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The Effectiveness of Virtual R&D Teams in SMEs: Experiences of Malaysian SMEs
No full textThe number of small and medium enterprises (SMEs), especially those involved with research and development (R&D) programs and employed virtual teams to create the greatest competitive advantage from limited labor are increasing. Global and localized virtual R&D teams are believed to have high potential for the growth of SMEs. Due to the fast-growing complexity of new products coupled with new emerging opportunities of virtual teams, a collaborative approach is believed to be the future trend. This research explores the effectiveness of virtuality in SMEs’ virtual R&D teams. Online questionnaires were emailed to Malaysian manufacturing SMEs and 74 usable questionnaires were received, representing a 20.8 percent return rate. In order to avoid biases which may result from pre-suggested answers, a series of open-ended questions were retrieved from the experts. This study was focused on analyzing an open-ended question, whereby four main themes were extracted from the experts’ recommendations regarding the effectiveness of virtual teams for the growth and performance of SMEs. The findings of this study would be useful to product design managers of SMEs in order to realize the key advantages and significance of virtual R&D teams during the new product development (NPD) process. This in turn, leads to increased effectiveness in new product development's procedure
Health Needs of Ashram Schools in Rural Wardha
No full textObjective: To assess the health needs for health promoting Ashram schools in rural Wardha. Methods: It was a cross sectional study undertaken in 10 Ashram schools, using qualitative (SWOT analysis, Transect walks and Semi-structured interviews of teachers) and quantitative (Survey) methods. Hemoglobin examination of all children was done by using WHO hemoglobin color scale. Anthropometric measurements such as height and weight of each child were obtained. Physical activity score for each child was calculated. The manual content analysis of qualitative data was done and the quantitative data was entered and analyzed using Epi_info (version 6.04d) software package. Results: Out of 1287 children examined, 724 (56.3%) were boys and 563 (43.7%) were girls. About 576 (44.8%), 213 (16.6%), 760 (59.1%) children had untrimmed nails, dirty clothes and unclean teeth respectively. More girls had (31.6%) lice infestation than boys (18.2%). Eighty six (6.7%), 75 (5.8%) and 110 (8.6%) children had scabies, fungal infection and multiple boils on their skin respectively and 158 (12.3%), 136 (10.6%) and 66 (18.3%) children had dental caries, wax in ears and worm infestation respectively. Notably, 988 (76.8%) children had iron deficiency anemia which was significantly more among girls (81.9%) than boys (72.8%). About 506 (39.3%) children consumed any tobacco product in last one month. About 746 (57.9%) children were classified to have sedentary physical activity. Among 774 children (>12 years), 183 (23.6%) and 34 (4.4%) children felt lonely ‘sometime’ and ‘most of the times’ respectively. About 398 (94.3%) boys and 342 (97.2%) girls did not know the modes of transmission of HIV/AIDS. Conclusions: In conclusion, there was high prevalence of risk factors for both communicable and non-communicable diseases in Ashram school environment. This dictates the urgent need for teacher driven, needs based and school based intervention that can screen and identify potentially preventable health conditions among underprivileged Ashram school children
Teaching of Critical Analysis of Drug Advertisements to Medical Students
No full textBackground: Medical practitioners utilize drug promotional materials from pharmaceutical companies as a major source of information especially in developing countries. These promotional materials can be highly informative as long as they are critically appraised but when they are accepted without question, they lead to irrational prescribing. Aim: To sensitize the students regarding WHO criteria for medicinal drug promotion and to determine the impact of teaching critical appraisal of medicinal drug promotion to medical students. Design: The medical students of second year were given a pre test questionnaire to identify the violations in generic labeling, pharmacological information, claims, relevance and references cited in the drug advertisements. Later they were sensitized about the WHO criteria for medicinal drug promotion and how to critically appraise a drug advertisement. This was followed by a post test questionnaire with the same drug advertisement. Result: The number of students answering the post test correctly was significantly (p<0.05) more than that of pre test. Conclusion: Education of medical students regarding critical analysis of drug advertisements should be a part of the medical curriculum
Epithelioid Cell Histiocytoma – An Unusual Variant of Dermatofibroma at an Uncommon Site
No full textEpithelioid cell histiocytoma (ECH) is a rare variant of cutaneous fibrous histiocytoma involving primarily trunk and the extremities. It can delude the pathologist in considering other benign non neoplastic and neoplastic lesions. Awareness of this new entity can avert unnecessary treatment. We report a case of epithelioid cell histiocytoma in a 40 yr old male who presented with a painless nodular swelling over the dorsum of nose. The case is presented here for its rarity and an uncommon site of involvement
Two Cases of Primary Ectopic Ovarian Pregnancy
No full textPrimary ovarian pregnancy is one of the rarest varieties of ectopic pregnancies. Patients frequently present with abdominal pain and menstrual irregularities. Intrauterine devices have evolved as probable risk factors. Preoperative diagnosis is challenging but transvaginal sonography has often been helpful. A diagnostic delay may lead to rupture, secondary implantation or operative difficulties. Therefore, awareness of this rare condition is important in reducing the associated risks. Here, we report two cases of primary ovarian pregnancies presenting with acute abdominal pain. Transabdominal ultrasonography failed to hint at ovarian pregnancy in one, while transvaginal sonography aided in the correct diagnosis of the other. Both cases were confirmed by histopathological examinations and were successfully managed by surgery
Posterolateral Elbow Dislocation with Ipsilateral Fractures of Head and Distal End Radius
No full textElbow dislocation associated with ipsilateral fracture head and distal end radius is a rare pattern of Injury, although it is common for elbow dislocation and radius fractures to occur separately. We report a case of 35 year-old male who had a posterolateral elbow dislocation with ipsilateral fractures of head and distal end radius that underwent closed reduction and POP application and outcome is excellent with 9 months of follow-up
Expectations eclipsed in foreign language education: learners and educators on an ongoing journey / edited by Hülya Görür-Atabaş, Sharon Turner.
