Survival Kit Research Articles

Analysis of Survival in Dairy Cows with Supplementary Data on Type Scores and Housing Systems from a Region of Northwest Germany

In survival analysis, type traits can be included as covariates to evaluate their use as predictors for survival. One problem in such an analysis is the availability of suitable data. Whereas data on the length of productive life (LPL) of individual cows can be retrieved from milk recording data, for type traits, all cows in the population must be scored for type at least once. In the present analysis, a dataset from the Osnabruck region in northwestern Germany, which fulfilled this requirement in recent years, was used. Data consisted of 169,733 cows with information on LPL for calving years 1980 to 1996 (dataset I) and of 39,233 cows with information on LPL and type for calving years 1990 to 1996 (dataset II). A further dataset (III) contained 43,116 cows from calving years 1987 to 1996 and included information on the housing system for each herd. The basic model included stage of lactation, relative production within herd, change of herd size, and year-season as time dependent effects; age at calving as a time-independent effect; and herd-year-season and sire as random effects. Other effects (information on type, housing system) were included additionally. For data-set II, the scores for 15 linear type traits were also included as corrected phenotypic values, estimated breeding values, and residuals from a previous BLUP analysis. The package Survival Kit 3.0 was used for all analyses. The results indicate a moderate heritability of 0.17 and 0.18 for true and functional LPL (dataset I). Almost all type traits analyzed (dataset II) exceeded a 0.001 level of significance in their effect on survival. The strongest relationships between survival and type were found for udder depth, fore udder attachment, and front teat placement. The main result from the comparison of housing systems (dataset III) was that bedding has a positive effect on survival.

Mapping utopias: a voyage to placelessness

I have a map which indicates clearly and beyond any doubt the way to Utopia. I start the journey with a survival kit of paradigmatic egalities, noumenal legalities, and nervous ideals. However, the more I move into the uncartographied space, the more I realise that my survival kit is changing, to the point of becoming porous and permeable. The journey to Utopia is condensed to a log of phenomenological bracketing, where the immersion to the Lebenswelt equals the loss of oneself, and where the descent from the Transcendental to the Natural proves to be as meaningful as the escalating bracketing from the Natural to the Transcendental. The negation of Utopia (ou-topos) displaces not only my Utopia but also my egocentric quest for identity: the 'I' becomes 'me' before it vanishes, space becomes place, intentionality turns back to itself and retraces its path. The more I approach my destination, the more negation devours distance. When I finally arrive to the designated point, where, according to the map, lies Utopia, the only thing I discover is a map, identical to the one I hold, that indicates, clearly and beyond any doubt, the way to Utopia.

The North Korean Missiles: A Military Threat or a Survival Kit?

Abstract North Korea has acquired weapons of mass destruction and missiles to deliver them, but has not been able to modernize its armed forces and its conventional warfare capability has deteriorated. Not simply a scheme to gain international aid and hard cash, the missile program has thus come to assume a strategic position for Pyongyang. This article outlines the history of the missile program, takes a look at missile capabilities, and discusses implications such as the threat perceived by Japan and the United States, sales to the Middle East and South Ask, and their value as a shield against outside pressure. Above all, they help ensure the survival of the Pyongyang regime. The article goes on to detail American policy responses including TMD, conventional deterrence including preemptive strikes (not appropriate for the Korean situation), the MTCR, and the negotiation track. For South Korea, the author suggests a combination of deterrence through enhanced missile capability of its own and continued engagement policy. North Korea is consistent with its pattern of flexing military muscle then demanding a price. So long as this keeps working, Pyongyang is unlikely to dismantle its missile program. The only possible trade-off might be the combination of US forces withdrawal and South Korea's gradual political submission—too high a price. North Korea thus will not relinquish its leverage—barring a major change domestically that could possibly call for a broader peace dividend, but that may not be possible without a genuine reconciliation based on peaceful coexistence.

