Sport Events in a City – The Residents’ Choice

City marketing focuses on the use of marking tools with a customer-orientated philosophy for creating, communicating, delivering and exchanging urban offerings that have value for its citizens. City marketing can be described as a long term plan which includes various related activities that are aimed at the attraction and retention of specific target groups of people for a city. Sport has become an identity for many nations in the world. There are three benefits of branding a city through sports events. Firstly, sports are the easiest events to market and promote as the audience is large. Secondly, sports epitomise the human spirit of survival and competitiveness and as a result, spectators cannot help but be engrossed in the match or event. Thirdly, sports events enable a city’s image to be displayed to audiences watching the event, whether it is live or through a secondary medium. Media coverage is predominantly free and the benefits can generate a visibility that attracts residents, tourism and investment to the city. The objective of this study was to determine which sport events the residents of Nelson Mandela Bay (NMB), South Africa would support. This exploratory study used an on-line questionnaire and convenience and snowball sampling methods. There were 952 responses from the population of NMB, including Port Elizabeth in South Africa. The results indicated that sporting events create job opportunities and that sporting events such as cricket and rugby are supported by all residents and sporting events such as Ironman can be leveraged to increase tourism

Haemodynamic consequences of targeted single- and dual-site right ventricular pacing in adults with congenital heart disease undergoing surgical pulmonary valve replacement

Aims The purpose of this study was to create an epicardial electroanatomic map of the right ventricle (RV) and then apply post-operative-targeted single- and dual-site RV temporary pacing with measurement of haemodynamic parameters. Cardiac resynchronization therapy is an established treatment for symptomatic left ventricular (LV) dysfunction. In congenital heart disease, RV dysfunction is a common cause of morbidity—little is known regarding the potential benefits of CRT in this setting. Methods and results Sixteen adults (age = 32 ± 8 years; 6 M, 10 F) with right bundle branch block (RBBB) and repaired tetralogy of Fallot (n = 8) or corrected congenital pulmonary stenosis (n = 8) undergoing surgical pulmonary valve replacement (PVR) for pulmonary regurgitation underwent epicardial RV mapping and haemodynamic assessment of random pacing configurations including the site of latest RV activation. The pre-operative pulmonary regurgitant fraction was 49 ± 10%; mean LV end-diastolic volume (EDV) 85 ± 19 mL/min/m2 and RVEDV 183 ± 89 mL/min/m2 on cardiac magnetic resonance imaging. The mean pre-operative QRS duration is 136 ± 26 ms. The commonest site of latest activation was the RV free wall and DDD pacing here alone or combined with RV apical pacing resulted in significant increases in cardiac output (CO) vs. AAI pacing (P < 0.01 all measures). DDDRV alternative site pacing significantly improved CO by 16% vs. AAI (P = 0.018), and 8.5% vs. DDDRV apical pacing (P = 0.02). Conclusion Single-site RV pacing targeted to the region of latest activation in patients with RBBB undergoing PVR induces acute improvements in haemodynamics and supports the concept of ‘RV CRT’. Targeted pacing in such patients has therapeutic potential both post-operatively and in the long term

Prevention of febrile neutropenia: use of prophylactic antibiotics

Febrile neutropenia (FN) causes significant morbidity and mortality in patients receiving cytotoxic chemotherapy and can lead to reduced chemotherapy dose intensity and increased overall treatment costs. Antibiotic prophylaxis reduces the incidence of FN. Recent research and meta-analyses confirm that prophylactic fluoroquinolones decrease FN and infection-related mortality in patients with acute leukaemia and those receiving high-dose chemotherapy. Fluoroquinolone prophylaxis also lowers the incidence of FN and all-cause mortality following the first cycle of myelosuppressive chemotherapy for solid tumours. Levofloxacin has been the agent studied most thoroughly in this context. Although there is no convincing evidence that colonisation of individuals with resistant organisms due to antibiotic prophylaxis increases FN or mortality, such concerns must be taken seriously and the use of prophylaxis should be limited responsibly for patients with the greatest chance of benefit. Fluoroquinolone prophylaxis is well tolerated and cost-effective and should be offered to patients receiving chemotherapy for haematological malignancies and high-dose chemotherapy for solid tumours in which prolonged (>7 days) neutropenia is expected. It should also be considered for those receiving chemotherapy for solid tumours and lymphomas during the first cycle of chemotherapy when grade 4 neutropenia is anticipated

