The non-adoption of supply chain management

This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Construction Management and Economics on 10th October 2013, available online: http://wwww.tandfonline.com/10.1080/01446193.2013.830186.Largely taken for granted within the UK construction sector has been a view that supply chain management theory is robust, relevant and reliable. As such it has formed a substantial aspect of previous and contemporary policy and government funded research. Despite this, the general view of its development and diffusion over the last 15 years within the construction industry has been problematic. Coincidentally, prevailing debates within the supply chain management academic community point to the lack of unified theory, models of diffusion and strong connections to organization theory. Using Straussian grounded theory, iterations between data and organization theory provided a fresh perspective on the development and diffusion of supply chain management in construction. This inductive research provided contextually rich explanations for development and diffusion that explicitly connected with and drew upon robust, relevant and reliable theories of institutions, innovation diffusion, triads, quasifirms and mechanisms of organizational governance. These explanations challenge the simplistic assumption that chains and networks of organizations are holistically managed and controlled by any single organization or institution in the construction industry. The debate therefore shifts away from proselytizing supply chain management towards research that explores the rigour, relevance and reliability of supply chain management assumptions in construction. The gap between industry practice and policy is exposed and the question is posed: to what extent policy and practice do, or should, constitute a recursive relationship.© 2013 Taylor & Francis

Successful virological suppression in the face of immunological failure amongst HIV seropositive persons on antiretroviral treatment

Background: In the absence of viral load tests as monitoring tool for people living with HIV/AIDS on antiretroviral therapy, CD4 cell count and clinical assessment were depended upon as a monitoring tool. Our clinically healthy clients with immune failure repeatedly for two to three times were switched to second line drugs. Those clinically ill with immune failure with no other known comorbidity were also switched to second line drugs. Studies have shown that some persons living with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) who did normalise their immune status while on HAART, had viral suppression while others showed blunted immune response despite virologic suppression evidenced by low plasma HIV-1 RNA.1-5 Quality improvement programme later on set up and funded by the PEPFAR US based programme in which 1,520 clients on antiretroviral therapy were randomly selected and subjected to viral load assay. We reviewed the CD4 response of our patients on HAART at baseline and at time of viral load assay, in order to identify discordant patients and thus formulate strategies for more efficient and effective antiretroviral client treatment monitoring.Materials and Methods: Of the 1,520 clients who had their viral load assayed, we reviewed their CD4 count at baseline and at time of viral load assay. We also reviewed the age, gender distribution and the discordancy rate.Results: We found a discordant immune response to antiretroviral therapy in 165 (10.9% of 1520) clients whose viral load were assayed. Univariate analysis showed that low CD4 counts less than 100cells/ml at baseline, less than 50% gain in CD4 count more than one year after commencement of antiretroviral therapy and time on antiretroviral therapy more than three years, with P-value of 0.035 were associated with immunological failure.Conclusion: We therefore concluded that approximately 11 per cent of our clients with immune response failure had successful viral suppression

An investigation of the spin structure of the proton in deep inelastic scattering of polarised muons on polarised protons

Ashman J, Badelek B, Baum G, et al. An investigation of the spin structure of the proton in deep inelastic scattering of polarised muons on polarised protons. Nucl.Phys. B. 1989;328(1):1-35

The K / ratio and strangeness suppression in p and anti p charged current interactions

SIGLECopy held by FIZ Karlsruhe; available from UB/TIB Hannover / FIZ - Fachinformationszzentrum Karlsruhe / TIB - Technische InformationsbibliothekDEGerman