial dysautonomia.

PubMed

Spalink, Christy L; Barnes, Erin; Palma, Jose-Alberto; Norcliffe-Kaufmann, Lucy; Kaufmann, Horacio

2017-08-01

To report the use of intranasal dexmedetomidine, an α 2 -adrenergic agonist for the acute treatment of refractory adrenergic crisis in patients with familial dysautonomia. Case series. Three patients with genetically confirmed familial dysautonomia (case 1: 20-year-old male; case 2: 43-year-old male; case 3: 26-year-old female) received intranasal dexmedetomidine 2 mcg/kg, half of the dose in each nostril, for the acute treatment of adrenergic crisis. Within 8-17 min of administering the intranasal dose, the adrenergic crisis symptoms abated, and blood pressure and heart rate returned to pre-crises values. Adrenergic crises eventually resumed, and all three patients required hospitalization for investigation of the cause of the crises. Intranasal dexmedetomidine is a feasible and safe acute treatment for adrenergic crisis in patients with familial dysautonomia. Further controlled studies are required to confirm the safety and efficacy in this population.

Drugs for preventing red blood cell dehydration in people with sickle cell disease.

PubMed

Nagalla, Srikanth; Ballas, Samir K

2016-03-04

Sickle cell disease is an inherited disorder of hemoglobin, resulting in abnormal red blood cells. These are rigid and may block blood vessels leading to acute painful crises and other complications. Recent research has focused on therapies to rehydrate the sickled cells by reducing the loss of water and ions from them. Little is known about the effectiveness and safety of such drugs. This is an updated version of a previously published review. To assess the relative risks and benefits of drugs to rehydrate sickled red blood cells. We searched the Cochrane Cystic Fibrosis and Genetic Disorders Group's Haemoglobinopathies Trials Register.Last search of the Group's Trials Register: 28 November 2015. Randomized or quasi-randomized controlled trials of drugs to rehydrate sickled red blood cells compared to placebo or an alternative treatment. Both authors independently selected studies for inclusion, assessed study quality and extracted data. Of the 51 studies identified, three met the inclusion criteria. The first study tested the effectiveness of zinc sulphate to prevent sickle cell-related crises in a total of 145 participants and showed a significant reduction in painful crises over one and a half years, mean difference -2.83 (95% confidence interval -3.51 to -2.15). However, analysis was restricted due to limited statistical data. Changes to red cell parameters and blood counts were inconsistent. No serious adverse events were noted in the study.The second study was a Phase II dose-finding study of senicapoc (a Gardos channel blocker) compared to placebo. Compared to the placebo group the high dose senicapoc showed significant improvement in change in hemoglobin level, number and proportion of dense red blood cells, red blood cell count and indices and hematocrit. The results with low-dose senicapoc were similar to the high-dose senicapoc group but of lesser magnitude. There was no difference in the frequency of painful crises between the three groups. A subsequent Phase III study of senicapoc was terminated early since there was no difference observed between the treatment and control groups in the primary end point of painful crises. While the results of zinc for reducing sickle-related crises are encouraging, larger and longer-term multicenter studies are needed to evaluate the effectiveness of this therapy for people with sickle cell disease.While the Phase II and the prematurely terminated phase III studies of senicapoc showed that the drug improved red cell survival (depending on dose), this did not lead to fewer painful crises.We will continue to run searches to identify any potentially relevant trials; however, we do not plan to update other sections of the review until new trials are published.

The value of banked samples for oncology drug discovery and development.

PubMed

Shaw, Peter M; Patterson, Scott D

2011-01-01

To gain insights into human biology and pathobiology, ready access to banked human tissue samples that encompass a representative cross section of the population is required. For optimal use, the banked human tissue needs to be appropriately consented, collected, annotated, and stored. If any of these elements are missing, the studies using these samples are compromised. These elements are critical whether the research is for academic or pharmaceutical industry purposes. An additional temporal element that adds enormous value to such banked samples is treatment and outcome information from the people who donated the tissue. To achieve these aims, many different groups have to work effectively together, not least of which are the individuals who donate their tissue with appropriate consent. Such research is unlikely to benefit the donors but others who succumb to the same disease. The development of a large accessible human tissue bank resource (National Cancer Institute's Cancer HUman Biobank [caHUB]) that provides an ongoing supply of human tissue for all working toward the common goal of understanding human health and disease has a number of advantages. These include, but are not limited to, access to a broad cross section of healthy and diseased populations beyond what individual collections may achieve for understanding disease pathobiology, therapeutic target discovery, as well as a source of material for diagnostic assay validation. Models will need to be developed to enable fair access to caHUB under terms that enable appropriate intellectual property protection and ultimate data sharing to ensure that the biobank successfully distributes samples to a broad range of researchers.

New approaches to understanding weed seed predation in agroecosystems

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Postdispersal predation of weed seeds in arable systems can be a valuable ecosystem service, with the potential to support ecological approaches to weed management by reducing inputs to the soil seed bank. Scientific understanding of factors regulating weed seed predation rates is still insufficient...

Using multiple data sets to populate probabilistic volcanic event trees

USGS Publications Warehouse

Newhall, C.G.; Pallister, John S.

2014-01-01

The key parameters one needs to forecast outcomes of volcanic unrest are hidden kilometers beneath the Earth’s surface, and volcanic systems are so complex that there will invariably be stochastic elements in the evolution of any unrest. Fortunately, there is sufficient regularity in behaviour that some, perhaps many, eruptions can be forecast with enough certainty for populations to be evacuated and kept safe. Volcanologists charged with forecasting eruptions must try to understand each volcanic system well enough that unrest can be interpreted in terms of pre-eruptive process, but must simultaneously recognize and convey uncertainties in their assessment. We have found that use of event trees helps to focus discussion, integrate data from multiple sources, reach consensus among scientists about both pre-eruptive process and uncertainties and, in some cases, to explain all of this to officials. Figure 1 shows a generic volcanic event tree from Newhall and Hoblitt (2002) that can be modified as needed for each specific volcano. This paper reviews how we and our colleagues have used such trees during a number of volcanic crises worldwide, for rapid hazard assessments in situations in which more formal expert elicitations could not be conducted. We describe how Multiple Data Sets can be used to estimate probabilities at each node and branch. We also present case histories of probability estimation during crises, how the estimates were used by public officials, and some suggestions for future improvements.

Principles of Research Tissue Banking and Specimen Evaluation from the Pathologist's Perspective.

PubMed

McDonald, Sandra A

2010-12-01

Human tissue biorepositories have an increasingly visible and important role within industrial enterprises in supporting biomedical research, including the rapidly advancing fields of proteomics, pharmacogenomics, and molecular epidemiology. Pathologists play a vital but often underrecognized role in the operation of these tissue banks. Besides interpreting studies that arise from banked samples, pathologists are needed to characterize tissues for research, to conduct quality assurance programs, to assist with resource allocation decisions, and to serve an educational role for investigators using the tissues. This article describes these key principles and illustrates examples where pathologist involvement is crucial to biorepository management. Of overarching importance, pathologists play a critical role in helping biorepository users understand the principles of specimen evaluation (histologic and structural composition of tissues, and their limitations) so as to optimize the scientific benefit of the tissues. In conclusion, greater involvement of pathologists in research tissue banking will enhance the scientific utility of biorepositories.

Factors associated with the use of cognitive aids in operating room crises: a cross-sectional study of US hospitals and ambulatory surgical centers.

PubMed

Alidina, Shehnaz; Goldhaber-Fiebert, Sara N; Hannenberg, Alexander A; Hepner, David L; Singer, Sara J; Neville, Bridget A; Sachetta, James R; Lipsitz, Stuart R; Berry, William R

2018-03-26

Operating room (OR) crises are high-acuity events requiring rapid, coordinated management. Medical judgment and decision-making can be compromised in stressful situations, and clinicians may not experience a crisis for many years. A cognitive aid (e.g., checklist) for the most common types of crises in the OR may improve management during unexpected and rare events. While implementation strategies for innovations such as cognitive aids for routine use are becoming better understood, cognitive aids that are rarely used are not yet well understood. We examined organizational context and implementation process factors influencing the use of cognitive aids for OR crises. We conducted a cross-sectional study using a Web-based survey of individuals who had downloaded OR cognitive aids from the websites of Ariadne Labs or Stanford University between January 2013 and January 2016. In this paper, we report on the experience of 368 respondents from US hospitals and ambulatory surgical centers. We analyzed the relationship of more successful implementation (measured as reported regular cognitive aid use during applicable clinical events) with organizational context and with participation in a multi-step implementation process. We used multivariable logistic regression to identify significant predictors of reported, regular OR cognitive aid use during OR crises. In the multivariable logistic regression, small facility size was associated with a fourfold increase in the odds of a facility reporting more successful implementation (p = 0.0092). Completing more implementation steps was also significantly associated with more successful implementation; each implementation step completed was associated with just over 50% higher odds of more successful implementation (p ≤ 0.0001). More successful implementation was associated with leadership support (p < 0.0001) and dedicated time to train staff (p = 0.0189). Less successful implementation was associated with resistance among clinical providers to using cognitive aids (p < 0.0001), absence of an implementation champion (p = 0.0126), and unsatisfactory content or design of the cognitive aid (p = 0.0112). Successful implementation of cognitive aids in ORs was associated with a supportive organizational context and following a multi-step implementation process. Building strong organizational support and following a well-planned multi-step implementation process will likely increase the use of OR cognitive aids during intraoperative crises, which may improve patient outcomes.

Identifying States of a Financial Market

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Münnix, Michael C.; Shimada, Takashi; Schäfer, Rudi; Leyvraz, Francois; Seligman, Thomas H.; Guhr, Thomas; Stanley, H. Eugene

2012-09-01

The understanding of complex systems has become a central issue because such systems exist in a wide range of scientific disciplines. We here focus on financial markets as an example of a complex system. In particular we analyze financial data from the S&P 500 stocks in the 19-year period 1992-2010. We propose a definition of state for a financial market and use it to identify points of drastic change in the correlation structure. These points are mapped to occurrences of financial crises. We find that a wide variety of characteristic correlation structure patterns exist in the observation time window, and that these characteristic correlation structure patterns can be classified into several typical ``market states''. Using this classification we recognize transitions between different market states. A similarity measure we develop thus affords means of understanding changes in states and of recognizing developments not previously seen.

Identifying states of a financial market.

PubMed

Münnix, Michael C; Shimada, Takashi; Schäfer, Rudi; Leyvraz, Francois; Seligman, Thomas H; Guhr, Thomas; Stanley, H Eugene

2012-01-01

The understanding of complex systems has become a central issue because such systems exist in a wide range of scientific disciplines. We here focus on financial markets as an example of a complex system. In particular we analyze financial data from the S&P 500 stocks in the 19-year period 1992-2010. We propose a definition of state for a financial market and use it to identify points of drastic change in the correlation structure. These points are mapped to occurrences of financial crises. We find that a wide variety of characteristic correlation structure patterns exist in the observation time window, and that these characteristic correlation structure patterns can be classified into several typical "market states". Using this classification we recognize transitions between different market states. A similarity measure we develop thus affords means of understanding changes in states and of recognizing developments not previously seen.

Confronting the coral reef crisis.

PubMed

Bellwood, D R; Hughes, T P; Folke, C; Nyström, M

2004-06-24

The worldwide decline of coral reefs calls for an urgent reassessment of current management practices. Confronting large-scale crises requires a major scaling-up of management efforts based on an improved understanding of the ecological processes that underlie reef resilience. Managing for improved resilience, incorporating the role of human activity in shaping ecosystems, provides a basis for coping with uncertainty, future changes and ecological surprises. Here we review the ecological roles of critical functional groups (for both corals and reef fishes) that are fundamental to understanding resilience and avoiding phase shifts from coral dominance to less desirable, degraded ecosystems. We identify striking biogeographic differences in the species richness and composition of functional groups, which highlight the vulnerability of Caribbean reef ecosystems. These findings have profound implications for restoration of degraded reefs, management of fisheries, and the focus on marine protected areas and biodiversity hotspots as priorities for conservation.

Impact of Jos Crises on Pattern of Students/Teachers' Population in Schools and Its Implication on the Quality of Teaching and Peaceful Co-Existence in Nigeria

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jacob, Sunday

2015-01-01

This study examined the pattern of students/teachers' population in schools as a result of the crises witnessed in Jos and its consequences on quality of teaching as well as peaceful living in Jos. Stratified simple random sampling technique was used to select the 18 schools that were used for this study. Questionnaire was used to collect…

[Womanhood today--identity experiences and identity crises].

PubMed

Kast, V

1985-01-01

Modern women's identity crises and the various possibilities of identification along the way towards a new identity can be seen as her attempts to develop out of the depressive situation that her once normal role identity had, to a large extent, placed her in. Under this aspect, even concepts of living that are seen by many to be problematic can be justified as leading along the way towards identity, which is so essential for human relationships and interpersonal empathy.

The Emergence of Contextual Social Psychology.

PubMed

Pettigrew, Thomas F

2018-07-01

Social psychology experiences recurring so-called "crises." This article maintains that these episodes actually mark advances in the discipline; these "crises" have enhanced relevance and led to greater methodological and statistical sophistication. New statistical tools have allowed social psychologists to begin to achieve a major goal: placing psychological phenomena in their larger social contexts. This growing trend is illustrated with numerous recent studies; they demonstrate how cultures and social norms moderate basic psychological processes. Contextual social psychology is finally emerging.

Interventions by Virginia's colleges to respond to student mental health crises.

PubMed

Monahan, John; Bonnie, Richard J; Davis, Susan M; Flynn, Christopher

2011-12-01

This study examined interventions by colleges in 2008-2009 to respond to students during mental health crises. Public (N=15) and private (N=25) four-year colleges and two-year community colleges (N=23) in Virginia were surveyed about academic policies governing responses to apparent mental health crises among students and how often they were invoked. Procedures used most often by public and private colleges, respectively, were parental notification (six and 25 per 10,000 students); voluntary medical withdrawal, usually linking readmission to treatment (29 and 25 per 10,000 students); mandatory treatment following disciplinary sanction (302 and 1,704 per 10,000 students); and monitoring by a campus threat assessment team (15 and 51 per 10,000 students). Procedures for involuntary hospitalization and involuntary medical withdrawal were rarely invoked. Community colleges were much less likely than four-year colleges to use any of these procedures. Most four-year colleges in Virginia, both public and private, occasionally invoke a variety of protective interventions to respond to apparent mental health crises experienced by students, but the number of students annually affected by these policies is generally small. The main value of procedures for mandated or leveraged treatment in college may be to motivate students with mental illness to seek treatment voluntarily. Aside from sporadic use of threat assessment teams in extreme instances, community colleges, which do not have counseling centers, lack the capacity to undertake these interventions.

Crises in clinical care: an approach to management.

PubMed

Runciman, W B; Merry, A F

2005-06-01

A "crisis" in health care is "the point in the course of a disease at which a decisive change occurs, leading either to recovery or to death". The daunting challenges faced by clinicians when confronted with a crisis are illustrated by a tragic case in which a teenage boy died after a minor surgical procedure. Crises are challenging for reasons which include: presentation with non-specific signs or symptoms, interaction of complex factors, progressive evolution, new situations, "revenge effects", inadequate assistance, and time constraints. In crises, clinicians often experience anxiety- and overload-induced performance degradation, tend to use "frequency gambling", run out of "rules" and have to work from first principles, and are prone to "confirmation bias". The effective management of crises requires formal training, usually simulator-based, and ideally in the inter-professional groups who will need to function as a team. "COVER ABCD-A SWIFT CHECK" is a pre-compiled algorithm which can be applied quickly and effectively to facilitate a systematic and effective response to the wide range of potentially lethal problems which may occur suddenly in anaesthesia. A set of 25 articles describing additional pre-compiled responses collated into a manual for the management of any crisis under anaesthesia has been published electronically as companion papers to this article. This approach to crisis management should be applied to other areas of clinical medicine as well as anaesthesia.

Optimization of informed consent for umbilical cord blood banking.

PubMed

Sugarman, Jeremy; Kurtzberg, Joanne; Box, Tamara L; Horner, Ronnie D

2002-12-01

The purpose of this project was to evaluate the informed consent process for donation to a public umbilical cord blood bank. Telephone interviews were conducted with 170 women who had given consent to donate their newborn infants' umbilical cord blood. Of the 170 women who were contacted, 96.8% of the women reported that all their questions had been answered. Nevertheless, approximately one third of the respondents did not consider themselves to be in research, and almost one quarter of the respondents did not know how to contact the umbilical cord blood bank if they or their infant became seriously ill. Further, a substantial proportion of the respondents did not understand the full range of alternatives to donation and incorrectly endorsed potential benefits. Informed consent could be optimized by (1) having those personnel who obtain consent emphasize that banking involves research and to explain the true benefits of donation, (2) ensuring that parents know how and when to contact the umbilical cord blood bank after donation, and (3) using phone surveys to continue assessments and to monitor changes in the process.

River bank burrowing by invasive crayfish: Spatial distribution, biophysical controls and biogeomorphic significance.

PubMed

Faller, Matej; Harvey, Gemma L; Henshaw, Alexander J; Bertoldi, Walter; Bruno, Maria Cristina; England, Judy

2016-11-01

Invasive species generate significant global environmental and economic costs and represent a particularly potent threat to freshwater systems. The biogeomorphic impacts of invasive aquatic and riparian species on river processes and landforms remain largely unquantified, but have the potential to generate significant sediment management issues within invaded catchments. Several species of invasive (non-native) crayfish are known to burrow into river banks and visual evidence of river bank damage is generating public concern and media attention. Despite this, there is a paucity of understanding of burrow distribution, biophysical controls and the potential significance of this problem beyond a small number of local studies at heavily impacted sites. This paper presents the first multi-catchment analysis of this phenomenon, combining existing data on biophysical river properties and invasive crayfish observations with purpose-designed field surveys across 103 river reaches to derive key trends. Crayfish burrows were observed on the majority of reaches, but burrowing tended to be patchy in spatial distribution, concentrated in a small proportion (<10%) of the length of rivers surveyed. Burrow distribution was better explained by local bank biophysical properties than by reach-scale properties, and burrowed banks were more likely to be characterised by cohesive bank material, steeper bank profiles with large areas of bare bank face, often on outer bend locations. Burrow excavation alone has delivered a considerable amount of sediment to invaded river systems in the surveyed sites (3tkm(-1) impacted bank) and this represents a minimum contribution and certainly an underestimate of the absolute yield (submerged burrows were not recorded). Furthermore, burrowing was associated with bank profiles that were either actively eroding or exposed to fluvial action and/or mass failure processes, providing the first quantitative evidence that invasive crayfish may cause or accelerate river bank instability and erosion in invaded catchments beyond the scale of individual burrows. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

[Political crises in Africa and infant and child mortality].

PubMed

Garenne, M

1997-01-01

Many African countries experienced severe political crises after independence, and in a number of cases the crises had significant demographic consequences, especially for child mortality. Data based on maternity histories allowed the reconstruction of child mortality trends over the past 20-30 years in Uganda, Ghana, Rwanda, Madagascar, and Mozambique. The indicator used was the child mortality quotient (number of deaths of under-5 children per 1000 births). Uganda's child mortality declined from 227/1000 in 1960 to 154/1000 in 1970, but the trend was reversed in 1971, when Idi Amin Dada came to power, and the rate reached 204/1000 in 1982 before beginning to decline again. The level of mortality remained high, however, and was still 160/1000 in 1988. Ghana suffered a political and economic crisis during 1979-84. Child mortality rose from 130/1000 in 1978 to 175/1000 in 1983. Mortality rates began a rapid decline after structural adjustment programs were begun, possibly due to improved management of health services. The child mortality rate in Rwanda increased from around 220/1000 in 1960 to 240/1000 in 1975, before beginning a decline in the late 1970s that reached 140/1000 by 1990. The period of political stability and relative prosperity during the 15-year reign of Juvenal Habyarimana was associated with the decline. Political crises marked by student and peasant uprisings were associated with Madagascar's child mortality rate increase from about 145/1000 in 1960 to 185/1000 in 1985. Mozambique was beset by civil war after independence, in which destruction of the health infrastructure was a strategy. The child mortality rate increased from 270/1000 to 470/1000 between 1975 and 1986, a peak war year. The factors by which political crises affect mortality so profoundly remain to be explained, but particular attention should be given to studying the health sector.

Effectiveness of Mechanisms and Models of Coordination between Organizations, Agencies and Bodies Providing or Financing Health Services in Humanitarian Crises: A Systematic Review.

PubMed

Akl, Elie A; El-Jardali, Fadi; Bou Karroum, Lama; El-Eid, Jamale; Brax, Hneine; Akik, Chaza; Osman, Mona; Hassan, Ghayda; Itani, Mira; Farha, Aida; Pottie, Kevin; Oliver, Sandy

2015-01-01

Effective coordination between organizations, agencies and bodies providing or financing health services in humanitarian crises is required to ensure efficiency of services, avoid duplication, and improve equity. The objective of this review was to assess how, during and after humanitarian crises, different mechanisms and models of coordination between organizations, agencies and bodies providing or financing health services compare in terms of access to health services and health outcomes. We registered a protocol for this review in PROSPERO International prospective register of systematic reviews under number PROSPERO2014:CRD42014009267. Eligible studies included randomized and nonrandomized designs, process evaluations and qualitative methods. We electronically searched Medline, PubMed, EMBASE, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, CINAHL, PsycINFO, and the WHO Global Health Library and websites of relevant organizations. We followed standard systematic review methodology for the selection, data abstraction, and risk of bias assessment. We assessed the quality of evidence using the GRADE approach. Of 14,309 identified citations from databases and organizations' websites, we identified four eligible studies. Two studies used mixed-methods, one used quantitative methods, and one used qualitative methods. The available evidence suggests that information coordination between bodies providing health services in humanitarian crises settings may be effective in improving health systems inputs. There is additional evidence suggesting that management/directive coordination such as the cluster model may improve health system inputs in addition to access to health services. None of the included studies assessed coordination through common representation and framework coordination. The evidence was judged to be of very low quality. This systematic review provides evidence of possible effectiveness of information coordination and management/directive coordination between organizations, agencies and bodies providing or financing health services in humanitarian crises. Our findings can inform the research agenda and highlight the need for improving conduct and reporting of research in this field.

A long way to go: a systematic review to assess the utilisation of sexual and reproductive health services during humanitarian crises.

PubMed

Singh, Neha S; Aryasinghe, Sarindi; Smith, James; Khosla, Rajat; Say, Lale; Blanchet, Karl

2018-01-01

Women and girls are affected significantly in both sudden and slow-onset emergencies, and face multiple sexual and reproductive health (SRH) challenges in humanitarian crises contexts. There are an estimated 26 million women and girls of reproductive age living in humanitarian crises settings, all of whom need access to SRH information and services. This systematic review aimed to assess the utilisation of services of SRH interventions from the onset of emergencies in low- and middle-income countries. We searched for both quantitative and qualitative studies in peer-reviewed journals across the following four databases: EMBASE, Global Health, MEDLINE and PsychINFO from 1 January 1980 to 10 April 2017. Primary outcomes of interest included self-reported use and/or confirmed use of the Minimum Initial Service Package services and abortion services. Two authors independently extracted and analysed data from published papers on the effect of SRH interventions on a range of SRH care utilisation outcomes from the onset of emergencies, and used a narrative synthesis approach. Of the 2404 identified citations, 23 studies met the inclusion criteria. 52.1% of the studies (n=12) used quasi-experimental study designs, which provided some statistical measure of difference between intervention and outcome. 39.1% of the studies (n=9) selected were graded as high quality, 39.1% moderate quality (n=9) and 17.4% low quality (n=4). Evidence of effectiveness in increasing service utilisation was available for the following interventions: peer-led and interpersonal education and mass media campaigns, community-based programming and three-tiered network of community-based reproductive and maternal health providers. Despite increased attention to SRH service provision in humanitarian crises settings, the evidence base is still very limited. More implementation research is required to identify interventions to increase utilisation of SRH services in diverse humanitarian crises settings and populations.

Effectiveness of Mechanisms and Models of Coordination between Organizations, Agencies and Bodies Providing or Financing Health Services in Humanitarian Crises: A Systematic Review

PubMed Central

Akl, Elie A.; El-Jardali, Fadi; Bou Karroum, Lama; El-Eid, Jamale; Brax, Hneine; Akik, Chaza; Osman, Mona; Hassan, Ghayda; Itani, Mira; Farha, Aida; Pottie, Kevin; Oliver, Sandy

2015-01-01

Background Effective coordination between organizations, agencies and bodies providing or financing health services in humanitarian crises is required to ensure efficiency of services, avoid duplication, and improve equity. The objective of this review was to assess how, during and after humanitarian crises, different mechanisms and models of coordination between organizations, agencies and bodies providing or financing health services compare in terms of access to health services and health outcomes. Methods We registered a protocol for this review in PROSPERO International prospective register of systematic reviews under number PROSPERO2014:CRD42014009267. Eligible studies included randomized and nonrandomized designs, process evaluations and qualitative methods. We electronically searched Medline, PubMed, EMBASE, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, CINAHL, PsycINFO, and the WHO Global Health Library and websites of relevant organizations. We followed standard systematic review methodology for the selection, data abstraction, and risk of bias assessment. We assessed the quality of evidence using the GRADE approach. Results Of 14,309 identified citations from databases and organizations' websites, we identified four eligible studies. Two studies used mixed-methods, one used quantitative methods, and one used qualitative methods. The available evidence suggests that information coordination between bodies providing health services in humanitarian crises settings may be effective in improving health systems inputs. There is additional evidence suggesting that management/directive coordination such as the cluster model may improve health system inputs in addition to access to health services. None of the included studies assessed coordination through common representation and framework coordination. The evidence was judged to be of very low quality. Conclusion This systematic review provides evidence of possible effectiveness of information coordination and management/directive coordination between organizations, agencies and bodies providing or financing health services in humanitarian crises. Our findings can inform the research agenda and highlight the need for improving conduct and reporting of research in this field. PMID:26332670

A long way to go: a systematic review to assess the utilisation of sexual and reproductive health services during humanitarian crises

PubMed Central

Aryasinghe, Sarindi; Smith, James; Khosla, Rajat; Say, Lale; Blanchet, Karl

2018-01-01

Introduction Women and girls are affected significantly in both sudden and slow-onset emergencies, and face multiple sexual and reproductive health (SRH) challenges in humanitarian crises contexts. There are an estimated 26 million women and girls of reproductive age living in humanitarian crises settings, all of whom need access to SRH information and services. This systematic review aimed to assess the utilisation of services of SRH interventions from the onset of emergencies in low- and middle-income countries. Methods We searched for both quantitative and qualitative studies in peer-reviewed journals across the following four databases: EMBASE, Global Health, MEDLINE and PsychINFO from 1 January 1980 to 10 April 2017. Primary outcomes of interest included self-reported use and/or confirmed use of the Minimum Initial Service Package services and abortion services. Two authors independently extracted and analysed data from published papers on the effect of SRH interventions on a range of SRH care utilisation outcomes from the onset of emergencies, and used a narrative synthesis approach. Results Of the 2404 identified citations, 23 studies met the inclusion criteria. 52.1% of the studies (n=12) used quasi-experimental study designs, which provided some statistical measure of difference between intervention and outcome. 39.1% of the studies (n=9) selected were graded as high quality, 39.1% moderate quality (n=9) and 17.4% low quality (n=4). Evidence of effectiveness in increasing service utilisation was available for the following interventions: peer-led and interpersonal education and mass media campaigns, community-based programming and three-tiered network of community-based reproductive and maternal health providers. Conclusions Despite increased attention to SRH service provision in humanitarian crises settings, the evidence base is still very limited. More implementation research is required to identify interventions to increase utilisation of SRH services in diverse humanitarian crises settings and populations. PMID:29736272

Hospital admissions for hypertensive crisis in the emergency departments: a large multicenter Italian study.