Poking and Prying with Purpose

When I (Allan) entered this field back 1972, it was unthinkable that teachers--like me--would somehow be involved in research. I was a new ABE teacher and, looking back, not a single ABE teacher I knew would have assumed to even consider conducting research. Research was for the researchers. For the experts, not us. In those days one thing was crystal clear: Experts thought; teachers taught. How things have changed. The early 1970s were the halcyon days of adult literacy and basic education. As a new ABE teacher, I was required to attend a three-week training course at the local university to learn how and what to teach. At the training course, we jealously guarded the latest teaching manuals, texts, reading series and placement tests. These were like the precious parts of a survival kit for a journey to the unknown. Throughout that course, we unquestioningly looked to the for the best materials. As the year went by, we had a few invited speakers at professional development workshops and an who gave the keynote at our annual conference. These were evidently the acknowledged experts, all from universities. Each spoke about topics supposedly of high relevance to us. What was odd, however, was that by the end of that first year, I had used virtually none of the experts' advice. And, I had amasseda large stockpile of carefully cultivated resources from other ABE teachers and from I found outside the ABE field. Curiously, most of the from the university training course were still in the file cabinet. Later, as an ABE director at a community college in the late 1970s and 1980s, I came to realize how the best ABE teachers all had their own cache of good materials stored away In addition, each had their own carefully developed repertoire of best methods for teaching, testing and counseling. As the years went by, I have had to wonder: Who are the real in adult education? How did these non-experts develop such expertise? How did they go about finding their unique stock of materials? How could newcomers to the field benefit more from the questioning, the findings and the experiences of those who had survived and flourished in the unknown? However, I have since come to ask if these questions go far enough? Considering the perennial issues that continue to plague adult literacy and basic education, I had to ask if enough truly critical questions were being posed on what was being done in this sub-field of adult education? I had to ask why the traditional researchers could not turn more of their attention to the issues that faced the field on a day-to-day basis? Through the late 1980s and early 90s, many were beginning to wonder what expert really meant after all? Today, as a professor of adult education, I could easily find myself typecast as one of those removed experts and would be deeply discouraged to think that I am as irrelevant as those I looked to from afar some 30 years ago. The fact is that this is not the same field I entered three decades ago. Today, new, exciting ways of understanding knowledge are emerging. Important new voices are helping build the world of research. Practitioners and university-based researchers are becoming increasingly involved in reshaping the concept of research. In my case (Karen), whether it was at Miami-Dade Community College in faculty and program development, or at The University of Texas at Austin conducting faculty development through the National Institute for Staff and Organizational Development, I worked with adults to bring about change or improvement. I found this work challenging and wanted to understand how to improve what I did. Sometimes it seemed we were dropping innovations on faculty like a scientist dropping some chemical on amoebae in a petri dish--to see how they would react, what would help, what would stick. Needless to say, this approach did not always lead to lasting change or improvement. …

New rules for the new economy: 10 radical strategies for a connected world

The old rules are broken. The current revolution in business requires nothing less than a new set of rules. Succinct and memorable, New Rules is the survival kit for the new economy. Kelly's manifesto in Wired brought rave reviews from business gurus such as Tom Peters, and praise from think tanks and business strategists from all over the world. New Rules will wake up the business world. Forget supply and demand. Forget computers. Today, communication, not computation, drives change. We are rushing into a world where connectivity is everything, and where old business know-how means nothing. In this new order, success flows primarily from understanding networks, and networks have their own rules.In New Rules, Kelly presents 10 fundamental principles of the connected economy that invert the traditional wisdom of the industrial world. New Rules explains why these powerful laws are already hardwired into the new economy, and how they play out in all kinds of business -- both low and high tech -- all over the world. More than just a profound overview of new economic principles, New Rules prescribes many clear and specific strategies for success in the network economy. New Rules answers the perplexing questions all workers, from CEOs to middle managers, are asking themselves: What's happened? Why aren't the usual business strategies working anymore? New Rules is a spirited and mold-breaking book that follows the footsteps of futuristic best-sellers such as Megatrends, The Year 2000, and FutureShock. It is a hands-on, cutting-edge tool for everyone worried about the future, and especially helpful for anyone curious about where the economy isgoing.The moral of New Rules is clear: Those who play by the new rules will prosper; those who ignore them will not.

Health Information Resources

ABSTRACT Changes in LCME accreditation for medical colleges fostered the development of Health Information Resources, a required, for-credit course created by the Saint Louis University Health Sciences Center Library Reference Department for the first-year medical school curriculum. Six content areas were developed for inclusion in the syllabus: “Electronic Resources Survival Kit”; “Introduction to Problem Based Resources”; “Introduction to Literature Searching”; “MEDLINE Searching Hands-On/Publishing Pearls & Pitfalls”; “The World Wide Web and Patient Information”; and “Introduction to Electronic Mail.” A combination of lectures, hands-on instruction, and active learning techniques were employed in the teaching of this class. Submission of a Health Information Resource Guide and a two-part final exam were required.

