Organizational effectiveness at seaports: a systems approach

Organizational Effectiveness (OE) is a rather new concept in the port business literature and not widely studied before. From the systems perspective, this concept focuses on the goals of the organization, the resources needed to achieve these goals, and the relationship between the organization and its environment. The reason behind choosing a systems approach is the significant role of seaports as open systems affected by changes and developments in world trade, supply chain and logistics trends, maritime transport, and technological developments. While seaports are multi-faceted organizations that constitute different interdependent and integrated units in their structure, they can also be regarded as the subsystems of the supply chain system. As being the social and technical systems, port organizations have unique characteristics that should be examined in detail to assess their effectiveness. To assess the effectiveness of port organizations, principally a set of effectiveness measures applicable to seaports should be determined. The main aim of this study is to assess the relative importance of the main effectiveness criteria in seaports and to determine the significance of main inputs and port subsystems which can be referred as the means to achieve effectiveness. By using the systems approach, the inputs, the processes, and the outputs of the port organizations are clearly defined with a conceptual model. Thirty-three statements have been developed under the main categories in the systems model and a two-round delphi survey is conducted, and qualitative analysis of the experts' opinions is carried out. The results of the delphi survey show that the main port inputs are port infrastructure, equipments, technology, and port labor; the major port processes are ship and cargo operations together with the logistics services, safety and security, information technologies, and marketing; and the most important effectiveness measures for the seaports are productivity, efficiency, service quality, adaptability, information and communication management, profitability, human resource quality, and customer satisfaction

Melatonin Supplementation Ameliorates Energy Charge and Oxidative Stress Induced by Acute Exercise in Rat Heart Tissue

Background: Regular physical exercises may help people to be more resistant to everyday problems; however, how acute and intense exercises affect the heart tissues functioning with maximum capacity and how melatonin changes the effect of acute and intense exercises are still not obvious. We aimed to comprehend whether melatonin intravenous injection supports the oxidative/antioxidative conditions and energy charge in heart tissues of rats exposed to acute swimming exercise

Melatonin Supplementation Ameliorates Energy Charge and Oxidative Stress Induced by Acute Exercise in Rat Heart Tissue

Background: Regular physical exercises may help people to be more resistant to everyday problems; however, how acute and intense exercises affect the heart tissues functioning with maximum capacity and how melatonin changes the effect of acute and intense exercises are still not obvious. We aimed to comprehend whether melatonin intravenous injection supports the oxidative/antioxidative conditions and energy charge in heart tissues of rats exposed to acute swimming exercise

Comparison of ELISA and flow cytometry for measurement of interleukin-1 beta, interleukin-6 and tumor necrosis factor-alpha

Background: Although majority of the previous studies have shown a good correlation between enzyme linked immuno sorbent assay (ELISA) and flow cytometry in terms of cytokines, two laboratory methods usually were compared with the regression analysis and correlation in the literature. This study aimed at comparing the ELISA and flow cytometry assay for measuring cytokines by using two different statistical methods, regression analysis and Bland-Altman plot

Gender inequality: an outlook from a seaport sector

© 2020 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.The International Maritime Organisation continues to support the participation of women in the maritime industry to empower gender equality. However, the gender imbalances have become an issue in the seaport sector since it is predominantly occupied by males. This could be contributed by many reasons such as male domination, lack of awareness on the industry and less support from the community. From a global perspective, man is dominating maritime industry than a woman who just made 2 per cent of the total workforce. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to explore the specific characteristics that women need to have to involve and perform in the seaport sector and to explore the obstacles that make it difficult for women to venture into the seaport sector. The self-administered survey was executed, and the collected data were analysed using Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA). The outcome based on EFA indicates that patience, professionalism and courage are three main characteristics that woman need to perform in the seaport sector. Finally, this paper also revealed that cliché-ridden environment and physical competence are two main challenges faced by this group of workforces to venture into the seaport sector

Low Serum Level alpha-Synuclein and Tau Protein in Autism Spectrum Disorder Compared to Controls

alpha-Synuclein (alpha-syn) and tau proteins are thought to be related with the synaptic loss and cell death underlying several important neurodegenerative diseases. The aim of our study was to investigate serum alpha-syn and tau levels in autism. Serum levels of alpha-syn and tau were measured, and autism spectrum disorder (ASD) severity was assessed at admission using the Childhood Autism Rating Scale (CARS) total score. The mean CARS score of the autism group on admission was 47.91 points (SD: 5.97). The results indicated that the mean serum alpha-syn and serum tau levels were significantly (p < 0.001) lower in children with ASD as compared with normal cases (33.01 +/- 20.78 and 55.19 +/- 15.34 ng/mL and 241.23 +/- 290.5 and 509.78 +/- 269.25 ng/mL, respectively). There was a significant positive correlation between seruma-syn levels and serum levels of tau identified by Pearson correlation analysis (r = 0.922, n = 28, p < 0.001). Synaptic abnormality in autism may result from microglial activity. Furthermore, alpha-syn and tau aggregation may lead to synaptic dysfunction, and this may contribute to either neuronal or synaptic dysfunction or neurodegeneration. Our preliminary study suggests that low levels of serum alpha-syn and tau may be implicated in the relationship between synaptic activity and autism

Low Serum Level alpha-Synuclein and Tau Protein in Autism Spectrum Disorder Compared to Controls

alpha-Synuclein (alpha-syn) and tau proteins are thought to be related with the synaptic loss and cell death underlying several important neurodegenerative diseases. The aim of our study was to investigate serum alpha-syn and tau levels in autism. Serum levels of alpha-syn and tau were measured, and autism spectrum disorder (ASD) severity was assessed at admission using the Childhood Autism Rating Scale (CARS) total score. The mean CARS score of the autism group on admission was 47.91 points (SD: 5.97). The results indicated that the mean serum alpha-syn and serum tau levels were significantly (p < 0.001) lower in children with ASD as compared with normal cases (33.01 +/- 20.78 and 55.19 +/- 15.34 ng/mL and 241.23 +/- 290.5 and 509.78 +/- 269.25 ng/mL, respectively). There was a significant positive correlation between seruma-syn levels and serum levels of tau identified by Pearson correlation analysis (r = 0.922, n = 28, p < 0.001). Synaptic abnormality in autism may result from microglial activity. Furthermore, alpha-syn and tau aggregation may lead to synaptic dysfunction, and this may contribute to either neuronal or synaptic dysfunction or neurodegeneration. Our preliminary study suggests that low levels of serum alpha-syn and tau may be implicated in the relationship between synaptic activity and autism