153,507 research outputs found
An Analysis of Service Ontologies
Services are increasingly shaping the worldâs economic activity. Service provision and consumption have been profiting from advances in ICT, but the decentralization and heterogeneity of the involved service entities still pose engineering challenges. One of these challenges is to achieve semantic interoperability among these autonomous entities. Semantic web technology aims at addressing this challenge on a large scale, and has matured over the last years. This is evident from the various efforts reported in the literature in which service knowledge is represented in terms of ontologies developed either in individual research projects or in standardization bodies. This paper aims at analyzing the most relevant service ontologies available today for their suitability to cope with the service semantic interoperability challenge. We take the vision of the Internet of Services (IoS) as our motivation to identify the requirements for service ontologies. We adopt a formal approach to ontology design and evaluation in our analysis. We start by defining informal competency questions derived from a motivating scenario, and we identify relevant concepts and properties in service ontologies that match the formal ontological representation of these questions. We analyze the service ontologies with our concepts and questions, so that each ontology is positioned and evaluated according to its utility. The gaps we identify as the result of our analysis provide an indication of open challenges and future work
Accredited qualifications for capacity development in disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation
Increasingly practitioners and policy makers working
across the globe are recognising the importance of
bringing together disaster risk reduction and climate
change adaptation. From studies across 15 Pacific island
nations, a key barrier to improving national resilience
to disaster risks and climate change impacts has been
identified as a lack of capacity and expertise resulting
from the absence of sustainable accredited and quality
assured formal training programmes in the disaster risk
reduction and climate change adaptation sectors. In the
2016 UNISDR Science and Technology Conference
on the Implementation of the Sendai Framework for
Disaster Risk Reduction 2015â2030, it was raised that
most of the training material available are not reviewed
either through a peer-to-peer mechanism or by the
scientific community and are, thus, not following quality
assurance standards. In response to these identified
barriers, this paper focuses on a call for accredited formal
qualifications for capacity development identified in the
2015 United Nations landmark agreements in DRR and
CCA and uses the Pacific Islands Region of where this
is now being implemented with the launch of the Pacific
Regional Federation of Resilience Professionals, for
DRR and CCA. A key issue is providing an accreditation
and quality assurance mechanism that is shared across
boundaries. This paper argues that by using the United
Nations landmark agreements of 2015, support for a
regionally accredited capacity development that ensures
all countries can produce, access and effectively use
scientific information for disaster risk reduction and
climate change adaptation. The newly launched Pacific
Regional Federation of Resilience Professionals who
work in disaster risk reduction and climate change
adaptation may offer a model that can be used more
widely
Applicability of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network/Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer Guidelines for Prevention and Management of Chemotherapy-Induced Nausea and Vomiting in Southeast Asia: A Consensus Statement.
A meeting of regional experts was convened in Manila, Philippines, to develop a resource-stratified chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting (CINV) management guideline. In patients treated with highly emetogenic chemotherapy in general clinical settings, triple therapy with a serotonin (5-hydroxytryptamine-3 [5-HT3]) antagonist (preferably palonosetron), dexamethasone, and aprepitant is recommended for acute CINV prevention. In resource-restricted settings, triple therapy is still recommended, although a 5-HT3 antagonist other than palonosetron may be used. In both general and resource-restricted settings, dual therapy with dexamethasone (days 2 to 4) and aprepitant (days 2 to 3) is recommended to prevent delayed CINV. In patients treated with moderately emetogenic chemotherapy, dual therapy with a 5-HT3 antagonist, preferably palonosetron, and dexamethasone is recommended for acute CINV prevention in general settings; any 5-HT3 antagonist can be combined with dexamethasone in resource-restricted environments. In general settings, for the prevention of delayed CINV associated with moderately emetogenic chemotherapy, corticosteroid monotherapy on days 2 and 3 is recommended. If aprepitant is used on day 1, it should be continued on days 2 and 3. Prevention of delayed CINV with corticosteroids is preferred in resource-restricted settings. The expert panel also developed CINV management guidelines for anthracycline plus cyclophosphamide combination schedules, multiday cisplatin, and chemotherapy with low or minimal emetogenic potential, and its recommendations are detailed in this review. Overall, these regional guidelines provide definitive guidance for CINV management in general and resource-restricted settings. These consensus recommendations are anticipated to contribute to collaborative efforts to improve CINV management in Southeast Asia
Prevalence and association of obesity with self-reported comorbidity: a cross-sectional study of 1321 adult participants in Lasbela, Balochistan
Association of fatness with chronic metabolic diseases is a well-established fact, and a high prevalence of risk factors for these disorders has increasingly been reported in the third world. In order to incorporate any preventive strategies for such risk factors into clinical practice, decision-makers require objective evidence about the associated burden of disease. A cross-sectional study of 1321 adults from one of the districts of Balochistan, among the most economically challenged areas of Pakistan, was carried out for the measures of fatness and self-reported comorbidities. Body mass index (BMI), waist circumference (WC), and waist-to-hip ratio (WHR) were measured and demographic information and self-reported comorbidities were documented.The prevalence of obesity was 4.8% (95% CI: [3.8, 6.1]) and 21.7% (95% CI: [19.5, 24.0]), as defined by the World Health Organization (WHO) international and Asia/Asia-Pacific BMI cut-offs, respectively. The proportion exhibiting comorbidity increased with increasing levels of fatness in a dose-response relationship
