The perils of differentiated integration in the field of asylum

This chapter examines the level of differentiated integration and its consequences in relation to asylum matters in the EU, focusing in particular on the position of the UK. It identifies a distinction between ‘formal differentiation’ and ‘informal flexibility’. Formal differentiation includes the official agreements concluded with the UK, Ireland and Denmark allowing these countries to participate or not to participate in asylum measures to pre-determined degrees. Informal flexibility results from uneven or mal-implementation, which is to some extent tolerated by the EU Institutions. This chapter argues that at the heart of a harmonisation project is the necessity for the limitation of the discretion of participating Member States to legislate differently in a specific area, and this is particularly important with regard to the EU’s asylum project because of the persistence of the Dublin Regulation’s ‘one chance of asylum’ rule. Asylum is not only a field which directly affects the lives of vulnerable individuals, but is heavily regulated by international and human rights norms. It is therefore questionable whether there should be any provision for formal flexibility arrangements. Under current arrangements the UK is in practice permitted to cherry-pick in a highly selective manner, participating in the Dublin system for instance, but refusing to be bound by the legally enforceable minimum standards legislation which arguably comprise one of the few safeguards attached to the Dublin system. Furthermore, the widespread uneven implementation across the EU among Member States bound by the asylum directives constitutes a high level of informal flexibility, putting in jeopardy the protection of asylum seekers. This tension puts a question mark over the extent to which the project of harmonisation of asylum systems can sustain both the existing formal differentiation arrangements and informal flexibility

Developing a knowledge management framework for an innovation team

In today’s current business world it is becoming exceedingly difficult not only for organisations to compete but also to sustain competitive advantage. Organisations are realising that the key to this is not only knowing what knowledge resides in the organisation but knowing how to use this knowledge to create an innovative and differentiated product or service. Organisational knowledge provides a platform for innovation and allows individuals across the organisation to share creative ideas and inject these ideas into reinventing existing products and services as well as designing and creating new ones. Innovation is enormously dependent on knowledge and therefore its availability and quality. As part of promoting innovation, organisations are assigning teams of employees to take part in creative and technical thinking meetings to support and promote innovative practices. They key to the success of these meetings, and ultimately the innovative practices they promote, is to ensure that their planning, follow-ups and the actual meeting itself are effectively managed, measured and monitored effectively. This thesis explores an innovation team and the ways in which their activities can be improved or changed through effective knowledge management hence ensuring the continued success and longevity of the organisation. The analysis of the findings highlighted the importance of promoting innovative activities, knowledge management tools and planning and monitoring all stages of a meeting and its outputs. The research carried out enabled a knowledge management framework for an innovation team to be developed highlighting areas were key changes or improvements were required. It is anticipated that the framework will assist innovation teams to appreciate that all the stages of an innovation activity are vital specifically the outputs in both an explicit and tacit form

Micellar high performance liquid chromatographic determination of Itraconazole in bulk, pharmaceutical dosage forms and human plasma

A micellar liquid chromatographic method was developed for determination of Itraconazole in bulk, dosage form and human plasma using µBondapack cyano column and a mobile phase consisting of 0.1 M sodium dodecyl sulphate, 20% 1-propanol, 0.3% triethylamine in 0.02 M orthophosphoric acid (pH = 3.5). The UV detection was achieved at 258 nm. Various chromatographic parameters were studied, e.g. types of columns, pH of mobile phase, concentration of sodium dodecyl sulphate, 1-propanol, triethylamine, etc .The method was linear over the concentration range 16.4-320.0 µg/mL with regression coefficient 0.999 and limit of detection 5.4 µg/mL in bulk. Inter and intra-day results showed %RSD < 1.49%. The result obtained by the proposed method was compared with that obtained by the reference HPLC technique. Furthermore, the proposed method was successfully applied as stability-indicating method for determination of Itraconazole under different stressed conditions. The method showed good selectivity, repeatability, linearity and sensitivity according to the evaluation of the validation parameters

Validated Sensitive Spectrophotometric methods for Determination of Carvedilol and Nebivolol HCl in dosage forms.

