Form Of Consolidation Research Articles

Development of the System of Preparing Electronic Reports on University Scientific and Research Activities at Orel State University

The paper gives a ground for the relevance of the development of the system of preparing electronic reports on the scientific research carried out at Orel state University. The specific features of the system are analyzed in the context of the organization of university research activities. To design a system, various information technologies should be used to create the software product that is in line with the modern trends of using web technologies in applications. As a result, the structure of the information and analytical system for the preparation of individual forms of electronic reporting was developed in the context of the organization of university research activities and the software was implemented in a modern programming language. After the testing of applications the system is recommended for introduction at all departments of Orel state University. At the next step it is planned to simulate and implement the system components for preparation of integrated forms of electronic reporting on scientific activity of the university departments, as well as for the preparation of consolidated forms of electronic reporting of scientific research activities of the university on the whole. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2015.v6n6s5p16

Deconsolidation of Public-Safety Agencies Providing Police and Fire Services

In recent years, a growing number of communities have consolidated their police and fire agencies into a single “public-service” agency. Consolidation has appealed to communities seeking to achieve efficiency and cost-effectiveness, but resistance has arisen from organized labor and firefighters. Some communities have even begun to abandon the model. Exploring the reasons for disbanding can help cities considering the public-safety model determine whether it is right for them. Such analysis can also help cities that have already adopted the model understand what may cause it to falter. In this work, we analyze six case studies of public-safety agencies, chosen for their diversity in geography, date of consolidation and deconsolidation, form of consolidation, and other community characteristics. We explore their reasons for consolidation and deconsolidation in the context of broader police organizational research, particularly that regarding organizational theory, change, and performance. We place our findings in the context of structural contingency and institutional theories of organization, finding both to explain many of the reasons these organizations consolidated but later deconsolidated.

On Problems of Cloud Computing Application to Organize Online Learning in Higher Education

Application of advanced information and communication technologies (ICT) allows not only to improve the quality of education process but provides the teachers with completely new forms and possibilities of knowledge representation not possible when traditional methods of teaching are used. Nowadays, online learning is considered to be the most striking example of providing convergence of traditional and new potential methods of organizing educational process. Learning Management System (LMS) is considered to act as a specific platform online learning is based upon providing the possibilities for e-learning resources creation, adapted for online learning, integration of advanced forms of content presentation, interactive work, and educational content consolidation together with software related. The most effective way to organize LMS support in the current context is cloud computing application. The LMS is realized as cloud server providing the ability to scale the system depending on the increased number of users, centralized content storage and management. Access to the LMS can be made anywhere in the world, at any time, this allowing for easy development of individual educational curricula, thereby increasing the quality of education. In this respect, the LMS system is very convenient for teachers’ collaboration work within on-line learning process when they work with different institution and in different places. Cloud computing is undoubtedly a noteworthy approach to the organization of online learning, possessing a number of important advantages. This approach appears to have a potentially large scope of application.

Electronic Tracking of Patients in an Outpatient Ophthalmology Clinic to Improve Efficient Flow: A Feasibility Analysis and Benchmarking Study.

Real-time location systems (RTLS) and Lean management approaches have been employed to improve patient flow in clinical settings. This study explored the feasibility of using these methodologies in an outpatient resident ophthalmology clinic. Patients, providers, and staff in Wilmer Eye Institute General Eye Services Clinic were provided RTLS tags to track their movement throughout the clinic after observational studies modeling flow were conducted. Tracking data guided changes for clinic processes based on Lean management approaches, including reorganization of the reception desk, consolidation of forms, creation of task sheets to improve communication, installation of door flags on examination rooms, and training the staff in service excellence. Tracking was repeated after changes were implemented. A patient satisfaction survey was also conducted prior to and after the changes. After intervention, significant increases were measured in the average time patients spent in the clinic (99.3 minutes vs 112.8 minutes). Significant decreases were seen in the times patients spent with the optometrists (15.4 minutes vs 12.1 minutes), testing (24.7 minutes vs 23.0 minutes), and together with both the attending and the resident (8.3 minutes vs 5.8 minutes). The patient satisfaction survey indicated improvements in patients' perception of the helpfulness/friendliness of the staff, the length of time patients perceived they waited, and overall clinic experience. Both RTLS and Lean management approaches may be feasible ways to track and improve patient flow and satisfaction if certain limitations can be overcome. This is the first published report describing these approaches applied to an academic ophthalmology clinic in the United States.