Factors affecting survival rate of crossbred sows in weaner production

Productive life of sows was analyzed by the Cox-Proportional Hazard Model of survival analysis using the program `The Survival Kit' (Ducrocq and Sölkner, 5th World Congress of Genetics Applied to Livestock Production, Guelph, Canada, 22 (1994) 51–52). The influence of the multiplier-farm, litter performance, stage of sow within parity, insemination success, medium weaner price level, live-weight daily gain, leg quality, shape of ham and teat score on productive life were investigated. With the exception of the multiplier-farm, which was included as a random effect, all variables were encoded as `time-dependent covariates' split up according to parity. With the exceptions of ham- and teat scores all effects show a significant influence on productive life of sows. The litter performance and insemination success show the highest effects, followed by the variables of economic conditions. The variables of gilt selection are of least importance. Animals with large body size show an increased risk in the time between third weaning and fifth parity. The greatest influence among the variables of gilt selection has the score given for leg quality. For sows which were assessed as having `slight or temporary defects', the risk of culling in the time between start of productive life and fourth weaning is significantly higher than for the others.

Capitation survival kit: how to fashion provider excess coverage.

Capitation survival kit: how to fashion provider excess coverage.

Project 2000 students' survival kit: a return to the practical room (nursing skills laboratory)

The author's recent research study(Project 2000 assessment of clinical competence: an investigation) plus others (Jowett et al 1991, McEwen et al 1993, Davies et al 1994) have highlighted the Project 2000 students' need for a survival kit in the form of ‘practical skills’ before going to their allocated practice placements. Interviews at three colleges of nursing and midwifery with 70 students and 80 practitioners and data from 300 student questionnaires and 155 named practitioner questionnaires confirm that which has been echoed ever since Project 2000 began. Students have expressed anxieties and worry about their perceived lack of preparation by the college tutorial staff for practice placements. Their concerns fall into three main categories: (I) fear of doing the patients harm; (2) not belonging to the nursing/caring team; and (3) not being fully competent on registration. Students believe that if they are giventhe opportunities to practise nursing procedures and caring skills which they and nurse practitioners identify as ‘basic nursing care’ needed to care for patients without fear of endangering them and feel secure and provide a sense of belonging by being part of the caring team, irrespective of the length of the exposure to that client group and caring team, then their fears and insecurities will be alleviated.

Survival Kit for Overseas Living: For Americans Planning to Live and Work Abroad

With over 300,000 copies in print, Survival Kit for Overseas Living: For Americans Planning to Live and Work Abroad remains one of the most popular books ever published on an intercultural subject. This indispensable handbook provides the reader with straightforward information about the challenges of moving to a new country: culture shock, stereotyping, misperceptions, misunderstandings and the tools needed to overcome obstacles and prepare for a rewarding and successful experience.Readers learn how to set objectives for an overseas experience, how to become foreigners with style and understanding, how to combat culture shock and how to prepare for and deal with reentry. Written in a fast-paced format with do-it-yourself instructions, Survival Kit for Overseas Living is ideal for everyone, from businesspeople moving to Japan to college students visiting Europe for the first time.

Book reviews

Book reviewed in this article: Challenging Behaviour: Analysis and Intervention in People with Learning Dvflculties Eric Emerson Schools' SEN Policies Pack P. Stobbs, T. Mackey, B. Norwich, N. Peacey and P. Stephenson (eds.)What Teachers Do: Developments in Special EducationP. Gamer, V. Hinchcliffe and S. Sandow Widening the Perspective, Augmentative Communication in Practice: Scotland Sally Millar and Alan Wilson (eds.) The Work Experience Health and Safety Survival Kit, and SEN Supplement Brian Glendinning, Peter Clitheroe Widening the Perspective, Augmentative Communication in Practice: Scotland Sally Millar and Alan Wilson (eds.) The Work Experience Health and Safety Survival Kit, and SEN Supplement Brian Glendinning, Peter Clitheroe Dyslexia: An introductory guide J. Doyle Disability and Sport K.P. DePauw and S.J. Gavron The Illusion of Full Inclusion J.M. Kauffman and D.P. Hallahan (eds.) The Educator's Guide to Students with Epilepsy Robert J. Michael Children wilh AulisdAsperger Syndrome in Non‐Specialist Schools Eileen Wormald and Margaret Shaw

Survival Kit: The Five‐minute Education Kit. A Document for Health Care Providers and Patients

Survival Kit: The Five‐minute Education Kit. A Document for Health Care Providers and Patients

