Realizing the Latent Potential in the Part-time Student Workforce

The purpose of this article is to challenge employers to make the best use of the latent potential of their part-time student workforce and to retain this talent postgraduation. The authors report research which shows that increasing numbers of university students are working part-time alongside their degree studies, while at the same time businesses are becoming more explicit about their requirements for graduate entrants, specifying a range of traits, behaviours and soft skills. The authors argue that this developing scenario affords an opportunity for university students working part-time to develop skills and business-related knowledge that are desirable to their respective employers in the longer term. However, the desire to nurture and retain those individuals on graduation appears to be lacking. This article concludes by challenging both employers and students to embrace a longer term perspective for their mutual benefit

Hybrid off-river augmentation system as an alternative raw water resource: the hydrogeochemistry of abandoned mining ponds

The use of water from abandoned mining ponds under a hybrid off-river augmentation system (HORAS) has been initiated as an alternative water resource for raw water. However, it raises the questions over the safety of the use of such waters. In this study, the hydrogeochemical analysis of the waters is presented to assess the degree to which the water has been contaminated. Comparisons were made between sampling sites, i.e. abandoned mining ponds, active sand mining ponds and the receiving streams within Bestari Jaya, Selangor River basin. The aqueous geochemistry analysis showed different hydrochemical signatures of major elements between sites, indicating different sources of minerals in the water. Discharges from the sand mining ponds were found to contain elevated availability of dissolved concentrations of iron, manganese, lead, copper and zinc, among others. However, the quality of the water (from the main river) that is supplied for potable water consumption is at a satisfactory level despite being partly sourced from the abandoned mining ponds. In fact, all the metal concentrations detected were well below the Malaysia Ministry of Health guideline limits for untreated raw water. In addition, the results of the geochemical index analysis (i.e. geoaccumulation index, enrichment factor and modified contamination factor) showed that the rivers and abandoned mining ponds were generally unpolluted with respect to the metals found in sediments

The validity of the EQ-5D-3L items: An investigation with type 2 diabetes patients from six European countries

Background: Most previous studies concerning the validity of the EQ-5D-3L items refer to applications of only a single language version of the EQ-5D-3L in only one country. Therefore, there is little information concerning the extent to which the results can be generalised across different language versions and

Erratum to: 36th International Symposium on Intensive Care and Emergency Medicine

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1186/s13054-016-1208-6.]

Increased vulnerability to psychological distress and suicidal ideation among transgender women with self-reported disabilities in San Francisco, California

OBJECTIVE: Research among transgender women has found health, but especially mental health, to be shaped by social inequities and multiple, intersectional, structural vulnerabilities. While some studies have shown that transgender adults are also more likely to have a disability than cisgender adults, few studies have explored this intersection. We assess possible associations between disability status and psychological stress and suicidal ideation among transgender women. METHODS: We analyzed data from the San Francisco site of the National HIV Behavioral Surveillance Transgender (NHBS-Trans) Study (2019–2020) to explore how disability status among transgender women influences mental health. Chi-squared and Fisher's exact tests to assess associations between disability status and psychological distress. Multivariable logistic regression models assessed the magnitude of these associations adjusted for potential confounders. RESULTS: 71.14 % of the sample (N = 201) reported living with one or more disabilities. Participants with 1+ disabilities had more than 10 times the odds of reporting high levels of psychological distress (aOR 10.46, 95 % CI 3.06–35.74) and more than five times the odds of reporting suicidal ideation (aOR 5.83, 95 % CI 1.69–20.15) compared to those with no disabilities. Participants with 2+ disabilities had 10+ times the odds of reporting suicidal ideation compared to participants with no disabilities (aOR 10.77, 95 % CI 2.94–39.51). CONCLUSIONS: Transgender women living with disabilities face multiple intersecting inequities likely attributable to living in a world that is not built for them on the basis of gender identity and disability status. The resulting psychological distress, alongside transphobia and ableism, can exacerbate mental health issues