A Macro and Micro-Level Evaluation of Stakeholders’ Collaboration for Sustainable City Logistics Operations

City logistics involves movement of city goods in urban areas respecting the municipal and administrative guidelines. The key goals of city logistics planning are maximizing vehicle movement and utilization, while minimising vehicle emissions and traffic congestion. Collaboration is vital to managing city logistics operations efficiently. Collaboration can take place in the form of goods consolidation, sharing of resources, information sharing, and so on. Two categories of models are proposed to evaluate these collaboration strategies. At the macro level, we present the collaboration matrix model; and at the micro level, we present the operational level model. The macro-level model focuses on the strategic decision making process necessary for stakeholders’ collaboration given the socio-cultural characteristics, economic, and environmental constraint factors, while the micro-level model applies the collaboration decision-making criteria derived from the macro-level analytic result to improve the activities of the city logistics operators. Results of the computational testing of our methodology on vehicle selection, goods to vehicle assignment, goods distribution and environmental impact assessment are discussed, showing that the collaboration strategies of stakeholders, if optimized, can improve city logistics operations. The proposed work is novel and has strong practical applicability for logistics planners and decision makers in planning right collaboration strategies for sustainable city logistics operations.

Making Merit: The Indian Institutes of Technology and the Social Life of Caste

AbstractThe politics of meritocracy at the Indian Institutes of Technology illuminates the social life of caste in contemporary India. I argue that the IIT graduate's status depends on the transformation of privilege into merit, or the conversion of caste capital into modern capital. Analysis of this process calls for a relational approach to merit. My ethnographic research on the southeastern state of Tamilnadu, and on IIT Madras located in the state capital of Chennai, illuminates claims to merit, not simply as the transformation of capital but also as responses to subaltern assertion. Analyzing meritocracy in relation to subaltern politics allows us to see the contextual specificity of such claims: at one moment, they are articulated through the disavowal of caste, at another, through caste affiliation. This marking and unmarking of caste suggests a rethinking of meritocracy, typically assumed to be a modernist ideal that disclaims social embeddedness and disdains the particularisms of caste and race. I show instead that claims to collective belonging and to merit are eminently commensurable, and become more so when subaltern assertion forces privilege into the foreground. Rather than the progressive erasure of ascribed identities in favor of putatively universal ones, we are witnessing the re-articulation of caste as an explicit basis for merit and the generation of newly consolidated forms of upper-casteness.

Consolidation and Maintenance in De Novo First-Line Multiple Myeloma with Modern Agents

SUMMARY Inclusion of new active drugs, such as IMiDs, proteasome inhibitors and soon the monoclonal antibodies, in first-line therapy has and will significantly enhance the response rate and depth of response, with the consequence of prolongation of the progression free and overall survivals. One of the greatest challenges faced in myeloma in recent years was to demonstrate the impact of prolonged therapy in the form of consolidation and/or maintenance. To date, this concept has almost always improved duration of response and progression free survival, but infrequently overall survival. Furthermore, this concept is associated to a certain cost, with not always predictable mid- and long-term adverse events along with the economic cost accompanying these events. As patients with myeloma live significantly longer, physicians need to discuss the risk/benefit of this approach at the individual level, and remain aware of the potential consequences as more knowledge becomes available.

Change in Structure During Consolidation of Calcium Hydride Powders of TiNi Intermetallic

Results are provided for a study of the composition, structure, and physicochemical properties of TiNi intermetallic powder prepared by a calcium hydride method. The effect of various forms of consolidation (HIP and hydrostatic compaction followed by vacuum sintering) on the chemical and phase composition of compacts from calcium hydride powders is studied by optical and scanning electron microscopy, x-ray structural analysis, and gas-forming element analysis. A change is shown in the phase composition as a result of TiNi powder consolidation. It is established that vacuum sintering makes it possible to reduce the content of gas-forming admixtures (oxygen, nitrogen, and hydrogen).

Pulmonary tuberculosis mimicking a lung mass

Pulmonary tuberculosis is commonly seen in India. The usual presentation of the disease is in the form of consolidation involving the upper lobe or the superior segment of the lower lobe. But sometimes the disease has an atypical presentation. Here, we are describing a case report in which the pulmonary tuberculosis presented radiologically as a lung mass and the diagnosis was made by fine needle aspiration cytology from the mass like opacity in the right lung.

