GSTF Digital Library (GSTF-DL): Open Journal Systems (Global Science and Technology Forum)
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Biodegradation of Benzene by an Indigenous Microorganism in a Batch Reactor
No full textBiodegradation of benzene by an indigenous culture isolated from municipal waste water treatment plant was investigated in a batch shake flasks. Benzene with lower concentration of 25 mg l-1 and higher concentration of 600 mg l-1 were acclimatized in the enrichment medium before the biodegradation in batch reactor. The degradation rate (D) and specific growth rate (μ) were maximum, i.e. 15.857 mg l-1 h-1 and 0.02696 h-1, respectively at 300 mg l-1. At higher concentration, D and μ decreased due to substrate inhibition and at lower concentration they were observed to be less due to lack of carbon source i.e benzene for growth of the culture. The experimental specific growth rates were fitted to Haldane and Edward models, from which Haldane model was found to be a better fit with root mean square error 0.0026. The biokinetics constants determined by these two models showed good potential of isolated culture of genera Aeromonas for biodegradation of benzene from waste streams
Afghanistan and its Economy
Get PDFAfghanistan is one of the least developed countries of the world. United States of America and several other nations spent hundreds of billions of dollars during the last 13 years to strengthen her economy and security but due to pervasive corruption the country could not absorb the aid effectively. As long as Afghanistan remains resistant to change, and corruption and lawlessness continue to hurt the country, the badly needed foreign assistance, no matter how colossal, will not make much difference. In this paper, the author explains the historical, geographical and political factors that have plagued and still hinder economic development of Afghanistan. The paper briefly explains land, population, resources and economic aggregates in addition to the historical events that have caused the progress to remain slow. Some recommendations are made at the end
Relevance of Cloud Computing: A Case for UK Small and Medium Sized Tourism Firms
No full textCloud computing represents a connection of internet technologies and personal or business computing that is changing the way computing solutions are designed, delivered and managed. This model of computing where all data, application, are hosted over a network is a significant shift from the traditional model of computing where data, software’s resources are hosted on a local computer or the client server model of business computing where resources are hosted on the firms servers and requires specialist staff for implementing and maintaining IT services. For several organizations especially in the case of small and medium-sized enterprise (SME’s), the cloud is an attractive technology solution as it enables them to reduce the total cost of ownership of their IT by passing the demands of maintaining hardware and software to a third party i.e. a cloud service provider thus enabling them to focus their spend on growing the business while developing innovative services. This paper draws on the concept of cloud computing to illustrate the significance of cloud technology to small medium businesses in the UK tourism industry-an industry heavily dependent on the internet for its survival. The study was conducted through an extensive review of academic journals, publications, articles as well as industry white papers and reports. This paper reveals that cloud computing drives small tourism firms to become more customer focused while enabling them quickly respond to tourist needs
An Event Study of Announced and Completed Cross Border Acquisition in the Philippines: A Test of the Acquisition Probability Hypothesis
Get PDFThis study uses the Acquisition Probability Hypothesis to analyze the consequences of cross-border acquisitions on the cumulative daily abnormal returns of target firms and their rivals from 1997-2009. Accordingly, rival firms of initial acquisition targets receive abnormal returns because of the increased likelihood that they will be targets themselves. The descriptive research design is used. The sampling frame includes all announced and completed acquisitions coursed through the Philippine stock exchange. The statistical tool used is the Event study methodology and significance was set at 5% significance level, two-tailed. The results showed that the target firms realized significantly positive abnormal returns over the 21-day, 11-day, 5-day, and 3-day event windows surrounding the announcement proposal period. Alternatively, the target firms’ rival companies earned insignificant abnormal returns across all event windows. For deals where the acquisition proposals become completed, the targets and their rivals did not received any significant abnormal returns
Aberrant Work Environments, Rationed Care as System Failure or Missed Care as Skills Failure?
