175 research outputs found
Money market mutual funds and other short-term investment pools
No full textMutual funds ; Money market
Money market mutual funds : a reaction to government regulations or a lasting financial innovation?
No full textAn abstract for this article is not availableMutual funds
The association between patient safety outcomes and nurse/healthcare assistant skill mix and staffing levels and factors that may influence staffing requirements
No full textIntroductionIdentifying safe approaches to nurse staffing in hospital wards is a key challenge for healthservice providers. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has beenasked by the Department of Health and NHS England to develop an evidence-basedguideline on safe and efficient staffing in acute adult inpatient wards.This review is the first of two reviews to inform the safe staffing guideline. It aims to exploreevidence to inform guidance related to the following three sets of questions, set out in thescope.1. What patient safety outcomes are associated with nurse and healthcareassistant staffing levels and skill mix?a. What outcomes are associated with tasks undertaken by registerednurses, healthcare assistants (HCA), and other staff?b. Which outcomes should be used as indicators of safe staffing?2. What patient factors affect nurse and healthcare assistant staffingrequirements at different times during the day? These include:a. Patient dependency and acuity assessment and gradingb. Patient turnover.3. How does the ward environment, including physical layout and diversity ofclinical disciplines, affect safe staffing requirements
The effect of treatment of clinical endometritis on reproductive performance in dairy cows
No full textThe objective of this field trial was to compare the effect of intrauterine (i.u.) antibiotic or intramuscular (i.m.) prostaglandin F2 alpha (PGF2 alpha) on time to pregnancy in dairy cows diagnosed with clinical endometritis between 20 and 33 days in milk (DIM). The case definition of endometritis was the presence of purulent uterine discharge or cervical diameter > 7.5 cm, or the presence of muco-purulent discharge after 26 DIM. There were 316 cows with endometritis from 27 farms assigned randomly within herd to receive 500 mg of cephapirin benzathine intrauterine (i.u.), 500 micrograms of cloprostenol i.m., or no treatment. The rate of resolution of clinical signs 14 d after treatment was 77% and was not affected by treatment. Reproductive performance was monitored for a minimum of 7 mo after treatment. Survival analysis (multivariable proportional hazards regression) was used to measure the effect of treatment on time to pregnancy. There was no benefit of treatment of endometritis before 4 wk postpartum. Administration of PGF2 alpha between 20 and 26 DIM to cows with endometritis that did not have a palpable corpus luteum was associated with a significant reduction in pregnancy rate. Between 27 and 33 DIM, cows with endometritis treated with cephapirin i.u. had a significantly shorter time to pregnancy than untreated cows (hazard ratio = 1.63). In this time period, there was no difference in pregnancy rate between PGF2 alpha and untreated cows, but the difference in pregnancy rate between cows treated with cephapirin i.u. and with PGF2 alpha was not statistically significant. Treatment of postpartum endometritis should be reserved for cases diagnosed after 26 DIM, based on criteria that are associated with subsequent pregnancy rate.LR: 20061115; PUBM: Print; JID: 2985126R; 0 (Anti-Bacterial Agents); 21593-23-7 (Cephapirin); 40665-92-7 (Cloprostenol); ppublishSource type: Electronic(1
Defining and diagnosing postpartum clinical endometritis and its impact on reproductive performance in dairy cows
No full textThe objectives of this study were to validate diagnostic criteria for clinical endometritis in postpartum dairy cows and to measure the impact of endometritis on reproductive performance. Data were collected from 1865 cows in 27 herds, including history of dystocia, twins, retained placenta, or metritis. All cows were examined once between 20 and 33 d in milk (DIM) including external inspection, vaginoscopy, and transrectal palpation of the cervix, uterus, and ovaries. All cows were followed for a minimum of 7 mo or until pregnancy or culling. Survival analysis was used to derive a case definition of endometritis based on factors associated with increased time to pregnancy. The significance of clinical findings depended on the interval postpartum when examination took place. The presence of purulent uterine discharge or cervical diameter > 7.5 cm after 20 DIM, or mucopurulent discharge after 26 DIM identified cows with clinical endometritis. Given vaginoscopy, no diagnostic criteria based on palpation of the uterus had predictive value for time to pregnancy. The prevalence of clinical endometritis was 16.9%. Vaginoscopy was required to identify 44% of these cases. Accounting for parity, herd, and ovarian status, cows with clinical endometritis between 20 and 33 DIM had a hazard ratio of 0.73 for pregnancy (took 27% longer to become pregnant), and were 1.7 times more likely to be culled for reproductive failure than cows without endometritis.LR: 20061115; PUBM: Print; JID: 2985126R; ppublishSource type: Electronic(1
MicroRNAs as potential therapeutic targets in kidney disease
No full textOne cornerstone of chronic kidney disease (CKD) is fibrosis, as kidneys are susceptible due to their high vascularity and predisposition to ischemia. Presently, only therapies targeting the angiotensin receptor are used in clinical practice to retard the progression of CKD. Thus, there is a pressing need for new therapies designed to treat the damaged kidney. Several independent laboratories have identified a number of microRNAs that are dysregulated in human and animal models of CKD. This review will explore the evidence suggesting that by blocking the activity of such dysregulated microRNAs, new therapeutics could be developed to treat the progression of CKD
Blurring the Lines? International Humanitarian Non-Governmental Organisations and the Military use of Aid and Development in Afghanistan
No full textThis thesis explores the theory that International Humanitarian Non-governmental Organisations (IHNGOs) have increasingly become part of the world-ordering security agenda of developed western states since the end of the Cold War. It argues that the adoption of humanitarian aid and development activities by intervening military forces in Afghanistan, criticised by IHNGOs for blurring the boundaries between humanitarian and military actors, is a symptom of, rather than the central reason for, reduced humanitarian space in Afghanistan. This study contends that the central issue is the wider integration of political, military and humanitarian action into the process of state-building as a way to pacify areas of conflict and instability that otherwise present potential security threats to the developed world. This has become even more pronounced with the aims of the Global War on Terror (GWOT) since 2001.