Functional polymorphism of matrix metalloproteinase-9 (MMP9) gene is not associated with schizophrenia and with its deficit subtype

BackgroundThe deficit subtype of schizophrenia is hypothesized to constitute a pathophysiologically distinct subgroup of schizophrenia patients suffering from enduring, idiopathic negative symptoms and various neuropsychological deficits. Matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) are extracellularly acting endopeptidases the substrates of which are matrix and adhesion molecules. Recently, MMP9 has been shown to be involved in various forms of synaptic plasticity, learning and memory consolidation. The primary aim of the present study was to evaluate associations between the functional MMP-9 −1562C/T gene polymorphism and the deficit and non-deficit subtypes of schizophrenia. MethodsThe study was conducted between 2009 and 2012. Deficit schizophrenia was diagnosed using the SDS. The sample consisted of 468 patients, Caucasians, of Polish descent with ICD 10 diagnosis of schizophrenia: 189 [51% males] were included in a non-deficit subgroup, 279 patients [53% males] were included in a deficit subgroup. The control group consisted of 532 subjects, Caucasians, of Polish descent [51% males]. MMP-9 −1562C/T gene polymorphism was genotyped using the fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) method and the Light Cycler System 2.0. ResultsThe frequencies of genotypes and alleles did not differ between the schizophrenia patients and control group. The deficit and non-deficit patients did not differ in terms of the genotype and allele frequencies. No differences were found in genotype and allele frequencies between the deficit patients and the controls and between the non-deficit patients and the controls. ConclusionWe found no evidence for the association between the functional MMP-9 −1562C/T gene polymorphism and deficit/non-deficit subtypes of schizophrenia.

Successive Developmental Levels of Autobiographical Memory for Learning Through Social Interaction

A developing cognitive system will ideally acquire knowledge of its interaction in the world, and will be able to use that knowledge to construct a scaffolding for progressively structured levels of behavior. The current research implements and tests an autobiographical memory system by which a humanoid robot, the iCub, can accumulate its experience in interacting with humans, and extract regularities that characterize this experience. This knowledge is then used in order to form composite representations of common experiences. We first apply this to the development of knowledge of spatial locations, and relations between objects in space. We then demonstrate how this can be extended to temporal relations between events, including “before” and “after,” which structure the occurrence of events in time. In the system, after extended sessions of interaction with a human, the resulting accumulated experience is processed in an offline manner, in a form of consolidation, during which common elements of different experiences are generalized in order to generate new meanings. These learned meanings then form the basis for simple behaviors that, when encoded in the autobiographical memory, can form the basis for memories of shared experiences with the human, and which can then be reused as a form of game playing or shared plan execution.

NEW SOCIAL ECONOMY - USE CLASSIFICATION OF SOCIAL AND CREATING CLUSTERS SOCIAL ECONOMY

One of the key items of modern social economy is integration of excluded groups as well as forms of support and consolidation of this sector. The paper under presentation discusses synthetically some questions, viz. a comparison made between old and modern social economy, discerning a chance for social economy entities, in particular, in social cooperatives due to appropriate legal provisions regarding social clauses and through establishing social economy clusters which not only may contribute to the development of the third sector but also to improve social awareness in this field, since both those forms combine social and economic objectives.

일본 공공의료시설 재편에 따른 신규병원 조성과정과 시설계획에 관한 연구

This research examined the development process of new hospitals and features of facilities plan according to merger and reorganization of public healthcare facilities in Japan, and it is summarized as below. First of all, in order to establish the reorganization plan according to merger of public hospitals, apprehending what is lacking or needed in local health service sector should come first. Reorganizing only with valuable medical institutions by grasping strengths and weaknesses of each hospital or Concentration and Choice that can maintain only strong points of each institution is needed based on this. Secondly, the way of creating new hospitals in the example is in the form of Consolidation focused style, which is reorganizing multiple public hospitals into 1~2, and Connection focused style, which is satellization of small and medium size medical institutions with one public hospital as center, having mutual relation. Thirdly, the function of connection with local hospital and the action to the emergency patient of new hospital is strengthened most, compared to the existing facilities. To have a connection with local hospital, plan with consideration of facility standardization and sharing need to be added to the stronghold hospital that the local medical function is concentrated.