PubMed

Pinna, Giuliano; Pascale, Claudio; Fornengo, Paolo; Arras, Sebastiana; Piras, Carmela; Panzarasa, Pietro; Carmosino, Gianpaolo; Franza, Orietta; Semeraro, Vincenzo; Lenti, Salvatore; Pietrelli, Susanna; Panzone, Sergio; Bracco, Christian; Fiorini, Roberto; Rastelli, Giovanni; Bergandi, Daniela; Zampaglione, Bruno; Musso, Roberto; Marengo, Claudio; Santoro, Giancarlo; Zamboni, Sergio; Traversa, Barbara; Barattini, Maddalena; Bruno, Graziella

2014-01-01

Epidemiological data on the impact of hypertensive crises (emergencies and urgencies) on referral to the Emergency Departments (EDs) are lacking, in spite of the evidence that they may be life-threatening conditions. We performed a multicenter study to identify all patients aged 18 years and over who were admitted to 10 Italian EDs during 2009 for hypertensive crises (systolic blood pressure ≥220 mmHg and/or diastolic blood pressure ≥120 mmHg). We classified patients as affected by either hypertensive emergencies or hypertensive urgencies depending on the presence or the absence of progressive target organ damage, respectively. Logistic regression analysis was then performed to assess variables independently associated with hypertensive emergencies with respect to hypertensive urgencies. Of 333,407 patients admitted to the EDs over the one-year period, 1,546 had hypertensive crises (4.6/1,000, 95% CI 4.4-4.9), and 23% of them had unknown hypertension. Hypertensive emergencies (n = 391, 25.3% of hypertensive crises) were acute pulmonary edema (30.9%), stroke (22.0%,), myocardial infarction (17.9%), acute aortic dissection (7.9%), acute renal failure (5.9%) and hypertensive encephalopathy (4.9%). Men had higher frequency than women of unknown hypertension (27.9% vs 18.5%, p<0.001). Even among known hypertensive patients, a larger proportion of men than women reported not taking anti-hypertensive drug (12.6% among men and 9.4% among women (p<0.001). Compared to women of similar age, men had higher likelihood of having hypertensive emergencies than urgencies (OR = 1.34, 95% CI 1.06-1.70), independently of presenting symptoms, creatinine, smoking habit and known hypertension. This study shows that hypertensive crises involved almost 5 out of 1,000 patients-year admitted to EDs. Sex differences in frequencies of unknown hypertension, compliance to treatment and risk of hypertensive emergencies might have implications for public health programs.

Hospital Admissions for Hypertensive Crisis in the Emergency Departments: A Large Multicenter Italian Study

PubMed Central

Pinna, Giuliano; Pascale, Claudio; Fornengo, Paolo; Arras, Sebastiana; Piras, Carmela; Panzarasa, Pietro; Carmosino, Gianpaolo; Franza, Orietta; Semeraro, Vincenzo; Lenti, Salvatore; Pietrelli, Susanna; Panzone, Sergio; Bracco, Christian; Fiorini, Roberto; Rastelli, Giovanni; Bergandi, Daniela; Zampaglione, Bruno; Musso, Roberto; Marengo, Claudio; Santoro, Giancarlo; Zamboni, Sergio; Traversa, Barbara; Barattini, Maddalena; Bruno, Graziella

2014-01-01

Epidemiological data on the impact of hypertensive crises (emergencies and urgencies) on referral to the Emergency Departments (EDs) are lacking, in spite of the evidence that they may be life-threatening conditions. We performed a multicenter study to identify all patients aged 18 years and over who were admitted to 10 Italian EDs during 2009 for hypertensive crises (systolic blood pressure ≥220 mmHg and/or diastolic blood pressure ≥120 mmHg). We classified patients as affected by either hypertensive emergencies or hypertensive urgencies depending on the presence or the absence of progressive target organ damage, respectively. Logistic regression analysis was then performed to assess variables independently associated with hypertensive emergencies with respect to hypertensive urgencies. Of 333,407 patients admitted to the EDs over the one-year period, 1,546 had hypertensive crises (4.6/1,000, 95% CI 4.4–4.9), and 23% of them had unknown hypertension. Hypertensive emergencies (n = 391, 25.3% of hypertensive crises) were acute pulmonary edema (30.9%), stroke (22.0%,), myocardial infarction (17.9%), acute aortic dissection (7.9%), acute renal failure (5.9%) and hypertensive encephalopathy (4.9%). Men had higher frequency than women of unknown hypertension (27.9% vs 18.5%, p<0.001). Even among known hypertensive patients, a larger proportion of men than women reported not taking anti-hypertensive drug (12.6% among men and 9.4% among women (p<0.001). Compared to women of similar age, men had higher likelihood of having hypertensive emergencies than urgencies (OR = 1.34, 95% CI 1.06–1.70), independently of presenting symptoms, creatinine, smoking habit and known hypertension. This study shows that hypertensive crises involved almost 5 out of 1,000 patients-year admitted to EDs. Sex differences in frequencies of unknown hypertension, compliance to treatment and risk of hypertensive emergencies might have implications for public health programs. PMID:24695800

[Adolescent crises in puberty. Diagnosis and therapy (author's transl)].

PubMed

Müller-Küppers, M

1979-08-24

Psychological disorders which become manifest as adolescent crises must be seen as complex phenomena and treated thoroughly: besides the genetic, biographic and psychosocial background of the youthful individual the cultural and economic aspects play an important role. Nevertheless we must admit that associated causal explanations, e.g. for accelerated or late development are lacking. Focal points for the subsequent symptom complexes of sexual behavior in puberty are: psychosexual prematurity or retardation, masturbation, homosexual relations, pubertal asceticism and premature and frequently changing sexual relations.

[Hypertensive crisis in kidney patients].

PubMed

Scrivano, Jacopo; Giuliani, Anna; Pettorini, Laura; Punzo, Giorgio; Mene', Paolo; Pirozzi, Nicola

2011-01-01

The classification and management of hypertensive crisis have been recently reviewed in the context of both European and American guidelines. The key points for proper blood pressure control in severe arterial hypertension are: 1 - Distinction between urgent intervention and emergencies 2 - Choice of the best drug(s) 3 - Choice of the correct route of administration. In patients with renal disease, beside the common causes of hypertension/ hypertensive crises, kidney-specific causes should be taken into account such as renal parenchymal hypertension, renovascular hypertension, sclerodermic crises, and preeclampsia.

The Susan G. Komen for the Cure Tissue Bank at the IU Simon Cancer Center: a unique resource for defining the "molecular histology" of the breast.

PubMed

Sherman, Mark E; Figueroa, Jonine D; Henry, Jill E; Clare, Susan E; Rufenbarger, Connie; Storniolo, Anna Maria

2012-04-01

"Molecular histology" of the breast may be conceptualized as encompassing the normative ranges of histologic structure and marker expression in normal breast tissues in relation to a woman's age and life experiences. Studies of molecular histology can aid our understanding of early events in breast carcinogenesis and provide data for comparison with diseased breast tissues. Until recently, lack of epidemiologically annotated, optimally prepared normal breast tissues obtained from healthy women presented a barrier to breast cancer research. The Komen Tissue Bank at Indiana University (Indianapolis, IN) is a unique biorepository that was developed to overcome this limitation. The Bank enrolls healthy donors who provide questionnaire data, blood, and up to four breast biopsies, which are prepared as both formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded and frozen tissues. The resource is accessible to researchers worldwide through a proposal submission, review, and approval process. As of November 2010, the Bank had collected specimens and information from 1,174 donors. In this review, we discuss the importance of studying normal breast tissues, assess the strengths and limitations of studying normal tissues obtained from different sources, and summarize the features of the Komen Tissue Bank. As research projects are completed, results will be posted on the Bank's website. 2012 AACR

Combining Field and Laboratory Experiments in Order to Understand Interactions Between Flow, Sediment, Vegetation And Bank Erosion in Riparian Rehabilitation Works

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rodriguez, J. F.; Gorrick, S.; Kalma, J.; Cook, N.; Outhet, D.; Raine, A.

2005-12-01

Riparian lands are important for maintaining viable ecosystems, improving water quality and reducing sediment yields. Yet, riparian lands are frequently neglected, degraded and poorly managed. In many Australian riverine zones clearing or grazing of native riparian vegetation has resulted in varying degrees of erosion, sedimentation and degradation of aquatic ecosystems. Reintroducing riparian vegetation is one of the preferred methods for improving bank stability, reducing bank erosion to natural rates and rehabilitating channels. The present research aims to explore how reintroduced riparian vegetation modifies the flow and sediment transport patterns and at the same time how the vegetation is affected by flow and sediment. Both field experimentation and laboratory studies will lead to basic understanding of the processes involved and will help the efficient design of plantings for riparian rehabilitation. In order to be able to reproduce the most important processes in a laboratory physical model, a field site with a relatively simple geometry has been selected for the study. The site is on a small sand bed stream in the Hunter Valley in NSW. The reach has a large radius bend with no riparian vegetation on the outer bank, where erosion occurs periodically. Reintroduction of vegetation is planned for October 2005, with pre and post monitoring stages running from March 2005 to August 2008. Laboratory physical modelling based on field characteristics and with varying flow discharges and plant arrangement will provide information to help develop, adapt and test quantitative models of flow dynamics, sediment transport and bank erosion incorporating the effects of vegetation. These results can then be used by river managers when they are developing rehabilitation strategies.

Organizational crisis management: the human factor.

PubMed

Lewis, Gerald

2005-01-01

While many professionals are quite competent when dealing with operational aspects of organizational continuity, often the "human factor" does not receive adequate attention. This article provides a brief overview of a soon to be published book by the same title. It provides a comprehensive understanding of the ubiquitous yet complex reactions of the workforce to a wide array of organizational disruptions. It goes beyond the short term intervention of debriefings to describe the more extensive pre and post incident strategies required to mitigate the impact of crises on the workforce. It is important to remember: "An organization can get its phone lines back up and have its computers backed up...but its workers may still be messed up."

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Piette, Mary Ann

California needs new, responsive, demand-side energy technologies to ensure that periods of tight electricity supply on the grid don't turn into power outages. Led by Berkeley Lab's Mary Ann Piette, the California Energy Commission (through its Public Interest Energy Research Program) has established a Demand Response Research Center that addresses two motivations for adopting demand responsiveness: reducing average electricity prices and preventing future electricity crises. The research seeks to understand factors that influence "what works" in Demand Response. Piette's team is investigating the two types of demand response, load response and price response, that may influence and reduce the usemore » of peak electric power through automated controls, peak pricing, advanced communications, and other strategies.« less

Manifesto of computational social science

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Conte, R.; Gilbert, N.; Bonelli, G.; Cioffi-Revilla, C.; Deffuant, G.; Kertesz, J.; Loreto, V.; Moat, S.; Nadal, J.-P.; Sanchez, A.; Nowak, A.; Flache, A.; San Miguel, M.; Helbing, D.

2012-11-01

The increasing integration of technology into our lives has created unprecedented volumes of data on society's everyday behaviour. Such data opens up exciting new opportunities to work towards a quantitative understanding of our complex social systems, within the realms of a new discipline known as Computational Social Science. Against a background of financial crises, riots and international epidemics, the urgent need for a greater comprehension of the complexity of our interconnected global society and an ability to apply such insights in policy decisions is clear. This manifesto outlines the objectives of this new scientific direction, considering the challenges involved in it, and the extensive impact on science, technology and society that the success of this endeavour is likely to bring about.

Saving Power at Peak Hours (LBNL Science at the Theater)

ScienceCinema

Piette, Mary Ann [Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)

2018-05-23

California needs new, responsive, demand-side energy technologies to ensure that periods of tight electricity supply on the grid don't turn into power outages. Led by Berkeley Lab's Mary Ann Piette, the California Energy Commission (through its Public Interest Energy Research Program) has established a Demand Response Research Center that addresses two motivations for adopting demand responsiveness: reducing average electricity prices and preventing future electricity crises. The research seeks to understand factors that influence "what works" in Demand Response. Piette's team is investigating the two types of demand response, load response and price response, that may influence and reduce the use of peak electric power through automated controls, peak pricing, advanced communications, and other strategies.

The relationship between population ageing and the economic growth in Asia

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Brendan, Lo Rick; Sek, Siok Kun

2017-08-01

Asia has witnessed robust economic growth since the 1960s. Today, emerging markets in Asia have managed to maintain rapid growth even when the world's main economies suffer from debt and banking crises. However, declining total fertility rate, increasing life expectancy, continuous change of birth and death patterns, and increasing share of old age population in the age distribution in Asia exert significant pressure on its economies. This paper analyses the relationship between population ageing and economic growth using 2 different panels of countries; one Asian and another the from the oldest countries worldwide between 1970 and 2014. The analysis is based on the Auto Regression Distributed Lag models. The MG (Mean Group) and PMG (Pooled Mean Group) estimations are applied in this analysis. The Hausman Test is conducted to decide between the MG and PMG estimators. We find that ageing will negatively affect the economy in the long run. The growing number of youths will initially have a negative effect on the economy but would eventually lead to a positive growth in the future. The old age dependency ratio has yet to have affect the Asian economy but is expected eventually to impose a negative effect as seen in the oldest nations of the world.

Comparing Consumer Resistance to Mobile Banking in Finland and Portugal

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Laukkanen, Tommi; Cruz, Pedro

This study compares two distinct European countries namely Finland and Portugal in terms of consumer resistance to mobile banking services. We explored how the five adoption barriers namely usage, value, risk, tradition and image, derived from the earlier literature, differ between these two countries. Using an Internet questionnaire a total of 3.597 usable responses was collected. A confirmatory factor analysis was implemented with SEM to build the constructs’ latent score levels. Using non-parametric difference tests we concluded that the resistance is significantly lower among the Portuguese online bank customers in terms of four out of the five barriers. The results can be used for a better understanding and enhancement of adoption of this specific case of mobile communication.

Andean settlers rush for Amazonia.

PubMed

Serra-vega, J

1990-01-01

Governments of Andean countries (Peru, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, and Venezuela) have encouraged migration to the Amazon Basin, which has contributed to its destruction. Population pressure, landlessness, and poverty are the inducements to migrate. Efforts to populate the Amazon forest were begun as early as 1964 in Peru without international notice. By 1980, logging was allowed in Peru, and Brazil considered colonization of the Amazon essential to national sovereignty. By 1986, outside of Lima, Peru, a development project originally funded by the World Bank, the InterAmerican Development Bank, and the US, resulted in conflicts between settlers and Indians, in loggers indiscriminately cutting, and in farmers using slash and burn techniques to clear forests. Elsewhere the Peruvian Amazon, in San Ignacio, the population was growing by 5.5%/year. The jungle road that had been started but never completed, Carretera Marginal, destroyed 5 million hectares of primary forest, and much of the 600,000 hectares of arable land gained by the road suffered from inappropriate farming practices which caused massive erosion and laterization of the soils. Food crop production declined, and production of coca for cocaine increased. Coca crops are controlled by the Shining Path guerrillas, who are trying to overthrow the Peruvian government. Devastation of Ecuador around Lago Agrio continues. In Colombia, east of Bogota, forests have disappeared and hills have eroded and silted up rivers and dams. The Andean piedmont in Bolivia has also been devastated by loggers and by slash and burn farming. Southeastern Bolivian forests have been cleared for soya bean cultivation on poor soils. Social and economic crises propel people into the remaining forests. The solution is to ease foreign debt, transfer appropriate technology at affordable prices, refuse to finance destructive development, and help to educate and train scientific researchers. Family planning services are also urgently needed. Basic facts on population, biodiversity, the greenhouse effect, deforestation, roads, iron, gold, and Indians is provided.

Simultaneous Visualization of Different Utility Networks for Disaster Management

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Semm, S.; Becker, T.; Kolbe, T. H.

2012-07-01

Cartographic visualizations of crises are used to create a Common Operational Picture (COP) and enforce Situational Awareness by presenting and representing relevant information. As nearly all crises affect geospatial entities, geo-data representations have to support location-specific decision-making throughout the crises. Since, Operator's attention span and their working memory are limiting factors for the process of getting and interpreting information; the cartographic presentation has to support individuals in coordinating their activities and with handling highly dynamic situations. The Situational Awareness of operators in conjunction with a COP are key aspects of the decision making process and essential for coming to appropriate decisions. Utility networks are one of the most complex and most needed systems within a city. The visualization of utility infrastructure in crisis situations is addressed in this paper. The paper will provide a conceptual approach on how to simplify, aggregate, and visualize multiple utility networks and their components to meet the requirements of the decision-making process and to support Situational Awareness.

Institutional and relational determinants in high- and medium-extent food product crises: the inner perspective of a public health crisis.

PubMed

Charlebois, Sylvain; Horan, Hilary

2010-08-01

In 2008, Canada enacted its biggest-ever food recall in response to a Listeria crisis, stemming from a Maple Leaf Foods plant, that killed 22 Canadians. Afterwards, Maple Leaf's market share quickly returned to pre-crisis levels, but the long-term repercussions of the scare still reverberate in Maple Leaf's brand. In this case study, which offers an organizational perspective on the food recall, data was collected, through in-depth interviews of persons involved in the crisis response, and analyzed. The aim of this paper is to make transparent the ways in which Maple Leaf Foods organized their resources to manage the 2008 food recall. Results reveal that institutional and relational determinants are the most important factors in high- and medium-extent food product crises, whereas external and internal effects primarily influence an organization's capacity to cope with severe crises. Based on these findings, a conceptual framework is presented and managerial implications are discussed.

Introduction: evidence-based action in humanitarian crises.

PubMed

Dijkzeul, Dennis; Hilhorst, Dorothea; Walker, Peter

2013-07-01

This introductory paper sets the stage for this special issue of Disasters on evidence-based action in humanitarian crises. It reviews definition(s) of evidence and it examines the different disciplinary and methodological approaches to collecting and analysing evidence. In humanitarian action, the need for evidence-based approaches sometimes is viewed in tension with a principled approach, often unnecessarily. Choosing appropriate research methods depends on the objectives of the researcher, in particular whether the research focuses on the intervention and/or the context and the length and complexity of the causal chains involved. The paper concludes by defining some trends in evidence-based approaches in crises: the move away from inputs and outputs of humanitarian action towards outcomes and impacts; the shift towards a higher degree of partnerships in research, and the participation of users and target groups; and the acceptance of a broad array of approaches to establish evidence. © 2013 The Author(s). Journal compilation © Overseas Development Institute, 2013.

Non-criticality of interaction network over system's crises: A percolation analysis.

PubMed

Shirazi, Amir Hossein; Saberi, Abbas Ali; Hosseiny, Ali; Amirzadeh, Ehsan; Toranj Simin, Pourya

2017-11-20

Extraction of interaction networks from multi-variate time-series is one of the topics of broad interest in complex systems. Although this method has a wide range of applications, most of the previous analyses have focused on the pairwise relations. Here we establish the potential of such a method to elicit aggregated behavior of the system by making a connection with the concepts from percolation theory. We study the dynamical interaction networks of a financial market extracted from the correlation network of indices, and build a weighted network. In correspondence with the percolation model, we find that away from financial crises the interaction network behaves like a critical random network of Erdős-Rényi, while close to a financial crisis, our model deviates from the critical random network and behaves differently at different size scales. We perform further analysis to clarify that our observation is not a simple consequence of the growth in correlations over the crises.

We all lost the Cold War

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Lebow, R.N.; Stein, J.G.

1994-12-31

The purpose of the book is to use the experience of two actual Cold War crises to test the hypothesis that it was the U.S. strategy of deterrence that was primarily responsible for preventing war with the Soviet Union and teaching them that aggression would not pay. The two crises; the Cuban missile crisis of 1962 and the Middle East crisis of 1973 have been widely interpreted as victories for U.S. deterence strategy. The authors draw on sources that were previously unavailable, both documents and interviews. The authors show that it was the fear of any nuclear use, not quantitativemore » assessments of the nuclear balance, that deterred both Soviet and American leaders in the two crises examined. Each side believed that the loss of even a single city was unacceptable. This implies that the benefits of nuclear weapons derive from their ability to annihilate cities. A policy of finite deterence would rely almost exclusively on this threat to civilians, raising further moral questions.« less

Finite-time singularities in the dynamics of Mexican financial crises

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Alvarez-Ramirez, Jose; Ibarra-Valdez, Carlos

2004-01-01

Historically, symptoms of Mexican financial crises have been strongly reflected in the dynamics of the Mexican peso to the dollar exchange currency market. Specifically, in the Mexican financial crises during 1990's, the peso suffered significant depreciation processes, which has important impacts in the macro- and micro-economical environment. In this paper, it is shown that the peso depreciation growth was greater than an exponential and that these growth rates are compatible with a spontaneous singularity occurring at a critical time, which signals an abrupt transition to new dynamical conditions. As in the major 1990's financial crisis in 1994-1995, some control actions (e.g., increasing the USA dollar supply) are commonly taken to decelerate the degree of abruptness of peso depreciation. Implications of these control actions on the crisis dynamics are discussed. Interestingly, by means of a simple model, it is demonstrated that the time at which the control actions begin to apply is critical to moderate the adverse effects of the financial crisis.

Effects of nutritional stress and socio-economic status on maternal mortality in six German villages, 1766-1863.

PubMed

Scalone, Francesco

2014-01-01

We examined the effects of nutritional stress on maternal mortality arising from short-term economic crises in eighteenth-century and nineteenth-century Germany, and how these effects might have been mitigated by socio-economic status. Historical data from six German villages were used to assess how socio-economic conditions and short-term economic crises following poor harvests may have affected maternal mortality. The results show that 1 year after an increase in grain prices the risk of maternal death increased significantly amongst the wives of those working outside the agricultural sector, and more so than for the wives of those working on farms. Nutritional crises seem to have had a significantly stronger impact on maternal mortality in the period 2-6 weeks after childbirth, when mothers were most prone to infections and indirect, obstetrical causes of maternal death. The findings indicate that both nutritional stress and socio-economic factors contributed to maternal mortality.

Riverbank erosion induced by gravel bar accretion

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Klösch, Mario; Habersack, Helmut

2010-05-01

Riverbank erosion is known to be strongly fluvially controlled and determination of shear stresses at the bank surface and at the bank toe is a crucial point in bank erosion modeling. In many modeling attempts hydraulics are simulated separately in a hydrodynamic-numerical model and the simulated shear stresses are further applied onto the bank surface in a bank erosion model. Hydrodynamics are usually simulated at a constant geometry. However, in some cases bed geometry may vary strongly during the event, changing the conditions for hydrodynamics along the bank. This research seeks to investigate the effect of gravel bar accretion during high discharges on final bank retreat. At a restored section of the Drava River bed widenings have been implemented to counter bed degradation. There, in an initiated side-arm, self-dynamic widening strongly affects bed development and long-term connectivity to the main channel. Understanding the riverbank erosion processes there would help to improve planning of future restoration measures. At one riverbank section in the side-arm large bank retreat was measured repeatedly after several flow events. This section is situated between two groins with a distance of 60 m, which act as lateral boundaries to the self-widening channel. In front of this bank section a gravel bar developed. During low flow condition most discharge of the side-arm flows beside the gravel bar along the bank, but shear stresses are too low for triggering bank erosion. For higher discharges results from a two-dimensional hydrodynamic-numerical model suggested shear stresses there to be generally low during the entire events. At some discharges the modeled flow velocities even showed to be recirculating along the bank. These results didn't explain the observed bank retreat. Based on the modeled shear stresses, bank erosion models would have greatly underestimated the bank retreat induced by the investigated events. Repeated surveys after events applying terrestrial photogrammetry, continuous observation of the bank section with a time-lapse camera and continuous measurement of soil hydrological variables showed that around the flow peaks steeper banks collapsed, when matric suction and hence soil shear strength decreased below critical values. But much larger bank erosion with continuous transport of failed blocks from the bank toe was observed to occur during the falling limbs of the hydrographs, when discharge went back to mean flow condition. The flow velocities along the bank then were much larger than at the same discharges during the rising limbs of the hydrographs. Surveys of the riverbed demonstrated a temporary decreased cross section for the flow along the bank because of aggradation and resulting gravel bar accretion during the event. The decreased cross section led to the high flow velocities and shear stresses observed at the end of the events. After every bar accretion, the cross section was re-established by bed degradation along the bank and by massive bank erosion. Monitoring results of the gravel bar accretion and bank retreat are presented. Shear stresses modeled at a constant geometry are compared to the shear stresses modeled when bar accretion was considered. The results highlight the importance of non-equilibrium sediment transport processes during flood events for bank erosion and the need for its consideration in bank erosion modeling. Demonstrated here at a riverbank between groins, bar accretion may play a general role at gravel-bed rivers for bank erosion, particularly near lateral constraints.

