An Analysis of Trends in Food Import Refusals in the United States

Millions of pounds of fresh fruits, vegetables, cut flowers, herbs, and other agricultural and food products enter the United States via commercial shipments from other countries every year. Although these items appear harmless, there could be hidden threats in that baggage and in those truckloads, trainloads, and containers of fresh and processed food items that could seriously threaten U.S. agriculture, its natural resources, and its economy (U.S. Customs and Border Protection 2007). Food imports play a major role in the success and competitiveness of various agribusiness firms in the United States. For example, food imports generate income, employment, output, and taxes and provide consumers with lower-priced products than those produced or purchased in the domestic markets. Food imports also provide consumers with a larger variety of products that normally would not be available to them, or that would be available in limited quantities and at higher than normal prices. Consequently, without food imports many U.S. food processing and manufacturing firms would be forced to reduce plant capacity, re-locate food processing and manufacturing facilities, or close plants altogether (Rosson 2000). Thus it is important that food imports that do not comply with U.S. standards be targeted, detected, and intercepted, thereby preventing the entry of those potential threats before they have the chance to do any harm to the U.S food system and its infrastructure.Agribusiness, International Relations/Trade,

Fashionable Loafers for Male Students

Male students of the Department of Integrated Rural Art and Industry, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi have preference for three kinds of footwear: loafers, boots, and dressing shoes. They rate loafers as highly preferred for three main reasons: trendiness, adaptability, and economy. This research aimed to design and produce fashionable loafers for male students. The descriptive research method was used to give details about the tools and materials used for the footwear, and the processes for making the loafers. The participatory product design method was used, where the would-be users of the footwear were involved in the design process – they were consulted for their views and comments right from the early design stages till actualisation of the product. The target population was 150 male students of the said Department; 100 were accessible. The simple random sampling method was used; data was collected through interviews and observation. The study recognised that the popularity, acceptability or attractiveness of the first pair of loafers can be seen in 3 ways: African wear or the look alike, the use of beads, and youthfulness of colour. Adaptability and economy of footwear do show up in the varied application of colour and material, for multipurpose use of the footwear. The integration of locally obtainable materials (beads, fabric and leather) and necessary design factors were determined after which manufacturing operations such as pattern cutting, closing, lasting, attaching, arrangement of beads, and finishing were gone through to realize the shoes. Two pairs of loafers were produced; one has bright and lively colours, the other, relatively darker but appealing colours. Keywords: Male students, fashionable, loafers, adaptability, econom

The Association Between Organizational Characteristics and Strategic Information Systems Planning: A Study of U.S. Hospitals

Despite the potential of Strategic Information System Planning (SISP) to reduce cost and improve quality, hospitals have been slow to have strategic plans on Information Systems. Our objective was to explore which organizational characteristics influence SISP in healthcare. Data on Information Systems plans from the HIMSS analytics database was combined with organizational characteristics data from the American Hospital Association. Logistic regression analyses on a sample of 2,495 hospitals revealed that hospitals with system membership and for profit status had a greater likelihood of selecting ‘computerized medical records’ (OR=1.88, OR=6.60 respectively, p<0.05), ‘decreasing medical errors’ (OR=7.02, p<0.05), ‘resolving integration issues’ (OR=1.36, OR=0.15 respectively, p<0.05), ‘migrating towards a paperless environment (OR=1.66, OR=8.28 respectively, p<0.05), and ‘reducing the number of software vendors’ (OR=1.78, OR=0.23 respectively, p<0.05) as their Information System plans. System membership and ownership status are associated with SISP. An understanding of the hospital characteristics that may impact Strategic Information Systems Planning, managers would assist managers in making informed decisions about planning and implementing Information Systems at their hospitals

Optimal Television Adverts Selection, Case Study: Ghana Television (GTV)

Abstract: The Knapsack Problems are among the simplest integer programs, which are NP-hard. Problems in this class are typically concerned with selecting from a set of given items, each with a specified weight and value, a subset of items whose weight sum does not exceed a prescribed capacity and whose value is maximum. The specific problem that arises depends on the number of knapsacks (single or multiple) to be filled and on the number of available items of each type (bounded or unbounded). In this research paper, we shall consider the application of classical 0-1 knapsack problem with a single constraint to selection of television advertisements at critical periods such as prime time news, news adjacencies, Break in News and peak times using the simple heuristic algorithm

Time to antibiotics is unrelated to outcome in pediatric patients with fever in neutropenia presenting without severe disease during chemotherapy for cancer.

Fever in neutropenia (FN) remains an unavoidable, potentially lethal complication of chemotherapy. Timely administration of empirical broad-spectrum intravenous antibiotics has become standard of care. But the impact of time to antibiotics (TTA), the lag period between recognition of fever or arrival at the hospital to start of antibiotics, remains unclear. Here we aimed to analyze the association between TTA and safety relevant events (SRE) in data from a prospective multicenter study. We analyzed the association between time from recognition of fever to start of antibiotics (TTA) and SRE (death, admission to intensive care unit, severe sepsis and bacteremia) with three-level mixed logistic regression. We adjusted for possible triage bias using a propensity score and stratified the analysis by severity of disease at presentation with FN. We analyzed 266 FN episodes, including 53 (20%) with SRE, reported in 140 of 269 patients recruited from April 2016 to August 2018. TTA (median, 120 min; interquartile range, 49-180 min) was not associated with SRE, with a trend for less SREs in episodes with longer TTA. Analyses applying the propensity score suggested a relevant triage bias. Only in patients with severe disease at presentation there was a trend for an association of longer TTA with more SRE. In conclusion, TTA was unrelated to poor clinical outcome in pediatric patients with FN presenting without severe disease. We saw strong evidence for triage bias which could only be partially adjusted