Quantitative Evaluation of High-Resolution CT Findings in Advanced Cystic Fibrosis Patients Based on the Brody Scoring

Background: Progressive destruction of the lungs leads to increased morbidity and mortality rates in patients with CF. In various studies, it has been shown that quantitative evaluation of parenchymal changes in lung high-resolution computed tomography (HRCT) in CF patients measured by the 2006 revised Brody scoring is compatible with the clinical status. CF patients are mostly children who cannot perform complicated pulmonary tests. Unfortunately, screening tests are not performed in many countries, such as Iran, resulting in late diagnosis in older ages, with consequently more diffuse parenchymal involvement and more hospitalization. The quantitative measurement of parenchymal changes in HRCT seems to be useful for early and accurate evaluation of the clinical status. Objectives: The aim of this study was to determine the severity and prevalence of pulmonary changes in late diagnosed CF patients by means of the HRCT Brody scoring system. Patients and Methods: Pulmonary HRCT results of 23 CF patients with the mean age of 13.5 years (5 - 18 years) were scored with the Brody scoring system. The system provided sub-scores for evaluating the presence and severity of five variables in central and peripheral regions of six lung lobes. Results: All studied patients had bronchiectasis and peribronchial wall thickening (PBWT) which were caused by the disease chronicity. However, parenchymal changes in the form of ground glass opacity (GG) and consolidation (CON) were significantly less prevalent, compared to other parameters. The highest score among all lobes was related to bronchiectasis and the lowest to the parenchymal changes (CON, GG). The scoring parameters of bronchiectasis, PBWT, GG, CON, and air trapping showed no significant difference in lobar, central or peripheral involvement, while only mucous plugging was more prominent in the peripheral zones. The contribution of lobar involvement appeared in the following order: right upper lobe (RUL) > left lower lobe (LLL) > right lower lobe (RLL) > left upper lobe (LUL) > Lingula, right middle lobe (RML). Conclusions: It seems that in advanced cases of CF, at older ages and with lack of appropriate medical care, severity, prevalence, and appearance of lung lesions do not follow a definite specific pattern. Therefore, a similar study is suggested in older patients with a larger sample size for comparison of results.

Incidence of ovine pulmonary adenocarcinoma in southern parts of India: A slaughter house based study

Ovine pulmonary adenocarcinoma (OPA) or ovine pulmonary carcinomatosis (previously known as ovine pulmonary adenomatosis) is a contagious tumour forming viral disease caused by the genus beta-retrovirus of retroviridae (jaagsiekte sheep retrovirus). This study was aimed to understand the prevalence of disease in the locality based on histopathological diagnosis and its correlation with age, sex and breed. Out of 903 sheep carcasses examined, OPA was recorded in 44 cases accounting to 4.87%. The gross lesions varied from multifocal greyish nodules to complete consolidation of the lung parenchyma. Histologically, there were single to multiple layers of cuboidal to columnar epithelial cells giving adenomatous appearance. The cuboidal or columnar tumour cells replaced the normal alveolar epithelia and in some cases it formed into papilliform growths that projected into the alveoli. The peribronchial and peribronchiolar lymphoid aggregates were consistent features in most of the cases studied. Argyrophilic nucleolar organizer regions (AgNORs) were counted in representative cases of nodular and consolidated forms of adenocarcinomatosis to assess the rate of cell proliferation. The average AgNOR counts per nucleus were 4.672 ± 0.68 and 3.086 ± 0.537 for nodular and consolidated forms respectively.

Brain aging, memory impairment and oxidative stress: A study in Drosophila melanogaster

Memory impairment during aging is believed to be a consequence of decline in neuronal function and increase in neurodegeneration. Accumulation of oxidative damage and reduction of antioxidant defense system play a key role in organismal aging and functional senescence. In our study, we examined the age-related memory impairment (AMI) in relation to oxidative stress using Drosophila model. We observed a decline in cognitive function in old flies with respect to both short-lived and consolidated forms of olfactory memory. Light and electron microscopy of mushroom bodies revealed a reduction in the number of synapses and discernible architectural defects in mitochondria. An increase in neuronal apoptosis in Kenyon cells was also evident in aged flies. Biochemical investigations revealed a comparable age-associated decrease in the activity of antioxidant enzymes such as catalase and superoxide dismutase as well as the GSH level, accompanied by an increase in the level of lipid peroxidation and generation of reactive oxygen species in the brain. There was no significant difference in the activity level of AChE and BChE enzymes between different age groups while immunohistochemical studies showed a significant decrease in the level of ChAT in 50-day-old flies. RNAi-mediated silencing of cat and sod1 genes caused severe memory impairment in 15-day-old flies, whereas, over-expression of cat gene could partially rescue the memory loss in the old flies. We demonstrated that a Drosophila long-lived strain, possessing enhanced activity of antioxidant enzymes and higher rate of resistance to oxidative stress, shows lower extent of AMI compared to normal lifespan strain. Present study provides evidence for involvement of oxidative stress in AMI in Drosophila.