Long Term Activity Analysis in Surveillance Video Archives

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chen, Ming-yu

2010-01-01

Surveillance video recording is becoming ubiquitous in daily life for public areas such as supermarkets, banks, and airports. The rate at which surveillance video is being generated has accelerated demand for machine understanding to enable better content-based search capabilities. Analyzing human activity is one of the key tasks to understand and…

Idea Bank.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bisbee, Gregory D.; Fritz, Jane K.; Zurenda, Deb

1997-01-01

Presents three science activities: (1) Pizza Quadrants, a tool for estimating population size; (2) Ion Models, to assist students in understanding how to balance equations; and (3) Endangered Species Project, an interdisciplinary unit. (DDR)

7. Administrative structures.

PubMed

2014-05-01

The basic systems of any society rarely can operate independently. Instead, they are dependent and often interdependent upon other entities. Such entities control the resources within their respective systems. Thus, coordination and control agencies require contracts or memoranda of understanding with these entities in order to assure access to the resources required during a crisis. These administrative structures include: (1) governmental institutions and agencies, including the military; (2) intergovernmental organisations; (3) nongovernmental organisations; (4) commercial private sector organisations; and (5) academic institutions. These dependencies create potential barriers to the provision of coordination and control including: (1) the complexity of the administrative structures with which coordination and control must interact; (2) the location of resources; (3) finding responsible person(s); (4) the competence and compatibility; (5) methods of access; (6) payment; (7) contracts and memoranda of understanding; (8) inventories of accessible resources; (9) competition for the mandate, power, and resources; and (10) jealousy. The need for potential interactions between administrative structures requires that agreements for the sharing of resources during crises be reached as part of planning and preparedness. Gaining an understanding of these relationships is an important area for research.

Using plain language skills to create an educational brochure about sperm banking for adolescent and young adult males with cancer.

PubMed

Nagel, Kim; Wizowski, Lindsay; Duckworth, JoAnn; Cassano, Jane; Hahn, Shirley Ann; Neal, Michael

2008-01-01

Writing in plain language makes it easier for patients to read, understand, and make informed decisions about sperm banking. Greater attention to the issue and properly designed educational brochures for use by nurses in oncology and reproductive health is of evident importance but of unknown impact. A multidisciplinary clinical team followed an evidence-based, patient-centered approach to develop "plain language" patient education materials about sperm banking for adolescent and young adult (AYA) males with cancer. A patient education booklet was produced and implemented as part of the planned patient education for AYA male oncology patients at McMaster Children's Hospital, Hamilton Health Sciences, in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. The patient education booklet for use by health professionals as a teaching tool to facilitate discussion with AYA males has been produced with the hope that it will contribute to better informed decision making regarding sperm banking and increased use of this technology for fertility preservation.

The Changing Role of the WORLD BANK in Global Health

PubMed Central

Ruger, Jennifer Prah

2005-01-01

The World Bank began operations on June 25, 1946. Although it was established to finance European reconstruction after World War II, the bank today is a considerable force in the health, nutrition, and population (HNP) sector in developing countries. Indeed, it has evolved from having virtually no presence in global health to being the world’s largest financial contributor to health-related projects, now committing more than $1 billion annually for new HNP projects. It is also one of the world’s largest supporters in the fight against HIV/AIDS, with commitments of more than $1.6 billion over the past several years. I have mapped this transformation in the World Bank’s role in global health, illustrating shifts in the bank’s mission and financial orientation, as well as the broader changes in development theory and practice. Through a deepened understanding of the complexities of development, the World Bank now regards investments in HNP programs as fundamental to its role in the global economy. PMID:15623860

The food, fuel, and financial crises affect the urban and rural poor disproportionately: a review of the evidence.

PubMed

Ruel, Marie T; Garrett, James L; Hawkes, Corinna; Cohen, Marc J

2010-01-01

The vulnerability of the urban poor to the recent food and fuel price crisis has been widely acknowledged. The unfolding global financial crisis, which brings higher unemployment and underemployment, is likely to further intensify this vulnerability. This paper reviews the evidence concerning the disproportionate vulnerability of the urban compared with the rural poor to these types of shocks. It reviews some of the unique characteristics of urban life that could make the urban poor particularly susceptible to price and financial shocks and summarizes the evidence regarding the disproportionate vulnerability of the urban poor. The focus is on impacts on poverty, food insecurity, and malnutrition. The review shows that although the urban poor are clearly one of the population groups most affected by the current (and previous) crises, the rural poor, landless, and net buyers are in no better position to confront the crisis without significant suffering. The poorest of the poor are the ones who will be most affected, irrespective of the continent, country, or urban or rural area where they live. The magnitude and severity of their suffering depends on their ability to adapt and on the specific nature, extent, and duration of the coping strategies they adopt. A better understanding of how these coping strategies are used and staggered is critical to help design triggers for action that can prevent households from moving to more desperate measures. Using these early coping strategies as early warning indicators could help prevent dramatic losses in welfare.

A Network Based Theory of Health Systems and Cycles of Well-being

PubMed Central

Rhodes, Michael Grant

2013-01-01

There are two dominant approaches to describe and understand the anatomy of complete health and well-being systems internationally. Yet, neither approach has been able to either predict or explain occasional but dramatic crises in health and well-being systems around the world and in developed emerging market or developing country contexts. As the impacts of such events can be measured not simply in terms of their social and economic consequences but also public health crises, there is a clear need to look for and formulate an alternative approach. This paper examines multi-disciplinary theoretical evidence to suggest that health systems exhibit natural and observable systemic and long cycle characteristics that can be modelled. A health and well-being system model of two slowly evolving anthropological network sub-systems is defined. The first network sub-system consists of organised professional networks of exclusive suppliers of health and well-being services. The second network sub-system consists of communities organising themselves to resource those exclusive services. Together these two network sub-systems interact to form the specific (sovereign) health and well-being systems we know today. But the core of a truly ‘complex adaptive system’ can also be identified and a simplified two sub-system model of recurring Lotka-Volterra predator-prey cycles is specified. The implications of such an adaptive and evolving model of system anatomy for effective public health, social security insurance and well-being systems governance could be considerable. PMID:24596831

What can experimental geobiology tell us about mass extinctions, past, present and future?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bond, David

2017-04-01

We know more than ever about the causes and consequences of Earth's greatest mass extinctions thanks to much improved resolution in the fossil record, dating, and proxies for palaeoenvironmental change. Despite much progress, there is no consensus on what drives ecosystems to collapse. The realisation that Earth is again facing stresses implicated in its past crises (e.g. proximal kill mechanisms such as global warming, ocean acidification and anoxia) has intensified research on the ultimate cause(s) of extinctions (e.g. large igneous provinces and bolide impacts). However, the links between proximal kill mechanisms and their drivers remains poorly understood. Here I evaluate environmental factors implicated in major episodes of species extinctions and explores the mechanistic links by which they did their damage. Experimental geobiology is beginning to unlock the secrets of past crises by examining responses of species to change. Reduced pH, for instance alters the efficacy of fishes' chemical receptors, leaving them less equipped to detect prey, predators and mates - invoking "death-by-celibacy" scenarios. Elevated atmospheric CO2 induces hypercapnic stress (as well as being the root cause of ocean acidification). Prolonged exposure to anoxia causes death without selectivity. Global warming induces a multitude of stresses, primarily linked to increased metabolic rate according to the Q10 law. Experimental geobiologists and Earth scientists could together unravel the causes of past extinctions, better inform understanding of the modern crisis and our approach to the future.

Health crises and media relations: relationship management-by-fire.

PubMed

Springston, Jeffrey K; Weaver-Lariscy, Ruthann

2007-01-01

Media relations is an important function in the operation of any health organization, yet it is often relegated as a simple task function. Such an orientation can be problematic, particularly in times of crisis. This article provides an overview of some of the inherent internal conflicts within health organizations that may mitigate against the best media relations practices in times of crises. The article surveys some of the predominant theoretical models used for crisis management, and suggests directions for the further development of media relations and crisis communication theory and practice.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Nation, J.E.

Whether and by what means nations can successfully de-escalate nuclear crises - and avoid the disastrous effects of nuclear war - will remain two of the most critical challenges facing humankind. Whatever the future of superpower relations, the United States, the Soviet Union, and other nations will undoubtedly continue to possess and to threaten the use of nuclear weapons. Moreover, the number of nations with nuclear weapons seems likely to increase. This examines how nations in crises might successfully move back from the brink of nuclear war - and how confidence-building measures might help and hinder the de-escalatory process.

Source Apportionment of Suspended Sediment Sources using 137Cs and 210Pbxs

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lamba, J.; Karthikeyan, K.; Thompson, A.

2017-12-01

A study was conducted in the Pleasant Valley Watershed (50 km 2) in South Central Wisconsin to better understand sediment transport processes using sediment fingerprinting technique. Previous studies conducted in this watershed showed that resuspension of fine sediment deposited on the stream bed is an important source of suspended sediment. To better understand the role of fine sediment deposited on the stream bed, fallout radionuclides,137Cs and 210Pbxs were used to determine relative contribution to suspended sediment from in-stream (stream bank and stream bed) and upland sediment sources. Suspended sediment samples were collected during the crop growing season. Potential sources of suspended sediment considered in this study included cropland, pasture and in-stream (stream bed and stream bank). Suspended sediment sources were determined at a subwatershed level. Results of this study showed that in-stream sediment sources are important sources of suspended sediment. Future research should be conducted to better understand the role of legacy sediment in watershed-level sediment transport processes.

The use of donor scleral patch in ophthalmic surgery.

PubMed

Hodge, Christopher; Sutton, Gerard; Devasahayam, Raj; Georges, Pierre; Treloggen, Jane; Cooper, Simon; Petsoglou, Con

2017-03-01

Scleral tissue has been in use in ophthalmology for many years although indications for use have varied. We retrospectively reviewed scleral transplant tissue requests over a 12 month period at a local eye bank and confirmed a small but significant demand for the use of scleral tissue. Iatrogenic surgical complications are the primary indication for use. Our understanding of the indications and outcomes of scleral graft procedures is derived from case reports and small cohort series. We reviewed the current literature on existing indications for its use and discuss the relative outcomes. To our knowledge this represents the first review of scleral transplant indications and further summarises usage rates in the Lions NSW Eye Bank which may provide practical information for those surgeons who use scleral tissue and Eye Banks who supply it.

Creating religiously compliant milk banks in the Muslim world: a commentary.

PubMed

Alnakshabandi, Kholoud; Fiester, Autumn

2016-02-01

Human milk banks are vital for providing donor milk to infants for whom there are maternal or postnatal barriers to the mother's own milk. Although more than 35 countries have active milk banks, not one of those is a Muslim country.(1) Despite widespread support for breastfeeding across the Muslim world, religious constraints surrounding milk-sharing have created challenging barriers to the creation of milk banks. The religious objection centres around the Islamic tenet that consuming human milk builds a kinship bond between individuals who have consumed the same woman's milk which prohibits future marriage between the 'milk-brothers and sisters.' While a small-scale, experimental 'milk exchange' programme has been attempted in two Muslim countries (Kuwait and Malaysia), the only proposed milk bank in the Muslim world was a pilot programme in Turkey that was halted because of religious concerns. The problem with milk banking is the step in the process during which the milk from individual donors is pooled and de-identified, making it impossible to trace its origins and acknowledge the newly formed kinship relationship. To meet the need for Muslim children to be able to access human milk while remaining compliant with the prevalent understanding of Islamic doctrine on milk-sharing, we propose a new approach to milk banking that we term the Conditional Identified Milk Banking System (CIMBS). In this new system, both the donor's and recipient's identities are accessible to all parties through a voluntary registry, and the milk-pooling is limited to three milk donors. Based on recent survey data, we believe that there would be receptivity among practicing Muslims and religious leaders to this alternative approach.

Barriers to Banking - Towards an Inclusive Banking Environment in South Africa.

PubMed

Martinson, Estelle; Martinson, Johannes

2016-01-01

A recent study in South Africa on the barriers to banking which involved customers in three disability groups namely mobility, hearing and vision has highlighted that currently banking in South Africa is not accessible. Customers with a disability are unable to independently use banking services across a wide range of channels. Exclusion from something as fundamental as managing their own financial affairs raise serious human rights concerns and requires committed action from decision-makers to address this. The fact that solutions to all of the identified barriers have been successfully implemented in banks in other parts of the world for many years emphasize that this is not a technical challenge. While some solutions require complex or expensive changes such as removing physical access barriers and ensuring that digital channels meet internationally accepted standards of accessibility, there are many simple and low-cost solutions which can be implemented immediately and would make a world of difference to these customers and their experience of banking. One key barrier which emerged in all the focus groups and surveys is attitudinal barriers - staff who are unwilling to assist, impatient, interact with the customer's assistant instead of directly with them and lack basic skills on how to interact with someone who has a disability. A comprehensive framework of banking was used to identify a wide range of barriers. The barriers were classified as attitudinal, barriers to physical access, digital access barriers, barriers to information, communication barriers and some generic concerns such as safe evacuation during emergencies and alternative authentication. Both the barriers and the solutions where ranked by participants. From a theoretical perspective, the benefit of a customer-centric approach to understanding these barriers and the innovation potential of a Universal Design approach is affirmed by this study.

Seasonal dynamics of the plant community and soil seed bank along a successional gradient in a subalpine meadow on the Tibetan Plateau.

PubMed

Ma, Miaojun; Zhou, Xianhui; Qi, Wei; Liu, Kun; Jia, Peng; Du, Guozhen

2013-01-01

Knowledge about how change the importance of soil seed bank and relationship between seed mass and abundance during vegetation succession is crucial for understanding vegetation dynamics. Many studies have been conducted, but their ecological mechanisms of community assembly are not fully understood. We examined the seasonal dynamics of the vegetation and soil seed bank as well as seed size distribution along a successional gradient. We also explored the potential role of the soil seed bank in plant community regeneration, the relationship between seed mass and species abundance, and the relative importance of deterministic and stochastic processes along a successional gradient. Species richness of seed bank increased (shallow layer and the total) and seed density decreased (each layer and the total) significantly with succession. Species richness and seed density differed significantly between different seasons and among soil depths. Seed mass showed a significant negative relationship with relative abundance in the earliest successional stage, but the relationships were not significant in later stages. Seed mass showed no relationship with relative abundance in the whole successional series in seed bank. Results were similar for both July 2005 and April 2006. The seed mass and abundance relationship was determined by a complex interaction between small and larger seeded species and environmental factors. Both stochastic processes and deterministic processes were important determinants of the structure of the earliest stage. The importance of seed bank decreased with succession. The restoration of abandoned farmed and grazed meadows to the species-rich subalpine meadow in Tibetan Plateau can be successfully achieved from the soil seed bank. However, at least 20 years are required to fully restore an abandoned agricultural meadow to a natural mature subalpine meadow.

Cultural Memory Banking in Preservice Science Teacher Education

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Handa, Vicente C.; Tippins, Deborah J.

2012-12-01

This study focused on the exemplification of cultural memory banking as an ethnographic tool to understand cultural practices relevant to science teaching and learning in a rural coastal village in a central island of the Philippine archipelago. Using the collaborative action ethnography as a research methodology, 10 prospective science teachers and a science teacher educator/doctoral candidate formed a research team and documented community funds of knowledge relevant to science teaching and learning through their participation in a Community Immersion course. The study employed the use of the cultural memory banking as a meditational tool to analyze, make sense of, and represent interview, focus-group discussion, and observation data, among others, for the development of culturally relevant science lessons. Originally used as an anthropological tool to preserve cultural knowledge associated with the cultivation of indigenous plant varieties, the cultural memory banking, as adapted in science education, was used, both as a data collection and analytic tool, to locate relevant science at the intersection of community life. The research team developed a cultural memory bank exemplar, "Ginamos: The Stinky Smell that Sells," to highlight the learning experiences and meaning-making process of those involved in its development. Dilemmas and insights on the development and use of cultural memory banking were discussed with respect to issues of knowledge mining and mainstreaming of indigenous/local funds of knowledge, troubling the privileged position of Western-inspired nature of science.

Identifying humanitarian crises in population surveillance field sites: simple procedures and ethical imperatives.

PubMed

Fottrell, E; Byass, P

2009-02-01

Effective early warning systems of humanitarian crises may help to avert substantial increases in mortality and morbidity, and prevent major population movements. The Butajira Rural Health Programme (BRHP) in Ethiopia has maintained a programme of epidemiological surveillance since 1987. Inspection of the BRHP data revealed large peaks of mortality in 1998 and 1999, well in excess of the normally observed year-to-year variation. Further investigation and enquiry revealed that these peaks related to a measles epidemic, and a serious episode of drought and consequent food insecurity that went undetected by the BRHP. This paper applies international humanitarian crisis threshold definitions to the BRHP data in an attempt to identify suitable mortality thresholds that may be used for the prospective detection of humanitarian crises in population surveillance sites in developing countries. Empirical investigation using secondary analysis of longitudinal population-based cohort data. The daily, weekly and monthly thresholds for crises in Butajira were applied to mortality data for the 5-year period incorporating the crisis periods of 1998-1999. Days, weeks and months in which mortality exceeded each threshold level were identified. Each threshold level was assessed in terms of prospectively identifying the true crisis periods in a timely manner whilst avoiding false alarms. The daily threshold definition is too sensitive to accurately detect impending or real crises in the population surveillance setting of the BRHP. However, the weekly threshold level is useful in identifying important increases in mortality in a timely manner without the excessive sensitivity of the daily threshold. The weekly threshold level detects the crisis periods approximately 2 weeks before the monthly threshold level. Mortality measures are highly specific indicators of the health status of populations, and simple procedures can be used to apply international crisis threshold definitions in population surveillance settings for the prospective detection of important changes in mortality rate. Standards for the timely use of surveillance data and ethical responsibilities of those responsible for the data should be made explicit to improve the public health functioning of current sentinel surveillance methodologies.

Why might people donate tissue for cancer research? Insights from organ/tissue/blood donation and clinical research.

PubMed

Axler, Renata E; Irvine, Rob; Lipworth, Wendy; Morrell, Bronwen; Kerridge, Ian H

2008-01-01

Little is known about why patients with cancer do or do not donate their biopsied/cancerous tissue to research. A review of the literature on motivations to participate in clinical research and to donate tissues/organs for therapeutic use may provide some insights relevant to tumour banking research. While more research is necessary, a better understanding of the factors that motivate patients to give or refuse consent to tumour banking may ultimately improve consent practices, public trust and donation rates. Copyright 2008 S. Karger AG, Basel.

[Correlations between asthmatic crisis and meteorological conditions in Rosario, Argentina].

PubMed

Arnolt, R G; Hoffmann, J A; Daguerre, N; Calcagno, L J

1984-01-01

The aim of this work was to find out whether there is any relationship between the climate in Rosario City, Argentina, and the frequency of asthmatic crises, and whether it would be possible to use weather forecasts to support therapeutic measures. Synoptic and statistical metereological analyses, were used, and the following results achieved: The 721 crises of asthma developed in Rosario City between August 1, 1978 and July 31, 1979, demonstrated the well-known seasonal distribution of similar biological events: high frequencies in the Spring and Fall and low ones in the Summer and Winter. Important correlations were found with high altitude depression systems Hence, in the great majority of cases, the daily frequency of crises attained its maximum values when a depression system in the 500 mb. level was approximately between 60 degrees and 72 degrees W of G. and returned to minimum values when the mentioned system, in its general displacement towards the east, passed the meridian of Rosario City, whose geographic coordinates are: Lat. 32 degrees 55' S, Long. 60 degrees 47' W of G., at 27 meters above sea level. In short, we can say that, as occurs in other parts of the world, the asthmatic crises undergone by children in Rosario City are produced with much more frequency in circumstances of cyclonic atmospheric circulation. Although these situations, in the case of Rosario City, are determined by the dynamic processes in the higher levels of the troposphere. This is probably due to the role played by the Andres Mountain Range in the processes of atmospheric circulation in subtropical South America.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Subsequent biotic crises delayed marine recovery following the late Permian mass extinction event in northern Italy

PubMed Central

Danise, Silvia; Price, Gregory D.; Twitchett, Richard J.

2017-01-01

The late Permian mass extinction event was the largest biotic crisis of the Phanerozoic and has the longest recovery interval of any extinction event. It has been hypothesised that subsequent carbon isotope perturbations during the Early Triassic are associated with biotic crises that impeded benthic recovery. We test this hypothesis by undertaking the highest-resolution study yet made of the rock and fossil records of the entire Werfen Formation, Italy. Here, we show that elevated extinction rates were recorded not only in the Dienerian, as previously recognised, but also around the Smithian/Spathian boundary. Functional richness increases across the Smithian/Spathian boundary associated with elevated origination rates in the lower Spathian. The taxonomic and functional composition of benthic faunas only recorded two significant changes: (1) reduced heterogeneity in the Dienerian, and (2) and a faunal turnover across the Smithian/Spathian boundary. The elevated extinctions and compositional shifts in the Dienerian and across the Smithian/Spathian boundary are associated with a negative and positive isotope excursion, respectively, which supports the hypothesis that subsequent biotic crises are associated with carbon isotope shifts. The Spathian fauna represents a more advanced ecological state, not recognised in the previous members of the Werfen Formation, with increased habitat differentiation, a shift in the dominant modes of life, appearance of stenohaline taxa and the occupation of the erect and infaunal tiers. In addition to subsequent biotic crises delaying the recovery, therefore, persistent environmental stress limited the ecological complexity of benthic recovery prior to the Spathian. PMID:28296886

Using hydraulic heads, geochemistry and 3H to understand river bank infiltration; an example from the Ovens Valley, southeast Australia

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yu, Matthew; Cartwright, Ian

2014-05-01

Defining the relationship between the river and its river bank is important in constraining baseflow to a river and enhancing our ability in protecting water resources and riparian ecology. Hydraulic heads, geochemistry and 3H were measured in river banks along the Ovens River, southeast Australia. The Ovens River is characterised by the transition from a single channel river residing within a mountain valley to a multi-channel meandering river on broad alluvial plains in the lower catchment. The 3H concentrations of most near-river groundwater (less than 10 m from river channel) and bank water (10 - 30 m from the river channel) in the valley range between 1.93 and 2.52 TU. They are similar to those of the river, which are between 2.37 and 2.24 TU. These groundwater also have a Na/Cl ratio of 2.7 - 4.7 and are close to the river Na/Cl ratios. These similarities suggest that most river banks in the valley are recharged by the river. The hydraulic heads and EC values indicate that some of these river banks are recharged throughout the year, while others are only recharged during high flow events. Some near-river groundwater and bank water in the valley have a much lower 3H concentration, ranging from 0.97 to 1.27 TU. They also have a lower Na/Cl ratio of 1.6 - 3.1. These differences imply that some of the river banks in the valley are rarely recharged by the river. The lack of infiltration is supported by the constant head gradient toward the river and the constant EC values in these river banks. The river banks with bank infiltration are located in the first few hundred kilometres in the valley and in the middle catchment where the valley is broaden. In the first few hundred kilometres in the valley, it has a relatively flat landscape and does not allow a high regional water table to form. The river thus is always above the water table and recharges the river banks and the valley aquifers. In the broader valley, the relatively low lateral hydraulic gradient is sometimes reversed during high flow events, causing river to infiltrate the river banks. The river banks with no infiltration are in a location where the river runs in the middle of valley with a relatively steep incised bank. Thus, a strong lateral heads gradient toward the river can from in the bank, preventing river water from infiltration, even during a high flow event.

Development and Validation of the Biobanking Attitudes and Knowledge Survey (BANKS)

PubMed Central

Wells, Kristen J.; Arevalo, Mariana; Meade, Cathy D.; Gwede, Clement K.; Quinn, Gwendolyn P.; Luque, John S.; Miguel, Gloria San; Watson, Dale; Phillips, Rebecca; Reyes, Carmen; Romo, Margarita; West, Jim; Jacobsen, Paul B.

2014-01-01

Background No validated multi-scale instruments exist that measure community members’ views on biobanking and biospecimen donation. This study describes the development and psychometric properties of the English-language BANKS (Biobanking Attitudes aNd Knowledge Survey). Methods The BANKS was created by item generation through review of scientific literature, focus groups with community members, and input from a community advisory board. Items were refined through cognitive interviews. Content validity was assessed through an expert panel review. Psychometric properties of the BANKS were assessed in a sample of 85 community members. Results The final BANKS includes 3 scales: Attitudes, Knowledge, and Self-Efficacy; as well as 3 single items, which evaluated receptivity and intention to donate a biospecimen for research. Cronbach's alpha coefficients for two scales that use Likert response format indicated high internal consistency (Attitudes: α=.88; Self-Efficacy: α=.95). Content validity indices were moderate, ranging from 0.69 to 0.89. Intention to donate blood and intention to donate urine were positively correlated with attitudes, knowledge, self-efficacy, and receptivity to learning more about biobanking (p's range from .029 to <.001). Conclusions The final BANKS shows evidence of satisfactory reliability and validity, is easy to administer, and is a promising tool to inform biospecimen research. Additional studies should be conducted with larger samples considering biospecimen donation to further assess the instrument's reliability and validity. Impact A valid and reliable instrument measuring community members’ views about biobanking may help researchers evaluate relevant communication interventions to enhance understanding, intention, and actual biospecimen donation. A Spanish-language BANKS is under development. PMID:24609846

Glutaric Aciduria type I and acute renal failure - Coincidence or causality?

PubMed

Pode-Shakked, Ben; Marek-Yagel, Dina; Rubinshtein, Marina; Pessach, Itai M; Paret, Gideon; Volkov, Alexander; Anikster, Yair; Lotan, Danny

2014-01-01

Glutaric Aciduria type I (GA-I) is a rare organic acidemia, caused by mutations in the GCDH gene, and characterized by encephalopathic crises with neurological sequelae. We report herein a patient with GA-I who presented with severe acute renal failure requiring dialysis, following an acute diarrheal illness. Histopathological evaluation demonstrated acute tubular necrosis, and molecular diagnosis revealed the patient to be homozygous for a previously unreported mutation, p.E64D. As renal impairment is not part of the clinical spectrum typical to GA-I, possible associations of renal failure and the underlying inborn error of metabolism are discussed, including recent advancements made in the understanding of the renal transport of glutaric acid and its derivatives during metabolic disturbance in GA-I.

Food Security, Decision Making and the Use of Remote Sensing in Famine Early Warning Systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Brown, Molly E.

