Financial Strategies of Small Businesses to Gain Access to Capital

In the United States, total small business outstanding loans declined by 2.5 % in 2013, compared to a 10.4% increase in 2012. Scholars and business practitioners have indicated that small business entrepreneurs experience constraints in accessing capital to grow their businesses. Many small firm owners lack the financial strategies for gaining access to capital to sustain their businesses. Building on system functionality theory, the purpose of this exploratory multiple case study was to explore the financial strategies among 3 purposefully-selected small business owners in Washington DC metro area who successfully overcame the financial constraints. Six themes emerged from the thematic analysis of interview data: credit cards, family and friends, own financing, bank financing, crowdfunding, and government grants and loans. These small firm owners preferred to use their own financing or to borrow from family and friends rather than lending from the banks because of borrowing constraints. Some of the lending limitations included high-interest rates, lack of collateral, provision of a robust business plan, and availability of good financial records. The findings from this study may contribute to social change by providing business owners with more knowledge on financial strategies to use in accessing capital to sustain their businesses. With the improvement in business profitability, business owners will contribute to the economic growth of the local community through the provision of employment opportunities and social amenities

Efficacy of extractives from parts of Ghanaian pawpaw, avocado and neem on the durability of alstonia

Conventional preservatives are not only toxic to wood bio-deteriorators, but also to humans and animals. In an effort to find preservatives that are non-toxic to humans and animals, efficacy of water extracts of heartwood of Azadirachta indica (Neem) and leaves of Persea americana (avocado) and Carica papaya (pawpaw) at 0.24%, was tested on the durability of wood of Alstonia boonei by pressure impregnation and buried in a termite-prone field for 5 weeks following a modified EN 252 and Gay et al. (1957). Efficacy was tested on the basis of visual durability ratings, percentage hardness and mass losses of impregnated alstonia wood after burial. Though alstonia wood retained pawpaw extract least, pawpaw extract improved the durability of alstonia wood most. Pawpaw extract could be used to improve the durability of alstonia wood better at 0.72% (3x0.24%) and on triple treatment. 83% of Anloga furniture makers who saw the efficacy of pawpaw extract at 0.72% and on triple treatment, showed a high sense of interest in preservative botanical extracts.Key words: Eco-friendly, termite, efficacy, standardization, percentage hardness loss, percentage mass loss, visual durability rating

Evaluation of the Impact of the I-66 Active Traffic Management System: Phase II

In early 2013, construction began on a Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) project to install an Active Traffic Management (ATM) system on I-66 from US 29 in Centreville to the Capital Beltway (I-495). Construction was completed in September 2015. This project was intended to improve safety and operations on I-66 without physically expanding the roadway through better management of the existing facility. The main components of the installed system included advisory variable speed limits (AVSL), lane use control signals (LUCS), and hard shoulder running (HSR)

Morphological Plant Modeling: Unleashing Geometric and Topological Potential within the Plant Sciences

The geometries and topologies of leaves, flowers, roots, shoots, and their arrangements have fascinated plant biologists and mathematicians alike. As such, plant morphology is inherently mathematical in that it describes plant form and architecture with geometrical and topological techniques. Gaining an understanding of how to modify plant morphology, through molecular biology and breeding, aided by a mathematical perspective, is critical to improving agriculture, and the monitoring of ecosystems is vital to modeling a future with fewer natural resources. In this white paper, we begin with an overview in quantifying the form of plants and mathematical models of patterning in plants. We then explore the fundamental challenges that remain unanswered concerning plant morphology, from the barriers preventing the prediction of phenotype from genotype to modeling the movement of leaves in air streams. We end with a discussion concerning the education of plant morphology synthesizing biological and mathematical approaches and ways to facilitate research advances through outreach, cross-disciplinary training, and open science. Unleashing the potential of geometric and topological approaches in the plant sciences promises to transform our understanding of both plants and mathematics

Elective cancer surgery in COVID-19-free surgical pathways during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic: An international, multicenter, comparative cohort study

PURPOSE As cancer surgery restarts after the first COVID-19 wave, health care providers urgently require data to determine where elective surgery is best performed. This study aimed to determine whether COVID-19–free surgical pathways were associated with lower postoperative pulmonary complication rates compared with hospitals with no defined pathway. PATIENTS AND METHODS This international, multicenter cohort study included patients who underwent elective surgery for 10 solid cancer types without preoperative suspicion of SARS-CoV-2. Participating hospitals included patients from local emergence of SARS-CoV-2 until April 19, 2020. At the time of surgery, hospitals were defined as having a COVID-19–free surgical pathway (complete segregation of the operating theater, critical care, and inpatient ward areas) or no defined pathway (incomplete or no segregation, areas shared with patients with COVID-19). The primary outcome was 30-day postoperative pulmonary complications (pneumonia, acute respiratory distress syndrome, unexpected ventilation). RESULTS Of 9,171 patients from 447 hospitals in 55 countries, 2,481 were operated on in COVID-19–free surgical pathways. Patients who underwent surgery within COVID-19–free surgical pathways were younger with fewer comorbidities than those in hospitals with no defined pathway but with similar proportions of major surgery. After adjustment, pulmonary complication rates were lower with COVID-19–free surgical pathways (2.2% v 4.9%; adjusted odds ratio [aOR], 0.62; 95% CI, 0.44 to 0.86). This was consistent in sensitivity analyses for low-risk patients (American Society of Anesthesiologists grade 1/2), propensity score–matched models, and patients with negative SARS-CoV-2 preoperative tests. The postoperative SARS-CoV-2 infection rate was also lower in COVID-19–free surgical pathways (2.1% v 3.6%; aOR, 0.53; 95% CI, 0.36 to 0.76). CONCLUSION Within available resources, dedicated COVID-19–free surgical pathways should be established to provide safe elective cancer surgery during current and before future SARS-CoV-2 outbreaks