Large-scale unit commitment under uncertainty: an updated literature survey

The Unit Commitment problem in energy management aims at finding the optimal production schedule of a set of generation units, while meeting various system-wide constraints. It has always been a large-scale, non-convex, difficult problem, especially in view of the fact that, due to operational requirements, it has to be solved in an unreasonably small time for its size. Recently, growing renewable energy shares have strongly increased the level of uncertainty in the system, making the (ideal) Unit Commitment model a large-scale, non-convex and uncertain (stochastic, robust, chance-constrained) program. We provide a survey of the literature on methods for the Uncertain Unit Commitment problem, in all its variants. We start with a review of the main contributions on solution methods for the deterministic versions of the problem, focussing on those based on mathematical programming techniques that are more relevant for the uncertain versions of the problem. We then present and categorize the approaches to the latter, while providing entry points to the relevant literature on optimization under uncertainty. This is an updated version of the paper "Large-scale Unit Commitment under uncertainty: a literature survey" that appeared in 4OR 13(2), 115--171 (2015); this version has over 170 more citations, most of which appeared in the last three years, proving how fast the literature on uncertain Unit Commitment evolves, and therefore the interest in this subject

Effect of less refined sugar (LRS) vs. refined sugar (RS) on postprandial glycaemic responses, glycaemic profile, and lipid profile, in normal and type 1 diabetic rats: a preliminary study

Less refined sugar (LRS) is a less refined natural sweetener that retains some polyphenols and minerals naturally occurring in the sugarcane, and its metabolic impact still needs to be studied. The present work compared the glycaemic response of three doses (Low, L; Medium, M; and High, H) of LRS and refined sugar (RS), in 54 normal and STZ-induced diabetic rats (n = 6/group). The metabolic response was also evaluated after two weeks of acute intervention in diabetic rats. The peak of glycaemia and global glucose response was lower after oral LRS administration than RS at corresponding doses, in normal and type 1 diabetic rats. After two weeks of interventions, fasting serum glucose level was found to be lower but not significant (p > 0.05) for groups receiving LRS-L, LRS-M, and LRS-H (at 11.53 ± 2.51, 12.68 ± 5.09, and 14.88 ± 1.46 mmol/L, respectively) in comparison with a corresponding dose of RS-L, RS-M, and RS-H (at 12.48 ± 0.74, 15.02 ± 1.28, and 15.70 ± 0.05 mmol/L, respectively). Consumption of LRS showed lower insulin resistance (IR), as revealed by reduced fasting insulin and homeostatic model assessment of insulin resistance (HOMA-IR) compared to RS treatment groups. This suggested that the consumption of LRS could be a less harmful alternative to RS in normal and diabetic condition, which may encourage both the industry and the public to substitute RS with LRS in food preparation and products. However, further detailed research is recommended to conclude the outcomes. © All Rights Reserve

Numerical and statistical analyses of a natural convection radiative hybrid nanofluid flow on a vertical permeable plate

This study presents the mathematical and statistical findings towards the model of steady, laminar, natural convection hybrid Al2O3-Cu/water nanofluid flow on a vertical permeable hot plate with a thermal radiation effect. The governing PDE of the model are simplified to a system of ODE by using the sophisticated similarity transformation. For mathematical analysis, a finite difference method is used via the numerical solver known as bvp4c (MATLAB) while for statistical analysis, a response surface methodology is adapted via MINITAB. It is found that the stronger thermal radiation effect improves the heat transmission rate of the hybrid nanofluid under the presence of suction and natural convection. This finding has been statistically proven through the optimization technique via response surface methodology with 99.97% desirability

Fracking in the UK press: threat dynamics in an unfolding debate

Shale gas is a novel source of fossil fuel which is extracted by induced hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking”. This article examines the socio-political dimension of fracking as manifested in the UK press at three key temporal points in the debate on the practice. Three newspaper corpora were analysed qualitatively using Thematic Analysis and Social Representations Theory. Three overarching themes are discussed: “April–May 2011: From Optimism to Scepticism”; “November 2011: (De-)Constructing and Re-Constructing Risk and Danger”; “April 2012: Consolidating Social Representations of Fracking”. In this article, we examine the emergence of and inter-relations between competing social representations, discuss the dynamics of threat positioning and show how threat can be re-construed in order to serve particular socio-political ends in the debate on fracking