The Lawyers and New Granada's Late Colonial State

AbstractThis article presents a portrait of New Granada's colonial lawyers. Though it focuses primarily on individuals qualified to practise law before theAudiencia, it deals not just with practising lawyers as such but also with those who, despite being qualified to practise law, ended up choosing other occupations; in particular, joining the bureaucracy. It examines the social characteristics, family strategies, and bureaucratic careers of these professionals to demonstrate how, as chief competitors for state jobs, lawyers complemented their clans' power in important ways. By providing a vital component of the colonial elite's survival kit – bureaucratic power – they increased their families' overall influence, honour, and social status. In doing so, some lawyers came to build true family-bureaucratic networks which proved resistant to the late colonial Bourbon reforms that sought to undo them.

Marketing futures: Priorities for a turbulent environment

This article reports on the findings of a recent international survey of marketing and general managers aimed at identifying the current issues and challenges that marketers face in their industries and how these are likely to evolve in the future. The survey also attempted to highlight the core capabilities that marketing managers will need to deal effectively with the changing rules in the market environment. The survey's findings underscore the rising pace of competition in increasingly global markets, the intensifying demand on firms to improve product and service quality, and a greater appreciation for strategic thinking and sensitivity to customers as crucial elements in a marketer's survival kit. The article concludes with a number of implications for general and marketing management.

The Laughter of My Father: A Survival Kit

is no consensus about its genre. Although Arturo Roseburg flatly states that Regardless of objections, the stories are humorous and should be read as such (16), I conclude that LF is a handbook for peasant survival, since at best Roseburg does not do justice to the book's tonal and thematic complexities. For instance, the opening two paragraphs of the second LF story, Soldiers Came Marching, are: I was a month old when the first World War was declared, but the sound of distant guns shook my childhood. I grew up quickly and found that my brother Polon was one of the 25,000 volunteers in the Philippine National Guard that fought in Europe. Suddenly the war came and suddenly it ended. Then my childhood was gone forever. The soldiers were demobilized. Out of the eleven young men that volunteered in our town only three came back to live among us. One was dead in battle; two died of serious infection on the boat; three were injured and stayed in the city. The three who came back were always sitting on the lawn in front of the presidencia. They sat all day and part of the night without talking to anybody. (11)

Surviving the 'heartsink' experience.

The authors describe a pilot workshop designed to help doctors achieve a greater understanding of and ability to cope with their 'heartsink' patients. Participants were asked to list their personal objectives in attending and a number of cases were discussed in the group. A 'heartsink survival kit' was provided which consisted of skills and strategies which are useful in difficult consultations and an approach to reassessing the goals of the relationship which might promote a more realistic understanding. The workshop was videotaped and two scenarios are presented. The implications for further training are discussed.

A survival kit for physicians.

"Just about the time you think you can make both ends meet, somebody moves the ends." As this aphorism implies, this is a time of anxiety and frustration, particularly for physicians who are caught up in the stresses and pressures of a changing healthcare system. Doublespeak from Washington and insurance companies adds to the confusion. But wait, says the author, there are strategies for coping, and he offers a number of suggestions to help ease physicians' lives in and out of the office.

The Exchange Student Survival Kit

Study abroad has never been so popular, and as students are embarking on life-changing adventures, they need some tried and true advice. The Exchange Student Survival Kit has become the essential guide for young people traveling abroad, helping them better understand the unique experience of international exchange programs and avoid many common misunderstandings and problems that may occur in the course of their adjustment to a new culture, a new family, a new school and a new community. Based on her years of research and professional involvement with AFS Intercultural Programs, Dr Hansel has filled the book with examples taken from the experiences of dozens of exchange students from a broad spectrum of cultures. This much-awaited new edition includes: New communications technology as it affects the experience: email, instant messaging, cell phones, on-line games and blogs and information searches; Important advice on personal safety, pressing concerns for parents and students in light of war, terrorism, and crime; and, Changes in society and family life that affect travelers: fast food replacing family meals, a new emphasis on religious beliefs, consumerism, and globalism. For the student going abroad, The Exchange Student Survival Kit is the first thing to pack!

A Survival Kit for New Music Teachers

A Survival Kit for New Music Teachers

A Survival Kit for Recovering Funds from Junk Bond Defaults

(1992). A Survival Kit for Recovering Funds from Junk Bond Defaults. Financial Analysts Journal: Vol. 48, No. 4, pp. 27-36.