41 research outputs found
The International Xenotransplantation Association consensus statement on conditions for undertaking clinical trials of porcine islet products in type 1 diabetes-- executive summary
No full textThe International Xenotransplantation Association islet xenotransplantation consensus statement describes the conditions for undertaking clinical trials of porcine islet products in type 1 diabetes. Chapter 1 reviews the key ethical requirements and progress toward the definition of an international regulatory framework for clinical trials of xenotransplantation. Chapters 2 to 7 provide in depth and agreed-upon recommendations on source pigs, pig islet product manufacturing and release testing, preclinical efficacy and complication data required to justify a clinical trial, strategies to prevent transmission of porcine endogenous retrovirus, patient selection for clinical trials, and informed consent. It is planned to update this initial consensus statement in a year's time in light of progress in research, changes in the regulatory framework, and comments submitted after publication
Configuration management with Libelektra
No full textDurch die ständig zunehmende Anzahl von Computersystemen, werden Konfigurationsmanagementwerkzeuge bei Systemadministratoren immer beliebter. Diese Werkzeuge erlauben Administratoren das Beschreiben von Computersystemen auf einem abstraktenNiveau, wobei das Konfigurationsmanagementwerkzeug diesen beschriebenen Zustand auf dem Zielsystem umsetzt. Üblicherweise verwalten diese Werkzeuge Konfigurationseinstellungen auf dem Niveau von ganzen Konfigurationsdateien, nicht auf der Ebene einzelner Konfigurationseinstellungen. Ein Problem dieser Vorgangsweise ist, dass bereits bestehende Standardkonfigurationen überschrieben werden. Weiters müssen Administratoren selbst sicherstellen, dass die Konfigurationsdateien syntaktisch korrekt sind. Wir haben in dieser Arbeit gezeigt, dass Konfigurationsmanagmentwerkzeuge durch die Verwendung von generischen Konfigurationsbibliotheken verbessert werden können. Dafür haben wir das Konfigurationsmanagementwerkzeug Puppet um die Funktionalitäten der Konfigurationsbibliothek Libelektra erweitert, wodurch Konfigurationänderungen auf der Ebene von einzelnen Konfigurationseinstellungen beschrieben werden können. Um zu zeigen, dass dieser Ansatz einem Systemadministrator einen messbaren Vorteil bringt, haben wir unsere Lösung in drei Schritten evaluiert. Zuerst haben wir das Laufzeitverhalten und die Robustheit der Syntaxvalidierung unserer Methode mit anderen Verfahren zur Konfigurationsdateienmanipulation von Puppet verglichen. In einem zweiten Evaluierungsschritt haben wir eine Fallstudie mit unserer Lösung durchgeführt, um zu zeigen, dass unser Ansatz auch für reale Einsatzzwecke verwendbar ist. Dabei haben wir unsere Erweiterung zum Konfigurieren eines automatischen Integrationssystems, bestehend aus 5 Computern und Konfigurationsdateien in 8 verschiedenen Formaten, verwendet. Um zu demonstrieren, dass unsere Lösung eine Produktivitätssteigerung beim Entwickeln von Puppetcode bewirken kann, haben wir in einem dritten Evaluierungsschritt eine Nutzerstudie durchgeführt. Dabei hatten 14 Teilnehmer vier Puppetprogrammieraufgaben in bis zu drei Varianten zu lösen, wobei wir die Durchführungszeiten der einzelnen Varianten miteinander verglichen. Mit der Fallstudie konnten wir zeigen, dass unser Ansatz auch für reale Einsatzzwecke verwendet werden kann. Weiters konnten wir mit der Nutzerstudie zeigen, dass unsere Lösung im Vergleich zu anderen generischen Verfahren zur Konfigurationsdateienmanipulation einen signifikanten Produktivitätszuwachs bringt.With the ever growing number of computer systems, configuration management tools are getting more popular. When using a configuration management tool, a system administrator describes the managed computer system on an abstract level and the configuration management tool configures the target system accordingly. Configuration management tools usually manage configuration settings on the level of configuration files and not on the level of individual configuration settings. One of the problems of this approach is that already preconfigured default configuration settings will be overwritten. Further, system administrators have to ensure a correct configuration file syntax themselves. In this thesis we have shown, that these weaknesses of configuration management tools can be improved by utilizing the methods of a general purpose configuration framework such as Libelektra. We implemented an extension for the configuration management tool Puppet, which allows us to treat configuration settings as first class citizens. In order to show that our approach has measurable advantages over existing Puppet concepts, we first compared our solution with other Puppet configuration file manipulation methods in terms of robustness of syntax validation and runtime performance. Second, we have conducted a case study to demonstrate that our solution is ready for real-world usage by managing a continuous integration system consisting of 5 computers and configuration files in 8 different formats. In a third evaluation step we have carried out a user study to show that our solution is able to improve the Puppet code development productivity. We asked a group of 14 participants to solve four different Puppet programming tasks in up to three different variants and compared the times required to solve the tasks. The case study demonstrated that our solution is ready for real-world scenarios and the results of the user study showed that our solution increases the development productivity significantly compared to other general purpose configuration manipulation strategies
Jacob Denners Christlich-und erbauliche Betrachtungen über die Sonn-und Festtags-Evangelia des ganzen Jahrs, nebst einem Anhange verschiedener Predigten über besondere Texte, sowohl aus dem Alten als Neuen Testamente; und einer Vermehrung von dreyen Predigten über das heilige Vater Unser. Durch Gottes Gnade in öffentlicher Versammlung in Altona mündlich vorgetragen, und auf Begehren dem Druck überlassen.