A simple, sensitive and rapid spectrophotometric methods were developed and validated for the determination of two antihypertensive drugs namely, carvedilol and nebivolol hydrochloride in pure form and pharmaceutical formulations. Method (I) is based on the formation of a binary complex between the studied drugs and eosin Y in presence of tween 80 at (pH 3.0).The formed complex exhibited maximum absorption at 545 nm for carvedilol and 543 nm for nebivolol. The concentration plots were rectilinear over concentration range of 0.5-5 and 1-7 µg/mL with lower detection limits of 0.09 and 0.11µg/mL and lower quantitation limits of 0.28 and 0 .34 µg/mL for carvedilol and nebivolol respectively. Method (II) is based on the reaction of studied drugs through their secondary amino groups with 2, 4-dinitrofluorobenzene (DNFB) at pH 8 to form yellow colored reaction products peaking at 383 nm and 390 nm for carvedilol and nebivolol, respectively. The absorbance-concentration plots were rectilinear over the concentration ranges of 5-30 and 4-28 µg/ mLwith the lower detection limits of 0.48 and 0.51 µg/mL and the lower quantitation limits of 1.45 and 1.54 µg/mL for cavredilol and nebivolol respectively. The different experimental parameters affecting the development and stability of the formed complex and reaction products were carefully studied and optimized for both methods. Both methods were successfully applied for determination of the studied drugs in their dosage forms

Effects of Electronic (e)-Cigarette Vapor on Staphylococcal Virulence: Are E-Cigarettes Safer than Conventional Cigarettes?

In recent years, electronic (e)‐cigarettes have dramatically increased in popularity as an alternative to conventional cigarettes. Little is known about the effects of e‐cigarette vapor (EV) on bacteria that colonize the nasopharynx, including methicillin‐resistant Staphylococcusaureus (MRSA). As most cases of pneumonia can be traced to bacteria in a patient\u27s nasopharynx, increased virulence in potential pathogens could have direct consequences clinically for these patients. And because bacterial colonizers are spread between humans, increased virulence in one subject has implications for the community. There is accumulating evidence that exposure to cigarette smoke (CS) increases the pathogenicity of MRSA, as well as its dampening effects on the host immune system. EV exposure has also been demonstrated to increase MRSA virulence both invitro and in a murine model of pneumonia. In this chapter, we will compare the virulence changes reported in MRSA exposed to CS vs. those exposed to EV, as well as proposed mechanisms and therapeutic targets

Analytical Study for the Charge-Transfer Complexes of Risperidone in Pure and Dosage Forms

Two simple, accurate and sensitive spectrophotometric methods were carried out to investigate through charge-transfer reactions of risperidone (RIS) as n-electron donor with various π acceptors: 7, 7, 8, 8-tetracyanoquinodimethane (TCNQ) and p-chloranilic acid (pCA). The absorbance of reaction product was measured at 842 and 520 nm for TCNQ and pCA reagents respectively. Different experimental parameters affecting the reactions were carefully studied. The reaction pathway was postulated. The proposed spectrophotometric method was utilized for the analysis of RIS in pure form as well as in its pharmaceutical preparations. Under the optimum reaction conditions, Beer’s law is obeyed over the concentration range of 1-12 µg mL-1 and 10-180 µg mL-1 for TCNQ and pCA respectively. The limit of assays detection (LOD) is 0.114 µg mL-1 and 2.55 µg mL-1 for TCNQ and pCA respectively. The mean recovery percentage was 99.72 ± 1.06 and 100.50 ± 1.07 for TCNQ and pCA respectively. The results were compared favorably with those obtained by comparison method. The proposed method was validated statistically according to ICH guidelines

In vitro antagonistic activity of Lactobacillus casei against Helicobacter pylori

Abstract Helicobacter pylori is one of the most common causes of chronic infections in humans. Curing H. pylori infection is difficult because of the habitat of the organism below the mucus adherent layer of gastric mucosa. Lactobacilli are known as acid-resistant bacteria and can remain in stomach for a long time than any other organism, we aimed in this study to examine the efficacy of Lactobacillus casei as a probiotic against H. pylori in humans. Particularly, L. casei was opted as it is considered to be one of the widely used probiotics in dairy products. One hundred and seven strains of H. pylori were isolated from dyspeptic patients and were tested for their antibiotic susceptibility to metronidazole (MTZ), clarithromycin (CLR), tetracycline (TET), and amoxicillin (AMX) by the disc diffusion method. The strains were examined for their susceptibility toward L. casei -present in fermented milk products -by well diffusion method. It was found that 74.7% strains were resistant to MTZ; 1.8% to MTZ, TET, and CLR; 3.7% to MTZ and CLR; 4.6% to MTZ and TET; and 0.9% were resistant to MTZ, TET, and AMX. The antibacterial activity of L. casei against H. pylori was determined on all the tested H. pylori isolates including antibiotic resistant strains with different patterns. Our study proposed the use of probiotics for the treatment of H. pylori infection as an effective approach