The merging of humanitarian aid and development with security in the pursuit of stable states has occurred as an international response to the humanitarian crises and intra-state wars since the end of the Cold War. Military involvement of this kind is typified in Afghanistan by Provincial Reconstruction Teams (PRTs) that combine security and development action. During the 1990s humanitarianism also underwent a metamorphosis as concern about the role aid could have in fuelling conflict and a desire to ameliorate the underlying causes of poverty and conflict led many aid agencies to adopt a new vision of humanitarianism that had political and social goals beyond those of just meeting the immediate needs of populations in crisis. Another feature of humanitarian interventions of the 1990s was the ambitious expectations placed upon IHNGOs and intervening military forces from the international community to manage or resolve these crises without a corresponding level of long-term political, economic and military commitment. These issues are also present in post-2001 Afghanistan where IHNGOs initially supported an international intervention and a new government which has since been faced with a growing insurgency. Consequently, involvement with state-building, governance, rights and development have placed IHNGOs at odds with the insurgents.
A case study approach is used to examine five major IHNGOs and how they fit into the context of the international state-building project in post-2001 Afghanistan. The central finding of this study is that the integration of humanitarian aid and development into state-building as a means to enhance international security has seriously compromised the claims to the principles of neutrality, impartiality and independence central to the concept of humanitarian space and consequently the security of the IHNGOs in the ongoing Afghanistan conflict.
To overcome these problems this study suggests that IHNGOs should place their humanitarian aid activity under a separate umbrella organisation that operates under the neutral, impartial and independent principles adhered to by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), the organisation in this study that has managed to maintain some acceptance and dialogue with all parties to conflict
Post-conflict private sector development : promoting durable peace : What are the characteristics and short comings of economic development in post-independent, sub-Saharan Africa : examples from Mozambique?
No full textIncludes abstract.In times of war the private sector adapts, often to function informally, and can serve to either perpetuate conflict or to incentivize peace. Accordingly, the private sector is a powerful tool that can be utilized during post-conflict reconstruction to enable sustain- able peace and economic development. After a conflict, in an effort to establish a means of survival outside of the war economy, there is a pressing need for the population to have a means by which to provide a livelihood and productively contribute to society. Establishing sustainable economic exchange and developing social capital between various members of society is one mechanism by which to achieve restorative justice and disincentivize conflict. ...this paper argues for a hybrid approach to private sector development that includes both the investment climate and interventionist methods to disincentivize a return to conflict
LRP-6 is a coreceptor for multiple fibrogenic signaling pathways in pericytes and myofibroblasts that are inhibited by DKK-1
No full textFibrosis of vital organs is a major public health problem with limited therapeutic options. Mesenchymal cells including microvascular mural cells (pericytes) are major progenitors of scar-forming myofibroblasts in kidney and other organs. Here we show pericytes in healthy kidneys have active WNT/beta-catenin signaling responses that are markedly up-regulated following kidney injury. Dickkopf-related protein 1 (DKK-1), a ligand for the WNT coreceptors low-density lipoprotein receptor-related proteins 5 and 6 (LRP-5 and LRP-6) and an inhibitor of WNT/beta-catenin signaling, effectively inhibits pericyte activation, detachment, and transition to myofibroblasts in vivo in response to kidney injury, resulting in attenuated fibrogenesis, capillary rarefaction, and inflammation. DKK-1 blocks activation and proliferation of established myofibroblasts in vitro and blocks pericyte proliferation to PDGF, pericyte migration, gene activation, and cytoskeletal reorganization to TGF-beta or connective tissue growth factor. These effects are largely independent of inhibition of downstream beta-catenin signaling. DKK-1 acts predominantly by inhibiting PDGF-, TGF-beta-, and connective tissue growth factor-activated MAPK and JNK signaling cascades, acting via LRP-6 with associated WNT ligand. Biochemically, LRP-6 interacts closely with PDGF receptor beta and TGF-beta receptor 1 at the cell membrane, suggesting that it may have roles in pathways other than WNT/beta-catenin. In summary, DKK-1 blocks many of the changes in pericytes required for myofibroblast transition and attenuates established myofibroblast proliferation/activation by mechanisms dependent on LRP-6 and WNT ligands but not the downstream beta-catenin pathway
Revisiting the Issues On Netflow Sample and Export Performance
No full textThe high volume of packets and packet rates of traffic on some router links makes it exceedingly difficult for routers to examine every packet in order to keep detailed statistics about the traffic which is traversing the router. Sampling is commonly applied on routers in order to limit the load incurred by the collection of information that the router has to undertake when evaluating flow information for monitoring purposes. The sampling process in nearly all cases is a deterministic process of choosing 1 in every N packets on a per-interface basis, and then forming the flow statistics based on the collected sampled statistics. Even though this sampling may not be significant for some statistics, such as packet rate, others can be severely distorted. However, it is important to consider the sampling techniques and their relative accuracy when applied to different traffic patterns. In this paper, we assess the performance of the sampling process as used in NetFlow in detail, and we discuss some techniques for the compensation of loss of monitoring detail
- …