The influence of the atmospheric boundary layer on nocturnal layers of noctuids and other moths migrating over southern Britain

Insects migrating at high altitude over southern Britain have been continuously monitored by automatically-operating, vertical-looking radars over a period of several years. During some occasions in the summer months, the migrants were observed to form well-defined layer concentrations, typically at heights of 200-400 m, in the stable night-time atmosphere. Under these conditions, insects are likely to have control over their vertical movements and are selecting flight heights which are favourable for long-range migration. We therefore investigated the factors influencing the formation of these insect layers by comparing radar measurements of the vertical distribution of insect density with meteorological profiles generated by the UK Met. Office’s Unified Model (UM). Radar-derived measurements of mass and displacement speed, along with data from Rothamsted Insect Survey light traps provided information on the identity of the migrants. We present here three case studies where noctuid and pyralid moths contributed substantially to the observed layers. The major meteorological factors influencing the layer concentrations appeared to be: (a) the altitude of the warmest air, (b) heights corresponding to temperature preferences or thresholds for sustained migration and (c), on nights when air temperatures are relatively high, wind-speed maxima associated with the nocturnal jet. Back-trajectories indicated that layer duration may have been determined by the distance to the coast. Overall, the unique combination of meteorological data from the UM and insect data from entomological radar described here show considerable promise for systematic studies of high-altitude insect layering

An examination of cancer epidemiology studies among populations living close to toxic waste sites

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Toxic waste sites contain a broad range of suspected or confirmed human carcinogens, and remain a source of concern to many people, particularly those living in the vicinity of a site. Despite years of study, a consensus has not emerged regarding the cancer risk associated with such sites.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We examined the published, peer-reviewed literature addressing cancer incidence or mortality in the vicinity of toxic waste sites between 1980 and 2006, and catalogued the methods employed by such studies.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Nineteen studies are described with respect to eight methodological criteria. Most were ecological, with minimal utilization of hydrogeological or air pathway modeling. Many did not catalogue whether a potable water supply was contaminated, and very few included contaminant measurements at waste sites or in subjects' homes. Most studies did not appear to be responses to a recognized cancer mortality cluster. Studies were highly variable with respect to handling of competing risk factors and multiple comparisons.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>We conclude that studies to date have generated hypotheses, but have been of limited utility in determining whether populations living near toxic waste sites are at increased cancer risk.</p

Change in diet, physical activity, and body weight among young-adults during the transition from high school to college

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The freshmen year of college is likely a critical period for risk of weight gain among young-adults.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A longitudinal observational study was conducted to examine changes in weight, dietary intake, and other health-related behaviors among first-year college students (n = 186) attending a public University in the western United States. Weight was measured at the beginning and end of fall semester (August – December 2005). Participants completed surveys about dietary intake, physical activity and other health-related behaviors during the last six months of high school (January – June 2005) in August 2005 and during their first semester of college (August – December 2005) in December 2005.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>159 students (n = 102 women, 57 men) completed both assessments. The average BMI at the baseline assessment was 23.0 (standard deviation (SD) 3.8). Although the average amount of weight gained during the 15-week study was modest (1.5 kg), 23% of participants gained ≥ 5% of their baseline body weight. Average weight gain among those who gained ≥ 5% of baseline body weight was 4.5 kg. Those who gained ≥ 5% of body weight reported less physical activity during college than high school, were more likely to eat breakfast, and slept more than were those who did not gain ≥ 5% of body weight.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Almost one quarter of students gained a significant amount of weight during their first semester of college. This research provides further support for the implementation of education or other strategies aimed at helping young-adults entering college to achieve or maintain a healthy body weight.</p

The Role of Individual Variables, Organizational Variables and Moral Intensity Dimensions in Libyan Management Accountants’ Ethical Decision Making

