The Business Case for Equality and Diversity: a survey of the academic literature

This report considers the evidence for the business case for equality and diversity in private sector organisations. The aim is not to make the business case, but to assess the current evidence from academic journals and some key practitioner sources

Cognitive Engineering Research Methodology: A Proposed Study of Visualization Analysis Techniques

The rapid development of new sensors and wide-band communications provides the capability to collect enormous amounts of data. An increasing challenge involves how to understand and interpret the data to yield knowledge about evolving situations or threats (e.g., of military situations, state of complex systems, etc.). New visualization tools and techniques are becoming available to support advanced visualization including three-dimensional, full immersion display environments and tools to support novel visualizations. Examples include network system display tools and evolving multi-sensory situation environments. Despite the emergence of such tools, there has been limited systematic test and evaluations to determine the efficacy of such tools for knowledge understanding and decision making. This paper provides an overview of this problem and argues for the need to conduct controlled experiments. A sample experiment is suggested

Effects of dimensionality and anisotropy on the Holstein polaron

We apply weak-coupling perturbation theory and strong-coupling perturbation theory to the Holstein molecular crystal model in order to elucidate the effects of anisotropy on polaron properties in D dimensions. The ground state energy is considered as a primary criterion through which to study the effects of anisotropy on the self-trapping transition, the self-trapping line associated with this transition, and the adiabatic critical point. The effects of dimensionality and anisotropy on electron-phonon correlations and polaronic mass enhancement are studied, with particular attention given to the polaron radius and the characteristics of quasi-1D and quasi-2D structures. Perturbative results are confirmed by selected comparisons with variational calculations and quantum Monte Carlo data

Cardio-metabolic impact of changing sitting, standing, and stepping in the workplace

According to cross-sectional and acute experimental evidence, reducing sitting time should improve cardio-metabolic health risk biomarkers. Furthermore, the improvements obtained may depend on whether sitting is replaced with standing or ambulatory activities. Based on data from the Stand Up Victoria multi-component workplace intervention, we examined this issue using compositional data analysis - a method that can examine and compare all activity changes simultaneously.Participants receiving the intervention (n=136 ≥0.6 full-time equivalent desk-based workers, 65% women, mean±SD age=44.6 ±9.1 years from seven worksites) were asked to improve whole-of-day activity by standing up, sitting less and moving more. Their changes in the composition of daily waking hours (activPAL-assessed sitting, standing, stepping) were quantified, then tested for associations with concurrent changes in cardio-metabolic risk (CMR) scores and 14 biomarkers concerning body composition, glucose, insulin and lipid metabolism. Analyses were by mixed models, accounting for clustering (3 months, n=105-120; 12 months, n=80-97).Sitting reduction was significantly (

BMW algebras of simply laced type

AbstractIt is known that the recently discovered representations of the Artin groups of type An, the braid groups, can be constructed via BMW algebras. We introduce similar algebras of type Dn and En which also lead to the newly found faithful representations of the Artin groups of the corresponding types. We establish finite dimensionality of these algebras. Moreover, they have ideals I1 and I2 with I2⊂I1 such that the quotient with respect to I1 is the Hecke algebra and I1/I2 is a module for the corresponding Artin group generalizing the Lawrence–Krammer representation. Finally we give conjectures on the structure, the dimension and parabolic subalgebras of the BMW algebra, as well as on a generalization of deformations to Brauer algebras for simply laced spherical type other than An

Antibiotic susceptibility profile of uropathogens isolated from pregnant women in selected hospitals in Ilorin

Background: Urinary tract infection (UTI) is one of the most common infections among pregnant women and if untreated could lead to serious complications.Objective: This work was carried out to determine the prevalence rate of Enterobacteriaceae uropathogens and their antibiotics susceptibility profile among pregnant women attending two ante-natal clinics in Ilorin, Nigeria.Materials and Methods: A total of 111 pregnant women between the ages of 18-50 attending ante-natal clinic at University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital and Civil Service Hospital, Ilorin participated in the study. Mid-stream urine samples were collected and cultured on Cysteine-Lactose-Electrolyte Deficient agar. Presence of significant bacteriuria (> 105 cfu/mL) was determined using the plate count method. Antibiotic susceptibility testing was done using Kirby-Bauer disk diffusion technique.Results: Of the 111 urine samples collected, 27.9% of them were found positive on culture. Among the isolated organisms, Klebsiella oxytoca (25.7%) followed by Klebsiella pneumonia (22.9%), were the most prevalent. Isolated bacteria were resistant to at least one antibiotic with the highest resistance seen with amoxicillin (94.3%), streptomycin (77.1%) and nitrofurantoin (54. 3%). Amoxicillin-clavulanic acid (51.4%), ceftriaxone (51.4%), ceftazidime (34.3%), cotrimoxazole (51.4%), imipenem (2.9%), ciprofloxacin (14.3%) and gentamicin (25.7%) have the lowest rate of bacteria resistance. Of the isolates, 82.9% showed Multi-Antibiotic Resistance Index (MARI) ≥ 0.3.Conclusion: High prevalence of bacteriuria in both symptomatic and asymptomatic pregnant women was observed in the study areas. The alarming rate of multi-antibiotic resistance strain is therefore an indicator of a serious clinical problem in the community.Keywords: Bacteriuria, pregnancy, urine culture, antibiotic susceptibilit

Anfibios y Reptiles del Museo de Zoología de la Universidad de Navarra

Se presenta el Catálogo actualizado de la Colección de Anfibios y Reptiles del Museo de Zoología de la Universidad de Navarra. Una pequeña parte de la colección se halla expuesta al público y forma parte del Museo de Ciencias Naturales de la Universidad de Navarra. A fecha de edición, la colección completa incluye más de 2500 ejemplares, de los que dos tercios son anfibios. Entre otras, 50 especies ibéricas están representadas en la colección

Game of tops: trends in GBIFs community of users

Building on the development of Biodiversity Informatics, the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) undertook the task of enabling access to the world¿s wealth of biodiversity data via the Internet. To date, GBIF has become, in many respects, the most extensive biodiversity information exchange infrastructure in the world, opening up a full range of possibilities for science

Classical and Quantum Considerations of Two-dimensional Gravity

The two-dimensional theory of gravity describing a graviton-dilaton system is considered. The graviton-dilaton coupling can be fixed such that the quantum theory remains free of the conformal anomaly for any conformal dimension of the coupled matter system, even if the dilaton does not appear as Lagrange multiplier. Interaction terms are introduced and the system is analyzed and solutions are given at the classical level and at the quantum level by using canonical quantization.Comment: 18 page