Trials and Tribulations of Third World Petroleum Development: Lessons and Advice for Prospective Producers

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/73469/1/j.1477-8947.1987.tb00313.x.pd

A vezetés dinamikája és különböző formái a tudástársadalomban: a „gyémánt-modell”

Az információs társadalom vagy tudástársadalom strukturális összetevőivel bőséges szakirodalom foglalkozik, a vezetés elemeiről azonban kevés szó esik. Ez az esszé a tudástársadalom olyan meghatározásából indul ki, miszerint az strukturális, hálózati és vezetési elemekből épül fel, és ez utóbbiakra koncentrál, amelyeknek a lényegét Wilson a kormánytisztviselők, a magánszférában működő menedzserek, a kutatók és a civil társadalom aktivistái között kialakult kölcsönhatásokban látja. Ezek az „információs bajnokok” – egymással négyoldalú (gyémánt-szerkezetű) viszonyrendszerben összekapcsolódva – együttesen hozzák létre az információs forradalmat az internetre épülő és a hozzáadott értéket növelő más tevékenységeikkel. Brazíliában, Kínában, Ghánában és más országokban végzett terepkutatásai alapján a szerző arra a következtetésre jut, hogy minél robusztusabb a „gyémánt” több dimenzióban is, annál sikeresebb az IKT szektor teljesítménye. A helyi társadalmi architektúra megújulása innovációt terem a technológiai infrastruktúrában is

WSIS: Kinek a víziója az információs társadalomról?

Az ENSZ és a Nemzetközi Távközlési Unió az információs társadalommal foglalkozó világ-csúcstalálkozó (World Summit on the Information Society – WSIS) létrehozásával hozzájárult az „információs társadalommal” kapcsolatban jelenleg folyó diskurzushoz. Ez a tanulmány azt elemzi, hogy a WSIS mit ad hozzá ehhez, különös tekintettel arra, hogy a csúcstalálkozó milyen „víziót” tett magáévá az információs társadalomról és a globális „digitális szakadékról”. A tanulmány módszere a WSIS két fő dokumentuma, az Elvi Nyilatkozat és a Cselekvési Terv átfogó, kritikai tartalomelemzése. A tartalomelemzés felhasználja a diskurzus-analízis és az ideológiai kritika módszerét, kvantitatív és kvalitatív eljárásokat alkalmazva. Az elemzés eredménye azt mutatja, hogy a WSIS teljesen utópisztikus technikai determinista képet fest az „információs társadalomról”, amely túlegyszerűsíti és általánosítja ezt a komplex jelenséget, amelyről egyelőre nem alakult ki konszenzus

Severe generalised hypersensitivity reaction to topical neomycin after cataract surgery: a case report

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Introduction</p> <p>Systemic hypersensitivity reactions to topical ophthalmic treatment occur rarely, but when they do they can be severe as highlighted by this case.</p> <p>Case presentation</p> <p>A post-operative cataract surgery patient developed a severe and generalised hypersensitivity reaction following topical treatment with Maxitrol (Dexamethasone and Neomycin) eye drops. The patient reported a previous allergic reaction to Neomycin.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>This case report emphasises the importance of a thorough drug and allergy history when patients are seen at pre-assessment or clerked in for surgery.</p

Growth performance of nursery pigs fed BIOSAF yeast, alone or in combination with an in-feed antimicrobial

Swine research, 2005 is known as Swine day, 2005A total of 280 pigs were used in a 28-d growth study to evaluate the effects of feeding the antimicrobial carbadox, BIOSAF (0.4%), and the combination of carbadox and BIOSAF yeast (0.15%) in nursery pig diets. Over the length of the entire trial, pigs fed the diet containing carbadox alone had greater ADG than did pigs fed the control diet or the diet containing 0.4% BIOSAF. Overall, pigs fed the diet containing both carbadox and 0.15% BIOSAF had greater ADG than did pigs fed the control diet or the diet containing 0.4% BIOSAF (P<0.04), although their growth performance did not differ from that of pigs fed carbadox alone. Antibody titers in response to routine vaccination against Mycoplasma hyopneumoniae were not affected by dietary treatment. There was no evidence that BIOSAF improved growth performance of nursery pigs, either alone or in combination with the carbadox. It is possible that the interactive effects of BIOSAF that have been reported for other in-feed antibiotics are not present when BIOSAF is combined with carbadox, or perhaps interactive effects are only observed when carbadox itself exerts a more potent stimulation of ADG in nursery pigs

Does increasing treatment frequency address sub-optimal responses to ivermectin for the control and elimination of river blindness?