No full textBetween June 2-4, 2011 Sabancı University School of Languages welcomed colleagues from 21 different countries to a collaborative exploration of the challenging and inspiring journey of learners and educators in the field of language education.\ud
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The conference provided an opportunity for all stakeholders to share their views on language education. Colleagues met with world-renowned experts and authors in the fields of education and psychology, faculty and administrators from various universities and institutions, teachers from secondary educational backgrounds and higher education, as well as learners whose voices are often not directly shared but usually reported.\ud
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The conference name, Eclipsing Expectations, was inspired by two natural phenomena, a solar eclipse directly before the conference, and a lunar eclipse, immediately after. Learners and educators were hereby invited to join a journey to observe, learn and exchange ideas in orde
Recommendations for Using Online Social Networking Technologies to Reduce Inaccurate Online Health Information
No full textThis short report highlights patients' increasing use of the Internet and online social networking technologies to seek health information, and the consequences of gaining information from sites with biased or inaccurate health information. Reflecting on the utility of online social networking technologies for reaching large audiences, practical advice is listed for how health providers can use these technologies to improve the quality of health information that patients receive over the Internet. We recommend that health providers use online social networking technologies to communicate with patients and health information consumers and direct them to reputable sources with accurate health information. We outline the steps to this approach
Correlation of Lipid Peroxidation with Glycated Haemoglobin Levels in Diabetes Mellitus
No full textReactive oxygen species are crucial to normal biological processes; they are potentially dangerous and are commonly referred to as prooxidants. The reactive oxygen intermediates can cause direct cellular injury by including lipid and protein peroxidation and damage to nucleic acid. The polyunsaturated fatty acids present in the cells are vulnerable to free radicals causing lipid peroxidation. Determination of Malondialdehyde (MDA) by using thiobarbituric acid is used as an index of the extent of lipid peroxidation. This study was done to know if lipid peroxidation correlated with the glycated haemoglobin levels. Diabetic status was assessed by estimating fasting blood sugar and glycated haemoglobin level while oxidant stress was evaluated by estimating erythrocyte MDA levels. The lipid peroxidation in erythrocyte lysates was significantly increased in diabetic individuals compared to controls (p<0.001). The result of this study indicates that in diabetic individuals are more prone to oxidative stress and glycated haemoglobin is a marker in evaluating the long term glycemic status in diabetic individuals
Specialty Preference Among Medical Students and Factors Affecting It
No full textIntroduction: Medical education is one of the core part of educational system of any country. Medical education requires undergraduate students to study a wide range of medical specialties. It is often assumed that students do not make their career preferences until after they have graduated from medical school. So the reasons and factors responsible for preferences need to be found out among medical students. Material and Methods: It was a Cross sectional study on 180 medical students to assess preference for specialty and factors responsible. Results: Out of total 190 medical students more or less everyone (97.89%) wanted to pursue specialization and majority of them (96.84%) wanted to pursue the same in Medical Field(p>0.05). majority of male students were interested to pursue their specialization in the field of medicine (37.63%), surgery (23.65%) and pediatrics (13.97%). On the other hand female students were more interested in medicine (24.17%), pediatrics (32.96%) and obstetrics & gynecology (24.17%)(p<0.05). Interest, by far was found to be most common factor (76.63%) responsible for the preference of particular medical specialty among all four groups of students (1st professional-25.27%, 2nd professional-75.92%, final professional-89.47%, interns-68.42%).Conclusion: It is thus concluded there are many factors playing role in the specialty selection and preference among the medical students and should be equally justified and addressed