Service user involvement in healthcare service development: knowledge, representativeness & the 'professional' user

Policy makers have increasingly regarded user involvement as an important dimension of service development. Current government policy advocates the involvement of service users in healthcare service development across all levels of an organisation, ranging from the level of individual service user to the development and improvement of health services (DoH 1992, 1999, 2001a, 2001b, 2003a, 2003b, 2004, 2005a, 2007a, 2007b, 201Oa, 201Ob, 2011, 2012). This has manifested in the creation of a number of public and patient involvement initiatives including Patient Advocacy and Liaison Services (PALS), Locals Involvement Networks (LINks), Patients Forums and more recently Healthwatch Organisations. User movements and policy pressures have also led to the formation of user led groups pushing for changes in health and social care. However, these groups often operate on the margins, and as such, lack the legitimacy to work alongside professionals in service development and improvement. Despite involvement being driven by policy, research suggests that user involvement is often tokenistic, unrepresentative (Contandriopoulos et al. 2004; Harrison and Mort 1998; Rowe and Shepherd 2002) and subject to a selection of those users deemed to be a 'safe pair of hands' (Hogg 1999, p. 100). Furthermore, user involvement has been exacerbated by the 'tick' box culture in healthcare and the growing managerialisation of public services, creating a smokescreen to authentic user involvement. A recent study (Lakeman et al., 2007) suggests that a hierarchy of service users has emerged based on knowledge and authority in the service user community resembling stratification akin to the profession of psychiatry. This study is a platform for this research which aims to offer empirical analysis to illuminate the processes of stratification which give rise to this hierarchy of service users, which Lakeman et aI.'s work suggested existed, but which was not empirically supported. In doing so, discussions centre along three main themes; knowledge, representativeness and the 'professional' user. Policies on user involvement have led to health organisations developing strategies around involvement where users are involved at all levels of the organisation. As well as these, a plethora of grass roots groups have gained momentum over the past twenty to thirty years (Hogg 1999, p.127) and in recent times with the support of user involvement legislations have gained greater legitimacy amongst professionals. However, organisations are in constant flux and as they become more embedded in the system and established, user-led groups may become 'professional' working closely with 'sympathetic' professionals (Hogg 1999, p.127). By applying theories from the sociology of professions on expert knowledge and jurisdiction in the context of user involvement policy and practice, I describe the processes that lead to the stratification of users and ultimately to unrepresentative involvement. Using two comparative cases of user involvement, one a top down initiative in mental health service provision and the other a user led stroke group with a focus on stroke service development and improvement, I examine the processes of involvement that give rise to unrepresentative user involvement. In doing so I hope to contribute to theories on user involvement by illuminating the processes which lead to the stratification of users and unrepresentative user involvement. The thesis beings by exploring the historic context of public participation and user involvement, the involvement process and debates around representativeness. This framework informs an analysis of rationales for user involvement and the challenges of involving the 'right' user. Using 40 in-depth semi-structured interviews, observations and documentary analysis the study presents insights of various actors' perspectives of the involvement process, non-representative involvement and the professional user. The remainder of the thesis presents and compares the empirical results from the two cases in mental health and stroke. The study draws on theories from the sociology of professions to highlight the processes which lead to the stratification of service users including their professionalisation. Akin to professionals, users were found to delineate jurisdiction using their expert knowledge and education, gained through the involvement process but also by drawing on their social status and previous professional work. The theoretical and policy literatures coupled with the empirical findings present a number of tensions. Policy directives on user involvement are awash with ambiguities resulting in different ideas of how involvement activities should be played out in practice. This is aggravated by the increasingly target driven NHS culture, where professionals often choose the easier option and involve those users who are known to them and who are usually more articulate and able. This results in the repeated involvement of a certain 'type' of user and the marginalisation of other 'lay' users leading to a hierarchy of users where a cadre of professional users dominate the user community casting other 'lay' users as amateurs