2008-01-01

Famine early warning systems use remote sensing in combination with socio-economic and household food economy analysis to provide timely and rigorous information on emerging food security crises. The Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET) is the US Agency for International Development's decision support system in 20 African countries, as well as in Guatemala, Haiti and Afghanistan. FEWS NET provides early and actionable policy guidance for the US Government and its humanitarian aid partners. As we move into an era of climate change where weather hazards will become more frequent and severe, understanding how to provide quantitative and actionable scientific information for policy makers using biophysical data is critical for an appropriate and effective response.

Genomics of gene banks: A case study in rice.

PubMed

McCouch, Susan R; McNally, Kenneth L; Wang, Wen; Sackville Hamilton, Ruaraidh

2012-02-01

Only a small fraction of the naturally occurring genetic diversity available in the world's germplasm repositories has been explored to date, but this is expected to change with the advent of affordable, high-throughput genotyping and sequencing technology. It is now possible to examine genome-wide patterns of natural variation and link sequence polymorphisms with downstream phenotypic consequences. In this paper, we discuss how dramatic changes in the cost and efficiency of sequencing and genotyping are revolutionizing the way gene bank scientists approach the responsibilities of their job. Sequencing technology provides a set of tools that can be used to enhance the quality, efficiency, and cost-effectiveness of gene bank operations, the depth of scientific knowledge of gene bank holdings, and the level of public interest in natural variation. As a result, gene banks have the chance to take on new life. Previously seen as "warehouses" where seeds were diligently maintained, but evolutionarily frozen in time, gene banks could transform into vibrant research centers that actively investigate the genetic potential of their holdings. In this paper, we will discuss how genotyping and sequencing can be integrated into the activities of a modern gene bank to revolutionize the way scientists document the genetic identity of their accessions; track seed lots, varieties, and alleles; identify duplicates; and rationalize active collections, and how the availability of genomics data are likely to motivate innovative collaborations with the larger research and breeding communities to engage in systematic and rigorous phenotyping and multilocation evaluation of the genetic resources in gene banks around the world. The objective is to understand and eventually predict how variation at the DNA level helps determine the phenotypic potential of an individual or population. Leadership and vision are needed to coordinate the characterization of collections and to integrate genotypic and phenotypic information in ways that will illuminate the value of these resources. Genotyping of collections represents a powerful starting point that will enable gene banks to become more effective as stewards of crop biodiversity.

Health crises due to infectious and communicable diseases : European preparedness and response tools in an international context.

PubMed

Mahy, Patrick; Collard, Jean-Marc; Gala, Jean-Luc; Herman, Philippe; Groof, Dirk De; Quoilin, Sophie; Sneyers, Myriam

2017-06-01

The combination of changes in eating habits, ways of living, globalisation, extensive travelling and the migration of millions of people around the world may be contributing to increased health risks. Certainly, health crises today are proving highly complex. More and more people are travelling and may carry with them unexpected virus vectors such as mosquitoes. Preparedness is challenging and there is a need for action plans to safeguard the growing at-risk population. Health crises can potentially affect a large proportion of the population and may lead to a significant increase in mortality or to an abnormally high death rate. This should be integrated into the general concept of national and international surveillance in order to provide a prepared response in the event of crisis. This paper provides an inventory of the relevant laws, guidelines and tools in Europe (and to a lesser degree, beyond), and proposes answers to the health crisis problems associated with infectious and communicable diseases. In crisis management, communication is an important factor to consider. This paper can serve as a tool for people involved in crisis preparedness.

Dynamic of consumer groups and response of commodity markets by principal component analysis

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nobi, Ashadun; Alam, Shafiqul; Lee, Jae Woo

2017-09-01

This study investigates financial states and group dynamics by applying principal component analysis to the cross-correlation coefficients of the daily returns of commodity futures. The eigenvalues of the cross-correlation matrix in the 6-month timeframe displays similar values during 2010-2011, but decline following 2012. A sharp drop in eigenvalue implies the significant change of the market state. Three commodity sectors, energy, metals and agriculture, are projected into two dimensional spaces consisting of two principal components (PC). We observe that they form three distinct clusters in relation to various sectors. However, commodities with distinct features have intermingled with one another and scattered during severe crises, such as the European sovereign debt crises. We observe the notable change of the position of two dimensional spaces of groups during financial crises. By considering the first principal component (PC1) within the 6-month moving timeframe, we observe that commodities of the same group change states in a similar pattern, and the change of states of one group can be used as a warning for other group.

Age Crises, Scalar Fields, and the Apocalypse

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jackson, J. C.

Recent observations suggest that Hubble's constant is large, to the extent that the oldest stars appear to have ages which are greater than the Hubble time, and that the Hubble expansion is slowing down, so that according to conventional cosmology the age of the Universe is less than the Hubble time. The concepts of weak and strong age crises (respectively t0<1/H0 but longer than the age inferred from some lower limit on q0, and t0>1/H0 and q0>0) are introduced. These observations are reconciled in models which are dynamically dominated by a homogeneous scalar field, corresponding to an ultra-light boson whose Compton wavelength is of the same order as the Hubble radius. Two such models are considered, an open one with vacuum energy comprising a conventional cosmological term and a scalar field component, and a flat one with a scalar component only, aimed respectively at weak and strong age crises. Both models suggest that anti-gravity plays a significant role in the evolution of the Universe.

Crisis management, capabilities and preparedness: the case of public hospitals in Iran.

PubMed

Najafbagy, Reza

2010-01-01

Crises occurred in recent decades show that organizations' preparedness to predict and respond to undesired problems is directly related to the degree of their capabilities and preparedness to manage crises in this context, hospitals compared to other organizations are more viable to suffer damages if a crisis occurs. This study investigates the degree of public hospitals capabilities and preparedness to handled possible crises. Responses from hospital managers and directors show that most of them were not familiar with crisis management, while majority of them mentioned that they had crisis management plan and committee in their hospitals. Moreover, most of the respondents believed that if a crisis occurs in the hospital, patients, personnel and documents will be the first victims of the crisis. The study also indicates that having a crisis plan and crisis committee without being familiar with knowledge of crisis management, do not help managers to cope with crisis. Moreover, correlations show that older managers were more familiar with crisis management experiences abroad, and defined responsibilities contributed to setting up crisis committee, and taking crisis seriously.

[Management of hyperglycemic crises and severe hypoglycemia in the emergency department].

PubMed

Miyake, Yasufumi

2014-02-01

The morbidity of hyperglycemic crises and acute hypoglycemic attacks in patients with diabetes mellitus has been increasing for the past several decades. One of the reasons for this is the increase in the number of patients with diabetes. The increased proportion of aging and isolation in society is another reason. The author has discussed patients with these complaints: their epidemiology, pathophysiology, and management in the emergency department. Hyperglycemic crises include diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA), hyperosmolar hyperglycemic syndrome (HHS), and lactic acidosis (LA). Younger patients with type 1 diabetes suffer from DKA; inappropriate insulin therapy or infection is usually the trigger. Older patients with type 2 diabetes are at risk of HHS in the course of sepsis or in the perioperative period. The treatment of both types of patients is common. Sufficient amount of intravenous extracellular fluid and constant infusion of insulin are essential. The development of LA is not associated with the use of metformin, but with the severity of the pre-existing disease. Early recognition and aggressive treatment is vital to improving the prognosis of hyperglycemic emergencies and severe hypoglycemic episodes.

Spatial and temporal patterns of bank failure during extreme flood events: Evidence of nonlinearity and self-organised criticality at the basin scale?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Thompson, C. J.; Croke, J. C.; Grove, J. R.

2012-04-01

Non-linearity in physical systems provides a conceptual framework to explain complex patterns and form that are derived from complex internal dynamics rather than external forcings, and can be used to inform modeling and improve landscape management. One process that has been investigated previously to explore the existence of self-organised critical system (SOC) in river systems at the basin-scale is bank failure. Spatial trends in bank failure have been previously quantified to determine if the distribution of bank failures at the basin scale exhibit the necessary power law magnitude/frequency distributions. More commonly bank failures are investigated at a small-scale using several cross-sections with strong emphasis on local-scale factors such as bank height, cohesion and hydraulic properties. Advancing our understanding of non-linearity in such processes, however, requires many more studies where both the spatial and temporal measurements of the process can be used to investigate the existence or otherwise of non-linearity and self-organised criticality. This study presents measurements of bank failure throughout the Lockyer catchment in southeast Queensland, Australia, which experienced an extreme flood event in January 2011 resulting in the loss of human lives and geomorphic channel change. The most dominant form of fluvial adjustment consisted of changes in channel geometry and notably widespread bank failures, which were readily identifiable as 'scalloped' shaped failure scarps. The spatial extents of these were mapped using high-resolution LiDAR derived digital elevation model and were verified by field surveys and air photos. Pre-flood event LiDAR coverage for the catchment also existed allowing direct comparison of the magnitude and frequency of bank failures from both pre and post-flood time periods. Data were collected and analysed within a GIS framework and investigated for power-law relationships. Bank failures appeared random and occurred throughout the basin but plots of magnitude and frequency did display power-law scaling of failures. In addition, there was a lack of site specific correlations between bank failure and other factors such channel width, bank height and stream power. The data are used here to discuss the existence of SOC in fluvial systems and the relative role of local and basin-wide processes in influencing their distribution in space and time.

The Galapagos archipelago: A natural laboratory to examine sharp hydroclimatic, geologic and anthropogenic gradients

USGS Publications Warehouse

Percy, Madelyn; Schmitt, Sarah; Riveros-Iregui, Diego; Mirus, Benjamin B.

2016-01-01

Poor understanding of the water cycle in tropical ecosystems has the potential to exacerbate water shortages and water crises in the region. We suggest that the Galápagos Islands provide an excellent proxy to regions across the tropics as a result of sharp hydroclimatic, anthropogenic, and pedohydrologic gradients across the archipelago. Hydroclimatic and pedohydrologic gradients are found across different elevations on single islands, as well as across the archipelago, whereas anthropogenic gradients reflect land use and land cover change across islands as population and growth in tourism have affected individual islands differently. This article highlights specific opportunities to further examine our understanding of the interactions between water and critical zone processes in tropical ecosystems, making connections between the Galápagos archipelago and much of the understudied tropics. The Galápagos archipelago offers a natural laboratory through which we can examine current threats to freshwater security as well as the dynamics of coupled natural and human systems.

An annotated list of the caddisflies (Trichoptera) of Mount Rainier National Park, Washington, USA

USGS Publications Warehouse

Ruiter, D.E.; Kondratieff, B.C.; Lechleitner, R.A.; Zuellig, R.E.

2005-01-01

The caddisflies of Mount Rainier National Park (MRNP), Washington, USA, were surveyed between 1997 and 2004. At least 1,930 specimens from over 250 collections at 163 sites were examined. Based on the current understanding of caddisfly systematics, 108 species were identified. With nine additional species previously reported that we did not confirm, a total of 117 species are now known from MRNP, representing over 50 % of the reported Washington state caddisfly fauna. The collections of the rare brachycentrid, Eobrachycentrus gelidae Wiggins, represent the second and third known records of adults for this species. Six species, Apatania zonella (Zetterstedt), Asynarchus aldinus (Ross), Limnephilus moestus Banks, Polycentropus flavus (Banks), Rhyacophila vobara Milne, and Neophylax occidentis Banks represent new records for the state of Washington. One new species of Polycentropus was discovered.

Quantifying Wikipedia Usage Patterns Before Stock Market Moves

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Moat, Helen Susannah; Curme, Chester; Avakian, Adam; Kenett, Dror Y.; Stanley, H. Eugene; Preis, Tobias

2013-05-01

Financial crises result from a catastrophic combination of actions. Vast stock market datasets offer us a window into some of the actions that have led to these crises. Here, we investigate whether data generated through Internet usage contain traces of attempts to gather information before trading decisions were taken. We present evidence in line with the intriguing suggestion that data on changes in how often financially related Wikipedia pages were viewed may have contained early signs of stock market moves. Our results suggest that online data may allow us to gain new insight into early information gathering stages of decision making.

Mobile Response Team Saves Lives in Volcano Crises

USGS Publications Warehouse

Ewert, John W.; Miller, C. Dan; Hendley, James W.; Stauffer, Peter H.

1997-01-01

The world's only volcano crisis response team, organized and operated by the USGS, can be quickly mobilized to assess and monitor hazards at volcanoes threatening to erupt. Since 1986, the team has responded to more than a dozen volcano crises as part of the Volcano Disaster Assistance Program (VDAP), a cooperative effort with the Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance of the U.S. Agency for International Development. The work of USGS scientists with VDAP has helped save countless lives, and the valuable lessons learned are being used to reduce risks from volcano hazards in the United States.

Quantifying Wikipedia Usage Patterns Before Stock Market Moves

PubMed Central

Moat, Helen Susannah; Curme, Chester; Avakian, Adam; Kenett, Dror Y.; Stanley, H. Eugene; Preis, Tobias

2013-01-01

Financial crises result from a catastrophic combination of actions. Vast stock market datasets offer us a window into some of the actions that have led to these crises. Here, we investigate whether data generated through Internet usage contain traces of attempts to gather information before trading decisions were taken. We present evidence in line with the intriguing suggestion that data on changes in how often financially related Wikipedia pages were viewed may have contained early signs of stock market moves. Our results suggest that online data may allow us to gain new insight into early information gathering stages of decision making.

Reaching out to take on TB in Somalia.

PubMed

Moore, David A J; Granat, Simo M

2014-01-01

Among the many challenges facing populations disrupted by complex emergencies, personal security and food security rank much higher than access to healthcare. However, over time health needs assume increasing importance. Many complex crises occur in settings where the background incidence of TB is already high; social and economic conditions in crises are then highly conducive to amplification of the existing TB problem. Innovative approaches to delivery of diagnostic and treatment services, transition planning and integration with other healthcare providers and services are vital. In the extremely challenging environment of Somalia, multiple partners are making headway though collaboration and innovation.

Anticipating Economic Market Crises Using Measures of Collective Panic

PubMed Central

2015-01-01

Predicting panic is of critical importance in many areas of human and animal behavior, notably in the context of economics. The recent financial crisis is a case in point. Panic may be due to a specific external threat or self-generated nervousness. Here we show that the recent economic crisis and earlier large single-day panics were preceded by extended periods of high levels of market mimicry—direct evidence of uncertainty and nervousness, and of the comparatively weak influence of external news. High levels of mimicry can be a quite general indicator of the potential for self-organized crises. PMID:26185988

Improving decision making in crisis.

PubMed

Higgins, Guy; Freedman, Jennifer

2013-01-01

The most critical activity during emergencies or crises is making decisions about what to do next. This paper provides insights into the challenges that people face in making decisions at any time, but particularly during emergencies and crises. It also introduces the reader to the concept of different sense-making/decision-making domains, the human behaviours that can adversely affect decision making - decision derailers - and ways in which emergency responders can leverage this knowledge to make better decisions. While the literature on decision making is extensive, this paper is focused on those aspects that apply particularly to decision making in emergencies or times of crisis.

Large submarine sand waves and gravel lag substrates on Georges Bank off Atlantic Canada

USGS Publications Warehouse

Todd, B.J.; Valentine, Page C.; Harris, Peter T; Baker, E.K.

2012-01-01

Georges Bank is a large, shallow, continental shelf feature offshore of New England and Atlantic Canada. The bank is mantled with a veneer of glacial debris transported during the late Pleistocene from continental areas lying to the north. These sediments were reworked by marine processes during postglacial sea-level transgression and continue to be modified by the modern oceanic regime. The surficial geology of the Canadian portion of the bank is a widespread gravel lag overlain in places by well sorted sand occurring as bedforms. The most widespread bedforms are large, mobile, asymmetrical sand waves up to 19 m in height formed through sediment transport by strong tidal-driven and possibly storm-driven currents. Well-defined curvilinear bedform crests up to 15 km long form a complex bifurcating pattern having an overall southwest–northeast strike, which is normal to the direction of the major axis of the semidiurnal tidal current ellipse. Minor fields of immobile, symmetrical sand waves are situated in bathymetric lows. Rare mobile, asymmetrical barchan dunes are lying on the gravel lag in areas of low sand supply. On Georges Bank, the management of resources and habitats requires an understanding of the distribution of substrate types, their surface dynamics and susceptibility to movement, and their associated fauna.

Who should be offered sperm banking for fertility preservation? A survey of UK oncologists and haematologists.

PubMed

Gilbert, E; Adams, A; Mehanna, H; Harrison, B; Hartshorne, G M

2011-05-01

Fertility after cancer therapy is a significant quality-of-life concern for many patients, their partners and families. Authoritative guidance states that men whose fertility may be affected by impending therapies should be offered sperm banking. Yet some patients are not offered this opportunity and are thereby disadvantaged. We sought to understand oncologists' and haematologists' decision making concerning sperm-banking referrals. We surveyed all oncologists and haematologists on the Royal College of Radiotherapists' Faculty of Oncology and British Society for Haematology circulation lists. From 2357 across all specialties, 499 responses were received: 253 haematologists and 246 oncologists (21% response rate). Twenty-one percent of respondents were unaware of local policies on sperm banking and 42% considered that sperm banking should be offered to more patients. Respondents' decisions reveal either assumptions about patients' needs based on characteristics such as age, sexual orientation and severity of illness or the influence of their own moral conclusions upon their patients. The survey identified paucity of training for clinicians, information for patients and systematic recording of discussions about fertility. A robust care infrastructure supporting male fertility storage is needed urgently to include targeted information for cancer clinicians and patients, identified individuals responsible for coordination and documentation of discussions with patients.

Temporal dynamics of Puumala hantavirus infection in cyclic populations of bank voles.

PubMed

Voutilainen, Liina; Kallio, Eva R; Niemimaa, Jukka; Vapalahti, Olli; Henttonen, Heikki

2016-02-18

Understanding the dynamics of zoonotic pathogens in their reservoir host populations is a prerequisite for predicting and preventing human disease epidemics. The human infection risk of Puumala hantavirus (PUUV) is highest in northern Europe, where populations of the rodent host (bank vole, Myodes glareolus) undergo cyclic fluctuations. We conducted a 7-year capture-mark-recapture study to monitor seasonal and multiannual patterns of the PUUV infection rate in bank vole populations exhibiting a 3-year density cycle. Infected bank voles were most abundant in mid-winter months during years of increasing or peak host density. Prevalence of PUUV infection in bank voles exhibited a regular, seasonal pattern reflecting the annual population turnover and accumulation of infections within each year cohort. In autumn, the PUUV transmission rate tracked increasing host abundance, suggesting a density-dependent transmission. However, prevalence of PUUV infection was similar during the increase and peak years of the density cycle despite a twofold difference in host density. This may result from the high proportion of individuals carrying maternal antibodies constraining transmission during the cycle peak years. Our exceptionally intensive and long-term dataset provides a solid basis on which to develop models to predict the dynamic public health threat posed by PUUV in northern Europe.

Genetic diversity and accession structure in European Cynara cardunculus collections

PubMed Central

Fernández, Juan A.; Sonnante, Gabriella; Egea-Gilabert, Catalina

2017-01-01

Understanding the distribution of genetic variations and accession structures is an important factor for managing genetic resources, but also for using proper germplasm in association map analyses and breeding programs. The globe artichoke is the fourth most important horticultural crop in Europe. Here, we report the results of a molecular analysis of a collection including globe artichoke and leafy cardoon germplasm present in the Italian, French and Spanish gene banks. The aims of this study were to: (i) assess the diversity present in European collections, (ii) determine the population structure, (iii) measure the genetic distance between accessions; (iv) cluster the accessions; (v) properly distinguish accessions present in the different national collections carrying the same name; and (vi) understand the diversity distribution in relation to the gene bank and the geographic origin of the germplasm. A total of 556 individuals grouped into 174 accessions of distinct typologies were analyzed by different types of molecular markers, i.e. dominant (ISSR and AFLP) and co-dominant (SSR). The data of the two crops (globe artichoke and leafy cardoon) were analyzed jointly and separately to compute, among other aims, the gene diversity, heterozygosity (He, Ho), fixation indexes, AMOVA, genetic distance and structure. The findings underline the huge diversity present in the analyzed material, and the existence of alleles that are able to discriminate among accessions. The accessions were clustered not only on the basis of their typology, but also on the basis of the gene bank they come from. Probably, the environmental conditions of the different field gene banks affected germplasm conservation. These outcomes will be useful in plant breeding to select accessions and to fingerprint varieties. Moreover, the results highlight the particular attention that should be paid to the method used to conserve the Cynara cardunculus germplasm and suggest to the preference of using accessions from different gene banks to run an association map. PMID:28570688

Experimental infections of wild bank voles (Myodes glareolus) from nephropatia epidemica endemic and non-endemic regions revealed slight differences in Puumala virological course and immunological responses.

PubMed

Dubois, Adélaïde; Castel, Guillaume; Murri, Séverine; Pulido, Coralie; Pons, Jean-Baptiste; Benoit, Laure; Loiseau, Anne; Lakhdar, Latifa; Galan, Maxime; Charbonnel, Nathalie; Marianneau, Philippe

2017-05-02

In Europe, the occurrence of nephropathia epidemica (NE), a human disease caused by Puumala virus (PUUV), exhibits considerable geographical heterogeneity despite the continuous distribution of its reservoir, the bank vole Myodes glareolus. To better understand the causes of this heterogeneity, wild voles sampled in two adjacent NE endemic and non-endemic regions of France were infected experimentally with PUUV. The responses of bank voles to PUUV infection, based on the levels of anti-PUUV IgG and viral RNA, were compared. Slight regional differences were highlighted despite the high inter-individual variability. Voles from the NE non-endemic region showed greater immune responsiveness to PUUV infection, but lower levels of RNA in their organs than voles from the endemic region. These results suggest the existence of regional variations in the sensitivity of bank voles that could contribute to the apparent absence of PUUV circulation among voles and the absence of NE in the non-endemic region. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Influence of Groundwater Hydraulic Gradient on Bank Storage Metrics.

PubMed

Welch, Chani; Harrington, Glenn A; Cook, Peter G

2015-01-01

The hydraulic gradient between aquifers and rivers is one of the most variable properties in a river/aquifer system. Detailed process understanding of bank storage under hydraulic gradients is obtained from a two-dimensional numerical model of a variably saturated aquifer slice perpendicular to a river. Exchange between the river and the aquifer occurs first at the interface with the unsaturated zone. The proportion of total water exchanged through the river bank compared to the river bed is a function of aquifer hydraulic conductivity, partial penetration, and hydraulic gradient. Total exchange may be estimated to within 50% using existing analytical solutions provided that unsaturated zone processes do not strongly influence exchange. Model-calculated bank storage is at a maximum when no hydraulic gradient is present and increases as the hydraulic conductivity increases. However, in the presence of a hydraulic gradient, the largest exchange flux or distance of penetration does not necessarily correspond to the highest hydraulic conductivity, as high hydraulic conductivity increases the components of exchange both into and out of an aquifer. Flood wave characteristics do not influence ambient groundwater discharge, and so in large floods, hydraulic gradients must be high to reduce the volume of bank storage. Practical measurement of bank storage metrics is problematic due to the limitations of available measurement technologies and the nested processes of exchange that occur at the river-aquifer interface. Proxies, such as time series concentration data in rivers and groundwater, require further development to be representative and quantitative. © 2014, National GroundWater Association.

Removal of Cryptosporidium parvum in bank filtration systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Harter, T.; Atwill, E. R.; Hou, L. L.

2003-04-01

The protozoan pathogen Cryptosporidium parvum is a leading cause of waterborne disease. Many surface water systems therefore depend on filtration systems, including bank filtration systems, for the removal of the pathogenic oocysts. To better understand the effectiveness, e.g., of bank filtration systems, we have implemented a series of columns studies under various environmental conditions (column length: 10 cm - 60 cm, flow rates: 0.7 m/d - 30 m/d, ionic strength: 0.01 - 100 mM, filter grain size: 0.2 - 2 mm, various solution chemistry). We show that classic colloid filtration theory is a reasonable tool for predicting the initial breakthrough of C. parvum in pulsed injections of the oocyst through sand columns, although the model does not account for the significant tailing that occurs in C. parvum transport. Application of colloid filtration theory to bank filtration system is further limited by the intrinsic heterogeneity of the geologic systems used for bank filtration. We couple filtration theory with a stochastic subsurface transport approach and with percolation theory to account for the effects of intrinsic heterogeneity. We find that a 1-log removal can be achieved even under relatively adverse conditions (low collision efficiency, high velocity) if 85% - 90% of the sedimentary hydrofacies located within the bank filtration system or of the coarsest known hydrofacies connecting the riverbed with the extraction system has a grain-size distribution with a 10% passing diameter equal to 1 mm. One millimeter is a standard sieve size in sediment analysis.

Evaluation of Lower East Fork Poplar Creek Mercury Sources

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Watson, David B.; Brooks, Scott C.; Mathews, Teresa J.

This report summarizes a 3-year research project undertaken to better understand the nature and magnitude of mercury (Hg) fluxes in East Fork Poplar Creek (EFPC). This project addresses the requirements of Action Plan 1 in the 2011 Oak Ridge Reservation-wide Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act Five Year Review (FYR). The Action Plan is designed to address a twofold 2011 FYR issue: (1) new information suggests mobilization of mercury from the upper and lower EFPC streambeds and stream banks is the primary source of mercury export during high-flow conditions, and (2) the current Record of Decision did not addressmore » the entire hydrologic system and creek bank or creek bed sediments. To obtain a more robust watershed-scale understanding of mercury sources and processes in lower EFPC (LEFPC), new field and laboratory studies were coupled with existing data from multiple US Department of Energy programs to develop a dynamic watershed and bioaccumulation model. LEFPC field studies for the project focused primarily on quantification of streambank erosion and an evaluation of mercury dynamics in shallow groundwater adjacent to LEFPC and potential connection to the surface water. The approach to the stream bank study was innovative in using imagery from kayak floats’ surveys from the headwaters to the mouth of EFPC to estimate erosion, coupled with detailed bank soil mercury analyses. The goal of new field assessments and modeling was to generate a more holistic and quantitative understanding of the watershed and the sources, flux, concentration, transformation, and bioaccumulation of inorganic mercury (IHg) and methylmercury (MeHg). Model development used a hybrid approach that dynamically linked a spreadsheet-based physical and chemical watershed model to a systems dynamics, mercury bioaccumulation model for key fish species. The watershed model tracks total Hg and MeHg fluxes and concentrations by examining upstream inputs, floodplain runoff, floodplain leaching, bank soil erosion, and periphyton matrix dynamics. The bioaccumulation model tracks the feeding, growth, and mercury assimilation of representative individual fish through their typical life span using key inputs of fish size, water temperature, and diet. The LEFPC watershed was divided into five modeling reaches, and fluxes and concentrations are assessed at this spatial scale. Following are the key findings of the field and laboratory studies and the watershed and bioaccumulation modeling: • The greatest flux of total mercury (HgT) in LEFPC is related to stormflow transport of Hg-contaminated solids entering the creek because of bank erosion in the upper reaches of the creek. • The second greatest flux originates from upper EFPC (Station 17 representing the exit stream sampling point near the boundary of the Y-12 Complex), and appears to control base flow fluxes. • The observed increase in MeHg concentration and flux from upstream to downstream is related primarily to instream methylation by periphyton and other biological activity. • A meaningful substantial reduction of the HgT flux in LEFPC would require addressing the flux of HgT originating from bank erosion and from Station 17. • Actions to reduce LEFPC floodplain leaching and runoff would not produce much of an impact on HgT or MeHg concentrations or fluxes unless other major sources are eliminated first. This project addresses the Action Plan goal to evaluate the role of LEFPC bank soil sources and to consider the entire EFPC hydrologic system. Model conclusions are dependent on the data available at the time of this assessment. However, a robust understanding and quantification for some mercury-related parameters and relationships is still lacking; there is a continued need for field data collection and modeling improvements. Model predictions should be viewed cautiously, with comparisons of the magnitude of predictions between scenarios being more valid than absolute predictions of concentrations or fluxes. With continued updates and refinement, the watershed-scale model can be a useful, valuable tool for future EFPC research prioritization, technology development, and remedial decision-making.« less

Considerations in establishing a post-mortem brain and tissue bank for the study of myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome: a proposed protocol.