Elective Cancer Surgery in COVID-19-Free Surgical Pathways During the SARS-CoV-2 Pandemic: An International, Multicenter, Comparative Cohort Study.

PURPOSE: As cancer surgery restarts after the first COVID-19 wave, health care providers urgently require data to determine where elective surgery is best performed. This study aimed to determine whether COVID-19-free surgical pathways were associated with lower postoperative pulmonary complication rates compared with hospitals with no defined pathway. PATIENTS AND METHODS: This international, multicenter cohort study included patients who underwent elective surgery for 10 solid cancer types without preoperative suspicion of SARS-CoV-2. Participating hospitals included patients from local emergence of SARS-CoV-2 until April 19, 2020. At the time of surgery, hospitals were defined as having a COVID-19-free surgical pathway (complete segregation of the operating theater, critical care, and inpatient ward areas) or no defined pathway (incomplete or no segregation, areas shared with patients with COVID-19). The primary outcome was 30-day postoperative pulmonary complications (pneumonia, acute respiratory distress syndrome, unexpected ventilation). RESULTS: Of 9,171 patients from 447 hospitals in 55 countries, 2,481 were operated on in COVID-19-free surgical pathways. Patients who underwent surgery within COVID-19-free surgical pathways were younger with fewer comorbidities than those in hospitals with no defined pathway but with similar proportions of major surgery. After adjustment, pulmonary complication rates were lower with COVID-19-free surgical pathways (2.2% v 4.9%; adjusted odds ratio [aOR], 0.62; 95% CI, 0.44 to 0.86). This was consistent in sensitivity analyses for low-risk patients (American Society of Anesthesiologists grade 1/2), propensity score-matched models, and patients with negative SARS-CoV-2 preoperative tests. The postoperative SARS-CoV-2 infection rate was also lower in COVID-19-free surgical pathways (2.1% v 3.6%; aOR, 0.53; 95% CI, 0.36 to 0.76). CONCLUSION: Within available resources, dedicated COVID-19-free surgical pathways should be established to provide safe elective cancer surgery during current and before future SARS-CoV-2 outbreaks

Tropical forest decision support system: A prototype model

Between 1980 and 1986, approximately 5% (7200 km\sp2) of West Africa\u27s rainforests were transformed into fallow territory and an additional 9% opened up by timber exploitation. The biological diversity and ecological equilibrium of the entire region is endangered and the timber industry has played a key role in the process. This study aims to strengthen forest sector institutions for effective implementation of sustainable resource management programs. A prototype decision support system, comprising of three application modules, is developed to assist with the rational choices for the development of long-term forest management policies and strategy. Optimization techniques are used to impose economic, biological and political constraints on the current status of the resource and subsequently simulate future impact of current inputs. It also simulates optimum resource yield in product terms given a predetermined sustainable development policy. In the forest module a technique, using hierarchical clustering and canonical Discriminant procedures, was developed to pool 112 species with similar growth increment characteristics into 7 groups suitable for the construction of timber growth and yield models. The technique minimized the variations within each group and hence the bias in the estimation of model. Compatible growth and yield models were subsequently developed for each species group by the solution of a system of 77 differential equations expressing the rate of change of ingrowth, mortality and survival growth components within a forest stand. The solution provided the means to project the status of the timber stand at any future time given well specified initial stand conditions, and also future yields in terms of product assortments which are necessary to link the forest and the industrial modules. The industrial module incorporated traditional supply-demand, least squares, autoregressive integrated moving average and simulation techniques to develop an econometric model of the forest product commodity market. The model was used to simulate future production and consumption under various political, economic and timber resource sustainability assumptions. The modules were linked together through wood supply and demand interactions. A planning horizon was defined to correspond to a felling cycle subdivided into 5 year periods. The states of the forestry and industry systems with regards to the wood inventories in the forest, production capacities, fixed assets and liabilities of the industrial units were simulated at the end of each period and an optimization model formulated to account for the selected objective function and associated constraints. The results were consistent with observable characteristics of growing timber resource and product commodities; and the simulations provided extremely useful information concerning the future of the timber resource and wood commodities market