Work-related teaching and learning methods to foster generic skills in Higher Education. An Italian experience
open5siWithin the framework of modernisation of higher education systems in Europe, universities are invited to go beyond a knowledge-based perspective focused on disciplinary approaches and to be more concentrated on encouraging generic skills to deal with todayâs complex and unpredictable career paths. The literature about Work-Related Learning and Work-Integrated Learning offers evidence to research regarding contributions of work-related experiences to the development of generic skills. The first part of the article presents a literature review carried out following the matching among three main keywords: work-related learning, generic skills, and higher education. Resources focused on the integration/teaching of generic skills in formal curriculum or in co-curriculum work-related activities and they were collected in order to explore the link between work-related learning in higher education and the development of generic skills. The focus is to identify valuable considerations to improve teaching strategies and methods. The second part presents an Italian work-related experience developed within the course of âOrganizational Intervention Research Methods,â which involved 22 masterâs degree students. The work-related assignment will be described in addition to the content analysis process of the 22 collected texts and the findings about the development of generic skills.openDaniela, Frison; Concetta, Tino; Jonathan, W., Tyner; Monica, FedeliFrison, Daniela; Tino, Concetta; Jonathan, W.; Tyner, ; Fedeli, Monic
The Role of the Tuna Fishery in the Economy of the Federated States of Micronesia
The Federated States of Micronesia (FSM)
inherited an environmentally fragile and
somewhat arbitrary base for nationhood that
bears little resemblance to its inhabitantsâ
usual spheres of interaction during
millennia of occupation of the region. FSM
has a small population scattered across a
myriad of islands whose land area is far
smaller than the tuna-rich area of ocean
encompassed within its territorial waters. It
is perhaps not surprising then that FSMâs
fisheries have been seen by many as the main
hope for its economic future. This issue has
become all the more urgent in recent years
with the signing of a new agreement that will
see funding by the United States gradually
diminish until 2023. The search for viable
alternatives to its past and current reliance
on US funding has now become the central
issue in FSM.
While fisheries are an important asset
for FSM, other economic options offer
perhaps greater promise, while the
modification of existing Carolinian
institutions offers a more effective and
possibly less disruptive means of achieving
economic independence and modernity and
a sustainable fishery than other solution, which seek to âfast-trackâ the process by
grafting modern western institutions onto
islander societies. These problems and
proposed solutions are not limited to FSM,
but have wider applicability across much of
Oceania
Auditing scholarly journals published in Malaysia and assessing their visibility
The problem with the identification of Malaysian scholarly journals lies in
the lack of a current and complete listing of journals published in Malaysia.
As a result, librarians are deprived of a tool that can be used for journal
selection and identification of gaps in their serials collection. This study
describes the audit carried out on scholarly journals, with the objectives (a)
to trace and characterized scholarly journal titles published in Malaysia, and
(b) to determine their visibility in international and national indexing
databases. A total of 464 titles were traced and their yearly trends, publisher
and publishing characteristics, bibliometrics and indexation in national,
international and subject-based indexes were described
Aquaculture Asia, vol. 8, no. 4, pp.1-52, October - December 2003
CONTENTS:
Freshwater prawn, Macrobrachium nobilii a promising candidate for rural nutrition, by Pitchimuthu Mariappan, P. Balamurugan, and Chellam Balasundaram.
Snapshots of a clean, innovative, socially responsible fishfarm in Sri Lanka, by Pedro Bueno.
Introduction of rainbow trout Onchorynchus mykiss in Nepal: Constraints and prospects, by Tek Bahadur Gurung, Sadhu Ram Basnet.
Tilapia seed production in Ho Chi Minh City, Southern Vietnam, by H. P. V. Huy, A. MacNiven, N. V. Tu, Ram C. Bhujel and David C. Little.
Seaweed Mariculture: Scope And Potential In India, by
Sajid I. Khan and S. B. Satam.
Growth enhancement of carp and prawn through dietary sodium chloride supplementation, by P.Keshavanath, B. Gangadhara and Savitha Khadri.
Fertilization, soil and water quality management in small-scale ponds, by S. Adhikari
Shrimp harvesting technology on the south west coast of Bangladesh, by S. M. Nazmul Alam, Michael J. Phillips and C. K. Lin.
The âGher Revolutionâ, by M.C. Nandeesha [Farmers as Scientists series]
Aquaculture Compendium â case study component, by Peter Edwards.
Rice-Fish Culture in China, by
Fang Xiuzhen.
Exercising responsibilities to tackle
aquatic animal diseases, by
CV Mohan.
Application of immunostimulants in
larviculture: Feasibility and challenges, by
ZhouJin.
Marine Finfish Sectio
Income-Related Health Inequalities in Korea
Data from the 2001 Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey and the ill health concentration index (CI) were used to examine income-related health inequalities among Koreans. Participants (>19 years old) were requested to provide information regarding monthly household income, expenditures, subjective living conditions, and health status. Ill health was determined both subjectively through self-rated health (SRH) scores and objectively through the number of diseases (ND). At the individual level, the CIs for SRH and ND were -0.147 and -0.093, respectively; ageâgender adjusted CIs were -0.065 and -0.071, respectively. These values remained unchanged when estimating CI for grouped data. These results indicate that ill health was more pronounced among lower income groups in Korea. However, avoidable health inequality in Korea was smaller than in the United Kingdom and the United States, larger than in Sweden, Eastern Germany, Finland, and Western Germany, and roughly equal to the Netherlands, Spain, and Switzerland
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