PubMed

Nacul, Luis; O'Donovan, Dominic G; Lacerda, Eliana M; Gveric, Djordje; Goldring, Kirstin; Hall, Alison; Bowman, Erinna; Pheby, Derek

2014-06-18

Our aim, having previously investigated through a qualitative study involving extensive discussions with experts and patients the issues involved in establishing and maintaining a disease specific brain and tissue bank for myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS), was to develop a protocol for a UK ME/CFS repository of high quality human tissue from well characterised subjects with ME/CFS and controls suitable for a broad range of research applications. This would involve a specific donor program coupled with rapid tissue collection and processing, supplemented by comprehensive prospectively collected clinical, laboratory and self-assessment data from cases and controls. We reviewed the operations of existing tissue banks from published literature and from their internal protocols and standard operating procedures (SOPs). On this basis, we developed the protocol presented here, which was designed to meet high technical and ethical standards and legal requirements and was based on recommendations of the MRC UK Brain Banks Network. The facility would be most efficient and cost-effective if incorporated into an existing tissue bank. Tissue collection would be rapid and follow robust protocols to ensure preservation sufficient for a wide range of research uses. A central tissue bank would have resources both for wide-scale donor recruitment and rapid response to donor death for prompt harvesting and processing of tissue. An ME/CFS brain and tissue bank could be established using this protocol. Success would depend on careful consideration of logistic, technical, legal and ethical issues, continuous consultation with patients and the donor population, and a sustainable model of funding ideally involving research councils, health services, and patient charities. This initiative could revolutionise the understanding of this still poorly-understood disease and enhance development of diagnostic biomarkers and treatments.

Work-Related Stress in the Banking Sector: A Review of Incidence, Correlated Factors, and Major Consequences.

PubMed

Giorgi, Gabriele; Arcangeli, Giulio; Perminiene, Milda; Lorini, Chiara; Ariza-Montes, Antonio; Fiz-Perez, Javier; Di Fabio, Annamaria; Mucci, Nicola

2017-01-01

For a number of years now, banks have been going through enormous changes in organization and structure. New technology and new ways of structuring the operation have left their mark on the working conditions and daily lives of employees. Deregulation of labor markets, emerging technologies and new types of jobs have significantly reshaping working lives by continuous changes on employment and working conditions. Such a scenario has a relevant impact not only on companies' organization but also on working population's health. The banking sector is particularly well-deserved of a specific and thorough analysis, in view of the recent increase in psycho-social disorders of employees. This may be related to the major organizational changes affecting this sector and, in particular, to the restructuring processes resulting from the global economic crisis. Our aim is to assess the scale of the phenomenon and how far it relates specifically to the processes of bank organization. With this in mind, through a review of the literature, we selected the main studies dealing with work-related stress in banking, so that we could reach a better understanding of the phenomenon as it relates specifically to this set of workers. The search took place on the MEDLINE® database; in total 20 articles were chosen. There was uniform agreement among the studies that stress in the banking workplace is now at critical levels, and that it can have deleterious psychological effects on workers, and on their physical health, and that organizations, too, are affected. Most studies showed that mental health problems had increased in the banking sector, and that they were stress-related. Examples began with anxiety and depression, carried on through maladaptive behaviors, and ended in job burnout. The reviewed studies' limitations were then discussed, and possible ways forward considered.

Thirty years of personal experience in hyperglycemic crises: diabetic ketoacidosis and hyperglycemic hyperosmolar state.

PubMed

Kitabchi, Abbas E; Umpierrez, Guillermo E; Fisher, Joseph N; Murphy, Mary Beth; Stentz, Frankie B

2008-05-01

Diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA) and hyperglycemic hyperosmolar state (HHS) cause major morbidity and significant mortality in patients with diabetes mellitus. For more than 30 yr, our group, in a series of prospective, randomized clinical studies, has investigated the pathogenesis and evolving strategies of the treatment of hyperglycemic crises. This paper summarizes the results of these prospective studies on the management and pathophysiology of DKA. Our earliest studies evaluated the comparative efficacy of low-dose vs. pharmacological amounts of insulin and the use of low-dose therapy by various routes in adults and later in children. Subsequent studies evaluated phosphate and bicarbonate therapy, lipid metabolism, ketosis-prone type 2 patients, and use of rapid-acting insulin analogs as well as leptin status, cardiac risk factors, proinflammatory cytokines, and the mechanism of activation of T lymphocytes in hyperglycemic crises. The information garnered from these studies resulted in the creation of the 2001 American Diabetes Association (ADA) technical review on DKA and HHS as well as the ADA Position and Consensus Paper on the therapy for hyperglycemic crises. Areas of future research include prospective randomized studies to do the following: 1) establish the efficacy of bicarbonate therapy in DKA for a pH less than 6.9; 2) establish the need for a bolus insulin dose in the initial therapy of DKA; 3) determine the pathophysiological mechanisms for the absence of ketosis in HHS; 4) investigate the reasons for elevated proinflammatory cytokines and cardiovascular risk factors; and 5) evaluate the efficacy and cost benefit of using sc regular insulin vs. more expensive insulin analogs on the general ward for the treatment of DKA.

Systematic review of the evidence on the effectiveness of sexual and reproductive health interventions in humanitarian crises.

PubMed

Warren, Emily; Post, Nathan; Hossain, Mazeda; Blanchet, Karl; Roberts, Bayard

2015-12-18

This systematic review aims to evaluate evidence on the effectiveness of sexual and reproductive health (SRH) interventions delivered in humanitarian crises. Crisis affected low-income or middle-income countries. Crisis-affected populations in low-income or middle-income countries. Peer-reviewed and grey literature sources were systematically searched for relevant papers detailing interventions from 1 January 1980 until the search date on 30 April 2013. Data from included studies were then extracted, and the papers' quality evaluated using criteria based on modified STROBE and CONSORT checklists. Primary outcomes include, but are not limited to, changes in morbidity, mortality, sexually transmitted infection (STI) diagnosis or gender-based violence. Secondary outcomes include, but are not limited to, reported condom use or skilled attendance at birth. Primary outputs include, but are not limited to, condoms distributed or education courses taught. Of 7149 returned citations, 15 studies met the inclusion criteria. Only one randomised controlled trial was identified. The remaining observational studies were of moderate quality, demonstrating limited use of controls and inadequate attempts to address bias. Evidence of effectiveness was available for the following interventions: impregnated bed nets for pregnant women, subsidised refugee healthcare, female community health workers, and tiered community reproductive health services. The limited evidence base for SRH interventions highlights the need for improved research on the effectiveness of public health interventions in humanitarian crises. While interventions proven efficacious in stable settings are being used in humanitarian efforts, more evidence is required to demonstrate the effectiveness of delivering and scaling-up such interventions in humanitarian crises. Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://www.bmj.com/company/products-services/rights-and-licensing/

Coordinating the Provision of Health Services in Humanitarian Crises: a Systematic Review of Suggested Models.

PubMed

Lotfi, Tamara; Bou-Karroum, Lama; Darzi, Andrea; Hajjar, Rayan; El Rahyel, Ahmed; El Eid, Jamale; Itani, Mira; Brax, Hneine; Akik, Chaza; Osman, Mona; Hassan, Ghayda; El-Jardali, Fadi; Akl, Elie

2016-08-03

Our objective was to identify published models of coordination between entities funding or delivering health services in humanitarian crises, whether the coordination took place during or after the crises. We included reports describing models of coordination in sufficient detail to allow reproducibility. We also included reports describing implementation of identified models, as case studies. We searched Medline, PubMed, EMBASE, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, CINAHL, PsycINFO, and the WHO Global Health Library. We also searched websites of relevant organizations. We followed standard systematic review methodology. Our search captured 14,309 citations. The screening process identified 34 eligible papers describing five models of coordination of delivering health services: the "Cluster Approach" (with 16 case studies), the 4Ws "Who is Where, When, doing What" mapping tool (with four case studies), the "Sphere Project" (with two case studies), the "5x5" model (with one case study), and the "model of information coordination" (with one case study). The 4Ws and the 5x5 focus on coordination of services for mental health, the remaining models do not focus on a specific health topic. The Cluster approach appears to be the most widely used. One case study was a mixed implementation of the Cluster approach and the Sphere model. We identified no model of coordination for funding of health service. This systematic review identified five proposed coordination models that have been implemented by entities funding or delivering health service in humanitarian crises. There is a need to compare the effect of these different models on outcomes such as availability of and access to health services.

Global bifurcations in fractional-order chaotic systems with an extended generalized cell mapping method

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Liu, Xiaojun; School of Mathematics and Statistics, Tianshui Normal University, Tianshui 741001; Hong, Ling, E-mail: hongling@mail.xjtu.edu.cn

Global bifurcations include sudden changes in chaotic sets due to crises. There are three types of crises defined by Grebogi et al. [Physica D 7, 181 (1983)]: boundary crisis, interior crisis, and metamorphosis. In this paper, by means of the extended generalized cell mapping (EGCM), boundary and interior crises of a fractional-order Duffing system are studied as one of the system parameters or the fractional derivative order is varied. It is found that a crisis can be generally defined as a collision between a chaotic basic set and a basic set, either periodic or chaotic, to cause a sudden discontinuousmore » change in chaotic sets. Here chaotic sets involve three different kinds: a chaotic attractor, a chaotic saddle on a fractal basin boundary, and a chaotic saddle in the interior of a basin and disjoint from the attractor. A boundary crisis results from the collision of a periodic (or chaotic) attractor with a chaotic (or regular) saddle in the fractal (or smooth) boundary. In such a case, the attractor, together with its basin of attraction, is suddenly destroyed as the control parameter passes through a critical value, leaving behind a chaotic saddle in the place of the original attractor and saddle after the crisis. An interior crisis happens when an unstable chaotic set in the basin of attraction collides with a periodic attractor, which causes the appearance of a new chaotic attractor, while the original attractor and the unstable chaotic set are converted to the part of the chaotic attractor after the crisis. These results further demonstrate that the EGCM is a powerful tool to reveal the mechanism of crises in fractional-order systems.« less

Forecasting of magnitude and duration of currency crises based on the analysis of distortions of fractal scaling in exchange rate fluctuations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Uritskaya, Olga Y.

2005-05-01

Results of fractal stability analysis of daily exchange rate fluctuations of more than 30 floating currencies for a 10-year period are presented. It is shown for the first time that small- and large-scale dynamical instabilities of national monetary systems correlate with deviations of the detrended fluctuation analysis (DFA) exponent from the value 1.5 predicted by the efficient market hypothesis. The observed dependence is used for classification of long-term stability of floating exchange rates as well as for revealing various forms of distortion of stable currency dynamics prior to large-scale crises. A normal range of DFA exponents consistent with crisis-free long-term exchange rate fluctuations is determined, and several typical scenarios of unstable currency dynamics with DFA exponents fluctuating beyond the normal range are identified. It is shown that monetary crashes are usually preceded by prolonged periods of abnormal (decreased or increased) DFA exponent, with the after-crash exponent tending to the value 1.5 indicating a more reliable exchange rate dynamics. Statistically significant regression relations (R=0.99, p<0.01) between duration and magnitude of currency crises and the degree of distortion of monofractal patterns of exchange rate dynamics are found. It is demonstrated that the parameters of these relations characterizing small- and large-scale crises are nearly equal, which implies a common instability mechanism underlying these events. The obtained dependences have been used as a basic ingredient of a forecasting technique which provided correct in-sample predictions of monetary crisis magnitude and duration over various time scales. The developed technique can be recommended for real-time monitoring of dynamical stability of floating exchange rate systems and creating advanced early-warning-system models for currency crisis prevention.

Role of the police in linking individuals experiencing mental health crises with mental health services

PubMed Central

2012-01-01

Background The police are considered frontline professionals in managing individuals experiencing mental health crises. This study examines the extent to which these individuals are disconnected from mental health services, and whether the police response has an influence on re-establishing contact. Methods Police records were searched for calls regarding individuals with acute mental health needs and police handling of these calls. Mental healthcare contact data were retrieved from a Psychiatric Case Register. Results The police were called upon for mental health crisis situations 492 times within the study year, involving 336 individuals (i.e. 1.7 per 1000 inhabitants per year). Half of these individuals (N=162) were disengaged from mental health services, lacking regular care contact in the year prior to the crisis (apart from contact for crisis intervention). In the month following the crisis, 21% of those who were previously disengaged from services had regular care contact, and this was more frequent (49%) if the police had contacted the mental health services during the crisis. The influence of police referral to the services was still present the following year. However, for the majority (58%) of disengaged individuals police did not contact the mental health services at the time of crisis. Conclusions The police deal with a substantial number of individuals experiencing a mental health crisis, half of whom are out of contact with mental health services, and police play an important role in linking these individuals to services. Training police officers to recognise and handle mental health crises, and implementing practical models of cooperation between the police and mental health services in dealing with such crises may further improve police referral of individuals disengaged from mental health services. PMID:23072687

A Systematic Review on Health Resilience to Economic Crises

PubMed Central

Glonti, Ketevan; Gordeev, Vladimir S.; Goryakin, Yevgeniy; Reeves, Aaron; Stuckler, David; McKee, Martin; Roberts, Bayard

2015-01-01

Background The health effects of recent economic crises differ markedly by population group. The objective of this systematic review is to examine evidence from longitudinal studies on factors influencing resilience for any health outcome or health behaviour among the general population living in countries exposed to financial crises. Methods We systematically reviewed studies from six electronic databases (EMBASE, Global Health, MEDLINE, PsycINFO, Scopus, Web of Science) which used quantitative longitudinal study designs and included: (i) exposure to an economic crisis; (ii) changes in health outcomes/behaviours over time; (iii) statistical tests of associations of health risk and/or protective factors with health outcomes/behaviours. The quality of the selected studies was appraised using the Quality Assessment Tool for Quantitative Studies. PRISMA reporting guidelines were followed. Results From 14,584 retrieved records, 22 studies met the eligibility criteria. These studies were conducted across 10 countries in Asia, Europe and North America over the past two decades. Ten socio-demographic factors that increased or protected against health risk were identified: gender, age, education, marital status, household size, employment/occupation, income/ financial constraints, personal beliefs, health status, area of residence, and social relations. These studies addressed physical health, mortality, suicide and suicide attempts, mental health, and health behaviours. Women’s mental health appeared more susceptible to crises than men’s. Lower income levels were associated with greater increases in cardiovascular disease, mortality and worse mental health. Employment status was associated with changes in mental health. Associations with age, marital status, and education were less consistent, although higher education was associated with healthier behaviours. Conclusions Despite widespread rhetoric about the importance of resilience, there was a dearth of studies which operationalised resilience factors. Future conceptual and empirical research is needed to develop the epidemiology of resilience. PMID:25905629

Assessing the add value of ensemble forecast in a drought early warning

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Calmanti, Sandro; Bosi, Lorenzo; Fernandez, Jesus; De Felice, Matteo

2015-04-01

The EU-FP7 project EUPORIAS is developing a prototype climate service to enhance the existing food security drought early warning system in Ethiopia. The Livelihoods, Early Assessment and Protection (LEAP) system is the Government of Ethiopia's national food security early warning system, established with the support of WFP and the World Bank in 2008. LEAP was designed to increase the predictability and timeliness of response to drought-related food crises in Ethiopia. It combines early warning with contingency planning and contingency funding, to allow the government, WFP and other partners to provide early assistance in anticipation of an impending catastrophes. Currently, LEAP uses satellite based rainfall estimates to monitor drought conditions and to compute needs. The main aim of the prototype is to use seasonal hindcast data to assess the added value of using ensemble climate rainfall forecasts to estimate the cost of assistance of population hit by major droughts. We outline the decision making process that is informed by the prototype climate service, and we discuss the analysis of the expected and skill of the available rainfall forecast data over Ethiopia. One critical outcome of this analysis is the strong dependence of the expected skill on the observational estimate assumed as reference. A preliminary evaluation of the full prototype products (drought indices and needs estimated) using hindcasts data will also be presented.

Healthcare reforms in Cyprus 2013-2017: Does the crisis mark the end of the healthcare sector as we know it?

PubMed

Petrou, Panagiotis; Vandoros, Sotiris

2018-02-01

As part of a bailout agreement with the International Monetary Fund, the European Commission and the European Central Bank (known as the Troika), Cyprus had to achieve a fiscal surplus through budget constraints and efficiency enhancement. As a result, a number of policy changes were implemented, including a reform of the healthcare sector, and major healthcare reforms are planned for the upcoming years, mainly via the introduction of a National Health System. This paper presents the healthcare sector, provides an overview of recent reforms, assesses the recently implemented policies and proposes further interventions. Recent reforms targeting the demand and supply side included the introduction of clinical guidelines, user charges, introduction of coding for Diagnosis Related Groups (DRGs) and the revision of public healthcare coverage criteria. The latter led to a reduction in the number of people with public healthcare coverage in a time of financial crises, when this is needed the most, while co-payments must be reassessed to avoid creating barriers to access. However, DRGs and clinical guidelines can help improve performance and efficiency. The changes so far are yet to mark the end of the healthcare sector as we know it. A universal public healthcare system must remain a priority and must be introduced swiftly to address important existing coverage gaps. Copyright © 2017 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The political economy of austerity and healthcare: cross-national analysis of expenditure changes in 27 European nations 1995-2011.

PubMed

Reeves, Aaron; McKee, Martin; Basu, Sanjay; Stuckler, David

2014-03-01

Why have patterns of healthcare spending varied during the Great Recession? Using cross-national, harmonised data for 27 EU countries from 1995 to 2011, we evaluated political, economic, and health system determinants of recent changes to healthcare expenditure. Data from EuroStat, the IMF, and World Bank (2013 editions) were evaluated using multivariate random- and fixed-effects models, correcting for pre-existing time-trends. Reductions in government health expenditure were not significantly associated with magnitude of economic recessions (annual change in GDP, p=0.31, or cumulative decline, p=0.40 or debt crises (measured by public debt as a percentage of GDP, p=0.38 or per capita, p=0.83)). Nor did ideology of governing parties have an effect. In contrast, each $100 reduction in tax revenue was associated with a $2.72 drop in health spending (95% CI: $1.03-4.41). IMF borrowers were significantly more likely to reduce healthcare budgets than non-IMF borrowers (OR=3.88, 95% CI: 1.95 -7.74), even after correcting for potential confounding by indication. Exposure to lending from international financial institutions, tax revenue falls, and decisions to implement cuts correlate more closely than underlying economic conditions or orientation of political parties with healthcare expenditure change in EU member states. Copyright © 2013 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd.. All rights reserved.

The Onset of Depression During the Great Recession: Foreclosure and Older Adult Mental Health

PubMed Central

Cagney, Kathleen A.; Browning, Christopher R.; Iveniuk, James; English, Ned

2014-01-01

Objectives. We examined neighborhood-level foreclosure rates and their association with onset of depressive symptoms in older adults. Methods. We linked data from the National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project (2005–2006 and 2010–2011 waves), a longitudinal, nationally representative survey, to data on zip code–level foreclosure rates, and predicted the onset of depressive symptoms using logit-linked regression. Results. Multiple stages of the foreclosure process predicted the onset of depressive symptoms, with adjustment for demographic characteristics and changes in household assets, neighborhood poverty, and visible neighborhood disorder. A large increase in the number of notices of default (odds ratio [OR] = 1.75; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.14, 2.67) and properties returning to ownership by the bank (OR = 1.62; 95% CI = 1.06, 2.47) were associated with depressive symptoms. A large increase in properties going to auction was suggestive of such an association (OR = 1.45; 95% CI = 0.96, 2.19). Age, fewer years of education, and functional limitations also were predictive. Conclusions. Increases in neighborhood-level foreclosure represent an important risk factor for depression in older adults. These results accord with previous studies suggesting that the effects of economic crises are typically first experienced through deficits in emotional well-being. PMID:24446830

The RCSB Protein Data Bank: views of structural biology for basic and applied research and education

PubMed Central

Rose, Peter W.; Prlić, Andreas; Bi, Chunxiao; Bluhm, Wolfgang F.; Christie, Cole H.; Dutta, Shuchismita; Green, Rachel Kramer; Goodsell, David S.; Westbrook, John D.; Woo, Jesse; Young, Jasmine; Zardecki, Christine; Berman, Helen M.; Bourne, Philip E.; Burley, Stephen K.

2015-01-01

The RCSB Protein Data Bank (RCSB PDB, http://www.rcsb.org) provides access to 3D structures of biological macromolecules and is one of the leading resources in biology and biomedicine worldwide. Our efforts over the past 2 years focused on enabling a deeper understanding of structural biology and providing new structural views of biology that support both basic and applied research and education. Herein, we describe recently introduced data annotations including integration with external biological resources, such as gene and drug databases, new visualization tools and improved support for the mobile web. We also describe access to data files, web services and open access software components to enable software developers to more effectively mine the PDB archive and related annotations. Our efforts are aimed at expanding the role of 3D structure in understanding biology and medicine. PMID:25428375

Scientists' Perceptions of Communicating During Crises

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dohaney, J. A.; Hudson-Doyle, E.; Brogt, E.; Wilson, T. M.; Kennedy, B.

2015-12-01

To further our understanding of how to enhance student science and risk communication skills in natural hazards and earth science courses, we conducted a pilot study to assess the different perceptions of expert scientists and risk communication practitioners versus the perceptions of students. These differences will be used to identify expert views on best practice, and improve the teaching of communication skills at the University level. In this pilot study, a perceptions questionnaire was developed and validated. Within this, respondents (geoscientists, engineers, and emergency managers; n=44) were asked to determine their agreement with the use and effectiveness of specific communication strategies (within the first 72 hours after a devastating earthquake) when communicating to the public. In terms of strategies and information to the public, the respondents were mostly in agreement, but there were several statements which elicited large differences between expert responses: 1) the role and purpose of the scientific communication during crises (to persuade people to care, to provide advice, to empower people to take action); 2) the scientist's delivery (showing the scientists emotions and enthusiasm for scientific concepts they are discussing); and 3) the amount of data that is discussed (being comprehensive versus 'only the important' data). The most disagreed upon dimension was related to whether to disclose any political influence on the communication. Additionally, scientists identified that being an effective communicator was an important part of their job, and agreed that it is important to practice these skills. Respondents generally indicated that while scientists should be accountable for the science advice provided, they should not be held liable.

Structural Genomics of Bacterial Virulence Factors

DTIC Science & Technology

2006-05-01

positioned in the unit cell by Molecular Replacement (Protein Data Bank ( PDB ) ID code 1acc)6 using MOLREP, and refined with REFMAC version 5.0 (ref. 24...increase our understanding of the molecular mechanisms of pathogenicity, putting us in a stronger position to anticipate and react to emerging...term, the accumulated structural information will generate important and testable hypotheses that will increase our understanding of the molecular

A Push on Job Anxiety for Employees on Managing Recent Difficult to Understand Computing Equipment in the Modern Issues in Indian Banking Quarter.

PubMed

Gopalakrishnan, Ragunathan; Swarnalatha, Chellapa

2015-01-01

Stress management can be defined as intervention planned to decrease the force of stressors in the administrative center. These can have a human being focus, aimed at raising an individual's ability to cope with stressors and the implementation of the CRM is essential to establish a better performance of the banking sector. Since managing stress and customer relationship management are becoming crucial in the field of management the work has forecasted them in a wide range of dimensions. This paper organizes few preliminary concepts of stress and critically analyzes the CRM strategy implemented by banking sector. Hence the employees of the Banking Industry have been asked to give their opinion about the CRM strategy adopted by banks. In order to provide the background of the employees, the profile of the employees has been discussed initially. The profile of the employees along with their opinion on the CRM practices adopted at Banking Industries has been discussed. In our work progresses we have been taken of two main parameters for consideration and it detriment in which area stress are mainly responds, and also the paper envelopes certain valuable stress management tactics and techniques that are particularly compassionate for people who have been working in the banking sector. Also an attempt to diagnose the impact of underside stress of day to day life in mounting a bigger level stress upon the employees has been made. Further development has been made with a detailed parametric analysis of employee stress conducted with the wide range of key parameters and several rounds of experiments have been conducted with techniques as Kolmogorov-Smirnov test, Garrett ranking, and ANOVA; the work ensures to pave way for an accurate measure in customer handling. The questionnaire is planned to be distributed to 175 employees in the Madurai district banks.