Time to antibiotics is unrelated to outcome in pediatric patients with fever in neutropenia presenting without severe disease during chemotherapy for cancer

Fever in neutropenia (FN) remains an unavoidable, potentially lethal complication of chemotherapy. Timely administration of empirical broad-spectrum intravenous antibiotics has become standard of care. But the impact of time to antibiotics (TTA), the lag period between recognition of fever or arrival at the hospital to start of antibiotics, remains unclear. Here we aimed to analyze the association between TTA and safety relevant events (SRE) in data from a prospective multicenter study. We analyzed the association between time from recognition of fever to start of antibiotics (TTA) and SRE (death, admission to intensive care unit, severe sepsis and bacteremia) with three-level mixed logistic regression. We adjusted for possible triage bias using a propensity score and stratified the analysis by severity of disease at presentation with FN. We analyzed 266 FN episodes, including 53 (20%) with SRE, reported in 140 of 269 patients recruited from April 2016 to August 2018. TTA (median, 120 min; interquartile range, 49-180 min) was not associated with SRE, with a trend for less SREs in episodes with longer TTA. Analyses applying the propensity score suggested a relevant triage bias. Only in patients with severe disease at presentation there was a trend for an association of longer TTA with more SRE. In conclusion, TTA was unrelated to poor clinical outcome in pediatric patients with FN presenting without severe disease. We saw strong evidence for triage bias which could only be partially adjusted

Genome-wide association studies of root system architecture traits in a broad collection of Brassica genotypes

The root systems of Brassica species are complex. Eight root system architecture (RSA) traits, including total root length, total root surface area, root average diameter, number of tips, total primary root length, total lateral root length, total tertiary root length, and basal link length, were phenotyped across 379 accessions representing six Brassica species (B. napus, B. juncea, B. carinata, B. oleracea, B. nigra, and B. rapa) using a semi-hydroponic system and image analysis software. The results suggest that, among the assessed species, B. napus and B. oleracea had the most intricate and largest root systems, while B. nigra exhibited the smallest roots. The two species B. juncea and B. carinata shared comparable root system complexity and had root systems with larger root diameters. In addition, 313 of the Brassica accessions were genotyped using a 19K Brassica single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) array. After filtering by TASSEL 5.0, 6,213 SNP markers, comprising 5,103 markers on the A-genome (covering 302,504 kb) and 1,110 markers on the C-genome (covering 452,764 kb), were selected for genome-wide association studies (GWAS). Two general linear models were tested to identify the genomic regions and SNPs associated with the RSA traits. GWAS identified 79 significant SNP markers associated with the eight RSA traits investigated. These markers were distributed across the 18 chromosomes of B. napus, except for chromosome C06. Sixty-five markers were located on the A-genome, and 14 on the C-genome. Furthermore, the major marker-trait associations (MTAs)/quantitative trait loci (QTLs) associated with root traits were located on chromosomes A02, A03, and A06. Brassica accessions with distinct RSA traits were identified, which could hold functional, adaptive, evolutionary, environmental, pathological, and breeding significance

Application of pharmacogenomics and bioinformatics to exemplify the utility of human <i>ex vivo</i> organoculture models in the field of precision medicine

Here we describe a collaboration between industry, the National Health Service (NHS) and academia that sought to demonstrate how early understanding of both pharmacology and genomics can improve strategies for the development of precision medicines. Diseased tissue ethically acquired from patients suffering from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), was used to investigate inter-patient variability in drug efficacy using ex vivo organocultures of fresh lung tissue as the test system. The reduction in inflammatory cytokines in the presence of various test drugs was used as the measure of drug efficacy and the individual patient responses were then matched against genotype and microRNA profiles in an attempt to identify unique predictors of drug responsiveness. Our findings suggest that genetic variation in CYP2E1 and SMAD3 genes may partly explain the observed variation in drug response

Multiple Causes for Delay in Arrival at Hospital in Acute Stroke Patients in Aydin, Turkey

This descriptive, hospital-based study, performed in western Turkey, was designed to assess the level of pre-hospital delay and reasons for such delay in acute stroke patients, taking into consideration certain factors such as socioeconomic status, availability of transport options at onset of symptoms. Data were collected from hospital records, and a questionnaire was administered that included questions about socio-demographics, self-reported risk factors and questions related to hospital arrival. The rate of patients arriving at the hospital more than 3 hours after symptom onset was found to be 31.6% for this study. Approximately 1/3 of patients delayed going to the hospital because they were waiting for symptoms to go away while 1/3 of patients were not aware of the importance of seeking immediate medical help. There was a significant relationship between the use of ambulance transportation and length of time before arrival at the hospitals, though there was no statistically significantly relationship between the existence of stroke risk factors and hospital arrival delay. These results will likely be helpful to health care decision makers as they develop a model for stroke health care and community based training

Migrant care workers at the intersection of rural belonging in small English communities

Shortage of staff in the private care sector brought migrant participants of this study to rural communities in northwest England. The care workers, fourteen highly skilled first-generation migrants, described experiences of feeling unsettled, despite residing in these communities for an average of nine years. Social divisions, such as their race, ethnicity, and gender, intersected in rural England to create an overwhelming, at times, feeling of being othered. We use intersectionality as a framework to examine the advantageous and disadvantageous positionings of migrant workers, alongside their strategies of resistance and adaptation, filling in the gaps that acculturation theory glosses over