Get PDFMissed’ care has emotional, professional and legal connotations because, as one participant from our study noted, the environment can change so quickly and staffing is not allocated to accommodate this. This study used the MISSCARE survey distributed to nurses in New Zealand to find out what care was routinely missed, and why they missed it. The analysis of data returned from 199 nurses revealed that nurses routinely miss care and become frustrated because they are unable to use the knowledge and skill to provide the care; rather they are forced to prioritise care, some of which is either delayed or consciously missed. Whilst this study supported findings of previous research, the emergence of presenteeism as a factor that affects nurses missing care, was highlighted. This has wider implications to the nursing workforce related to their ability to provide safe and effective care, as well as to the organisations in terms of both budget and safety in care provision
Prevalence of Nicotine Dependence Among Youth Smokers (Cigarette and Shisha) in Malaysia
Get PDFThe usual explanation for why smoking produces dependence, focuses on the effects of nicotine on dopamine and other neurobiological explanations. It is evident that tobacco smoke contains nicotine that results in addictive stimulant. Smoking prevalence around the world has been increasing tremendously especially among youth. Identifying youth who may develop nicotine habit is an important step in preventing and controlling tobacco use. Unfortunately, to date no studies related to tobacco (shisha or cigarette) smoking dependence have been carried out in Malaysian particularly among youth. Objectives: to identify the predominant type of smoking (cigarette, shisha or both), to detect the nicotine dependency among youth as well as comparing the nicotine dependence based on the type of smoking, and also to investigate the socio-demographic characteristic of the smokers. April to July 2014 in Selangor (one of the states in Malaysia). Random sample of 500 tobacco smoker individuals at age 18-24 years old was collected. Each participant was interviewed face to face, using well-constructed questionnaire. The questionnaire contains socio-demographic characteristic and information about type of smoking (cigarette, shisha or both). In addition the 16 item related to signs and symptoms of tobacco dependence were included in this questionnaire. Using SPSS version 20, data analysis was conducted using chi square. Significantly consider when p < 0.05. Result: Prevalence of cigarette smoking was the highest (58.4%) followed by both cigarette and shisha (31.8%), while only (9.8%) of our youth smoking shisha. Regarding the nicotine dependency, interestingly we found that those who are used to smoke both (cigarette and shisha) showing significantly higher rate of nicotine dependence in 10 out of the 16 item related to sign and symptom of dependency. Conclusion and Recommendation: Smoking cigarette is the highest rate. Smoking nicotine leads to dependency. Combining both shisha and cigarette for smoking leads to higher dependency status of individual to nicotine. In respect to the nicotine dependency signs and symptoms, our study revealed that the participants who used to smoke both cigarette and shisha showed significantly the highest rates of nicotine dependency. Therefore anti-smoking campaign should be strength particularly among adolescent and youth
Public Private Partnership in Italian Health Care Management An Organizational Maturity Assessment Model
Get PDFThis work aims to analyze a specific phenomenon of innovation in health management: public private partnerships within the Italian healthcare sector. The object of the study is to measure the degree of organizational maturity (OM) of the forms of public-private partnerships (PPP) analyzing and measuring key managerial processes, in terms of innovation in meeting the partnership‘s goals/targets. The analysis is based on the identification of key processes relevant to the management of partnerships, to check which systems of governance are able to meet different stakeholder interests. We therefore built a conceptual standard for analysis of the OM through a field survey based on visits, participant observation, analysis of documents and semi-structured interviews with the management
From Contributor to Leader: How a Nurse can Undertake the Role of Principal Investigator (PI) in Clinical Research in the UK
Get PDFUnder UK law, an investigator is defined as an “authorised health professional responsible for the conduct of a trial at a site, and if the trial is conducted by a team of authorised health professionals at a trial site, the investigator is the leader responsible for that team†[1]. Whilst the umbrella term “authorised health professional†encompasses registered nurses, midwives and allied health professionals, in addition to medics, research currently tends to be medically led (ie, whereby the Principal Investigator is a doctor). At Chelsea and Westminster Hospital (CHW), a 12 month activity mapping exercise highlighted that only 4% of clinical research studies opened had a PI who was a nurse. However a more in-depth review highlighted that 98% of all clinical research studies opened during that same time period had involvement of nurses as contributors as opposed to leaders. Resultantly a local strategic decision was taken to encourage engagement of, and to enhance opportunities for, nurses to lead on clinical research studies, as appropriate. Collaboration with the existing multi-professional research forum and steering group at CWH facilitated open discussion regarding the key reasons why more nurses (along with midwives and allied health professionals) were not leading on clinical research studies. Three key explanatory factors resulted from this, and a systematic action plan followed to boost the number of nurse PIs. Many individual and organisational benefits were recognised as a result of this programme of work. The experience at CWH confirms that nurses are more than capable of acting as PIs on clinical research studies providing that appropriate support and monitoring are in place. It is therefore the recommendation of this paper that nurses are encouraged and developed to transition from the role of contributor to leader in clinical research
Does Community Characteristics Influence the use of TT injection during Pregnancy
No full textNational Rural Health Mission programs initiated in 2005 has contributed significantly in improving the health status of millions of Indians. The targeted direct conditional cash transfer scheme under Janani Surakhsha Yojana saw definite shift in deliveries from home to institution. This shift indirectly contributed in reduction of neonatal deaths as more and more births occurred at an institution under the supervision of trained health care professionals. Each pregnancy under JSY/NRHM is micro planned. Therefore ANC check-ups of pregnant women and services due were followed-up vigorously. Findings suggest that use of Tetanus Toxoid (TT) injection during pregnancy reduces neonatal deaths significantly. Similarly, availability of basic community health care services and amenities positively impacts the survival chance of neonates. The multilevel analysis predicts the community distance to sub-centre health facility as important determinant in explaining variations in the use of Tetanus Toxoid vaccine during pregnancy. Use of 3-ANC checkups increases the likelihood of receiving TT vaccine during pregnancy by 91 percent. Thereby tracking each pregnancy through web based MCTS portal for ANC services due, is extremely important for increase TT coverage and increasing survival chance of neonates
Impact of Micro Health Insurance Plans on Protecting Households Against Catastrophic Health Spending in Tanzania
Get PDFThe paper analyses the impact of households’ membership in micro health insurance plans on the protection against catastrophic health spending, in the episodes of illness. The analysis considers the groups of poor and non-poor members of micro health insurance schemes and non-members in both urban and rural areas in Tanzania. Matching estimator method was used to analyse the effect of membership in the micro health insurance on the protection against catastrophic health spending, in the episodes of illness among the members of micro health insurance scheme and non-members for the different income groups. Data used in the analysis involved those on the 10,300 households involved in Tanzania Demographic and Health Survey of 2011. The estimation results revealed that insurance schemes enabled households to get protection against catastrophic health spending, in the episodes of illness to members of insurance schemes compared to non-members. Thus, it is recommended that households be encouraged to enroll in the micro health insurance schemes. The insurance scheme also needs to be close to the would be customers. This will also contribute to poverty reduction in the country as well