A Push on Job Anxiety for Employees on Managing Recent Difficult to Understand Computing Equipment in the Modern Issues in Indian Banking Quarter

PubMed Central

Gopalakrishnan, Ragunathan; Swarnalatha, Chellapa

2015-01-01

Stress management can be defined as intervention planned to decrease the force of stressors in the administrative center. These can have a human being focus, aimed at raising an individual's ability to cope with stressors and the implementation of the CRM is essential to establish a better performance of the banking sector. Since managing stress and customer relationship management are becoming crucial in the field of management the work has forecasted them in a wide range of dimensions. This paper organizes few preliminary concepts of stress and critically analyzes the CRM strategy implemented by banking sector. Hence the employees of the Banking Industry have been asked to give their opinion about the CRM strategy adopted by banks. In order to provide the background of the employees, the profile of the employees has been discussed initially. The profile of the employees along with their opinion on the CRM practices adopted at Banking Industries has been discussed. In our work progresses we have been taken of two main parameters for consideration and it detriment in which area stress are mainly responds, and also the paper envelopes certain valuable stress management tactics and techniques that are particularly compassionate for people who have been working in the banking sector. Also an attempt to diagnose the impact of underside stress of day to day life in mounting a bigger level stress upon the employees has been made. Further development has been made with a detailed parametric analysis of employee stress conducted with the wide range of key parameters and several rounds of experiments have been conducted with techniques as Kolmogorov-Smirnov test, Garrett ranking, and ANOVA; the work ensures to pave way for an accurate measure in customer handling. The questionnaire is planned to be distributed to 175 employees in the Madurai district banks. PMID:26558290

Contemporary public perceptions of nursing: a systematic review and narrative synthesis of the international research evidence.

PubMed

Girvin, June; Jackson, Debra; Hutchinson, Marie

2016-11-01

To investigate the current public understanding and perceptions of nursing. In recent years, attention to large scale health-care failures has focused considerable concern upon nursing standards. To avoid short-term solutions, and the temptation to see individual failures as representative of the wider profession, it is important to understand contemporary public perceptions of nursing. A systematic review and narrative synthesis of peer reviewed papers from January 2010 to September 2015. Four main themes were identified: (1) media portrayal of nursing as a troubled profession; (2) entertainment value in demeaning nursing; (3) role incongruity - nursing trusted but not respected; and (4) nursing roles remain poorly understood. Although there is evidence of strong public trust, this does not generally appear to be born out of an understanding of nursing work and impact; rather it appears to stem from the respect held for the traditional, more sentimental stereotypes of selfless, hardworking young females. A long-term, strategic solution is required that focuses on public engagement and interaction with the profession in a context wider than personal health/ill-health, and that goes beyond the marketing campaigns seen in the past to address recruitment crises. © 2016 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

The Green Bank Ammonia Survey of the Gould Belt

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Friesen, Rachel; Pineda, Jaime; GAS Team

2018-01-01

The past several years have seen a tremendous advancement in our ability to characterize the structure of nearby molecular clouds traced by large-scale continuum surveys. Critical, comparable data on the dense gas kinematics and temperatures are needed to understand the history and future fate of star-forming material. Filling this gap is the Green Bank Ammonia Survey (GAS), an ambitious legacy survey for the Green Bank Telescope to observe key molecular tracers of dense gas within all Gould Belt clouds visible from the northern hemisphere. I will present the latest science from GAS, whose goals are to 1) evaluate the stability of dense gas structures as a function of scale, 2) track the dissipation of turbulence and evolution of angular momentum in filaments and cores, and 3) quantitatively test predictions of models of core and filament formation via mass flows and accretion.

Suspended-sediment yields and stream-channel processes on Judy's Branch watershed in the St. Louis Metro East region in Illinois

USGS Publications Warehouse

Straub, Timothy D.; Johnson, Gary P.; Roseboom, Donald P.; Sierra, Carlos R.

2006-01-01

Judy's Branch watershed, a small basin (8.64 square miles) in the St. Louis Metro East region in Illinois, was selected as a pilot site to determine suspended-sediment yields and stream-channel processes in the bluffs and American Bottoms (expansive low-lying valley floor in the region). Suspended-sediment and stream-chan-nel data collected and analyzed for Judy's Branch watershed are presented in this report to establish a baseline of data for water-resource managers to evaluate future stream rehabilitation and manage-ment alternatives. The sediment yield analysis determines the amount of sediment being delivered from the watershed and two subwatersheds: an urban tributary and an undeveloped headwater (pri-marily agricultural). The analysis of the subwater-sheds is used to compare the effects of urbanization on sediment yield to the river. The stream-channel contribution to sediment yield was determined by evaluation of the stream-channel processes operat-ing on the streambed and banks of Judy's Branch watershed. Bank stability was related to hydrologic events, bank stratigraphy, and channel geometry through model development and simulation. The average suspended-sediment yield from two upland subwatersheds (drainage areas of 0.23 and 0.40 sq.mi. was 1,163 tons per square mile per year (tons/sq.mi.-year) between July 2000 and June 2004. The suspended-sediment yield at the Route 157 station was 2,523 tons/sq.mi.-year, near the outlet of Judy's Branch watershed (drainage area = 8.33 sq.mi.). This is approximately 1,360 tons/sq.mi.-year greater than the average at the upland stations for the same time period. This result is unexpected in that, generally, the suspended-sediment yield decreases as the watershed area increases because of sediment stored in the channel and flood plain. The difference indicates a possible increase in yield from a source, such as bank retreat, and supports the concept that land-use changes increase stream-flows that may in turn result in higher rates of bank retreat. Utilizing both bank-rod data and resurveyed cross-section data, it was determined that approxi-mately half of the suspended- sediment yield at Route 157 during July 2000-June 2004 came from bank retreat. Given that bank retreat can be a substantial portion of the sediment yield, understanding bank stability processes is important. Bank stability can be assessed mathematically by computing the factor of safety, which is defined by the ratio of the shear strength (resisting force) along the failure surface and the shear stress (driving gravitational force). Once the factor of safety falls below one, the bank theoretically becomes unstable. Bank-stability conditions were related to hydrologic events, bank type, and channel geometry through model develop-ment and simulation. The most common type of bank in the watershed consists of cohesive alluvial soil deposits overlying a stiff glacial till. A stabil-ity chart for different bank types was developed using a bank-stability analysis. Banks steeper than 70 degrees and higher than from 10 to 11.5 feet (depending on bank type) become at risk for mass failure in the watershed under conditions that pro-mote saturation of the bank and a sudden drop in the river level.

Biobanking genetic material for agricultural animal species

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Biobanking animal germplasm and tissues is a major component of conserving genetic resources. Effectively constructing such gene banks requires an understanding and evaluation of genetic resources, the ability to conserve various tissues through cryopreservation, and a robust information technology ...

12 CFR 37.7 - Affirmative election to purchase and acknowledgment of receipt of disclosures required.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-01-01

... conspicuous, simple, direct, readily understandable, and designed to call attention to their significance. The... obligate the customer to pay for the contract until after the bank has received the customer's written...

12 CFR 37.7 - Affirmative election to purchase and acknowledgment of receipt of disclosures required.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-01-01

... conspicuous, simple, direct, readily understandable, and designed to call attention to their significance. The... obligate the customer to pay for the contract until after the bank has received the customer's written...

12 CFR 37.7 - Affirmative election to purchase and acknowledgment of receipt of disclosures required.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-01-01

... conspicuous, simple, direct, readily understandable, and designed to call attention to their significance. The... obligate the customer to pay for the contract until after the bank has received the customer's written...

12 CFR 37.7 - Affirmative election to purchase and acknowledgment of receipt of disclosures required.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-01-01

... conspicuous, simple, direct, readily understandable, and designed to call attention to their significance. The... obligate the customer to pay for the contract until after the bank has received the customer's written...

Dissociative identity disorder: a feminist approach to inpatient treatment using Jean Baker Miller's Relational Model.

PubMed

Riggs, S R; Bright, M A

1997-08-01

Women diagnosed with Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) may experience episodic crises characterized by intense states of disconnection from self and others. Crises which result in potential harm to self/others may require inpatient treatment. With economic emphasis on shorter lengths of stay, a treatment program or model which focuses on the DID patient's sense of connectedness to self and others can enhance treatment efforts during brief inpatient hospitalizations. The Relational Model of Jean Baker Miller uses mutuality and empowerment within the therapeutic relationship and inpatient mileu to move the patient beyond therapeutic impasse/crisis toward a state of greater connectedness to self and others.

Resolution of psychosocial crises associated with flying in space

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Suedfeld, Peter; Brcic, Jelena

2011-07-01

Erikson (1959) proposed a theoretical basis for healthy psychosocial development. His theory posits eight critical conflict situations throughout one's lifetime, each of which can result in a favorable or unfavorable resolution. Autobiographies, memoirs, interviews, personal diaries, and oral histories of 97 international astronauts were content analyzed to assess reported resolutions of Erikson's psychosocial crises, regardless of chronological sequence. We made comparisons across flight phases (before, during, and after), gender, nationality of home space agency, and flight duration. Astronauts reported more favorable than unfavorable outcomes across flight phases and demographic variables. Differences across demographic variables and flight phases, as well as the changes as a result of the flight are discussed.

Correlation and network topologies in global and local stock indices

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nobi, Ashadun; Lee, Sungmin; Kim, Doo Hwan; Lee, Jae Woo

2014-07-01

We examined how the correlation and network structure of the global indices and local Korean indices have changed during years 2000-2012. The average correlations of the global indices increased with time, while the local indices showed a decreasing trend except for drastic changes during the crises. A significant change in the network topologies was observed due to the financial crises in both markets. The Jaccard similarities identified the change in the market state due to a crisis in both markets. The dynamic change of the Jaccard index can be used as an indicator of systemic risk or precursors of the crisis.

Preparedness of households and catering establishments for incidents involving radioactive contamination.

PubMed

Enqvist, H

2005-01-01

This short paper describes a number of investigations carried out to ensure preparedness for crises involving radioactivity to catering operations and private households in Finland. The specific recommendations for catering kitchens during crises were published in 1994. A study to determine the level of adherence to these recommendations is summarised here, together with its findings and subsequent recommendations. Another study on the pre-planning of crisis menus is described. New challenges for the catering kitchens are touched upon. A crisis food preparation booklet for households is described and based on consumers' attitudes suggestions are made for how this can be improved in the future.

Dynamics of financial crises in the world trade network

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Askari, Marziyeh; Shirazi, Homayoun; Aghababaei Samani, Keivan

2018-07-01

A simple dynamical model is introduced to simulate the spreading of financial crises in the world trade network. In this model a directed network is constructed in which a weighted and directed link indicates the export value between two countries. The weights are subject to the change by a simple dynamical rule. The process begins with a crisis, i.e. a sudden decrease in the export value of a certain country and spreads throughout the whole network. We compare our results with the real values corresponding to the global financial crisis of 2008 and show that the results of our model are in good agreement with reality.

The reactions to macro-economic crises in Nordic health system policies: Denmark, Finland and Sweden, 1980-2013.

PubMed

Lehto, Juhani; Vrangbæk, Karsten; Winblad, Ulrika

2015-01-01

Denmark, Finland and Sweden have experienced two major recessions during the last 25 years. The adjustments to the earlier crisis in the late 1980s (Denmark) and early 1990s (Finland and Sweden) resembled the policies in many other European countries during the present crisis. The analysis of relationship of deep economic crises and growth period between them to the health system policies and institutions in the three countries from the 1980s to 2013 is based on a categorisation of reactions to external shocks as path conforming or path breaking. The results of the empirical long-term trends show that the reactions to deep recessions have been mainly temporary adjustments and acceleration of changes already prepared before economic crisis. The economic crisis in the three countries has not been 'good enough' to enable paradigmatic changes in the Nordic public, decentralised and equity-oriented health systems. Changes such as the slow privatisation in care funding and production and the adoption of new management practices indicate an ongoing paradigmatic change related to longer-term societal, ideological and political developments rather than directly to economic crises or growth.

Linear and nonlinear market correlations: Characterizing financial crises and portfolio optimization.

PubMed

Haluszczynski, Alexander; Laut, Ingo; Modest, Heike; Räth, Christoph

2017-12-01

Pearson correlation and mutual information-based complex networks of the day-to-day returns of U.S. S&P500 stocks between 1985 and 2015 have been constructed to investigate the mutual dependencies of the stocks and their nature. We show that both networks detect qualitative differences especially during (recent) turbulent market periods, thus indicating strongly fluctuating interconnections between the stocks of different companies in changing economic environments. A measure for the strength of nonlinear dependencies is derived using surrogate data and leads to interesting observations during periods of financial market crises. In contrast to the expectation that dependencies reduce mainly to linear correlations during crises, we show that (at least in the 2008 crisis) nonlinear effects are significantly increasing. It turns out that the concept of centrality within a network could potentially be used as some kind of an early warning indicator for abnormal market behavior as we demonstrate with the example of the 2008 subprime mortgage crisis. Finally, we apply a Markowitz mean variance portfolio optimization and integrate the measure of nonlinear dependencies to scale the investment exposure. This leads to significant outperformance as compared to a fully invested portfolio.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Erfle, Stephen; Pound, John; Kalt, Joseph

An analysis of the response of American markets to supply crises in world oil markets is presented. It addresses four main issues: the efficiency of the operation of American oil markets during oil supply crises; the problems of both economic efficiency and social equity which arise during the American adaptation process; the propriety of the Federal government's past policy responses to these problems; and the relationship between perceptions of the problems caused by world oil crises and the real economic natures of these problems. Specifically, Chapter 1 presents a theoretical discussion of the effects of a world supply disruption onmore » the price level and supply availability of the world market oil to any consuming country including the US Chapter 2 provides a theoretical and empirical analysis of the efficiency of the adaptations of US oil product markets to higher world oil prices. Chapter 3 examines the responses of various groups of US oil firms to the alterations observed in world markets, while Chapter 4 presents a theoretical explanation for the price-lagging behavior exhibited by firms in the US oil industry. Chapter 5 addresses the nature of both real and imagined oil market problems in the US during periods of world oil market transition. (MCW)« less

Quick response airborne command post communications

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Blaisdell, Randy L.

1988-08-01

National emergencies and strategic crises come in all forms and sizes ranging from natural disasters at one end of the scale up to and including global nuclear warfare at the other. Since the early 1960s the U.S. Government has spent billions of dollars fielding airborne command posts to ensure continuity of government and the command and control function during times of theater conventional, theater nuclear, and global nuclear warfare. Unfortunately, cost has prevented the extension of the airborne command post technology developed for these relatively unlikely events to the lower level, though much more likely to occur, crises such as natural disasters, terrorist acts, political insurgencies, etc. This thesis proposes the implementation of an economical airborne command post concept to address the wide variety of crises ignored by existing military airborne command posts. The system is known as the Quick Response Airborne Command Post (QRAC Post) and is based on the exclusive use of commercially owned and operated aircraft, and commercially available automated data processing and communications resources. The thesis addresses the QRAC Post concept at a systems level and is primarily intended to demonstrate how current technology can be exploited to economically achieve a national objective.

Integrated management of land and water resources based on a collective approach to fragmented international conventions.

PubMed

Duda, Alfred M

2003-12-29

Interlinked crises of land degradation, food security, ecosystem decline, water quality and water flow depletion stand in the way of poverty reduction and sustainable development. These crises are made worse by increased fluctuations in climatic regimes. Single-purpose international conventions address these crises in a piecemeal, sectoral fashion and may not meet their objectives without greater attention to policy, legal, and institutional reforms related to: (i) balancing competing uses of land and water resources within hydrologic units; (ii) adopting integrated approaches to management; and (iii) establishing effective governance institutions for adaptive management within transboundary basins. This paper describes this global challenge and argues that peace, stability and security are all at stake when integrated approaches are not used. The paper presents encouraging results from a decade of transboundary water projects supported by the Global Environment Facility in developing countries that test practical applications of processes for facilitating reforms related to land and water that are underpinned by science-based approaches. Case studies of using these participative processes are described that collectively assist in the transition to integrated management. A new imperative for incorporating interlinkages among food, water, and environment security at the basin level is identified.

Integrated management of land and water resources based on a collective approach to fragmented international conventions.

PubMed Central

Duda, Alfred M

2003-01-01

Interlinked crises of land degradation, food security, ecosystem decline, water quality and water flow depletion stand in the way of poverty reduction and sustainable development. These crises are made worse by increased fluctuations in climatic regimes. Single-purpose international conventions address these crises in a piecemeal, sectoral fashion and may not meet their objectives without greater attention to policy, legal, and institutional reforms related to: (i) balancing competing uses of land and water resources within hydrologic units; (ii) adopting integrated approaches to management; and (iii) establishing effective governance institutions for adaptive management within transboundary basins. This paper describes this global challenge and argues that peace, stability and security are all at stake when integrated approaches are not used. The paper presents encouraging results from a decade of transboundary water projects supported by the Global Environment Facility in developing countries that test practical applications of processes for facilitating reforms related to land and water that are underpinned by science-based approaches. Case studies of using these participative processes are described that collectively assist in the transition to integrated management. A new imperative for incorporating interlinkages among food, water, and environment security at the basin level is identified. PMID:14728798

The influence of humanitarian crises on social functioning among civilians in low- and middle-income countries: A systematic review.

PubMed

Lahiri, Shaon; van Ommeren, Mark; Roberts, Bayard

2017-12-01

Our aim was to systematically review how social functioning is measured, conceptualised, impacted, and associated with mental disorders in populations affected by humanitarian crises. Quantitative studies conducted with civilian populations affected by humanitarian crises in low- and middle-income countries with outcomes of social functioning were examined up to 2014. Data sources included Medline, Embase, PsycInfo, and Global Health, and 8 grey literature sources, yielding 14,350 records, of which 20 studies met inclusion criteria. A descriptive synthesis analysis was used, and the final selected studies assessed for quality using a modified Newcastle-Ottawa Scale. In the 20 studies, social functioning was conceptualised in 6 categories: family functioning, friendship quality, functional impairment, overall social functioning, social adaptation, and social relations. Seventeen studies were cross-sectional, two were cohort, and one a controlled trial. The quality of the studies was generally moderate. The limited evidence suggests that social functioning is a relevant variable. Greater crisis exposure is associated with more severe depression and lower social functioning. The protective role of familial and social resources for social functioning is highlighted in different crisis settings. However, greater research on social functioning and mental health is required.

Racial/ethnic minority children's use of psychiatric emergency care in California's Public Mental Health System.

PubMed

Snowden, Lonnie R; Masland, Mary C; Libby, Anne M; Wallace, Neal; Fawley, Kya

2008-01-01

We examined rates and intensity of crisis services use by race/ethnicity for 351,174 children younger than 18 years who received specialty mental health care from California's 57 county public mental health systems between July 1998 and June 2001. We used fixed-effects regression for a controlled assessment of racial/ethnic disparities in children's use of hospital-based services for the most serious mental health crises (crisis stabilization services) and community-based services for other crises (crisis intervention services). African American children were more likely than were White children to use both kinds of crisis care and made more visits to hospital-based crisis stabilization services after initial use. Asian American/Pacific Islander and American Indian/Alaska Native children were more likely than were White children to use hospital-based crisis stabilization services but, along with Latino children, made fewer hospital-based crisis stabilization visits after an initial visit. African American children used both kinds of crisis services more than did White children, and Asian Americans/Pacific Islander and American Indians/Alaska Native children visited only when they experienced the most disruptive and troubling kind of crises, and made nonrecurring visits.

Linear and nonlinear market correlations: Characterizing financial crises and portfolio optimization

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Haluszczynski, Alexander; Laut, Ingo; Modest, Heike; Räth, Christoph

2017-12-01

Pearson correlation and mutual information-based complex networks of the day-to-day returns of U.S. S&P500 stocks between 1985 and 2015 have been constructed to investigate the mutual dependencies of the stocks and their nature. We show that both networks detect qualitative differences especially during (recent) turbulent market periods, thus indicating strongly fluctuating interconnections between the stocks of different companies in changing economic environments. A measure for the strength of nonlinear dependencies is derived using surrogate data and leads to interesting observations during periods of financial market crises. In contrast to the expectation that dependencies reduce mainly to linear correlations during crises, we show that (at least in the 2008 crisis) nonlinear effects are significantly increasing. It turns out that the concept of centrality within a network could potentially be used as some kind of an early warning indicator for abnormal market behavior as we demonstrate with the example of the 2008 subprime mortgage crisis. Finally, we apply a Markowitz mean variance portfolio optimization and integrate the measure of nonlinear dependencies to scale the investment exposure. This leads to significant outperformance as compared to a fully invested portfolio.

Mediating factors of coping process in parents of children with type 1 diabetes.

PubMed

Oskouie, Fatemeh; Mehrdad, Neda; Ebrahimi, Hossein

2013-05-14

Type 1 diabetes is a lifelong condition for children and their parents, the management for which imposes a vast responsibility. This study explores the mediating factors that affect Iranian parents' coping processes with their children's type 1 diabetes. Research was conducted using the grounded theory method. Participants were selected purposefully, and we continued with theoretical sampling. Constant comparative analysis was used to analyze the data. The mediating factors of the parental coping process with their child's diabetes consist of the child's cooperation, crises and experiences, economic challenges, and parental participation in care. Findings highlight the necessity of well-informed nurses with insightful understanding of the mediating factors in parental coping with juvenile diabetes in order to meet the particular needs of this group.

Crisis-transitions in athletes: current emphases on cognitive and contextual factors.

PubMed

Stambulova, Natalia B

2017-08-01

During the last decade, the field of athlete career research has seen much expansion. Researchers established the holistic lifespan and ecological approaches, introduced cultural praxis of athletes' careers paradigm, and updated the taxonomy of athletes' transitions. However, recent transition research focused mainly on the transition process and factors contributing to successful transitions, while crisis-transitions and factors contributing to ineffective coping have been largely ignored. The aim of this paper is to facilitate relevant research and practice through (1) positioning athletes' developmental crises within the context of the current transition literature, (2) introducing two new approaches (termed 'cognitive turn' and 'cultural turn') with a potential to enhance our understanding of the phenomenon, and (3) outlining crisis-coping interventions. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Practical Suicide-Risk Management for the Busy Primary Care Physician

PubMed Central

McDowell, Anna K.; Lineberry, Timothy W.; Bostwick, J. Michael

2011-01-01

Suicide is a public health problem and a leading cause of death. The number of people thinking seriously about suicide, making plans, and attempting suicide is surprisingly high. In total, primary care clinicians write more prescriptions for antidepressants than mental health clinicians and see patients more often in the month before their death by suicide. Treatment of depression by primary care physicians is improving, but opportunities remain in addressing suicide-related treatment variables. Collaborative care models for treating depression have the potential both to improve depression outcomes and decrease suicide risk. Alcohol use disorders and anxiety symptoms are important comorbid conditions to identify and treat. Management of suicide risk includes understanding the difference between risk factors and warning signs, developing a suicide risk assessment, and practically managing suicidal crises. PMID:21709131

Winter fidelity and apparent survival of lesser snow goose populations in the Pacific flyway

USGS Publications Warehouse

Williams, C.K.; Samuel, M.D.; Baranyuk, Vasily V.; Cooch, E.G.; Kraege, Donald K.

2008-01-01

The Beringia region of the Arctic contains 2 colonies of lesser snow geese (Chen caerulescens caerulescens) breeding on Wrangel Island, Russia, and Banks Island, Canada, and wintering in North America. The Wrangel Island population is composed of 2 subpopulations from a sympatric breeding colony but separate wintering areas, whereas the Banks Island population shares a sympatric wintering area in California, USA, with one of the Wrangel Island subpopulations. The Wrangel Island colony represents the last major snow goose population in Russia and has fluctuated considerably since 1970, whereas the Banks Island population has more than doubled. The reasons for these changes are unclear, but hypotheses include independent population demographics (survival and recruitment) and immigration and emigration among breeding or wintering populations. These demographic and movement patterns have important ecological and management implications for understanding goose population structure, harvest of admixed populations, and gene flow among populations with separate breeding or wintering areas. From 1993 to 1996, we neckbanded molting birds at their breeding colonies and resighted birds on the wintering grounds. We used multistate mark-recapture models to evaluate apparent survival rates, resighting rates, winter fidelity, and potential exchange among these populations. We also compared the utility of face stain in Wrangel Island breeding geese as a predictor of their wintering area. Our results showed similar apparent survival rates between subpopulations of Wrangel Island snow geese and lower apparent survival, but higher emigration, for the Banks Island birds. Males had lower apparent survival than females, most likely due to differences in neckband loss. Transition between wintering areas was low (<3%), with equal movement between northern and southern wintering areas for Wrangel Island birds and little evidence of exchange between the Banks and northern Wrangel Island populations. Face staining was an unreliable indicator of wintering area. Our findings suggest that northern and southern Wrangel Island subpopulations should be considered a metapopulation in better understanding and managing Pacific Flyway lesser snow geese. Yet the absence of a strong population connection between Banks Island and Wrangel Island geese suggests that these breeding colonies can be managed as separate but overlapping populations. Additionally, winter population fidelity may be more important in lesser snow geese than in other species, and both breeding and wintering areas are important components of population management for sympatric wintering populations.

Do cacti form soil seed banks? An evaluation using species from the Southern Central Andes.

PubMed

Lindow-López, Lucía; Galíndez, Guadalupe; Sühring, Silvia; Pastrana-Ignes, Valeria; Gorostiague, Pablo; Gutiérrez, Angela; Ortega-Baes, Pablo

2018-06-22

There is controversy over whether cactus species form soil seed banks. Although it is commonly assumed that cacti do not form seed banks, very few studies have evaluated them. In this work, we analyzed whether cactus species form soil seed banks, studying seed distribution, seed density and seed longevity in the Southern Central Andes. Soil samples were collected in two microhabitats (under nurse plants and in bare areas) at 12 selected sites. We determined seed presence-absence, density and distribution for 32 native cactus species. Seed longevity for six of these species was determined through a burial experiment. We recorded viable seeds for 62.5% of the 32 evaluated species, finding variation in seed density between microenvironments and among populations. In some species, the greatest seed density was found under potential nurse plants. Seed germination and seed viability decreased with burial time, with seed longevity always being less than 24 months after burial. Our results show strong evidence that cactus species do form seed banks. Seed density can vary between microenvironments and among populations, suggesting that cactus-nurse plant associations can also be explained by differential seed dispersal and not only by differential establishment. We found that Echinopsis and Gymnocalycium species form short-term seed banks. Our results will help to better understand the population dynamics of cactus species, a focal species group for conservation actions because many of them are threatened by human activities. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

Reasons for exclusion of 6820 umbilical cord blood donations in a public cord blood bank.

