Large Amplitude Free Vibrations of Plates Resting on a Pasternak Type Elastic Foundation

In this paper following Berger's approximate plate theory for large deflections, large amplitude free vibrations of Rectangular Plate, isosceles right-angled triangular plate, Equilateral triangular plate and circular plate resting on a Pasternak-type elastic foundation have been discussed

Task-Shifting and Quality of HIV Testing Services: Experiences from a National Reference Hospital in Zambia.

BACKGROUND: With new testing technologies, task-shifting and rapid scale-up of HIV testing services in high HIV prevalence countries, assuring quality of HIV testing is paramount. This study aimed to explore various cadres of providers' experiences in providing HIV testing services and their understanding of elements that impact on quality of service in Zambia. METHODS: Sixteen in-depth interviews and two focus group discussions were conducted with HIV testing service providers including lay counselors, nurses and laboratory personnel at purposively selected HIV testing sites at a national reference hospital in Lusaka. Qualitative content analysis was adopted for data analysis. RESULTS: Lay counselors and nurses reported confidentiality and privacy to be greatly compromised due to limited space in both in- and out-patient settings. Difficulties in upholding consent were reported in provider-initiated testing in in-patient settings. The providers identified non-adherence to testing procedures, high workload and inadequate training and supervision as key elements impacting on quality of testing. Difficulties related to testing varied by sub-groups of providers: lay counselors, in finger pricking and obtaining adequate volumes of specimen; non-laboratory providers in general, in interpreting invalid, false-negative and false-positive results. The providers had been participating in a recently established national HIV quality assurance program, i.e. proficiency testing, but rarely received site supervisory visits. CONCLUSION: Task-shifting coupled with policy shifts in service provision has seriously challenged HIV testing quality, protection of confidentiality and the process of informed consent. Ways to better protect confidentiality and informed consent need careful attention. Training, supervision and quality assurance need strengthening tailored to the needs of the different cadres of providers

An exploratory study of a NoSQL database for a clinical data repository

The need to implement a distributed Clinical Data Repository (CDR) at a healthcare facility, rose in large part due to the high volume of data and the discrepancy of their sources. Over the years, Relational Database Management Systems (RDBMS) began to present difficulties in responding to the needs of various organizations when it comes to manipulating a large amount of data and to its scalability. Therefore, it was necessary to explore other techniques to choose the appropriate technology to build the CDR. In this way, NoSQL emerged as a new type of database that is quite useful to work with multiple and different types of data. In addition, NoSQL introduces a number of user-friendly features such as a distributed, scalable, elastic and also fault tolerant system. In this way, Oracle NoSQL Database was the NoSQL solution chosen to develop this case study, using the key-value storage. This article was motivated to propose a CDR architecture based on Oracle NoSQL Database functionalities. A one-single node database was deployed for better comprehension, in order to enhance their features for future implementation.The work has been supported by FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia within the Project Scope UID/CEC/00319/2019 and DSAIPA/DS/0084/2018

Quantifying the burden of rhodesiense sleeping sickness in Urambo district, Tanzania

Sleeping sickness (human African trypanosomiasis - HAT) is a disease transmitted by tsetse flies and is always fatal if left untreated. The disease occurs in foci affecting poor communities with limited access to health service provision and as such the disease is often left undiagnosed, mistaken for more common afflictions. Even if diagnosed, sleeping sickness is costly to treat, both for health services and patients and their families in terms of costs of diagnosis, transport, hospital care, and the prolonged period of convalescence. Here we estimate the health burden of the acute form T. b. rhodesiense sleeping sickness in Urambo District, Tanzania in terms of Disability Adjusted Life Years (DALYs), the yardstick commonly used by policy makers to prioritize disease management practices, representing a year of healthy life lost to disease. In this single district, the burden of the disease over one year was estimated at 979 DALYs and the estimated monetary costs to health services for the 143 treated patients at US$11,841 and to the patients themselves at US$ 3,673 for direct medical costs and US$ 9,781 for indirect non-medical costs. Sleeping sickness thus places a considerable burden on the affected rural communities and health services

Preparing to work: dramaturgy, cynicism and normative ‘remote’ control in the socialization of graduate recruits in management consulting

online) This paper examines the socialization of graduate recruits into a knowledge intensive labour process and organizational culture. Theoretically the paper draws upon the idea of ‘preparing for work’ to position this early socialization as a crucial moment in the production of subjectivities suited (and booted) for the labour process of management consulting. Empirically the paper reports on a two-day induction session for new graduate recruits joining a global management consultancy and their responses to this training. Particular attention is given to the use of role-play and a dramaturgical workshop used in part of the training process. The paper argues that the utilization of dramaturgy in training is consistent with the overall approach to control developed in the firm in response to the fact that the labour process of consulting is often conducted on client sites, away from any direct supervisory gaze. As such, the consultants were subjected to a form of cultural control that was designed to function independently of direct supervision. This control did not operate directly upon the new employees professed values, however, but at one step removed so that a ‘cynical distance’ from the content of the organization’s culture was accepted so long as a professional ‘ethic of behaviour’ was established. By focusing on an ‘ethic of behaviour’ these young professionals were encouraged to internalize a self-control akin to that of an actor, rather than internalizing the corporate values entirely