This study investigates the association of a broad set of variables with the ethical decision making of management accountants in Libya. Adopting a cross-sectional methodology, a questionnaire including four different ethical scenarios was used to gather data from 229 participants. For each scenario, ethical decision making was examined in terms of the recognition, judgment and intention stages of Rest’s model. A significant relationship was found between ethical recognition and ethical judgment and also between ethical judgment and ethical intention, but ethical recognition did not significantly predict ethical intention—thus providing support for Rest’s model. Organizational variables, age and educational level yielded few significant results. The lack of significance for codes of ethics might reflect their relative lack of development in Libya, in which case Libyan companies should pay attention to their content and how they are supported, especially in the light of the under-development of the accounting profession in Libya. Few significant results were also found for gender, but where they were found, males showed more ethical characteristics than females. This unusual result reinforces the dangers of gender stereotyping in business. Personal moral philosophy and moral intensity dimensions were generally found to be significant predictors of the three stages of ethical decision making studied. One implication of this is to give more attention to ethics in accounting education, making the connections between accounting practice and (in Libya) Islam. Overall, this study not only adds to the available empirical evidence on factors affecting ethical decision making, notably examining three stages of Rest’s model, but also offers rare insights into the ethical views of practising management accountants and provides a benchmark for future studies of ethical decision making in Muslim majority countries and other parts of the developing world

Inferring the role of transcription factors in regulatory networks

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Expression profiles obtained from multiple perturbation experiments are increasingly used to reconstruct transcriptional regulatory networks, from well studied, simple organisms up to higher eukaryotes. Admittedly, a key ingredient in developing a reconstruction method is its ability to integrate heterogeneous sources of information, as well as to comply with practical observability issues: measurements can be scarce or noisy. In this work, we show how to combine a network of genetic regulations with a set of expression profiles, in order to infer the functional effect of the regulations, as inducer or repressor. Our approach is based on a consistency rule between a network and the signs of variation given by expression arrays.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We evaluate our approach in several settings of increasing complexity. First, we generate artificial expression data on a transcriptional network of <it>E. coli </it>extracted from the literature (1529 nodes and 3802 edges), and we estimate that 30% of the regulations can be annotated with about 30 profiles. We additionally prove that at most 40.8% of the network can be inferred using our approach. Second, we use this network in order to validate the predictions obtained with a compendium of real expression profiles. We describe a filtering algorithm that generates particularly reliable predictions. Finally, we apply our inference approach to <it>S. cerevisiae </it>transcriptional network (2419 nodes and 4344 interactions), by combining ChIP-chip data and 15 expression profiles. We are able to detect and isolate inconsistencies between the expression profiles and a significant portion of the model (15% of all the interactions). In addition, we report predictions for 14.5% of all interactions.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Our approach does not require accurate expression levels nor times series. Nevertheless, we show on both data, real and artificial, that a relatively small number of perturbation experiments are enough to determine a significant portion of regulatory effects. This is a key practical asset compared to statistical methods for network reconstruction. We demonstrate that our approach is able to provide accurate predictions, even when the network is incomplete and the data is noisy.</p

Search For Heavy Pointlike Dirac Monopoles

We have searched for central production of a pair of photons with high transverse energies in $p\bar p$ collisions at $\sqrt{s} = 1.8$ TeV using $70 pb^{-1}$ of data collected with the D\O detector at the Fermilab Tevatron in 1994--1996. If they exist, virtual heavy pointlike Dirac monopoles could rescatter pairs of nearly real photons into this final state via a box diagram. We observe no excess of events above background, and set lower 95% C.L. limits of $610, 870, or 1580 GeV/c^2$ on the mass of a spin 0, 1/2, or 1 Dirac monopole.Comment: 12 pages, 4 figure

The Dijet Mass Spectrum and a Search for Quark Compositeness in bar{p}p Collisions at sqrt{s} = 1.8 TeV

Using the DZero detector at the 1.8 TeV pbarp Fermilab Tevatron collider, we have measured the inclusive dijet mass spectrum in the central pseudorapidity region |eta_jet| < 1.0 for dijet masses greater than 200 Gev/c^2. We have also measured the ratio of spectra sigma(|eta_jet| < 0.5)/sigma(0.5 < |eta_jet| < 1.0). The order alpha_s^3 QCD predictions are in good agreement with the data and we rule out models of quark compositeness with a contact interaction scale < 2.4 TeV at the 95% confidence level.Comment: 11 pages, 4 figures, 2 tables, submitted to Phys. Rev. Let