PubMed

Wang, Tso-Fu; Wen, Shu-Hui; Yang, Kuo-Liang; Yang, Shang-Hsien; Yang, Yun-Fan; Chang, Chu-Yu; Wu, Yi-Feng; Chen, Shu-Huey

2014-01-01

To provide information for umbilical cord blood (UCB) banks to adopt optimal collection strategies and to make UCB banks operate efficiently, we investigated the reasons for exclusion of UCB units in a 3-year recruitment period. We analyzed records of the reasons for exclusion of the potential UCB donation from 2004 to 2006 in the Tzu-Chi Cord Blood Bank and compared the results over 3 years. We grouped these reasons for exclusion into five phases, before collection, during delivery, before processing, during processing, and after freezing according to the time sequence and analyzed the reasons at each phase. Between 2004 and 2006, there were 10,685 deliveries with the intention of UCB donation. In total, 41.2% of the UCB units were considered eligible for transplantation. The exclusion rates were 93.1, 48.4, and 54.1% in 2004, 2005, and 2006, respectively. We excluded 612 donations from women before their child birth, 133 UCB units during delivery, 80 units before processing, 5010 units during processing, and 421 units after freezing. There were 24 UCB units with unknown reasons of ineligibility. Low UCB weight and low cell count were the first two leading causes of exclusion (48.6 and 30.9%). The prevalence of artificial errors, holiday or transportation problem, low weight, and infant problems decreased year after year. The exclusion rate was high at the beginning of our study as in previous studies. Understanding the reasons for UCB exclusion may help to improve the efficiency of UCB banking programs in the future. © 2013 American Association of Blood Banks.

Banking on women's spirit.

PubMed

Yunus, M

1993-11-01

An interview with Professor Mummadad Yunus, Managing Director of the Grameen Bank, revealed that he has provided loans to poor women in Bangladesh since 1976 and that the Grameen Bank has continued his work since 1983. The idea behind the banking system is that poor people without traditionally accepted collateral are good credit risks. In 1993, the Grameen Bank had operations in 33,000 out of a possible 68,000 villages in Bangladesh. The operations include 1030 branches and a staff of 12,000 people. 1.6 million people are recipients of loans, of whom 94% are women. The population served is the poorest and has no experience in income generation. Conclusions drawn from this experience are that women are better managers of resources and are more serious entrepreneurs than men and that the benefits of loan programs for the poor go directly to children and households. Women's self-image suffers from negative social conceptions, and one task is to convince women of their value, skills, and possibility of advancement. The bank philosophy rests with the belief that all human beings are a "treasure of potential possibilities." Women are advised to protect their money and marriage and not to sacrifice one for the other. Husbands initially are against money going to wives, but eventually they understand that the family benefits. Over 200,000 loans have been made for the provision of housing. The loan requirement is that the woman must own the land on which the house is built. Husband's have the opportunity to transfer title of the land to the wife. Ownership of land provides security for the wife.

The Susan G. Komen for the Cure® Tissue Bank at the IU Simon Cancer Center: A Unique Resource for Defining the “Molecular Histology” of the Breast

PubMed Central

Sherman, Mark E.; Figueroa, Jonine D.; Henry, Jill E.; Clare, Susan E.; Rufenbarger, Connie; Storniolo, Anna Maria

2014-01-01

“Molecular histology” of the breast may be conceptualized as encompassing the normative ranges of histological structure and marker expression in normal breast tissues in relation to a woman’s age and life experiences. Studies of molecular histology can aid our understanding of early events in breast carcinogenesis and provide data for comparison with diseased breast tissues. Until recently, lack of epidemiologically annotated, optimally prepared normal breast tissues obtained from healthy women presented a barrier to breast cancer research. The Komen Tissue Bank at Indiana University is a unique biorepository that was developed to overcome this limitation. The Bank enrolls healthy donors who provide questionnaire data, blood, and up to four breast biopsies, which are prepared as both formalin fixed paraffin embedded and frozen tissues. The resource is accessible to researchers worldwide through a proposal submission, review, and approval process. As of November 2010, the Bank had collected specimens and information from 1,174 donors. In this review, we discuss the importance of studying normal breast tissues, assess the strengths and limitations of studying normal tissues obtained from different sources, and summarize the features of the Komen Tissue Bank. As research projects are completed, results will be posted on the Bank’s website. PMID:22345117

Genetic Testing and Tissue Banking for Personalized Oncology: Analytical and Institutional Factors

PubMed Central

Miles, George; Rae, James; Ramalingam, Suresh S.; Pfeifer, John

2016-01-01

Personalized oncology, or more aptly precision oncogenomics, refers to the identification and implementation of clinically actionable targets tailored to an individual patient’s cancer genomic information. Banking of human tissue and other biospecimens establishes a framework to extract and collect the data essential to our understanding of disease pathogenesis and treatment. Cancer cooperative groups in the United States have led the way in establishing robust biospecimen collection mechanisms to facilitate translational research, and combined with technological advances in molecular testing, tissue banking has expanded from its traditional base in academic research and is assuming an increasingly pivotal role in directing the clinical care of cancer patients. Comprehensive screening of tumors by DNA sequencing and the ability to mine and interpret these large data sets from well-organized tissue banks have defined molecular subtypes of cancer. Such stratification by genomic criteria has revolutionized our perspectives on cancer diagnosis and treatment, offering insight into prognosis, progression, and susceptibility or resistance to known therapeutic agents. In turn, this has enabled clinicians to offer treatments tailored to patients that can greatly improve their chances of survival. Unique challenges and opportunities accompany the rapidly evolving interplay between tissue banking and genomic sequencing, and are the driving forces underlying the revolution in precision medicine. Molecular testing and precision medicine clinical trials are now becoming the major thrust behind the cooperative groups’ clinical research efforts. PMID:26433552

Legacy effects of colonial millponds on floodplain sedimentation, bank erosion, and channel morphology, MID-Atlantic, USA

USGS Publications Warehouse

Schenk, E.R.; Hupp, C.R.

2009-01-01

Many rivers and streams of the Mid-Atlantic Region, United States (U.S.) have been altered by postcolonial floodplain sedimentation (legacy sediment) associated with numerous milldams. Little Conestoga Creek, Pennsylvania, a tributary to the Susquehanna River and the Chesapeake Bay, is one of these streams. Floodplain sedimentation rates, bank erosion rates, and channel morphology were measured annually during 2004-2007 at five sites along a 28-km length of Little Conestoga Creek with nine colonial era milldams (one dam was still in place in 2007). This study was part of a larger cooperative effort to quantify floodplain sedimentation, bank erosion, and channel morphology in a high sediment yielding region of the Chesapeake Bay watershed. Data from the five sites were used to estimate the annual volume and mass of sediment stored on the floodplain and eroded from the banks for 14 segments along the 28-km length of creek. A bank and floodplain reach based sediment budget (sediment budget) was constructed for the 28 km by summing the net volume of sediment deposited and eroded from each segment. Mean floodplain sedimentation rates for Little Conestoga Creek were variable, with erosion at one upstream site (-5 mm/year) to deposition at the other four sites (highest = 11 mm/year) despite over a meter of floodplain aggradation from postcolonial sedimentation. Mean bank erosion rates range between 29 and 163 mm/year among the five sites. Bank height increased 1 m for every 10.6 m of channel width, from upstream to downstream (R2 = 0.79, p < 0.0001) resulting in progressively lowered hydraulic connectivity between the channel and the floodplain. Floodplain sedimentation and bank erosion rates also appear to be affected by the proximity of the segments to one existing milldam, which promotes deposition upstream and scouring downstream. The floodplain and bank along the 28-km reach produced a net mean sediment loss of 5,634 Mg/year for 2004-2007, indicating that bank erosion was exceeding floodplain sedimentation. In particular, the three segments between the existing dam and the confluence with the Conestoga River (32% of the studied reach) account for 97% of the measured net sediment budget. Future research directed at understanding channel equilibria should facilitate efforts to reduce the sediment impacts of dam removal and legacy sediment. ?? 2009 American Water Resources Association.

Bank robberies: A psychological protocol of intervention in financial institutions and principal effects.

PubMed

Tabanelli, Maria Carla; Bonfiglioli, Roberta; Violante, Francesco S

2013-03-26

BACKGROUND: Robbery in workplaces represents a potentially traumatic experience for workers. OBJECTIVES: This article describes the set up and evaluation of a comprehensive psychological intervention designed to help to reduce the adverse consequences of bank robberies. PARTICIPANTS: The study population was selected among the employees of two Italian banks.METHODS: The psychological protocol was designed according to the results of a comprehensive non-systematic review of the scientific literature and it was evaluated at work site. RESULTS: The protocol consists of a "pre-event" formative intervention and "post-event" psychological support. The qualitative data collected allowed us to understand that the reactions after a robbery can differ depending on the phase during which the workers were exposed to the robbery. We noted that the main consequences can be classified in emotional/sentimental reactions, behavioral reactions, physiological reactions and experiences during the event; emotions/feelings following the robbery and psycho/physical state and emotions/feelings in the following days.CONCLUSIONS: In a working environment, the chance to take advantage of a specific protocol for the traumatic event of a bank robbery offers both the company and the workers important tools for well-being, including post-robbery psychological support and classroom instructions.

Assessing individual and organizational response to volcanic crisis and unrest at Kīlauea and Mauna Loa volcanoes, Hawai'i

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Reeves, Ashleigh; Gregg, Chris; Lindell, Michael; Prater, Carla; Joyner, Timothy; Eggert, Sarah

2017-04-01

This study describes response to and preparedness for eruption and unrest at Kīlauea and Mauna Loa volcanoes, respectively. The on-going 1983-present eruption of Kīlauea's East Rift Zone (ERZ) has generated a series of lava flow crises, the latest occurring in 2014 and 2015 when lava from a new vent flowed northeast and into the perimeter of developed areas in the lower Puna District, some 20km distant. It took ca. 2 months for the June 27 lava flow to advance a distance to which scientists reported it might be a concern to people downslope, but this prompted widespread formal and informal responses and culminated in improvements to infrastructure, voluntary evacuations of residents and businesses and closure of schools. Unlike Kīlauea, which has had frequent crises since the mid-20th century, the last eruption of nearby Mauna Loa occurred in 1984 and the last eruption and crisis on its Southwest Rift Zone (SWZ) was in 1950, so residents there are less familiar with eruptions than in Puna. In September 2015, the US Geological Survey, Hawaiian Volcano Observatory upgraded Mauna Loa's Alert Level from Normal to Advisory due to increases in unrest above known background levels. A crisis on Mauna Loa's SWZ would likely be much different than the recent 2014-15 crisis at Kīlauea as steep topography downslope of the SWZ and typical high discharge rates mean lava flows move fast, posing increased risk to areas downslope. Typically, volcanic eruptions have significant economic consequences out of proportion with their magnitudes. Furthermore, uncertainties regarding the physical and organizational communication of risk information amplify these economic losses. One significant impediment to risk communication is limited knowledge about the most effective ways to verbally, numerically and graphically communicate scientific uncertainty. This was a challenge in the recent lava flow crisis on Kīlauea. The public's demand for near-real time information updates, including both written messages and graphic illustrations, placed pressure on HVO to provide information at a faster rate than in previous eruptions. This study aims to improve tools to communicate uncertainty about volcanic activity and organizational and individual response, offering clearer and more reliable information to guide civic leaders in issuing appropriate protective action recommendations. A series of interviews and mental model exercises were conducted with local, state, and federal stakeholders to understand their needs in volcano crises. Current knowledge of local risk communication and mitigation efforts as well as stakeholders' experiences during the June 27 lava flow crisis were identified. Stakeholders included elected officials, emergency managers, scientists, and other professionals involved with the crisis— traffic engineers, land use planners, police officers and firefighters. We are also assessing factors that influence household preparedness to implement officials' protective action recommendations, such as evacuation, and their attitudes toward hazard mitigation efforts, such as lava diversion strategies. Collectively, these studies will provide a detailed evaluation of important risk communication and risk management issues at both household and organizational levels and insight about uncertainties that influence the outcome of volcanic crises.

Seasonal variations in composite riverbank stability in the Lower Jingjiang Reach, China

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Xia, Junqiang; Zong, Quanli; Deng, Shanshan; Xu, Quanxi; Lu, Jinyou

2014-11-01

Bank erosion is a key process in a fluvial system in the context of river dynamics and geomorphology. Since the operation of the Three Gorges Project (TGP), the Lower Jingjiang Reach (LJR) below the dam has experienced continuous channel degradation, with the phenomenon of bank erosion occurring frequently in local reaches. Therefore it is necessary to quantitatively investigate seasonal variations in the stability of composite riverbanks along the reach in order to better understand the fluvial processes in the reach. Laboratory tests were conducted for the sampled soils at six riverbanks during a field survey, with various bank soil properties being presented for the first time. These test results show that: the cohesive bank soils are relatively loose due to the high water contents of 28.5-40.0% and the low dry densities of 1.31-1.47 tonnes/m3; and the cohesion or angle of internal friction generally decreases with an increase in water content of the cohesive soil. Based on the measured cross-sectional profiles and interpolated hydrological data, the near-bank hydrodynamic conditions and soil parameters of two typical composite riverbanks were then determined during the 2007 hydrological year. An improved method was proposed for calculating the stability at the mode of cantilever failure for the overhanging block of a composite riverbank, and the stability degrees of these two riverbanks were calculated at different stages. These results reveal that: (i) the incipient velocity of the non-cohesive lower bank had a magnitude of 0.4 m/s, less than the mean near-bank velocity of about 1.0 m/s, which led to intensive basal erosion especially during the flood season; (ii) the cohesive upper bank before failure had sufficient strength to resist direct fluvial erosion, but the failed soil mass deposited in the near-bank zone was disintegrated easily with the submerged immersion and was then transported downstream by fluvial entrainment; (iii) the degree of bank stability was relatively lower during the flood season, caused by the integrated effects of a process of severe basal erosion and a lower unit weight of 8.6 kN/m3 for the submerged soil; and (iv) the degree of bank stability was lowest at the recession stage, which was caused by the vanishing of the hydrostatic confining pressure and the larger unit weight of 18.0 kN/m3 for the saturated cohesive soil, because of a rapid drawdown in the in-channel water levels with the TGP operation.

Early warning system for potential churners among mortgage customers

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Irpan, Hamidah Muhd; Aidid, Sharifah Sakinah Syed Hassan; Mohmad, Sarahiza; Ibrahim, Noorazilah

2014-07-01

Retaining existing customer is a major task for many companies because cost to acquire new customers is higher than retaining existing customers. For mortgage business in Bank X, customer relationship management plays a big role to understand their customers' profile and churners so that suitable action can be done to retain their potential churners. Objectives of this study are (1) understanding their customers' profile and churners, (2) modeling potential churners using neural network model and (3) to deploy the model to identify potential churners. Data was divided into two parts: sampling (67,470 cases) and scoring (4,488 cases). Analysis was done using SAS Enterprise Miner. Dependent variable is churner/non churner while independent variables are balance and amount of loan, interest rate offered installment amount, loan performance, months in arrear, vintage, tenure, age, race and gender. Potential churners were identified as Malays, followed by Indian, other races and Chinese. Nonperforming loan and male customers tend to churn compared to performing loan and female customers. Younger customers with small loan amount, balance and monthly instalment, higher interest rate, have many months in arrears, longer vintage and tenure have higher tendency to churn from Bank X. Hence, Bank X should focus on the potential churners for their campaign to minimize the expenses of retaining existing customers by doing an effective campaign with high successful rate.

Seed rain, soil seed bank, seed loss and regeneration of Castanopsis fargesii (Fagaceae) in a subtropical evergreen broad-leaved forest

USGS Publications Warehouse

Du, X.; Guo, Q.; Gao, X.; Ma, K.

2007-01-01

Understanding the seed rain and seed loss dynamics in the natural condition has important significance for revealing the natural regeneration mechanisms. We conducted a 3-year field observation on seed rain, seed loss and natural regeneration of Castanopsis fargesii Franch., a dominant tree species in evergreen broad-leaved forests in Dujiangyan, southwestern China. The results showed that: (1) there were marked differences in (mature) seed production between mast (733,700 seeds in 2001) and regular (51,200 and 195,600 seeds in 2002 and 2003, respectively) years for C. fargesii. (2) Most seeds were dispersed in leaf litter, humus and 0-2 cm depth soil in seed bank. (3) Frequency distributions of both DBH and height indicated that C. fargesii had a relatively stable population. (4) Seed rain, seed ground density, seed loss, and leaf fall were highly dynamic and certain quantity of seeds were preserved on the ground for a prolonged time due to predator satiation in both the mast and regular years so that the continuous presence of seed bank and seedling recruitments in situ became possible. Both longer time observations and manipulative experiments should be carried out to better understand the roles of seed dispersal and regeneration process in the ecosystem performance. ?? 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Action observation circuits in the macaque monkey cortex.

PubMed

Nelissen, Koen; Borra, Elena; Gerbella, Marzio; Rozzi, Stefano; Luppino, Giuseppe; Vanduffel, Wim; Rizzolatti, Giacomo; Orban, Guy A

2011-03-09

In both monkeys and humans, the observation of actions performed by others activates cortical motor areas. An unresolved question concerns the pathways through which motor areas receive visual information describing motor acts. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), we mapped the macaque brain regions activated during the observation of grasping actions, focusing on the superior temporal sulcus region (STS) and the posterior parietal lobe. Monkeys viewed either videos with only the grasping hand visible or videos with the whole actor visible. Observation of both types of grasping videos activated elongated regions in the depths of both lower and upper banks of STS, as well as parietal areas PFG and anterior intraparietal (AIP). The correlation of fMRI data with connectional data showed that visual action information, encoded in the STS, is forwarded to ventral premotor cortex (F5) along two distinct functional routes. One route connects the upper bank of the STS with area PFG, which projects, in turn, to the premotor area F5c. The other connects the anterior part of the lower bank of the STS with premotor areas F5a/p via AIP. Whereas the first functional route emphasizes the agent and may relay visual information to the parieto-frontal mirror circuit involved in understanding the agent's intentions, the second route emphasizes the object of the action and may aid in understanding motor acts with respect to their immediate goal.

Effects of the financial crisis on the wealth distribution of Korea's companies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lim, Kyuseong; Kim, Soo Yong; Swanson, Todd; Kim, Jooyun

2017-02-01

We investigated the distribution functions of Korea's top-rated companies during two financial crises. A power-law scaling for rank distribution, as well as cumulative probability distribution, was found and observed as a general pattern. Similar distributions can be shown in other studies of wealth and income distributions. In our study, the Pareto exponents designating the distribution differed before and after the crisis. The companies covered in this research are divided into two subgroups during a period when the subprime mortgage crisis occurred. Various industrial sectors of Korea's companies were found to respond differently during the two financial crises, especially the construction sector, financial sectors, and insurance groups.

Emergency Manuals: How Quality Improvement and Implementation Science Can Enable Better Perioperative Management During Crises.

PubMed

Goldhaber-Fiebert, Sara N; Macrae, Carl

2018-03-01

How can teams manage critical events more effectively? There are commonly gaps in performance during perioperative crises, and emergency manuals are recently available tools that can improve team performance under stress, via multiple mechanisms. This article examines how the principles of implementation science and quality improvement were applied by multiple teams in the development, testing, and systematic implementations of emergency manuals in perioperative care. The core principles of implementation have relevance for future patient safety innovations perioperatively and beyond, and the concepts of emergency manuals and interprofessional teamwork are applicable for diverse fields throughout health care. Copyright © 2017 Sara N. Goldhaber-Fiebert, Carl Macrae. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Daly, G.G.; Mayor, T.H.

This paper develops a technique for extracting the expectations embedded in the current prices of energy-using durable goods and applies it to be used-car markets during the two energy crises of the 1970s. The resulting estimates indicate that consumers took the energy crises seriously and formed expectations about future gasoline prices that appear rational when compared with the historical gasoline price series, with the forecasts of specialists and experts, or with the actual postsample behavior of gasoline prices. The evidence therefore supports the view that consumers are able to make rather complex choices with a great deal of rationality andmore » casts doubt on the wisdom of policies based on assumptions to the contrary. 17 references, 2 figures.« less

Water crises—a new approach

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bhattacharya, Atreyee

2012-11-01

Water crises are one the biggest challenges facing humanity in the 21st century. But what exactly is the nature of these crises? Scientists investigated the underlying causes driving water scarcity in 22 of the best studied cases across India, China, South America, Russia, and Australia using a quantitative technique that breaks down exhaustive case studies into measurable parameters. Srinivasan et al. show that in spite of the numerous ways in which humans interact with fresh water, each shortage or crisis is driven by one or more of eight underlying causes—which can be grouped into six “syndromes.” The authors found that just as declining natural supply can drive water shortages, so can human consumption or lack of proper policies.

Don't panic--prepare: towards crisis-aware models of emergency department operations.

PubMed

Ceglowski, Red; Churilov, Leonid; Wasserheil, Jeff

2005-12-01

The existing models of Emergency Department (ED) operations that are based on the "flow-shop" management logic do not provide adequate decision support in dealing with the ED overcrowding crises. A conceptually different crisis-aware approach to ED modelling and operational decision support is introduced in this paper. It is based on Perrow's theory of "normal accidents" and calls for recognizing the inevitable nature of ED overcrowding crises within current health system setup. Managing the crisis before it happens--a standard approach in crisis management area--should become an integral part of ED operations management. The potential implications of adopting such a crisis-aware perspective for health services research and ED management are outlined.

Evaluation and treatment of hypertensive crises in children

PubMed Central

Stein, Deborah R; Ferguson, Michael A

2016-01-01

Hypertensive crises in children are medical emergencies that must be identified, evaluated, and treated promptly and appropriately to prevent end-organ injury and even death. Treatment in the acute setting typically includes continuous intravenous antihypertensive medications with monitoring in the intensive care unit setting. Medications commonly used to treat severe hypertension have been poorly studied in children. Dosing guidelines are available, although few pediatric-specific trials have been conducted to facilitate evidence-based therapy. Regardless of what medication is used, blood pressure should be lowered gradually to allow for accommodation of autoregulatory mechanisms and to prevent cerebral ischemia. Determining the underlying cause of the blood pressure elevation may be helpful in guiding therapy. PMID:27051314

Public health law and disaster medicine: understanding the legal environment.

PubMed

Gionis, Thomas A; Wecht, Cyril; Marshall, Lewis W

2007-01-01

Disaster medicine specialists, policy makers, and the public often feel frustrated when they encounter the complex legal framework that surrounds public health emergencies and disasters. Such a framework is particularly difficult to understand when one considers that the federal government has no express powers over public health or disaster management. In fact, under the US Constitution, the states, rather than the federal government, possess public health governance. Although public health sovereignty formally resides within the states, and notwithstanding the federal government's lack of express constitutional powers over public health crises and disaster management, the federal government has gradually taken on a greater leadership role in managing public health emergencies. In order to clarify the state and federal responsibilities surrounding public health emergencies and disasters, this article explores necessary and pertinent legal topics. These topics include public health duties, public health disasters, state sovereignty, governmental coercion, de facto constitutional empowerment, separation of powers, limited powers, federalism, state police powers, general and federal declarations of emergencies, the Model State Emergency Health Powers Act (MSEHPA), and public health and national security.

Historical and simulated changes in channel characteristics of the Kalamazoo River, Plainwell to Otesgo, Michigan

USGS Publications Warehouse

Rachol, Cynthia M.; Fitzpatrick, Faith A.; Rossi, Tiffiny

2005-01-01

In a study to understand the historical effects of the construction and decommissioning of dams on the Kalamazoo River, Plainwell to Otesgo, Michigan, and to simulate channel changes that may result if the dams were removed, early to mid-1800s General Land Office surveys and aerial photographs from 1938, 1981, and 1999 were compared in order to identify historical changes in the river’s planform. This analysis of the 80-mile reach from Morrow Dam to the river mouth at Saugatuck provided insight into how susceptible the river has been to channel migration. The comparison showed that changes in channel width and location were caused mainly by construction of dams and subsequent water-level adjustments in the impounded reaches upstream from the dams. Braiding also occurred downstream from one of the dams. Minor changes in channel form that were not caused by the dams, such as the development and cutoff of meander bends, were observed. A more detailed study in a 5-mile reach passing through the Plainwell and Otsego City Dams included compiling existing valley cross section and longitudinal profile data into a database, assessing bank stability, and using a hydrologic model to simulate the channel as if the dams were removed. Fifty-four valley cross sections compiled from United States Geological Survey and consultant data sets were used as a base for a bank-stability assessment and to design a hypothetical stable channel without the two dams. The channel design involved adjusting the slope, hydraulic geometry, and floodplain width to ensure that water could be transferred through the reach without increasing flooding or erosion problems. The bank-stability assessment focused on conditions that are critical to failure. This was accomplished through the use of a two step process. The first involved evaluating the sediment removed from the bank toe when the stage is high. The second involved calculating the factor of safety for the bank based on the water table being elevated higher than the stage, mimicing a bank storage effect. Using these paired proccesses, two scenarios of critical conditions were evaluated: dams present and dams removed. Results of the bank assessments showed that, under both critical-condition scenarios, the streambanks were more susceptible to toe erosion than to block failure. As toe erosion progresses, the banks will eventually collapse as supporting material underneath is removed. Toe erosion for the damsremoved scenario resulted in higher amounts of erosion than for the dams-present scenario, leading to an overall decrease in bank stability. Effects of vegetation on the bank stability were variable; stability for some banks increase if vegetation was present but remain the same for other banks.