Corrosion behaviour assessment of cast and HIPed Stellite 6 alloy in a chloride-containing environment

Cobalt-base (Stellite) alloys have seen extensive use in wear environments mainly due to their high strength, corrosion resistance and hardness. Co-base superalloys rely primarily on carbides formed in the Co matrix and at grain boundaries, for their strength and wear resistance. The distribution, size and shape of carbides depend on processing conditions. Currently, the use of Stellite alloys has extended into various industrial sectors (e.g. pulp and paper processing, oil and gas processing, pharmaceuticals, chemical processing) and the need for improved information regarding corrosion of Stellite alloys has increased. It has been recognized that processing changes, which affect the microstructure of Stellite alloys, most affect corrosion resistance.In this work the corrosion behaviour of Stellite 6 alloy in the as-cast and the HIPed consolidated forms is compared and contrasted using DC and AC electrochemical techniques in static saline conditions. The results show that there is a significant difference in the corrosion performance of HIP consolidated Stellite 6 and it is possible to link the corrosion behaviour to the microstructure. The benefits of using HIPing as a manufacturing process for the corrosion performance of Stellite 6 are discussed.

Early versus Late-Phase Consolidation of Opiate Reward Memories Requires Distinct Molecular and Temporal Mechanisms in the Amygdala-Prefrontal Cortical Pathway

The consolidation of newly acquired memories involves the temporal transition from a recent, less stable trace to a more permanent consolidated form. Opiates possess potent rewarding effects and produce powerful associative memories. The activation of these memories is associated with opiate abuse relapse phenomena and the persistence of compulsive opiate dependence. However, the neuronal, molecular and temporal mechanisms by which associative opiate reward memories are consolidated are not currently understood. We report that the consolidation of associative opiate reward memories involves a temporal and molecular switch between the basolateral nucleus of the amygdala (BLA) (early consolidation phase) to the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) (late consolidation phase). We demonstrate at the molecular, behavioral and neuronal levels that the consolidation of a recently acquired opiate reward memory involves an extracellular signal-related kinase (ERK)-dependent phosphorylation process within the BLA. In contrast, later-stage consolidation of a newly acquired memory is dependent upon a calcium-calmodulin-dependent (CaMKII), ERK-independent, mechanism in the mPFC, over a 12 hr temporal gradient. In addition, using in vivo multi-unit neuronal recordings in the mPFC, we report that protein synthesis within the BLA modulates the consolidation of opiate-reward memory in neuronal mPFC sub-populations, via the same temporal dynamic.

A Fresh Look at Municipal Consolidation in Australia

This article draws from a major research project examining the impact of various forms of municipal consolidation in Australia and New Zealand. Its wide-ranging research involved studies of 15 cases of different forms of consolidation, including amalgamation, together with a series of interviews with senior practitioners from the local government sector. Data revealed little evidence of consistent economies of scale from consolidation, however both case studies and interviews indicated that consolidation generated economies of scope and what may be termed ‘strategic capacity’. While it was not possible to disaggregate the data for particular sizes of local authority, enhancement of strategic capacity was more obvious through processes of consolidation in larger ones and less so in smaller, more remote ones.

10th international workshop on quality in databases

The problem of low-quality data in databases, data warehouses, and information systems significantly and indistinctly affects every application domain. Many data processing tasks (such as information integration, data sharing, information retrieval, and knowledge discovery from databases) require various forms of data preparation and consolidation with complex data processing techniques. These tasks usually assume that the data input conforms to nice data distributions, containing no missing, inconsistent or incorrect values. This leaves a large gap between the available “dirty” data and the available machinery to effectively process the data for the application purposes. The term data quality denotes, in a broad sense, a set of properties of the data that indicates various types of error conditions. The Quality in Databases (QDB) workshop is focused on discussing various issues arising in detecting data anomalies and assessing, monitoring, improving, and maintaining the quality of data. The goals of QDB are to advance research in areas including, but not limited to: