Review of the Commonwealth Local Government Good Practice Scheme

The overarching objective of the Commonwealth Local Government Good Practice Scheme (GPS) was to contribute towards the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals at the local level; there were four expected outputs:1. Increased capacity of local authorities to plan and deliver services, through successful implementation of CLGF-funded projects focussed on the following nationally agreed themes, relevant to the achievement of the MDGs;2. Measurable and/or assessable improvements in individual and/or departmental/local authority management efficiency and effectiveness delivered through the GPS projects;3. National local government associations possess effective knowledge management systems and dissemination networks working nationally - and internationally through CLGF;4. Utilisation of expertise of local government practitioners in partner countries to improve local government performance more widely

Exploring the Successfulness of Social Media Marketing in the Mobile Game Industry

This study explores the successfulness of social media marketing strategies within the mobile gaming industry. The focus of this study is Company X’s strategies and approach to community building, tailoring content and creating campaigns. Social media marketing (SMM) has become an important part of advertising mobile games, as platforms like TikTok, Facebook and YouTube gained popularity throughout the years. These platforms become important for marketers especially due to their ability to gain user engagement through several methods. Using the qualitative approach, this study contains a semi-structured interview with a current social media marketing specialist from Company X. The author used a thematic analysis methodology to cover important points and analyze them. Findings revealed that Company X prioritizes platform-specific strategies and user-generated content to create a healthy relationship between a brand and a consumer. The study focuses on marketing theories, including the AIDA model, Social Identity Theory, Diffusion of Innovation, and Elaboration Likelihood Model. These theories were chosen due to their ability to analyze and interpret strategies used by Company X. The author created practical recommendations which include influencer marketing, engagement tactics, data-driven content adaptation and emerging platforms such as TikTok. The research develops a deeper understanding of social media marketing practices and their adaptations for mobile gaming companies who are looking to expand their strategies and build loyal communities

Assessing vertical terrain displacement from TLS data by applying Msplit estimation, theoretical analysis

[EN] Terrestrial laser scanning (TLS) is a measurement technique that has become popular in the last decades. Measurement results, usually as a point cloud, contain many points measured. When the TLS technique is used to determine terrain surface (e.g., by determining terrain profiles), one should realize that some points measured do not concern the terrain surface itself, but trees, shrubs, or generally the vegetation cover. Considering terrain surface determination, they should be regarded as outliers. Some other observations can also be outliers of different origins; for example, they might be disturbed by gross errors. We should consider such observation types when the data are processed. Two leading solutions in such a context are data cleaning and the application of robust estimation methods. Robust M-estimation is the most popular for the latter approach. As an alternative, one can also consider the application of Msplit estimation, in which the functional model is split into two competing ones. Hence, the paper aims to analyze how Msplit estimation can assess vertical terrain displacement based on terrain profile determination from TLS data. We consider processing data in separate sets (two measurement epochs) or one combined set, a natural approach in Msplit estimation. The analyses based on simulated TLS data proved that the first solution seems better. Furthermore, the application of Msplit estimation can also provide more satisfactory results than the classical methods used in such a context.This research was funded by the Department of Geodesy, University of Warmia and Mazury in Olsztyn, Poland, statutory research no. 29.610.001-110Wyszkowska, P.; Duchnowski, R. (2023). Assessing vertical terrain displacement from TLS data by applying Msplit estimation, theoretical analysis. En 5th Joint International Symposium on Deformation Monitoring (JISDM 2022). Editorial Universitat Politècnica de València. 79-85. https://doi.org/10.4995/JISDM2022.2022.13677798

Anisocytosis predicts postoperative renal replacement therapy in patients undergoing heart valve surgery

Background: Acute kidney injury (AKI) is one of the serious postoperative complications in patients undergoing heart valve surgery. The aim of the present study was to identify selected biomarkers to predict AKI requiring renal replacement.Methods: A prospective study was conducted on a group of 751 patients undergoing heart valve surgery. The data on risk factors, preoperative complete blood count, course of operations and postoperative period was assessed. The primary endpoint at the 30-day follow-up was postoperative AKI requiring renal replacement therapy. The secondary end-point was death from all causes in patients with postoperative AKI requiring renal replacement.Results: The primary endpoint occurred in 46 patients. At multivariate analysis: age, red cell distribution width (RDW) and C-reactive protein remained independent predictors of the primary endpoint. Hemoglobin and RDW were associated with an increased risk of death.Conclusions: Elevated RDW is associated with a higher risk of postoperative AKI and death in patients with AKI

Semantic Structure-Mapping in LLM and Human Analogical Reasoning

Analogical reasoning is considered core to human learning and cognition. Recent studies have compared the analogical reasoning abilities of human subjects and Large Language Models (LLMs) on abstract symbol manipulation tasks, such as letter string analogies. However, these studies largely neglect analogical reasoning over semantically meaningful symbols, such as natural language words. This ability to draw analogies that link language to non-linguistic domains, which we term semantic structure-mapping, is thought to play a crucial role in language acquisition and broader cognitive development. We test human subjects and LLMs on analogical reasoning tasks that require the transfer of semantic structure and content from one domain to another. Advanced LLMs match human performance across many task variations. However, humans and LLMs respond differently to certain task variations and semantic distractors. Overall, our data suggest that LLMs are approaching human-level performance on these important cognitive tasks, but are not yet entirely human like

Postoperative high-sensitivity troponin T as a predictor of sudden cardiac arrest in patients undergoing cardiac surgery

Background: The usefulness of high-sensitivity troponin T (hs-TnT) as a predictor of sudden cardiacarrest (SCA) in patients undergoing valve surgery is currently unknown.Methods: A prospective study was conducted on a group of 815 consecutive patients with significantvalvular heart disease that underwent elective valve surgery. The primary end-point was postoperative SCA.Results: The postoperative SCA occurred in 26 patients. At multivariate analysis of hs-TnT measuredimmediately after surgery (hs-TnT I) and age remained independent predictors of the primary end-point.Conclusions: Elevated postoperative hs-TnT was associated with a higher risk of postoperative SCA

The usefulness of selected biomarkers in aortic regurgitation

Background: The aim of the study was to investigate the prognostic value of selected biomarkers inpatients with aortic regurgitation undergoing valve surgery. Methods: A prospective study was conducted on a group of consecutive patients with hemodynamically significant aortic regurgitation that underwent elective aortic valve surgery. The primary endpoint was 30-day mortality and any major adverse event within 30 days. Results: The study group included 205 consecutive patients who underwent replacement or repair of the aortic valve. The primary endpoint occurred in 72 patients. At multivariate analysis red cell distribution width (RDW; p = 0.03) and high-sensitivity troponin T (hs-TnT; p = 0.02) remained independent predictors of the major complications including death. Conclusions: Elevated preoperative RDW and hs-TnT were associated with a poorer outcome followingaortic valve surgery

Dyslokacja i skład niemieckiego XVII Korpusu Armijnego w latach 1890–1900

Dislocation and composition of XVII German Army Corps in the years 1890–1900 The creation process of German XVII Army Corps began in 1980, when its area was set. It consisted of West Prussia and the western part of East Prussia. The first commander of that military unit was infantry General August von Lentze, who held that position between 1890 and 1902. Headquarters of the Corps, divisions and brigades were located in major cities: Gdańsk, Toruń, Grudziądz. Only headquarters of 72 Infantry Brigade were located in a little town of Iława. Most units stationed in towns close to the Vistula river, which was the most significant natural obstacle in that part of Reich. At the end of the 19th century around Gdańsk, Grudziądz and Toruń modern fortifications were built. Their objective was to safeguard river crossings. However, most units were designed for actions outside the fortifications. In 1980 XVII Army Corps consisted of eight infantry regiments, one independent battalion, four cavalry regiments, two regiments of field artillery, one regiment of infantry artillery and minor engineering and auxiliary units. In 1900 it consisted of eleven infantry regiments, one independent battalion, four cavalry regiments, one independent squadron of cavalry, four regiments of field artillery and two regiments of infantry artillery

Two variants of M split estimation – similarities and differences

M split estimation is a novel method developed to process observation sets that include two (or more) observation aggregations. The main objective of the method is to estimate the location parameters of each aggregation without any preliminary assumption concerning the division of the observation set into respective subsets. Up to now, two different variants of M split estimation have been derived. The first and basic variant is the squared M split estimation, which can be derived from the assumption about the normal distribution of observations. The second variant is the absolute M split estimation, which generally refers to the least absolute deviation method. The main objective of the paper is to compare both variants of M split estimation by showing similarities and differences between the methods. The main dissimilarity stems from the different influence functions, making the absolute M split estimation less sensitive to gross errors of moderate magnitude. The empirical analyses presented confirm that conclusion and show that the accuracy of the methods is similar, in general. The absolute M split estimation is more accurate than the squared M split estimation for less accurate observations. In contrast, the squared M split estimation is more accurate when the number of observations in aggregations differs much. Concerning all advantages and disadvantages of M split estimation variants, we recommend using the absolute M split estimation in most geodetic applications