Consensus formalisé: recommandations de pratiques cliniques pour la prise en charge de la migraine du patient adulte africain

PubMed Central

Ahmed, Mahmoud Ait Kaci; Haddad, Monia; Kouassi, Beugré; Ouhabi, Hamid; Serrie, Alain

2016-01-01

La migraine est une céphalée primaire (selon les derniers critères de l'International Headache Society) qui affecte environ 8% de la population africaine. Les femmes sont plus fréquemment touchées que les hommes et les crises apparaissent le plus souvent avant l’âge de 40 ans. Bien qu'un certain nombre de traitements, de mesure hygiéno-diététiques, et d'autres méthodes non pharmacologiques permettent de limiter l'intensité et la fréquence des crises, la prise en charge médicamenteuse de la crise de migraine est très souvent nécessaire. La disponibilité des traitements et l'accès aux soins diffèrent sur le continent africain et ont conduit à la réalisation du 1er consensus d'experts pour la prise en charge du patient adulte africain. Destiné aux praticiens, ce travail collaboratif multinational a pour objectif de fournir 16 recommandations de pratiques cliniques simples, fondées sur les preuves, et adaptées aux conditions de l'exercice médical en Afrique. PMID:27642420

Evaluation and management of pediatric hypertensive crises: hypertensive urgency and hypertensive emergencies

PubMed Central

Patel, Nirali H; Romero, Sarah K; Kaelber, David C

2012-01-01

Hypertension (HTN) in the pediatric population is estimated to have a world-wide prevalence of 2%–5%. As with adults, pediatric patients with HTN can present with hypertensive crises include hypertensive urgency and hypertensive emergencies. However, pediatric blood pressure problems have a greater chance of being from secondary causes of HTN, as opposed to primary HTN, than in adults. Thorough evaluation of a child with a hypertensive emergency includes accurate blood pressure readings, complete and focused symptom history, and appropriate past medical, surgical, and family history. Physical exam should include height, weight, four-limb blood pressures, a general overall examination and especially detailed cardiovascular and neurological examinations, including fundoscopic examination. Initial work-up should typically include electrocardiography, chest X-ray, serum chemistries, complete blood count, and urinalysis. Initial management of hypertensive emergencies generally includes the use of intravenous or oral antihypertensive medications, as well as appropriate, typically outpatient, follow-up. Emergency department goals for hypertensive crises are to (1) safely lower blood pressure, and (2) treat/minimize acute end organ damage, while (3) identifying underlying etiology. Intravenous antihypertensive medications are the treatment modality of choice for hypertensive emergencies with the goal of reducing systolic blood pressure by 25% of the original value over an 8-hour period. PMID:27147865

Resonances in a Chaotic Attractor Crisis of the Lorenz Flow

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tantet, Alexis; Lucarini, Valerio; Dijkstra, Henk A.

2018-02-01

Local bifurcations of stationary points and limit cycles have successfully been characterized in terms of the critical exponents of these solutions. Lyapunov exponents and their associated covariant Lyapunov vectors have been proposed as tools for supporting the understanding of critical transitions in chaotic dynamical systems. However, it is in general not clear how the statistical properties of dynamical systems change across a boundary crisis during which a chaotic attractor collides with a saddle. This behavior is investigated here for a boundary crisis in the Lorenz flow, for which neither the Lyapunov exponents nor the covariant Lyapunov vectors provide a criterion for the crisis. Instead, the convergence of the time evolution of probability densities to the invariant measure, governed by the semigroup of transfer operators, is expected to slow down at the approach of the crisis. Such convergence is described by the eigenvalues of the generator of this semigroup, which can be divided into two families, referred to as the stable and unstable Ruelle-Pollicott resonances, respectively. The former describes the convergence of densities to the attractor (or escape from a repeller) and is estimated from many short time series sampling the state space. The latter is responsible for the decay of correlations, or mixing, and can be estimated from a long times series, invoking ergodicity. It is found numerically for the Lorenz flow that the stable resonances do approach the imaginary axis during the crisis, as is indicative of the loss of global stability of the attractor. On the other hand, the unstable resonances, and a fortiori the decay of correlations, do not flag the proximity of the crisis, thus questioning the usual design of early warning indicators of boundary crises of chaotic attractors and the applicability of response theory close to such crises.

Crisis averted: How consumers experienced a police and clinical early response (PACER) unit responding to a mental health crisis.

PubMed

Evangelista, Eloisa; Lee, Stuart; Gallagher, Angela; Peterson, Violeta; James, Jo; Warren, Narelle; Henderson, Kathryn; Keppich-Arnold, Sandra; Cornelius, Luke; Deveny, Elizabeth

2016-08-01

When mental health crisis situations in the community are poorly handled, it can result in physical and emotional injuries. The purpose of this study was to ascertain the experiences and opinions of consumers about the way police and mental health services worked together, specifically via the Alfred Police and Clinical Early Response (A-PACER) model, to assist people experiencing a mental health crisis. Semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted with 12 mental health consumers who had direct contact with the A-PACER team between June 2013 and March 2015. The study highlighted that people who encountered the A-PACER team generally valued and saw the benefit of a joint police-mental health clinician team response to a mental health crisis situation in the community. In understanding what worked well in how the A-PACER team operated, consumers perspectives can be summarized into five themes: communication and de-escalation, persistence of the A-PACER team, providing a quick response and working well under pressure, handover of information, and A-PACER helped consumers achieve a preferred outcome. All consumers acknowledged the complementary roles of the police officer and mental health clinician, and described the A-PACER team's supportive approach as critical in gaining their trust, engagement and in de-escalating the crises. Further education and training for police officers on how to respond to people with a mental illness, increased provision of follow-up support to promote rehabilitation and prevent future crises, and measures to reduce public scrutiny for the consumer when police responded, were proposed opportunities for improvement. © 2016 Australian College of Mental Health Nurses Inc.

Health information systems in humanitarian emergencies.

PubMed Central

Thieren, Michel

2005-01-01

Health information systems (HIS) in emergencies face a double dilemma: the information necessary to understand and respond to humanitarian crises must be timely and detailed, whereas the circumstances of these crises makes it challenging to collect it. Building on the technical work of the Health Metrics Network on HIS and starting with a systemic definition of HIS in emergencies, this paper reviews the various data-collection platforms in these contexts, looking at their respective contributions to providing what humanitarian actors need to know to target their intervention to where the needs really are. Although reporting or sampling errors are unavoidable, it is important to identify them and acknowledge the limitations inherent in generalizing data that were collected in highly heterogeneous environments. To perform well in emergencies, HIS require integration and participation. In spite of notable efforts to coordinate data collection and dissemination practices among humanitarian agencies, it is noted that coordination on the ground depends on the strengths and presence of a lead agency, often WHO, and on the commitment of humanitarian agencies to investing resources in data production. Poorly integrated HIS generate fragmented, incomplete and often contradictory statistics, a situation that leads to a misuse of numbers with negative consequences on humanitarian interventions. As a means to avoid confusion regarding humanitarian health statistics, this paper stresses the importance of submitting statistics to a rigorous and coordinated auditing process prior to their publication. The audit trail should describe the various steps of the data production chains both technically and operationally, and indicate the limits and assumptions under which each number can be used. Finally emphasis is placed on the ethical obligation for humanitarian agencies to ensure that the necessary safeguards on data are in place to protect the confidentiality of victims and minority groups in politically sensitive contexts. PMID:16184277

Barriers to implementing infection prevention and control guidelines during crises: experiences of health care professionals.

PubMed

Timen, Aura; Hulscher, Marlies E J L; Rust, Laura; van Steenbergen, Jim E; Akkermans, Reinier P; Grol, Richard P T M; van der Meer, Jos W M

2010-11-01

Communicable disease crises can endanger the health care system and often require special guidelines. Understanding reasons for nonadherence to crisis guidelines is needed to improve crisis management. We identified and measured barriers and conditions for optimal adherence as perceived by 4 categories of health care professionals. In-depth interviews were performed (n = 26) to develop a questionnaire for a cross-sectional survey of microbiologists (100% response), infection preventionists (74% response), public health physicians (96% response), and public health nurses (82% response). The groups were asked to appraise barriers encountered during 4 outbreaks (severe acute respiratory syndrome [SARS], Clostridium difficile ribotype 027, rubella, and avian influenza) according to a 5-point Likert scale. When at least 33% of the participants responded "strongly agree," "agree," or "rather agree than disagree," a barrier was defined as "often experienced." The common ("generic") barriers were included in a univariate and multivariate model. Barriers specific to the various groups were studied as well. Crisis guidelines were found to have 4 generic barriers to adherence: (1) lack of imperative or precise wording, (2) lack of easily identifiable instructions specific to each profession, (3) lack of concrete performance targets, and (4) lack of timely and adequate guidance on personal protective equipment and other safety measures. The cross-sectional study also yielded profession-specific sets of often-experienced barriers. To improve adherence to crisis guidelines, the generic barriers should be addressed when developing guidelines, irrespective of the infectious agent. Profession-specific barriers require profession-specific strategies to change attitudes, ensure organizational facilities, and provide an adequate setting for crisis management. Copyright © 2010 Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology, Inc. Published by Mosby, Inc. All rights reserved.

Resonances in a Chaotic Attractor Crisis of the Lorenz Flow

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tantet, Alexis; Lucarini, Valerio; Dijkstra, Henk A.

2017-12-01

Local bifurcations of stationary points and limit cycles have successfully been characterized in terms of the critical exponents of these solutions. Lyapunov exponents and their associated covariant Lyapunov vectors have been proposed as tools for supporting the understanding of critical transitions in chaotic dynamical systems. However, it is in general not clear how the statistical properties of dynamical systems change across a boundary crisis during which a chaotic attractor collides with a saddle. This behavior is investigated here for a boundary crisis in the Lorenz flow, for which neither the Lyapunov exponents nor the covariant Lyapunov vectors provide a criterion for the crisis. Instead, the convergence of the time evolution of probability densities to the invariant measure, governed by the semigroup of transfer operators, is expected to slow down at the approach of the crisis. Such convergence is described by the eigenvalues of the generator of this semigroup, which can be divided into two families, referred to as the stable and unstable Ruelle-Pollicott resonances, respectively. The former describes the convergence of densities to the attractor (or escape from a repeller) and is estimated from many short time series sampling the state space. The latter is responsible for the decay of correlations, or mixing, and can be estimated from a long times series, invoking ergodicity. It is found numerically for the Lorenz flow that the stable resonances do approach the imaginary axis during the crisis, as is indicative of the loss of global stability of the attractor. On the other hand, the unstable resonances, and a fortiori the decay of correlations, do not flag the proximity of the crisis, thus questioning the usual design of early warning indicators of boundary crises of chaotic attractors and the applicability of response theory close to such crises.

Mitochondrial vulnerability and increased susceptibility to nutrient-induced cytotoxicity in fibroblasts from leigh syndrome French canadian patients.

PubMed

Burelle, Yan; Bemeur, Chantal; Rivard, Marie-Eve; Thompson Legault, Julie; Boucher, Gabrielle; Morin, Charles; Coderre, Lise; Des Rosiers, Christine

2015-01-01

Mutations in LRPPRC are responsible for the French Canadian variant of Leigh Syndrome (LSFC), a severe disorder characterized biochemically by a tissue-specific deficiency of cytochrome c oxidase (COX) and clinically by the occurrence of severe and deadly acidotic crises. Factors that precipitate these crises remain unclear. To better understand the physiopathology and identify potential treatments, we performed a comprehensive analysis of mitochondrial function in LSFC and control fibroblasts. Furthermore, we have used this cell-based model to screen for conditions that promote premature cell death in LSFC cells and test the protective effect of ten interventions targeting well-defined aspects of mitochondrial function. We show that, despite maintaining normal ATP levels, LSFC fibroblasts present several mitochondrial functional abnormalities under normal baseline conditions, which likely impair their capacity to respond to stress. This includes mitochondrial network fragmentation, impaired oxidative phosphorylation capacity, lower membrane potential, increased sensitivity to Ca2+-induced permeability transition, but no changes in reactive oxygen species production. We also show that LSFC fibroblasts display enhanced susceptibility to cell death when exposed to palmitate, an effect that is potentiated by high lactate, while high glucose or acidosis alone or in combination were neutral. Furthermore, we demonstrate that compounds that are known to promote flux through the electron transport chain independent of phosphorylation (methylene blue, dinitrophenol), or modulate fatty acid (L-carnitine) or Krebs cycle metabolism (propionate) are protective, while antioxidants (idebenone, N-acetyl cysteine, resveratrol) exacerbate palmitate plus lactate-induced cell death. Collectively, beyond highlighting multiple alterations in mitochondrial function and increased susceptibility to nutrient-induced cytotoxicity in LSFC fibroblasts, these results raise questions about the nature of the diets, particularly excess fat intake, as well as on the use of antioxidants in patients with LSFC and, possibly, other COX defects.

Recurrent landsliding of a high bank at Dunaszekcső, Hungary: Geodetic deformation monitoring and finite element modeling

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bányai, László; Mentes, Gyula; Újvári, Gábor; Kovács, Miklós; Czap, Zoltán; Gribovszki, Katalin; Papp, Gábor

2014-04-01

Five years of geodetic monitoring data at Dunaszekcső, Hungary, are processed to evaluate recurrent landsliding, which is a characteristic geomorphological process affecting the high banks of the Middle Danube valley in Hungary. The integrated geodetic observations provide accurate three dimensional coordinate time series, and these data are used to calculate the kinematic features of point movements and the rigid body behavior of point blocks. Additional datasets include borehole tiltmeter data and hydrological recordings of the Danube and soil water wells. These data, together with two dimensional final element analyses, are utilized to gain a better understanding of the physical, soil mechanical background and stability features of the high bank. Here we indicate that the main trigger of movements is changing groundwater levels, whose effect is an order of magnitude higher than that of river water level changes. Varying displacement rates of the sliding blocks are interpreted as having been caused by basal pore water pressure changes originating from shear zone volume changes, floods of the River Danube through later seepage and rain infiltration. Both data and modeling point to the complex nature of bank sliding at Dunaszekcső. Some features imply that the movements are rotational, some reveal slumping. By contrast, all available observational and modeling data point to the retrogressive development of the high bank at Dunaszekcső. Regarding mitigation, the detailed analysis of three basic parameters (the direction of displacement vectors, tilting, and the acceleration component of the kinematic function) is suggested because these parameters indicate the zone where the largest lateral displacements can be expected and point to the advent of the rapid landsliding phase that affects high banks along the River Danube.

Loan and nonloan flows in the Australian interbank network

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sokolov, Andrey; Webster, Rachel; Melatos, Andrew; Kieu, Tien

2012-05-01

High-value transactions between banks in Australia are settled in the Reserve Bank Information and Transfer System (RITS) administered by the Reserve Bank of Australia. RITS operates on a real-time gross settlement (RTGS) basis and settles payments and transfers sourced from the SWIFT payment delivery system, the Austraclear securities settlement system, and the interbank transactions entered directly into RITS. In this paper, we analyse a dataset received from the Reserve Bank of Australia that includes all interbank transactions settled in RITS on an RTGS basis during five consecutive weekdays from 19 February 2007 inclusive, a week of relatively quiescent market conditions. The source, destination, and value of each transaction are known, which allows us to separate overnight loans from other transactions (nonloans) and reconstruct monetary flows between banks for every day in our sample. We conduct a novel analysis of the flow stability and examine the connection between loan and nonloan flows. Our aim is to understand the underlying causal mechanism connecting loan and nonloan flows. We find that the imbalances in the banks' exchange settlement funds resulting from the daily flows of nonloan transactions are almost exactly counterbalanced by the flows of overnight loans. The correlation coefficient between loan and nonloan imbalances is about -0.9 on most days. Some flows that persist over two consecutive days can be highly variable, but overall the flows are moderately stable in value. The nonloan network is characterised by a large fraction of persistent flows, whereas only half of the flows persist over any two consecutive days in the loan network. Moreover, we observe an unusual degree of coherence between persistent loan flow values on Tuesday and Wednesday. We probe static topological properties of the Australian interbank network and find them consistent with those observed in other countries.

Composition of the seed bank in drawdown areas of navigation pool 8 of the upper Mississippi river

USGS Publications Warehouse

Kenow, K.P.; Lyon, J.E.

2009-01-01

In an effort to enhance aquatic plant production and habitat diversity on the Upper Mississippi River (UMR), resource managers considered water level reduction as a management tool to increase the area of emergent and submersed aquatic vegetation by natural seed germination. To quantify the availability of seed, we assessed the potential seed bank of selected areas of Navigation Pool 8 of the UMR from substrate samples collected in spring 2000. We tested these samples for viable seed content under four hydrologic conditions: dry, moist, shallow flooded and submerged. Forty-seven species were identified in the seed bank, including 27 obligate wetland, 10 facultative wetland and 7 upland species. Dominant taxa within the seed bank included Sagittaria spp., Lindernia dubia, Zosterella dubia, Cyperus spp., Eragrostis spp. and Leersia oryzoides. Of the four hydrologic treatments, moist substrates had the greatest species diversity and were the most productive, yielding an average density of 1420 seedlings m-2. Emergent and submersed aquatic species were widely distributed, each type occurring in more than 90% of the samples. Timing of seedling germination varied among species and has implications for scheduling drawdowns to promote establishment of desired species. Seed bank results were correlated with the vegetation response on substrates exposed during a reduction of water levels of Pool 8 during summer 2001. Experimentally determining the composition and viability of seed banks from drawdown areas provides information useful in predicting the types of vegetation that may develop on exposed substrates. Further, these findings provide resource managers a better understanding of the potential for achieving desired vegetation response through water level reductions.

Development of the PROMIS nicotine dependence item banks.

PubMed

Shadel, William G; Edelen, Maria Orlando; Tucker, Joan S; Stucky, Brian D; Hansen, Mark; Cai, Li

2014-09-01

Nicotine dependence is a core construct important for understanding cigarette smoking and smoking cessation behavior. This article describes analyses conducted to develop and evaluate item banks for assessing nicotine dependence among daily and nondaily smokers. Using data from a sample of daily (N = 4,201) and nondaily (N =1,183) smokers, we conducted a series of item factor analyses, item response theory analyses, and differential item functioning analyses (according to gender, age, and race/ethnicity) to arrive at a unidimensional set of nicotine dependence items for daily and nondaily smokers. We also evaluated performance of short forms (SFs) and computer adaptive tests (CATs) to efficiently assess dependence. A total of 32 items were included in the Nicotine Dependence item banks; 22 items are common across daily and nondaily smokers, 5 are unique to daily smokers, and 5 are unique to nondaily smokers. For both daily and nondaily smokers, the Nicotine Dependence item banks are strongly unidimensional, highly reliable (reliability = 0.97 and 0.97, respectively), and perform similarly across gender, age, and race/ethnicity groups. SFs common to daily and nondaily smokers consist of 8 and 4 items (reliability = 0.91 and 0.81, respectively). Results from simulated CATs showed that dependence can be assessed with very good precision for most respondents using fewer than 6 items adaptively selected from the item banks. Nicotine dependence on cigarettes can be assessed on the basis of these item banks via one of the SFs, by using CATs, or through a tailored set of items selected for a specific research purpose. © The Author 2014. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

The RCSB Protein Data Bank: views of structural biology for basic and applied research and education.

PubMed

Rose, Peter W; Prlić, Andreas; Bi, Chunxiao; Bluhm, Wolfgang F; Christie, Cole H; Dutta, Shuchismita; Green, Rachel Kramer; Goodsell, David S; Westbrook, John D; Woo, Jesse; Young, Jasmine; Zardecki, Christine; Berman, Helen M; Bourne, Philip E; Burley, Stephen K

2015-01-01

The RCSB Protein Data Bank (RCSB PDB, http://www.rcsb.org) provides access to 3D structures of biological macromolecules and is one of the leading resources in biology and biomedicine worldwide. Our efforts over the past 2 years focused on enabling a deeper understanding of structural biology and providing new structural views of biology that support both basic and applied research and education. Herein, we describe recently introduced data annotations including integration with external biological resources, such as gene and drug databases, new visualization tools and improved support for the mobile web. We also describe access to data files, web services and open access software components to enable software developers to more effectively mine the PDB archive and related annotations. Our efforts are aimed at expanding the role of 3D structure in understanding biology and medicine. © The Author(s) 2014. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Nucleic Acids Research.

Considerations in establishing a post-mortem brain and tissue bank for the study of myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome: a proposed protocol

PubMed Central

2014-01-01

Background Our aim, having previously investigated through a qualitative study involving extensive discussions with experts and patients the issues involved in establishing and maintaining a disease specific brain and tissue bank for myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS), was to develop a protocol for a UK ME/CFS repository of high quality human tissue from well characterised subjects with ME/CFS and controls suitable for a broad range of research applications. This would involve a specific donor program coupled with rapid tissue collection and processing, supplemented by comprehensive prospectively collected clinical, laboratory and self-assessment data from cases and controls. Findings We reviewed the operations of existing tissue banks from published literature and from their internal protocols and standard operating procedures (SOPs). On this basis, we developed the protocol presented here, which was designed to meet high technical and ethical standards and legal requirements and was based on recommendations of the MRC UK Brain Banks Network. The facility would be most efficient and cost-effective if incorporated into an existing tissue bank. Tissue collection would be rapid and follow robust protocols to ensure preservation sufficient for a wide range of research uses. A central tissue bank would have resources both for wide-scale donor recruitment and rapid response to donor death for prompt harvesting and processing of tissue. Conclusion An ME/CFS brain and tissue bank could be established using this protocol. Success would depend on careful consideration of logistic, technical, legal and ethical issues, continuous consultation with patients and the donor population, and a sustainable model of funding ideally involving research councils, health services, and patient charities. This initiative could revolutionise the understanding of this still poorly-understood disease and enhance development of diagnostic biomarkers and treatments. PMID:24938650

Work-Related Stress in the Banking Sector: A Review of Incidence, Correlated Factors, and Major Consequences

PubMed Central

Giorgi, Gabriele; Arcangeli, Giulio; Perminiene, Milda; Lorini, Chiara; Ariza-Montes, Antonio; Fiz-Perez, Javier; Di Fabio, Annamaria; Mucci, Nicola

2017-01-01

For a number of years now, banks have been going through enormous changes in organization and structure. New technology and new ways of structuring the operation have left their mark on the working conditions and daily lives of employees. Deregulation of labor markets, emerging technologies and new types of jobs have significantly reshaping working lives by continuous changes on employment and working conditions. Such a scenario has a relevant impact not only on companies' organization but also on working population's health. The banking sector is particularly well-deserved of a specific and thorough analysis, in view of the recent increase in psycho-social disorders of employees. This may be related to the major organizational changes affecting this sector and, in particular, to the restructuring processes resulting from the global economic crisis. Our aim is to assess the scale of the phenomenon and how far it relates specifically to the processes of bank organization. With this in mind, through a review of the literature, we selected the main studies dealing with work-related stress in banking, so that we could reach a better understanding of the phenomenon as it relates specifically to this set of workers. The search took place on the MEDLINE® database; in total 20 articles were chosen. There was uniform agreement among the studies that stress in the banking workplace is now at critical levels, and that it can have deleterious psychological effects on workers, and on their physical health, and that organizations, too, are affected. Most studies showed that mental health problems had increased in the banking sector, and that they were stress-related. Examples began with anxiety and depression, carried on through maladaptive behaviors, and ended in job burnout. The reviewed studies' limitations were then discussed, and possible ways forward considered. PMID:29312044

New hypothesis helps explain elasmobranch "outburst" on Georges Bank in the 1980s.

PubMed

Frisk, M G; Miller, T J; Martell, S J D; Sosebee, K

2008-01-01

Regime shifts are a feature of many ecosystems. During the last 40 years, intensive commercial exploitation and environmental changes have driven substantial shifts in ecosystem structure and function in the northwest Atlantic. In the Georges Bank-southern New England region, commercially important species have declined, and the ecosystem shifted to one dominated by economically undesirable species such as skates and dogfish. Aggregated abundance indices indicate a large increase of small and medium-sized elasmobranchs in the early 1980s following the decline of many commercial species. It has been hypothesized that ecological interactions such as competition and predation within the Georges Bank region were responsible for and are maintaining the "elasmobranch outburst" at the heart of the observed ecosystem shift. We offer an alternative hypothesis invoking population connectivity among winter skate populations such that the observed abundance increase is a result of migratory dynamics, perhaps with the Scotian Shelf (i.e., it is an open population). Here we critically evaluate the survey data for winter skate, the species principally responsible for the increase in total skate abundance during the 1980s on Georges Bank, to assess support for both hypotheses. We show that time series from different surveys within the Georges Bank region exhibit low coherence, indicating that a widespread population increase was not consistently shown by all surveys. Further, we argue that observed length-frequency data for Georges Bank indicate biologically unrealistic population fluctuations if the population is closed. Neither finding supports the elasmobranch outburst hypothesis. In contrast, survey time series for Georges Bank and the Scotian Shelf are negatively correlated, in support of the population connectivity hypothesis. Further, we argue that understanding the mechanisms of ecosystem state changes and population connectivity are needed to make inferences about both the causes and appropriate management responses to large-scale system change.

Ecology and Ethics: Some Relationships for Nature Conservation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Abedi-Sarvestani, Ahmad; Shahvali, Mansoor

These days, the reality of environmental crises creates grave doubts about the future of the natural environment. Many believe that if present human behavior toward the natural environment continues, there will be no hope for a sustainable life. Therefore, it is vital that human behavior toward nature be modified and corrected. Although, ethic is traditionally concerned about relations between individuals, but it is getting more attention for modifying human behavior in order to correct human-nature interaction and establish a well-intentioned one. In this respect, we need science of ecology and ethics together. Ecology helps us to understand natural ecosystems and respective regulations and laws, whereas ethics teach us how to define right and wrong behaviors toward the natural environment. This research discusses some possible relationships that might exist between ecology and ethics toward nature conservation.

Mediating factors of coping process in parents of children with type 1 diabetes

PubMed Central

2013-01-01

Background Type 1 diabetes is a lifelong condition for children and their parents, the management for which imposes a vast responsibility. This study explores the mediating factors that affect Iranian parents’ coping processes with their children’s type 1 diabetes. Methods Research was conducted using the grounded theory method. Participants were selected purposefully, and we continued with theoretical sampling. Constant comparative analysis was used to analyze the data. Results The mediating factors of the parental coping process with their child’s diabetes consist of the child’s cooperation, crises and experiences, economic challenges, and parental participation in care. Conclusion Findings highlight the necessity of well-informed nurses with insightful understanding of the mediating factors in parental coping with juvenile diabetes in order to meet the particular needs of this group. PMID:23673161

Endogenous versus Exogenous Origins of Crises

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sornette, Didier

Are large biological extinctions such as the Cretaceous/Tertiary KT boundary due to a meteorite, extreme volcanic activity or self-organized critical extinction cascades? Are commercial successes due to a progressive reputation cascade or the result of a well orchestrated advertisement? Determining the chain of causality for Xevents in complex systems requires disentangling interwoven exogenous and endogenous contributions with either no clear signature or too many signatures. Here, I review several efforts carried out with collaborators which suggest a general strategy for understanding the organizations of several complex systems under the dual effect of endogenous and exogenous fluctuations. The studied examples are: internet download shocks, book sale shocks, social shocks, financial volatility shocks, and financial crashes. Simple models are offered to quantitatively relate the endogenous organization to the exogenous response of the system. Suggestions for applications of these ideas to many other systems are offered.