No full textCf. Mennonite Encyclopedia II, 37.Mode of access: Internet
Motion: a novel of young adult fiction and an accompanying exegesis
No full textThis practice-led PhD is comprised of a Young Adult Fiction novel entitled Motion, and an accompanying exegesis that reflects upon the ways in which an author employs creative expression and techniques during the creative journey, and the resulting impact of these choices upon the text. A discussion of YAF as a genre is entered into, and a how the novel's exploration of stereotyping, girls and sport, poverty, and violence sit within the context of fiction and adolescent culture
Adolescent Future Orientation: Does Culture Matter?
No full textFuture orientation, or the image individuals have of the future, provides the grounds for setting goals and planning, and therefore is considered an important adolescent developmental task. This chapter introduces future orientation research by describing its evolvement from a thematic approach focusing on the content of future domains to a model consisting of three components, discusses its universal and cross-cultural meanings, and reports a replicated finding that across cultures, adolescents share a common core of future orientation domains consisting of education, career, and marriage and family. Based on findings on effects of the family setting on future orientation and an integration of developmental ecology, developmental niche, and bridging multiple worlds models, the author suggests new directions for research especially pertinent for adolescents undergoing social change
The T-S Gradient method, A new method of computing geostrophic currents over large ocean areas
No full textRequirements for indirect computation of geostrophic surface currents over large ocean areas are discussed. These requirements point to a need to simplify standard geostrophic computations, and to separate the first order thermal and haline contributions to geostrophic flow. The equations of motion for geostrophic flow are reviewed and the standard geostrophic computations discussed. Errors and limitations in the geostrophic method are reviewed. Previous attempts to simplify geostrophic computations are discussed and shown to be inadequate for synoptic computation over hemispheric ocean areas. It is shown that the Helland-Hansen equation can be rewritten such that the geostrophic velocity is composed of a temperature structure term and a salinity structure term. (Author)http://archive.org/details/tsgradientmethod00den
How to fight the war for talent - talent management as a tool for creating a committed workforce in German multinational enterprises
No full textObjectives and scope: Today‘s companies face the War for Talent in different ways. To face the challenge of a global talent shortage a recently topic is the Talent Management. This study aimed to find out in how far Talent Management can be used as a tool to succeed in the Talent War through the creation of commitment to ensure talent is available. Furthermore it purposed to discover how Talent Management needs to be designed to create this commitment. In this context not only talents were considered but also those employees who are not evaluated as such. It was aimed to add practical knowledge to the existing literature of how to create commitment through the Talent Management approach concentrating on German Multinational Enterprises which are located in a market with significantly changing demographics.
Methodology: The study is qualitative using semi-structured interviews within six German Multinational Enterprises. Interviews were held with HR managers in order to discover reasons for design and holistic evaluations of commitment throughout the workforce.
Results: Talent Management has the potential to grow commitment of the workforce. Necessary is the combination with other developmental opportunities and transparency in order to avoid favouritism. Ensuring those requirements Talent Management values talents and gives this population a feeling of being recognised which creates a bond to the employer. Transparency, on the other hand, informs non-talents about their areas of development and is able to create the motivation to become a talent. Developmental opportunities moreover avoid the evolvement of second-class-staff. Author keywords: Talent management, commitment, German labour market, MNE, qualitative research, HRM, war for talen
Defining absolute environmental limits for the built environment
No full textThe question addressed is whether it is possible to define working limits on environmental impacts from the built environment in terms of global carrying capacity. The main focus is on energy-related impacts, since these are global and relatively well-understood. Four possible approaches to defining limits are explored: static equilibrium, asymptotic, integral of excess and planned future. The conclusions that emerge from this exploration are that global environmental constraints are very tight, but also that they are dynamically and strongly influenced by the trajectory of social and technological development over the coming century. Their use as the basis for practical, quantitative metrics of sustainability, therefore, involves a large measure of subjectivity. A fifth approach - the developmental approach - is identified, which instead of focusing on long-term external constraints to human activity, focuses instead on the internal, short- to medium-term dynamics of the built environment itself. It appears likely that the developmental approach, guided by qualitative conclusions from the analysis of global carrying capacity, is likely to be most fruitful
Absence of xenotropic murine leukaemia virus-related virus in UK patients with chronic fatigue syndrome
No full textBackground: Detection of a retrovirus, xenotropic murine leukaemia virus-related virus (XMRV), has recently been reported in 67% of patients with chronic fatigue syndrome. We have studied a total of 170 samples from chronic fatigue syndrome patients from two UK cohorts and 395 controls for evidence of XMRV infection by looking either for the presence of viral nucleic acids using quantitative PCR (limit of detection <16 viral copies) or for the presence of serological responses using a virus neutralisation assay.
Results: We have not identified XMRV DNA in any samples by PCR (0/299). Some serum samples showed XMRV neutralising activity (26/565) but only one of these positive sera came from a CFS patient. Most of the positive sera were also able to neutralise MLV particles pseudotyped with envelope proteins from other viruses, including vesicular stomatitis virus, indicating significant cross-reactivity in serological responses. Four positive samples were specific for XMRV.
Conclusions: No association between XMRV infection and CFS was observed in the samples tested, either by PCR or serological methodologies. The non-specific neutralisation observed in multiple serum samples suggests that it is unlikely that these responses were elicited by XMRV and highlights the danger of over-estimating XMRV frequency based on serological assays. In spite of this, we believe that the detection of neutralising activity that did not inhibit VSV-G pseudotyped MLV in at least four human serum samples indicates that XMRV infection may occur in the general population, although with currently uncertain outcomes