Background Several African countries have adopted a biannual ivermectin distribution strategy in some foci to control and eliminate onchocerciasis. In 2010, the Ghana Health Service started biannual distribution to combat transmission hotspots and sub-optimal responses to treatment. We assessed the epidemiological impact of the first 3 years of this strategy and quantified responses to ivermectin over two consecutive rounds of treatment in 10 sentinel communities. Methods We evaluated Onchocerca volvulus microfilarial intensity and prevalence in those aged +/-20 years before the first, second and fifth (or sixth) biannual treatment rounds using skin snip data from 956 participants. We used longitudinal regression modelling to estimate rates of microfilarial repopulation of the skin in a cohort of 217 participants who were followed-up over the first two rounds of biannual treatment. Results Biannual treatment has had a positive impact, with substantial reductions in infection intensity after 4 or 5 rounds in most communities. We identified three communities—all having been previously recognised as responding sub-optimally to ivermectin—with statistically significantly high microfilarial repopulation rates. We did not find any clear association between microfilarial repopulation rate and the number of years of prior intervention, coverage, or the community level of infection. Conclusions The strategy of biannual ivermectin treatment in Ghana has reduced O. volvulus microfilarial intensity and prevalence, but sub-optimal responses to treatment remain evident in a number of previously and consistently implicated communities. Whether increasing the frequency of treatment will be sufficient to meet the World Health Organization’s 2020 elimination goals remains uncertain

Long Term Outcome of Severe Anaemia in Malawian Children

Severe anaemia is a common, frequently fatal, condition in African children admitted to hospital, but its long term outcome is unknown. Early reports that survivors may be at risk of additional late morbidity and mortality may have significant implications for child survival in Africa. We assessed the short and long term outcome of severe anaemia in Malawian children and identified potential risk factors for death and further severe anaemia. For 18 months, we followed up children (6-60 months old) presenting to hospital with severe anaemia (haemoglobin <or=5 g/dl) and their hospital and community controls with the aim to compare all cause mortality and severe anaemia recurrence rates between the groups, and to identify risk factors for these adverse outcomes. A total of 377 cases, 377 hospital controls and 380 community controls were recruited. Among cases, the in-hospital mortality was 6.4% and post-discharge all cause mortality was 12.6%, which was significantly greater than in hospital controls (2.9%) or community controls (1.4%) (Log rank test, p <0.001). The incidence of recurrence of severe anaemia among the cases was 0.102 per child-year (95% Confidence Interval 0.075-0.138), and was significantly higher than the 0.007 per child-year (95% CI 0.003-0.015) in the combined controls (p <0.0001). HIV was the most important risk factor both for post-discharge mortality (Hazard Ratio 10.5, 95% CI 4.0-27.2) and for recurrence of severe anaemia (HR 5.6, 95% CI 1.6-20.1). Severe anaemia carries a high 'hidden' morbidity and mortality occurring in the months after initial diagnosis and treatment. Because severe anaemia is very common, this is likely to contribute importantly to overall under-five mortality. If not adequately addressed, severe anaemia may be an obstacle to achievement of the Millennium development goal No.4 on child survival. Strategies to diagnose and properly treat HIV infected children early most likely will reduce the high post-discharge mortality in severe anaemi

The Spatial Origin of a Perceptual Transition in Binocular Rivalry

When the left and the right eye are simultaneously presented with incompatible images at overlapping retinal locations, an observer typically reports perceiving only one of the two images at a time. This phenomenon is called binocular rivalry. Perception during binocular rivalry is not stable; one of the images is perceptually dominant for a certain duration (typically in the order of a few seconds) after which perception switches towards the other image. This alternation between perceptual dominance and suppression will continue for as long the images are presented. A characteristic of binocular rivalry is that a perceptual transition from one image to the other generally occurs in a gradual manner: the image that was temporarily suppressed will regain perceptual dominance at isolated locations within the perceived image, after which its visibility spreads throughout the whole image. These gradual transitions from perceptual suppression to perceptual dominance have been labeled as traveling waves of perceptual dominance. In this study we investigate whether stimulus parameters affect the location at which a traveling wave starts. We varied the contrast, spatial frequency or motion speed in one of the rivaling images, while keeping the same parameter constant in the other image. We used a flash-suppression paradigm to force one of the rival images into perceptual suppression. Observers waited until the suppressed image became perceptually dominant again, and indicated the position at which this breakthrough from suppression occurred. Our results show that the starting point of a traveling wave during binocular rivalry is highly dependent on local stimulus parameters. More specifically, a traveling wave most likely started at the location where the contrast of the suppressed image was higher than that of the dominant one, the spatial frequency of the suppressed image was lower than that of the dominant one, and the motion speed of the suppressed image was higher than that of the dominant one. We suggest that a breakthrough from suppression to dominance occurs at the location where salience (the degree to which a stimulus element stands out relative to neighboring elements) of the suppressed image is higher than that of the dominant one. Our results further show that stimulus parameters affecting the temporal dynamics during continuous viewing of rival images described in other studies, also affect the spatial origin of traveling waves during binocular rivalry