Emotions in business-to-business service relationships

Emotion in business-to-business service relationships regarding cargo services is explored. The service relationship is characterised by mutual trust and cooperation. Contact is mainly via telephone or e-mail with some face-to-face interactions and participants providing a complex, multi-skilled seamless service. Experience rather than training plays a vital role with long-term service relationships built up and maintained. Emotional sensitivity is acquired partly by experience and a repeat customer base but mainly through a genuine desire to help and get to know others. In contrast to the view of emotional labour bringing managerial control or adverse affects to service staff, the emotion engendered by this work is authentic expression bringing personal satisfaction

Mucosal immunization with PspA (Pneumococcal surface protein A)-adsorbed nanoparticles targeting the lungs for protection against pneumococcal infection

Burden of pneumonia caused by Streptococcus pneumoniae remains high despite the availability of conjugate vaccines. Mucosal immunization targeting the lungs is an attractive alternative for the induction of local immune responses to improve protection against pneumonia. Our group had previously described the development of poly(glycerol adipate-co-ω-pentadecalactone) (PGA-co-PDL) polymeric nanoparticles (NPs) adsorbed with Pneumococcal surface protein A from clade 4 (PspA4Pro) within L-leucine microcarriers (nanocomposite microparticles-NCMPs) for mucosal delivery targeting the lungs (NP/NCMP PspA4Pro). NP/NCMP PspA4Pro was now used for immunization of mice. Inoculation of this formulation induced anti-PspA4Pro IgG antibodies in serum and lungs. Analysis of binding of serum IgG to intact bacteria showed efficient binding to bacteria expressing PspA from clades 3, 4 and 5 (family 2), but no binding to bacteria expressing PspA from clades 1 and 2 (family 1) was observed. Both mucosal immunization with NP/NCMP PspA4Pro and subcutaneous injection of the protein elicited partial protection against intranasal lethal pneumococcal challenge with a serotype 3 strain expressing PspA from clade 5 (PspA5). Although similar survival levels were observed for mucosal immunization with NP/NCMP PspA4Pro and subcutaneous immunization with purified protein, NP/NCMP PspA4Pro induced earlier control of the infection. Conversely, neither immunization with NP/NCMP PspA4Pro nor subcutaneous immunization with purified protein reduced bacterial burden in the lungs after challenge with a serotype 19F strain expressing PspA from clade 1 (PspA1). Mucosal immunization with NP/NCMP PspA4Pro targeting the lungs is thus able to induce local and systemic antibodies, conferring protection only against a strain expressing PspA from the homologous family 2

What are communities of practice? A comparative review of four seminal works

This paper is a comparative review of four seminal works on communities of practice. It is argued that the ambiguities of the terms community and practice are a source of the concept's reusability allowing it to be reappropriated for different purposes, academic and practical. However, it is potentially confusing that the works differ so markedly in their conceptualizations of community, learning, power and change, diversity and informality. The three earlier works are underpinned by a common epistemological view, but Lave and Wenger's 1991 short monograph is often read as primarily about the socialization of newcomers into knowledge by a form of apprenticeship, while the focus in Brown and Duguid's article of the same year is, in contrast, on improvising new knowledge in an interstitial group that forms in resistance to management. Wenger's 1998 book treats communities of practice as the informal relations and understandings that develop in mutual engagement on an appropriated joint enterprise, but his focus is the impact on individual identity. The applicability of the concept to the heavily individualized and tightly managed work of the twenty-first century is questionable. The most recent work by Wenger – this time with McDermott and Snyder as coauthors – marks a distinct shift towards a managerialist stance. The proposition that managers should foster informal horizontal groups across organizational boundaries is in fact a fundamental redefinition of the concept. However it does identify a plausible, if limited, knowledge management (KM) tool. This paper discusses different interpretations of the idea of 'co-ordinating' communities of practice as a management ideology of empowerment

Knowledge-sharing, control, compliance and symbolic violence

Recent developments in control hold that professionals are best managed through normative and concertive as opposed to bureaucratic and coercive mechanisms. This post-structuralist approach appeals to the notion of congruent values and norms and acknowledges the role of ind ividuals' subjectivity in sustaining professional autonomy. Yet, there remains a risk of over-simplifying the manifestations of such control initiatives. By means of an in-depth case study, this article considers the challenge of implementing a knowledge-sharing portal for a community of R&D scientists through management control initiatives that relied on the rhetoric of a blend of 'facilitation' and presumed 'peer pressure'. Arguing that traditional approaches such as normative/concertive control and soft bureaucracy only partially explain this phenomenon, we draw from Pierre Bourdieu’s concept of 'symbolic violence' to interpret a managerial initiative to appropriate knowledge and affirm the structure of social relations through the complicity of R&D scientists . We also examine how the scientists channelled resistance by reconstituting compliance in line with their sense of identity as creators of knowledge